...soooo....slooooooow

The "I Hate This Process and Want to Die" Font is already installed.
If you want to install a new version you will have to uninstall it first.
[OKAY] [CANCEL] [SHOOT SELF IN HEAD]

I think I'll be ready to install the Sims in a couple days. I guess.

So, get this...

We have this stack of shiny new computer components. Brand new AM2+ motherboard released this year, brand new CPU, brand new video card (I think it's like a month old, seriously), Lightscribe DVD drives, dual SATA hard drives, pretty widescreen monitors. Actual state of the art equipment, yanno. Which is a first for me, by the way.

more partses

We now have a Mighty Stack of Boxes. We are waiting on video cards, however, and input devices (we could transfer the ones we have but for ease's sake for file transferring it'll be easier to have all 4 boxes running until that's taken care of.)

Incidentally, the setup fFIL chose for hard drives? RAID drives. That means I will automagically have data backup on a mirrored drive. The chances of both drives failing catastrophically at once, particularly since he also sent us each a UPS which should avoid the stupid "brownout = computer crash = hard drive damage" problem, is pretty slim, so hopefully I will avoid ever completely losing data, though the downside is that corruption would be copied to the mirror, too. But soft file corruption is usually easier to work around than "My sector is full of holes", so I'm optimistic it'd mean less likelihood of having a major catastrophic loss of data even if something does go wrong in the future.

Also: widescreen monitors. Heh-heh. Yes, I know I already said that, but you have NO idea how long I've been drooling over those, and Sims isn't the only game I play that'd benefit from it.

heh-heh

Widescreen monitors.

(The computers aren't here. The monitors are.)

More delays, but some good news, too

Well, the bad news is I no longer can predict a solid date for when I will be putting anything out. There's three reasons for this: the first is my cold came back so I kinda didn't really do anything Simsy last week. (I feel better now.) The second is a really good reason that involves joy and happiness and great celebration, or at least it does from me.

pushing back projects due to illness

One of the consequences of my general ill health is that when I get a cold, I get sick for a long time. Very fortunately for me this cold didn't choose to settle badly into my respiratory system; when that happens, I tend to end up in the hospital. Instead, it chose to grace me with severe head congestion. The nose part is mostly cleared at this point, but I still have severe ear congestion on the right side and mild on the left, leaving me feel unbalanced and distracted. I am having a hard time concentrating on anything because of this.

So, I'm not even trying until it's cleared. Now, it is better; I can actually hear at all out of the right ear, and the left ear is mostly cleared up, both of which represent major improvements over last week. And my voice is mostly back, though still hoarse. So I expect it won't be too long before it clears up, but by that I mean "Maybe next week I'll feel like I can concentrate enough to do things like build and finish up clothes and make my collections." This week, I'm just giving myself off, and if I happen to work on things during it, well, that'll just put me ahead...

So, um. Mid-to-late December for releases of things? A nice holiday present for people who actually like my stuff?

grrr bodyshop grrr

So, I'm having this problem with Bodyshop trying to extremely compress the original BMPs of clothing in the actual package file, resulting in what ought to be a perfectly good graphic turning into this pixellated crap. I'm not sure what I can do about it... I'm already trying to keep adjacent colour changes to a minimum but somehow it's managing to b0rk them up anyhow. So either I need to rework the base for the clothes to be even less shaded, or I need to go into each and every package afterwards and replace the files with cleaner versions (increasing package size considerably, naturally).

I don't know why I'm having this problem... I swear other people don't have this problem. It's the same sort of stupid dxt issues I've had before I tihnk, though (for instance I was going to switch to Hysterical Paroxysm's skins but I can't because as soon as they're loaded once the game ultra-compresses them for some bizarre reason, which leaves them really badly pixellated). I don't know if there's some hidden setting somewhere I could alter to try to fix this, or what. What's freaky is I don't have this issue in other games using DXT. AND I have the nVidia toolset, even (though not an nVidia card).

Anyhow, so the only Bodyshop thing I actually got done-done today was custom eyebrow colours for the characters with unusual hair colours. I also loaded in a bunch of object recolours (but haven't looked at them in-game yet) and made a list of everything I need to do the flashback scenes for Twilight Dreams, since I'm going to work on those first... mainly it involves making duplicates of the characters in different settings with different companion characters, and figuring out what buildings I need to make multiples of and how to put together the duplicates had to be done before I could build.

the full update for today

As you can see, I managed to finish the first round of Homecrafter stuff and sort and upload it. I will be finishing up some object recolours and uploading those as well, hopefully within the week. Eventually I'll be adding clothing, too.

I'm going to be redoing the shirts I did for the chicks because I want to go back and fix the detail washout, so I'm going to start over with a new and improved base so hopefully it won't happen again. I also will be working on new stuff, too. Again, hopefully I'll get it done within the week.

Tomorrow I'll hopefully be working on Twilight-Dreams specific things, including building. I guess that means I'm going to have to make a final decision on what neighborhood base to put it in. It's really not that vital, I guess, but I want to build a whole little town for it, so I've been debating about the size and layout.

I say 'hopefully', because I'm still sick. I'm hideously stuffed up, though it's better than it was a few days ago. I can't hear right and I can't talk easily. (I sound really funny when I try to talk. Imagine that exact note of the crack of a voice change from puberty, only for the entire sentence.) So my motivation is there but my energy and ability to concentrate is less so.

I would seriously consider committing murder for some steroids and some combivent or even just albuterol right now.

Anyhow, still shooting for early December for the first Twilight Dreams releases.

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

it's a conspiracy

My sweetie brought home a cold this weekend, and I got it... BAD. I spent most of yesterday asleep, and a large chunk of today... and I'm feeling totally fluff-brained and really, really out of it. So, um... apparently life is trying to make it so I never actually play the Sims again, or something. I don't know.