Phaenoh
18th Nov 2011, 06:25 PM
Custom fences are actually relatively easy to create. Fences do not do recolors, so the only way to make a fence recolor is to clone it and change the texture. We also have the ability to make them BaseGame compatible, so let's do that!
SimPE:
Start up SimPe in Advanced Mode. This is in your Preferences and after you tick the box you need to close SimPe and open it again for it to actually be in Advanced Mode. Then start Object Workshop. Fences are in Other. Find the one you want to work from and click Next. You should really consider choosing a fence that is from any EP. BaseGame fences have wonky lod90s (the way you'd see your fence in the neighborhood view). They also have screwed up bumpmaps. Bumpmaps do not work on fences at all, so don't bother with it. Pick a nice EP fence that kinda looks like what you are making and clone from there. It should also help you with your meshing.
To create a 'recolor' tick the box 'Reference Original Mesh'. If you are making an entirely new fence mesh, don't do that. Click 'Start' or 'Next' to continue. Give your new fence a name and a price. Then click Finish.
Register GUID
Now the GUID is where things are slightly different. You need to make sure you are using a GUID that isn't conflicting with another fence, but fences don't seem to mind sharing numbers with objects. You need to use one of your GUID numbers for this. You can use a brand new number or reuse a number you've previously used for an object (recommended). While previous tutorials have said its ok to just pick a random number and hope it doesn't conflict, but that's just bad practice. It is your job as the creator to make sure you don't infringe on anyone else, so use one of your numbers.
Mesh and Texture:
Go ahead and mesh up your fence as you would any other object. There are some good tutorials here -> http://www.modthesims.info/forumdisplay.php?f=541
BaseGame Compatibility:
After that all is done. Save your fence. Then click on the 'Resource Actions' tab (if you can't see it, select the Resourse Actions entry in the Window menu; if still you can't see it, reset the layout of SimPE from the preferences). Click the 'Fix Fence' button and hit 'Yes' on the warning that pops up. This will make your fence BaseGame compatible.
Catalog Placement:
If you want to change where your fence appears in the catalog, open the Text List in the created package, and you will find three rows of Text. The first one is the Title, the second one is the Description, and the third one is the Priority (0-Based) in the Catalog. Fences in the Catalog are sorted by increasing Priority, meaning first the Fence with Priority 0, then 1... Two fences can have the same priority, but you cannot tell the game which one comes first in that case. So if you set your custom Fence to 1, and there already is a Fence with Priority 1, the item will still be one of the first in the List.
Fence Posts
As for the fence posts, you can change whether or not the fence puts down posts at every tile, or just where you start and stop dragging. Open the XFNC resource and change the vertical post frequency in the 'posttilespacing' line.
Save your package again and try out your fence!
Further Resources:
Modding Info Center Partitions: walls, fences, fence arches (http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=106473), Fence Arch Info Thread (http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=222081&highlight=fencearch), Fence Post Info Thread (http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=193824&highlight=fence+post), My question thread (http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=307751), SimPE Site Fence Tutorial (http://simpeforum.ambertation.de/sims2/CloningRecoloring-a-Fence)
SimPE:
Start up SimPe in Advanced Mode. This is in your Preferences and after you tick the box you need to close SimPe and open it again for it to actually be in Advanced Mode. Then start Object Workshop. Fences are in Other. Find the one you want to work from and click Next. You should really consider choosing a fence that is from any EP. BaseGame fences have wonky lod90s (the way you'd see your fence in the neighborhood view). They also have screwed up bumpmaps. Bumpmaps do not work on fences at all, so don't bother with it. Pick a nice EP fence that kinda looks like what you are making and clone from there. It should also help you with your meshing.
To create a 'recolor' tick the box 'Reference Original Mesh'. If you are making an entirely new fence mesh, don't do that. Click 'Start' or 'Next' to continue. Give your new fence a name and a price. Then click Finish.
Register GUID
Now the GUID is where things are slightly different. You need to make sure you are using a GUID that isn't conflicting with another fence, but fences don't seem to mind sharing numbers with objects. You need to use one of your GUID numbers for this. You can use a brand new number or reuse a number you've previously used for an object (recommended). While previous tutorials have said its ok to just pick a random number and hope it doesn't conflict, but that's just bad practice. It is your job as the creator to make sure you don't infringe on anyone else, so use one of your numbers.
Mesh and Texture:
Go ahead and mesh up your fence as you would any other object. There are some good tutorials here -> http://www.modthesims.info/forumdisplay.php?f=541
BaseGame Compatibility:
After that all is done. Save your fence. Then click on the 'Resource Actions' tab (if you can't see it, select the Resourse Actions entry in the Window menu; if still you can't see it, reset the layout of SimPE from the preferences). Click the 'Fix Fence' button and hit 'Yes' on the warning that pops up. This will make your fence BaseGame compatible.
Catalog Placement:
If you want to change where your fence appears in the catalog, open the Text List in the created package, and you will find three rows of Text. The first one is the Title, the second one is the Description, and the third one is the Priority (0-Based) in the Catalog. Fences in the Catalog are sorted by increasing Priority, meaning first the Fence with Priority 0, then 1... Two fences can have the same priority, but you cannot tell the game which one comes first in that case. So if you set your custom Fence to 1, and there already is a Fence with Priority 1, the item will still be one of the first in the List.
Fence Posts
As for the fence posts, you can change whether or not the fence puts down posts at every tile, or just where you start and stop dragging. Open the XFNC resource and change the vertical post frequency in the 'posttilespacing' line.
Save your package again and try out your fence!
Further Resources:
Modding Info Center Partitions: walls, fences, fence arches (http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=106473), Fence Arch Info Thread (http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=222081&highlight=fencearch), Fence Post Info Thread (http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=193824&highlight=fence+post), My question thread (http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=307751), SimPE Site Fence Tutorial (http://simpeforum.ambertation.de/sims2/CloningRecoloring-a-Fence)