After reading this post and reading some of the problems people have been having using siudada's method, I decided to find out why this sometimes worked, and sometimes didn't.

It turns out that each neighborhood apparently has "compass directions". I'll try to illustrate this, and why it matters for siudada's method of placing sideways driveways (and shadows).

First, I selected a neighborhood that had a four-way intersection and placed the same size lot on each street (pic 1). Since I don't know which direction is "due north", and it really doesn't matter anyway, I am stating now that this pic is "due south" I then entered each lot, and using siudada's method, I placed each driveway. One thing I've noticed is that when entering the lots the *first* time, the camera *ALWAYS* faces "northeast" (pic 2). Therefore, when you place the driveways, as long as you do *not* move the camera, the driveways will *ALWAYS* end up with the arrows pointing to the left ("east")(pic 3). I then marked the arrow direction with carpeting, so that from the neighborhood screen, one could see the actual direction of the driveways on each lot. As you can see, they all face the same "compass point"! This means that you can always predict in which direction the driveways will end up, based on siudada's tutorial here.

After your lot is saved, the "compass directions" are locked to the lot, and moving the lot will never change the direction of the driveways.

That leads me to the shadows portion of this thread, which is in the next post. :D

Thanks for reading, and I hope this helps someone out there!

Sotalia

Continued from 1st post...

For the shadows, the same rules apply. I placed eight fresh lots and determined the shadow direction for each lot (pic 5). Since the shadow direction appears to be the same on some of them, I used four lots for this example. Using lots 1, 2, 7 & 8, I built the same little house on each lot with the same decorations. You can see in pic 6 that the shadow direction will dramatically affect the look of the houses, since the shadows tend to enhance some details while blotting out others. This, I hope, will help builders when they are building their houses and want the shadows to go in specific directions.

As above, saving the lot locks the shadow direction to the lot, and changing the lot's placement will not change shadow direction. Also, as you can see in pic 7, the neighborhood view shows the shadows going in the opposite direction of what the lot actually has. Not sure why, but it probably isn't important.

Well, that is all. I hope my findings will help someone out there!

Sotalia

Are you saying that you can only place driveways sideways depending on the compass directions of the lot??
I've tried to get them to go sideways on various lots in different directions and sizes...I did what siudada said and deleted the square on the bottom right of the path but I can't get ANY driveways or extensions to turn!

Any chance of a tutorial showing how to place driveways sideways etc?? Would be sooo helpful!

Exactly! The pictures show it better, but they are still under approval.



The extension will flip automatically once that tile is deleted. If your lot was placed with the "compass point" facing in certain directions, you won't notice that the extension has flipped. I didn't at first and I thought it wasn't working. It wasn't until I placed a fresh lot in another area that it flipped, which is when I realized the whole compass thingie.

Sotalia

I'm hoping siudada sees this and she can add it to her tutorial. I wouldn't feel right creating my own. :D

Sotalia

I wonder if that is why when I tried it, it didn't look like it was working but when I shut it off and went back in to work on it later my driveway wouldn't go in, it was on the opposite of the mailbox and wouldn't place, if that makes any sense.

So what direction did you find worked best? Which way should the shadow be facing?

Think I'll go and find a crossroads and have a play around with it!

That's why I didn't think it was working, at first. If the L-shaped driveway flips to the back of the lot, then the extension would flip to face the back of the lot too, but you wouldn't notice that the arrows are facing the other direction.

Sotalia

It gets down to personal preference and the style of house, but I think that when the lot is placed with the front facing "east", the front is highlighted enough to bring out details, but not too bright to wash out the whites. Although, if you wanted the front to be dark, like a haunted house or the like, I'd say start the lot facing south or west. :D

Sotalia

I'd like to add something that was brought up in another thread. After you go through the tutorial, don't forget to replace the tile with the correct tile, or you won't be able to place a regular driveway!

Sotalia