sims2horror

[sims2horror]

Now you understand why I responded to your reblog with such a lengthy message.

I'm in the process of my first clothing conversion and I want to say:

Guys, who create and convert clothing, you are all great and hard workers!

I am really shocked how much more difficult the process of creating bone assignments for clothing is compared to hair. The perfect result is really not easy to achieve, but I hope to at least get close to it.

[sims2horror]

We don't "fix" other people's networks, we make a new conversion. read more carefully

Distribution of Paid Custom Content Is Harmful

Speaking about the eternal topic of paid access, I’d like to share my opinion (even though no one asked for it).

I want to note right away that I’m talking about permanently paid content — I have no complaints about early access.

I saw that a certain person wrote that hoping to get custom content from certain paid authors for free is impudence, because they put a lot of effort and time into creating it.

That sounds fair, but do free creators put in less effort? Let’s say this is a debatable issue. There can also be long discussions about what counts as high-quality content.

But I want to draw attention to something else: these creators do not exist in a vacuum. They didn’t gain their knowledge on their own. Everything we and they know about modding in The Sims 2 is the result of intellectual — and not only intellectual — work done by many people.

I also see that paid creators tend to form closed, elitist groups and do not share their experience with the rest of the community, even though they benefit from its collective knowledge.

For example, would these paid creators be able to make their content without SimPE? This software is distributed for free. Or didn’t they learn from tons of tutorials published absolutely for free?

Programs, plugins, resources — all of this helps our community thrive around an old game abandoned by its developers (don’t tell me about Legacy).

It’s the players who openly share knowledge about their favorite game who prevent it from being forgotten and keep reviving interest in it again and again.

Let’s imagine all custom content for The Sims 2 were distributed for a fee. This would cool interest in the game — not only because obviously not every player could afford to buy everything. It would also make content creation less sustainable: access to resources would be more difficult, and competition in the creator market would split the income so much that it would become negligible.

This is why I believe that custom content locked behind permanent paywalls is harmful to our community.

[sims2horror]

You are devaluing our work. Many businesses run on knowledge, but true value lies in how you apply it. There’s a world of difference between knowing a "'plan"' and actually executing it. Very few can dedicate this much time to creating free content.

More importantly: Stop comparing my work with other free/paid creators who design clothes and items without understanding the core challenges.

The evolution of any craft isn't just about fundamental knowledge. More often, it's about personal experience - or a team's collective wisdom - combined with the time and resources one is willing to invest in exchange for quality. Knowing the recipe doesn't always mean you'll cook something delicious.

If you expect content at Linda's level, you need to understand this quality of work can't be free.

This isn't about knowledge - it's about hours of work and execution. For example, converting something low-poly is child's play (just 15-20 minutes!). But when you start working with items containing 20,000 to 60,000 or more polygons - that's a completely different story.

Many have latched onto LUXE content - why? Everyone wants SL conversions, but to do this properly requires knowing how to obtain the right meshes and often paying the original creator $10-30. Then comes reducing polycounts (which often exceed 300,000 polys or more). And very few people - even those who understand the theory or some techniques - will seriously undertake this kind of work for free?

I read about your "compressor" - it's a "drop in the ocean". Don't make me laugh.

This doesn’t exempt us from manual polycount reduction. We meticulously separate garment sections into groups, optimize texture sets (never exceeding 1024x1024), and often refine textures ourselves to ensure flawless appearance. Countless hours are spent in MTK and Milkshape performing these painstaking adjustments.

Items frequently require multiple iterations before release. Why? Because you can’t just publish subpar content and expect mountains of cash (as some imagine). We craft conscientiously—for ourselves, for our community, and for the integrity of our work. So let's not pretend some magical 'compressor' does all the work - it's just one tiny drop in the ocean of effort we put into creating quality content. You sit there with your smug looks acting like we're the fools...

p.s: Be EXTREMELY CAREFUL when downloading content from third-party sources. Anyone can start by sharing 'safe content' to gain your trust, then quietly turn it into a 'weapon of mass destruction' that corrupts your game...

Distribution of Paid Custom Content Is Harmful

Speaking about the eternal topic of paid access, I’d like to share my opinion (even though no one asked for it).

I want to note right away that I’m talking about permanently paid content — I have no complaints about early access.

I saw that a certain person wrote that hoping to get custom content from certain paid authors for free is impudence, because they put a lot of effort and time into creating it.

That sounds fair, but do free creators put in less effort? Let’s say this is a debatable issue. There can also be long discussions about what counts as high-quality content.

But I want to draw attention to something else: these creators do not exist in a vacuum. They didn’t gain their knowledge on their own. Everything we and they know about modding in The Sims 2 is the result of intellectual — and not only intellectual — work done by many people.

I also see that paid creators tend to form closed, elitist groups and do not share their experience with the rest of the community, even though they benefit from its collective knowledge.

For example, would these paid creators be able to make their content without SimPE? This software is distributed for free. Or didn’t they learn from tons of tutorials published absolutely for free?

Programs, plugins, resources — all of this helps our community thrive around an old game abandoned by its developers (don’t tell me about Legacy).

It’s the players who openly share knowledge about their favorite game who prevent it from being forgotten and keep reviving interest in it again and again.

Let’s imagine all custom content for The Sims 2 were distributed for a fee. This would cool interest in the game — not only because obviously not every player could afford to buy everything. It would also make content creation less sustainable: access to resources would be more difficult, and competition in the creator market would split the income so much that it would become negligible.

This is why I believe that custom content locked behind permanent paywalls is harmful to our community.