FreeSO 3D Remeshing Project
After almost 10 years of EA Games shutting down The Sims Online™ forever, Google made me stumble across the FreeSO project, and I got to know Rhys Simpsons' work of re-implementing the old game into a new game engine, introducing new features, like the 3D Mode.
All this was reason enough to get me excited, but it only got better after I found out the team was gathering volunteers to help with the much needed remeshing process. The 3D models are generated by the game engine using the original Z-Buffer on 2D Sprites from the original game, but the automated result is always wrong and un-optimized.
After reading some posts on the forums and discussing a little about it on Discord, I was able to start remeshing simple objects.
One of my first remeshed objects: the pool ladder
Followed by the diving board
Once I got familiar with Volcanic, the tool used to manage FreeSO's content, I was then able to choose from a master list of objects that need remeshing.
Before and after of a remeshed object
The process of remeshing different objects made me learn a lot about texturing and light baking, and even though this is not paid work, it’s always great to get feedback from the team and common players, and the learning experience not only made me work with a new software, Blender, it is also gratifying by itself.
