The latest update for The Sims 4 is now live. Click here to read the latest notes.
Forum Announcement, Click Here to Read More From EA_Cade.
How to 'fix' the snow in Aurora Skies! ^o^
Cinderellimouse
Posts: 19,380 Member
Hi all! 
If, like me, you were hoping to use Aurora Skies as a winter world but were frustrated with the snow issue, then there IS a way to 'fix' it ourselves!!!
There was speculation on the forums that lowering the water level in the world would stop the snow from fading and giving the grey patchy look on the edges of lots. I really wanted the nice thick snow in AS so I wanted to try and fix it myself and decided to test the theory.
It worked!!!
Patchy snow:
'Fixed' snow:
I'd mentioned on a couple of threads that I'd done this and promised to post a guide... so here it is!!!
A couple of warnings:
* If you do this you must not share the world!!! Opening official worlds in this way is a grey area (pun intended) but I figure it's ok if you're just doing it for your own use. But sharing the world infringes copyright and is a definite no no! :?
* It's difficult! CAW can test the patience of a saint! But you can figure it out if you are like me and determined to get that fluffy pretty snow!
* You will need to get CAW and third party programs.
* Lowering the water-level makes the sea less deep, it's just the way it is, it's a toss up between what is more important to you. For me, deep snow is more important to me in this particular world than a deep sea.
* I have checked the snow in game and everything seems fine, but I haven't played extensively so I don't know how stable the world will be over time.
Still with me? Great!
Here's the guide!!!
1. You need to have purchased and installed Aurora Skies.
2. Download the Create A World tool from here: http://www.thesims3.com/game/tools/world and install it.
3. Now you need to decrapify the world, download the S3rc application (you can find a link here: http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?p=4012107&posted=1#post4012107)
---> then find the Aurora Skies.world file in: Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3/Installed Worlds. Make a COPY of it and then PASTE it to a safe place, like your desktop.
---> Drag and drop the new Aurora Skies.world to the decrapifier. The program should open automatically, pause for a moment, then shut down. Sometimes you have to do it a couple of times to get it to work, if it just flashes you might have to do it again.
4. Now you need to carefully follow the 'first method' instructions here: http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=469942 It's important to do each step because if you don't delete the WPID and give the world a new name (I called it Aurora Snows) it can cause a conflict with the existing AS world.
edit: just realised the link to the S3pe program on that thread is broken but you can find a link here: http://www.den.simlogical.com/denforum/index.php?topic=1264.0
5. Open your newly saved world in CAW. Use the 'change sea level' tool to lower the water-level in our world. I can't explain exactly how much you should drop it by, but the more you lower the water-level, the less grey snow you will have. Just do what looks right to you.
6. Now you've lowered the water-level your fish spawners, steam, tides and water buoys will be floating in mid-air so you need to lower them! Turn on the 'grid' and then using the 'move' tool work your way methodically around the world selecting each item and then giving it a little tap/nudge which will cause it to snap to the water's surface again. You're looking for the white boxes with fish on them, the blue cubes around the hot lake, the water buoys in the sea, and the rolling tide effects around the edges of the sea. I would now use 'save as' to save the world with a new save file name.
7. Now, I had a weird glitch here where all my rabbitholes had disappeared! :roll: If you have this there are two things you can do. For both solutions load up Aurora Skies as usual in-game and in edit town mode, save all the rabbithole lots to the lot bin. Now, you can either add the rabbitholes to the world using the 'Edit in Game', or 'EIG', feature of CAW, or you can just add them later when you've exported the world to the game (which is easier if you're new to CAW). You'll need to bulldoze the lots in order to replace them but do not bulldaze the criminal hideout lot because for some reason it deletes the whole lot! Just place that rabbithole in build mode.
8. Now you should rebuild your routing data and save your world (I always use 'save as' because it's less glitchy ). Then close your world. Now you can 'select world to export', select your latest save file and hopefully it will export!
9. Find the simpack (I think it's in 'exports') and double-click on it to install your new 'fixed' version of Aurora Skies!!! But be very careful here because you must not upload it to the exchange!!!
10. Your world should now be available as a new world in the main menu in-game! If you find you have lots that look a bit glitchy and weird just save them to the bin, bulldoze the lot (be careful not to delete the whole lot, you just need to bulldoze the buildings), and replace the lot. That should make it look right again.
*phew*
I wonder how many people will actually do that! It was really tricky but I'm so pleased I did it because I hated the patchy snow and now I can FINALLY enjoy Aurora Skies!!!
Good luck to hose who attempt it!
To the gurus and moderators!!! I hope it's ok to post this! I don't want to break any forum rules, I just want to help people who want to fix the glitch for themselves. If it's not ok, just delete the thread, I'll understand! :oops: I don't want to get into trouble, I just want to help!
If, like me, you were hoping to use Aurora Skies as a winter world but were frustrated with the snow issue, then there IS a way to 'fix' it ourselves!!!
There was speculation on the forums that lowering the water level in the world would stop the snow from fading and giving the grey patchy look on the edges of lots. I really wanted the nice thick snow in AS so I wanted to try and fix it myself and decided to test the theory.
It worked!!!
Patchy snow:
'Fixed' snow:
I'd mentioned on a couple of threads that I'd done this and promised to post a guide... so here it is!!!
A couple of warnings:
* If you do this you must not share the world!!! Opening official worlds in this way is a grey area (pun intended) but I figure it's ok if you're just doing it for your own use. But sharing the world infringes copyright and is a definite no no! :?
* It's difficult! CAW can test the patience of a saint! But you can figure it out if you are like me and determined to get that fluffy pretty snow!
* You will need to get CAW and third party programs.
* Lowering the water-level makes the sea less deep, it's just the way it is, it's a toss up between what is more important to you. For me, deep snow is more important to me in this particular world than a deep sea.
* I have checked the snow in game and everything seems fine, but I haven't played extensively so I don't know how stable the world will be over time.
Still with me? Great!
Here's the guide!!!
1. You need to have purchased and installed Aurora Skies.
2. Download the Create A World tool from here: http://www.thesims3.com/game/tools/world and install it.
3. Now you need to decrapify the world, download the S3rc application (you can find a link here: http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?p=4012107&posted=1#post4012107)
---> then find the Aurora Skies.world file in: Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3/Installed Worlds. Make a COPY of it and then PASTE it to a safe place, like your desktop.
---> Drag and drop the new Aurora Skies.world to the decrapifier. The program should open automatically, pause for a moment, then shut down. Sometimes you have to do it a couple of times to get it to work, if it just flashes you might have to do it again.
4. Now you need to carefully follow the 'first method' instructions here: http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=469942 It's important to do each step because if you don't delete the WPID and give the world a new name (I called it Aurora Snows) it can cause a conflict with the existing AS world.
edit: just realised the link to the S3pe program on that thread is broken but you can find a link here: http://www.den.simlogical.com/denforum/index.php?topic=1264.0
5. Open your newly saved world in CAW. Use the 'change sea level' tool to lower the water-level in our world. I can't explain exactly how much you should drop it by, but the more you lower the water-level, the less grey snow you will have. Just do what looks right to you.
6. Now you've lowered the water-level your fish spawners, steam, tides and water buoys will be floating in mid-air so you need to lower them!
Turn on the 'grid' and then using the 'move' tool work your way methodically around the world selecting each item and then giving it a little tap/nudge which will cause it to snap to the water's surface again. You're looking for the white boxes with fish on them, the blue cubes around the hot lake, the water buoys in the sea, and the rolling tide effects around the edges of the sea. I would now use 'save as' to save the world with a new save file name.7. Now, I had a weird glitch here where all my rabbitholes had disappeared! :roll: If you have this there are two things you can do. For both solutions load up Aurora Skies as usual in-game and in edit town mode, save all the rabbithole lots to the lot bin. Now, you can either add the rabbitholes to the world using the 'Edit in Game', or 'EIG', feature of CAW, or you can just add them later when you've exported the world to the game (which is easier if you're new to CAW). You'll need to bulldoze the lots in order to replace them but do not bulldaze the criminal hideout lot because for some reason it deletes the whole lot! Just place that rabbithole in build mode.
8. Now you should rebuild your routing data and save your world (I always use 'save as' because it's less glitchy ). Then close your world. Now you can 'select world to export', select your latest save file and hopefully it will export!
9. Find the simpack (I think it's in 'exports') and double-click on it to install your new 'fixed' version of Aurora Skies!!!
But be very careful here because you must not upload it to the exchange!!!10. Your world should now be available as a new world in the main menu in-game!
If you find you have lots that look a bit glitchy and weird just save them to the bin, bulldoze the lot (be careful not to delete the whole lot, you just need to bulldoze the buildings), and replace the lot. That should make it look right again.*phew*
I wonder how many people will actually do that!
It was really tricky but I'm so pleased I did it because I hated the patchy snow and now I can FINALLY enjoy Aurora Skies!!! Good luck to hose who attempt it!
To the gurus and moderators!!! I hope it's ok to post this! I don't want to break any forum rules, I just want to help people who want to fix the glitch for themselves. If it's not ok, just delete the thread, I'll understand! :oops: I don't want to get into trouble, I just want to help!
Post edited by EA_Solaire on
2
Comments
Hopefully a Guru sees your thread & makes it happen
How much did you have to drop sea level?
Was there a lot of repainting to do around the shoreline?
I wouldn't worry about infringing upon EA. Hello? They sold us a world that needs fixing and I'll bet my bottom dollar They won't bother even with this info staring them in the face.
So thank you thank you thank you!
I think what they are looking into doing, from what I understand, is trying to find a way to tailor the fading point for the snow in each world individually, so the snow won't fade near the water line as much in the low land worlds.
I don't think the gurus would do this as a fix for AS anyway because it is one of those situations where you're sacrificing one thing for another: by fixing the snow you lower the sea level and some people may dislike that (it makes the sea shallower). It's just I personally prefer to have nice snow and am less bothered about the sea, so this works for me.
StellaToronto, I didn't drop the sea level by much and it fixed about 95% of the lots. It's hard to say exactly how much I dropped it by... :? I just guessed! But I did the process twice and guessed both times, and both times it worked. I attempted to edit the terrain a little around the lake but I'm a sloppy terrain painter and I decided it looked better as it was. It looks ok without terrain painting but if I were to do it again I might smooth the terrain at a couple of points around the coastline.
Stealth posted!
I'd say if you are unsure about it, just make a backup of your 'The Sims 3' folder and if anything does go wrong then you can just paste it back in.
But CAW works independently of the game and you can't really mess up your game as long as you don't start messing around with the game files. The only thing you do with the game files is find your installed Aurora Skies.world file and copy it (don't move it) so you can paste it to your desktop.
You're effectively creating a new world. So you'll have the original Aurora Skies, and a second 'fixed' version.
I see! I did not know that. Simholm, here we come!
Hope they fix this with the IP update. Or at least address this in the next live broadcast with more specifics on dive lots I guess.
Thanks for the heads up about dive lots.
I'm not too fussy about having dive lots in AS, I have plenty of other worlds to add them too, and I'd much prefer to have the nice snow in this particular world. Of course, it would be best to get an official fix and have both! :XD:
I'm hoping they do find a fix because the snow glitch also affects my own world and I can't lower the water in that one (too much trouble to correct it) and it'll be a big job to heighten all the affected terrain. It's not as easy to fix as AS was unfortunately. :? (Not that AS was exactly easy to fix either)