Behind-the-Scenes: VFX

Your Sim sparkles when they age up. Voracious bugs buzz around your untended garden plants. Stink lines rise from spoiled food. Where do these visual effects come from?

VFX
The Sims 4 has a visual effects library that is shared across packs (meaning that I do not have to own Werewolves to use VFX from the Werewolves pack in my mods). These disembodied little bursts of sound and color can be bound to bones on a sim or to slots on a build/buy object. As of right now, the Sims 4 boasts over 30,000 VFX entries. Legendary modders like Andrew have built tools to test these VFX in game to ascertain what they do.

A LIMITED LIBRARY
Let's say I want to add animated monarch butterflies to a sculpture. I can't just make my own butterflies - I have to get creative with VFX that already exist in the game. Fortunately, I'm in luck. There are 26 monarch-related effects among the 30,201 VFX entries. Once I figure out which ones I want, I can add them to the object tuning file:

I cannot change the appearance or behavior of these monarchs, but by adding _FX_creature slots to my sculpture, I can control their spawn location and orientation:

You might be thinking: what if I want to add white admiral butterflies instead? Well, get used to disappointment, because there are none to be had.

WHAT ABOUT ANIMATIONS?
Animations are distinct from VFX. Animations control the way Sims or objects change positions; I like to think of them as instructions for how to move a puppet by yanking on its strings. Last I checked, there were over 44,000 animations in the Sims 4, all organized in a baffling manner (I cannot even imagine the man-hours involved in creating all of those). These are not shared across packs, meaning I cannot use animations from Werewolves in my mod if I do not own the Werewolves pack. However, if I have a million hours to kill, I can make my own custom animations in blender! I'll talk more about animations in another post.

SUMMARY
Now you know a little more about the ins-and-outs of modding! Congrats, and pass the booze.