's Blog

Great Design Work

I have enjoyed, coming to the TSR and getting some very good designs to fill my sims home and town. Just wanted to post a thank you to all that design and upload to the TSR for us to enjoy. Keep up the good work!

The Venii Family

Warren Silver married into the Gold family and took their name.  Two of his sisters-in-law married two of the handsome Adonii brothers.  Two of his brothers-in-law married into the Venii family.

The Venii family consists of 6 sisters, four of whom are graduated out of high school and/or college, and two of whom are still students. In truth, their real name isn't Venii at all, but it is the name they adopted to hide themselves from their parents, who still live.  Mother got her daughters out of the house as quickly as possible, to spare them the torment and torture of living with their abusive father.  Under no circumstances are they allowed to contact her--Father has no idea where they are, and is still looking for them--so they have resigned themselves to treating their parents as if they were already dead.

Deliai, the oldest sister, has taken on the role of "mother" to her two youngest sisters.  Though she doesn't have the beauty so sought after by the modern fashionistas, she possesses a classic beauty which shines through even without make-up.  In fact, she focuses on emphasizing minimal cosmetics in her writing as a Fashion Columnist.  The hours are bad for her, because she hardly sees her two youngest sisters, but the money she brings in is just as important, and with her other sisters around, she feels that she's not totally abandoning them.  Still, it's hard for her.

Florai, sister number two, shares her older sister's burden as breadwinner.  Fortunately, she has the beauty to be immediately noticed as well as the talent to reach out to audiences everywhere.  As a Rock Star, her hours are even worse than Delia's, but the money's nice.  Although she and her sisters had some concerns about becoming famous and recognizable, their father would never bother looking at their professions--and rock music is definitely not his thing.

Hollyi, the third girl, went the academic route instead.  However, she has proven herself successful in attracting a male audience for her lectures as a Theorist.  And as her father had no love of learning, she feels safe in her profession, because there would be no way he'd ever bother looking at science journals to find his daughters.

Unlike her other sisters, fourth sister Meredith went the tomboy route and focused on athletics.  Her scores in academic subjects were never very high, but they sufficed to get her diploma, and her athleticism and physical capability helped her rise to the rank of Coach.  Her team hasn't won any championships yet, but most of Old Town thinks it's only a matter of time.  And because her father can't stand sports, Meredith has no fear he'll ever look in the sports section of a newspaper and find her.

The two youngest sisters, Susanna and Violetta, miss their mother terribly, but not their father--they were too scared of him.  With their sisters watching out for them, they've come to terms with their separation from their mother, but they hope for the day when they can someday go home to her again.  Still, with all the friends they've made in Old Town, they're able to distract themselves readily enough.

Although Delia and Flora never had any intention of marrying, they wavered when they met Emil and Raoul Gold, who were visiting their mother Jacqueline.  After two wild, whirlwind courtships, Delia married Emil and Flora married Raoul.  The two brothers joined the six sisters, providing two father figures to Susanna and Violetta--better than fathers, really, since both men sincerely wanted to be their friends and part of the family.

Emil, who had been cruising through life without really picking a direction, is still trying to decide what kind of job he wants.  In the meantime, he's happy to take care of the house while everyone else goes out to work.  Raoul, on the other hand, was interested in Delia's profession--he'd first become interested because his brother Henri was also a Fashion Columnist--and was working with her to get into the fashion industry himself.

With the two Gold brothers to help them out--them and the skilled lawyers their families could afford--the Venii sisters are less fearful of being discovered by their father.  Still, they don't want to risk their mother's well-being, so they haven't called home.

Yet.

New lot Approved

My 2nd lot, has been approved. It is a small outside dinner for sims 2. I got the idea to make this lot while watching Dr Quinn Medicine woman. In the show Grace has an entirely outdoors dinner and I just loved the idea. I hope that everyone enjoys it.

Got it to change Iris' old Cottage for free download

I've tried to change "Iris' old Cottage" to a free version. First it didn't look like I'd be successful. Whatever I did - and I did a lot: stripping every single wallpaper from the walls, remove every single floortile, even deleted my saved changes of wallpapers I've done with the CAS-tool - the lot included still a subscriber-only pattern. I spent more time trying to change than I spent on building the nice little lot. 

Finally I found out that the pattern was included with the roofwalls you cannot see anymore. Well, now I know that.

Now I try to build a new roof but I don't know if that will work - with all the objects beneath, especially the stairs ...

edit 01/23/10, 12:40 am: You won't believe it, I redid the roof, no subscriber-only pattern is pointed out - and now the system tells me, I'd lost something I'd had to do ... I did everything! Tried uploading it from a folder I'd put it in, tried uploading directly from "Export" (once the preview showed me a fat button: WA required, all by it's own - so I thought, maybe I have to get it directly from the launcher) - but everything failed. Allways when I go to edit  it doesn't show the number of Bathrooms. I take 1 1/2 and press "edit" and get the message of not having filled out the necessary boxes. In the preview the number of bathrooms show up. I'll tell you, this is really a never ending story with me and technics. But now I'll try nomore. Tomorrow is another day ...

edit 01/23/10 01:45 pm: Well, finally I was successful in uploading *though it was my fault only that it didn't work* Now I'm hoping I've done the right way ...

The screenshot beneath shows like it looks in the *free* version.

There's Nothing Like A Mothers Love Chapter 2

Okay so I have started writing chapter 2 of 'A Mothers Love' because I have nothing going on this weekend. I'll hopefully Have it up by monday...Unless something pops into my schedule xx

Never-ending windows?

You didn't think I'd make Never-ending Arches and completely forget about the bigger sibling: Never-ending Windows, did you?!

They're already made.  Six window designs!  The trouble is: each window design requires THREE meshes (a left, a right and the joining middle piece).  In Sims 2, the left/right was a single reversible mesh, but Sims 3 glass reflection is more advanced and reversing a window changes the direction of reflection too (which then shows an ugly join), therefore we now need separate left and right panes so you can keep all the glass facing the same way.

You don't need to be a maths guru to realise that 6 windows of 3 meshes each = 18 meshes!  However, these windows will not work on diagonals because a diagonal wall is wider, and so these would need to be separate set for diagonals too, balooning the set to a massive 36 meshes!!!

As a result, I've added a poll to my home page.  Do you want the diagonals too, or is that too much for your catalogue?  It's going to be a bit of a snappy poll because the set is ready for release, but I can't make up my mind about whether to throw in some diagonals.  Let me know what you think. 

The Drifter - Part 2 Published

Hey Simmer's, part 2 of my story has been published and to my surprise it is also featured on the front page. Thanks TSR for the speedy approving, publishing and for featuring this part. I hope you all enjoy it, happy reading! ;)

The Adonii Family

Warren Silver married into the Gold family, and some of his in-laws married into other families in town.  Here is one of the two they married into, the Adonii family.

The Adonii family consists of 6 good looking young men.  Well, 4 good looking men and 2 cute boys.  They moved into town after their parents died, with the older 4 taking charge of the younger 2.  They found a very expensive rental, but with a lot of diligent job searching and hard work, they earned enough to buy it and renovate to suit their needs.

Devon, the oldest, was the most depressed by their parents' deaths, due in part to his greater than average empathy.  However, he set his own emotions aside to care for his siblings.  Upon settling in town, he was fortunate enough to quickly find a job in the paranormal field.  He's grateful that his job as an Exorcist pays so much--1000 Simoleons a day--because it enabled the family to better settle in, an important issue for his youngest brothers who were having the hardest time of it all.

Kenny, the second brother, capitalized on the good looks the entire family shared and went into the fashion industry.  After making a lot of good money as a model--despite the occasional nude shots--he finally got his clothes back on and rose up to become a  Fashion Columnist for a national magazine.  He makes more than Devon, but the hours are less friendly--in fact, he only sees his family briefly in the morning, assuming he gets up in time.

Alexis, brother number three, used his good looks to make a lot of connections as he worked his way out of the mailroom of one company and into the CEO seat of his own.  Something of a playboy, he has no problem wining and dining men as well as women; he hasn't committed any indescretions with either gender, though he's had any number of propositions from both.

Jackson, the fourth brother, is more bashful and reticent than his brothers, in part because--despite how good looking he himself is--his brothers always outshone him in school.  As a result, he opted to excel in his studies, especially in science.  Now he works as a Theorist.  Despite the lower pay, he's happy with his life, secretly gloating that his brothers have to work longer hours for relatively less pay (his roughly 218 Simoleons per hour to Devon's 200 or Alexis' 136).

The two youngest brothers, Thomas and Chip, are both still at school.  Thomas' personality screams "average" but he's at least playful and outgoing, if not excessively so.  Chip, being the youngest, was also the most spoiled (as well as the most bulled), but because he was also so protected by his brothers, he got over his parents' death faster than Thomas did.  It shows in how many more friends Chip has been able to make than his older brother.

When they dropped in to visit their mother, Jacqueline, Lucille and Marie Gold happened to see the Adonii brothers while they were shopping downtown.  Immediately smitten, the two sisters went out of their way to meet the brothers and started flirting.  Alexis ignored them, Jackson was too shy, and Thomas and Chip could have cared less.  Devon and Kenny, however, were definiely interested.  In short order Devon married Lucille, the older sister, and Kenny married Marie.

Lucille, who had been a nurse, now wanted to do more and began pursuing her education to become a doctor.  Soon enough she became a medical researcher, and her quick smarts and deductive reasoning skills saved many a patient.  Marie, who had been studying modeling, took some time off to establish her credentials in town.  Though still unrepresented and unemployed, she intends to--with Kenny's contacts' help--take the fashion world by storm, rising to the top until she can become the be-all-end-all of fashion in the nation, if not the world.

A word on their name:  the Adonii came about because I wanted to make a family consisting of nothing but good-looking males, all related.  I named them Adonii to connect them to "Adonis."  Adonii sounds a little more exotic than Adonises, and a lot less presumptuous, don't you think?

Don't worry, I gave women fair treatment through the other family the Golds married into.  You'll meet them later.

Wallpaper distortion

Some people may notice some distortion with the wallpapers they download (not just mine but any). Here's the issue: Apartment Life expansion pack: This expansion pack altered the hight of walls by a fair amount and the game mearly stretches wallpaper files to fit the new dimension. The result is a circle made to be a circle on a 256x512 template or from any ealier EA release becomes an oval, a square is now a vertical rectangle.

This can be compensated for in the creation proccess: start with an oversized image and shrink it on the vertical by 70%.  This will look like a sqat oval or horizontal recatagle in your image editor. Be sure to still fill the entire 512 pixel hight. Once imported it will be stretched back into the proper shape.

Basicly for proper shaping in Apartment Life you should use a 256 x 732 pixel template then reduce the hight 30% to 256 x 512 & then import it with homecrafter.

Problem with doing this: Anyone useing that pattern who dose not have Apartment Life will see it as being squished.

Best solution: Comprimise: Granted no body will have a perfect circle /everyone will have some distortion but it won't be tragicly noticable to anyone. 85% is the perfect middle (256 x 603 pixel original shrunk down 15% to 256 x 512 & imported). Viola! Everybody's happy!

Another issue with wallpapers I've noticed is with the crown molding, Especialy if your designing a detailed crown. Any crown looks great in normal mode, but in screen shots, video or any viewing with where the cieling is applied, crowns get buried in the cieling. Basicly the cieling covers the top 24 pixel rows. Solution: Use a 24 pixel high header on your crown, any critical detailing should be below the 24th row. This, I believe, applies to games with or without Apartment Life expansion.

Have fun & play well,

SKS

Monitor type & color quality

There is a huge difference between monitor types and how they reproduce color. When I started with Sims 2 I was frequently upset because things were way to dark, almost black and compleatly lacked detail. I didn't realize the problem was a difference between monitors. I was using a CRT (cathode Ray Tube: large, bulky heavy, old type) and those very dark objects & clothing were generated by people using an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display: thin, light, new type). My earlier creations were made using the CRT monitor, Inevitably they appear comparatively light and washed out to people seeing them on an LCD monitor. Now (& for the last several months) I have been using an LCD monitor for making my creations, & they of course look very dark on my CRT. The differnce is quite noticable with my latest upload of empire damask wallpaper with laurel wreath wainscot in cherrywood.  To those still using CRT monitors: you can barely see the dentil work or the wood grain, sorry. The cherry wood parts are realy well textured and wonderfuly rich in detail.

There really is no easy solution. You can get an LCD monitor, but all the creations made on a CRT will look pale (And so will everything else, Even my black desktop background just isn't a true black). I really hated my new monitor when I got it. I did learn one trick to make colors look a bit richer & Deeper: Tilt the screen back, don't use it perpendicular to your line of sight. But still the color representation just isn't what it was with a CRT.

Anyway I just thought I'd put this info out for any of you who might be frustrated and don't know why people are creating things that are crazy dark or pale & washed out. I'm sure evey artist, as well as myself, are creating things with great color, texture,  & detail. It's just based on the monitor type they are using which may not be the same as the one you have. You can generaly tell by the preview image, what monitor type was used & how it will look in the game with your monitor, but not always.

Have fun & play well,

SKS