Wedding Arches (TS2 Celebration! SP + TS4 + Bonus)

This project started out of frustration with the wedding arches provided with TS3 Generations. They all look really bad, especially in interiors. I decided to convert two of my favorite wedding arches from other Sims games: The Sims 2 Celebration! SP and The Sims 4. I worked really hard to make them look as good as possible. As a bonus, I also converted the petals rug from the previously mentioned TS2 SP.





THE PROCESS:

I love this part because I get to vent my frustrations with you all. Most of them came from The Sims 4 mesh. I cannot understand for the love of God why they would do so many one-sided faces. TS4 probably has a different rendering technology but when you do make a one-sided mesh in TS3 it looks invisible from the other side (the not-meshed side). Therefore, I had to pretty much spend hours selecting every vertice that was part of a one sided face until they were all selected and do a process to make them two-sided. I also had to work a lot with the texture for both arches because the alpha parts looked kinda bad. I finally discovered that by forcing the overlays on the multipliers as well helps improving this problem, which by the way comes from TS3 terrible rendering engine when it comes to grey-scale alphas. I worked really hard to remap part of the TS2 mesh so I could bake a multiplier (otherwise TS2 objects tend to look really dirty when used with the Create-a-Style Tool). Finally, I had to work on balancing the colors in-game, because I don't know if it's just my game but TS3 looks really saturated when compared to the look of the textures and TSRW presets. The rug was pretty easy in comparison, even though I struggled a little bit trying to apply a bump map, which seems to be impossible for most objects in TS3. I'll give it another try some other day. I'm quite happy with the results.


CREATE-A-STYLE INFORMATION AND PRESETS:

TS2 Celebration! SP Wedding Arch:
- It has five presets with two different masks (first four share the same mask the fifth is different). Most presets are similar to the ones in the original object but the fifth is customized. The first four presets allow you to CASt the arch, the fabric, the metal part/rings on top and the flowers. The leaves are an overlay in this preset. The fifth preset has castable leaves but the metal rings are an overlay. So you can decide whether you want to customize the leaves or the metal part; not both.




TS4 Formal Wedding Arch:
- It has three presets, similar to the original colors. However, each preset has different features. Since you can only do up to four castable channels, I decided to make them differently to suit everyone's needs. The first preset allows you to CASt the arch, the fabric/ribbons, the leaves and the flowers. The roses are an overlay in this preset so they will always be red. The second preset is similar but allows you to CASt the roses as well (meaning all flowers use the same pattern/color). The third presets allows you to CASt each set of flowers individually but the leaves are non-castable (overlay).





CATALOG LOCATION AND PRICE:

You'll find the Wedding Arches:

- Sort by Room -> Outdoor -> Outdoor Activities
- Sort by Function -> Entertainment -> Parties

I decided to put them there because I have more than two brain cells and I don't want to add more stuff to the Decor/Misc category (where EA Arches are ). I've recategorized all my arches to be in the categories mentioned above cuz they make more sense. You should also see them pop up in your Resort Outdoor Party Area category (where TS3 Island Paradise arch is).





BONUS:
As a bonus to complement TS2 Celebration Wedding Arch, I converted the matching rug.


It has one castable channel and you'll find it where all the other rugs are (even though this is technically a PETAL rug... damn, I should've put it in the Decor/Misc category ). You can combine many rugs to form larger beds of petals. I was actually surprised how well they look combined and overlapping each other.





Polygon Counts:
TS2 Celebration! Wedding Arch:
High LOD: 3188 vertices - 3340 faces
Medium LOD: 2320 vertices - 2006 faces

TS4 Formal Wedding Arch:
High LOD: 1899 vertices - 1392 faces
Medium LOD: 1593 vertices - 989 faces

TS2 Celebration! Royal Path Petals Rug:
Mesh: 15 vertices - 12 faces

Additional Credits:
- TSR Workshop
- Milkshape 3D
- Photoshop
- EA for the base meshes and some textures.