No downloads necessary. It is helpful if you know how to use constrainfloorelevation cheat. This is the only way I've figured out how to do it without your sim sinking into the floor. That can't ever happen with this pool. Still it's is moderately difficult so I'd practice on a testhood first. It's doesn't take long to do.

There is a pic of how it will look.



Prestep: Get familiar with the undo shortcut (control+z) you might need it.

1. First place a pool any size - rectangle or square (curved edges don't really look right).

2. Pick your pool tile colours now (pool wall and floor). Plain tiles with no edging looks best I think.

3. Pick the surrounding tiles and at one side of the pool these tiles need to be at least 4 tiles width to start with. This is where your diving board will go and the stairs leading up to the diving board.

4. Place a fence around the three sides of the pool - not the side where the diving board is going to be obviously. Make it one of the waist high fences. As in the pic I uploaded the glass fence is cool as it let's you see inside the pool.

5. Make another pool at least 3 squares away from the pool. This will be deleted later. Only needs to be 1x1 in size.



6. Open the cheat dialogue (control+shift+c) and type boolprop constrainfloorelevation false.

7. Go to Build>Shovel section and you want to select the raise ground tool and select the medium sized area thingy. Click on a corner of the second pool exactly 7 times. It's very sensitive if you are not used to it. Take your time and get it right because you want the water at the right level.



8. Click the top down veiw and use the eye dropper to select the pool floor tile you chose in step 2. Place the tile in the second pool and drag it over your new above ground pool. You've just raised the floor and the water level to the wall. (see posts 24 & 25 for more info and tips on water getting the water level right.)



9. Select the raise ground tool again on the smallest sized area setting. We are going to raise the end of the pool where you diving board is going. This is important as this is the step that will stop your sims sinking into the ground when they get out. I raised mine one tile away from each pool corner (diving board end) but how you do it is up to you. Raise the pool edge six clicks. You only actually need to raise two points on the grid to raise something so don't worry about raising an entire square. With the level tool you want to click and hold on the raised square and drag it across the side of the pool and two squares wide away from the pool.






Place stairs where you would like them to go. Then hide the rest of the sloping ground by placing a foundation over it. Always drag from the top of the diving platform when placing foundations and it won't flatten out. Open the cheat dialogue again (control+shift+c) and type: moveobjects on. Add your diving board and ladder.



Alternatively you can place modular stairs around the diving board area to hide the sloping ground.



11. Save and get a sim to dive.

For the pool room (posted below) the only difference is you need to raise the diving platform 12 clicks instead.

If you come up with your own design pool post a pic and show me. I also made one with full walls with the 3 tile store windows (not sure if they came with a particular ep). So it looks like a room sized glass pool.

Another thing you can do is raise the pool water level so it is level with the ground. In step 7 raise the pool one click instead and skip step 9 onwards. I saw an article on the great pools of the world and someone had a pool like that on their patio. They lived on a hillside with a great view. There was no pool wall so where the water ended you could see the wonderful landscape behind it. I've attached a pic of my test run of this. As I was about to take the pic twilight started. It's my testhood so the view isn't exciting.

Alternatively, you could raise the pool 2 clicks and place a short garden fence around it.

Do you mind posting more pictures? (Both step by step and of the finished pool area, please.) If you can't make pictures for all of the steps, illustrating some of the more difficult steps would be helpful.

The pictures are a bit small too. Do you mind making them a bit bigger please?

I can't tell from the picture, but is the only sloped ground near the stairs (with the exception of the 1x1 square of pool)? What about the remaining perimeter around the pool?

Yeah posting the images would be much better. How do people do that? Upload to another site.

Also my pics being small. I fix that in the game settings right?

Only the area around the diving board is sloped which I surrounded with steps to make it look nicer. The rest of the ground around the pool is all flat. You just need to raise the ground where the diving board is so it is level to the water. If you used something else like a half wall or a foundation in would be on a different level to the pool so the sim will sink into the floor and the water level will drop next time you load the lot. The only way to do it is to raise the pool edge where the diving board is to trick the game into working. There is no way I can think of to deal with the slope it creates other than surrounding with steps. Or you could use a tile style flooring. That wouldn't look too bad.

I'll take the screenshots and figure out how to post them anyway.

Also the black line on the edge of the pool can be covered up with the great divide wall. It doesn't cover it completely but makes it much less noticable. I think that came with pets. You need to move the diving board out of the way while you do lay the wall. Or you could use dark tiles as with my second post which looks rather fancy.

edit: Possibly another way to deal with the slope is to surround the diving platform with a foundation and leave a space for steps. I'm not sure if you can place one right next to the pool though. I'll definitely try it out.

Josepina. Thank you. This is exactly what I need when I build my new house, now that I know how to do it at least. Thank you!!!

Your welcome. Glad you like it.

Agreed. This is very useful and creative. It always amazes me when people figure these things out.

You can place a foundation. Do you think this is nicer or the steps? Figuring out an easy way to explain how to do it will take a bit of consideration.



Also I missed that to place the diving board you'll need the moveobjects on cheat.

This is the largest screenshot size my game does. I'll have to edit the resolution file to make them bigger as the size is ridiculous.

I agree with you Bwinney. Now I can customize my house as I want. Thanks again! Time to make a pool.

Several sessions running into many hours making lots covered in failed projects. lol

Failed or not. You didn't give up. And today you brought this to us. I now can build that a house my Sims can love and be proud of.

Ze pool room.

Based on the same principle. The pool is 17 clicks deep and the water is 16 clicks deep. You can't make the pool any shallower than 4 clicks or it will revert to 4 clicks on reload. So you can raise the water 13 clicks in total as shown in the snapshots. Not sure where you could use something like this. Maybe an aquarium (someone has created pool fish to download?) or a fantasy nightclub. Or just an eccentric millionaire sim that has more money than sense perhaps.

You can also make a waterslide by making a long strip of pool, then elevating it and the ground around it so there is enough space at the top for a diving board and some walking space, then put stairs going up to the diving board. (I'll post pics once I can find them)

great instructions

I love this idea!! Thank You Josephina

Your very welcome.

The pool is a nice alternative to the pond waterfall with ultra reflective animated water.

Josepina, can you upload more pics of your pool-waterfall-pond-fountain thingy? at different angles?

Yes, and a tutorial on how you did it? Thats really awesome :O

for anyone who hasn't seen it yet Josepina posted a tutorial on building the waterfall pool HERE

Wow that all looks amazing!

I'll give this a go but I'm not sure I'll be able to do it!

My revamped above ground pool



Behind the ladder and diving board is two tiles of modular stairs. Either side of that is the planter boxes, some desks, bedside tables, display stands, Wii boxes and an adult poster I got off sexysims. I used anything I could to hide the slope. Placing them is a challenge. The down side is sims can't actually walk from the diving board to the deck tables and chairs. You can place decorative stuff on the desks as you see the towel rack in the screenshot.

Incredible! Now THATS an above ground pool! Great job

Thanks Night Racer. This one was made using grid adjuster. Sims still can't go from the diving board to the chairs but the slope is gone at least.

This looks really nice, but it is indeed hard for "sims dummies" like me when it concerns the infamous constrainfloorelevation cheat. I can make decent-enough bridges with it, but never did quite like the looks of split-levels made with it, so I use the "cheat" that gives you a split-level effect without the floor elevation cheat. More time-consuming, but effective for me.

But this lack of experience is, perhaps, why I'm hitting a brick wall with the pool. I can't get the water to level up to the fence wall at all.

I made the square outside of the pool, as you directed. Pre-selected the tile for the pool, used the cheat, put the eye-dropper on the outside square, tried to move the tile across, and .... nothing happens. I do have the cheat on. When I try it on other areas, it raises them nicely, and I can do the diving board area well enough (though I guess because I couldn't raise the water, my Sims sink into the diving board when they dive). So I guess I got half the tutorial right!

Am I missing something really crucial here? Was I supposed to hit a key such as "shift" or do something else while moving that single tile over?



EDIT ... OK, finally did it. Pictures below ... though they show why I don't upload lots to MTS!

Here are a few tips for the clueless .... like me.

1. I found that putting that single square toward a corner of the pool and dragging it diagonally helped a lot, much like you would with a split-level house.. You'll know you've succeeded if you see the water just at the tip of the fence, and the pool floor seems visibly higher than it was before. You CAN fix minor leveling mistakes at this point ... carefully.

2. Save at intervals if you think you've got it right at one step. Save frequently. (And on a side note ... does it corrupt a neighborhood if you save with the constrain cheat on? Hope not. I have turned it off now.)

3. WATCH THAT WATER LEVEL. Watch that flooring level as well. Once you've got the hang of this, it isn't so hard, but do realize that if you mess up a step right near the pool, it can affect that water level and throw it off. Make sure, for instance, that if you accidentally messed up a foundation, the water doesn't look wonky. This is a good reason why you should save at intervals.

4. If you screw up a little .... certain tricks, such as using the taller base game shrubbery, coupled with the "move objects" cheat, can work wonders. Or find some tall shrubbery on a CC site and use that. Just sayin'.

But that pool IS, indeed, above-ground, and my Sims can't get enough of it. Thanks for the help, Josepina!

Placing the 1x1 pool at one corner of the pool is the smart way to do it. Then you only have to drag the tiles across once. You do need to drag the tile all the way across the pool and make sure it is levelled out. If you change the water level more than once ( eg. if it becomes uneven during construction) you'll need to save and reload the lot to see the change. Very occasionally, usually depending on what I've placed on the pool edge (half-walls or foundations in particular) the first adjustment won't be visible unless you reload. Sorry for making that step a little vague. I'll make a reference to your post in the tutorial.

It doesn't matter if you save with the cfe cheat on.

Love your public pool. That's what I aim to do aswell once I get this toddler pool figured out. It's in the final phase now!