0x006A

IN PROGRESS

The Basics

(note: This was written by someone with the original sims 2 ONLY. I have no idea if it's any different in the expansions.)

0x006A is the Animate Sim primitive BHAV. Basically, any time a sim moves, it uses this function.

Animate Sim uses at least 12 of the 16 operands, and can use 4 (that I know of) variables from the calling BHAV as well. It must call an ANIM file, and can call another BHAV file as well. So yeah, it's fairly complex, and I'm not arrogant enough to say I understand how it works. These are some generalizations I've made from quite a few tests, and may not be correct. If they aren't, and you know it, there is an edit tab up at the top, calling you.

I used SimPE to find all this, by the way. The screenshot is from SimPE, too.

The Details

Like all BHAVs, Animate sim is called in it's own line, and is passed certain info from the operand list. Just for clarity, this is how I numbered the operands:

Animate Sim basically works like this: When called, it always finds the animation (stored in an ANIM resource) by looking in a STR# (text list) file, gets the animation name out of there, and finds the animation with the right name. Then it applies any changes made in the relevant operands to the animation, and plays it.

Okay: I am not going to cover the Operands in order, because it's too much of a pain (they all interrelate so much).

So, we'll start with

Operand 7

Operand 7 contains the last two digits of the instance number of the default STR# file. (the one it finds the ANIM name in)

instance number 0x00000081 is the most commonly-used STR#. It contains all the names of the ANIMs that adults can perform relative to the object. At runtime, sims 2 looks for this STR# in the same group as the calling object; if not found there, it "fallsback" and looks in the object's semi-globals.

STR# instances 82 (ChildAnims), 89 (ToddlerAnims), 8A (TeenAnims), and 8B (ElderAnims) all work exactly the same way, and one needs to exist for every age group that can use the object.

Note: There doesn't need to be a call to Animate Sim for every age group. Animate Sim 
will find the appropriate STR# file for the age of the sim it applies to.

Instance number 0x00000080 APPARENTLY looks in globals. I don't know whether it actually looks for an STR# there, or if it just looks for the ANIM matching Operands 1 & 2.

Instance number 84 does something really weird, too. As far as I can tell, it fallsback all the way to globals, and reads the LocoAnims text file.

Any other instance number (including 00), if not found in the group, fallsback to the semiglobals, and looks in the ObjectAnims STR# 86. Obviously, object animations cannot apply to sims, and Animate Sim will throw an error and immediately stop whatever the sim was doing.

So: On to

Operands 2 & 1

Why 2 and 1? Why not 1 and 2? Because, like anything else in BHAVs, all 4 digit numbers are stored with the tens and ones first, then the thousands and hundreds. Example: the hex number 1234 would be stored in two BHAVs as 34 12.

Anyways: Operands 2 & 1 can be two things. Either they define the line in the STR# file (defined in opcode 7) that has the desired animation's name, or they define the parameter that has the number that defines the line in the STR# file. (try saying that three times fast!)

Whether these numbers refer to the actual text line, or the parameter, depends on the next operand.

Operand 3

This is THE operand. It defines so much stuff it's easier if I make a graphic.

Basically, anything highlighted in red is decided by this opcode.

Going through them one by one....

1. Flipped. If flipped is false, the animation plays as normal. If flipped is true, the animation is, well, flipped, along a plane dividing the sim into left and right. The best example is the bed. If a sim gets in on one side, the animation plays normally. If the sim gets in on the other, the animation is flipped.
2. Anim Speed in temp 2: Normally, the animation speed is contained in Operand 4 (more on this later). When this is true, however, the animation speed is called from temporary 0x0002. This is usually not useful if you're modding the original Maxis stuff, since temp 2 is often used for something else.
3. [parameters 0x0000]. As mentioned in opcodes 2 & 1, this defines whether 2&1 refer to the literal number of the needed text line, or to the parameter that contains the text line.
4. Interruptible. When true, the animation can be interrupted, and the BHAV continues on to the next line. I haven't seen this used much, probably because it only interrupts this one animation. If you cancel an action in the middle, and this is true, the animation will be stopped, but nothing else in the calling BHAV will be.
5. Start at tag in temp 0. To be honest, I don't know. My only theory is that it might use the value in temp 0 as the starting frame of the animation. But this is just a hopeful guess; I really have no idea.
6. Trans to idle. Same as above, I have no idea. I think it means the animation finishes by blending the end of the animation into the idle pose, but this is only a hopeful guess.
7. No Blend Out. First, my conjectures on blending: when an animation is blended with the one before or after, Animate Sim treats them as one long animation, and meshes them together, producing a smoother overall movement. This seems to be supported by what I saw in the game, but keep in mind, I found out all this stuff by changing a file, then watching it in-game, so it could just be my eyes. But I think it is blending the animations.
8. No Blend In. Same as above. Another note: I have seen a few animations (somewhere, I lost them) that looked like blending animations. For all I know, maybe these tags refer to them.

So that's what they do. How they're all contained in one number is a bit complicated. Basically, 00 starts with all the above false (and reading operands 2&1 as the literal text line). Starting at the top and going down, each increment defines another permutation of the possible values.

WTF?

Like so: