I've been following Echo's custom BHAV tutorial, and am unable to make the Sims hula dance. At first I had been trying other things that inolve sitting on the ground, but after a few failures of those, I began to wonder if it wasn't the animations that were incompatable, so I tried the hula, as shown in the tutorial, and that fails to work as well.

It's a rock in misc. decorations.

My end goal is to have a sim undress, sit on the ground, and have their hygene and comfort slowly go up. I need it as part of an Onsen (Japanese Hot Spring).

While I don't have the time to look at it indepth right now (and animations were never my thing to begin with), I would suggest you start Echo's tutorial over again, and use whatever template she provided. Sometimes other objects have weird issues making their BHAVs finicky. It's really easy to change a mesh and texture later.

The suggestion I got way back when was clone whatever does close to what you need it to do, not whatever looks like how you want it. Perhaps you should clone a hottub, that will give your more outgoing sims the option to go naked and others will just dress in swimwear (you can easily change to undies if that fits better.) You will have to yank a lot of things out of the package, but it might function better that way. Plus, it already has animations that you should be able to replace with your own ones.

I was originally going to use a hot tub, but this suits my purposes much, much better.
As for getting naked, that's the entire point. That's the proper way to do it in Japan.
*sigh* Thanks for trying...

Hold up, can you explain to me why this way works better for you? As for the naked part, we'll have to check with the guidelines about this, it's kinda a grey area because of nudity and adult content. That's why I was suggesting making the undies the default except for the brave, you can't be faulted for default game behavior. Tell me more about your project and I'll see what else I can suggest and help with.

Everything will be blurred out, just like in the shower or bath, so that shouldn't be a problem at all.

This way, it will be much more like a real Onsen, instead of several small pools, which would be very hard to make look good. Originally, I tried to make them get undressed before getting in the BV hot spring, but they wouldn't get in. This idea came to me after having difficulty with that, and this is so much better because it will be more correct. I have big bodies of fake water for them to sit in.

Can you link me a picture of what you are trying to make? I'm afraid I don't quite understand. Also, you've got me intrigued with your mesh, can you show me a picture of that? I do want to help, but I've got a bit of catch up to play with you first.

I haven't meshed anything. I don't know how to. But in a minute, I'll add a picture of the bodies of water if that's what your interested in.

I'll be recoloring this place-anywhere surface and adding steam effects. The in-game rocks (in theory) would be placed there and would trigger the undressing, sitting down, and raising of comfort and hygene. This technique could also be used for things like roman baths.

I still think your problem stems from having cloned an object that doesn't have any animations in it to begin with, that's just making it ten times harder on yourself. I also don't think you explained why a hottub would be a bad choice for you to start from. It has animations that you can replace, it raises fun and does something with hygiene, and it has all of that nice clothes changing code already in it, it even already has the steam effects. Its actually pretty simple to tie all of this to the in-game rocks, you would just use their GUIDs, mesh, and textures and they will become an Object Mod. I don't really know any other way of doing it any better/faster/easier. Maybe I'm misunderstanding something?

I really wish I had more time to help with this but I'm up against an IRL deadline with a collaborative design project and also now dealing with a family crisis that won't be easily or quickly resolved. I can't actually think of the last time I was working on a sim project - a first for me in years. I'm not going to abandon you, but I'm just letting you know I can't be as helpful as I normally would with poking around inside the packages for you.

Hot tubs are small.

Actually, it has the view animation.

Wait--are you saying I could stick all the hot tub data on a rock? Or stick the rock mesh on hot tub date? I don't understand. Please explain, as this is promising.

Perhaps google Onsen to get a better understanding of my goal?

I can wait. It isn't the end of the world if it isn't done in time for entry. What matters is that it is done at all.

Sorry for butting in, but I too agree that it would be best for you to start with a hot tub. Yes, you say that hot tubs are small and that rocks have the "view" option (or did you mean something else by "it has the view animation?") - so change increase the hot tub's footprint and add the "view" option. It's always much, much easier to start from an object that already has functions similar to the ones you want than starting from one that has none.

Unless, of course, you want to learn how to make this completely object from scratch. That is something I absolutely can understand.

Edit: And yes, you can clone a hot tub and either tie it to the in-game rocks, like Phae suggests, or change the mesh to a custom one. Of course, you'd have to change the routing slots and such and probably also tweak the BHAVs for Sims to be able to use it exactly as you want to, but it can absolutely be done.

Yes, I think you've got it now DoReMi. We can take most of the hottub data (all the parts you want) and stick them on the rocks. (Technically, we would be sticking a rock on the hottub datat.) You can swap out the hottub mesh for a rock mesh and as Nix pointed out, change the footprint to be as large as you want it to be. It's absolutely the best starting place for what it sounds like you want your thing to do. Always start with the actions and BHAVs because those are the hardest things so use what exists. Changing meshes and textures is the easy part, even if you've never done it before.

From my 30second googling, it looks like an Onsen is just like the BV hot springs. Can you explain to me the differences? Wikipedia even says the translation for the word is 'hot springs'. While starting from the hottub would make it basegame compatible, we still can't just copy the hot springs, so please help me understand the nuances here that you are going for. (Not trying to imply at all that you are just copying the hot springs. From your previous posts it sounds to me like they'd undress and then go sunbathing maybe? I'm just very confused on what you are after I suppose. >.<

And making the footprint larger will keep everyone from being clustered together?

Onsen small. People clustered. I want a BIG pool for sims to sit in instead of what may as well be a rock hot tub in the ground.

(Now for me to figure out how to give it a different mesh... this-> http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=104795 didn't work because there's no Geometric Data Container)

Edit: M-my brain hurts... I can't find a solution... No geometric data container...

What doesn't have a Geometric Data Container (GMDC)? Everything has one unless it's something not visible. The hottub has a GMDC so you shouldn't be running into this kinda problem.

Making the footprint larger by itself will not keep the people from being clustered, but its part of the process. The footprint just tells the game that there is something there and clipping might occur if certain flags aren't set. (If you don't make it bigger and you make the people sitting places outside the footprint then other sims can and will walk through them as if they aren't even there.) That should get you some awkward photos!

The ancient soakalicious spring--at least for me, does not have a GMDC. Neither does the rock. Or another object I looked at. I'd think it would be after GLOB, but it isn't there. It isn't anywhere. Do I need something in addition to SimPE or something?

I was thinking one rock per person, is that doable?

Edit: Figured out the problem! I just have to uncheck 'refrence original mesh'. Makes sense. Awwwww, now I have to go in and change all those GUIDs again...
Edit2: It says I need "managed directx"
Edit3: Okay, got that worked out. Now to determine why the mesh isn't replacing as shown in the tutorial I mentioned earlier. Maybe I need to try the rock's other GMDC?
Edit4: Ah, got it! I decided to try pretty much the same thing a couple more times.
Edit5: Interesting... the faces and vertices changed, but not the names. I wonder how I can fix that, or if I even need to.
Edit6: I assume I need to switch some of the other stuff as well... though the tutorial says nothing about it.
Edit7: I decided to see how it was going, and am now adding a screenshot. My biggest problem is that it is still underground (I think I know how to fix at least some of the other stuff). I need sims to sit on the ground, not under it. Or at least give the illusion of them doing so.

Well, you've got some serious mesh issues at the moment, but its a large step forward even still. The rock isn't picking up its textures because the Scenegraph is broken somewhere. Echo has an article about fixing them, so look into that - it really helps a ton. As for being underground instead of on top of the ground, you will need to move the container slot. HL has a good tutorial about slots so read up on that to fix that issue.

So, do you even want water involved in this if they are sitting on the ground? If you want to do one rock per person the best idea would be to remove a bunch of the extra tiles, Numenor has a tutorial on that, but it might just be easier to leave it as a group activity so that sims can talk to each other and such.

To switch into nude instead of a swimsuit its pretty easy, you just change a line, but that won't automatically activate the censor blur, you will have to steal bhavs from the shower or elsewhere to get the blur. You might also need to add a slot to put the blur effect into. Doable, but far easier to just leave them in bathing suits for now, work on the other stuff that's crucial to getting it working and looking right first.

I'll be using recolors of this- http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=313164 for the water, as shown in my picture earlier.

I actually got them to undress in my original try, they just wouldn't get in afterwards.

Got it. First screengraph. Is the tutorial for understanding them what you are talking about or a different one?

Yes, Understanding your Scenegraph sounds like the correct one. Lots of great info in there about how things are supposed to link back up correctly. Also remember to Fix Integrity a lot, sometimes if something is broken and you don't know why, doing that a couple of times will magically fix it for you.

As for the object you linked to, you should probably just go ahead an add your own water texture in your own object. Objects really ought to be self contained unless there is a good reason not to be. You can (and should) credit that creator for his original work if you borrow his textures/code/research.

The water is a separate entity, like in the first picture. I want sims to sit down in that. (They will be credited for the lot though, of course.)

Ok, what is keeping the water in? Are there rocks or a nice decorative wall?

A hole in the ground, though there wil be rocks as well.

I guess I'm just confused at the water level. The water you linked to is above ground height and you said you didn't want them in the ground, just on it, but this last post says in the ground and implies lower than that. Are you going with the same height as the BV springs? Cuz then you won't have to adjust container slots and the animation won't be wonky. Through you could use the sitting down on the ground and looking up at the sky animations to put them on the ground with some low water above ground.

It is a hole in the ground. I placed the water in the hole (That is one of the ways one can use it). I want sims to sit in the hole. The BV hot springs have sims sitting IN the ground.

Edit: Here's a picture of my screengraph.

Your textures aren't in the package. Things listed as External (in dark grey) are only ok if you are trying to repo link something, which, I don't think you are doing.

The textures I want it to use are there, it just doesn't seem to be referencing them.