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Scholar
Original Poster
#1 Old 7th Jun 2015 at 1:25 AM
Default What is Maxis Match build/buy mode? Clothes?
I never really thought about Maxis Match beyond hair. I have been looking through tumblrs and got a big surprise that people were tagging objects from build and buy mode as Maxis Match. I know this is weird, but I have no buy/build cc at all. My excuse is that I only recently installed TS2 and I've been busy getting mods to get the game to play the way I like it. I just barely started downloading MM hair. Hair came first because I think in TS2-4 EAxis has hired designers that have never seen humans with hair and make many of their hairs based on someone's written description of what certain hairstyles should look like.

Anyway, now that my sims have decent hair, I'm ready for clothes and objects. Do I really have to be careful to only download MM with this stuff? I've accidentally downloaded pooklet'd hair and as pretty as it looked, I hated that it didn't match everyone else's hair in the game.

I've downloaded lots of clothes, and I can't tell what is MM and what isn't. Maybe my tastes are such that I naturally only pick MM clothes? Or maybe there is no difference between MM and realistic clothes? As long as there is no photo skinning, I'm fine with the clothes I pick.

I haven't done any objects yet. Will non-MM items stand out badly next to Maxis objects?
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Mad Poster
#2 Old 7th Jun 2015 at 1:38 AM
It depends what non-MM items you have in your game. Some things look completely normal. Others don't. In my game I use pooklet and 'realistic' hair most of the time as well as realistic/semi-realistic skin, but maxis-match clothing and maxis-match objects.

I've found most things on Mod the sims look good, the only times they don't are if they're badly meshed (stuff made a lot earlier) or if they've basically used textures from pictures for their objects. You can tell whether something would look good in your maxis-match game by looking at it, it's a lot easier than hair. Especially because most creators show an image of the object surrounded by other objects. Lots of CC that looks 'realistic' is obviously not what you would be looking for in a Maxis-match game.

~Your friendly neighborhood ginge
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#3 Old 7th Jun 2015 at 2:35 AM Last edited by joandsarah77 : 7th Jun 2015 at 4:30 AM.
MM furniture mixes in well with game items. Generally non MM has an unnatural shine or the textures look like they came from a photograph.
Non MM clothes are photoshoped or photoskinned. They also often have a much too exaggerated bumpmaps. I hate both of those.

Edit because Bitmaps and bumpmaps are NOT the same thing lol.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Mad Poster
#4 Old 7th Jun 2015 at 2:57 AM
I'd say if it doesn't look out of place alongside ingame furniture or clothes/hair, it's MM.

It's not like there's any rule to what you can't have in your game. I'm perfectly happy with mixing stuff up, as long as something doesn't look completely out of place, like a very realistic or obviously photoskinned wooden texture on a closet, next to a much simpler MM table.

I often find I use MM-style for furniture and surroundings, and more semi-realistic for the sims. I like a bit of details on my sims, and MM feels too cartoony and smooth, particularly on clothes, hair and skins. I prefer if clothes look like they're made of fabric, and that hair have some texture to it that doesn't look painted-on.
Scholar
Original Poster
#5 Old 7th Jun 2015 at 5:13 AM
i think I'm starting to understand, after reading people's Simblrs. I won't name names (I forgot who they were anyway...) but I saw someone's Legacy posts that had everything MM in furniture except for this photo skinned dining room table. I'm usually not so critical of other people's stuff, but they posted tons of pics of their family at this table that looked like it was cut out of a magazine and pasted on top of a real table in the game. Every time I saw a pic with the table, my eyes immediately focused on it because it looked so out of place. I now see that there's a difference.. And it's not subtle.


I think my tastes are so naturally MM that even when I didn't know what it was, I naturally preferred the cartoony Maxis style.
Lab Assistant
#6 Old 7th Jun 2015 at 5:32 AM
I used to download CC whatever it was, but since I started playing again, I refuse to download anything that isn't MM. Whether it be clothing, hair, objects, anything. Non-MM things look so out of place, I love the style of TS2, too. There's an awesome Maxis-Match tumblr that I'm addicted to, not sure if I'm alright to post it here though or if you already know about it.
The Great AntiJen
retired moderator
#7 Old 7th Jun 2015 at 10:48 AM
That's funny - the whole MM thing started with furniture and objects.

I no longer come over to MTS very often but if you would like to ask me a question then you can find me on tumblr or my own site tflc. TFLC has an archive of all my CC downloads.
I'm here on tumblr and my site, tflc
Mad Poster
#8 Old 7th Jun 2015 at 11:36 AM
It's not just the textures that make an object MM, but also the polygonal counts. It doesn't really matter what type of maxis-matching texture is on a custom hair; A piece of content that has higher-polygonal counts doesn't fit well with the lower polygonal objects. This reason alone is why I have trouble using most custom hairs.

Because the earth is standing still, and the truth becomes a lie
A choice profound is bittersweet, no one hears Cassandra Goth cry

Mad Poster
#9 Old 7th Jun 2015 at 12:16 PM
Maxis Match used to mean that it was a set completer or matched the wood tone or fabric texture of another item, or something like that.

If people are now starting to use it to mean "anything not photoskinned" that's.... odd. Because most photoskinned items are badly made, IMO. Occasionally you get one which looks okay, but the style of the game is painted/cartoony, photoskins have weird shading and highlights painted on, which looks unnatural. What people are now calling "Maxis match" sounds like what I call "well made", which is a shame.

I use the sims as a psychology simulator...
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#10 Old 7th Jun 2015 at 12:43 PM
We have this conversation every few months, but basically it's all personal interpretation to what is MM or not.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Scholar
#11 Old 7th Jun 2015 at 1:26 PM
I guess it's open to interpretation indeed.
And I'm one of those who thinks that "maxis match" would mean "you can put it put by a Maxis item and it would look as part of the same set" (so technically it should use the same texture).

A good example would be Michelle's gorgeous recolors (of Maxis items and CC items) here at MTS.
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