Livesimming

[strangetomato]

I'm interested in giving this livesimming thing a try, but I have questions about it. When's the best time of day and of the week to do it? What do I need to get set up? How much notice do I need to give? What do you think I should I do on my livestream? Have you done one? If so, where can I find it?

I'd love to hear about your own experiences with it. :)

Comments

[voleste.livejournal.com]

I'm afraid I don't have much tips to give, other than to hold the livestream session in the weekends. I'm really excited for a possible livestream from you!

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it seemed like everyone has been doing them on weekends and that would really be the only possible time for me, unless I did it later in the evening, and that doesn't seem to work for the greatest number of people.

I think it'd be a lot of fun, though I don't know how well I'd do live and in spoken word. :P Eh, you have to try everything once, right?

[keoni-chan.livejournal.com]

LivLucas did quite an awesome tutorial on livesimming a while back here (http://www.livestream.com/livlukas/video?clipId=pla_32fca249-2397-40ca-acfa-f5efcb482c8d). it covers all the basics. I learned all i know about streaming from her.

Be sure to get an "old" livestream account though. If you create one on new.livestream.com, people will need to sign in with either a livestream account or facebook to just watch it. It's really annoying.
Try signing up <ahref="https://secure.livestream.com/myaccount/selectwizard"> here that should work.

I'm really excited to see you stream though! You could stream your desktop background and I would watch XD But maybe you could do a set tour or something like that?

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'm going to check that out. s655 also mentioned that on my tumblr post.

Ah, that's also good to know! :) Thanks.

Haha! I can't imagine that being very entertaining, though I do have a very unique accent. XD We're known for "talking funny" here, but I think the upper Canada accent is way funnier, eh? ;) The Newfoundland accent is ~cool~.

Some sort of set tour (or at least what passes for a set in my game) or visiting households in my game might be fun. I could do a bit of a behind the scenes thing with a couple of loose ends that didn't get tied in my story. I found a couple of them when I restored my old Strangetown. Plot ideas that I didn't end up using, but still exist in the hood, and that sort of thing.

[aledstrange.livejournal.com]

Well, pretty much what Keoni said. Make sure to open a original livestream account, choosing Broadcast on the link she gave you, and follow Liv/Jessa's tutorial for more technical details.

As for hours, it'll depend on you timezone (and time, of course), but ideally try to look for an hour that isn't too late or too early for people in Europe (preferably on weekends for obvious reasons).

I'll be awesome to see you stream. :)

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the tips. I will definitely check out Jessa's tutorial and the advice I've been given for picking a time. It seems like early evening here works out to be the best time, with us being slightly ahead of the rest of North America. (LOL! I get such a kick out of saying that.)

I think it'll be a lot of fun. Have you done any?

[aledstrange.livejournal.com]

It'll be really awesome if you get to livestream, even if just to show around a bit of your hood or anything you do ;)

I did livesim a couple of times (there's a link to the channel on my tumblr), but nothing too planned. I just fired up procaster with the game when I had sometime for myself and let people know thru tumblr. It was never big, but even with 5 or 6 people in the chat it's really fun (We are bit random here, especially on weekends, so planning days ahead doesn't work for me lol)

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

I think I'd definitely go low key with it and just play or show off the inner workings of my story hood. From what I've seen in just visiting other livestreams, I have enough of a difficult time following chat and everything else when I'm just visiting the chat room. I can't imagine doing the stream and trying to do it! XD It'll need to be simple.

That sounds like the best approach to me. I'll go check out your videos when I get a chance. :) I'm much like you with a generally unplanned approach to life, but I would have to set out the time pretty deliberately with Baby Tomato involved. I'm sure Mr. Tomato will help me out so I can devote an hour or so to it.

[skellington7d.livejournal.com]

A tour of your hood would be awesome! It's a good way to share your thought processes, what's going on behind the scenes, or just random simlish thoughts. You could also go into how you set up scenes or makeover sims etc. If you play with free will off your sims might get in hijinks as well.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

These are all great ideas. I think something very low key would appeal to me the most, so maybe I will just tour the hood a little and see what the sims are up to, and maybe reveal a few funny behind the scenes things like abandoned plot ideas, etc. I have a few of those that would be fun to show off.

You've done some livestreaming, right? Do you have a link to your channel?

[skellington7d.livejournal.com]

Yep, here's a link to it!: http://www.livestream.com/skellssimslivestream/

I've just done a hood tour and some makeovers (since some people thought I did plastic surgery on my sims when it was actually hair and makeup.)

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Thank you. ^_^ I'll check that out!

Those sound like fun, and that's funny about people thinking it was plastic surgery. It's amazing what a set of defaults and the right cc will do.

I think with your makeovers, they're probably reacting mostly to that white lower eye makeup you use. I tried it out once and it does seem to change the eye shape considerably for some sims. I wasn't a fan of it for my own game, because it changed the look of the characters too much for me, but I like it in your story for the very same reason. I like that it makes them that little bit different, in the same way you're reinterpreting the way Dina and Nina are commonly viewed. It softens them up. :)

[skellington7d.livejournal.com]

Yeah, somebody specifically called me out on the Calientes' eyes looking bigger and rounder, and it was because of that liner. I think a softer haircut makes a world of difference on Dina too, rather long straight styles like the one she comes in.

I also get people thinking I changed Mortimer, but that's because he wears the most makeup of anyone in my game. I tried to paint the face 2 out of him!

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Someone called you out? In the sims comm?! Never! XD

Dina does have a very long, thin face, so straight styles do seem to add to the severeness. Which can be good, if you're going for that, but you're right about the softer styles balancing her face.

LOL at painting the face 2 out of him. You must despair of face 2 with so many of them in Pleasantview. I go nutty over face 1 more than face 2. I add all manner of eye accessories, facial hair, wacky hairstyles, you name it. Anything to distract from that too cute roundness. XD

[kalisasims.livejournal.com]

Please choose a time that is reasonable in Europe :D

I haven't livesimmed before and I'm so stupid when it comes to computers that I don't think I ever will, either :D LOL.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

I will do my best. :) Jessa seems to have some very good specific advice on times posted below, so I will try to follow that.

Seriously, if I can figure it out, you can. :P You should give it a try!

[thejessachannel.livejournal.com]

Pretty much adding in what others have said. Watch the tutorial:

http://www.livestream.com/livlukas/video?clipId=pla_32fca249-2397-40ca-acfa-f5efcb482c8d

and come to some more livestreams to see how it's done...and then before you go live for the first time, let me check your levels! This is so important to a good audio quality.

We can set up a time to meet in your chat room about 30 minutes before you go live.

Also, timezones are so important. Don't want to leave out the europeans. The best day to stream is Saturday, so people can stay up late. I am American, in the pacific time zone, so I have to stream early to make it reasonable for western europe.

I find 1pm is the best time for me, as that is 4pm eastern and 9-10pm western europe. It is the middle of the night for russia and early morning sunday for japan and australia.

You can't hit all the timezones just right, but this is the best I've found.

Shoot me an ask on my tumblr site. I'll help you all that I can. Believe me, livesimming is GREAT fun. And people are happy to watch a lot of different things! We've had great hood tours...tutorials...bodyshop games...photo shoot setups...and then just buiding decorating and playing!

There is lots you can share that we would be happy to see. The Livesimming community is very nice (NO drama) and friendly and happy to be getting to know each other.

My only rule in my chat room is we are all simming family. Everyone is nice and friendly to the noobies and that's it. Otherwise, chat gets kinda fun and naughty and... good times.

Lots of laughing.

Jessa (was Liv Lukas in a previous life)

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Thank you for all of this advice. I will check out the tutorial.

It seems like 5:30 pm on Saturday here would hit your ideal window of time, which isn't even a bad time for me with the baby. It should work just fine.

It's very generous of you to offer to check the levels for me. Thank you! I will take you up on that, for sure.

What I've experienced in the livesimming community so far has been great. It's exactly as you described, very welcoming and positive. Always nice to see! :)

[silentsteel.livejournal.com]

Always always always grab a friend and test if they recieve proper sound before posting the link to the livestream. I know Livestream can be a real butt about sound with some versions of windows/windows setups, and even with some Mac setups. You may find it takes sound from your game, but not your microphone at the same time. Or just the microphone. Or nothing at all.

I've done some Livestreams, but most of mine are ArtStreams, not Sims. XD So I'll just keep my beak shut on that regard.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Okay, will do. Thanks for that! I wouldn't want to do anything to make myself sound worse than I might already. Haha!

That's cool. I'd love to check that out. My only previous experience with livestreaming has been watching a movie with an online friend. That was a lot of fun.

[cameoflage.livejournal.com]

Even if I knew how to livestream anything, Livesimming With Cameo would be really boring because of the amount of time spent on loading screens. Maybe somewhat less than there used to be, since my new computer is significantly beefier and I have noticed a reduction in loading time even when fully equipped with my small mountain of custom content and complete set of expansion packs. (And one stuff pack.) But still fairly loady.

Also my current computer has a shitty integrated graphics card that can barely run TS2 and spits out worrying graphical errors when I try. So I haven't played the game very much lately. I ordered a new graphics card, but it's been out of stock since October (which is when I ordered it -- and it was in stock, like, the day before I placed my order).

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

I feel your pain. Simming on my old computer was tedious. I had crazy long loading times. I'm really lucky to have a new computer to use for simming now and the loading screens are mercifully brief.

That's too bad about the wait. I hope it comes in stock soon, and things run well for you once you get it.

[cameoflage.livejournal.com]

My custom content is like unto a gas, it expands to fill the space and processing power available.

I hope it shows up soon too! And doesn't bring JARVIS crashing down the way my last attempt to install a new graphics card on the old computer did. (I was doing it wrong.)

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Haha! Yes, cc has a tendency to do that. I had set myself a "no new object meshes" rule for this time around, but when I realized how quick my load times were, that changed pretty fast. XD

Best of luck with it! :)