Date Posted: 22nd Jul 2011 at 3:48 AM

Just a statement: Loosing power sucks. Especially in the summer. When the temperature gets up to 100. And its humid.

That happened today. So I lost an entire day of sleep. And working on the recolor files. So it may be next week before they get up. I'm gonna need to catch up on sleep the next few days. (running on about three hours right now, just got up and took a shower and I still feel exhausted.) Thought I'd let you all know about the setback. Bye! ~VP

Date Posted: 20th Jul 2011 at 5:01 PM

I'm back with another update on the Plumbob Earrings. I got the toddler earrings to work. I had to learn how to hand-hack it into working, but it does. And somewhere along the way I managed to build all my meshes for non adults with a earring with a messed up UV Map, which of course I didn't notice until I was trying to make my recolors and say colors in the wrong spots. That, thankfully, was easy enough to fix. And currently all the recolor files are made. But definitely not ready yet as only some of them have color. Because now I'm going to go play in SimPE and make all the other one reference the color ones. Because a) I know how to do it and b)I like smaller downloads folders and since textures are usually the biggest part of any item... yeah. Referencing. This may take a while, since there are 96 recolor files. Yes you read that right. 96. There are sixteen color options (eight colors of gem and two colors of setting). One mesh for both ears, one for the left ear and one for the right ear. That's 48 right there. But then I'm also providing a file for those of you who already have the earrings and this one excludes the female adult so you don't end up with two copies hanging out in your catalog. So that's another 48. This earring is turning out to be a total pain in the butt. But I'm nearly done. I have to edit all 96 files in SimPE (those that are colored aren't properly alpha enabled so I have to fix that so that the gem is transparent. I have to fix that in the referencing ones too but since i have to play with the referencing part that's not going to be a big deal.) Then I have to run all of them through the compressorizer to squeeze all available space out of them, then sort them into folders so I can zip them up and put them up for all of you. If I'm lucky and don't distract myself too much this will only take 3 or 4 days max. It would be less time but I need sleep and to go to work. You should have these very soon! ~VP

Date Posted: 18th Jul 2011 at 6:09 AM

Hi! A short entry to alert anyone reading that I'm right now in the process of making my Plumbob Earrings available to everyone. The meshes are adjusted to fit the proper ages and genders and I'm in the process of creating Mesh files. then I just need to:
a) make the 16 recolors for all ages (5x16= 80 recolor files. Eep!)
b) adjust the meshes so that I can do one for the right ear and one for the left ear (that'll take all of 30 seconds per age/gender)
c) make the recolors for these new meshes (I love copy and paste)
d) enable these new recolors so that they're BV jewelry instead of glasses (the Wardrobe Wrangler is my best friend here)
e) take a few pics (probably the worst part. I hate taking pictures)
f) add them onto the Plumbob Earring thread. Or create its own thread. Not sure at this point. I'm betting the mods will tell me to simply add them to the already created thread. So I think I'll skip trying to create a new thread and wasting the mod's time. On the old thread it is!

That's all. If I stay focused it should be done before I go back to work on Tuesday night. Hopefully. But then I have a very short attention span. Alright back to work! ~VP

Edited to add: Toddler accessories are a pain in the butt! I just spent most of the night trying and failing to get my earrings to show up on toddlers. It just plain refuses. So unless someone can help me over in the creator help section, toddlers will just have to have plain earlobes. *Sigh* I'm going to go do something non-simmmish for a while in hopes that inspiration (or help of some sort) strikes. ~VP

Date Posted: 12th Jul 2011 at 5:15 AM

ANNOUNCEMENT: I converted the Jester Masks that MSD found and I enabled to all ages. Honestly it took all of five minutes in SimPE to do. I just didn't feel like doing it. There's also a townified version. 'Cause someone asked for it on the thread.

Second announcement that has absolutely nothing to do with Sims: I (finally) bought my ticket for the final Harry Potter movie earlier today! We had to wait and get the final tally of who's going so we could buy all the tickets at the same time so we can be sure we'll all be in the same theater. So yeah, this Thursday I'm not going to be working but rather sitting for at least an hour if not two in the Emagine theater so we can get a good spot in the line and get good seats in the theater. I wonder if I should bring my computer along for something to do? No, I promised Uno cards. (We had a deck of Uno cards at the last movie we sat in line for. I think it was Eclipse. So to carry on the "tradition" I promised to bring my Uno cards. I should go find those.)

So that's it for now. i think I'll go work on converting the earrings and the bracelets. Or perhaps the thing DigitalSympathies suggested: That I do decorative the cooking stuff that Sims use. I'll have to do a search to see if anyone beat me to it, then figure out where all the mesh files lie in the game files, but it may keep me busy for a while. ~VP

Date Posted: 9th Jul 2011 at 3:32 PM

First off I think I'm getting addicted to writing journal entries. I'm not sure anyone is even reading them. (If anyone is, don't be afraid to say hi!)

Secondly, I'd like to announce for anyone who hasn't seen my profile recently and noticed the little blurb that's appeared at the top, I have decided to take requests. As long as its an object, or clothing or and accessory. Since those are all I know how to do right now. I am slowly reading tutorials on modding but until I have a real need to make a mod (and I might if Chris Hatch on BackAlleySims doesn't get back to me soon) I probably won't make much progress on that front. I might not do all requests, even if they are something I know how to do, but if you give me a request I will let you know whether or not I'll do it. Like my profile says, I'm only accepting the ones I know what I'm doing on, or that I want to learn what's required. And since I'm open to learning a lot of things, most requests will probably be accepted. I honestly can't believe I've been playing Sims this long (since the base game for Sims 1 came out I believe. there may have been an expansion or two out for that one, but still it's been a long time) without taking the effort to learn how to make things.

And thirdly I'm actually creating my own website. Yay! That's also going slowly as most of the stuff I'm putting on it (the pictures from my Test of Time challenge) doesn't exist yet. I'll also have all my created Sims stuff there too once I get around to it. Maybe I'll be able to devote more time to this when I'm on vacation from work in a couple of weeks. It probably won't be a fancy looking site, especially since I'm using the free version of weebly, but I can always upgrade to a pay account later. When I finally decide to publish the thing, I'll add a link here as well as on my profile page.

And fourthly, I've given myself another really big and long term project. I have a few male sims who want to be able to wear women's clothes. (My game is sometimes a very strange place to visit. What can I say? Its an escape from the boring-ness of my actual life.) And while Simmergirl has a very lovely selection of women's clothes for men, my sims don't want women's bodies and especially not breasts (for the most part). So I'm thinking of resizing the women's meshes to fit the look I want. The whole, "you want something done right, you have to do it yourself" kind of thing. Most of this stuff I'm not going to upload here, but all will (eventually) be available on my (in the process of being created) website.

And fifthly, (wow that is a word. I was totally expecting my spell check to give that a red squiggly) I AM going to make all my lost and found jewelry available for other ages. In fact I have the meshes for the Jester Mask ready to go, but I really don't want to play around in SimPE figuring out how to put all ages in one file. (BTW: the Mask will be available for both genders ages Teen and up. Kids are not allowed to wear that thing. Sorry.) And once I get them done for all ages, I'll also provide a Townified version. Because Townies need to be able to scare people too. (That Mask is rather freaky looking. I almost don't want it on my list of creations.) The only reason I didn't do that during the really long downtime is b/c I decided spending hours in SimPE playing with Decorative TVs and Stereos was a better use of time. The Lost and Found Jewelry is my top priority (unless I get a request for something.) So hopefully these will be out soon.

Sixthly, well there really isn't a sixthly, I really just wanted to see if like fifthly the spell check would recognize it. It does. Anyhow, that's about everything. I'm off to either play some games online or play in SimPE or Milkshape. Or sleep. I did just work all night. See y'all! ~VP

Date Posted: 6th Jul 2011 at 7:56 AM

To anyone who downloaded my Decorative Computers before today (July 6th 2011): I fixed a small issue that probably wont bother most of you. The original version of the computers was not place-able on OfB shelves. I just added a version that is.

In other (somewhat related) news, I just submitted for upload my Decorative TVs and Stereos. A couple of the TVs have issues, but as I tried to fix them and sought help to do so and they still aren't' right, I'm submitting them as is and I'll fix them if need be.

On another note, I'm creating more stuff for my Test of Time challenge entry. I wanted the uniforms my aliens are in to match so I decided to make some for the women. But I wanted a skirt on them. And no skirt meshes out there were short enough and without heels. So I've been forced to create my own mesh. Thankfully clothing creation is a necessary first step to being able to create accessories. The mesh is complete, now I just need to texture it to match my male's outfits (which just got re-textured as well and look loads better.) I may or may not be sharing these on MTS. It all depends on how good the girls outfit's look. And if I feel like taking pics to MTS's specifications. Even if I don't' upload them, you can get a look at them in the pictorial record of the challenge (that i will start as soon as I go back to playing the challenge)

Anyway that's all I'm working on right now. ~VP

Date Posted: 2nd Jul 2011 at 3:46 PM

Small Update: The radios are done, I just need to take some pictures so that when the upload queue is finally up and running again, I can submit them. A side note on the TVs, I'm trying to get the footprint issue fixed with the GiganTek TV, but all attempts so far have not achieved the desired results. The TV still goes through the wall. And I just noticed the mesh is not centered. I'm not sure how this escaped my attention when I was constantly looking at it in game as I tried to get all other aspects of the TV working (and I adjusted the mesh several times in this period.) Oh well. A couple of the other TVs aren't quite centered, but not as noticeably as the GiganTek, so I might as well go fix them too, since I'd rather upload an object as close to perfection as I can achieve. Back to playing with Milkshape it is... ~VP

Date Posted: 30th Jun 2011 at 1:56 AM

Firstly, Yay for the extended downtime being over! I didn't realize how addicted to this site I am until it was unavailable for the weekend.

Secondly, I am working on enabling my Lost and Found Jewelry for all ages teen and up (may actually do children and toddlers on the earrings). Someone (cant remember who ATM but I'll check eventually) asked me about it on the Jester Mask thread and reminded me.

However, anobouzu asked on my Decorative Computers thread if I could do the TVs as well. And well, that sounded like a lot more fun that playing with accessories. So I tacked that during the downtime. They're completely done (unless I decided to fix the not quite centered but still looks fine mesh placement on some of them). Well and one of the TVs has a slight flaw that I don't know how to fix but it comes from how I adjusted the footprint and according to comments on the tutorial thread it appears to be unfixable. As soon as Delphy reopens the Upload queue I'll submit them.

By that time, I'll probably have my current project complete. Since I did the Computers and the TVs, I figured I'd round out the electronic annoyances and do the radios as well. Maybe now I'll turn music back on in my game. I muted it a long time ago when the Pleasant twins wouldn't leave the stereo alone (and deleting it would mean I couldn't electrocute Daniel on a regular basis as he tried to tinker with it). I may even do the speaker thing on the wall that plays different music depending on the color you choose... but that one I can't use the repository technique on and would have to create a lot of recolor files for. Unless someone's already made recolor files for the speakers then I just have to call those... Great now I might have a new project.

Anyway, just wanted to alert everyone to the creation of the TVs and Radios. ~VP

Date Posted: 8th Jun 2011 at 6:15 PM

So i found out the issue with the workout equipment. Apparently the non transparent parts CAN'T be transparent. So i give up on that for now. When i feel like being really fiddly with color so that the non transparent parts and the transparent parts appear to be similar colors, I'll get back to it but probably not in time to enter it in the monthly theme.

However, I've given myself another project. I was checking the new threads page and someone was asking about a hospital, and someone else responded with a link to Back Alley Sims who has a hospital mod. So sims can actually go to the hospital when they're pregnant or sick. And I downloaded it (of course. I'm a download junkie). And since I'm NOT a builder (picture square boxes with windows and doors) I downloaded a hospital from here (Mercy Hospital I think it's called). The problem? The mod uses computers as a base for the hospital staff and the downloaded hospital has at least twenty computers. I could just delete all the computers I don't want to use. Or since I know how to create I could create a decorative version of the computers to retain the look of the hospital. Guess which route I chose? Yep. I'm making the computers. Not a big project you say? It is when I have to learn the repository technique for objects. I want the decorative object to be able to pull any downloaded recolor of the original computers. As of right now, the one object I'm working with pulls the default color (progress there, the file used to crash the game as soon as the catalog tried to load it. But I think i was doing things wrong in the package itself (it's been a while since i created an object)) I'm about to try to enable it to pull the other recolors. Assuming that works, it should be easy to repeat the process on the other files, take pics, an upload. Hopefully. ~VP

Date Posted: 31st May 2011 at 3:57 PM

I posted a help thread about this, but does anyone know why the exercise machine from the base game won't go fully transparent? For some reason the parts that actually move when the sims works out, wont go transparent with the rest of the machine, even though the texture file is telling them to.

Anyway, that's my current project, making my entry for the monthly theme of June. I was just going to recolor the cushions and whatnot, only to search if it had been done, and it has, so to be different I thought I'd make the body of the machine transparent, like it was made of gemstones or something. It's be highly impractical in real life, but sims isn't real life. And I have a couple of rather rich sims who would live to flaunt their wealth with gym machines made from gemstones instead of the normal material.

For anyone curious about the skintone issue I was having before, HP's tutorial worked wonderfully. Everything shows up just how I intended. I really should go make the default replacement of Astiees' skins like that now. The one file like that takes up so much less room than the four files. Could be because it only references most of the textures from the original files. I'm a huge fan of not inflating Downloads folders anymore than necessary. That's probably b/c mine is so large. I happen to be a download-aholic.

Haven't really done much else creation-wise. Most of my sim related stuff has been on my challenges. Aside from the Test of Time challenge I mentioned before, i'm taking on the Prosperity Challenge. Mostly b/c I'm not feeling the explosion of babies that will be happened shortly in Test of Time, but partly b/c I clicked mangaroo's randomizer just to see what kind of families I'd roll and saw a couple I'd like to try and play. haven't gotten much past making all the families and moving them in to their houses, but that's b/c i realized I had left my aging mod in. And since the point is to get through i think it's five generations, I didn't need my sims ages tripled. So i left to go fiddle in SimPE to fix their ages. Haven't checked that I did it right (got distracted by trying to do the workout machine) but I think I did. I've been using SimPE for creating for so long that I forgot it had the ability to muck around with neighborhood files. I had to go look up some tutorials on how to mess with sims in SimPE.

Anyway, that's about it for now. Next time I do something I deem noteworthy, I'll be back. ~VP