Who will be the new Senior Producer ? SimGuruGraham or SimGuruNinja ? Or will SimGuruGrant be back ?
Grant and Ninja are pretty controversial figures in the franchise so I guess maybe Graham?
Grant is only "controversial" to a small subset of the Sims community. He still got promoted on to other things so apparently, that has no affect on Maxis jobs.
But I'd say Ninja is a "fan favorite" so to speak, and has seemed to be more at the forefront of things for over a year, so I wouldn't be surprised if he was next in line. I like him having more of a direct influence on the game, though. He was lead producer on the Vampires pack and also did Jungle Adventures and Parenthood.
@LiELF SimGuruGrant throwing tantrums on twitter and fighting with Simmers was absolutely unprofessional. I don't see how EA would allow someone so childish be in such a high position.
And Ninja became kind of controversial during the whole Spark'd thing but also during the journey to Batuu fiasco. He seems to have taken a step back now but who knows. I'm sure a lot of people still like Ninja. And yeah as you said he was at the forefront of a lot of things in 2020. Maybe he is next in line
He wasn't being childish (that I saw) he was answering questions honestly and Simmers didn't like the answers so they whined and started acting like Karens and went into toxicity mode. I don't think anyone should have to tolerate that, no matter who you work for, big corporate or not. People can be abominable.
Bingo. I've seen how people @ the gurus on Twitter. A lot of simmers like to believe this fan-base isn't toxic but it's just like any other gaming fan-base. I've seen the nasty comments before they get removed on Twitter of the death threats and wishing cancer on the devs. It's gross and why I stopped following all the Sims stuff and deleted Twitter. And I've also seen comments on another forum condoning it. "Well they're just mad because nobody asked for this and there's bugs, ect!" Imagine actually saying that garbage to try and justify someone wishing death and cancer on someone over a video game. It's pathetic.
But how is Paralives going to do it? Cause they have adjustable heights.
*clears throat*
By using a procedural animation method, as opposed to traditional, predefined animation.
It's part of the code, in which physics are scripted and applied to a puppet, rather than key-framed on a timeline, making the puppet animation interactive by simulating natural motion in real-time.
This method would also allow the Sim to be adjusted in real -time (height, size, additional limbs, less limbs) and enables the animated Sim to adapt to its surroundings without causing clipping issues.
It basically means that a set of pre-coded parameters can be applied to any Sim of any height or form without the need to animate each different kind (toddler/kid/adult/elder....dog...dragon?).
A similar method is already used in Sims4, notably in CAS. Most of the Sim's shape can be adjusted, and no matter what kind of form it has-skinny or fat- the Sim will always move the same way without their limbs or facial features suddenly looking odd and all over the place. Their body adapts to the motion. A skinny Sim can hug a large Sim without their arms getting s.u.c.k.e.d into each other's body. Their arms adapt to whatever width the other Sim is. Unless it's glitching of course...(There's a really fun thread dedicated to that by the way. )
The only property that can't be adjusted is height, because those parameters haven't been set at the start of development.
It takes planning and a lot more complex scripting than what is currently there, because as I mentioned, the Sim needs to interact with an environment that is constantly changing (different heights etc.).
The developers of Paralives are implementing this more complex procedural animation method at the start of development. I believe this is why Paralives can promise height sliders and Sims 4 cannot.
lool
though on ts4 i think hugs are actually rigged to fit the body of the other sim rather than being individually animated like a pose, at least it's what i've seen on my sims (on the pic below, both sims are adults but look at their arms) i should try with a way shorter sim to see if they do the same on the pic you posted haha
But how is Paralives going to do it? Cause they have adjustable heights.
*clears throat*
By using a procedural animation method, as opposed to traditional, predefined animation.
It's part of the code, in which physics are scripted and applied to a puppet, rather than key-framed on a timeline, making the puppet animation interactive by simulating natural motion in real-time.
This method would also allow the Sim to be adjusted in real -time (height, size, additional limbs, less limbs) and enables the animated Sim to adapt to its surroundings without causing clipping issues.
It basically means that a set of pre-coded parameters can be applied to any Sim of any height or form without the need to animate each different kind (toddler/kid/adult/elder....dog...dragon?).
A similar method is already used in Sims4, notably in CAS. Most of the Sim's shape can be adjusted, and no matter what kind of form it has-skinny or fat- the Sim will always move the same way without their limbs or facial features suddenly looking odd and all over the place. Their body adapts to the motion. A skinny Sim can hug a large Sim without their arms getting s.u.c.k.e.d into each other's body. Their arms adapt to whatever width the other Sim is. Unless it's glitching of course...(There's a really fun thread dedicated to that by the way. )
The only property that can't be adjusted is height, because those parameters haven't been set at the start of development.
It takes planning and a lot more complex scripting than what is currently there, because as I mentioned, the Sim needs to interact with an environment that is constantly changing (different heights etc.).
The developers of Paralives are implementing this more complex procedural animation method at the start of development. I believe this is why Paralives can promise height sliders and Sims 4 cannot.
I don't think that rather than height in the trailer they are just adjusting the scale of the sim (what do they call to the people? )
When the body height was adjusted the whole body literally becomes small. I don't think that is how height should work (atleast for me). Some people just have shorter legs and not scaled down body.
I do am happy that they are doing these and hope that the game becomes a success!
What they demonstrated in the Paralives trailer is a global height slider. It doesn't alter the proportions of the parafolk, but instead resizes the sim completely. If I shrink myself down without altering my body ratio every part of me will get smaller, like in the movie 'Honey I Shrunk the Kids.' The Paralives heightslider is basically a virtual Szalinski's Shrinking Machine. This way you can have fairies or giants. Their body ratio is the same as an average human, it's just that they are scaled up or down.
ts4 height mods also work that way so i was able to make a fairy on ts4, she glitches through furniture and stuff but i so want fairies and a height slider on the game (on the pic below, the fairy is a kid cuz i wanted to see how small can a sim be with the sliders, and put the normal sim to compare heights)
The actual animation though, seems like it would be much trickier and really extensive work for height variations when two avatars have a touching animation like hugging or kissing or Vampire biting or anything like that. I assume it would mean a whole lot of development time to keep up with any new animations. Even some objects would need to be interacted with on varying degrees. It would be like having many different alternate life stages. I imagine something would have to end up simplified.
Here's a quote from Alex Masse, the dev for Paralives regarding Procedural Animations
I’m currently experimenting with a procedural animation system to save time. For example, two adults hugging vs an adult hugging a child would be two different animations normally but I’m thinking on a system that would adjust some frames of the pose to different heights
Alex Masse, Paralives Discord, Off-Topic Category
@Babykittyjade was this the poll you were talking about? If so, adults are not even listed and teens and babies seemed to be what simmers wanted to improve.
Yes this is the one! I was too lazy to look for it.
The actual animation though, seems like it would be much trickier and really extensive work for height variations when two avatars have a touching animation like hugging or kissing or Vampire biting or anything like that. I assume it would mean a whole lot of development time to keep up with any new animations. Even some objects would need to be interacted with on varying degrees. It would be like having many different alternate life stages. I imagine something would have to end up simplified.
Here's a quote from Alex Masse, the dev for Paralives regarding Procedural Animations
I’m currently experimenting with a procedural animation system to save time. For example, two adults hugging vs an adult hugging a child would be two different animations normally but I’m thinking on a system that would adjust some frames of the pose to different heights
Alex Masse, Paralives Discord, Off-Topic Category
It will be interesting to see how the animations turn out. I'm quite curious about the interactions.
I remember when I used to play Everquest 2, there were avatars of huge size differences. I played a tiny Gnome for a little while and I noticed when I'd go to stand next to the extremely tall Trolls that there was a mechanic to their heads that had some kind of parameter sensor so that when they were near each other, their heads would turn in the direction of another character and actually look way up or way down to acknowledge the height. I remember thinking it was such a cool little detail that other games didn't really have back then. If you were running through the city and passed other NPCs or players, the heads would turn as you went by. It was a small but fun detail. So my point in bringing this up was to ponder if this kind of thing would be used in Paralives with the height changes so the avatars will look at the correct height. I'm sure there's much better technology now, of course.
The actual animation though, seems like it would be much trickier and really extensive work for height variations when two avatars have a touching animation like hugging or kissing or Vampire biting or anything like that. I assume it would mean a whole lot of development time to keep up with any new animations. Even some objects would need to be interacted with on varying degrees. It would be like having many different alternate life stages. I imagine something would have to end up simplified.
@LiELF
Actually, the Sims in TS4 are already coded the way you described above with the Everquest 2 example. It's not as obvious in vanilla since teen to elder are all the same height. Once a height mod is used it suddenly becomes evident that all sims try and look directly into another Sim's eyes when they interact with each other, no matter the height. When sim 1 walks by (being quite small) sim 2 might turn their head and follow sim's 1 head with their gaze. It looks completely natural. That same code is what allows a sim to acknowledge the height of children, toddlers or pets.
The only thing a height mod does is scale the sim up or down. The fact that Sims look at each other when they talk is encoded in base game. See my Batuu save examples in the spoiler below. That dude is taller and the lady is smaller than the average sim. Yet they have no problem looking directly into each other's eyes (for obvious reasons perhaps). Also note that I never us pose player or custom poses. I just took random screenshots of them having a conversation.
I think the 'issue' with procedural animation is that the animation can become quite uniform if only one set is used. This may be a reason The Sims hasn't used it the way the devs at Paralives are planning to. Toddlers and kids move completely different to adults and interact with their environment in unique ways.
As you mentioned, a lot of different animations are still needed to give each life stage and life state 'character'. But once the parameters are in place it will make for a very interesting life simulator!
I remember when I used to play Everquest 2, there were avatars of huge size differences. I played a tiny Gnome for a little while and I noticed when I'd go to stand next to the extremely tall Trolls that there was a mechanic to their heads that had some kind of parameter sensor so that when they were near each other, their heads would turn in the direction of another character and actually look way up or way down to acknowledge the height. I remember thinking it was such a cool little detail that other games didn't really have back then. If you were running through the city and passed other NPCs or players, the heads would turn as you went by. It was a small but fun detail. So my point in bringing this up was to ponder if this kind of thing would be used in Paralives with the height changes so the avatars will look at the correct height. I'm sure there's much better technology now, of course.
The actual animation though, seems like it would be much trickier and really extensive work for height variations when two avatars have a touching animation like hugging or kissing or Vampire biting or anything like that. I assume it would mean a whole lot of development time to keep up with any new animations. Even some objects would need to be interacted with on varying degrees. It would be like having many different alternate life stages. I imagine something would have to end up simplified.
LiELF
Actually, the Sims in TS4 are already coded the way you described above with the Everquest 2 example. It's not as obvious in vanilla since teen to elder are all the same height. Once a height mod is used it suddenly becomes evident that all sims try and look directly into another Sim's eyes when they interact with each other, no matter the height. When sim 1 walks by (being quite small) sim 2 might turn their head and follow sim's 1 head with their gaze. It looks completely natural. That same code is what allows a sim to acknowledge the height of children, toddlers or pets.
The only thing a height mod does is scale the sim up or down. The fact that Sims look at each other when they talk is encoded in base game. See my Batuu save examples in the spoiler below. That dude is taller and the lady is smaller than the average sim. Yet they have no problem looking directly into each other's eyes (for obvious reasons perhaps). Also note that I never us pose player or custom poses. I just took random screenshots of them having a conversation.
I think the 'issue' with procedural animation is that the animation can become quite uniform if only one set is used. This may be a reason The Sims hasn't used it the way the devs at Paralives are planning to. Toddlers and kids move completely different to adults and interact with their environment in unique ways.
As you mentioned, a lot of different animations are still needed to give each life stage and life state 'character'. But once the parameters are in place it will make for a very interesting life simulator!
Oh, indeed! Now that you mention it, I have noticed when Sims pass by each other, their eyes will look in each other's direction too. I have screenshots of that. It's quite interesting to see the height mod in action in your pics with the "gaze" coding. It definitely makes it more obvious. That's pretty cool. I feel like I'm going to look for it more in my game now, haha.
After that patch note, I’m positive that we’re getting improved nooboos next year. That interaction didn’t animate itself.
Possibly a wedding pack too, since they’ve been so glitchy lately.
What patch note ?! *excited*
SimGuruGnome stated in their posting that yesterday's patch fixed issue where the new skin tones were not functioning the way they were meant to in the game. I don't know what else yesterday's patch was to fix other than what SimGuruGnome posted.
We noticed we had added the option to Clean Up Toddler on kitchen and bathroom sinks for both Toddlers and Children by mistake, so we removed it for both age groups from the sink… but how would have they fit? Like… how? These are the questions that keep me up at night.
About it being a Tiny Living thing, did anyone notice it before November? If it was supposed to be for Tiny Living, you’d think they would’ve thought of it while they were working on the pack, not randomly 9(?) months later.
We noticed we had added the option to Clean Up Toddler on kitchen and bathroom sinks for both Toddlers and Children by mistake, so we removed it for both age groups from the sink… but how would have they fit? Like… how? These are the questions that keep me up at night.
About it being a Tiny Living thing, did anyone notice it before November? If it was supposed to be for Tiny Living, you’d think they would’ve thought of it while they were working on the pack, not randomly 9(?) months later.
I'm sure they were thinking about it for some time. To my understanding when they talk about how they go about planning things for the game. I think that it was SimGuruCoppland that once said that they have lots of ideas that they come up with for the game. And each week they would have a meeting where they would pitch the ideas. And in that same meeting they would decide on what goes into the game in what pack. If the ideas make it into the game at all. It's a complex thing, when it comes to creating a pack for this game. They may have the next pack all planned out. But there maybe something that would change what they have planned. Forcing them to change something in the pack, like with Snowy Escape. In the final weeks leading up to the release of Snowy Escape, they supposedly had remove a feature from Snowy Escape. And any pack future or past is not excluded from this, including Tiny Living.
Comments
Bingo. I've seen how people @ the gurus on Twitter. A lot of simmers like to believe this fan-base isn't toxic but it's just like any other gaming fan-base. I've seen the nasty comments before they get removed on Twitter of the death threats and wishing cancer on the devs. It's gross and why I stopped following all the Sims stuff and deleted Twitter. And I've also seen comments on another forum condoning it. "Well they're just mad because nobody asked for this and there's bugs, ect!" Imagine actually saying that garbage to try and justify someone wishing death and cancer on someone over a video game. It's pathetic.
Such an insightful knowledge, thank you.
lool
though on ts4 i think hugs are actually rigged to fit the body of the other sim rather than being individually animated like a pose, at least it's what i've seen on my sims (on the pic below, both sims are adults but look at their arms) i should try with a way shorter sim to see if they do the same on the pic you posted haha
ts4 height mods also work that way so i was able to make a fairy on ts4, she glitches through furniture and stuff but i so want fairies and a height slider on the game (on the pic below, the fairy is a kid cuz i wanted to see how small can a sim be with the sliders, and put the normal sim to compare heights)
Here's a quote from Alex Masse, the dev for Paralives regarding Procedural Animations
Yes this is the one! I was too lazy to look for it.
It will be interesting to see how the animations turn out. I'm quite curious about the interactions.
Actually, the Sims in TS4 are already coded the way you described above with the Everquest 2 example. It's not as obvious in vanilla since teen to elder are all the same height. Once a height mod is used it suddenly becomes evident that all sims try and look directly into another Sim's eyes when they interact with each other, no matter the height. When sim 1 walks by (being quite small) sim 2 might turn their head and follow sim's 1 head with their gaze. It looks completely natural. That same code is what allows a sim to acknowledge the height of children, toddlers or pets.
The only thing a height mod does is scale the sim up or down. The fact that Sims look at each other when they talk is encoded in base game. See my Batuu save examples in the spoiler below. That dude is taller and the lady is smaller than the average sim. Yet they have no problem looking directly into each other's eyes (for obvious reasons perhaps). Also note that I never us pose player or custom poses. I just took random screenshots of them having a conversation.
I think the 'issue' with procedural animation is that the animation can become quite uniform if only one set is used. This may be a reason The Sims hasn't used it the way the devs at Paralives are planning to. Toddlers and kids move completely different to adults and interact with their environment in unique ways.
As you mentioned, a lot of different animations are still needed to give each life stage and life state 'character'. But once the parameters are in place it will make for a very interesting life simulator!
Oh, indeed! Now that you mention it, I have noticed when Sims pass by each other, their eyes will look in each other's direction too. I have screenshots of that. It's quite interesting to see the height mod in action in your pics with the "gaze" coding. It definitely makes it more obvious. That's pretty cool. I feel like I'm going to look for it more in my game now, haha.
What patch note ?! *excited*
About it being a Tiny Living thing, did anyone notice it before November? If it was supposed to be for Tiny Living, you’d think they would’ve thought of it while they were working on the pack, not randomly 9(?) months later.