I love the pace and tone that Veronaville is taking, many of the Sims complement each other so well and yes, the conflict is there (constant) but… love begins to blossom. 🌗🌬️🌾💭🤍
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Has this ever happened to you? Suddenly your object footprint is just a big green square.
Or perhaps you are chugging along, having fun, and suddenly you notice a flickering shadow at the corner of your eye. Perhaps a bed, perhaps a door. Weird black lines move across the object as the camera moves.
Perhaps you have a glass item on the lot, and it decided it wanted to make an attempt at some geometric art.
Or you may have noticed that sinks suddenly look real weird.
If any of these are familiar to you, then I accidentally stumbled upon the fix! A mix of brain fog and fat fingering and sometimes you strike upon something useful 🤭
Turns out if you press Shift-W this happens. And more importantly, if you press it again, it fixes itself. Handy, right? No more having to restart the game to fix it. I thought I'd share in case someone else gets this occasionally and wonders WTF happened.
🖼️ Insights into the Aesthetic Development of The Sims by Eric Hedman, a lead animator
1. Who was actually responsible for the visual style and art direction of the base game?
The art direction and coalescence of a bunch of the aesthetics, especially the superlative UI was handled by Mr. Charles London. He played the role of confessor and traffic cop across the original game and Livin' Large and helped establish the relationship with New Pencil. We had a few external artists contribute to various bits of things like the general aesthetic of the neighborhood screen and video intro. Generally though, the main bulk of the characters were handled by Eric Chin, and a good amount of scenic art was done by Ms. Jami Becker.
2. What exactly was New Pencil's role in the project? Why is so little known about their contribution after all these years?
New Pencil had an increasing role taking existing assets of defined footprints that Don, Patrick and I were prototyping and making mimic objects and later more fully fledged objects directly from 3DS Max templates I was building. Michael Murguia, Adam Murguia, Scot Tumlin, Scott MacIntyre, John Beebe, and Greg Faillace, were all people who had deep effect on the final product. Some ended up working with The Sims on subsequent projects. Greg himself has made quite an impact at Riot games where his eye and heart make All the stuff he touches there live quite a bit more than it would without him. In the 1990s and the early 2000s a lot of the things that we take for granted like distributed apps for records and social media/archiving were not the rule. One of the reasons the Internet Archive exists is because of the necessity to keep things from disappearing off the face of the digital earth. We had a good functioning BBS at one point which was as a good point of contact with players and developers... but that got thrown away because some folks thought it got in the way for authority and control of process. It had its problems, but it was also useful. I would like New Pencil to get its Laurels more than it has.... and as I do more videos where I can talk directly about how I ended up doing things I did, I will definitely do my best to give my perspective on how people inside and outside the team and NP did their good work.
Object Concept art and development renders, The Sims: Unleashed.
3. What were your main sources of inspiration for the expansion packs' aesthetics? I'm especially curious about influences such as Hayao Miyazaki, textures, visual language, and other artistic references.
Once things were chosen as topics and subjects, and scope was established we just started making stuff. The more time I had before we had to start handing the things off to contractors like NP or subsequent design/art houses the more I could provide more material for the artists and art supervisor folks to focus in on what was required. Before the ubiquity of internet art resources I generally relied on large amounts of art and design book reference. This is an admission that I used to be kinda ashamed of, but,... he goes... I am a bit of a weeb, except that I grew up around Japanese Americans, and Japanese nationals here in the SFBay Area... so they were always around me, and I them. My first college roommate was a guy whose parents both worked for JAL. One of my first crushes was a J.-A. girl in elementary school, just because she was so dang nice...and had the best lunches to trade with. :) . I was never an Otaku per se.
My own inflated ideas about Japan and Japanese culture did not survive past meeting people and knowing them as people. Hayao Miyazaki is a great influence as are Yoshitaka Amano, Hiroyuki Yamaga, Mahiro Maeda, Hiromasa Ogura, Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, Shinji Higuchi, Nobuyuki Ohnishi, Yoji Takeshige, Takashi Watabe and countless other Gainax, SanRio, and general Royal Space Force designers and artists. Also Hideki Kamiya, Mari Shimazaki, Hiroshi Shibata Masaaki Yamada....
So yes I have all the Miyazaki Art books from Japan up through Porco.... and some supplementary material....and I may have used scans from porco and kiki art for inspiration I sent to New Pencil as part of packets to inspire Old Town in Unleashed.... I will talk on this when I start making those videos.
Object and setting concept art, The Sims: Unleashed
Fun Fact: The Sims: Unleashed used Kiki’s Delivery Service (a film by Studio Ghibili) as inspiration for some of the settings in The Sims: Unleashed.
I didn't quite live in Kinokunia in Japan Center in SF, but I did like looking for the books that had the hidden gold in them. I have been accused of have a good eye.... and also that I have a sponge of a memory. (infj-audhd as I am....) I am much better medicated now. :D .... I am responsible for a lot of decision and directions during House Party and after.... I was not taken as seriously at New Pencil until Vacation... so Hot Date has some aesthetic issues that I would never have chosen as approved but that is a subject for another day and....you can see the trajectory and through line to Unleashed and Supestar winning awards and then well... I got kicked out.
4. Where did the Tiki and Art Deco influences come from? What inspired you to bring these styles into The Sims?
Me. I have a full bar and scores of Aloha shirts, and have carved tikis and made 3D rear projected and animatronic talking tiki heads and faces for special events and even a now world renowned Tiki Bar. ALSO I am a California Kid so I grew up around Deco and Art Nouveau in many of its permutations. Before the resurgence of Tiki I would spend my birthday afternoon at Trader Vics in Emeryville for their Happy Hour with my almost birthday twin Marie. A decent part of the success of the Sims Ex Pack design work, Hot Date thru Superstar is my association with Jason Leong, who took the reins on making sure we incorporated the ideas behind my templates and fevered sketches into the Where's-Waldo fever dream of our Old Town, Downtown, Studio Town etc aerial perspective masterpieces.
There is a solid hunk of nostalgia. I don't think it's a specific parody of any particular show but of
the American Dream ideal of working hard and getting ahead. In many ways that is correctly
pointing at wish fulfillment and escapism. We definitely had a set of architectural blueprints for famous TV homes as they would have occurred in "reality" vs the way they were constructed to
accommodate TV audiences and LARGE TV cameras. When we personalized things like monster
potions, alien abductions, ghosts and the grim reaper, it began to have more in common with absurdisty humor than situation comedy.
It have a very specific and distinct look on Americana phenomenon. What references did you use?
TV shows, old magazine and tv ads of the 50s 60s and 70s... You can see the style change
after Livin' Large to be more directed toward art sets that were less about pieces of kitsch on their
own, and more of a set of wall, floor and object art that supports a theme. We liberally borrowed
from all sorts of places buyt then also tried to make things that felt distinctively our own.
What was that exaggeration that made Sims 1 feels almost like a soap opera sometimes? How did
you manage to not overdo it?
Some people think we over did it from the start. There is a good explanation video that
addresses this on my SimsStuff Playlist
We had very simple characters but we knew the machines of the day were going to throw a lot
of the frames out, so the poses were broad pantomime and very focused one sim to the other
except where the Sim addressed the player to complain their were hungry, etc. Even then, you had
to know what was going on, so we did our own checking and rechecking what could be done at the
scale. The expressions are closer to silent film acting or dance than standard human or animation
acting.... Until Sims 2, 3 and 4 when it was 3D and you could move the camera.
I want to know everything about 60s catalogue feel of a buy-menu, satire descriptions, retro-ads
colour palette, general consumerism touch on everything. It so special and unique.
It was mostly only partially organized and done piece by piece until House Party....and then
came to fruition in Vacation.... However people were really able to lean into the sarcastic/sardonic
catalog descriptions and a lot of the initial really crappy old and decrepit house items and scenic
elements felt appropriate to show "rock bottom" working class stuff. The height of the descriptions
came from Sean Baity.... and somewhat Claire and Roxy, but Sean was Jaded and cynical enough to
really make those "puppies" sing.
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Announcing OpenSO alpha testing 🧪 Signups are open now!
OpenSO is a revival of FreeSO, a fan-hosted recreation of The Sims Online, upgraded with a modern foundation:
Runs on .NET 10 LTS with the latest MonoGame. GitHub Actions automatically builds client, server, and updated shaders for all platforms.
A C# launcher replacing the old Electron one, with an integrated patcher and self-updater.
Replaced the Mina.NET dependency with a rewritten networking and buffer stack supporting TLS end-to-end encryption.
Updated rendering pipeline: dynamic frame rates >60FPS, resolution scaling, new AA options, and optional post-processing effects for 3D mode.
New features: rebuilt Create-A-Sim with zoom & rotation plus larger icons; edit your Sim's gender, appearance, and skintone at any time from the Select-A-Sim menu; a Social Bunny NPC who shows up to help your Social need when your Sim is alone. 🐰
Fixed long-standing nitpicks, like the window scaling/mouse glitch.
Always free and open source, with no pay-to-win or donation perks.
OpenSO is early in development, so things may break or be rough around the edges. Expect frequent updates.
Player feedback will be crucial in shaping the game's direction. Once the foundation is tested under a real player load, the beta release can shift focus to new content & gameplay changes while staying faithful to the original game — as well as events, documentation, tools, and quality-of-life features.
The alpha provides starting funds of $100k to begin building. The testing world, Genesis, will be wiped for the public beta.
Signups are open now and public for anyone who wants to help playtest, report bugs, or contribute ideas and changes.
🔗 Sign up + download: openso.org
💬 Discord: discord.gg/3U3sqPnPB7
💻 Code: github.com/voicemxil/OpenSO
not affiliated with EA, no copyrighted assets included
This is an idea I've had for long, but what brought me to eventually execute it is this post on Reddit I saw a bit ago:
I suggest taking a read, but in short, it's about a draft of Veronaville that eventually was scrapped and rectified before release. I'm specifying "draft", as the creator makes it sound like this is the "intended Veronaville" we didn't get. It's one of the many ideas they eventually ditched, but I think it would really be fun to play as a "what if" Veronaville. Data (some of which I even found myself) is so old it dates back to when Veronaville was called "N005" ("Europa") and the fifth and last neighborhood to release after some other scrapped ones. With the information provided in this post, I would like to aim to recreate a visualization of what it used to be like. This includes:
The return of some unseen/dead characters
Return of deleted characters (where possible)
Rectification of existing characters (goes from the whole family to the single character and what they do)
Modifications to the story
Modifications to the structure of houses (unsure)
Modifications to the map (unsure)
Scripted notifications (I'll see if I can also make scripted events)
Restoration of old mechanics (such as baby faces)
Rectification of maxis errors
More? Maybe!
How can YOU help?
I'd absolutely love if you could help me develop this project, as there is a lot to do and help can speed things up. First and foremost, I need as much material as I can get. If you have beta pictures, promotional material, leftovers of data, or Knowledge on any of this matter (even if it's little)— do not hesitate to contact me!! Either write a comment on this post, contact me in private, or, if you're really shy, you can send an anonymous ask. To have this reach more people, please reblog, tell a friend, or share this via any means you want and on whichever platform. This gives a higher the chance to eventually get in touch with someone that might have vital information. Anyone that contributes will be credited (or can opt to not be credited). If anyone knows how to operate SimPE, share what you know and maybe I could even pass the project around so multiple people work on it.
Now, I did try to ask for the poster to be more specific with their provided information, but I've been kinda ignored...
In an advanced state, we could even start rolling out translations. I am only fluent in English and Italian, therefore, to not make half-assed translations, I'd appreciate if someone else could translate it in other languages.
Stay tuned! Everything will be posted under the "Sims 2: Project Europa" hastag.
I've been getting a lot of asks about my Café Mod recently, things about mod compatibility mostly, which has been fun! Always great to revisit this mod. As a result I have made some important and helpful changes and updates to the mod 😊 Info under the cut!
Firstly, I think I figured out why foods would sometimes randomly go "off" and get spoiled while in the display cases when you load into a lot, even though they weren't supposed to! So I've updated the TA_CafeMod_Main file with some important updates there. Make sure you download the latest version and replace that file!
Secondly, I have some new compatibility patches for you all, mostly around this BHAV:
Interaction - Eat - Grab a Plate (0x201C)
Turns out there are great many mods that edit this BHAV 😆 Including but not limited to:
Simler90's Food Serve Eat Mod
Cyjon's Smarter Food Serving Mod
MidgeTheTree's Cake Stand
PlatinumAspirations 4t2 Cake Stand as part of their Businesses & Hobbies conversions (well, it was supposed to be editing that BHAV but it wasn't lol, never mind...)
So, in this confusing world, I have some important comp patches:
If you want to use either Midge's Cake Stand, PlatinumAspiration's Cake Stand, OR both, please make sure you have the file called Z_TA_CompPatch_CafeMod_CakeStands
You'll also want to have my TA_CafeMod_Main file loading AFTER the original cake stand files. This is important for that "Interaction - Eat - Grab a Plate" BHAV.
I know that load order can be really confusing, so make sure that you check with HCDU+ which mods are loading in which order!
It should be
1. Midge's Cake Stand and/or PlatAsp's Cake Stand
2. TA_CafeMod_Main
3. TA_CompPatch_CafeMod_CakeStands
Then
4. Z_Z_TA_CafeModMain_CJSmarterFoodServings if you want Simler90's / Cyjon's fixes to Interaction - Eat - Grab a Plate (I recommend!)
I hope that's clear! We love Cafe's so all this confusion and pain is totally worth it, right? Right 😂
Hello! This is the third and last neighborhood of the BG Purist Hoods I'm going to release! Veronaville had many quirks I have not previously met in other neighborhoods that I had to study quite a lot to get right. It has been rather exhausting- but I have thankfully been helped by @lionwolficemagma, @cricket-sims and @f1shart, whom I give all my heart to. Thank you so, so much guys! This would've been so slow without your help. Lots of love.
General Overview
All ancestors are resurrectable and everyone is here: unless you pick the no townies version, you will have all the characters that come originally with the neighborhood.
No age has been modified (minus one exception), as I worked on memories more to make them line up with the Eaxis Canon better than before. All characters will have their default set of days remaining in their lifespan, unless you use a lifespan mod. I tried to be as purist as I could.
The Hood has never been initialized in-game and is compatible with any system (Windows, Linux, MacOS), game version or expansion pack (Legacy Collection as well). Scripted events work as well.
Reduced size on hard drive by deleting many useless things inside character files.
This took me so long to do, I might release a version with extras in another moment. Stay tuned, I might post updates on how it's going!
Update: It's out! Download below!
Let's get into it! As always, download at the end of the post!
UPDATED 17/07/2026
Changes
All junk flags have been cleared. Removed the dreaded family flags and ensured people who are actually family recognize each other. Also no relationships to Universal NPCs whatsoever.
Hidden relationships have been rectified and removed.
Everyone has been re-linked and missing data has been restored thanks to the recreations by carrit on ModTheSims.
Fitness flags have been cleared where they made no sense.
Fixed fitness bar being mismatched. Now no deceased person will have it maxed out!
All empty personalities have been filled. I based myself on the convention used for townies.
Blank Zodiac Signs have been restored.
The Power aspiration has been removed and substituded with the Aspirations corresponding to the Astrological Signs of the bearers.
Family Trees now respect the actual birth order of the Capp teens/Monty teens and Capp adults.
Olivia Monty's pregnancy has been fixed and the father linked is Claudio. She will give birth in around five Sim hours.
Patrizio and Isabella's pension has been changed to the one corresponding to level 10 Culinary Career, as they have been promoted nine times in total and reached that level. The career is also specified, instead of there being none.
Patrizio and Isabella now have how many days old they are restored.
Patrizio, Mercutio and Isabella have been given the right skills needed for their careers.
Bianca and Antonio's ages have been swapped, so now he has 23 days left and she has 18. I based myself on the Storytelling pictures. I pinky promise I changed ages only here, so every other member is still unreasonably young despite already having children. Why is left to player interpretation.
Many characters had extra faces inside their character file (record is Benedick with 38). I've removed the old, unused ones.
Broken and borked faces have been fixed, such as the ancestor ladies with sabertooth and Hal Capp. Thanks to Khaemwaset on ModTheSims.
Cordelia, Caliban and Consort no longer have that extra png that scarily pops up in SimPE instead of their current one.
Catalogue Description oddities have been fixed.
All memories that were missed were added and the ones in the wrong order were re-ordered.
Claudio Monty, Olivia Monty, Hero Monty, Caliban Capp, Cordelia Capp and Contessa Capp now have memories of their life.
Genetics have been fixed and restored where they were completely missing.
Family Bin Families now have the right amount of money.
Removed physical death tokens.
Ancestors no longer have memory of a deceased sim that doesn't exist.
Extras
All premades and dead premades are now babyfaced. Thanks a lot to @ash1c (I hope I mentioned the right account this time my bad bro) for keeping an eye and helping with the process <3
All sims have heterozygous genes where it was possible to give those to them.
Sims now have correct astrological signs.
More Info here
A Note on Memories
The most tedious thing to do has been fixing all the memories given (or not) to playables. Everyone was missing almost everything and the few memories actually there were either in a very bad order or completely swapped with those of other characters. No remembering when other family members grew up, forgetting best friends, forgetting who's who...
The Summerdream Family was missing relationship flags and they had half of their memories swapped with each other (example: Oberon recalled becoming best friends with Puck, but that was actually Titania, and flags weren't even properly set despite all the requirements being there).
I have tried my best to be as neutral as possible, but some memory placement just had to be assumed as I had literally nothing to start from. I apologize and accept any suggestion on how to improve them.
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I want to share a (very) small 4t2 conversion I did. I converted mysunoshun's Haze Tiles for The Sims 2 because I thought they looked very pretty. All credits for the textures go to her. :)
Description
This conversion includes 18 floor tiles (4§ each)
and 10 wall tiles (4§ each)
Have fun! If you encounter any mistakes or notice anything weird, just send me a PM or leave a comment. :)
Download
P.S. If anybody knows how to change the order of the floors and walls in the catalog, I'd be very thankful! It really bugs me that they show up so randomly.
Credits: @myshunosun for the original textures, and @moglikes for always answering my questions. <3
So many new labs (and some subtly tweaked old coats)!
IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ BEFORE DOWNLOADING
These custom breeds were made with the VANILLA GAME'S fur and eye colors in mind. If you are using default replacements, some breeds will look drastically different than intended and some colors may be strange or inaccurate.
This is a very large overhaul (158 breed files plus 1 collection file) so your game could lag when you open CAS.
I highly recommend deleting your Groups and Accessory cache files before extracting the overhaul.
DOWNLOAD INSTRUCTIONS
Pet Breed Files: Extract directly into your PetBreeds folder.
Collection File: Put this in your Collections folder.
UPDATE 7/15/2026: Breeds will now be organized properly without the need for a collection folder.
Download
You can safely pick and choose which breeds/variants you want in your game. Please let me know ASAP if something breaks or doesn't look right so I can work on fixing it.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
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