No dining set.  Any downloaders foolish enough to trust anything I make will be the proud owner of the most pointless dining set yet.  The Alice dining set can't, erm, be dined at.....

Before you start assuming that I just throw random files at the servers, I do have an excuse.  It's feeble, but an excuse IS never-the-less an excuse! 

I first made the set with the publicly available Workshop 0.8.7.  I tested the chairs both independently of a table, with the Alice table and with other tables, indoors and outdoors.  Everything was fine!  But then the TSR dream-team came out with a new closed beta version of Workshop that also generates the shadow meshes automatically AND perfectly.  Any object creators who have tried lining up shadows won't be reading this because they will already be committed in some local asylum somewhere, but yes, it's true: the dream-team have made sunshadow worries a thing of the past - dead easy.  No more MLOD2 and MLOD3 nonsense; no more wailing about disconnected, badly shaped shadows.  One click and the shadows are made automatically.  Beautiful.

So, I ran the Alice dining chairs through the closed beta version, loaded up my game to admire the perfect shadows (and they are perfect - kudos to the developers), and sat a Sim on each chair just to be sure they still worked.  I also placed the chairs at a dining table to ensure they placed correctly, moved when the table was picked up etc.  Fine again!  So, I uploaded the set. 

What I forgot to do in the second round of testing was park a dining table in front of the chairs AND sit a Sim at the table!  Sims can indeed sit on those chairs, but not when they're at a table.  The latest closed beta of the Workshop also automatically adjusts the green footprint beneath the object (extremely, brilliantly useful) but dining chairs have an odd arrangement (a hidden footprint behind the chair when at a dining table) which the Workshop had not accounted for, meaning the Sim could not pull out the chair in order to sit on it at a table.  Fortunately, the beta also allows the footprint to be adjusted manually, so I've made those adjustments and am happy to confirm that the chairs now do work properly. 

The set will be back up shortly.   And the new beta Workshop will be out shortly too!

My reason for writing post #301 though is not about the toilet (which is still ongoing).  I thought I'd give a few grunge-loving people something more to wail and whine about - because again I have seriously missed the 'rust treatment' with my latest set.  It's inspired by Alice In Wonderland (who we all know LOVED a spot of Poker-playing in the dark hours...) and a special request-item for Paramiti (which is again amazing because I usually can't do requests at all)...

Anyone who has already tried their hand at Sims 3 object-making might now want to look at those wall-deco items and say "the SHADOWS - how on earth?"  Indeedy!  The worst shadows ever to render but I had a special facility for making them: a friend called Apple.  Those deco items are only here because of him (they'd enjoyed a warm spot in my recycle bin prior to his rescuing of them) so with a big and special thanks to him, they finish off the set...

I could not bring myself to make anything particularly nice for Sims 2.  Now I can't seem to escape this new sugary world.  Still, there is 'the toilet'.  I don't plan on THAT being sweet.  It's not a Bang-on-a-Can toilet, though I do intend to remake that for Sims 3 at some point.  This toilet will again be another brand new creation.  Except it won't look 'new'...

I posted up a set of tower clocks - all ready for publishing today, but at the last minute I pulled them.

Why?  Well, because I'm like that.  Totally mean!  "Bet you want these, don't you?!"  Then YOINK - gone!  Chortle!  In fact, I could spend DAYS doing that!

Of course, I jest!   I was really pleased with the clocks: they're animated, they keep the correct game-time etc.  Lovely!  Oh, but one stupid problem stood in the way: they were too high up and there was nothing I could do about it (any attempt to place them lower has a disastrous effect on the clock hand positions and oribits - even when setting the joint itelf to a lower position).

So the clocks have to stay where they are.  Can't be set at a lower height.  But they looked stupid being hidden under a roof.  The 2-tile clock could at least sit under a gable, but this wasn't much good for the 1-tile clock.

So, nice as I am, I figured I'd make a couple of decorative tower roofs instead.  The large (2-tile) version (pictured here) is tall enough to sit behind and rise above the giant clock. 

My apologies to those of you who were hoping for these clocks today.  They'll be out later this week!

You bet I'm not! 

Meet the Toilet Maze by GrayGoblin!   This is why I find myself browsing lots from time to time wondering what builders have been up to lately. 

This lot hits the humour spot exactly.  Oh, I love it!  I love it maliciously.  Gray Goblin, you have a wicked sense of humour and I really look forward to seeing more from your brilliant mind!

If you like this too, stop by at GrayGoblin's guestbook and drop him a line.  He deserves a big round of TSR applause!

Like a few others I'm sure, I had the brilliant idea of rescuing some of my Sims 2 meshes and converting them to Sims 3!  The end result of my endeavours is that I have at least learnt the art of the hollow laugh.  But that's it.  You see: some people were very lazy with their UV mapping, and those very same people now have to start over.  I would do a lot of pointing and laughing at that - if I wasn't one of them!

It pretty much looks like anything I convert WILL have to be made from scratch, so I won't be carrying out masses of conversions wholesale.  Some favourites will come along though, like these Alpine Roofline Windows that have been requested.  Once I've reminded the door who's boss, this set will be released in time for Friday 16th October.

A new set of windows and doors to be filed under 'complete'!  Crusade Windows and Doors is up for publishing this coming Friday 9th October! 

I rue the day when I said (at the beginning of Workshop development and testing) that at least meshing was easy.  "Meshing is now the easy part; throw together a mesh in 10 minutes - it's the rest that takes longer".  What a n00b!

Having spent 1-2 days per window mesh (and let's not bother naming the extra days one stupid door took to fathom, never mind mesh), I wish to retract that ridiculous statement I made.  It is indeed possible to throw something together very quickly, but the end result looks like a word I'm not allowed to use here

Never mind!  Set is out.  I can now ungrit my teeth and start trying to be personable at home again!

By the way, the matching Castle Stonemasonry wallpapers used in this screenie are already published and available free to download.  It is an irony that this wallpaper set is probably my most popular creation!  This required no meshing or gritted teeth!

After a temporary blip, updates are working again!  We have no idea what went wrong, but the correct files are now being served, so do please download the updates again to be double-sure that you have them.

Get the updates here: (click a picture)

USELESS ADDITIONAL INFORMATION  FOR THOSE WHO ENJOY THAT SORT OF THING...

What has been fixed?

File size mainly.  When these creations were made, the Workshop did not offer compression, and that led to files of 1-2Mb in size in some cases.  Additionally, some windows became invisible when on the mouse pointer.  Everything has now been fixed.

How will I know that I have the correct files?

Open the game launcher and click on Downloads.  Although everything is ghosted out, you should see a 'size' column.  If you have the updates, then you will find the following:

- Colonial Windows will be 265Kb or less  (previously 900Kb+)
- the Oil Drum will be 762Kb (not 1.8Mb)
- the Beer Keg will be 220Kb

If you have any too-big files, please download and install the updates.

How do I install the updates?

First, you need to remove any existing versions (don't worry: this won't upset your game or damage any of your lots).  Open the game launcher and click on Installed items.  Tick every file you wish to replace, then click the uninstall button.  Now click the Downloads button and delete the uninstalled items.

Now install the updates by double-clicking each Sims3Pack, or, if you know your way around your computer, you can speed this up by opening the game's Downloads folder (My Documents/Electronic Arts/Sims 3/Downloads) and dropping all Sims3Packs in there, then telling the Game Launcher to install them in a single batch instead.

The updates will have no impact on your game (except to discreetly replace the older files).

But bigger is NOT better when it comes to Sims 3 content file sizes!  If you've downloaded my latest set: Cubit Windows (pictured left), you'll see that the file sizes are now tiny, thanks to the latest Workshop version!

So my NEXT priority is to resize my last set, the Colonial windows.  I'm already a quarter of the way through this process, and I hope by the time I've finished it that the finishing touches to TSR's new 'updates' feature will be working (downloaders will be notified automatically of updates).

Update: all windows, the beer keg and the oil drum are fully resized - a big improvement!  I'm now awaiting some technical help to upload them - so everything should be with you shortly!