Recolouring Distant Terrain?

Lennon777

I've searched everywhere on Google, but can't find a tutorial that tells me how to recolour distant terrain-I want to recolour the Twinbrook DT to match the EA desert textures, but can't find a tutorial on it-I assume that it'll be similar to recolouring rabbitholes, but I just need directions on how to do so.

Lennon777

Bump?

tjstreak

You probably have not found a tutorial because modders are just discovering how ridiculously easy it is to make a custom distant terrain.

I made my own custom distant terrain last summer. But the response was so "Ho. Hum. Big deal..." I concluded there was zero interest, and I did not make any tutorials. (This is described to some extent in the blog that shall not be named. Picture of draft version of distant terrain below) I have better things to do than waste my time on projects no one wants.



Moreover, a custom distant terrain, even a recolored one, IS custom content. This means that it has the problems of any cc -- it is possible that EA might do something in the future to break it. Given the antipathy towards cc, it seems to be a waste of time trying to explain how to make it. Again, why bother to show people how to make stuff they don't want in their games? (This is why I have not made any tutorials in over a year.)

In any case, distant terrain is nothing but a big object. That means, it can be taken apart like an object. It can be cloned. Like any objects, you can pull the mesh, extract the texture, edit these items and then put the whole thing back together again.

Typically, I put these into one of my standard objects, rather than repackage it in the original distant terrain. These objects have not caused me problems (other than the fact they do not install properly as .package files), so, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

As far as Lunar Lakes, I believe the distant terrain has been extracted. And I believe it has been extracted in such a way that you do not have to crack EA's copy protection, which is a very big no no. This means that you should be able to load it into TSR Workshop and extract the texture.

However, you need to think long and hard before you even consider uploading a modified version of this terrain, and particularly to a site which is owned by EA. They may not look kindly on someone using one of their commercial distant terrains in a world, even if it has been recolored.

Ouerbacker

One of these might be handy.

This one shows how to create basic item recolor overrides. Though there example just shows a rabbithole, this method will work on any item, such as distant terrains.
http://ts3cc.forumotion.ca/t282-recolouring-rabbitholes-by-piddlesam


Here's one over at MTS that tells you how to create a DT from scratch, more than just a recolor.

http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=469548

If those are too complicated let me try to describe it in as simple a way as possible.

step one- download s3pe, gimp, and optional, s3oc

you might need to get a dds plugin for Gimp - I'm not sure

step two- start up s3pe and open the fullbuild file under computer/programfiles86/electronic arts/the sims 3 ambitions/ gamedata/ shared /packages

- if you are going to recolor something other than the amb DT you'll have to look in similarly placed files that are in each of the eps and sp's

step three- use the search feature in s3pe to find your file - you should figure out what the name is beforehand

step four- right click on the img files that show up after you search for the DT. There should be a choice that says export ; you will then select this choice and save the img to a place you will remember. If an option does not pop up in a little screen then just look for one in the upper right.

step five- open the img , it'll be in a dds format, with gimp

step six - edit it however you want

step seven- start up s3pe again. This time you will open the world file that you want the recolor to be in.

step eight- in one of the upper right menus there is a button that says import . After you will click this a little screen will open . Select the img you edited earlier on in gimp.

please note- when you click save as on the DDS a screen will pop up . For this screen hit OK. Another screen will pop up that says something about enabling compression or something like that. Check the box that says enable compression and pick the third choice down in the box below .

step eight - just keep hitting Ok until your texture has been imported into your world file. After it's in there click save in the upper and close S3pe.

step nine - open your world in CAW and hope it works


I'm very sleepy right now ,so this little tut might not make much sense, but hopefully it's still helpful. When I come back to it in the morning I 'll fix all of the little errors.

Lennon777

Ah-thanks, you two! I didn't know that it was just about the same as recolouring a rabbithole or normal world object-you two have been an immense help!

tjstreak

I actually did not use S3Pe in making my distant terrain. Instead I used S3Oc, the object cloner. I could then load them into TSR Workshop to extract the textures and the mesh.

I extracted several distant terrains this way. Then cut and pasted them together. A hill or range of hills from one distant terrain, more hills or an island from another. A custom made mountain or hill or two. Then moved vertices around to match my world. It was not particularly difficult, but it was time consuming. After making a few changes, I would recompile the distant terrain, and load it into the game to see how it looked.

Working with Milkshape is difficult, because with very large objects, it becomes difficult to see what one is doing and which vertices are being moved. I broke the project into several parts, starting with the north edge, and working my way around. Then I combined all the parts together.



All told, it took about a month, moving just a few vertices at a time, or adding new bits and pieces. I don't know if I would do it it this way again.