Weird blue lines in my world

[Tahera]

Hi everyone,

I`ve tried to find an answer for my problem by searching MTS and the web but couldn`d find help. Please excuse if I missed / overlooked a thread.

I`m working on a tiny island to play a Robinson game and I came across weird blue lines that are showing up in CAW, EIG and in the exported world. I`ve attached some screenshots for better understanding.
The lines are going across the complete island along the chunk boundaries (I think it`s called like that in English) and are visible between the lots. I don`t know how to fix that. Can anyone please help?

[simsample]

You know, I've seen someone else complain of this issue before, but I don't think they ever found a solution. However, one thing that you could try is to export the heightmap and re-import it. That might make a difference, as it may reseat all lots and realign the terrain:
http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/459380.page

Be sure to backup your world first!

[Tahera]

Thanks for the info!
I´ll test later if that will help.

[Night Racer]

Its a menu check setting isnt it? Much like "Show wire frame grid" Or w/e its called?
Sre you refering to the big light blue line in pic 2? OR the tiny blue ones in the others? Cuz the tiny blue ones look like lot borders... :I

[simsample]

Night Racer, see image 3- it's not lot borders.

[Para]

Ich have the same problem now with my world. Blue lines are everywhere :( Exporting und reimporting the heightmap changed nothing.

[simsample]

Tahera and Para, can you think of anything you did to cause this to happen? I've seen this mentioned a few times, but never found a cure for it. If you could give some detail about your world and what you have tried, or even post the world files, perhaps it might be easier to think of some suggestions.

[Tahera]

I can`t remember when the blue lines appeared for the first time so I don`t know what I`ve done before. As I`m working on a tiny island for a Robinson Crusoe kind of game, I startet over with my base map. I modeled and painted the terrain and everything looked fine - no weird lines.
When I opened the world the next day, new blue lines were visible. They are going along the chunk boundaries (borders?). I really have no idea, why they are there again.

[auntielynds]

I was helping someone with this last year. In her case, she had about 12 textures per chunk in the offending areas. Once she deleted some of those textures, the lines diminished somewhat, but never completely went away. I see your chunck boundaries on part of the area are white, so you have less than eight in those chunks, the pic with the red chunks, have more than eight.

[simsample]

Not sure that's the cause though, auntielynds- the case I saw was here (the post about half way down the page):
http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/75/417022.page
RFlong7 mentions having two chunks with more than 8 paints, but on the next page mikitta47 mentions the same problem in a world with less than eight paints. And Tahera's first images don't have more than 8 per chunk.

Tahera, perhaps you could upload the files for that world? The first thing that would be worth checking is, do the lines show on someone else's computer? I'm trying to rule out first that it is a graphical glitch.

[Para]

My world is near to be completed and ca 56MB big. There are less then 8 paints per chunk at the moment. Blue lines are on chunk boundaries and on many lot boundaries (but there are no tears). The lines are only visible in Edit In Game.

[Tahera]

I`ve exported the world, installed it to my sister`s computer and the blue lines were visible too. After that, I was peeved at this and deleted the damaged file so I can`t upload it here.

I went back to an older save with just 7 paint layers and tada --- no blue lines! The only thing I noticed is a difference in color shading along the chunk areas. I think I could hide this with trees and plants.

[JadedSidhe]

I started having those lines in my world. I am using the riverview height map and distant terrain.

The lines weren't there at the beginning and the only terrain paint I've used are just roughed in lines to remind me where everything is supposed to be, and its only one color. I have been putting my roads down, so essentially, all I've done is sculpting and road work.

http://thumbs2.modthesims.info/img/1/6/2/6/4/2/5/MTS_JadedSidhe-1249041-top2.JPG

I started thinking outside the box, literally and came to an interesting discovery. Some of you more experienced builders probably know this, but its new to me. So here goes.

First thing I did was look to see if there was something screwy with the height map. I exported it and viewed it all the way up to 1600% zoom. No strange dotted lines anywhere.

I thought maybe I had a gap between edges and decided to take a look at the underside of my map and found that the map appears to be rendered in upside down boxes, or rectangles. Each rectangle is one 'chunk', and the ugly lines are where the edges of the chunk boundaries join up. The 'edges' where there are no ugly lines topside are solid and stable as you move toward and away from them.

http://thumbs2.modthesims.info/img/1/6/2/6/4/2/5/MTS_JadedSidhe-1249042-under1.JPG

However, the 'edges' were there are the ugly lines, they flicker as if caw can't decide whether to render it or not. I tried raising, lowering and painting with a darker paint along the trouble line and nothing worked.

I figured, what the heck, I'll look at it in EIG. Guess what... no line, and that is even with the lower game settings.

http://thumbs2.modthesims.info/img/1/6/2/6/4/2/5/MTS_JadedSidhe-1249043-top3.JPG

So, that's my adventures with the ugly lines. I'll leave the conclusions to the more experienced creators.

[simsample]

For everyone having this issue, could you upload your CAW files somewhere? That way we can look at the files and see if we can make any suggestions.

JadedSidhe, what you're describing sounds like z-fighting:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z-fighting
But on the edges of the chunks. If so, that would indicate that the terrain deformation is causing this, so possibly resculpting could help.