Hair Downloads
Clothes
Sims
Other Downloads
All Downloads
Project Eir (reuploads and recreations)
Wishlist (stuff I would like to see converted to TS2)
Downloads Archive
My TOU: feel free to fix my meshes, make recolours (you may also include the meshes), use my Sims for stories, breeding, experimenting- but don’t claim as your own and link to me/ tag me so I can see it and reblog. :) Just the normal stuff.^^
I don’t convert anymore so please don’t sent me any requests, thanks.
I hope it works.
Some more places to get patterns, textures and other stuff
A follow up to this post from last year.
OpenGameArt: lots of free stuff, all under free licenses
Poly Haven: lots of free and AI-free textures and models. It has some sets that are Patreon-Patron only for now, but are planned to be released in to free access one day.
Poliigon: Mostly (very pretty) textures and models locked behind a subscription but it also has some free ones. The price is rather steep at 44€ paid monthly or 264€ paid yearly, but it lots of beautiful not AI-generated textures. Honestly I'm kinda thinking about subscribing for a month or two and snatching everything I want, but I'm not sure yet.
Transparent Textures: Exactly what its name says. "Download" gives you the transparent texture as a download, while "Create Wallpaper" gives you the chosen texture and color in a chosen wallpaper size.
TextureCan: I just found this one but it has some nice free textures that don't look AI made or something. It also has a few free models right now.
FreeStylized: This site has textures and models in a more stylized style. It's another one I just found. As far as I can see the textures don't look AI generated.
Well it wasn’t just me, to be fair. I would have never been able to without @fireflowersims help and HugeLunatics trust in both of us. Thank you to both of them for their work and thank you @teaaddictyt for reaching out and doing the more public communication.
I’m super happy I got the chance to work to fix it. It wasn’t an easy undertaking. It seemed like every little thing would cause more errors, I fixed one and another thing broke. But now it seems stable, finally.
A lot of technical stuff below the cut, beware.
Fixing such an old forum is not easy. Documentation is rather sparse because the framework it runs on is old. There is however a more modern version, but updating is difficult. Here was the issue for the forum - upgrading failed.
A website (usually) consists of two different parts: 1 - The files. They contain the code, scripts, designs, images, attachment, profile pictures etc. 2 - The database. The database connects all the different parts and tells the website where to find something. Everything gets stored in tables, assigned IDs and given values. Everything written, each post and topic is also stored in the database. So without the database the whole page would be useless.
It was clear from the beginning that the database was the culprit for the failed upgrades. I got an earlier backup from HL and started working.
I set up a local environment with two versions of XAMPP. One running on php 7.4 (the last version having compatibility for the forum framework version and the upgrade script to the recent version) and the other on a modern 8.3, which was the same as the version the server @fireflowersims set up for GOS.
I ran the upgrade script (which consists of 4 separate parts) on the old backup and ran into errors right away. The script would just outright crash on me, most often without a log or message. The (local) server would just stop responding. My original plan had been to upgrade to version 2.0 first, then 2.1, since it was the recommended order. However the database backup had already been partly upgraded to 2.1. That was the reason my upgrade script failed. Reversing those changes could have been a possibility but extremely time intensive.
(This is the frontpage of the upgrader. I stared at it so much. Like you can see it has a ton of steps)
Instead I asked for the current database and HL provided it to me. This one was already further along on the upgrade and I could see the error HL had run into before handing over. I had to look at the upgrade scripts and source php files to diagnose what the framework was expecting - and failing - to find in the database.
That’s where I found the main culprit for *most* of the errors: Time tables. The framework saves every action that a user does in a log, a long table with the action, an id and a date. This was where everything had gotten wrong. The upgrader expected to see one column for the date, named *day*, while the current table had a different column for day, month and year. I tried fixing the table at first but that didn’t seem to work, so I completely deleted the table and created a new empty one myself. (By now I think the issue stems from forgetting to uninstall certain packages before upgrading, more on that later)
That was possible because the log actually doesn’t hold relevant information for the forum to work. It just records each step, probably for moderation purposes. Once I had done that step the upgrade script was finally able to proceed.
There were a few more errors where I had to look at what the script was doing, find the corresponding code in the sources and edit the database myself. Thankfully the code is relatively well commented and named, so I was able to find what I needed.
Finally I got the upgrade script to run to the end and I was actually able to open the forums (local) page. I hadn’t been able to for now so it was a first. But a lot of stuff was still missing, like all the topics. I could see that the posts were back, but not sorted correctly.
The fix was simple but annoying. The forum framework comes with a repair_setting.php file which I had run several times to fix all the paths, but apparently it didn’t fix *all* of them. So back to the database I went, ran some queries and fixed them myself.
Then the forum finally worked again!
(This is what the forum looked like when I first opened it. It ONLY had recent posts)
(The working local forum, no files yet with the default theme. Seems wrong to look at GOS without the dark theme, right?)
There were still a few things I needed to fix but the database seemed to work fine now. I had never done so many queries in my life. I know SQL, and had to fix databases before but not this intensely. So I guessed I learned something new haha.
Next was the exciting step to upload my clean install to the server. @fireflowersims and I had some directory issues, but I was able to fix them manually once again.
Then I had to take a look at the files which mostly consist of avatars and attachments. They didn’t work at all once moved to the clean install. Once again I took a look at the code and realized that the upgrade script would have changed those files as well, but because I ran it on a clean install it didn’t actually do this step.
I didn’t want to run the upgrade script again, worried that it would mess up a now working database. Instead I wrote a script myself that sorted through all the attachments, looked for the IDs of the avatars from the database so it could move and rename them.
Last were the attachments. This was an easier fix. They just had to be given the ending .dat. @fireflowersims ran a command through the console and then the attachments worked too!
We were getting closer!
Next was the theme. The old theme didn’t work on the modern framework anymore so @fireflowersims looked for a new one which I customized with CSS, trying to get it closer to the way the forum looked before. I think it turned out quite alright, hope you guys think so too!
(Trying to find out what CSS class addresses what? Make everything red and green!)
(All the spider webs)
Next was packages, or mods, to the framework. Fire and I encountered some hiccups here too, since there were some leftovers in the database. The packages hadn’t been properly deinstalled before running the upgrade script, which was another source of the errors. I tried fixing them manually but one of the packages would continue to just break the site no matter what I tried, so we settled for an alternative.
Some more work was put into SSL and making the forum secure. Once again some settings seemed to just break the page and each time I had to go back in the database and manually fix what had gone wrong. It was tedious but by now I knew my way around quite well.
@fireflowersims handled a lot of the server administrative work and DNS settings. I know very little about that part so having @fireflowersims there was great and they made sure the page is reachable at the correct address.
So yeah, I hope the site stays online for a long time now. It’s such a big part of our community and communities history. I used to download so much from there when I was younger. I wanted to give back to the community I love so much. That was the reason I spent many many hours digging through code and old forum threads.
Jules, I cannot emphasize enough just how cool you are for having done all of this work to get GoS back online! I'm glad I was able to provide a good new space for GoS to live from now on and assist with all the DNS. It was a trip alright, and I'm glad we could work together on this!
You are a hero and I (and I bet so many others) am so grateful for your skill and dedication! ♥️
I only posted a small amount of things on GOS back in the day but I'm gonna try to upload them all the same.
This is an old recolour of one of SussisSoGoodSims baroque dresses on this Queen Victoria wedding dress mesh by Aligeth to make a kind of distressed early Victorian evening gown.
Good morning (from Australia), just an update for everyone that Sims2Artists is now rehosted and accessible once again. The site is being cleaned up and will likely go down again for a major update later down the track, but first priority it GOS.
As to GOS itself, all files have been secured and are in good hands. Still "running into many interesting and varied errors" while trying to update 😱🙈 but the main news is that things are moving.
Just a reminder I have pretty much nothing to do with any of this, I'm just the messenger but I'll certainly post as many updates as I can to keep everyone in the loop 😊
should people @ you if we find the original download links to CC that were uploaded to GOS/s2a before the shutdown? do they count as unavailable cc? just wondering
Hello yolkema! I was just about to make a post about this, hope you don't mind me using your ask :-)
I'm aware of the GOS/S2A situation and I've been lurking. I wanted to see how it all turned out before making a post about it. @teaaddictyt shared an update where she explained that GOS/S2A aren't dead just yet, people are working on getting it up again. I've also reached out to @liquidsims if this is something they would perhaps be able to "mirror" like the old ts2 sites they have done before (if all else fails).
In the meantime, @simnostalgia scraped GOS back in 2023 and you can find it here. I also found this sfs link on reddit. There's also the mediafryer archive. For links, you can plop them into wayback, a lot of links has been saved but not all ofc. I've already stumbled upon some links not archived. To answer your question, yes, feel free to share the links you find!
I've seen people post some links etc already, and I will probably reblog those, and until GOS/S2A are up and running again, I will reply to asks looking for GOS/S2A content. But pleeeease include links* if you have them! Even if wayback hasn't archived it. And if the creator is still active, reach out to them first.
*It makes it so much easier for me, it's already hard enough as it is with Google's fucking (sorry) AI shit. If anyone has any recommendations for working image-search and search engines, please enlighten me.
Also, packrat turns 10 today! I was planning on celebrating with something, but it feels kind of odd doing that right now. But nevertheless, happy birthday to packrat! 🎉
New photos of Carla, my pretty flower, and Paul, who wasn't in photo mood, plus myself who wanted to take a photo of my lavender with the sky but it turned into a selfie. 😂
Like many of us, I grew up with Garden of Shadows. To me, it was more than just a forum. It was a place I could ask for help, learn new skills and, best of all, find amazing content in any style I could possibly want. I loved the board names, the people, the themes; everything, really.
And I admit I was more than a little heartbroken to find it gone.
After mulling it over, I decided that I wanted to preserve what I possibly could. I spent a few hours yesterday running through strategies and ideas about how to best go about it, and the best I could come up with was, well, exactly the same.
So, here it is: the Garden of Shadows mirror forum.
I've only just started, but I hope to add a little bit to it every day. The primary focus will be on preserving all the knowledge and custom content. I'm tackling it myself, but if you feel so inclined, you're more than welcome to join in.
--
PS. I am not here to offend, break Terms of Use, or to step on any toes. This is simply an effort to preserve content and knowledge for a game I have played and loved for over twenty years. Thank you ♥
As a web developer who works on the daily with this kind of stuff (and php!) it makes me sad how little preservation was actually tried. I understand that a php upgrade isn't possible anymore at some point, especially if the base is old, but if you know what to do, you can edit databases, remove all personal data like mails and usernames, leave the threads as is and upload it to an archive.
I think there are several people in this community who could have helped, or still can.
It just makes me sad to see so little care put towards this huge piece of history.
If any of you have an old ass php webpage, reach out to me, I can probably help.
First, let me say that I'm actually so sad to see it go. It's been a huge part of my time in the sims community. It's a shame that was so sudden. I really loved the community and I think it's a shame that it happened like it did.
With that out of the way.
BITCH, I TOLD YOU. I TOLD ALL OF YOU. I told ALL you motherfuckers exactly what would happen and everyone bitched like "Oh!! Well, WHY would you do this? Especially when it's not like GOS is closing down anytime soon???"
I got hate mail for months. Bitches poured out of the woodwork like "Mmmm I've always hated Billie, just another thing he's done to add him to my shit list" Then HL bitched at me and acted like the scrape cost him a huge amount of case in data usage when that shit was fucking cents on the dollar. I even offered to pay HL back the like 2 dollars that it *may* have costed him to scape.
Well GUESS who fucking took their ball and went home with very little warning?
This is the entire site's worth of custom content scraped. There are a few things that you need to know.- This is not checked to see if depe
Here's the fucking scrape. It's missing 2024-2026. I be that stuff can be scraped as well though, but since it'll have to be done through Wayback it's gonna take time.
Here’s an oldie but goodie. Aikea_Guinea had made T-Shirts for an Insimenator contest that I placed in the top 3 back in 2008. I don’t think these were ever formally uploaded to Club Crimsyn and, I didn’t see them in the GOS thread for their S2 stuff. So here they are with no mesh required. Just four shirts: A black & white one(Fish), red and black one (Eagle), purple and black(All Mad) and the cobwebs. Download.
When I was posting and sharing CC of my own, I admit, I often kept my mouth shut and skirted the edges of conflict for my own preservation and peace. But the things I've seen just from a single scroll of my feed today are truly, truly awful.
AI generated CC previews, early access CC for Paralives (an indie game IN early access), and low/questionable quality CC for sale in the Sims marketplace.
What the fuck happened where folks think any of this is okay or normal?
If we don't speak up, hold people accountable, and examine why these things are harmful, it's only going to get worse. Keeping the peace is one thing, but staying silent in the wake of the pure bastardization and exploitation of art is another.
