Magnificent! I was hoping to find something like this, it's spot on.
I never liked these fences (and it seems no one else liked it either, as I couldn't find any recolor or retexture of them), but that changed once I found out that they were inspired by the Parisian subway stations in Art Nouveau style:
Lovely, isn't it? Therefore, I decided that a less shiny texture would fit them well, applied @cluedosims' rough metal textures to them and voilà! Now they're finally useful:
These are default replacements for the two fences in-game ("Nouvelle Fence by I. Ron Smith"), the green and the iron one.
I also found two other textures in the game files ("brass" and "white"), which I put in proper packages so now you can use them as well, and they're recategorized to appear neatly together in the catalog.
Since I linked these directly to the hidden Maxis texture files, they will pick up any default replacement you might have for these textures. In my default replacement file, those textures are replaced with @cluedosims' "bronze" and "silver" textures, respectively.
⚠️ Not all the files are meant to be put in the Download folders! Here's what you need to know:
The three files inside the folder labeled "These ones go in your Res - Catalog - Bins folder" should go in this path:
C:/Program Files (or wherever else you installed your game)/The Sims 2/[your latest EP or SP]/TSData/Res/Catalog/Bins
If you don't want Cluedo textures, and you merely want to unlock the lost and found Maxis textures, simply abstain from placing the default file in your Downloads folder.
Please let me know if you have any doubts or if I screwed anything up.
Credits: @shastakiss / @cluedosims for the textures!
I'm avoiding re-installing this shit again, so in the meantime I'm sorting some stuff into lists. For Linux research purposes.
Edit: Standby Memory Allocation on Windows 10: New info coming in: That's not the issue. However, what i wrote below about TM is my own experience and has worked for me (without doing what Jessa was saying in the SB memory part, I remembered, hope I didn't waste anybody's time). Does it make sense? idk, but it's harmless, and if it's actually a thing and not just a freak coincidence, and can help anybody else then why not. I do remember trying it with and without cleaning cache :/ [for fuck sake the nerve on EA to put out for sale a new edition without improving it to 64bit]. As discussed by Jessa below, it's an OS problem. What worked for me, for some bizarre reason was to keep Task Manager on before and while playing the game. without it my game was crashing often, on my main non gaming computer. What solved it was fixing windows... for anyone's interested, the gory details are at the bottom of the post under the cut.
+ That combined with clearing cache often.
Jessa's video (Memory Allocation and 4GB Patch Repair). Edit: Turns out this video was pulled back, so basically just make sure the patch is applied?
1. Secound opinion on the whole matter by BrandiNotBroke [the whole #pink flash diaries tag is interesting]:
2. Leefish forum - Sims2 Graphic Cards:
3. @celebkiriedhel's Post (Texture Memory):
Linux:
@teaaddictyt & @niamh-sims About Linux.
2. @nonsensical-pixels about Linux.
3. @brandinotbroke, first Linux supporter I've encountered here. A comprehensive post:
Texture Memory Fuckery (Pink Soup, among other things):
Kiri's post linked at the beginning, first an foremost.
Original Post by @fireflowersims, plus; re-blog by @ovytia. Both of their tags, and comment:
2. A recap on Pink Soup/Texture Sizes by @rockethorse in the comments:
That's it for now. Any more information or good links will be welcome.
Task Manager thing briefly, for the curious (as if it interests anyone else but me, but in the interest of keeping track).
So the game was crashing often. That thing was easy to spot because the laptop would make loud airplane noises when I'd load the game. It got stuck or something, so I went to end it by force with task manager and noticed that all the resources where used to the max - right up until I'd open TM, and then everything would cool down. Like it was playing hide and seek with me. So I figured I'd get smart with it right back, and just leave TM open the whole time. Low and behold, the game stopped crashing. That combined with clearing cache often. Does it make sense? idk, but the computer works in mysterious ways.
Just re-signed at MTS after years and went to uppdate profile. This gives some proportions..
So, after uh, whew, months(!) of experimenting with attempting to change the default face mesh in Sims 2, I’m here to basically share what I’ve found to be possible, what I still am struggling to get working, and what parts of my findings are still useful for a LOT of modding and custom content purposes, even if I couldn’t achieve my initial goal. I’m really tired of this project and I’d rather move on to doing stuff that are more doable (and more quickly doable) for my gameplay goals, rather than trying to do what seems to be a gargantuan task for my level of skills.
In this post I’ll mostly focus on what is doable *in principle*. There’s lots of subtleties and tricks in getting things to look decent (well, at least I think I got it to look decent) which I won’t go into. Or try not to. I go into tangents a lot.
I’ll also not go into step-by-step details. Mostly because I suck at it but also because this post will be super long anyway. If you wanna know, ask!
For those who just want a brief summary: What I could get to work: a default replacement face mesh, with working templates and sliders, for adult sims. Though the procedures are the same for the rest of the ages.
What I still have trouble with: Basically, getting the game to recognize different parts of the face. This means applying the templates to different parts of the mesh, and, of course, genetics, don’t work yet. I have ideas about what could get it to work, but I’ve failed to do it so far.
Awesome things you could still do: My major finding here is that face animations can be applied to *any* CAS object. Clothing, accessories, and of course, nude skins (see below, this was an outfit with a bit that changes with eyes, proof of concept). This means that you can have specific sims with additional face parts and/or accessories and clothing that respond to face animations, or alternatively, you can have skin tones/body morphs that have face pieces which will not mix together between the parents, but are still heritable (with some limitations)
Oh, and full disclosure, the tools I used were simPE and blender 2.9. Nothing else. Don’t know how to do other stuff.
Thank you @simnopke , @rudhira , @withlovefromsimtown and many others for your help and encouragement in all this! I think there’s potential for some really good modding here.
Keep reading
Oh, that's interesting. first time I'm hearing that claim. Now i understand what happened. in my legacy edition copy, I did notice a change to the graphic settings, but thought it was done by someone else, not EA. on the log it states that I have a slightly different card than what I actually have, and it did surprise me they didn't add mine to the pool, i was wondering what's that about. I tried to add mine manually, worrying its absence would cause issues, but it didn't change when I've added mine. I had no problems with it, so I just left it as it is.
Side note: I left this copy for testing (and forgot about it actually), I don't play it if I can help it, so there are hardly any mods on it.
Okay, I compared the Graphics Rules.sgr and Video Cards.sgr with the Ultimate Collection
They did EXACTLY what my brother has been saying for months but people have been debating him over it and didn't want to believe him
The new video cards.sgr doesn't include ANY new graphics cards. Wanna know why? Because the game doesn't fucking care. He has been saying for months that it doesn't care and that adding it via GRM doesn't do anything, it can actually potentially make it worse.
What they DID do is take out all the hacky stuff in the Graphics Rules.sgr to prevent the game from turning on and off certain settings depending on your hardware and software config. That's what I did as well, months ago, because he said it is the smarter solution.
I tend to avoid reblogging, I should probably set up a finds blog, but for now, here's a list of all the new mods I've found and started using for The Sims 2 in the last few months:
Shiftable Everything by @lamare-sims
50 New Lifetime Wants by @lamare-sims
Invisible Kitchen Surface by @lamare-sims
PSBs From Planter’s Paradise Recolors Fix by @simnopke
Time & Weather Manager by @simnopke
Convenience Store Clerk Outfit Fix by @simnopke
Longer Novel Titles by @simnopke
Immersive Rain by @bstu
Fix for Old Pine Trees by sam&skye
Max Slope Value Mod by @catherinetcjd
Go Steady Wants Fix by zachjohnunlimited
Trait Based Skill Gain Speeds by @fwaysims
Amicable Unbonding by @equinoxts2
Community Espresso Machine Now Sells Espresso by VirtualAlex
Fix for Broken Break Up Want by @profesionalpartyguest
4t2 Little Campers Functional Toddler Skill Toys by @elvisgrace
Closest Fridge for Cooking by @picknmixsims
Leftovers Overhaul by @picknmixsims
Charisma Gain while Chatting by @picknmixsims
Rabbit Pen as Toy Dog Pen Default Replacement by @deedee-sims & @episims + Rustic Edit by @pforestsims
No Caffeine Jitters by @episims
Crib Teeth Animation Fix by @episims
Colour Traits by @episims + all the mods for them:
Toothbrushes by Color Traits
Gifts by Color Traits
Coffee Mugs by Color Traits
Pencils by Color Traits
Engagement Ring Stones by Color Traits
Compatibility Addons/Edits by @jellymeduza
I have a mod list with all the mods I use, but I tend to keep new mods 'in testing' for a while before adding them to my list. I also get lazy and sometimes don't get round to updating it for ages. So most of these amazing finds are not yet on my full list, but I'm pretty sure they'll all be sticking around so will be on there soon! Check it out for more mod recommendations.
I'll be releasing some stuff myself soon so keep an eye out👀
For those who’ve been concerned about losing quality with smaller texture sizes, I thought this might be worth showing. This is a texture I made just for this purpose in 2048x2048 and then resized it. All textures were built with DXT3 format and file sizes are the compressed ones. In my opinion 1024x1024 looks the best in-game. 512x512 is what Maxis originally used for this sofa and it would be a better option performance-wise, though.
These pictures were taken with a full HD display, meaning that it can show resolutions up to 1920x1080 (but not anything beyond that) and with a game that’s set up to use that resolution too. Please keep in mind that the lower your game’s resolution is, the less likely you would notice a drastic difference between 512x512 and 1024x1024 textures in-game.
Preparing For a Tumblr Shutdown Scenario - Where to Find Me Elsewhere.
Resources for Creating: My Go-To things: The Updated List on DW. Retired Post on Tumblr.
Resources For Playing.
GUID Database Revival.
Sims 2 Databases Database.
SimPE Material Definitions Index.
UV Maps Thread.
Game Fuckery Help and Linux List.
List of People's Experiments with Replacing Sims' Face Mesh. Other posts are organized by tags.
Wip: Assassin Sims.
Since i've shared my resources list, I might as well share this too. Nothing is finnished, hence the wip. Ezio's outfit was converted by Daislia at GoS. Working dl at page 3.
I don't want to unfreeze this frame. In the pictures: some cafe furniture from Unity. Roofs, plants and wall from Brotherhood. The wall will be a 3 parter, and seamless of course, in the picture it's just one part. Not ideal but otherwise the texture would shrink badly. None of the materials is ready yet, the end result will look nicer, I hope.
Female, 30's. Sims 2.Elsewhere: CC Finds Side Blog, Art Reblogs, Dreamwidth (Main Sims Place), GoS, Simblr.cc, Pillowfort, Bluesky, Pinterest.
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