Yeah, it has been a while. I now have all WinForms and Windows System calls removed from my Version of SimPE. All the pieces for the new front end are there: the list boxes, text boxes, labels, panels, headers, etc. The part that is left to do is telling the app where to place all those pieces and parts in the display. A new file for each and every different display. But it is compiling cleanly, no errors or warnings, which is a good starting point for building the new front end. While I am not a fan of the SimPE interface, I intend to replicate it as best I can, to make using ancient tutorials easier for Mac users wholly unfamiliar with SimPE.

EDIT: I almost forgot the most important part. All the precompiled dlls with custom controls by Quaxi have been replaced by third party open source or Avalonia controls. NetDocks.dll was the hardest one, as it was the true heart and soul of SimPE. What this means is that there is no roadblock remaining for a Mac (and Linux) version. When the front end is built, I have a Linux version; once I alter the file pathing after that I have a Mac version. I never intended a Linux version, but there is apparently some demand for it, and it is a necessary step on the way to a Mac version, so why not?

Wow, just wow. Thank you so much for the hard work!

Well, thanks to the people testing, I have upgraded SimPE. Added capabilities are the preview of a 3D mesh and joints in 0.8.1.3. In 0.8.1.4 I have all the Wizards of SimPE working, and added a menu option to launch the Wizards of SimPE executable from the main app Tools menu.

I really, really need somebody to take over maintenance of this app. I am 73 years old, no young programmer fresh out of university. And I would prefer to be spending my time on the Linux/Mac versions.

Does anybody know where I can get the latest Chris Hatch version of SimPE? I only can get the version at SFS, which I am quite certain is not the latest version. And does anybody know how to contact Theo, of the color binning tool and Theo's sim surgery?

Am up to 0.8.1.8 now, with 0.8.2 coming soon.

Theo hasn't been active here for five years, he had a site but the domain isn't active so I doubt the email contact will work.

It's on wayback machine though in case there's something there that could help?
https://web.archive.org/web/2009032...chewbakkas.net/

It is exactly what I needed, short of actually talking to Theo. On his website he has all his tools, and explains how to use them, which is as Plugins for SimPE. I can now, with a clear conscience, include his tools as plugins in my SimPE, clearly labeled as Theo's, of course.

Brilliant! Glad I could help!

The sfs link shared in the SimPE thread does contain the latest version by Chris Hatch. He just makes updates and uploads to the same folder, there is update log or any notice that it has been updated.

Thank you, HL. I see a new update just yesterday.

I have downloaded the latest version and it recognizes that I have the stories games, but not any of my EPs. How do I make it do so? The instruction text for Make New Character is missing the species, which makes it harder to ensure nothing is wrong.

How odd. I am not supporting the Stories; this version of SimPE is primarily aimed at people with the Ultimate Collection, Legacy and full repacks based on those. It should work on the ancient discs, too. Why it is not seeing your EPs and SPs is a puzzle. You used settings>GameLocater to tell the game where the installation is? Which version of the game do you have, and where is it installed? At what directory level are the Stories versus the EPs and SPs?

And where is this Make New Character feature in SimPE? Probably something obvious I have overlooked as I have never needed to use it. :p

Make New Character is not a SimPE feature, its just Primitive 0x13 in SimAntics. In the BHAV wrapper, when you have an node selected, there's a description on the right of what the node does, based on the bytes passed to it. For Make New Character, one of the bytes determine the species of the character, but I think SimPE doesn't show that if it hasn't registered that the user has Pets installed, which makes debugging difficult sometimes.

Yes, I used the Game Locator. Right now I am using the Mr DJ repack out of convenience. To be clear, I am determining that SimPE isn't recognizing the EPs from the Open in... feature:
When I open in Sims 2, it correctly opens the Sims 2 directory in my current install, so I am pretty sure I have selected the correct folder. Is it because it is looking for the Origin install structure with the different collections, but in the repack they're installed individually?

EDIT: Now I have uninstalled and reinstalled the Origin version instead, and SimPE 8 still seemingly doesn't recognize that I have the EPs. The point is moot though; I just tried 0.75f and that one does recognize the EPs, but still doesn't include the species byte in the settings description. Either I imagined it ever being there, or it is some specific version that has it...

EDIT: Now I have tried the 0.73 and Chris Hatch's versions and none of them show the species. Maybe I imagined it all along, or maybe it's only some configurations where it is shown. I wish I knew where the text files for that are stored.

I think 0.8.2.5, which I will be posting in mere moments, fixes the EPs/SPs not being found correctly. Let me know if it does, or doesn't. I don't have all possible versions to test on.