The Famous Reticulating Splines Text.

[cypherathos]

Hi. Ever since I had the Sims 1 expansions, I've been meaning to know each and every version of this "RETICULATING SPLINES" text every time the game starts. I'm getting really disturbed about not knowing them, I don't know why. (All I know is that Sims 1: Reticulating Splines, Sims 2: Reticulating 3D Splines, Sims 2 Seasons: Unexpectedly Reticulating Splines(?), and Sims 2 FT: Reticulating Splines in the Zone)

Is there someone out there who knows something about this? Thanks!

[jase439]

The "reticulated spline" thing is just some silly part of Sim lore.  It dates back to Sim City 2000.  I'm sure there's some basis for it somewhere in some bit of code that only the original coders will ever understand.  The term is something of an oxy-moron...in that a spline is a mathematical term to describe the the piecewise joining of several low-order polynomial curves to approximate high-order complex curves.  To reticulate is to break up or divide into segments.  

It's just one of those nerdy inside-jokes that only a programmer could love.  Don't lose sleep over it.

[Bejac]

A "spline" is the junction of two polygons.  "Reticulation" refers to relative angle or overlap of two or more polygons.  These terms mean slightly different things in mathematics, engineering, and even fashion design.  In SimCity 2000, the program created a template for a new city by fillling a plane of a certain size with polygons and then "reticulating" them along the edges to form a 3D terrain - slopes, hills, valleys, etc., according to sliders set by the user.  If you didn't like the result, you could redo it until the game came up with something you liked.  While this was going on (only took a few seconds), a sexy female voice suggestively cooed "reticulating splines" in the background.  It sounded cool, so cool that people commented on it, and so Maxis apparently decided to keep it as a running joke in its other "Sim" game, this one.

Actually, Jase439's definition of spline is more accurate than mine, but lots more boring. LOL

[Henry Crun]

Someone on another forum actually went to the bother of noting down the lists from Sims 1 and 2

http://forums.sims2community.com/showthread.php?t=53722&highlight=reticulating