EA? They don't care. They just want us all to get along and play nice. However, as far as I am concerned, ripping the meshes out of the package, recoloring them and posting them as a new creation would be fine with me. She has no claim on the mesh itself, so I would not call that piracy, just community service.

I saw a different comment that said TS3 hair was not animated. It is most definitely animated, but many are not animated well. That's what teh bone assignments are for, and many lack the professional touches. Some are really good, but a lot of the stuff in the store hairs looks like it was slapped together quickly, or else a less experienced modeler made them.

What I think was meant was they have no physics, that is true. Physics is what made TS2 hair lively when the sim twirled, for instance. TS3 would be a much better game if it had any physics. If it had somethink like havok, then when you kick the flamingo it could fly across the lawn, instead of just falling over.

EDIT: I forgot to mention, HP posted two hair packages tpday. She is using an unreleased extension of Delphy's CTU tool, he has plans to release it when he gets sufficient polish on the additions... gotta love that Turtle Wax. Once that is available, making new hair packages will be in reach of a lot more artists. I know the pace seems slow, but this tool business is difficult, given that the detailed instruction manual was missing.

Little I can do. It's not like I am reaping a profit from selling the plugins to fund a legal department.

But it isn't right. I spent a *lot* of time getting these developed (with some help from my friends), and wrote the spec that is on the wiki for anyone. And I have been very clear about the terms of use. I shouldn't care, but it is irritating that she is leveraging my free tool for her profit.

There is now a blender script for exporting GEOM meshes now, she could use that. Or pay someone to write a tool from the spec; at least TSR has chosen to try that route. Or she could just post the meshes in a separate, freely redistributable package and sell the textures.

I don't know what issues are making some of the hair display badly. It could be my tools, after all, they are as new as the game.

But I do know that the two donation items were made with my Q-Mesh plugin. While the artwork may be hers, the license terms for my plugins specifically prohibit pay, donation required, or redistribution restrictions on the mesh itself.

No Pay, No Diva.

<* Wes *>

Redecorating it with new textures should be possible right now. I seem to have misplaced my notes on which .model file it was, though.

<* Wes *>

The location shown in CAS is a .model file. Changing it will require something to edit the 3D object meshes.

There are 50% more vertices in the second release than the first, shooting the "too many vertices" theory in the foot. TS3 meshes typically have 2X - 4X as many vertices as analogous TS2 meshes did. The other change I noticed was the first package assigned the hair to 100% "b__HeadNew__", the second splits the assignments between "b__HeadNew__" and "b__Spine_2".

I have been curious myself why it crashes, because some things may be user education issues, things that maybe didn't make a difference in TS2 but do now. and some things may be "policeable" (via error or warnings) in the plugins themselves.

It was a brave test. While there are certainly a lot of old grievances rehashed, I know all too well from bitter experience that just because it works in your machine does not guarantee that it will not be an embarrassing fooparoonie.

I have verified that the tool she used to edit the mesh prohibits commercial use or redistribution restrictions, by license.

It was made using the vertex format used for clothes (as MilkShape in it's current version does not support the extra color channel data used in hair and faces). I do not know if that is related to the crashes reported, though.

<* Wes *>

Weener of the foot-in-mouse award.

We know that SecuRom is used in the downloadable version of the program, EA told us so. It is likely that all or most of of the code needed to do perform such a feat is in the executable, it would be unlike any software developer to have multiple versions of a program source, but rather they would do two compilations on the same source with a changed preprocessor variable.

I see no evidence that anything other than a disk check is being done on the retail package. No phone homes, except the expected launcher connections, using an external firewall log to verify that. So far, in memory editing of the program has not been disabled, and the best mods to date depend on subverting a windows function call by using an imposter .dll file.

So while the code is in there (Ragu?), I don't see any evidence that it is actually being called by any functions.

Well, we can see how prophetic he was.

Most of the HP machine was probably built by ASUS.
I am guessing you are primarily interested in gaming, go for the 512MB or 1MB video card. I only have 512MB graphics memory here (although a newer GeForce card) and I can run on full everything.
The game loads so fast, I am not sure that the disk speed will be noticeable between the two. And the 10% processor speed increase will also not be noticeable outside of a benchmark program.
The RAM is a plus, especially if you hop between the game and the internet and chat and whatnot. If you lock the doors, unplug the internet and play the game exclusively, the extra RAM will likely not be used.

Dual processor clock speeds are slower than single core processors for comparable performance.

Yes, I admit to having posted a modified glasses mesh Tuesday, and some MilkShape plugins, godsons of UniMesh, they are. I may be a one-trick pony, but I know that one well by now.

With things like chat, there are opportunities for developers to communicate information on a transient basis. Someone probably mentioned some names in a 'conversation' that might not have been meant to be published like that. There may be more names that weren't mentioned, ones that you know well. All have contributed a lot of knowledge and discoveries, over years of time for many, and have helped a lot of people learn new skills.

If TSR does what they claim they are going to do, release source for the libraries and offer use of the tool freely, then they will have done a good thing, even if for self-serving purposes. If they don't, it will validate the suspicions of many posters. Being how I am, I will wait and see, and continue executing my own personal agenda, which is pretty much to do all I did before for TS2, but better this time.

<* Wes *>

Actually, they are talking about using vector drawing tools to make patterns with.
The patterns are multiple DDS files, which are just raster grpahics, using color channels on one to define the zones.
Everything at the engine level is standard game graphics and UV mapping, except that the textures are built from multiple layers, and colors are added in predefined zones based on the color values that were specified for that zone.

IMO, the game works well. The retail version never calls home.
The GameLauncher always calls home. It runs blocked by the firewall, but is useless unconnected. And it requires Flash, which is verboten here.

Usable, game spec compliant cards, like the geforce 8400, cost maybe $35.
$100 will get you a very good one these days.
Do eet!

Arguments seem to erupt with frequency here. To my knowledge, so one is helping TSR create their tool, other than the people TSR has named as a part of the effort. Some people (well, at least one lonely cowboy) are competing essentially head-on with their efforts. Sharing format discoveries has been a part of the community for longer than I have been a part of the community, and I support that level of cooperation whole-heartedly.

A lot of technical facts on this game have been disclosed today, on a wiki donated by MTS, and more will follow soon. The gal being villified somewhat here was a part of that effort, and eventually all will benefit in ways not yet foreseeable. Exchanging information at this level is like sharing recipes... execution is the key, and success is 90% perspiration. The best oven and recipes will not survive incompetent application.  I have certainly benefitted as a programmer from the testing efforts of some who are associated with TSR, as well as some that have been very avid anti-paysite advocates.

<* Wes *>

I would never announce vaporware.
I do plan on announcing something soon after June 2 that may change the channel.
That is, if N. Korea doen't nuke me first.

Build 1.0.631.00107 is the release that is coming next week. The pirate version is 1.0.615.00107.
EA has the first patch ready for the release game (x.x.631.x to x.x.632.x).

You won't be patching this particular executable, because it is not the release version.
Build 1.0.631.00107 is the release that is coming next week.

Posts at the site indicate if you change the initial letter of each field in the URL, i.e. /exchange to /Exchage, you can view pages without having an authorization (copy shortcut, open new tab, paste in address bar and edit).

I was unable to actually download any files, although there appear to be 18 Sims already uploaded.

<* Wes *>

I don't want to have somebody take off on me as supportive of their work, but I can guarantee you it would be significantly more difficult to find a watermark were I to want to put one in a package.

Still, the act of banning the people right after the packages were uploaded would trigger the "spidey senses" that something was in there. So the act is self-defeating, because if you look long and hard enough, you can unravel any mystery.

A more sophisticated system would have put the user details in a log, and placed a transaction ID in the package. Then it is just a number, not so easy to recognize. While this method is simple, placing the watermark in the same spot consistently is easy to find and fix with a hex editor. It is not so easy to do a lot of locations unless you make a more sophisticated program that can bury it within some of the data items inside the package.

That would be truly devious, but would require a skillset greater then the average bear.

No, Lorelei, you called me stupid right here in this thread.


What happened in the past is past. I forget the crap soon enough; I can't even remember the handle of the gal that called me a pseudonym for a penis, which, while I have one is not the center of my existence. My original point was that your argument is weakened when you use weak points in it, but having said it with my usual grace and charm, I ignited an argument over whether the point is or isn't true enough. I agree with most of the sentiment expressed in the thread, which originally revolved around Thomas and the events reported about BuggyBooz's account at MTS2.

So feel free to call some more names if you wish. I intent to give up on the issue with this post.

That is good enough. I am not going to start counting log events, or attempt to determine if "daily basis" is correct or an exaggeration. I will, however, concede that I was wrong about this being an indefensible characterization. I still think it is useless in an argument about Thomas' behavior, which is where it was cited.