Sims Got Fingers!!!!

[surprised_by_witches]

Hey, everyone,

I got my new video card and it ROCKS. Look, look, my sims have fingers now! With nail polish on them!

You all with superior machines can snicker behind your hands but I'm psyched.

Here's a sample. Before video card, after video card.

Yeah! And I installed it all by my little self.

[suitemichelle]

what a gorgeous girl in the 2nd photo... I want her for my game..... Oh, I know, no downloads. sigh....

[jupitershana]

ooohhh.....pretty

[Mirelly]

LOL SBW, I'm not snickering. Your news is proof perfect of what I keep trying to tell people who are having trouble. Maybe Maxis should taken the path first trodden by the Virgin record label in the 1970 when it released Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells (on vinyl natch ;) ) - in small print on the sleeve was the disconcerting news that: this record cannot be played on old tin boxes no matter what they are fitted with. (At the time it was common for record companies to state: "this stereo recording can be played on mono-equipment provided a suitable cartridge is fitted") Geez ... I feel ancient :(

[Lynet]

Fingernail polish! I've never seen fingernail polish. :eek:

What video card did you get?

[MangoOrange]

Yay!!! I recently did the same, SBW, and got a new video card. Ain't it great???

My sims' clothes also used to be all blurry, and now I can see the buttons and creases in the fabric and everything! Yippeee!

[babewithbrains_14]

That's great, SBW. The girl in the second pic is very beautiful - I love her hair. Where did you get it from?

[ASHMEANS r a d]

it's not even funny how desperatly i need a new video card & memory upgrade.
i feel so deprived..

[Kristalrose]

Woo Hoo for new Video cards!! That looks beautiful, and I really love the neighborhood outside. It looks much better.

[person123]

No....I am jealous. Very, extremely jealous. I want fingers! And I think the nail polish is part of the shirt because it's downloaded, Lynet. :rolleyes: Or maybe you already knew that. Whatever.

[surprised_by_witches]

Hi everyone,

Just logged in, so many questions, here it goes ...

The girl in both pictures is Xanthe Nova, she was born in the game to another sim born in the game and Castor Nova. Try having babies with Castor Nova, Suitemichelle, they all turned out cute in my game. He's a good dad, too. (He lives at the frat at Sim State.)

Her hair is by XMSims, I recolored the shirt myself (and apparently the nail polish, which I didn't know existed before LOL). A girl can never have too many black shirts. Makeup by Helaene, who else?

As for the video card, it's an Nvidia Geforce 6600GT by MSI. It improved my game's performance by something like 300%, according to a website that compares such things. I bought it at Newegg, which is a good place to get parts. I paid a little more because this one got good reviews, but it has a rebate so it wasn't that much, all told.

[ASHMEANS r a d]

how much memory does your computer have suprised by witches?

[surprised_by_witches]

Do you mean RAM? Only 512 K? MB? right now. That's the next thing I'm getting. It has a slot for another 512 ... whatever. I can never remember and Josh makes fun of me if I get it wrong. :rolleyes:

[ASHMEANS r a d]

hahaha yes. i'm no better.. definatly.
i was strongly consiering a memory upgrade and was just wondering what good RAM numbers were. hm..

[surprised_by_witches]

My friend who knows these things advised me to get a new video card first. More bang for your buck.

I know some people on this site have 1.4 GB of memory, which is approximately 512 + 512, so I guess I've got 512 MB right now.

But I'm not the right person to ask.

[Flameback777]

No they have 1GB (1024MB) of RAM. :p
Where did you get 1.4GB of RAM from?

[ozoinka]

Hurrah for new video card. Very happy for you 'cause the graphics look great. I share your enjoyment as I've read your posts where you were either talking about a new card, hoping to get xmas money for a card or finally waiting for it to arrive.

As for the self install, well thats very clever. :o

[person123]

A new monitor also makes the game look better, because if it's bigger and you set the resolution lower, everything looks a lot bigger and you can see the details in things as well. I discovered that I could see the fingers more clearly on my sims with our new 19" LCD monitor, and I could even see the criss-crossing on the back of the refrigerator (I've always wanted to see it. I don't know why.)! So...yeah. LCD monitors are good.

[surprised_by_witches]

No they have 1GB (1024MB) of RAM. :p
Where did you get 1.4GB of RAM from?

From my not-very-technical mind, that's where. :p

I'm just glad I put the silly card in the right way and got it all plugged into the power source with only a little over-the-phone help from my long-suffering friend.

As for LCD monitors, yeah, that would be peachy but I'm stuck with a really ancient monitor for now. I get freebies from work. Hafta wait until they unload a larger one, and it won't be LCD ...

Maybe when my ship comes in. ;)

But, yeah, it rocks.

Even better, some of my sims that were, well, funny looking, aren't anymore! I had this kid with eyes that looked like hubcaps and I thought uh-oh, plastic surgery here we come. I mean they made him look like a bug! Now that I have a video card, voila! He's a handsome teenager.

Whew.

And the ones that were cute before ... all I can say is, Wow. Amazing what facial contours and realistic looking muscle tone can do, even for a sim that was already a hottie.

Oh, and hair looks sooooo much better.

[ManagerJosh]

1.4GB technically is a bit hard to do in terms of pairing up the memory available on the market, however 1.5 is technically fesible :)

also:

Kilo or KB = Kilobyte :P
Mega or MB = Megabyte

Megabyte > Kilobyte :)

[Kristalrose]

During a party last night, I noticed my Sims having painted fingernails, even with my mediocre video card and low RAM. I was so happy, I snapped a pic to show off. :rolleyes:

[babewithbrains_14]

Funky dress. Is it downloaded?

[Kristalrose]

Yep, but do you think I remember where I downloaded it? NO. LMAO. I think Well Dressed Sims.

[surprised_by_witches]

Just as a follow up: I love the special event movies! I never got those before. I love trying stuff out to see if I get a movie. So far I've gotten "first woohoo" (very sweet), "first public woohoo" (not quite so sweet LOL), get engaged, get married, and have baby (actually, that was in my daughter's game ... )

And of course, move in. Oh, and college graduation party. That one is very fun.

The only one I don't like so much is "get engaged." I may disable it before my next sim gets engaged because I missed out on getting any pictures from it.

Can you view your movies afterwards? I'm guessing not, but I thought I'd check. I didn't find them under movies.

[HelloKit]

Can you view your movies afterwards? I'm guessing not, but I thought I'd check. I didn't find them under movies.
Nope, but you can record them just like you would record regular gameplay, by pressing V. This may slow down the frame rate, though, depending on your video recording settings, RAM, and CPU.

[Flameback777]

If you start a video recording before the special event camera starts it will record it.

[surprised_by_witches]

Cool. Good to know. I'll do that from now on.

Too bad I missed Xena's wedding, but oh, well. There will be others ...

[person123]

There's a movie with the first public woohoo and move in? I've never seen it...but I haven't had any of my sims have their first woohoo in public.

[surprised_by_witches]

Move in is just the taxi dropping them off and it pans in to your sim standing in front of their new house.

Public woohoo is only for hot tubs. It's pretty cute. I haven't tried Photobooth or Dressing Booth yet, but I assume you won't be able to see anything because you can't see anything now. You don't get a movie with woohoo in car.

[person123]

Oh, in the hottub. Yeah, I know what you mean. I didn't know that was considered public, though. Well, I guess it is when you're Downtown or something.

[surprised_by_witches]

Yes, only when you're in public, not at home, even though technically it is outside ... :D

[Kristalrose]

Hellloooooo, neighbors! ;) And some owning telescopes.

[babewithbrains_14]

'Goodmorning, Mr Jones... my eyes! My eyes! Oh God, I'm blind!'

[surprised_by_witches]

LOL you guys. :p

Hey, speaking of hot tub woohoo I noticed that every time my sims have Love Tub love I get a movie, not just the first time.

Is this normal? I don't mind. It's very cute. I like seeing them "come to life" like that ... well, more to life than the sims allows, anyway. With the waggly eyebrows and all.

[person123]

It shows everytime a sim has hot tub woohoo with a different sim, or in a new hottub, I think. Like, if London woohooed Spike in a hottub at their house (do they have one?) and then woohooed him at a hottub downtown, I think the movie would show both times. Not sure, though.

[surprised_by_witches]

They have a love tub, of course ... can't afford the "real" thing but they have tons of aspiration points. They've maxxed out so many times I've lost track. I actually "buy" them things and delete them just to bring their point totals down again.

It isn't just every new time, though. I get one every time Porter and Xena use their new love tub, three times now ... and Spike and London wore their old love tub out (no lie) and I still got a video for them when they used theirs. I also got one for Ashley and Heather, even though they conceived their daughter in a love tub ...

My game has some weird quirks so I was wondering if this was yet another. Seems pretty harmless, though.

[Kristalrose]

Mine will do that from time to time as well. It does it in spurts. One night I had a couple who were "infertile", so I had them in the hot tub woo hooing over and over until I heard the "You've got baby!" chimes. I think the movie played 4 or 5 times in a row until I got them pregnant.

Then, other times, the movies will not play at all. :( I had a marathon play the other evening where several members of the family had birthdays, and not a single one had the "grow up" movie! This happens to me more now that NL is out. I sure do hope that Hubby and I can afford to get the computer upgraded or replaced before OFB ships.

[surprised_by_witches]

There's a grow up movie? I haven't gotten that at all. Is it only for certain ages?

[Kristalrose]

I love the new Avatar, dear. :) Very pretty. It sortof matches/clashes with mine, when we post back to back. LMAO.

Okay, answer to your question: Yes, there is a grow-up movie, and yes, I think it's for all ages, but it's only after they blow the candles out on their birthday cake.

[surprised_by_witches]

I've had two kids become teenagers now and nothing. :(

Strange ...

Oh, and thanks for the compliment. They're still my favorite couple.

Later: Got a grow-up movie for a teenager tonight. Must be a sporadic thing in my game for some reason.

[hannahc78]

Hey, everyone,

I got my new video card and it ROCKS. Look, look, my sims have fingers now! With nail polish on them!

You all with superior machines can snicker behind your hands but I'm psyched.

Here's a sample. Before video card, after video card.

Yeah! And I installed it all by my little self.

My sims usually have fingers anyways...:confused:

[Ruthie_Faye]

When you don't have much video memory then you can only play the game on low settings. The lower the setting the less detail you get until you have paddles instead of fingers. SBW just got a new video card so she can play at a higher setting so now instead of paddle hands her sims have actual fingers.

Ruth

[surprised_by_witches]

Yes, if you look at the first picture in the first post of this thread you can see she has club-like hands.

I didn't know they were even supposed to have individual fingers until I got the new card. I also finally got to see all the special event videos I'd been missing, among other benefits.

I love my new video card!

[Ruthie_Faye]

Oh man I haven't seen any of the special event videos since installing nightlife. I guess I was just barely scrapeing by and that just put me over the top.

Since I need a new computer I've been shopping around and believe it or not Wal-Mart is one of the more expensive places! They have a computer with 512 memory and 80 gig harddrive for $798 but Best Buy and a couple of other places have one with 1 gig memory and 200 gig hard drive for around the same price. I was shocked!

Ruth

[surprised_by_witches]

I've learned to assemble my own. It's by far the best way to go.

I have a fairly respectable gaming machine as a result. I'm getting more RAM tomorrow by UPS and I could use a better processor, but my processor will do just fine for now.

Upgrading's the key to keeping up with this game. :rolleyes:

[Kristalrose]

I will second the Upgrade opinion. Plug and Play is where it's at. :) Now that Hubby finished upgrading ours, I'm soooo much happier with my game. I'm starting to look forward to OFB.

I still don't have my new stove or fridge, but my computer plays my Sims better. So, seems like a fair trade-off to me. ;)