berylliumsims

[berylliumsims]

accountability update/Best Practice Preview

Making the charts and graphs to finally make it clear how ridiculous we all are is taking a bit more time than expected because there is a subset of users that both does and doesn't have pink flashing, and since all insights happen at the margins, I have to dig into this a bit more. Release now expected the first weekend in February.

But: as proof I'm moving along, here's a title card, and the simplest main takeaway from the survey:

IF YOU HAVE "uint LotSkirtIncrease" in your userstartup.cheat, you can safely delete it to help reduce pink flashing.

Explanation: "uint LotSkirtIncrease 36" is equivalent to the in-game "Lot View Distance Extra Large" setting. It was previously thought that it was needed to turn this up to 120 in order to see neighborhood horizons in lot view but is not true (or not true anymore). If your horizon is blinking in or out when your game camera moves, it is not from view distance, it is from graphical glitching - same as if you've ever noticed the reflections momentarily not lining up in Voeille's water when you change the angle.

Having a LotSkirtIncrease over 50 SUBSTANTIALLY burdens the game at a critical stress point: loading any lot. It also overrides your in-game setting so if you were under the impression your setting was Small, Medium, or Large (and some of you were), it was actually Extra-Extra-Extra-Large unless you manually changed it after entering the lot.

Corollary: THE BEST PRACTICE FOR LOT LOADING, i.e., the Lot View Settings Juggling Method (LVSJM)

If you are prone to pink flashing, you should always exit lots (including when you exit the game) with Lot View Distance set to "Small" and Neighbors turned "Off." You may want to save with the game camera zoomed in as far as possible.

When you load a lot and have ascertained it is stable (you can pan the camera without any hiccups/lag/crashing), after 30 seconds, you can turn neighbors back on. 30 seconds later, you can start incrementally turning up the Lot View Distance.

Credit for this tip goes to the users who gave a hot tip on the survey that they only turn Neighbors on for screenshots (they will be named in the final report). We are often prone to thinking of those settings as something static, that we set and forget, but if we treat them as dynamic we can definitely manipulate them to our advantage.

Remember, after playing the lot - OR WHEN YOUR SIMS TRAVEL FROM THE LOT - you should turn the Lot View settings back down and manually save BEFORE the game closes the lot.

IF YOU STILL HAVE PINK FLASHING ON FIRST LOT LOAD/HOOD EXIT, there is further help for you coming in the report, but I don't have time to write it all up now. It's not not complicated but I went from total pink every hood load to virtually none (though I am not immune to crashing) using a combination of all the best practices I will be recommending in the report, and other users saw improvement to overall play session quality and length as well.

[berylliumsims]

RIP, CmarNYC

I’m very sad to report that Sims 3 and 4 creator CmarNYC passed away in October 2023. For 15 years, Simmers benefited from Cmar’s long-honed computing skills as she created much-loved modders’ and players’ tools, including the Sims 3 and 4 MorphMakers and Skininators, the TS4 SimRipper, the Sims 3 XCAS core mod, and many CAS sliders. She was also a contributor to S4PE, which likely was used by creators you rely on. Without Cmar’s work, the Sims franchise would have had a much less rich array of mods and custom content. She will be greatly missed.

As well as Sims, Cmar loved cats, and donations are suggested to the ASPCA, the TinyKittens Society, or an animal-related charity near you.

[berylliumsims]

These fins were made for swimming - modified TS4 mermaid tails

These tails are modified from Hat’s and Magical Girl Sandbox´s straight fins. They are whole body meshes, and not separates as the originals. I also removed the small fins on the side because I wanted a more streamlined silhuette.

Credits: Meduza and Gryning for converting the mermaid meshes from TS4 and for conversion of the BlueWhite texture from TS4. Almighty hat and Magical Girl Sandbox for the straight fins. Meshy for parts of the alpha. Sherahbim for the texture for the Maiden of the sea, and parts of the alpha. Free mermaid scale texture overlay by brgfx of Freepik.

As the title hints, the tails are suitable for swimming, but not for walking on the ground.  Straight fins will clip through the floor, but why would mermaids walk anyway. I play my mermaids with Midge the Tree's mermaid mod where they change to tails in the water, so I made the tails to match my own gameplay.

They come in recolors to match Midge the Tree's scale overlays, blue, pink, green, purple and silver. In addition I added the blue-white TS4 texture, gold, and black. For females there are also two recolors of Sherabihms Maiden of the sea, one with the original bra and one with scales instead. Children also get the same recolor but only on the tail. The gills on some of the ingame pictures are not part of the textures but an overlay.

Category: swim

Ages: Children (unigender), teens and adults. Adults are enabled for young adults to elders

Body shapes: Maxis, CPU (Classic pinup), LBB (lean body builder). CPU and LBB are only for adults

Shoesound is off and fins for teens and up have all morphs and are also flagged for maternity. Children have fat morphs.

From left to right;  am Silver, Lbb Gold, Lbb BlueWhite, Lbb alpha on the back.

From left to right: af Maiden of the sea, af Maiden of the sea alternative; af blue; afCPU green.

From left to right;  tf Pink; tf BlueWhite; child Purple

Download:

Adult female

Adult male

Teen female

Teen male

Child (unigender)

CPU

LBB

#sims 2 #fantasy #mermaids #mermaid #under the sea #cc

[berylliumsims]

The house feels empty with the mermaids gone. Marvin misses his twin sister Marnia and starts to think that his future may not be as a fisher. As much as he loves his younger brother Aegir, he cannot share the interests of a merboy. Maybe he could join the army like his brother Ossian, and his father Rasmus before him? Rasmus left the army when he married Marina and is not very much in favor of his son following that career. Another option for Marvin could be to become a servant in an affluent family. Meanwhile Marina is dreaming of the world under the sea.

#Angler #wiikstad #sims 2 #mermaid #ossian #marvin #marina #mcc #medieval #peasant #round 11

[berylliumsims]

Aegir grew up and Marina showed him a whole new world.

#Angler #sims 2 #wiikstad #round 11 #peasant #mermaid #under the sea #aegir #marina #mcc #medieval

[berylliumsims]

It was the first day of autumn in the coustal province and Marina Angler went for a swim in the ocean.

#Angler #marina #sims 2 #wiikstad #mcc #medieval #mermaid #round 11 #peasant #under the sea

[berylliumsims]

On the last day of the trip they met some tourists at the temple in old Uppsala and in Birka

#rask #wiikstad #viking #sims 2 #medieval #mcc #round 10 #birka

[berylliumsims]

Next stop was hotel Valhalla.

#wiikstad #rask #sims 2 #medieval #vacation #viking #round 10

[berylliumsims]

The default for the tour guide was fine but the first version of the default bellhop had to be fixed.

#wiikstad #vacation #sims 2 #medieval #viking

[berylliumsims]

Although, being the oldest son and thereby the heir, Ossian Angler didn’t want to become a fisher. He hoped to find some more adventures as a soldier so he moved to the military camp. He was lucky, the soldiers were sent north to strengthen the relations with Wiikstad’s allies. 

#angler #ossian #clap dance #vacation #viking #rask #sims 2 #round 10

[berylliumsims]

#Wiikstad #royal castle #sims 2 #mcc #medieval #winter is coming

[berylliumsims]

Marit Tegmark followed the reaper. Morgan, her son started to reflect over life. Did he really have to be a farmer just because every generation before him had been farmers. Maybe he could make some money of his hobby. He put up his paintings for sale, and they sold. 

#Tegmark #reaper #morgan #sims 2 #round 10 #medieval #mcc #wiikstad #yeoman

[berylliumsims]

Hanna Knorring gave birth to twins, Bejla and Toste. They have too many kids and to little space so Bejla, being the third daughter, was sent to the ogre.

#Hanna Knorring #ogre #Knorring #sims 2 #medieval #mcc #round 10

[berylliumsims]

Some random pictures from season 9 in Wiikstad

I found Grim Gren stealing from his own mother at the butcher

Margret Roos’ had prolonged har life with magical teas but the reaper finally came for her. Siv Gren will take over her house and business.

In the Silverax household, Ebba Piga and Embla Silverax played with the telescope. 

Ragnar Snickare started a fire.

#Wiikstad #round 9 #Gren #Grim #silverax #Ragnar #Snickare #Roos #fire #sims 2 #mcc #medieval #grim reaper

[berylliumsims]

I started to play again after a long break and found some photos from seasons 9 and 10 in a folder. In the Angler household Marnia grew up to teen. She has now moved out and work as a servant in the Royal castle.  When Aegir grew up to toddler it was evident that he was the first of the Angler kids to inherit the mermaid gene.

#Angler #Wiikstad #round 9 #round 10 #mermaid #sims 2 #mcc #medieval #peasant #Aegir

[berylliumsims]

Lord Rodrik made a new friend.

#Warg #wiikstad #sims 2 #round 8 #mcc #medieval #rodrik #werewolf

[berylliumsims]

When the sun set, Opal woke up and wanted to visit the graveyard. 

It seemed to be a strangely popular place to visit at night.

#Digger #opal #crystal #sims 2 #medieval #vampire #round 8 #Eira