Maxis Match Metallic Mirrors with Discernment

Title: Maxis Match Metallic Mirrors for Metallic Counters, with Discernment
for Base Game & Castaway Stories


Added Spirit Discernment - July 1, 2014

The discernment mirrors now differentiate between a true Ghost (a dead Sim) and a Spirit (a live Sim with ghostly characteristics).


Find Sim/Pet Bugfix - June 28, 2014

This release fixes a bug that prevented the Castaway Stories "Find Sim" and "Find Pet" options from working. For The Sims 2, the "Find" options may work slightly faster in this version.


Alien & AL Upgrade: June 25, 2014

1) The mirrors are now capable of designating any Sim as a Quarter, Half, Three-Quarter or Full Alien - or removing alien status - using the new "Change Alien Status" menu option.

2) Mirror discernment now includes the Apartment Life human statues, spectral assistants, spectral cats, warlocks and witches (including alignment), as well as the Holiday Edition Father Time, Santa Klaus, and Toddler New Year.

3) The new "Find Sim..." and "Find Pet..." menu options can be used to locate any character on the lot without waiting for the current interaction to finish.

4) For more positive identification, the Sim selection menus now include the whole name rather only the first name. Similarily, the "Check Sim" or "Check Pet" descriptions also provide the full name.

5) If Apartment Life or Mansion & Garden is available, the mirrors are now height adjustable.

6) Numerous minor optimizations have been made.

For further details on the discernment features please refer to the Honest to Dickens Mirror project.


Installation

All base game or expansion users, and those with the Stories games except for Castaway: please install the contents of SDmetallicmirror_basegame_mesh.zip in a Downloads folder. This archive contains the metallic mirror mesh and the Alien token, which is a requirement (but if you have already installed the Alien token you do not need another copy). This mesh file now fully supports all versions of the game. If you were previously using SDmetallicmirror_aluminum_epMesh.package it should be deleted.

Castaway users only: please install the contents of SDmetallicmirror_Castaway_mesh.zip in a Downloads folder. As in the case of the regular game or other Stories games, please be sure to include the Alien token.

If you do not wish to use the discernment features: install the original object version from SDmetallicmirror_ep_mesh.zip. Please do not use any other variation in the same game, because the GUIDs are all identical.

Nine recolours are contained within SDmetallicmirror_counters.zip and are compatible with any of the three versions.


Description

This set includes a cloned "Reflective Glass Mirror" with a frame that has also been modified to be reflective. In addition, this clone has been retextured with a metallic surface, making it suitable for simulating metallic framed mirrors. The reflective function is borrowed from the Maxis metallic sinks, and like them this object needs to be well lit for the reflectivity to be noticeable, particularly in the darker colours. Senesi2003's tiny ceiling light is particularly useful in ensuring adequate but unobtrusive lighting.

I hope these metallic mirrors will be useful in commercial, industrial, laboratory, luxury and futurist settings. Like the original mirror, they have an Environment value of 1, but the price has been slightly raised from §100 to §110.
There seem to be only four reflective metallic counter bases in the Sims 2 commercial distribution, of which two of them are the University Industrial Steelate Counters (§560) shown above. This first picture shows both the counters and mirrors at close to their minimum reflective state, when the camera is aimed squarely at them.
As the camera moves either up and down or to the left and right, both the counters and mirrors will increase in their reflectivity. In fact they will track together as they change their reflective state - an effect I have yet to grow tired of!
The Nightlife Fat City Counter (§630) has one reflective metallic recolour, as shown above. Since the textures of this counter are quite diverse, I included two matches for this one, based on different parts of the counter. Note that the white or "aluminum" colour on the left should not be deleted, for it is associated with the master mesh of this series. The last reflective metallic counter is from the base game Chiclettina Fjord collection (§490), also available in a variant with drawers.
To round out this project, I also included metallic matches for the remainder of the Chiclettina Fjord series, but note that there will only be an approximate match in colour when the mirror and counter are viewed straight on. When the camera moves off-axis the mirror will start to shine brighter, but the counters will remain the same.


Terms of Use

You may include any of these mirrors and/or the Alien token in uploaded lots, whether free or for pay. You may also make and distribute your own recolours other than in lots, provided that the original meshes are not included. The BHAV coding for these mirrors may also be reused, in whole or in part, and I would strongly encourage that the Alien token be adopted as a standard basis for alien identification. In any of these three cases, please provide a credit and link back to this page. It would also be nice if you sent me a PM with a link to your creation, but this is not necessary. Please do not upload the original mesh or original recolours otherwise than in lots.


Additional Credits:

SimPE, PJSE, and CEP, which together make it all possible
Corel WEB.PhotoPaint, for texturing and colouring
Microsoft Photo Editor and Microsoft Paint, for PNG file conversion and screen capture cropping
BaseGameStarter Pro, so handy speeding up the development process


Polygon Counts:

Faces = 96, Vertices = 192 (the meshes are identical to the base game "Reflective Glass Mirror")