dead-lights

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final frontier // caleb & inna & lilith

They just seem like the kind of people who'd get all dressed up to go see Wrath of Khan.

i've been having some trouble exporting Caleb - i think it's a preset issue. i haven't had this issue with any other sim - there is something uniquely broken about his model (and mind). fixed his eyes, mouth, and nose, but in my attempt to get his eyebrows to work, I made him... stern. i figured, fuck it! and just threw some elf ears on him. he's dressed as a Vulcan now! hooray! problem solving!!

Caleb's uniform (TSR)

Inna/Lilith's skant uniform (TSR)

Lilith's hair by @ice-creamforbreakfast

Inna's hair by @simstrouble

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OH GOD DONT SHOOT I HAVE A FAMILY

ok but imagine being so annoying you make L roll her eyes.

i've been slowly working on a 60s spellcaster thing. i couldn't help doing a few silly test renders of the ladies of mischief.

cc below the cut

Keisha's earrings (Oleander) and L's outfit (Daphne) from @ice-creamforbreakfast's side of Poppy

Keisha's dress (Tulip) from @surely-sims side of Poppy

L's hair by @twentiethcenturysims

Keisha's hair by @nords-sims

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1915 // are you lost, little one?

i love keisha in that dress. anyone recognize the kid?

cc & ramblings below the cut

It's tiny baby L! Look how heckin cute she is!

keisha's dress by @gilded-ghosts (one of my absolute favorite 1910s dresses)

keisha's hair by @simkatu

L's dress by @linzlu

My hc is that L was born in San Sequoia in 1905. She was orphaned at a young age, and by the time she was 10 she had become quite the little thief. She accidentally found her way to the Magic Realm after stealing a Glimmerstone from some schmuck. Impressed by the girl's daring and devious nature, Keisha offered to take her in and train her as a witch when the time came. L proved herself to be an unstoppable force of chaos, equal parts genius and jokester - the perfect Mischief caster. By the time L became a virtuoso, Keisha knew that she had found her successor.

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century conflict // tess & áine

cc

Áine: same as this post

Áine's necklace: Ligaya by @zeussim

Tess's hat: Bad Witch Hat by @akalukery

Tess's dress: Ronja by Sifix (TSR)

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century ensemble

just felt like getting the gang together all in one place! not quite a height reference, but it's nice to have a good group ortho shot.

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someday soon // áine

ok but between the shoes, height, and hair, áine was probably like 6'5 in this outfit. i think she really liked towering over people.

earrings by @renorasims

hair and ornament by @the-melancholy-maiden

dress by sifix (tsr)

runes by @agnelid (edited to cover more of her chest)

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.dae shader node configuration - updated!

I found a small bug in my script, so I've updated it! There was an issue with how glass meshes imported, but I found the problem and resolved it.

This script automatically configures shader nodes for .dae files exported from TS4SimRipper for use in Blender - currently, imported .dae files do not have properly configured specular or normal maps, so I wrote this to do it for you ❤️ I'm working on converting this to a Blender add-on to make it more user-friendly (hopefully should be done in the next few weeks) but it's fully workable in its current form. If anyone wants to give it a shot, I'd love to get your feedback and I'm happy to answer any questions!

To use the script in its current form:

Make sure you're using Blender 4 - I've tested this with 4.3 and 4.4

Export your model using TS4SimRipper - you must choose either "single mesh and texture" or "solid and glass meshes and textures." It will NOT work with all separate meshes.

Open the scripting tab. Either create a new script and copy/paste my code there, or download my script and open the file.

Select the collection where you want the model in the outliner.

Hit the play/run script button at the top of the scripting tab.

Blender will have you select the .dae file you want to use.

And there you go! This is pretty much what you'd get if you imported your .dae normally, but if you hop over to the shader tab you'll see that everything is set up for you!

One note - I personally don't use the 'Clean DAE mesh?' option in TS4SimRipper (it can be kinda buggy) and instead merge vertices in Blender. If you would prefer not to use Blender to clean your mesh, remove line 34:

merge_vertices(model)

I recommend doing that if you get weird shadows, especially around the cheeks and hairline. This generally isn't a problem using EEVEE, but it's a huge issue with Cycles (which is what I always use). Alternatively, feel free to reach out - I'm happy to help! It took me ages to figure out how to import models correctly and I've probably experienced any problem you run into.

I haven't figured out how to automate everything, so you still need to:

Attach emission maps for vampire eyes/other glowing objects - these do not seem to export properly in SimRipper so you may need to export the textures with S4S and manually attach them

Remove the lamp that is automatically created when you import a model - it will be in the same collection as the model

Apply your own subsurf modifier if you're planning to do that - you might need to take a few extra steps to stop weird awful shadows forming at the cheeks & hairline. It took me ages to figure out how why that was happening, so feel to reach out if you want me to walk you through the steps to fix that.

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madame rose // flora & selkis

Mon œillet fixé à votre iris Comme narcisse, je contemple Dans ces miroirs entre vos tempes Le reflet sombre de mes vices

Madame Rose Hybride De Thé Belle des nuits au crépuscule Loin des regrets et des scrupules Quelques pétales au thym parfait

rough english translation // french with explanation of plant puns

I really like Émilie Simon - she uses a lot of flower imagery. The name dead-lights comes from her song Swimming.

cc

Flora’s hair by @thatonegreenleaf

Flora’s hair ornament by @the-melancholy-maiden

Selkis’s gloves by @ice-creamforbreakfast

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"I don't even know if she still lives there."

In a recent part of Read the Ancient Archives, entry 24, Rory talked about her best friend's grandmother who did a tarot reading for her back when she lived in Brindleton Bay. At this time, Catarina Lynx was being raised by her grandmother, Leona. I thought I would share some slice of life photos from back then with Leona, Cat, Rory, and Doc (back when he was just a little kitten!)

@dead-lights proposed the idea a while back of Cat's grandmother being a spellcaster, which has been a really interesting idea to play with. We've been sharing ideas back and forth since then.

My current thinking is that Leona began her magic studies back in the 60s as part of the same cohort as Morgyn Ember. Her son took the rite of dissolution before he got married and had Cat and he did not want her to involve Cat in spellcasting or the spellcasting community. After he and Cat's mundane mother died and Cat was adopted by her grandmother, Leona continued to keep her identity as a spellcaster a secret. There always seemed to be a reason not to tell her.

Rory really liked Leona. Some people called Leona weird but a lot of the kids Rory and Cat went to school with thought they were weird. Weird was exactly where Rory fit. Leona was very glad Rory was around too. Yes, her temper got her in trouble at school, but she had a good heart and was a loyal friend to Cat. If it wasn't for Rory, she worried Cat would have no friends at all, except the cats of course. It was a precious thing, she thought, that Rory and Cat had come into each other's orbits. Rory still doesn't know that she met a spellcaster before coming to Moonwood Mill.

Leona ended up telling Cat that she was a spellcaster after Rory's first transformation. There was so much she needed to explain to Cat and she meant to do that as best she could, which meant explaining how she knew all that she did about the occult.

You can see my other post about Rory and Cat's friendship here.

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automatic shader node configuration

LOOK AT MY BEAUTIFUL NODE TREES 😭 I wrote a thing and now my shader trees are so tidy!!!

It takes a little work to get models exported from TS4SimRipper to play nice in Blender. The materials don't like to import nicely, and cause issues that at first I handled manually.

Specular texture node is loaded but not attached to the Principled BSDF shader

Normal map does not import at all and requires some fussing to get working - the normal map texture is half the size of the diffuse/specular textures

Glass layer base textures have color but not alpha outputs

Emission maps are not attached (and do not seem to export correctly - I always just get an empty file)

I'm not sure if I'm using SimRipper wrong? But in any case, I found solutions to the first three problems and wrote a script to do those things for me!

The Specular IOR Level node that is created automatically when importing a sims .dae file needs to have its alpha output connected to the shader's Specular IOR Level input

You need a normal map node connected to the shader's normal input, a vector mapping node attached to the normal map's color input with the scale set to (2,2,2) to account for the smaller size of the normal map textures, and finally create an image texture node for the normal map - attach the color output to the mapping node's vector input

For glass layers, the alpha output of the base color node needs to connect to the shader's alpha input - this is what makes glass layers transparent

AND I figured out how to get all the nodes aligned and pretty!!! I'm ridiculously proud of that part.

Setting all that up by hand is tedious and time-consuming, so I wrote this script. I'm working on getting it to a point where you don't need to run it through the scripting tab for ease of use, but in its current state it is definitely workable! At the moment it only works with SimRipper exports with either single mesh & texture or solid and glass meshes and textures - it does NOT work with all separate meshes/1 texture. You do need to have some version of Blender 4 for it to work - 3.6 is not compatible.

If any brave soul is willing to give it a try, I have a working draft up here! Open it in your scripting tab, select the collection in the outliner you want the model to go to, and then run the script. Choose a .dae file that was exported either with 1 mesh/1 texture OR solid and glass meshes & textures, and you should be good to go! You should be able to move/pose/etc the model just like you would any other model imported from TS4SimRipper.

There's still some manual configuration required. I haven't figured out how to handle the emission map problem yet, and while I normally put subsurf modifiers on most of my models I haven't included that in the script yet, as that requires manually fixing a issue with a vertex on the inside of the head that causes ugly shadows on the neck/cheeks/hairline when you render with Cycles.

Please let me know if you have any questions or problems! I have tested this extensively on my computer, running Blender 4.3, but have not yet attempted it with any other computer.

[dead-lights]

height reference - second draft

I just scaled them down rather than adjusting their rigs - that definitely isn't ideal. very tall vs very short people often have different relative proportions, esp when it comes to head size. I also haven't figured out how I want to handle height changes due to footwear. I know a lot of them are wearing heels but this is meant to represent their actual heights in bare feet. Tess should be like 6'2 in those platform boots.

6'1" - Caleb/Dillon/Ethren

5'11" - Tess

5'8" - Lilith

5'7" - Inna/Morgyn

5'4" - Elle

5'3" - Keisha

5'2" - L

I'm mostly set on these heights. I'm still considering making Caleb shorter, but I like the height difference between him and Inna/Lilith/Morgyn. I do need to see how he and Lilith look next to Lily (currently 5'5).

Still not 100% on Elle and Dillon. I like their heights on their own, but their huge height difference makes posing really annoying. Thankfully she usually wears heels - that definitely does help.

sidenote - I've been working on a script to automate the .dae import/model config process. It's not done, but I was able to import 18 fucking models and get them render-ready in 30 minutes. when it came down to render, I just had to pose the models, move them, and then hit F12. Since I already had a bunch of .dae files exported from TS4SimRipper and ready to work with, this was really fast - 18 .dae files prepared for rendering and 34 saved renders in under an hour. I'm so excited to finish and release my tool!

[dead-lights]

treasure // audrey madrigal

blender scene: treasure under the sea (free)

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blender scene: whispers of solitude (subscription) pose from behind the glass by @ms-marysims

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abyss // audrey madrigal

blender scene (free) poses by @sciophobis

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deadcanon

Setting this up for mobile - also available on this page.

This is my main timeline! I’ve done renders and stories (including GOBC) outside of this, but these are my non-AU headcanons for the game. While this doesn't constitute a cohesive story, I wanted to collect everything I’ve done to flesh out my timeline in one place.

This is still very much a work in progress! Important dates, with the rest of my content below the cut:

1700 - vampires created, operation eternal flame begins

1775 - werewolves created, century conflict officially begins

1810 - vlad conquers forgotten hollow

1880 - spellcasters destroy the magic realm

1886 - spellcasters and werewolves win the century conflict, operation eternal flame ends, operation high fang begins

1929 - greg lunvik destroys moonwood mill

dates, scenes, and renders

For reference since I asked my partner and he didn’t know this - née/né/n. means “born” in French and is most often used in English to refer to maiden names (e.g. Bella Goth née Bachelor), though it is sometimes used for other surname changes.

this timeline is very much not finalized, particularly the period starting with Rory’s birth. I have yet to decide what year new games (▶️) take place - currently that’s set as 2024 but that’s definitely not what I want. I’ll start to finalize the most recent part of the timeline after I decide when the game starts.

birth / death / occult origin / historical / etc / render/ scene

1674 - tess dyer (n. o'dwyer), flora devampiro (n. dillon), ethren reyes, and keisha hughes born (in that order)

1690 - maria volkov (n. monday) born

1691 - oops // tess dyer

1691-1692 - regrowth // tess dyer

1700 - vampire uprising

1700 - rooftop // flora dillon & keisha hughes & tess dyer

1701 - burn the witch // flora dillon & keisha hughes & tess dyer

evil twin // aine o'dwyer

i don’t like you // aine o'dwyer & sabina selkis

favorite // sabina selkis & vlad straud

1741 - inna cents (n. cervantes) born

1742 - flora dillon turned into a vampire by áine o'dwyer

1769 - flora dillon & claude devampiro married

1770 - dillon devampiro born

1775 - werewolves created

1775 - avelina & greg lunvik, maria & john volkov, yina kia, and others became werewolves

1780 - young blood // dillon & flora devampiro

1793 - elle devampiro (n. nox) & violet webb born

1810 - forgotten hollow conquered by vlad

1829 - meddler // dillon devampiro & elle nox & violet webb & vlad straud

1829 - first dance // dillon devampiro & elle nox

1829 - second // dillon devampiro & elle nox & violet webb

1830 - new girl // dillon & flora devampiro

cents & sensibility // inna cents

genius • romantic • bookworm // dillon devampiro

damselfly // flora devampiro

the deserter // virginya feng

1847 - dillon devampiro & elle nox married

1847 - unholy matrimony - dillon & elle devampiro

bats with benefits // dillon & elle devamprio

first chair // elle nox

1880 - casters destroyed the realm

1886 - casters & werewolves win the century conflict

1905 - l. faba born

1908 - kristopher volkov born

1910 - charles zhu (lily’s dad) & philip vatore (caleb/lilith’s dad) born

1914 - the rossi twins leila zhu (lily’s mom) and lila vatore (caleb/lilith’s mom) born

1919 - l. faba ascended by keisha hughes

1922 - nibbles // dillon & elle & violet

1938 - lilith vatore & lily zhu born

1941 - caleb vatore born

1943 - back in my day // caleb & lilith & lila & philip vatore

1952 - morgyn ember (n. everett) born

1961 - charles, leila, lila, and philip (caleb/lily/lilith’s parents) died in a car accident

1964 - lilith turned into a vampire by vlad straud

1964 - lily became a werewolf

1965 - caleb turned into a vampire by miss hell

1966 - wolfgang wilder born

1966 - morgyn ember ascended by tess dyer

1968 - learn to take a joke // caleb & lilith vatore, kat cave, markus crow, miss hell

1970 - inna cents turned into a vampire by caleb vatore

1975 - ethren reyes retired; simeon silversweater became sage of practical magic

1978 - lily zhu joined the moonwood collective

1992 - wolfang wilder turned into a werewolf by kristopher volkov

1995 - keisha hughes retired; l. faba became sage of mischief magic

!!! DANGER ZONE !!! dates beyond here are only an estimate based on new games starting in 2024 - since I'm planning to push that back to somewhere between 2010-2015 all of these dates may be 10-15 years earlier than listed here

1999 - rory oaklow born

2007 - brandy wood & samantha gratz born

2008 - jacob volkov (n. ???) born

2008 - guardians of the lighthouse // catarina lynx & rory oaklow

2013 - rory oaklow turned into a werewolf by a dog

2014- jacob volkov became a werewolf

2016 - mighty // jacob volkov & rory oaklow

2016 - muddy boots // jacob volkov & rory oaklow

2020 - tess dyer retired; morgyn ember became sage of untamed magic

2023 - rory oaklow founded the wildfangs

2023 - brandy wood turned into a vampire by samantha gratz

2023 - lou howell turned into a werewolf by greg lunvik

2023 - emilia ernest ascended by morgyn ember

2024 - ▶️ NEW GAME

bite club // caleb & lilith vatore, dillon & elle devampiro, inna cents, vlad straud

clair de lune // celene lopez

2024 - dillon devampiro took the cure and became human

2024 - elle & dillon devampiro separated

sun’s out guns out // elle devampiro & inna cents

For dates under consideration, as I currently have it:

Jacob is 14 ▶️

Brandy & Sam are 15 ▶️

Brandy was 14-17 when she turned into a vampire (this might happen post-▶️)

Rory is 22-24 ▶️

Rory was around 14 when Kristopher found her

Jacob was around 6 when Kristopher found him, 1-2 years after he found Rory

Rory left the collective & formed the Wildfangs 1-2 years before ▶️ Jacob was 12-13

Lou and Celene were attacked by Greg about 1 year before ▶️

Morgyn became sage 3-5 years before ▶️

Emilia ascended 2-3 months before ▶️

Dillon takes the cure & Elle files for divorce a few months after ▶️

text

the devampiros: history

the zhu-vatores: names

the zhu-vatores: early occult years

ocs

Áine O'Dwyer - formerly Tess’s duplicate, turned during the accident that created vampires, an enormous thorn in everyone’s side (even vampires didn’t like her)

Charles Zhu - Lily’s father/Leila’s husband/Philip’s bestie - an art appraiser

Flora DeVampiro (née Dillon) - dillon devampiro’s mother/elle devampiro’s mother-in-law, born a spellcaster, later turned into a vampire by Áine. She was one of Vlad’s most loyal followers

Leila Zhu (née Rossi) - Lily’s mother/Charles’s wife/Lila’s identical twin sister, worked as a singing teacher

Lila Vatore (née Rossi) - Caleb & Lilith’s mother/Philip’s wife/Leila’s twin sister, worked as a piano teacher

Philip Vatore - Caleb & Lilith’s father/Lila’s husband/Charles’s bestie, an art dealer

Philippa Selkis - Tess’s colleague, killed by her duplicate Sabina during the vampire uprising

Sabina Selkis - formerly Philippa’s duplicate, later one of the most influential of the original vampires, Vlad Straud’s master/closest confidant

Violet Webb - a vampire Elle grew up with, worked as one of Vlad’s violinists

[dead-lights]

second // violet & dillon & elle

tfw you realize your immortal frenemy isn't getting fired after all :(

follow-up to this post. violet is a century conflict-era oc i've been playing around with. CC & ramblings about Elle and Violet beneath the cut.

Elle and Violet grew up together. Even as children, they were intensely competitive with each other. They were close enough in skill that neither could slack off without falling behind, but despite Violet's efforts Elle was generally recognized the more talented of the two. Violet hated that. Between her resentment and Elle's ego, their relationship steadily devolved into catty insults and passive aggression. It was easier for them to find work as a pair (they genuinely did play well together), so they stuck together for 20 years before they caught Vlad's attention, but by the time they reached Forgotten Hollow they absolutely despised each other, despite (or perhaps because of) their awareness that they never could've gotten so far without each other.

Elle, the obvious favorite, had a much better time working for Vlad. Violet got to play when he wanted a duet or quartet (2 violins + viola + cello) but she was expected to sit out for string trios (1 violin + viola + cello) and solos unless Elle was unavailable. When Vlad told Elle that Dillon didn't want her to perform, Violet was delighted - this, she thought, was her chance. When she realized that Dillon's intention was to seduce Elle, not get rid of her, Violet had to accept that she wouldn't have her turn in the spotlight until Elle either retired or got dumped.

(to be clear - none of this is meant to knock second violins. I played violin back in school and preferred to play second whenever my conductor would let me move out of first. there is, however, a difference in how people see 1st/2nd violins, at least at lower skill levels. 2nd violin parts are often a bit easier than 1st, but when playing pieces like bach's concerto for 2 violins, with a second violin part just as difficult as first, people would still assume I was the weaker member of the duet even when first couldn't play their part correctly. 1st violins get more prestige and I understand Violet's frustration, but Elle genuinely was the better violinist, and the best violinist gets to be first chair)

violet's dress (marianne) by @gilded-ghosts

violet's hair (viola) and ornament (flowers left) by @the-melancholy-maiden

violet's earrings by @lady-moriel

violet's stockings & shoes + elle's gloves by @dancemachinetrait

elle's hair and ornament by the-melancholy-maiden

elle's dress (personal recolor) by @happylifesims

dillon's outfit and shoes by happylifesims

[dead-lights]

nibbles // the devampiros

I was supposed to be making embarrassing old-timey pictures of the DeVampiros for the Vatores to make fun of, I got distracted, and now it's a whole thing. here's some lore!

operation high fang

After the end of Operation Eternal Flame, a group of Vampires came out of hiding to start the initiative. Through a successful propaganda campaign, they branded Vampires as refined and classy, boasting of what they offer through their historical knowledge and charismatic ways. At the same time, they smeared Werewolves as dirty and dangerous monsters, lacking in control. The results were catastrophic for the new Werewolf communities who were still maturing as an occult.

(i compiled all game quotes about the century conflict/surrounding events here - the high fang stuff is at the very bottom, my headcaons are below the cut. also if you don't recognize the guy, he's the vampire Elle bat- and coffin-fucked in the trailers/the guy from the painting over Vlad's fireplace)

My hc is that Elle is originally from Aria, the coven of the arts. Aria had very pointedly decided not to get involved with the Century Conflict - they were artists, not combatants, and few made it past the rank of Prime (which is largely why Elle left - she was hungry for prestige and wanted to grow her power). The result was that the overwhelming majority of the coven, including Elle's parents, were slaughtered by werewolves and spellcasters.

After the war, vampires found themselves in a weakened state and with no allies to speak of, and were terrified of the day when spellcasters and werewolves would rebuild their numbers. To secure their futures, they needed to break the alliance between spellcasters and werewolves. Vlad's conquest of Forgotten Hollow showed how easily humans could be manipulated to be used against their enemies, so they decided to utilize his old techniques to wage a propaganda campaign known as Operation High Fang.

Elle rallied the surviving members of her coven of origin to join High Fang. With their cultured upbringings and familiarity with human art, they were uniquely well-suited to promote this new, classy image of vampires. They were also pretty mad about spellcasters and werewolves slaughtering their kin, and were determined to take their revenge. Also, they were a bunch of classy snobs who did just like going to fancy parties, eating fancy foods, and talking about fancy things.

The first part of this plan required that they infiltrate mundane high society. In the beginning, they mostly played human, gathering information and forming strategies. By the time they started revealing their true natures to humans, they'd built up the social skills and relationships to ensure that they were well-received.

Once they'd rehabilitated the image of vampires in mundane society, they were able to move onto the most vital part of their plan: convincing spellcasters that they're better than werewolves, but that is a subject for another render.

As I've mentioned more than a few times, I really hate making faces in CAS. Since most of the faces in this scene were either not visible or out of focus, I got REALLY lazy about making background sims for this one, with this result:

what makes this even worse is Caleb/Lilith/Lily's moms are identical twins because I couldn't be bothered to make 2 sisters...

1920s clothes by @happylifesims

ferronnière and flower hair ornament by @the-melancholy-maiden

elle's hair/accessory by kiara zurk

blender scene: classic art deco hall