Can changing a Sim’s height please be a thing?

The height slider mod I use is only a 3 kb package file & using it vs. not using it makes no real difference in CPU or memory usage that I can tell. No bloat in save file sizes either. My teen - elder Sims vary in height from +20% to -15% of normal Sims. At those sizes the Sims do not look distorted at all. Virtually all animations look fine for tall or short Sims, even for things like holding hands or hugging. There must already be some form of compensating for height differences built into the mod, otherwise their hands would be off, like they are playing patty-cake and not holding hands! xD. The only thing that doesn't line up well for Sims at the extreme ends of my settings are their lips when they are kissing, but even then you have to look really close to notice it. I imagine anything the game devs would come up with, if they ever decided to add something like this to the game, would be even more polished than that.I'm not trying to encourage the use of mods here, that's up to each player as long as they understand and accept the risks that go along with using them. I do like the variety that having different sized Sims brings to my game so I am still Me Too with the original post.

@Ashleyc1144 I'm assuming from the wording of your question that you're aware there's currently no ability to adjust height. Height is presently being used to distinguish between the ages (teens are shorter than adults).Though I understand that it would make it more complicated to spot teens compared with a 'petite' adult, I also think it would be fun to be able to have at least a couple of height variations for adults. Perhaps if they made it possible to make an adult shorter (like the height of a teen) we could at least have that much of a variant for adults, and it would still stay within the height/clearance restraints for interacting with objects that are currently in place.I assume this would cause the need to adjust clothing (perhaps making it able to 'stretch' in height like the clothing currently adjusts to weight gain and pregnancy). Anyway, I do think players would have fun with this option, so I'll give you a 'me too' and 'XP' on this one. Good luck! 🤞🏻

@Trismagistos I'm still not understanding. How much space do you anticipate a save file to increase by if a user adds a new pack to their game? Or a new feature like new heights was patched in? You also said "saves etc." What other files/folders are you referring to? I have no idea if adding new heights, and the animation changes this would entail, would significantly add to either hard drive space for the game (I doubt it), significantly increased CPU needs (also doubt it), or increased RAM required by the game (also doubt it). I should imagine it all comes down to the amount of work and hours required by the studio to patch in height changes.

@Trismagistos Yes but you're still not answering my question and frankly, it seems like you are muddling up game data and user data disk space. You are stating in your previous comment regarding the Sims 4 folder - "That boils down to 6.3 GB for all the Sims 4 expansion packs etc." - that packs take up space in the user folder, which they do not. Packs are installed into the Sims 4 application/program and can clearly be seen when you look in the game files. I realise this is OT with respect to the OP's initial request for additional heights, but feel it should be explained further because a lot of people read these forums and erroneous information, or information that is not clearly explained, does not help anyone. We don't need to agree with each other, this is the General Discussion & Feedback forum, open for conversation and opinion.

I honestly think it would be a dandy idea to have height in the game but I think it'd be best left for sims 5. Height would be a crazy addition and think of all the stuff the animators have to do to make it work well in the game seeing as I've used the height mod in my game before(specifically sims 3) and the amount of distortion between two different heights in sims is a little hilarious.

Height | EA Forums

27 Replies

SheriGR
Hero
5 years ago
@Psychotps No, what I mean is teens are slightly shorter than adults, if I remember correctly, so there should already be interactions in place for that one additional height that they could attach to the one additional adult height. No worries about 'technical'. I do code, but mine is web design, not game code. 😉
Psychotps
Seasoned Ace
5 years ago
@SheriGR
The way I see it is like this...

Imagine there is a "height" slider in CAS. You click on it to drag it up. It goes up a notch. How many notches are there total? 5? 10? Let's say there are only TWO. Two different heights for your sim.

Let's say Sim1 and Sim2 are both at height "1" (of 2) The animation would not need one sim to "bend" over to align the kiss properly.
(Edit: Oh, now that's interesting. Would two sims at height "1" use the same animation as two sims at height "2"???)

If Sim1 is at height 1 and Sim2 is at height 2, the animation would need to be adjusted so a height 1 sim can properly tilt their head back to properly align with a height 2 sim. And vice-versa the height 2 sim tilts their head down to meet the height 1 sim.

That would require 4 animations.1->1, 1->2, 2->1, 2->2

With 10 different "notches" on the slider, you'd need 100 animations for each different height to match properly. You might be able to get away with fobbing it down a little and say like heights 1-3 use one animation, 4-6 use a second one... but you're still talking a LOT more animations.

I didn't even think about teens. Are teens the same height? If not, If you want teens/young adults to be included, then double the number of animations. Adults too? Holy cow... I'll need a calculator to figure that one out. I think it'd be something like (10^2)^3 animations?
I suppose it depends on if Teens/Young Adults/Adults are the exact same height as far as animation alignment is concerned. If they are the same height, then it would only be 10^2 animations total per. It would also depend on how different the actual height is per "notch". If it's not very much, then you may only need 1 new animation per 2-3 "notches". That would bring it down to something like 5^2 or 4^2. But given the number of total animations in the game, even 3 additional animations per animation (2^2) may end up being hundreds of thousands of new animations...
PS... I hope I didn't get too "technical"... I tried to simplify...
SheriGR
Hero
5 years ago
@Psychotps I think you make a good point about the need to adjust so many things for a new height animation. I'm not familiar with game code, but I'm guessing the fact that since animations are in place for the 'teen' height that adding a 2nd adult height that's the same as the teen height would take far less adjustment to have things interact properly?
Psychotps
Seasoned Ace
5 years ago
@RandomBuzziness That's about it. Thousands of animations in the game would have to be expanded exponentially. There would have to be thousands of new animations at least. Even only 10 differences in height would mean 100 new animations for a single animation like kissing. Some might be kept single like getting a book from a bookshelf, but ones that regard two sims, it's talking about 10^2 for each one.

If they do that, I hope people have BIG hard drives.
RandomBuzziness
Seasoned Ace
5 years ago
Hi @SheriGR As @Trismagistos mentioned, there are mods that already add height sliders and the various clothing items seem to adjust just fine. The biggest problem is the animations for some of the social interactions like hugging and kissing seem off. I know that not everyone wants mods in their games anyway so I am going to Me Too this as well. I would love to see this added and maybe not even a true slider but a few presets like short and extra short to average to tall and extra tall. This might make it easier to adjust the animations for those social interactions than if they went with a true slider.
Trismagistos
Hero
5 years ago
Hey @Ashleyc1144 may be you are aware of the fact that there is a height sliders modification. I can not share any links here but you can google it.
So as long as this possibility is not provided by EA you might try this mod.
Good luck.
SheriGR
Hero
5 years ago
@Ashleyc1144 I'm assuming from the wording of your question that you're aware there's currently no ability to adjust height. Height is presently being used to distinguish between the ages (teens are shorter than adults).
Though I understand that it would make it more complicated to spot teens compared with a 'petite' adult, I also think it would be fun to be able to have at least a couple of height variations for adults. Perhaps if they made it possible to make an adult shorter (like the height of a teen) we could at least have that much of a variant for adults, and it would still stay within the height/clearance restraints for interacting with objects that are currently in place.
I assume this would cause the need to adjust clothing (perhaps making it able to 'stretch' in height like the clothing currently adjusts to weight gain and pregnancy). Anyway, I do think players would have fun with this option, so I'll give you a 'me too' and 'XP' on this one. Good luck! 🤞🏻

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Height

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