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The Great AntiJen
retired moderator
Original Poster
#1 Old 13th Feb 2017 at 8:46 PM
Default Maxis Flower Beds Visible in Neighbourhood
So, this is partly a WCIF, I think, and partly a can you test it please?

I've been fiddling about with game files today and made a little mod for the Maxis flower beds to be visible in neighbourhood view (which they aren't normally). I was really surprised at how simple this was. Whenever I've read about it before, there's been all sorts of talk of an alternative simpler LOD mesh which has to be used in neighbourhood view but when I tried it just using the regular mesh, it was fine. I sort of can't quite believe it so I'd like someone to try it out in their game and make sure I'm not seeing things. Bear in mind, that it uses the regular mesh which means the game has to render a relatively complex mesh in neighbourhood view. I'm thinking on weaker systems this will slow the game down. Not that this one item I've included here is going to have much impact. Anyway - I just included the Daisies of Our Lives file for the time-being. You can see my quick picture of what they look like in my game from neighbourhood view.

The other thing though is I feel sure someone must have already done this since it's so straightforward. But I've not seen any little mods that do this - does anyone know if it's already available somewhere? It's not unlikely that I'd miss it.

I've set the files up as defaults - that is to say, they don't default anything except a couple of settings in the file so the flower beds do behave normally on lot. You'll need to place some flower beds and then save and have a look in neighbourhood view. They won't show in any existing lots until you go in, adjust something and resave the lot because the lot imposter has to update.
Screenshots
Attached files:
File Type: rar  Daisies of Our Lives Neighbourhood Default.rar (1.0 KB, 49 downloads) - View custom content

I no longer come over to MTS very often but if you would like to ask me a question then you can find me on tumblr or my own site tflc. TFLC has an archive of all my CC downloads.
I'm here on tumblr and my site, tflc
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The Great AntiJen
retired moderator
Original Poster
#2 Old 13th Feb 2017 at 11:41 PM
I'm not sure what I'm looking at - is the neighbourhood shot the Hi spelt out in square daisies?

I no longer come over to MTS very often but if you would like to ask me a question then you can find me on tumblr or my own site tflc. TFLC has an archive of all my CC downloads.
I'm here on tumblr and my site, tflc
Mad Poster
#3 Old 14th Feb 2017 at 12:47 AM
No, in the neighborhood shot you can't read it. Look at the UI - the lot view has a line of lots across the bottom and the lot view has build/buy mode.

Ugly is in the heart of the beholder.
(My simblr isSim Media Res . Widespot,Widespot RFD: The Subhood, and Land Grant University are all available here. In case you care.)
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#4 Old 14th Feb 2017 at 12:51 AM
It's working partly, but partly not. iCad has made plenty of visible in hood view plants, I bet she would know.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Instructor
#5 Old 14th Feb 2017 at 6:36 AM
Quote: Originally posted by maxon
I'm not sure what I'm looking at - is the neighbourhood shot the Hi spelt out in square daisies?


The other way around. Build mode is the full "HI", 'hood view only shows part of it - and it seems to be the first N flowers that are "touched" in build mode. If I go into build mode again and pick up every flower starting at the top right hand corner of the H, when back in 'hood view, the I will have gone, and about 2/5 th's of the H will be visible.

Just call me William, definitely not Who-Ward
Former Hamster
retired moderator
#6 Old 14th Feb 2017 at 7:55 AM
I played around with these and had the missing flower beds in nh view too - I made a huge MLC and the flower beds on the bottom of the C were missing. Which is interesting because there seem to be different results from 3 different computers/games. Hmmmm.. I also made a huge maze with hedges just to see what would happen. All of the hedges were there.. hmmmm again.
I'm wondering 2 things now: could it be graphics card related (the missing flower beds that is)? And: I wonder if looking at the hedge would help? Maybe there's something different in there that could be changed/added to in the flower beds?
The Great AntiJen
retired moderator
Original Poster
#7 Old 14th Feb 2017 at 5:51 PM Last edited by maxon : 14th Feb 2017 at 9:47 PM.
I don't think it's to do with the mod MLC which is a very simple change - I think it's to do with how the game forms the lot imposter though it might be partly related to the fact it's using the in-game mesh rather than a LOD mesh. When I put 100 white daisy squares on a lot, it showed only 29 of them (that's 29%) but when I changed the colours to 1/3 of each recolour I got this (picture) showing over 80% (I think it was 86). Giving the game something else to do, render colours as well as the mesh, increased the response. If I looked at the hedge, the difference I'll see, I think, is the fact that the hedge has a low poly LOD mesh. I don't really want to get into making an extra mesh for this since it's a much fiddlier job and gives a crapper result. I'm going to try out some of the other flower meshes and see what I get. Most people aren't going to be building fields of the same flowers on lot and if pushing the game to render different things - different recolours and meshes - increases how they are represented in the lot imposter, then that will probably be worth it.

Edit to add: I did all the basic square flower beds and the two other pictures attached show the original 100 with additions and then another lot with mixed beds. What's interesting about this is that with completely mixed order all the beds show. I think this confirms that there is an issue with using the same bed over and over and the game rendering it in hood view. The game engine seems to get 'tired' of doing that.
Screenshots

I no longer come over to MTS very often but if you would like to ask me a question then you can find me on tumblr or my own site tflc. TFLC has an archive of all my CC downloads.
I'm here on tumblr and my site, tflc
The Great AntiJen
retired moderator
Original Poster
#8 Old 20th Feb 2017 at 12:24 PM
I just popped back to say I'm still working on this. I've been testing the alterations don't interfere with the behaviour of the plants - no apparent issues though there is one thing I want to check yet. As long as you use mixed plants on a lot and not too much of one type by itself, the plants do consistently show up and, I have to say, I'm pretty pleased with this. I'm still investigating the disappearane issue to see if there's anything I can do about it. However, my gardens actually are beginning to look like gardens from off-lot. I've been delightedly modding a lot of other stuff including these lost & found trees that Numenor made: http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=152290 where I had to dig around in the game files to find the parts I needed but they all consistently show up in neighbourhood view now.

I've done all the flower beds now and have some comparison pictures to show. First three are Byrne House before and after - the lot I uploaded recently with a fairly complex garden. I think that looks much better from neighbourhood view.

And then the second lot of pics are of Little Carping park - I built this shortly after the release of M&G because I wanted to try out the new plants so I used all of them. A good test lot I thought. There are a couple of on-lot shots to show what it looks like, then the before and after shots from another lot and the neighbourhood view and a close up. What I find really interesting here is you can see clearly in the close up that the lot imposter is using the lot version of the meshes and thus has a far higher resolution and better appearance than the other plants which already have the setting which allows them to be seen in neighbourhood view - they look very blocky and lack detail and in some cases are horrid. I'm wondering if this might be a way around the lot imposter low detail/poor resolution issue - at least partially. I'm going to try an experiment with one of the bushes and see if I can get rid of the LOD mesh and get the game to use the lot mesh.

I'm also wondering if others would be interested in this - should I upload or not (once I'm done)?

I no longer come over to MTS very often but if you would like to ask me a question then you can find me on tumblr or my own site tflc. TFLC has an archive of all my CC downloads.
I'm here on tumblr and my site, tflc
Mad Poster
#9 Old 20th Feb 2017 at 3:24 PM
Absolutely upload it. A lot of people are very serious about making their lot views look better, and they'll eat this up.

Ugly is in the heart of the beholder.
(My simblr isSim Media Res . Widespot,Widespot RFD: The Subhood, and Land Grant University are all available here. In case you care.)
Née whiterider
retired moderator
#10 Old 20th Feb 2017 at 4:30 PM
Definitely do - I keep meaning to start working on making more stuff visible from 'hood view, not just so that 'hood view looks better, but neighbouring lots too. So I'm definitely interested!

What I lack in decorum, I make up for with an absence of tact.
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