SimGuruMax talks about Challenge of Cars and Horses in Sims 4

Also separately on this thread, thank you to @Cinebar for lobbying for the interests of rotational players since the release of Sims 4 almost ten years ago! In general, this thread has seventy one pages (!) of Q&A with a software engineer who worked on the Sims 4 base game. Super interesting to see early perspectives on the Sims 4, what went right, what went wrong, and what has changed since then!


https://i.imgur.com/somBdo9.png

@ULIBABA66 asking the right questions way back when!

Ah, that was way back when I cared enough to ask questions of why the game worked the way it did. I learned a lot from those informative discussions with SimGuruMax. They should bring back the tech thread. I learned why we can't build our own apartments from one of them, because each floor is actually like a different lot. It's too bad some in that thread didn't like people asking questions and or dissent about a particular feature etc. A lot of people left not long after that due to attitudes but that was really a good discussion thread, but unfortunately dissent was frowned upon by some.

I seem to recall that Rockstar Games mentioned horses and how difficult they were to animate in a dev blog or something, I don't recall if it was for Read Dead Redemption 1 or 2.

If EA/Maxis have managed to improve the routing in the game so it can handle horse riding realistically then maybe it could be applied to other objects like cars. That would solve the turning issue at least.

It's interesting that he is mentioning that they need to animate the cars driving because the cars that we see in the background in neighborhoods in the sims4 are actually not animated... their wheels are not turning, but I guess that's just because they are meant to be in the background.

In any case, it sounds like the horses in the sims4 will be very well animated.

I absolutely believe what they say about their high standards for animation quality. I complain a lot about the quality of many things in TS4, but if there's one thing it keeps getting right, it's animations. They may be reused a lot, and some actions annoyingly lack animations altogether (like sims getting on and off boats in Island Living, for example), but the ones we have tend to be really good. And they must be very difficult to do, something even the best modders struggle with. I have yet to see a custom animation that looks convincing.

Especially with non-static objects that move around in the world such as vehicles and horses, I understand why they would cause problems, if the goal is to animate them properly. I think the bikes look and work fine for the most part, but every now and then I see jerky sharp turns that would be very implausible in real life. Imagine how immersion-breaking it would be if a horse did that. Now that we are getting horses at last, I'm looking forward to seeing and appreciating the animations that must have taken a lot of time and effort to make.

"simgirl1010;c-18281812" wrote:
@ULIBABA66 asking the right questions way back when!

Omg I guess I was ahead of myself a bit too much! Hahah :lol:

"Cinebar;c-18281823" wrote:
Ah, that was way back when I cared enough to ask questions of why the game worked the way it did. I learned a lot from those informative discussions with SimGuruMax. They should bring back the tech thread. I learned why we can't build our own apartments from one of them, because each floor is actually like a different lot. It's too bad some in that thread didn't like people asking questions and or dissent about a particular feature etc. A lot of people left not long after that due to attitudes but that was really a good discussion thread, but unfortunately dissent was frowned upon by some.

Could be off topic but I always loved your thoughtful feedback about The Sims 4 and how it could be improved, Cinebar! I was way more active on these forums years ago, but now I just don't have the energy to be as frequent anymore because I love playing the game…just praying they won't stop this series and do us dirty like that…but maybe I should not care about this as it is unfortunately not in my control… :(

That was the best thread!

First horses
Then cars
Then rideable dragons

"luthienrising;c-18281963" wrote:
That was the best thread!

They should bring that back, but I know they don't ”owe us” anything in that sense, but it was a great thread and I loved all the awesome engagement, the SimGurus really did their best handling such difficult times back when the game just got launched…I remember when Ghosts got announced along with other future big base game content updates, I started to realize their plans for Sims 4 and the way they want to support this game and keep improving it for years to come. Don't we all just hope for the best for this game and the future of The Sims right? ☹️? I feel bad for Gurus getting so many nasty comments back then…I have calmed down a lot after most of the content I asked for has arrived and now I almost can say I enjoy playing this game, with all the packs I paid for myself.