Simlicious

✩ 𝐖𝐞𝐥𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐲 𝐬𝐢𝐦𝐛𝐥𝐫 ✩ ◊ 𝐂𝐂 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐓𝐒𝟑 ◊ she/her/they ⁕ INFP ☼ pisces / ☾ leo simlicious.com

[nolan-sims]

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.

[simlicious]

I wonder, did creators completely forget about donation/cup of coffee buttons? That is a legitimate way to support creators without all the bullshit and without any pressure or heavy incentivizing. I'm sure people will gladly donate because they are relieved to not having to deal with yet another Early Access or paywall. Every couple of years, I raise enough money to keep my website alive, it's just helping me cover the burden of that cost. I could absolutely use more money, but keeping my website up is all I am asking for. And my generous community has always come through for me in that regard💜 Regarding those AI previews, these images are not an accurate representation of what the content will look in our life-simulation game it was made for. The AI edits and changes a lot of what is going into it. If you present those as your previews, you knowingly mislead your followers. That's scamming. We usually play our favorite life simulation game because we like how they look in our games. We refined and curated that aesthetic with CC, after all, that is why we look at your CC post! If we did not care about that, we could play any other game, or just watch images of 3d models on ArtStation. But no, we play our life-sim game for specific reasons, we want to tell stories, curate outfits, build dream houses, dress characters in appropriate clothing for certain occasions, be it for gameplay or storytelling. The specific aesthetic that a particular piece of CC brings adds to the joy we have playing this game.

People want to use your CC IN their games. They are not collecting your AI slop for pinterest pinboards, they want to use your CC in their games, and they expect the CC to look as advertised. Using AI does not help to "sell" the creations, they rather act as a deterrent, because people now think that the CC must be absolute crap because you do not even dare to show the real thing. Even worse, some people get baited thinking what they see is how it really looks in-game. Facilitating this is just extremely scummy behavior. Whatever comes out of the generative AI cannot be considered genuine game content anymore, it is AI slop, especially if you generate the 3d people (those are NOT Sims) inside the GenAI. Garments sit completely different on a model, they change entire body parts and the way the clothes sit on a body, they generally smooth away any resemblance of polygons, the lighting, shadows and colors may completely change. What comes out of a GenAI has NOTHING to do anymore with how a video game character is rendered inside its game. CC previews have a clear function: to show how a creation looks in the game, to act as a preview of the content you advertise and want users to download and install into their games. Users use the preview images to assess if they like your content and expect the content to look very similar in their games. Providing that reference is literally a preview image's main job. Your images should not mislead. Do not mistake preview images as edits/flavor images, in which generally creative freedom is acceptable and encouraged. The difference: An edit/flavor image does not advertise a product. It exists as art. Adding previews made inside the game that shows potential shortcomings in a realistic way lets users know that you care. It shows that you do not want to waste their time with downloading and installing something they will be disappointed with because it looks nothing like the advertised image. Providing accurate images is a sign of respect towards your users. If you actually do care about your users and want to portray your CC accurately, yet cannot live without a flavor image, then at least make sure you ALSO show images that show the creation inside the game, with in-game lighting, honestly showing potential flaws, along with your flavor image.

TL;DR: Fellow CC Creators, did you know that you can use a donate button instead of Early Access, and that your fans will still subscribe on Patreon if you release your CC completely for FREE, no hidden/paid posts, because they choose to do so without any incentives? It feels much better, anyway. Please do not butcher your life-simulation game characters with GenAI for your CC previews. Your CC preview images should be representative of how your CC looks in the game.

[simlicious]

Personal Update

I didn't want this to mix with all the Paralives stuff I talked about in the previous post, so here is the personal part! I have been pretty quiet the last months, because I have been quite busy and exhausted. I am IN DEEP into therapy and have been for months now, and it WORKS this time. The confrontational aspect really did work wonders so far. It really felt surreal to face my biggest fear without any coping mechanisms and the full knowledge that my beliefs might actually become true (luckily, they never did and I only once broke down in tears later because it was a particular bad day). And we challenge them and even taunt them. Pay with loose coins? Check. Forget your money at the checkout? Done that. Enter the wrong PIN? Can't faze me anymore. Return something I bought 5 minutes ago? I thought I'd never have the courage to return anything in that situation but guess what, i did that. Twice. It gets a bit easier every time. The whole training is supposed to show you that your beliefs about what will happen will NOT happen 99.9% of the time, and will not be a big deal like you thought and if it happens, you can actually deal with it get out alive afterwards. Who'd have thought. I feel so much better already, I went grocery shopping today and was calm as a cucumber (my boyfriend was there but I went in without him first). I even accidentally bumped into someone, said I'm sorry and they made a comment about me not having any rearview mirrors (I bumped backwards into their back trying to navigate my cart) and was able to joke about it and amazingly did not feel embarrassed. Maybe it's just a glitch (I tend to think that on such good days), but what if these "good days" are becoming my new normal... My whole mindset is beginning to shift from "I cannot do that" to "Let me figure out what I need to do that".

Tomorrow, I do not have anyone to drive me to therapy (usually my friend drives me since she has stuff to do in the city anyway), and I am scared of taking the bus. But instead of canceling therapy, I set my mind onto taking the bus anyway. I have looked at the route and how I get to and from the bus. I even have some bus tickets that my mom gave me a few weeks ago "just in case". And I still feel good about this decision hours later. I feel like I'm becoming another person. It's like I'm meeting a new me.

I think this may also change a lot for me, I may want to explore other things, maybe take up pottery or taking a dance class, some things that are at the far back of my mind because "I can't do that anyway". But maybe I will be able to soon.

Right now, I enjoy playing some other games as well to unwind from the anxiety training. Subnautica 2 launched into Early Access, and I absolutely LOVED the first game, and liked Below Zero, and now it's the wonder of the ocean all over again with phenomenal graphics. It really is a treat. I talked about my first impressions with Paralives in the previous post, check it out if that interests you!

[simlicious]

Paralives - First Impressions

I've got a confession to make. I didn't publish the last 3 or so posts I wrote. Why? Because I was either ranting, or way too much oversharing, or both. I want to keep it balanced and talk about positive and negative things. So if you care to read about my opinion about Paralives, read on (otherwise, feel free to skip this one). I do not have screenshots to share at this time, because I constantly pressed the wrong keys or something... they did not get saved, neither in steam nor in my windows screenshots folder. Overall, Paralives is a mixed bag for me. I was initially super mad about the pattern system (I still don't like it much), it's really a huge step down IMO. It is WAY more inflexible than the Sims 3 system, it' severely more limiting with colors and how they can be mixed even. That is very disappointing, I will NOT be able to make any of my signature patterns. I may be able to pull off some simple textured patterns, but this pattern system for clothes is specifically designed to accommodate flat, graphical textures and not much else. You are limited to 3 colors, and you do not even get the full range for ever color channel since every channel seems to "merge" into the other one halfway, so it's more like you get the span of 50% for a channel, at least that is how it seems. If you care for technical details: Black is the first color channel, but there are also shades of the next color, red. So, a 75% red will look like a darker color next to a 100% red, but I have to do more tests to confirm that, and how the colors interact. You only have black, red and green as color channels, and a mix between those. It's like the devs made it unnecessarily limiting and complicated instead of building on the system that Sims 3 had. It's pretty clear that they did not intend it to be used for structured textures, only flat patterns. But why this limit?! And why limit this feature technically instead of embracing the possibility to do something more with it even if Paralives themselves didn't directly use it in that way? I feel like whoever made this feature did not even look at Sims 3's pattern feature.

It also looks pretty rough most of the time, often it is hard to get clean shapes, edge pixels are bleeding through, there are a lot of dark artifacts around shapes, it's kind of a mess. It does seem like larger textures are usable, which is a relief. Paralives' native patterns are only 128x128px in size, that is only half the resolution of Sims 3's patterns, sadly. And they really look crunchy/pixelated up close on the para's clothes. So CC may use larger textures in case there are no drawbacks (probably needs more video memory, though there is a setting to create mipmaps for the textures which may come in handy for these), it's the early days and a lot can change. I find it so weird that Paras generally have good quality clothing textures, but then they just make patterns so small that they look crunchy and ruin the whole look of the para. I think people will mostly ignore the patterns in favor for baked-on patterns on the texture directly because that will look much better! Why bother with a feature if it looks bad... I just do not get it. I really hope this will be improved further. What that means for my CC journey? Well, I am not sure whether I will be sharing any patterns for Paralives anytime soon (maybe if they actually turn out well). I am trying out a few things to see what can be done with it, to push the limits, but I will take that slowly. It has been pretty frustrating so far, a lot of "oh, that does not work, I am more limited than that", also the modding tool has glitched out several times and I had to start the mod over again, it's frustrating if the technical side also causes problems. I'm also not currently in a creating mood (and I've been this way for several months and my creative battery is pretty depleted since every ounce currently goes into my anxiety therapy – more about that in my next post). I do like some aspects of Paralives, and some aspects could use improvement (but that's what Early Access is for). Overall, I think it does have potential, though I feel it's not going to replace Sims 3 (or Sims 4) since the games play very differently so far. It irked me that I have to initiate almost all interactions and Paras only keep themselves alive on "autonomy on" setting. The conversations were very limited and boring to me (they also take too long). To me Paras not interacting unless I initiate, that is not really a simulation. Walkbys walked THROUGH my paras on the street without any acknowledgement. There are a lot of glitches/Paras taking the same space when directing two of them to do the same thing. They just occupy the exact same space even if it's already occupied. But I guess those are glitches that will be fixed in time. I also really hope they will add more voices and voice lines. Paras sound like they are just citing random words rather than having a proper conversation as of now. Also, kids are mute (no voices yet). The language does sound cute, but I feel it needs more flow, variety and emotional variety it to sound like a proper language. I'm not sure how much of that the budget allows, but it's so crucial to me, since this is where a lot of immersion is coming from. You don't even realize how important this is (only when it's missing).

I have only played a few hours so far and of course have not seen everything. Here are some more positive aspects: I do like the flexibility of the need bars. The changes to it if you get sick, for example, are brilliant: some needs are ignored (you do not get hungry if you have a stomach virus!), but your hygiene and bathroom bar get shorter so you have to fulfill that need more frequently. This feels very natural and really gives the impression that your para is not up to their usual self). The job and school system is pretty interesting and in-depth as well. I like how you can juggle 3 jobs at the same time! I feel like you can really "level up" / improve your para and give them perks and things, and it's fun and counteracts the monotony of the daily grind pretty well. I would love to have some interactive careers as well (maybe there are some already and I just got a rabbithole one? I have not done much research into Paralives prior to buying it).

I have tried the buy mode briefly and I like it so far, the ability to scale objects easily is absolutely great! I have only placed a few things and look forward to trying the modular furniture and things like that.

The clothing is a bit meh so far, a lot of meshes are NOT optimized for patterns and patterns often look distorted, stretched and vary in sizes a lot. Some pants also have rotated UV map bits by the cuffs, and you cannot apply a pattern differently there so it just looks odd (even on pants without cuffs!). In general, I think they could make more use of the zones so you can apply different patterns to different aspects on the same garment (for example, a pant should have a main color, a cuff color, and a button color like it is done on a lot of Sims 3 clothing). Maybe there could be an option to toggle this, so you can easily have only ONE zone if you do not need the fine tuning, but for those who want to, they should have those options. (Keep in mind that I have played this game only for a few hours, maybe all this is already possible and I just haven't figured it out, if so, let me know!) While it is great that Paras can wear anything/all clothes are unisex, I would like the ability to sort for more masculine or more feminine looking clothing just to be able to focus more on the style I want (or have style filters/tags, maybe?) I find it tedious to select colors and swatches, it's not easy to spot which clothes you can add patterns to and which do not so I always have to click on the swatches to see that. To edit you have to right click and choose edit first, there are a lot of extra clicks involved and it's a bit tedious/doesn't have nice intuitive flow. I really miss how interactive the color/pattern system was with drag and drop in Sims 3. I guess we will get used to it, and I think they will probably improve a lot of the UI stuff once more feedback comes in. I was not able to create a Para yet because I got motion sick on the moving train scenes at the beginning, even though I have not ever experienced that before in video games. I hope we will be able to shut that off eventually. Because you are supposed to build your first custom para in front of large windows with a constantly moving landscape, I chose a pre-made household to play (the single father with his son). But from what I have seen in some videos, the Paramaker is amazingly detailed and I look forward to creating some paras. To end on a high note, I have to say that I have not seen a Para that was looking weird, had mismatched clothes or weird anatomy. Maybe I have not seen any spawned-in paras yet, but all the pre-made Paras look really good and unique and the art style works! I was skeptical at first, but it's really growing on me. What are your thoughts about Paralives? Have you tried it yet, what are your experiences?

[decomposedmaw]

the evening light feels different here.

[animalwoonz]

Personal space? Nope - never heard of it.

[alaimo]

Is that…… them

[goatguy7399]

YALL THERES MORE TO THE SERIES

[thecardinalsims]

NRaas Needs Your Assistance!

Do you use the NRaas mods? Has the information on the NRaas website and forum ever been useful to you? If so, a moment of your time please!

I’d like to share the current situation with Simblr – which you can also read about directly from the site owner here: https://www.nraas.net/community/topic15428

While it seemed like we were entering an era of old-internet revival and indie websites in the fight against the dead-internet, a significant road block has emerged. Prices have inflated drastically for server parts, memory, storage, and server-hosting itself. This puts all non-profit online communities in peril.

As a result, the site owner has opened a Patreon so that the community can help cover the costs of keeping us online.

Important clarification:

The NRaas mods are NEVER going to be paywalled. The project will remain open-source and free for everyone. Donations are optional.

These mods are still in active development! The site and mods have been maintained by Chain_Reaction since Twallan's retirement, providing countless updates and support. Lots of cool stuff over there if you haven't updated in a hot minute.

There is no pressure to donate if your situation does not allow for it. Thank you for the consideration!

Long post ahead with information on the situation and some incentives for reaching membership goals.

If you've had some trouble accessing the site over the past week or so:

The situation is directly caused by the greed and encroachment of something we’re all uncomfortably familiar with: AI companies and the companies investing in them (of simmer relevance, that includes EA and Krafton (InZoi)).

NRaas is not the first nor will it be the last to be affected. Website servers already suffer from bots trawling and scraping their content – including your content that you write and share just about anywhere. Now they’re being bought off entirely. Archives and file-hosting are at high risk. Myrient is a recent example of an archive that went offline for this very reason.

It can feel a bit grim, but I want to assure you that the burden isn't yours to bear as an individual. As a community, it's actually quite easy to become hostile - and more important, unprofitable - to these invasive species as it were.

The past 26 years of modding and storytelling was OVERWHELMINGLY built upon free software, non-profit websites, and shared resources. A few unscrupulous paywallers and corporate greed isn't going to rewrite that history. Greed is the minority - but it does try to eat everything in its path.

That's all I ask - if you enjoy the fruits of The Sims community or enjoy being a part of it, make it just a little more inconvenient to swallow us.

Do not tolerate GenAI in our community spaces.

Do not support EA or Krafton. Let obscurity and irrelevancy devour them.

Do participate in the community wherever you think you'd find a little piece of purpose - make a blog for your stories, come chat with us in the Chatterbox forum at NRaas, make your first mod.

Lastly:

In a separate post, I'll be posting some CC incentives that will be released as milestones are reached. This content will not be paywalled - it will be posted for free as thanks to the community.

This is being offered on my own accord and is not the official reward for any particular tier. None of the proceeds are going to me!

Please look out for that over the weekend, I still need to take all of the preview screenshots which is perhaps the least exciting part of making CC.

And thank you, on behalf of the volunteers at NRaas.

[assignedmale]

Sources :

Pink News

The Good Law Project

Yahoo.com

The Mary Sue

[tau1tvec]

Lemme be straight for a minute, and say no amount of lack of traction and interaction on Tumblr could ever hurt me, simply bc I’ve got a 3yo Instagram account that fairs 0-2 likes per post, and TikToks that get maybe 20 likes to every 200 views, which is a gap that only widens if it by some miracle breaks 300 view containment.

The slow death of friend/follower culture, prioritization of tags for pushing trends and virality rather than discovery, curation and archival means, and the implementation of the FYP is sadly a lotta the reason why the interaction we were used to has likely shifted.

Full disclosure, I don’t absolutely abhor the FYP, I use it a lot myself bc it keeps me engaged by filling my feed full of people and content I wouldn’t normally see, bc it doesn’t get reblogged onto my dashboard. I find so many talented artists and GIF makers thanks to it, but I also know that not everyone interacts with it as liberally as I do. Perhaps that’s got more to do with the way tumblr has always been either a heavily curated experience for some, or a meme slot machine for others, and everything else kinda slips between the cracks of niche-ness.

To the point, I guess this is my long way of telling you… a lotta the time it isn’t just you, or something you’re doing or not doing. Sometimes these apps just really suck at doing what they say they’re supposedly doing… but also like, we all would probably be having a much more fun and enriching and organic social media experience if we didn’t have to rely on things like the FYP… if we reblogged more.

[viccus]

These default wood texture replacements should be in everyone's resource tab, because they're seriously a MUST-HAVE. The default textures are incredibly harsh, especially with darker wood tones. Do yourself a favour and get it if you don't already, and show some love to JaneSamborski, who uploaded the replacement. I've seen how some of my builds look in other simmers' games who don't have the replacement and get a jumpscare because the wood looks so awful😭

Knock, Please: Default Replacement Wood Textures

[simlicious]

I have had these replacements installed since forever and completely forgot how bad EA's unedited wood textures look!

[saxifraga-x-urbium]

Why I’m one of 100,000 women who’ve signed a petition in support of trans people

Those of us who remember Section 28 don’t want to see its warped logic inflicted on another community, writes Kat Brown – and using my safet

It’s been a year since the Supreme Court ruling about trans people in single sex spaces. Bridget Phillipson has sent the EHRC guidance back to become more inclusive – this from a woman not famously pro-trans, to put it mildly – and above all, 100,000 cis women have now signed Not In Our Name’s petition in support of trans people.

Eighty-six per cent of respondents rejected calls to segregate the men’s and women’s ponds on Hampstead Heath (and bear in mind that 84 per cent had swum at the ponds, and 74 per cent were Londoners). Protests all over the UK took place last weekend against excluding trans children from Girl Guiding, and Women’s Institute groups are closing as a response to no longer being allowed to be inclusive.

These are not “trans activists,” by the way. These are mothers, relatives and friends, whose loved ones are being monstered in the public eye. The former psychologist Caroline Litman, whose daughter, Alice, was facing a five-year wait for a gender identity assessment when she died by suicide at 20, has spoken tirelessly about the challenges to trans lives. Gender critical people always go on about how women aren’t being listened to – well, I think it’s time to listen to the hundreds of thousands who would much rather trans people were left alone.

What makes me and so many other women so intensely furious about this campaign is that it uses our safety as a lightning rod. I visited the makeshift memorial to Sarah Everard on Clapham Common in the days after a policeman murdered her. I have been followed, catcalled and grabbed by men in plain sight, while wearing the most boring of clothing. What I’ve worn or where I’ve been has never been of consequence. Nor have they ever needed to disguise themselves, as so many gender critical people claim. Men have never been bothered about consequences – who’s going to do anything about it? Just look at who runs the Western world.

Cis men and boys are overwhelmingly more likely to commit harm – to men as well as to women. When the results of the Hampstead Ponds survey came in January, I had a two-minute look at Sky News and the BBC. Ninety-four children harmed by orthopaedic surgeon Yaser Jabbar. A 15-year-old boy pleaded guilty to murdering Leo Ross, 12, as he walked home from school. In Nuneaton, a 12-year-old girl was targeted by two men before one strangled and raped her. Men don’t need to cross-dress to attack us, and it’s insulting to say so.

It’s also deeply insulting to anyone who endures the harrowing stress of gender dysphoria. I believe that the only reason gender critical people are listened to to such a disproportionate extent is that they are backed with money to bring lawsuits.

This anti-trans focus takes me right back to Section 28 and anti-gay treatment that helped me and many of my peers to grow up utterly clueless in the Nineties. If I hadn’t been educated by Eurotrash on Channel 4, I might have absorbed the poisonous idea that I was being drip-fed during daylight hours that lesbians and gay people were wrong. All this legislation does is create more ignorance. It doesn’t stop people from being; it just makes them live in secret. We have so few gay elders, not because gay men don’t exist, but because Aids wiped them out in the Eighties and Nineties and because legislation made their lives so much harder.

Focusing on trans people gives a certain type of person a sense of power and a focus for their own rage. They can’t tackle the domination of men – but with extensive backing by secretive donors, organisations like Sex Matters can go back, and back, and back to court about trans people, regardless of overall public thought. It is as appalling as it is un-British.

Logic doesn’t matter to these people, only cruelty and power. They don’t want trans people to exist, full stop. It’s time for them to admit that they find them yucky, rather than dangerous, and stop hiding behind “women’s safety” as an excuse. And listen to the hundreds of thousands of women who are fed up with being used as a deflection from the real issues impacting our lives. And we all know that the threat is not coming from the trans community.

[anachrosims]

The Biggest Sims Creator Just Teamed Up with Congress Against EA

Lilsimsie is teaming up with her Congressional rep - details in the video!

God bless her.

It may not change anything, but CERTAINLY won't if we don't fight.

Spread the word!!! THIS is what us creators should be supporting!

Her stream and discussion with her rep is on April 15th - again, check the vid for details on this situation.

[cowplant-snacks]

Link to the Block EA Deal Petition: https://playersalliancehq.org/block-ea-deal-petition/

[simdertalia]

Just making sure this gets as much visibility as it can in the simming community!

[snorlaxsimming]

Just a PSA and something that should be common sense, but I guess some people need a friendly reminder...

Just because you don't agree with someone else's views, how they do things etc., does not give you the right to publically announce on social media how against how someone else does something or that you don't agree with their views.

It also doesn't give you the right to go out of your way to attempt to spread hatred and obtain a following to cast out or bully an individual into leaving a community.

Bullying, Harassment or going out of your way to express your views in a way that makes a person not feel welcome in a community is toxic, unacceptable and uncalled for. Your age, how long you have been in the community and so on is irrelevant.

The Sims community on Tumblr has gone severely downhill since I joined originally back in 2017 and I am ashamed to see the kind of environment that has been created for the community.

If you don't agree with someone using AI to help them learn how to do something, that is fine. If you don't agree with someone doing Sims 4 or Second Life conversions? Cool. What is not okay for any reason, is public calling out (even if indirectly), bullying, or attempting to force someone to leave the community simply because you don't like them, their views, or how they do things.

Thankfully I have not seen many posts the last couple weeks that need a reminder, but I have seen one or two on top of hearing from a friend of mine who has expressed concerns about a specific situation that calls for this PSA.

Key takeaway is this: Don't be a jerk and if you don't agree with someone else and it really bothers you, simply unfollow or mute their content so you don't have to see it. Simple as that. The majority of people I follow I am pretty certain are grown adults who are more than capable of being kind and respectful. So lead by example, please.

[simlicious]

Exactly. It is okay to have opinions, but please do not make other people's lives hell because of them. You wouldn't want to be bullied because of your views either. If people foster such environments where it's okay to harass people and shame them, it's only a matter of time before it's your opinion that's unwanted, and you get bullied instead because you helped to make this an acceptable behavior. This will be no good for anyone long-term. By the way, shaming others for not having the same opinion/for not unfollowing a person just because of some rumors about that person's views or interpretations of what they have written or who they have reblogged: that's fostering that toxic climate too. When I am following a person on tumblr, I follow for Sims content. I am very likely not aware of what they may post on their side blogs, or what political messages they might reblog from time to time. I'm not glued to my dash 24/7 reading everything at all times from everyone and keeping track of everything. Likewise, I may not see an allegedly hidden agenda and insider info about what that person meant by writing XYZ because they posted something 3 months ago that was supposed to be a reference to some other thing. Most times, I just see a post without more context on my dash. I don't keep up with every person's blog history that I follow. Liking or reblogging a blog does not automatically mean fully subscribing to its contents. It also does not mean that I have the same views as the person posting it. It's unlikely that I am even aware of those views. We all just share a fraction of ourselves on the internet anyway, and we make mistakes! When I like, reblog or comment, it means I pressed a button on an internet site because I appreciated what I saw for a fleeting moment. I may have seen that post for 2 seconds and liked for a picture, not reading the text underneath. You do not know. It's an unreliable metric not suitable to use as a gauge of people's views and personalities! We as people are so much more than the things we post on tumblr. We are real people with real lives and real feelings. Please remember that.

[virtual-hugs]

Unique Elder Body Skins for The Sims 3

♦︎ Did you know that EA was likely planning on adding unique body textures to elders? Separate beta textures exist for them within the game files. This mod restores this feature and allows elders to have age details on their bodies, without having to apply a non-default CC skin.

♦︎ Backstory: I felt disappointed that the elder skin from Kurasoberina's Primer was only available with the non-default version. It's pretty weird how elder Sims look just as buttery smooth as teens and adults when it comes to their body. So I was determined to give elders the wrinkly and sun-damaged skin that they deserve.

♦︎ The way I've achieved this is by editing the skintone resources of all the default skins. Elders will now use body textures different from the teen and adult ones. Youthful and flawless skin begone!

♦︎ The textures are easy to replace to match your DR skin. The ones included with this mod are taken from and meant to be used with the Primer DR skin by @kurasoberina. Additional information can be found on the download pages.

DOWNLOAD: MODTHESIMS | SIMBLR.CC

Don't forget to apply your sunscreen to avoid the fate of these geriatric twins! ☀️

[heldhram]

Tutorial: How to Install TS3 with DXVK, Sims3SettingsSetter (S3SS), and ReShade in 2026

This is a long-overdue update of my previous, now obsolete tutorial on how to use DXVK and ReShade (d3d9). If you do not use ReShade, you can still follow this guide up until where it is to be installed.

At the time of writing (April 2026), this guide is compatible with and corresponds to Step 1 to 3 of The Sims 3 Performance & Bug Fix Guide 2026, featuring an extra step on how to install ReShade.

If you followed any other guide (including my own) on how to install DXVK and/or ReShade, it is strongly recommended that you start from scratch, meaning you should uninstall DXVK AND Reshade completely. Believe me when I say this: it will save you a lot of time, frustration, and make your life so much easier.

For the purpose of this tutorial, I am on Steam version 1.67.2.024037 on Windows 11, but it should work for discs 1.67 and EA App 1.69 versions, too. This guide does not cover GShade.

Without further ado, let's begin!

Backup your files, even the entire folder (EA Games\The Sims 3\Game\Bin or steamapps\common\The Sims 3\Game\Bin) if you want to be extra safe; you will thank yourself later. If you do not wish to backup the entire folder, at the very least backup the following:

reshade-presets

reshade-shaders

Reshade.ini

Options.ini (Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3)

Keep them somewhere secure, for your peace of mind (and sanity).

Firstly, to fully uninstall DXVK, you should remove the following files:

d3d9.dll (if you hover your cursor over the file, it will read: Company: DXVK)

dxvk.conf

TS3.dxvk-cache (or TS3W.dxvk-cache)

Secondly, remove remnant files of previously installed ReShade (you did create a backup, right?):

d3d9.dll (located at the Bin folder, if you hover your cursor over the file, it will read: Company: crosire)

ReShade.ini

ReShade.log

⚠️There are a couple more steps. Please follow the instructions here.

Get the latest version here on GitHub:

Click on the version that has the 'Latest' tag next to it (2.7.1 as of now), scroll down to 'Assets', and click on dxvk-x.x.x.tar.gz to download DXVK.

Open dxvk-x.x.x.tar.gz, click on x32, and locate d3d9.dll from within.

Download a copy of dxvk.conf from this page by clicking on the tiny icon on the right.

Drag both d3d9.dll AND dxvk.conf to the Bin folder (EA Games\The Sims 3\Game\Bin or steamapps\common\The Sims 3\Game\Bin); that is where TS3.exe and TS3W.exe are located.

Open dxvk.conf with Notepad or Notepad++, 'Ctrl + A' to select all, and hit delete. Yes, delete everything inside. Once you've emptied the file, enter the following:

d3d9.textureMemory = 100 d3d9.presentInterval = 1 d3d9.maxFrameRate = 60 d3d9.samplerAnisotropy = 16 dxvk.hud = devinfo d3d9.customVendorId = 10de d3d9.customDeviceId = 1080

Hit 'Ctrl + S' to save. That is DXVK installed!

Copy your Options.ini from your backup folder (you did make a backup, right?) into your Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3 folder.

Because we have 'tricked' the game into recognising our modern GPU as a GTX 580, we must edit one single line within the Options.ini to keep our preferred in-game settings intact.

Hit 'Ctrl + G', type in '150' to go to that line, and replace it with:

lastdevice = 0;10de;1080;65535

'Ctrl + S' to save.

⚠️Thanks to DXVK, from now on whenever there's a GPU driver update, we no longer need to keep the 'lastdevice' line up-to-date to prevent your in-game settings from being reset. You can leave it alone forever, once and for all. The last digit of '65535' is a placeholder value for driver versions and remains constant as long as you are using DXVK.

Launch the game to confirm that DXVK is working. By default, the debug HUD should show up in the top left corner of your screen. What's more, your graphics settings should not have reset.

If you're still not convinced that DXVK is working, go to your Bin folder and look for a file called: TS3_d3d9.log or TS3W_d3d9.log and inspect its content:

If you see these correctly documented in your log file, DXVK is working as intended.

⚠️ NB: This newer version of DXVK no longer generates a cache file by default, meaning that there will not be a TS3.dxvk-cache or TS3W.dxvk-cache any more.

Get the latest version here on GitHub:

Click on the version that has the 'Latest' tag next to it (1.5.0 as of now), scroll down to 'Assets', and click on Sims3SettingsSetter.asi to download S3SS.

An ASI Loader is required for S3SS to function properly, and now so we need to install it.

However, if you use any of the listed LazyDuchess mods:

Mono Patcher Library;

Pixel Shader Modding Framework;

Shadow Extender (TS3);

or Split Level Light Fix,

you should already have an ASI loader (in the form of wininet.dll) located inside your Bin folder, and you can use that instead.

As you can see in the screenshot below, LD's Shader Framework came shipped with an ASI loader, as the other 3 mods do.

If you do not use any of the mods listed above, or that you wish to get a newer version of ASI loader for the game, you can get it from here (Ultimate ASI Loader by ThirteenAG):

To install, drag Sims3SettingsSetter.asi AND wininet.dll to your Bin folder.

And that is S3SS and its prerequisite successfully installed, now we should launch the game (again) and check if it's working.

Once the game has launched, hit 'Insert' key to toggle on S3SS interface.

⚠️ If nothing happens after pressing ' Insert', remove a folder called 'S3SS' (located at: Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3) and reinstall from Step 2 again.

From S3SS interface, select 'Patches' on the top.

Here I recommend enabling all performances patches, but choose only one flavour for the Smooth Patch: Original or Precise.

Next, click on 'Other/QoL' tab, tick the box next to 'Enable Memory Warning', and increase the warning threshold to 3.8 GB.

Navigate downwards to 'Borderless Window' and choose 'Fullscreen' in the drop-down menu. This will allow you to play in borderless windowed mode.

⚠️ Please note that I do not play TS3 in exclusive fullscreen mode, nor do I recommend doing so; therefore, I cannot provide support for that.

Lastly, don't forget to click on 'File' on the top left corner to save any changes you've made.

Exit the game, it's time to install ReShade.

Download the latest version (with full add-on support) from the official site; it is 6.7.3 at the time of writing.

Select TS3.exe (EA App) or TS3W.exe (disc, Steam), and then choose Vulkan as rendering API, click 'Next'.

If you would prefer not to install any shaders/effects (i.e, you want to keep using your existing ones), click 'Skip'.

On the following page, you'll get to choose to install add-ons. Hit 'Skip', unless you know what you are doing.

Click 'Finish' to complete installation.

At this stage, a new, vanilla ReShade.ini file will be placed in the Bin folder; you may now replace it with the one from your backup folder to recover all preferred settings (such as hotkeys for taking screenshots, directory for shaders etc.). Same thing goes for your reshade-presets and reshade-shaders folder.

Launch the game (for the final time) to check that ReShade has been properly installed.

To toggle S3SS interface, press 'Insert' (or whatever hotkey you've set it to).

⚠️NB: under ReShade's 'Settings' tab you may need to change 'Input processing' to either 'Pass on all input' or 'Block input when cursor is on overlay' to tweak S3SS settings whilst ReShade's GUI is visible. Otherwise, you'll need to toggle ReShade's menu off first.

That is the end of this tutorial.

Congratulations, you have successfully installed DXVK, S3SS, and ReShade! You may now open dxvk.conf and remove line dxvk.HUD from it.

Whew, what a long tutorial. If you've made it this far, great job. 🎉

Hope you've found this helpful; comment down below, or send me an ask/DM if you've any questions. I'll try my best to troubleshoot with you. Happy simming! ⭐

Credits:

doitsujin for DXVK

ThirteenAG for Ultimate-ASI-Loader

@sims3fiend, just-harry, @lazyduchess, and swiffyjk for Sims3SettingsSetter

crosire for ReShade

@nectar-cellar @desiree-uk and @kevinvoncrastenburg for their help.

[zylphic]

Hi guys! I made a post on Reddit comparing some of the most popular lighting mods for The Sims 3, and I thought I’d share it here on Tumblr for my first post.

I mainly did this for myself to see how each mod affects the Sims and the environment.

It’s not 100% accurate, since the position of your Sims can have a big effect on the lighting and many of these mods have unique colours/weather transitions over the course of each day.

All of my testing was done during Summer! Unfortunately, I was only able to add the EA lighting into my second comparison, which was strictly on Sims only.

The lighting mods I used to do my comparisons are linked below:

Uranesia by @nilxis

St. Claires by @brntwaffles

Pudding's Lighting by @pudding-parade

Perfect Day by @brntwaffles

Monte Vista by @dystopianam

Fresh Cut Day by @brntwaffles

Clear & Bright by @potato-ballad-sims

Blue Skies & Sunshine by @brntwaffles

Beta V1 by @boringbones

Hopefully this helps anyone trying to decide which lighting mod to use in their game. Also, a big thank you to these amazing creators who keep this game looking awesome! Have a great day. :-)

[simlicious]

[simlicious]

Game Tip: The Long Dark (by Hinterland Studio) The Long Dark just received its final story update. You need to survive in the harsh Canadian winter wilderness, living off the land and what the wilderness has to offer, and searching abandoned towns for supplies. I think it's a fantastic game and has a high re-playability factor as well. It has gotten some graphical updates recently (my screenshots are taken before that). Hunting/use of firearms is in the game, but you do not necessarily have to hunt in easier modes, because there are other food sources too. The Long Dark is beautifully atmospheric, has a beautiful soundtrack that further enhanced the atmospheric nature of the game. It has a wonderful painterly art style! The game has both a story and a survival/endless mode, one fairly priced DLC with more content (only one after years and years of free updates), and several difficulty levels, the lowest level one being relaxing without hostile wildlife, the highest is “I barely survived a day” difficulty. The difficulty is also customizable. At the time of writing this post (31 March 2026), the game is available for only €3 on Steam here in Germany during the promotion (containing both story mode and survival mode. I recommend to start with the story mode). This is an absolute bargain and worth way more than that. I recommend you check it out if you like thoughtful exploration and survival games, and if you like collecting and hoarding stuff! If you're into base building, also take a look at the DLC, which further enhances the survival mode with numerous new tools and features.