UPDATE July 7, 2019: Two Tile Wall Masks

Title: Two Tile Wall Masks

Update July 7, 2019

1) Enabled the built-in invisible frame recolour.

2) Added a built-in invisible picture recolour.

3) To allow the player to freely select objects that are positioned behind a wall mask, the picture subset is no longer selectable. Instead, use the frame subset to select the object.

4) The catalogue description has been updated with a note on how to select or move the object.


Preface

Strangetown is becoming stranger all the time! Now the Beaker family have closed off all the exterior arches of their residential lab with starfields - but somehow they can walk through them...




Purpose

a) To create non-interactive and non-obstructive two tile wall masks for use as tinted or opaque inserts in doors, windows and other objects.

b) To create large format picture and poster options for wall decor.

c) To create a small selection of recolours for demonstration purposes.


Description

These Wall Masks are basegame compatible, and are protected from fire, theft, repossession, snow and lightning. They are height adjustable if Apartment Life or Mansion & Garden is installed. They are also placeable on coffee tables, dining tables and end tables, so that their height may be adjusted through the use of OMSPs. The masks are placeable almost anywhere, and they may be overlapped with other objects. Sims will walk through them as if they were not there, and the only time they will interact with the masks is when they are first placed on the lot.

The "frame" of the Wall Mask is mapped to the vase subset of the basegame "Musee Public Collection Sculpture", and can use the textures supplied in the 150+ Tiny Filesize Basegame Vase Collection Recolours and 64 HiRes Wood Basegame Vase Collection Recolours projects. Because the frame will often not be required, the Wall Mask object contains a built-in invisible recolour.

The "picture" of the Wall Mask is mapped to the glass subset of the basegame "End-to-End" Coffee Table. A large number of recolours for these coffee tables are available in the 140+ Tiny Filesize Glass Coffee Table Recolours project. The animated textures can produce some interesting science fiction and fantasy effects when used as door and window inserts.

The picture textures are visible from one side only - from the rear the Wall Mask is completely invisible. If you want a two sided image, simply place two wall masks back-to-back.

The Wall Masks come in two formats, the "Greater" and "Lesser" versions. The Greater and Lesser Two Tile Wall Masks are each available from the Decorative/Wall section of the catalogue at a cost §1555 and §1554 respectively. They have an Environment Rating of 10.




Contents

1) Greater Two Tile Wall Mask - The Greater Wall Mask occupies the full width of two tiles and is actually too tall to fit within the vertical height of a room without the frame protruding through either the ceiling or the floor. This size will fit within or in front of any of the basegame two tile doors and arches, including the largest, the "Matte & Glass" Glassless Arch. If placed directly in front of a door, the Wall Mask frame is typically larger than the door frame, so that it will effectively replace it. Alternatively, if the Wall Mask's frame is made invisible, the mask can be placed within the door frame by using "boolprop snapobjectstogrid off".

When used as a portrait, the oversized Greater Wall Mask is more suitable for placement on a two story wall.

2) Lesser Two Tile Wall Mask - The Lesser Wall Mask is sized so that it will just fit within the height of a room, without projecting into either the floor or the ceiling. The Lesser Wall Mask is also appropriately sized for smaller two tile doors and windows.

3) One Tile Wall Mask "Frame" Recolour - Invisible (built-in)

4) Two Tile Wall Mask "Picture" Recolours - Beata Beatrix 1870 (D.G.Rossetti), Dark Blue Shadow, Dark Green Shadow, Dark Grey Shadow, Dark Red Shadow, High Green Eyes, High Red Eyes, High Yellow Eyes, Hubble Cone Nebula, Hubble Cone Shadow, Hubble Invaders Shadow, Hubble Sagittarius Cloud, Hubble Sagittarius Shadow, Hubble Space Invaders, Invisible (built-in), La Donna della Finestra 1879 (D.G.Rossetti), Low Green Eyes, Low Red Eyes, Low Yellow Eyes, Pacific Rim Beach Rock, Pacific Rim Boardwalk, Pacific Rim Trail, The Day Dream (D.G.Rossetti).

The textures marked "Shadow" are partially transparent.




The "Eye" series are glow-in-the-dark textures intended to provide a spooky atmosphere. The "High Eyes" are visible at close range, but fade to invisible as the viewer moves further away. The are particularly suitable for placement in windows and trees. The "Low Eyes" are visible at medium distances but become invisible as they are approached. They are designed for placement in arches or bushes.





Terms of Use

You may include any item from this set in uploaded lots, whether for free or pay. It is nice but not necessary to provide a credit and link to this page.


Recolouring Hints

Both sizes of Wall Mask have an aspect ratio of 0.67, or 2x3, a common format for both paintings and photographs. The default recolour size for the "picture" subset of the Wall Mask (i.e. the glass subset of the basegame "End-to-End" Coffee Table) is 512x512 pixels. When configuring your 2 by 3 source texture, I suggest first scaling its width to 512 pixels wide by 768 pixels high. Then scale the height down to 512 pixels, while ensuring that "Maintain Aspect Ratio" option (or equivalent) is disabled. This will ensure that the picture will look undistored in The Sims 2.


Recommendation

All the doorways used in the screenshots are from the basegame, but it occurs to me that if you want the effect of Sims walking through picture frames, the pfish Invisible Secret Door will work admirably.


Texture Credits

- The Hubble space images are freely available at the NASA Image and Video Library for non-commercial use: Hubble Cone Nebula, Hubble Space Invaders and Hubble Sagittarius Cloud.
- Dante Gabriel Rossetti artwork is in the public domain, available at the Wikimedia Commons: Beata Beatrix 1870, La Donna della Finestra 1879 and The Day Dream.
- The photos of the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve are Sophie-David originals, and the eyes are mine (modified in GIMP).


Additional Credits

- GIMP 2 and Microsoft Paint for graphics editing, file conversion, processing, sizing and titling
- Jfade's Compressorizer for minimizing file size
- Milkshape 3D, Ultimate Unwrap3D Pro and UV Mapper Professional, for 3D modeling and mapping
- SimPE for Sims 2 object creation
- the medieval windows are from the Gatehouse and Breconshire Row House in the Gwrych Medieval Neighbourhood. This project was inspired by a request from StephSim to make a mesh for transparent glass doors and window silhouettes.


Polygon Counts

Greater Two Tile Wall Mask: 34 faces, 68 vertices
Lesser Two Tile Wall Mask: 34 faces, 68 vertices