I wish there were some better options for signage in Simville... true, there are "letter lights" that you can put on the outside of your shop/restaurant/bar, providing you have a big enough uninterrupted wall to spell out the name. But how many real-world examples of that do you see? Most stores have either a sign suspended over the sidewalk on a chain, or affixed to the wall above the door. In my example, I would like to be able to use those half-walls to put signs on: a low-rise, second-story facade above the storefront. Aside from apartment life, which would allow vertical shifting, what options are out there? To me, the half-wall is the obvious solution, but how many creators are going to think of making signs that hang just above the floor level?

Have you got the shift all mod? Grab that and you may be able to shift the signs up and down. https://modthesims.info/d/670142/sh...p-and-down.html

This is what I mean by "aside from AL"... I mean, it would be nice to have, but they never made it for the Mac. In situations where I've wanted a facade to put signs on, I've just added a dummy second story onto the building and made it look like there were apartments above the shop. I was really just curious if anyone had seen any low-rise signage options out there in the Simverse. I mean, if someone out there wants to experiment with making a knee-height version of those fancy letter lights, I'd be willing to test them out

But wouldn't Mog Hughson's illuminated shop sign work? I nearly always put it just above the door, covering a fake half wall. There are smaller versions and edits that might work better too, like the ones mentioned here:
Illuminated shop signs, Slig retextures
Illimuniated shop sign, Neko Sayuri add-ons

Edit: Sorry, I managed to press the submit button by accident!

I think chitownriverscum's problem is that they are on a mac and so can't get AL and can't shift paintings. Is that right @chitownriverscum? Try using OMSPs. Now, if it works at all, it'd only be for 1-tile items, but with SilentLucidity's Set, you can place things at different heights--two stories and above/under ground, etc. See if you can use that if you haven't already. And remember that there are alternate sizes of things like the grilled cheese and pineapple poster, so if you have any signs on that (and there can be tons, if you look) it will get resized too, and then you can use the OMSP for that sign you like. I believe you should be to place some hanging signs on an OMSP though.

Resized Posters
Grilled Cheese
Surfing the Universe
BV Travel Poster
Pineapple Poster

As for other ideas for signs, you can use decals in your shop windows. I know there are some by Moocha Muses, but those are based off of the FT Butterfly Wall Crawler and Ikea Flower, and I don't think the Super Collection has that, right? Hmm, I know there are decals based off of other meshes, so I'll have a look around and see if I find some business ones.

And then you can use neon signs. You play a more realistic game right? (Meaning you want English signs, instead of Simlish?) Check out this thread for some links, though for the Raynuss stuff, preview and download from sims2packrat. And also see Eleabot's tumblr and this reblog of eleanorsims' tumblr.

And don't forget that you can use Snap Objects and get creative, like moving signs on top of other things, or behind things, like windows, for that decal look, or making signs seem attached to other things like wood posts or metal poles. And, oh, there are sidewalk signs! I'll link to Nekosayuri's sign set and Leefish's sign board. Now, the signboard from Nekosayuri is good but I believe there are a few things in there that overwrite Maxis stuff. I'll see if I can remember which ones gave me problems, but just fyi. There are also some 4t2 conversions of some sidewalk signs; I'll see if I spot any others.

But back to build ideas. You can do a slanted roof, with the short side in back, and the wide side in front, to display signage. And remember to use CFE or you can try to build around your signs. So for example, try getting to the right height using stages or foundation, then placing your sign. You can then delete the stuff underneath and, depending on the rest of your building, build around it, like placing a half wall behind it. With CFE (Constrain Floor Elevation, if you don't know) you can make your 1 stories taller or your second stories shorter, etc. There's lots of possibilities there, honestly. Hopefully I've sparked some ideas for you, too.

Sorry for double posting but your title made me think of the Sweet Down Low project! I can't believe I didn't think of that first. It lowers paintings for AL users so that when we use shift, the painting stays lighted, but for you chitownriverscum, it should be the low height you need--you wouldn't be able to shift. Now, it's a default, so you would have to change the GUIDs on paintings to have both items show in your game, but if you tell us which paintings you need, I'm sure someone here can help you with that! I wonder if someone lowered MogHughson's shop sign?

These by Honeywell might be of interest: http://www.leefish.nl/mybb/showthread.php?tid=4199
simsinlowspace recolors: https://simsinlowspace.tumblr.com/p...0-service-signs


The only issue with this, might be that all signs sit on the ground basically, but otherwise a great idea!

Thank you, HugeLunatic and PhantomKnight, for all those leads... I'll check them out posthaste.

[QUOTE=Phantomknight] Yes, the issue is my inability to install AL, or SimPE for that matter. Even to get the "super pack", I'd have to upgrade the heck out of my OS... and I still wouldn't have AL, since they never made a Mac version. Your suggestions are intriguing, though. Some of them may involve re-building some of my shops, but maybe I can just redo the front entrances... we'll see - I'll report back on which of these methods worked best.

I hope one of the suggestions or cc finds works out for you @chitownriverscum--and again do check out the Sweet Dow Low project. Because the meshes are already separated by EP, you can pick and choose which ones you need/want lowered versions of, and pick paintings you have available for your EP. Threadandsandpaper's original thread; check that to see if there are any custom paintings you can use. Otherwise use HugeLunatic's edits or AutumnRoseSims' edits. And again, if you don't want a default of something, let us know--it's a simple thing to change the GUID of an object to make it custom for you. I would suggest looking at the cantankerous splatters painting--I believe that's from NL and it should have some sign recolours, including some English ones. If you need help finding those do let us know because while simmers tend to be about Simlish and Maxis Match nowadays, it was the exact opposite years ago and there should be plenty of English signs out there. I have been looking, but I haven't seen a sweet down low version of MogHughson's shop sign though.

So, they're separated by EP, once you've downloaded them, but they all seem to come with the caveat "unless you have AL, this download is useless". At least, that's what I'm seeing. Are there any that are just down-shifted versions of Maxis-match hangings? Maybe I'm not reading it carefully enough. Sorry if I appear obtuse.

So the down low project takes the meshes of the original EA objects and lowers them so they sit at ground level. They say useless without AL because you'll never be able to move them up the wall. So all of your signs will sit at ground level.

So you might be better off with custom signs that have been lowered. This way you still have all your original meshes at the right wall height. And if you want the custom signs high on the wall as well, possibly request somewhere (GoS?) to have a new sign made that sits at a specific height that you are interested in.

Also, for anyone interested, I made the pooklet version as well as my own add on lowered to the ground. The add on by Nekosayuri was already low to the ground. Both share the same GUIDs and internal names, so choose either high or low.

@chitownriverscum, basically what HugeLunatic said. Normally, it would seem that a lowered painting wouldn't be of much use to anyone without AL's shifting ability, but in this case you are looking to hang signs. Using a lowered painting would allow you to place that sign on the second story, but have it be at the bottom of the wall, instead of the middle, like normal. And the lighting should still be normal/the sign should still appear well lit. That make sense?

The only draw back for you is that they are meant to be defaults and use the same GUIDs, so if there are paintings you would like to keep both versions of, let me know, and I can change the GUID for you. It's usually not a hard thing to change, but I know you can't get SimPE running on your mac.

So yeah, try them out see if they would work for you. If you need a different height, then, it'd be best to do as HugeLunatic suggested and make a request at Garden of Shadows.

Cool beans, and thanks for the advice. For this particular project, it turns out ModHughson's signs do in fact work with those half-walls (and were no doubt designed expressly for this purpose.) I had used some in another lot in the neighborhood, but it was a very odd building - an indoor mall, with lots of abnormal architecture - so it didn't occur to me that the signs in question were the ones I needed. And another simmer graciously offered to do the packaging for me off my photoshopped design, for which I used the edited template HugeLunatic mentioned. But if I find I need something more involved, I'll definitely give GoS a shot. Thanks to all who assisted on this!

Here are some screenshots of the new issue... The original ModHughson one worked pretty good on the recolor, save a strange magenta border (plus, I hadn't got the font quite right). SO we tried again, using the newer version of the original, posted by HugeLunatic. It worked okay, but wouldn't let me place it on a half-wall, which is where the originals were designed to go. So maybe that needs a tweak. Yes, there are multi-story buildings where you'd want it at the bottom of the next floor's wall. But if you're just putting it on a facade over the first floor, it's better to use the half-wall. You can see the red squares where it's not letting me place it (even though the hand doesn't appear in the screenshot. Obviously, I had MoveObjects on, as it let me put it across the doorway.
An actual Family Video store (now defunct)
My original recolor of the MogHughson template
My new version, recoloring the Pooklet/HL... a no-go on the half wall
Okay on a regular height wall.

Hmm, I think you can look in the Init-Bhav; I think you can clear a flag there to tell the game that the object doesn't need walls behind it.

Yeah, it said "Item must be placed against wall" or something like that. If that could be changed, that would be great.

Half walls are not considered walls(neither are basements), so wall objects will not place on them. The lowered ones by pooklet/me will both place on the half wall when using moveobjects cheat. The reason mog's original sign will place without cheats is because the mesh sits one tile above the standard wall height, and the game still sees that it belongs to the wall, not the half wall above. If the ones by pooklet/me don't place on the half wall above using moveobjects, perhaps you need to place a floor tile first? Both were cloned from mog's original so they contain the same bhav's.

AAHH. That makes perfect sense... and... it wasn't that it needed a floor tile, it's that... I'M AN IDIOT. I ASSUMED I had moveobjects on (I usually keep it on), because the thing went over the doorway. But in this case, I didn't, and when I did turn it on just now, bingo. All is well. Lesson learned: look before you speak.

Family Video / Enzo's Ristorante in Hawkins, IN

All's well that end's well, and now you have a sign. But I just have to point something out, so we don't confuse others. In the picture that says "My original recolor of the MogHughson template", the mesh we used was not the orignal. I am probably bad at explaining things, but it was Pooklet's own edit of the sign that I sent you first. The hot pink frame comes from Pooklet's own recolour, and you need to scroll through the frame recolours to find the right one for your sign. So Pooklet's edit of the mesh is the one that places without problem even with no cheat on (provided there is no roofs or things in the way). If there is a half wall it seems you need a cheat - like I wrote in the PM, I usually have a fake half wall built with the CFE cheat, so I couldn't really remember how it worked with the half walls.

The last one we tried, that's not pictured in this thread, was Mog Hughson's original and again, that should place just above wall height without cheats on.

So is this solved now? There are at least a few options a mac player has if they want shop signs placed just over wall height.

Yep, everything works great... Thank you again!