Development Tools & Resources

This is a sub-page of Proto:The Sims Online/TSO Pre-Alpha 1.3.2.56.

Embedded into the assemblies shipped with this version of the game, are dialogs that the developers used to create many aspects of the gameplay experience that would go on to power the final game.

DebugWindow#

In-game, you can run the cheatcode DebugWindow to spawn a window in the top-right corner of the screen indicating basic information about the current property.

It encompasses the following fields:

1. Local Avatar ID : - The ID of the Avatar that is currently being played.
2. Local Avatar Name : - The name of the Avatar that is currently being played.
3. Lot ID : - The ID of the property that is currently being played in the database.
4. Lot Leader ID : - The ID of the Avatar that is currently hosting the online property.
5. Lot Name : - The name of the property that is currently being played.

MemView#

In-game, you can run the cheatcode MemView to spawn a window in the top-right corner of the screen displaying memory usage information.

It encompasses the following fields:

1. Kb/Tick : - Unknown.
2. Total : - Total process memory usage, using the Working Set property of the process.

Here there is a graph of memory usage that is colored white.

1. PageFaultCount : - The amount of page faults since loading the application.
2. Peak Working Set Size : - The largest size the Working Set can be.

TestWindow#

In-game, you can run the cheatcode TestWindow to spawn a window on screen displaying what tests are available implemented in TSOTestD.dll.

There are no descriptions for what these tests are intended to do; however, some of them do leave log files in the installation directory after running them.

HitLab (HitLabServiceD.dll)#

HitLab is a tool used to test and manipulate the system that creates sound in the game.

TSOProductionDatabaseUI.dll#

This assembly was likely used to interact with databases Maxis maintained for objects, interactions, cities, etc.

Below you can see examples of the dialogs stored in this assembly.

Database Transfer Windows#

This window appears to be used to transfer content stored in the Database to the Game, and vice-versa. It is unknown what usage this may have had in development at this time.

There are multiple versions of this dialog that serve similar purposes:

• Dialog 107 is for transferring Objects to the Database/Game.
• Dialog 108 is for transferring IFF files to the Database/Game.
• Dialog 111 is for transferring Object Types to the Database/Game.

Database Compare Dialogs#

This dialog looks like it compares data-items stored in the Database and the Game with each other.

It gives the user the following options:

• DB -> Game
• Game -> DB
• Add to DB
• Delete from DB
• Save contents
• Show Unsync'ed Data Only

With a box at the bottom to show more information about the selected data shown above.

There are these variations of this dialog found in this assembly:

• Dialog 109 Interactions Comparison
• Dialog 112 Tuning Set Comparison
• Dialog 113 Tuning Set Constants Comparison
• Dialog 115 An early variant of this with only a Save Changes button visible. (The Window Border says "Dialog" as opposed to an official name)

• Dialog 116 Sound Events Comparison

Data Integrity Dialog#

This dialog appears to allow the developer to run various tasks on the database including:

• Invoking the Objects Database Comparison Window
• Invoking the Interactions Database Comparison Window
• Invoking the Tuning Sets Database Comparison Window
• Invoking the Tuning Constants Database Comparison Window
• Invoking the Sound Events Database Comparison Window
• Set IFF Names (?)
• Test Memory (?)