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Instructor
Original Poster
#1 Old 3rd Nov 2018 at 11:12 PM Last edited by child_of_air : 6th Nov 2018 at 5:04 AM.
Default Help! Neighborhood View & Lot View Resolutions (Solved)
Hi there, I'm working on a default replacement road and terrain set, in high res of 2048x2048, which is much larger than the original resolution of 512x512. I'm having issues though getting the grass and actual terrain to match up, and it's really frustrating me. Here's what I mean:

See how the grass looks different on the side of the road? At first I thought it was because the roads were 1024X1024, but I fixed that and there was absolutely NO change. None! So, I am at a loss because I really want them to match up. Is there a way to force the game to view these things in another resolution?

Here is another issue I'm having:

The terrain in the lot doesn't match the terrain outside the lot. Now, I know this has been a longstanding gripe within the community, and it shows up everywhere, even on the default terrain. But has anyone discovered a way to fix it ever? I can live with it, but I'd like to be able to have them match exactly if I can. Again, they are both in the same resolution texture wise, but they don't show up that way in game.

Also, can the road alpha mesh be edited? In the packages I have there are no alpha files, so I wondered if I could directly edit the mesh to make actually curvy roads....but I'm not finding any information about that at all. Any advice anyone has I would appreciate greatly!
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Mad Poster
#2 Old 4th Nov 2018 at 12:29 AM
I don't think anyone has found a fix yet. I think the lot itself uses a different scale, perhaps tiles the texture different than the surrounding neighborhood ground.

The neighborhood texture does look too large fit in with the roads at the moment, and doesn't look like grass seen from above. You might want to test it out a bit more if you want it to look more natural. I'd say the size seen in the lot to the left in the picture looks about right, the other side may be boarding on too large, but without any items or sims for size comparance it's difficult to tell. The grass in the neighborhood itself is much too large - almost like a forest seen from above, and not grass. Mybe even a little dark? Some people get the "hay" look in the neighborhood, usually also accompagnied by square water, so if the water looks weird you'll need to do something about the graphic settings.

Some textures and texture overlays are size sensitive, and if they're meant to overlay something they can only be as large as the base texture (skins is a good example - if toddler skins are 512x512 you can't expect a 1024x1024 clothing texture for the outfit base that overlays the skin to look good, because the game will use the 512x512 size - and to get around this, you need to size up the actual skin texture too).

I haven't dabbled in neighborhood textures, so I'm not sure how they work - but I'm guessing they tile somehow, and maybe they tile differently for all the problem areas? If the road textures are 1024x1024 (and I think roads are overlays?), then that's the texture that'll show for the grass parts - not the 2048x size.
Instructor
Original Poster
#3 Old 4th Nov 2018 at 1:21 AM
I'm think you are misunderstanding me, because that's actually what I was trying to get at. The grass in the neighborhood view is the SAME SIZE as the one in the other shot. They are the exact same texture, so why such a difference? That's my question. I'm pretty sure you are right about it tiling things differently, but I want to know how, if anyone actually knows. I could scale down the size of the grass in the neighborhood view, but I'm not sure it would match. I want to save myself the trouble, and that's why I'm asking what resolutions the game reads these files in and how. I've already been working on these for a month testing out different textures and variations, but I keep running into this problem. I'm going to keep the color though.....I think that part is personal preference and I really like the texture itself. I am making these for myself, after all.
I'm not sure what you are talking about with the "hay" look? I don't have any "square" water that I can tell.......what exactly do you mean by that, and do you have an example? I use the water mod from sims's castaway stories by Voille, and for the most part I haven't had any issues with it. I'm really curious as to what you mean though, if you can post a picture or link that would be great, that way I can check for sure.

I'm not sure what you mean by roads being overlays? Do you mean, in the game itself? Curious B made some road overlays that people use for their actual lots.....is that what you are talking about? Or do you mean the roads themselves?
Mad Poster
#4 Old 4th Nov 2018 at 12:11 PM
I haven't done any neighborhood texture replacements before, so I don't know exactly how they work. I think roads are overlay textures, in that there's a base texture (grass/desert/etc.) and then the road is layered on top, with transparent areas where the ground texture is supposed to show. Overlays like that can only show in the same size as the base texture. If they are the same size, I don't know why they're showing up like that. If the roads are 1024x1024, they may be reading the 1024x1024 version of your texture replacement instead of the 2048x2048 size. The neighborhood roads and the roads shown on lots do work a bit different.

Hay ground and square water: http://modthesims.info/t/479610 (it's a graphic issue)
Instructor
Original Poster
#5 Old 4th Nov 2018 at 10:17 PM
Quote: Originally posted by simmer22
I think roads are overlay textures, in that there's a base texture (grass/desert/etc.) and then the road is layered on top, with transparent areas where the ground texture is supposed to show. Overlays like that can only show in the same size as the base texture. If they are the same size, I don't know why they're showing up like that. If the roads are 1024x1024, they may be reading the 1024x1024 version of your texture replacement instead of the 2048x2048 size. The neighborhood roads and the roads shown on lots do work a bit different.


Well, I found out that the roads only show up in 512x512- incredibly small! So, that explains a lot. I need to try and edit the alphas so that I can get rid of the grass on the side of the roads, that way, I won't be having this issue. It's been done before but I need to find out how precisely how to do it. Icad told me to import it as a DDS file, so I'm going to try and do that and see how they turn out. Thanks for responding, in any case.
Mad Poster
#6 Old 4th Nov 2018 at 10:29 PM Last edited by simmer22 : 4th Nov 2018 at 10:40 PM.
You should be able to use the DXT3/5 import to import larger textures (same plugin as the DDS). Don't use the regular Import function or DXT1, because it often drags down the texture quality.

You may also want to be a little careful with making too large textures or a lot of very large textures. This can reduce game performance, and may be a cause for graphic issues like pink-flashing or similar. Every time you go up a full square size (for instance 1024 to 2048) you really quadruple the size of the texture (2048x2048 is the same size as four 1024x1024 maps), and at some point the game may start to have issues. TS2 was never really meant to be a high-res game, and can't take advantage of as many computer resources as most newer games - doeesn't matter if you've got the awesomest setup (even if i does help a little bit).
Instructor
Original Poster
#7 Old 5th Nov 2018 at 5:17 AM
Yeah, I know all that about SimPE, it's a great program but it has it's faults. I was using a 2048X2048 default replacement terrain. I've decided mine looks best at 1600X1600. It's much better than the original, but not as much as a drag as the one I was previously using. I'm going to make the roads 1048x1048- I think that's a good compromise. And you know what I've done in the past for the pink flashing issue (which is very rare for me)? I restart my computer. Works every time, as I only get the issue when I haven't restarted for a few days. *shrugs* I'm lucky that that hasn't plagued me too badly. Hopefully it never will.
Mad Poster
#8 Old 5th Nov 2018 at 8:09 AM
1600 is not an accepted resolution by the game, iirc. It's gotta be in base-12 (512, 1024, 2048, etc) for it to work.

I've been working on my own replacement on and off for about a year, I don't have the files on me at the moment, but I can suggest one thing - the reason the resolutions don't match is texture compression, that is, the neighbourhood terrain is stretched over a larger distance than the lot/roadside textures. It's akin to trying to fill a lido pool, versus trying to fill a kiddie pool, with the same amount of water. The "water" must stretch farther in the former and can fill the pool perfectly in the latter.

In order to combat this I suggest making the neighbourhood texture size higher, but tiling it to a factor of four (so, tile it smaller 4x) than the lot terrain and see if that makes a difference. It did for me. So, 4x smaller, if that didn't make sense. I'm a little hung over right now.


Angie/DS | Baby Sterling - 24/2/2014
This account is mostly used by my sons to download CC now, if you see me active, it's probably just them!
Instructor
Original Poster
#9 Old 5th Nov 2018 at 9:56 AM Last edited by child_of_air : 6th Nov 2018 at 5:03 AM. Reason: After much trail and error...
Yes, I learned that the 1600X1600 didn't work- the hard way. Okay, so I sized my terrain texture to 1024X1024. Are you saying that I should create a blank background, and tile four of these textures together, than use that for the neighborhood terrain? Is that what you meant precisely? Or do you mean shrink it down and then tile it in 4's? I'm a bit confused by exactly what you mean. ETA: Okay, I pasted my texture 4 times in a 2048X2048, and it looks pretty decent. In case anyone is interested, you can easily alpha edit the roads in neighborhood view by creating a transparent background layer and then editing out the grass. In neighborhood view you won't be able to see the transparent part.
Mad Poster
#10 Old 11th Feb 2019 at 11:04 PM
Yes! That's what I mean.

Please post a screenshot of your results :D


Angie/DS | Baby Sterling - 24/2/2014
This account is mostly used by my sons to download CC now, if you see me active, it's probably just them!
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