The eternal search...
Quinctia:
I personally don't like HP's skins much at all, to be honest. I don't know if it's just my computer or what (I thought her pictures looked pretty good--I wouldn't have downloaded them otherwise), but when I put them on a sim in CAS, they just didn't look real. I know Enayla's got a lot of contrast in hers (that's what makes them "shiny"), and I guess there's just not enough in HP's to work for me. It might be different if someone was running as high specs as possible, which would increase the appearance of the textures, but I can't do that right now. The two darker shades I liked a bit, but so far, in messing with CAS, I haven't found a sim I'd want to put them on. I was making a bunch of custom townies, so I figured I'd try a few new skins, but I didn't like those.
So while I like Lyran's as a default, I "put up" with having mostly Enayla as the rest of my custom geneticized skins because they have the variety in skintones, the good quality modeling, and the colors tend to be pretty rich and well done. Though I don't like some of her lighter tones, either.
I want as many skintones as possible, but I'm picky, and I'm not particularly good at digitally coloring anything that isn't metallic, so I can't make my own.
Hegelian:
Quote from: Ness on 2007 May 14, 08:11:41
I can't stand the hyper-realistic skins, I'm quite happy with the cartoonish effect but find the maxis skins too grayish.
Quote from: notveryawesome on 2007 May 21, 04:09:50
The Maxis skins all look too yellow to me, and not grey at all (I'd actually prefer it if they were more greyish).
These sound like monitor-calibration issues to me. Unfortunately, color calibration requires calibration software, which isn't always readily (or cheaply) available. Some Samsung monitors come with software that includes calibration, and Photoshop going back to at least ver. 5 includes Adobe Gamma, which is what I use. Beyond that, there are stand-alone calibration systems using colorimeters that vary considerably in price, but none are exactly cheap.
At the least, virtually every monitor comes with an ICC profile--these are files with an .ICM extension ( in Windows) that define the color characteristics of monitors and other color devices like printers, scanners, and cameras. These allow color graphics to look the same on different monitors and print the same on different printers; when imbedded in image files, they (theoretically) allow the image to look the same on any calibrated monitor. However, on uncalibrated monitors and with images without embedded profiles, what you see on your screen is a crapshoot. Calibration (or the lack thereof) can be a problem for creators of custom content: Most likely without even knowing it, someone creating a texture for TS2 on an uncalibrated monitor can easily produce something that looks very different in someone else's game than in their own.
To see if you have the appropriate profile for your monitor, open Display Properties, go to the Advanced section, and select the Color Management tab. Any profiles you have that are associated with your monitor will be listed there. If the field is blank or the profiles listed don't match your monitor, you can usually download what you need from the manufacturer's Web site. In WinXP, ICM files go in the C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\drivers\color directory:
witch:
I recently acquired a 19" ex-work, I thought it was too blue-grey and I was missing reds/yellows - my techie-ex adjusted the monitor properties using the monitor buttons and that has made it much better. That's a simple thing you could also try.
cassblonde:
I have to thank all of your for getting me to look around again at the custom defaults that are available and supplying links as well, I am now comparing skins and may very well pick out a new one! I've also found many other lovely things ;)
Thank you so much! 8)
dream_operator:
Thank you so much for this thread. I have been trying to find default replacement skins that were still Maxisy, but with some tweaks and improvements. I have had Enayla's skins as my defaults in the past and while I do like them...she didn't have all of the matching alternate lifeform skins and I play those a lot. Lately I have just been playing with mostly Maxis stuff with just a select few downloads thrown in (mostly hair and HolySimoly furniture), so it was nice to find Lyran's site that had skins to match. I had never heard of her site before. The skins are really great...they don't look out of place next to my alternate lifeforms, but they have some nice improvements. The default eye replacements are really nice too. I also really liked her three extra skins...the really light one, the dark one, and my most favorite of all the freckled one. :D
Dream
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page