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Inventor
Original Poster
#1 Old 31st Mar 2021 at 4:06 AM
Default That disappearing distance terrain issue
OK, so I'm messing around with lot layout in Lunar Lakes. I downloaded the world file by ellacharmed because I didn't know if the cawster files would have the routing fixes.

I have followed tutorials in this forum. I should have written down the steps carefully so they could be verified, but from memory it is:

Create a blank world (let's call this world A), export some UNKN resources. Import from package ellacharmed's world into the blank world (World A) with replace and rename checked, save as a new .world file (World B). Copy the blank world's folder and give the copy the same name as the newly-saved world file (World B.world, minus the .world part). Import the UNKN resources from ellacharmed package. Delete the WPID resource in World B. Save. Open World B in CAW, add name, description, and png. Rebuild routing data. SAVE AS to yet a third world file (this time CAW will provide the correctly-named folder with the global layer file in it). We'll call this "final" output World C.

So, I'm back to the disappearing distance terrain. I feel like I've read every thread on the subject in this forum, and I'm still confused.

My intermediate world, World B, has distant terrain that shows up in CAW. I can also open World B in Edit In Game using the EIG.bat file I downloaded from a thread in this forum. However, this isn't a final form that allows me to save changes. World C has no distant terrain, and when I drop it on EIG.bat, what opens in EIG is mostly black and often crashes.

I opened Ellacharmed's Lunar Lakes using S3OC and cloned the OBJ named terrainDistant_dw4 WITHOUT renumber internally checked. For good measure, I also did this with World B, though if I understand what I'm doing (highly dubious), those two clones should be the same.

So.... what do I do with this? I edit the resource.cfg C:\Program Files (x86)\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3 Create a World Tool and add a Packages file there to create a facsimile of the Mod framework in my Documents folder and place the cloned package there? I tried that, deleted caches, and didn't see any difference. I enabled the OBJ to be visible in CAW, but that didn't seem to work either. I also imported the cloned terrain package into World C just for grins, but that didn't help either.

Why does World B have distant terrain without anything in the packages folder while World C does not?

It's frustrating that I've read Simsample go through this issue carefully with several people in this forum over about a decade, and the OP usually has a eureka moment that totally mystifies me.

Is there anyone around who can help me connect the dots?

Thanks in advance!!

Echo Weaver's Simblr: http://echoweaver.tumblr.com/
A portrait in stubbornness - Playing the same legacy since 2009
Sample a Brave Legacy: http://sims3sample.illation.net
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retired moderator
#2 Old 31st Mar 2021 at 11:20 AM
Are you trying to make a world you can share, or is this a world just for you to play?

The way I did it with the Riverview Distant Terrain was to make a partial clone of the DT, and mod it so that it showed up in CAW. This file still needed the player to have Riverview installed as it referenced mesh and text strings from the DCCache and world files. I made a seperate file for them to share with people who played that world which was modded to NOT show up in CAW (and hence the in-game world editor) as I thought it might be easy for someone to inadvertently delete the distant terrain if they were world editing in-game. So people who downloaded that world to play would need to have 1) Riverview (non decrapified) installed and 2) the file to enable the DT in their world. I did it this way just because, at the time, Sims 3 was still current and I did not want to be sharing clones of Sims 3 content in case the site got into trouble.

But, if you are just making it for your own use, you could just make a full clone of the DT for your custom world. The problem is you see that the Distant Terrain object is a part of the world itself, and so not loaded into game memory unless you are actually playing that world. So, to have Lunar Lakes DT work in another world, you would have to have Lunar Lakes and that custom world loaded simultaneously, which of course can't happen. So if you make a full clone of the DT you would just need that installed as a custom package file, and you could put it into your CAW CC too.
Inventor
Original Poster
#3 Old 31st Mar 2021 at 1:37 PM
When you say "partial clone" vs "full clone," what do you mean by that? Is a partial clone a clone that is not renumbered internally? Or are we talking about a different set of options in s3oc?

I think I'm sort-of following, though I'm not clear on the details to make it happen. If I open Ellacharmed's Lunar Lakes in s3oc, select the OBJD for terrainDistant_dw4, and click "Clone or Fix", what options would bring me a full clone? I assume I check "Create clone package." Do I check "Find missing resources"? What about renumber internally?

Is there anything I need to do to the world to point it to the clone package?

Importing the clone package into my world package doesn't work?

When I'm using CAW, do I still need the clone package in both my game mods folder and C:\Program Files (x86)\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3 Create a World Tool ?

I guess I'd like the option of sharing this at some point. I have a challenge rolling around in my head that may or may not go anywhere and I could potentially want to share with others.

I really appreciate your patient work troubleshooting folks' CAW troubles.

Echo Weaver's Simblr: http://echoweaver.tumblr.com/
A portrait in stubbornness - Playing the same legacy since 2009
Sample a Brave Legacy: http://sims3sample.illation.net
e3 d3 Ne2 Nd2 Nb3 Ng3
retired moderator
#4 Old 31st Mar 2021 at 2:44 PM
I think you'll have to look at my files to see exactly what I did, I don't really remember what I did!
https://modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=427515
I have Sims 3 basegame installed but not CAW or any modding tools, so it would take me a while to setup all that to take a look.
Remember though that when you install a store world, some information is installed to the DCCache folder, and some inside the world file. You'd have to get all those bits and put them together.
Inventor
Original Poster
#5 Old 31st Mar 2021 at 4:30 PM Last edited by echoweaver : 31st Mar 2021 at 7:27 PM.
Ah, well, it appears I can probably download the correct distant terrain package from MTS . https://modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=469435

With the clarity of not having to worry about correctly cloning them myself, I'm going back over your thread.
https://modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=427515

I think this helped, just by mentioning first this bit about finding and placing the object. https://cawtool.fandom.com/wiki/Ali...Distant_Terrain I wasn't looking in the right place for the distant terrain object to add.

So! Now I have it showing up in CAW. That's big! EIG is crashing, so I don't have the correct stuff there. But it's getting close.

Echo Weaver's Simblr: http://echoweaver.tumblr.com/
A portrait in stubbornness - Playing the same legacy since 2009
Sample a Brave Legacy: http://sims3sample.illation.net
e3 d3 Ne2 Nd2 Nb3 Ng3
retired moderator
#6 Old 31st Mar 2021 at 5:11 PM
Well done! Sorry I wasn't more help.
Inventor
Original Poster
#7 Old 31st Mar 2021 at 5:12 PM
Hmm. EIG is still crashing, and the crash log says ACCESS VIOLATION. Googling indicates this is an out of memory error.

I have not mucked with my DCCache folder because Lunar Lakes is a store set, plus I'd like to use other futuristic store sets in the revamp. Discussion on other threads advises one to back up DCCache, start fresh, and install just the Sims3Packs you're planning to use in the world you're editing. Woo.

Is purging DCCache still the applicable advice?

Echo Weaver's Simblr: http://echoweaver.tumblr.com/
A portrait in stubbornness - Playing the same legacy since 2009
Sample a Brave Legacy: http://sims3sample.illation.net
Inventor
Original Poster
#8 Old 31st Mar 2021 at 5:13 PM
Quote: Originally posted by simsample
Well done! Sorry I wasn't more help.


Are you kidding? I didn't write here until I'd been crawling the forums for three days, and now I'm almost there.

Echo Weaver's Simblr: http://echoweaver.tumblr.com/
A portrait in stubbornness - Playing the same legacy since 2009
Sample a Brave Legacy: http://sims3sample.illation.net
Inventor
Original Poster
#9 Old 31st Mar 2021 at 7:05 PM
I exported and installed the world, and even though I can't load EIG, the world looks fine in the actual game. Yay!

Without EIG, I'll have to drop the lots in once I've started a game, which isn't the worst thing ever. It would be nice to get some lots into the world, but I'll poke at EIG some time when I have more enthusiasm.

Echo Weaver's Simblr: http://echoweaver.tumblr.com/
A portrait in stubbornness - Playing the same legacy since 2009
Sample a Brave Legacy: http://sims3sample.illation.net
Inventor
Original Poster
#10 Old 31st Mar 2021 at 8:59 PM
Soo.... then I discovered that distant terrain wasn't the only problem. My Save As didn't have crystals or pipes in it either, despite my having downloaded them from the above thread and placed them in the CAW framework. I gave up on Ellacharmed's fixes and set everything up with fresh downloads from Cawster, and THAT version of the world was already stripped of pipes and crystals.

Sifting through posts in the forum, I find this snippet of conversation: https://modthesims.info/showthread....419#post4293419

Which ends without resolution on exactly the problem I have now.

It seems I have just picked an incredibly hard store world to try to edit. At least I still have my domes and am only missing pipes and crystals. I suppose I could live without the pipes, but the crystals are pretty iconic to Lunar Lakes.

Ellacharmed somehow managed to get those items to save, but it sounds like she went through plenty of pain to do it.

I guess I'll let it sit for a bit and return to it when I feel like going to down a deep rabbithole.

Echo Weaver's Simblr: http://echoweaver.tumblr.com/
A portrait in stubbornness - Playing the same legacy since 2009
Sample a Brave Legacy: http://sims3sample.illation.net
Inventor
Original Poster
#11 Old 1st Apr 2021 at 12:51 AM
BAM. I got it!!

Lesson: If you open your SaveAs world and the distant terrain doesn't load, you're already broken. You're probably not going to get any EA stuff that came with the world either. (Assuming you already added things to your frameworks.)

I was doing "everything" right, but it's just like Ellacharmed said in the thread I linked to above. The resource packages for Lunar Lakes up for download on MTS just didn't match the world available from Ellacharmed OR Cawster. Because apparently this world went through a lot of mutually incompatible versions by EA.

I made fresh clones of all the pipes and crystals from Ellacharmed's world, placed them in both frameworks, and Bob's your uncle.

Echo Weaver's Simblr: http://echoweaver.tumblr.com/
A portrait in stubbornness - Playing the same legacy since 2009
Sample a Brave Legacy: http://sims3sample.illation.net
e3 d3 Ne2 Nd2 Nb3 Ng3
retired moderator
#12 Old 1st Apr 2021 at 11:05 AM
Oh, this sounds similar to the problems I was having with the Riverview objects; if someone had decrapified it then they wouldn't work. I guess EA revised Lunar Lakes and changed the IDs so that it wouldn't break things if you installed two versions... well done for fixing it!
Inventor
Original Poster
#13 Old 1st Apr 2021 at 4:50 PM
Related to nothing, I just read your sig. RUSH!! My favorite is "Spirit of Radio" .

Echo Weaver's Simblr: http://echoweaver.tumblr.com/
A portrait in stubbornness - Playing the same legacy since 2009
Sample a Brave Legacy: http://sims3sample.illation.net
e3 d3 Ne2 Nd2 Nb3 Ng3
retired moderator
#14 Old 1st Apr 2021 at 8:23 PM
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