Sims 3 content and TSR Subscriptions.

With the recent announcement of our first Sims 3 Featured Artists, the launch of our new Sets Database (going live on monday 20th) and the first creations released from the TSR Workshop tool (published on monday - see link above), you will begin seeing some FA content set to "subscriber only". As we start to build our subscriber features we are also happy to announce a fantastic Summer Sale offer to get you up and running with your TSR Subscription for Sims 3 content!

For a limited period we are offering a massive 30% off the price of a subscription! This discounted rate is fixed for your entire PayPal subscription period, not just the first payment, so if you plan to make full use of TSR for Sims 3 or Sims 2 then now is the time to get the best deal possible! (This offer expires on August 17^th 2009. You can start a new subscription at this rate without loosing your existing subscriber days; new days will just be added to your balance)

Subscriber benefits include:

• Access to All Downloads
• Unlimited Bandwidth
• Download Basket
• No Advertising
• Enhanced Profile Pages
• Full Screen Browsing

For full details of these features and more check out the "Why Subscribe?" page.

2 new FA introductions!

With the addition of our clothing database comes the introduction of two familiar faces here at TSR. None other the truly talented ulkrhsn and Lianaa have now joined the ranks of Sims 3 FA's. Be sure to give them a warm welcome in their guestbooks and check out what they got in store for you all!

TSR Workshop Version 0.5.7.0

The Workshop BETA is being released this week (monday) and will include full import/edit/export functionality. At this stage the tool can be used to create edited clothing and hair meshes as well as completely new make-up and accessories. Hair retexturing is also functional to a certain degree. See the section at the end of this post to learn more about the current capabilities of TSR Workshop in more detail. To take part in the BETA, read the details on the TSR Workshop Website when it goes live tomorrow (monday).

Our early testers have provided some great feedback which has allowed for us to create what we think is a very user friendly tool with powerful features such as export/import functionality for meshes, overlays, multipliers, speculars and masks and the live 3D previews which can be rotated and zoomed allowing you to check your work in real time for seamless wrapping and detail.

The TSR Workshop exports user friendly .sims3pack files which include all meshes and patterns either used or created, to allow for a simple and reliable install method for downloaders.

The TSR Pattern Editor is now integrated into the tool which now includes a fully searchable EA (base game) patterns database.

So what does all this mean to you?

Well if you are a creator it means you have a very powerful new tool at your disposal which you will no doubt be eager to investigate, play with and maybe even try to break! If you are a downloader it means that you are much closer to seeing brand new items for your Sims 3 game appearing on your favourite download sites.

First look at early Workshop creations.

Some of our Featured Artists are already generating impressive Custom Content with the TSR Workshop as you can see from these previews (click them for a larger image). These will be available to download from our new Sets Database from today.

BETA Bugs!

As with any new piece of software we are anticipating changes as we develop the tool and learn more about how your creations behave when imported into the game. As such we need everyone to understand that these early creations may need updating and rebuilding with later releases of TSR Workshop. We already have the facility for creators to upload updates to their previously released files on TSR and from now on, if your subscription has ended, you will still be able to get updates to files you downloaded during your subscription period. We see this as a step forward to providing you with quality, reliable content for your game during this development process.

TSR Workshop v0.5.7.0 Specification Update

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