#each time i use a shader

[nornities]

How to use DXVK with The Sims 3

Have you seen this post about using DXVK by Criisolate? But felt intimidated by the sheer mass of facts and information?

@desiree-uk and I compiled a guide and the configuration file to make your life easier. It focuses on players not using the EA App, but it might work for those just the same. It’s definitely worth a try.

Adding this to your game installation will result in a better RAM usage. So your game is less likely to give you Error 12 or crash due to RAM issues. It does NOT give a huge performance boost, but more stability and allows for higher graphics settings in game.

The full guide behind the cut. Let me know if you also would like it as PDF.

Happy simming!

Disclaimer and Credits

Desiree and I are no tech experts and just wrote down how we did this. Our ability to help if you run into trouble is limited. So use at your own risk and back up your files!

We both are on Windows 10 and start the game via TS3W.exe, not the EA App. So your experience may differ.

This guide is based on our own experiments and of course criisolate’s post on tumblr:  https://www.tumblr.com/criisolate/749374223346286592/ill-explain-what-i-did-below-before-making-any

This guide is brought to you by Desiree-UK and Norn.

Compatibility

Note: This will conflict with other programs that “inject” functionality into your game so they may stop working. Notably

Reshade

GShade

Nvidia Experience/Nvidia Inspector/Nvidia Shaders

RivaTuner Statistics Server

It does work seamlessly with LazyDuchess’ Smooth Patch.

LazyDuchess’ Launcher: unknown

Alder Lake patch: does conflict. One user got it working by starting the game by launching TS3.exe (also with admin rights) instead of TS3W.exe. This seemed to create the cache file for DXVK. After that, the game could be started from TS3W.exe again. That might not work for everyone though.

A word on FPS and V-Sync

With such an old game it’s crucial to cap framerate (FPS). This is done in the DXVK.conf file. Same with V-Sync.

You need

a text editor (easiest to use is Windows Notepad)

to download DXVK, version 2.3.1 from here: https://github.com/doitsujin/DXVK/releases/tag/v2.3.1 Extract the archive, you are going to need the file d3d9.dll from the x32 folder

the configuration file DXVK.conf from here: https://github.com/doitsujin/DXVK/blob/master/DXVK.conf. Optional: download the edited version with the required changes here.

administrator rights on your PC

to know your game’s installation path (bin folder) and where to find the user folder

a tiny bit of patience :)

First Step: Backup

Backup your original Bin folder in your Sims 3 installation path! The DXVK file may overwrite some files! The path should be something like this (for retail): \Program Files (x86)\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\Game\Bin (This is the folder where also GraphicsRule.sgr and the TS3W.exe and TS3.exe are located.)

Backup your options.ini in your game’s user folder! Making the game use the DXVK file will count as a change in GPU driver, so the options.ini will reset once you start your game after installation. The path should be something like this: \Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3 (This is the folder where your Mods folder is located).

Preparations

Make sure you run the game as administrator. You can check that by right-clicking on the icon that starts your game. Go to Properties > Advanced and check the box “Run as administrator”. Note: This will result in a prompt each time you start your game, if you want to allow this application to make modifications to your system. Click “Yes” and the game will load.

2. Make sure you have the DEP settings from Windows applied to your game.

Open the Windows Control Panel.

Click System and Security > System > Advanced System Settings.

On the Advanced tab, next to the Performance heading, click Settings.

Click the Data Execution Prevention tab.

Select 'Turn on DEP for all programs and services except these”:

Click the Add button, a window to the file explorer opens. Navigate to your Sims 3 installation folder (the bin folder once again) and add TS3W.exe and TS3.exe.

Click OK. Then you can close all those dialog windows again.

Setting up the DXVK.conf file

Open the file with a text editor and delete everything in it. Then add these values:

d3d9.textureMemory = 1

d3d9.presentInterval = 1

d3d9.maxFrameRate = 60

d3d9.presentInterval enables V-Sync,d3d9.maxFrameRate sets the FrameRate. You can edit those values, but never change the first line (d3d9.textureMemory)!

The original DXVK.conf contains many more options in case you would like to add more settings.

A. no Reshade/GShade

Setting up DXVK

Copy the two files d3d9.dll and DXVK.conf into the Bin folder in your Sims 3 installation path. This is the folder where also GraphicsRule.sgr and the TS3W.exe and TS3.exe are located. If you are prompted to overwrite files, please choose yes (you DID backup your folder, right?)

And that’s basically all that is required to install.

Start your game now and let it run for a short while. Click around, open Buy mode or CAS, move the camera.

Now quit without saving. Once the game is closed fully, open your bin folder again and double check if a file “TS3W.DXVK-cache” was generated. If so – congrats! All done!

Things to note

Heads up, the game options will reset! So it will give you a “vanilla” start screen and options.

Don’t worry if the game seems to be frozen during loading. It may take a few minutes longer to load but it will load eventually.

The TS3W.DXVK-cache file is the actual cache DXVK is using. So don’t delete this! Just ignore it and leave it alone. When someone tells to clear cache files – this is not one of them!

Update Options.ini

Go to your user folder and open the options.ini file with a text editor like Notepad.

Find the line “lastdevice = “. It will have several values, separated by semicolons. Copy the last one, after the last semicolon, the digits only. Close the file.

Now go to your backup version of the Options.ini file, open it and find that line “lastdevice” again. Replace the last value with the one you just copied. Make sure to only replace those digits!

Save and close the file.

Copy this version of the file into your user folder, replacing the one that is there.

Things to note:

If your GPU driver is updated, you might have to do these steps again as it might reset your device ID again. Though it seems that the DXVK ID overrides the GPU ID, so it might not happen.

How do I know it’s working?

Open the task manager and look at RAM usage. Remember the game can only use 4 GB of RAM at maximum and starts crashing when usage goes up to somewhere between 3.2 – 3.8 GB (it’s a bit different for everybody).

So if you see values like 2.1456 for RAM usage in a large world and an ongoing save, it’s working. Generally the lower the value, the better for stability.

Also, DXVK will have generated its cache file called TS3W.DXVK-cache in the bin folder. The file size will grow with time as DXVK is adding stuff to it, e.g. from different worlds or savegames. Initially it might be something like 46 KB or 58 KB, so it’s really small.

Optional: changing MemCacheBudgetValue

MemCacheBudgetValue determines the size of the game's VRAM Cache. You can edit those values but the difference might not be noticeable in game. It also depends on your computer’s hardware how much you can allow here.

The two lines of seti MemCacheBudgetValue correspond to the high RAM level and low RAM level situations. Therefore, theoretically, the first line MemCacheBudgetValue should be set to a larger value, while the second line should be set to a value less than or equal to the first line.

The original values represent 200MB (209715200) and 160MB (167772160) respectively. They are calculated as 200x1024x1024=209175200 and 160x1024x1024=167772160.

Back up your GraphicsRules.sgr file! If you make a mistake here, your game won’t work anymore.

Go to your bin folder and open your GraphicsRules.sgr with a text editor.

Search and find two lines that set the variables for MemCacheBudgetValue.

Modify these two values to larger numbers. Make sure the value in the first line is higher or equals the value in the second line. Examples for values: 1073741824, which means 1GB 2147483648 which means 2 GB. -1 (minus 1) means no limit (but is highly experimental, use at own risk)

Save and close the file. It might prompt you to save the file to a different place and not allow you to save in the Bin folder. Just save it someplace else in this case and copy/paste it to the Bin folder afterwards. If asked to overwrite the existing file, click yes.

Now start your game and see if it makes a difference in smoothness or texture loading. Make sure to check RAM and VRAM usage to see how it works.

You might need to change the values back and forth to find the “sweet spot” for your game. Mine seems to work best with setting the first value to 2147483648 and the second to 1073741824.

Uninstallation

Delete these files from your bin folder (installation path):

d3d9.dll

DXVK.conf

TS3W.DXVK-cache

And if you have it, also TS3W_d3d9.log

if you changed the values in your GraphicsRule.sgr file, too, don’t forget to change them back or to replace the file with your backed up version.

OR

delete the bin folder and add it from your backup again.

B. with Reshade/GShade

Follow the steps from part A. no Reshade/Gshade to set up DXVK.

If you are already using Reshade (RS) or GShade (GS), you will be prompted to overwrite files, so choose YES. RS and GS may stop working, so you will need to reinstall them.

Whatever version you are using, the interface shows similar options of which API you can choose from (these screenshots are from the latest versions of RS and GS).

Please note: 

Each time you install and uninstall DXVK, switching the game between Vulkan and d3d9, is essentially changing the graphics card ID again, which results in the settings in your options.ini file being repeatedly reset.

ReShade interface

Choose – Vulcan

Click next and choose your preferred shaders.

Hopefully this install method works and it won't install its own d3d9.dll file.

If it doesn't work, then choose DirectX9 in RS, but you must make sure to replace the d3d9.dll file with DXVK's d3d9.dll (the one from its 32bit folder, checking its size is 3.86mb.)

GShade interface

Choose –           

Executable Architecture: 32bit

Graphics API: DXVK

Hooking: Normal Mode

GShade is very problematic, it won't work straight out of the box and the overlay doesn't show up, which defeats the purpose of using it if you can't add or edit the shaders you want to use.

Check the game's bin folder, making sure the d3d9.dll is still there and its size is 3.86mb - that is DXVK's dll file.

If installing using the DXVK method doesn't work, you can choose the DirectX method, but there is no guarantee it works either.

The game will not run with these files in the folder:

d3d10core.dll

d3d11.dll

dxgi.dll

If you delete them, the game will start but you can't access GShade! It might be better to use ReShade.

Some Vulcan and DirectX information, if you’re interested:

Vulcan is for rather high end graphic cards but is backward compatible with some older cards. Try this method with ReShade or GShade first.

DirectX is more stable and works best with older cards and systems. Try this method if Vulcan doesn't work with ReShade/GShade in your game – remember to replace the d3d9.dll with DXVK's d3d9.dll.

For more information on the difference between Vulcan and DirectX, see this article:

https://www.howtogeek.com/884042/vulkan-vs-DirectX-12/

[notscarsafe]

OKAY SO what with the TWO new Hermits implied by the updated banner I will say that, though the Skizz truthers have me convinced, I now have room to do my own crazy red string monologue and throw my hat in for my choice

1) Mythical J. Sausage (the J is silent) is a multitalented S-tier builder that absolutely deserves to be shoulder to shoulder with the Hermits. The man does buildings, interiors, terraforming, custom trees, and he does them SO WELL.

2) The production values!!! Beautiful replay mod sequences with shifting camera perspectives, shaders, music that sets the tone for each segment that's different from series to series. He already has more than a million followers on YouTube and for good reason!!

3) He has been SO consistent lately. He started a hardcore world about three months ago (about the time you might expect the Hermits to finalize their s10 choices maybe...???) and already has 15 episodes and hasn't gotten involved in any other big content. (He did just start playing a little of the BCG server but from what I understand that's super casual /copium copium copium).

4) That hardcore world is conveniently about to reach a good "pause" point. He started his world on a cherry blossom biome island that he's filled with a medieval village and starter farms, he's said it's almost full and what's left is the castle. I'm guessing the new season will start the first week of February, so if Sausage puts out a video this week building out that Castle and finishing that island it will be MIGHTY CONVENIENT TIMING.

5) This man can GRIND. His Hardcore world hasn't even been going half a year and he's built... So much??? Magnificent! And when he was on the Hermitcraft server he did the Razorcrest for scar AND the player head baby yoda/stormtrooper merch AND the noteblock themesong AND still built in the xmas village and other "diamond of peace" and so many other shenanigans. Did the man even sleep? He can grind with the best of them.

6) He can do redstone, too! Maybe not unique designs, I honestly don't know, but he builds farms for build materials no problem.

7) The DRAMA this man loves his improv and his backstory and trauma lore! For every series he does! Can you imagine if he gets to interact with Ren for an extended period of time, what that would do to them, to us?? Give Martyn a run for his money!!

8) Which brings me to my next point, which is that Sausage is already One of The Gang, because he's been in series with so many of the Hermits already! Empires and the crossover, obviously, but also Pirates with Cleo and Origins with Scar, and he's even done MCC! Joel is the only other player with the same depth of different series but there are other people truthing him already.

9) The EPIC BROMANCE with Pearl. My god the devotion of this man to his sunflower goddess bestie. I would try to do ot justice but y'all have seen floweroflaurelins work, you already know.

10) He's already a PG streamer but with HILARIOUSLY PG-13 tendencies. Imagine him and Cleo cracking each other up at an HHH stream, *grips your shoulders* IMAGINE IT.

11) Sausage comes with his own mascot in the form of interdimensional dog extraordinaire Bubbles, but he's also just an animal lover on general. Mans drinks his "I love Jellie" juice and had her in his world even before the sad news of her loss.

12) Diversity win! No one should be hired just for their gender, race, sexuality etc etc unless it's truly necessary to the job, but we were all happy when more women got added to the server in s8 and I know a lot of people would be happy to see some ethnic diversity added, too.

... That bulletin board had a lot more pins in it than I thought it did but anyway MYTHICALSAUSAGE TRUTHERS/ALL OTHER TRUTHERS RISE UP SPEAK YOUR TRUTH! we'll only get to wildly speculate for a few weeks so we might as well make it everyone else's problem ENJOY IT TO THE FULLEST!!

[vyxated]

[Reshade add-on] Clean UI for DX11

After so so sooooo many crashes later, I finally managed to create a working setting for this add-on for DX11 games by using an older REST version 🫠

You can read the whole post on Patreon here, or below the cut for those who can't access the site.

As using REST 1.2.0 and above cause crashes whenever I create a setting or attempt to use it for a brief amount of time, I decided to use a much older version of REST (1.1.0), which turns out to be more stable to configure and use. While this means being able to use the add-on for the DX11 game, it has its own set of problems, which may/may not be a dealbreaker for some.

I decided to make a new post since the original one is quite lengthy and I want to keep DX9 and DX11 versions separate due to the different information each version has.

➡️ For the DX9 version, find it here. And here for the Patreon post.

In short, with the help of REST (an add-on for reshade/gshade), you can block/prevent shaders from affecting the UI.

// Things to know if using this version ⚠️

Some shaders will not work properly and will cause some gamma issues. If your preset look different than how it normally is (a lot darker/brighter), enable/disable your active shaders and see which one is causing it. It's easily fixed by using an alternative shader that achieve a similar look.

Shaders affected (ones I've known so far): SMAA & MartysMods_SMAA (FMAA is not affected, use this instead), FilmicAnamorphSharpen, ArcaneBloom & NeoBloom, Glamarye_Fast_Effects, MagicHDR, CRT_Lotte.

You will not be able to change your window resolution, either via graphic settings or by using SRWE. This will cause your game to stop and eventually having to force stop it with the task manager. It is recommended that you have your game in Windowed Fullscreen to avoid issues and have the add-on disabled if you want to change the resolution in-game.

// Required Files

REST add-on v 1.1.0 (testing)

REST config for v 1.1.0 (simfileshare only)

// Installation

Have ReShade with full add-on support installed for this to work.

Download the REST_ x64_1.1.0 add-on from the github linked in the requirements section as well as the config.

Extract the ReshadeEffectShaderToggler.addon file into the game's \Bin folder where your TS4_64.exe is (where you had also installed ReShade).

If you use GShade: place the .addon file in the gshade-addons folder.

Still in the \Bin folder, drop the x.x_ReshadeEffectShaderToggler_DX11.ini file you downloaded.

If you use GShade: place the .ini file in the gshade-addons folder along with the .addon file. If my config doesn't show up in the add-on menu, move it back to the \Bin folder.

Rename the file and remove the prefix and suffix. Both .addon and .ini file should share the same name for the add-on to recognize my settings = [ ReshadeEffectShaderToggler.ini ]

Open up your game. If you see the same menu as below then you’ve successfully installed the add-on & settings! Restart if needed.

I've set the shortcuts for Clear UI to match with my Effect toggle key, which is Ctrl + F2. If yours are set differently, match the shortcut of this toggle group with your effect toggle key:

Reason being, having the toggle group active will prevent you from enabling/disabling your preset. Changing the shortcut will allow you to disable & enable your preset and toggle group at the same time.

To avoid the add-on from not working, make sure to do the following:

Enable post processing effects

Disable laptop mode & edge smoothing

Set 3d scene resolution to high

As long as all of the above are met, you should not encounter any problems. This has been tested to work on all graphics settings from low to ultra. External modifications (like Simp4Settings) may/may not have an effect, but from the testing I've done it has shown no problems so far.

[hypersaline]

Tutorial: Editing the multi-road mod

Here are instructions for adding new tile types to the existing multi-road mod. This tutorial is applicable to unique tiles like a partly-dirt/partly-asphalt intersection, but it's equally applicable if you want to add a tertiary or quaternary road type.

However, please keep in mind that if you don't need extra tile types but only want a different kind of secondary road (like asphalt and dirt instead of asphalt and asphalt-with-sidewalks), you can skip all of this and just replace the textures inside the Textures.package file.

First things first: make sure you have textures for the new kind of tile. You'll need five versions of it, three solid (heavy/light/no snow) and two semitransparent (snowy/clear). If you open up the Textures.package file and look at the Texture Images already present, you can use existing road pieces as templates. I've uploaded what I could find of the textures I made for dirt/asphalt intersections here at SFS, but it doesn't look like I finished them; feel free to use what's there if it's helpful. (Edit: whoops, forgot to say this originally, but those textures are mashed-up versions of ones by @nimitwinklesims and @criquette-was-here.)

Second: you need a hexadecimal ID number for each new tile type. The best way to do it is to take the vanilla tile IDs (00000300, 00000f00, 00004b00, 00005700, and 00020700) and change the third digit of each one while keeping the type the same (like using 00400300 for a dead end, 00400f00 for a straight piece, etc.). In this case, I used 00205700 for a T-intersection. Be aware that the ID number will sometimes need to end with zero and sometimes with four.

When you're ready to start, open up the Textures.package file from the multi-road mod.

Inside the Textures.package file, click on one of the two Maxis Material Shader files in the list. You need the one that says "Shaders for lot skirt" near the top.

Once you've got that open, you'll need to scroll all the way down to the bottom and find the Temperate entries that look like this:

create LotSkirtRoadMaterialInstance(lotSkirtRoad_Temperate_00205700 lotskirtroad_temperate_00205704)

...and copy and paste that whole line at the end of it.

Then hit the little blue "commit" at the bottom right.

Next, open up the one that says "Predefined neighborhood materials" near the top, and scroll down to the end of it. The version of the mod currently up on SFS already has a line for '00205700' in it - looks like I forgot to delete that (and several others, whoops). If it weren't there, you'd paste this line in and commit:

create NHoodRoadMaterial(neighborhood-roads-Temperate-00205700 Temperate_roads_00205704)

After that, look at the Texture Image files. Go down the list one-by-one. You should find five with the number "00105704" in their names. Each time you find one, right-click on its name and choose Clone.

The five clones will be italicized in the list. For each one, click to open it, go to the Filename box and replace the "00105704" with "00205704", then click the little blue "fix TGI" just below it. Then click the "Commit" button in the top right.

Click away to another resource and come back; this is just to make SimPE reload it. Right-click on the texture box and choose "Build DXT...". (If it's greyed out, SimPE can't find the Nvidia DDS Utilities on your computer, and you'll need to go install them and/or point SimPE to them.)

Click on the little blue "open" link and browse to the texture you created. Don't change any of the options, just open the image and hit "Build." Once the DDS tool is done doing its thing and you can see that your new texture has been imported, hit the "Commit" button again.

When you've done all of them, save the package and close. Now you'll be set up for the previous tutorial that directs your neighborhood to actually use the new tiles. You'll just be changing the ID numbers from "00005700" to "00205700" instead of "00105700" (or whatever).

[bobacupcake]

you’ve posted pics of a stylized foliage shader a few times mixed in with your orb collection and I haven’t seen you talk about it (and it’s really pretty) what method did you use?

thank you !!! it's essentially a geometry shader that renders a bunch of blades of grass really fast, and borrows the lighting information for each blade from the mesh it's linked to (so normals, shadows, etc). havent done more with it because it has some issues still (no LOD settings that make it so further away uses less vertices, shadow problems, etc). color is also driven by a worldspace texture, giving the little patches of color everywhere

fairly sure this is the tutorial i followed, though i branched off a bit when it came to colors+lighting!! good basis for making the grass geometry shader though

[lady-quen]

Aight here goes ✨️Nothing✨️ aka the probably horribly unbalanced Mael fanspec. Keeping the necromancer green theme for the icons! Also credit to @soulbeastdragon for letting me use their post dividers as a base for my own divider 🫡

This miiiight get reworked several times *coughs* I did say I was doing it just for fun as someone who sucks severely at mmos, but if someone wants to give feedback also for fun go ahead ^^. Most details such as skill range, uptime, cd, and boon/condi amount missing for aforementioned reasons.

The spec would likely make good use of power and healing power builds and be good for cc and burst DPS or group healing. Keep in mind I'm not trying to come up with a balanced spec that fills specific gameplay niches the class is missing, but rather a spec purely for lore reasons.

Diabolist

"Devour death itself, and rise."

"The Diabolist has become closely acquaintanced with death, and chained themself to a demonic source of energy. Utilize the Diabolist Shroud to greatly enhance your equipped weapon skills, at the cost of taking constant damage."

Diabolists excel in burst damage and crowd control and gain access to Alysidomancy skills, creating spectral portals to draw on hellish chains to immobilize themselves for health and life force generation, or immobilize and pull foes for a quick kill. They also gain access to an offhand shield which provides boon stealing and pulling capabilities.

Skills and Traits under readmore.

Skills

Shield skills:

4: Putrid Aegis: assume a shielded stance, stealing boons for each time struck. 4s, vulnerable to cc

5: Hell's Gate: manifest a spectral portal upon the shield's surface, pulling and chilling the target. -> Hell's Breach: shield bash the target, inflicting daze and stealing a boon.

Profession skill:

Alysidomancy: use of demonic chains (short cast animation plays, can be cast while moving)

Slot skills:

Heal: Chains of Suppression: Immobilize yourself and gain stability and protection. Sacrifice life force to heal (chargable skill)

Utility:

Chains of Invitation: Open a spectral portal and use chains to pull out a shade*. (Can stack with normal shade. This version does not gain access to Haunt, but generates additional life force)

*similar to the Shambling Horror, the shade model is slightly altered, with a subtle blue fire effect instead of the green haze.

Chains of Esurience: Pull up to three enemies towards you, transfer a condition to each, and inflict chill. Generate life force and gain regeneration.

Chains of Terror: Stunbreak. Launch yourself towards the target and inflict fear.

Chains of Inevitability: Immobilize an enemy, corrupt a boon and gain might and fury.

Elite: Chains of Perdition: Immobilize and lift up to 5 enemies around you with demonic hooks, inflicting damage and gaining life force for each second spent suspended up to a max of 4. (Cancelable via stunbreak.) Gain 10s of might, fury and quickness. Bonus chance to trigger unique voiceline ("Let me hear you beg!")

Profession mechanic: Diabolist Shroud: Diabolists forgo Shroud-specifc skills in favor of greatly enhanced damage on currently equipped weapons. Life force does not act as a second health bar; Ticks down slower than usual but ticks down health as well.

Visuals: Diabolist Shroud spawns a fanged portal upon your chest, and every glow effect on the character turns blue. The Shroud's eyes are wide and circular. Character model and weapons gain a shifting, smoky shader.

Audio: loud chain rattling noises in Diabolist Shroud and when using Alysidomancies.

Traits:

Minor Proficiency: You can now wield shields.

Minor Adept: Faustian Bargain: Death Shroud becomes Diabolist Shroud, granting powerful offense at the cost of forgoing Shroud-specific skills and losing health over time. Gain access to Alysidomancies.

Major Adept:

1 - Self-Flagellation: Self-immobilize inflicts bleeding, but generates additional life force.

2 - Death's Gambit: Deal increased strike damage (15%) when below 50% HP.

3 - Squalid Symbiosis: Chains of Suppression now launch phantom links to nearby allies, sharing the amount healed. Reduced recharge on shield skills. Shield boon steal now shares boons with linked allies.

Minor Master: Hellhound's Ambush: Entering Diabolist Shroud grants 5 seconds of swiftness and stability.

Major Master:

1 - Fatal Hypothermia: chilling a foe additionally inflicts slow. (2s?)

2 - Malleus Maleficarum: Immobilizing foes grants might and inflicts burning.

3 - Feeding Frenzy: Using skill 5 in Diabolist Shroud additionally grants quickness and regeneration. (5 s?)

Minor Grandmaster: Terminal Lucidity: Gain health and protection when entering Diabolist Shroud. (Reasonably small heal)

Major Grandmaster:

1 - Sell Your Soul: 10% of vitality is converted to power and healing power. 10% of toughness is converted to ferocity and precision.

2 - Evergaol: immobilize effects on foes last longer. (2s) Immobilized foes take increased damage (20%?)

3 - Pandaemonium: Chains of Invitation additionally summons a second shade. Gain regeneration when both shades are active.

Associated Items:

Diabolist's Shield

Shorn Salvation (ascended shield)

Diabolist's Shackles (gauntlets)

Superior Rune of the Diabolist (power + healing power)

[vxiphoid]

PIXELATED ZEN

❨ summary ❩ genshin › genshin men playing minecraft with you ((ft. alhaitham, itto, cyno, diluc, kazuha, kaeya, heizou, & xiao))

tags ✧ modern au, drabble, fluff, chaotic energy, not proofread, cursing, ooc(?), established relationship, gn!reader, kaeya sets a forest on fire, alhaitham does not appreciate bees, mentions of pixelated deaths

amanuensis’ message ⊹ IM NOT TRYING TO KILL MY OTHER FANDOMS I SWEAR… im gonna back up from twst for a bit (im literally posting scarabia soon.) you can clearly tell who my favorites are… this unlocked a whole different part of my brain holy shit im deceased

⌜200+ e/chara ⌟

♫ blossom - t. shan

genshin masterlist

ALHAITHAM

╰┈➤ tbh he thinks minecraft is stupid, i mean, why not read a book instead of burning the images of pixels into your eye sockets😒 yeah, he’d just rather books. its a game about blocks, what could possibly be so interesting? he will admit the music is… nice. its nostalgic even though he’s never heard the track before. his favorite animals are the axolotl idk they’re his little pookies. its their little stick arms, they look so silly… as soon as haitham found out that you could color things its over, he make some sweet things like putting a sign on top of your shared house with both initials with colored dye. he’s so happy, just not very vocal about it, but he has the smallest of smiles. he definitely has headphones with the crochet sprout on it omg😭 alhaitham does not like bees whatsoever, they stung him for trying to get food. he just wanted honey :[

“look, the dog’s collar is blue. and the sign’s letters are green and then if you add a glow squid’s ink, it lights up.”

┏━━━━━━ ━ ─ ╴⋯ ⟢

ARATAKI ITTO

╰┈➤ he has waited YEARS for someone to play minecraft with him omfg. certified snack hoarder for times like these. you both literally hit each other to show love, you’ve accidentally killed him once bc he didn’t tell you that he had like half a heart… itto likes the water, hates the guardians because who do you think you are attacking him out of nowhere??? gets one shotted by the elder guardian while trying to fight it with a stick and then blames it on magma blocks pulling him down. GAMING WITH HIM IS NEVER CALM GODS💀 you cannot lay on him or anything bc as soon as those cave sounds or disc 13 start playing, he’s already done sprung out of his seat. his screams are actually really funny though, you got him a cat from how much he’s been assaulted by creepers. when you introduced him to shaders, he was so in awe. “babe i have a shadow!” type of excitement JAKEJEJDMnda.

“the cat’s name is sir arataki the third, you are now my loyal guard cat. who’s an adorable little guy?”

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CYNO

╰┈➤ look at this nerd (affectionate), ofc he plays cubecraft. loved it so much that when he didn’t have the actual game, he would play the really bad knockoffs💀 plays on console so you can sit between his legs, lean back, and game with him. cyno hate the split screen because he always gets confused on what side he’s on so he lets you use his switch, that way you’re both still comfortable. he’s more of an explorer if you do get mod packs for him, likes the horror ones the most. there’s nothing like hitting the enemy or shit talking the thing that could potentially one shot you with your s/o‼️ yall crouch a lot, its like a little dance. he really likes the disc “far” it itches his brain in the right way. definitely downloads the little raccoon mobs but then regrets it because he gives up all his berries to them, look at their little begging arms, literally how can you say no to that?? AND THEY WASH THE BERRIES. you both fall asleep to the ambience and to each others breathing all cuddled up ‘n warm. cyno absentmindedly sings the music while chopping wood or mining that shit has you SLUMPED. he kisses your head when you fall asleep, smiling like a silly goober.

“do-do-do-do do-do-do-do do, neow neow neow nneow neeeowwww… huh? oh, i’m almost done then we can go to bed, yeah? i’ll charge the switch too, don’t worry. just rest.”

(he’s singing that one part in danny lmfao)

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DILUC

╰┈➤ diluc does not understand the concept of minecraft but its okay, he’s just happy to be here. he also doesn’t call it minecraft but “cave game”, the original name, he did his research though it is rare that he actually calls it minecraft. found out that you could breed animals and accidentally made a pack of wolves. diluc is really good with redstone its actually insane😭 he’s the type to protect you the whole time while you’re getting flowers for the house, boyfriend bodyguard. diluc doesn’t play much because of his job but when he does, he’s prepared to sit for hours and spend time with you :(. these are the times where he’s most affectionate, randomly kissing your cheek, getting water for the both of you before you play, etc. luc loves the mod pack “industrial”, he can build machines, how neat is that??? also it has way more OMFP with the added features it has yk? he likes the trains :D

“is the water running…? the water’s running, they have moving windmills!”

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KAEDEHARA KAZUHA

╰┈➤ kazuha has the most expensive equipment yet doesn’t use this shit half of the time unless he’s streaming with heizou??? like im talking msi infinite rs pc, multiple monitors, a graphic drawing tablet, headphones with immaculate sound quality AND!!! the ear cups have fucking cyberpunk 3d wing guards on them. but anyways, minecraft, yes, he plays. in fact, kaedehara has about 10 beaten hardcore worlds every time a new update comes out, he must beat the game again. he rarely plays minecraft without his shaders so when you want to play the original og minecraft, he doesn’t mind, he actually enjoys the nostalgia. so much so the music is actually his background music when he’s just lazing around. words cannot express how much he dislikes (hates) wardens omg. he’ll protect you from them but if there were diamonds behind a warden, ig he’s going somewhere else😭 kazuha gives you random shit, weather that be something really sweet or questionable…

“love, do you want my rotten flesh? here<3 oh! and, i also got you some steak, you’re low on hearts…”

┏━━━━━━ ━ ─ ╴⋯ ⟢

KAEYA

╰┈➤ he’s heard of it, watched people play, just never played it. but when he does… he’s a menace. kaeya got his hands on flint and steel and set an entire jungle on fire… but he can be sweet sometimes! you’re the one protecting his ass while he walks around at night UNARMED to gather blue flowers for you. like you’re cute, but take a shield or something😭 he’s jumped off of a tall building before and landed on half a heart for a stack of bread you didn’t want. he’s rather oblivious to the mobs around him, he once thought shulkers were friends because they were just “silly little guys in little boxes” yk until they almost killed him. you bought him his own skin and introduced him to parrots and now its his favorite animal, he looks like a pirate!!! kaeya is chaotically sweet.

“yes, you almost died protecting me but how could you resist my everlasting love plus pixelated blue flowers?”

(has a cat unironically named ice spice LMFAO)

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SHIKANOIN HEIZOU

╰┈➤ your boyfriend is good at literally anything else BUT minecraft. its the way this game constantly has it out for him too like what did bro do??🙁 heizou stream’s with kazuha every now and again and on those, he still doesn’t know what to do… he’d rather play on the servers, bedwars in particular. extremely good at bw, you’d rather NOT be his enemy😭😭 wins almost every single game even when he carries, rank 98 in the server. yet when it comes to a casual server between you and him, the chats are filled with his deaths and his hashtagged rages💀 heizou despises silverfish which is also why he hates going into strongholds, they could get stomped on for all he cares! >:( he has texture packs with really beautiful skies and then a picnic mod so he can stargaze with you and eats minecraft cake :(<3

“oh. babe, green is heading for our bed, no pressure or anything. i loovveee youuu😚”

┏━━━━━━ ━ ─ ╴⋯ ⟢

XIAO

╰┈➤ xiao has the MOST downloaded mod packs, shaders, and worlds. not very expensive mod packs most of the time but when they are, they’re always good. spends his time fighting off mobs at night, #1 totem holder. he even has his own custom skin!!! he’s kinda been waiting for you to ask so when you do play mc together, you already have your own room, but when you voluntarily move your bed into his room to sleep… he melts. xiao loves cuddling while the two of you play, he’d rather your arms around him than the other way around, feels more intimate. you have matching hoodies for occasions like this. he has the dragon mod pack and has his own golden and orange dragon named ‘li’. he doesn’t talk while gaming, curses silently when he gets hit, but other than that doesn’t talk. if you want to talk, he’ll listen, he likes hearing about your day :].

“no, keep talking. i’m listening. see, li’s listening too.”

[evol-astraea]

Desperate PC Tenno calling for help!

Calling all the tech-savvy players here on Tumblr who may hopefully lend me and tech support a hand. Yes, the situation is that bad. More under the cut to spare a lengthy wall of text!

I've been experiencing totally random and sudden crashes with WF since a month and half, by now.

The game first freezes for less than a minute, then crashes to desktop bringing up the window to report crashes. This happens literally anywhere and anytime in the game. During mission, at the end of the mission, while idling in the Orbiter/base of operations, sitting in the pause menu, checking the settings menu. All kind of possible scenarios. Ah, and DX11 or DX12 make no difference either.

It's driving me - and tech support - insane. Because it is so HARD to pinpoint the root cause! Every log file so far has reported some kind of General Protection Failure (GPF) error followed by different numbers.

I'm running the game on a brand new, pre-built computer from Megaport. Which I moved to from my old potato of a PC back in late November. Specs are the following: Windows 11 Home (build 24H2) Intel Core I7-12700KF, 8x 3.60 Ghz + 4x 2.70 Ghz ASUS Prime Z790-A Wifi DDR5 NVidia GeForce RTX 4070 Dual Palit 12GB 2x 32GB Corsair Vengeance RGB DDR5-6000 1 TB SSD 1000 Watt PSU

I have done everything tech support has suggested me to do and: - Uninstalled and re-installed the game, - Update drivers. Being a new computer, everything is pretty much up to date. I had to do a clean install for the GPU drivers only using DDU, though, - Verified game files, - Emptied the shader cache on the drive game is saved to, - Repaired Steam library, - Lowered graphic settings, - Attempted to launch and run Warframe in Clean Boot mode to exclude background programs/services <- unsuccessfully; Steam didn't work at all (which I kind of figured would happen) and trying to launch the game straight from the launcher...triggered a download of the game files in the App Data folder on main (C) drive. O_o The random crashes don't even appear in the Windows Event Viewer. Nowhere to be found. And believe me, I have looked into every single category. I've been keeping track of the time(s) of the crashes but, alas, found nothing that could possibly be related to those. (also, I'm not a computer expert so perhaps I'm doing things wrong)

So far, the only weird thing I've noticed is...Most of the times there seemingly is a "break" in between each series of crashes. A few days at worst, 10-12 days at best. Yes, I checked even the Task Scheduler utility on Windows. Found no program/app that runs automatically that matches with the timing/days when the crashes have occurred so far.

Really losing my mind to this. It's frustrating, it's unnerving, it's making me genuinely terrified of playing the game. And the reason I got this PC in the first place was being finally able to play my favorite game without worrying about being unable to because of my old (and obsolete) machine! Because I don't know when the next crash shall decide to happen and oh boy it's gonna be so fun losing progress. Or having a couple of players reasonably angry at me for suddenly poofing as host. I'm really sorry about that, folks.

I'm already considering the option of total formatting this computer, should there be no other way. But not before entirely giving up. And maybe make things a little less complicated for tech support team.

I can't thank these guys enough for their help and most importantly patience over the past month and half. This mess has been handed to three different people already and a solution hasn't been found yet.

So, if there are fellow Tenno on Tumblr who have either experienced something like this before and found a fix or are just more knowledgeable about computers and whatnot, your help would be GREATLY appreciated. ;.;

EDIT: I forgot to mention a few important things! - Hardware temperatures are within optimal range while in game (CPU never above 65°C, GPU has been running ice cold and has rarely exceeded 50°C so far, RAM is chilling at 45°C average). - GPU memory usage averages around at max (peak) 77% on HWInfo. - CPU usage I honestly need to check! D: - Ran disk cleanup, scans with sfc, chkdsk and DISM (all through command prompts ran as admin) and no issues were found. - Checked RAM health as well with Windows' memory diagnostic tool. However, it seems to give many false positives even on perfectly functional RAM banks. Looking for a more reliable alternative. - Warframe is the only game that keeps crashing on this PC. I haven't been getting any with other games/programs (Hades II; need to test how Ultrakill performs) or any warning signs (BSODs, freezes, sluggish PC, etc) that could suggest hardware failure.

[miapcain]

Your game is so cool, I wanna make games myself someday too. Is unity good? I've heard some bad stuff about the CEO...

That depends heavily on what you want to do. Unity is fine, Unreal is fine, Godot is fine, but each has different strengths and weaknesses (another way to phrase it, having used Unity a lot personally and Unreal a lot professionally, would be "Unity is awful and Unreal is also awful, but you can get by in both"). If you want to make a 3D action game, probably learn Unreal; I use Unity for mine because I like writing in C#, but for an absolute beginner, Godot script and Unreal's blueprints are probably both easier to learn. Don't listen to anyone who tells you Unity is somehow easier, the only real strengths it has in a vacuum is much better online documentation, better access to HLSL shader stuff, better version control, and kind of better live coding than Unreal; a lot of stuff that's easy in Unreal takes absolutely forever to do in Unity.

Other tips: Join game jams and work with other people, make friends who do similar things to what you want to do; Don't make the game you really want to do until much later than you think, you will burn out running into issues, make tiny tiny tiny projects first; Learn what sources to trust for input. A lot of unreal tutorials on youtube are really terrible and will teach you bad practices, forums will tend to be better, friends who are already versed in the software are often a much better bet, but don't expect to learn anything without a lot of experimenting first; Don't expect to make any money off it, at least for a long time.

Best of luck

[angelinecarax]

11/10/2022 ⌚THEN ---> NOW 🎐12/28/2024

While I started playing September 2021, those screenshots are from an older computer and since lost. I began learning about gpose mid-2022, but, frankly, crippling anxiety slowed me down a great deal. This was one of the earliest and most successful shoots - I used one from this day as Angeline's header for a while. Her visual changes are both crucial and cherished, but the most important change between then and now is how differently I feel and think about gposing.

Thank you @ubejamjar for tagging me into this. Getting a chance to reflect on this helped make my morning.

✨Angeline's combined necklace with emet-selch's pearl drop was a commission. I know how to do it myself now within a half an hour. This is now somewhat of a remnant from a previous version of what Angeline's arc would be - originally her romance with Emet-Selch would be much more centered, personal, reciprocal, even to the point that their final tryst would see Angeline pregnant during Endwalker. While that would make Endwalker a VERY wild ride, on further thought that's kind of at a filmi soapy level that's a little too ridiculous. Once Hippolyta being a dual figure with Angeline became the main Haunt thru the narrative I figured she had enough shit going on. All of that now only remains in the pearl drop necklace many of the outfits from this time have, though now Aymeric's necklace has become the go-to. 🎐The Anabaseios scarf accessory mod is the mod I learned how to item swap on. ✨The Faire Joi Sleeves and her french tip nails, baby's first upscale mod. Learned a great deal! 🎐Not visible: her Yuna earring, C+ adjustments to put some meat on her thighs, upper arms, and shoulders. ✨and her crown: her hair! Angeline's natural curls, the beloved IM~STRONG sim port, seen here as one of two hat compatible versions I made. I would have anxiety dreams about wanting this hair hat compatible and feeling so dumb that I didn't know how to do it myself, so when I was able to finally just buckle down and do it - well, the reason why I made such a big deal about it around my birthday was because it was a huge important thing for me! Her hair and her hats are integral to Angeline, so being able to Make Her Look Exactly Like Her has been like nothin else. 🎐I no longer have the shader I used in the first image, but I've since built a robust library of shaders specific to Angeline's character and how I want the camera to see her. I also know way way way more now about post-editing - I learned from the best!!! camera raw filter my beloved. ✨RIP in peace: the old catchlight eye system and her twinkle catchlight, and may you rise again Neopolitan Sculpts (not every project is a winner; after trying hard to tackle face sculpting I abandoned the idea because I couldn't recreate it exactly, and I was acclimatizing to her new vanilla face regardless)

Unfortunately, I've found myself with a great deal of habitual, chemical, thought-enforced anxiety - and I think very fast and a lot, so it's like trying to fight off a firehose. Channelling my neuroses has lead me to building a giant outfit repository, let me learn the inside and outs of Penumbra, Glamourer, Brio, Ktisis, Anamnesis, etc etc to the extent that I can really help others, and, glory of glories, I have a methodology to ensure that all the work I put into gposing gets saved. Camera angles, positionals, I'm not losing a project to crashing again!

Each of those things has lessened the anxiety greatly. One day I'll be free of it for good!

[pictureamoebae]

L = no ReShade; R = ReShade inc. ReLight

Quick little shader highlight for you.

You've maybe heard me talk about the Nice Guy Lamps shader before, which lets you add spotlights and create shadows. It's a nifty little shader but it's not very precise, and the shadows suffer from jitter and noise.

Enter ReLight by Marty McFly. ReLight is a fancy and more polished alternative to NG Lamps. The shadows are far better quality, and the lights are easier to position and edit. You can theoretically add as many as you want by editing the preprocessor definitions, but to begin with there are (iirc) two for you to play with. I've set it to four, and haven't felt like I've needed more than that so far.

In the picture on the right I've used three lights, each by the light sources in the room to simulate actual light being emitted from them. The two lamps on the right have a warm neutral light, and the candle on the left has a warm orange light. I positioned them so they sat exactly where the source would be. So, for example, for the floor lamp I positioned the light right up inside the dome of the shade, and you can see shadows being cast by the shade and light only coming down where it would physically be able to fall.

You can also use ReLight to add lights to portraits, making them really dramatic with different colours on each side of the face, or just to brighten the character so you can see their features more clearly. Below is a screenshot I took in Baldur's Gate 3 where I added blue light to the left and warmer light to the right.

It's such a handy little shader that can help add both realism and a hefty dose of drama to a scene. You need to feel confident tweaking shader settings to use it, and have to edit it for every single shot because the lights stay static in relation to the screen coordinates, so you'll have to move them where you want them each time. It's easy to do though, and lots of fun.

ReLight is one of Marty's premium shaders, which means you'd need to subscribe to his Patreon to get access to it. It's not currently listed in any of his tiers because he stopped working on it in favour of other things, but it works well and is probably my favourite shader at the moment. I'm yet to set up a shot that can't benefit from it in one way or another. If you are interested in using ReLight, you need to sub to the Path Tracers tier. You can cancel your subscription once you've grabbed it from his discord server, but you won't get access to any updates until you resub (it hasn't been updated in a long time though, so I wouldn't worry too much about that).

Paying for shaders is something that doesn't sit well with some people, and that's fair. I would only recommend getting this if you're enough of an enthusiast that spending 30 minutes setting up one shot is your idea of fun (not that ReLight takes that long, it can take just seconds sometimes).

[starrysnowdrop]

I know this is a little late, but here’s my New Year’s post where I’ll discuss what my plans are for 2025 and some of my thoughts heading into this new year. I’m assuming that I might be a little long winded, so I’ll put the rest under the cut. Have a happy 2025 everyone!!

First of all, I wanted to thank everyone who reached out to me after the attack in my hometown of New Orleans. As I mentioned before, no one I personally knew was there on Bourbon Street when it happened, but it nonetheless left me feeling extremely distressed, and everyone here in Nola is grieving together, so we are taking it one day at a time.

Because of the attack, I wasn’t in the right mindset to write out this post, but I’m finally alright enough mentally to get these thoughts out.

Next, spurned on by my new profile picture, I decided that I wanted to change up the look of my blog a bit. There’s lighter, brighter colors used, and along with the new colors, I decided to make some new banners for my pinned post. The new banners are already being used in my pinned post, but I’ll attach them below in case you haven’t seen them yet. The background is a painting of snowdrop flowers! Don’t worry, the starry banners that were there previously will still be used interchangeably with the new ones when I answer asks.

Speaking of Hali and her ships, I have plenty of things that I want to gpose and write for Hali, and at the moment I’m still going forward with Hali having two ships in separate universes, but I’m not going to lie: I’m extremely inspired to write for Hali x Themis at the moment.

So does that mean that I’ll drop the Aymeric ship in the future? Well, I don’t know that yet. I’m still very happy with what I’ve done for the Hali x Aymeric ship, and even in the Themisverse, Aymeric is her first love. The only difference is that Aymeric pushes Hali away so that she doesn’t have to be stuck in Ishgard with him when she’s an adventurer, so they never get together in the Themisverse. So Aymeric would still be a very important person who plays a very important role in Hali’s story regardless if they are in a relationship or not.

However, my mind just will not leave me alone when it comes to Themis. I currently want to explore Hali’s experiences with seeing Themis in her dreams and not knowing who he is or why she can’t stop dreaming of him, and also having a Deja vu feeling whenever she encounters Elidibus but neither of them recognizing each other nor remembering their past love for each other. And of course, there’s much to write about Hali’s personal story during the events of Pandaemonium when they start falling in love with each other.

On the gpose front, I already have made some great strides with getting back to doing some more complex posing and using some shaders and presets that broke in the DT graphics update that I FINALLY got around to fixing! So once my son is back in school and I have more free time to practice, I’ll be getting back to do more gposes and especially more Hali x Themis shippy stuff!! So please look forward to it!!!

Alright, so let’s move onto Yume and Zenos (her side blog is @firelightmuse). I’m going to continue housing Yume’s stuff on the separate side blog even though all of my other OCs will be on the main blog, and that’s because Yume’s story has some darker content and themes from her backstory and her relationship with Zenos that is very different from Hali’s story and what I’m planning on for Sohna’s story.

There’s already several WIPs on the Yume x Zenos front, and I will be going forward with what I’ve wanted to explore with Yume for a long time: Yume will be heading home to Hingashi and facing what’s happened to her home since she left over a decade ago. It’s a storyline that I’ve been planning for a few years now but I finally feel confident enough in where she’s at that I’m going forward with it finally. So there’s much more that will be coming out from Yume’s story this year, so once again, please look forward to it!!

And lastly but certainly not least, I’m still going to be exploring Sohna’s story and developing her relationship with Alphinaud, but that’s going to be slow going, because Sohna is from Tural, and her story is so tied up in Dawntrail’s MSQ that I don’t know how much of a role she will play in the events going forward. I do know that down the road I want her to join the Scions and obviously she will grow closer to Alphi, but I’m not sure how I want to approach all of that just yet. Just know that I still love them greatly and I’m excited to see how things progress this year!!

And with that, those are currently my plans for 2025, and I have so much on my plate that I want to accomplish, but I’m really motivated right now and I’m excited to start working on it all. If you’ve read this far, thank you so much for your time, and feel free to ask me anything that I didn’t cover here or if you want more details on something. Once again, thank you, and here’s to a Happy 2025!!!

[plumbaleena]

Introducing my latest preset, Apple Crisp. The perfect preset for fall photos and a moody esthetic. This preset enhances the look of rich browns, deep greens and burnt oranges. Perfect to set the mood for fall, and backdrop for those cozy photos of your sims. I am thrilled to share this with you as I always take extreme time in curating the look of each preset to give you the highest quality possible.

Enjoy!

To view HOW to use this preset, if you're brand new, please view my Moon Milk tutorial as this preset is based on the same textures and shaders

This preset is compatible with the latest update of Reshade and GShade as of October 2024

If you use my preset please tag me @plumbaleena on any social media I would LOVE to share you!

🍂 🍎

I am so sorry this preset has to be behind a pay window for over a month, but there is a creator who consistently steals my esthetic, ideas, creations, character likeness, story ideas, and my original Moon Milk preset [that's been tweaked to be "theirs" not mine, and is in direct violation of my TOU] and I am so tired of having my work taken from me that I need to protect it as best I can. Since there's nothing I can do about it (and there's an extreme uptick in copying via The Sims community), the best thing I can do is advise the community to be aware of the original creator and never support someone who knowingly copies. I have been doing this for over three years, and I put my heart and soul into my content. It is my entire career and I have to take higher measures in protecting not only my hard work, but my mental health.

Copying is not only disrespectful, but extremely unoriginal. As I always say, the original is worth more than the copy.

Thank you so much for your understanding! 

DO NOT USE MY PRESET AS A BASE FOR YOUR OWN TO PUT ON PATREON OR OTHER DOWNLOADING SITES - IT IS AGAINST MY TOU.

EARLY ACCESS FOR PATRONS AND SUBS 10.25

PUBLIC 11.25

DOWNLOAD APPLE CRISP HERE

[kanderwund]

WOW THAT ANIMATION IS AWESOME!!!!

And sky islands theme is such a bop hell yeah!

How did you do the ascii art karma part??? Did you run normal digital art through a custom shader? I'm hella curious, it looked badass as FUCK. I would like an insufferable amount of details, if you don't mind!

Thank you! That part was done with code in Processing that I wrote to create karma pixel art from a normal image/image sequence. It works on any image, but is better with low-detail hyper-saturated ones:

The source code is here on Github. I've organized the files so that as long as you have Processing 4 downloaded, it should run out of the box.

The function karmaPixelSequenceFromImage takes in an image and spits out a png sequence, which I fed into ImageMagick to get the above gif. A modified version of that code is what I used for the animation.

The function genKarmaArray essentially creates a 2D array of randomly-picked karma symbols and assigns each a color based on a corresponding point in the original image. The function createTextScreen renders a 2D array of karma symbols into a png. Calling genKarmaArray and createTextScreen each frame gets you the same image, but with different karma symbols each time.

Part of me wants to convert the code directly to P5.js and create an interactive version that can be accessed directly online. Then everyone would be able to create their own gifs. I may not have the time though.

The processing-misc repository linked above is what I used for the majority of my animation. For most scenes I would export png sequences from Procreate to Processing, and after putting the pngs together with code in Processing, I would export the result to DaVinci Resolve. The load.pde file has a lot of the functions I used to display specific frames of an image sequence in Processing, which I would combine with Processing-drawn fractals, etc. I may share more of the .pde files I used if others are interested.

A combination of load.pde and karmaText.pde is what I used to create that part of the animation. I drew the originals in Procreate, applied the "filter" in Processing, and used the resulting png files to Resolve.

Original version of the above:

[zylphiacrowley]

Okay so now I'm thinking about rack focus and gpose and I just want to talk about it in regards to vanilla gposing. I've never been trained in filmmaking or anything so this is not expert advice but I enjoy absorbing cinematography tips and tricks as a very passive hobby so... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Anyway, rack focus is explained in this video:

or if you don't have the time/attention span to watch the video it's when you shift focus from one subject to another usually to draw attention to or emphasize a connection between the subjects your focusing between. It's used all the time in film and is an effective way to "show, not tell".

I've used it in some of my own gpose sets before like between these two shots:

These shots were used to illustrate how this character had just stepped outside to see the night sky for the first time in their lives. Could I have just used the single shot of them looking at the sky? Sure I could've and it would've been fine, but to shift focus is to allow the viewer to dwell on it just a bit longer to absorb the information and emotional intent behind the shots.

But of course, that wasn't done using vanilla gpose tools but you can achieve a similar effect with vanilla gpose tools! It's available right here:

I took these shots using vanilla gpose tools (with the exception of my gameplay shader which doesn't have any DoF settings on):

In the first one you of course see the chocobo in the foreground before switching to focusing on my character in the background. These might be good shots to set a scene. Catboy at the chocobo farm, what he gonna do next?

the settings I used for each shot:

Of course these were just really quick snaps I grabbed to try to illustrate how you can apply rack focus in gpose, so I'm sure with actual time and some messing about in your settings with various sliders and such, you could come up with something much more polished and nice than what I managed in 5 minutes. OTL

And even if you don't use it for rack focus specifically, I encourage people to play around with the Depth of Field sliders! Go nuts! You can easily take some really dynamic single shots with combinations of gpose settings and actions.

Edit to add this bit of important information from @candycryptids: If DOF is not doing anything in GPose for you, check your graphics settings under system. There’s a box at the veeeery bottom that will disable DoF for EVERYTHING. Make sure it’s ticked.

[arrimorr]

Hello!! I am obsessed with your art in blender and I was curious if you had any tips and/or addons for blender that you feel comfortable sharing?

I'm new to using it but have a pretty good grasp of the basics. I've only messed around with making things and rigging and haven't really messed around with rendering or making pieces in blender. I just love the way you render your art and it's amazing! Even if you don't have much to share i'd still like to let you know how much I love your art hope you have a great day!

Hi!!!!!! Thank you so much 🤧🤧🤧 I pretty much learn as I go myself, for now its always a pipeline of me wanting to do something, then googling a tutorial for something similar and downloading addons from there, if they are needed. Because blender has soooooo much of those I can't really recommend any universal ones (besides loop tools for modeling and easy rig pro for riggin, I guess), since I myself need really different things each time I model, and most of the visual gigs I use come from Shaders and Compositing, instead of add-ons. But if we are talking about rendering - compositing is a really important step for that, so if you wanna add some funky visual effects (for example Im really into old computer graphic) the best way to go about it is to look how to do that through your compositing, this will be way less demanding on your computer

Thank you for the kind words once again 🥺