felidae-sims

[felidae-sims]

Someone very kindly let me know that one of mutske's Victorian Gables I converted for the 2019 Daisy Chain was throwing a testingcheats error. I've updated the archive linked at GoS (hidden gift) but here are just the fixed files. Sorry for the problem!

ts2 download shasta_3t2_mutske_vicgable1_bv

ts2 download shasta_3t2_mutske_vicgable1_mg

[felidae-sims]

It's so unreal seeing people on here talk about "female privilege" as if being perceived as a woman means you'll be treated nicely by everyone in society and that means you're privileged, when I just got banned from the misogynistic hellpit that is r/AskMen for arguing against that exact kind of bullshit, what the fuck is going onnnnn

[felidae-sims]

R.I.P Ozzy.

[notice how Black Sabbath's official account has uploaded this cover by Judas Priest.]

[felidae-sims]

Facebook implemented this new thing in some groups where an AI will ask questions to the group, for the purpose of compiling answers and making an AI generated FAQ.

What Facebook failed to realize is that most of its users don't like AI in general and the Meta AI in particular is such an obnoxious piece of shit that even neutral parties hate that one in particular.

So everyone in every group I'm in has started feeding it bullshit answers on purpose. For example in a chicken group I'm in the AI asked how to train chickens to return to their coop in the evening and the most popular answers were usually hookers and blow.

[felidae-sims]

Scientist bakes sourdough bread with yeast derived from 4500 year old Egyptian pottery

i'm losing my mind @ this thread......historie......

[felidae-sims]

Basically, yeah.

i feel like a broken record but i played ts2 for two in game days and more drama happened than the entire irl month i played ts4

[felidae-sims]

Via:

Twitter (2020) VS the Hays code (1930)

[felidae-sims]

Right, actually I'm not quite done with the code and censorship just yet:

Lenny Bruce, who was persecuted in real time, talks about it in a surprising place, 1959.

Twitter (2020) VS the Hays code (1930)

[felidae-sims]

Rebloging for later, in the meantime - here's my contribution; the continuation of the Hayes Code, a doco about censorship in film in Hollywood:

This Film Is Not Yet Rated.

It's brilliant, go watch it.

A bit more:

And more on the MPAA's influence on the film industry, by South Park creators:

Twitter (2020) VS the Hays code (1930)

[felidae-sims]

If you create CC for TS2 you probably avoid using DXT1 format, because it often looks really bad, right? Well, I've got news for you😐

‣ SimPe texture viewer can't correctly decode DXT1 textures. It often displays artifacts not visible in the game.

Up until now it was not possible to extract such texture from a package without 'glitches'. @chieltbest recently shared their revolutionary YaPe package editor. It's an experimental version, for now - it's still being developed - but I've already edited 180+ CC textures with no issues. YaPe is very easy to use. It allows you to reconvert textures inside a package to different format, remove or add mipmaps with one click, replace textures with drag and drop method - supports JPEG, TIFF, DDS and more! You can get it here.

YaPe editor is also the only app I know, that allows you to extract DXT1 texture from the package file without glitches. Below the cut you'll find a little tutorial on that. I also included a detailed comparison of DXT textures built with various plugins:

Note: YaPe is a huge time saver, however I still recommend SimPe for textures with smooth gradients, where quality is very important - such as skintones, and especially dark ones (also for removing mipmaps from such content, current version of YaPe rebuilds textures in the process fixed).

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*DXT1 format has gained a bad reputation amongst TS2 creators, mostly because of borked SimPe DXT1 texture preview/export.

But the fact is - DDS plugins (aside from SimPe DDS Builder) create DXT1 that looks quite similar or identical to flat DXT3 / DXT5.

Important thing about DXT1 format: file size is around half smaller than DXT3/5.

‣ What's wrong with SimPe DXT1 textures?

Nothing, really. SimPe /Nvidia tools DDS builder is using special settings for DXT1. It saves textures as DXT1a format.

Unlike ordinary DXT1 (DXT1c) that doesn't support transparency at all, DXT1a format has basic 1-bit transparency switch. DDS builder 'hides' black pixels from compression by enabling transparency - this trick is actually meant to reduce artifacts in some areas /thanks @chieltbest for explaining this/.

Transparent parts of DXT1a texture are displayed as black in the game, as long as TXMT doesn't have transparency enabled.

Below: DXT1a previewed in YaPe. Left pic features transparent pixels (hard to notice if you enable dark UI mode). Please note that, unlike SimPe, it displays colors and grays correctly.

‣ Extracting DXT1 texture without 'glitches' in YaPe:

Open package in YaPe editor. Preview TXTR resource, pick AltRGB24 (Raw24Bit) from dropdown menu.

AltRGB24 preview displays flattened version of the texture (texture background is exposed)

'Export DDS' button creates .dds file out of the previewed texture

/optional: If you save the changes, then you can reload the package and convert from Raw to DXT format/

exported DDS texture can be opened in apps with DDS plugin - GIMP, Paint.NET etc.

if you don't have apps with DDS plugin, you can use SimPe (click on texture in SimPe, pick 'import DDS..', choose dds exported in YaPe, then export as PNG.

Pic above: Yet Another Package Editor v0.4.0, light UI mode. My sample DXT1a texture in Alpha preview - transparent pixels are clearly visible.

⚠️ Editing original SimPe DXT1a texture with YaPe (removing or adding mipmaps - for example) and saving as DXT1 again, will most likely increase the number of 'false artifacts'

..however, the texture will still look decent in game. I edit CC with DXT1a for my own use that way - because reconverting to other formats doesn't improve texture quality, might even make it a little worse in some cases.

BUT if you're going to share such content, it might be best to reconvert it. Because if it looks very glitchy in SimPe, it also looks glitchy in Sims2Pack Clean Installer. And people might just delete it.

Alternatively, if you use DXT1 for your CC, you could inform people that "glitches" in SimPe / Clean Installer preview are not visible in the game.

DXT1 vs flat DXT 3/ 5:

(YaPe allowed me to extract SimPe DXT1a texture without glitches)

*Yes, flat DXT1 and DXT3 / DXT5 created in GIMP really looked exactly the same.

GIMP had 'perceptual error metric' option on, it slightly improves some details.

so, who won?

You be the judge. Overall, I think YaPe (v0.4.0) did really good in this particular case.

SimPe DTX3 shows more artifacts in the blue/ turquoise /black dots area but dark gradients are smoother than others. GIMP DXT had issues with black dots over the pink - red tones seep into black.

SimPe DXT1 is not bad, but has some issues - a few artifacts appeared over thin black & white stripes. Also, blurred colors in the middle became a bit crunchy. /Dark brown gradients are better than GIMP DXT tho/.

‣ DXT5 Alpha-channel quality

The difference between DXT3 and DXT5 lies only in the way transparency is handled. DXT5 can store more alpha-channel grayscale information and offers much smoother transparency.

Pic above: alpha-channels extracted from DXT5 (white = opaque parts, pure black = 100% transparent). These looked basically the same so I did another test using more demanding texture - darker alpha gradients plus thin lines:

YaPe has produced very nice alpha channel without much artifacts, the gradient looks almost as the source. SimPe DXT5 - also clean details, but surprisingly, darkest parts of the gradient are a little bit choppy. GIMP DXT5 and the other two show tiny pixel artifacts around light lines.

Last pic above is DXT3 alpha-channel for comparison - crisp details are clean, but gradients are very choppy. I've compared various plugins, all produced identical DXT3 alpha. DXT3 format is OK for stuff that's using alpha-test transparency (not smooth, not see-through) - leafy plants etc.

*Please note that's exactly why transparent clothing looks so bad when created with Bodyshop - it doesn't use DXT5, only DXT3.

GIMP DDS exporter allows you to improve transparent mipmaps for plant textures etc, you need to select 'Preserve alpha test coverage' and increase the threshold if required - it will make very thin details a bit more thick on zoom-out and reduce details disappearing.

YaPe editor also has an option to tune transparent mipmaps (increase the value with "preserve transparency" slider). YaPe lets you preview each mipmap, which is very convenient. Here's a detailed tutorial by Chieltbest.

‣ Color gradient: DXT3 /DXT5

Paint.NET (DDSFileTypePlus 1.12.13.0) did best in this case, thanks to agressive error-diffusion dithering. SimPe DDS Builder DXT 3/5 did really good and you probably won't find better DDS plugin for building clothing or skintone DXT textures, especially dark skins.

Next goes YaPe editor - gradient is quite smooth, aside from the darkest tones - quite choppy. GIMP DXT and Intel Texture Works are so-so.

*I already posted one DXT formats test here, it features darker gradients. I still need to compare how textures look as actual SimSkin or overlays in game. The TS2 game is not great at displaying grey / dark color gradations, especially on Sims...

Above, uncompressed png texture for reference.

[felidae-sims]

Resource List to Table Tool

I've just released a web tool for The Sims 2 modders that converts SimPe resource lists to HTML and Mod The Sims BBCode tables. The tool includes group and type names, and allows to sort the rows of the generated code.

It's intended to make preparing technical descriptions for mods easier. See an example of how it can be used.

The Sims 2 resource list to table (cosmatevs.github.io)

[felidae-sims]

we’re really out here living in an AI dystopian hellscape and this shit has just begun… the future is grim…

[felidae-sims]

Art people!

Would anyone be willing to share their opinions on graphics tablets for professional work, and about Wacom's Intus Pro 2025 in particular. I have the opportunity to purchase it, and I have some questions regarding two issues mentioned in these videos:

1. The edges of the tablet are too protruding and rub against the arm when one draws with their arm, and not their wrist. Mentioned in video 1.

- I could possibly manage that, as I try to not have my forearm against the paper anyway.

2. It has a tilt and it's edges are narrow. It's mentioned in videos 1 and 2 as uncomfortable.

- I intend to balance it with some DIY supporters.

3. Any other insights are very welcome, not only about Wacom. I look for as large a tablet as I can get, but reliable, with little lag as possible, and solid software.

I've never drawn with a graphics tablet, but I do draw, and I used to draw using a computer mouse in MS Paint - so I am used to that type of thing. I intend to do professional work with it.

Thanks in advance, Here's to hoping I'm not shadowbanned anymore, and that anyone will even see this.

Actually, well, I feel a bit ridiculous asking this, but if you guys have people who are related to the matter on your blog, I'd appreciate it if you could reblog this, as I'm not sure if I'm still shadowbanned.

[felidae-sims]

I've written a song in order to memorize that:

Do, is C, is C, is C

Re, is therefore a D

Mi, is E, is E, is E

Fa, at least that's an F

Sol, somehow that's a G

La, this one I know

Si, is therefore a B

That will bring us back to Do is C

I think i'm still shadowbanned, so in the meantime...

And if anything, why isn't do - A ? Why?

[felidae-sims]

I didn't appreciate it in real time. Now that its gone... fare well Vine, your legacy will live on.

Man I love vine and I’m gonna miss it! I’m totally jumping on the bandwagon but hey why not? Here is some of my favs!

[felidae-sims]

for later

is that the grim reaper

he fell 😔

bonus ! cause there was none last time

[felidae-sims]

I think i'm still shadowbanned, so in the meantime...

And if anything, why isn't do - A ? Why?