Okay, so, "no charcoal" it is.

I cannot make any of the charcoal clothing not dither into craptacularity.

Seriously, I've spent the last several hours working on the charcoal versions of several things and except for in one single case I've yet to come up with anything that works. The other colours, yes, I can improve, but charcoal? No.

I do not know how the hell they make their own clothes work, either, considering if I directly re-import what they export I also get dithering problems. *eyeroll*

I'm still going to revise the non-Charcoal colours and fix a couple minor flaws while I'm at it. But I give up on the charcoal. Srsly.

I SWEAR I did not used to have this bad a problem. I don't know if Seasons/BV changed things or if it's the new drivers/vidcard or some combination thereof, or if I just never tried to make dark clothing like this other than tshirts before, but... grr... so frustrated.

New Versions of Flawed Custom Content

All Homecrafter and Object files downloaded from me prior to February 9th should be replaced. Due to renames and/or reorganization, I advise deleting all relevant files, then downloading the new versions and putting them in place. [If you're worried, make backups... but I did this without trouble.]

Existing collections and decorated items should remain unchanged (except as noted below), as the files have the same ID numbers.

What I'm fixing...

(Click to expand.)





(That's all the update you get today.)

And other recolours...

Oh, look. My object recolours have the same compression problems.

*sighs weightily*

Okay. I've pulled all the download links except for the clothing, which I already worked around the compression issues for. I'll be searching through my archives for the original graphics files and fixing the packages as soon as possible.

If you have downloaded ANYTHING from me besides clothing, you will want to keep an eye out for the fixed files. I'll announce them and restore the links when I get a chance to finish up.

object recolours uploaded

Object recolours (requiring CEP) have been aded to the custom content post. Right now it's just a link to the top folder, which has subfolders, to help save some space. There are pictures (matching the rar file names) to give you an idea of what's available in any given file.

I may make some separate links to the subfolders later if it becomes an issue; I've been thinking of reorganizing by adding contents lists there rather than here anyhow. But for now I'm leaving things as they are.

The README just asks people to not redistribute (and credits CEP), don't fear it. :D

Note: While I'm mostly reasonably happy with these, there's some skins in that have a few flaws... nothing I feel makes them bad, exactly, or I wouldn't have uploaded them, but a few things where I wish I could've done better. In particular I'm not happy with the expensive toilet recolours, though I'm not sure I could've really done much better, either. Some of these might be remade later if I can figure out how to improve them.

Progress & Stuff

First: Recolours

My custom content post has been updated and slightly reorganized. This link is also always available in the side bar.

*sneezes*

My allergies are just out of control today. It's very distracting.

Custom Content Roundup

ATTENTION: If you downloaded ANYTHING but clothing or my Simself prior to February 9th 2008, please read this post.

[This note will be edited as custom content is added; it is linked in the sidebar.]

All files hosted by box.net. Due to their slightly poor navigation system, I recommend opening links in a new window/tab.

File names ending in a string of numbers represent an upload date (e.g., 080203, February 3rd, 2008), for things where I may upload another set later.

All folders now contain notes files and representative pictures detailing contents. Most folders have some subfolders; to keep this note from growing too long, the top folders are linked to but most subfolders are not.

Homecrafter

Walls (Paint | Siding | Tile Walls)
Floors (Basic Floors)

Bodyshop

Stupid DXT compression errors. Going to be rebuilding these and reuploading replacement files.

Objects

Object recolours require CEP, the Color Enable Package. Some skins recolour more than one item; this should be noted where applicable.

Object Recolours

Other

Sim packages

Weekend was a bust, of course

My sweetie was ill and we never did get around to doing Final Fantasy stuff, so I really didn't accomplish anything, except for redoing my custom eyes and trying 4 or 5 times to make a new version of SimMe. I'm still not 100% satisfied with the eyes I made for SimMe, actually, but I'm done playing with them, I'll deal. And the new SimMe is actually an old SimMe edited slightly (I had an old file) and done in the thin version, cuz, well, it's a fantasy game, I can be thin. :D I'll be uploading that when I upload other stuff.

Oh, I did a few other miscellaneous things, like discovering the 'shag' version of the carpet isn't looking right, so I'll leave it out. I also, surprisingly, made some makeup -- actually, just a couple extra eyeliners (including a couple Maxis things normally found in eyeshadow), a few eyeshadows, and a few face makeup recolours, the latter of which is actually for Twilight Dreams.

Today, I finished loading the painted walls and the regular tile walls. I just finished editing the mult-colour tile walls because there was a grout flaw in them, and I'll load those in (a lot fewer even with multiple versions of the half-tile, half-paint ones) along with the 20 or so aluminum sidings I have tomorrow. I also started recreating the non-shag carpet, redid one of the recurring characters for Tasogare Yume because I wanted to tweak him, and made him some custom clothing recolours.

I may finish up the carpet tonight, or go back to working on bedspreads. Not sure. Also trying to decide what else from the object-recolouring directory I want done before I start, and there's some made stuff that needs loaded into the game, too. I think I'll be able to finish the floors and walls and make a serious dent in that stuff tomorrow, unless I decide I'd rather do clothes tomorrow.

Progress to Date and other Custom Content Natter

As of this moment, I have loaded 715 wall files into HomeCrafter. So far since about 2:30 (Eastern) today, 220 files with the absolute longest names I've had yet, so with the renames of the files, I've typed more than enough to make a NaNo quota if I were participating, which I mention just for the fun comparison.

There are about 200 wall files left to do, but right now my fingers feel like they're going to fall off, so I'm taking a break. And then there's floors, but I need to take another look at the carpet as I'm not fully satisfied with it.

At this point every time I predict a date I end up getting sick or something else interferes with things, so I'm not going to predict a SOLID date, but I'm hoping that this means that all the custom content I really want in before I play (and that means the first round of clothes and object recolours and the rest of the stuff for Twilight Dreams, too) will be done by the end of next (not this coming, the one after) weekend, just in time for my birthday. :D Which means you should see Twilight Dreams releases by December, hopefully.

I also plan on making other stuff later, but that I'm going to work on more slowly: object recolours of stuff I think "too bad this doesn't come in x" as I play the game, more complex clothing recolours (and other age groups), some additional Homecrafter stuff (mainly some wallpaper and patterned paint that I like and want to bring in line with my main 12-20 colours, but I might do a few other things), etc.

Also, I'm going to upload stuff to box.net (I have an account associated with this gmail address) and I need to decide if I want to break it down by group of colour or by category (e.g., plain paint, paint with white wood kick, paint with dark wood crown and kick, etc.). It's by category right now, but for the collections I'm splitting into colour group as well as category, so I might package it up that way for box.net as well. I'm debating about uploading it to MTS... I suspect they don't really need a whole new batch of simple wall recolours, though, so I think I might not bother with this basic stuff.

Also, while I'm on the topic of custom content, I downloaded a bunch of makeup since it's one of those things I don't like working on, and also a bit more hair. So, see, I'm only horribly anal about some things. Makeup and hair, I'll take from other people. ^_^

I also now have a whopping THREE clothing meshes in the game, two of which are directly for use in Twilight Dreams, one of which I already recoloured (the other one's probably staying 'as is'). The third is HP's Comfy Sleepwear, which I'm a little unhappy shows up as casual everyday as well as sleep/workout clothes, but I'll live with it. I've also done one recolour of THAT, because my protagonist needed scary, scary pajamas.

Okay, now my fingers really are going to fall off, so no more til I've got more to report.