#it's not grey or blue like ea's

[treefish]

i made my own hair color system!

[tricoufamily]

willoughby hair overlays redux

pre swatch update, i made these hair overlays. now those are pretty much obsolete, except for old cc hair, so i made some new ones! the original swatches are included in this untouched, so you can just delete the old version from your mods folder

click for no reshade pictures

as i said last time, it won't work perfectly with every hair, that wouldn’t even be possible

hair bows, clips, headbands, and other hair accessories will likely also change colors

not intended for ombre hairs. but it actually looks pretty cool sometimes tbh

versions located under brow ring (left), mouth crease, and tattoo (upper chest)!

doesn’t affect eyebrows or facial hair so strictly maxis match ppl look out

highly recommend using a custom hairline

works for all ages and frames. won't work well with infants, though (the non-cc hairs at least)

base game compatible

disabled for random

the black is for when the ea non-blue black is grey for no reason 🤢. the original black overlay is ok but sometimes i find it makes that swatch too dark and you lose detail in the texture. this black is just a little less intense. so i recommend that one for the non-blue black and the original for the blue black swatch!

download (sfs)

[splashstar01]

Similarities between Merthur & book!Drarry:

-Consists of a dark-haired 'Chosen' wizard who saves everyone.

-One has jet black hair, the other blonde. (Draco and Harry don't both have blue eyes-- Draco has grey eyes, Harry green ones.)

-Argumentative but actually would be in so much emotional pain to see the other hurt.

-HAVE INSANE SEX-UAL CHEMISTRY. ;___;

-Super-duper obsessed with each other. Like, stalker level.

-Only 1 inch height difference.

-Blonde one is more argumentative, dark haired one is sassy.

-The girl (Gwen, Ginny) is treated like mother-replacement rather than lover.

-Totally gay rather than bi. No real interest in opposite sex. (Harry's POV in the books, he's only thinking about how good-looking other men are & avoids girls. Crush on Ginny is subpar vs his much bigger crush on Cho which still PALES in comparison to obsession with Draco, who is even more obsessed with him but we don't get Draco's POV....which is very telling of how gay they are written).

-Have sexual moments (like Harry getting hit in the head with luggage becos he couldn't stop staring at Draco changing... ahem & Merthur is FULL OF THESE MOMENTS)

-Can't stop staring at each other. Or talking about the other. Like, literally they're ea others' favorite topic.

-ALL OTHER CHARACTERS KNOW. (all of Camelot knights, etc., and literally all of Hogwarts students, parents, teachers & even Voldemort know. -_-)

-Are soulmates.

-Canonically written as in love in the Source material, whether or not they are canon--their characters are actually in love with each other.

But i get it, if you don't want to read the books. That's why I've compiled The Drarry Bible, for non-readers and readers alike. I wrote it specifically for non-readers, where I tried putting in as much context as possible for non-readers to follow along. :) It's filled with all Drarry quotes & metas <3 I've already sent it out to the Drarry fandom ofc, but I thought the Merthur fandom might be interested in another epic ship. :D

(Currently Drarry & Merthur are my two greatest obsessions lol.)

For more similarities between the ships:

-Just want so desperately to be BFFs... & ofc more.

-Fathers disapprove. Mothers are one of most fervent shippers.

-Opposites attract.

-Consist of at least one wizard.

-Dads are mean/bad people. Moms are kinder and sweet.

-Saved each others' lives more than once.

-Risked their lives to save each other.

-Forbidden romance.

[papermint-airplane]

I remade some of the sorority sisters

I thought I got all of them but apparently one escaped.

For now. 😈

Anyway, I changed their faces, makeup, and hair. I didn't touch the clothes because I didn't want to be here for the next 93 years. Also ignore the fact that some of them are clearly in their nightclothes. I was doing this at night.

And if you're wondering why some of them have drastically different eye colors in the after shots, the game was really, really determined to make some of them werewolves for some reason and when I reset them to human, the eye color changed to this hideous Sims 2 broken mesh blue and I had to fix it. I tried to get them back to their original eye color but for some of them, I just forgot what that color was. 🤷‍♀️ We know these bitches are just props, anyway. It doesn't matter.

Paris Vanderbuilt

I shaved the jaw down a bit but not much. I like how much she looks like the real Paris Hilton, facial feature-wise at least. Someone on the Sims team really understood the assignment. Now, why they were assigned that particular prompt in the first place, I don't know. But they nailed it. I tried to keep a little bit of that around but I might have gone a tiny bit overboard. At least her makeup is better. It couldn't possibly have gotten worse. That could be the fault of my default makeup replacements but those colors are all EA, I'm afraid.

Lauri Hayword

An absolute cutie. Look at her! She is so baby. I shaved the jaw down again, but I didn't really change anything else. I left her nose alone because it's such a cute nose but I shrunk the glasses a little so they didn't clip into her flesh. I've had glasses that have clipped into my flesh before. Not a great experience.

Ashley DeSorrento

This bitch is my nemesis. For some reason, every single time I play university, she is an absolute shitbag to my Sims. I have no idea what her problem is. Anyway, I felt no qualms about giving her total reconstructive surgery and I hope she suffered throughout the process. It was around this time that I started to notice whoever made these Sims really like a strong jaw. I can't blame them, I like strong jaws, too, especially on ladies, but uh...Ashley looks like Bruce Timm Batman. I'm not super happy how she turned out but at least her original features weren't as bad as...

Hanna Germanotta

I want to know who had a grudge against this girl's eyelids. They clearly had beef. Do you see the top eyelid? How it comes TO A POINT?! Eyelids do not eyelid that way!!! What in the hell is this?! Anyway, she's the one I did the most to. I could not let that poor girl exist in that state any longer. Does she look like the original Sim? No. And that's a good thing. *points at original Sim* Tell me that's not a good thing. I fucking dare you.

Samantha Grey

By contrast, Samantha is one of the ones I did the least to. Did you know she's secretly really cute? I shrunk that lantern jaw down a little and made the nose a bit bigger but she was pretty much good already.

[analog-mothman]

Knit Puffy 4t2 Conversion

Download: SFS | MF

PU-CU, 1.5K tris, 256x512 textures, 12 binned and familied swatches with edited EA textures, compressed and tooltipped

More cute wintery hats for small sims, courtesy of a WCIF from @loosiap. Because when I saw it hadn't been converted yet, I knew that I needed it in my game. Swatches below the cut.

across is bin, up and down is family

This one kind of stretched how I've been binning the hat a bit, but I think it still works. Darker colors in black, light blues and aquas in brown, pinks and purples in blonde, and everything else in red.

In game your sims will keep the eyebrow color they were born with, but it'll switch between bins in bodyshop and CAS.

One of the EA swatches, the lime green and cyan striped one, was really bad and I tossed it, but the rest were more or less salvageable. Older EA textures tend to have like a weird bluish-grey or bright indigo shading that I tried to color correct for.

Scalp texture is 512x512. It doesn't have a hat flag and is in all categories because some kids go through that phase.

Here is a tutorial on how to change flags if you want anything different.

The puffballs might clip into the shoulders a bit in some animations, but that's about par for the course. Ears might also clip if they stick out too far from the head.

Let me know if there are any other issues!

Credits: EA

[carolldesign]

❄️Fantasy winter makeup and genetics ❄️

This set contains:

❄️ A 9-swatch soft and straight brows in different tones light of blonde, white, blue, gray, green and purple. 

❄️ A 4-swatch mini set of multicoloured fantasy, snow globe eyes in shades of blue, green, pink, purple and grey. The texture comes with frozen ice and mini snowflakes as catchlights.

❄️ A 8-swatch very soft, snowflake nose blush in the shades of pink, purple and blue and green. The texture comes in options - plain blush and blush with nose tip highlight. 

❄️A 9-swatch soft, frosty lip gloss in the shades of blue, pink and purple, green.

All files are available for download exclusively on The Sims Resource for Winter Holidays collection.

➡️ Download brows

➡️ Download eyes (EA until 30.12)

➡️ Download blush

➡️ Download lip gloss

(PR)

TSR was kind enough to share a discount code for their VIP subscription:

❤️ SHOP_Caroll9112 ❤️

For $6 off (20% off ) your annual subscription including cool perks like no ads and waiting time to download your fav things and download basket! More instructions how to redeem it are on my linktree and in my highlight stories on IG❤️

Choosing my code allows me to continue creating for you - thanks for supporting me and TSR ❤️

I use an array of CC from different sources. For my list of creators I use - refer to my WCIF page:

✨ click here✨

♥ Instagram

♥ Facebook

♥ Twitter

♥ Pinterest

♥ Patreon (currently unpublished)

[the-consortium]

There was laughter on the wind here, out on the fringes of the Opphon plain, as the veil began to break down. Warpfire, re-entry heat and the cataclysmic death of titans had burned back the snow as far as the northern foothills, where the Iron Fists had died. The path of their retreat was marked by a trail of broken bodies and smoldering tanks, a fresh road stretching out from the wreck of the Cestus Relictor, to the ugly looking barbican that guarded the mountain pass. The broken ship squatted darkly amidst a forest of smoke columns; the first wave landing craft downed by its colossal guns, but even now, lesser warbands were no doubt crawling through its halls in search of prizes, plunder and prisoners. The sons of Fulgrim had watched the battle from afar, like vultures waiting to see which duelling beast became carrion. There had been a pleasance to the ebb and flow of it, the way the line of grey bloomed and sparkled with muzzle flashes and detonations each time the infernal tide rolled in upon them. Each murder of a titan was a slow, graceful affair, punctuated by energy discharge that dazzled and slashed their way through the smoking air. The dreadnought was not hard to find. They'd watched as the gunship was gutted as it tried to hasten survivors back to the safety of the mountains. The bodies had scattered like dark pollen from the riven craft, but the single fruit, the larger shape, had fallen faster, throwing up dust and soil as it bounced and rolled and ploughed its way across the plain. There was not much left of it at the end of the furrow such fall had carved, but there was still a sparking, guttering sense of life within the crumpled wreck. The golden gauntlet sigil of the Iron Fists chapter had been torn off along with its arms, but the name, 'Syrak', was still legible on the sarcophagus lid, in spite of the dark, viscous fluid that marred the lettering it as it trickled from the vision-slit down into the dark earth. As the figures approached, there was a whine of broken servos and a series of unpleasant clunks from within the wreck. Slowly, falteringly, the mangled vox-modulator churned out a stuttering sequence of words, carrying neither emotion nor any sense of recognition of the figures that surveyed it. "Cousi-i-i-ns. Do not. Lea-ea-ea-ea-eave me hhhhhere."

"Of course it's far from me to pass a verdict here … I'm not someone who needs to pass judgement on others …" A brief silence, then a harsh laugh at his own joke, which continues for quite a while before it dies away with a chortle. Accompanied by quiet words in a language that is more of a hiss than actual syllables. "… but in general, I wonder whether earlier intervention would not make for a much better harvest. Not to mention the fact that we are damaging other people's image here."

The person at whom the words are obviously directed due to sheer physical proximity does not reply. Instead, he continues to work on finding a good approach vector to the dispersing battlefield that won't cause the aggressive gunship to rebel too much if he denies it prey, while remaining inconspicuous.

Instead, an answer comes from further back: "And by better harvest, you don't mean select cruelty and silly new skin garments, do you?" - "Pah! I'm always fighting prejudice here." Waving it off and then ramming the midnight blue helmet with the bat wings onto his head.

"There's a very good reason why the Chief Apothecary didn't send any of our purple friends here. All tactical discipline falls out of their heads as soon as they see the opportunity to interfere in a battle and make a spectacle of themselves. Waiting and striking surgically - that really doesn't suit them anymore." - "Yes, yes, yes. Precision and boredom. When did that happen?" - "You can discuss it with him when we get back. I'll make some popcorn and watch this conversation from a safe distance."

For a while, there is only a busy silence as the three Apothecaries finish equipping themselves and force the angrily protesting gunship to land in a crater left by a Titan's footstep in the churned-up mud of the battlefield.

Everyone not only arms themselves, but also adds several extra canisters for Gene Seed to their belts. Then they open the ramp, taking advantage of a moment of distraction when the ship wouldn't shoot at them out of sheer fury and spite, and run crouched to the nearest remnant of wall. One shadow in scuffed black, one in well-maintained metal with yellow and black accented stripes, and one in midnight blue.

They orientate themselves and then start systematically scanning the battlefield. Their prize is what is always needed in the Eye of Terror. Harvested compassionlessly but not cruelly. The last mercy given without engaging in the maelstrom of mysticism that has spread tumour-like through the galaxy in the time since their rebellion failed so resoundingly.

None of the three believe in anything that could be called fate or predestination. And yet, after about half an hour, the small canisters full of dripping tissue, they find themselves almost simultaneously at what is, in a strange way, a burial site. The second time.

„Cousi-i-i-ns. Do not. Lea-ea-ea-ea-eave me hhhhhere.“

"Huh," Skalagrim mouths in astonishment.

"Look at that, a playmate for Diomat! Can I keep him?" laughs Duco, his rasping laugh once again making him so uncomfortably similar to his Sire.

Tzimiskes sighs.

Finally Skalagrim steps right up to the fallen dreadnought. Tilts his head. Looks to Tzimiskes, "Can you do anything with him?"

The Iron Warrior shrugs his shoulders, but nods. All three look at their Narthetica at the same time, check their readings and begin to stabilise the fallen old man. They don't have to coordinate much. Every move is perfect. After a while, Tzimiskes rises and disappears in the direction of the hollow, where Butcher Bird is bored and probably in an even worse mood than usual.

Duco injects several different sedatives and coagulants and says in a paternalistic manner: "Well, my old friend, now tell Uncle Doctor - where are we from and what year are we living in?"

[nectar-cellar]

My loving all your hair edits! Thank you for sharing with us! With your defaults, would replacing the texture with another default work? EAs isn't always my favorite to use.

thank you :)

for the EA hair edits i'm currently using a texture by pooklet, it isn't the EA one.

if you want to change the texture:

if you have a retexture of, say, the late night slicked back hair already, you can leave that in your overrides folder and put my late night hair default in your packages folder. my hair default *should* take on the retexture in the overrides folder. this won't work for the non default standalone files though.

another method:

use s3pe, open the package of a hair retexture you like. for example this could be the EA hair retextures done by oneeuromutt or ifcasims. export the diffuse (white hair texture) and control (red/green/blue texture) textures. you can also export the specular (black hair texture) and normal map (grey, semi-transparent texture). save the textures to a folder.

use s3pe, open the hair package of mine you want to edit. right-click on the existing diffuse, control, etc. textures, click on "replace", then select the textures you want to replace them with from the folder. save and close the package.

[selfmaderibcageman]

just got a bunch of the rest of the stuff i need for modeling etc my cold war era 3mm Tanks For Ants. which i had to buy online. Kind of annoying tbh. Michaels seems to have been taken over by like, Big Christmas Decoration, no longer stocks any meaningful types of fabric besides sack cloth for people to make ugly clothes for their kids out of.

Got a couple square yards of felt to try to make a like, 36x48" board, i think that'll work. Though I'm tempted to anchor it to a folding set of like 3 foam board maybe? 12"x16"ea... idk. Portability is nice but it needs to sit flat.

As for terrain, I think I'm just abstracting things with marked colored foam. dark grey urban, maybe i'll paint on it, light grey roads, blue river/dark blue lake, green for a hill, dark green for taller ones, though maybe just stacking foam achieves this effect just as well. I think I ought to run little pins through them so that they "anchor down" into the foam a little better and don't move during the game...

[sednonamoris]

dear john

Pairing: John Marston x gn!reader

Summary: A year’s worth of letters, never sent.

Warnings: Angst, canon-typical language, epistolary chapter, emotionally constipated idiots

Word count: 1,236

A/N: I think the prior chapter does a lot of legwork for this one, but I really wanted to cover John's missing year in a succinct way that still got across the complicated feelings and hurt that came with it. I'm still deciding the direction the next two or three chapters will go - if we head straight to Blackwater and dig into the game's timeline at last or spend some more time before all that. All this to say the next updates might take a bit longer. If you have anything you really want to see please let me know!!

Series masterlist • AO3

—

Marston,

Goddamn you right to hell you stupid, yellow-bellied bastard. Too much of a coward to even say goodbye. Best friends, was it? Real funny way of showing it to leave me behind like that. A few weeks to clear your head I can understand, but over a month seems an awful long time.

I would have followed you anywhere.

Guess you didn’t care to have me along.

Ghost

—

Dear Marston,

I don’t have an address to post this to, but don’t think I’ll let you off easy. You don’t want to raise this kid? Fine. But you should come home. I miss The gang could use you. Arthur and I got a good lead on a bank but you know how twitchy the trigger fingers are on these Callander boys. 

I am fine, thanks for asking, and so is everyone else. Arthur is even madder than I am, so I wouldn’t expect letters from him anytime soon.

Ghost

—

Dear Marston,

There’s more work to be done between me and Arthur now that you’re not here to share the load. Arthur says you weren’t much help anyhow, but as much as I hate you for leaving we both know that ain’t fair. Tried to hunt rabbit with him the other day and he shot them all full of holes. Pearson almost laughed him out of camp when he went to hand in a brace anyhow. You at least remember to switch your ammo. 

My point is that we could use you, wherever you are. You’re a rotten friend for leaving like that.

Ghost

—

Dear Marston,

It’s awful tiresome being mad at you. I wish you’d come back so I could stop pretending and everything could go back to normal. 

Jack don’t know any better, little as he is, but Abigail misses you about as much as she curses your name. Dutch and Hosea miss you more, and Arthur does too even if he won’t say it. The worst is people who act like you’re dead, not gone. Almost knocked Bill’s teeth out for that the other night. 

I guess what I’m trying to say is that wherever you are I hope you’re happy, because we sure ain’t. 

Ghost

—

Dear John,

Camp’s on the move again. If you ever bother to come back I’m sure you’ll be able to track us, but I had to say it just in case. Like you’re even reading this letter I can’t send. 

The country out this way is even more beautiful than I dreamed. Growing up in a desert gives you a real appetite for green, and these plains go one forever and ever. We passed a river the other day with grey waters - nothing close to San Luis blue. It made me think of you and drowning. When Javier caught my stare he said he’d take me fishing. Maybe I’ll catch some real bass, not like Arthur’s pretend ones two summers ago. 

Ghost 

—

Dear John,

You’ll like our new camp. Everyone does. Even Trelawny crawled out of whatever fancy-pants hole he’s been in to drop a visit. He has a lead on a big blackjack game two towns over. Dutch wants Arthur to play. These little plains towns are small but there’s real money in some of the landowners.

I’ve got my eye on some nice horseflesh but Dutch wants me playing bodyguard just in case. I told him to send Davey instead and got a lecture on trust and family. He gave me that sad look at the end that always means he’s missing you.

Guess I ought to say I miss you too. 

Ghost

—

Dear John,

Sometimes I feel like I’ll never see you again, and other times it’s like you could walk into camp any second, easy as you like. Sometimes I see you in people we pass on the road, or in towns. Sometimes I feel it in my chest that you’re gone, like I’m missing a piece. 

I hope you’ve been safe, wherever you are. Hell, I even hope you have someone watching your back out there. We both know it should have been me, but it’s a little late for that now. 

I think about what I would have said if you’d asked me to come with you some nights that I can’t sleep. This gang is my family. I know I would have gone with you, but I also know I would have regretted it in the end. Maybe it’s better this way. Sure don’t feel like it. 

Your Ghost

—

Dear John,

I haven’t been fair to Abigail at all. Guess I needed you to leave us both to see that. She’s a hard worker and a natural mother and Jack is lucky to have her. I think you were too. Maybe you still are, if she’ll have you.

I caught Arthur making eyes at her across the fire the other night. If Mary Linton’s hurt weren’t so fresh I think he’d let her make an honest man of him.

I don’t know that anyone can make an honest man of you. 

If you ever come back maybe I’ll try. Or at least we can go on being dishonest together. Best friends, right? Since you left these letters have been my friends, and I have to tell you they’re a sorry replacement. 

Ghost

—

The day of John’s return happens just like you said; easy as you please. He rides in on his chestnut mare, one hand on the reins and the other shading his eyes from harsh midafternoon sun. There’s a guilty look shadowed on his face and the shyest smile you’ve seen on that sharp mouth of his.

You want to kill him. You want to kiss him. You settle for a withering glare he has the good sense to cringe from. 

“Where the hell have you been, asshole?”

“Lot of places,” he says, “but I… finally figured it was time to come home.”

Home. 

He says it while looking right at you. 

You should kill him. You should kiss him. But just like that he’s forgiven.

Dutch makes a speech and the gang welcomes him back each in their own way and you think Hosea even starts to cry. Abigail smacks him the second he gets close enough and then kisses him full on the mouth. John looks stunned, holding his face, and Arthur glares, and you still don’t know what to do with yourself. You just sort of stand there while your world tilts on its axis and watch it spin. 

When the night has finally quieted and everyone else has gone to bed you sit at the fire alone and burn the letters. Ink turns to ash. Every bit of love and longing trapped in those pages goes out into the air, smoke on the wind. 

From that smoke John appears, his eyes full of sorrow and regrets and a heartbreaking hope that has your chest in a vice grip. 

You rise slowly, like he’s some wild animal you might spook. Then before you have a chance to react he closes the distance between you and holds you close enough to hurt. In the crush of his embrace it finally registers that you have your friend back. Your best friend. Your John. 

“I really missed you, you know,” he rasps into the fabric of your shirt. 

“I know,” you say through the tears. “I know.”

“I know,” you sniffle through the tears. “I know.”

[simlicious]

Hi, I’m loving the advent so far! How do you get your patterns to look so natural? Whenever I make patterns I either get these crusty lines at the edges of some channels where one channel bleeds into the other. Or, I get these super sharp unnatural edges on them that never look any good. Teach me your magic please lol.

Thank you so much for the compliment :) I made a fancy tutorial, because more people might be interested in this topic!

There are a few things you can do to solve color bleed and crusty lines while making the Sims 3 patterns. These tips are for Photoshop and the TSR Workshop pattern tool, though they also work for Delphy's pattern tool. The EA CAP tool compresses its image files automatically, so you have no control over it afaik. Save your textures uncompressed! Most of your problem should be solved by saving your images in an uncompressed DDS file format (depending on what DDS plugin you use, it "8.8.8.8 argb 32bpp unsigned" or, in newer versions, "8.8.8.8 bgra 32bpp unsigned". This is an image of the newer dds plugin export dialog with the settings I use:

This reduces blockiness and color bleed significantly! Note: For maximum visual clarity and the sake of our eyes, starting from now, I will show just the contents of the individual color channels of the image, specifically green and blue. If you click on a single color channel in Photoshop, it will be represented in greyscale. My screenshots therefore also represent a single color channel and do not show how the colors interact with each other. I thought it would be distracting and hard to see if I presented everything in color and this tutorial is not about how to build a pattern, but how to get crisp outlines and the best possible quality.

What is the issue with compressed textures? EA's pattern textures are DDS files that use DXT compression (DXT1 for non-alpha/5 for alpha images, BC1/3 in the newer plugin). If you save your image as a compressed DDS file and reopen it, you will notice that certain areas are blocky/blotchy. That is because lightness and color information is not retained for every pixel, but areas get grouped together in a more or less chessboard-like fashion. In this first example, I increased the contrast to make these compression artifacts more visible so you can see what's going on: Notice the grey blocky areas?

These cause color bleed in the final pattern and the textures look blurry or washed out. EA's textures have this issue too, because they use compression. In some patterns, the effect is less noticeable than in others, but compressed files will always have a reduced image quality compared to the original image. Deciding to go with uncompressed textures was essential for me to achieve the quality I offer. I reasoned that the patterns are only 256px in size and the performance impact should not be very noticeable. I once made a survey in which I asked whether my patterns cause performance issues, and most said they did not, so I stuck with it.

You could test it out for yourself and decide! If you want to continue to use compression, make sure to change the quality of the compression algorithm to get the best possible result. In the screenshot I posted at the beginning of the tutorial, you can see that I set it to "highest" instead of the usual default "fastest", though this is not really needed if you save uncompressed files. The old DDS plugin used on older Photoshop versions also has that setting, it is just a bit more obscure. I do not have that anymore so I cannot say where exactly. Is it a bug? Lines all around the edges of some channels could also be a Photoshop bug*. This was a regular occurring bug in older versions (before CC 2020 or so.) The issue was that when you scaled down or sometimes even just saved an image that was not just the background layer but had stuff on other layers, there would be a faint line around the whole image. Suuuper annoying! *clarification: It's not an official bug, but a lot of people get annoyed by it. I still had this happen to me with the current 2023 Photoshop version when using bicubic (sharper) on an image with layers, but I do feel there are less problems with saving layered images now. Idk, this might be "feature quirk" after all... Anyway, to avoid the faint lines around your image, follow these tips: Using the bilinear mode when reducing an image's size helps, as does flattening the image before image reduction or file export. I like to create a copy of the entire document using the shortcuts ctrl+shift+alt+e to make sure it appears flattened without actually flattening everything. You could also paste the flattened copy into a new document, merge it down and export the dds file from there. Just try what works best for you. Retaining maximum quality on resizing Most images need to be resized to the pattern size, or you might have made a larger pattern and want that in smaller sizes. You may never have paid much attention to the settings in that image size dialogue, but it holds some key elements to make sure your pattern comes out in the best way possible! Per default, the resizing mode that is used by Photoshop to make an image smaller is "bicubic (sharper)". This mode has a sharpening algorithm that causes halos if the pixels are not white or black, which can create unwanted effects such as white outlines around grey pixels, or grey ones around black areas. Note: even if you have the "bicubic (automatic)" setting, it will still use the "bicubic (sharper)" if you reduce the image size! Let me show you an example: Below, you can see a comparison of bicubic (sharper) reduction vs bilinear reduction. The channel with the black and white checkers has some greyish edges after using bicubic (sharper), which can cause the texture to become unwantedly transparent in these areas, making the colors become muddled in these areas. Using bilinear or nearest neighbor modes (the latter is great for very geometric, crisp shapes), the result is very clean.

This is why do not recommend to use the bicubic algorithm on your textures. Go for bilinear and nearest neighbor modes, these are perfect for patterns. I do any sharpening of the channels in a more controlled way later.

The best way to sharpen your texture To make the textures look as crisp as possible, you immediately think about the "unsharp mask" feature, right? This might not be your best option though!

If you have a white shape on a black background with a rim of dark grey pixels around it and you want to make it crisp and want that dark grey outline to disappear, unsharp mask will actually do a pretty good job, because it mainly targets those grey pixels and there is nothing to lighten or darken on pure white or pure black. But if you have a lot of grey tones, the algorithm "attacks" a lot in your image, depending on how you set your radius in the options dialogue. Most of the time, the radius is set to a small number, for sharpening details, but it creates a problem for us in the form of halos/bright or dark rims around shapes.

I like to increase the contrast of the individual channels to make the image appear sharper without those halo effects that the "unsharp mask " feature often creates. I love to use the "levels" tool for adjusting the contrast, I use it all the time! I have grey pixels as a starting point and then applied an aggressive "unsharp mask" (strength 100, radius: 1px) to it so you can see the effect. The results are bright halos around the shapes. This will make the edges of the shapes more opaque on the final pattern and can look strange! On very delicate lines, this might be what you want, but for larger areas, this is less desirable.

Sharpening without actually sharpening

Instead of using "unsharp mask", I like to increase the contrast of the individual channels to make the image appear sharper entirely without those halo effects that the "unsharp mask " feature often creates. I love to use the "levels" tool for adjusting the contrast, I use it all the time!

On this layer, I have some intricate shapes, which should appear fully opaque. The are already bright white, but the edges are a bit too soft right now to get a truly crisp result, so I use the "levels" tool to increase the contrast and make the edges crisper. You can also use the curves tool for this, but I find the levels tool a bit more intuitive for this process! The curves tool gives you even more control over pixel values and lets you adjust them individually, which can be great, but for the purpose of creating controlled contrast, the levels tool will suffice.

By moving the marked sliders towards the middle, the contrast is increased. This also works nicely on grey pixels without creating the halo problem.

Another use for the levels tool in this context is to control the thickness of your shapes by moving the middle slider too, like this:

Final words "Levels" is your friend when adjusting contrast and making things sharper. In some cases, "unsharp mask" or other sharpened options can create a desired effect, such as on more realistic textures such as carpet/fabric textures, wood and stone, where you might want these halos to increase the depth of details. There is always a right time to use any tool, so if levels alone do not give the effect you desire, by all means, give "unsharp mask" a go! Experiment, and find the best way for you. The biggest gain in quality will come from saving in an uncompressed format though. Thanks for reading through the tutorial, I hope it was helpful!

[sol-consort]

Hearing you talk about ME3 really solidifies to me that Bioware really just tends to drop the ball when it comes to their 3rd games in terms of writing. It's not like the 3rd games are bad, persay, but they fall flat compared to their predecessors.

For the dragon age games, I've chalked it up to EA meddling and certain writers leaving the games at the time; I wonder if it's the same for ME3? Maybe the crunch time? Bioware really released some games back to back.

The evaporating of morally grey areas really sucks too, I always felt Bioware removed their teeth from their writing in order to appeal to the mass market in later years.

EX: Dragon Age got a whole lot less darker with Inquisition

Damn, now I'm worried about liking Dragon Age too much and getting my heart broken by the sequel games.

The problem is that they take steps back a lot, never commit to something and end up ereasing what they've built. It's like removing the things that made them unique just to follow the current trends of that time, which by now have aged like milk and It just makes me confused on why they flipped a switch so suddenly.

In ME1, it's a military game so you assume they'll portray the military and police as the heros saving the galaxy with no corporation right? Especially with how old the game is.

But they don't, they make you think that they do at the start but then flip a switch and show you the bad things too. How a lot of time the military does more harm than good.

In the ending of the game, they especially resonate that point to you with a big reveal. It builds up perfectly to the second game where you go rogue and help an organisation called cerberus that is independently funded and looks out for the well being for all humans.

They achieve progess because they are devoid of politics, it's mission and straight to action and making the best choice you can for the future of humans. In the first game you've only heard of them and stopped some unethical operations they had around.

They're not like the maifa, they're not in it for the money. But they stay in the grey zone a lot. They kill, they fund unethical experiments and only pull the plug if it becomes too unethical and croses the line into evil.

They saved you and gave you everything in the second game and asked for nothing in return but for you to do your damn job and stop the threat on humanity. Afterwards each of you go your seperate ways when the mission ends.

In the third game, you go back to the alliance and you're framed as a traitor for joining cerberus even tho it was the alliance who refused to take you seriously before.

Even when the threat turned out to be real. And you did publicly save everyone's ass, they're still like "bu buhh but you did it with the baddies!"

The alliance is again framed as the hero, Cerberus gets reduced to evil goons who torture for fun and are all power-hungry and the alliance can do no wrong how dare you question the heros of the army.

It's just.....disappointing. they've taken ten steps back and invalidated both the second and first games.

Also it's glitchy and buggy, it's unfinished. The first two games let you explore new spaces and ships on your own pace, in the third game you're dragged from tutorial to tutorial with a barrage of information.

Progress is less organic, combat is more clunky because they added RE and AC movesets with the rolling, stealth kills and survival priority over combat.

The characters look so ugly- the facial expressions are so weird and your face clips a lot. It's like a rough first animation that needs to be toned down because why am I glaring with spock like eyebrows and why did eyelids clip into my eyes.

There is an annoying vintage filter on the screen, colour is scarce and everything is grey, blue, black and medical white.

The ship is where you spend most of your time when not in missions, it used to be so beautiful and sleek smooth. Stars and futuristic technology. Now it's all gross military base with cables on the ground, dim lighting and empty spaces where decoration used to be. It's greasy at best, who the fuck stole the ceiling boblights I just wanna talk.

This is just sad, I talked so passionately about the first game because I genuinely was impressed. The second game had its flaws, mostly with the story and pacing, but everything else was good! They were turning things around and getting innovative, if you ignore the RE virus slowly spreading.

Now it's like, rather than design a new ship they pissed on the second game's ship and handed it back to you, yellow lights and everything. After robbing it and trashing the place.

I have a theory bc I'm at the start of the game but I might be just coping- what if they ship gets cleaner the more I progress? The construction parts will be gone right? They'll pick up their trash and dirty dishes right? RIGHT? I'M NOT COPING RIGHT?

.

They made companions after mission talks happen without cutscenes and now they're like npcs. Imagine if Lae'zel spoke to you each time you talked to her like the party banter instead of an actual face to face conversation.

Which is so weird because they had the face to face conversation since the first game so why did they remove it???

Resident FUCKING evil does not have it.

It explains the annoyiny cutscenes after cutscene that I can't skip, the bloated dialogue.

They took my eyelashes :(

They took away my ability to speak to people in conversations :(

They took away my clean pristine ship :(

They took away my hero statues and now people in the news hate me :(

They took away my ability to explore freely because the reapers are on my tail 24/7 :(

They took away Ashley :(

But hey. My sniper can shoot three times before reloading now so. There is. That.

Yay.

YET A SINGLE CLIP ONLY HAS 2 BULLETS WHAT WERE YOU THINKING PEOPLE.

Thanks for listening I actually feel better telling someone, I can't wait to play dragonage. Modern game standards I miss you please come back.

[eldridgecandell]

hc + 🔞 for a nsfw-headcanon

@damien-ward

"Oh Tides, yes! Just like tha, don't sto- don stop! Ah!" The guttural yelps of pleasure from a man echoed through the tight alleyway.

Boralus.

A city of as many splendors as it's dark corners and alleyways. From a noble sealord to the slinking blade to the pious priest to the curvaceous lady of the night. Things that would go bump in the night were perfect among the docks with it's shady corners, empty bottles, and concealing streets. Tonight one of these alleys were being enjoyed by a very enthusiastic sailor on dock leave with a very zealous lady.

"Ah, so close!"

There was a soft pop and giggle as a woman's voice broke through the dark as she huskily whispered up. "Are you close?"

"Gods yes, oh Tides. Don't stop don't stop," the sailor pleaded as he groped about. Finally his hand grasped tight to the straw colored hair of the woman on her knees before him, his fingers gripping with the urgency of a man at the end of his rope.

There was a gasp from the woman, followed by another giggle as she continued her ministrations. "Tell me."

"Tell ya?"

There was another giggle and glint of light in the woman's dark green eyes as she looked up at him, her hands doing the work now as she felt his pulse easily. "Tell me."

"I want it."

"Beg."

"Please, let me."

That smile grew wider as she watched him easily fall to her commands, her eyes widening to match her smile. "Beg me."

There was a moment of panic in the sailor's eyes and face as he was caught in a delicate though enjoyable situation. Licking his lips, he let his hands loosen a bit on her hair. "I..."

The eyes closed with the mouth at the same time to resume her former work.

A high wail of pleasure echoed off the wood and cobblestone as the sailors hands returned to the straw haired concubine's head. "Oh Light! Oh yes, please! Let me finish! Don't stop!"

She would not stop, the mixture of her work rapidly bringing their tryst to a close with another wail from the sailor as he curled up to buck and writhe against the wall. Convulsions would soon draw to a close as he rested back against the wall, heavy breath thundering after the lightning strike that was his ecstasy. A garbled laugh following as he reached up to wipe at his face in exhaustion. "Tides girl, ya got mouth worth a fortune."

A strange click sounded following the silence of the sailors laugh.

The sailors gaze would drop down to his waist to compliment his newfound 'friend' on her job tonight, but instead of the straw haired girl he'd met back at the Walrus a different kind of face looked up at him with an eager hunger. Where once smooth pale skin had been, a darkening of blue and grey tinge had taken her as what should be a sexual afterglow was now a darkening thirst that made his insides twist. Features were growing more and more exaggerated as she looked up at him, her smooth hands now rougher with him as they gripped him tighter.

"Ow, yer..yer hurtin me lass! Eas- ease up..." The sailors eyes began to widen as he looked down at the former green eyed girl, those former eyes brightening with a sick yellow glow that matched her former hair. The latter of which was growing scraggly and falling out in clumps. "Oh Tides..Oh Tides! What in the holy hell?!"

That widened grin had now grown blacked sharp teeth, still sloppy and greedy as a tongue to match the color of her teeth lapped at grey lips. "What is wrong my dear lover? Am I not pret-"

There was a flash and rush of thunder before the former grinning face exploded in a horrific explosion of gore and ichor.

Screaming the sailor's first instinct was to grab at his privates and slide down to sit in a heap among the mud. His face pale underneath the oily blood and viscous that splattered him from head to toe, yammering in a stream of curses and babbling madness as he tried desperately to look away from the gurgling mass in front of him. The sailor never even knew there was someone before him.

Lowlight flashed across glass, the short figure in front of him moving deliberate and quick motions with the smoking gun still in his hand. The short man was dressed in dark leathers, all of which bore the brunt of the elements with little regard for wear or tear. A ragged black cloak and mantle draped about his shoulder as he continued to look down on the pair of figures. Finally the sailor spoke.

"What the hell was tha?"

"A hag."

"A what?"

"A witch." There was a soft click as that same lowlight glinted off the metal in his hand, a silver sheen to match the glass on his face.

Shivering and shaking the sailor was quickly going into shock over what had happened, his hands still covering his diminishing privates as he rocked back and forth. "I didn't know, I didn't know, I didn't know!"

The man above him said nothing as he raised the pistol to the sailor.

The barrel of the gun was enough to sober the sailor for a quick moment as he looked up into the mirrored eyes of his once savior. "What do I do now?"

No reply came from Josiah Nubern, only flash and thunder.

[sims3tutorialhub]

Hi🌻I'm currently working on making a custom sculpture, so I made a mesh, and then assigned the bone in Milkshape, and finally I imported it into Tsrw. The original sculpture has the marble texture,so I expected to have the same texture showing on my object. But for some reason, after I imported my mesh, the texture doesn't show at all. Everything just became blurry and grey. I tried to assign other textures to my mesh, but my mesh could only get the color of the texture, like blue or red, but no details on it. I used the mesh exported from other EA object, and they all didn't show the error I made. Could you please point out where did I get wrong? Thank you so much.🌻🌻

Hi!

So many reasons this could be:

You didnt delete the texture in milkshape so the mesh already had a texture

Your UV is so small that the texture is massive

The texture settings are set to massive in TSRW so its too zoomed in

Your mesh may be inside out

There are more but its hard to tell. But you can DM me @gruesim and then we can go through it all!

[scrollsfromarebornrealm]

lock, stock and barrel

He hadn’t been this nervous since he’d started training as a dragoon.  A good part of him wanted to run away, but Estinien firmly squashed that.  Running away was what he’d done in the first place.  He was lucky that Aeryn had been willing to talk, even luckier that she’d given him Riven’s location. 

Riven. 

Whom he’d been avoiding for nearly two years now. The second to last time he’d seen her, had held her--she had been pale and barely breathing.  Coward that he was, he’d fled again, if he’d stayed he’d be dragged under, dragged in, he’d never want to leave.  His mistake.  One of many that he’d made in his past, along with ones in the present.  First among which was pouring out his troubles to Orn Khai.  The dragonet had immediately seen through him and rightfully had called him out on his ‘bullshit’.

His second mistake had been cracking like the proverbial egg and asking the Scions’ receptionist, along with the damned Baldesion woman, about Riven’s location.  ‘Away’, they had said.  ‘What was it to him?’, they had asked.  And then; ‘It’s not as if you would care.’

Which meant they’d found out what happened.  The Echo, no doubt.  And then he’d had to fulfill his contract.  Garlamald had been a welcome distraction.  But it’d been that fucking Garlean who’d forced Estinien to take a harder look at himself.  Afraid to feel.  Afraid to love, because for him it had been taken away.  He’d wrapped himself up in vengeance, anger and war, because they were easier to deal with.  Less complicated than a brown-haired, blue-eyed spitfire of a Hyur who threatened to turn him inside out.  Estinien exhaled, repressing the urge to pace.

Where is she?  The last time he’d seen Riven--it had been when he’d come in to report to those two infernal Lalafells.  And it’d taken all of his self-control to not immediately stride over and snatch her up, because the Riven before his eyes was a pale shadow of the Riven he’d known back in Ala Mhigo.  Even her power was an unsteady hum.  And when she’d looked at him...

Estinien.

Shadows lingered in those blue eyes. Not old, but new.  Echoes from seeing too much pain and suffering.  Even Riven’s body language screamed of pain--she was wary.  Skittish.  The tension in her frame was so tight Estinien thought she would snap.  And when he’d let his gaze linger for too long...she’d recoiled.  It had been a relief to speak of what he’d seen and experienced, though Estinien suspected Riven’s Echo vision had made her physical situation worse.  Everything in him had wanted to stay, to corner her and count her hurts.  Then find the ones who had inflicted such harm and rend them from limb to limb.

But he’d run away.  Again.

No more running.  He’d promised himself that.  He was going to stay.  He and Riven would...talk.  They’d talk.  And he’d do whatever he’d have to do to win her back.

“Oy!”  The sound of the front door opening jolted Estinien out of his thoughts.  Turning around, he spotted a head of auburn hair and white armor.  Unaware that he had been noticed, Reinhardt dropped several bags to the floor.

“Fuck me, why does Mathye have so much shit?”

“He lost his mind at being able to basically have an infirmary that he’s in charge of.  Somewhat.  If you break his stuff I’m not saving you from him.”  Augustine replied from right behind the dragoon.  Reinhardt huffed, theatrically drooping over.

“Don’t know why we couldn’t have gotten Sebastian to play pack-chocobo, he still needs the workout.”

“He’s not the one still burning dragonfire out of his system.”  Augustine replied, poking the dragoon with a booted foot.  “Come on.  Let’s get this in the room, and then we’ll grab something to ea...”  The paladin trailed off.  Reinhardt blinked.

“What’s...”  He turned around.  Dragonfire blue eyes met Estinien’s storm-grey ones.

“Ser?”  Estinien opened his mouth-then closed it.  He had to say something.

“Sauveterre.”  He said.  “And...”  Truehart, his brain supplied.  That had been Mathye’s brother’s paladin title, right?

“Augustine.”  The paladin said.  Before Estinien could speak again, the door opened. 

“Stop giving me bullshit Sebastian, I see you limping.  I’m looking at that hip!”

“I’m fine!”

“He’s not fine.”  Estinien felt himself freeze at Riven’s voice.  “Rostik really didn’t hold back on him.”

“I just need a hot soak.”  Sebastian grumbled. 

“I’m fucking looking at that hip, Sebastian, whether you like it or...”  Now Mathye trailed off, catching sight of Estinien.

“Wyrmblood?”  Both Riven and Sebastian started, following Mathye’s gaze.  Now Estinien found himself targeted by five pairs of eyes, but his attention was only fixed on one.  Riven stared back at him.

“Estinien.”  Her voice was raspy.  “What...what are you doing here?”  Estinien found himself at a loss for words.

“I...” 

“What the fuck are you doing here?”  The snarl that came from Reinhardt was vicious--and filled with malice.  Estinien’s attention turned to the younger dragoon. 

“I...”  He repeated.  Then a squeak of alarm came from Riven as Mathye reached out and firmly grabbed the back of her clothing. 

“What the-?!”

“What’s your business, Wyrmblood?”  The healer asked, a draconic growl in his voice as he gently pulled Riven back and behind him.

“Mathye!”  Riven protested.  Estinien felt his hackles rise.  His own dragon was rising, recognizing the threat display in front of him.  Reinhardt was seething, his eyes glittering in wrath.  Mathye was smiling, but his teeth were bared--and Estinien could all but see Hrist coiled around his neck, fins up and flaring like a Far Eastern snake.

“My business is my own, Bishop.”

“Oh, I don’t think so.”  Mathye retorted, a dark gleam in his eyes.

“Your business wouldn’t happen to involve Riven, would it?”  Augustine chimed in.  He shifted his weight-and Estinien immediately noticed the sword that was parked at his left hip. 

“Stop it!”  Riven protested from behind the healer.

“Well?”  Sebastian prompted.  Estinien shot the brunette a glare-and then did a double take.  The last time he’d seen the other man, he’d been wearing mage-robes and wielded a staff.  But now...

What the fuck?  Sebastian was wearing armor similar to Thancred’s, and he’d somehow put on muscle.  And unless Estinien missed his guess, the hilt that he spotted over Sebastian’s right shoulder was attached to a rather large (and sharp) gunblade.

When in the hells did he fucking muscle up?!

“Stop it!”  Mathye grunted as Riven shoved him as hard as she could from behind.  “You guys--just stop, okay!”

“Riven-”  Both Augustine and Sebastian started.

“Can I get some privacy with Estinien?!  Just...”  Riven wriggled around the wall of muscle that was Mathye and darted away from Reinhardt.  “Just...go over there!  All of you!”

“Riven-”

“Riv--”

“Go!”  And with that, Riven turned around to face Estinien.  Squaring her shoulders, she stepped forward.

“You...wanted to see me?”

------------

(briefly featuring @autumnslance​ ‘s Aeryn Strider)

[thegrapeandthefig]

Silly ask tag/ask game.

Thanks for the tag @verdantlyviolet

1: Are you named after anyone? No. Unless you consider theophoric names into the mix.

2: When was the last time you cried? Probably 2 weeks ago while my hormones were all over the place.

3: Do you have kids? I have a daughter, she's got black fur, pointy ears, little toebeans and she occasionally meows.

4: What sports do you play/have played? Every sport I have played has been against my will.

5: Do you use sarcasm? Do I seem like someone who would?

6: What's the first thing you notice about people? Their mannerisms and overall body language.

7: What's your eye color? I call it "Swamp". They appear dark green but it's really a muted greyish blue with orangey-brown around the iris.

8: Scary movies or happy endings? Ehhhh. Neither. And why not both? I guess a scary movie with a happy ending is more or less a thriller.

9: Any talents? I can draw decently when I actually allocate time for it.

10: Where were you born? In Armorica occidentali, in ea quae olim fuit territorium Osismorum.

11: What are your hobbies? cf. question 9. I also do cross-stitch and embroidery from time to time. I guess technically tending to this blog and spending hours upon hours reading pdfs is technically a hobby as well. It's in this grey area of "this is not my job anymore but I can't stop".

12: Do you have any pets? I already told you I have a kid.

13: How tall are you? 5’

14: Favorite subject in school? Difficult question, since it really depended on the teacher's ability to be entertaining and I would cherry pick topics I liked for each subject. English (ESL), Italian, Philosophy, Literature and History/Geography ended up being my best scores when I graduated from High School, in that order.

15: Dream job? Honestly I'd probably choose historical reasearch again. It's probably where I'd be if the job actually paid and if unis treated their researchers better. I'm sick of seeing brilliant people at the top of their field talk about how the system grinds them so much they can't actually spend precious time on their research.

Most of the people I know have already been tagged, so if you're reading this; consider yourself tagged.