âThis post is sponsored by me struggling to select a vertex in Milkshape for like 20 minutes. Anyone who recommends MS to you in 2021 is either trolling or salty that they had to buy it back in the TS3 era.â - thornowl
No one told me that Mesh Toolkit did .obj to .wso conversions either lmao
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So⌠everyone knows sims 3 creation tools arenât the best when it comes to technical side, but another reason why people have problems with creating things for sims 3 is because of lack of proper documentation and tutorials.
I plan to change all of this over certain period of time with information and tutorials regarding sims 3 CC creation, all fully laid out in one place, this tumblr page.
I will start with how specular mapping works in sims 3.
What is a Specular Map?
Specular map, in any game that uses them, not just sims 3, serves to determine how shiny/reflective parts of an object material are. The more bright the map texture is, the more reflective corresponding part on the object will be.
This is an example of a sims 3 specular map:
So⌠Dark areas, less reflective. Bright areas more reflective. Now that we have this established⌠how do these maps work in sims 3?
Object Specular Maps
Object specular maps have two separate data sets:
- Actual Specular Data (Color/RGB channels)
- CAST (create a style)/Object Specular Separation Data (Alpha channel)
Actual Specular Data is basically fulfilling a purpose of a specular map. By using Color/RGB Channels, you can determine where the most reflections will be and where there wonât be any.
But it can also determine the color of reflections. If you color the specular map in red, the reflections will be red. If you color it in gold, reflections will be gold.
This allow you to have some parts of the material look like actual metal in the game.
Sadly, changing the color of the material in game, doesnât change the color of the reflection that you defined with specular map. You would usually only do this if you had an overlay texture that you canât change color of in game, so metalic reflection color will always match the base material color.
It is important to note, however, that the actual reflection intensity doesnât necessarily depend only on this part of specular map data. It also depends onâŚ
CAST/Object Specular Separation Data, which exist because of how reflections are calculated in game.
Every Create A Style material has itâs own specular map. This map is then combined with your objects base specular map to determine final reflectivity of the objects material.
That is, if you set yor specular map Alpha/Transparency Channel under a certain value. But if you go over that value, then your material specular wonât be affected by CAST material/pattern specular map, and will have itâs shine intensity exactly how you defined it in Color/RGB channels.
Here are visual representations of values to closer depict how this looks:
- CAST Material with very dark specular map:
- CAST Material with medium specular map:
- CAST Material with fully bright specular map:
And here is a closer depiction of how it works in conjunction with detailed CAST material specular maps ( CAST Material VS Object Material ):
It is also important to note that when you edit the Alpha Channel in Photoshop, values will be different. I made sure to include those as PS Alpha in the images
Those are actually the true values the game makes disctionction between when reading this data. It seems that the border between two different states is 50% value.
Clothes Specular Map
Sadly, Clothes Specular Map doesnât work this way. No matter the Alpha channel changes, clothes specular/reflectivity canât be affected by CAST specular map.
So how you make your specular map in Color/RGB channels, thatâs how intensity will behave in game.
Alpha Channel is completely disregarded and useless in this context.
Only relevant data in this case is Color/RGB channels.
For the end, hereâs a little hint on what my friend and I have been working on for the past two months:
⌠that old hat :) but it is still an important topic.
Nothing divides the community like the question about acceptable polycounts. I was inspired by this discussion to have another go, trying to shed light on the question of polygon counts and game performance from different angles and perspectives.
We have individual conditions regarding the choices of CC we can make for our sims games.
People have a broad range of computers they use to play the sims games on. Some play on old laptops, some have state-of-the-art destop pcâs, others play on macbooks, some have something in-betweenâŚ
And every computer handles the game differently on different settings. Some simmers need to use really low game settings and low poly meshes for the game to be playable at all, some donât need to pay attention at all because no matter how many high-poly creations they install, the game just runs fluently. Some might put their settings higher than suggested for their hardware, because they want to take pretty pictures and donât care about performance.
Why the finger-pointing?
It is also no use to wanting to find a scapegoat for performance problems. It is not just a single factor that we can rule out when it comes to performance. Iâm sure creators of high poly meshes are annoyed by all the accusations, of people telling them that they create inappropriate meshes for the game. Fact is, everyone can do what they want, we play a moddable game, there are endless possibilities. So creators can and will also create high-poly meshes, for people with systems that can handle them to enjoy.
With sharing comes responsibility
That is a common reason for sharing a piece of CC - hoping that other simmers will enjoy it :)
But as a creator that shares her own CC, I know that sharing CC also comes with a responsibility⌠the responsibility to educate people about what they are going to install in their games.
Installing CC always comes with a risk. Sometimes, another mod causes a game to crash, sometimes there are conflicts. Sometimes a mesh is more than the userâs system can handle.
One could argue that downloaders need to educate themselves and find out what their game can handle.
But IMO, creators canât just push away all responsibility.
They do have a certain responsibility to educate their downloaders who donât know what polygons are all about.
It is all a question of perspective
So, what potential risk comes from a high-poly mesh?
Before talking about high poly meshes, there has to be a common ground on the definition of high poly. Â
My definition is: âA high polygon mesh is a mesh which exceeds the gameâs usual/average polygon range for that specific mesh type.â
There is always room for interpretation on the âexceedingâ part.
My rule of thumb is that everything thatâs 50% higher than a comparable game mesh should be considered high-poly.
It is what it is, a rule of thumb. Some may be stricter and argue that everything that is above the average poly in the comparable game category has to be considered high-poly. This rule is especially important for simmers with low performance-computers. If you are concerned that your computer canât handle stuff, then try to stay within the base-ranges when looking for CC.
If you think that your computer can handle a little extra, take the 50% rule or even a 100% above average rule if you think thatâs okay. But if you are a creator who wants to cater to the low spec groups, you have to set your bar pretty low.
Which polygon numbers are âthe averageâ?
If you want to figure out what the average polys are for a certain mesh type, then take a look at the specific meshes that are in the original game you are creating for/downloading for. If your'e looking for the average polygon count of a hair, you should look at polygon counts for other hairs in the game. If you want to compare full body outfits, compare them to other fullbody outfits. Comparing a hair to a shoe, for example, wonât be very helpful in finding out average polygon counts for the game. Original game meshes have a certain polygon limit and every category has different regulations. A sims 3 basegame hair usually has a higher polygon count than a sims 3 basegane shoe, for example.
Game meshes also have different polygon counts, depending on the game itself. Sims 2 has lower polygons than sims 3, sims 4 has slightly higher polygon counts than sims 3. And inside every game, there are fluctuations -
some CAS outfits have a higher polygon count than others, depending on their detail. If you want to figure out an average in numbers, take five meshes out of the same game category (for example, 5 top meshes) add up the polygon counts, then divide by the number of meshes you added up. This is a number you can work with as a reference (and you still have a bit of room to go up on), if you want to work within the gamesâ polygon regulations.
But what risks are there when using high-poly meshes on lower end machines?
Letâs say a sims 3 sim is given a custom hair that has 20k polys, but otherwise uses EA outfits, and this is the only high poly CC in the game. The risk of game performance loss would be very slim.
But letâs add a pair of 15k shoes, a 15k outfit to that and a 10k necklace, 5k earrings, 3k lashes⌠Letâs say these meshes are also valid for random. What happens then is that townies are going to potentially roll these meshes for their outfits as well.
The sims game meshes use a system of LODs (lower detail meshes). There are up to four different polygon-reduced meshes for hairs and accessories and up to three different meshes for everything else in the CAS department. Most of the time, there are three meshes, a high detail mesh, which is the mesh that you see when you are close to your sim, then a medium detail mesh which is used when you are further away or when you have very low game settings, and a low detail mesh that gets used when the camera is really far away from the sim. The exact distances that have to be reached to enable the switching to those lower level meshes are dependent on your game settings. If your game settings (especially sim-detail) are low, they will show up much sooner. If your game is on the highest settings, you might not see those lower level meshes at all, because the lower LODs are designed to accomodate low-performance computers (for example, older laptops).
Do we really need LODs?
So you could argue that you donât need LODs, because you donât see them/have the game on the highest settings. Congratulations on having a computer that can handle the game on the highest settings! And in your case, your computer probably can handle not having proper LODs.
But what about other simmers that arenât as fortunate?
The game, as it was designed by EA, aims to to accomodate to all players. Thatâs why there are polygon limits by EA. And they wanted to prevent getting sued by thousands whose graphics cards have been fried
As a custom content creator, I personally want to make sure that my meshes can be potentially used by all players, even those who play on crappy laptops and will see my medium or low LODs.
This is how I see it, but of course, there are creators who donât want to have to limit themselves like that; they only cater to one specific audience: Those with good system specs that can easily handle more polygons than those that the game meshes have, or those that just want to take stunning pictures and are not concerned with actual game performance.
And thatâs fine, everyone should create for and play their sims games the way they want. But that doesnât mean that sharing your CC- creations doesnât come with responsibilities.
Simply state the facts
I have made this plea in the past: Creators which do create high-poly meshes should definitely state that their meshes are not in the gamesâ usual polygon range and that this could lead to performance issues.
If a creator happens to use their high-poly mesh for the medium and low LODs as well, this also means that this mesh isnât appropriate for lower-end machines.
Things like this should be spelled out clearly so that those who donât have systems that can handle them know about this.
Of course, It is not a creatorâs responsibility to make sure the downloaders read the message. If they donât, thatâs on them, but at least the creators are in the clear.
How about a mesage saying something like: âThis is a high-poly mesh. On lower end machines, this could significantly reduce game performance and put stress on your hardware. Use at your own riskâ.
I donât see many see warnings like those on high-poly creations.
Some creators do state their polygon counts, which is a good start.
Still, there are a lot of CC downloaders who find a note like: âNew shoes. Polygon count: 10kâ and still donât know what that means for their games. They need a bit more of an education.
Why should I care?
Some creators seem to have a âdonât careâ attitude or may think that because a large number of creators are creating high poly meshes, itâs okay to neglect putting up a warning that high-poly meshes can impact game performance and, in worst case, damage hardware - because âeveryoneâs doing it like thatâ.
Sure, you are not bound to. You can carry on like always, and you might never have a complaint ever.
But, I canât stress this enough, there will always be people who download high-poly meshes who donât know anything about polys, and there are people who might be devastated because their games donât work anymore or they have lost hardware because of overheating graphics. This might not happen often, or ever, but it is a possibility, a risk that is still real.
This is my opinion and Iâm sure that there are a lot of creators who might say: âWell, if those simmers donât even know about polys, they should just stop downloading my CC.â
You are right, that would be the reasonable thing to doâŚ
But we all know thatâs not going to happen.
You canât force people to read anything you write next to your creations. Yes, people might not even bother to read anything and just hit the download button.
But you know what, if you do take the time to write a warning, you have done your part and show that you know your responsibilities.
As a creator, I want to make sure I do everything I can to educate people and to reduce the risk of people doing damage to their systems using my CC. Donât you?
Creators, just a simple message/disclaimer regarding the polygon count and the possible impact on game performance is enough to be in the clear!
Please, do your share to educate your downloaders.
Youâll feel calmer. Youâll feel better :) Okay, maybe not, but seriously. Itâs a really nice thing youâre doing for the community.
It was also said in the comments, but important note:
When something is unmorphed, polycount doesnât visually matter as much. It will still impact performance though, because the game still has to read those many, many, many faces and put the mesh together to show on your screen. But when it is morphed, oh boyâŚ
Why morphs? For morphs to work, they need to be within a specific vertex ID range. Depending on how the item is made/ which software was used (e.g. DABOOBS vs. TSRW for hair), this will be +- equal to the vertice count, or lower, but if it touched tsrw usually equal.
And those vertex ID ranges canât touch each other, if they do - you get the infamous explosions when your sim isnât the basic bodyshape (muscle to the bottom and weight in the middle)
These ranges are, for clothes:
Tops 5k - 15k, so can be 10k vertices max. This will usually be about 12 - 13k polycounts max depending on the structure. Absolute max, and the lower lods canât be morphed.
Bottoms 15k - 20k, so can be 5k vertices max. This will usually be about 8k polycount max. Again, absolute effing max.
Outfits 5k - 20k, so 15k vertices max.
For shoes, which are âlastâ in the standard hierachy, it depends whether the sims is wearing (morphed) accessories. But when you do not renumber them, keeping shoes below 3k is a safe bet.
Note that the polycount values of EAXIS items are generally much lower than this, generally not even half. The above is the absolute maximum.
If beyond that, the morphs will get into each otherâs zones or the zones of the other cas categories (hair, accessories) and glitch. Also the reason why high poly hairs are so much more common that clothes - if you can stand mild clipping or floating hair, hair doesnât need to be morphed as badly. But clothes whose polycount and therefore vertex count is above 15k, let alone above 20k⌠Those cannot be morphed, so youâre basically saying âhey, I absolutely hate fat and thin and fit and pregnant sims!â
And just saying the polycount⌠A noob who just uses tumblr to download sparkly new cc and is otherwise is their own little world, they donât know what â20kâ means. So if something is on the higher end, a specific warning genre âthis is a high poly item, make sure to use this sparingly as it will decrease performance otherwiseâ is fair. And as a creator, make sure to disable anything but very maxismatch and basic style items for random.
I made this Photoshop action a while ago for myself because I got so tired of always doing the same routine over and over again when doing normalmaps for my Sims 3 CC clothing projects.
Now I have decided to share it with you!
What it does:
This action is mainly useful for Sims 3 clothing creators.
Basically, it creates a normalmap/bump map with one click!
It takes your multiplier, enhances the contrast, applies the NormalMapFilter and then copies and pastes the channels in the right order.
Cool, huh?
A .txt file with detailed instructions is included in the download.
You have to have the Nvidia Texture tools installed for this action to work properly!
I made this action with Photoshop CS6, but Iâm pretty sure it works with older versions as well.
Download the normalmap action!
Hope someone finds this useful? :-)
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Did you know that you can find and use any game texture for your TSRW project? This way you won't have any redundant textures inside your package. The resource key has to be in this format: key:00000000:00000000:0000000000000000
Here are some useful examples:
Black specular= key:00B2D882:00000000:F961EF123B01E579
Empty normal map= key:00b2d882:00000000:972952e0d3631f66
These are universal textures referenced in a ton of EA CAS items and are safe to use in your own projects. So please, don't import a new empty texture! It'll just be another resource the game has to load.
This will also work with textures from a CC package if you put it in your game files. Check out this tutorial for more info: Link
Of course creating an actual specular or normal map will almost always look better, but a majority of you will stick with empty ones regardless.. I've been guilty of using black speculars myself.
Tutorial: Renumbering Shoes/Necklaces Meshes to avoid conflicts and explosions
First of all, a huge thanks to people at MTS and to @virtual-hugs who taught me how to do it at the Creators Cave!
Also sorry for taking so long to write this! It's because I kinda struggle to write in english đŹ
What will you need:
S3PE
Mesh Toolkit
Your shoe/necklace/accessory package ready, so you won't need to go back to TSRW to tweak something. This should be the last step on your CC creation workflow!
First, why does this happen?
Each CAS part has a vertices ID range, and when two parts with morphs have vertices containing the same ID, conflict happens and this is what make some meshes to explode. And this tends to happen when we put high poly shoes with morphed high poly necklaces because the shoes verts ID range is too low. Shoes verts ID starts at 30000, and accessories starts at 31500. In the pĂcture below there's the information provided by the Hint button at Mesh Toolkit with all the verts IDs, but it erroneusly says that accessories start a 0.
With all that said, we can try to renumber these parts verts to a different IDs to try to bypass that.
But let's go to the tutorial!
Again, your shoe/necklace package should be ready to do this, so you won't need to go back to your project in TSRW!
For this tutorial, I'll be using Arltos 109, converted by @rollo-rolls. You can do this tutorial with any CC high poly shoes/necklace, just please respect the creators TOU and do not upload it.
Note how there are tiny gaps showing when the shoes are worn with necklace! In this picture they quite imperceptible, but with some shoes/necklaces more distracting distortions might occur.
đ Step 1:
Open Mesh Toolkit, click on Package Tools tab, and in the Name Those Files tab open your package. Click on Add names, and then type a unique name for the CC part you're working on and save it. Here's what I named mine:
đ Step 2:
Open your package on S3PE, and select the LOD1 (or the LOD0, if you're working with some accessory that might have it) GEOM plus the four BGEOs (they're the morphs) and export them to a folder (just click on it with the right button, and select Export > To file...)
(see? this is why we added the names ^^)
đ Step 3:
Back in Mesh Toolkit, go to the GEOM Tools tab, then to [Re]Number Meshes tab. There, open your base GEOM mesh and BGEOs morphs accordingly.
In the "Number to start with" box, type the number which you want to start the verts ID. I'm usually going with 57000 for shoes, and with around 40000 for necklaces (so they won't conflict with old shoes that aren't renumbered).
Click on Renumber and Save. When asked, select the according number for the LOD you're working with (in this case is 1, but again, if you're working with LOD0, then select 0), and click in Continue.
Then the program will prompt you to save the renumbered mesh and morphs. It's good to create a new sub-folder for them to avoid any confusion.
These are the files we get. LOD1 is my base mesh, and the others are the morphs.
đ Step 4:
Go back to your package on S3PE. Right click on the GEOM mesh you exported before, then click on Replace, and select your new base mesh. Save and close your package.
đ Step 5:
Go back to Mesh Toolkit. Go to the Package Tools tab, and then to the Add Morphs to Clothing/Hair tab, and open your package.
Then tick the morph you will add to the package, and then in the according box (in my case,LOD1 box, but again, if you're working with a LOD0, put it in the LOD0 box) open your new morph.
Then click on "Add morph to package". A box confirming the action will pop-up.
Repeat this step with the other morphs, reminding always to tick the according morph or otherwise you might make some mistake (as adding a fit morph in the place of the fat one).
After you finished, save your package (either the current one, or save as new package).
đ Step 6:
Now test it in game! If everything was done right, you should see no distortion in the shoes and necklaces. Also check if the morphs are working as intended, because sometimes we can make mistakes!
Remember that you'll won't be able to have both the old and the new altered package since they're still the same, we just replaced the meshes and morphs.
Have you seen this post about using DXVK by Criisolate? But felt intimidated by the sheer mass of facts and information?
@desiree-uk and I compiled a guide and the configuration file to make your life easier. It focuses on players not using the EA App, but it might work for those just the same. Itâs definitely worth a try.
Adding this to your game installation will result in a better RAM usage. So your game is less likely to give you Error 12 or crash due to RAM issues. It does NOT give a huge performance boost, but more stability and allows for higher graphics settings in game.
The full guide behind the cut. Let me know if you also would like it as PDF.
Happy simming!
Disclaimer and Credits
Desiree and I are no tech experts and just wrote down how we did this. Our ability to help if you run into trouble is limited. So use at your own risk and back up your files!
We both are on Windows 10 and start the game via TS3W.exe, not the EA App. So your experience may differ.
This guide is based on our own experiments and of course criisolateâs post on tumblr: Â https://www.tumblr.com/criisolate/749374223346286592/ill-explain-what-i-did-below-before-making-any
This guide is brought to you by Desiree-UK and Norn.
Compatibility
Note: This will conflict with other programs that âinjectâ functionality into your game so they may stop working. Notably
Reshade
GShade
Nvidia Experience/Nvidia Inspector/Nvidia Shaders
RivaTuner Statistics Server
It does work seamlessly with LazyDuchessâ Smooth Patch.
LazyDuchessâ Launcher: unknown
Alder Lake patch: does conflict. One user got it working by starting the game by launching TS3.exe (also with admin rights) instead of TS3W.exe. This seemed to create the cache file for DXVK. After that, the game could be started from TS3W.exe again. That might not work for everyone though.
A word on FPS and V-Sync
With such an old game itâs crucial to cap framerate (FPS). This is done in the DXVK.conf file. Same with V-Sync.
You need
a text editor (easiest to use is Windows Notepad)
to download DXVK, version 2.3.1 from here: https://github.com/doitsujin/DXVK/releases/tag/v2.3.1
Extract the archive, you are going to need the file d3d9.dll from the x32 folder
the configuration file DXVK.conf from here: https://github.com/doitsujin/DXVK/blob/master/DXVK.conf.
Optional: download the edited version with the required changes here.
administrator rights on your PC
to know your gameâs installation path (bin folder) and where to find the user folder
a tiny bit of patience :)
First Step: Backup
Backup your original Bin folder in your Sims 3 installation path! The DXVK file may overwrite some files! The path should be something like this (for retail): \Program Files (x86)\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\Game\Bin (This is the folder where also GraphicsRule.sgr and the TS3W.exe and TS3.exe are located.)
Backup your options.ini in your gameâs user folder! Making the game use the DXVK file will count as a change in GPU driver, so the options.ini will reset once you start your game after installation. The path should be something like this: \Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3 (This is the folder where your Mods folder is located).
Preparations
Make sure you run the game as administrator. You can check that by right-clicking on the icon that starts your game. Go to Properties > Advanced and check the box âRun as administratorâ.
Note: This will result in a prompt each time you start your game, if you want to allow this application to make modifications to your system. Click âYesâ and the game will load.
2. Make sure you have the DEP settings from Windows applied to your game.
Open the Windows Control Panel.
Click System and Security > System > Advanced System Settings.
On the Advanced tab, next to the Performance heading, click Settings.
Click the Data Execution Prevention tab.
Select 'Turn on DEP for all programs and services except theseâ:
Click the Add button, a window to the file explorer opens. Navigate to your Sims 3 installation folder (the bin folder once again) and add TS3W.exe and TS3.exe.
Click OK. Then you can close all those dialog windows again.
Setting up the DXVK.conf file
Open the file with a text editor and delete everything in it. Then add these values:
d3d9.textureMemory = 1
d3d9.presentInterval = 1
d3d9.maxFrameRate = 60
d3d9.presentInterval enables V-Sync,d3d9.maxFrameRate sets the FrameRate. You can edit those values, but never change the first line (d3d9.textureMemory)!
The original DXVK.conf contains many more options in case you would like to add more settings.
A. no Reshade/GShade
Setting up DXVK
Copy the two files d3d9.dll and DXVK.conf into the Bin folder in your Sims 3 installation path. This is the folder where also GraphicsRule.sgr and the TS3W.exe and TS3.exe are located. If you are prompted to overwrite files, please choose yes (you DID backup your folder, right?)
And thatâs basically all that is required to install.
Start your game now and let it run for a short while. Click around, open Buy mode or CAS, move the camera.
Now quit without saving. Once the game is closed fully, open your bin folder again and double check if a file âTS3W.DXVK-cacheâ was generated. If so â congrats! All done!
Things to note
Heads up, the game options will reset! So it will give you a âvanillaâ start screen and options.
Donât worry if the game seems to be frozen during loading. It may take a few minutes longer to load but it will load eventually.
The TS3W.DXVK-cache file is the actual cache DXVK is using. So donât delete this! Just ignore it and leave it alone. When someone tells to clear cache files â this is not one of them!
Update Options.ini
Go to your user folder and open the options.ini file with a text editor like Notepad.
Find the line âlastdevice = â. It will have several values, separated by semicolons. Copy the last one, after the last semicolon, the digits only. Close the file.
Now go to your backup version of the Options.ini file, open it and find that line âlastdeviceâ again. Replace the last value with the one you just copied. Make sure to only replace those digits!
Save and close the file.
Copy this version of the file into your user folder, replacing the one that is there.
Things to note:
If your GPU driver is updated, you might have to do these steps again as it might reset your device ID again. Though it seems that the DXVK ID overrides the GPU ID, so it might not happen.
How do I know itâs working?
Open the task manager and look at RAM usage. Remember the game can only use 4 GB of RAM at maximum and starts crashing when usage goes up to somewhere between 3.2 â 3.8 GB (itâs a bit different for everybody).
So if you see values like 2.1456 for RAM usage in a large world and an ongoing save, itâs working. Generally the lower the value, the better for stability.
Also, DXVK will have generated its cache file called TS3W.DXVK-cache in the bin folder. The file size will grow with time as DXVK is adding stuff to it, e.g. from different worlds or savegames. Initially it might be something like 46 KB or 58 KB, so itâs really small.
Optional: changing MemCacheBudgetValue
MemCacheBudgetValue determines the size of the game's VRAM Cache. You can edit those values but the difference might not be noticeable in game. It also depends on your computerâs hardware how much you can allow here.
The two lines of seti MemCacheBudgetValue correspond to the high RAM level and low RAM level situations. Therefore, theoretically, the first line MemCacheBudgetValue should be set to a larger value, while the second line should be set to a value less than or equal to the first line.
The original values represent 200MB (209715200) and 160MB (167772160) respectively. They are calculated as 200x1024x1024=209175200 and 160x1024x1024=167772160.
Back up your GraphicsRules.sgr file! If you make a mistake here, your game wonât work anymore.
Go to your bin folder and open your GraphicsRules.sgr with a text editor.
Search and find two lines that set the variables for MemCacheBudgetValue.
Modify these two values to larger numbers. Make sure the value in the first line is higher or equals the value in the second line. Examples for values:
1073741824, which means 1GB
2147483648 which means 2 GB.
-1 (minus 1) means no limit (but is highly experimental, use at own risk)
Save and close the file. It might prompt you to save the file to a different place and not allow you to save in the Bin folder. Just save it someplace else in this case and copy/paste it to the Bin folder afterwards. If asked to overwrite the existing file, click yes.
Now start your game and see if it makes a difference in smoothness or texture loading. Make sure to check RAM and VRAM usage to see how it works.
You might need to change the values back and forth to find the âsweet spotâ for your game. Mine seems to work best with setting the first value to 2147483648 and the second to 1073741824.
Uninstallation
Delete these files from your bin folder (installation path):
d3d9.dll
DXVK.conf
TS3W.DXVK-cache
And if you have it, also TS3W_d3d9.log
if you changed the values in your GraphicsRule.sgr file, too, donât forget to change them back or to replace the file with your backed up version.
OR
delete the bin folder and add it from your backup again.
B. with Reshade/GShade
Follow the steps from part A. no Reshade/Gshade to set up DXVK.
If you are already using Reshade (RS) or GShade (GS), you will be prompted to overwrite files, so choose YES. RS and GS may stop working, so you will need to reinstall them.
Whatever version you are using, the interface shows similar options of which API you can choose from (these screenshots are from the latest versions of RS and GS).
Please note:Â
Each time you install and uninstall DXVK, switching the game between Vulkan and d3d9, is essentially changing the graphics card ID again, which results in the settings in your options.ini file being repeatedly reset.
ReShade interface
Choose â Vulcan
Click next and choose your preferred shaders.
Hopefully this install method works and it won't install its own d3d9.dll file.
If it doesn't work, then choose DirectX9 in RS, but you must make sure to replace the d3d9.dll file with DXVK's d3d9.dll (the one from its 32bit folder, checking its size is 3.86mb.)
GShade interface
Choose â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
Executable Architecture: 32bit
Graphics API: DXVK
Hooking: Normal Mode
GShade is very problematic, it won't work straight out of the box and the overlay doesn't show up, which defeats the purpose of using it if you can't add or edit the shaders you want to use.
Check the game's bin folder, making sure the d3d9.dll is still there and its size is 3.86mb - that is DXVK's dll file.
If installing using the DXVK method doesn't work, you can choose the DirectX method, but there is no guarantee it works either.
The game will not run with these files in the folder:
d3d10core.dll
d3d11.dll
dxgi.dll
If you delete them, the game will start but you can't access GShade! It might be better to use ReShade.
Some Vulcan and DirectX information, if youâre interested:
Vulcan is for rather high end graphic cards but is backward compatible with some older cards. Try this method with ReShade or GShade first.
DirectX is more stable and works best with older cards and systems. Try this method if Vulcan doesn't work with ReShade/GShade in your game â remember to replace the d3d9.dll with DXVK's d3d9.dll.
For more information on the difference between Vulcan and DirectX, see this article:
Random immensively helpful cc making tip that got drammed into me when I started making cc:
Inspect things
Weirdly & gorgeously detailed EAXIS acrobat outfit that's somehow still only 5k? Open that birch up in tsrw and export the mesh to blender and inspect how it's made, compare the multiplier and the normal map etc.
How did EA make a skirt with a high slit that doesn't go grazy in animation?
You guessed it, open it up, get it in blender, inspect its topology and bones.
Wait, how do you get those sheer 3d sleeves? EA has few/no meshes with 3d sheer parts so....Lemme inspect that cc with the pretty sheer sleeves!
Wait, how does that mask seemingly have 5 channels?
Inspect it
What's a normal map supposed to look like?
INSPECT IT!!!!
(Note; the normal maps you see in tsrw of some BG items are weird and funky, I recommend cloning a later ep item instead)
Look at how others things that have something special or are very nicely made are made. I specifically recommend looking at later ep & sp & store eaxis items first and foremost, because while most cc out there is perfectly functional, it sometimes isn't EA maxis match standard and can have some peculiarities. There are some ea items that are really well made and inspecting their topology, textures and so on can give you a lot of insight.
For the same reason, when I first started making cc, I first tried some 4to3 conversions, using mildly outdated tutorials. This wasn't going anywhere as options the tutorials said I had to use weren't working, it didn't look pretty etc etc. Then @simlicious recommended me to start with an EAXIS frankenmesh, and I made my "sleeveless vest" and "sleeveless vest with ruffle blouse". While I would do those two slightly different now (but can't be bothered, cus they're old news now.) With her assistance I learned SO MUCH when making them.
Starting with an EAXIS ts3 mesh and frankenmeshing it or altering it also gets rid of two intimidating steps I see mistakes in in other's earliest projects - uv mapping (the item already has an optimized for ts3 uv lay out) and the shape (the item already is made to the ts3 bodyshape, so no struggle with autoboobjob or weird shoulders etc)
Also, there is still miles of untapped potential for sims 3 assets mesh & texture alterations and frankenmeshes, it's lowkey overwhelming and my head constantly explodes with options (while there are also so many nice ts4 things to convert! AAAAAH) , to the point there are multiple maxis match TS4 creators who commonly use ts3 store & ep/sp mesh parts in their frankenmeshes, if it isn't a straight up 3to4 conversion!
(This is to say: there are ugly EA items, and EA items with mistakes etc. But lots of it looks very nice if you prefer maxis match to begin with)
Amen! đ I'd love to see more original items from TS3 creators!
A few general tips for people who want to get into Sims 3 Custom Content creation, specifically clothing :
Starting your CC journey can feel overwhelming and converting doesn't seem as intimidating at first, because you do not have to create your own meshes or textures. But for it to look right and work right, it can mean a lot of extra work and knowledge to sort out issues that can arise when converting CC.
It may be less intimidating to learn by starting with simple texture edit with just slight alterations of the mesh without adding new geometry at first. This is how I started many years ago.
As @toadifylackoffantasy already mentioned: it's a very good idea to inspect different game meshes and textures to see how they work. Most TS3 meshes work pretty well when playing animations, so if you imitate their structure and methods, your meshes will have a good chance of working that way, too.
When you know how EA's meshes and textures are made, you can spot deviations more easily and it may help you figure out whether this approach works or might be a mistake. CC creators often do not follow EA's techniques very closely, and knowing when to follow it because it is crucial and when it's okay to do your own thing is important for how the CC behaves in the end. This skill is honed with experience, but you can start with it right in the beginning.
When I first started my meshing journey in 2010, I familiarized myself with the different texture types and tools first. Back then, Milkshape was mainly used for meshing, but I would definitely recommend Blender now. Blender has come a long way and improved a lot over the last years. It has a steep learning curve, but you do not need a broad knowledge of Blender to start making your own CC edits, you need very basic specific knowledge to get started and learn more along the way.
Don't be afraid to experiment.
My first few clothing edits were made out of frustration with certain CC pieces that I used and generally liked, but had some aspect that bothered me, so I attempted to change those to my liking (ofc I never shared those files with anyone, they were personal edits). I learnt a lot of valuable lessons through this process.
Most basic Blender tutorials show you how to create and edit geometry, some are using techniques which are not game-friendly, like subdivision surface modeling or the use of the multi-resolution modifier. If you hear those terms, be carefulâtechniques like that should only be used in our workflows when sculpting a high resolution mesh to bake/generate textures from. These methods can result in a very high-poly mesh and these should not be directly used in our Sims 3 games.
You can retopologize such a high-poly mesh to create a low-poly version of it that would be acceptable, but that's pretty advanced stuff since you need to know hoe the topological flow of the Sims 3 meshes are and imitate them to get best results - nothing to concern yourself with at the start of your meshing journey.
Instead, I recommend looking for Blender tutorials specifically for low-poly or game asset creationâthese tutorials usually take polygon counts into account and don't go crazyâthough how many polys are acceptable of course varies a lot, sims 3 has a pretty low limit compared to other games.
Before Attempting Clothing Conversions in Blender
Before you dive into clothing conversions, I specifically recommend learning these things:
How the UV map and textures work for The Sims 3 - knowing what texture does what, and in which size and format it should be made in
basic skills in an image editing program which supports the DDS file format (for a free one that is very similar to Photoshop (down to the same shortcuts even), I recommend Photopea, it is free and runs in your browser)
Basic workflow with Sims 3 CC tools (s3pe, TSR Workshop, s3oc, and Mesh Toolkit are the main ones you'll use)
How the mesh and UV map are structured in the original TS3 meshes
How to fix shading and seam issues on your mesh
Know how to align, reset and copy/paste normals, how to merge and split edges
Blender Meshing Basics
Get comfortable with these Blender tools and concepts:
How to use modifiers like the mirror and edge split modifier
How to split meshes into groups and join them
How to use merge by distance to remove split seams
How to mark sharp edges and set shading to smooth
How to activate/deactivate auto smooth
How to align normals
How to copy normals from one mesh to another using the data transfer modifier
How to triangulate and quadrangulate meshes (working with quadrangulated meshes is visibly less confusing and has better tool support, important for things such as edge loop selection with a simple alt+click which saves a lot of time compared to manually selecting each vertex)
Importing/exporting meshes
How to install plugins and which ones to activate/install (like F2 and UV Squares, Blender GEOM tools)
Basics of the Blender GEOM tools plugin
How to decimate geometry (using the decimate modifier). This is not my favorite method to lower polygon counts since it can have unexpected results in some areasâI like to dissolve certain edges, faces or vertices instead to have more manual control over the process instead, but if your mesh is very high poly, then you may consider lowering it with this modifier if you do not want to do a lot of manual work.
Here's a secret bonus tutorialđ:
đ Anchoring Mesh Pieces
This is what I personally call a method EA utilized in TS3 clothing meshes to seamlessly connect mesh pieces to each other through connected vertices. It helps to minimize clipping and gaps during animations. The technique involves making sure that the vertices at the seams of different mesh pieces, such as connecting the neck to the collar of a shirt, are connected like two magnets, and will share the same space, so they are basically treated as one when assigning bones and them getting identical bone assignments will prevent gaps forming in the mesh on certain animations, which can happen if you leave edges raw/unconnected. In combination with good bone assignments, This can also reduce clipping/mesh pieces poking through each other.
To utilize the method of anchoring, you can pair up vertices from one edge to one on the opposing edge. You can use strategies such as selecting a vertex, then tapping the g key twice to move it along the edge to better line them up. Pro tip: this vertex slide mode locks the axis to the edge and moves the vertex also on the UV map, which results in a better UV map and less work fixing it for you later on.
Enable snapping with snap to vertex mode to easily snap one vertex from one edge to the other on the other edge. Sometimes, the vertices might not match up and you have too many on one edge or too little on the other. In that case, you need to remove ("dissolve vertices") or add an additional vertex on the other edge with the knife tool (or by selecting two vertices or an edge between two vertices and using subdivide on it to create a new vertex in the middleâthere are often several ways of achieving something in Blender) in case there is a mismatch. Whether to add or remove the vertex depends on the shape and complexity of your mesh. If removing vertices from one edge results in an undesired shape change, adding vertices on the other edge instead is preferable.
Ideally, each vertex on your mesh should have a visible purpose, meaning if it is removed, the shape of your mesh will visibly change. If your mesh has so many vertices that you do not notice a difference in how the shape looks by removing the one next to it, the vertex density is probably too high and you can safely dissolve the superfluous ones away, but that is a topic for another time.
Textures
How to add and connect node-based textures so you can check your textures right in Blender right on your mesh (and even edit the textures using texture paint)
Basic UV Editing
How to use the align tools on the UV map
Moving and selecting islands
Using different modes: vertex, edge, face select to your advantage
Enabling/disabling UV sync mode as needed
Different ways to unwrap (mainly the plain unwrap and project from view types)
Using the heatmap view and applying a UV grid texture to check for issues on the UV map (there is a handy addon for that too: Quick UV Checkers)
This is just what I remember (I may have missed something, I've been on a meshing hiatus for a while), and it covers only Blender (not other CC tools), but this information should give you a basic direction to go in while learning Blender. Knowing how to do these things gives you a solid base for tackling conversions (and Frankenmeshes/mashups of EA meshes or your very own meshes, too!).
Once you are more confident in your abilities, itâs easier to venture deeper and learn things like how to adjust or make your own morphs, change bone assignments manually, and optimize the UV maps of your meshes.
While learning to make conversions, to take them to the next level, I suggest you get into:
weight painting/manual bone assignments
texture painting
Baking textures/transferring textures from one mesh to another
How to create and edit custom UV's
How to set and remove seams for UV's
How different unwrapping methods change the resulting UV
How to use a UV grid addon to get square-looking UV maps
How to use tools to improve UV maps like align and minimize stretch
If anyone wants to add to this post and share more tips and strategies to learn (or add other areas I haven't covered in detail), feel free do write in the comments or reblog.
If you have read this far, you're definitely a good candidate to learn how to make clothing CC for TS3! Patience and focus will definitely help you while troubleshooting. And talking about your woes with fellow sufferers, of course (on the Sims 3 Creator's Cave discord, for example)!
If you're here looking for the TL;DR:
Learn from actual Blender users, not just from sims tutorials. If you want to specifically know what to learn in Blender in order to make TS3 CAS CC, read the bullet point lists.
It may look like a bunch of stuff to learn, but I think it's better to know what you need so you can focus on learning the core skills rather than learning lots of stuff you may not actually need in this context.
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Ok, you guys know damn well I'm anti-gatekeeping resources and anti-cc-creator-competitions-to-see-who's-better-at-playing-digital-play-Doh. AND ABOUT THAT, I found out about MESH REPAIR TOOLS by SINEWAVE. It's a FREE add-on for blender. It does A LOT of things, but do you know what it also can do? DECIMATE MESHES BETTER THAN BLENDER.
Before (taken on sims4studio):
After (taken on blender):
All of this with two clicks on the "Reduce" button. Yes I'm in an awe but can you really blame me?? The mesh looks exactly THE SAME. I don't need to fix wonky UVs or replace textures. It does everything PERFECTLY.
Or: everything I've pulled out of the official game files
Here's a link to my google driveđ where I store the .png files I took out of the Sims games I have.
Those can be anything from floors, to walls, to asset textures, over artwork, and terrain. I'm putting these here in the hope that they will help other CC creators with their stuff. Especially in the era of AI, getting a good seamless texture can be a struggle. Let's be a community and share the stash
I've been converting a lot lately and felt a bit inspired to share what I've learnt. I am fully aware that I'm still a beginner and have a lot to learn - I just wanted to share some beginner-friendly instructions while I'm still fresh and remember exactly what overwhelmed me when I started.
There are better tutorials out there, if you know the basics already this probably isn't the video for you, but if you have no idea what's involved then hopefully this will be enough to get you started converting objects :)
hiii! would you mind sharing a tut for how to add/make morphs for hairs over the normal poly of 11k?
It's all in the vertex ID's!
My "discovery" comes from some things @thecardinalsims said in their hairtutorial on MTS (recommended read/overall workflow!), some things @virtual-hugs told me, as well as a fragment from @bellakenobi's vertex id renumbering tutorial, that told me the vertex id range for hair is in between 20k and 30k, a range of 10k:
Basically: Cardinalsims said somewhere in their thread that the max amount of vertex id's for hair is 10k, the range being between 20k and 30k, and then I also saw this by Bella - a bell started ringing and I had to confirm for myself (cardinalsims generally does very low poly hairs), and VH said something about a 10k limit and vertex id's...
How I understand it, vertex id's are the "positions" in which there are vertices, aka the corners of poly's or faces. Vertices that are in the exact same spot, will share a vertex ID.
Lots of hairs are above 10k vertex id's. This, even when there aren't deliberately morphs added, will make the hair deform when morphing 3D accessories or slightly higher poly shoes are worn, because the hair gets in their range - above 30k or 31,5 k respectively, starting from hair's 20k - I've seen this with a couple of hairstyles. they started deforming when I put a necklace or cc boots on a sim.
To counter this, most creators clone the cursed pigtails in tsrw. They aren't morphed and EA gave them a very odd vertex id range, starting at 240 000 or something (or add another zero). (Edit: It's actually from -1 to -1) This vertex id range being miles away from everything will make it not clash, but I guess also makes it unmorphable.
Then we come to: how to make many more hairs than expected have below 10k vertex id's?
Very simple, it's all in the backfaces. Out of respect for those creators I won't randomly share share pictures of those cases, but basically; in most cases, the backfaces of hair will either be sized down slightly, repositioned slightly, or have less faces and have a different shape (often resulting in a sort of "checkerboard" look). Aka, not all the backface's vertices will be in the exact same position as the uppers their vertices, resulting in more vertex id's.
Left is upper (blue) with backface (red) not the exact same shape; the only shared vertices are the white dot, the grey dots will have different vertex id's
On the right, the upper and backface have the exact same shape without resizing, just copypaste and normals flipped. All their vertices are in the same spots, sharing the same vertex id for each "pair".
That the backfaces are different isn't always bad, as it can cut down on overall polycount. Newsea Spotlight for example it's backfaces were much lower poly, enabling a curly hair to be below 13k. but even with the different shape, lots of the vertices (basically those on the edges of the strands) still shared the exact same location, so after recalculating vertex id's (see further) they were below 10k, and the hair morphs well. So with hair that's below, say, 13k polycount, it doesn't hurt to just click the vertex id button and that's it and it might already be morphable.
So when making my anto angele edit, I wanted to reconfirm it with a 15k+ hair.
I first deleted all the backfaces, and did what I wanted to do (reshaping it to fit the male head and edit the bones)
With "face orientation" on in blender, it will show up in blue, with the backside of the faces in red. What's red will show up invisible in the game, so some hairlocks won't exist from some angles, and we don't want that of course.
At that point, it had 6693 vertices, with 6519 vertex id's. This I saw after changing the "start-id" to 20 000, and clicking "recalculate vertex id's"
I duplicated the mesh. I deleted the strands that don't need backfaces (the bits covering the scalp and some of the ponytail), and did Mesh -> normals --> flip, so the red side is facing us now, the side that will be invisible. So other than deleting some strands and flipping the normals, I don't touch it.
When I make both the upper and backfaces visible then, the places that have backfaces will either be purple or magenta, very pretty shades!
I selected both in object mode, first the upper, then CTRL -> backfaces (basically, whatever keeps purple on the outside and not the magenta), and clicked CTRL + J to join them.
i then clicked "recalculate vertex id's" again, and tada! still 6519 (my final thing actually nded up more cus I had deleted too much in these obj's, they're whatever I found that was the backface and upper still separated in my blend file to illustrate) while being almost 16k faces.
Basically - when backfaces and uppers are the exact same shape and position, the amount of vertex id's can never be more than the amount of vertices before backfaces are added. If you consider adding backfaces tends to double the vertices, and often more than 2 vertices share the same spot, hair up to 25k might have below 10k vertex id's. it will depend on it's exact structure and style (aka, how many of these poly's are part of backfaces)
That's also obviously where the supposed 11k limit for morphed hair comes from - some vertices will be in the same location, accidentally bringing the amount of vertex id's below 10k without the creator ever looking at them.
I would also recommend creating (hatless) hair in DABOOBS rather than TSRW. It's a very intuitive, non-overwhelming software, and hair tends to behave better with it. The aforementioned Newsea spotlight was glitchy and did, in fact, explode in the morphs when I made it with TSRW. I thought my "theory" of hair above 12k being morphable was wrong, but then I made it again in Daboobs with those very same geom and texture files, and it was fine!
For the actual making of the morphs, I'll refer you to cardinalsim's tutorial again, as it is very well explained there.
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@dhalsimsâ commented on my post [Hi, lovely :D] and I thought Iâd show you through a post instead of a private message [no hoarding knowledge you beasts!] This is a super simple method that Luna used to use when she was still in the community. If you ever pop open one of her models, youâll see the textures are just simple images, and I was always baffled how she did it. When I first started modeling, I tried [and failed, and failed again] to create models from images and they either looked like a hot mess or they were wayyyy up there in polycount from trying to get every nook and cranny.
I wrote this as if youâre just starting out in blender before, so if youâre more advanced please forgive my rambling.
So, here I introduce, the knife tool in blender [I donât use milkshape, so please donât ask lol]
Why on earth would I want to cut something to make something? Shh, let me know you.
Youâre gonna start with this:
Yep, thatâs it. Add a plane, UV map it so you can put the texture on it. I scaled mine so it wasnât stretched, so just figure out the general size youâd like and hit edit mode for that plane. On the left side of the screen youâre going to want the tools section. Look down the list until you find the knife button.
Click it, and itâs going to give you a little knife with a green dot. Go around your image and trace the shape with the knife tool using small clicks. [Note, every click will be a vertice]
Trace your shape all the way around the edge, and when you connect the last one, youâre gonna have a string like thing. Donât panic, just hit enter once those are connected and you have the random line attached to your mouse. Itâs going to give you a cut-out like this.
Well crap, you say at the giant hole in your picture⌠No, just wait. Patience.
Select the vertices around your basic shape. [Shift/Alt Right click people, donât be like me when I started and select every vertice by itself. Save yourself time.]
Now, you can do this 2 ways. Either duplicate those vertices, or [in edit mode] press P/Selection to remove those vertices from the plane. Either method will do.
Now press F to fill in that space, and unwrap it. No need to go marking seams, just press unwrap, itâll match the shape.
Press E to extrude that down. If itâs gone wonky, right click to release it and use your blue arrow to move it straight down so itâs not at an angle.
You now have a basic shape. Hold on, thereâs a few more bits. Go ahead and delete that plane, you wonât need it anymore. [Remember if itâs attached to the mesh, select the vertices of the plane and then delete]
If your mesh looks like this [ignore the UV mapping, I fiddled with mine] just go to MESH in Edit mode, and go up to NORMALS. Hit Flip Normals to get it to flip directions.
Like so:
Now the rest is UV mapping and getting it to where you like it for your textures. Iâm not going to go over that here, but I highly recommend watching videos and studying UV mapping. On a platform like the sims, you can do amazing things with textures without having astronomical polycounts. Now one more thing, to give your mesh a little oomph, you can bevel. One pieces like this, I use it regularly as meat isnât supposed to be flat. Select the top of your mesh, and hit ctrl/B. Be gentle, itâll take off with you. Drag that out until you have a slight bevel to your edge.
As you can see, since you UV mapped it beforehand, it already added that in for you.
And there you have it. A simple mesh, with textures straight from google image search. AND: Look at that number! :D [70]
Now go do great things! (: And tag me so I can see your CC! :D
NOTE: I am not an expert. There are other methods that you can use to do similar projects, there are methods that will get you more detailed results, but for a low poly, game-ready item, this is how I do it. If this helps you, let me know I did something for the world today :D [Kidding, but kind of� lol] I hope it helps, and happy modding!
Game, Sim, Match | Tennis Collection for The Sims 3
Hey, I'm back again! This time, I bring you functional tennis.
Set machinima/music video: Game, Sim, Match | The Sims 3
Important info and download đž under the cut:
This project has been three years in the making. I started this back in 2020 after getting permission from Basimcly (aka lemmylou) to use their meshes. For various reasons, it got shelved until earlier this year. I've been on a CC creation kick this year, and in the midst of some not-so-great times that occurred from late March to early May, I decided to take on this project again as a distraction, and I put all my effort into it.
I used to play tennis myself, and modeled the tennis court in the previews after the one I spent far too many summer days on (it's missing the cracks it has today)...likewise, the soundtrack to the little film I linked above was one of the top 10 songs that year, so it's the most nostalgic song looking back on that summer I started playing.
This set is a combination of different elements.
- This set requires the University Life đ expansion pack. Since this is a cosmetic change to the ping pong table, which comes with UL, you will need that pack for the actual tennis court object's functionality, and for the tuning mod. The deco objects (besides the tennis court objects) will work fine with base game. You can also still use the collection file for the objects even if you do not have UL.
đ Default Replacements
- First, the tennis is really ping pong in disguise. The tennis racket and tennis ball are default replacements. While I have provided several colors for each, you can only have one of each in your game at one time, because whichever color racket and tennis ball you choose, it will replace all ping pong paddles and all ping pong balls with the chosen color, so all sims will use the same color. Keep in mind that sims playing ping pong at the tables that came with the University Life expansion pack will also use these replacements, so you have to decide if it's worth the tradeoff.
Default Replacement Mesh Credits:
- The tennis racket mesh (offered as a default replacement and an edited fully recolorable deco object version) was created by LillieBou on TSR (2010). Tennis Set - LillieBou
-The tennis ball mesh (offered as a default replacement and a deco object version) was created by Basimcly aka lemmylou (2020).
Game. Set. Match. - Basimcly's Tumblr
đ Tuning Mod
- By EA design, sims will learn the hidden table tennis skill as they play, and will gradually get better. The higher their table tennis skill, the more "real" this set looks, as sims play more skillfully.
- With the tuning mod, sims at least level 1 in Athletic will also improve their Athletic skill by playing tennis. I added the Fatigued moodlet if sims play for too long, and enabled playing for pregnant sims. The tuning mod will only conflict with any mod that also modifies the PlayPingPong_PingPongTable ITUN resource.
đ Tennis Court Objects
- As for the tennis court objects, these are ping pong tables that look like tennis courts. The mesh was created by Basimcly aka lemmylou who was kind enough to let me use their meshes for this project!
- You may notice that there are four versions of the tennis court object. You can have all four versions in your game. They are all the same object with slight differences - the Volleying tennis court has the ping pong table's original routing spots, so sims stand very close to the net and all animations line up. The Match tennis courts have the routing spots moved gradually farther away. Some animations with the ball get a bit strange the further away, but I included these for variety. So if you place a few different courts down next to each other, sims playing will be standing in different spots, adding to realism for photos/videos.
- The animations are designed with a table in mind, so the ball does not touch the ground. When sims lose the match, they will throw their racket down, but it will also not touch the ground. Slightly annoying, but close enough.
đ Decorative & Functional Objects
I have also included several decorative and functional items. Most of these are meshes that were created by Basimcly/lemmylou and the one by LillieBou, with modifications.
- All of the items were recategorized to show up on both community and residential lots and to not show up in Sporting Goods if deco,
-some items I removed or modified the dropshadows (for more of a maxis match game),
- I replaced any English text with Simlish versions,
- I included matching recolors for the tennis balls in the various states they come in (single, package, package opened, catchable),
- modified footprints and intersection for various items,
- changed the transparency of the tennis ball packs,
- and modified the recolor-ability of LillieBou's deco racket.
- Added an original tennis court rules sign, a recolor of EA's pool rules.
đ Search: To make it easier to find the objects in build/buy mode, a collection file is provided. You can also search for riverianepondsims, lemmylou, lilliebou, or tennis to locate the items conveniently using a catalog search mod.
Credits/Thank You:
This set would not have been possible without Basimcly/lemmylou @basimcly and LillieBou. Thank you for allowing me to use your meshes for this set!đ
I can't tell you how many times I started my game up for this, but it's a lot...
â¨Download Catalogâ¨
Here is a download sheet/catalog with all of the preview images, price, location, type, name, original creator, and download links! There is also an installation guide provided at the end.
This is the easiest way for me to provide the download links, given that there are so many colors and individual downloads. I hope you all like this format. I will likely use this in the future when uploading item sets! I have some more things that will be coming, eventually.
Posting is what takes me the longest because if I were a sim, I'd have the Perfectionist trait.
- I ask that you do not re-upload, re-upload behind any paywall (early access, timer, ads, subscription, etc), or include my items in shared mod/CC folders.
- You can find all of my previous uploads conveniently by clicking âNavigationâ on my blog and going to âDownloadsâ or visiting riverianepondsims downloads
My downloads will always be free, but if you would like to say thank you: Ko-fi â
đž Download Catalog: Game, Sim, Match - riverianepondsims
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