#i tried a new reshade

[apricote]

me: hasn't built anything from scratch in several years also me: let's build a strip club at 3 am 🫵

[graveyard-gumbo]

just found out that none of the preset i have work with occult sims (or alien sims 🥲), and to put more salt in the wound the skin tone also doesn't work (...) so now they just look so basic

POLLY 'PÖLLÌñĆÌÖñ †€ÇH #17' STARDUST

[lilypixels]

Here is my small take on @morrigan-sims Fallon! I didn't change much except some skin details and the eyes so idk how much it counts as being "my style" but I also think our styles are a little similar ?

[weindenburg]

after 39584 days of being in a preset slump I like how this one turned out

[weyrleaders]

oooh okay the water was possibly fucked up because of azurite weathers

[simgerale]

well—

me after attempting to get back into sims and realizing i had a lot more to do than play the game

[anachrosims]

STICKY POST: ULTIMATE(ISH) GUIDE(S) TO SIMS 4 CC-MAKING; OR, A COMPREHENSIVE COMPENDIUM OF TUTORIALS, INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS, & FELLOW COMPILATIONS OF A LIKEWISE NATURE

In which I list a fuckton of tutorials, guides, and lists of such, each written, curated, and crafted by people far more talented than I.

More will be added as I find them.

---

@teanmoon's CC Guides - Includes tutorials on cloning, uv_1, weights, bump and specular maps, bi-color hair, and a Blender Cheat Sheet. High poly 'creators' have little excuse to churn out high poly, non-optimized garbage when they can lean on bump maps. (I know those can only do so much for more complex meshes, but for objects, texture maps can do SO much heavy-lifting).

@vintagesimstress's CC Guides - Includes tutorials on using Blender to create objects and clothing, especially for people who are just getting started.

@eliavah's uv-1 adjustment tutorial. Haven't tried this myself yet, but after glancing through it, it's something I will surely want to keep bookmarked.

@simlaughlove's CC Tutorials List - Includes many tutorials handily laid out by category on everything from object texturing to CAS morphs.

@thefoxburyinstitute's Nav Page - This blog is nonstop Sims 4 resources for e v e r y t h i n g. READ THIS POST FIRST as a guide on how to actually... nav.

@simsresourcehub's Tags List - What it says on the tin.

Transferring Weights in Blender 3.3.1 - Over at Sims4Studio forums.

@trillyke's List of Tutorials - Good ones!

@sims4tutorials - *GRAND GESTURES*

@katverse's Huge List of Tutorials - Tutorials on eeeverything.

@thatsimslady's Massive List of Tutorials - 31 pages????? Damn.

@kouukie's Sims 4 CAS with Marvelous Designer Tutorial - YouTube video!

@rusticottage's Gifmaking Tutorial - I love Sims gifs tbh.

@cowplant-pizza' Boes' Editing Masterlist - Includes stuff for Reshade, PSDs, PS Actions, and how to use them.

@melonsloth's Deco Sim Tutorial - Using SimRipper

@depthofpixels's Deco Sim Tutorial - Using SimRipper

@azuhrasims' Guide to Posing Sims - Includes how to pose sims, and handy workarounds! Super great for beginners and longtime users.

@radioactivedotcom's Guide to Posing - Includes additional posing resources. NOT for beginners.

@madameriasims4's Add a Flame to Your Basegame Candle - Great for mood lighting and historical gameplay!

@syboubou's Making a Lamp Start to Finish - a video tutorial

MORE BELOW:

Adding Lit DST to Fireplace

New image ref for default overrides

Make an RGB Spec for Objects

Bake a shadow onto your object in Blender

Linking all bedding to a single frame

Cutouts for Doors/Windows/Archways

Making objects see-through/glass

Making lamps light correctly

Give an object transparency (add an alpha)

Make a candle w/ multiple flames

Change LOD viewing distance

[twitter-sakuranokaze]

FF14 Battle Portrait Tutorial

For the past few weeks I was trying to find a way to recreate the battle portrait from FF14 as there was a few characters that I want to see in that style but don't officially have one yet. I think I got it down more or less (see image below) so I thought it's a good time to share what I did.

First of all, I made a few files that would help make life a little easier. They can be grabbed here .

Note: I did use Reshade to do a bit of work at the screenshot stage to help speed up the process but the same effect can be recreated in Photoshop with a vanilla screenshot. There are a lot of tutorials on how to do comic/cartoon effect in photoshop and those would make good bases to work off of.

Step 1: Take the screenshot with the PortraitBase Shader on. I usually take two screenshots. One with "Comic" on and one with it turned off. This is so that I have more to work with if needed.

Step 2: Drag all the screenshots into photoshop and remove the background. In photoshop, arrange the layer so that the screenshot with the Comic lines visible is on top of the one with the effect off.

Step 3: Duplicate the the layer with the "comic" effect and apply Blur->Gaussian blur (radius 0.5)

Step 4: Take a look at the hair. In Eric's case, It still doesn't look blur enough to me so I used the blur tool and blurred it a bit more

Step 5: Create a new layer above the layer in the previous step and use the brush tool to start outlining the edges. Where to outline is up to you but the idea is to make edges defined so that it looks more like a drawing.

Step 6: Duplicate the outline layer and then hide that layer. Step 7: Merge everything under the outline layer. Step 8: Drag and drop the "Texture.png" into the project and Clip it to your character layer. Set the blending of the texture to "soft light". Step 9: Drag and drop the "stroke Texture.png" into the project and Clip it to your character layer. Adjust the size till you are happy then set the blending to "overlay". Step 10: Adjust the opacity settings of both texture layers until it looks good to you.

Step 11: Click on your character layer and go to image->Adjustments->Hue/Saturation (note: you will see I dragged in the official Hades portrait as a point of reference to work off of). Adjust the saturation till you are happy.

Step 12: Go to image->Adjustments->Color Balance and adjust the color till you are happy. In this example, since Eric is also wearing the Sophist robe, I tried to match that color to Hades' Sophist robe color.

Step 13: Once you are happy, drag the "Template.png" into the project and scale that to the size you want. Make sure it is completely covering the character. If it's not, you can just use paint more of it with the brush tool to extend it till it covers everything.

Step 14: Hide the "template.png" layer and select your character layer. Use the magic wand tool to select the outside of the character.

Step 15: With the selection still selected, click on the "Template.png" layer and press delete on your keyboard. You should now be left with a blank in the shape of your character.

Step 16: Drag the"Template.png" layer to be below your character layer. Then click on your character layer and clip it.

Step 17: Click on the "Template.png" layer and add a 2px stroke and shadow to it.

Step 18: Drag "Back_Deco.png" into the project and place it behind your character. Scale it till you are happy with it.

And that's it! Now you can recreate portraits for any NPCs that you want (in theory). A lot of it is also fine tuning to what you want but this should at least give you a decent base to work off of :)

[sgthebee]

New build: the Desiderata Valley library! I sat down to actually play with actual Sims, but well... this happened instead. I tried to give it the vibes of an older building that got a remodel and recently re-opened to the public (which is accurate since I kept the original shell).

(Also got Reshade working, miraculously, which is waaay easier to work with than vkBasalt)

[sweetbeagaming]

How to install TS3 for the ✨chronically TS4✨

Getting back into TS3 posed a challenge for me as compared to TS4. It's a 10+ year old game and of course requires some extra TLC as compared to TS4. So I hope this guide will help y'all to get everything set up cleanly and smoothly! It took me three separate tries and if I can help the next person struggle less, then that's great. Happy simming!

You'll need a copy of TS3 and these resources:

The Sims 3 Performance & Bug Fix Guide 2023 by anime_boom

This lovely post from TS3 community extraordinaire @nectar-cellar

How Use CCMagic YouTube video by @florydaax

No Intro mod edited for 2023 (original by retired creator EllaCharmed) The original mod from Ella does not work for current patch 1.69. I fixed it in s3pe with the help of some commenters on MTS so that it does actually remove the intro. If the creator happens to see this and would like this modified version removed, let me know.

How to clear cache by Carl's Guide

Got everything pulled up? Great! You're ready to start.

1. Download a FRESHLY INSTALLED copy of TS3 to your computer. If you're able, I'd highly recommend having all the packs you're wanting to own already so you don't have to do all of this again. If you are redownloading the game for any reason (like me bc I was struggling lol), remove the existing TS3 folder in your documents and save it somewhere so you can keep all of your mods or worlds there. Back up any reshade stuff from the bin folder. Completely uninstall the game through the EA app/Steam. You may lose your saves and sims due to a change in script mods through this tutorial. This cannot be avoided, trust me I tried. But it's worth it for a smooth game.

2. Do a test launch so that the game generates a new TS3 Folder in your documents. DO NOT, I REPEAT DO NOT INSTALL ANY SIMS 3 PACKS THROUGH THE LAUNCHER! NO WORLDS, NO CLOTHES, NO HAIR COLORS, NOTHING. This will be very important later on when you merge your CC using CCMagic. If you need worlds or other CC there are alternative ways to obtain them.

3. CLEAR THE GENERATED CACHE

4. If you use EA and open to test anywhere between steps (which you shouldn't really need to after step 1 of the Bug Fix Guide) or after playing at any point, open up task manager and ensure that you end the tasks "EA" and "EA Background Services" before continuing. It doesn't really use much memory but I noticed that it caused stutters if it's open when launching using your shiny brand new Smooth Patch. It will look like this:

5. Begin following the steps in the Performance & Bug Fix guide. The first thing you'll do is set up your mods folder. Follow those steps exactly as they are in the guide, except use the No Intro mod I linked above instead of the one you get in that folder if you actually want the intro removed.

6. Continue to FOLLOW ALL REQUIRED STEPS IN THE GUIDE UNTIL YOU'RE DONE. I mean it, all of them one by one. Heck, if you're open/able to do the bonus and optional ones, I'd suggest doing those too.

7. Once you've completed that, go check out nectar-cellar's excellent post for tips and a fix to make the smooth patch to compatible with Master Controller. I will not be providing an edited version of this as LazyDutchess who created the Smooth Patch is still active and I want to respect their work.

8. If you've made it this far, you're doing great sweetie. Do another test launch through the patcher and if everything runs correctly it means you've done everything RIGHT. You're ready to start playing or downloading mods if you want! If you do start downloading mods merging them will 100% be a must do if you want to maintain any sanity. You can use CCMagic to do so. I linked that handy lil video above!

Keep in mind script mods, overrides, patterns, and CC counters should NEVER be merged. Always check the creator's notes, yada yada. And always clean up your cache on a regular basis. Have fun y'all!

[amanda2119]

“𝕾𝖔, 𝖙𝖆𝖐𝖊 𝖙𝖍𝖎𝖘 𝖋𝖊𝖊𝖑𝖎𝖓', 𝖒𝖆𝖐𝖊 𝖎𝖙 𝖌𝖗𝖔𝖜. 𝕹𝖊𝖛𝖊𝖗 𝖑𝖊𝖙 𝖎𝖙, 𝖓𝖊𝖛𝖊𝖗 𝖑𝖊𝖙 𝖎𝖙 𝖌𝖔. 𝕯𝖔𝖓'𝖙 𝖑𝖊𝖙 𝖌𝖔 𝖔𝖋 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖙𝖍𝖎𝖓𝖌𝖘 𝖞𝖔𝖚 𝖇𝖊𝖑𝖎𝖊𝖛𝖊 𝖎𝖓. 𝖄𝖔𝖚 𝖌𝖎𝖛𝖊 𝖒𝖊 𝖘𝖔𝖒𝖊𝖙𝖍𝖎𝖓𝖌 𝖙𝖍𝖆𝖙 𝕴 𝖈𝖆𝖓 𝖇𝖊𝖑𝖎𝖊𝖛𝖊 𝖎𝖓. 𝕹𝖔, 𝖉𝖔𝖓'𝖙 𝖑𝖊𝖙 𝖌𝖔 𝖔𝖋 𝖙𝖍𝖎𝖘 𝖒𝖔𝖒𝖊𝖓𝖙 𝖎𝖓 𝖙𝖎𝖒𝖊. 𝕯𝖔𝖓'𝖙 𝖑𝖊𝖙 𝖌𝖔 𝖔𝖋 𝖙𝖍𝖎𝖓𝖌𝖘 𝖙𝖍𝖆𝖙 𝖞𝖔𝖚'𝖗𝖊 𝖋𝖊𝖊𝖑𝖎𝖓𝖌. 𝕴 𝖈𝖆𝖓'𝖙 𝖊𝖝𝖕𝖑𝖆𝖎𝖓 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖙𝖍𝖎𝖓𝖌𝖘 𝖙𝖍𝖆𝖙 𝕴'𝖒 𝖋𝖊𝖊𝖑𝖎𝖓𝖌. 𝕹𝖔, 𝕴 𝖜𝖔𝖓'𝖙 𝖑𝖊𝖙 𝖌𝖔.”

So tried the new rain reshade and I love it but need lots more practice. But not too bad for a first time attempt. 💧💧💧💧💧💧💧💧💧💧💧💧💧💧💧💧💧💧

[orphyd]

Tried to install the newest version of ReShade to try and play with a new preset/shaders and instantly killed my game so I'm definitely going back to GShade but does anyone have experience using Marty's iMMERSE shaders with GShade, I know some of us have been using ReLight (myself included) but if anyone has any experience with any of the other shaders (mostly Solaris) please let me know...

[kissalopa]

I tried new reshade preset, and even though I really liked it, I had to add one of the multiluts to make everything brighter and more colourful 😅

I added a before pic of Nite under the cut

[landgraabbed]

hi cat! 🩷 so as you know i really enjoy your ts2 posts and lately i've gotten the itch to play it again! but last time i played ts2 i played it with only a few crappy cc clothes lol, so i have no idea what mods are essential mods to have in ts2 or where to get them, how to prevent saves from getting corrupted and how to build your own custom hood - stuff like that. so i wondered if you have any advice or if you knew any guides on where to even get started on this? 😭 thank you 🩷🩷🩷

vilna hiiiiiii!! first of all i am so sorry that this took me so long to reply! i got ill and it hit me harder than it should rip 😭 anyways, thank you so much as always for your kind words, you know i love your stuff so it really is appreciated 💖

it’s a long write-up and i reference a lot of guides and resources from the community from which i learned myself. i’m really grateful to this community for sharing these resources, truly! i tried to organize this as best and include as much as i could, but i'm sure there may be missing things or things left unclear. so if you have any questions feel free to message me!

i. installation

i personally use the sims 2 rpc launcher by lazyduchess, which is included in osab’s installation guide. i really like this guide, since it includes links to the full sims 2 collection, as well as indications to make the game work more nicely with modern hardware and software, such as modern graphics cards through graphics rules makers or the 4gb patch.

it also includes instructions for reshade installation (i personally use the rpc injection method).

ii. setting up a clean slate

whether you want to play in a premade neighborhood or a custom neighborhood, i recommend using a clean slate, meaning empty and/or clean neighborhoods. many functions of the game use hoods, and sometimes these aren’t actual physical hoods and instead add sims as townies or npcs. there are also “clean” versions of premade neighborhoods that fix/tweak oversights by maxis.

mind that if you want a brand new hood without maxis’ townies, you need to get an empty pleasantview template (N001) in your game’s installation folder, or disable it somehow by changing its name. you can still play in pleasantview as it will be stored in your documents neighborhoods folder, and you can use clean versions for that. you also need to get empty stealth hoods.

this all may sound a bit complicated, but simgaroop made a wonderful write-up here for different user cases depending on what you’d like to do in your game. the mods linked here are a boon!

as for making a brand new empty hood, i love getting custom terrains (which are sc4 files originally made in simcity 4). some of my faves are made by @/nimitwinklesims, but i also like finding them at modthesims. you don't need to create each type of subhood, but i do have at least one of each in bloom valley. in bloom valley i have two downtowns (one is magic town from sims 1 originally converted to sims 2 by @/voleste. the other is @/kattaty's remake of downtown, which will be deleted and replaced with a downtown i'll make myself to be more consistent with my other subhoods. it is incredible, and i think i will use some of their lots in my new downtown because they are great), i have two shopping districts. one is strangetown because i love those premades and townies; i never have sims visit or form relationships with them though, it's just so i see them around. the other is oakburg which uses acorn bend as a base, it works more or less as an expansion to bloom valley and it's where i play more often than not these days. then i have the vacation hood makeovers by @/plumbtales. the university hood was made from scratch by me.

when you create your own hood, you will either have to set up your own townies from scratch or source them from community shared townie hoods. for making townies from scratch, i recommend @/simper-fi’s guide (also recommend getting the mods linked here before you make a hood).

for townie hoods shared by other simmers, i recommend those shared by @/mikexx2 (seriously, look at all those familiar faces that ended up as spouses for gen 1 in bloom valley) and @/marvelann’s sims made townies by @/letthemplaysimscc. i also use the bon voyage locals shared by @/plumbtales. i also make my own townies from time to time or use specific downloaded sims as townies.

iii. on corruption

here’s the good news: as it turns out, corruption really isn’t an issue. april black has made an excellent video on the matter of corruption; although it is long, i recommend anyone who plays ts2 to watch it, or at the very least the final timestamp. to know what to do and what not to do.

although corruption isn’t an issue, i still consider the suite of “anti corruption” mods to be essential in order to avoid overpopulation and overall weirdness.

iv. making the game look pretty

i have linked my eye and skin genetics over here

my supernatural skins default replacements: alien - witch - vampire - plantsim - werewolf - considering switching my vampire, zombie, and werewolf defaults to this

for hair, i only use 4t2 conversions. i just like the way they look. i use @/platinumaspiration’s 4t2 defaults collection, which is a boon. for custom hairstyles, i recommend going through @/4t2clay

for clothes, i recommend going through the sims 2 defaults database. i have also linked some favorite creators for male clothes here. note that they also have female clothes. other creators i enjoy: @/mdpthatsme @kaluxsims @/jacky93sims @/goatskickin

i have a lot of makeup and “skin details” in my folder, but i have always been fond of @/lilith-sims’ things

for build/buy, that’s more difficult to pinpoint, but i again recommend @/sims4t2bb for a conversion database, and also @/veranka-downloads’s plentiful 4t2 and 3t2 conversions. some creators that feature in my folder: @/i07jeuu @/linacheries @/nonsensical-pixels @/pforestsims @/tvickiesims

custom sliders in cas: @/simnopke’s sliders, @/memento-sims’ sliders

for the ui, i use the incredible @/greatcheesecakepersona’s clean ui; i also use the mods linked here (+ @/keoni-chan’s amazing talk to me icon to replace icons), particularly the one to remove the red border in pause mode since that won’t be removed in tab camera

speaking of camera, this is the camera mod i use

i regrettably don’t recall the exact lighting mod i use (looking at them, probably cinema secrets), but i know it is one shared by @/veronaquiltingbee

to beautify my neighbor, i consider these skylines by @/lowedeus to be essential (+ optimized textures by @/celestialspritz). additionally i use the rural charm terrain and roads default replacement by @/criquettewashere in addition to most if not all of their hood decorations. i also love 3t2 hood decor conversions!

another useful resource is the gos events

please note that a lot of these creators do multiple categories of cc, so recommendations for one category may overlap with another; i know that this is just scratching the surface but i hope it helps

v. gameplay mods

i use so many mods to overhaul the gameplay so there will be some omissions. i’ll do my best to provide the most important ones (ignoring the ones previously mentioned)

economy and careers: uni part-time jobs for teens - lower wages - no 20k simoleons handout - loan jar (afaik lamaresims is working on a version to enforce regular payments) - custom bills (750%) - expensive bills for apartments (300%) - private school bill fix (in moreawesomethanyou-al.zip; charges the household 200 simoleons each school day for a child in private school) - lamare’s job options mods - 50% job promotion chance - restricted job offers - work food delivery

food & eating: basically @/jacky93sims's whole library

lifespan & health: lifespan (modified as follows, baby to elder: 3 - 7 - 14 - 21 - 91 - 7-14; i will make the adult lifespan longer still given that i play very slowly, it works as young adult and adult stages, and as is i don’t see many sims of gen 1 living to meet their grandchildren) - more dangerous fires - frequent & faster disease processing

personality: 3t2 traits project and associated mods

relationships and woohoo: acr - romantic standards - reproductive capabilities configurer - pregnant sims wear any outfit

supernatural/occults: plantsims can change hairstyle - no more leafy hair - no more werewolf hair - child lycanthropy - werewolf fangs fix - werewolf transformation 3 nights a week + no personality change vampires can’t eat food - vampire motive decay during day based on aspiration + vampire hunger goes down at night & social/fun decay- hereditary supernaturalism

travel and community lots: visit other sims - community time (+ limeyyoshi’s fix, reuploaded bc i cannot find it)

university: semester changes - pets at university - maternity for young adults - maternity outfit fixed for young adults

misc: planting overhaul - monique’s hacked computer, which i use to give sims separate bank accounts, study skills and badges online, and so on (1 - 2 - 3 - 4) - townie apartment residents - community lot skilling - engagement and wedding ring for color traits - invisible medicine cabinet (so sims can brush teeth and wash face with any mirror) - shiftable everything - midgethetree’s mods - fix subhood selection - longer seasons (7 days)

[charlotkas-simblr]

Hi!

I really like your good looking creations and pics from your game. May I ask how you did managed it to work properly? Which computer and OS do you use?

Hi! Thank you so much for your kind words!

I recently changed my laptop to a PC and it was the best decision I ever made. I had a perfectly fine gaming Dell G3 laptop (with i5 and gtx 1050), but it was overheating and I was afraid that it won't survive this Summer. So my hubby helped me to get a pc instead.

I have Intel Core i7-7000, 12 gb RAM, Samsung EVO ssd, GTX 1060 6gb and Windows 10 installed. I also have 25 gb of CC in my Downloads folder at the moment and my game runs smooth like never before. It takes 2 minutes to load and it gives normal FPS even in really cc heavy lots with beach and with Reshade on. I never imagined Sims 2 can work like that. If I tried something like this on my laptop it gave me all sorts of pink hell and it used to heat up to 100 degrees :/ And after years struggling with pink hell and random crashes performance of my new pc made me come back to creating Sims content again :)

[channel4sims-cc]

Hello, I'm having an issue with my mods, I've flowed your directions for your "If you can't enable cc" post. But I can't get into CAS without being stuck on the loading screen for longer than normal, this didn't happen before the update I've checked all my mods and even deleted my whole mods folder but still nothing works unless, I delete all the mods.

Hello ^^

Is it just when you go to CAS? The CC works, right?

If the issue is the CAS taking longer to load than normal, it can be one of these bugs that always happen when there's a new expansion/update 😅 When I tried using CAS it took a little longer than normal too, but not too much.

Do you use a custom CAS background, custom IU, custom icons, reshade, things like that?

If so, it's probably a mod that needs an update. Then you have to keep an eye on the cc creators' pages to see if there's something that needs an update.

A tip I would give: all mods that actually modify something in the game: overrides, new gameplay, etc. Always put them in a different folder, or name them in a way that as soon as there's a update you'll know where they are, so you can remove them and wait for the cc creator to update.

For example: if you download a new CAS background. Inside "Mods" create a folder called "MOD - CAS background" and put the package inside that folder. So when there's a new update you'd just remove it from "Mods" until you checked with the cc creator if it's safe/updated to put back on Mods again. This way you don't have to delete everything.

It can also be solved (maybe) by deleting "localthumbcache".

You can also try to move all you cc to somewhere else. Them put some CC back on "Mods" and keep testing by lauching the game to see if it still happens.

I don't know much when it comes to CAS though. Maybe we just need to wait a little bit to see if EA is going to say something or if the CC creators you download from will update their mods.

It's always messy when there's a new expansion. CC creators go crazy having to check everything 😅

Anyway I hope one of the options work for you ^^