Two Sakura Blossom Trees with Falling Petal Effect

Update: Nov 17, 2024 I was not happy with the petal falling effect of the weeping cherry tree I originally uploaded. I was able to add variety to both trees' petal falling effect in the process. The effect is much more noticeable on the weeping cherry tree now.

Original Post
Sometime ago I found sakura_chan’s sakura blossom recolor of the Japanese Maple tree and loved it. I read the comments and came upon amibear’s comment about making the trees drop blossoms, which inspired this upload.

Spring Blossom Trees that drop petals

Here are two trees that will blossom in the spring: Japanese sakura tree and Weeping cherry tree.

During springtime, the trees will drop blossom petals (using the petal falling effect) and the fallen petals give a slight boost to the environment. Players can direct sims to rake the petals into a pile. They can discard or compost the pile. Witches can clear the petals with the spell follium deletus. When the current season is not Spring, the petals will disappear on their own (about one sim hour after they detect that it is no longer Spring).

Sims will NOT autonomously rake or discard the petals. They will rake the petals when influenced to garden. Hired gardeners will rake and discard petals.

In the fall, the trees will drop leaves.

All objects have their own unique GUID generated using SimPE hash generator.

Please note that I only have experience with the Ultimate Collection. I test them as best as I could in my game and they work fine. I recommend trying them out in a test game or neighborhood to make sure they work well with your game setup before using them in your main neighborhoods.

All files have been compressed.

Catalogue info:
You can find these trees in buildmode, Garden Center/ Trees.
330 for Japanese sakura tree, same as the Japanese Maple.
400 for Weeping cherry tree, same as the Weeping Willow.

Compatability: Requires Season.
Version Download: Season version and AL version. Get Season version if you do not have AL. Get AL if you have both Season and AL.

There are multiple files in the download:

tree_japanese_sakura : Japanese sakura tree, cloned from the Japanese maple tree with spring state added
tree_weepingcherrytree : weeping cherry tree, cloned from the willow tree with spring state added
undertree_fallenpetals : the petals under the tree, cloned from the leaf pile under the tree

PICK ONE: if both are placed in the Downloads folder, the variety version will be in affect.
fallenpetals_variety : cloned from the leaf pile, the fallen petals have 4 different textures.
fallenpetals_single : cloned from the leaf pile, only one texture for the petals.

MOD: AL version only.
witch_spell_remove_petals : this mod enables witches to clear the fallen petals when using the spell “follium deletus” on the petals. The petals will not be cleared if the spell is used on leaves, and leaves will not be cleared when the spell is used on petals. In normal cases, you wouldn’t have both leaf pile and petals at the same time.

To install or uninstall:
Unzip the folder and place the files in your Sims 2/Downloads folder. If you want to remove them later, simply remove them from the Downloads folder. Any trees you had in your lots will revert to the trees they were cloned from. Any petals present should vanish. However, to be safe, it's best to remove the trees and petals present on lots before removing files.

Recolor files download:
These are not actual recolors. They are the base file for you to create recolors if you would like to recolor these trees. You won’t need these if you don’t choose to make recolors.

1. Make a copy of the recolor file of the tree you want to recolor. Rename it to whatever you like.
2. Open the new file in SimPE.
3. Go to Tools/ Object Tools/ Fix Integrity, update the model name to something unique. Save.
4. Go to Tools/ Object Tools/ Hash Generator, check the GUID option. Copy the Hash Value string.
5. Click on Material Overide (MMAT), and replace the family (dtstring) value with the one you copied. Commit. Save.
6. Change the Texture Image of every texture you want to replace, commit after each change. Save.
7. Place the finished recolor file in the Downloads folder.

Texture details and credits:
Spring: sakura_chan’s sakura blossom texture
Summer and Fall: the Maxis Birch tree texture
Winter states have not been altered from the original trees.
Fallen petals: free image: https://creazilla.com/media/clipart...cherry-blossoms
Petal pile: free image: https://creazilla.com/media/clipart...ry-blossom-tree

Credits:
sakura_chan for the sakura blossom texture
Sophie-David for the festive effects mod which gave me the idea to add the petal falling effect
vegan_kaktus and lamare for the leaf variety mod

Custom Contents used in the screenshots
Hair: XM Sims Flora hair089
water lilies DR by lvstndhrt
waterfall rocks by marvine
water texture DR by Voeille


Special thanks: SimPE, Echo for all her amazing tutorials, the Sims 2 modding community.