Date Posted: 21st Jan 2013 at 10:29 PM

It's been a while since I uploaded anything. You know how it is. Life gets in the way and time-consuming things like making clothing for little pixel people get put on the back burner.

I've had this little dress sitting, half finished, on my computer since mid-October. I figured I should get it out and just do the final tweaks. And now the uploader is down, so I'll have to wait to share it! Oh, well. At least it's finished.

I wanted to make a dress with gathered straps like the ones I've seen for little girls in real life... but I didn't want to have the straps just painted on the shoulders. So I gave the mesh a little bit of a 3D shoulder ridge for some depth. I don't know... I think it's kind of cute.

Date Posted: 16th Oct 2012 at 9:15 PM

I'm working on a couple of things right now. I just spent ages fiddling with the bones on a Sim's butt with Extended Manual Edit. Oh, how I miss the Bone Tool (curse you, Windows 7!)...

Date Posted: 23rd Sep 2012 at 7:50 AM

Today I played TS2. I just played. I didn't create. I haven't done that in a while. It was nice to remind myself why I fell in love with this game in the first place. I'll have to do it again soon... especially since I want to see what happens when Adam goes off to university (I've never played a Sim all the way through all the life stages before; I only recently got the University EP).

Date Posted: 16th Sep 2012 at 7:05 PM

That's a lot of uploads...

Date Posted: 13th Sep 2012 at 9:21 PM

I managed to get around the error messages I'd been having, so I was able to make a new mesh. The secret? Build the mesh package... save it... close SimPE... open SimPE... open the package you just saved... then do Fix Integrity and save the mesh again. Seriously? I know it's not a huge complicated deal, but it is time consuming when you have to wait for SimPE to load all of its junk.

Date Posted: 6th Sep 2012 at 6:49 PM

I just don't get computers. I really don't want to, either. I just want to use them as the tools they were intended to be... not as troubleshooting projects to dissect. Maybe some people enjoy that, but I have neither the patience nor the inclination to pore over the bowels of a next-to-useless OS and the machine it's running on.

SimPE has stopped working for me yet again. This time, none of the fixes that worked for me before are doing anything. The only thing I did was install the H&M Stuff Pack, which I'd used without any problems on my old computer. After the install, I'm getting an error message when I try to do Fix Integrity (the same one as before, about the instance of an object not being set).

I've cleared the cache, reinstalled managed DirectX, checked all the paths, made sure the NVIDIA DDS utilities are there (and that SimPE knows where to look for them), and restarted the machine... and I've still got the same problem. Nothing seems to work.

It would help if I knew what had fixed my problem before... or even what the problem was! I thought it was the DirectX, because when I reinstalled it before, it resolved the problem. But that obviously wasn't it because it's not working this time. W... T... F...?

I so wanted to reach 200 uploads (and I was so close!) but I really can't be banging my head against this brick wall anymore. It's too stressful and I'm getting absolutely nowhere. Maybe my first instinct was right: Windows 7 is a piece of crap and won't properly run anything (this isn't the first issue I've had with this OS; I HATE it).

Date Posted: 30th Aug 2012 at 9:19 PM

I finally figured out why SimPE wasn't working. DirectX had somehow been uninstalled! I have no idea how that happened, unless it was during one of those failed automatic update/configuration things that Windows 7 kept trying to do (and which I have since turned off... waiting 10 minutes during every start-up for Windows 7 to have a brain fart is not very productive).

Gotta remember that for the next time SimPE stops working. Because I'm fairly certain there will be a next time...

Date Posted: 21st Aug 2012 at 8:26 PM

I fired up SimPE today to try to make something, and I'm back to getting the same error messages I had before when I try to build a mesh package. Instance of an object not set. Can't find the parent CRES. I changed NOTHING between today and when I made the last working mesh a few days ago.

The only thing I can think of is that the stupid Windows 7 update that keeps trying to install itself (and fails every single time) is messing things up. Although why it should affect SimPE is beyond me.

This computer is possessed.

Date Posted: 20th Aug 2012 at 11:31 PM

I used to have Decorgal's Child Animation Hack for taking photos of my creations. I don't have it on my new computer, and her site is no longer there. Does anyone know if this file is still available somewhere or if there's something similar (it doesn't have to be animated, as I'm just taking still shots)? Paul's Reaction Tester just isn't cutting it...

Date Posted: 14th Aug 2012 at 7:43 PM

The SimPE problem I was having appears to be solved! A big thanks to Buzzler, fanseelamb, and HugeLunatic for helping me sort it out.

Perhaps my Sim kids will get some new back-to-school duds after all...