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Build Mode Extravaganza: Bug Fixes, Polish and Tweaks
🕑 Added 2024-11-08 14:05:00 +0000 UTCHello everyone! Jérémie here with this week’s Patreon post. We got back to working on the live mode now but I wanted to share a few extra build mode features and tweaks we’ve put into the game in the previous months. Everyone has contributed so I’ll mostly take the back seat and leave the team to talk about what they’ve done! As usual, this post is for patrons only, so you know what you should and shouldn’t do with it!
🐞Jérémie: Mostly bug fixes!
With the help of Charlotte, or resident Quality Assurance Expert, I’ve fixed bug after bug after bug. Resolving bugs is an ongoing process and I’ll probably be talking about it up until the game release, but the number of these little critters left to squash is relatively manageable. As you can see here, we have 414 currently closed bugs. I wonder how many we’ll have when the game launches in early access next year? Please chime in in the comments below! The person that gets the closest to the real number will win a mustache man body pillow (not a real contest, sorry!)
It’s fun to fix bugs! The goal is to have as few as possible and I’m sure we’ll get there in time :)
Anna: Flipping Wall Items
During our playtests, one of the most requested features was the ability to change the facing sides of doors and windows. Previously, they could only be placed automatically facing the camera, which was sometimes frustrating. With this latest update, players can now manually switch the orientation thanks to a button in the selected interface, or with a keyboard shortcut!
Richard: Level Of Details Optimization
To improve performance on older computers, I have added a Level of Details (LOD) system. The system will show a high-quality model when you are close to an item. As you get far away, the system will switch to simpler models. At one point, the item is too small and is hidden by the system. We have yet to do any simpler models, it will likely be done on trees first since they are some of the most complex items we have.
If you turn down the quality setting in the options menu, small items won’t be shown when you are far from them.
Alejandro: Color Swatch Improvements and Painting Surfaces
Something that we planned to do for a while was the color swatch system rework. We wanted the whole swatch system to work with our modding tools. There were a lot of tweaks and quality of life improvements on the swatch creation’s flow, as well as the workflow for our artists to integrate the swatches on each object of the game.
Players can select premade color swatches for each object or create their own. If you’re wondering, the extra icons on the menus are tools for our artists and future modders so they can manage groups of swatches and pick the number of colors shown on the thumbnail of each swatch.
Another feature I worked on was the ability for the players to change the textures on different parts of an object. This can be done in two ways: by using the paint tool we already use to paint walls and floors or when creating new swatches for an object.
Painting the roof object's side wall with the same texture as the wall using the painting tools
This even works on any object (not just those with walls) if you hold the alt key!
A couch made of bricks, anyone?
In the swatch creation menu, players can change the colors of different parts of an object as well as their textures. Here, for example, we can change the texture of the countertop from our selection of wood surfaces, or any of the other material types like masonry, fabric, metal and more.
Alex: Time Of Day Slider
I added a slider that lets players change the lighting according to different times of the day when in build mode. It’s very useful to see what your house looks like in different lighting conditions!
For those wondering: the characters are moving even in build mode because in Paralives, you can build without necessarily pausing the time. Players who want the game to automatically pause in build mode can choose so in the options menu.
Thanks again for supporting us! I hope you had a good time looking through some build mode features that we haven’t talked about previously. We’re still going strong on live mode and we can’t wait to share our progress with you!
Have a great weekend!
Jérémie
Comments
Kayleigh
It’s looking so beautiful!
Windbrook
Is exterior lighting always on full blast? It’s weird for the exterior to affect interior lighting as if their wasn’t a ceiling. If their wasn’t a ceiling in the video shown than I get it, but if their was, than the lighting is a little weird.
Grace Hochrein
As a test engineer, I’m jealous of your stats!
I kinda forGoT
OMG I haven't checked in for a while. This looks sooo good!!
Karina da Silva Santos
You are incredible! <3 <3
mollie
awesome
Ju2pie
I also agree ! Maybe it could be like an option witin the settings menu ? I feel like it could be a good way to handle everyone's tastes 😁
BooDotBoo .
Yes, this is one thing I’m looking forward to the most! It actually makes me excited to build and decorate again.
Nadia
Q
sm duta
That sunset light is cool 🌇
Jérémie Tessier
That's not possible at the moment, no. We might come back to that later in the future, but right now we're focusing on live mode, so we'll see! Thank you!
Jérémie Tessier
That's a neat suggestion, will forward that to the team :)
Jérémie Tessier
That's something we'll tackle as we go through live mode features! Thank you for the question!
illykitty
I'm excited for the gameplay, but as someone who really likes to build and decorate, it already looks like a dream! T_T Well done team!
Lucie Baha
If that doesn't spoil the experience, they'll probably add it.
just a little bawn
Absolutely love seeing time spent on polishes and fixes that just make the game /feel/ better. Can’t wait to play!
Derek Warren
This game looks fascinating so far! I also loved the video by Andrei, who used dollar store items to make sounds for the game.
Maxx
Im blown away by the adding texture to objects feature 😭 I never thought we’d get anything this close to TS3 Create A Style
Bizbot
Will there be a way to change the direction of textures in the tools? Like in the brick couch it'd be cool to swap which way the bricks were laying on the surface 💖
Neele Neele
always makes my day better
LBoogie
🫶🏽✊🏽💜🙂↔️
Trisha Feder
Building without pausing the game OMG <3
Lisa-Marie Berzelius
😍😍😍
Anabel Blunk
Looking forward to making more hidden entrances with this tool. Will doors be lockable for specific people/groups?
Allison Burdairon-Hanna
Oh my gosh, every time I see an update, it looks fantastic!!! If I can suggest something small? For the time of day slider, adding visual notches for like morning, noon, evening, midnight? That way you don't have to search as much, and it's a quick reference.
Gill Reid
I love that we don't have to pause the game to be in build mode. Aaaghh I can't wait until release but please take your time! 😁
nemo
Incredible stuff as always! That last bit about being able to build without pausing the live mode made me say WOW! out loud. Its just such a cool idea and allows so much more freedom of gameplay types, which is what I always see from yalls ideas and I absolutely love it.
Jennifer
Exciting!!! I love the endless customization this will ultimately bring to the game. Can’t wait to see what else is in store 💕
Sláine Sheils
Cool
chantal99
The Time of Day Slider is such a neat idea, that’s gonna be so useful! I really really love how much freedom you’re gonna give to the players. From the textures to modding, absolutely love it ❤️
It'sMike64
The paintbrush to paint different parts of an object instead of having to change the colors on the menu to figure out which is which is GENIUS! I love these QOL implementations.
Jérémie Tessier
Thank you for the comment! I totally see what you mean and I've passed the message on to the team; I'm not sure if we're going to change all our counters so maybe you'll have to bear with this idiosyncrasy, but we'll see! Don't worry about offering criticism, that's very valuable too!
I JONES
Just one small criticism if that's ok? Usually on kitchen floor units, the top surface overhangs the cupboard doors by some way to stop drips and crumbs running into the cupboard. Is it possible to make the cabinet a little more slender front to back to create a visible overhang for the top? Only it kind of stood out to me.
Lucie Baha
Awesome ! thank you
phoenix grey
Some amazing new features! I especially love the time of day slider and the ability to build while Paras are actively moving. I love the paint brush icon and the ability to customize textures as well.
Jérémie Tessier
We already have a pattern system in the paramaker yes! You can change the textures on some clothes :)
Lucie Baha
Are you planning to add the ability to change the textures of certain things in the paramaker? Otherwise, everything shown is fantastic.
Ana Caroline Martins da Silva
Oh my gog, this game's build mode gets better everyday! I didn't think it was possible, but look at this! It's amazing
Jérémie Tessier
Howdy! As things are in the game right now you can see a bit in the last gif how it looks, you can also see a bit more about lighting at the end of this post https://www.patreon.com/posts/113360255 ! Hope this answers your question!
Dior K
How will inside lighting be?
ladyteruki
The textures can be changed with the paintbrush ?! That's awesome ! I feel like it's one of those QoL things that Paralives seems to be doing so well. Like changing the time of day, for instance, while building. Or, to take an example from a previous post, like being able to move around upcoming tasks to be performed by a Para. Or having a schedule. All those things add up and make the experience so smooth (...or at least they seem like they will, but of course I haven't tested them myself yet !). I also really like the idea of flipping assets instead of adjusting the angle of the mouse in other games (simulation or otherwise). It's so finicky, especially if you have issues with your hands, while a button for it just makes it MORE ACCESSIBLE ! Or simply if you have a cat on your desk and can't be too precise or else you'll wake him up XD Lastly, I know it can feel like it's overlooked by players (because by definition squashed bugs are invisible to us), but I really appreciate the QA work and the amount of bugs addressed. It's a neverending job, but someone's got to do it ! :P As a sidenote, I had never noticed the wood table that we see here in the LOD-related gif, but it's gorgeous. And instead of being tricky to match, the textures and color wheels will make it very easy to find chairs that go with it ! AKA : technically all of them !
Slippers
The color wheel, the pattern options, the texture options, the day/night options, omg I'm in heaven. This game knows exactly what I want!
Jérémie Tessier
We already have a timer of day slider in photo mode, but it could be nice to have it be similar to that one yeah! Thank you for the kind words!
Makingmacaroonracoon
The fact that you can change the texture on ANYTHING is *insane* 😅 And it's so exciting the game doesn't pause when building! (I was actually goingto ask if that was temporary... but never got around to it) The game looks amazing! and all the features sound promising! I can't wait to get my hands on early access❤️ GREAT JOB team😁😁😁 (&How many bugs till EA? wellllll 414 so far and livemode seems more complicated since you have to deal with character AI sooo, I'm expecting abouta 1M :D Lol)
BreakingGaia
Building in live mode. 😍😱🥰🤩🥳 This is a 20 years long feature I've wanted! Time shouldn't stop while someone is working and I want to update their house while they're gone. You just can't imagine how excited I am about this!! And the time of day slider, I love that, please can that also be a camera option when we take pictures?
pekeniax
The paint brush and the camera mode look amazing! Great job!😲
kelaatryan
I agree with that, if light is already coming from outside there would be no reason to put lamps and chandeliers. But I believe that by early access, they will have changed this dynamic.
SimMattically
I agree with the comment. I was hoping the interior lighting was just a work in progress and didn’t expect the open roof lighting to be by game design. I have to say, I really don’t like this look. 😬 I get that the roof can make everything dark when using realistic lighting engine, but isn’t that exactly why all The Sims games use specially designed indoor lighting?
Stephanie Marion
Wowwwww 🤩
Jérémie Tessier
Thank you for the kind words! That's not planned at the moment, we're focusing on live mode features right now, so maybe at some point in the far future we could go back on this and ponder it out, but it's not in the game right now!
Panthro Samah
I love the way that you can change patterns in objects! We can change the orientation of those patterns like we can do for tiles?
Jérémie Tessier
There's actually an option in the mod system for that! You can choose between 24 or 12 hour mode :) Maybe if it makes sense, we could make that a proper setting hehe :) Thank you for the question!
Carelle
I really like the progress of everything and I'm so excited. Though I'm wondering if there will be 12 hr clock option?
Estefani Oliveira
Está tudo perfeito. E acho muito legal que vocês estão pensando em todos os tipos de público, ou seja, o jogo será possível para aqueles que tem um computador mais fraco e os que tem um computador melhor. Parabéns equipe Paralives
Ava
I LOVE that build mode is live!
Rosirose
I will never get over how you can change each aspect of, for example, a counter, it RULES
Jérémie Tessier
The way things are setup I'm sure there's going to be a way for this to be possible, yes!
Toto
This is wonderful. I was wondering if you will be able to keep the detail level high when zooming out for those of us with computers that can handle it
Maggy Lina
Really impressed with the teams commitment to challenge the stats quo in this genre - so excited for the release I know what I'll be booking my holidays for !
Jordan Harrison
Everything's coming together so nicely. Great job, everyone!
ZLoves
Jérémie & Charlotte...to the front, please! Because the patience and determination one must possess to even fathom sending over 400 critters to meet their maker!? My hats off to you bc you continue to show me how much this game means to you by conquering feats like that. Also, I just love the amber peach aura of the sunset in that last clip 😍🌇
Jérémie Tessier
That could be really cute! But characters will probably already be doing something else and having them interupt to react could get bothersome after a while aha. Still, neat idea :)
Synthia Hubbard
Please tell me that the paras will react based off their personality when you move things near them during build mode lol Awesome post! Excited to get my hands on the game!
Pati Silence
Love it! Especially the swatches
kelaatryan
Amazing! I'm sure it will be perfect in the end like everything so far❤️
Jérémie Tessier
I hear ya! But at the moment we like the doll-house look it gives to buildings; Having the invisible roof block the light makes everything covered in shadows, but we're still working on all that!
Zoe Williams
That fact that the Paras can still move during build mode is wild. ❤️❤️❤️❤️
Artis Zaķis
That time slider is awesome!! I've seen Sims builders complain way too often that it feels like there's no good lighting options for certain lots, so this would really help find that perfect light angle
kelaatryan
Awesome as always, Parateam! Just wish the outside light didn't come into the house when there's a roof🥹
Jess
One of my favorite updates so far! I love that you can apply the textures to anything - and having time continue when I'm tweaking the build sounds awesome! The level of player-specific customization is just wonderful
Anna Wendel
So much fun getting to follow the process like this! It looks so good, I’m really excited ❤️
Joel Jimenez
i'm blown away!
Cesar A
I love the idea of the game not automatically pause in build mode, that’s genius!!
Chanel Moss
I like that the game doesn't have to pause when you're in the build menu. It'll probably make the transition to opening the menu smoother.
Fran Smith
These look great! All these swatches and options are just going to make us even more impatient than ever, even though the wisest of us will still say, "Take your time! Make this game into a future classic!" Great stuff! Can't wait to see what's coming up in live mode!
ThatOneCamel
Looks great! Really excited about being able to change the texture of objects
