Fixing "Warped Walls"

[thegurlat410]

Tutorial on creating wallpaper that fixes warped walls
By:thegurlat410

Before I even begin, you need to understand why I am doing what I am doing, and how I got to this point. So this first part of the tutorial is explanation only.
First of all you need to understand what happens when the wall warps. As pictured below in Figure 1 the left side of the wall is compressing the wall paper to fit in the tiny area which is a foundation, but you must keep in mind this is technically a wall but you cannot see the bottom half of the wall because it is being compressed. So in essence the left side of the wall is a whole wall, but the top of this wall starts at the top of the foundation level. The right side is a wall, but the top of this one starts at the regular wall level. The Sims is connecting these two parts of the wall with a straight pattern; which is causing the warping. So we must make a wall that balances this out.
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/1/13/635102/1.jpg

Overview:
Difficulty:
fairly easy
Programs needed:
Sims 2 homecrafter plus
Photoshop (I use CS2)


Steps to creating the wallpaper:
1. You need to open up The Sims 2 home crafter Plus, and click on Create Wall Coverings.
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/1/13/635102/2.jpg
2. Click on the brick selection
3. Highlight London's Red Chimney Bricks
4. Click clone selected content
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/1/13/635102/steps2-4.jpg
This will take you to a page that looks like this:
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/1/13/635102/clone.jpg
*note* please take note of where the texture goes in the texture to edit box.
5. WITHOUT closing The Sims 2 Home Crafter Plus, you need to open up photoshop.
6. Under file menu click new...
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/1/13/635102/opendoc.jpg
7. Title your project Warp fix
8. Set your width to 256 pixels
9. Set your height to 512 pixels
you should now end up with a screen like this:
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/1/13/635102/steps79pb.jpg
10. Now we need to open our texture go File, then open, then *USUALLY* my documents, EA Games, The Sims 2, Projects, HomeCrafter Plus, and finally into your working directory, click open.
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/1/13/635102/workingpb.jpg
After you hit open your screen should look like this:
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/1/13/635102/2layerspb.jpg
11. Now we need to measure out or texture, I did this in game, but for the purpose of this tutorial I will simply use the picture from the top of this tutorial as a measuring tool, we need to figure out how many bricks there are from the base of the foundation to point where it meets the wall.
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/1/13/635102/1.jpg
**note**there are eight bricks in case you cannot see this*
12. Now we need to get our texture from the wall-brickchimneyredaged-base.bmp to our Warp fix window, make sure you have the wall-brickchimneyredaged-base.bmp project selected, then select your rectangular marquee tool.
13. We now need to make a cut out of 8 bricks from the top of our project.
14. While our cut out is selected right click in the area selected and select layer via copy
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/1/13/635102/1214pb.jpg
*now you should have a new layer in your layer panel named layhttp://www.modthesims2.com/newthread.phper one like below*
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/1/13/635102/layer%201.jpg
15. We need two of these layers because they are a measuring tool so simply right click on layer 1 and click duplicate layer.
16. When the box pops up click okay
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/1/13/635102/step1516pb.jpg
*now you should have three layers like below*
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/1/13/635102/layer1copy.jpg
17. We now need to get our layer 1 and layer 1 copy over to our Warp Fix project; to do this simply click on layer one and drag it onto the Warp Fix window. your screen should look like this:
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/1/13/635102/movedlayer1pb.jpg
18. Make sure for this step you now have the wall-brickchimneyredaged-base.bmp project highlighted and drag layer 1 copy onto our Warp Fix window and the result should be as below:
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/1/13/635102/layer1andlayer1copymovedpb.jpg
19. Now we can close our wall-brickchimneyredaged-base.bmp because we have the texture needed from it:
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/1/13/635102/step19pb.jpg
**note**click no when box pops up*
20. Highlight layer 1 copy
21. Click on the move tool
22. Fit the image in the top of canvas
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/1/13/635102/steps20-22pb.jpg
23. Highlight Layer2
24. Click move tool
25. Fit the image on the bottom of the canvas
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/1/13/635102/steps2325pb.jpg
26. Select Layer 1
27. Select line tool
28. Set weight to 1 px
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/1/13/635102/2628pb.jpg
29. Draw a line from the bottom left corner of layer 1 copy to the bottom right hand corner of the canvas shown below:
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/1/13/635102/linepb.jpg
*note this deletes layer 1 don't freak out*
30. Draw another line from the top right corner of layer 2 up to the top left corner of the canvas as pictured below:
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/1/13/635102/twolinespb.jpg
* Now that we have used the layers as measuring tools we can delete one*
31. Highlight Layer 2
32. Click on the trash bin
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/1/13/635102/3132.jpg
33. Highlight Layer 1 Copy
34. Go into the edit menu
35. Click transform
36. Click Distort
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/1/13/635102/3336pb.jpg
37.Pull on the bottom right box until the bottom edge of the bricks lines up with the black line as shown below:
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/1/13/635102/Distort1redopb.jpg
38. Now pull on the top right box until this also falls inside the top black line until it looks like so
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/1/13/635102/distort2pb.jpg
39. Now tweak the bottom again, because if you havent noticed it has fallen out of allignment
39. Click the check mark
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/1/13/635102/39pb.jpg
*now we can delete our guide lines*
40. create new layer
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/1/13/635102/40.jpg
41. Click shape 1
42. Click trash bin
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/1/13/635102/4142.jpg
43. Repeat steps 41 and 42 with shape 2
44. We are now left with two layers. Highlight the layer without the bricks on it.
45. Click on edit
46. Click on fill
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/1/13/635102/4446pb.jpg
47. Choose color
48. Click okay
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/1/13/635102/4748pb.jpg
49. Enter the number fff5e2
50. Click okay
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/1/13/635102/4950pb.jpg
*your screen should now look like this*
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/1/13/635102/fillpb.jpg
*this simply means your fill layer is on top of your layer of bricks*
51. Click your layer of bricks and drag it on top of your layer with fill
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/1/13/635102/switch.jpg
*and now it should look like this*
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/1/13/635102/switch2.jpg
52. Click on File
53. Click on Save As
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/1/13/635102/5253pb.jpg
54. Click on my documents, EA games, The Sims 2, Projects, Home Crafter Plus, and finally Walls.
55. Change the File name to Warp Fix Left side
56. Change Format to .bmp
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/1/13/635102/5456.jpg
57. Repeat steps 54 through 56 only saving as a .psd
58. Leaving Photoshop open go back to the sims 2 homecrafter
59. Click on the home button
60. Click the checkmark
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/1/13/635102/Homecrafter2.jpg
61. Click Create Wall Coverings
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/1/13/635102/61.jpg
62. Click on Create New Content button
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/1/13/635102/62redo.jpg
63. Find the file Warp Fix Left side and Highlight it
64. Click the check
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/1/13/635102/6364pb.jpg
65. Change the name to Warp Fix Left side
66. Change cost to 2
67. Change description to Warp Fix Left side
68. Change subsorting to brick
69. Click import to game
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/1/13/635102/6569.jpg
70. Click the checkmark
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/1/13/635102/70.jpg
WE ARE ALL DONE....You can now go into game and put this on the left side of a warp and it will be even.
This wall will be found in the brick section of your game. I realize the texture is a little blurry,
but you saw how much we distorted that picture texture. If you decide to do the right side,
I have already made this possible for you, when we saved the .psd document. just open this in photoshop,
click on your layer of bricks and go to edit, transform, and flip vertical, from there just follow the steps from 52
all the way to the end and now you have a right side fix.

I Hope this tutorial was helpful and easy enough for even the most unskilled in photoshop to follow.
I have worked hard VERY hard on this please don't reproduce this.

:!: Happy Simming :!:
-thegurlat410

[plasticbox]

Your steps 5–56 are unnecessarily complicated. There is no need to manually distort/measure/tweak things.

1. Open your texture
2. Change canvas size to 256x128px
3. Cut and paste to a new layer
4. Change canvas size to 256x512px (this will give you an empty picture with a 256x128px strip of texture in the middle)
5. Press cmd-T (Free Transform), enter 56.5 for the vertical tilt (last box in the menu across the top), hit Enter
6. Fill the background with a colour of your liking (alternatively, fill it with a texture and tilt it along with the strip of bricks)
7. Save as .bmp – I believe if you just save it (with the original filename of your clone), then you can simply refresh in Homecrafter, without making another new clone. I haven't used HC in a while though.

Also, I'm not sure why you make your selections with 3px feather .. this would only make things blurrier than they need to be, as far as I can tell. Is this to sort of emulate the "Smooth Edges" that the game does? In that case, be aware that not all graphics cards have that option.

(I'm on OSX -- cmd would be ctrl under Windows I believe)


Also, your post is impossible to read on a 1024px wide screen because the pics are stretching it off-screen -- please make sure your pictures are max. 800px wide. The Homecrafter screenshots look good, the photoshop screenshots are too wide.

[HugeLunatic]

Not sure where the other thread went? Disappeared before I had a chance to come back. I noticed you had feather set to 3px using your Marque Tool?

I used the Slice tool, worked quite well.

What I did was open the original image.
Change the canvas size to double height.
Copy the original texture, paste, and move up so 1 and 2 meet (they kinda snap together)
Merge layers.
Change the canvas size back to original - accept warning about cropping
Use slice tool - set to fixed width
Using Slice tool create 4 slices - each 256x128 (wall segments are in 4s)
Ctrl+T (Transform)
Holding shift key - slide one of the square dots (hold points?) and drag down until it snaps into the 3rd slice. It is now full size on the one side and 1/4 on the other.

They lined up perfect on both sides. All that would need to be done to make the other angle would be to flip on the horizontal.

This gives you the entire block filled with your pattern. I didn't do extensive testing here, but I would think the best practice would be to have the entire 256x512 filled with the proper angled texture. You can't have invisible textures. This can be repeated for walls that are designed for 1/4, 1/2, and 3/4 walls.

I clone in HC, save my wall, and open in simpe. Then export the png, to use in Photoshop and import my png back into simpe. I prefer to deal with png vs bmp.

[plasticbox]

HugeLunatic, if you'd fill the *entire* wall with a sloped pattern, that would acheive something different -- the slope would still be visible like in the "Figure 1" pic in the OP, but the pattern would be horizontal instead. What the OP aims at is a wallpaper that is partly some other texture (bucketfill cream in this case), with a brick border only on the bottom. That's why she only has a 128px high strip in the middle (the lower part actually doesn't matter for this purpose, since it will never show in-game).

[HugeLunatic]

That would be where I became confused then. :/ I must have had my wall skewed th opposite way. I was thinking this would be useful for the walls when you connect a garage to a house with a foundation. Now I am going to have build something more in depth to test this. The slice tool still worked really well. :)

[thegurlat410]

that is exactly what these walls do they fix the warp when you connect a garage to house with a foundation---sorry for the pictures but there are so many it will take me a while to fix

[plasticbox]

I was thinking this would be useful for the walls when you connect a garage to a house with a foundation. Oh, it would totally be useful if your house is brick all over -- then a warped-but-horizontal-looking wall of 100% brick is exactly what you need. But for a house with only a brick *foundation*, that's too much brick =).