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Forum Resident
#276 Old 20th Jan 2019 at 4:55 PM
I've seen quite a few TS4 players say that they installed some mods when they're really referring to CC.
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Forum Resident
#277 Old 20th Jan 2019 at 5:12 PM
EA's default TS3 skin is hideous. Really awful. I also loathe the look of TS4 sims... I can't stand that kind of art style, and all the sims look like bobble heads to me. Round wide heads on these skinny stalk necks. Eurgh.
Anyhow, as for TS3, replacement skins make a huge difference. I don't put a lot of makeup on my sims, but I like default skins,, eyebrows, and some decent hair that doesn't look like EA textured straw.


♥ Receptacle Refugee ♥
InnaLisa Pose Archive
Inventor
#278 Old 20th Jan 2019 at 5:27 PM
Quote: Originally posted by jje1000
I also find that a frighteningly large amount of these sort of casual players are also semi-computer-illiterate- they think the store is where the only extra content is, think mods crash their computer, and don't bother to improve their experience in any other way.

Oh, and don't forget the sheer number of people who take pictures of the fricking screen with their phones.


I've been on The Sims subreddit for a month and this is SO true. People claim they have POWERFUL PCs but when asked about them it turns out that they don't know their own PC specs, they don't understand the difference between integrated and dedicated GPUs, they don't know what an SSD is (and it more often than not this so called "powerful" PCs have 5400 RPM hard drives, so no wonder The Sims 3 lags for them), they don't understand anything when it comes to CPU architecture (it has 4 cores, and that's it, don't know clock speed, whether it has hyper threading, caches), etc.

And the part of taking pictures with their phones instead of screnshots got me laughing so hard. It's so true and it's hilarious.
Forum Resident
#279 Old 20th Jan 2019 at 6:17 PM
In addition to hair and skin, I think that custom/default replacement eyes make a HUGE difference.
Forum Resident
#280 Old 21st Jan 2019 at 6:27 PM
There's always room for improvement though EA doesn't care about that anymore. But I don't see anything hideous or ugly about TS3 Sims at all. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.


CC does help in getting a more refined look or an entirely different one depending on what looks attractive to the individual.
Mad Poster
#281 Old 21st Jan 2019 at 6:54 PM
The default skin and eyes always looked fine to me. I never understood why people complain about them.

Because the earth is standing still, and the truth becomes a lie
A choice profound is bittersweet, no one hears Cassandra Goth cry

Field Researcher
#282 Old 21st Jan 2019 at 8:55 PM
Quote: Originally posted by HarVee
The default skin and eyes always looked fine to me. I never understood why people complain about them.


I personally don't like the default skin, but I agree that the default eyes are fine. CC eyes to me just make sims look so much more diverse because not every humans eyes/pupils size and gradient are the same. Changing just the eyeball itself can make a sim look completely different. I use both the default and CC eyes for this reason.
Inventor
#283 Old 5th Feb 2019 at 6:17 PM
WARNING THIS REDDIT POST MAY TEST YOUR PATIENCE. PROCEED WITH CAUTION: https://www.reddit.com/r/thesims/co...you_say_origin/
Inventor
#284 Old 5th Feb 2019 at 7:19 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Gargoyle Cat
I'm so glad I don't have to be bothered by Origin. Discs or bust, baby!


Steam's version is really good too. You can run the game directly from the executable without running Steam or the Launcher first. Discs can fail (and my disc drive is in fact broken and I didn't bother replacing it), that's why I decided to buy everything again on Steam. It's also pretty cheap if you buy them on sale, $5 each expansion pack, and 7.99% the base game + Generations + Pets + Seasons.
Mad Poster
#285 Old 5th Feb 2019 at 9:40 PM Last edited by jje1000 : 7th Feb 2019 at 6:27 AM.
Quote: Originally posted by Deshong
There's always room for improvement though EA doesn't care about that anymore. But I don't see anything hideous or ugly about TS3 Sims at all. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.


I've always found that the main issue in TS3 is that the lighting in general can be fairly flat and even harsh, which can make sims look uglier than they really are. Compare to TS4, which has far more gentle shading on sims and objects, which makes sims look softer and more detailed.

In fact, the geometry of TS3 sims is usually more or less comparable to that of TS4 sims, IMO- it's just that a lot of detail gets flattened out by the lighting. On top of that, the default skin textures don't have as many painted-on details as those in TS4. As such, I feel like the worst you can do with TS4 is creating a 'plain' sim, whereas in TS3, you could make truly grotesque creaturas (which is why the game is also inherently funnier than TS4, just watch Robbaz's Sims 3 series ).



TS3 basically is the second from the left (with worse normal & shine maps, as well as fewer painted-on features), it really makes me wish they had ported over the sub-skin scattering from The Sims Medieval. That being said, if you rely on textures for shading and detailing, you can achieve some great results.

The other thing is that the animations are a bit stiffer than those in TS2 or TS4, IMO- so your creatura will always feel a bit extra on top of that.
Mad Poster
#286 Old 5th Feb 2019 at 11:29 PM
You can see clearly in that image how each set of shaders affects the character. The diffuse only character is strongly reminiscent of games from the early-mid 00s, while the one with the bump, spec and point lighting looks a lot like something you'd see in titles from 2005ish onwards. The subsurf and reflection mapping greatly enhance the otherwise identical character.

Now, I've talked about this at length before....how come we have no idea how to port effects from TSM to TS3, and how come we have no understanding of TS3's shaders?

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( Join my dumb Discord server if you're into the whole procrastination thing. But like, maybe tomorrow. )
Mad Poster
#287 Old 6th Feb 2019 at 12:29 AM
Quote: Originally posted by AGuyCalledPi
Now, I've talked about this at length before....how come we have no idea how to port effects from TSM to TS3, and how come we have no understanding of TS3's shaders?


I think it's because the shaders are packed up in the engine itself, with no way to access them. Maybe one day, but not now.

The current best way of getting closer to that leftmost image is via detailing via the skin diffuses and improving the shine and bump maps, IMO.

There was a tutorial on this here:
https://web.archive.org/web/2018050...0/skintutorial1
Mad Poster
#288 Old 6th Feb 2019 at 12:35 AM Last edited by AGuyCalledPi : 6th Feb 2019 at 12:50 AM.
Shaders_Win32.precomp is the file that contains all shaders in The Sims 3, The Sims Medieval and The Sims 4. All we need to know is what will read it. It's Autodesk Something Something Something. My knowledge of these things is very finite, but this I know.

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( Join my dumb Discord server if you're into the whole procrastination thing. But like, maybe tomorrow. )
Mad Poster
#289 Old 6th Feb 2019 at 12:51 AM Last edited by AGuyCalledPi : 6th Feb 2019 at 1:03 AM.
3DS Max and Maya will both compile precomps, and they're plaintext files from the looks of it, but fuck if I know what'll decompile it.
Anyway, we've been here before.
And things work the same on the TS4 side of things.
In fact, mashing up TSM and TS3 seems to come up nearly every month these days.

insert signature here
( Join my dumb Discord server if you're into the whole procrastination thing. But like, maybe tomorrow. )
Mad Poster
#290 Old 6th Feb 2019 at 1:44 AM
Quote: Originally posted by AGuyCalledPi
Shaders_Win32.precomp is the file that contains all shaders in The Sims 3, The Sims Medieval and The Sims 4. All we need to know is what will read it. It's Autodesk Something Something Something. My knowledge of these things is very finite, but this I know.


I wonder what would happen if you copied the shader file from TSM directly over to TS3. The game probably wouldn't run/nothing would happen, but it's worth dreaming about it.

Some interesting discussion on editing TS4's shaders:
https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/di...32-precomp-info

It might be worth sending those people in the thread a PM asking what tools they used.
Mad Poster
#291 Old 6th Feb 2019 at 1:59 AM
Yeah, I linked that thread just now. They're consistent in how their shader data works. I've PMed a few people in the TS2 community before, there are a number of proper shader mods available for TS2. I'll see what I can find out.

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( Join my dumb Discord server if you're into the whole procrastination thing. But like, maybe tomorrow. )
Mad Poster
#292 Old 7th Feb 2019 at 6:28 AM
Quote: Originally posted by AGuyCalledPi
Yeah, I linked that thread just now. They're consistent in how their shader data works. I've PMed a few people in the TS2 community before, there are a number of proper shader mods available for TS2. I'll see what I can find out.


It might also be worth asking those people in the thread as well since it looks like they've managed to open (?) the files as well.
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