#smaas

[pforestsims]

[viperstrikes]

SEND ME AN ANGEL (JJ Maybank)

➠ Pairing: JJ Maybank x Reader ➠ Genre: Angst, with a lil fluff ➠ Type: Series ➠ Trope: Soulmates ➠ Word count: 1,606 ➠ Warnings: abuse/mentions of abuse, trauma, swearing?, alcohol use, JJs (dickhead of a) father ➠ Summary: Soulmate trope where the bruises you get on your body matches your soulmates. If you get hurt, your soulmate will also get the bruise, and vice versa. ➠ Author Notes: I haven’t posted in a minute (like 6 years lololol) but let me know if y’all want a second part to this!

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It’s all so surreal, the way you find out who your soulmate is.

It happens in some sweaty, alcohol-stenched house in Pogues territory, a place you’ve called home for almost two years. You remember the music creating a rhythm in your bones, a sort of cloud fogging over your brain from how much of whatever the hell was in that punchbowl you had already downed. You came here with your friend Alice, and you were both on the dance floor having the time of your life.

You thought you guys looked stupid, but it still didn’t stop you.

Until, well...something else did.

It hits you sharply, the feeling sprouting from your lower abdomen so strongly that you stumble forward a little.

“Jesus,” Your hands dart to where you feel the bruise forming. “Not again.”

You knew what was happening, though, hell, given your soulmates track record, it was far from your first rodeo.

The first time you had ever received a bruise on your body—one that you knew wasn't caused by your childish antics—you were seven.

It happened suddenly, a powerful jolt shifting in your bones and the overwhelming sensation of something not being right following quickly after. It didn’t hurt—it was far from pain—but somehow, you knew in that moment that you’d rather experience pain a million times over than have to undergo the dull and almost numb feeling that made you feel so empty that you wanted to cry.

You ran to your mother, a blubbering mess while you rubbed at the bruise on your arm with an incoherent string of words tumbling out of your mouth. She had explained it to you then; opened you up into a world where soulmates existed. Where the bruises that seemingly appeared out of nowhere had meant that there was someone who was meant for you. Where the person you were bound to collide with was your other half. Your missing piece.

And you hated it.

But it wasn't the idea of soulmates that you hated. You didn’t mind having comfort in knowing that someone out there had the same fate string as yours.

Your issue was that your soulmate seemed to be a careless, chaotic idiot. Most people are careful, most people know that the second they get a bruise that their soulmate will sport a matching one, but your other half seems to be completely insensitive.

Even now, as you stand in the middle of a crowd but somehow feel more lonely than ever, that much is apparent.

You don’t feel like dancing anymore, and so you hurriedly break off from Alice - she doesn’t seem to notice, which, thank God - to get some space.

You trek up the stairs - pushing past a couple who’re sucking face, and pull open the first door you see, the world sounding like a murmur behind the door when you close it.

But then,

“Whoa, you ever heard of knocking?” The voice is only a sliver of familiar, if anything, but it’s enough to get you to turn around to see that you’ve taken refuge in a bathroom, and that JJ Maybank, of all people, is shirtless and staring at you through the mirror in front of him with an incredulous expression crossing his features.

“Oh.” You still, taking note of the blood in the sink and his shaky hands, but not staring for longer than you should.

The last and only time you spoke to the guy was a few months after you moved here last year, where you quickly realized how awfully smart mouthed he was. From what you heard, he got into trouble, was a bit rowdy, and has broken one too many hearts, but he’s somehow completely private about his personal life; keeps to himself a lot and really only socializes with the only three friends he seems to have.

“Yeah, oh, sweetheart,” JJ breaks eye contact with you and tenses his jaw, grabbing the rag on the side of the sink and dabbing it around his lower abdomen.

It’s then that you notice the bruise blooming on the surface of his skin; a bruise formed in the same place you’re feeling completely hollow in on your own body. You think it’s a coincidence, but when you see another fading bruise on JJ’s wrist - one you woke up to last week - your breath hitches a bit.

You expect the realization to hit you in some sort of way, get you excited or tingly or warm or even nervous. Something, anything. But JJ looks too angry and was obviously hurt, notably enough that the only thing you can wonder isn’t if JJ is your soulmate - the soulmate you’ve been waiting for - but rather why the pain you feel from the bruise suddenly hurts twice as bad.

You quickly look away, and you decide that it’s to let JJ hesitantly continue inspecting the wound - something that makes him hiss and wince and swear.

Definitely not because of the real possibility that you and JJ could be...

“I’m...so sorry, I didn’t know anyone was in here-” You tried again, but JJ pointedly cuts you off.

“Well someone is in here,” He's irritated. And a bit drunk, you note. But there’s something a bit off about the expression he wears on his face. Like he’s...weary. 

You don’t blame him.

“Right,” You say, but there’s a foreign feeling pooling in your stomach and you find yourself stepping forward. JJ pauses then, eyeing you like you’d just done something stupid, a bit of drunken scrutiny laced in his eyes.

You ignore it. “I could help. Y’know, with...” You gesture towards his chest, “My moms a nurse so I know a few things.” 

JJ doesn’t miss a beat to turn around and face you, silent but still wincing from the pain. The bruise looks worse in that light, like it stings and itches, but JJ doesn’t look phased about it at all. He just looks at you through a stoic-faced expression, jaw tightened - but, he nods, eventually. And you’re honestly really… surprised at that.

It takes you a few minutes, but you eventually get his wound cleaned and bandaged up, trying desperately to hide any sort of panic or discomfort that starts to grow alongside the bruise on your own skin. It feels the same as it always does, but different. Somehow.

Maybe it’s because you know who it belongs to this time. And that knowledge comes bottled with way too many questions that you don’t think JJ can handle at the moment. He looks too lost; somewhere deep diving into the pits of his mind, body slumped against the bathroom counter as he begins to pull his t-shirt back on.

The last thing you need to do is psych him out with the truth of knowing that you’re it. “The One”. Someone the universe had picked out for him.

“So, what was so urgent that you didn’t stop to check if the bathroom was occupied before going into it?” JJ  breaks the silence, but there’s no malice to his words. Just a bit of amusement and a lot of curiosity.

“I-uh…” You don’t know what to say, or how to say it, really. JJ looks too tired and you don’t want to blurt out that you think you’re his soulmate - and even worse, that you’re fucking scared of the odds because it’s JJ Maybank. He has a rep with girls, and he doesn’t seem serious about...well, anything.

Except for maybe whatever had given him that bruise and gotten him looking pale and dim-eyed at this stupid, stupid party.

“Just needed to get away from everyone for a bit,” You give him a small smile, hoping it’s enough. And apparently, it is. At-least judging by the way he relaxes a bit, like he’s not on edge anymore.

“Yeah, these things suck ass sometimes,” He pulls something from his pocket and - oh. Blunt and lighter. “Don’t blame you at all. Shits stuffy,” He takes a few puffs after lighting it, lolling his head back before outstretching his hand and offering you some.

You blink, almost denying it before you figure that it could help you ease up; especially with you still trying to hold down the urge to cry because of how bad the bruise has made you feel this time around.

You wonder briefly if he feels it too, underneath the actual pain of it all.

“You gonna be okay?” You ask quietly, handing the joint back to him.

There’s genuine surprise in his face when you say that, and you pretend that you don’t notice the curious gaze he gives you - like there’s something about you he can’t quite pinpoint.

And - yeah. If only he knew.

“I’ll be fine. Always am.” He reassures, jaw a little slack, and then adds on hesitantly: “Thanks for the help, and for not asking questions or freaking out.”

“Course,” You nod like it’s that simple. Like you two have known each other for years and this was a common occurrence. Like there was nothing strange about sitting in a bathroom with JJ Maybank and getting high. “It was my fault for barging in, but I won’t tell anyone. Promise,” You hold your pinky finger in the air, and JJ raises a brow at you.

He seems to be pondering over something, but he decidedly reaches forward to lock his pinky with yours. He’s warm, and now that your thoughts have died down a little, you notice in this proximity that he smells a lot like a bonfire.

“Guess it’s a promise, then.”

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[pictureamoebae]

Anon with windows 11 here! Thank you for answering my question!! So the crashing happens when I try to use a preset from other creators in the game and when I enable certain shaders (like SMAA). Loading reshade itself doesn’t crash the game. This is my first time using windows 11 because I wanted more space for my mods.

Hey anon,

idk if you're the person who came into my discord last night about this, but if not they found a possible reason why smaa is crashing for some people. Apparently their graphics card uses an Intel driver, and that driver converts the dx9 api of TS4 into dx12, which for some reason causes smaa to crash.

The answer is to either switch to using fxaa instead (and remove smaa from your shaders folder so it can't accidentally get enabled if you try a new preset), or you can try wrapping the ReShade api with DXVK, which essentially turns the dx9 api into Vulkan instead.

The first option is the easiest, and tbh I think fxaa looks better in TS4 than smaa anyway so you're not losing out there.

The second option is a bit more involved, but it does come with the added bonus that you'll also be able to use some of the other shaders that don't work in dx9 games.

[aaronymous999]

The headshot is SO ugly decided I can only ever draw MJ portraits and everyone else will just be undetailed full bodies xoxo

[lelianaslefthand]

fighting the urge to ask everyone what their specs and settings are for bg3 bc everyone's screenshots look so much better than mine

[jsvjbmh]

Supernatural Movie Actor App

Feel like that this novel is going to be a rollercoaster of something :'). The story is about Xie Chi (if not mistaken), and Xie Chie has a secondary personality called Xie Xinglan (again, if I'm not mistaken). The MC participate in a Unlimited Flow thing to gain a body for his secondary personality. Did I mention they are boyfriends? Well, now I did.

Don't think they need to figure out taboos that they need to avoid... They enter a movie that is watched by ghosts(?) (Not really a spoiler, you get to know that in the first movie, btw I'm at chapter 35). They have a phone which has the app on it. The app tells them what their objective is and gives them rules they can't break.

So far, I am liking it. Sometimes it just feels a little bit weird how Mc is having a horny talked in his head. But it is funny to see the reactions from the audience and the movies are kinda interesting so far. The first movie was about a company who was involved in raising/making a Gu for her own benefits and the 2nd movie (which I'm currently reading) is about zombies. I believe these zombies are the jumping one. I believe those are also called Jiangshi. They seem fun, don't wanna meet one tho. Anyways, a woman wants to make a living zombie to transplant the soul of her belated husband. But the body she wants to use might be the late husband of a foxspirit :')... Also stuff happend, so I think MC needs that body to make his living zombie for someone :'D. Guess I have to keep reading to see how that's going to play out ^^

[aaronymous999]

I will spare you as long as Spider-Man movies keep releasing 🤞 ( The only benefit of capitalism )

fuck looks. relationships NEED to based on your ability to be SILLY TOGETHER!!!!!! you better be laughing together or ELSE

[whileiamdying]

Hasna El-Becharia, le blues du désert

En concert à Paris, l'Algérienne se saisit du "guembri" et de la guitare électrique 

Par Patrick Labesse Publié le 30 janvier 2010 à 14h27, modifié le 30 janvier 2010 à 14h27  

Assise en tailleur sur une estrade du Café de la danse, à Paris, une femme joue du guembri. L'image est rare. Le luth aux notes sombres des Gnaouas, descendants d'esclaves noirs du Maroc, dont la musique de transe a conquis des musiciens occidentaux, reste quasiment l'apanage des hommes.

Le guembri, qui est la clé pour accéder aux esprits, est utilisé par le maâlem (le maître-musicien) au cours de rituels de possession et de guérison. Mais l'instrument s'arrange aussi de contextes moins spirituels, notamment depuis que les Gnaouas sont devenus les stars d'un festival qui porte leur nom à Essaouira, ville portuaire de la côte Atlantique du Maroc.

Née en 1950, à Béchar (ex-Colomb-Béchar), cité coloniale du Sahara algérien très proche de la frontière marocaine, Hasna El-Becharia est la fille d'un maâlem originaire du Maroc. Le 28 janvier, elle présentait Smaa Smaa, son nouvel album, à un public partagé entre amateurs de musiques du monde et membres de la communauté maghrébine, retenus chez eux ce soir-là par le match de foot Algérie-Egypte (demi-finale de la Coupe d'Afrique des nations).

Hasna El-Becharia chante d'une voix grave, un blues âpre, minimaliste et envoûtant. Elle loue le Prophète, dit sa foi et célèbre l'amour. Rejointe par ses musiciens et sa choriste, la chanteuse Souad Asla - qui s'apprête elle-même à publier son propre album -, elle troque provisoirement son luth contre une guitare électrique. L'instrument a fait sa réputation et lui valut un surnom, "la Rockeuse du désert", lors de sa première apparition publique à Paris, en 1999, au festival Femmes d'Algérie, cinq nuits d'un destin, au Cabaret sauvage, où avait été également découverte sa compatriote Souad Massi.

Hasna El-Becharia a du tempérament. Pendant les années noires, en Algérie, elle sortait le soir, malgré le couvre-feu, et recueillait chez elle des femmes répudiées par leur mari. La dame s'est mise à la guitare électrique vers 20 ans. Elle en avait marre qu'on ne l'entende pas lorsqu'elle jouait du luth oriental (oud) dans les mariages. Elle lui préfère désormais le guembri qui met magnifiquement en valeur sa singularité vocale, tout en gardant un soupçon de rock'n'roll dans l'attitude. Des arrangements conçus par le Capverdien Teofilo Chantre apportent une touche originale à l'album, mais disparaissent en scène. Nulle trace de clarinette ni de violon. L'énergie et les rythmes de transe qu'elle porte en elle suffisent à Hasna El-Becharia, femme libre au regard tendre.

[teknodiot]

Anti-Aliasing Nedir?

[erasabledinosaur]

INNERGLOW Reshade Presets for Sims 3

A mini set of sims 3 reshade presets with glow, warmth and bloom.

You can see before and afters + gameplay here!

VERY IMPORTANT: to get the most from this one you MUST follow this guide by pictureamobae.

hot keys: F9 - Quint adof

F8 - Cinematic DOF

F7- BloomAndLensFlare

F6- AmbientLight (or prod80_03_Shadows_Midtones_Highlights)

Note: these presets were made with reshade 6.2.0

these were created in windowed mode sims 3 fullscreen mode has a brightening mode/overlay so results may vary when using reshade and/or taking screenshots.

uses shaders: SMAA, MXAO, ADOF, Cinematic DOF, GAUSSIAN, Clarity, prod80_03_Shadows_Midtones_Highlights, AmbientLight, BloomAndLensFlare, AND Deband (not quint deband)

DOWNLOAD

[dragongirldeity]

this shit pisses me off quite badly since i _am_ a person who needs those 60 frames. i get eyestrain migraines pretty fiercely, and like.... stuttery 3d games just really exacerbates them? i don't really know how else to really explain it, but the smoother the image, the easier it is for my eyes to focus and not strain themselves

outer wilds was especially bad about this on performance, and it turns out that it also had the second bonus factor of "always-on chromatic aberrations" as a stylistic fx choice, which makes the eyestrain even worse (which i was able to ini edit away, at least, but i basically didn't play the game until i found that out, fixed it, and then could play the game for more than 30 minutes without my brain exploding)

zero hope

[shellseaisms]

junesea reshade preset.

I messed around with my reshade preset a few months ago and people have been asking for it, so here's my very creatively named 'junesea' preset (it's june + sea from shellsea).

this is really not that different from the last preset I shared and it's been so long since I threw this together that I've kind of forgotten what I even messed around with, but others noticed the change and want it so here you go. hopefully the screenshots give you a decent enough idea of the vibe of this preset!

this preset was made with the fresh cut day lighting mod installed - it will look a bit different if you use a different lighting mod.

shaders used (included in .zip file):

smaa, depth cues, luttools, tonemap, clarity, vibrace, levels, fxaa, adaptivesharpen.

optional shaders (hotkeys to toggle, also included in .zip file):

qUINT_mxao: F11, cinematicDOF: F8.

please make sure to put both folders into your game bin (where reshade is installed) - it especially needs the texture (LUT) provided or you'll have a black screen in game!

‣ ‎ ‎download (.zip)

[pictureamoebae]

Hi Amoebae! I followed your posts to install previous version of Reshade for The Sims 4. Thank you! I also followed another post of yours regarding SMAA and FXAA settings. It seems my game still has anti-aliasing issues especially when the scene transits from one to another, so I hope to get some advice from you because you are a pro. I can send screenshots of my NVIDIA and Reshade settings. Please let me know if you are ok with this. Thank you in advance!

Hi there!

Unfortunately SMAA and FXAA aren't perfect and don't manage to catch everything, especially at 1080p or below. I play at 1440p and it's mostly okay, but what has the biggest impact is taking screenshots at an even higher resolution using SRWE -- that pretty much gets rid of it all (except for the aliasing on door and window shadows, which drives me round the bend).

The thing that has the most impact in SMAA and FXAA settings is the threshold. I don't use FXAA, but for SMAA you want it to be as low as possible so it catches as much as it can. Corner rounding affects text a little too much so I keep that low. Then the two settings for edges I ramp up nice and high.

[aaronymous999]

Also now realizing I am being much more lax about spoilers than intended by shitposting Spider-Man: Aaron Allan lore and dilemmas. Erm. Whoopsie.

I’ll will try to keep character deaths a secret and stuff because that’s the big stuff. Kinda hard to keep spoilers in when it’s Spider-Man though like woahhh this guy named Eddie Brock is here I wonder what’s gonna happen to him? Couldn’t be becoming Venom, or anything. /sar

[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.

[malixacc]

i made this preset awhile back when i first switched to gshade, and i’m finally releasing it to the public! it’s called rose milk tea

♡ important info ♡

highly recommend downloading these lighting mods so the preset looks exactly the same as the pictures: x x x

make sure to turn off edge smoothing so mxao & dof work properly

if you want smoother gameplay, turn off mxao & dof

i set toggles for mxao & dof so you can turn them on/off easily

effects used & download link under the cut

♡ effects used ♡

MXAO (ctrl + 4)

FilmicPass

Sepia

Tonemap

GaussianBlur

AdaptiveSharpen

Levels

DPX

MagicBloom

Vibrance

SMAA

FXAA

Technicolor2

ADOF (shift + 4)

♡ download (sfs) ♡