Similar to my first set of SE Wood Textures, these seamless textures are an edit of the wood textures used in Snowy Escape (specifically, the "Absolutely Slabulous" table).
The zip contains 7 seamless (size 512x512) textures in the Snowy Escape furniture wood tones, and 1 grey master texture that I used as the base for editing and eventual color matching. I decided to include it in case anyone wanted to use the texture in even more colors, or to make their own edits.
Feel free to use them in recolors and tag me so I can see your creations!
The Sims 4 is an extremely data-driven game; in this series of articles, XML tuning and how it is both defined in and loaded into Python by the game will be explored.
Hi! I read your message under syboulette's post about how to make a fence, but I didn't fully understand it. Could you please tell me about installing the wso plugin and importing meshes into tsrw from blender?
Hello. First things first, it's worth noting that the wso plugin doesn't work for everyone. I do not know why, ask the TSRW devs.
I. Installing the wso plugin
To import meshes to TSRW, I use Blender 2.79b.
1. File > User Preferences > Add-ons, Install Add-on from File...
The default path to wso plugins is C:\Program Files (x86)\The Sims Resource\TSR Workshop\Extras\Blender 2.74
2. Install the plugins one by one:
2.1. Select io_wso_export.py, click Install Add-on from File...
2.2. Then install io_wso_import.py in the same way.
2.3. Enable plugins.
II. Before exporting
To import a mesh correctly, you need to apply transforms before exporting it.
1. Object Mode > Object > Apply > Location (similar to Object > Transform > Origin to 3D Cursor (only if the cursor is at the zero point)).
This is the new palette I’m using for clothing recolors. I wanted to make a palette that was less bright, more ReShade-preset-friendly than what I was using before!
I don’t always use the full palette when I’m recoloring clothing, sometimes I’ll only use the darker shades or only use the lighter shades, sometimes I skip the white if the other parts of the shirt are white already, and sometimes for pants, skirts, or jackets I include a ‘true’ black (which is a bit darker than the black that comes with the regular palette).
Generally, when it comes to clothing items that have multiple ‘layers’ (for example, a coat over a sweater over a collared shirt), I make the outer layer a shade of brown matched with one of the non-brown colors, and white for the innermost shirt layer.
You were many to ask for this tutorial 😋 . While I managed to make functional stairs, I was missing a few points to make them flawless and I didn’t feel like sharing my process while this one was not completely perfect. Well this is now the case, thanks to Brujah from the S4S forum and the confirmation from @qolygonal.
This tutorial is advanced and you will need to have strong basics in CC making to fully understand the process, which is long and tedious.
I do not claim that everything that I wrote is true so if you know better or spot an error, do not hesitate to comment or send a DM so I can correct it !
So you’ve decided to play The Sims 2: The Big guide to TS4′s grandma
The Sims 2 for PC is an incredible game. It continues to entertain and delight people all over the globe many years after the initial release. Personally it has been a huge part of my life.
It is, however, objectively ancient and thus a pain in the arse to set up and install in 2021 (or whenever you’re reading this). There are tonnes of resources out there to make the game run and look better but they are scattered across every corner of the internet. Finding and utilising these resources can be overwhelming for any new player.
I have many years of experience getting this game to work properly and I thought that some of that knowledge could be useful, so I’ve cobbled together this ‘ultimate guide’ which should hopefully help to setup a more stable and enjoyable experience right from the beginning.
Someone on discord asked about making recolor package files smaller, and the awesome sim_man123 from TSR chimed in with some very helpful information. I asked for permission to pass along what he said:
This is directly related to your textures. Larger textures = bigger file size. More swatches = bigger file size. The more detail in an image = the less it will be able to be compressed, so bigger file size.
For example, a texture at 1024x1024 is four times larger than 512x512 texture. Keep EA recolors at whatever size they are to start with, I've seen people who think every texture needs to be 1024x1024 and that is absolutely not the case. If making your own meshes, a 1x1 tile in game is only 256x256 - compare your UVs against that to determine how big your textures need to be so that the UVs have adequate space in proportion with that.
Also note the format you are using. If you are saving as PNG, both TSR Workshop and Sims 4 Studio will convert that into a DXT5 DDS image. DXT5 is the lowest-level of compression (bigger file sizes) and also includes an alpha channel (also increases the file size). If your texture is completely solid and does not actually require alpha, if you manually save it as a DXT1 DDS image, the file size will be much smaller. DXT1 uses stronger compression, and the lack of alpha data further reduces the size. A 1024x1024 DXT5 DDS image is always 1.3MB uncompressed. A 1024x1024 DXT1 image uncompressed is only about 600kb. (The compression algorithms will then further reduce this, depending on how detailed the image is. Maxis Match textures will reduce better than photo-realistic textures.)
Note: This is mostly applicable to Build/Buy objects. CAS cc has its own texture considerations regarding the alpha channel, the image size, and the compression techniques.
I hope this tutorial isn’t as confusing and useless as my other notes lmao.
0) Open TSRW.
1) Clone a fence:
Create New Project > Builditem > Fences
I personally like the third one. Choose the one that matches the height of your new fence, so that the thumbnail is cut correctly.
2) Go to the Mesh tab, import your meshes. The straight model is 1 m long and the diagonal is 1.414 m. Skip the shadow mesh.
If you work in Blender, export your mesh to .obj with “Objects as OBJ Groups” checked. If you’re getting errors with .obj, import it into Milkshape and then export to .wso. The WSO plugins for Milkshape is in C:\Program Files (x86)\The Sims Resource\TSR Workshop\Extras\Milkshape Plugins\.
3) Add swatches, import textures, all that.
4) Don't forget swatch colors, name and description.
5) Export the package:
File > Export> To .package
6) Open the package in S4S.
7) Delete the shadow LOD, then find a Model with the same instance and delete it from there too.
8) Delete custom thumbs, then change the Fence resource group to 0. Now the game will generate thumbnails itself.
9) In the Fence resource set U1 and U2 to after how many tiles the post should repeat, 0 = never, 1 = every tile, etc. You can also change the price and the color tags here.
10) Delete unknown and duplicate String Table resources.
How to make a functional column, spandrel, and clone non-clonable item from the Build Mode
At the moment, some items from the Build Mode cannot be cloned in the usual way, like any item from the Buy Mode. Without going deep into modeling, in this tutorial I’ll show you how to create functional columns and spandrels. At the end, you can find information on how to create your own cloned package for building items.
These textures are from my Snowy Escape Matching Floors, in which I extracted the wood textures from the SE stairs, cleaned them up, made them tile seamlessly, and then color matched them as best as possible (since I didn't want to go through the whole edit process for each swatch, haha).
Download Link and Info Below the Cut!
This zip contains the 12 images, (size 512x512) I used for the floor package, so like the floor package there are duplicate "swatches" because I wasn't sure if there was a difference or not. Additionally: there are two swatches from the stairs (the ones with the really dark, contrasting grain) that I just could not get looking good, so they are not included. I tried my best but those particular swatches were beyond my image editing abilities.
Feel free to use them in recolors and tag me so I can see your creations!
I learned some of the information provided below through trial and error. It worked for me, but something might be wrong. If you have an addition/clarification/correction, then write to me and I’ll make changes.
