UPDATE 01/25: IT'S OUT NOW


Hey all. I'm excited to share the prototype of a full UI redesign for The Sims 3. This is a modern dark UI, in the same style of my similar Starship UI for Sims 2. I've spent about an entire week working on this thing and figuring it out- and I'm really happy and excited on how it's looking so far. This is a true flat redesign from the ground up, not a recolor.



I was led to believe for many years just by looking at the process and files that redoing the entire UI would take years, and that "redoing minor elements would take hours." But surprisingly, fortunately I have found that to be untrue. I set up a pretty simple workflow, and was able to do the entire essential Live mode design in just a day. So maybe some people are just lazy.

I chose to go with a dark grey main color and green highlight states, similar to my Starship UI. I used a lot of references and inspirations for this UI, particularly Chills Flat UI, Dark as Night UI, (which the LAYO files of I actually am temporarily using) and TS3 Clean UI. (Shoutout to Miha for giving me tips along the process and helping me out with a few nasty bugs.) I call it "Bedrock UI." Because dunno I feel like it sounds nice.







I'm not releasing it yet to the public as I don't feel that it's THAT finished yet, I still consider it a prototype, but as for all my other UI mods you can get to try the alpha on my Patreon, as I know there are people who really want to test it and I figured this was a better way instead of being spammed with anon asks on Tumblr. LOL. I can't link my Patreon here due to MTS policy, but you can find it on my about page. The final release will be free for everyone, don't worry, and I'll also release all my PSDs and source files so that people who want to change it, can.

Thanks!

I have a quick question: "When will this UI become available to the public?"

Beta / Early Loading Screen design.

This looks really nice and clean. I'd love to see a light version of this too.

Have you thought about testing what the loading screen would look like with the dark background and the plumbob and the relief of the logo in green? It's just an idea that just came to mind. I thought about dark versions for sims 2 and 3 as they appeal to me quite a bit after using Clean UI in sims 2 for so long. So I really like this that you are creating and it looks really great. :lovestruc

Are you going to make recolors as you did for The Sims 2? This may sound weird but I always liked that every expansion and stuff pack had its own theme in its icon and I imagined that it would look nice if it was also implemented in the original UI for each of them. Like, pale green for High-End Loft, dark pink for Late Night, dark green for Supernatural, etc.

And thank you, this is a good job.

Will it keep this simple black for supernatural sims? For ex. I have a Djinn and his ui is purple on purple and its hard to see his needs. This green on black is a lot easier to read.

New and refined loading screen design per feedback in this thread, based on chromaticasims remastered loading screen as a template.

Thanks! It depends on whether or not I can find a way to easily mass batch recolors, and the way TS3 handles UI is very different than how TS2 handles UI (in TS3, UI backdrops and icons are in the same file, so it makes mass batch actions harder.) I'll try to see what I can do, I'm thinking if I go all flat I can simply use the color range tool to manipulate the colors and create mass batchable UI actions THAT way. Thanks.

I love it, I need it, keep up the good work!

It's very sleek and I'm a fiend for dark colours, so I love how it looks so far! Though if I can make a suggestion, right now the Live Mode and Build/Buy Mode UIs look a little flat to me because there's no clear distinction between most of the various panels and buttons... I don't know if you intended for it to be like that, if not could you try playing with some (subtle) borders and/or gradients to make the "clickable" pieces look a bit more separate from each other and from the background?

My mom is gonna love this! She's legally blind, but still loves playing The Sims 3, even if it's really hard for her. But I'm sure it'll be easier for her now with this recolor, as the white buttons on a dark grey background are easier to see than the dark blue buttons on light blue background.

The project is still ongoing! Just been focused on my other recolor for TS2. I just redid the main menu, what do you guys think? :D

Is it available on your Patreon?

Yes!

I changed the game font to a more modern one to fit with the dark mode.. not gonna lie, I think it looks pretty slick!

How much longer until this becomes available to the public?

I need this now! Omg can't wait, help me.

2022 here =D any updates?

Subbed to your Patreon just to get this, and even in it's unfinished state it's leagues better then the default UI. I hope you continue to work on it! Amazing work and the best UI mod so far.

can i get a link to the Patreon please for the ui? i can find it anywhere

2023 here already- is it finished yet by any chance? :D

I love it!!

I know that the Starship UI is done for TS2 (and has BEEN done for a long while), but I'm not sure about this as we haven't gotten any updates. There is however another black UI that was actually made back in 2017 here on MTS. Idk if I would be able to link it or not, but if you search for it you should be able to find it. I will probably be using it until we hear more about Bedrock. It says that they are semi-retired from modding atm on their Tumblr so, it's probably going to be a hot minute until we do.

I don't know why I happened to be lurking MTS (which I haven't done in several months) when I saw this message in the thread. TS3 dark mode has gone through so many evolutions as I was working on it. In 2022 last year I scrapped the entire project and started again from scratch. This is currently what it looks like right now:




Unfortunately, I'm a high school senior and with finishing my thesis and all that, my lack of time has made it hard to work on it. I can't even play TS3 as a game because I'm just so busy. Only game I've been playing is Stardew Valley on my phone. Hahahahaha. Anyways, the project is currently in a limbo state right now.. when I free up my weekends to play TS3 maybe I'll get motivated to finish it.

Only live mode, the loading screen, and a small part of CAS is done so far. At least for this version of the dark mode UI, I edit everything by hand, so there are 350~ main image files and 3900+ smaller miscellanous icons to all edit. With the way that TS3 layers its background and icons, it is not possible to do by batch edit, unfortunately, so not only don't I have much time, but for best results, it's all done by hand in Adobe PS. The beta is so unfinished that I don't have any confidence of releasing it, even as like a public beta or something.