New Mods Finds

Tumblr can defiantly close down without sufficient notice, I've read someone here saying it happened to them on another site before. I've been meaning to make other/backup accounts - as to not put all of my eggs in the Tumblr basket. Got Pillowfort and Bluesky now, and will probably get Dreamwidth as a more proper blog, now that WordPress is out of the question. So far it's a bit empty out there for ts2, but it'll probably grow.

Most importantly there's the regular forums and sites, which I believe to be better for sharing information & downloads. Nothing gets lost that way under endless scrolling. These (anti)social media sites are like chat rooms, good for chat, not for archiving information. I recently got back to modding, and because of the forums I got all the information I needed to mod this relic of a game.

Oh and if anyone's interested these are my accounts, I've also added links to the profile description.. Pillowfort BlueSky Garden of Shadows Mod the Sims Simblr.CC

matt just fired half the remaining tumblr support staff lmao

they claimed to have fix the pink soup…

Look what I found! This tool is so good.

Found it through github, it produces all types of maps. Haven't seen it being mentioned anywhere... I used a Maxis floor as an example. It produced very nice results on images of floors I got online.

I did this recently for myself so I might as well share. This is TS2 facial expression swatch and also some expression combos (in case you don't know - Decorgal's pose overlay hack allows you to apply and blend various expressions / animation loops)

And also, a tip - you can easily edit the pose hack STR to get better angry expression -> I replaced "Eyes Closed (S)" with annoyed face animation, which is a little twitchy (not suitable for movie recording - head movement) but still better than original adult angry face. BTW I actually managed to edit c-annoyed animation so Sims don't squint the eyes as much , you can download the annoyed animation replacement HERE (SFS)

I could use more evil or seductive expressions, TS2 game is seriously lacking those ;/

Wayback Machine is a GREAT tool. It just has a few issues. The number one issue is that it isn't great at crawling. Normal HTML sites are no problem but more complex sites like forums and especially blogs are hard for it to navigate. It tends to get only very small pieces of LiveJournal for example. The entire official Sims 3 forum from 2009-2017(?) is just gone because Wayback wasn't able to access it.

As I've talked about over the past few years, I'm trying to archive a lot of CC with Archive.org. This works well for most older sites but not so well with newer ones. Plus, I'm focusing on custom content more than webpages and stories.

Stories, that people put hours and hours into, legacies, forum posts, pictures, blog posts, all things that are just TOO numerous for me to even make a dent in on my own.

Buuuut, if I could get a bunch of simmers who were actively viewing blogs and downloading content and reading forum posts to archive every post they viewed that could do something!

Wayback Machine Auto-Archiver is a bot that archives all PUBLIC webpages that you visit to the wayback machine. Think of it as a bot that follows you around taking a shot of every blog you visit. Obviously, this isn't just for Sims content but it would certainly help the community who may go looking for the content that you archived after it's LONG gone from the internet.

The auto-archiver is a simple extension. If you're running Chrome or Edge you simply install it like any other extension and then you surf the web like always.

The more simmers who use it, the more content gets archived. Also, it's entirely anonymous. If you're a lurker and you've never made or posted anyway, think of this as a way to give back!

Download it here and please reblog!

(I will be reblogging this post several times)

SimPE Material Definitions Index:

DW link for a more legible layout. Another thing I made for myself and might as well share. Definitions have links to wiki. If I made any errors feel free to let me know.

Further Reading:

Texture Mapping – Wikipedia.

Materials in general – Unity Manual.

In SimPE – PixelHate's Guide to Material Definitions [TXMT].

Definitions:

Material Type: StandardMaterial (stdMat).

alphaRefValue – (I forgot)

deprecatedStdMatInvDiffuseCoeffMultiplier (idk)

reflectivity

stdMatAlphaBlendMode – Alpha Layer Settings (Responsible for Transparency).

stdMatAlphaMultiplier

stdMatAlphaRefValue – Reflection?

stdMatAlphaTestEnabled

stdMatBaseTextureAddressingU – Base Texture Settings (The Main Texture).

stdMatBaseTextureAddressingV

stdMatBaseTextureAlphaReplicate

stdMatBaseTextureEnabled

stdMatBaseTextureName

stdMatCullMode – Backface Culling Mode.

stdMatDiffCoef">0.8,0.8,0.8< - Diffuse Reflection – Coefficient [pretty sure. Isn't that Albedo?].

stdMatEmissiveCoef">1.00000,1.00000,1.00000< - Emissivity Coefficient.

stdMatEnvCubeBlurFactor">0.000000< - Environment Cube Map Definitions.

stdMatEnvCubeCoef">0,0,0<

stdMatEnvCubeLockedToCamera>0<

stdMatEnvCubeMode>none<

stdMatEnvCubeTextureName

stdMatFillMode>solid<

stdMatLayer>0<

stdMatLightingEnabled">1<

stdMatMinLightRangeHint">4<

stdMatNormalMapTextureEnabled – Normal/Bump Map Settings.

stdMatNormalMapTextureAddressingU

stdMatNormalMapTextureAddressingV

stdMatNormalMapTextureName

stdMatSpecCoef">0.53,0.53,0.53< - Specular Reflection & Specular Map Settings.

stdMatSpecMaskTextureEnabled

stdMatSpecMaskTextureName

stdMatSpecPower">1e+002<

(Not in SimPE - Albedo Map)

stdMatTextureCoordAnimMode">none<

stdMatTextureCoordAnimNumTiles">1.000000,1.000000<

stdMatTextureCoordTfAnimOrigin">0.500000,0.500000<

stdMatTextureCoordTfAnimRotSpeed">0.000000<

stdMatTextureCoordTfAnimRotStartEnd">0.000000,1.000000<

stdMatTextureCoordTfAnimRotWaveform">triangular<

stdMatTextureCoordTfAnimScaleSpeed">0.000000<

stdMatTextureCoordTfAnimScaleStartEnd">0.000000,1.000000<

stdMatTextureCoordTfAnimScaleWaveform">triangular<

stdMatTextureCoordTfAnimTransEnd">0.000000,0.000000<

stdMatTextureCoordTfAnimTransSpeed">0.000000<

stdMatTextureCoordTfAnimTransStart">0.000000,0.000000<

stdMatTextureCoordTfAnimTransWaveform">triangular<

stdMatTextureCoordTileAnimSpeed">0.000000<

stdMatUntexturedDiffAlpha">1<

Index

Preparing For a Tumblr Shutdown Scenario - Where to Find Me Elsewhere.

Resources for Creating: My Go-To things: The Updated List on DW. Retired Post on Tumblr.

Resources For Playing.

GUID Database Revival.

Sims 2 Databases Database.

SimPE Material Definitions Index.

UV Maps Thread.

Game Fuckery Help and Linux List.

List of People's Experiments with Replacing Sims' Face Mesh. Other posts are organized by tags.

No Homecrafter either, save your money people. This is not an acceptable quality release.

Quick post while I can; full video coming tonight!

Sims 2 Legacy Edition:

1. NO Bodyshop, tried to run the UC version but it crashed | EDIT: some users have reported being able to copy over bodyshop and run it, but the folder paths are not configured correctly.

2. NO IKEA stuff pack, can be downloaded

3. RPC & associated mods NOT currently working | UPDATE: LD has said on X that he would like to eventually make his mods compatible with this version of the game, so hopefully in the future we will see an RPC for Legacy

4. Scriptorium broken / causes game to crash on load | EDIT: Can be installed manually

5. Pink flashing not solved

6. Object Limit still there (lol)

7. Custom Skins buttons in CAS broken

8. Users are reporting a TONNE of new gameplay bugs - broken pets, broken cutscenes, disappearing Sims, BV community lots not working - it's wild. Check out the EA help forums or this thread on MTS for more: https://modthesims.info/showpost.php?p=5987455&postcount=1

Stick with Starter Pack friends!

Got an answer from lovely Pooklet. I will change the sims' narrow face and scrawny neck one day...

Hey, i ran into your recent post [Anonymous asked Do you mind people editing sims you’ve put up for download?] in which you talk about editing sims' faces in milkshape. would you mind elaborating on how you go about it? mainly what do you export and how do you import back? I have in mind putting a mesh from another game as a sim's face, that's the goal anyway. I use blender if that matters. Thanks in advance, and have a great day/evening.

hey friend! i posted a semi-tutorial a while back on editing faces in milkshape here, but i'm not actually sure if it would be possible to do what you're talking abt in sims 2, unfortunately. i know it is possible to import other head "objects" (like monitors or helmets or anything that will completely cover the head) as an accessory or hair. that's how we have stuff like screen heads and lord woot.

but ☝️ i don't know if anyone has had success replacing the existing head mesh. from what i have heard, it just breaks the mesh, because sims 2 is so so ancient and not compatible with anything ever. you could possibly do something similar to Drachenfels's skeleton skin which i believes makes the default head invisible with a skin and then you equip the skull as an accessory/hair (don't remember which in this case), but it won't have any facial rigging/animations and would basically be a static object. that's how i understand it anyway.

full disclosure: i could definitely be wrong abt this now or in the future. for a very long time we thought custom sliders were impossible but that is obvs no longer the case. could be that there is a way to replace head meshes and we just haven't found it yet.

Roberta has some good moves!