Of course the DT is in the world file so there is no way to add it again. I did try Simsample's method of making the DT into package but I suspect that it is conflicting with the one in the world file so I get an error saying that it cannot create the instance.

Anyway, anyone else having this problem?

I was hoping to tone down the green, get rid of the roads/buildings and have a nice terrain for my own world. But it just isn't the same without the distance terrain.

Are you sure it doesn't appear in Metadata? I'm sure someone said it did!

How did you go about cloning the DT?

When the DT is present in the world, it shows up in the layer called DistantTerrain. But when you try to search for it in the Game Objects, it does not exist. I have tried numerous times (probably 7 times) to edit the world and save it and each time I lose the DT when I reopen the world.

I cloned it using your instructions here: http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=453818 I did this several times and it never worked.

However, I am not using this in my own world so I wonder if the reason it won't allow me to place it is because the new object is conflicting with the old. I had hoped it would just replace it as the default but I guess not. Is there something else I can change? I did try changing the instance and that did not help.

BTW, after I 'cloned' it, the terrain did show up in the Game Objects list...but didn't work. It is called terrainDistant_dw3, which is the name in the OBJD file. Otherwise, it doesn't show up.

Ah, you say cloning the item as in my instructions, but those instructions are just for changing the OBJD to make something show in metadata. You realise you will actually have to make a clone of the object first?

Perhaps if you tell me exactly what you have done do far, I can figure out what is wrong.

When I did my Riverview Distant terrain, I cloned the existing Riverview Distant terrain from the World file and then modded the OBJD.

It still requires Riverview to be installed as it references the DCCache (STBL files).

Well, what I did was extract the DT from the world file, since it is not in the DeltaBuild file obviously. I then modded the OBJD. I thought that was a way of 'cloning' the object but maybe not. HS is still installed so that is not the problem.

Extract how? I used S3OC to make the Riverview DT, which seemed to work well.

Thanks, Simsample, I will use S3OC tomorrow. That step was missing from your explanation! LOL Some of us are just learning. There are so many brilliant people here and like my husband, they tend to know this stuff so well, so sometimes little things are left out. I have spent all evening creating a new career..and while there are great tutorials, some things I have to hunt down. Sims 2 was so much easier in some ways because so much was documented. Now..I am not at all bashing the folks figuring all this out. They did the hard work..we just have to search through all of it...we have it easy.

Appreciate your help!

My tutorial is just how to make existing objects show up in CAW, or how to mod the OBJD of in-game objects to show up in CAW. I never intended it to be a tutorial for the Riverview DT, as that's a bit of an oddity. I just figured that bit out by trial and error!

I hope you get it working, that would make the price of Hidden Springs a little more bearable! :D

Rian90, I am following this thread with great interest because I love the geography of Hidden Springs, but it really IS a bit too green...I'd love to see what a CAW expert like yourself could do with it! (I gave up on CAW myself -- not enough patience!)

Well, I am not a 'cloning' expert so we will see. This afternoon was very busy for me so I didn't get to it but I have tomorrow free so will try.

Me neither, but there's a tutorial here which might help:
http://simswiki.info/wiki.php?title...G_ChapD_Cloning
You just need to point S3OC to open the installed HS world file, then follow the steps but do NOT check the renumber/rename internally box. This will ensure that your DT is the SAME object as the HS distant terrain, not a separate object. That way also, you will be able to share the DT- as only people who have purchased hidden springs will be able to use it, due to the STBL files being in the DCCache.

Excellent, Simsample! I can do this.

It will have to wait until after my daughter's orthodontist appointment though. I will post my results.

Great!

(Good luck with the orthodontist!)

She broke a wire in the back and didn't realize it...so that means another trip soon.

Edited:

I did it!!!!

It took me all of about 5 minutes and worked the first time. Here is the file: http://www.mediafire.com/file/iyybc...Terrain.package

Here are the coordinates for placing it:
Position
x 2201.60034
y -12.5020151
z -91.0409546
Rotation
x 179.999985
y -0.963996232
z 179.999985

Please test this and let me know if it works okay. You must have Hidden Springs from the store to use this.

Also, is it possible to edit DT's? I wouldn't mind painting over that modern road with something dirt or stone. I want to use this for a period hood. I am thinking that it would require a change of the texture in something like Milkshape, which I can't do but maybe someone can.

I am not sure I can change the texture on the world terrain (not the DT but the world) and share it without sharing the entire world file. However, it is very easy to fix the colors. I found the textures from HS on the Sims 3 forums under CAW resources: http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/428825.page
Yay for Mr. Crumplebottom!! Save these to the UserToolsData/SourceTextures/HSTextures in the CAW directory.

Now, open each of the textures in a simple paint program like Paint.Net, which is free, btw. Go to Adjustments and then Hue/Saturation. Move the Saturation slider to the left to take out some of the glaring color. Save the file using the defaults. You can change the hue as well if you want your grass browner or some other color.

Open CAW and see if the textures are different. If not, then just go to the terrain tab and click on each texture name you see in the box, browse in your HSTextures folder in UserToolsData/SourceTextures within the CAW directory. Choose the correct texture and you should see a change. If the change is too subtle, go back and reduce saturation again or change the hue.

Hope this helps!

Excellent work! Thanks for the link to the textures, too.

Okay, now open that file in S3Pe. Look for the _IMG resource. Right click> Export to file. Then, open that up in GIMP or your photoediting program of choice. You'll see that the road texture is quite easy to find- just recolour that, save it (as a DDS) and then import that back into your file using S3pe. Save it. Now use that in your world, and you've recoloured it! Bear in mind that, if you have that in your game, it will act as a default replacement so your Hidden Springs world will also have the recoloured road. If you want to avoid that you could try making another copy of the DT in S3oc, but this time check the renumber/rename internally box to make a new object. I'm hoping that will work (and still reference the STBLs correctly), but I've never tried that myself.

For the DT you've already made, bear in mind that this will behave like the Riverview DT- you need to have this in your game files too if you want it to show up in the world you are playing. This is the reason I made two copies of the Riverview DT- I didn't want the people who played a world with that DT in to be able to see it in the Edit World bit of the game (as the flag to make things show up in CAW is the same flag to make things show in the world editor). Imagine if you accidentally grabbed it and placed it in Sunset, it might be difficult to re-grab and delete! It wouldn't be useful at all in there. So I made one version set to show in CAW, one version set to not show in any catalog. Then, people who only want to play a world with the DT in can just have the no-catalog version. So you might want to do the same, if you plan to share the DT.

Yes, I already put the DT in my game files as well. At this point, I have no plans to share but if someone requests it, then I can make two of them, no problem.

The road I mentioned is painted on the DT, not in the town. I just deleted all those roads. I want a roadless town.

Yes, my instructions will allow you to remove the road texture (or change it) from the distant terrain. If you open it in S3Pe, you'll see the image texture resource (_IMG) there, and if you click on that (with DDS preview turned on) you'll see the distant terrain texture, wating to be recoloured. The road texture is smack bang in the centre, it's mapped in a way you wouldn't immediately expect.

Oooo, that is too cool! I am going to do that! I did not expect it to be so easy.

It worked, Simsample! And my saves are working as well. I wonder if the absence of that distant terrain is what is causing save errors?

I am not good with paint programs so my road re-color is not perfect but since it is way off in the distance anyway, I am going to leave it for now. I might go back and play with it at another time and make it more realistic. I learned do make textures via Gimp for work and I can do some pretty fancy things but I can't seem to get Paint.Net to allow me to replace a texture and I am too lazy to deal with Gimp at the moment. I am absolutely amazed it works though!

Thank you for all your help!

Well done, I'm glad it worked!

Thanks, Rian90 -- I'm a bit of a CAW noob so it took me awhile just to get CAW up and running and a copy of Hidden Springs opened in it, but it's a start. I edited the textures in Paint.net but couldn't see the changes, so I did as you suggested and replaced them in the terrain tab. The changes were definitely way too subtle for me, so I'm going to have to futz with it a bit to see if I get it to my liking. But I wanted to thank you for the instructions and for the links to Mr. Crumplebottom's files -- I really appreciate it! Good luck to you with your own re-do.

Yeah, they were a bit subtle for me too so I ended up using different textures. The textures from HS are really pretty good so I did try to recolor them again. I used some of them but had some old ones that worked too.

Good luck with your futzing! I think that is really what CAW is all about.

Hi, I'm not sure whether I should post this here, but as I want to do the same thing with Hidden Springs, I post here.
So I read all the subjects around here and I have the same problem with the distant terrain disapearing.
First, is the package rian 90 shared the distant terrain itself ?
Then, if it is, I didn't understand where to put it, and how it will appear on CAW. I am not english so there may be some things I dind't understand... I tried the "Framework" but I don't even know what it exaclty is, and I didn't success in the method...

I hope someone will answer and will be able to help me, it is from 2011 after all..
Thank you ^^

The Caw Framework is just adding a new folder and adding a few lines of text to your Create a World Programs folder. Here's a tutorial.

http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=481967

When you've done that, drop the HSDistantTerrain.package you downloaded from the earlier post into the Packages folder you just created. When you open up caw, it will load that package with all the other metadata. The easiest way to find it once caw is opened is to use the search in the Metadata window.

I finally did it !
I first didn't understand because I did all what you just said and I wouldn't find the Distant Terrain Package in metadata... So I did it again.
But I just found that actually, it was named in French (my CAW is in French) so it was maybe there all along...

Thank you for your answer, it helped me a lot ^^