cyclonesue / Blog

Author: cyclonesue | Posted Sep 19, 2009 | 4 comments

Now out!

Download from here.

Author: cyclonesue | Posted Sep 14, 2009 | 1 comments

I have completed a full set of windows!  Therefore, my original release date of 2nd October is the usual hogwash I come out with, and I hope to release the full set this weekend.

A Workshop fault means that one of the windows is not visible when carried on the mouse-pointer; however, once this is fixed, the set is good to go!

Author: cyclonesue | Posted Aug 26, 2009 | 1 comments

I've been asked a few times now why a particular community lot cannot be placed anywhere. 

Community spaces are a bit scarce in Sims neighbourhoods, and if you have a community lot you want to place, you need to convert a residential space into a community space.  Unlike Sims 2, it is very simple to do in Sims 3.

1. Start The Sims

2. From the menu, select Edit Town

3. Click on the lot or space you wish to convert.  It needs to be the same size or bigger than the lot you want to place.

4. Click the icon that looks like half a house and half a bench (shown by the red arrow).  This toggles your lot between residential and community.

And that's it!  Some community lots play equally well as residential lots, so you can convert those too if you wish.

Author: cyclonesue | Posted Aug 26, 2009 | 3 comments

I don't watch TV, although I know Star Trek of old. 

So when I saw THIS fella, I recognised Spock immediately!  Probably the only character I DO know from any sci-fi TV series, and he has become the first ever Sim I have ever downloaded in Sims 1, 2 or 3! 

Despite this dubious honour, Mr Spock is unfortunately not going to be seeing any amazing adventures in outer-space until I see my way to building some outlandishly ridiculous sci-fi lot.  Instead, he has the dubious honour of being my chief lot tester with idiotic "now try THESE stairs for me" missions instead. 

But isn't he just awesome?  You should hear his voice too!  A Sim that truly does look even better in the game than in Create-A-Sim!

Congratulations asakurastar for such a brilliant Sim!

Save Spock from menial lot testing today by downloading him from here - works perfectly in the default game and he's totally free too!

Download Mr Spock here

Author: cyclonesue | Posted Aug 23, 2009 | 2 comments

Okay - so I DID make a lot of excited screaming noises in the background.  Now shushed.  But GREAT NEWS FOR BUILDERS!

Early days, but the first object I made with the in-beta-this-week Object Workshop (a bad lamp not even worthy of picturing) DOES actually package properly with uploaded lots!!!  That's the first time I've been able to upload a lot with a custom object inside it!  All my previous objects (experiments) have refused because they were installed as .package files rather than Sims3Packs.  Failures included stairs, windows - even terrain paints.  But it seems a Sims3Pack installs content properly, and is picked up by lots when they're shared.

I am one very happy builder!  Kudos to the TSR developers for what is looking to be a fantastic object creation program.

Author: cyclonesue | Posted Aug 20, 2009 | 3 comments

I know.  No objects yet.   STILL no objects!!!  That's because there's no objects-ready Workshop released yet, and no discovery on the cause of those scaling textures either.  The wait is killing me (and I hope no-one just said 'good!'...)

The texture problem is a nuisance.  We don't yet know WHY some (most?) but not all objects are scaling their textures.  In the picture above, my oil drum tables have mapped perfectly (both shading and textures are just where they're meant to be) but the radio (I know - exactly the sort of crud I'd make!) has the texture scaling problem where the wood and circular speaker texture has stretched too far down and too far to the right. Same with windows.  A few are absolutely fine, but one or two in the set have their shading falling in the wrong places, giving window frames the appearance of inexplicable bruises! The only items that have been totally fault free to date are the stairs.

And an absent Workshop means that I cannot make Sims3Pack objects.  This is ultra-important.  Any creation you install as a basic package file (including patterns) will not package with any lots you intend to upload.  As a builder myself, I know what a pain in a certain rear part of the anatomy THAT is!  Given that when we install patterns as Sims3Pack files they DO upload with lots, I'm hoping like heck that the same will hold true for objects too.

And no, I DON'T know what I was thinking when I made that radio.  I had a collection of knobs and grids to play with so they were slapped together to make a box that looked like it should DO something - so a radio was born - badly mapped!

Author: cyclonesue | Posted Aug 9, 2009 | 9 comments

Some of the most difficult objects to access for modification in the game are modular stairs.  Thanks again to the tools being developed by Inge and Peter Jones over at Simlogical, stairs are here!

Naturally, my versions lack any polish.  But be thankful I didn't add any little blobs of bird poop to the rail posts either!  I WAS very tempted......

And here's the real good news for downloaders!  No more installation scripts!  You can drop these stairs into your game and they work immediately - no fancy-schmancy stuff required.

Oh, and with all these windows and doors and stairs and terrain paints I'll be making, did I also mention I'll be making a fence or two? I just need one of those day jobs where I get paid for doing nothing at all, and then I could make heaps of this per week.

Author: cyclonesue | Posted Aug 9, 2009 | 2 comments

As well as windows (which are waiting in the wings for some mapping corrections), we now have Terrain Paints (huge thanks to Inge and Peter Jones over at Simlogical).  Here's the first of many I plan to make for your game...

EA has made a beautiful job of terrain rendering in Sims 3.  Terrains not only blend together much more seamlessly when mixed, but the overall texture is crsisp and sharp in detail.

This is a terrain I'd originally made for Sims 2, but it looks much clearer in Sims 3.

Author: cyclonesue | Posted Aug 6, 2009 | 7 comments

We wanted to be sure we could do it before we made any false promises, but Murano and I both have our first windows in game! 

It took a lot of battling to find the window masks, but Apple, Ricci2882 and AnoeskaB finally dug them out after hours of searching and experimenting, and then Murano found a way of extracting them nicely (because window masks are not cloned with the window mesh yet).  The end result is that I now have four windows made!  Sorry about the, er, building, but I just wanted something to slap windows on.  Don't worry - I won't upload it...

For anyone thinking "what on EARTH is she on about?", window-masks are the textures that control where the 'hole in the wall will be for the window.  Without a wallmask, there is no hole - so it was pretty important to find them.

Humble Beginnings

I wanted to start with something very, very simple, so I decided to extend the game's Colonial windows.  I wanted a 2-tile rectangular and arched version that were full size, together with a matching 1-tile full version.  The latest addition is a 2-tile round window. There are minor problems right now (which everyone is experiencing) where the textures are shifting slightly, misplacing natural shadows (for example, where window crossbars join the main frame there is a touch of shading, but that is dropping down below the bars).  Therefore I don't have a release date yet; however, once these mapping problems have been zapped, I'll remake the windows to ensure the texture is correct.

But we have windows in Sims 3 already, folks!

Thanks owed to some real community awesomeness!

As well as three clever folks at TSR named above, these windows have been made possible by some already-incredible tools at Simlogical.  Thanks to everyone working together in the community (especially Peter and Inge Jones for S3 Object Cloner and Package Editor, (truly fantastic tools already - even though we're so early into custom content), Wes-H for our Milkshape plugins and tools so we can edit the stuff we clone, and TSR and the community at large who have been contributing any information they've uncovered in the goal towards making our beloved custom content possuble for Sims 3.

Author: cyclonesue | Posted Aug 4, 2009 | 4 comments

Yes, I know what you're thinking: "Is that ALL?"

After submitting something for Sims 3 almost daily, there's been a little hiatus on the submitting front.  Then FINALLY, along comes another set of - wallpapers...

Oh, you say.

One way of looking at this is that my poll says you'd like another wallpaper set, so I could simply be giving more of what you'd like...

But another way of looking at it is that I could actually be working on Something Else...

Not being TOO mean, I shall tell you that it's the latter, but I'm still mean enough NOT to tell you what it is!

Yet.

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I love power games where I'm the one doing the playing!