13 replies to this topic

[starknight75]

I've been looking at some of the downloadable lots, and I'm a little confused. Some parts of a lot appears to be elevated--that is, on that riser/platform thing--while the garage is on the level ground, yet they appear joined and connected. For example, millyana's Gracious Living, 129 S. Grapevine, and 122 Orange Avenue.

I've tried making houses like that, but the game would never let me do so. Is what I'm seeing an optical illusion, or is there some trick to doing it?

Thanks in advance.

[frisbud]

There is a trick to it -- the CFE cheat. Have a look at this tutorial for more information.

[starknight75]

Thanks for the heads-up, frisbud. I hadn't gone into the Tutorial section before. Now I know to check there, too.

Thanks again.

[starknight75]

frisbud, I hope you can answer this for me...

I don't know if you can see it or not in the picture, but the walls framing the garage door are stretched and warped. I think I followed the directions on the tutorial correctly, but nothing was mentioned in it about the wallpapers being warped like this. Is there any way to correct it, or do I just have to disguise it with solid-looking wallpapers and/or bushes or shrubs?

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[Marauder281]

Nicely done!

Yep, that is the way it's supposed to look. Any siding with solid colors or vertical lines will hide that perfectly. Tall shrubs/bushes help too.

[starknight75]

After successfully building a house with an attached garage, I got to thinking...

Pic 1: So here I did the attached garage again. To hide that weird distortion I built out two 1x1 sections to either side of the driveway piece. Now the roof extends beyond the boundaries of the garage itself, resulting in an overhang above the garage door, which is now recessed. I'm not sure I like the layout, but maybe I just need to try different wallpapers to make it look better...

Pic 2: After doing the garage, I wondered if it would be possible to make a sunken living room using something like the same technique (only not). Visually it looks okay, I guess...I wanted a one-tile boundary around the edge of the room, but I guess it isn't really necessary...I thought it might work as spots to display sculptures and stuff. This might be a better idea for community lots, perhaps. But, if I do this, will Sims be able to move back and forth into the "pit" or will they have to stop at the top of the steps?

(I don't normally furnish uninhabited lots, but the furniture inside was to give an idea of how it might work.)

Feedback would be welcome, especially clarification if this sunken living room is really possible or if it will end up blocking my Sims.

Thanks in advance!

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[Marauder281]

Nice looking house!

Did you use foundation peices for the area around the sunken living room?

If so, these can be deleted and replaced with regular walls. Just delete the foundations, turn on CFE, replace with standard walls and re-level the affected area. If you get any of those triangle shaped "floaties" that seem to spring up from the corners of shortened walls, just erase the walls temporarily with the wall tool, or delete them and hit the back button to replace 'em.

Your sunken livingroom looks to be properly done and I highly doubt sims would have any difficulty navigating it...however, sculptures there may not increase the room 'value' because they are technically on a different level/floor from the livingroom. This could pose an issue if you were to invite over the private school Headmaster.

[starknight75]

Actually, what I was sort of aiming at--which I failed at here because I didn't plan ahead far enough--was possibly having the sunken living room open onto a patio or deck (not the usual "deck" but the kind found around a pool area). I assume, though, that if I were to put in a door to do that, the result would be warped wallpaper like with the garage, yes?

As to redoing the lot with the regular walls instead of foundation...I'd originally need the foundation, though, right? To raise the rest of the house up so the living room can be sunk. So if that's the case, would I still need foundation pieces along one end--or at least in front of the entryways (doors or arches) from the rest of the house so I can add the steps to get into the living room?

And I guess one other question: is there any way to get the steps to place diagonally? That is, I know that steps descend from the sides of the square foundation pieces, but is there any way to place steps so that the steps on one side can join up with the steps on the other? So that it would go from this

F S to F S
S S S

as might be found at the edge of a stage or dais? Like the way counters reconfigure themselves to connect neighboring counter pieces in corners?

[Marauder281]

You can add a door to a deck/ patio if you want. There are two ways; One, you just described. It will add more warped walls to the house. The other way is to run a set of steps up that level and just place the door normally. If it were me, I'd go with the warped walls route. The biggest reason is this; Right now your sunken livingroom is fully surrounded on all sides by foundation. Lighting in this area is handled 100% by lamps and not windows. Adding a door here will brighten the area considerably.

You can do these sunken livingrooms without foundation. Most tutorials will show you how to do it using foundations just to simplify things. It's really just a couple extra steps though if you'd like to do away with the foundations. The process is just as I described in post #7. If you have an attached garage, do not re-level around this area since it is already done. Other than that, just delete the foundation, replace with walls and re-level.

When working with the CFE build code, it's often very helpfull to download a house that used it and really take a good look at it. Delete a few wallpapers to see where the walls join up. Smash out some walls, turn on CFE and try to replace 'em. It's great practice.

Unfortunately there is no way to add, place or create diagonal stairs in the game.

[starknight75]

Okay I just finished this house (pic 1) with a basement and basement garage (pic 2). However, I think i may have done something wrong because the driveway looks like it's wrinkled or something (pic 3). I recall forgetting to lay flooring over the driveway (I usually just use the poured concrete) and so I did, all the way up to the street. That resulted in a floating driveway like when I initially lowered the driveway. When I saved and exited and went back in, the driveway had dropped all the way down to align with the basement garage.

I used the CFE cheat to raise the driveway back to street level and then lower it again. That's when this odd wrinkling appeared.

Should I delete the lot and try again? I'm not necessarily attached to the house except that it took a while to make, but if that's not how the driveway is supposed to look, I'd probably have to start all over again anyway, right?

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[Marauder281]

I have never done a driveway like so I'm not sure what the issue is.

I seldom throw lots away though. If it were mine, I'd drop off at the edge of town and come back to it later. You many stumble across a solution later and will be able to finish this one up pretty quickly when you do.

[grandmajam_of6]

starknight75, on 09 March 2012 - 09:42 AM, said:

Okay I just finished this house (pic 1) with a basement and basement garage (pic 2). However, I think i may have done something wrong because the driveway looks like it's wrinkled or something (pic 3). I recall forgetting to lay flooring over the driveway (I usually just use the poured concrete) and so I did, all the way up to the street. That resulted in a floating driveway like when I initially lowered the driveway. When I saved and exited and went back in, the driveway had dropped all the way down to align with the basement garage.

I used the CFE cheat to raise the driveway back to street level and then lower it again. That's when this odd wrinkling appeared.

Should I delete the lot and try again? I'm not necessarily attached to the house except that it took a while to make, but if that's not how the driveway is supposed to look, I'd probably have to start all over again anyway, right?

Having played with below foundation driveways in the past, the easiest way I found to get rid of that wrinkle effect is to lower the slope of the driveway one click at a time, adding concrete and then lowering the next edge to keep it from waffling and having my sims complain about the elevation. The technique is similar to building an arched bridge in reverse. The other option which I've found easier to raise the building where the basement is actually street level and raising the area around the foundation about nine clicks (it's been a while for me). If you are set back from the street enough you can make multiple landings to reach the front door. This way the driveway is a normal straight shot in and the basement is regular playing level.

Grandma

[starknight75]

Thanks for the advice, grandmajam. Temporarily, I've moved the lot into storage...it was wreaking havoc on the terrain because it digs that deep hole into the ground. I'll pull it out again and give your solution a try.

And now that you've mentioned that thing about an arched bridge, I think I'll check out the tutorials a bit more and see what else I can do...I have a theoretically Japanese-style house (nothing like those pictured in the tutorials) built over water that really needs work...I think I have it in one of my other posts. Maybe an arched bridge (I think I saw a tutorial for a Japanese-style bridge?) will make the house look a little better.

In the meantime, I've been toying with a few other tutorials, like the one where you can paint the staircases. How does this one look? It's called Hibiscus Court and it's an low-cost ($629 rent) 4-tenant apartment building. I've since painted it a light green (one of the Advanced Sidings from the Poured list in the Wallpaper menu) because somehow this brown shade (I think it was Southwestern Banana Stucco or something like that) just didn't say "Hibiscus" or even "tropical". Anyway, the exterior staircase on this one was made following the tutorial. One of my other properties (called Plumeria Court, and it's a coral color), also an apartment, has a two-segment staircase that turns back on itself. But that one I can't get the rent to work out right...

Oh, and I should also mention I changed out the two Nana trees for a bunch of the Sim City Midbiscus (?) trees instead.

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Edited by starknight75, 16 March 2012 - 08:05 AM.

[starknight75]

Here are Hibiscus Court and Plumeria Court. Well, having previewed the post, I guess it's backwards, so it's Plumeria Court and Hibiscus Court.

Pic 1 is an interior view of the apartments in Plumeria Court. Nothing special, but I thought the lavender worked well with the coral exterior, including the pink (blush?) banisters and the white railing on the second story.

Pic 2 is an angled exterior view. I know the posted tutorial has the stair segments separated by one-block segments, but I was able to merge the two and then do a 180-turn. Don't ask me how, I don't really know how I did it.

Pic 3 is the straight-on exterior shot. It looks darker than it should be...I guess that's because of the angle and that no one lives in it yet, so the only shots I'd be able to take would be day or night.

Pic 4 is an interior view of the apartments at Hibiscus Court. Oddly bright and mismatched--maybe I should make them green to match the exterior, like I did with Plumeria Court?

Pic 5 is the updated exterior view of Hibiscus Court. I think the green looks better than the original color in the previous post...but maybe I should change the steps and rails and banisters to green instead? And here I did the steps the way the tutorial said to do it...maybe I should redo those two and make the two apartments virtually identical instead?

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