I just downloaded mspoodle's lots and will add them. It is getting cold here now so it will be fun to play a dreary place for a while. I am not sure how long I will stick with it, but it is fun for now and I do want to see it with snow. And ice skaters.

If the lot is empty, why don't you guys just uproot lots from other worlds and plant them in?

I have the NY world for a while, it has a lot of urban apartments, etc... I'm guessing you can also steal lots from Bridgeport and use it here too.

My concern for this world is "how does it run?" b/c the way I play, eventually the world will get overstuffed and laggy. Heck, I'm getting laggy in Riverview right now after 20 generations. But I am looking for an Urban world. The New York world I would only use as a vacation world for this very reason. It is HUGE and running as a vacation world already lagging like a homeworld, I cannot imagine how it will run if I fill up every apartment and the sims are 10 generations in.

I'm trying to add ones from Bridgeport, yeah. The issue is that sometimes the terrain elevation isn't matching up for some, but I may just need to download different lots.

It is pretty easy to find places to add more brownstones/townhouses if people want to spend the time to do that. Just playing with size and shape there. Would do in the grunge grey to match the others in the area if I would continue.

Nitromon, I am just playing around a bit with this. I do not want to spend time building it out as I would like, matching the feel/style the current lots have. Will play my Sim until winter and then probably will move on.

try using:

SetImportedTerrainOffset (value)

(value) Is a positive or negative number depending on whether the lot created a hole or a mountain.



How is the performance? It is a medium size world, so I hope it runs somewhat well. What is medium size anyways? Sunset Valley? I think Riverview is large.

The world is 7x7 chunks, is fairly compact. Routing has been tested extensively and since it's relatively empty (for now), I find that on my computer it runs like butter.

Of course, experiences may vary, so the only way to know for sure is to try it out for yourself.

Thanks for that tip!

Is there any way to have non-active lights have windows that are lit up if it isn't a shell? I don't want the city to lose that when I replace a lot of the shells.

The lots are so tiny generally there is no place to use the EA shells from what I saw. I was going to place one of the apartment buildings and did not find anywhere to do it. I have just played a tiny bit so far, but my game ran smoothly.

Lakme if were going to really get into this I would keep as many of the custom shells as you/we can. As per my pics, we can add to lots easily and also some have multiple shells and you can replace just one and build a similar style building to replace it. That is what I would do.

Makes sense. The issue is I'm trying to make more of a Park Slope (upscale) neighborhood and most of the shells are pretty dingy looking.

I would just replace a row/area of the houses/lots with more upscale townhouses.

so the zip file has a .world and .simpack, I'm assuming I only need to install one?

@nitromon Medium sized means 4x4 chunks or a basemap the size of 1024x1024 pixel. No EA world is that small (Northeney has that size in case you had a look at that world). Most EA worlds have 8x8 chunks or a basemap size of 2048x2048 pixel. Sunset Valley, Riverview, AP, they all have the biggest size (8x8).

A basemap of 7x7 chunks would mean 1792x1792 pixel for the basemap and thus be a bit smaller than most EA worlds. For comparison, University world is one of the smaller EA ones, it has 6x6 chunks (or 1536x1536 pixel). A world can have any size as long as it's a multiple of 256x256 (one chunk).

[eta] Of course "medium" is not defined as such, it's just commonly used for 4x4 chunk sized maps.

The .world file is for caw. It means anyone with caw skills can do what they like with it.

I just ran it, and omg it really is tiny. I mean, it's not a problem, quality over quantity, but for a brief moment there... I really did get that Sims 4 feeling. You know, like majority of the world is actually just deco.

I'm going to try this a little more in the future, for now I got a lot of broken vacation worlds to fix in my own game. Don't really have to time to get into this. But yeah, it's neat. Very well done.

The world file is for an alternate ways of world installation skipping the Installer and dropping the file into the install directory.



There's very much a trade off between quality and quantity in the Sims 3, more so than other games- a world the size of the Big Apple is already unplayable, and extensive detailing is already a non-starter for worlds even the size of Bridgeport.

As such, the world employs game dev world creation techniques of gradiating detail from high levels to low levels depending on player proximity. In essence, highly detailed worlds will always be compact to maximize efficiency, as it reduces the so-called 'surface area' of unplayable area that still needs to be detailed more than their surroundings for player immersion. Alternately, highly detailed worlds can also be 'islands' (i.e. Saint Greer Islands) to create a conscious gap in the detail gradation.

Some more reasoning:

http://modthesims.info/showthread.p...930#post5440930

Hence there was a focus on a specific, realistically-scaled neighbourhood of the city, and a choice to represent the rest of the city via a distant terrain. Is it so different from your EA-stock distant terrains?

I was once told it's actually possible to make maps larger than 2048x2048.....their explanation sounded credible, but you'd think there would've been at least one 4096x4096 map available if that were the case.

It is (you only need a larger starting image map), but what you do with the space becomes increasingly limited if you take game performance into consideration- each chunk is also a mesh that needs to be represented and contain routing and texture mapping. The current largest world maps (8x8) are already pushing the limits of the game engine in terms of playability and longevity.

It could be interesting perhaps making a Super-ocean map to reduce detail and lot amounts, but I wonder if routing even works at huge distances?

Oooh, I hadn't seen mspoodle's lots. Those are awesome. Thanks for sharing! I immediately deleted the lots I had made and replaced them with mspoodle's. Let's just pretend mine never happened...

I hadn't thought of building a laundromat. I'm sorry that yours didn't turn out the way you planned. Maybe you could just stick a bunch of washing machines in Moshe's Broadway Deli since that's empty at the moment? It might look a bit random but it could work.

I have no idea how to multi-quote here, so thanks @ed95 for the info about the apartment mod! I will look into that, but I think I'll probably just end up playing one family per lot.

@daisylee, thanks for posting pics! The apartment you built for your sim matches in with the shells really well. I'd love to see what this world looks like in winter too. I wonder if the water down at the docks will freeze over?

So it looks like premade sims will start filling up the world if you start playing, and the poor sims will technically have nowhere to live since all most of the lots have on them are shells. But will that really matter? Does anyone know what inactive sims actually do in their houses? I know story progression tells me they're doing stuff and gaining skills, but are they actually doing that? Without showers, fridges and beds on their lots will they be going around the city stinking everywhere up, raiding the bins for food and napping on park benches? Maybe we can just hide an all in one bathroom, a tent and BBQ at the back of the lots so that the sims can meet their needs. It's a bit of a sad life for them, but they can go and hang out in the library, or at the brothel that I'm planning on building next.

I can't wait to actually start playing in this world. Please post more pics of what you've been doing or what your sims are up to in this world!

Thanks! I actually was able to finish my laundromat, it just took a looong time. But I didn't know how to access the shells, so I built everything instead of using those. Using shells will make it much easier in the future.

I'm going to pretty much put pre-made lots in so I can start playing soon.

1) Jje1000, is it ok if I upload the revised CC?

2) About the 'full version' that's coming, is the only difference the actual placement of lots? And are they mspoodles? I ask because I'm unsure whether to wait for the new version or is just easy stuff I can add myself?
Thanks!

I think there is enough done that it is playable now. I love to build so would work on a few things each time I play. I would do the townhouses if really getting into this, but a quick and easy way to add residences for sims would be to drop in basements on some of those lots and just toss in some beds and bathrooms and some basics so sims could populate them.

I also would/will move the RH rugs as such a long walk. My sim joined the business career and would like a shorter commute for her! LOL

^ ^ You're starting to like it now i think daisy haha!

Well it seems like you just built an "enormous" city world and it runs just fine. So I don't think the issue is what you put in it, I think the issue is how. Sure it's a bunch of work but I don't see any reason why it wouldn't be possible to stretch a world out on all sides. There doesn't have to be anything fancy in between, in fact who says having a whole load of nothing isn't fancy? It's having to load thousands of assets or having to simulate hundreds of objects that'll kill the game engine. Having a huge forest world with 10.000 identical trees in it isn't going to do nearly as much. I turned large parts of Bridgeport into a dense forest at one point and I didn't notice it running any more poorly than it already did. And there's surely got to be a few thousand trees there, at least.

It'll have to render all those trees but that's not the simulation's problem. Hell, you could build a Mars colony. Have half a dozen lots in the middle and a couple more round the edges, and several miles of nothing but a few rocks inbetween. No reason it won't work. Those chunks aren't going to get in the way very much if most of them are damn near empty.

This is the changes I've made. And yes, I know my townhouses look lame. It's basic until I refine it more. Just trying to emulate the other buildings and experimenting. It's hard to build the stairs-to-door thing that the rest of the deco buildings use.

Looks good. Also love the custom taxicabs you've got even if they're a bit out of place.