Gimp or floor creation help

[joandsarah77]

I've hunted all over and could not find a board for floor creation type questions. Also I'm not sure if my problem is being caused by Homecrafter or by Gimp.

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e397/joandsarah77/Building/snapshot_00000003_fce35899.jpg
I am making a mini golf area in a resort lot I am currently building and wanted a golf ball ‘hole’. I thought drawing it on in Gimp would be fairly simple. This is the first time I’ve made a floor but I have made walls in Gimp before.
Here is my problem, I am using the maxis Moss green carpet, drawing a golf 'hole' in Gimp and once I check it in game it's changed to this bright green. I thought at first I must have used the wrong carpet and redid it with the same results.
I did not change the colour of the carpet, but it changes anyway! Is it from putting down the grid? Do I have to actually recolour it back to the Maxis colour? What is causing it to change colour?

[maxon]

It can be the size and resolution of the original graphic. With many of the patterns like that one where there is little variation in the texture right across the space, what Eaxis did was make the graphic for them very small indeed and then they would be tiled over and over sort of randomly when placed in game. Doing this would save file space. That looks like it contains very little colour information. The thing is, that tiny graphic is expanded enormously when it's extracted in Homecrafter to fit the space of a full size floor tile. I think, and you might like to test this, that you could extract the texture in Homecrafter and immediately reimport it to make a floor tile and would see the same colour shift. In other words, I don't think it's anything you are actually doing wrong. I had a similar problem when I made some road tiles based on the in-game tarmac. I realised what the problem was when I looked at the graphic in SimPE - it was really, really small.

One possible solution (though I have to admit I didn't care enough to try) is to extract the original graphic from SImPE at actual size and then tile it over and over into a full-sized floor tile file. If that makes any sense at all.

[Lerf1950]

Would it be possible to make a transparent floor tile with the hole in the middle?

[maxon]

Would it be possible to make a transparent floor tile with the hole in the middle?
Yes, but you can't overlay floor tiles one on top of the other. OTOH, you could make a recolour for those floor covering thingies (techical term). I'll see if I can find the thing I mean, hangonaminute.

Edit: OK so the correct technical term was floor overlays. Anyway, I mean this:
http://www.modthesims.info/d/362815
There's a similar one for walls, BTW. You'd recolour the single tile and make a hole. That would work.

[joandsarah77]

I had no idea this would be so tricky. So a simple floor tile with a hole isn't possible. I'm a real noob at creating so I have no idea on how to make overlays or even how to extract things with simpe. All I've ever made where some walls and a couple of clothing recolours. I love Phaenoh's floor overlays, but I'm not sure how that link helps me with this. I’d need a detailed tutorial. Thanks for the help and information about this, at least now I know what the trouble with it is.

[maxon]

I had no idea this would be so tricky. So a simple floor tile with a hole isn't possible. I'm a real noob at creating so I have no idea on how to make overlays or even how to extract things with simpe. All I've ever made where some walls and a couple of clothing recolours. I love Phaenoh's floor overlays, but I'm not sure how that link helps me with this. I’d need a detailed tutorial. Thanks for the help and information about this, at least now I know what the trouble with it is.
Well, to make the overlay, all you need to do is make a recolour of the floor - just like you would a standard object. I imagine, though, that it would be necessary to treat the texture in the same way you do it for that overlay wall - in that you need to install the NVidea DDS Utilities for SimPE and then use a texture with no background. It is actually easier than it sounds. I'll see if I can find the tutorial for the wall object.

[joandsarah77]

Okay, if you know of a good tutorial I'll give it a go.
I tried making the floor again adding a larger pale yellow circle behind the hole and it still turned up bright green and the pale yellow was some neon yellow green. :faceslap:

[maxon]

I made this if you want it:
http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j49/Maxon/GolfHole.jpg
http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j49/Maxon/GolfHole2.jpg
It's a recolour of the floor overlay - the one-tile floor overlay (by Phaenoh).

If you want to try it for yourself, you need the tutorial that came with the wall overlay which is a similar sort of object. The tutorial is in the download bit - it's a pdf file.
http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=242442

[joandsarah77]

Thank you for your time and effort Maxon. :D That looks very close to what I want except your hole is a bit smaller than I would like. I enlarged the hole after that try of mine in the first post to be somewhat closer in size to the putt putt hole. I will give that tutorial a go, but if I can't figure it I will use the one you made with a line to credit you of course.

I Googled the NVidea tools. Is this what I download? http://developer.nvidia.com/legacy-texture-tools
The first one? DDS_Utilities_8.31.1127.1645.exe

[maxon]

Thank you for your time and effort Maxon. :D That looks very close to what I want except your hole is a bit smaller than I would like. I enlarged the hole after that try of mine in the first post to be somewhat closer in size to the putt putt hole. I will give that tutorial a go, but if I can't figure it I will use the one you made with a line to credit you of course.

I Googled the NVidea tools. Is this what I download? http://developer.nvidia.com/legacy-texture-tools
The first one? DDS_Utilities_8.31.1127.1645.exe
The file is like 2kb - it's a small round black hole. I don't really think a credit is necessary. I'm not sure about the NVidea file there but the tutorial tells you exactly what you need. Annoyingly, I wasn't happy with the first version of the hole and made it smaller!

[joandsarah77]

The link on the tutorial comes up with this http://developer.nvidia.com/search/google_cse_adv/object%20ies%20legacy and it says open with notepad so I don't think that can be right. I looked over on the simpe page itself http://sims.ambertation.de/en/faq/ but that link doesn't go to the right place either, so I am hoping the link I found is correct. If not I will be using your golf hole in my resort lot, so of course I will give a credit...for a 2kb black hole. :lol: Unless you don't want one. I certainly would have not worked that out for myself.

[maxon]

The link on the tutorial comes up with this http://developer.nvidia.com/search/google_cse_adv/object%20ies%20legacy and it says open with notepad so I don't think that can be right. I looked over on the simpe page itself http://sims.ambertation.de/en/faq/ but that link doesn't go to the right place either, so I am hoping the link I found is correct. If not I will be using your golf hole in my resort lot, so of course I will give a credit...for a 2kb black hole. :lol: Unless you don't want one. I certainly would have not worked that out for myself.
I should think that your original link is ok - it's not like there are a bajillion versions of the DDS Utilities. You install them like a programme and then go into SimPE's preferences and tell it, in the right place (it's easy to see where), where the Utilities are located.

[joandsarah77]

Maxon where in game will I find your overlay to have a look at it? I opened it in simpe but it doesn't show what section it's in. I'm assuming decorative? How expensive is it to give me an idea as my decorative section is huge.

I downloaded the DDS Utilities to my desktop and told it to install. Now I've opened simpe and found preferences but it says the Utilities are not found. Where do I browse to find it? It's not under Nvidia on c drive. Or should I just use the simpe link and re-download it?

[maxon]

Maxon where in game will I find your overlay to have a look at it? I opened it in simpe but it doesn't show what section it's in. I'm assuming decorative? How expensive is it to give me an idea as my decorative section is huge.

I downloaded the DDS Utilities to my desktop and told it to install. Now I've opened simpe and found preferences but it says the Utilities are not found. Where do I browse to find it? It's not under Nvidia on c drive. Or should I just use the simpe link and re-download it?
The overlay is a recolour of Phaenoh's floor overlay - I thought you had that CC object? Anyway, you'd find it there as a recolour. If you don't have it, the floor overlay is the link I gave above.

On my computer, the DDS Utilities are here:
C:\Windows (x86)\NVidia Corporation\DDS Utilities
When you browse for it, you only need to click on the exe - SimPE will pick the location up from that. I installed to the default location. BTW my Windoze file is x86 because I have a 64-bit system - yours might be just Windoze.

[joandsarah77]

No I don't have that cc. :faceslap: no wonder your overlay didn't show up. I have something similar but it's a rug.

Mine is 64 bit. :) Thank you.

Edit:
I may have installed the wrong thing. I went to Windows(86) NVidea Corporation/DDS Utilities. That part was there, but from there I don't see an exe, but there are quite a few sub folders. Inside DDS Utilities there is a LBS and a Tools folders with sub folders, as well as other things such as detach, licence,nvdxt, nvdxt Library, and sitch. Maybe there is more than one kind of DDS Utilities.

I installed the cc and I'm using your hole. Quite useful for being able to move the 'hole' around off centre. I'll chip away at this SimPE thing when I have the time and I quiet house, as I imagine if/when I get this DDS Utilities figured out I will probably have to learn how to recolour anyway. My lot is basically finished so I'll use your hole in my upload, thanks.