@mercuryfoam Oh wow, that's a lot of tools! I'm lucky since I get the Adobe Suite through work, so I just use Photoshop for everything (really, I should be less lazy and actually do more with it haha)
My happy scenes are also edited in response to the darkness to be extra dreamy or has a yellow/orange/happy color tinge to it to balance things somewhat.
I love the golden glow of your happy moments! They really stand out!
#4 To add stuff that doesn’t exist in game.
Aah, I always assumed the binoculars and the wig were cc! (Though let's face it, I was so immersed in B2W that I didn't really question it.) You've made them blend in seamlessly!
@SnuffyBucket I won't be too helpful, since I don't like to edit and don't have a lot of experience with editing programs. I use Reshade and use different presets off of different websites. Right now I am using clear bloom by pictureamoebae for a preset. One of the settings doesn't work for me and I have to turn a couple of them off, otherwise, it bogs down my computer (I have an older computer). But I find that just a few Reshade settings gets the look that I want. I like clear bloom because it gives the screenshots a little softer quality, and it helps with the lighting and shadows. I was using a different preset in story 1, but I found that one was a little too dark for my tastes, and I ended up lightening a lot of my pictures.
I'm not super picky about screenshots, usually because by the time I'm done writing, posing, finding CC and taking screenshots I've already got a bunch of time sunk into a chapter, so I compromise a little on screenshot editing. I use Gimp for editing (usually just lightning or darkening or adding simple effects). I use MS Paint if I am doing very basic things like chapter images with text on my thread.
Awesome, I've learned a lot! It's fascinating to see what you all do and why.
@_sims_yimi Really interesting to see the process! If I took a shot like that first one, I'd be like 'look, I'm so good at this' then by the time you finished editing it's just something amazing. I can't believe you do that for all of them. Resizing images you say? I don't currently do that, just bung them in. Now I'm wondering if my loading times are slow...
Well, Sandy didn't hire him for his cooking skills. And Hogwash is a noble and longstanding name in my game, I'll have you know.
@ThePlumbob you know you can't say that Cordelia was farting fire and then not show me, right? Please say you still have that image. Hmm... again with the smaller images. Are you trying to tell me something, here? Although none of my chapters have 98 images... yet.
@mercuryfoam your attention to detail is amazing! I really like that you edit the happy images to happier. I've tried to use in-game lighting to emphasise mood, like the second part of Weird Juice where I turned off all the lights in the room to denote that the situation was going downhill, or having Melinda in the pitch dark room and her parents in an overly bright one in Foil in the Microwave; never even occurred to me to do edits after, instead. It will now!
Your filters really do emphasise the mood and the drama. Definitely something I'm going to have a play with. Ugh, the clipping! April's eyelashes are always in her forehead. Ahh, it's like learning how magic is done... awesome that you can so smoothly slip things in. I had no idea that those things weren't actually there. How on earth did you get those 6 TV screens to work so seamlessly? You are so darn clever.
@lone_cat telling me that you don't like to edit and don't have a lot of experience with editing is really helpful, it's reassuring. I think I'll check out Reshade, especially when I get to part 2 of my story, where the tone will change, somewhat. I hear you about sinking time into everything else then glossing over screenshot editing. I feel like my screenshots are the weakest part of my story, 'cause I sink so much effort into obsessing over the text the rest.
Plenty of food for thought everyone. Thanks so, so much!
@SnuffyBucket Nah, it's not the load times. It's just trying to postpone the inevitable moment of running out of WP storage space (which may happen sooner rather than later if I keep doing more 98 image chapters lol). I'm usually too lazy to resize (I feel like my whole comment above could have just been summarised as "I'm lazy" ), but it's definitely a good idea to turn to the photos to jpg, the pngs are huge.
@SnuffyBucket Nah, it's not the load times. It's just trying to postpone the inevitable moment of running out of WP storage space (which may happen sooner rather than later if I keep doing more 98 image chapters lol). I'm usually too lazy to resize (I feel like my whole comment above could have just been summarised as "I'm lazy" ), but it's definitely a good idea to turn to the photos to jpg, the pngs are huge.
Yup. This. That's the biggest reason for me compulsively turning them into jpgs and re-sizing them, too. I've only used 4% so far, so I have miles and miles of storage space left, but I still freak out over possibly running out of space in the future.
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@lone_cat Aww, I remember asking what preset you use early on in your chapters because I love your colors. I tried to follow the tutorial for Clear Bloom on Pictureamoebae’s tumblr, but I can’t seem to understand it. I’ll try again after this!
@ThePlumbob@SnuffyBucket
Thanks! I’m glad the props I used look part of the game. Last thing I want is for them to take center focus. I’m glad you like the ‘make happier’ edits too!
@mercuryfoam Oh wow, that's a lot of tools! I'm lucky since I get the Adobe Suite through work, so I just use Photoshop for everything (really, I should be less lazy and actually do more with it haha)
I thought your pictures are already pretty. I was already gushing in the earlier chapters! Imo pictures are simply the writer’s personalisation and taste. If the default colors are pretty enough as it is so, there’s no reason to use a third party software. I’m just stubborn about the story direction so I have to learn to include objects.
I've tried to use in-game lighting to emphasise mood, like the second part of Weird Juice where I turned off all the lights in the room to denote that the situation was going downhill, or having Melinda in the pitch dark room and her parents in an overly bright one in Foil in the Microwave
Ooh I’ve never thought of that! That’s a good point actually, to use in-game lighting as filters. It’s possible too since we’re able to tweak color and brightness of the lights in the room! I don't think what I do is anything noteworthy. It's a skill anyone can pick up. I'll show you in the tut below.
How did you get those 6 TV screens to work so seamlessly?
I’ll use pictures so I don’t send you another wall of text.
I didn't keep the save so I'm using a different example but same technique.
#1 I have the main photo opened in gimp.
It's on a layer of its own.
#2 I add the 'security photo' into the same project
Notice how this photo is not combined with the first one. It's on its own layer.
#3 Because it's on its own layer, I can resize, and grayscale the photo without affecting the first one.
#4 I use the perspective tool to modify the angle of the photo and fit it into the the tv screen.
#5 Cut out Thayne's silhouette on a 'Layer Mask'.
This is a 'Layer Mask'. It means you are not cutting the photo directly. There won't be a 'hole' in your picture. (A bit technical. It's not important.)
#6 Tada! First 'security photo done'. Repeat for how many TV screens you have in your main photo lol.
If you're worried about storage space, you can put your pictures on a 3rd party image hosting site and have your WP blog pluck images from there via code like how we do on the forums. That way you use zero WP space and still have quality pictures on your blog.
If you're worried about storage space, you can put your pictures on a 3rd party image hosting site and have your WP blog pluck images from there via code like how we do on the forums. That way you use zero WP space and still have quality pictures on your blog.
@mercuryfoam I know you can do that in theory, but most of the image hosting sites I'm aware of won't keep the images indefinitely - all I have to do is go look at my old legacy thread, half the old imgur embeds that I used as chapter teasers are gone. So I don't really want to rely on those, because I don't trust them longterm.
I'm currently at around 24% of my WP storage, but that's keeping in mind I already have a completed legacy's worth of pictures on my site The Blackwell Chronicles have only taken around 4% so far I think. So still ways off running out, I hope
I don't think there's a visually noticeable difference between jpg and png, but the file size difference is crazy! At work we have a rule that no images that go on the website should be over 150 KB (to optimise load times), so I think I have that ingrained in me now - I try not to put anything over 200 KB on my blog (which is why mostly I just convert to jpg, because that makes the biggest difference, but if I still think the file size is too big and I can be bothered on the particular day, I will resize).
Edit: Making the picture slightly smaller doesn't really reduce quality, because your WP template already shows the picture as smaller anyway. For instance for my template, I know that the reader will never be looking at an image at a bigger resolution that around 800 pixels wide, so there's really not a need for it to be more than, say 1000 pixels wide. Sure, in theory someone could right click and go view an image in full screen in a separate tab, but I doubt anyone does that. So really, it would be a good idea to resize them all before I upload, I just can't be bothered.
(Sorry for going on and on about something as boring as image size. I can't help it - I do website updates as a part of my job every day, so file size is something I think about haha)
Ah I see. I've not been long enough to experience a purge like that. Whoops. looks like most of my pictures might disappear lolol.
I scale my 1920x1080 images to half its size but never thought of converting the format. I'll probably do that from now on. If it reduces pic size by that much then I could potentially not reduce my image sizes by so much since I lose some details in the screenshot. Thanks!
@mercuryfoam I hope not, I definitely wouldn't want you to lose your images! Just make sure you have them all backed up somewhere so that you can restore them if worst comes to worst.
@SnuffyBucket That's some intense dedication to the stories you read! That's neat that you do that! I always tend to think that 90% of people just read on their phone, to be honest (of course the ratio would be different if you look at people who read but also write their own story).
I know you can do that in theory, but most of the image hosting sites I'm aware of won't keep the images indefinitely - all I have to do is go look at my old legacy thread, half the old imgur embeds that I used as chapter teasers are gone. So I don't really want to rely on those, because I don't trust them longterm.
This scares me, and I know a lot simlit writers use hosting sites. I have been pretty lax about uploading pictures and I just figured once my storage space was maxed I'd just use a hosting site, but now I don't know if I want to if it eventually purges all your images. I only use imgur for posting pictures on the forums. And I am lazy and just drop my pictures in without converting them to jpeg, but thanks to everyone's insight I will definitely start converting them to jpeg. I'm at 30%, so yeah, need to start converting to jpeg.
@mercuryfoam Let me know what step of the installation confuses you and I can try to help. I know that it is a little confusing and there are a couple of steps to follow. It's mostly downloading the files in the order listed and placing them in your Bin folder and placing the downloaded shaders into the reshade-shaders folder within the Bin folder. I only use lightroom, tonemap, vibrance, SMAA (anti-aliasing), and MultiLut (with the desired Lut setting from the drop-down menu) shaders. Most of these just fix the color, saturation and light. There is a readme about the different Lut settings (for location and inside vs outside) and right now I'm using Hydrae for Sulani. But I kind of just clicked through the different ones and figured out which one I liked best.
If you use MXAO (from what I understand it darkens certain areas and gives more depth to the final picture) then there are a couple settings you have to change in-game under the reshade MXAO settings. The original Clear Bloom also uses adaptive fog, MXAO (both these really bog down my computer and I don't use), and a couple others. I turn off both edge smoothing and post-processing in my game settings (but you don't have to turn off post-processing according to the tutorial and can change a certain script in the graphics rules file). Hopefully some of that made sense, but if not I can break it down further or take screenshots to explain it better. That's just a quick and dirty explanation.
For my first story I used RemusSirion's reshade #6, and it's an ini file that you place in your Bin folder. But there are lots of other presets out there depending on your preferences.
@lone_cat Don't let my own paranoia to be a messenger of doom It might well be fine, just because some of the pictures from the past disappeared doesn't necessarily mean it will happen in the future. Although, I feel like image hosting services are predominantly intended for short term usage for forums and the like, because if they were to keep everything indefinitely, think about how astronomical their server costs would be... So I'm wary!
Let me know what step of the installation confuses you and I can try to help. I know that it is a little confusing and there are a couple of steps to follow. It's mostly downloading the files in the order listed and placing them in your Bin folder and placing the downloaded shaders into the reshade-shaders folder within the Bin folder. I only use lightroom, tonemap, vibrance, SMAA (anti-aliasing), and MultiLut (with the desired Lut setting from the drop-down menu) shaders. Most of these just fix the color, saturation and light. There is a readme about the different Lut settings (for location and inside vs outside) and right now I'm using Hydrae for Sulani. But I kind of just clicked through the different ones and figured out which one I liked best.
If you use MXAO (from what I understand it darkens certain areas and gives more depth to the final picture) then there are a couple settings you have to change in-game under the reshade MXAO settings. The original Clear Bloom also uses adaptive fog, MXAO (both these really bog down my computer and I don't use), and a couple others. I turn off both edge smoothing and post-processing in my game settings (but you don't have to turn off post-processing according to the tutorial and can change a certain script in the graphics rules file). Hopefully some of that made sense, but if not I can break it down further or take screenshots to explain it better. That's just a quick and dirty explanation.
For my first story I used RemusSirion's reshade #6, and it's an ini file that you place in your Bin folder. But there are lots of other presets out there depending on your preferences.
Thanks for RemusSirion's shade. I have his other one that makes my world look like an apocalyse happened. I like this better!
Oof okay. So I gave it a go and I think I messed up the installation steps again lol. I've got 3 shaders not working now (qUINT_MXAO, MartyMcFlyDOF and MatsoDOF) which I'm bummed about because I use Matso and Marty a lot I'll troubleshoot a little more and see if I can get them working again.
MXAO and Adaptive fog slows down the fps for me too! It's still in the tolerable range because I only switch these on for photos and revert to a simple preset for gaming. The one that sends my pc back in time is CinematicDOF. Beautiful, but deadly.
Ok wait, I'm testing this out as I write this so new revelation. Those shaders are only broken for Clear Bloom and is working for my other presets. Phew!! So I did mess up the installation. No biggie. I'll retry the tutorial.
*sees @mercuryfoam and @lone_cat exchanging random assortments of letters and acting as if that totally makes sense*
Since you guys clearly seem to know what the other one is talking about, I'm going to assume the random letter variations are in fact not one or both of you having a seizure and leave you to it
*sees @mercuryfoam and @lone_cat exchanging random assortments of letters and acting as if that totally makes sense*
Since you guys clearly seem to know what the other one is talking about, I'm going to assume the random letter variations are in fact not one or both of you having a seizure and leave you to it
I'm totally sitting here nodding and haven't a clue.
*sees @mercuryfoam and @lone_cat exchanging random assortments of letters and acting as if that totally makes sense*
Since you guys clearly seem to know what the other one is talking about, I'm going to assume the random letter variations are in fact not one or both of you having a seizure and leave you to it
I'm totally sitting here nodding and haven't a clue.
Yup. Just smile and wave. Works every time.
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@mercuryfoam Ah, okay, I thought you hadn't installed it yet, so I won't be much help in troubleshooting the different shaders that aren't working. It messed up a couple of my shaders when I first installed it, and I had to delete everything and start over (hopefully you don't need to do that).
@ThePlumbob@_sims_Yimi@SnuffyBucket Haha, it's a bunch of Reshade jargon. Sorry to go off on a tangent. That probably made no sense. MXAO adds shading and depth to the picture, and anything with DOF at the end stands for Depth of Field. Basically, it blurs things that are in the distance and sharpens objects in the foreground. LUT fixes the color (it probably does more than that, but this is just my understanding of it).
Question. I might have asked this question to some of you already, but how do you all prepare your chapters? Do you write first, and take pictures after? Or take pictures first and write after? How much do you plan out what happens in the chapter? Bullet points? A detailed schematic? Doodles on a napkin? Or is it all strictly in your head?
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@_sims_Yimi
Ooh, great question! And I can actually answer this one!
I started with an idea that just wouldn't die, so wrote a very brief plot outline. Then I went through the whole story in my head and wrote bullet points. Then wrote around each bullet point until I pretty much had a novel. Then I added page breaks where I thought chapters should be (these are prone to change), printed them all out and muddled them up, generally trying to make the story as tangled, complicated and frustrating to write and read as possible.
Then I started playing the story. I haven't finished that part, yet. Sometimes, something will happen when I'm playing that I'll add in, and sometimes I get a random idea and throw that in, too. But generally, the writing is done. This is not a method I recommend, but is one I seem to be repeating for part 2.
Question. I might have asked this question to some of you already, but how do you all prepare your chapters? Do you write first, and take pictures after? Or take pictures first and write after? How much do you plan out what happens in the chapter? Bullet points? A detailed schematic? Doodles on a napkin? Or is it all strictly in your head?
Right, how much time do you have, because I could go on for a while?
I'm very much a notes person in general, so I have pages on pages of story scribbles on papers and post its all over.. even though sometimes I don't use them.
I started off with a very rough theme/idea that I was just going to play out for myself, but decided to write the beginning/initial backstory out, which is basically what the first two chapters of my story are. I was then just going to wing it, but around chapter 4 or so I had an epiphany over the overarching plot that fleshed out character backstories and a decent idea of how it all ends (well, how the first season/story/book or whatever you want to call it ends).
From there I did a rough outline that is a few pages of handwritten gibberish with loads of arrows in a nonsensical order that would not make sense to anyone (I have also changed most people's names since then). Then I typically do a slightly more detailed outline for the next 5-10 chapters I'm writing, but I do already have this for the last few chapters towards the end, so I guess I'm kind of working towards closing that gap now.
I generally get random conversations between characters (that aren't going to happen till way in the future) cropping up so I try to jot them down (or at least the gist of them) if I can as anchors for future reference, although I sometimes don't use them if they don't feel right by the time I "get there."
All that being said I do actually play/screenshot before writing the chapter, so sometimes I might go in with notes and the chapter plays out slightly differently, although it's more changing aspects of what goes down and how I get from point A to point B, but it doesn't normally change what point A and point B are. It can occasionally happen though. Then, once I have my screenshots, I go to write the chapter based on the notes and the game, but I might still tweak the angle slightly there. This very commonly happens to me with tone of conversation, I might go into game with a set idea for how an interaction will play out, in game, my perception of the scene slightly changes, and then it might change yet again by the time I actually write the chapter. So I often go through three iterations of the same(ish) concept.
Anyway, I've been going on for ages. I think my story reads like it's a lot less planned than it really is, but what I wrote above probably sounds like it's a lot more planned than it really is I do let my characters surprise me and always try to reevaluate if the original concept makes sense, because it's a bit of a pet peeve of mine when character development gets overlooked in a story just because the author is too stubborn about their original idea. So while I have an ending in mind, it may yet change. That said, there are a lot of backstory elements that will come through flashbacks down the line (some of which you've already seen) or at least will be referenced, and those are set in stone pretty firmly, because they have already "happened."
Not sure if the above is particularly useful to anyone to know
I do hope you answer your own question @_sims_Yimi - I find this kind of stuff fascinating!
I wrote this story up about three years ago. The idea just popped into my head one day and I just started writing and before I knew it I had like six separate stories. Then I kept coming back to it and I got attached to all my characters and the story. I was really chicken to put it out there and sat on it for a while until I decided to put it on WP and the forums.
I'm not an outliner, I just start writing down what is in my head in a word document. It turns into a rough draft, and that's what I use as an outline. I don’t recommend it because it's kind of time-consuming, but it seems to be what works for me right now. Originally, I was going to use Sims 3 for screenshots because of the whole ghost hunting career, but I like the look of Sims 4 better. I rewrote some stories to fit into sims 4. Hailey, Ian and Vern are pretty much the only characters that haven’t changed much as far as backstory/personality.
I do a lot of rewriting because as I write and read my rough drafts I come up with new ideas. The barebones plot stays the same, but how the characters get there might change. I usually know who the villain is from the beginning, that doesn't change, and I think that needs to stay like that so I can drop hints to who it might be or red herrings to mislead. I am not afraid to scrap an idea or scene if it doesn't make sense or I don't like it. There are a few things that are pretty set in stone, like character backstories (I also plan on doing some flashbacks). It's kind of organized chaos because I have so many word documents with different stories/endings/scenes.
Screenshotting can be a pain because I have a specific idea in my head how a scene will play out, but sometimes I can't find poses or the game won't cooperate with me. Then I have to rewrite a scene or change it to make it work with the game (I'm getting better about not writing scenes that I know won't work in the game). And then sometimes my sims will do something funny or different from what I intended, and I will write that into the story (that doesn't happen very often since I've turned off autonomy and max out all their needs).
Haha, I know how that feels! Interesting how you wrote it all down and planned things out beforehand, and then do the actual game part. Do you ever hit story beats where your notes want you to do something and there just… isn’t enough in the game to let you do it? Like an action you can’t do, or poses you can’t find, or something like that?
@ThePlumbob
Sounds like your way of doing things and my way of doing things are actually pretty similar, only you have more post-it notes and I have more random coloured cells in excel that I try to play tetris with, and then realize nothing fits in the same chapter. XD
Screenshotting can be a pain because I have a specific idea in my head how a scene will play out, but sometimes I can't find poses or the game won't cooperate with me.
Aaah that is just the worst. I used to have that all the time with TS3 – maybe I was too ambitious, but the game was just not enough for the kind of story I wanted. TS4 also has its drawbacks, but more things seem possible so far.
Mine’s very similar to Plumbob. I make a rough outline first based on an idea I have in my head, mostly bullet points that describe what should happen. Then I build the scenes and hunt for poses I need. Then picture taking. And that’s where my own story often surprises me. That whole kid chapter with Arthur trying commoner skills wasn’t supposed to be about that at all. But he made such hilarious facial expressions that it just kind of sprang into existence on its own, and then I couldn’t not write it anymore. The tavern brawl, too. It was just supposed to be them talking, but Marcus Flex and Elyan were both in a terrible mood and just GLARING at each other and then I had to do it. xD
I do often hit the roadblock of what I want to show just… not being possible in the game. I still don’t know how to make pretty underwater screenshots. Or how to fling people off a cliff. Or even how to properly place sims outside the boundaries of where EA allows them to walk in the neighbourhood.
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Comments
Aah, I always assumed the binoculars and the wig were cc! (Though let's face it, I was so immersed in B2W that I didn't really question it.) You've made them blend in seamlessly!
Story Blog | Forum Discussion
I'm not super picky about screenshots, usually because by the time I'm done writing, posing, finding CC and taking screenshots I've already got a bunch of time sunk into a chapter, so I compromise a little on screenshot editing. I use Gimp for editing (usually just lightning or darkening or adding simple effects). I use MS Paint if I am doing very basic things like chapter images with text on my thread.
Site | Thread
@_sims_yimi Really interesting to see the process! If I took a shot like that first one, I'd be like 'look, I'm so good at this'
Well, Sandy didn't hire him for his cooking skills. And Hogwash is a noble and longstanding name in my game, I'll have you know.
@ThePlumbob you know you can't say that Cordelia was farting fire and then not show me, right? Please say you still have that image.
@mercuryfoam your attention to detail is amazing! I really like that you edit the happy images to happier. I've tried to use in-game lighting to emphasise mood, like the second part of Weird Juice where I turned off all the lights in the room to denote that the situation was going downhill, or having Melinda in the pitch dark room and her parents in an overly bright one in Foil in the Microwave; never even occurred to me to do edits after, instead. It will now!
Your filters really do emphasise the mood and the drama. Definitely something I'm going to have a play with. Ugh, the clipping! April's eyelashes are always in her forehead.
@lone_cat telling me that you don't like to edit and don't have a lot of experience with editing is really helpful, it's reassuring.
Plenty of food for thought everyone. Thanks so, so much!
Story Blog | Forum Discussion
Yup. This. That's the biggest reason for me compulsively turning them into jpgs and re-sizing them, too. I've only used 4% so far, so I have miles and miles of storage space left, but I still freak out over possibly running out of space in the future.
@ThePlumbob @SnuffyBucket
Thanks! I’m glad the props I used look part of the game. Last thing I want is for them to take center focus. I’m glad you like the ‘make happier’ edits too!
@ThePlumbob I thought your pictures are already pretty. I was already gushing in the earlier chapters!
@SnuffyBucket Ooh I’ve never thought of that! That’s a good point actually, to use in-game lighting as filters. It’s possible too since we’re able to tweak color and brightness of the lights in the room! I don't think what I do is anything noteworthy. It's a skill anyone can pick up. I'll show you in the tut below. I’ll use pictures so I don’t send you another wall of text.
#1 I have the main photo opened in gimp.
It's on a layer of its own.
#2 I add the 'security photo' into the same project
Notice how this photo is not combined with the first one. It's on its own layer.
#3 Because it's on its own layer, I can resize, and grayscale the photo without affecting the first one.
#4 I use the perspective tool to modify the angle of the photo and fit it into the the tv screen.
#5 Cut out Thayne's silhouette on a 'Layer Mask'.
This is a 'Layer Mask'. It means you are not cutting the photo directly. There won't be a 'hole' in your picture. (A bit technical. It's not important.)
#6 Tada! First 'security photo done'. Repeat for how many TV screens you have in your main photo lol.
If you're worried about storage space, you can put your pictures on a 3rd party image hosting site and have your WP blog pluck images from there via code like how we do on the forums. That way you use zero WP space and still have quality pictures on your blog.
@mercuryfoam I know you can do that in theory, but most of the image hosting sites I'm aware of won't keep the images indefinitely - all I have to do is go look at my old legacy thread, half the old imgur embeds that I used as chapter teasers are gone. So I don't really want to rely on those, because I don't trust them longterm.
I'm currently at around 24% of my WP storage, but that's keeping in mind I already have a completed legacy's worth of pictures on my site
I don't think there's a visually noticeable difference between jpg and png, but the file size difference is crazy! At work we have a rule that no images that go on the website should be over 150 KB (to optimise load times), so I think I have that ingrained in me now - I try not to put anything over 200 KB on my blog (which is why mostly I just convert to jpg, because that makes the biggest difference, but if I still think the file size is too big and I can be bothered on the particular day, I will resize).
Edit: Making the picture slightly smaller doesn't really reduce quality, because your WP template already shows the picture as smaller anyway. For instance for my template, I know that the reader will never be looking at an image at a bigger resolution that around 800 pixels wide, so there's really not a need for it to be more than, say 1000 pixels wide. Sure, in theory someone could right click and go view an image in full screen in a separate tab, but I doubt anyone does that. So really, it would be a good idea to resize them all before I upload, I just can't be bothered.
(Sorry for going on and on about something as boring as image size. I can't help it - I do website updates as a part of my job every day, so file size is something I think about haha)
Story Blog | Forum Discussion
Ah I see. I've not been long enough to experience a purge like that. Whoops. looks like most of my pictures might disappear lolol.
I scale my 1920x1080 images to half its size but never thought of converting the format. I'll probably do that from now on. If it reduces pic size by that much then I could potentially not reduce my image sizes by so much since I lose some details in the screenshot.
Story Blog | Forum Discussion
Story Blog | Forum Discussion
This scares me, and I know a lot simlit writers use hosting sites. I have been pretty lax about uploading pictures and I just figured once my storage space was maxed I'd just use a hosting site, but now I don't know if I want to if it eventually purges all your images. I only use imgur for posting pictures on the forums. And I am lazy and just drop my pictures in without converting them to jpeg, but thanks to everyone's insight
@mercuryfoam Let me know what step of the installation confuses you and I can try to help. I know that it is a little confusing and there are a couple of steps to follow. It's mostly downloading the files in the order listed and placing them in your Bin folder and placing the downloaded shaders into the reshade-shaders folder within the Bin folder. I only use lightroom, tonemap, vibrance, SMAA (anti-aliasing), and MultiLut (with the desired Lut setting from the drop-down menu) shaders. Most of these just fix the color, saturation and light. There is a readme about the different Lut settings (for location and inside vs outside) and right now I'm using Hydrae for Sulani. But I kind of just clicked through the different ones and figured out which one I liked best.
If you use MXAO (from what I understand it darkens certain areas and gives more depth to the final picture) then there are a couple settings you have to change in-game under the reshade MXAO settings. The original Clear Bloom also uses adaptive fog, MXAO (both these really bog down my computer and I don't use), and a couple others. I turn off both edge smoothing and post-processing in my game settings (but you don't have to turn off post-processing according to the tutorial and can change a certain script in the graphics rules file). Hopefully some of that made sense, but if not I can break it down further or take screenshots to explain it better. That's just a quick and dirty explanation.
For my first story I used RemusSirion's reshade #6, and it's an ini file that you place in your Bin folder. But there are lots of other presets out there depending on your preferences.
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Story Blog | Forum Discussion
Thanks for RemusSirion's shade. I have his other one that makes my world look like an apocalyse happened. I like this better!
Oof okay. So I gave it a go and I think I messed up the installation steps again lol. I've got 3 shaders not working now (qUINT_MXAO, MartyMcFlyDOF and MatsoDOF) which I'm bummed about because I use Matso and Marty a lot
MXAO and Adaptive fog slows down the fps for me too! It's still in the tolerable range because I only switch these on for photos and revert to a simple preset for gaming. The one that sends my pc back in time is CinematicDOF. Beautiful, but deadly.
Ok wait, I'm testing this out as I write this so new revelation. Those shaders are only broken for Clear Bloom and is working for my other presets. Phew!! So I did mess up the installation. No biggie. I'll retry the tutorial.
*sees @mercuryfoam and @lone_cat exchanging random assortments of letters and acting as if that totally makes sense*
Since you guys clearly seem to know what the other one is talking about, I'm going to assume the random letter variations are in fact not one or both of you having a seizure and leave you to it
Story Blog | Forum Discussion
I'm totally sitting here nodding and haven't a clue.
Yup. Just smile and wave. Works every time.
@ThePlumbob @_sims_Yimi @SnuffyBucket Haha, it's a bunch of Reshade jargon. Sorry to go off on a tangent. That probably made no sense.
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Ooh, great question! And I can actually answer this one!
I started with an idea that just wouldn't die, so wrote a very brief plot outline. Then I went through the whole story in my head and wrote bullet points. Then wrote around each bullet point until I pretty much had a novel. Then I added page breaks where I thought chapters should be (these are prone to change), printed them all out and muddled them up, generally trying to make the story as tangled, complicated and frustrating to write and read as possible.
Then I started playing the story. I haven't finished that part, yet. Sometimes, something will happen when I'm playing that I'll add in, and sometimes I get a random idea and throw that in, too. But generally, the writing is done. This is not a method I recommend, but is one I seem to be repeating for part 2.
Right, how much time do you have, because I could go on for a while?
I'm very much a notes person in general, so I have pages on pages of story scribbles on papers and post its all over.. even though sometimes I don't use them.
I started off with a very rough theme/idea that I was just going to play out for myself, but decided to write the beginning/initial backstory out, which is basically what the first two chapters of my story are. I was then just going to wing it, but around chapter 4 or so I had an epiphany over the overarching plot that fleshed out character backstories and a decent idea of how it all ends (well, how the first season/story/book or whatever you want to call it ends).
From there I did a rough outline that is a few pages of handwritten gibberish with loads of arrows in a nonsensical order that would not make sense to anyone (I have also changed most people's names since then). Then I typically do a slightly more detailed outline for the next 5-10 chapters I'm writing, but I do already have this for the last few chapters towards the end, so I guess I'm kind of working towards closing that gap now.
I generally get random conversations between characters (that aren't going to happen till way in the future) cropping up so I try to jot them down (or at least the gist of them) if I can as anchors for future reference, although I sometimes don't use them if they don't feel right by the time I "get there."
All that being said I do actually play/screenshot before writing the chapter, so sometimes I might go in with notes and the chapter plays out slightly differently, although it's more changing aspects of what goes down and how I get from point A to point B, but it doesn't normally change what point A and point B are. It can occasionally happen though. Then, once I have my screenshots, I go to write the chapter based on the notes and the game, but I might still tweak the angle slightly there. This very commonly happens to me with tone of conversation, I might go into game with a set idea for how an interaction will play out, in game, my perception of the scene slightly changes, and then it might change yet again by the time I actually write the chapter. So I often go through three iterations of the same(ish) concept.
Anyway, I've been going on for ages. I think my story reads like it's a lot less planned than it really is, but what I wrote above probably sounds like it's a lot more planned than it really is
Not sure if the above is particularly useful to anyone to know
I do hope you answer your own question @_sims_Yimi - I find this kind of stuff fascinating!
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I wrote this story up about three years ago. The idea just popped into my head one day and I just started writing and before I knew it I had like six separate stories. Then I kept coming back to it and I got attached to all my characters and the story. I was really chicken to put it out there and sat on it for a while until I decided to put it on WP and the forums.
I'm not an outliner, I just start writing down what is in my head in a word document. It turns into a rough draft, and that's what I use as an outline. I don’t recommend it because it's kind of time-consuming, but it seems to be what works for me right now. Originally, I was going to use Sims 3 for screenshots because of the whole ghost hunting career, but I like the look of Sims 4 better. I rewrote some stories to fit into sims 4. Hailey, Ian and Vern are pretty much the only characters that haven’t changed much as far as backstory/personality.
I do a lot of rewriting because as I write and read my rough drafts I come up with new ideas. The barebones plot stays the same, but how the characters get there might change. I usually know who the villain is from the beginning, that doesn't change, and I think that needs to stay like that so I can drop hints to who it might be or red herrings to mislead. I am not afraid to scrap an idea or scene if it doesn't make sense or I don't like it. There are a few things that are pretty set in stone, like character backstories (I also plan on doing some flashbacks). It's kind of organized chaos because I have so many word documents with different stories/endings/scenes.
Screenshotting can be a pain because I have a specific idea in my head how a scene will play out, but sometimes I can't find poses or the game won't cooperate with me. Then I have to rewrite a scene or change it to make it work with the game (I'm getting better about not writing scenes that I know won't work in the game). And then sometimes my sims will do something funny or different from what I intended, and I will write that into the story (that doesn't happen very often since I've turned off autonomy and max out all their needs).
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@ThePlumbob
Sounds like your way of doing things and my way of doing things are actually pretty similar, only you have more post-it notes and I have more random coloured cells in excel that I try to play tetris with, and then realize nothing fits in the same chapter. XD
@lone_cat Aaah that is just the worst. I used to have that all the time with TS3 – maybe I was too ambitious, but the game was just not enough for the kind of story I wanted. TS4 also has its drawbacks, but more things seem possible so far.
Mine’s very similar to Plumbob. I make a rough outline first based on an idea I have in my head, mostly bullet points that describe what should happen. Then I build the scenes and hunt for poses I need. Then picture taking. And that’s where my own story often surprises me. That whole kid chapter with Arthur trying commoner skills wasn’t supposed to be about that at all. But he made such hilarious facial expressions that it just kind of sprang into existence on its own, and then I couldn’t not write it anymore. The tavern brawl, too. It was just supposed to be them talking, but Marcus Flex and Elyan were both in a terrible mood and just GLARING at each other and then I had to do it. xD
I do often hit the roadblock of what I want to show just… not being possible in the game. I still don’t know how to make pretty underwater screenshots. Or how to fling people off a cliff. Or even how to properly place sims outside the boundaries of where EA allows them to walk in the neighbourhood.