Well, the master window, plus the two tile and three tile versions look done. There's a funny shadow on the three tile one in this shot. I'm not sure why it showed up that way when the wall shadow mesh is a duplicate of the mesh for the master object but I think I have that fixed. I haven't checked again in the game since I took this screenshot. Now just ... 189 (more or less) files to go!

Question for you guys. When downloading build sets, such as a set of windows, would you rather have the set broken down into subsets which each have their own master object or have all the objects in the set which can have the same texture file share so that there are less objects to recolor to do the whole set? The reason I ask is because I've planned this set to have 4 subsets: a plain set, a set with a triskele knot tracery pattern, a set with a knotwork panel tracery, and a set with a knot and leaf tracery. The tracery sets with have those as a separately recolorable subset. All the sets will include a number of windows, plus doors. The plain set will also include a one and two tile arch. I can set EVERYTHING so that they pull the frame textures from the one tile long window (the master window) or I can set each of the sets to have their own master window. What do you think?

I did say "working on," right? Though I'm really happy everyone wants them. More incentive to work faster. The single is done except I tweaked the mesh a bit, just adjusting the uv so designs will be easier to apply. I'm using the repository technique, so it's important to get the master just right. All the doors and windows will draw their frame textures from the one window. znow though, I'm having trouble with my screen capture key. Either it's not working or GIMP has an issue. *pout* Gimp keeps telling me the clipboard is empty. Gotta go find out what's up with that.

I've been working on a set of windows, on and off, for awhile. I decided to post pictures of the first window of the set here, to see what you think. This particular window is a single tile full length Tudor arch. The second picture is a detail of the same window. Comments, anyone?

More Helga pretties!

I haven't tried it in the game yet, but the preview is gorgeous!

As opposed to this from TSR:


The preview of this actually doesn't look too bad in the small pic, but big like this it's something that looks rather like a bunch of rectangles. Very blocky. I confess that I just grabbed the first original mesh I saw on the TSR Living Room sets page. Anyway, I just wanted to show off Helga's new set. *huggles her new download and runs off to play*

Hmm, my comment seems to have been deleted. I'm not particularly surprised. It was right before tessieroo's. When Thomass says "Da mama, I would appreciate if you would stop suggesting...", that was to me. That's my screen name over there. Has been since March 10, 2005. I can't remember what it was before that. I lost my password and had to make a new account, since I'd also changed email accounts since I created the first account. This comment was the first I'd ever posted over there however. When I joined, I didn't know anything about the joys of actually saying something on forums.  Guess I thought the only people who could post comments were the creators. Then I found MTS2, and no longer went to TSR.

Ok, copy and paste:


I didn't copy Thomass' reply to that, but it was on the order that I should stop suggesting that average subscribers should fear that their own information was unsafe. The next person who responded said something along the lines that oh, wow, sharing anyone's real name was just so irresponsible. My post was number 18. I decided to respond to good ole Tom's justification, and when I hit the submit button it can up comments closed. I noticed that there were now 24 comments though. I think I stirred up the membership.

I like that Nouk, but didn't they quote the song wrong? Isn't it "Another ONE bites the dust"? I guess Izazu = quote failure.

Furthermore, there was absolutely nothing in my post that said anything about paysites, period. The only reference I made to anything being illegal was the posting of confidential information. There was nothing in my post to identify me as a pirate, or member of PMBD. And he couldn't have recognized my username from here (or anywhere else), because it is different. In fact, TSR is the only place I still use that username.

For what it's worth, thanks for the link to GoS thread. I haven't gotten adept at finding my way around there yet, so have only trolled the download pages. I clicked on the TSR link, and left a post that more than likely will get me banned over there. Since this is the first time I've logged in there in like 2 years, I guess that won't bother me. Anyone who would like the text of the post I left is welcome to it. Just ask. I copied it into a notepad page for posterity.

ETA: Ok, now I killed the thread at TSR. I posted a perfectly reasonable objection to Thomass' justification, and apparently prompted a swarm of responses. Thomass sort of didn't like what I said I guess. Anyway, now the thread is closed to comments. There was something in the comment about haters making new accounts but he couldn't have meant me, because that account has existed for about 4 years. Ever since The Sims 2 first came out. Actually, I had an account there with Sims 1, but I can't remember if this is the same account, or I made a new one when I got Sims 2.

As far as I'm concerned, the "quantity" of Peggy, Raon, and Rose hairs is immaterial, as they all look terrible in the game. I'd rather have one high quality hair by Nouk or Helga than several dozen ugly hairs by Peggy/Rose/Raon. It is true though that there are a lot of uneducated sheeples out there that don't agree with that. They like having a bloated download folder full of crappy looking hairs. They don't seem to realize that they only collect so many because they are in pursuit of decent looking ones.

I'm struggling to learn meshing hair myself. I can get my meshes into the game, they just all look awful, so I do know that doing hair well is hard. I don't think that's any excuse for Peggy et al, because they don't seem to care how well they do hair. I wouldn't pay for any of it anyway, but I might be willing to have some in my game if they just cared enough to do a quality job. I do have a couple XM hairs in my downloads folder. Not many because even though they are better than Rose/Peggy/Raon, they still aren't up to Noukie standards.

Check out this "Parisian" Apartment Lot from TSR, made by Rabold8:
Outside:

Inside:

Very boring.

Now, from BlackOrchid at MTS2: (http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=302363
Outside:

Inside:


BlackOrchid had a bunch of other screenshots, but I only show two here. Also, there were two flavors of furnished apartments, one with CC, and one just Maxis stuff. I know which one of these two offerings I'd rather download. (Not the TSR one, that's for sure. Ugh. I could build one that good myself. And I'm a lousy builder.)

As nice as that Adele set looks in her screenshots, it looks better in the game. Earlier in the thread some cruel person posted a comparison of paycrap with Adele's beautiful things and I went and downloaded the rest of her stuff that I didn't already have. This thread makes my download folder cry.

I don't know the experiment you're referring to but if confirms something I've told my kids. My son-in-law was complaining about his job some time back, and I told him that no matter what your job is, work is still work. It doesn't matter if it's something you love doing, it is still work to do it. I was painting a mural at the time, for pay, and as much as I love to paint, it was still hard to go every day and make the effort to get it done.

There's an excellent article over at MTS2 that gives all sorts of hints and tips for reducing polys. It's very easy. Putting an attractive texture on it so it looks like high polys is a lot harder, of course. (ex: Adele)


Edited to fix type. Grrr.

*pout* The bruno bathing pretties are gone. Also, I can haz the rainbow of nighties? I luves dem.

Seriously though, I love your stuff. It's the only makeup my sims wear. Even the pixie skins of strange coloration can always find makeup that looks nice on them. Although, I'm thinking about using your alphas to try to do a few blushes for them, since that is the only area that isn't well covered. Don't know for sure if/when I will get to it though.