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Author: Thomas|TSR | Posted Nov 18, 2009 | 2 comments

The new Expansion Pack adds some new object types and categories. This causes some issues with Workshop and cloning. We are working on a fix for this so look for an announcement soon.

Author: Thomas|TSR | Posted Oct 31, 2009 | 0 comments

Interested in creating something nice with our new release of TSR Workshop? How about creating a plant, a nice new object or why not a pattern? Check out the 4 new tutorials available here and share your fantastic creations with everyone here at TSR!

Author: Thomas|TSR | Posted Oct 22, 2009 | 19 comments

It's time for celebration!

All those of you impatiently waiting for the new release of TSR Workshop with full support for objects, hair, makeup, accessories and clothing - the wait is finally over!

The public beta, version 0.8.7 is now available for download in our Workshop downloads section.

Please note this is still a beta product and there will no doubt be various bugs left to discover. We have however taken this long closed beta period to make sure as many obvious bugs as possible are fixed and that the version we provide has as many features as possible.

Please note we will not offer any dedicated product support for TSR Workshop since it is not a commercial product. The support you can get is from our dedicated Wiki section with getting started guides and manuals, our user tutorials and our TSR Workshop forums where many of our experienced FA's and SA's are available to answer your questions.

Make sure you read our EULA before using TSR Workshop in your projects and please give proper credit back here.

If you are interested in knowing who made it all possible, check the credits page here.

If you want to support our onward development please consider a donation. The money we get from donations will be used to obtain developer licenses for programs such a 3DS Max, Maya, Lightwave, Cinema 4D and others. With those licenses we will be able to create plugins to be used directly from within those programs and not having to resort to Milkshape only for the mesh import.

Author: Thomas|TSR | Posted Oct 15, 2009 | 6 comments

It's not quite ready yet, but we're certainly getting real close now! The current public release is version 0.6.4 and the upcoming version is up to 0.8.4 - as you can imagine that means a LOT of changes and fixes has taken place. Here's what you can expect:

User Interface:

• A revamped more graphical GUI
  
• All unnecessary clutter and information removed
• New editor windows for patterns and textures with zoom and move functionality
  

CAS Creation support:

• Unique hair, accessories and clothing meshes, with the exception of morph states
• Flexible polycounts
• New bone assignments
• Animated hair
  

Object Creation support:

• Most of the object types available in the game can be cloned/used as a base
  
• Flexible polycounts
• New bone assignments
• Animated objects
• Adding/deleting variations
• Adjusting the footprint
• Changing the Normal Map
• Modular objects
  

Textures/Materials/Patterns:

• Ability to set final texture sizes with Material Editor
• Editing of Color and HSV patterns
• Exchanging patterns with WSP format between projects
• Possible to view and change material states (dirty and default)
  

Improved 3D preview:

• New higher resolution rendering
• Show/hide normals for the mesh
• Show/hide footprints/slots
• Show/hide all different LOD meshes
• Show/hide the mesh wireframe
  
• Improved shaders now supporting shadows, transparency and bumpmaps
• Preview wall visible when editing wallmasks for windows, doors and arches

Overall Improvements:

• Faster load times
• New and improved Milkshape plugins for mesh export
• Compression of .sims3package files
• Ability to import .package files
• A brand new Wiki section covering all creation processes and how to use the tool

Estimated release date is surprisingly soon - possibly even the coming week!

Author: SteveB | Posted Sep 25, 2009 | 3 comments

The Sims Resource has invested heavily in TSR Workshop with 2 full time programmers working on it since before the game released in June 2009, and who will continue to work until such time as we consider it a feature full, stable product. We also plan to invest in licences for Maya and 3D Studio Max plug-ins at great expense, to allow Custom Content creators to work quickly and efficiently with their tools of choice. The result will be a software product which has enabled masses of additional content for Sims 3 players to expand and enhance their game.

Whether you are a CC Creator making direct use of TSR Workshop, or a player that benefits every day from the work generated as a result of TSR Workshop, we would encourage you to donate to the project, not just as a way of saying "thanks" for the work done to date, but to help us to continue to invest in the future, for Expansion Pack compatibility and better feature enhancements too.
You can donate as much or as little as you like through PayPal via the link here. Your donation would be much felt and greatly appreciated not only by us, but the whole Sims 3 playing/editing Community!

EULA Update:

We have made an addition to the EULA for Workshop which requires websites and other distribution media to link back to the TSR Workshop page at The Sims Resource as a means of giving credit for the development of the software which makes those CC creations possible. The addition is Section 9 and reads:

9. DUE CREDIT
Any website, distribution portal or publication sharing or making available any CUSTOM CONTENT via digital download, CD/DVD or any other Media, must give credit to The Sims Resource as the SOFTWARE PRODUCT developer on their website or in their publication, by title ("TSR Workshop") and by link or reference to the TSR Workshop webpage (www.thesimsresource.com/workshop).

You can read the full EULA here.

Author: Thomas|TSR | Posted Sep 17, 2009 | 19 comments

We have been hard at work enabling full object editing for The Sims 3 with our TSR Workshop tool. Testing is in the final stages internally and brand new objects are already available on the site.

Moving forward we have now developed an SDK that allows for third party plugin development. The TSR Workshop team is very happy to announce the first plugin, supporting a format, s3asc developed by Wes Howe, used when importing and exporting meshes in TSR Workshop and supported by Wes Howe's MilkShape object plugins. This will not replace our own 3D software export/import plugins, but rather give you a choice as to which you prefer to work with, and compatibility between different tool sets. In order to comply with TSR workshop's EULA the new s3ac plugin comes with an updated license that grants it's users full rights to use the end product in any way or form they choose with no limitations.

TSR has also been granted the rights to redistribute said plugins and will also provide a support forum and regular news updates
through the TSR Workshop site. Check for a public release of both Workshop and the plugins shortly!

Author: johan | Posted Jul 21, 2009 | 4 comments

Update: version 0.6.0.0 is out that fixes an issue with squishdll.dll and other various performance improvements.

A public beta of TSR Workshop has been released!

TSR Workshop v0.5.9.0 Specification

For those technically minded CC creators, here is the current status of the TSR Workshop for each content type. You should be sure to read the EULA before using the TSR Workshop to create your own Custom Content.

Clothing: Full support for all clothing types. New meshes are currently limited (see below). This is a work in progress.

Makeup: Nearly full support. Eyebrows can not be recolored in game as of yet.

Hair: Partial support, some items can not be recolored in game yet. New meshes are currently limited (see below). This is a work in progress.

Accessories: Nearly full support. A few items can not be recolored in game. New meshes are currently limited (see below). This is a work in progress.

Complates: Partial support for changing the different steps in the texture generation process (type, alphablending, colors).

Textures: Full support for changing all properties (rgbmask, specular mask, overlay, multiplier etc.) plus Export of all textures and Import of DDS files.

Meshes: Partial support of export/import of OBJ-files (wavefront format). Mesh vertices may be replaced IF the number of vertices is the same. Bone assignments may not be changed. Fully automated process with a live 3D preview.

Patterns: Possible to create/upload new patterns. You may also use existing EA patterns by using our patterns browser.

Variations: Possible to add new and delete existing variations to a creation. This makes it possible to include several versions of the same file in one Sims3pack file.

Export: To sims3pack with auto-generated thumbnails or custom thumbnails.

Utilities:

• Being project based you can start by cloning existing game content or by creating 'from scratch'
• Project/package contents may be changed by using "Edit->Project contents"
• Smooth upload of files to TSR using the file storage option

Author: Thomas|TSR | Posted Jul 21, 2009 | 0 comments

Here we will address some recent issues with the new Workshop Beta.

When I try to install it says I already have a newer version installed?

If you have the Workshop Pattern Tool installed you need to uninstall that first. The pattern tool is now fully integrated into the TSR Workshop framework.

When I try to install and/or launch the program my security software gives me a warning - is this spyware?

Not at all. Firewall/security programs always offer warnings for any software accessing the net, and the Workshop is no different.  If your firewall/security program gives you any warnings during install, it is safe to proceed.  The Workshop connects to the internet for three things:

(1) To check that you have the latest version of the Workshop.
(2) To display a range of featured creations recently made with the Workshop as well as the latest news.
(3) To connect to your TSR account if you have one, enabling you to upload any creations you want to share easily.

Do I need .Net Framework to use this?

Yes you do. You can grab the latest version from here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/netframework/cc378097.aspx

Does the files I create replace existing content in the game?

No, the created files are entirely new sims3pack files that work standalone.

Do I need a special installation program for the created content?

No, since they are normal sims3pack files they install the normal way.

Must I upload my creations to TSR?

We have tested and confirmed most of the content created with TSR Workshop, with the exception of meshes. Meshing is still on an experimental level and thus we would prefer that you only upload new meshes to TSR until we can confirm they will not cause problems and we're no longer in a beta phase. This is to make sure any "damaged goods" is not spread too far around the community, making it very tedious to repair if needed. So the simple answer is no, you can upload your creations anywhere you want, with the exception being meshes.

Hope this helps some of you with problems and questions!

Author: Thomas|TSR | Posted Jun 17, 2009 | 9 comments

This release has the following changes/fixes:

• Compression bug workaround, please remake any patterns made with v2 of the tool (info below)
• Automatic addition of correct category when uploading to Filestorage from within the tool, this makes the submission process faster and more accurate.
• Automatic tile previe added to the site. This is to make sure your creation does tile properly and also gives a nice preview of how it looks when tiling (other then in the game). We consider this a quality insurance.
• Minor bug fixes
  

Info regarding updating: Those of you that needs to update patterns created with v2 of the tool will get the chance to do so sometime tomorrow (wednesday). Until then feel free to submit new patterns using the new version of the tool. More info about this will be posted tomorrow.

Go here to download

Author: Thomas|TSR | Posted Jun 15, 2009 | 11 comments

We have discovered a problem with the compression which was introduced with the updated version of Sims 3 Workshop. This causes a random error within the sims3package file under certain circumstances (not for everyone). We are working on a fix and will release an update tomorrow. For those effected you will be able to edit your published creations and update them with a new file starting tomorrow once the fixed version is out. For those still using the first version you will not need to update your creations (but we recommend you grab the new version anyway to stay on par with everyone else and to get the latest features).

We are truly sorry for this inconvenience - but keep in mind this is still a beta and we are all testing new waters here. More updates to follow tomorrow.

For now - do not submit any patterns until you've been able to use the fixed version coming out tomorrow.

Author: johan | Posted Jun 12, 2009 | 11 comments

We have released a new version (1.0.0.1) of the plugin.

Changes include:

• Compression of data files
  
• Tiling preview
• Support for PNG and BMP mask images (limited to 3 channels)
• Optional DXT compression 
• + some minor bug fixes

Please note the support for PNG and BMP files changes the requirements on your images, we'll post an additional tutorial soon covering this.

We'd like to take this opportunity and thank the following for their help: Delphy, Rick, Inge_Jones, Peter Jones, Karybdis and jfade. Thanks!

Author: Thomas|TSR | Posted Jun 10, 2009 | 17 comments

Our first plugin to the Sims 3 workshop tool in development has been finished and is now available for a public beta.

• For the download, go to this page, you find the link to download under the files section.
  
• For a user guide/manual, see this page.
  
• For related tutorials, see our user guides section.
• Here is the EULA for the tool.
  

We have a forum set up for this here. This is your place for support and troubleshooting (do NOT use TSR support for this, you will not get a reply).

Author: Thomas|TSR | Posted Jun 5, 2009 | 4 comments

We will very soon realease our first plugin for the upcoming Workshop tool. This plugin will allow you create patterns for use within the game. The tool comes complete with a live preview and many other neat features you won't see elsewhere. Stay tuned for more information shortly.

Author: johan | Posted Jun 2, 2009 | 9 comments

Here is a screenshot of a game mesh that has been imported to TSW

Now we need to import the proper textures that goes with it, we're currently working on that bit as well as some aditional mesh formats. Stay tuned!

Author: Thomas|TSR | Posted Jun 1, 2009 | 36 comments

We are happy to report that our Workshop tool is progressing nicely. Much of the necessary research has been completed and we have begun the process of putting it all together and to make some magic happen. In an effort to speed things up and make sure the community gets to see custom objects in the game sooner rather then later, we have decided to make the backend part of this project open source. Together with the likes of Delphy, Inge_Jones, Peter L Jones, Echo, jfade and Karybdis (to name a few, others to follow) we will pool our knowledge together and solve the challenges ahead of us as a collaborating team. More updates to follow :)

Edit to clarify: The Open Source team are working on the code that will allow us and other websites to develop software to support Sims 3 Custom Content. They aren't working on the TSR Workshop directly, they are working on the generic libraries that as Open Source, anybody can use. /Steve

Edit no 2: Those names mentioned above was a list of modders supporting open source in the past. All have acknowledged their participation in Sims 3 and this project with the exception of Mootilda and Atavera (thus their names are removed). We're sorry for the confusion!

Author: SteveB | Posted May 27, 2009 | 9 comments

'The Sims 3 Workshop' has been growing since we started it back in January 2009 after our time at EA Redwood Shores. So far we have built the basic framework of the tool to allow for plug-in development. We have a full 3D environment and the ability to import new meshes (.obj files) from 3rd party tools such as 3D Studio, or by importing existing Sims 2 creations.

Once imported, our tool allows you to define up to 4 channels on the object to enable full compatibility with 'Create a Style'. We can currently apply textures too, taken from Sims 2 base game textures for testing but will actually use Sims 3 textures in time. We don't want our tool to create one off items within the game. If it's going to do the job it has to do it perfectly, and that means allowing the player to treat CC made with our Workshop just the same as base game items.

More news will follow soon and we hope to release our first tool within days of the game release date. In the meantime, here are some screens to show the tool in action.