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hat_plays_simsAre you tired of the same old turkey, salad, and gelatin on your buffet tables? Not super-pleased with the other options available to download-- maybe you prefer your own custom food but can't ever seem to use it at your Medieval feasts, steampunk weddings, or science-fiction pot luck dinners.
Well, then you probably ought to check this out, because it completely obliterates the problem. (You download it here, but it's not like they tell you how it works.) Yeah those links are dead-- one broken, one moved. What a difference six years makes! Go here to grab the mesh, goddammit go HERE for the mesh and stay tuned for basic instructions on how to use it. (I mean I found the original on the Wayback Machine but the instructions have gone missing.)
"But Hat," you say, "That only solves half my problem! The concept is great, but that thing won't work for my Medieval feasts, Steampunk weddings, or sci-fi potlucks! It's so... commercial!"
Well, that's where I come in.
Sometimes, the names are clever. Sometimes they're just whatever occurs to me first.
Above, you can see one of my Testerhood households showing off their lovely four-course dinner of croissants (Sims Design Avenue), chicken breast (Eris3000 at MTS), tomato and mozarella sandwiches (bibidoublezero at MTS), and chocolate dream cake (Topetto at MTS).
If there's a way to fake it so something looks period, then by god I'll fake it. The concept is simple:
Here is Exnem's buffet table with the original colors. You get this, and the texture-referenced mesh with seating on either end.
Here is the Medieval recolor, which would also work for Steampunk or Victorian. The dishes are Morague's Wheat, which you can find here, if you like them.
And here we have a more modern version, with default Maxis plates.
... Which looks pretty simple, but in fact, it's a little bit complicated. I'll explain as we go.
Here we have the sit-down buffet table overlapping a table by (I think) Tarox. (The chairs are Tarox, the table seems to match, my memory sucks.) You'll have to turn move_objects on to overlap them. You may have noticed this combo looks fugly.
Adding the invisible table recolor helps a bit...
And the modern Maxis dishes recolor helps a bit more, by getting rid of the flowers, the condiments (nothing like a squeeze bottle of ketchup to break your period look), and the cabinet doors.
The dishes are separately recolorable from the table, and the food pedestal is part of the table.
I liked the idea of just bowls, but I only did this option for the Wheat dishes. I'm a loser.
The no-bowls option makes it a little easier to seat five Sims at your table, as there's room for a fifth plate. (One side of the buffet must be left free or they'll just stomp and fuss that they can't reach the food.)
If the Wheat dishes aren't high-class enough for your Victorian Sims, the Maxis dishes pair elegantly with the burled wood...
But the Wheat dishes give a nicely rustic look.
Again with bowls only, an option that makes custom foods with custom plates a little more believable...
Or again, no bowls at all.
So here are those directions--
"Ooooh," you say, "But Hat, how do I get the food on there? Will my Sims serve it directly?"
Well, no. You have to direct them to serve food, then when the food is done but before they start spreading plates around, cancel the action. Then pick up the platter and set it on one of the pedestals. You can also just plop buyable food like birthday cakes right on there. The 'Make' option works, but they have to Serve, too, or nobody will eat autonomously.
I sincerely doubt you can use a wedding cake or birthday cake as intended on these tables. Other custom buyable food, on the other hand, works great.
"I like it!" you say. "Are there any problems I should know about?"
... Well, just one. Your Sims may try to serve food onto both the dining table and the dining buffet table, but there's a pretty simple solution. Just plop some kind of non-centerpiece-enabled decor item-- I used a candlestick-- onto either end of the actual dining table. They can't eat where there's clutter, so they'll only set their plates on one layer of table.
"Wait, Hat," you say, "I use a different plate default. What can I do? Or what if I like the burled wood base but not the Wheat plates?"
You can feel free to use my recolors as a guide for making your own to match your dishes. It's super easy, honestly. The bases are recolored separately from the dishes, so you're not stuck with any one recolor. Hate the plates? Don't install those recolors. Easy peasey.
You WILL need at least one of the dishes recolors (if you hate mine, I'd suggest the No Dishes one), though, otherwise you'll get cabinet doors instead of a properly invisible table.
"So, what's your policy on these?" you ask.
Considering these are pay meshes and I've only really cut and pasted (mostly cut) other people's work? Dude, I don't care, do what you want. It'd be awesome if you shared any differently-plated recolors you made, though. Just give credit where credit is due.
"... Right, and credit is due where now?"
Twas my idea, inspired by Pfish's invisible Maxis buffet table. It's Exnem's mesh, and Morague's textures on the Wheat plates. Lord Darcy and HugeLunatic both posted mini tutorials on invisible objects, which were of tremendous help, and it was Bluebottle on Garden of Shadows who pointed the way to HugeLunatic's tutorial, which fixed some funky alpha issues.
"Got it," you say. "So, what do I get in this download?"
Well, that depends.
DOWNLOAD MEDIEVAL on Mediafire | DOWNLOAD MEDIEVAL on Sims File Share
Includes:
Master three-pedestal mesh
Slaved one-pedestal mesh
Invisible Table with Burled Wood Pedestal Recolor
Morague's Wheat Plates and Bowls
Morague's Wheat Bowls Only
No Bowls At All
DOWNLOAD MODERN on Mediafire | DOWNLOAD MODERN on Sims File Share
Includes:
Master three-pedestal mesh
Slaved one-pedestal mesh
Invisible Table with Metal Pedestal Recolor
Maxis Plates and Bowls
No Bowls At All
DOWNLOAD ALL on Mediafire | DOWNLOAD ALL on Sims File Share
Master three-pedestal mesh
Slaved one-pedestal mesh
Invisible Table with Metal Pedestal Recolor
Maxis Plates and Bowls
No Bowls At All
Morague's Wheat Plates and Bowls
Morague's Wheat Bowls Only
Don't forget the mesh!
Wanna help me feed my cats?
In case you feel like dropping me a buck or two, should you have a buck or two to spare. Donors get two things at the moment: a) a link to the Super Secret Cat Gallery, full of pictures of the cats you'll be feeding, updated sporadically when the cats do something photogenic and I'm fast enough on the trigger to catch it, and b) a link to the list of content I have done-but-not-screencapped, nearly done, partly done, or in the planning stages, and the option to suggest what ought to be in the next batch of things I focus on.
"But Hat," you say, "That only solves half my problem! The concept is great, but that thing won't work for my Medieval feasts, Steampunk weddings, or sci-fi potlucks! It's so... commercial!"
Well, that's where I come in.
Sometimes, the names are clever. Sometimes they're just whatever occurs to me first.
Above, you can see one of my Testerhood households showing off their lovely four-course dinner of croissants (Sims Design Avenue), chicken breast (Eris3000 at MTS), tomato and mozarella sandwiches (bibidoublezero at MTS), and chocolate dream cake (Topetto at MTS).
If there's a way to fake it so something looks period, then by god I'll fake it. The concept is simple:
Here is Exnem's buffet table with the original colors. You get this, and the texture-referenced mesh with seating on either end.
Here is the Medieval recolor, which would also work for Steampunk or Victorian. The dishes are Morague's Wheat, which you can find here, if you like them.
And here we have a more modern version, with default Maxis plates.
... Which looks pretty simple, but in fact, it's a little bit complicated. I'll explain as we go.
Here we have the sit-down buffet table overlapping a table by (I think) Tarox. (The chairs are Tarox, the table seems to match, my memory sucks.) You'll have to turn move_objects on to overlap them. You may have noticed this combo looks fugly.
Adding the invisible table recolor helps a bit...
And the modern Maxis dishes recolor helps a bit more, by getting rid of the flowers, the condiments (nothing like a squeeze bottle of ketchup to break your period look), and the cabinet doors.
The dishes are separately recolorable from the table, and the food pedestal is part of the table.
I liked the idea of just bowls, but I only did this option for the Wheat dishes. I'm a loser.
The no-bowls option makes it a little easier to seat five Sims at your table, as there's room for a fifth plate. (One side of the buffet must be left free or they'll just stomp and fuss that they can't reach the food.)
If the Wheat dishes aren't high-class enough for your Victorian Sims, the Maxis dishes pair elegantly with the burled wood...
But the Wheat dishes give a nicely rustic look.
Again with bowls only, an option that makes custom foods with custom plates a little more believable...
Or again, no bowls at all.
So here are those directions--
"Ooooh," you say, "But Hat, how do I get the food on there? Will my Sims serve it directly?"
Well, no. You have to direct them to serve food, then when the food is done but before they start spreading plates around, cancel the action. Then pick up the platter and set it on one of the pedestals. You can also just plop buyable food like birthday cakes right on there. The 'Make' option works, but they have to Serve, too, or nobody will eat autonomously.
I sincerely doubt you can use a wedding cake or birthday cake as intended on these tables. Other custom buyable food, on the other hand, works great.
"I like it!" you say. "Are there any problems I should know about?"
... Well, just one. Your Sims may try to serve food onto both the dining table and the dining buffet table, but there's a pretty simple solution. Just plop some kind of non-centerpiece-enabled decor item-- I used a candlestick-- onto either end of the actual dining table. They can't eat where there's clutter, so they'll only set their plates on one layer of table.
"Wait, Hat," you say, "I use a different plate default. What can I do? Or what if I like the burled wood base but not the Wheat plates?"
You can feel free to use my recolors as a guide for making your own to match your dishes. It's super easy, honestly. The bases are recolored separately from the dishes, so you're not stuck with any one recolor. Hate the plates? Don't install those recolors. Easy peasey.
You WILL need at least one of the dishes recolors (if you hate mine, I'd suggest the No Dishes one), though, otherwise you'll get cabinet doors instead of a properly invisible table.
"So, what's your policy on these?" you ask.
Considering these are pay meshes and I've only really cut and pasted (mostly cut) other people's work? Dude, I don't care, do what you want. It'd be awesome if you shared any differently-plated recolors you made, though. Just give credit where credit is due.
"... Right, and credit is due where now?"
Twas my idea, inspired by Pfish's invisible Maxis buffet table. It's Exnem's mesh, and Morague's textures on the Wheat plates. Lord Darcy and HugeLunatic both posted mini tutorials on invisible objects, which were of tremendous help, and it was Bluebottle on Garden of Shadows who pointed the way to HugeLunatic's tutorial, which fixed some funky alpha issues.
"Got it," you say. "So, what do I get in this download?"
Well, that depends.
Includes:
Master three-pedestal mesh
Slaved one-pedestal mesh
Invisible Table with Burled Wood Pedestal Recolor
Morague's Wheat Plates and Bowls
Morague's Wheat Bowls Only
No Bowls At All
DOWNLOAD MODERN on Mediafire | DOWNLOAD MODERN on Sims File Share
Includes:
Master three-pedestal mesh
Slaved one-pedestal mesh
Invisible Table with Metal Pedestal Recolor
Maxis Plates and Bowls
No Bowls At All
DOWNLOAD ALL on Mediafire | DOWNLOAD ALL on Sims File Share
Master three-pedestal mesh
Slaved one-pedestal mesh
Invisible Table with Metal Pedestal Recolor
Maxis Plates and Bowls
No Bowls At All
Morague's Wheat Plates and Bowls
Morague's Wheat Bowls Only
Don't forget the mesh!
Wanna help me feed my cats?
In case you feel like dropping me a buck or two, should you have a buck or two to spare. Donors get two things at the moment: a) a link to the Super Secret Cat Gallery, full of pictures of the cats you'll be feeding, updated sporadically when the cats do something photogenic and I'm fast enough on the trigger to catch it, and b) a link to the list of content I have done-but-not-screencapped, nearly done, partly done, or in the planning stages, and the option to suggest what ought to be in the next batch of things I focus on.
mesh
Date: 2020-09-21 01:56 am (UTC)Re: mesh
Date: 2021-01-17 02:30 am (UTC)