Photoshop shopped!

[Millie]

They've obviously messed with the contrast and added shine in those kitchen pics. I do have a question about the wall that came with it, did that rock wall come with the actual set? Because it isn't anything like the advertised picture.

No. The walls don't come included. The wall I used was a maxis made one.

[devilsrope]

I love this thread; I think it's a great idea.

Because I feel that the full craptasicness of the Deseo set has yet to be realized, here are a few more screenies for your amusement/disgust. I remembered this set when Millie showcased it, and how annoyed I was that I had even wasted my time downloading the files from the booty. I did forget to check the recolors of one the paintings. No loss, I'm sure. I wanted to show how many freaking pieces there are to this set (58 files!), cluttering up you catalog all over the damn place. And no repository used, so the set is over 22MB for 3 colors. Pictures are cropped to save space. Clicky for more detail.



Here you can see the sideboard is eated if placed against a wall. The deco on top are probably the best items in the entire set, and actually didn't look bad at all. The footprint you see is the painting above, resulting in ugly overlap issues if you place something on the wall beside it. And the sink there on the right...shading, whut? It's funny because it often looks convex in-game, rather than concave, partly due to there being no drain at the bottom.



This painting suffers the same footprint issue as the one shown above. You can see the rug has the same problem as well. I didn't test the candles functionality, but I noticed the grabbable area for them is oversized.



Here are the counters. The 2 on the left have the d/w and t/c in them. Although only one package, this objects shows twice in the catalog due to fail cloning. The middle one, despite being the same object as the leftmost one, won't recolor once it has been placed. And the one on the right shows you a fucked up "recolor" which wasn't cleaned from the package. Looks to be part Maxian and part oops. The cupboards also have some extra recolor choices but at least they are just repeated stuff.



Picture hodgepodged to show multiple inept footprints. Here are the pieces you have to puzzle together to make the frame around the counters, which Millie showed in her post. All the footprints are completely off, and as she showed, it doesn't even all fit together properly when you do finally figure out what the heck these pieces of crap in you counters catalog are (circled bits are these 4 things plus the redundant countertop).



I believe there's maybe a warning on the Reflex site that the set's counters do not take sinks. Well, yes and no. You can place the sink without moveobjects on (and probably use it as well), but the results ain't purty. Yeah, the upper drawer just kinda...waits over there. Snazzy, n'est pas?

[Darqstar]

This thread is most excellent. 

I never minded some minor photoshopping.  Like the occational "light coming through the window" because I know that it's not going to happen in the game.  But, sometimes, I've seen room sets that I swear, they're using the picture from the catalog to show the room, not the actual creations they made. 

I can't fault anyone for using a texture to cut down on the amount of polys when doing a mesh.  However, they'd better give what they promise and actually have a low poly count.  It's when it's got this huge count, and yet all the "detail" is texture that it irritates me.  How hard can it be to make a low poly square?  Errr, well, maybe it is hard, I'm ignorant, I admit. But I would imagine that it's not that difficult to convert a simple shape into a low poly, vs. something complicated.

Tomato/Paleoanth's stuff always looks the same in the preview pictures as it does in the game.  No, I take that back.  The Horizons bedroom actually looked better in the game than it did in the preview picture.  (I wanted to include a link to the set, but MTS2 is going wonky on me.)

Edit: I didn't mean to make the writing *that* tiny

[Missbonbon]

You forgot the fact that the mirror doesn't even fit into the frame. The bottom you can see through the design.

nope! (mentioned below the image already)

Whoops. I have a tendency to not entirely read things. I'm lazy and reading takes to much

[oolongteadrinker]

This thread is most excellent. 

I never minded some minor photoshopping.  Like the occational "light coming through the window" because I know that it's not going to happen in the game.  But, sometimes, I've seen room sets that I swear, they're using the picture from the catalog to show the room, not the actual creations they made. 

Same here. I can view something in context and be all "I see what they did. They're trying to be all romantic and stuff. Rays of sun. Don't it just give you the warm fuzzies inside?"

VS.
"They altered the object images themselves as a blatant F-you to the subscribers."
There's a point where it should end, but do THEY know that?

[elpemmy]

I love the rays coming through the window. I'd love to be able to do that (it's probably not that hard, I'm just lazy)
If you gotta photoshop your creations at least SAY so. Or, alternatively, if you think it's that bad that you HAVE to photoshop it to make it look good, make it better.

[dragonarts]

I can't fault anyone for using a texture to cut down on the amount of polys when doing a mesh.  However, they'd better give what they promise and actually have a low poly count.  It's when it's got this huge count, and yet all the "detail" is texture that it irritates me.  How hard can it be to make a low poly square?  Errr, well, maybe it is hard, I'm ignorant, I admit. But I would imagine that it's not that difficult to convert a simple shape into a low poly, vs. something complicated.

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.

[Darqstar]

Same here. I can view something in context and be all "I see what they did. They're trying to be all romantic and stuff. Rays of sun. Don't it just give you the warm fuzzies inside?"

Exactly.  And it's a very easy effect, at least with PSP.  And, anyone who plays the game knows the sun doesn't really "shine" into windows. 

VS.
"They altered the object images themselves as a blatant F-you to the subscribers."
There's a point where it should end, but do THEY know that?

I don't think they do. Back when I made stuff, I never altered my game shots, except for a little bit of sharpening (And by little bit, I mean little bit.  Some of the examples shown have been so sharpened they could cut your eyes by looking at them)  and that's because if you use the in game camera, the pictures are blury.  If I used the print screen button, I didn't have to sharpen. 

Yes, I added whatever I could in the game to enhance the picture, I admit.  I'd put in a ceiling, try to use attractive things that came with the game to enhance the objects I made, etc.  But my personal philosophy was "If I can't have it in the game and be able to play the game with it, I'm not going to show it in my pictures."  This is one of the reasons why I never ever used a reflective floor.   Yes, I can put it in my game.  Yes, I can take pictures. But if I try to play the game with a reflective floor, it slows down to a crawl. 

That, to me, is where dishonesty comes to play.  I've heard creators and seen creators basically admit to it.  "Yes, these reflective floors are lovely.  However, you'll never be able to use them and actually play the game!" 

I suppose if someone has the top of the line computer with all the bells and whistles, they might be able to, but not everyone has such a system.

[Darqstar]

I love the rays coming through the window. I'd love to be able to do that (it's probably not that hard, I'm just lazy)
If you gotta photoshop your creations at least SAY so. Or, alternatively, if you think it's that bad that you HAVE to photoshop it to make it look good, make it better.

If you have paint shop pro (PSP) it's a simple matter of going to Effects / reflections / sunburst.   Then, a screen pops up and you can put that stream of sunshine anywhere you want on the picture and control the intensity of the effect.   

I have no clue how you'd find it in photoshop.  I tried to learn photoshop, but it gave me a huge headache. 

[Missbonbon]

You should edit your post instead of double posting 

I think in CS3 it's under the same categories for the sunburst as well. I don't think you can do those effects with gimp either, but correct me if I am wrong.

[Zazazu]

I use Photoshop 6.0, and it's under Filters...Effects. Or Filters...Render. Something like that.

Basically everything I've ever downloaded from VitaSims was deleted the moment I got to see it in-game. My computer laughs at your polygon concerns, but I still won't put up with badly photoskinned items. SimCredible...I have a few items from them, but about half I initially downloaded had issues with bad textures or clipping.

[oolongteadrinker]

This is one of the reasons why I never ever used a reflective floor.   Yes, I can put it in my game.  Yes, I can take pictures. But if I try to play the game with a reflective floor, it slows down to a crawl. 
That, to me, is where dishonesty comes to play.  I've heard creators and seen creators basically admit to it.  "Yes, these reflective floors are lovely.  However, you'll never be able to use them and actually play the game!" 

I suppose if someone has the top of the line computer with all the bells and whistles, they might be able to, but not everyone has such a system.

I must admit there was a time where I thought of upgrading my computer just so I could play the reflective floors option. This is the noise my computer makes when I play the reflections: "erk, erk, erk, erk"

Then I came to my senses. Why rebuild my computer top to bottom for that silly feature when I can just delete the objects that cause it to slow down?

It's all very easy once you make the choice.
Back on topic, I doubt these creators actually play their sims with the mirrored floors. They just want to extend that impression to us plebs.

[crunk]

I ripped my downloads folder out today, and removed over 200 files before putting any CC back in. "Photoshopping" sucks. My computer is pretty nice, but it can barely handle neighbors on without an unacceptable amount of lag. Happily, cutting out all of that junk lowered my load time!

[Astonished lemons]

I ripped my downloads folder out today, and removed over 200 files before putting any CC back in. "Photoshopping" sucks. My computer is pretty nice, but it can barely handle neighbors on without an unacceptable amount of lag. Happily, cutting out all of that junk lowed my load time!

You'd be suprised at how fast your computer could go without excess CC.
You got the download organiser right? that gets rid of old meshes/recolors with no counter part.
Alos the compressorizer rocks.

[crunk]

You got the download organiser right? that gets rid of old meshes/recolors with no counter part.

If you mean sims 2 pack clean installer, then yes, I have it. Otherwise, no, whatzthat?