simdertalia
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WIP
🕑 Added 2025-02-07 18:26:16 +0000 UTCHere are the first two items for our poll winner (Bug Museum Part 2! Set up on my Paradise Planning lot for now) I had to mess with the greenhouse entrance structure for awhile at the same time as the tile floor you see on the inside. I wanted it to be the same width and length exactly for placing any kind of floor one wishes. I've added a bunch of extra swatches for this structure frame. The file floor has 4 swatches that are the 4 split parts of the original image. You can cover the entire floor with one swatch, or you can add different ones wherever you want. I've placed the entrance planter from Part 1 to show the size/dimensions of the structure. It has no footprint, otherwise sims wouldn't be able to stand inside of it, but if you would like to create a trail for them to walk so that they aren't walking straight through it, you can use this awesome invisible fence cc by Bakie on ModTheSims.
Update (a bit later, Friday night):
Added the long entrance rug (and a couple extra swatches), and I made the stone path in 2 versions: as a floor, and as a terrain paint.
Update (Friday about midnight):
Added the 2 mats that go in the other entrances. I've added a couple extra swatches to the coir mat. I have made this mat already in another set, but it is a different size that doesn't go with what we are doing here so I remade it for this set. We want things to look right, after all ☺️
Update (late Friday night):
Working on the other doorway greenhouse that is in the back of the area, it's smaller and square-ish. I'm still messing with it, as you can see above the mapping is a bit weird on the top portion. I need to go to bed soon, so I will continue on our set tomorrow 💗 I hope everyone has had a nice week.
Update (Saturday early evening):
I have been spending almost all afternoon messing with this next item, the 3rd entrance that is in the back of the structure. It's giving me a lot of issues, from wildly incorrect mapping, to the back of the object having nothing showing up because it's only meant to be seen from the front in ACNH. But I'm working on it, and it will look nice when I am finished with it. Above are some pics of it as is at the moment, I have already made some changes but it's still obviously not acceptable.
Update (Saturday evening):
O-Kay. I have take pieces from all over this item and filled in all of the gaps with those pieces. It no longer has completely invisible areas that make it look weird from behind, which I know when placed doesn't show at all, but it was really bothering me and I also thought it might make it annoying when trying to place. So that is all fixed now. I also tweaked the length and width a little more, so that it will fit exactly with the tiles you may choose to place inside and outside of the structure. I added extra swatches again to this one, it has all the same ones as the greehouse-looking entrance structure. Also like that one, this item has no footprint, again the invisible fence mod (linked above) is amazing for CC items like this, where you want your sims to be able to walk underneath them thus removing the footprint, but still don't want them to walk straight through them.
Update (Saturday night):
Working on the rope partitions, there are 3 of these items (shown #1 above). I have included a preview gif from in Blender, the blinking orange is where the mesh for this item is lying on the image, so as you can see it's way way too big for what we need. As usual with items like this, I'm making a new texture file with just the portions needed so that it isn't so large and bloating our file.
Update (late Saturday night):
Added all 3 of the rope partitions, they are not in the places they go in ACNH, except the one to the right of the entranceway structure. These are the rope partitions that are not part of deck pieces. I'm not making the deck pieces from this structure, because sims will not be able to walk on them. I will look at the image texture for them and see if I can make floors to look like the material though.
Update (Saturday night/Sunday morning 1:30 am):
Added the wooden arrow sign, the floor vent (just one, they can be lined up to make the longer one), and the large planter toward the back left of the structure behind the bench. The planter has a bunch of slots.
Update (Sunday approx. 6 am):
I've had an awful stomach ache all night long, so I've been going from the couch to the computer, when it lets up I go back to making our items. It's a pain! lol. A note about having a chronic illness that causes pain, it literally starts to become more annoying than anything. I don't want to be lying on the couch, I'm excited about this set and want to keep going! But if you've noted that I've been a little slow rolling out the items, it's part of the reason. The other part is that this is another set that requires liberating items and creating new image textures that contain just the areas needed from a much larger image. Taking care in making sure everything looks nice! Here above, we have another preview of the planter, I have added a bunch more slots. I think I might add even more, I'm really happy with how this item has turned out with the use of the plants from Part 1 of this category. I've also made the small little sign that goes in the plant areas. There are a lot of little name plate items like this (mostly for the walls) I'm looking forward to making those tomorrow. It's 6 am, I've been up all night, so I am going to make a cup of tea and try to get some sleep. More to come tomorrow!
(One last note for tonight):
There are palm trees that are in this ACNH location that have already been made, and are available in the Paradise Planning Set Part 2.
Update (Sunday night):
Today I've been working on the item pictured above, this large exhibit tank. It has a top water mesh, but nothing behind the glass, as shown above, so I am adding some to make it look normal. The transparency of the water needs some tweaking as you can see as well, there are fish placed in the previews but you just can't see them that well! So I will do that if I can get it to work. There seems to be a very fine threshold to making an item more transparent, it gets to a point where the piece just turns invisible, so I will mess with it. I adjusted the mesh to be the same length on both sides in the back open area, and this item is made to be adjacent to a wall. I've used a half wall in the preview images above. The fish in the tank I'm using for testing are from the Aquarium Set 2. I have made 4 aquarium sets, so if you search the main page for "aquarium" they should all come up. Also in the above preview, you can see that the dimensions are a little off. I want this item to fit perfectly with the floor squares, to allow any type of flooring to be used inside the tank (dirt, sand, tiles, whatever). So this is where I'm at with this item right now, I just wanted to post an update since this one is taking me awhile. It was in a million pieces and needed a ton of editing.
Update (Tuesday 4:15 am):
So I finally have this tank exhibit where I want it. It needed the back area fixed also (another item that was made to only be seen from the front in ACNH). I corrected the dimensions, so that they are exact when placing a ground tile, so that anything can be placed (dirt, sand, whatever you like. Shown above is a dirt floor that I made long ago), and added water behind the glass so it looks like it makes sense. I messed with the transparency of the water, but the more clear I tried to make it, it just lightened the caustic details, and left the level of what we can see through the water. I tried so many times, and different techniques, but this seems like our best option here in the pic. There is a pic above with both the glass and water visible to show, raising the transparency more makes things invisible. I've placed cat tails from Part 1 of this set, raised by 2 notches with the 0 9 key keyboard trick. This item has been a doozy, getting it to be user friendly for the sims, it's taken me all afternoon-night. Since it's approaching 4:30 am I am taking a break for the night. I wanted to get some of the presumably more difficult items done first, since they weigh on my anxiety concerning if I will be able to do it, so I am glad these bigger items are finished. I'm excited to work on some hopefully easier things tomorrow!
Update (Monday afternoon):
Added a floor tile that is for making the wooden deck and bridge areas. I'm trying my best to make things doable for TS4, with what we have from ACNH. The deck pieces are in the structure that I have, but they are large, there are many, and sims will not be able to walk on them. So I supposed that making it a floor tile that can be added wherever would be the best solution. We want our sims to be able to tour the museum, after all. I also added 2 more terrain paints, and 2 more floor tiles for 2 different grassy textures that have flowers.
Update (Monday evening):
Added some more floors and terrain paints of grass and dirt (not pictured yet) and the sticks that are sticking up out of the water by the bridge in ACNH. I made 4, because one was a repeat of the same mesh.
Update (late Monday night/very early Tues morning):
Added a dirt floor with 2 swatches, one has more gravel, and 2 terrain paints for each of these swatches. Added one of each type for a plain grass, as well. Added 5 barrier objects, if you look at the museum in ACNH you will see them appearing around the river. 35 items made so far! 💗☺️ It's about 4 am for me right now, so tomorrow I am going to make a couple more items I have prepared, and look over the main museum area and make sure there isn't anything that I'm missing. This set has taken a lot of brainstorming, both in making things the most useful for TS4 in the way I'm making them, and the splitting up of sets and how many sets to make. At this point in the project it's easier for me to see, the entire bug museum collection needs to be 4 sets in total. After this one, there is still the round greenhouse (with the fountain) to do, and the lab area with the hall on the outside with bug exhibits and cages (and tables, plants, all sorts). After set 2 is finished, I'll do the sports items, and I will get some more dolls made, but I am hoping I will have enough time to at least get started on items for set #3. It will also be on the poll for March. That poll will also have a choice to make set #4 right after 3 is done.
Update (late Tuesday night):
I have been tweaking our big water tank for forever today. Since it needed so many little fixes and sections added, upon closer inspection I saw a lot of holes. So I would make adjustments, load my game and test it, notice more issues, and repeat. But I finally have it looking normal. Then, I added another version of this tank that has all 4 sides so it doesn't have to be right up against a wall, if desired. It's just nice to have the variety. Now, I'm sitting here staring at this Blender file of the mesh for the entire path curbs (above). I'm trying to figure out the best way to make a few of these so they can be used to make the path edges.
Update (Wed. morning 6:30 am):
Instead of moving straight on to those curbs, I decided to make the large planter that holds the giant oak tree near the back of the building. Loving how that item is turning out, I need to lower the entire mesh a tiny bit because I accidentally made it floating a small distance above the ground, but that will take 5 seconds to fix. My main concern is something is going on with the dirt portion mesh and it's got that shadowy look diagonally on the right side. Looks bad. I will be fixing that.
Update (Wed morning 7:45 am):
So I redid this dirt mesh, and remapped it, trying to get rid of these weird lines. The shadowy part was fixed, but now we have this issue. I've concluded that there's just something with this portion of the mesh. I have been up all night working on these, so I am probably going to have to take a little break, but this dirt problem will be the first thing I do when I get back to it. Then on to the curb items.
Update (Wednesday early evening):
I finally got the dirt fixed and it looks like it's supposed to. I added a completely different mesh to it, and remapped it to the dirt. Between that item and the water tanks, I am at the point where I am looking forward to this portion of this location being finished, lol 😅 I believe the last thing I need to make are smaller versions of the "curb" in some pieces, that can be arranged around a path in TS4, and there is one little sign (the small black ones that go in the flower beds) that goes near the waterfall, it's taller than the other ones, so I will add that too. Oh! And Bakie, who I linked above for the invisible fence mod, has also a mod for placing a small waterfall: https://modthesims.info/d/649404/animated-small-waterfall.html
Update (Wednesday evening):
Okay, so I have made 12 different curb objects, to piece together to make the pathway curbs. The original mesh had no end piece to these meshes, so they are open at the ends, needing to go up against another curb or object to cover the open end. Added the taller version of the info sign. We have 50 items for this set, now I just need to get pics for the post.
Comments
SimderTalia
I'm glad you ilke it, Aby! I'm trying to get some of the more difficult items made early on 😅
Aby Case
thiswould be good to replace my current greenhouse I made for my version of Hogwarts...
