We can do everything like add muscle and lose fat, yet we can't change our Sim's height. Is it really hard for the game engine to do this, so this is why we don't have this feature?
I would love to change my Sim's height!
Maybe in the Sims 5?
This is my only consistent complaint. I use height sliders.
Way back during TS3's run, some user on Mod the Sims was really into the idea of EA redoing their model for animations so that they'd be dynamic and based on "attraction points" on a sim's body for other sims to contact during animations. I wish I remembered who it was because it's a brilliant idea.
I use a height mod and it affects less than one would think. Using objects and even sim-to-sim animations like hugs and handshakes look fine.
It's generally the kissing that gets messed up. I tried a height-slider with Sims3 (it had to have been) and this was a problem.
Even if we only had like 3 preset heights, that would have been something and not like they would have had to make a ton of animations for hundreds of heights. 3 heights for teens and 3 heights for YA and older. I'd have been happy with that.
I like this idea! Would be great if we could select which height option in CAS, too. I tend to like short females (hey, I'm a 'tall' short person at 5'3 1/2"). Not everybody is a giant in this world, but three heights would be all that is needed. Then the animations could be synced to the height types? Maybe? That way the team would only have to adjust interactions between the six different height possibilities. Works for me.
It's not like this only with sims 4, but with all games as far as I know. It requires ton of animations for each interaction between all heights, or with objects.
Its one of my gripes with this game. To see every single sim with the exact same height, no matter what. So frikkin unrealistic. But, well, its The Sims 4, there are soooo many things they should change and/or improve that at this point, better to just dont think on it.
I can get why as it would cause issues with animations, I have a mod to make teens shorter and there is some issues but I think it's nice to have.
As long as the model and rig is well-made, it should not be too difficult to adjust the new heights of the models. But again, its not a fast job, and i dont think the devs are going to do something about it , ever. Too many issues already with the game to think on tweaking height of the models.... that would be probably the last thing to think off.
I use a mod for that. Actually it works very well apart from some odd animations. This can easily be fixed by EA if they wanted to. But I suppose it is too hard and too expensive.
granted, I'm a short adult, so I don't mind the teens being tall. I used to tease the kids at our church that I wouldn't believe they were teenagers until they could look me in the eye. Teens aren't all short, and I've known some middle schoolers that were taller than me.
That said, it's all about the Animation budget. Dynamic rigging was (I think) still relatively new (read expensive) to code when TS4 was in development. It's now less so and hopefully, it can be incorporated in to TS5
Basically due to animations, which can often be off when mods that allow it are used. This is another one of those features that is not going to be able to be patched in, and is going to require a brand-new game with the feature from the start.
I'm 5'6. Not really that short, but still, when in a store, I have problems reaching the highest pegs/shelves. For many jobs, I have to drag out a milk crate or a small stepladder, when most people can reach them normally.
I think it can be done with animations added and all. I really really want to see height sliders in my game (NO MODS) because I only play on console and I can't use mods. Console players shouldn't be cheated representation. Short & tall players shouldn't be excluded. We wanna see disabilities like wheel chairs & such in the game but height sliders seem impossible? Whoever wants to see height represented give me an amen & gripe about it cause that's how you get things done. How much representation are you truly including if you can't even include height?
The developers would have to adapt every single height to everything in this game. Every animations, interactions etc. Is it doable? Yes probably, but it would take a long time and resources as well. I'd rather see them use their time and resources on adding new gameplay etc.
I have to agree with this statement, at this late date, I don't see them taking the time or resources to adjust every single animation, and I would much rather have them concentrate on game-breaking bugs and other highly requested things to be added.
Now, I DO hope that the next iteration includes height sliders, but if not, then I will want shorter teens, especially since teens encompasses such a broad range of ages (13-19), I know that some teens are taller than their parents, but usually younger teens aren't quite as tall. Course everybody is taller than, even kids who are 10 years I know are taller than me, because I'm pretty darn short in RL (5 foot, 1 inches).
Shorter teens helps to distinguish them from YAs, that's creepy when your sim gets flirty with someone and you realize they are a teen, NO! Just no, that's wrong!
@Chicklet453681 I feel like realistically we need one more lift stage between child and teen, especially since teens in this game function as essentially 18 year olds. The child life stage seems to represent about an 8-10 year old child, and to jump all the way from 18 from that just feels jarring. I would love to see a pre-teen life stage. I think a lot of family oriented players would love to see an extra child stage as well.
Because it will be a lot of work. I assume they will need to change the rig so it can be dynamic, and on top of that, they will need to re-check all the clipping issues that will occur with objects, clothes, many issues. Keep in mind, in TS4 all the objects are designed with specific seamless dimensions so they can fit with all the animations from the models. And other issues with the environment and whatnot.
It is not worthy to use any mod unless you dont care about animations going awol and other issues (and honestly for me clean animatios are essential on this game).
I've used LUUMIA's Height Slider before... its cool to use for screenshots but as for gameplay it's not too fun since almost every animation gets messed up. Not saying its completely useless though since minor height adjustments won't completely screw up some animations.
I also noticed that it often bugs out the sims meshes and sometimes and their entire upper body will go invisible sometimes and you have to do or go somewhere to activate a load screen so all the meshes or reload for it to fix.
If you want to go extremely short, you'd use LUUMINA's height preset for your body, then also use LUUMIA's height slider and you can make your adult sim somewhere in between the height of a child and an adult. But i'd say they are a bit over half the height of a child, maybe 2 feet below the height of an unmodified adult, depending on the size of their head also. This is the height teenagers should have been set at instead of making them the exact size as young adults/adults and elders.
You can actually tell which sims in my screenshot that have the height slider, but also the preset enabled by the buggy display in their portrait... this happens because they are so short that the game doesn't know how to render their face in their portrait area.
This is a screenshot of the height slider I took when I was testing it a little while ago, I had some of these sims with the height slider as low as it could go. The the shortest ones you see there use the slider but also have the shortest body preset selected.
Gentlemen, from this day forward... you will all refer to me by the name... Betty... myahhahah!
If you wanted realism you'd have to have the teen girls be adult height, but teen boys staying close to child height until they turn young adult!
Or until they get to that second half of teen-hood that must be already coded as a hidden trait or something in the game-- the stage when "apply to university" becomes available.
To me teens are 14-17. 18 + are young adults. So they should be shorter !
Who should be shorter? The YAs or the teens? I believe you meant the teens should be shorter, but it's a tad ambiguous the way it's worded. I would be interested to know the name of the mod you use.
I don't know if this is a thing or just my eyes playing tricks on me. In CAS if I use the arrow on a woman's back to straighten their spine to lift saggy bits they appear taller then their un-straightened spouse in the game.
If anyone should be shorter than adults, it's middle aged and elder sims.
Teens should be tall. Girls usually reach full height by 14-15, and boys a little later, 16-18.
1, EA is a cheap company and will cut corners where ever they can to save spending money on development.
2, The game was rushed and released way before it was ready.
The Sims 3 has shorter teens and they work fine. Either EA is to cheap to pay for animations or the team were to lazy to bother and as a result we have teens that are barely any different from young adults.
The main reason we don't have height sliders has less to do with capability than with what they chose to do. The current animations are built-in and tied to a single model. For example, hugging. Each model has several hugging animations, targeted to suit sims of various life stages. What they should have done is place mapping points on each model (such as joints, fingertips, etc), then have the animations be a separate routine that interacts with TWO models, initiating a single animation, ensuring that corresponding mapping points on both models meet.
This game needs more Sailor Moon!
Hold SHIFT while using the FRIEZE tool to apply it to a single wall, and not an entire room!
As this thread had been inactive since 2017 and as there have been more recent discussions on this topic, I'm closing it as per our necroposting rules.
Comments
This is my only consistent complaint. I use height sliders.
My Plumbob is GREEN today
It's generally the kissing that gets messed up. I tried a height-slider with Sims3 (it had to have been) and this was a problem.
http://www.getfreeebooks.com/star-trek-original-series-fan-fiction-trilogy/
I like this idea! Would be great if we could select which height option in CAS, too. I tend to like short females (hey, I'm a 'tall' short person at 5'3 1/2"). Not everybody is a giant in this world, but three heights would be all that is needed. Then the animations could be synced to the height types? Maybe? That way the team would only have to adjust interactions between the six different height possibilities. Works for me.
http://www.getfreeebooks.com/star-trek-original-series-fan-fiction-trilogy/
As long as the model and rig is well-made, it should not be too difficult to adjust the new heights of the models. But again, its not a fast job, and i dont think the devs are going to do something about it , ever. Too many issues already with the game to think on tweaking height of the models.... that would be probably the last thing to think off.
That said, it's all about the Animation budget. Dynamic rigging was (I think) still relatively new (read expensive) to code when TS4 was in development. It's now less so and hopefully, it can be incorporated in to TS5
I'm 5'6. Not really that short, but still, when in a store, I have problems reaching the highest pegs/shelves. For many jobs, I have to drag out a milk crate or a small stepladder, when most people can reach them normally.
@Chicklet453681 I feel like realistically we need one more lift stage between child and teen, especially since teens in this game function as essentially 18 year olds. The child life stage seems to represent about an 8-10 year old child, and to jump all the way from 18 from that just feels jarring. I would love to see a pre-teen life stage. I think a lot of family oriented players would love to see an extra child stage as well.
It is not worthy to use any mod unless you dont care about animations going awol and other issues (and honestly for me clean animatios are essential on this game).
I also noticed that it often bugs out the sims meshes and sometimes and their entire upper body will go invisible sometimes and you have to do or go somewhere to activate a load screen so all the meshes or reload for it to fix.
If you want to go extremely short, you'd use LUUMINA's height preset for your body, then also use LUUMIA's height slider and you can make your adult sim somewhere in between the height of a child and an adult. But i'd say they are a bit over half the height of a child, maybe 2 feet below the height of an unmodified adult, depending on the size of their head also. This is the height teenagers should have been set at instead of making them the exact size as young adults/adults and elders.
You can actually tell which sims in my screenshot that have the height slider, but also the preset enabled by the buggy display in their portrait... this happens because they are so short that the game doesn't know how to render their face in their portrait area.
This is a screenshot of the height slider I took when I was testing it a little while ago, I had some of these sims with the height slider as low as it could go. The the shortest ones you see there use the slider but also have the shortest body preset selected.
Gentlemen, from this day forward... you will all refer to me by the name... Betty... myahhahah!
Or until they get to that second half of teen-hood that must be already coded as a hidden trait or something in the game-- the stage when "apply to university" becomes available.
Who should be shorter? The YAs or the teens? I believe you meant the teens should be shorter, but it's a tad ambiguous the way it's worded. I would be interested to know the name of the mod you use.
http://www.getfreeebooks.com/star-trek-original-series-fan-fiction-trilogy/
Teens should be tall. Girls usually reach full height by 14-15, and boys a little later, 16-18.
1, EA is a cheap company and will cut corners where ever they can to save spending money on development.
2, The game was rushed and released way before it was ready.
The Sims 3 has shorter teens and they work fine. Either EA is to cheap to pay for animations or the team were to lazy to bother and as a result we have teens that are barely any different from young adults.
Hold SHIFT while using the FRIEZE tool to apply it to a single wall, and not an entire room!
** SailorCeti's Builds **
If you download one of my builds, by all means, leave me a message and tell me what you did and did not like about it.
As this thread had been inactive since 2017 and as there have been more recent discussions on this topic, I'm closing it as per our necroposting rules.
Thanks,
Leeloo