#Convert to another file

[leithillustration]

This is likely too chaotic to be classed as a Six Sentence Sunday post, but I promise to throw in a few Snow On Ice sentences somewhere!

I've lost track of who has tagged me recently, but I've really appreciated reading some of my lovely moots' life updates. Its a good reminder that we all have highs and lows and when we talk about it we can get a little comfort and reassurance from this lovely community. I'm sorry some of you have been having a rough time. Sending hugs to you all.

I am never concise so my life update (of sorts), pics and sentences are under the cut.

Happy International Dawn Chorus Day! Niche I know, but I used to work for an arts and wildlife organisation and had to get up at 4am once to record the sunrise and the dawn chorus. After getting over the shock of being up and outside so early, it was actually a really lovely thing to celebrate. I've been sleeping terribly recently, so I was awake at 4:30 this morning anyway. Got up and sat in my parents' garden for 10 mins listening to the birds and it felt special, if a little less glorious since the clouds hid the sunrise. Here's a recording of today's dawn chorus in Norfolk, UK:

Forever WIP: Me I had a (very) minor surgery earlier this week to have a small but painful lump taken off my bicep. I've never experienced such a procedure before and it was very interesting being awake in an operating theatre (I had a local anaesthetic) getting to talk to the surgeons while they worked. (I was proud of myself for being so chill, tbh.) Since then I have been resting my achy body and my sluggish brain, forbidden from doing any heavy lifting or exercise, while trying not to stress about all the work I need to get done before running my stall at London Comic Con later this month. I showered yesterday with my arm wrapped in a plastic bag and it felt like a big achievement. (This is like a bizarre practice run for one day having top surgery!)

Some (sort of) sentences Snow On Ice Chapter 3 is taking me foreverrrr, since I'm not used to writing so many characters and it's been a lot for my adhd brain to handle. So to keep my writing from feeling stale, I've been writing some daft text chats between the characters. I'm thinking of posting them as supplements in between the main chapters, to help flesh out some of the relationships the main fic isn't focusing on as much. What do you think? Here's a chat between Simon and Agatha that will take place a little after chapter 3:

Simon: (photo of Tamagotchi the chinchilla) Simon: This is my friend Melody’s chinchilla. I think you’d like her. Simon: The chinchilla, I mean, not Melody. Simon: Though you’d probably like Mel too.  Ags: Holy shit Simon Simon: What? Ags: Who IS that? Simon: …Tamagotchi the chinchilla. I told you..? Ags: No, Simon, who is HOLDING the chinchilla!? Ags: Is that Niamh Brody??? Simon: Oh! Haha Simon: Yeah, that’s Niamh :)  Ags: How the hell do you have a photo of Niamh Brody holding your friend’s hamster!?! Simon: Chinchilla Ags: SIMON!!!

Seeing some of your posts recently, I've wanted to say more on reblogs and offer support in comments, but my brain hasn't been doing words great this week, so please take some positive vibes and fond, no pressure tags instead (:

@youarenevertooold @iamamythologicalcreature @alexalexinii @cattocavo @that-disabled-princess @orange-peony @cutestkilla @rimeswithpurple @larkral @best--dress @scribble-tier @theimpossibledemon @artsyunderstudy @raenestee @thewholelemon @nightimedreamersworld @itriednottothinkaboutit @you-remind-me-of-the-babe @angelsfalling16 @the-beard-of-edward-teach @monbons @katatsumuli @fiend-for-culture @aristocratic-otter @argumentativeantitheticalg @lovelyladzzzz @nausikaaa @blackberrysummerblog

[theygender]

Going to college as a nontraditional student with an office job is kinda funny bc now when a professor messes things up in a way that fucks me over instead of being like "omg this authority figure is so unfair 😭" I'm approaching it more with the vibe of like "if Karen from Accounting doesn't fix this mistake that's hindering my work after my third passive aggressive email I'm going to CC her boss"

[the-random-tyler]

Places - Lakeland.

Animation practice with Lyna!

[morrigan-sims]

I'm back on my sword-making bullshit. Or in this case, taking 3 other meshes and mashing them together to get something that looks halfway decent.

(Absurdly long and skinny image under the cut.)

[happilyhadesbound]

hi! saw gif reqs are open and while i don't have anything specific atm i was wondering if you could talk about how you make them? they're always so clean cut thanks!!

ohh thank you!! my process is really unnecessarily complicated lol

first, i upload my clips to DaVinci Resolve and cut them to the right length. i usually first make rough cuts (e.g. when the camera angle changes), look for the shortest clip that i still absolutely want to be in the gifset, and base the length of all the gifs on that. if the shortest clip is too long for one gif, the length is decided based purely on vibes (usually a round number bc i've decided that is easier even though it literally makes no difference if a clip is exactly 3 seconds or 2:24).

then i export them as MP4 (because DVR turns all gifs into 30+mb files) and upload them to Ezgif (website). usually, i just convert MP4 to GIF (20 frames per second — optimise them if they're over 10mb).

unfortunately, this sometimes wrecks the colouring, so what i then do is convert MP4 to PNG (again 20 frames per second) and put them into Gifski (download here), which makes really nice and crisp gifs (i only do this when Ezgif turns my gifs ugly or when it's something i REALLY care about that i want to have extra pretty gifs. if i'm just giffing a Taskmaster bit that i found funny, i won't go through all this trouble bc it takes fucking forever and those gif sets are comedy-based, not aesthetics-based).

[gameringgungke]

taking on the daunting (horrible) task of downloading and compiling most of the yume 2kki songs off the wiki since the only real complete easy-to-listen-to resource for them is an incomplete youtube playlist with: 1 a lot of repeat songs 2 some songs only existing as 10+ minute extensions

and it is mind-numbinggggg i've been at this for days and i'm only at 750 out of 1200-ish songs, i haven't even been downloading all of them because if i did that's an extra 2000 songs to flip through for what i'm going to use them for

although, WHO THE HELL EDITEd IN FADE INS AND OUTS TO THE SOUND FILES THAT CLEARLY ARENT PART OF THE SONG WHY THEY DONT HAVE FADES WHEN THEY LOOP IN THE FILE AND THERe ARE COPY FILES OF THE SAME SONG AT DIFFERENT SPEEDS WHICH DONT HAVE THE FADES I HAVE TO KEEP EDITING THEM OUT WHY DID YOU DO THIS

[lesbiansanemi]

WHY ARE THERE SO MANY FILE TYPES RRRAAAHHHHH

[hylianengineer]

WHAT is wrong with my mic this time, I swear to god, why does this always happen. Am I not loud enough? Do I need to be closer to it? It was like two inches from my mouth, how is that not close enough? I know it's working because I'm getting SOMETHING, but it's cutting out like every other line. Grrr.

[sundancedyke]

hang on.

[relto]

32 terabyte raw data.. maybe the storage IS full after all....

[lordcrumps]

4T2 Comfy Gamer Kit

Sul Sul!

Myself and SpringSims wanted to convert this kit together, so we collaborated and did the entire thing!

There are a few options with some of the items, so please read carefully. Details are under the cut!

This set features;

Functional Camera

Functional Alarm Clock

Collection file

Split recolourable subsets where it makes sense

Tons of swatches to choose from

More clutter which is always a win!

Shelves

Desk with plenty of slots

A side table with a TON of slots!

Thank you @deedee-sims for the desk that I cloned from! Helped a bunch!

EDIT

@pforestsims did an addon to the neon light, we love more options! Here is the link to that!

DOWNLOAD

Functional Camera

The first folder you will see is named "Choose One - Functional Camera", in this you can see the Deco version and functional version of the camera. Both versions will work in your game, if you want a functional camera, please read the "read me" file, as it has an edit of a mod from our lovely friend @episims.

It does require this mod but allow my edits to overwrite the mod version you are using, either cellphone or no cellphone! So yes, for the functional one you will need to download the rest of the mods / cameras etc from Epi!

The original functional camera mod is found here

Neon Light Options

Inside the second folder named "Neon Light Options" has two comparison photos, both lights can also be used in game, but the reason for the two options is purely because I wanted the room to glow like the other EA Neon lights, but I couldnt get the glass and neon bulb to work well together. So there are two options, one that is more true to Sims 4 but does not illuminate the room, and another where its adjusted to work better in the Sims 2. Please see the Read Me file in this folder for more of an explanation!

Poster Options

For those who have my Every Base Game Wall Deco files you can remove the folder named "REQUIRED FOR REPO VERSION" inside the "Poster Options" folder. I only included it just in-case. This version has the art work repo'd to all the other poster meshes so you can swap and change the art on different meshes.

The Standalone version does not require any extra files, it is in there just in-case you do not have the main Poster file mentioned above.

@sims4t2bb thanks!

[nucrests]

Unify Collection

Hi again, it's been a while right?? Anyway I'm back with another rework of one of my favorite sets, the Unify Collection! I did a complete rework including: cleaner textures, fixed UV issues, new thumbnails, and now converted for children!

Additional information:

UNIFY TOPS AF: Each top is base game compatible and comes in 2 variations (Shirt, Shirt W/Tied Shirt, Shirt W/Collar, Button Up, Shirt Tucked, Shirt Cropped) ▪ Version 1: 18 solid swatches ▪ Version 2: 20 swatches (including graphics, plaids, and/or denim)

UNIFY BOTTOMS AF: Each bottom is base game compatible and comes in 2 variations (Pants, Shorts, Pants W/Tied Shirt, Shorts W/Tied Shirt, Denim Shorts, Denim Shorts W/Tied Shirt) ▪ Version 1 (Pants & Shorts): 20 solid swatches ▪ Version 2 (Pants & Shorts): 20 solid swatches (including wool textures) ▪ Version 1 (Denim Shorts): 18 denim swatches ▪ Version 2 (Denim Shorts): 15 colorful swatches + 5 tie dye swatches

UNIFY FULL BODY AF: Each outfit is base game compatible and comes in 2 variations (Overalls & Overalls W/ Tied Shirt) ▪ Version 1 : 18 solid swatches ▪ Version 2: 15 colorful swatches + 5 tie dye swatches (including graphics)

UNIFY TOPS AM: Each top is base game compatible and comes in 2 variations (Shirt, Shirt W/Tied Shirt, Shirt W/Collar, Button Up, Shirt Tucked, Shirt Cropped) ▪ Version 1: 18 solid swatches ▪ Version 2: 20 swatches (including graphics, plaids, and/or denim)

UNIFY BOTTOMS AM: Each bottom is base game compatible and comes in 2 variations (Pants, Shorts, Pants W/Tied Shirt, Shorts W/Tied Shirt, Denim Shorts, Denim Shorts W/Tied Shirt) ▪ Version 1 (Pants & Shorts): 20 solid swatches ▪ Version 2 (Pants & Shorts): 20 solid swatches (including wool textures) ▪ Version 1 (Denim Shorts): 18 denim swatches ▪ Version 2 (Denim Shorts): 15 colorful swatches + 5 tie dye swatches

UNIFY FULL BODY AM: Each outfit is base game compatible and comes in 2 variations (Overalls & Overalls W/ Tied Shirt) ▪ Version 1 : 18 solid swatches ▪ Version 2: 15 colorful swatches + 5 tie dye swatches (including graphics)

UNIFY TOPS CU: Each top is base game compatible and comes in 2 variations (Shirt, Shirt W/Tied Shirt, Shirt W/Collar, Button Up) ▪ Version 1: 18 solid swatches ▪ Version 2: 20 swatches (including graphics, plaids, and/or denim)

UNIFY BOTTOMS CU: Each bottom is base game compatible and comes in 2 variations (Pants, Shorts, Pants W/Tied Shirt, Denim Shorts, Denim Shorts W/Tied Shirt) ▪ Version 1 (Pants & Shorts): 20 solid swatches ▪ Version 2 (Pants & Shorts): 20 solid swatches (including wool textures) ▪ Version 1 (Denim Shorts): 18 denim swatches ▪ Version 2 (Denim Shorts): 15 colorful swatches + 5 tie dye swatches

Note: These are reworks of my past content so these files will replace the older versions! Please be sure to delete the previous versions first before downloading.

📁:PATREON (ALWAYS FREE) | TOU | KO-FI If you enjoy my content, please consider supporting me on patreon or ko-fi. Your support will be much appreciated! 🤍

[sigmaleph]

there's a file called whatever_YYYYMMDD.csv with data generated every day

every day, we process the day's data and also reprocess a few days back

the way this is done involves copying over the various whatever_YYYYMMDD.csv files for the last few days from one folder to another

the way this is implemented is via a script that takes the earliest date and latest date we're processing today, converts them to a number in YYYYMMDD format, and loops between them

not a date. a number.

if one of those numbers is 20240612 and the other is 20240615, this is fine. it just hits every number in between them, which matches up to every existing whatever_YYYYMMDD.csv file in between those dates

if one of those numbers is 20240630 and the other is 20240703, this is slightly less fine. It's going to check a bunch of numbers that do not correspond to any dates, like 20240646. so it runs dozens more times than necessary, trying to move files that don't exist. fortunately computers are pretty fast and this adds very little time.

if one of those numbers is 20241230 and the other is 20250102, then instead of checking for seventy or so nonexistent files it checks for some nine thousand or so. each one of those is pretty fast. less than a second. but not, like, much less than a second.

several hours worth of delay in a process that should take seconds, which has been happening longer than i've been working here, every year, for a few days around new year's. which it seems nobody noticed for a number of reasons mostly adding up to 'several hours worth of delay are invisible unless you're specifically looking for it and nobody had a reason to look for it until now'

[stellophiliac]

how to build a digital music collection and stuff

spotify sucks aaaass. so start downloading shit!!

file format glossary

.wav is highest quality and biggest

.mp3 is very small, but uses lossy compression which means it's lower quality

.flac is smaller than .wav, but uses lossless compression so it's high quality

.m4a is an audio file format that apple uses. that's all i really know

downloading the music

doubledouble.top is a life saver. you can download from a variety of services including but not limited to apple music, spotify, soundcloud, tidal, deezer, etc.

i'd recommend ripping your music from tidal or apple music since they're the best quality (i think apple music gives you lossless audio anyway. .m4a can be both lossy and lossless, but from the text on doubledouble i assume they're ripping HQ files off apple music)

i also love love love cobalt.tools for ripping audio/video from youtube (they support a lot of other platforms too!)

of course, many artists have their music on bandcamp — purchase or download directly from them if you can. bandcamp offers a variety of file formats for download

file conversion

if you're downloading from apple music with doubledouble, it spits out an .m4a file.

.m4a is ok for some people but if you prefer .flac, you may wanna convert it. ffmpeg is a CLI (terminal) tool to help with media conversion

if you're on linux or macOS, you can use parameter expansion to batch convert all files in a folder. put the files in one place first, then with your terminal, cd into the directory and run:

for i in *.m4a; do ffmpeg -i "$i" "${i%.*}.flac"; done

this converts from .m4a to .flac — change the file extensions if needed.

soulseek

another way to get music is through soulseek. soulseek is a peer-to-peer file sharing network which is mainly used for music. nicotine+ is a pretty intuitive (and open-source) client if you don't like the official one.

you can probably find a better tutorial on soulseek somewhere else. just wanted to make this option known

it's bad etiquette to download from people without sharing files of your own, so make sure you've got something shared. also try to avoid queuing up more than 1-2 albums from one person in a row

tagging & organizing your music

tagging: adding metadata to a music file (eg. song name, artist name, album) that music players can recognize and display

if you've ripped music from a streaming platform, chances are it's already tagged. i've gotten files with slightly incorrect tags from doubledouble though, so if you care about that then you might wanna look into it

i use musicbrainz picard for my tagging. they've got pretty extensive documentation, which will probably be more useful than me

basically, you can look up album data from an online database into the program, and then match each track with its file. the program will tag each file correctly for you (there's also options for renaming the file according to a certain structure if you're into that!)

there's also beets, which is a CLI tool for... a lot of music collection management stuff. i haven't really used it myself, but if you feel up to it then they've got extensive documentation too. for most people, though, it's not really a necessity

how you wanna organize your music is completely up to you. my preferred filestructure is:

artist > album > track # track

using a music player

the options for this are pretty expansive. commonly used players i see include VLC, foobar2000, clementine (or a fork of it called strawberry), and cmus (for the terminal)

you can also totally use iTunes or something. i don't know what audio players other systems come with

i personally use dopamine. it's a little bit slow, but it's got a nice UI and is themeable plus has last.fm support (!!!)

don't let the github page fool you, you don't have to build from source. you can find the releases here

click the "assets" dropdown on the most recent release, and download whichever one is compatible with your OS

syncing

if you're fine with your files just being on one device (perhaps your computer, but perhaps also an USB drive or an mp3 player), you don't have to do this

you can sync with something like google drive, but i hate google more than i hate spotify

you can get a free nextcloud account from one of their providers with 2GB of free storage. you can use webDAV to access your files from an app on your phone or other device (documents by readdle has webDAV support, which is what i use)

disroot and blahaj.land are a couple providers i know that offer other services as well as nextcloud (so you get more with your account), but accounts are manually approved. do give them a look though!!

if you're tech-savvy and have an unused machine lying around, look into self-hosting your own nextcloud, or better yet, your own media server. i've heard that navidrome is a pretty good audio server. i unfortunately don't have experience with self-hosting at the moment so i have like zero advice to give here. yunohost seems to be a really easy way to manage a server

afterword

i don't know if any of this is helpful, but i just wanted to consolidate my personal advice in one place. fuck big tech. own your media, they could take it away from you at any moment

[platinumaspiration]

Sims 4t2 Life & Death (EP 17)

Another collaboration from the amazing @tvickiesims and myself. Just about everything is converted and made functional. Unfortunately though some things were left behind due to time constraints and (my) lack of patience. Maybe someday, if not someone else!

LordCrumps' 4t2 Shadow File is required and included

Download - LC | MF (~150 MB) *updated 10 Dec 2024 17 Jan 2025: counters updated here (not included in main download)

credit: Treehawk (portrait edits); aussietopenders (horizontal photo); Nixedsims & jellymaduza (music box); crispsandkerosene (parrot perch); witheredlilies (crow pet)

and all the love in the world to @sims4t2bb for cataloguing this pack!

pics under the cut of some (not all) of the buy items