#the results section won't take long to write at all either once i have all the results. i just need to do some R stuff

[iamfuckingsorry]

status update: 15 days until the final draft of my thesis is due to be submitted to my supervisor.

22 days until my committee is getting it.

How much of my thesis is written you ask? About 1/2 of the methods section, by far the easiest section to write. I haven't even finished analysing my results yet.

And I'm working 3 days this week so can't even really spend the weekend catching up :)))

[jinxxsims]

So... you've gotten down the basics for converting objects from Sims 4 to Sims 2 and now you're ready for something just a little more complicated. If that tiny, little complication is called glass, this tutorial is for you.

Full disclosure once more. I am not an expert in... well... anything. I can convert items with glass, however. This is how I do it. There are probably better, more technical ways to do it, but I don't claim to know them. I am all about the best possible result for the least amount of effort. That's what I'll be teaching here. If that's what you're looking for too... Keep reading! Also, bonus end table download at the end!

For the purposes of this tutorial, I'm going to be converting the "Attention-Worthy End Table" from Growing Together. This tutorial is going to assume you have the necessary programs for converting (Sims 4 Studio, Blender, Milkshape, and SimPE), that you have a rough idea how to use them, and that you already know the basics of extracting a mesh and textures from Sims 4 Studio.

Step One - Separate the mesh and the Glass in Blender.

By playing with the eyeball next to each of the s4studio_mesh_#'s, we know what each of the layers is responsible for. I'm going to go ahead and discard the shadow layer so I'm left with the two parts of my mesh.

Like so. Now we need to isolate and extract the metal part of the mesh and the glass part of the mesh. To do this, I'm going to start by deleting the metal part of the mesh (s4studio_mesh_1), which leaves me with:

Export the glass portion of the mesh by going to File > Export > Wavefront (.obj).

Remember to uncheck "Write Materials" then change the filename to "glass" and hit Export OBJ. Once the object has been exported, it will take you back to the screen with the lonely glass layer.

Press Ctrl-Z. This will undo the deletion of the metal layer. This time, delete the glass layer of the mesh (s4studio_mesh_2). You'll be left with just the metal portion of the mesh.

Go to File > Export > Wavefront (.obj).

If you unchecked "Write Materials" with the glass, you won't need to uncheck it again. Just adjust the save name to "metal" this time, and hit Export OBJ.

Do not just hide the layers. You must delete them each individually just like this. If you hide a layer and export it, the resulting .obj file will not recognize that a layer is hidden and just treat it as a fused object, with glass and metal all as one. You'd either have to start over in Blender and separate the mesh out like this anyway, or try to separate it in Milkshape, and speaking as someone who has done that before I knew any better, it's a lot of pointless and unnecessary work that goes wrong more often than it goes right. So long as you do it as laid out above, you won't have a problem.

At this point, you can close Blender and delete the blender file that Sims 4 Studio created.

Step Two - Launch SimPE and clone an endtable.

At this point in time, you have two options. You can choose to clone an endtable that already has a glass part to it (like the Gliteri & Co. Trieste End Table from the Base Game, for example) or you can clone an endtable that does not.

Cloning an object with a glass part to it already will mean there's less to adjust in SimPE. There's already going to be a "glass" layer in your GMDC, SHPE, TXMT, and MMAT, so all you're going to have to do is replace the preexisting glass with your new one after you've taken it to through Milkshape.

The downside to this method is not everything you could be converting has a Sims 2 equivalent with a glass section to it. Or it might not have a base game equivalent, if you care about making your conversions base game compatible.

So, for the purposes of this tutorial, I'm not going to clone the Gliteri & Co. Trieste End Table, so I can teach you how to add a glass section when none exists to begin with.

I'm going to clone the "Curvaceous Colonial End Table," because why the heck not? This is a one-subset end table from the base game.

After I've cloned the end table and let it load, I'm going to do all the stuff I'd normally do for any other object. Give it a new, unique GUID. Adjust the category placement if I need to. Quartertile enable if I want to. Then, I'll replace the old texture with my Sims 4 texture. If you have a question about any of this, you can find the detailed instructions in my previous tutorial.

Step Three - Extract the old mesh for Milkshape.

Highlight Geometric Data Container (GMDC) in the Resource Tree, click on the name in the Resource List, and make sure the box next to your mesh is checked. Click export. I don't rename this mesh, but you can give it a name like "old mesh" or something similar if it helps you keep track of what is what.

Do not check the boxes next to any shadows. When loaded in Milkshape, they just come up as a bunch of large, unnecessary squares surrounding your object that are going to get in the way or end up being deleted anyway.

While I'm on it, you can delete shadows from an object permanently by going into the "Groups" tab on this window.

Once on the "Group" tab, highlight the shadow you want to delete, click delete, then click commit. You can also remove them from the SHPE, TXMT, and TXTR (it will reduce file size very, very, very slightly if you do so), but so long as you remove them from the GMDC, there will be no shadow in game.

I don't play with shadows on personally, so I'm never very concerned about keeping them when they don't already match the object I'm converting. My advice on this and any other Sims 2 topic is always going to be: DO WHAT IS BEST FOR YOU AND YOUR GAMEPLAY.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming....

Step Four - Import the Meshes into Milkshape.

I always start with the mesh I'm replacing. Go to File > Import > Wavefront OBJ... and select your mesh you just exported in SimPE.

If we click on the "Groups" tab, we see this mesh has a name of "table."

Now, go to File > Import > Wavefront OBJ... and select your "metal" mesh you exported from blender.

In the "Groups" tab, it's going to be given an automatic name of "default." In any two-part mesh like a mesh with a glass part, we need to change the name to anything other than default before loading the next part of mesh. If you don't, when you import the glass, it too will be named "default," and Milkshape will kind of fuse them back together because they both have the same name.

Highlight "default" under the Groups tab. Down under the Group panel, type a new name for "default" next to the button that says "Rename." In this instance, I've named this part of the mesh "metal." Once you've given it a new name, click on Rename. That will officially rename that part of the mesh.

Now we can add the glass part of the mesh. Go to File > Import > Wavefront OBJ... and select the "glass" portion of your mesh.

Just as you did for the metal portion, go ahead and rename the glass portion "glass." It'll make it easier to keep track of all the different parts going on right now.

Once you have the three different meshes all labeled differently, go to Face > Smooth All.

Step Five - Line Up the Meshes

While still in the "Groups" tab, in the list of each layer at the top, highlight "metal" and choose Select.

Once you've Selected the metal part, highlight "glass" and choose Select.

As you can now see, the Sims 4 mesh is all-around smaller than the Sims 2 mesh. For objects to be placed properly on the end table and not be floating oddly above it, we need the tops of the tables to be even. We can make this happen by changing the size of the Sims 4 table.

Highlight the "Model" tab and choose "Scale."

A panel will open at the bottom of the Model window with options for changing the scale of your selection (with the selection being the red parts highlighted). X will impact the mesh's width (side to side), Y will impact the mesh's height (up and down), and Z will impact the mesh's depth (front to back). Whenever possible, it's best to increase or decrease the scale evenly across all three to maintain original proportions, but it's also not strictly necessary. Again, do what looks best to you.

Whether I'm increasing or decreasing the scale, I usually set it to 1.01. It makes for a very gradual increase, but there's less of a chance of overshooting my mark and then having to decrease the size. Once you've entered your numbers for the X, Y, and Z, click the Scale button beside them to watch the mesh get bigger (or smaller, if your values are less than 1) until you have it the size you want.

For me, my 1.01, and this end table, eight clicks of the Scale button was perfect.

Highlight "Move," then click and drag your Sims 4 mesh up so the tops and bottoms of both end table align.

Step Six - Export your mesh parts.

Go back over to the "Groups" tab. Highlight "table" in the list and choose "Delete." Now you should only have "metal" and "glass" in the list. Go to File > Export > Wavefront OBJ... And save a file. I name this combined file "mesh," but you can call it whatever you want or override one of your previous files.

You can now close Milkshape.

Step Seven - Import your mesh to SimPE.

On the Mesh Group Importer window, both the glass and metal parts need to be accounted for. The "glass" layer is going to be a new layer, so we're going to leave the "Action" on "Add." Do not click OK yet.

Highlight "metal." Change the Action to "Replace." When the new drop-down menu pops up, choose "table."

Click OK.

When it goes back to the GMDC's Generic Rcol Editor, click "Commit."

Step Eight - Add the new mesh part to the SHPE.

Highlight Shape (SHPE) in the Resource Tree. Highlight the name of your SHPE file under the resource list. Highlight "table" in the window that appears and choose "add."

This is going to create a duplicate "table" in the list. Highlight one, and change both the Subset Name and the bit at the end of the Material Definition File following the ]_ to glass. Then click Commit.

Step Nine - Save your file, then close it.

Step Ten - Find the glass you want for your glass element.

In the Sims 2, glass is seldom actually an image/TXTR file. Instead, it's a series of numbers and commas and settings and just general weirdness in a TXMT file. It's not really something that's recolored (hence why we don't need it to be its own subset most of the time), but there are different "shades" (for lack of a better word) of it out there.

You're probably most familiar with it when it comes to the windows in the game. Some windows have like a blue glass tint. Others are more gray. Some have kind of a shiny effect while others are flat. Chances are there is a glass you especially like and that you have in mind for your project.

If it's a specific Maxis glass, go back to the Object Workshop in SimPE and make a clone of the object that has the glass you want. You don't need to give it a new name or description, nor a genuine save name, you just need the file to load. If you like a glass from a piece of CC, just open that file in SimPE.

For the purposes of this tutorial, I'm going to use my own conversion of the Oh-So-Fine China Hutch from Discover University (it can be found here).

Once I load the file in SimPE, under the Resource Tree, I'm going to choose Material Definition (TXMT). Then I'm going to highlight the "glass" file in the list. Right-click and choose "Extract" and "Save."

And now you can go ahead and close out of (or delete if you made a Maxis clone) that file.

Step Eleven - Add the TXMT to your file.

Open your conversion file again.

Choose Material Definition (TXMT) under the resource tree, then in the ResourceList panel, right-click on an empty space and choose Add.

Select the file you just extracted. It will likely have a weird name consisting of a bunch of numbers and a few letters thrown in. Choose open.

Once it's loaded in the panel, click on and highlight any of the other lines of the TXMT. Once they've loaded in the Plugin View, highlight and copy (Ctrl-C) the first part of its filename.

Highlight the "glass" TXMT that you just added. Paste (Ctrl-V) the name you just copied in front of the _glass_txmt.

Click Commit.

IMPORTANT NOTE - If the glass TXMT that you extracted does not have an ending of _glass_txmt, change it as well to _glass_txmt. If you don't want to change it to _glass_txmt and would rather leave it as-is, you need to go back to the SHPE file and alter the glass layer to point to whatever you have it named.

STEP TWELVE - Fix Integrity. I cannot emphasize this enough. FIX INTEGRITY. Tools > Object Tools > Fix Integrity.

Save your file. And you're done.

At this point, you can make your recolors or load up your game and check out the finished product.

A Few Notes - If you cloned an item that already has a glass part, basically once you finish the Milkshape part, when importing your mesh to SimPE, Replace both the mesh part and the glass part with the glass portion of the mesh, and you're done. Fix integrity, save, and you're good to go. You don't need to adjust anything in the SHPE or TXMT.

If you're converting an object that has a custom glass with an image (I converted a coffee table from High School Years that had a rainbow-y, actual-image glass), when importing it, use DXT5Format for the best results. Also, make sure the TXMT file has the stdMatAlphaBlendMode set to "blend" instead of "none."

BONUS - Download the Attention-Worthy End Table

[abschaumno1]

I'm a tax clerk and this is also true for Germany.

If you're an employee you usually don't have to file taxes because they consider it paid out of your salary but I recommend doing it anyways since the tax deduction from your salary doesn't factor in the 1k automatic deduction you get when you file or your social insurances so you will usually get a refund. (Exceptions apply when you have other sources of income, received unemployment benefits or Kurzarbeitergeld but you will usually be informed if it's either of the latter two).

Also keep your Nebenkostenabrechnung because costs for the chimney sweep or heating maintenance as well as other craftsmen or house cleaning and lawn maintenance are deductible. A lot of property management companies will even have a section telling you what amount you can deduct (it's per paragraph 35 EStG).

If you lose your tax ID the Bundeszentralamt für Steuern has a page where you can request it to be sent to you again here.

If you're not sure which tax office is responsible for you the BZSt also has a page for that here.

Elster is free and made by the German tax authorities. Plus you can request a code that allows you to download your tax information from the tax office to be automatically filled in so you just have to check everything and fill in what they're missing.

Use google maps to check how far your commute is. The tax office does the same. You can use either the shortest distance or the quickest route (even if it's longer). There's 20 work days in a month if you work 5 days a week, so you can declare a maximum of 240 days of commuting. If you declare more they usually ask why and you'll have to explain.

As an employee who doesn't have to declare you have three years to file after all (so for 2021 that means you have until 31 December 2024).

Once you receive your assessment it's worth comparing it to the calculation you got from Elster. If it's different there's usually an explanation at the back right after the long calculation. If there is not or you can prove there is something wrong that would lead to a better result for you take the date at the top right of the page, add three days and from there you have one month to ask them to correct it (so if the date is 11 April 2022 one month from the 14th, which gives you until the 14th of May, if that's on a weekend or a public holiday it's the next work day). For most things you can just call them. You'll be asked for your tax number. Be nice but most tax offices I've dealt with won't bite. Sometimes it's just a calculating error or they have wrong data (in that case you'll be asked to send proof). If they need anything in writing they will tell you. They have to correct your assessment if there's an error and the correction leads to a better result for you.

You also don't have to hand in any receipts anymore. If the tax office needs something they will send you a letter asking for it. They will set a deadline but if you have a good reason for why you can't hand it in by then you can call them and ask for an extension. They should try to work with you, if only because it's less of a hassle to just put it aside a bit longer and wait.

For people with anxiety about filing taxes, here’s what things that happen when you make a mistake on your tax return:

- it gets corrected

- you get a letter in the mail either asking for some additional information or a letter showing the adjustment

- you pay the amount (there’s options for payment plans too!) or get a refund

Things that do not happen

- you’re “in trouble”

- you are charged with fraud

- you go to jail

I know that most people are probably just joking/exaggerating when they say a mistake on their return means they get thrown in jail but when I worked with the public I always would encounter people who believed that would happen and they would be panicking about it. So I like to put this out there every year because if I can even prevent one person from feeling that way, it’s worth it