I love the horizons! Placement can be a bit nitpicky though. They seem to work best with a hood map that has a minimal amount of coastline (no islands) and ideally the corner the object gets placed in should be low. Near sea level is ideal. My Testing Hood is on a template with the two land corners on hills and the other two corners are sea (1/3 of the map is beach/ocean, I think I used Maxis' "Driftwood"), so didn't work too well. If your lot is too close to the edge of the "world" you'll still see the Maxis "fog" effect along the edge, which can look a bit jarring - looks best if there are hills, buildings, etc. between your point of view and the edge of the "world" to hide these seams. Placing the object too high made the sky show through in a couple of places made the object itself clearly visible from some of the lots since it doesn't hide itself when you leave hood decorating mode like the placement cubes for clouds, hot air balloons, etc. People less lazy than me could use that neighborhood cheat that lowers terrain in order to get it at the right level.

Meadow Creek, on the other hand, has one corner that's perfect for this. The neighborhood looks awesome with a horizon! Now I have to run through all my other hoods and try this on them!

I usually use Tom Duhamel's cameras, but the neighborhood one didn't zoom out far enough for me to see to place the horizon object properly, so I switched to this one by daz_far . This one's great for placing stuff in neighborhood view, but it's awfully twitchy - dances around like a nervous racehorse at the slightest touch - so when I'm done I will switch back to Tom Duhamel's neighborhood camera for actually playing the game.

Daz far away Adding skies is fun, but it always looks a bit weird in my game- like the map is too big for them? I dunno what I'm doing half the time, so the fact that I haven't ever killed my game is pretty good!

Edit: Now I reread previous posts, I notice you're talking about horizons. Are they not they same as skies?

No, horizons are different. If you look at the Criquette picture linked in post # 198, you can see that the horizon is open at the top so you will see the Maxis sky through it. I've never used replacement skies myself, so I don't know how well they would work with horizons.

On the stupid/random question thread I asked for neighbourhood visible flowers, and then I found these. They are gorgeous and some (not all) are neighbourhood visible so I am super happy. Thought they deserved a mention.

Nimi's Neighbourhood sky, without horizons





Sometimes in a lot the sky will disappear at certain places so I have to be careful when I take photos.

Thanks bubble for the link, definitely going to grab a few. Shame they are purely decorative, I like having my Sims garden, but you can't have everything

One did say they include the butterflies, but I noticed those weren't hood visible, in case you're after that as well.

Hood visibility is irrelevant to me. My computer can't handle having neighbour lots show, and I don't spend time in neighbourhood screen, so there's not much point. But I appreciate the thought

Mod, what I found today is 6 years old. Actually it is older because it is remake of Squinge's mod. And I was looking for it more than 2 years....
It wasn't available for most of simmers because of language barrier.
So Call taxi enabled for children remade and updated for M&G by Kazarin.
Tested it in my game, everything works. Download link here: http://www.mixei.ru/showpost.php?p=...4&postcount=388

I wonder if it clashes with anything like toddler riders or community lot time. Does this allow children to go out alone?

I think this mod does what is said, enables "Call taxi". I do not have these mods and can't say if it clashes with them. But in situations when parent is calling taxi and is distracted to go and taxi leaves with children on board, it is lifesaver because child who got stuck on community lot in vanilla game can call taxi and go home. I tested with child only, it worked and she went to community lot alone, had a nice day and returned. Its time to build playgrounds for children only...

For those of you, like myself, who have Rebecah's converted Pet Stories agility objects and always wished there were more color options...here you go http://digitalperversion.net/garden...21349#msg721349.

If you have never seen or used these items before, please note that they are functional and not just decorative.

That's an awesome find. Thanks.

Ok, it's not a "thing" exactly, but a blog that talks about architecture! Specifically, why McMansions suck. It goes into how they violate some of the principles of good architecture and explains things in a simple and straightforward enough way that I think I'll definitely be able to make my houses look better. This particular post I'm linking is good but there's also a lot more there.

http://www.mcmansionhell.com/post/1...a-mcmansion-bad

I did see those recolors, but there is no mention of whether or not we also need Rebecah's as it does say something about fixing meshes. The zip does have the object files with recolors, controller and pet animations files in it. It also doesn't mention if the Backyard and Professional sets can both be added or what their differences are. (:

I guess my questions would be -
1. Do we need Rebecah's files too?
2. Both Backyard and Professional can both be in game at same time?
3. What is the difference between the two? I'm think Backyard works on residential lots and professional is community lots and spawns a judge?

Speaking of the topic, in my bookmarks I have a folder of just house-plans. Here it is, if any builders ever need inspiration:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u...20Bookmarks.htm

1. I think this is replacing Bek's
2. My guess this is the small vs the large and since they don't say do not have both I would take both
3. This set has never called a judge, it's isn't functional in that sense.

Even more specifically, why the blogger happens to think that McMansions suck. I've seen this kind of thing about balance and proportion and harmony with the landscape etc before and I never, ever get it. Obviously I just don't have the kind of artistic temperament that even notices such things, let alone cares about them.

If anything I prefer the McMansions, because in the examples given in the linked post at least, some of them looked as if they'd been cobbled together over the course of time, adapting to changing needs and opportunities, rather than being planned to perfection from the outset.

That's an illusion, of course, because these are relatively new houses, built in toto the way they were planned. Because some people actually like them looking that way. So I'd say forget about concepts of 'good' or 'bad' architecture, and stick with architecture you happen to like.

(Of course, there is such a thing as genuinely bad architecture. It's the kind that tends to fall down soon after it's built.)

1. No, you don't need Rebecah's files. My agility items from Rebecah all turned into doghouses when I removed hers and installed these so they had to be replaced anyway, so I'm guessing they're separate objects or have different GUIDs or something.
2. Yes. The backyard and professional objects are completely separate items so if you want all the recolors, you'll have to have both sets.
3. There is a big difference in price between the two sets. The professional objects are much more expensive than the backyard ones. I only use the professional ones on community lots (dog show arena, public training grounds, etc.). Each also has its own set of recolors that aren't available for the other set. The competition programming (judge, scoring, etc.) is unique to Pet Stories. These downloadable objects only have the animations on them. You can pretend to train your dog and enter it in a pet show, but that's all. Good for storytelling/movie making.

Someone here recently started a thread asking for clothes for transgender women. There are some things in GOS's monthly theme thread that fit the bill.http://digitalperversion.net/garden...?topic=33861.75

These are definitely not new, but I only discovered them the other night. Nanisim remeshed the smoke alarms to be overmantels that match the Maxis fireplaces. Interesting idea!

http://modthesims.info/download.php?t=277510

http://modthesims.info/download.php?t=278120

For those of you who might need/want some new clutter for your sick sims homes or your pharmacy and/or hospital, Sandy, uploaded a new set of goodies http://sims2.aroundthesims3.com/obj...s_misc_002.html.

Have to say thanks for this, not so much for the pet objects, but for the male cardigan outfits underneath them! :lovestruc

*Another download spree*

So I'm in the midst of cleaning out my downloads folder (wish me luck I can finally finish this weekend; it's taken all summer ) and I'm researching cc (oh, I like this hair but perhaps in a different color action, etc.) but of course I get sidetracked into long dark link spiral. That's when I find this:
http://crispsandkerosene.tumblr.com...ons-the-two-ts3

Definitely not new, but in case you missed it like I did, Crisps&Kerosene has converted a few things: TS3 buffet tables to serve hot dogs and berry pie; Around the Sims' studio camera into a modified telescope that lets sims "Practice Filming” to gain creativity and film and literature enthusiasm; and Veranka's deco uni life backpack into a functional dresser slaved to the original. Plenty of cool stuff to use, right?

Just don't ask me how I found it from looking up hairs.

I think I should avoid this thread.
Glad you succeed in cleaning your DL folder @Phantomknight. I tried and I wasn't too successful.

I get it, believe me. It's been a looonnnggg process. Usually when I try to clean out my folder I give up halfway through and just dump everything back in so I can play. It's definitely taken years to get to the point where every piece of cc has a picture and every hack has a txt file (which I recently learned slows down your game so I had fun this summer changing all of them to jpgs ) The trick, I think, is to do one folder/section at a time. The "problem," at least in my experience, is that when you need to go searching for additional colors or a mesh or picture/description so you can be done with a piece of cc once and for all, you usually find more stuff to download. And, of course, I have no self control so download away I do! I spend about as much time sorting cc as I do downloading new stuff to try. I've learned to keep everything I've already went through in a "done" folder so when I get the itch to play (which happens a lot after you download a bunch of cool stuff) and throw everything back in my sims 2 folder, I don't have to do everything all over again when I start sorting again.

Also, this summer I was really strict with myself about not mixing old and new cc and looking through every single folder. For the past two months I've been loading up the game in window mode and looking at every single item/hair/object and being honest with myself about if I actually use things. It was a little sad but I've finally nixed some years old content and now I've got about 5 GB left of hair and clothes to sort, which is the easiest for me because I go through them and cull them regularly. I think a year ago I was definitely over 20GB of cc but by the time I'm finished it'll be around 12-14.

But to stay on topic, I found this simblr yesterday (http://alienpod.tumblr.com/tagged/download) with some great looking maxis match hairs. Check out alien pod if you haven't already!

I just recently had an experience with Adfly with super loud noises, a voice telling me my hardrive would be deleted in one minute, if I shut down the link or browser it would be immediately deleted, just about gave me a heart attack but finally got it done. Anyway, I just found this at GoS http://digitalperversion.net/garden...p?topic=33919.0 I tried it out and it works great! What a relief, I scanned my pc and found nothing after that day, but hadn't shut down my pc since so I could pay my bills for this month, just in case it did mess up my pc. Now that they're paid, I can shut down tonight. (:

You will still see the Adfly page for about a second, but it does go directly to the download. Once I got a popup to check saying I'm not a robot, or something similar, I just hit the 'x' box at upper right corner, don't answer the popup itself.

I was fairly sure that any file that wasn't a package file increased load times.

For Adfly links I just use one of the various link unobsfucators around, such as this one.

Yeah, the game is going to try to "read" every file in your downloads folder. If you're concerned about load times, don't put anything in Downloads that you don't want the game to try to load.

If you think about it, the game techinically reads package files that aren't in the Downloads folder too. Collection files - those are read. Walls, floors, terrain paints - they can be put in a folder outside the Downloads folder, but you can still use them. (Which means the games does read them.)

That said though: I put all of my walls, floors and terrain paints in a folder outside the Downloads folder and I *did* notice a difference in load time because the game doesn't read them while the game is loading. I've read that you could probably do this with object recolors too, but I haven't tried it and don't know that I ever would. I don't want my game to explode on me, lol.

Things I did that DID speed up my load times (I switch between 3 different games so, yeah, load timeS): put walls/floors/terrainpaints outside of the Downloads folder and renamed all package files with special characters in them. Some people say the renaming doesn't make any difference, others (like me) do notice a difference. Since I can't resist new cc, anything that helps load time is a blessing to me. You can also delete the intro movies, help/support files that aren't in your native language and some other files from the folders in Program Files - I'm not sure which ones at the moment but there's a topic about it at Maty.

Thank you. I might use that because while I don't see as many Sims 2 CC files involving this (though there are some), so many Sims 3 CC files use Ad.fly.

In the past, it wasn't a problem. You could get around it. But recently, I've been experiencing quite a few difficulties with it, and some of those difficulties involved sketchy ads. Ad.fly is like Mediafire to me ... a purveyor of nasty ad junk. And having been burned by both in the past, I don't care if they cleaned up their acts and plan to present only text ads with pictures of fluffy kitties ... I don't trust the ads from either service.

Time to try this on some Sims 3 stuff that I wanted, but was giving me agita because of the Ad.fly garbage.

So to verify, you can put things outside the download folder and still access the cc files in the catalog in game when you build or are you just saying you know you don't need them that play time so you move them out of the downloads folder until you do need them?

I can confirm that.

I discovered it by accident one day when I wanted to add some furniture to a creator's file (I name my files after the creator).

Since I had used the particular furniture for some starter houses, I knew it had to be somewhere, but it was not in my downloads folder. A windows search found the file in the PetCoats folder I did not leave the file there, I moved it back to Downloads, but it was certainly showing up in the catalog and used normally in game by me.

I think it was Shoukeir's stuff, if I remember correctly. I also think AndrewGloria confirmed that he had found the same thing.

I also found some recolors of a dining chair in the wrong folder once. They were all showing up. Yet I obviously am not sure when they will show up and in which folders they should or should not be.

If you should have a separate folder with some downloads in it - eg. Michelle Recolors - and it is not in any other folder, all of them also show up.

Well, not "things" - walls, floors and terrain paints specifically. (And like I also noted, I've heard you can do it with recolors too but I haven't tried it.) But yes - you can still use them in build mode. I just plopped all of mine in a folder (WallsFloorsTP) and every single one of them shows up in the catalog.

Edit because: Apparently you can put recolors outside of the Downloads folder and they'll work too? If I read that correctly, lol. (I type so friggin slow sometimes.)

Recolors, yes - as well as objects with new meshes - after all, Shoukeir's stuff are not recolors.

Well, I did say if I read that correctly. Which I obviously didn't. So I wonder if that affects loading time or how the catalog loads in game?
I love threads like this, you can learn new stuff!

I think that must depend on your system - my experience of removing a lot of the unusual characters was that the game loaded slightly more slowly. It was slight though (like 30 seconds) and was likely owing to something else going on, like the computer having a sudden urge to check for updates or something. My game loads in about 2-3 minutes nowadays since the upgrade to Win10 and the purchase of MOAR RAMz (never hurts) - this with a full load of CC (I must time it again). It's been getting shorter every time I upgrade something (my CC has increased too but it's a pretty slow increase - I've learnt not to go and look at links). My personal observation is that the most important factor would seem to be your system's capabilities. I have a fairly high end system since I play other games which require just ... well, better stuff. My sims game seems to benefit from that - basically if your load times are already currently shortish, renaming stuff makes little difference.

So, the only thing that needs to go in the Downloads folder are hacks, then?

I have all my object recolors outside of the download folder, as well as the walls,floors and terrains. Never have had a problem with it, because they are, after all, just recolors of the original object, which is in the downloads folder.

Original objects, clothes(-and their recolors), hacks, mods, etc, need to go into the DL folder.

Renaming files does speed it up a little.

I thought clothes could also go in Saved Sims (not that I've really bothered since University).

Found this cute pet stuff at my daily search on Sims Cave:

http://beautifulnerdkitty.tumblr.co...t-pet-bed-big-2

I especially love the cat condo. I hope my cats like it too

My complete Shoukeir folder was outside the downloads folder. Everything worked. Then I found some recolors of one of her dining sets and I wanted to add it to that folder - and discovered it was not inside the downloads folder. So objects can work outside the DL folder.

I don't think anyone would debate that. But plenty of people can't afford or don't want to spend money upgrading the pc, and then this kind of trick becomes really useful. Sure, there are more effective things you can do, but why not get however little/much time reduction you can from renaming files.

I'm not saying that's an issue at all, I'm just pointing out that at a certain point, it's a redundant exercise. People get very wound up here about stuff, I think it's important to have balanced perspective. My PC business is my own I guess - I keep it up-to-date and whizzy because I play other games. I know not everyone who plays TS does that.

Incidentally, my game is loading in 2mins 55secs - rivalling how it was when I just had Base Game. Wait, no it isn't. Base game only was really quick - maybe 15-20 seconds. Still that's the shortest it's been for a while.

I don't know that it would help with anything, just that the cc does work in game

aka "computer's not on fire yet? Better add more CC!"

I actually did blow up my video card once (the capacitors popped) but that was more the results of electrical surges and/or overheating than the amount of extra stuff I added to any game.

That is exactly right. *nods and goes to find more cc*

Just checked my downloads folder and it has 8.02 GB, 35,644 files, wall, floor and terrain folder alone has 3500 files. There are no special characters in the wall-floor folder as they all go through Sims 2 Homecrafter which changes the names to all numbers. The downloads folder is checked to read only, it also says 'Only applies to files in folder'. My game takes 15-20 minutes to load, does this mean if I move the floor-wall folder to outside the downloads, the game might load even faster? (:

Have you compressorized them? I would try that first.

Some file are compressed, but I don't know how to do it myself. I don't think it's a long wait time for the game to start, seems rather quick to me, considering the wait times of others. Usually I would start the game, get my oatmeal cooking and feed the cat, game is ready before I get back to it. Mostly just curious if the wall-floor folder would be better outside the downloads folder. (:

Grab it from here:
http://sims.jfade.com/index.php?category=1&subcat=5

Either install it or extract it to folder of your choice. It comes with a PDF manual that explains how to use it.

And backup.

I know this is going to sound odd, but if you compress all the files in your downloads folder, also compress the neighborhood files (characters and lots), the thumbnails in the main folder..because they expand like the universe.

In short, every single file that has the file ending in "DBPF" is compressible. It won't hurt, and it will help a lot to speed it up.

Worth a try. Make a back up and use a test neighbourhood.

Heh - and that's what I'm trying to avoid these days. I've found I've reached my limit not with the volume of CC in the folders but with my ability to cope with searching through the catalogues in game. I re-catalogue everything to my own specifications but still have trouble finding stuff. Collections help too. But I am DL less and less CC nowadays. I really should go through and have a throw out.

I've slowly been going through walls and floors with Home Crafter, deleting older stuff and ones I don't seem to use, then adding more. Some I will have to sort through in game to see what goes with what, they don't all really show if they look good or not in HC. At least I've been deleting more than I add. (:

This was at SimsCave and I thought it was just super. The attention to detail and overall look reminds me of Zara's 'Shack at the end of the World'.

Nice representation of traditional Korean farmhouse(I want to see the floorplan, haha). Although I feel it should have bigger frontyard(In traditional Korean houses, frontyard is usually served as workspace).

You are disappointed how Maxis categorized clothes. You don't want see baby growing up into toddler in tuxedo.
Try this: http://sims-influence.tumblr.com/po...verhaul-project

Make your servos look like TS3 Simbots. Unfortunately, due to the way the TS2 game servos are made, you can only pick one body - they'll all look like males or all look like females - you can't have both. They still look cool though.

http://chazzhay.livejournal.com/11061.html

Hunting for something completely different and came across this functional hair dryer cloned from PCsims' functional hair brush:
http://crispsandkerosene.tumblr.com...sims-functional

SkyWookie, one of my viewers, defaulted some bedding for me using my favorite quilted bedding!



Click each photo to go to the original download posts.



Here is the download link for the defaulted bedding: http://www.mediafire.com/download/6...nnelBedding.zip

And I uploaded it to my Box.net account, in case MediaFire takes it down: https://app.box.com/s/wnonfhkqjipar1e7rbvwwsbuiifqpjoh

Frac, created a custom easel that works the same as AnoeskaB's easel (different canvas options) here http://fracturedmoonlight.tumblr.co...ty-available-in. She then added the same options to several other easels that have been converted or created by others. It's so nice to have more variety. :lovestruc

It is old, but: Hillbilly Hot Tub by Komasutra
Though I don't know why H&M is a requirement.

There's also Hugelunatic's redneck hot tub here http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=409503
and Michelle's recolors here http://modthesims.info/d/445813

Riekus13's Kitchen Basic counter recolors: http://riekus13.tumblr.com/post/122...983/geo-kitchen

Bump for clutter lovers: http://betsyslittlesimshoppes.blogs.../p/clutter.html

Another bump:
Medieval Alcove(put it around double bed!) by Lady Lama: http://themedievalsmithysims2.blogs...val-alcove.html
Riekus13's modern(?) recolors of the alcove: http://riekus13.tumblr.com/post/151...8/dutch-alcoves

More bump?
Tinkle's Black Pearl Sims Archives

I should not be in this thread

My downloads folder hates me

Stumbled upon this athletic looking 'gear'. Looks very neat in the picture, so I had to have it and I thought I should share here:
http://titlesimslemon.tumblr.com/po...sims-2-ivy-park

These aren't downloads, (yet), but there have been some pretty cool technical discoveries in the last few weeks.

Animated clouds: http://lowedeus.tumblr.com/

Custom hood deco that lights up at night: http://criquette-was-here.tumblr.co...up-at-night-yes

That's lovely but I wouldn't want the clouds streaming past so fast. Bet that can be altered though.

http://www.sims2collage.de/ermelind...bauen/index.php
Glass domes, deco roofs...

A whale slide: http://sadepaivas.tumblr.com/post/1...ailable-as-pool
Nice for a themed lot.

Woh, that is super fast I would quickly get giddy. Needs to be slowed down to speed 1, you know like the slow motion cheat.

A friend enlightened me to this mod which removes the red border when pausing the game. Thought I'd pass it on in case anyone else missed it. Very handy if you're a picture taker.

Bubblebeam thank you for that. It will be very useful!!!

This one is beyond amazing:

http://lowedeus.tumblr.com/post/151...tarianism-redux

An animated sky globe with different textures for day, evening, night and so on.
There's also an animated neighborhood version. The hood sky can even be seen from lot view (if your far distance is high enough/modified). So you don't even have to use the lot sky!

Here's a picture of my lot view (using a static and animated hood sky object):

Oh gosh, my laptop is going to kill me for this, but... so... pretty. Must...have.

Okay, that skybox has tempted me enough. Hopefully with my laptop's current settings, it can handle these new weather effects without choking too hard.

I'll hold off until I've got a better computer; something tells me that this'll be the thing that causes my computer to burst into flames.

Beautiful eyes
 

It's not recent but whenever I reinstall Sims 2 for various reasons, I always go back to my favourite eye set by Yumedust
Found here
I just love the slight sparkle of the eyes and the fact it's natural and unnatural colours. I even got defaults so everyone can have pretty eyes :lovestruc

Now that you mentioned 'Eye Love'... I'm sure there's a geneticised set: http://digitalperversion.net/garden...hp?topic=5104.0
Pooklet's edit of CuriousB's 'Sister Moon' eyes: http://pooklet.tumblr.com/post/1193...to-try-to-adapt

My computer can manage the regular hood sky globe but I'm not going to put it to the test with the animated one. The game is already taking 20 minutes to load as is. :/

(I must buy a new computer...) <- because of these goodies, you know.

It is pretty awesome! And, since the new version was made to work well with Criquette's horizons, I happily switched out my old neighborhood sky mod. It is really nice seeing the clouds move while you're playing a household - have found myself just stopping to look at the beauty of it all.

Also, now I don't feel a need to add much in the way of other neighborhood decorations (besides trees), as the sky combined with the horizon more than pretties things up.

Stay AWAY from Amazon.

Okay, not really CC but I'm excited to have extracted Maxis sims and lots for download! (Hope they're legit).

http://maxis-taste.livejournal.com/12428.html

http://ts2lots.tumblr.com/



I've never made a custom neighborhood before, so I want to experiment doing that so I can have all my favorites in one place.

So I could make a new hood where Don is there without borkage AND without Pleasantview drama (for a new less soap-opera ish backstory obviously) AND with the Brooklands?

YOOOOOOOOOOOO

Tbh, @alljoj and @TheDraizeTrain, that's kind of what my current hood is like. I nabbed all of my favorite premades, fiddled with their faces a bit (it's... it's a bit too much at some point... Plsno... Mortimer keep your pointy god damn nose outta here), and changed their names just a smidge because I thought some of them sounded dumb. Those, combined with some of my favorite born-in-game and CAS Sims... Christ, it's heavenly. 11/10 would recommend entirely. ♥

YAY! When the time comes for me to put Mary-Sue Pleasant in my hood, I'll be able to without having to make my own!

Bye bye, borkedness! Here comes a brand new hood!

Yay!!!!

Haha, nice! I can't believe it took me this long to find these. I had settled with having uberhoods, and felt "obligated" to play with premade sims I didn't really care for. I know it's silly, but it's totally psychological for me. That's why I can't stand even seeing those extra premades in the sim bin (thus why I immediately make them into townies, I used to killed them but that took much effort).

http://tinhousesims.blogspot.kr/201...og-post_18.html
Looks nice, but sometimes I feel some of Tinhouse objects are placed in wrong categories...

Those handy-dandy Maxis buildings will sure make life a little easier! There are times when I'd like a Maxis house back, but don't feel like going through the trouble to find it. (OK, OK. Sometimes I'm a little lazy with lots . )

For Retro-Future style lovers?: http://beautifulnerdkitty.tumblr.co...ing-chair-comes

You can change them with SimPE (or SimCat).

Awesome.
I think my current computer could handle it but I'll build a way better one next month.

My favourite thread. I love everything give me it all.