This took a lot longer than I thought it would... We are finished, though. I learned a lot about working within the limits of the Sims' skin mesh format, and about low-poly modeling. While I've always tried to keep the poly count down these are _really_ low poly fiures, the French maid goes about 2,200 polygons, and that is for the figure, dress, shoes, head and hair (the program supplies the hands). Compared to say 16,000 for the nude Posette without hair! Seammer did the textures, incidently, and she did an outstanding job on them, I think. We will have a French Maid, a figure with a mini-skirted suit, a swimsuit figure and a lingerie figure in the first Sims set, with many texure varations. We are going to try and sell it just like a Poser set, which is somthing new for a product for the Sims game, I think. The mesh and the textures are all original, incidently, what other Sims' sites have is modified versions od what comes with the game, these are much better, I think... ;-) Anyway, I hope this can be left in this forum, as I have a Poser question, too- would there be any intrest in a Poser version of these? I was sort of thinking about that as I finished up the mesh, a couple more polygons here and there, and a set of hands, and I could have a nice set of _really_ low poly count Poser figures, say 5000-7000 polygons total, for a figure ready-to-render, no worry about poke-through either, as the clothing would be part of the base figure (I'd have a _lot_ of different figures instead of different clothing). Would anybody be intrested in something like that for Poser? They don't look all that bad, do they? ;-)

Here are the other two figures.

They look great :o) Though I must say that here it's y 12 year old daughter that's a sim-freak, and I don't think these are the kid of characters she would look for... But do an eminem-lookalike and she'll be spending all my moeny G

Well, ONE thing is for sure, Jim, YOUR "polys" beat the Sims' required hands, well, errr.... hands DOWN! One can certainly see the difference. They look pretty convincing (not that I'm a Sims authority).

Thanks guys, I sorta hope this take off, as I've got a lot of plans, like doing guys in the next one. Just exactly what is a m&m, anyway? ;-)

I am a Sims-addict... I would love these!

Attached Link: http://www.poserpros.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=16588

I did another post at PoserPros with some of the nitty-gritty that would get me thrown out of here. The Sims is _very_ intresting to watch, when they get the Sims 2 up it may be like watching Poser run by itself!

I just HAVE to go check this out.

Hey, that's pretty cool how you made low poly figures. I've wanted to try that myself. Have you tested your new meshes in the game yet? I think Poser and Sims will become closer niche circles when Sims 2 comes out (which uses real 3D environments instead of pseudo 3D environments). I've noticed how Poser and 3D stuff gets mined all the time for Sims content. I don't think there is a single free 3D model the net that hasn't already made it's way into The Sims. Even some of the expensive TurboSquid models get adapted into The Sims. The Sims is a HUGE community, way bigger than Poser, or any other 3D community. There might be a market for a low ploy figure for Poser, especially when it comes to animations, but I think you will find more customers in the Sims community since it is so much larger. In fact, I can imagine your models will fit right in on a site like the 8 Deadly Sims. As far as I know, there hasn't been a low poly mesh that's made it's way into Poser. I have imported C001MA and B004MAFIT into poser, but it's an imported object and not a character. (I don't yet know how to make a model posable in Poser yet. I think you need the Poser Pro Pack or Poser 5 to do it.) Hmmm..... Perhaps there might be a market in Poser for posable FLAT low ploy figure that simulates a cartoon look. It could be like next generation of smilies, emoticons, dolls, and avatars. Think "Koshini," only flat. Anyhoo, if you do release low ploy figures for the Sims, I think it would be a good idea to make male low ploy models, preferable of famous guys, because the Sims users are mostly female, unlike the mostly male Poser users. Good luck! bB

they would be great for longer distance shots, where high detail wouldnt matter, or even mid range for that matter, they do look good! and 5-7000 polys is pretty light. even posing them in poser then exporting the different poses, as .obj etc, would be great for crowd shots.

BastBlack, "As far as I know, there hasn't been a low poly mesh that's made it's way into Poser." Actually, PhilC has already done very low poly Poser models. I'm not going to hijack Jim's thread with link and pictures, but did want to clarify the point. Carolly

Do you mean PhilC's Hooter girl? I believe that was either a skin or a modified mesh for The Sims. There are numerious user created and/or modifed low ploy body and head meshes for The Sims, just not a low ploy character for Poser. Not from what I've seen. Anyone how many polygons are in the P4 default cas guy? he's really low-res looking. bB

Ooooooo kewl... glad to see ur still working on them.. I always pose my sim meshes i create in SimPose then pull them into Poser to render, for promo images for my Sims site (hence my name here... lol) They look just awesome!! I can't wait to use them, although i don't know how many people would download my textures, knowing that they have to buy the mesh.. The Sims community works a bit different from here, Although there are many many pay sim sites, its more like a small monthly fee. My site is free and will stay free.... But still i would just love to get my hands on those meshes and texture them!! I am pretty sure that Simmy peeps would buy these meshes for personal use, but i'm not sure how many would just download textures, i doubt they would come here and spend $10 on meshes though... but i could be totally wrong. Maybe you could pose this question at several of the bigger sims websites, like Sims Resourse, or 8DS (thats a paysite with the best quality items) I don't want to put a downer on ur excellent meshes, cuz i for one am very excited, just trying to look at it from the Sims communities point of few... ;) Eagerly awaiting these Meshes -SimderZ- xXx PS.. The pic is of my most realistic sim meshes, made them sometime ago... Didn't realese them on my website because of the fact they weren't huge in poly's, but they weren't low enought that everyone could enjoy them... ;)

oh btw... I have been in the Sims community for many years now, and its not mostly female... Its very mixed, from all walks of life... and... i don't think most poser users are male, seems also very mixed to me.. shrugs

Carolly is correct. PhilC did some game meshes a couple of years ago.

I do remember seeing PhilC's low-poly meshes, I should have mentioned that. I was thinking in terms of people that had both Poser and the Sims too, as I'd set it up so that they could use the same textures (or maybe higher-res versions of them with Poser). I did try them in the game, they work fine with the exception of problems that the game always has with long hair, as it doesn't bend, just pivots with the head. I worked on that but there doesn't seem to be any way around it. The P4 Casual guy has 19,564 faces (2 faces = 1 polygon, more or less), compared to 4400 for my French maid, the highest poly count of the bunch. The Posette has about 31,000 faces, if I recall. I'm aware of the fact that the Sims community is huge (2 million copies of the game, I understand), I'm under the impression that most of them don't buy anything though, unlike Poser people. ;-) I'm hopeing this takes off, as I do want to do some guys for the next set.

Jim, I may be waaaaay off base here BUT, is it likely the majority of these SIM owners are teenagers? If so, and though I may get flamed, I would think they're used to getting things free (or warez'd). So, if my supposition is remotely on target, I'd think your only choice would be to go for a low price/hi quantity sales. I'd wonder if something in the $5 area for a set of 4 or 5 figures.

**BastBlack** said: *"Hmmm..... Perhaps there might be a market in Poser for posable FLAT low ploy figure that simulates a cartoon look. It could be like next generation of smilies, emoticons, dolls, and avatars. Think "Koshini," only flat."*

Hmm, well it's not any lower in poly's, but here's a flat Koshini :D

Lhiannan

Lhiannan.. GREAT z-toon :o)

Some SIM owners are teenagers, some are adults. It's all walks of life. I think the market for actually 'buying' SIM meshes will open up more when the SIMS 2 comes out, but this could be a great experiment for the SIMS right now.

Was just taking an uneducated guess, Caly, based on our 11-year-old son wanting it (and us looking at the teen rating and saying no). What do I know, right? LOL

I am a huge sim fan..got all the expansions etc. They look really good and as simdrella said they would fit in really well at a site like 8th deadly sim. You should see how creative some people have gotten with the "adult" side of the sims. Someone else has new meshs on his site that are very "correct" in certain areas. He modeled them himself and I have to say they look dam good. Dont know the poly count as of yet. His site is a pay site and I think it is like 5 bucks for 30 days. Then you get all the content on the site. That is mostly how it goes for sims and paying for items. So I dunno if simmers would pay 5 to 10 dollars for a one time download of a mesh. But then again I could be wrong. on a side note Whats funny is alot of the poser hair has made its way into the game includeing yours jim. :)

Here is another pic, showing some of the variations. I used a program called "Sim Pose" to make these, and yes, people could make up pose sets for the Sims (or is it Sim sets for the Pose?) ;-)

I think the problem you'll find is that most sims content is free, you pay to access the site, etc. but the content is esentially free. A lot like some poser sites. I sub to the Sims Resource and have done for years. There are sites that ask you to pay for premium items, but that seems largely to be with hacked and adult objects, not base meshes. They are nice though, though I often think that using symposium and the like is a bit of a scam, as the models are much smaller whe the game runs, so a lot of the detail is lost, when you actually play. I wish you luck though, you always do great stuff. later jb

They look great, Jim! I may have to go read up on this SIMs 2 thing.. there might be some new life left in my BodyWarp program ;).

Thanks guys! Here are some screen shots from the game, I finally got them all to stay in the same room!

And here they are rendered in Poser 5, as Simderella suggested (first time I tried that). I got some horrible black lines on the arms (and an the hands, too, which are the games mesh, I'll have to do something about that if I do a Poser version. I touched up the render there, nowhere else, though. But other than that, they don't look all that bad in Poser, do they? But where did they get that mirror? ;-)

Whoa! Never do another render in SimPose again, your meshes look killer in Poser! ...especially the hair, face, and shoes. :D bB, who wonders what those two girls are doing on the couch. ;)

Wow, they have beautiful faces in Poser. :)

Thanks guys! The figures actually started as shoes for the stock figures, then the new mesh sort of worked its way up... ;-) Seammer did a great job on the head textures, it helps a little that the heads have more detailing than the original heads, but it is mostly her nice textures. They work so well that I think it is very do-able to have the Poser versions swap their expressions by changing the face textures via a MAT pose, rather than morphs on the mesh. Yeah, you never know what the girls are going to do in the game!

just wanted to say... that most sim users esp the huge online community are not teenagers, and they don't that i know of use warez, its the same really as in the Poser community, loads of readme's and credit given.. Sim mesh and texture creaters are a mindful of there work as they are over here.. just to speak up for my fellow Simmers Glad u tried the sims in p5, i render them in propack, as i have found p5 does something weird to them, i think its thefact they get overly smoothed in p5!! They still look kewl though -SimderZ- xXx