The Diary of World-Builder - Cypress Lakes

[Swirl-Girl]

This is beautiful! Too bad I don't have Supernatural. I need to get that! This will be wonderful when completed!

[Chuckles_82]

I discovered while playing in Moonlight Falls that the Claaaaw machine is not actually store content, but new with Supernatural, so I have put one in the Laundromat
And to allay any fears (only mine probably haha) Cypress Lakes came through my reformat unscathed. I've got a few more things to fiddle with in my Sims folder in My Documents, and then Hubby is making a backup of my computer (the old backup wasn't very good, apparently). Once he's done that I can get back to playing. I've been playing a lifestate dynasty, but will be getting back to Cypress Lakes very soon.

[Micler]

That's great news! 

[Chuckles_82]

05/11/2012

I'm very excited - I just made my first change to a rabbithole - the first of the ugly red bricks to go!!



That is only one of the textures, however. To keep things tidy, I'm looking at the rabbitholes that I've got, and looking for textures that I like, and using those. I exported the slate from the HS Day Spa, opened it in Photoshop, changed the size to match the size of the ugly red bricks, and pasted it over the top! I then flattened the image, saved, and created a package file with just that texture in it (using the resource name so it will override the original). This is just the mod format I will use to preview each change that I make. Once I'm happy with all of my changes, I will put them in a folder to add to the .world file right before I export it (otherwise CAW will remove the files).

[saltpastillen]

I really like the slate, it seems more modern and will make your world stand out even more.

[Chuckles_82]

05/11/2012



Step 2: The wood bits, and the brick trim. It turned out much darker than I intended - probably because of the overlay (bump map?). The black looks very modern, but I was aiming for a dark brown wood texture, so I guess I'll head back to photoshop and lighten it up a bit On the whole, it's already looking much better! I can tell when I zoom in and out that I may have been a pixel off on a couple of the MIP maps though. I might have to experiment with generating my own MIP maps, rather than trying to copy, paste, and resize each one individually.

EDIT: Yes, selecting 'no' when it asks me to show MIP maps when I open the file was a good idea, and then generating my own. MUCH easier.

[MarianT]

Chuckles, I just started reading this. It's fascinating! I especially like your consignment shop -- wish we could use it in dynasties.

[samoht04]

Wow, it looks great! Will you be maki g a tutorial of how to dot his? It looks so cool but also sounds complicated with all he modding stuff.

[Chuckles_82]

I can make a tutorial if you like - I'll get onto that later in the day. I can also include my default colour replacements in the swapshop, if it's allowed? *goes to check the swapshop rules* It will be a while before I make them available - I've left the most difficult recolour until last - the smallest one with all the pieces together.

[Chuckles_82]

06/11/2012

Ok, today was quite busy. I published that tutorial on how to recolour rabbit-holes, and have then spent the rest of my afternoon/evening working on the Theatre/Criminal rabbit-hole. I've posted in the showboat thread for opinions on colour schemes, but I am mostly happy with the (nearly) final result:



Tomorrow's project will be updating the mini-map of all of it put together. I'm not sure if there is an easy way of doing it - I certainly haven't read about one. That will be the hardest part, especially since I have replaced quite a few textures, and pretty much all of the colours.

After spending so much time cutting and pasting, and adjusting colours and hues and such, I wish very much that I had kept my work from Sims 2. I made quite a few default overrides for little things to make them more medieval (brightly coloured water bombs became skin coloured 'bladders' (like what you'd find in an old fashioned ball, or old wine-skins); the green plastic watering can became hammered metal; I made Andoran flags for the back of the dorm doors (if you're a WOT reader you'll understand)...

[Chuckles_82]

07/11/2012

I've been doing a lot of reading today, and found another reason for possible problems with population control. I don't know if EA factored it in, but when too many sims try to enter a rabbit-hole - i.e., school, they have a little route-fail tanty. So maybe the population controls limits the number of children for that reason (as well as many others I'm sure). At any rate, I had planned on having lots of children in my world to help it not to die out, but this might prove problematic. I think from what I've read, things in Bridgeport operate on a different time-table to other worlds, so I'm hoping to tune the school to stagger the start time for teenagers and children as part of the world file in the same way that Bridgeport does. Hopefully I can do that without it being a mod.

I've added some links to my resource list on the first page for some interesting and exciting new information I found today.

[Chuckles_82]

08/11/2012

I got some additional information about ways that I can improve world performance today. I'm going to try replacing my terrain paints with smaller versions of the texture. It shows up a tiny bit blurrier, but for some textures that may not matter too much.

I also downloaded CAP again. I hadn't used it all that much because I'm not especially good at making patterns, however I wanted to import the pattern for the carpet that is used inside the theatre - well - my recolour of it, anyway. I don't know how it would go if I made it with two recolourable channels, because it is really hard to separate the two colours to get a nice defined pattern. So for this purpose, it is not recolourable. I may try one with two channels later. I'll also have to look into how well that will export. I may either have to include it in the .world package, or I may have to replace it again

Anyhow, this is my final version of the Theatre:



I did adjust the triangle of tiles coming out from the door to a more beige colour, and I added a carpet coming out the front door (that was what CAP was for). I finalised the landscaping, and added some stars to the pavement. In CAW I added a path between the lots to improve the connectivity and make it blend in better.

I also decided to make a default flag replacement. Someone at MTS has already made some, I discovered after making mine, but I can happily use mine without worrying about credit.

I'm not off to 'look at EA worlds with fresh eyes' as Auntielynds suggested - to see what objects they use and don't use - I want to avoid using too many objects that have a high polygon count, and get a rough idea on how many decorative objects is ok. Also to have a look at their use of certain finishing touches.

[Chuckles_82]

Easist. Recolour. Yet.



No, that is not the diner from Lucky Palms... but it is the colours from it! EA were lazy and just recoloured Hogan's Deep Fried Diner and Called 'Desert Diner'. So it was a simple matter of exporting both files, copying and pasting the Desert Diner images on top of Hogan's, and saving, and then making my own override. So, when I add those recolours to my world, it won't even be store content! Booyah!

[saltpastillen]

It looks really nice Chuckles! It's so inspiring to see and hear about you learning new stuff.

[Andy_555224]

That.Is.AWESOME!