Updated with improved style and some CAS additions as a sneak peek.
UPDATED ALL LINKS as well. They should work now.
For those who cannot download from dropbox, I’ve re-added it to G-Drive as well (hopefully this time it does not go missing):
UI
Main Loading Screen
Gamefreak’s Loading Screen compatible patch (REPLACES the original mod if you use Gamefreak’s Loading Screen Overhaul already).
DROPBOX Download below >>>
It’s finally HERE!
So what is this you wonder? It is a first third of clean UI release, currently in beta testing phase.
What does it include? Well, here’s the list:
- Completed Game Intro Loading Screen (separate download)
- Complete Main Menu
- Complete Save Loading Screen
- Complete Buy mode (without blueprints)
- Complete Build mode (without blueprints)
- Most of live mode in progress (without most of EP content)
That’s 30% of it complete already.
Here’s some images of it:
Issues with this build:
- going into CAST in build/buy gets rid of half camera control background graphic
- career tab days off are colored light blue and are thus barely readable
These are two issues that don’t seem to be easily fixable but for final release I’ll try my best.
Now onto downloads!
- Clean UI Main download - HERE
- Clean UI Game Loading Screen - HERE (no need to download if you already got it from here)
THIS NEXT ONE IS REQUIRED! I accidentally made clean UI itself this mod compatible, will make a version that does not require this mod!!!
- Clean UI compatible Gamefreak’s Loading Screen Overhaul - HERE (required if you use Gamefreak’s Loading Screen Overhaul!!! REPLACE THE ORIGINAL MOD!!!)
Some final words.
Thank you everyone who follows this project.
I hope this is enough for now, there’s more to come later, but I will be taking a break from this project for a bit. Next module is CAS and edit town/tutorial/family management.
I also have a Ko-Fi page here that is open for donations. If you want and can please consider donating. Thank you once again.
This mod requires Seasons Expansion Pack and Lazy Duchess’ Mono Patcher Library to work!
This is a script mod that improves the basic aspects of the Online Dating system from Seasons, aiming to make it more helpful overall for Sims searching for love on the net. 💌
Wanna meet hot, actually single Sims in your area? Keep reading!
Finding Potential Matches
By default, the game has very loose filters when it comes to determining which Sims will populate the Online Dating interface. Most of the time it ends up overrun with Sims who are already in committed relationships or not even attracted to our Sim’s gender in the first place. Add to that the amount of Sims from different age groups that our Sim might find a little too old (or too young!), and we’ve got ourselves a very complete list full of Sims that we won’t be pursuing.
The mod makes the matchmaking process a little smarter by adding the following rules:
Sims within the same age group as our Sim are preferred. Sims of a different age group have a lower chance of being selected.
Homeless Sims are now eligible as potential matches, with a lower chance of being selected than resident Sims.
Gender preference is taken into consideration. Only Sims who are attracted to (or at least not opposed to romancing) our Sim’s gender will be selected.
Sims in committed relationships will not be considered for possible matches unless they have Commitment Issues or a negative relationship with their partner.
- Sims who are Family Oriented or Hopeless Romantic will not be selected even if they have a negative relationship with their partner.
Note that in order for the new functionality to take place, the Online Dating system has to “refresh”. This can be done manually by deleting and re-creating the active Sim’s profile, or by waiting roughly one Sim day for it to update automatically.
Body Type
The vanilla game allows Sims to describe their physique in their Online Dating profile as Slim, Athletic or More to Love.
For some reason, EA’s original code for this feature makes it so that any Sim whose weight is above 0 (i.e. dead center of the slider) is considered More to Love, leading to some Sims being unfairly accused of lying about their appearance after even the slightest weight change.
The mod corrects this issue and makes some general changes to the body type system to balance things out:
Sims can now choose an Average Figure body type from the drop-down list when creating an Online Dating profile.
Sims have a Slim body type if their body weight is under -0.5.
Sims have an Athletic body type if their fitness slider is over 0.5, unchanged from the vanilla game.
Sims have a More to Love body type if their body weight is over 0.5.
Extras
The Online Dating UI can now display each Sim’s age:
If Battery’s Real Age mod is installed, the Sim’s age in years will be shown next to their name in the messages, profile grid and full profile.
Without Real Age, the Sim’s life stage will only be shown in the full profile. Disabled by default.
Additionally, when a Sim is directed to Check Messages, the “No new messages” dialog now shows as a much less disruptive notification in the top-right corner.
Tuning
As always, the mod comes with many tunable settings to help you adjust all of its features to your liking. Below is detailed information about each setting:
Possible Matches
Include Homeless Sims: Set to False to only consider resident Sims when populating Online Dating matches. Default: True.
Use Gender Preference: Whether to consider gender preference when populating Online Dating matches. Default: True.
Different Age Weight: Weighted chance of matching Sims who are not in the same life stage. Default: 4.
Homeless Sim Weight: Percent chance of considering a Homeless Sim when populating Online Dating Matches. Default: 2.
Relationship Level Threshold: LTR threshold for Sims in committed relationships to be eligible to populate Online Dating matches. Default: 0.
Online Dating Profile
Show Age in Profile: Displays Sim’s life stage next to their name in the Online Dating profile. Example: “Betty (Young Adult)”. Default: False.
Show Real Age in Profile: Displays Sim’s age in years next to their name in the Online Dating profile. Requires Battery’s Real Age mod, will simply do nothing if not installed. Example: “Betty, 25”. Default: True.
Slim Body Type Threshold: Negative weight slider threshold for a Sim’s body type to be Slim. Default: -0.5.
Athletic Body Type Threshold: Fitness slider threshold for a Sim’s body type to be Athletic.
More to Love Body Type Threshold: Weight slider threshold for a Sim’s body type to be More to Love. Default: 0.5.
Compatibility & Issues
The main mod file uses Mono Patcher to replace the following EA code:
- Sims3.Gameplay.Objects.Electronics.Computer.CheckDatingMessages.Run()
- Sims3.Gameplay.Utilities.OnlineDatingManager.OnlineDatingRecord.PopulateMatches()
- Sims3.Gameplay.Utilities.OnlineDatingProfile.GetDefaultBodyType()
- Sims3.Gameplay.Utilities.OnlineDatingProfile.LieAboutBodyType()
- Sims3.UI.OnlineDating.BrowseDatingProfilesDialog.UpdateProfile()
- Sims3.UI.OnlineDating.CreateProfileDialog
The main mod file is compatible with Gamefreak130’s Smartphone Dating mod. The provided compatibility package simply replaces one method to maintain consistency with my edit of the original Check Messages interaction:
- Gamefreak130.SmartphoneDatingSpace.Interactions.CheckDatingMessagesPhone.Run()
The compatibility package for Battery’s Real Age mod replaces the following EA code:
- Sims3.UI.OnlineDating.BrowseDatingProfilesDialog.PopulateGrid()
- Sims3.UI.OnlineDating.BrowseDatingProfilesDialog.UpdateProfile()
- Sims3.UI.OnlineDating.CheckMessagesDialog.PopulateGrid()
- Sims3.UI.OnlineDating.CreateProfileDialog
The mod is fully compatible with @nectar-cellar’s More Active Online Dating and Online Dating Inbox Messages, since they all modify different parts of the online dating system.
If a Sim is directed to edit their Online Dating profile, the traits section may show blank slots. This can be fixed by clicking one of the blank slots to bring up the traits picker, then hitting Accept.
Strings & Language Support
All languages are supported; the only new text added for the Average Figure body type is copied from an existing game string that hopefully fits the context well enough across all languages.
I made a small change to the Spanish text to grammatically match the other options in the body type picker. Any corrections to other languages are more than welcome.
Download: SFS / Patreon
This download contains three package files:
simbouquet_OnlineDatingSanity: Main mod file.
simbouquet_OnlineDatingSanity_COMPATIBILITY_RealAge: Only necessary if Battery’s Real Age mod is installed.
simbouquet_OnlineDatingSanity_COMPATIBILITY_SmartphoneDating: Only necessary if Gamefreak130’s Smartphone Dating is installed.
Changelog
12/03/2026: Initial release.
Credits & Thanks
Battery’s Script Mod Template Creator
Lazy Duchess’ Mono Patcher Library
Visual Studio 2026
Notepad++
s3pe
Adobe Photoshop
Thanks to @lazyduchess for coding help and moral support!
If you're a creator publishing free CC*, you can submit your work to be featured in the new Community tab of my Refreshed Main Menu mod!
It isn't anything overly complex: it displays the CC, some info about it, and a link. But it highlights free community content for PC/Mac players. The content updates automatically, so it changes frequently and new CC can show up often.
*If you release content in Early Access, you're still more than welcome to submit any of your work that is already publicly available!
Not a creator? You can still help by engaging with this post to spread the word! :)
Learn more & apply here ➡️ https://forms.gle/wnsv2nHzHW65mM4X8
So These past few days I've been playing with Lazy Duchess' Shader Modding Framework, trying to break down how hair shaders work and are constructed in assembly. I've commented out most of the 'SimHairLiveOutdoors' shader, and only some of the "SimHairLive' shader. They are outdoor and indoor hair shader respectively.
One interesting thing I noticed is that there is a lot of unused or improperly used components of these shaders in the final build of the game, which is a shame, because these shaders can look so much better by only tweaking a few parameters (constants) in them.
I've decided to release them, for testing purposes of course.
A lot of these shader elements, especially for outdoors shaders, are heavily dependent on lighting, so if a world does not have a standard lighting these shaders will look significantly different than desired.
For it, youll need two things:
- Lazy Duchess' Shader Modding Framework - get it HERE
- In the file called aliases.cfg, add these two lines, if your file does not already have them:
SimHairLive = 1706
SimHairLiveOutdoors = 1700
working on a custom ui system, so modders can bring up dialogues with custom ui scripts without replacing the originals. here is a modded resurrection dialogue - the original one still works as its own thing!
I struggled. Is it the shoes? The skirt's legs? Lets fix the shoes... Ok it is the legs, shoes are fine with other stuff! Lets redo the legs... Nope didn't work. New WRK project? Nope. Redoing the MTK process ... Nope.
Let's just say i ended up with 3 wrk projects, 8 wso's, and a scrambled brain.
I ended up asking @justmiha97, who had a solution - a while ago he used it and might not work, but it did! So I wrote it down for myself and others.
Tutorial here
You need:
- Obj files/meshes of top/feet/bottom/head (depending on your cc) with all morphs, these should be thoroughly checked to have good normals and preferable unscathed fresh from EA, as they are what the seams of your item have to align with. I used the EA feet (Geom and morphs exported from TSRW) and my edit of JVSmith's torso (for its preg morph) for this skirt.
- Smugtomato geom tools
- Any version of blender that has the data transfer modifier & that works with geom tools (I use 3.6)
It requires mesh duplication and multiple useage of data transfer modifier. It's a bit tedious, but simple, and if you understand how it works and why it works, you'll remember it forever and be able to get perfect results on seam fixing and custom normals, all inside blender, every time.
Never wrote a tutorial for it so I'm glad that the same method worked for another creator and that it's now shared with the rest of the community.
Unfortunately, the release of the sclera accessory is delayed because I have a problem that I can't solve.
I worked for a texture that would suit me, and at first I checked how it looks only in Bodyshop, where it looked good, and then I checked how it looks in the game, and it disappointed me.
The screenshots show how smooth the gradients and transparency of the texture look in BS and CAS, and how rough it is in the game.
I tried SimStandardMaterial, StandardMaterial and SimSkin, AlphaRefValue 0/127/255, AlphaMultiplier 0/1 — but all in vain.
It seems that shaders in CAS and the game work according to different rules. I have already encountered the consequences of this when I wanted to make an accessory with transparency, an animated texture and several groups. Then the object also looked good in CAS and bad in the game.
If you have any ideas on how to solve the problem without redoing the textures, please share.
I will probably use this even as it is right now!!! I love the idea behind it, and it does exactly what it's supposed to!
However, I'll add my two cents on the problem you're facing.
This most likely has to do with the fact that when a sim is exported from CAS as an actual character file ready to be used as a sim in game, all the individual textures (eye color, eyelashes, makeup, clothes, brows and all the rest customization options) are composited into 4 different textures:
- face
- body
- scalp and solid hair
- alpha hair parts
With the last two using the same hair texture composited over the skin scalp texture for the solid parts.
If your face skin texture is lower resolution than your sclera texture, it will be composited into the face texture resolution, losing details in the process.
Solution? Not sure. I think actual accessories like glasses don't actually get composited and are in fact kept separate, but again, not sure, as this I have not tested.
Below on how Sims 2 (and by extension most games) optimize in-game customizeable characters. I hope people find this useful.
You are right, CAS/Bodyshop shaders are severely different from in-game ones because CAS is just a character exporter, it has more complex shaders in order to be able to display all those customization options (texture layers) and quickly switch between them as the player chooses them.
It can afford that because it's a separate game mode that is only specialized for character creation and does not utilize any other resources for anything else.
The compositing that happens when you save a sim is used to heavily simplify in-game shaders (limit it to 4 final textures) for optimization purposes (game probably wouldn't even be able to run well with CAS shaders if there were multiple sims on a lot, most likely would cause severe memory errors, esp bc sims 2 is 32bit app).
This is also true for sims 3/4 as EA uses same technique (and almost all games that have character customization do).
In The Sims 2, Sim faces contain hidden morphs that can be extracted in different ways. For a long time, only two morphs were known, but there are actually more.
1. Extracting Morphs via SimPE
What You Need:
SimPE (enable "Advanced Mode" in the settings).
Sims2Pack Clean Installer (if no ready-made files are available).
MilkShape 3D 1.8.5
Steps:
Get the Face File:
If you have a SavedSims folder, choose any file from it.
If not, extract any Sim using Sims2Pack Clean Installer and locate the Face Preset file.
Open the File in SimPE:
Open the file in SimPE.
Find the Geometric Data Container (GMDC) resource.
Select the Sim's age group.
Export the Model with Morphs:
Click Export..., save the file in SMD format.
When prompted "Do you want to export Morph Meshes??", select Yes.
View Morphs in MilkShape 3D:
Import via File → Import → Half-Life SMD....
Select a morph and uncheck Rename Bones.
What Do the Morphs Contain?
One morph shows a smiling expression.
Another shows an angry or displeased expression.
2. Extracting All Morphs via 5gd File
What You Need:
SimPE.
Blender 2.80+.
GMDC Importer/Exporter (Blender plugin).
Steps:
Export the Face Model as a 5gd File:
In SimPE, open GMDC.
Right-click → Extract....
Save the file as 5gd.
Import into Blender:
Install the GMDC Importer/Exporter plugin.
Open Blender 2.80+ (Blender 2.79 only shows 4 morphs).
Import the 5gd file.
What Do the Morphs Contain?
Importing into Blender 2.80+ reveals all hidden morphs.
Additional Information
You can replace the default face model with one of the morphs to create a new default preset.
It works correctly in BodyShop and CAS.
There may be even more hidden morphs in the game that have yet to be discovered.
If you have any additional information about these hidden morphs, feel free to share!
Source (RU):
Сегодня я хочу поделиться увлекательным исследованием, от Vadim Sims которое было ранее опубликовано в нашей теме, и, к сожалению, оригиналь
TheCatLady
Морфов у лиц симов действительно больше, если извлечь модель лица как 5gd файл. (нажав на gmdc файл правой кнопкой мыши) И с помо
These are used for animations, all facial animations, and are a reason why sims 2 facial animations still look great.
There is actually 27 of these morphs (A lot of maxis documentation that has resurfaced recently confirms this). I've extracted them long time ago using blender, in 2019 possibly, as part of various instances of The Sims 2 Beta Server where a lot of ts2 related research was going on in various channels, also where a lot of simmers recently debunked corruption myths, before Rachel Black stepped to the scene to finish the job.
The only way I've ever been able to extract these faceblends (that's how they're officially called by maxis of that time) is in a group of 4, where they're exported into 4 different blend shapes (they're widely known as this in the game industry) in blender, as mix of various of those 27 actual blend shapes.
I've managed (inaccurately, because I did this manually) to separate all 27 shapes from the 4 that get exported, but the problem is, you can't import MORE than 4 of these using SimPE, since it only allows for import of 4 copies of vertex data. This, of course, breaks the file, and in game facial animations in return.
This started as sims 2 reface project, but the problem was the fact that I had no idea how to import these back in the game, so I just gave up.
I'm glad someone was able to export all of them correctly, if they could be imported back in the game we could make changes to sim's faces, and there could possibly even be a rig made that allows for facial animation controls! (albeit importing animations of that type would need some research, possibly extensive one)
I do think someone in this community must know about this way more than I do tho :D
Keep reading for a rant on these and why they're still a big deal:
On a side note, I had adopted this type of facial animation control, because it can be very precise, I'm using it in my own rig creations. This type of animation is still widely used, especially for cartoony, more stylized graphical elements.
They work super well as deformers/correctors too, when bone based rig is not enough to convey deformation, wherever the mesh intersects due to animation, these can be used to correct the intersection. It's safe to say they have found their use widely both in the game and the animation industry.
Blendshapes are also used in epics new meta human creator!
It's also to be noted, it's not a coincidence these were used in sims 2, since some of ex Pixar employees were working on sims 2 animations back in early 2000s, and were most likely highly familiar with these rigging techniques.
Hi, hope you don’t mind me entering this topic. I’ve also been doing some research on the face morphs for animations for quite some time.
The Gigantic Baby updated project (as cursed as it is) is the first thing I shared with a fully animated “custom face mesh”, which actually is a hair mesh with all the face morphs added. Not the first one I made, but this one is downloadable, so if anyone wants to poke at it a little bit, welp, there’s that. At the end of the day, it’s actually a really similar mesh to the regular Maxis faces, so there's not that much new to see.
Yet another big ramble under the cut (sorry about the long, long reblog chain):
So first of all, huge shoutouts to @myweirdslimblr for this research they did back in the day, experimenting with custom faces and making them the “default face”. It was really inspiring seeing what could be possible with Sims 2 faces.
Also, a mandatory big thanks to @applewatersugar, whose 3D eyelashes were the very first instance I personally saw of morphs exclusively made for the face, but for an accessory mesh. One of my guilty pleasures is fiddling with people’s CC and mods in SimPe and finding out what they did. There’s so much to learn! That was officially the point where I became obsessed with Sims 2 face morphs.
Turns out, adding face morphs to any mesh is actually pretty easy in Blender 2.8+. As all the people I mentioned here have figured out, each vertex can only be moved by a maximum of 4 morphs (known as shape keys in Blender), which can be a pretty big limitation for higher poly meshes. If you go over that limit, you won’t be able to export that mesh when using DjAlex88's Blender add-on.
I have plans on making a full tutorial covering everything about how to add face morphs to any mesh using Blender and said add-on, but for the time being, here’s some stuff to keep you entertained!
-Definitely check out Piper’s custom beard accessory tutorial! It covers a lot of the stuff you’d need to know about face morphs, but applied specifically to “animating” beards.
-I started making this spreadsheet some time ago, showcasing with gifs all the adult female face morphs and their names, both for Blender and Milkshape3D. I still need to add the rest of the ages and genders, but screw it, here you have an early exclusive sneak peek! It’s just a not so quick sheet I’ve been working on to check at a glance any face morph and its name.
-And as a bonus, here’s a first look of that Night Beast project with the face animated with morphs made from scratch by yours truly. This has been in my projects folder way too long. I shared that first post way back in… checking notes… over half a year ago? Yikes… I promise I’ll get back to it someday! @pirillalothario here ya go!
Now about making actual animations using the face morphs (that is, adding custom facial expressions to “body animations”?)… Yeah that’s way out of my scope.
This is the animation for the werewolf howl interaction. As you can see in the dropdown menu with all the frame data, not only does the “ANIM” file include the body animation, but also the sound effects AND the face morph values for all the facial expressions (face, teeth and eyes direction).
I really tried editing stuff there in SimPe, but the editor thingy for animations in the plug-in is pretty hard to use.
Furthermore, the stuff about face morphs seems impossible to edit? At least I couldn’t add new face morph values to an existing Sims 2 animation which didn’t already have face animations in the first place. The “editor” in SimPe is extremely limited for animations anyway. You can only edit stuff that’s already there or delete them, but not add stuff there, as far as I know. I guess we’d need external programs to create animations with face morphs included, just like we do for body animations in the first place.
Well, finishing things off:
As far as I understand, regular body (and bouncy hair) animations work with a skeleton with its joints, which have their bones assignments on the meshes and all that jazz we all know.
On the other hand, face animations are made using morphs / faceblends, the ones you guys mentioned. They’re probably animated using values for each morph, depending on what face expression you want to achieve, blending multiple morphs.
And the direction eyes look at? That’s a total mystery for me. I think they’re animated and stretched using the UV map somehow? However it is, so far I have only managed to test a working eye look animation when messing with the actual “genetic default” face, similar to what myweirdsimblr did on their tests. I haven’t been able to animate the way eyes look at stuff on custom hair-head meshes, like the Night Beast or the Gigantic Baby I’ve shown here.
And that in a nutshell is all I personally know about face morphs, I think! Sorry I rambled so long. Ever since I found out about them I’ve been a little bit obsessed. They’re so fun to make and seeing them in game is the coolest thing ever.
If there’s any mistake let me know and I’ll be glad to correct it :)
Hey, I know I'm late on this, but the eye stuff is correct! Eyes UV map island and it's UV vertex position data is being moved and stretched to animate eye movement. Idk what kind of a rig control EA had regarding this, but the eye movement is insanely deliberate and satisfying.
The game uses same technique to animate textures on models, like for example the repo-man gun.
Also, geneticizing these newly imported faces with new morphs might be impossible with current tools. I don't think much people even understand how the system behind it works, besides targeting vertices of a defined area, and assigning their positions to the child sim as well. The face structure mesh is saved PER SIM for this exact reason, which makes genetic combinations practically unlimited and often highly irregular.
I'd like to think it's based on vertex groups, but that might not be the case at all.
If anyone knows anything about face features genetics in sims 2 more than what I already outlined here, please let me know.
The Game already looks great with radiance lighting (I'm still developing my own version of it, currently on evening lighting), but I decided to throw in reshade in the mix, and the game is looking gorgeous!
UI is still affected because sims 2 (unlike sims 3 and 4) cannot exclude UI from the Reshade shader influence, however I've tried to keep the readability of the UI as intact as possible.
Here are some lovely screenshots:
Prerequisites:
Any working Reshade version (this is tested on 6.2, 6.3 and 6.4).
Specific 6.2 Reshade Shader files, it won't work correctly without these (you can also get them here).
Keep reading to download...
I've made multiple presets, each much more complex than the previous.
Get them from the list below.
Regular Presets included are:
Very Low
Low
Medium
High
Very high
Experimental (significant FPS drop for minor, and sometimes buggy features) Presets included are:
Ultra (includes some edge value based reflections).
Extreme (includes depth angle based Screen Space Reflections).
What is included in these presets:
AO, multiple layers of these (some are disabled on lower end presets).
DOF, for close and far distances (disabled on lower end presets).
Chromatic Abberation, for some added realistic camera lense effect, not too distracting, very delicate.
HDR, and balanced Bloom in one single technique, so that lights, emission shaders and scene colors can POP, adds glow to really bright spots. (disabled on Very Low preset).
Bump Map effect based on texture contrast (disabled on lower end presets).
Reflective Bump mapping which adds reflections to the edges of the objects affected by the bump map (disabled on all presets except for experimental ones).
SSR with 'raytracing' (yes, it actually looks like planar reflections and reflects everything, even moving objects, albeit it's not really accurate at all, but looks cool). (disabled on all presets, except for Extreme one).
Adaptation techniques to always keep values in check (never too bright or too dark. Some are disabled on Very Low preset).
Distance Fog techniques to make the world feel more real, closer to sims 3/4.
Breakup, New Family Member, and Go Steady Wants/Fears Mod
This was made by a member of my community, Riftwalker, who graciously gave me permission to upload their edited version of the EA WantTrees.
THIS FILE DOES NOT GO IN YOUR MODS FOLDER.
This overwrites: The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection\Fun with Pets\SP9\TSData\Res\Wants\WantTrees.package
What is this?
EA broke their 'Break Up' wants in vanilla Sims 2. This fixes it, along with other fixes:
Teen, Young Adult, Adult and Elder sims of all aspirations can get a want and a fear for Break Up.
Teen, Young Adult, Adult and Elder sims can get a want and a fear to Go Steady.
This is already possible, but Riftwalker added "True" so that teens of all aspirations (instead of just family) and children can get a want "New family member", which is cute and it's them basically saying they want a new sibling.
Teens can roll woohoo wants. (Credits to Syberpunk on MTS)
In one instance, Uni wants for all aspirations has been enabled, and in another instance, engagement and left at alter wants and fears for all aspirations is enabled.
Updated with improved style and some CAS additions as a sneak peek.
UPDATED ALL LINKS as well. They should work now.
For those who cannot download from dropbox, I’ve re-added it to G-Drive as well (hopefully this time it does not go missing):
UI
Main Loading Screen
Gamefreak’s Loading Screen compatible patch (REPLACES the original mod if you use Gamefreak’s Loading Screen Overhaul already).
DROPBOX Download below >>>
It’s finally HERE!
So what is this you wonder? It is a first third of clean UI release, currently in beta testing phase.
What does it include? Well, here’s the list:
- Completed Game Intro Loading Screen (separate download)
- Complete Main Menu
- Complete Save Loading Screen
- Complete Buy mode (without blueprints)
- Complete Build mode (without blueprints)
- Most of live mode in progress (without most of EP content)
That’s 30% of it complete already.
Here’s some images of it:
Issues with this build:
- going into CAST in build/buy gets rid of half camera control background graphic
- career tab days off are colored light blue and are thus barely readable
These are two issues that don’t seem to be easily fixable but for final release I’ll try my best.
Now onto downloads!
- Clean UI Main download - HERE
- Clean UI Game Loading Screen - HERE (no need to download if you already got it from here)
THIS NEXT ONE IS REQUIRED! I accidentally made clean UI itself this mod compatible, will make a version that does not require this mod!!!
- Clean UI compatible Gamefreak’s Loading Screen Overhaul - HERE (required if you use Gamefreak’s Loading Screen Overhaul!!! REPLACE THE ORIGINAL MOD!!!)
Some final words.
Thank you everyone who follows this project.
I hope this is enough for now, there’s more to come later, but I will be taking a break from this project for a bit. Next module is CAS and edit town/tutorial/family management.
I also have a Ko-Fi page here that is open for donations. If you want and can please consider donating. Thank you once again.
With recent re-release of The Sims 1 and The Sims 2, I decided to fix my UC install (yay!) and return to an old project!
It's been a couple of years but I learned how to edit sims 2 lighting, and thus I decided to get Radiance lighting closer to what I've always been expecting of it.
So what's new in this?
For now, only night has been significantly changed, but I plan to apply this to all the weathers and times of day, as well as make the time of day switch just a bit smoother.
Keep reading for some more details:
Lights are a bit more intense, and the highlights are more visible, while shadows are darker (but still affected by the room color). Blue ambience minimized.
Outdoor lights get the same treatment (and yes, that is a base game light, they all have different shapes)!
More precise and dramatic window light spillage indoors (Now also affecting objects)!
Same applies to the outdoor objects (The spillage is softer but still visible)!
For now, this is what I've done, but for example, day is too bright, and there's still way too many shadows during overcast.
There's not a lot to be done (day, morning, evening, overcast, winter, spring and autumn all have their own modes, besides the night, which I just finished) and it's easy to edit and test this (just keep reloading the lot), so I think it will most likely take just a couple of days to finish it.
Updated with improved style and some CAS additions as a sneak peek.
For those who cannot download from dropbox, I’ve re-added it to G-Drive as well (hopefully this time it does not go missing):
UI
Main Loading Screen
Gamefreak’s Loading Screen compatible patch (REPLACES the original mod if you use Gamefreak’s Loading Screen Overhaul already).
DROPBOX Download below >>>
It’s finally HERE!
So what is this you wonder? It is a first third of clean UI release, currently in beta testing phase.
What does it include? Well, here’s the list:
- Completed Game Intro Loading Screen (separate download)
- Complete Main Menu
- Complete Save Loading Screen
- Complete Buy mode (without blueprints)
- Complete Build mode (without blueprints)
- Most of live mode in progress (without most of EP content)
That’s 30% of it complete already.
Here’s some images of it:
Issues with this build:
- going into CAST in build/buy gets rid of half camera control background graphic
- career tab days off are colored light blue and are thus barely readable
These are two issues that don’t seem to be easily fixable but for final release I’ll try my best.
Now onto downloads!
- Clean UI Main download - HERE
- Clean UI Game Loading Screen - HERE (no need to download if you already got it from here)
- Clean UI compatible Gamefreak’s Loading Screen Overhaul - HERE (required if you use Gamefreak’s Loading Screen Overhaul!!! REPLACE THE ORIGINAL MOD!!!)
Some final words.
Thank you everyone who follows this project.
I hope this is enough for now, there’s more to come later, but I will be taking a break from this project for a bit. Next module is CAS and edit town/tutorial/family management.
I also have a Ko-Fi page here that is open for donations. If you want and can please consider donating. Thank you once again.
So what is this you wonder? It is a first third of clean UI release, currently in beta testing phase.
What does it include? Well, here’s the list:
- Completed Game Intro Loading Screen (separate download)
- Complete Main Menu
- Complete Save Loading Screen
- Complete Buy mode (without blueprints)
- Complete Build mode (without blueprints)
- Most of live mode in progress (without most of EP content)
That’s 30% of it complete already.
Here’s some images of it:
Issues with this build:
- going into CAST in build/buy gets rid of half camera control background graphic
- career tab days off are colored light blue and are thus barely readable
These are two issues that don’t seem to be easily fixable but for final release I’ll try my best.
Now onto downloads!
- Clean UI Main download - HERE
- Clean UI Game Loading Screen - HERE (no need to download if you already got it from here)
- Clean UI compatible Gamefreak’s Loading Screen Overhaul - HERE (required if you use Gamefreak’s Loading Screen Overhaul!!!)
Some final words.
Thank you everyone who follows this project.
I hope this is enough for now, there’s more to come later, but I will be taking a break from this project for a bit. Next module is CAS and edit town/tutorial/family management.
All of my downloads have also been migrated to google drive, because drop box banned me for some reason. All links on this blog work once again.
I’m back on dropbox due to popular demand.
I also have a Ko-Fi page here that is open for donations. If you want and can please consider donating. Thank you once again.
Yes, you read that right. I was forced to update clean UI because Google Drive failed me (and I've returned to Dropbox, write me in DMs if there's issues with this new download), so now you'll have the most up to date version of it, which isn't much at all, and a similar version to it has been publicly available on my Discord server already. There you can also get updates on the development of this project.
This version includes a lot of changes to the overall style of the UI elements, synchronizing them over the board and making them easier on the eyes.
It also includes some additional UI elements, as well as some parts of CAS redone in that style.
None of these changes are fully consistent. However it is not to the detriment of live mode, and live mode's actually looking way better than before, even if not fully consistent (lots of popups have not been updated for the new style, but main parts of the UI all are).
CAS however is... well... currently a mess, because it's still in development. However, I've returned to work on Clean UI so expect this to change soon.
In The Sims 2, Sim faces contain hidden morphs that can be extracted in different ways. For a long time, only two morphs were known, but there are actually more.
1. Extracting Morphs via SimPE
What You Need:
SimPE (enable "Advanced Mode" in the settings).
Sims2Pack Clean Installer (if no ready-made files are available).
MilkShape 3D 1.8.5
Steps:
Get the Face File:
If you have a SavedSims folder, choose any file from it.
If not, extract any Sim using Sims2Pack Clean Installer and locate the Face Preset file.
Open the File in SimPE:
Open the file in SimPE.
Find the Geometric Data Container (GMDC) resource.
Select the Sim's age group.
Export the Model with Morphs:
Click Export..., save the file in SMD format.
When prompted "Do you want to export Morph Meshes??", select Yes.
View Morphs in MilkShape 3D:
Import via File → Import → Half-Life SMD....
Select a morph and uncheck Rename Bones.
What Do the Morphs Contain?
One morph shows a smiling expression.
Another shows an angry or displeased expression.
2. Extracting All Morphs via 5gd File
What You Need:
SimPE.
Blender 2.80+.
GMDC Importer/Exporter (Blender plugin).
Steps:
Export the Face Model as a 5gd File:
In SimPE, open GMDC.
Right-click → Extract....
Save the file as 5gd.
Import into Blender:
Install the GMDC Importer/Exporter plugin.
Open Blender 2.80+ (Blender 2.79 only shows 4 morphs).
Import the 5gd file.
What Do the Morphs Contain?
Importing into Blender 2.80+ reveals all hidden morphs.
Additional Information
You can replace the default face model with one of the morphs to create a new default preset.
It works correctly in BodyShop and CAS.
There may be even more hidden morphs in the game that have yet to be discovered.
If you have any additional information about these hidden morphs, feel free to share!
Source (RU):
Сегодня я хочу поделиться увлекательным исследованием, от Vadim Sims которое было ранее опубликовано в нашей теме, и, к сожалению, оригиналь
TheCatLady
Морфов у лиц симов действительно больше, если извлечь модель лица как 5gd файл. (нажав на gmdc файл правой кнопкой мыши) И с помо
These are used for animations, all facial animations, and are a reason why sims 2 facial animations still look great.
There is actually 27 of these morphs (A lot of maxis documentation that has resurfaced recently confirms this). I've extracted them long time ago using blender, in 2019 possibly, as part of various instances of The Sims 2 Beta Server where a lot of ts2 related research was going on in various channels, also where a lot of simmers recently debunked corruption myths, before Rachel Black stepped to the scene to finish the job.
The only way I've ever been able to extract these faceblends (that's how they're officially called by maxis of that time) is in a group of 4, where they're exported into 4 different blend shapes (they're widely known as this in the game industry) in blender, as mix of various of those 27 actual blend shapes.
I've managed (inaccurately, because I did this manually) to separate all 27 shapes from the 4 that get exported, but the problem is, you can't import MORE than 4 of these using SimPE, since it only allows for import of 4 copies of vertex data. This, of course, breaks the file, and in game facial animations in return.
This started as sims 2 reface project, but the problem was the fact that I had no idea how to import these back in the game, so I just gave up.
I'm glad someone was able to export all of them correctly, if they could be imported back in the game we could make changes to sim's faces, and there could possibly even be a rig made that allows for facial animation controls! (albeit importing animations of that type would need some research, possibly extensive one)
I do think someone in this community must know about this way more than I do tho :D
Keep reading for a rant on these and why they're still a big deal:
On a side note, I had adopted this type of facial animation control, because it can be very precise, I'm using it in my own rig creations. This type of animation is still widely used, especially for cartoony, more stylized graphical elements.
They work super well as deformers/correctors too, when bone based rig is not enough to convey deformation, wherever the mesh intersects due to animation, these can be used to correct the intersection. It's safe to say they have found their use widely both in the game and the animation industry.
Blendshapes are also used in epics new meta human creator!
It's also to be noted, it's not a coincidence these were used in sims 2, since some of ex Pixar employees were working on sims 2 animations back in early 2000s, and were most likely highly familiar with these rigging techniques.
With this new-old The Sims 1 Legacy edition releasing, I decided to finalize this mod, and release an update that fixes a few things and adds a new resolution.
So, what is new/fixed?
Game Loading screen no longer has copyright text overlap the design border on resolutions 1920x1080 and up
Magic Town and Studio Town map UI no longer has visual glitches
Magic Town and Studio Town map UI now have deco plumbobs, like the rest of them
Added a new resolution, 2560x1080
And with that the mod now supports these resolutions:
An update to this mod as well, finally finalized, unless I get other resolutions requested (besides standardized resolutions, there's a lot missing still).
