Another medieval default no one asked for.
I've long dreaded the default water balloons, as there have been very few period-friendly alternatives. So I decided to replace them with rotten apples instead.
My first thought was to use a mesh from KCD2, but since this accessory requires morphs, I instead modified misaki0218's tomato default by removing the sepal to make it resemble an apple. I then retextured it using free textures from Sketchfab and TextureCan, resized the mesh, and adjusted the CRES so it sits naturally in the Sim's palm. Poly-count lowered from the original 721 to 381. Texture size is 512x512.
Unfortunately—and I have no idea how to fix this—the original colorful balloons will sometimes still appear when the water balloons burst. As far as I can tell, this seems to be an issue shared by all existing water balloon defaults.
Credits to misaki0218 for the original mesh, and to the creators of the textures used.
Hi spockthewok, first of all, I'm a huge fan of your incredible work and was wondering if you could help me and @yolkema out in creating neighborhoods based on medium-sized SC4 maps like in Sims Castaway Stories (and possibly even completely new large-sized SC4 maps) ?
Basically, these are our main findings so far:
The game cannot create neighborhoods based on medium-sized/large-sized SC4 maps on its own. This pop-up appears:
So, basically we tried the following: copy/pasting one of the default small-sized SC4 maps and renaming it to match with the name of the medium-/large-sized SC4 map and create the neighborhood as usual... but right after the game entered loading screen, we minimized the game and swapped the small-sized SC4 map with the medium-/large-sized one. It did work and didn't crash the game!
But after creation, the game couldn't display the textures properly... it created a glitchy terrain texture but the terrain is there, you can at least place decorations on it...
For medium-sized maps you can use Mootilda's HoodReplace to fix the glitchy terrain, it will look somewhat OK without the roads but some texture mismatch (in terrain and sky) is visible
But if you try to place down roads using newest version of SimPE and all, it creates weird shadows... but at least you can change the terrain too and this should allow us to create custom maps
The game is OK with using Sims Castaway stories' hood maps but custom medium/large SC4 maps don't work... it will keep creating the glitchy terrain, even if it was perfectly fine before (see screenshot below which happened after importing from SC4 map using HoodReplace)
So, if you "fix" the map using HoodReplace by copying the Sims Castaway map over and later try to use HoodReplace again to import from .sc4 map in order to create your custom town with different terrain and roads and all, it will break the terrain texture again... so this does not come from the somewhat controversial creation process (mind you, if you use the exact same method and swap a small-sized SC4 map with another small-sized one, it will create the neighborhood just fine without any terrain texture issues)
If you try to change the terrain type to something other than lush, it doesn't work great for desert and dirt terrain types... weird black squares appear but the concrete terrain seems to be somewhat OK
(These are all medium-sized maps btww.. and also nevermind the first one since I didn't know how to use the road tool properly, so that's why the roads are all weird in that one).
One good thing though, even if the neighborhood terrain is broken in neighborhood view, in lot view it works just fine and you can see the entire neighborhood in lot view if you increase the lot skirt.
If you're interested and want to have a look into this, here's the folder including all the experimental maps above (+ a mini tutorial on how to create neighborhoods based on medium-sized/larged-sized SC4 maps) : Download!
Basically we have:
N001 is the medium-sized lush map after it was fixed using Hood Replace using Sims Castaway map (it's technically the same map as in Sims CS lol)
N002 is a medium-sized concrete map after it was fixed using Hood Replace and modified in SimPE using the built-in terrain sculpting and road rool
N003 is the unfixed medium-sized desert map (with the glitchy terrain still intact)
N004 is the unfixed large-sized lush map (also with the glitchy terrain since we don't have any pre-made large-sized neighborhoods to copy from)
Again, we'd greatly appreciate your efforts if you ever decide to have a look into this and can possibly come up with a solution. But either way, just know you're amazing and your contributions to the sims community are already incredible and greatly appreciated! <3
Hello jawusa!
I have literally never tried to import SC4 maps into TS2, so I didn't know this restriction existed.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, there's a function called IsSmallCity() which needs to return true for a map to be considered valid to import:
If we look at the same function from Castaway Stories, we can see that this check was completely removed:
Patching this check out in TS2 allows for medium/large maps to be imported without the game complaining, but it creates the glitchy terrain you and yolkema observed. Presumably, the code that reads the terrain data from the maps only processes things up to the maximum bounds of a small map, leaving everything else uninitialised.
It will be interesting to see what changes Aspyr made to allow Castaway Stories to support these maps - as long as they didn't add a load of new functionality, it should be feasible to backport this to TS2.
I've had several other requests that I need to finish off first, but I've added this to my list of things to look at in the future :)
The Ninth Wave converted the rowboat from Peter Jackson's King Kong game, and I've remapped + repo'd it to the OFB DecraChill! It's not a very detailed textured object, so mainly good for general set dressing, and it's not functional at all, just decorative.
Then I spent entirely too much time making a version that works well with @pforestsims' animated floating boat OMSP- edited the mesh to reposition the oars, and sunk it down until it sat nicely on the water surface without sinking under it. However- if you place this version on the ground, it'll sink into it. If you want this version, it's the file names with WTR in the RAR, the regular version looks and behaves like TNW's version, with a slight tweak to allow it to place on slopes. I've moved both versions to general>vehicles to avoid cluttering deco, despite being purely decorative. It's 6058 polys, not as low as I'd ike but not unbearable.
Download King Kong rowboat REPO + edits
ALT: Download on Simblr
Buy me a coffee? I have a Ko-Fi!
Now please enjoy looking at this sims 2 pond for 30 seconds.
By popular demand (I saw two people asking) I thought I would throw together a quick guide to using the road editor tool in the newest version of SimPE! You'll see that this is a very easy tool to use, and best of all, goof-proof. If you do mess up (you probably will) it's very, very easy to correct.
Very, very, very important to make a backup of your hood before you ever do any tinkering in SimPE! I also recommend practicing on a test hood you don't actively play in to get a feel for it before you do anything to your main hoods.
We're starting with a vanilla Strangetown. I would recommend going in your game and taking a nice overhead screenshot of the hood like this first to look at for reference of where everything is situated the way that you're used to looking at it.
2. Open SimPE, go to Tools> Neighbourhood> Neighbourhood Browser and open the hood you're wanting to work on. If you're not so familiar with SimPE, opening your hood can take some time. Touch nothing until it's loaded!
3. Once it's all loaded, from the Resource Tree list pick Neighbourhood Terrain Geometry (NHTG). Then you'll see one file populate the Resource List - click that. Make sure on the bottom that you have Plugin View tab selected.
4. Now you should see this map of your hood pop up! There are different things you can toggle, I like to check the Show Lots box when I'm editing the roads. Then click the Road Editor button on the right.
5. To be able to see better, I've pulled this Plugin View window up a bit - it may rearrange the Resource List and Resource Tree windows a bit to accommodate. You can also press the Zoom 2x button to see closer, and then you'll have to use the scroll bars to move around the map and the road editor tool.
6. The road editing tools here will be placed down in the same orientation as the map. So the two parallel roads running through Strangetown from this perspective are the vertical straight road pieces (top row, second from left).
When you select a road tool, above it will indicate which tool you have selected.
Also - I recommend having Handle Stop Signs ticked.
7. Once you have the correct type of road selected for the spot you're working on, simply click on the map - it lays it down one tile at a time. If you miss a spot like shown here, just fill it in.
8. If you want to create an intersection, first delete the section of road where the intersection will go.
9. Then choose the type of junction for the intersection you're making, and add that piece in. You'll see a red circle appear (unsure if this is because it's an intersection or because you have handle stop signs selected, but I recommend you do have that selected either way).
10. Once you're done making all your changes, click Close Editor.
11. This is the part where you save your changes! First click Commit in the top right of the editor. Then, File> Save!
12. Load your game to check! Looks pretty good with all those new roads!
13. However, we have indeed made some mistakes! Which were absolutely for illustrative purposes and not truly an accident.
14. Never fear! Simply reload the hood in SimPE - I've deleted the spot where the T-junction should go and added one in, and deleted where the road just ended abruptly and added a proper end piece.
I have not experimented with what happens if you try to build a road through hood deco - if you have, please let us know in the comments how that went!
I also have barely touched the terrain editing tools, so that's outside the scope of this tutorial.
Raw Tutorial - How to Make Custom Harvestable/Orchard Trees and Make Them Seasons Friendly.
This tutorial is somewhat raw and has no pictures. I don't see myself adding them in the foreseeable future, However, at the time, I wrote it as detailed as possible, so I won't forget. Hope it'll be helpful as it is.
If not, I will make a proper edit in the future.
So, if anyone's interested in that kind of thing, Head This Way:
btw, if anyone has any notes about it, I'd like to hear them.
Setting up folders in SimPE for Ultimate Collection
After years of burninated-graphic-card-hell, I finally have a working computer! So what did I do?
I installed Linux (CachyOS, specifically)
I installed The Sims 2
I downloaded 43586 GB of custom content on your WiFi connection
and then of course I installed SimPE
I remembered that the folder paths had to be set up, and I found most of them easily but a couple eluded me. There are quite a few tutorials around to do this, and this is just an additional one in case you're like me, reinstalling everything years after the fact.
Paths noted below are relative to the game installation folder, by default: C:\\Program Files\Origin Games\The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection\
Expansion packs
Base Game: Double Deluxe/Base
EP1 University: University Life/EP1
EP2 Nightlife: Double Deluxe/EP2
EP3 Open for Business: Best of Business/EP3
EP4 Pets: Fun with Pets/EP4
EP5 Seasons: Seasons
EP6 Bon Voyage: Bon Voyage
EP7 FreeTime: Free Time
EP8 Apartment Life: Apartment Life
Stuff packs
SP1 (?) Happy Holiday (included in base game)
SP2 (?) Family Fun: Fun with Pets/SP1
SP3 Glamour Life: Glamour Life Stuff
SP4 Celebration!: Double Deluxe/SP4
SP5 H&M Fashion: Best of Business/SP5
SP6 Teen Style: University Life/SP6
SP7 Kitchen & Bath Interior Design: Best of Business/SP7
SP8 IKEA Home: University Life/SP8
SP9 Mansions & Garden: Fun with Pets/SP9
Mansions & Garden
The M&G stuff pack is treated like a mini-expansion by the game.
Notes
After setting the paths, reload the FileTable
Uncheck EP/SP that you don't own / haven't installed (in my case, Store)
Finally head to SimPE settings and untick Blur Nudity because duh.
This How-To can help with editing in game Pets or PetBreeds to change their face/body, adding fur accessories, adding heterochromia, or to blend genetics to mimic the pacifier*. Be sure to edit appearance in mirror to see any changes.
I will do my best to make this as clear and easy to understand as possible, but in all honesty there is A LOT of information. Some of it will only make sense if you already are familiar with editing CC and game files due to the jargon and syntax. Some things I also just frankly don't know, or I may have forgotten. As such, if you discover something about pets that I haven't mentioned, please share it here for others as well. Please refer to this spreadsheet for all pet genetic codes.
Now to start! Pet genetic data is stored in the AGED (Age Data). You can find this file in any petbreed.package or in a pet's personal characterdata.package. All things genetic and appearance wise seem to pull directly from this file (except collars). When you first open it, it can get overwhelming at first. Once you know what you're looking for though, it gets (a bit) easier. Below are the important lines of interest:
eyecolor (dtString)
alteyecolor (dtString)
Pretty straight forward. These are the eyes. If both values are the same, then the pet will have only one eye color. If they are different, the pet has heterochromia. Heterochromia is NOT normally inheritable, so editing this value yourself is the only way to mimic it. Not only is heterochromia NOT inheritable, but only the right eye color can be passed down and never the left. All born-ingame pets will have both these lines somewhere already, but sometimes alteyecolor may be closer to the middle of the list or the bottom. Some petbreeds may be missing this line however. Luckily, it is very easy to just add it in yourself. Note that puppies and kittens can't display heterochromia yet due to the way their mesh was made. You will need Paluding's and my default replacement meshes for rectify this.
petbodyoption# (dtString)
These are the tail shape and ear shape. There are currently 4 possible tail options for cats. For dogs, there are 2 ear and 6 tail options.
coatlayers (dtUInteger)
The number of coat layers. Pretty obvious, which is nice. This includes the pet's base coat, so for example if a pet has 5 coat markings then this should say 6.
coattex# (dtString) - Coat Texture, color of the coat
coatmask# (dtString) - Coat Mask, or the marking
coatmaskamt# (dtUInteger) - Coat Mask Amount, the opacity
These are the markings themselves. coatmask0 should always be left blank as it is the base coat color. 0x000000FF is the maximum opacity that a layer can have. If a pet offspring inherits a marking, it will usually be an exact copy color/opacity wise of their parent.
numpsd (dtUInteger) - the number of archetypes/modifers applied
psd# (dtString) - References the Face Arch Modifiers and Pet Body Modifiers
...Pet Slider Detail, maybe? In a vanilla game, 1 click of a slider is typically equal to 0.150000. Psds are typically written as family:4:amount of change. Positive values go left, and negatives go right. There will at times be multiple copies of the family, it's due to the game listing every time it's changed even slightly. I believe the game takes the sum value of all and applies them (or it goes down the list, if order turns out to matter). You can edit these lines directly to change them, or you can add/delete the lines yourself. Just make sure to have the psds numbered numerically and the numpsd line matches any changes. All modifiers are applied over the base archetype used, which means if you remove all but the psd0 lines, you will have the base pet shape.
Value wise, I'm not sure what the limit may or may not be, but you can go pretty extreme and even use whole numbers. Here's my experiments with Skull Small-Big set to 4.000000 and to -9.000000
You may notice that some lines don't have a family or they have a number that is NOT 4. Those are archetype modifiers. Archetypes are the "face templates". Edit those values at your own risk, as the possible results for these are more unpredictable.
numpbd (dtUInteger) - Number of Pet Body Decorations, or the number of fur accessories
pbd# (dtString) - Pet Body Decoration, or at least that's what I choose to believe
This is where you can add or remove fur accessories. Those are the fluffy face or beards and such. These objects are typically dependent on the color of the pet. Can be edited, added, or removed to your liking. Just be sure the numbers are correct.
coatflags (dtUInteger) - Coat Flag, the type of fur for cats & dogs
This determines whether a pet is "smooth" or "curly". This can also be easily changed in the mirror instead.
coatshapemod (dtString) - Dog only, refers to the Coat Shape Modifiers (the "collie" or the "airedale" body shapes, etc.)
coatshapemodamt (dtString) - Dog only, refers to the slider amount applied. Values are in decimal, with 1 being the max slider.
These are the dog only coat shape sliders. Dogs can only have 1 I believe. I didn't test this section heavily, so I don't now if values can be more than 1.
Note: About the "pacifier". When pets breed in game, they don't mix face genetics like humansims. All kittens/puppies will either get mom OR dad's shape, not a mixture of both. While it's tedious, you could in theory use the knowledge from this How-to to pull parts from both parents to be "inherited" by their offspring. You can randomize features with a coin flip or something and then apply them into the Age Data. As a reminder, edit appearances in mirror to see any changes.
These days I spent lots of time fixing lot skirt shader - and it turned into something more. I was to rewrite many game shaders to get consistent look of terrain and snow, and now, it's ready to be published!
Attempted to fix inconsistent lighting, implemented transparent lot skirt roads - so that they match the rest of lot skirt terrain, more and more!
Improvements
Consistent lighting - lot skirt, lot terrain and roads now match.
All lighting states compatible - dusk, dawn, seasonal changes work well.
Every lighting mod compatible - works even with maxis lighting.
New snow shaders (lot skirt, lot terrain and roofs) - fixed ugly shading, proper reaction to every lighting state.
Fixed lot imposters - now their terrain is rendered as well as possible.
Transparent lot skirt roads - now it's possible to use road textures with transparent cuts so that it matches lot skirt terrain.
Now reflective pond water doesn't require pools - its reflections work by reflective plane placed in lot corner.
Neighborhood roads have light snow pass.
Included
Lot skirt shaders
Lot imposter shaders
Lot terrain shaders
Lot lighting fixes (requires RPC)
Roof shaders
Bright CAS fix
Extended Standard and SimStandard shaders
Neighborhood road shader
Pond Water Overhaul
NOT Included BUT Compatible
Better Nightlife
Sea Water Overhaul
Accurate Neighborhood Lighting
Soft Shadows
WIP
Multi-road neighborhoods (I will add it later, sorry!)
Installation
Put the contents into your downloads folder (contains default replacement of maxis roads making them transparent, you may delete these files if you use road default replacements). Remember, my shaders must be loaded last to prevent conflicts!
Snow Lighting
Light snow:
Heavy snow:
Neighborhood roads
Vanilla:
Mod:
Fixed lot imposters
Before:
After:
Lot skirt roads
Default texture:
Transparent texture:
Consistent lighting
Radiance (maxis shaders):
Radiance (my shaders):
Reflective Pond Water
First step - choose respective to lot size reflective plane:
Second step - place it in the lot corner so that the plane covers every lot tile:
Third step - enjoy reflective ponds; there's no need to keep pools or something like that in the scene, reflections work independently:
I have decided the change the map for Luminor, with one of my favorite custom maps from MTS. I think it gives off mystical fantasy land vibes.
I had picked the original map thinking that I would build the entire kingdom in the same hood. But then I got tired of staring at empty roads.
Thus, this part of the map will now be known as Founders Village. I want it to remain a place mostly for farmers, and it will keep a coherent aesthetic with timber houses and thatched roofs. Once we run out of space, I will add a sub-hood or downtown to build a proper city with a grand castle and all.
I also made a little map with all the lots we have so far.
I blatantly stole this idea from @tedsies, the maps he makes for his hoods are so cute
As you can see will still have a lot of space to grow!
It might look a little weird to have my swimable pond right next to the hood lake, but I didn't want to fiddle with the terrain to allow space for a beach. Maybe I'll do it eventually, but for now it's good enough.
The mines are also a new addition, you haven't seen them yet. But it's literally just an empty lot with a bunch of rocks.
I'm also thinking of turning Elias' retreat into a community lot. It would be fun to build an altar to the goddess on it, for future generations to go on pilgrimage of sorts.
Garden of Shadows is where I linked for Mac users to get those Stuff Packs. So, I have now uploaded them to my SFS, but with One More Thing added. I have all the CAS/Bodyshop content working, including H&M stuff. I have replaced HL's bodyshop bundles with my own, which work when you put them in the Downloads folder. They show up as CC, but they all have a polite tooltip that tells you which stuff pack they are from. The build and buy files can go in Downloads or in the game at Bon Voyage/TSData/Res/Catalog/Bins. If you put them in the game, then my SimPE for Mac 0.8.2.13 will load them and you can select them in the Maxis object catalog. The Collections files all go in the Collections folder.
Bug fixes and more plugins! Theo's Color Binning tool, Theo's Alt Sim Surgery, and JFade's Collection Creator are all added and working. It is on my Github for all 3 platforms, Windows, Linux, and Mac. You can download all three from my Github. You can also download the Mac Mootilda's Clean Installer and Mac Delphy's Download Organizer. Still testing the Mac Mootilda's Hood Checker, but it coming very soon.
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I'm gonna need some help playtesting this one. Hit me with issues and conflict reports 🤓
So, this is a global mod for booths!
At restaurants, sims can now enter dining booths decorated with OMSPs or shiftable clutter, which was a problem before (for @gummilutt anyway 😏)
At home, sims can now successfully serve, eat and clean up dishes in inaccessible parts of tables with dining booths. They will jump in and out of booths or crawl under the table when they can't scoot over normally, for example, when all entry seats are occupied by other sims
They will be able to reach plates in the far corners to clean them or put away
Download for testing
Night Life may be required? Not sure if there are booths in other EPs
Conflicts
- Tableware Setter (a.k.a. table_setter) - let UseInaccessibleDiningBooth load after it, and they'll both work fine
- Older versions of Helpers_AssignTablesChairs, updated today one tiny thing to make them compatible
Recommended
Inge's -Is Chair a Booth- global patch - lets your game recognize custom booth chairs
I'm obsessed with these booths now, they are so fun and detailed! Have you seen the under the table animation when there's available entry seat and sims try to reach another blocked seat? ❤️
Which might be the ugliest tutorial ever. Oh well. Maybe this helps someone.
I'm sharing this because if you have a non-English game and see something you'd want to use, but it's not translated yet, adding the translation really isn't hard. You'll need SimPe but not any content-creating skills whatsoever.
I used my Biotech Station mod as an example. It's a bit scary looking but you can just ignore the majority of the stuff there. Most things don't have this many resources.
The things that need translating are under Catalog Descriptions, Pie Menu Strings, and Text lists. There might be only some of them there, that's completely normal.
You can only view certain types of resources by clicking them from the resource tree on the left. To edit an individual resource, click it on the resource list view.
Make sure you have the plugin view tab selected.
On the plugin view, you can see a drop-down menu from which you can browse the translations.
Now it's just writing! Go through the text strings on the list and write a fitting translation for each.
Not highlighted in the picture, but ticking that 'reveal default language for comparison' box helps as you'll then see the English version while editing the translation.
Click that commit file before leaving the resource, otherwise your translation won't save.
You might notice that under Text Lists there's sometimes quite a lot of stuff.
Most often it's only '[Text Lists]' and 'Dialog Primitive Strings' that need translations. But you can double-check by reading that description box there.
For every resource that needs translating, proceed the same way that I showed for the catalog description. Don't forget to check Pie Menu Strings, too!
After all the text strings are translated, save the file (File -> Save).
Now you have the content you desire translated, yay! But what if you want to send your translation to someone?
You do this. It'll export the text strings you're viewing in text format. I recommend saving the file in a way that makes it easy to connect which resource it belongs to, in this case for example 'Catalog Description Finnish' would work very well.
If you have resources with identical text strings and translations (that happens sometimes), exporting only one of them will be enough.
Translations exported this way need to be imported back to get them to work, but it's a handy way to move them around.
That's all! Let me know if I wasn't clear enough or if you notice I forgot to mention something :)
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