Sims 3 Sims

Sims must bear an immediately recognizable likeness to the celebrity or character. While we understand that it's difficult to make a good likeness in TS3, that's a limitation that you have to accept if you're going to make sims - and if you can't get a really good likeness, you might want to try a different celebrity or character, or put your project aside for a while and come back to it later with fresh eyes. You can also use the Creator Feedback forum for help on getting your likeness closer.

Please understand that our standards for what constitutes a unique face are quite high - if it looks like a face you could get just hitting "randomize face" a few times in Create a Sim, it's not really unique. Please make an effort to create truly unique sims that not just anyone could make with a little fiddling. We know this is hard, but really, what's the point in someone downloading a sim they could just make themselves? If you need help, ask in the Creator Feedback forum for advice with tweaking your sim.

We understand the sometimes maddening limit of facial options in the game and the tendency for a generic "sameness" quality in the faces. However, we only host sims for download which represent a genuine effort to make a unique, interesting face sculpt, beyond the regular look of TS3 sims, with all of the features (not just one or two) contributing to a unique overall look. Your sim should have distinctive features that helps them stand out from the crowd, a special something that makes people want to download them that couldn't be easily reproduced.

It's all about the face sculpt and overall look - covering a sim in custom content won't change whether they have a unique face or not.

And no, making a blue/green/red sim and calling it "fantasy" doesn't count as unique. Nor does making a freakishly weird face with a huge nose or whatever, just for weirdness sake.

• Minimum Size: 800 pixels wide by 600 pixels tall is a good size for the smallest pic you would want to upload. You may have smaller pics for thumbnails and the like, but for your required screenshots, please go as big as you can!

• Maximum Size: MTS allows pictures up to 1280 pixels wide by 1024 pixels tall, and a file size limit of 250 kbs - so you can have nice, big, pretty pics. You may have to resize your pictures or apply compression to get them to fit within that limit.

Please don't just take a small pic and size it up in your graphics program to get bigger pics - this only makes the dimensions larger but doesn't add any detail and just gives you a blurry, pixellated larger pic, not a nice clear one.

All required pictures should be taken in an enclosed room, with good lighting!

Please don't take your screenshots at outside (day or night), or inside with no lights on. Pictures taken inside with good lighting are best to show off the shape and texture of your sim's face.

Please take your screenshots so that your sim fills the screen, not zoomed out too far or zoomed in too close.

• Inline screenshots are images that appear in the text of the upload that load for the viewer along with the rest of the text. Inline screenshots can either be linked from the attached screenshots, or from an external hosting site like Tinypic, Photobucket, or Flickr.
• Attached screenshots are screenshots that have been attached to the upload using the "manage attachments" feature on MTS. They display as small thumbnails until clicked on.

Please do not post more than 4 inline screenshots. Having a lot of images that have to load on the thread makes browsing downloads very slow and can make the thread jump around as they keep loading.

You may host your inline screenshots elsewhere like Photobucket, Tinypic, or Flickr - however, these screenshots hosted elsewhere must be additional "bonus" screenshots. All of the screenshots we actually require for your upload need to be attached to the thread itself. If your Photobucket account runs out of bandwidth or you delete the pics, people still need to be able to get the required screenshots on your thread.

You can attach up to 12 screenshots to the thread itself, with the 4 additional inline screenshots hosted elsewhere for a total of 16 possible screenshots. This should be plenty to show what you've made, even for fairly large sets. Remember, you can always collage several different images together into one image if you have a bunch of stuff to show off, or want to show multiple angles of an item.

You MUST use free or EA/Maxis items in your screenshots! MTS promotes and supports free content, and using pay content in screenshots is basically like free advertisement for paysites. This includes pay content you found elsewhere for free - if it was pay originally, it's still promoting pay content. We strongly recommend taking pics with neutral backgrounds, just showing off what you've made and nothing more. Not only does this look nicer for uploads, it also eliminates any possibility that you may inadvertently include pay items in your screenshots.

As per the news item of November 2010, do not use pay items in your upload. A pay item is an item that you'd have to donate money to access if you went to the original creator's website. It doesn't matter if you can get it for free through a file sharing site - it's still a pay item. Don't use pay items in your screenshots either, even if they are not included. Links for "optional" or "recommended" content may be included as long as they are free sites only.

If you need free hair for a model in your pics, MTS has an extensive collection of free hairstyles in our Downloads section. You can also look in the TS2 Hair Gallery or TS3 Hair Gallery for more free hairstyles to find something you'll like.

We STRONGLY recommend that you credit the hair (and other content) used in your screenshots in the text of your upload post. With hundreds of hairstyles out there, it's very difficult for our upload moderators to know every hairstyle on sight, and if we have to hunt down where the hair is from to see if it's pay or free, it may take longer for your upload to be approved. Make it easy on us and at least say something like, "Hair from XM Sims (free)" in the text of your post under a little section for model credits.

Take some time to just play around with the camera. It can take a while to get used to the camera controls, and even once you are experienced in their use, it may be challenging to get the shot you want with the constraints on the controls.

If you haven't taken many sim pictures before, here is a list of camera controls:

• TAB : Puts the game into Cameraman mode, allowing better and more control of the camera, and removing the blue user interface. Make sure you are in live mode before going into Cameraman mode or you will see grid lines on the ground and floating where floor tiles may be placed. TS3 Note: You will only be able to go into cameraman mode once per load if you are in buy/build mode (without a family moved in). You can either exit to the neighborhood and return to take more pictures, or instead just move a family in for taking your pics.

• W and S : W moves the camera forward. S moves it backward.

• A and D : A moves the camera left. D moves it right.

• Q and E : Q lowers the camera. E raises it.

• + and - : Zooms in and out.

Windowed Mode:

• TS2: In order to take your pictures using the methods described here, you will need your game running in a window, so you can easily switch to other applications without causing major instability and lag. Instructions on setting up Windowed Mode for Sims 2 may be found here: Game Help:Windowed Mode. Windowed mode should be perfectly safe - in fact, some users actually report better game performance when running in a window. Your mileage may vary.

• TS3: In Sims 3, you can use windowed mode by simply choosing it in your game's options. Full instructions can be found in Game Help:TS3 Windowed Mode. Windowed mode will allow you to use Print Screen or FRAPS or whatever screenshotting program you desire, without getting dark pictures. If you choose to NOT use windowed mode for TS3, you must use the C key to take pictures using the in-game camera - taking pictures fullscreened in TS3 without using the C key will result in icky dark screenshots.

C Key vs. Print Screen:

• TS2: In order to take nice big pics, you should not use the game's screenshot system, using the C key or the camera button on the game's controls to take your pictures. Even on the highest picture settings, pictures will still be small, with a very high level of JPEG compression, making them blurry and crunchy. Instead, use Print Screen or a screenshot program.

• TS3: The C key camera is much improved in TS3, making it possible to use to take pictures for upload and still have nice big, pretty pictures. You can still use a screenshot program or print screen if you desire, but you will need to run your game in Windowed Mode (see above) to keep your pictures from getting dark.

Using Print Screen: If you have enough RAM to run Photoshop or another graphics editing program at the same time as TS2/TS3, you may want to take screenshots yourself, without the use of a program to store them for you.

To do that, simply press the Print Screen or PrntScn key on your keyboard - it's usually off toward the right, over the arrow keys, above Insert and Delete. This will copy your current screen to your Windows clipboard, as if you had selected and copied it as an image.

Then open any graphics editing program, create a new document the size of your monitor's resolution, and paste into that document. Your screenshot should appear in the document.

Screenshot Programs:

There are many programs available, free and pay, that will take screenshots for you by using a hotkey, and save them to a folder - just like The Sims 2 with the C key, but with options for much better quality settings.

• Fraps
• Gadwin
• Irfanview

A quick Google search for 'free screenshot program' will also bring up many other options, which may have other features that are of interest to you.

Optimizing, Editing, and Compressing Images:

Many simmers struggle with getting their images to be clear, crisp and under the 250kb file size while keeping the image size larger than 800px by 600px. After getting your images from the in game camera or using a print screen program you will need to resize them and compress them into a jpeg image. Many graphics programs have a built in optimizing feature. Here are a few common ones:

• Photoshop *Pay
• Gimp *Free
• IrfanView *Free
• Paint.net *Free

A collage of 4 different face closeups with fairly neutral expressions.

At least one face closeup of the sim wearing a neutral expression. This means no giant smiles, frowns, etc. - just a basic "mugshot"

A good full-body shot of a sim, from head to toe, in a basic standing pose.

At least one full body shot from head to toe. Please try for a basic pose - walking, standing, etc., rather than something that doesn't show the full body very well.

A collage of three comparison shots - showing the real person's features in a neutral expression.

Additionally, if you are uploading a celebrity or character sim - any sim that is based on a real person or character, we also require at least one comparison picture of the real person or character. Choose a picture that shows the person's features well (in a neutral expression is best), and isn't too small.

Please note we will not accept comparison pictures that are "split pics" - that is, half sim's face, half real face, split down the middle.

When you save your sim in-game, please use the button to save your sim to the bin and then upload the .sim file which is created in your My Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\SavedSims folder - NOT the .sims3pack created in Exports when you "share sim".

Why? The .sim file is about half the size, and can just be tossed into SavedSims when people download it rather than having to double-click and run the launcher to install. The Launcher doesn't work for many people!

If your sim is shown with ANY custom content, then you will need to provide links and credit for ALL pieces of custom content shown on your sim! This is not optional! Downloaders will need to follow the links you give as a "shopping list" to get your sim to look as it should in-game.

Make sure to provide links and credit for any:

• Hair
• Skintones
• Eyes
• Clothing
• Patterns
• Custom Sliders
• Makeup
• Eyebrows or Beards

A link and credit means writing something like: "Everyday hair by Anubis360: http://www.modthesims.info/d/402962" - it states the item (hair, lipstick, whatever), the creator's name, and gives a direct link to where it can be found.

You may use content from the EA Store on your sim, but again, you need to link and credit it as such, so people can get it.

You MUST use free or EA/Maxis items in your screenshots! MTS promotes and supports free content, and using pay content in screenshots is basically like free advertisement for paysites. This includes pay content you found elsewhere for free - if it was pay originally, it's still promoting pay content. We strongly recommend taking pics with neutral backgrounds, just showing off what you've made and nothing more. Not only does this look nicer for uploads, it also eliminates any possibility that you may inadvertently include pay items in your screenshots.

As per the news item of November 2010, do not use pay items in your upload. A pay item is an item that you'd have to donate money to access if you went to the original creator's website. It doesn't matter if you can get it for free through a file sharing site - it's still a pay item. Don't use pay items in your screenshots either, even if they are not included. Links for "optional" or "recommended" content may be included as long as they are free sites only.

If you need free hair for a model in your pics, MTS has an extensive collection of free hairstyles in our Downloads section. You can also look in the TS2 Hair Gallery or TS3 Hair Gallery for more free hairstyles to find something you'll like.

We STRONGLY recommend that you credit the hair (and other content) used in your screenshots in the text of your upload post. With hundreds of hairstyles out there, it's very difficult for our upload moderators to know every hairstyle on sight, and if we have to hunt down where the hair is from to see if it's pay or free, it may take longer for your upload to be approved. Make it easy on us and at least say something like, "Hair from XM Sims (free)" in the text of your post under a little section for model credits.

If you are using custom non-default skintones in your game, make sure that when you save your .sim file to the sim bin, that you REMOVE any custom skintones from your sim before saving.

You MUST state specifically in the text of your post: "This sim is packaged with default skin!" as we do not download your sim to check it in-game.

Non-default skintones are not meant to be packaged with sims and can cause issues; even if there are no major issues caused, users will still have to re-choose the non-default skin anyway. If you are using a non-default skin in your pictures, you still need to link and credit it so people can apply it to the sim in-game, but do not package it with your sim, please!

For instructions on compressing your files into an archive, please see: Creator Guidelines: Creating Archive Files.

Please do not include multiple archives with the same contents - that is, please don't put your files in both a .zip as well as a .rar because some people only want .zip files - please just choose one.

Also, please do not double-compress your files... a .rar file inside another .rar file (or any other archive inside another) doesn't compress it anymore, and it makes it so we can't see the contents without downloading, and also just makes an extra step for the people downloading.

Good titles:

• Mission-Style Living-Room Set
• 10 Simmer Way (Large family home)
• Fluffy Party Dresses

Bad titles:

• My First Upload!
• Lipstick

Good descriptions:

• This is an edit of the Mission furniture without the silly wooden armrest which makes this lovely set more versatile and suitable for any Arts & Crafts or Mission style home.
• Here are five dresses perfect for a special occasion. Each is different, with special details, and they come in blue, purple, pink, white, and green.
• This is a sim of actress Angelina Jolie, famous for her roles in Girl Interrupted and Tomb Raider.

Bad descriptions:

• This is my first upload... I don't know what to put here...
• My English is bad... just look at the pictures
• I really liked this dress so I made a sim to wear it!! I hope you like her!