#actually trying new things in the Sims 4

[eldrichfuck666]

you're faithless, for you pitched me against your holy father and it seems that I am winning

[colourfullsims]

Wishing you a very happy Man Butt Monday 🍑

~Love, the boys of the Love Island Villa

Love Island Challenge returns, Monday, September 19th, 2022!

[lovviesims]

Where Are They Now? (1 of 3)

[previous] / [next] / [from the beginning]

- also featuring the wonderful simlish breaking news template by @ommsims, tysm for creating that; chef’s kiss 😙🤌🏾  it’s like i found it at just the right time 😂

[feua]

*taps mic* this thing on?

[cowplant-snacks]

hiya! any tips on creating an immersive save that will attract not only you as the player but others as the viewers? your aesthetic is stunning and im so obsessed with everything you do!! <3

oh wow, this is a super sweet ask, @plumday.

let's see. I interpreted this as an ask about how I setup my sim save in a way that engages me. Hopefully this is helpful!

Setting Up TS4 Gameplay

Revamp Sim Worlds

BRAVE THOSE LOADING SCREENS and leave your residential lot! (I promise it's worth it)

NEW LOTS - Each of my worlds have been renovated with lots I handpicked from the gallery - too much work? I recommend using a savefile! Here are some of my personal faves @ratboysims 1, @down-in-simsland 2, @folkling 3 & @sweetbeagaming 4.

RESIDENTIAL RENTAL - these lots help make the world feel more dense and lived in, plus condensing the local households to 1-2 lots leaves room for more non-residential lots to explore with your sims.

WORK AND SCHOOL - I recommend placing offices, schools, and daycare lots. These combined with a few mods (semi-active custom careers and Zerbu's go to school mod 2) and clubs are something I really enjoy.

Set Up Clubs

I really like @sojutrait's tutorial on how to use clubs to enhance your gameplay and is a MUST HAVE in my humble opinion. I usually have a family chore club, work clubs, neighborhood clubs, extended family clubs, etc... and it's so nice to click a button suddenly there are sims there making my game more lively.

To have more than 3 clubs per sim, I use this mod maintained by @kingzaceofsims.

I also use custom club activities so sims (MOSTLY) behave how I want them to. @srslysims has tutorial on how to make your own.

To be able to have club gatherings in vacation worlds I use this mod. It was helpful with sending my pixel kids to camp.

Set Up the Calendar

@aliennooboo made this AMAZING tutorial on setting up your sims calendar that I just adore. I find this helps me remember to do things with my sims and helps change up their day to day life.

Playing

ROTATIONAL GAMEPLAY - I find this keeps me engaged and prevents boredom. It keeps things fresh and allows me to explore different stories. Here is a great resource to get started!

GAMEPLAY MODS - I find adding various mods keeps my gameplay fresh and interesting. I recommend these creators (1, 2, 3, 4 & 5) in particular.

Screenies

POSES - As a gameplay person, I try to use poses sparingly. It disrupts the game for me but I find sometimes I can't convey what I want to without them, so I try to only use a few. This is what works for me, please do what works for you. Shout out to all the storytellers blogs, though, that keep me fed.

RESHADE or PSD files can add some fun color and effects to screenies. ONLY edit as much as you want to. I felt a lot of pressure to get better at this and I am finally finding the balance of how much and what kind of editing I actually like to do. I have collected reshades/gshades and resources here.

House Keeping

Keep back ups of your trayfiles, screenshots, households, lots, etc 'cause it's sims, things break and go wrong.

Keep your CC and mods organized otherwise fixing your game is a hug pain.

Reblogs and additional tips and recommendations welcomed!

HAPPY SIMMING!

[ohnoitstbskyen]

Since Riot Forge has been offed by management, what other characters and storylines would you want a game about?

Honestly, not even necessarily champions. You know what would be cool? An honest to god Stardew Valley style farm simulator where you're, like, trying to run a farm in the Demacian hinterlands. All the usual mechanics: growing crops, mining, crafting, maybe some light combat, lots of dateable NPCs, your grandad's ghost appears and judges you if you haven't gotten laid by the end of year 4, all the usual normal stuff.

But then also there's a mage or two who lives in town, one of the villagers who helps you out, that hot NPC you're trying to date. Maybe the kid you'll eventually have with your spouse could be a mage. And the Mageseekers come around every few years looking, and asking questions, and taking people away from your community, and you need to make some decisions about what you're going to do about that. Do you sell your fellow villagers out to the authorities, in return for rewards, or do you find a way to resist?

Like, that kind of a thing. Or a 4x or Total War style game where you play as a Noxian commander trying to expand and colonize the Valoran continent, pushing against the borders of Demacia and the Freljord. Crusader Kings-like set in Shurima where Azir is trying to unite his new empire.

Heartless Frostpunk-style management game where your goal is to help your Freljord tribe survive an especially harsh winter. Tavern management game set in Bilgewater where you're trying not to run afoul of pirate gang politics. Visual novel where you play as a tormented soul on the Shadow Isles trying to escape from Ruination by finding the Hallowed Mist manor from Legends of Runeterra.

This is one of the things that frustrated me about Forge, that it was still stuck in this "THE LEAGUE OF LEGENDS CHAMPIONS ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF OUR UNIVERSE!" framework that League of Legends itself is stuck to, rather than trying to profile and expand the universe itself as an interesting setting that people might love all on its own, the way people love Middle Earth whether or not Aragorn happens to be there, or the Star Trek universe regardless of who's captaining the Enterprise that day.

Oh, also, dating sim set in Piltover and Zaun where none of the dateable options is a champion, but every playthrough, one of them is randomly selected to actually be Evelynn in disguise, and if you can't see through her act in time, she kills you in agonizing (horny) ways.

[plumbobpaparazzi]

Peek into my Mods folder...

This is dedicated to @alltimefail-sims or anyone who needs a little help with lag!

I have several mods I refer to as "efficiency mods" that are little quality-of-life tweaks that make the game smoother for me, either by reducing lag or reducing immersion-breaking hiccups. As always, your mileage may vary, but hopefully this is helpful to someone. :) List of mods under cut to keep your dash clean.

No Intro - Whether you are trying to 50/50 your mods, testing new CC, or just need to shave time off your game loading... get rid of the cinematic intro.

Free Will Delay - Do your sims curbstomp their queue and proceed to fuck off to something unrelated? Yeah, me too, until I got this mod. From the mod description: "[E]very time you tell your sim to do something, they will be forced to listen! …For 5 minutes. Then they get free will back again. This is probably why controlling Sims in Sims 4 feels so bad! Because you lose control the second they start doing what they're told. Even if you queue up actions, the total time is STILL five minutes- because it goes from the last direction you give your sim. So you can tell them to do 3 hours worth of stuff while paused…and they'll get control back after 5 minutes. This mod changes this timeframe to an option of your choosing, to make controlling your sims feel more rigid."

Simulation Unclogger - This is an oldie-but-goodie mod from Turbodriver that helps interrupt when Sims get stuck in an endless action loop.

Evolve/Fertilize All Plants - Kind of weird how we can Harvest All but you can't Evolve or Fertilize All, right?

No Empty Venues When Arriving - Helps with the issue of going to a community lot and waiting around for Sims to show up. May cause increased lag if you are bottlenecked by RAM.

Food Autonomy Overhaul - Stops your stupid Sims from eating ingredients, AND allows Sims who hate cooking to autonomously grab quick meals. Didn't know they wouldn't do that? Yeah. That's a thing.

Don't Do That! Version 1 and Version 2 - Removes autonomy on annoying actions that can't be affected by MCCC tuner, like reactions and some trait idle animations.

Less Obsession - Lowers autonomy for certain things without disabling entirely. I still want my Sims to paint, but I don't want them to start a new figure painting any time they are left unsupervised.

Smarter Self-Care - Makes Sims prioritize their needs better before they are uncomfortable. I only use the packages for NPCs and Pets.

NPC Relationship Autonomy Fix - Stops random Sims from breaking into your house to ask to be your BFF (and tunes the requirements so they actually have to be your friend first.)

Buy More Upgrade Parts - Allows you to buy a package of 50 upgrade parts for when you are grinding out handiness or robotics.

The following mods are all by Bienchen and don't have a direct page for each package. You can search by name pretty easily on their website. I recommend flipping through and grabbing anything you find useful - I have a total of 368 of their mods installed. Here are some highlights:

novisibleecoeffects - The aurora will nuke your framerate. I know it's pretty, but oh my god.

noautonomousbakewhitecake - Does what it says on the tin, keeps your house from being overrun by cakes.

harvestnogroupinteraction - Stops club members from autonomously harvesting plants. Those are MY death flowers!

lessemotionidles - Reduces unnecessary idle animations from emotions, great for preventing your Sims from looking flirty at inappropriate times...

lesspreferenceidles - Stops your sims from thinking about how much they like fishing/fitness/etc. when they should be doing things.

happytoddleridledisabled - Stops the idling from the Happy Toddler trait. SUPER useful for family gameplay.

laundry_buffsandsoloidlesfix - Stops or reduces idles related to laundry. It's just clothes, bro

eldertweak - Reduces elder animation idles.

hastopeewalkstyleforchildonly - Helps get your Sims to the toilet in a reasonable amount of time.

tinyhousebuffhider - I know I'm in a Tiny Home, I don't need a moodlet.

lottraiteffectshider - Hides the little floating lightbulbs around Sims heads from lot traits.

notraitnotifications - I know my geek likes video games, I don't need the pop-up every time I play.

noholidayoutcomenotification - Please don't rub my nose in the fact I forgot to celebrate.

nofestivalnotifications and nofestivalnotificationsound - Helpful when a pack is new, but years later... no thanks.

noenrollmentandscholarshipinfo - No more info screen about the two universities. I think most of us know it all by now.

nouprootplant - Never cry because of a misclick again

simschangeoutfitwhenhotorcold - Should have already been autonomous, but alas.

novisualpoliteintroeffects - I don't know if I am the only one, but the glowing really bothers me.

restaurantsittweak - Sit down and eat your dang food! No more wandering Sims.

longerprom - Takes 6 hours instead of 4 so you can actually do something.

I probably have other QoL mods that could be helpful, but these are my recommendations to start with. Love to all the modders that keep this game playable <3

[sparrowplayssims]

Update 3: Another update, I know. This fixes the wardrobe completely. I had to remake it from scratch but it now has anims and working wall masks! Get it HERE (Post download is updated)

Update 2: Forgot to update the collection file with the new GUIDs, download it HERE

Update: Changed the GUIDs to the one in the block I claimed way back in 2018, redownload if you've downloaded it :)

One of my favourite furniture sets over the years has always been the Tivoli, Plantation set by blake_boy over at ModTheSims. As well as some super cute dressers by rgdyanne over at Sims2Artists. I heavily recommend both sets with this pack.

I've used it way too many times and around October of 2022, I ended up feeling like I wanted to work on some addons for it. I've always wanted to get into making actual objects in Sims 2 since I love making things for another irrelevant game I mod. I decided this would be a great way to try and learn.

Included is the following:

Pet Bed (Linen is slaved to maxis bedding)

Cat Condo (Fabric is slaved to Los Gatos Condominums/cheap condo)

Bunk Bed + Ladder + Top Bunk Mattress

2 Tile Armoire

1 Tile Armoire

Bookshelf (Plus Empty Version)

4-Tier Shelf

4 different Shelf Inserts

Pet Bed Shelf Insert for 4-Tier Shelf (Bed slaved to Comfy Pet Pillow)

Wall Shelf

Thin Shelf/DVD Unit

Thin alternatives to end tables in the original set

Tiny open end table

Built In Closet (Based on the Apartment Life one)

2 Tile Desk

There is also the option of desk widening! I find that on the original desks, my sims' PCs would hang off the edge which is not ideal.

I'll keep them separate in case you want to keep the originals :) Same filename and GUID as the original. I did try to make the wider ones a separate GUID but it didn't work so I'm gonna leave that for now and figure it out at some point.

Download:

Addons - SFS

Desk Edits - SFS

Collection file included, including the original set by blake_boy and the dresser addons by rgdyanne.

Mesh details under the cut.

Pet Bed | 876 Faces / 1189 Vertices

Cat Condo | 2148 Faces / 2700 Vertices

Bunk Bed | 3726 Faces / 6599 Vertices

Ladder | 204 Faces / 248 Vertices

2 Tile Armoire | 2732 Faces / 4903 Vertices

1 Tile Armoire | 1946 Faces / 3570 Vertices

Bookshelf | 1099 Faces / 1905 Vertices

Empty Bookshelf | 868 Faces / 1391 Vertices

4-Tier Shelf | 844 Faces / 1370 Vertices

Shelf Insert 1 | 330 Faces / 526 Vertices

Shelf Insert 2 | 192 Faces / 280 Vertices

Shelf Insert 3 | 540 Faces / 778 Vertices

Shelf Insert (Also a shelf) | 12 Faces / 24 Vertices

Pet Bed Shelf Insert | 686 Faces / 840 Vertices

Wall Shelf | 538 Faces / 576 Vertices

Thin Shelf | 820 Faces / 1121 Vertices

Thin End Table - Open | 404 Faces / 819 Vertices

Thin End Table - Drawers | 476 Faces / 993 Vertices

Thin End Table - Handles | 742 Faces / 1000 Vertices

Tiny End Table | 428 Faces / 896 Vertices

Built-In Closet | 2826 Faces / 3885 Vertices

2 Tile Desk | 664 Faces / 1384 Vertices

Top Bunk Bed | 952 Faces / 620 Vertices

Whew... With that over with, enjoy!

Any issues at all, let me know!

(I'm off to bed haha)

[4w25-cc]

Perfect Perimeter Furniture Set

Available on Patreon and CurseForge.

Started working on this set on November 24 and finished just now. The shadows I mentioned in the previous post turned out nice. I delivered.

I love low-poly modeling. Simulating and sculpting surely are awesome, but low-poly also covers my obsession with numbers. I can calculate exact coordinates for each face, and the only thing standing between me and perfection is -0.0000005 in the Transform field when something is moved to global 0. Man…

I meshed this cute set and adjusted it to the game's sizes. Tried something new with texture baking, approved the result. Visited Sims 4 Studio forum to read random tutorials and got a huge déjà vu feeling from witnessing someone trying to delete shadow groups. Does anybody still remember the apocalypse of glitching accessories in The Sims 2 caused by creators deleting lens group from cloned glasses instead of hiding it? Different year, same kind of tinkering. It was the first thing my best friend reminded me about when I was making my first ever ice cream earrings back in 2014, 9 years ago. They are lost and gone, just like my old content for The Sims 4, though. Speaking of it, I think a random person on the internet might have more of my files saved than I do.

The prices for these items are higher than usual because I added positive environment scores to all of them, which base game objects mostly don't have. This logic is a bit weird to me. You're buying an expensive piece of furniture, and it doesn't contribute to your mood? Guess I'll fix this for myself. The numbers are realistic, so you can still use this set in legacy challenges. You're paying extra for less comfort and more happiness, just like in real life.

I cloned objects with preferred tunings and removed occluders from them after reading about how problematic they are. All the items got their footprint and fading distance adjusted. I figured out logic for perfectly calculated slots, and I'm quite satisfied with it. The shelf is a functioning bookshelf with a bunch of slots.

Other than living room furniture, I want to create dining, kitchen, and bathroom sets. I do have pictures in my head already (I don't use references), so I just need to sit down and mesh them. Let's hope real life won't turn into yet another hell ride right after I post this. Actually, the ride never ended, I just got a grip.

There are the swatches and a detailed spreadsheet you can refer to to see what has been changed in the packages. My spreadsheet addiction from Genshin Impact kicked in at some point…

PATREON | INSTAGRAM | PINTEREST | DISCORD | CURSEFORGE

[paluding]

Updating... The Tattooer (ver. 3.4)!

Finally! Took me a while, huh. This is the updated version of the Tattooer project. It skips some steps, making the workflow much, much faster! Huge thanks to @applewatersugar for his suggestion on how to bake textures while preserving the transparency. This is kind of a repost of the original Tattooer post, but it actually has some new stuff and a few changes here and there, so please take a look if you want to learn how to use this new version.

This is a series of Blender template files already set up to quickly bake textures from The Sims 4 to The Sims 2. The different Blender files will allow you to: -Bake body textures from TS4 to TS2 (Female) -Bake body textures from TS4 to TS2 (Male) -Bake body textures from TS4 (Female) to TS2 (Male) -Bake body textures from TS2 (Female) to TS2 (Male) [Bonus!] -New! Bake face textures from TS4 to TS2 (Unisex) [Bonus!] -Bake head textures from TS4 to TS2 (Face + Scalp) (Unisex) [Still experimental] Check the file names to see which one is which, and the resolution of the baked texture it will give. Everything you see in the render above was 100% converted using those Blender files.

Download here! SFS / GD

Update: Version 3.4.1 (27/08/2023) Fixed some issues on the shoulders for the AF-body-4t2-1024 and AF-body-4t2-2048 templates. Now the top straps on most converted underwear/swimwear should look right.

Update: Same version (13/12/2023) As requested, added a new spanish version of the included pdf guide!

These templates were made mainly to bake and convert tattoos, but there’s more you can do with them if you get creative. I have to say, these are NOT perfect. Results may vary depending on what you are trying to convert, so! With that in mind, this is all the stuff you will be able to convert almost seamlessly from TS4 to TS2: -Tattoos. -Other body details such as body hair, scars, freckles, supernatural/occult details… -Body painted underwear and swimwear, as well as some other clothing that’s mostly painted on the body. -Socks, stockings and maybe leggings. -Even skintones! In some areas they will look weird, so I recommend editing and blending them with other existing TS2 skins. -Makeup, eyebrows and beards. In the old version this was just a proof of concept, but now I’ve added a new Face file template which gives some pretty decent results! -Hair scalps. Very useful when converting some hairs! Although keep in mind part of that texture might also need to be baked on the face mesh, you know, that hairline makeup stuff.

Got your attention? Nice! Editing some of the textures from TS4 to match the UV mapping in TS2 using a 2D editing program can be incredibly hard. That’s where texture baking in Blender comes to the rescue!

You will need to download Blender, at least version 3.4, but you could always use a newer version. It is only incompatible with versions older than 3.4. -You can download Blender for free here. -You will also need Sims 4 Studio to extract the original Sims 4 CC textures you want. In the first version of these Blender files, there was a necessary step using Photoshop, but that’s no longer needed. However, there’s still a tiny extra step which requires resizing the newly baked texture on some of the high resolution templates, so you might need a 2D editing program like Photoshop. More on that later.

So, before we begin, let’s clear out some questions you might have. What the heck is this texture baking thing and what does it do? Well, let’s imagine you have a video projector and point an image into a blank wall. Then you pick up some brushes and start painting and copying that projected image in that wall. Texture baking is kinda like that when it comes to 3D models. You align two models and match them as closely as you can in shape and form, and once you adjust some parameters and values, Blender does the rest for you: it will give you a new texture for a new model with a different UV map. These files I’m sharing have everything already set up, so it’s a matter of plopping in that Sims 4 texture and you will get that new texture for TS2 in just a few clicks.

This tutorial assumes you know literally nothing about how to use Blender, so if you feel uncomfortable with it, worry no more! This will guide you with pictures showing where you need to click and explaining what is happening. For Sims 4 Studio and Photoshop the process might be a bit less detailed, but still this should be pretty beginner friendly. For this tutorial, I will use some tattoos as an example (properly credited at the end of the post). Alright, enough with the rambling. Let’s get started!

·EXTRACTING TEXTURES IN SIMS 4 STUDIO: First things first, you will need to extract as pngs all the textures you want to convert from TS4 using Sims 4 Studio. It should be pretty straightforward. Just open the packages and export the Diffuse textures. Keep them organized in a folder for easy access.

·BAKING THE TEXTURES IN BLENDER: PRELIMINARY STEP 1: CONFIGURING BLENDER’S GRAPHICS SETTINGS: Open your preferred Blender file depending on what you’re going to bake and the desired resolution (in this example I’m going to use the AF-body-4t2-1024 file). Before we start messing around in Blender, there’s one thing you should set up. It is a onetime step, and once it’s done, you won’t need to do it again. So, does your computer have a dedicated graphics card? If you don’t know or you’re not sure, just skip to the next step. Configuring Blender so it uses your graphics card instead of your CPU will make the baking render much faster, so it is recommended you set it up correctly. If your computer has a dedicated graphics card, click File (1) > Preferences (2) > and on the window that pops up click System (3) > and select CUDA and make sure your graphics card is there and tick it (4). I have an Nvidia Graphics card but your case may vary. Once you’re done, click on the tiny button on the bottom left corner and Save Preferences (5).

PRELIMINARY STEP 2: CHOOSING THE RENDERING DEVICE: Click on the tiny camera button on the right, called Render Properties (1), and on Device (2) select GPU Compute if it’s not already selected. If you’re not sure if you have a graphics card or not, just select CPU. Then select the Material Properties tab (3) and Save your changes, either by pressing Ctrl + S, or clicking File (4) > Save (5). You might need to do this second step with the other Blender files, but once you have it done and saved, you won’t need to do this again. Okay, time to get into the good stuff!

·STEP 1: LOADING YOUR TS4 BASE TEXTURE: In the Material Properties tab, click the folder icon that says Open (1) and on the window that pops up, navigate through your folders and select your first texture. To navigate easily, the 3 buttons on the top right (2) are for the display mode. They will show your files in list mode, vertical and horizontal, and the one on the right will display the file thumbnails, pretty useful if you want to easily preview your textures here. The icons on the left side (3) will let you go one folder back and forward, go to the parent directory, and refresh the folder in case you just dropped something new in there. Double click on the image you need and that will load the texture into the Sims 4 body model, named “ts4 body”.

·STEP 2: SETTING UP YOUR SELECTION AND BAKING THE TEXTURE: On the top right of the screen, you will see the names of the 2 models in the scene. Hold the Ctrl key in your keyboard and left click on the “ts2 body” model (1). If you did it correctly, you should see “ts2 body” in a yellowish orange color, and right down below, “ts4 body” should look more like a red orange. If not, try again by clicking first on ts4 body, and then while holding Ctrl click again on ts2 body. Then switch to the Render Properties tab by clicking the tiny camera icon (2) and click Bake (3). Depending on your screen resolution, you might need to scroll down a bit with your mouse to see the Bake button. Wait a few seconds for it to finish. You will see the progress percentage down on the bottom of your screen. Don’t panic if you notice your computer fans start ramping up, that’s completely normal! As I said in the beginning, using your GPU will bake the textures much faster than the CPU.

·STEP 3: SAVING YOUR NEW TS2 TEXTURE: Once it’s finished, switch to the UV Editing Mode by clicking “UV Editing” on the top of your screen. And there it is: your new texture! You might have to scroll up your mouse wheel a bit to zoom in and see it in all its glory on the left side of the screen. We’re still not done yet though. You need to save it to yet another new folder (always try to keep your stuff organized!).

You can save it by pressing Shift + Alt + S, or clicking on Image* (1) and then Save As… (2). That will pop a window where you’ll need to navigate again and save it somewhere. Give it a proper name (3) and hit Enter to save it… well, Enter doesn’t always work for me for some reason, so if that happens just click Save As Image (4). And that’s it! You’ve successfully converted your baked texture. Congrats!

·STEP 4: GOING BACK TO STEP 1: Alright! If you’re done with your textures, you can close Blender without saving and call it a day. But let’s say you want to keep baking other swatches. In order to go back to step 1 and start the process once again, click Layout (1), go back to the Material Properties tab (2), select “ts4 body” (3) and click on the folder icon (4) to open and load your next swatch.

Then it’s just a matter of repeating the process from step 2. When you’re ready to move on, close Blender without saving. If you see a small check telling you it will save some images, make sure you uncheck it, so you will be able to use it again in the future from the starting point with no issues. I don’t think it really matters if you accidentally save your progress in these files, but I like to keep it clean and fresh so I can do the process where I left it from the beginning next time I open it. And in case you mess up and save somewhere, you can always just delete the .blend file and download the template files again.

In case you’d like a video tutorial on how to use these files, the amazing @platinumaspiration recorded this fantastic video showcasing the process! You can watch it here.

One final note: some of the baking .blend files save the textures with a resolution of 2048x2048 pixels, as clearly stated at the end of their file name. That’s way too overkill, because TS2 only properly supports up to 1024x1024 for most of its textures and you should always resize your final product to that max resolution (or lower if needed). I just made those 2048 versions because there might be some really tiny and slim details on some tattoos that might look a little too blurry when baked into a 1024 resolution texture, so for those cases use that if you want and then resize them using your 2D editing software of choice. In Photoshop, in the Resample mode of the Image Size menu, there are a few options to choose. For the fine details, I like the Nearest Neighbor (hard edges) option, which, even if it looks a bit pixelated, it still preserves most of the texture and quality.

For anything else, I would just directly bake them using the 1024 versions in Blender (512 for the face and scalp).

And for the folks who feel comfortable playing around in Blender, this is just the beginning! Texture baking opens a LOT of possibilities, so feel free to move stuff around and edit the models to your liking! If you notice the baked textures look warped or stretched somewhere, or don’t like where some textures are placed in the S2 body, poke around that area moving stuff and then give it another try. The main objective of the baking process is keeping both overlapping models as close in shape as possible. You may also edit and save new copies of the templates, or make new ones from scratch using mine as a reference (keep a close look on those Baking settings and values, I think they work pretty well) and share them if you want to. Go ham, do whatever you want with them! I still have plans on making templates to convert body textures from Sims 3 to Sims 2, but for now it’s not on my priorities, so we’ll see when that happens.

Whew! Hope none of this was too confusing. Need help or have any issues with these? Please ask/message me here and I’ll be glad to help when I’m able to!

Credits for the CC used in the render demonstration: -Skin by Sims3Melancholic. -Eyes by Northern Siberia Winds. -Eyebrows by PeachyFaerie. -Tattoos by xtc. -Top by SerenityCC. And the Tattoo I used for the tutorial can be found here, by ValhallanSim.

Last but not least, a huge thanks to all the people who somehow contributed to make this project and update possible, either by doing initial testing, finding issues to fix, or teaching me new Blender tricks to make the workflow way faster and easier. So thanks again to @elvisgrace @moyokeansimblr and @applewatersugar on Tumblr! <3

And thank you for reading! Hope you have fun playing with this (not so) new toy hehe.

[florwal]

girl could you pls give us a for rent pack review cause im getting so many conflicting reviews😭 we need a real one to help us out!

i haven’t had much free time to play around with it but i can definitely give my opinion on what i’ve experienced so far!

world:

disappointing tbh. for a world that’s finally not super american, they could’ve done a lot more. it feels lazy.

some of the debug buildings are cool, and the world IS pretty but it just gets meh after a while. it doesn’t matter how good something looks, if there’s nothing to do what’s the point? BORINGGG. this is the case with pretty much any new world atp. lots of set dressing but not much to actually do.

i’m so sick of the new worlds having debug plants mostly from older packs like just give me more damn plants PLEASE.

hardly any npcs walk around so it feels very dead. the night market had like 1 sim show up. half of the stalls are decorative.

too many rabbit holes but the beaches are nice.

waaaaay too fucking small. the fact that there’s only 2 neighborhoods and the biggest lot is a 40x30??? bitch what???? for an ep that’s meant to have a lot of apartments… u can’t really build big places in the new world at all. yeah, the new lot type works in any world BUT it’s still an odd choice to me.

build/buy:

LOVE that there’s so many gross/dirty things. i really like the nasty wall decals and the fact that most objects have swatches that look old and used.

super happy about the functional water heaters, radiators, and electrical things.

build/buy doesn’t feel super cohesive to me.

cas:

haven’t gone through all the items much. don’t have much to say about it yet.

wish there was an aspiration to be a slumlord

gameplay:

i’m obsessed with the chance of infestations 🪳🩷 and i really like the mold lot trait. there’s a lot of references to tlou and the mold spreads very quick and gets super chaotic, but i enjoy it.

the nosy trait is fun and the cringe trait is goofy.

bugs/glitches:

a fucking NIGHTMARE for me. i’ve wanted to cry and rip my hair out several times.

there are ways around this, but residential rentals can make everything u placed off lot with tool mod get deleted. i had to go back to an older version of my save to get them back. i’m in the middle of updating my save for christmas and want to get it out asap and this set me back a lot so i’m PISSED!!!!

lot and unit names don’t stick. they revert back to a generic name generated by the game. same thing with editing the rent $ amount and lease days. they all get set back to a game generated one. one of my units also changed to 4 million simoleons and another one became a -negative number and trying to change it back fixed nothing.

the new lot type lags so fucking much it’s basically unplayable and u have to switch back to the regular residential, build and decorate whatever, and then switch to residential rental to set which rooms u want to be units as a last step. some people said repairing the game fixes the lag, but it didn’t fix anything for me. only the new lot type is lagging and freezing for me.

the new landlord sim i made didn’t make any money at all? he owns multiple properties.

overall:

i’m glad there’s south east asian representation but ea could’ve done a lot more.

i would never pay $40 for an expansion pack that feels like a game pack and has a lot of issues. please 🏴‍☠️ that shit if u get it.

if ur mostly just a builder or really want apartments and a new world, get it now. if u don’t, ur not missing that much imo. u can always wait for a sale or for bug fixes (if we ever get any lmfao look at mws and dine out)

[marvelmaniac715]

I made Webby and the Lords in Black on Sims 4 a while ago:

Here’s Wiggly:

I was really proud of his hair. I also gave every Lord and Webby their own special room/building, so here’s Wiggly’s:

Decorating isn’t my strong suit but his room was the most fun to design, I was thinking mostly of a grand palace, mostly in green, with a fireplace and a table with thrones for him and his siblings to meet at - notice the white throne for Webby?

Here’s Pokey:

I couldn’t find a beret so I went for a Phantom of the Opera style fedora, but the eyes I found were PERFECT (side note - they are all spell casters because that made the most sense considering their godly powers). Here’s Pokey’s room:

I’ll be honest, I accidentally mostly forgot to give him instruments, my idea for this room was to explore his different interests because he spends most of TGWDLM trying to figure out what people want, and that’s reflected in the different activities in his room. I also gave him cool wallpaper that reminded me of a beehive as a cute nod to that - I think I gave him a violin in the end that you can only really see from a different angle.

Here’s Tinky:

My inspiration for Tinky’s look here was anime characters, much like in NPMD, but I found the perfect goat eyes for him that totally add to his look. Here’s Tinky’s room:

I gave Tinky every clock I could find, but the vibes of the room were definitely meant to replicate the cube with insane patterns meant to drive someone mad; there’s a rock climbing wall in the corner that I think alludes to Tinky’s feral energy.

Here’s Blinky:

I’ll be honest; this hairstyle for Blinky was what inspired me to recreate the eldritch siblings on the Sims, it just seemed perfect, and of course I made his eyes massive so he can have a good look at everyone. The sunglasses also seemed pretty accurate to me. Here’s Blinky’s room:

My idea for this room was to give Blinky things to watch - so there’s loads of tvs, a camera, comfy chairs and even spy tech in a corner in case shoes get too unrealistic for him. A small detail that I wanted to point out is that in every room for a Lord, I have placed lava lamps on their bedside tables that match their colours, funnily enough I just found them in the game anyway and they were a perfect fit.

Here’s Nibbly:

A fluffy jacket, pigtails and a big mouth, what else do you need for an accurate Nibbly? I love that jacket, I wish I owned it in real life. Here‘s Nibbly’s room:

Okay, this is essentially a fancy kitchen with a cupcake machine, a wardrobe, a vanity and a bed - I ran out of ideas here. Still, I think it’s cute and I think Nibbly would like it if he ever got midnight food cravings. This room could save lives.

Finally, here’s Webby:

I honestly think that Webby is the most accurate, I was looking at reference images for all of them but that dress seems like it’s been ripped right from the screen, not to mention her hair. I’m proud of this Webby, I can sleep well at night knowing I’ve at least done her justice. Here’s Webby’s room:

I was definitely going for ‘ethereal’ when I designed this room, with a chill, relaxing vibe - what could be more relaxing than loads of fairy lights? I also made it a priority to give Webby plants to show that she is encouraging new life instead of crushing it like her brothers - the larger amount of windows and lights also are meant to suggest that she’s a kinder, more moral/good person.

If you like my recreations, they are all together on the Sims gallery, just search for the Lords in Black and Webby or type in my EA ID, sparklefishkatie (shameless self-promotion) because I’ve put a lot of stuff on there over the years. Now; these guys are quite old, you might have to scroll back to find them, and I can’t actually remember if I put their rooms on the gallery, if I didn’t please let me know if you want them because I’ll absolutely put them up. If you’ve read to the bottom of this post, you’re the best, thanks a lot and please download these characters if you play Sims 4! 💕

[lilbabydilljr]

Bee[more]hyped!

Hi! Okay! So I’ve hidden details below, but if you just want the download link here you go.

Download (SFS)

Requires: UC, Easy Inventory Check

Alright, so a while back I found this lovely beehive conversion from Foresty, which was based on Untidyfan’s 3to2 conversion, which is in turn based on Gwenke’s functional beehive. What a way we’ve come! Believe (bee-lieve) it or not this is actually the object that got me interested in modding.

What I didn’t like about the original object was that it used 2 different objects as the honey, and the overload of effects. Lots of lag. So I’ve made a few tweaks!

The first 2 are cosmetic, I’ve moved the hive from the gardening section to Hobbies.../Misc, and the default texture is yellow, but the original green is still available. Bees are yellow, duh.

Sims now harvest honey directly into their inventory, which they can drink or stock the fridge with. This is a 4to2 conversion of the honey, which I thought was neat.

The hive now only displays the bee effects when open, or when a sim angers the bees. It produces a jar of honey every 18 hours, and Gatherer sims have a 50% chance of harvesting an extra jar each harvest. Lucky sims have about a 5% chance, and these can stack. A Lucky + Gatherer sim can harvest 2 extra jars, potentially.

Sims will autonomously harvest honey and occasionally inspect the beehive, please let me know if these values seem off to you I wasn’t super sure on them. Cowards will never harvest honey. Too many stingers!

The hive now builds nature enthusiasm when it’s used, and sims can harvest multiple jars at once. I’m not sure if there’s a limit to how much honey the hive can hold? I guess just keep an eye on it.

There’s two 2 new memories included as well. If you’re not comfortable with custom memories in your game please leave them out of your downloads folder, the hive seems to work just fine.

Caveats

Bee-cause of course there are. I might work some of these things out, but right now I’m done with this project.

My beehive and Foresty’s share the same GUID, and my jar of honey does as well. I’m not sure if that’s shared across all these hives or not. But you can’t have both in the game.

Children can not harvest honey, I didn’t feel like working on the animations.

Sims can’t drink the honey straight from their inventory, it must be placed first.

The animations and tool used to grab the honey are a bit off, but not enough that it actually bothers me right now.

Finally, the jar of honey itself.

As you can see the textures aren’t great? But I don’t know enough about objects to get it right. I’ll put this out there, if someone wants to help me fix this I’d be forever grateful.

I also wanted to edit the anger bees interaction, but I couldn’t get the chased by bees interaction to work? So I gave up. I do think there should be more ways for sims to die by flies anyway, but it’s not my ideal interaction.

Lastly, I wanted to convert the Honey Cake from 4, but food again proved challenging, and when I got to trying to do the coding so it requires a Honey in the fridge, it looked like a LUA script to me? So I backed off. Maybe one day. Not today.

You might be able to get away with not having the UC for this, but I think at the very least you’ll need BV. I can’t support any installations other than the UC though.

Anyway, thanks for reading! I hope you guys enjoy this as much as I am! It’s just a fun silly little thing, but our sims need bees right???

Credits/Thanks: Foresty, Untidyfan, Gwenke. Your original objects and coding are amazing, I hope I’m not stepping on any toes here! I did DM Foresty, but I figured since Gwenke’s code has been reused a couple times now I thought I’d be fine.

Edit: 04/30/23: Moved honey jar out of the catalogue. Whoops. Had it in there for testing.

Edit 05/08/23: Bees no longer accumulate inaccesible honey in the winter.

[fruit-sy]

Randy, uh your music is a lil distorted buddy

On the other hand, have a good ending, where I lovingly gave him a new bandaid (I was tempted to give him a mean nickname, but I like him way too much to do that out of curiosity)

Have my fruitsona, who gave birth to multiple Kamells

My ramble about my thoughts on the game's demo and Randy under the cut,

!! DIALTOWN SPOILERS !!

So, I found Dialtown after scrolling through Omori crossover fics on Ao3 and "phone dating sim" immediately caught my eye.

I don't play dating sims that much these days, but I checked out the steam page, and the premise was so bizzare and the artstyle was so interesting that I had to give it a try and downloaded the demo version.

and wow, what I played was the demo??? I had roughly 4 hours of playtime, and I'm pretty sure I haven't explored everything. The first ending I got was the sock puppet ending which ended my first playthrough rather quickly, next I somehow stumbled blindly into Karen's ending, and then I pursued after Randy in which I was grossed out, felt pity, and then affection for the poor soul that is Randy.

All I gotta say is, I love him man. He's somehow a loveable idiot despite being so spineless and his circumstances being so sad.

As for the game, I'd describe it as a parody on dating sims, being equally qUiRkY as it is vulgar and nihilistic. The narrator being a figment of Phonegingi's rapidly deteriorating mental state reminds me of Pizza game by Jelloapocalypse, except the dialogue doesn't wanna make me bash my head against the wall.

The game's aesthetic? They absolutely nailed the cheap scrapbook vibes, also I like how the characters being object heads are an integrated part of the world and not just because the devs thought it just looked cool. I've not pieced together all the lore, but from what I've gathered, everyone (including animals) looks like that because of the "world wide dialup"

God/Hobo said that in one of the timelines, someone turned everyone's heads into objects. I think it was a forced thing? Since I remember seeing that the clowns revolted against the change and they were killed in a gruesome but hilarious way. Actually, not sure if that was a bit or they were serious-

Anyways, I'm going on a tangent- Most of the love interests, despite not being conventionally "attractive" are likeable! I've only played through Karen's and Randy's route so far, but I'm looking forward to discovering the others 👀

[onboardsorasora]

34 year old Daniel in the 90s is basking in his parents love and teasing Michelle. A part of him doesn’t want to return to 2024 because he hasn’t been able to be home like this since he was 17 and left for Italy

Decided to hop to it lmao. for you bestie!

De-Aged Daniel | De-Aged Daniel Pt2 | De-Aged Daniel Pt3 | De-Aged Daniel Pt 4 | De- Aged Daniel Pt 5 | De-Aged Daniel Part 6 | De-Aged Daniel Part 7 | De-Aged Daniel Part 8 | De-Aged Daniel Part 9 | De-Aged Daniel Part 10 |

Daniel sat in the far corner of the breakfast nook watching with soft eyes as his mother went about preparing lunch. It had come as a shock; one minute he was putting on his race boots to jump into the sim and the next he was standing in the yard. 

His father had come running immediately, having seen it all happen. How his five year old self had been cycling around the yard before he– well no one really knew how it happened, but Daniel was standing there instead. He’d bitten back the joke about thankfully being fully clothed, he didn’t think his parents would have appreciated it.

It had been very emotional. Very surprising. Michelle had run away to her room– fair. Grace had cried immediately, pulling him into a tight hug. Joe had stared at him with something akin to pride. 

Now Daniel sat in the kitchen reeling off random facts about the future. Things he always told himself he’d remember to tell his parents if he ever got sent back to the past.

“Oh, invest in Apple. They probably aren’t on the stock exchange now but when they pop up– trust me.” He sipped his tea as Grace laughed.

“How about you tell us other things than insider trading.” Joe grinned.

“Well, what do you want to know?” Daniel put his mug down with a clank.

“I know there’s a bunch of shite you’re not allowed to tell us. But what’s there to know about grown up Daniel Ricciardo? Your accent is different, did you move away?”

“Actually,” Daniel smiled softly. “Yeah I did. I became a formula one driver. And I needed to move to Italy to do it.”

Daniel felt his chest warm at the shock on his parents’ face, how they looked him over carefully as if taking in this new information and trying to see how such a high paced career would have changed him from their precious baby boy.

“Well I’ll be damned.” Joe muttered, “thats fucking amazing. For which team? Ferrari?”

“Well no, they never officially gave me a contract. But– well my team doesn’t exist yet. But they’re fast, currently the world champions. I won 7 races with them.” Daniel smiled proudly when Grace came over to hug him tightly.

“I’m so proud of you baby waby.” 

Daniel felt his chest clench and tears spring to his eyes. He hadn’t heard that endearment in so long, it brought back memories of wonderful times.

“I love you too mummy wummy.” his voice cracked when he said it and Grace held him tighter. When she finally let go, Daniel got up to clutch Joe tightly. Not one to go without his father’s hugs, he didn’t see why he should start now.

“Gosh, I miss you guys.” Daniel muttered. Grace frowned.

“Do you spend a lot of time away?”

“Too much. You guys come to some races too, but– it's still a lot of travel at the end of the day.” He had to bite his tongue to keep from mentioning Isaac and Isabella.

“Where were you before you Exchanged?” Joe asked after a bit.

“Oh I was at work, so little me is probably with Blake right now. Poor sucker, he has to deal with adult me and little me. I hope I terrorize him a little.” Daniel giggled, thinking about all the chaos his small counterpart could be unleashing right now on his long time friend.

“Don’t be mean, you weren’t that terrorizing.” Grace would never hear a slight against her baby, not even from him himself.

“They say it's not always an even exchange, you seek out what makes you most comfortable. So if not Blake, where would you go?” Joe asked and they watched as Daniel grow soft and bite his lip.

“Max. Probably.” 

“Who’s Max?”

“He’s… everything.”

[smoshyourheadin]

Sunshine and Soda Cans

Part 2 - Bubbles

"hey, spencer!" angela jogs up to spencer as you walk into the office. you wander to the kitchen to grab a soda, and put your stuff down.

"(y/n) said shes struggling with editing the new try not to laugh episode, and i don't think she's going to ask for help because she's too stubborn, so can you just check on her and give her a hand?". spencer looks over at you, and back to angela

"yeah sure! i'll catch up with her later" angela gives him a big grin, and then walks over to you, striking up a conversation.

later on, you're sat at your desk, editing away. you've been stuck re-trimming the same clip for like twenty minutes, and you're becoming increasingly frustrated.

"hey, (y/n)!"

his voice catches your attention, making you look up, but not away from the screen.

"hi spence, uh- what's up?" you say, eyes still glued to your screen.

"oh nothing, just checking how you're getting on with the try not to laugh edit. everything going good?"

"no actually' you, look up at him and you chuckle "ive, i've been trying to edit the same clip for like ever, and it won't save properly. im losing my mind!"

he smiles at you honesty, and pulls up a chair to help you out. after about an hour, you two get a bit bored and decide to go live on the games channel, streaming some sims

"alrighty then guys, hello! welcome to the games channel, today me and spencer are going to be playing some sims 4!" you smile into the camera, adjusting your hair, and you relax into your chair.

"guys, can we hate on (y/n) in chat for drowning my sims last time" spencer says sarcastically, glaring at you sassily.

"hey!" you elbow him, playfully "you made fun of my sims' fashion choices!"

he laughs at your anger, and you talk with the chat for a little while as the game loads

"okay, my plan is to make a love triangle in my mansion. i want to see if they can handle the drama.." you say, tapping your fingertips together

"woah, okay dr. evil!" he says, laughing with you

you guys start making some characters that, suspiciously, resemble each other. as you begin to play, your sims keep chatting to eachother

"hey, (y/n), why does your sim keep flirting with mine? got a crush or something?" spencer says with a smirk

"oh, please! my sim is just being friendly! unlike yours, who keeps stealing my sim's food!!! didn't realise your name was tina.." you giggle at your own joke, napoleon dynamite is one of the first things you two bonded over, so you both have a good laugh.

you guys play for about two hours, and then decide to wrap up, finishing the stream

before getting up to leave, you guys share a lingering gaze, and you see the colours in his eyes. you give him a ride back to his apartment, and you turn of your radiohead "in rainbows' cd. weird fishes/arpeggi comes on, as you pull up infront of his apartment. you look over at him with a sweet smile.

"well, see you tomorrow spence"

"yeah. looking forward to it"

you two lock eyes, and then he gently pulls you into a sweet kiss, his hand lingering on your jaw as you melt into his touch. he tastes like mt dew, and you smile against his lips. as you break away, you already miss his lips on yours.

"see ya, (y/n)" he says with a smile and a new twinkle in his eye, exiting the car and walking into his apartment block.

you sit in your car for at least another five minutes; eyes glassy, chest heavy, and palms sweating. you pick up your phone, and open up the phone app, ringing the only person you can think of to call.

"hey jelly, do we have any icecream? i need to tell you what's just happened"

you hear angela open the freezer over the phone, and she says

"yeah, we have some vanilla and i think there's some strawberries in the fridge. everything okay?"

"yeah," you breathing staggers, fully realising what just happened "me and spencer kissed"

"I'M SORRY WHAT"

you hang up, and start driving back to your apartment.

---------------------------

a/n— hey!! thank you all so much for the love on part one omg love y’all for that ahhh 😚 my requests are open btw!! so feel free to request anything, not just smosh stuff!! i’ll write for anything (even if im not in the fandom 😚)! okay yeah hope you all enjoy pt2!! love y'all 💛