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Inefficiency in TS4 Swatches
DreamaDove
Posts: 393 Member
TS4 uses a premade swatches system instead of having a colorwheel or Create a Style for the sake of performance since it 's supposed to require less memory since if you used CASt, every texture you created would have to be loaded by the game so you could potentially end up with hundreds of them if you do it enough. Using premade swatches means there's a limit to how much resources texture files use up. However, their swatch system is very inefficient and I would argue actually makes the game slower and far less customizeable than it could be.
There are many, many, many swatches that I really dislike so I don't use them, however, the game still has to load them into the game. Thus there are a lot of bloating textures in the game that do nothing except take up space. If I had the ability to create ones I like using a colorwheel or CASt, then the game would only load the ones I use instead of wasting memory on unsused swatches which would increase performance.
Moreover, if CASt was definitely not an option, TS4's system is still vastly inferior to TS2's swatch system. In TS2, object swatches come in parts so that you can choose the colors of different parts of an object individually between different swatches. For example, you can choose a bed frame color swatch and a bedding color swatch independently from a premade pool of swatches. This is highly efficient since, for example, 5 bed frame swatches and 5 bedding swatches would lead to 25 different combinations. If each of those texture files was 250kb (a ts4 texture size), then for 25 options only 2.5mb of memory would be required. Meanwhile, in TS4 texture images apply to the whole object, therefore to have the same 25 options for the same image size 6.25 mb would be required. That is 2.6 times as much memory.
It gets worse as you increase the number of options. Let's say that you also wanted different options for the pillowcase. For 5 pillow options that would lead to 125 different combination options, which would be great for the player. Image if we had that much customizability for each object. In TS2, such a bed would only take up 3.75mb, while in ts4 that would require 31.25mb or 8.3 times as much memory. This is also assuming that each texture size for ts2 and ts4 would be the same size, while since ts2 texture images have less data they'd acutally be lighter and would require even less resources.
What this means is that TS4, a game released a 10 years after TS2 is much less efficient in its use of memory which means it has to sacrifice customizability for performance -- something that TS2 did not have to sacrifice due to clever design. It's just another way that we're constrained by the developers which lead TS4 to feel like we're playing someone else's game and can never make it our own.
There are many, many, many swatches that I really dislike so I don't use them, however, the game still has to load them into the game. Thus there are a lot of bloating textures in the game that do nothing except take up space. If I had the ability to create ones I like using a colorwheel or CASt, then the game would only load the ones I use instead of wasting memory on unsused swatches which would increase performance.
Moreover, if CASt was definitely not an option, TS4's system is still vastly inferior to TS2's swatch system. In TS2, object swatches come in parts so that you can choose the colors of different parts of an object individually between different swatches. For example, you can choose a bed frame color swatch and a bedding color swatch independently from a premade pool of swatches. This is highly efficient since, for example, 5 bed frame swatches and 5 bedding swatches would lead to 25 different combinations. If each of those texture files was 250kb (a ts4 texture size), then for 25 options only 2.5mb of memory would be required. Meanwhile, in TS4 texture images apply to the whole object, therefore to have the same 25 options for the same image size 6.25 mb would be required. That is 2.6 times as much memory.
It gets worse as you increase the number of options. Let's say that you also wanted different options for the pillowcase. For 5 pillow options that would lead to 125 different combination options, which would be great for the player. Image if we had that much customizability for each object. In TS2, such a bed would only take up 3.75mb, while in ts4 that would require 31.25mb or 8.3 times as much memory. This is also assuming that each texture size for ts2 and ts4 would be the same size, while since ts2 texture images have less data they'd acutally be lighter and would require even less resources.
What this means is that TS4, a game released a 10 years after TS2 is much less efficient in its use of memory which means it has to sacrifice customizability for performance -- something that TS2 did not have to sacrifice due to clever design. It's just another way that we're constrained by the developers which lead TS4 to feel like we're playing someone else's game and can never make it our own.
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Comments
Also, I didn’t know they said all of that about saving resources as the reason they didn’t add customization. But if that’s the case, why did they add it for pets?
The thing is... they sacrifice customizability for performance but we don't get the performance, either, since ts4 is so inefficient.
Repose en paix mamie tu va me manquer :
1923-2016 mamie
I'd like more accessories like scarves, shawls and layering though - even handbags!
Repose en paix mamie tu va me manquer :
1923-2016 mamie
What annoys me at times is not just that some things don't even seem to match (or that we can't as easily customize certain items as we could in even Sims2), but just the limitations we sometimes have or in trying to match certain items and being limited to basically all white (which might work in certain situations, but some of us might want those different wood tones/finishes or may want to be able to work with colors in such a way that things go together more).
Or, we may have otherwise gorgeous objects in the game we might want to use in certain situations, but the options that are offered either will sometimes include wild colors or patterns (which might work in certain other situations but maybe not for things like a historical household or even some normal sim households). It would be nice in those situations if we even had other options that included maybe solid colors or something like one might find in everyday life as an option as well.
While I'm happy that I sometimes don't have to wait long periods for a lot to finish rendering as with Sims3 at times and honestly love some of the features we have with Sims4 as well as some of the objects and how we can better customize sims, I also miss having some of the level of customization that we had in Sims3 with respect to colors and patterns.
I really do wish they would make a separate tool that players could use to create their own items and add their preferred items to their own game. Why they overlooked this is beyond me and it has really spoilt my enjoyment of building and furnishing homes.
Hopefully they bring back the color wheel where we can customize every part of the object like the bed frame or blanket
Same. it's infuriating how not even simple black or white colors match. At least these basic colors should have the same Hex/RGB code.
The UI system : no personalities, no impactful traits, awful reactions, behaviours and relations, no memory, no favourites, no likes/dislikes, no turn ons/offs.
Boring animations : every interactions are just one recycled animation, not enough animations bring up with new DLCs
No NPCs : burglars, firefighters, social service etc
No challenge and consequences
No cars
And I could continue the list...
I really have the feeling to play a 00's game in the 20's.
I agree. They've left nothing for players' creativity at all.
I'd like to see an external tool for recoloring. Something that allows us to easily import/export with our game, similar to what Sims 2 had in Body Shop. I totally get not having a tool like that in game to prevent it from weighing it down, but I feel like by now they should have improved on an external tool.
Just another reason I think they should look back at the roots of the Sims games, especially Sims 2.
However, there really shouldn't be a need for that. And you'll run into the same problem I outlined in my original post -- if you lots of swatches it's going to slow your game down unlike in ts2.
Don't get me started - I don't know how often I've chosen a cute top and ended up having to discard it because absolutely no pants or skirts matched. Or, I've got my Sim all decked out in her winter clothing and can't find a hat that matches anything in her outfit. Can't we have a white that is not actually grey, or a light beige in addition to a dark beige?
I'd prefer to have fewer choices, but more synchronisation in the swatches. Instead of a red-purple in one outfit and a blue-purple in another, can we just have one basic purple? It would also help if we could customise the colour of hair accessories, since hair bands always seem to clash with everything else.
A color wheel would be even better, even just adjusting the color without the whole texture creation would be a vast improvement but I doubt that will happen in sims 4.
.... although.... couldn't have they given us a limited color wheel for things that are supposed to go together (wall and floor tiling, counters/cabinets and tables/chairs, plumbing objects).
I think all build mode objects (doors, windows, trim, etc) and most buy mode should have the same plain white, black, brown, grey and beige option. While not always ideal, I think way more things would be usable.