Process Monitor for Fast Lane Stuff/Ambitions

I forgot to update my Process Monitor configuration for Ambitions. Though last time I updated it, some people couldn't get it installed. This time, it's a tutorial, so anyone can do it!

1. If you don't have it already download Process Monitor.
2. It doesn't have to be installed, so just double click procmon.exe
3. You should get something like this when  you open it. If not, click "Filter" and then "Filter..."

4. UPDATE: awT has informed me that the following is mostly unecessary. Instead of adding every sims 3 process, you can just add "TS3*.exe" without quotes. The * is a wildcard- meaning any process titled "TS3somethingheredoesntmatterwhat.exe" will be included. Be sure to add "Path ends with .package", though!
 
Very simple. Click the first dropdown box and choose "Process Name". Make sure the second box is set to "is". In the third box, write whatever Sims 3 processes you want to include. It's safe (But unecessary) to add expansions or stuff packs you don't own, just to be sure you have it set up in the future. These processes are:

The Sims 3: TS3.exe
World Adventures: TS3EP01.exe
HELS: TS3SP01.exe
Ambitions: TS3EP02.exe
Fast Lane: TS3SP02.exe

Add any of those you want. OR just add "TS3*.exe". Be sure to at least add those that you own. In reality you only need the latest EP/SP, but this is just a precautionary thing, so do it anyway.


Then add "Path" for the first box, "ends with" for the second box, and write ".package" in the third box. Add that. Turn off every other filter but those you just added.

5. Click apply. That's it! You should have something like this:

Now run Process Monitor and check for issues as you normally would. If any packages have extremely high numbers, that means that there's something wrong with it. A hair being loaded a couple thousand times is not an issue at all. But if something is being loaded over, say, 500,000 times, it might be a problem and it may be slowing your game down.

6. These settings are saved in your computer's registry. This means that you can delete process monitor when you aren't using it, and your filter will still stay in your computer's memory.

Requested: Fast Lane Neon Light: Higher up on the wall

This is *not* a replacement. It's the Fast Lane neon car light, but higher up on the wall. The light does glow properly, but as you can see the actual light it PRODUCES is still positioned in the middle of the wall.

Download

Want a free Sims Game? MySims is the Taco Bell Kids Meal Toy.

Right now you can go to Taco bell and pay 2.99 for a taco, a bag of cinnamon twists, a small drink, and a copy of MySims in a cute paper sleeve!

MySims is a pretty fun game, it's basically Animal Crossing except instead of doing errands, you build furniture for people using little blocks, and "Essences" that you collect around town for coloring them or meeting demands. You also build the outside of the homes of everyone you let move into town, using much bigger blocks. Helping people unlocks Blueprints so you can make objects for your house with special functions, like a costume chest or a hot tub.

It's not very sim-like, but it's VERY cute, and it's a fun little game for a kid or somebody who doesn't mind playing obnoxiously cute repetitive games...like The Sims.

I know this sounds like an advertisement, but really, I got the game for the Wii for 35 dollars- USED- so this is a great deal.

Rockabilly Dining Chair: Fast Lane Matching

This is a dining chair version of the Rockabilly bar stool included in Fast Lane Stuff. I use "matching" lightly- the textures are the right color, but the wrong texture. You can just copy them over from the bar stool if you want the exact same match, but it's difficult to get it right in TSRW while making the object.

Since this is cloned from a base game dining chair, it does not require Fast Lane Stuff, but it's a bit shady of you to download it if you don't have it, since I used a mesh from Fast Lane. :p

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Anachronistic Automobile Without Window Bars

The vintage car is awesome. I love it. It looks so ridiculous and exaggerated. But the windows looked stupid, so I removed the bars on them. Now the only problem with it is that your sim sits way too low in it- if you go to first person view, you can see that they literally can't see over the dash!

Original windows can be seen in the back. I was going to remove the bar on the windshield, but that looked ridiculous, so I left it.

ISSUES: I don't know if this is a fast lane issue or a TSRW issue, but the name won't change. I changed it and re-changed it, but it refuses to save. So the catalog name is the ObjectID string, not an actual name...which sucks. But hey, befriend the car enough and you can name it. ;D If anyone figures this out, I'll fix it.

Requires Fast Lane Stuff.

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Fast Lane Stuff load screen Replacement

This is a simple replacement. If FAST LANE STUFF is installed, and no newer expansions/packs are installed, it will replace the load screen with the Base Game load screen.

If you want to replace it with any other pack's load screen, see this tutorial.

It's a really quick and easy process, but it's obnoxious for me to have to do it for every possible combination of installations.

ONLY USE if Fast Lane Stuff is the most recently released expansion/pack you have installed.

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Quick Tip for Better Visuals

I know I haven't posted anything in forever, and this isn't a download, but whatever. It's good knowledge to know.

What you need to do, if you have a graphics card that has a configuration program (ATI cards have Catalyst Control Center, NVidia cards have something similar), you need to open it up, find "Anisotropic Filtering" and set it to at least 4x, preferably 8x, or 16x if you think your performance won't suffer.

Why?

Well, here's before 8x Anisotropic Filtering (Remember, you can open the pictures to see them bigger):

And here's after:

Doesn't that ground texture look fantastic now? It's no longer blurry just 4 feet from the camera, and it even looks better close to the camera. What Anisotropic Filtering does is it basically renders the textures in a different way so that they look better when the camera is at different angles.

Here are some more examples of before and after anisotropic filtering:

Check out the windows. The ground in the park works, too.

And the water, too. It looks better.

And in this one, the ground texture is better again- but check out the dining tables. Even they look better now.

It also very subtly makes beards a bit more detailed (very, very subtly, though). Same with freckles.