Pixel post dividers for everyone! It's not much, but feel free to use them if you'd like.
I don't know the ideal size for these, so let me know if they're too tall. I can make them a bit shorter next time.
some presets are inspired by film, some are bright and colorful, some are moody, muted, nostalgic, dramatic, or somewhere in between. some were made with storytelling in mind, some for screenshots, and some simply because i liked the way they made the world look.
hope you find a favorite.
P.S.
also includes a bonus set of presets inspired from the early development days of paralives that are bloomy, contrasty and extra cozy.
Please note:
Any depth based buffer shaders (DOF, MXAO, Fog and so on) WILL NEED THE Para Detoonification mod to work! See here for more info
To get the most from MXAO one you MUST follow this guide by pictureamobae.
these presets were made with reshade 6.7.3 for the early release of paralives
Do you want a specific hairstyle in Paralives? Selection too limited for you? I'm gonna show you how to convert any Sims 4 hairstyle to Paralives in 7 easy(ish) steps!
This tutorial requires you to have some basic knowledge of Blender, modelling, and texturing, so this is by no means a beginner tutorial- if you want that, I'd recommend checking out Paralives' wiki.gg modding guide!
You will need need to download Blender 4.2.4, the Human Rig, and the UV Layout from this page here. To export models and textures from TS4, you will need Sims 4 Studio. This tutorial also requires access to a painting or photo editing tool with layers, I'm using Clip Studio Paint.
Step 1: Pick your hair
Not every hairstyle will be a good fit! Since Sims and Paras don't have the same head shape, any hairstyle that shows the hairline or head will require a lot more work to shape it and remake the textures. For your first try I'd recommend a medium-length style with no hairline showing. I'm using Sienna's hair from Horse Ranch, which only has a bit of hairline on the right side of the head, to demonstrate.
Once you've picked the style, open Sims 4 Studio. Select "Create CAS Standalone" and hit "CAS." Select the grey or greyish white variant of the hairstyle you like, and create a dummy package (you can delete this later).
Now, under the Texture tab, make sure "Diffuse" is selected and export the texture. Name it something or place it somewhere so that you'll remember it's the original. Go to the Meshes tab and export the mesh.
Step 2: Prep The Hair
Open up your original hair mesh in Blender. It'll come with a bunch of crap you don't need, plus three files labelled s4studio_mesh_1-3. That's your hair mesh and the two hat chops. Shift+select those three files and export as FBX. Make sure you tick to limit to Selected Objects. Now you can open up HumanRig and import your hair FBX. Sims are bigger than Paras, so you can grab all three of them and scale them down in layout mode, I chose 0.85 in this project. There will be a weird cap attached to the hair- move the whole object so that it roughly lines up with the head (it doesn't have to be perfect!), paying careful attention to matching the ear position. This cap will be your hairline later. Make sure all your hat chops are all still aligned.
Once all of this is in place, apply all transforms and reset your origin to the 3D cursor. Do this any time you need to adjust it in layout mode!
Step 3: Remodel VERY CAREFULLY
Make sure all three meshes are still selected, and switch to edit mode. Any changes we make to one mesh should also be made to the other two. When you need to move a vertex, switch to X-ray mode and drag to select all overlapping vertices. Enable proportional editing to move larger areas smoothly. Since paras don't have the same head shape as sims, the skull cap won't match up perfectly- we want to approximate a smooth transition by burying the edge vertices in the head, but keep the rest visible so that the hairline shows up correctly. Be careful not to rip any vertices or create any differences between the three meshes. If you make a mistake, don't be afraid to restart. You should also fix any other issues at this stage- sims have huge foreheads, so my para's head was sticking straight out the top of this mesh, I used proportional editing to carefully lift it up.
Step 4: Fix your hat chops!
Hat chops are the alternate version of the hair that is shown when the character wears a hat. In both Paralives and TS4, there are straight and angled hat chops. Identify and label which is which. Under the HatStandards folder, there are a number of reference models we can use to check our work. For each chop, carefully move the vertices with proportional editing so that they match up with, but don't exceed, the "hair limit." With the angled chop, turn on the "HatStandardAngled" model to test if your hair is visible through it- if so, bring it closer to the head.
Step 5: Oh, Textures...
Textures are maybe the most annoying part of this. Load in your base texture as the Base Colour for the material your hair is using. Looks nice, right? Probably not very Paralives-y. Paralives uses a much flatter and more cartoony rendering style than TS4. To fix this, we're going to edit the texture. Now, regardless of what happens, you're going to have to edit the UVs at some point- I'll be doing it at the end and showing you how, but if you find it easier, skip to that step and go back here when you're done.
Here's a sample hair texture from the game and the hex codes it uses. We'll want to adjust the brightness of our texture to roughly match, that way it won't show up too bright or dark in game.
I have a clever strategy for this in Clip Studio. I make a rainbow gradient map, and adjust the colours until they match each zone.
Now that we're in a good colour range, I'm going to separate any important hairline details onto their own layer, lock transparency of the main "block," and start messing with it until it's a good base to draw on. I posterized it with 11 colour levels and then did a gaussian blur for a decent base. Then I went in with a brush to exaggerate and smooth out the shapes. The Paralives team uses a very blendy gradient with some fingertip pulls to make it look paintery, then some more defined shadows. I go in with my dark pencil to sharpen up the shadows and then blend out the other colours.
At this point, you can start saving your file and importing it to Blender. Check what it looks like and start making adjustments. If you find an issue, you can bring the model into Texture Paint mode, paint a dot on the offending piece, and see where the dot appeared on the map to quickly reference where the problem is.
The rest of the painting process is just art! Try replicating a texture from the game that's similar to your hairstyle.
Now that we're done with the fun part.... it's time for UV hell.
Step 6: Suffer
I've never met a single artist who enjoys doing UVs. Luckily, we don't have too much to do here.
Open up the UV editor and replace the background image with the Parafolks UV Layout we downloaded earlier. Now, switch to edit mode and grab all the vertices of your hair. Under the UV tab, select "Export UV Layout." Save the image using a name that indicates it's the original. Now grab that big box of vertices and move it to the right and down so that it lines up with the cyan box labelled "hair." Move the skullcap part up and align the ears. If your hair has extra textures hidden within the skull part of the head, you'll need to move these around to fit into the remaining space in the purple "head" zone. Once your UVs are finished, export them again, this time marking them as the new ones.
Okay, you survived that far. Now back to the image editing. Import both the original and new UVs to your texture file. Place the new UVs below your texture layer, the original UVs over it, and set the texture to a low opacity. With both the original UVs and texture selected, draw a selection box around your square of UVs, and move it to the bottom corner. Place it so that the UV lines match up exactly, pixel for pixel. Voila, now your texture matches the new UVs.
There's just the issue of the hairline (and, if you have them, any pieces hidden on the skull section). Sadly, there's no way around it, you're gonna have to do it manually. Grab each piece using the same method and the lasso tool, and line them up one by one. For hairlines that you had to manipulate, align as much as you can with the least stretched part of the uvs, and then cut, rotate, and stretch them into place. This is why I didn't paint the hairline during the last part. Now that it's in place, I paint it to match.
Step 7: Set up the mod!
Now that you're happy with your hair's model and textures, you can follow this official tutorial to skin it, create a mask, and set up the mod in-game. This Sienna haircut is not available on the workshop yet because uh.... well it's definitely not because I got lazy and didn't feel like skinning it today (the only thing worse than UVs is weight painting).
But now that you're done this tutorial, go forth! Be free! And steal assets from The Sims 4! Just remember to get permission before converting any other CC creators' work. And if you use this tutorial, please let me know! I need more hairstyles....
7k in HLOD
Everyday, Career, Outerwear
Valid for Maternity, Not Valid for Random
1 Recolorable (2 Channels) + 1 Non-Recolorable Preset
TS4 Original by Backtrack
Poses by Smallsimmer
Download: SFS, Simblr.cc
Update: You can download a Teen Version here. Same info as above.
I might not be able to be very active in the upcoming months because of life stuff. I'll be very happy to keep converting when I can though. I'd also want to finally learn how to convert to TS2 so yea, hopefully sometime :)
I found the Occult Legacy Challenge by Ayhris earlier and immediately got excited to try it. However I do prefer non-rabbit hole careers and enjoy legacy challenges that have some extra prompts that help create a storyline for your heir and keeps them busy/creates some drama for them. So I decided to build my own version of this legacy challenge, expanding upon Ayhris' original.
You can find all the rules for each generation below the cut. All credits go to @ayhris for the original version. This legacy challenge is eleven generations long and assumes you own all expansions and some of the store worlds.
Download this simple spreadsheet to track your progress.
I have not tested this legacy yet myself but do tell me if some generations need improvement!
Generation one; the inventor
After leaving home for the first time, you find yourself living on the outskirts of a desert town. You’re not there for very long before you start to notice strange things flying through the skies and the locals seem to act as if nothing is out of the ordinary especially the odd green ones. You try to make your way as an inventor, but spend most of your free time gazing at the night sky as these irregularities inspire you to question; what’s out there?
✧ Lifetime wish: The Tinkerer
✧ Required traits: Eccentric, Socially awkward, Loner, Genius, Handy.
✧ Career: self-employed inventor.
✧ Spouse: no marriage.
✧ Location: Strangetown
✧ Limit on children: you can only have alien children by abduction or through the time machine. The next-gen heir must be alien.
✧ Max skills: handiness, inventing, logic
✧ Prompts:
Buy a telescope and gaze at the stars every night.
Collect and analyze 100% of all space rocks and keep them as a collection on your lot.
Go on at least 5 online dates but never become more than friends.
Create a Simbot (or purchase the LTR if it's too hard) and have it be your only friend while it lives in your basement.
Have a hamper in your house but never do your laundry until you have a maid or a child that’ll do it for you.
Each time your sell/delete piles of clothes, you have to change one of your founder’s outfits and take a 100 simoleons from your balance.
Befriend any aliens that visit your lot.
Build a time machine and travel through time at least once.
Generation two; the alien
Your parent was always honest when they said you were different from all the other children in class, but all you really wish for is to be as normal as possible. You're always finding yourself feeling jealous of those who fit in oh so easily and know who their true authentic selves are. This pushes you to become super interested in all of the mundane things that come with a regular human life and turns you into a multi-talented artist as you try to create that perfect human picture for yourself.
✧ Lifetime wish: Renaissance Sim
✧ Required traits: Artistic, Savvy Sculptor, Art Appraiser, Bookworm, Friendly
✧ Career: self-employed painter, writer or sculptor.
✧ spouse: marriage allowed, must be human.
✧ Location: Sunset Valley
✧ Limit on children: no, but the heir must be human.
✧ Max skills: painting, sculpting, writing
✧ Prompts:
Create a private museum with your own artworks.
Make portraits and ice sculptures of your whole family (your spouse and children).
Choose whichever townie sim your alien would be most jealous of, make an ice sculpture of them and add them to your family collection, where you secretly pretend it’s you.
Have three best friends, they must be regular humans.
Send at least one of your kids to boarding school.
Become part of a bookclub.
Only ever write trashy novels.
Scan at least 5 sims to learn their traits.
Lock any alien children you have in the basement. They’re not allowed to go to school or leave the house. Kick them out the moment they age up into young adults.
Generation three; the gardener
Your parents did everything to be as normal as possible, restricting you from feeling what true freedom is like. That’s why you move to Twinbrook or Riverview, for a fresh start where you can truly taste what freedom feels like, with your feet in the dirt!
✧ Lifetime wish: the perfect garden.
✧ Required traits: green-thumb, loves the outdoors, eco-friendly, natural born cook, gatherer
✧ Career: Self-employed gardener
✧ Spouse: marriage allowed, must be a like-minded sim with an attraction score of at least 8 out of 10.
✧ Location: Twinbrook or Riverview.
✧ Limit on children: only one human child allowed.
✧ Max skills: gardening, cooking
✧ Prompts:
If you take your parents with you when you move towns, kick them out immediately.
Plant all base game plants/seeds.
If prompted, complete the Cheese, Steak, Egg and Omni Plant opportunity line.
Use apples or melons to influence the gender of your child.
Build a greenhouse in your garden.
Don’t have anything from the electronics catalogue in your house.
Grow a forbidden fruit.
Become a plant sim.
Use your own crops to make your meals.
Learn how to make Baked Angel Foodcake.
Generation four; the paranormal
Your parents love of nature and the environment has a great influence on you, but only with regards with being happy somewhere green. You find yourself living in a small gloomy town with a lot of history and oddities; two topics you find the most interesting.
✧ Lifetime wish: paranormal profiteer or master of mysticism.
✧ Required traits: eccentric, perceptive, genius, supernatural fan, charismatic.
✧ Career: ghost hunter or fortune teller (mystic path).
✧ Spouse: marriage allowed.
✧ Location: Midnight Hollow
✧ Limit on children: two, but the heir must be a ghost.
✧ Max skills: charisma, logic (if ghost hunter), alchemy (if fortune teller)
✧ Prompts:
Become friends with a ghost.
Get at least one of your kids (the heir) killed and resurrect them as a ghost.
Get Bonehilda as a maid.
Try to become friends with the Grim Reaper.
Own the graveyard (purchase property).
Open up a shop in town selling occult memorabilia (creepy toys/decorations).
Generation five; the spirit
Your parent's love of the paranormal lead to your accidental death and resurrection. You seem to be a spirit now, but you age just like everyone else. You don't stay long in your hometown before you start jetsetting across the globe to adventure.
✧ Lifetime wish: seasoned traveler or bottomless nectar cellar.
✧ Required traits: adventurous, commitment issues, disciplined, athletic, brave.
✧ Career: self-employed nectar maker, or 'relic hunter' (make your money selling relics at the consignment store back home.)
✧ Spouse: no marriage.
✧ Location: players-choice.
✧ limit on children: at least three, and the heir must become a vampire.
✧ max skills: martial arts, nectar making
✧ Prompts:
Don’t make any friends in your hometown, only abroad.
Learn all the songs from across the world.
Have a child from a local in each of the three vacation worlds.
Have a private museum with all of the unique relics you find during your adventures.
Gain visa level 3 in each vacation world.
Own a vacation home in each vacation world.
Grow plasma fruit and have a collection of plasma fruit nectar.
Generation six; the vampire
Born (or turned into) a creature of the night you struggled to maintain relationships with non-occults which lead to a dislike to anyone who wasn't like you. You end up finding yourself in a city that never sleeps with a thirst for something other than plasma.
✧ Lifetime wish: turn the town or heartbreaker
✧ Required traits: evil, flirty, star quality, charismatic, irresistible
✧ Career: Criminal, Emperor of Evil branch
✧ Spouse: unlimited.
✧ Location: Bridgeport
✧ Limit on children: no, but the heir must become a werewolf.
✧ Max skills: mixology, piano, Athletic
✧ Prompts:
Steal your parent’s plasma fruit nectar collection and take it with you to Bridgeport.
Reach level five celebrity status.
Kill each spouse after they have given you a child and then move on to a new spouse for the next one. (recommended mod)
Lure in your dates by making them romantic drinks and using ‘Make sim think about me’ and ‘hypnotic gaze’ interactions.
Raid the hospital and grocery store
Sleep on a Vampire Altar in your basement when you’re alone, but keep a normal bed upstairs for you and your (living) spouses.
Keep all of your spouses graves in your backyard.
Generation seven; the hound
After growing up in the big city, surrounded by odd looks and flashing lights; you want nothing more than a bit of peace and quiet. Oh, and some normality. You move to a hidden town in the mountains, away from all the hustle and bustle where you start your own life and maybe a family.
✧ Lifetime wish: Leader of the pack or Surrounded by family.
✧ Required traits: friendly, family-orientated, good, dog person, born salesperson.
✧ Career: part-time jobs, opportunities and consignments only.
✧ Spouse: marriage allowed.
✧ Location: Hidden Springs
✧ Limit on children: five, but the heir must become a witch.
✧ Max skills: photography
✧ Prompts:
Have a best friend and turn them into a werewolf.
Reach the max career level of all part time jobs.
Own two dogs and breed them to have a litter of puppies (that you can give up for adoption if you like).
Document your family life with your own personal camera and place your photo’s all over the house.
Have at least three small creatures as pets (bird, turtle, snake, lizard, or rodent).
Collect all (basegame) butterflies and keep them in jars.
Cure yourself with your heir’s elixir when you turn into an elder so you can live out your last days as a human.
Generation eight; the spellcaster
With such peculiar ancestors, magic brews within you. After growing up in Hidden Springs and noticing the slight magical occurrences around, you decide you need to be somewhere where magic has deep roots which is why you find yourself in Moonlight falls. You want to prove that you're just as much a witch as anyone else here, will you succeed in this venture?
✧ Lifetime wish: alchemy artisan or mystic healer.
✧ Required traits: bookworm, perfectionist, neurotic, virtuoso, cat person
✧ Career: self-employed alchemist
✧ Spouse: no marriage.
✧ Location: Moonlight Falls
✧ Limit on children: no, but the heir must become a fairy.
✧ Max skills: alchemy, violin.
✧ Prompts:
Create a werewolf cure for your parent once they’ve turned into an elder.
Win a spellcasting duel from another witch.
Turn your dresser into a magic portal.
Own the elixir consignment store as a property.
Use the Toadification Curse on your enemies.
Use the Thirst Curse on a vampire, killing them.
Bring back a vampire your killed as a zombie with the Reanimation Ritual.
Have a cat or small creature as your familiar.
When your kids get married, play the violin at their wedding.
Generation nine; the fae
After living in a town with such deep magical roots and pecularities all around, you feel like you blend in a little too much which drove you a little crazy - you dream of a life in the spotlight which provokes your move to a dazzling city that's all about stardom.
✧ Lifetime wish: Vocal legend or Magic Make over
✧ Required traits: social butterfly, insane, diva, party animal, natural born performer.
✧ Career: Singing profession
✧ Spouse: yes, two marriages; first with a human and last with a genie.
✧ Location: Starlight Shores
✧ Limit on children: no limit, but the heir must be a female genie.
✧ Max skills: guitar, charisma.
✧ Prompts:
As a teen, pull a bunch of fairy pranks on your classmates and/or siblings.
Obtain a genie lamp and free the genie.
Cheat on your spouse with the genie and then divorce your human spouse to marry the genie.
Keep up a garden/greenhouse with your bloom ability.
Use Aura of Creativity on yourself whenever you perform your music.
Throw a party for your fellow fairies in town inside a fairy house.
If you haven't chosen Magic Make over as your LTW, use inner bloom on at least five sims.
Generation ten; the wishgiver
Born from a fairy and a genie, you've always been told you were magical but after growing up near the beaches of Starlight Shores the only thing that seemed magical in your life was the sea, this inspired you to move somewhere that seems like it was created from your very own wishful love of the ocean.
✧ Lifetime wish: deepsea diver.
✧ Required traits: loves to swim, athletic, angler, loves the outdoors, loves the cold.
✧ Career: self employed diver.
✧ Spouse: no marriages.
✧ Location: Isla Paradiso (use the fixes!).
✧ Limit on children: three, but the heir must be a mermaid.
✧ Max skills: scuba diving, athletic
✧ Prompts:
Find all treasure chests on all diving lots.
Meet a mermaid/man, have at least one child with them and do not see the mermaid/man again after their birth.
Banish any sim that has a negative interaction with you.
Ensorcel your enemies and make them do your household chores.
Move into a houseboat.
Discover all uncharted islands.
Own a resort and upgrade it to the max level.
Teach your heir how to fish.
Generation eleven; the merchild
Your mother loved the sea so dearly which shines through you as you are a child of the ocean; a merchild. You never knew you merparent growing up but that never stopped you from seeking them out later in life. Your story and ancestry seems to hold so many mysterys, what will you uncover? As a natural swimmer with a love for humans, it’s only natural you become a life guard, using your skills to save lives on a daily basis, while in your free time you like to fish up your dinner.
✧ Lifetime wish: Presenting the perfect private aquarium
✧ Required traits: Loves the outdoors, loves the heat, charismatic, athletic, angler.
✧ Career: Life guard
✧ Spouse: someone you rescued
✧ Location: stay in Isla Paradiso
✧ Limit on children: none.
✧ Max skills: Fishing, athletic, charisma
✧ Prompts:
Don't meet your parent until young adulthood, befriend them to the max relationship.
Build a large swimming pool in your garden.
Create a private fishing pond on your lot and stock it with fish.
Only eat (raw or cooked) fish and kelp to satisfy your hunger.
Marry one of the sims you rescue during your job.
Once your parents are dead, sell their resort and use the money to become owner of a (quiet) beach property instead.
7k in HLOD
Everyday, Career, Outerwear
Valid for Maternity, Not Valid for Random
1 Recolorable (2 Channels) + 1 Non-Recolorable Preset
TS4 Original by Backtrack
Poses by Smallsimmer
Download: SFS, Simblr.cc
Update: You can download a Teen Version here, or via the Simblr.cc link. Same info as above.
I might not be able to be very active in the upcoming months because of life stuff. I'll be very happy to keep converting when I can though. I'd also want to finally learn how to convert to TS2 so yea, hopefully sometime :)
I had some trouble with the bone assignments making this, and while it should be fine during regular gameplay, this probably wouldn't be what I'd recommend for your sim to wear for using poses/a photoshoot.
This Reshade preset stays very close to the vanilla colors and look of the game, but enhances it in a way that makes it look a bit softer, giving your game a more modern-day graphics vibe. Your UI also stays perfectly readable with this Reshade preset.
Novelesque Vanilla Plus (SFS) - created with Reshade 6.4.1
First time using Reshade? Follow my installment guide!
For the Reshade to look exactly as in the pictures, you need the rose cream lut by Shellsea. It's included in the .zip file. You just have to drop the .png file in the folder reshade-shaders -> Textures inside your bin. If you use my reshade-shaders folder, it's already included.
This preset also uses MXAO 3.4.fx instead of the more common quint_MXAO. If you don't have MXAO 3.4.fx yet, you can also find that effect inside my reshade-shaders folder. Add it to your reshade-shaders -> Shaders folder inside your bin.
Side note: this preset uses SmartDenoise.fx. This effect can be taxing on your GPU. Turn it off if you notice a big performance drop. I've personally set it to a point where it doesn't affect my performance, but my GPU is pretty strong so it could be different for you. Turning it off will make your textures look less smooth, but that's it.
Before/after pics + a screenshot of the enabled effects can be found below the line.
I'd recommend using this without any other accessories, as accessories share a common texture size. Meaning that applying for example glasses would half the hat's texture size and vice versa, which would be pretty apparent as it's not a small item.
Texture looks a bit eh in CAS, but is better in Live Mode.
Download: SFS, Simblr.cc
Sally Dress:
HLOD 5k
MLOD 3k
LLOD 1K
Child Female (can be male if enabled in TSR Workshop)
6 Presets + Pants Recolorable. I couldn't figure out how to make the mask for the shirt look good, but still wanted to include the pants one as it's decent. Sorry
TS4 Original by LiyahSim
TS4 Age Conversion by vintage-simmer
Additional Credit:
@scourge-by-name, thank you for all your help and for figuring out how to fix the issues that I had with this! I might've not been able to do it without you :( I appreciate it so so much
areudirty
izzy806
annaxmalina
discoholicmusic
janainaart
stormborns
andulkaphoto
