Hi there! You are currently browsing as a guest. Why not create an account? Then you get less ads, can thank creators, post feedback, keep a list of your favourites, and more!
Field Researcher
Original Poster
#1 Old 26th Aug 2016 at 4:05 AM Last edited by yellan : 27th Aug 2016 at 11:16 PM.
Default Weird roof problem: game thinks bedrooms are outside (SOLVED, now looking for general house feedback)
See below - initial problem has been solved but I'd love feedback on my house now that it's (nearly) done.

===========

I'm trying my hand at creating a house from some plans, which has been a lot of fun so far.

This is the house I am making: https://www.architecturaldesigns.co...ing-area-3422vl

So far so good... only I started putting in some lights and the in two rooms on the second level that are circled in red, I get a message that the light "must be placed inside". Argh! I could just use moveobjects but if the game thinks the rooms are outside I'm worried about getting weather in them.

I tried covering the rooms with flat roof tile (pic attached) but I got the same result.

Does anyone know how I can fix this? Suggestions or links to relevant tutorials are appreciated; I searched around but did not find anything addressing this issue.

Thanks in advance!
Screenshots
Advertisement
Mad Poster
#2 Old 26th Aug 2016 at 5:34 AM
It's because they're under the roof. This will be easier to see if you change to walls-up view and even easier if you put on a wallpaper with a horizontal element near the top - the walls that intersect with the roof are shorter than the standard wall.

There are ways to deal with this, but they're a little fiddly and I haven't mastered all the principles myself, so I'll leave it for someone else to explain lest I do it wrong. You can either weather proof the spaces (which will probably involve making them smaller) or use wall, table, and floor lamps and accept that this attic space will be too cold in winter and too hot in summer.

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.)
Mad Poster
#3 Old 26th Aug 2016 at 10:07 AM
This is pretty easy to fix. You need to delete the rooves, draw solid walls where the rooms are and then draw the roof back over the top from the second floor (not the top floor). That will give you proper walls for your rooms. Sometimes it causes a slight protruding piece where the wall intersects the roof, but it's not really that noticeable if you keep the walls distant enough for the edges (3 tiles for standard roof height). With the M+G roof height slider it's also easy to adjust the roof to hide this if you really hate it.

Peni is right that walls created by a roof do not count as "real" walls for Seasons+ and the rooms will not be weatherproof. There was a lot of talk about this back when Seasons was released - the search term you probably didn't find is "seasons proofing a house".

I do sometimes let my attics just be not that livable, it creates a bit of realism, you can add heaters and aircon if you want. Just use moveobjects to place items on the "walls" if you need to.

I use the sims as a psychology simulator...
Field Researcher
Original Poster
#4 Old 27th Aug 2016 at 3:30 AM
omg you guys! I was getting ready to throw my pc out the window, but FINALLY I managed to grasp what you meant and figure out how to make it work. Now my roof looks like it is supposed to AND all the rooms that are supposed to be inside, are actually inside! Thank you so much. I was pretty sure it had to be something that had been discussed extensively and I just wasn't using the right search terms. So I really appreciate you putting me on the right track because I was stumped. Next time I try to build a roof like this, I think it won't be nearly so difficult.

In addition to not realizing that roof walls don't "count" I also did not realize that you can draw the roof in stages by story. The front part of my roof goes all the way from the ceiling of floor 1 up to the ceiling of what would be floor 3 (but there aren't any actual rooms up there). I was trying to place that entire roof piece at once. When I realized that I could do it one story at a time, that made it possible for me to add in all the extra "real" walls (eyeroll) that I needed.

That, and a strategically placed closet in one of the bedrooms and .. voila! House. And now also I can do different types of siding on different levels and it works correctly instead of being all wonky because of the roof-walls being multiple levels high.

I've a lot of work yet to do with the decorating but I'm excited to share it when it's done! Thanks again!
Field Researcher
Original Poster
#5 Old 27th Aug 2016 at 11:23 PM
Hi again! I've spent some time decorating the house and would love feedback before I submit it.

Thanks much!
Mad Poster
#6 Old 28th Aug 2016 at 2:07 AM
Those bedrooms are huge. I hate to say this after all your trouble with the roof, but you may find this house more marketable if you downsize it.

The windows on the upper and lower stories don't balance visually from the outside. You may or may not care about this. It's the sort of thing that bugs me.

Re: the rec room. Pool tables need two squares clear around all sides in order for sims to finish games. Otherwise they will either break off play, or perform convoluted feats of routing weirdness in order to do so. I suggest you put the dartboard in the hall, which has plenty of room for it, or omit it altogether and move the table closer to the center of the room.

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.)
Field Researcher
Original Poster
#7 Old 28th Aug 2016 at 6:33 AM
They are pretty big. I tend to like a 6 x 5 bedroom in my game for maximum flexibility: you can add additional furniture besides the bed, or things like exercise equipment or a musical instrument, or make it into a functional nursery. The 1st floor bedroom ended up proportionally huge because I was trying to adhere pretty closely to the plan, and the plan has two walk-in closets, which seemed kind of pointless to recreate... although, I could; they could have shelves and a clothes rack. I've never added a utility room to a house I've built before, but I kind of like it, and people who like clutter can add a bunch to the shelves. It's too bad I can't just make that 1st floor room the rec room, as it's plenty big enough for the pool table plus other stuff; but a rec room with a giant master bath is kind of silly.

Anyway, as for the windows not balancing -- do you mean the front ones, @Peni Griffin, or one of the other sides of the house?

I toyed with the front for a while. Originally there were just two windows next to the door, like in the drawing. But because the column arches are only 2 tiles wide, it didn't quite work. So I added a third window so that each arch would have a window. I could just use round columns without arches, and go back to the two windows, and it might look better.

Thanks for the heads up on the pool table. I mainly added the dart board because it seemed silly to have a rec room with just a pool table in it, but it takes up so much room! Anyway, you're right the dart board could easily go in the hall, and maybe just some posters on the wall and stuff would make the rec room look cooler.
Mad Poster
#8 Old 28th Aug 2016 at 2:05 PM
The side and rear windows. On the chimney side you've got two up top at the extreme front and no others all the way back, anchored only by the chimney; and then the two on the bottom both set further back than the two on the front - it makes the house look like it's about to keel over onto its face, restrained only by the chimney's strenuous efforts. Then in back you start off all right with two well-spaced windows on the single story portion and two similarly-spaced and sized windows in the first upper portion; but then there's one tiny window located directly under the rear upper window, and the whole composition starts to stutter. If there's only going to be one tiny window below it should be centered between the two upper ones, to give them both something to stand on visually (albeit standing on tiptoe, but that might be a good thing). The garage side has an awful lot of blank space, but that is after all the garage and it's balanced, below, by the set of three windows in the extension. The height and coloration of the gables kind of squashes the house on that side, though.

The front is fine - the dormer windows on top settle onto the base of the windows and door below and it's all good.

A house that big just plain needs more windows than that, anyway. This is a pet peeve of mine with newly-built tract houses - they have these huge expanses of wall with too few windows set into them in no apparent pattern, everywhere but the front, as if the design balance of the rest of the house doesn't matter as long as the facade is okay, and so that the inmates absolutely have to turn the lights on, regardless of the time of day, if they want to see; and so that if the air conditioning goes out, no amount of window-opening or fan placement will allow air to circulate enough to make the house bearable in our terrible Texas summer heat. Aesthetics and liveability go hand-in-hand in real-world architecture.

I don't actually know much about design, but in researching historic housing I learned the concept of designing a building based on "lights," which I find makes it much easier to use houseplans to build in game. "Lights" are elements that break up the structure visually - windows and doors, generally, but in the case of this house the exterior portion of the fireplace functions as a light. The lights are used to define the sizes of the various structural elements of the house, and they should balance harmoniously with each other. This doesn't mean all the windows have to line up one under the other, but that the visual weight should be distributed in a reasonable way. When following a houseplan, I don't look at the measurements (which won't match the fixed units of the game anyway) but at the lights. Once I've picked the right size for those, and arrange them properly, the rest of the plan falls into place.

Are you using a game configuration that allows changing the roof angle? Because that might help. A shallower angle and/or a lighter color on the gables would make the roof weigh down the whole house less.

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.)
Mad Poster
#9 Old 30th Aug 2016 at 10:44 AM
I really love the asymmetrical roof!

FWIW, you can draw a roof in one stage - but sometimes it's better to draw it in different stages. It's worth experimenting (and of course just like everything in the game, there are certain scenarios that it just refuses to work and will drive you crazy!)

I would be tempted to put in some more - not skylights but I forget the name of those roof-windows - on the top floor to the right, on the front view. Or some other kind of decoration to break up the expanse of tile. Maybe add a dormer roof above the garage? I feel the garage door is a little claustrophobic feeling.

I don't feel the bedrooms are too big, but they do seem empty. I think if you're going to have them so big, they need more "stuff" in them. It would be cool to interest them up a little by adding nooks, pillars or fireplaces or other architectural structures, if that fits into your house build.

That's just my opinion anyway and I see mine differs from Peni's - so take what you want from that

I use the sims as a psychology simulator...
The Great AntiJen
retired moderator
#10 Old 30th Aug 2016 at 11:18 AM
For playing, I agree with Peni - far too large. One thing about the pictures, when you take pictures, click on the swatch tool first. It removes the build grid in your pictures.

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
Constant Contestant
retired moderator
#11 Old 30th Aug 2016 at 11:32 PM
I agree with the others that the bedrooms are far too large. The roof pitch is too high as well.

Want a specific style of house or community building? Why not take a look at my profile and see what I build and then come ask me to make it!
Back to top