Familiar faces: players of the Sims Deluxe PC game can give characters unique identities, even their own. (Gaming).(Brief Article)

The next time you see a friend or relative playing The Sims Deluxe Edition computer game, don't be surprised if you see a familiar face or two among the virtual crowd. You may even see a character that looks just like you. That's because this recent Sims tire from Maxis ships with a customization tool that enables players to easily create a personalized Sim character right down to the smallest detail. Using a digital photo, players can even "clone" themselves, their parents, siblings, or friends and insert them into their virtual Sims world.

"The Sims has always focused on customization," says Sinjin Bain, vice president at Maxis, referring to the game's unique style that requires players to create their own Sim families from templates and then place the characters in various situations and settings. "A standalone application, The Sims Creator, enables players to take the customization to a new level," he contends.

In addition to customizing characters, users can also employ this feature to intuitively design original attire for their Sims and add logos to the characters' clothing or skin. This is accomplished by importing bitmaps from digital photos and adding them to the surface of a preconstructed character model, built by Maxis in Alias|Wavefront's Maya. Users load their Sims directly into the application, where they perform edits and then save the models directly into the game.

Most game modification programs, such as Discreet's gmax, are aimed at both developers and game enthusiasts (see "A Mod, Mod. Mod, Mod World,'" pg. 24) However, these tools require a basic knowledge of 3D modeling--a skill that only a handful of game players have. Conversely, The Sims Creator enables virtually anyone to easily create a customized Sim character. A complex set of painting and editing functions are also available for those with basic 3D modeling skills who want to extend the capability even further.

"The Sims Creator is all about customizing characters, while software such as gmax is used to create new environments for game levels," Bain explains.

"Essentially, The Sims ...