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plasticbox
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Original Poster
#1 Old 24th Aug 2014 at 2:45 AM Last edited by plasticbox : 24th Aug 2014 at 3:26 AM.
Default World editing
From the EA forums :

Quote: Originally posted by SimGuruModSquad
This is a big topic for sure… so here goes:

Firstly, I can’t really comment on what we may or may not release in the future. What I can say more generally is that on the modding front we will try to be reactive to your feedback and needs. And in general since you guys are so fast at making amazing tools we are focusing on giving you the information you need to do so. And specifically for worlds I can say that we are absolutely not doing anything purposely to limit or discourage world mods.

But! Worlds are one of the most complex things to add to the game so honestly this is a challenge. Once the game comes out and you guys get your hands on the data then there are more discussions to be had on this topic. I can say that the world data format is somewhat more straightforward than on Sims 3 so I am optimistic. Side note: the Create A Sim demo does contain one world, “CAS_GCW.world”, although it is just the room where CAS happens in so it’s pretty simple – but you might want to check that out as a sneak peek of what is to come.

As for the specific things you should or should not be able to do – pretty much anything we can do you should be able to do. But replacement or modification of existing worlds will need to be the first step. Addition of new worlds is something that is going to be more difficult because new world files can’t just be dropped in the mods folder and picked up by the game quite the same way other mods can – Maxis support will likely be needed to make world additions robust and I can’t promise anything here right now.

Re lot size limits and lot number limits: These limits should be exceedable but I have not tested this so I can’t guarantee there isn't something in the code forcing a cap on the data right now. These type of limits are put in place for minimum spec performance more than “code does not support it” reasons, although there is a practical limit at some point. Note that adding new lots has similar issues as adding new worlds, so this will be a similar challenge to get working so likely will take time and may need Maxis support.

Re removing off-lot objects of existing worlds, I can think of a couple ways this could be achieved so I expect this will be quite doable although again we have not tested any of that so I can’t guarantee it. But I think this will be one of the more straightforward things to do especially if you are OK with just nuking specific objects. As for forward compatibility of these types of mods, I expect this should be OK, the game is pretty resilient to world changes – but again it’s not a path we have tested extensively so I can’t guarantee anything.

Thanks!


Huzzah!

Quote: Originally posted by SimGuruModSquad
Regarding adjacent lots: That limitation was due to a specific idiosyncrasy of the Sims 3 routing system so pretty sure that's not an issue with Sims 4. But I will check with our routing guys next week to be sure, so stay tuned. But standard caveat applies even if the routing system handles it in theory, we have not tested it so results may vary.
Stuff for TS2 · TS3 · TS4 | Please do not PM me with technical questions – we have Create forums for that.

In the kingdom of the blind, do as the Romans do.
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plasticbox
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Original Poster
#2 Old 24th Aug 2014 at 1:26 PM
Default CAS_GCW.world
Sooo .. after looking at CAS_GCW.world , I am not terribly enlightened I have to admit: there's a bunch of _IMG resources that s4pe 1402.22.1845.42671 recognised as actual images (green blobs) but 0.1d (1408.22.1802.2346) doesn't -- which might mean they aren't actually images? Other than that I only see two resources that look kinda interesting: S4_810A102D_00000000_414F21CF6FB66604 which goes

Code: 
          00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 0A 0B 0C 0D 0E 0F 
          ------------------------------------------------
00000000: 4F 4D 47 53 9D 00 00 00 4F 4D 47 52 95 00 00 00  : OMGS....OMGR....
00000010: 49 44 20 20 08 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  : ID  ............
00000020: 4F 42 4A 20 7D 00 00 00 49 44 20 20 08 00 00 00  : OBJ }...ID  ....
00000030: 00 00 00 30 9F 14 BE D4 50 4F 53 20 0C 00 00 00  : ...0....POS ....
00000040: CE EC FF 42 32 A6 1D 43 A8 8A FF 42 52 4F 54 20  : ...B2..C...BROT 
00000050: 10 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 29 AF A0 3D 00 00 00 00  : ........)..=....
00000060: F9 35 7F 3F 44 47 55 44 08 00 00 00 86 96 00 00  : .5.?DGUD........
00000070: 00 00 00 00 53 43 41 4C 04 00 00 00 00 00 80 3F  : ....SCAL.......?
00000080: 4D 4C 4F 44 01 00 00 00 FF 50 54 49 44 08 00 00  : MLOD.....PTID...
00000090: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 53 4C 4F 54 04 00 00  : .........SLOT...
000000A0: 00 00 00 00 00                               : .....


(position? scale? Of an object in the world? Of a lot? Or something?)

and the WTXT whcih goes
Code: 
          00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 0A 0B 0C 0D 0E 0F 
          ------------------------------------------------
00000000: 12 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 01 00 00 01 00  : ................
00000010: 00 00 2C 01 00 00 01 00 00 00 82 D8 B2 00 00 00  : ..,.............
00000020: 00 00 D8 C0 C6 C9 15 49 AD DE 2C 00 00 00 54 00  : .......I..,...T.
00000030: 3A 00 5C 00 49 00 6E 00 47 00 61 00 6D 00 65 00  : :.\.I.n.G.a.m.e.
00000040: 5C 00 47 00 6C 00 6F 00 62 00 61 00 6C 00 54 00  : \.G.l.o.b.a.l.T.
00000050: 65 00 78 00 74 00 75 00 72 00 65 00 73 00 5C 00  : e.x.t.u.r.e.s.\.
00000060: 54 00 65 00 72 00 72 00 61 00 69 00 6E 00 5C 00  : T.e.r.r.a.i.n.\.
00000070: 64 00 65 00 66 00 61 00 75 00 6C 00 74 00 2E 00  : d.e.f.a.u.l.t...
00000080: 74 00 67 00 61 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0D 00  : t.g.a...........
00000090: 00 00 54 00 65 00 72 00 72 00 61 00 69 00 6E 00  : ..T.e.r.r.a.i.n.
000000A0: 4C 00 61 00 79 00 65 00 72 00 73 00 07 00 00 00  : L.a.y.e.r.s.....
000000B0: 44 00 65 00 66 00 61 00 75 00 6C 00 74 00 00 00  : D.e.f.a.u.l.t...
000000C0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  : ................
000000D0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 77 01 00 80 25 00 00 70 17  : .......w...%..p.
000000E0: 00 00 08 07 00 00 04 00 00 00 21 00 00 00 00 00  : ..........!.....
000000F0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 80 00 00 00 80 00 00 00 00 00  : ................
00000100: 80 42 00 00 80 42 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 21  : .B...B.........!
00000110: 00 00 00 80 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 80 00 00 00 80  : ................
00000120: 00 00 00 00 00 40 43 00 00 80 42 01 00 00 00 00  : [email protected].....
00000130: 00 00 00 00 21 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 80 00 00 00  : ....!...........
00000140: 80 00 00 00 80 00 00 00 00 00 80 42 00 00 40 43  : ...........B..@C
00000150: 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 21 00 00 00 80 00 00  : .........!......
00000160: 00 80 00 00 00 80 00 00 00 80 00 00 00 00 00 40  : ...............@
00000170: 43 00 00 40 43 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  : C..@C...........
00000180: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  : ................
00000190: 00 00                                            : ..


From my faint recollection of TS2, looking at this with a hex editor (which I didn't have installed just now) would also just lead to me going

What I want to know for now (or soon) is how/where terrain textures and off-lot objects are stored, to see whether it's feasible to nuke/replace them. Any ideas on how that CAS world might provide a clue?
Stuff for TS2 · TS3 · TS4 | Please do not PM me with technical questions – we have Create forums for that.

In the kingdom of the blind, do as the Romans do.
Shimrod101
Mad Poster
#3 Old 24th Aug 2014 at 10:20 PM
If it is similar to Sims3, the terrain textures will simply be inside each world file or neighborhood file (however this is done) as _IMG files, object resources will be the same way; everything jumbled up in one .world file. The Cas world doesn't have any terrain or objects so it isn't possible to see anything useful from this world file IMO. Also, of course, s4pe or some other Package Editor will need to be reading all the resources inside a .world file in order to do anything complex with the worlds/neighborhoods.
MedievalMods and Sims3mods: Dive Cave Reset Fix, Resort Revamp, Industrial Oven Revamp, Will O' Wisp fix, UI Sounds Disabled, No Cars, Gnome Family Planner, Townies Out on the Town, No Martial Arts Clothes, Fast Skilling, etc. http://simsasylum.com/tfm/
plasticbox
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Original Poster
#4 Old 26th Aug 2014 at 2:55 PM
Update from the forums (same thread as above):

Quote: Originally posted by SimGuruModSquad
Update on adjacent lots: There are potential issues when lots that are precisely adjacent, due to precision issues with the math that could cause routing calculations to get confused. So while this should work in theory, there may be bugs since this is not something we have tested. These types of precision issues tend to be very specific, it works fine until a specific world is created where it does not. So it would be recommended to leave some amount of space between lots, like a quarter tile.

Hope that helps! Although we have some work ahead of us before we have to deal with this issue.


So lot positioning might have similar quirks as in TS3, but maybe – hopefully – without the one-tile-minimum-distance this time.
Stuff for TS2 · TS3 · TS4 | Please do not PM me with technical questions – we have Create forums for that.

In the kingdom of the blind, do as the Romans do.
plasticbox
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Original Poster
#5 Old 27th Sep 2014 at 12:34 AM
Interested parties might want to check out this thread at EA which has a bit of interesting info, now that the SimGuruModSquad account is alive again. A list of road-related textures in the fullbuilds, among other things.

http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/dis...e-sims-4-worlds


.world files are also more readable with the current version of s4pe.
Stuff for TS2 · TS3 · TS4 | Please do not PM me with technical questions – we have Create forums for that.

In the kingdom of the blind, do as the Romans do.
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