Hi there! You are currently browsing as a guest. Why not create an account? Then you get less ads, can thank creators, post feedback, keep a list of your favourites, and more!
Department of Post-Mortem Communications
Original Poster
#1 Old 16th Mar 2013 at 1:14 PM Last edited by Don_Babilon : 16th Sep 2015 at 10:25 AM.
Default [Tutorial] Using Create-A-Style on floor tile edges
The Ambitions patch 1.12 added the feature that "Players may now use Create a Style on the edges of floor tiles"

What has always annoyed me about this feature, however, is that no matter what pattern I choose they all come out blurry and washed out - especially horizontal patterns. Houses that were built by EA, however, always show clear and crisp patterns.

This example is Mellow Manor from Moonlight Falls

Default:


There is a clear horizontal wood pattern on the edges of the floor tiles that are above that porch.

Merely trying to change the colour results in this:

The wood pattern becomes blurred when I use the CASt palette and turn the colour wheel.


My discovery now is how to ensure that these patterns remain sharp and crisp such that you can even apply more complex styles to the floor tile edges.
This is an example of The Garden House in the France vacation world, where I achieved this:

There is a horizontal dark wood pattern on the top and an ornamented black and white frieze section underneath, all clear and sharp.

Now how is that done?
The basis for this is the discovery that floor tile edges do not merely use a pattern but a style from either the wallpaper or floor section. This, however, cannot be applied directly by using either the picker tool or simply selecting a wallpaper style from the presets. It has to be accessed in a different way.

The following picture shows my test environment:


Four floor styles (from left to right): a default Wood style, a custom Wood style with a horizontal wood pattern, a default Tiles style and a custom recolour of the same.
Two wall styles: a custom preset style and the default style from the Pannelling section.
The foor tile edge is still in its default stage (a horizontal Geometric pattern)

Now simply going for that floor tile edge with the Create-A-Style (CASt) palette and selecting some pattern will just result in the blurry mess I described above:

The pattern I chose is the custom recolour of the horizontal wood pattern from the second floor tile.

While doing so I noticed that in the upper left corner of the screen the saved styles showed the wallpaper section, even though I had taken the wood pattern from the floor tile:

It took me a while to finally realise that, even though I had taken the wood pattern from the floor tile and saved that to my patterns palette, I must have moved the CASt palette cursor over the wallpapers on my groundfloor wall before clicking with the cursor on the floor tile edge. And this is the key to the solution of the blurry pattern problem.

Going back to the orange wood floor pattern I then saved it as a floor preset (and not only as a pattern), then moved the CASt cursor over the floor tile and moved it from there over the floor tile edge. The game loads that style into its memory that is the last one that was highlighted before you click on the floor tile edge.
Clicking then only meant that I had to choose the saved preset style from the floor styles section in the upper left corner of the screen:

And suddenly I had a clear horizontal wood pattern on my floor tile edges.


The drawback to this is, however, that once the clear patterned style is set, you cannot change it anymore using CASt:

It will immediately blur again. You have to have the style you want saved into the style presets exactly how you want it.

Another thing is that I can't use the preset styles provided by EA, I am confined to my custom saved styles.
This is the example of the Tiles floors:

EA Tiles style

Custom recolour

The same goes when you use a wallpaper as the basis for your floor tile edge style.

EA wallpaper style

Custom Wallpaper

So that last picture finally shows what I wanted to achieve, a floor tile edge with a narrow frieze.

So, before I continue, let me sum up what are the necessary steps:
-Before you begin to use CASt on floor tile edges you have to determine what it should look like
-Create either a wallpaper or floor tile that contains the style you want and exactly the way you want it
-Save this to your custom wallpaper or floor presets.
-Place it near the floor tile edges in your build
-When selecting the CASt palette move its cursor over the custom wallpaper/floor and from there immediately to the floor tile edge
-Click on the floor tile edge and choose your custom wallpaper/floor style from the presets window in the upper left corner of your screen.

Not all wallpaper or floor styles are well-suited for this but you can now style your floor edges in various interesting styles:

Chinese Panelling wall

Late Night Art Deco wall


And why all that hard work for something so minor? Well, your balconies will never look anymore as if they were built on mouldy waffles:




ETA: I'll reserve the second post for some additional information on the colouring difference between floor tile edges and wallpapers/floors

Edit 2: After doing this for more than two years now I noticed that I get the most reliable results if I don't close CASt while I'm in the process of recolouring a floor tile edge. So, CASting the floor tile/wallpaper that contains the pattern the floor edge should get, changing its colour hue and brightness, saving this into the presets, then dragging the pallette over the floor tile/wallpaper and to the floor tile edge and finally choosing the saved preset for the floor edge should be done in one go and you should never close CASt in between these steps.

If the result is not good, then you should close CASt before you target your floortile with the CASt tool again and repeat the steps.
13 users say thanks for this. (Who?)
Advertisement
Department of Post-Mortem Communications
Original Poster
#2 Old 16th Mar 2013 at 1:15 PM Last edited by babele44 : 18th Jul 2013 at 1:08 PM.
Finally I am finding some time to expand on this article a bit. Hopefully I will have finished it soon.

First one big CAVEAT:

The method I described is highly unreliable with regard to its outcome. For example, when I tried to do the same on my Mac (the pictures are made on a gaming PC), it didn't work most of the time. This could be due either to the different OS, the hardware capabilities or simply the patch level. The Sims on my PC was on patch 1.50, the Mac version is still on 1.19. But in any case the patterns on the Mac almost always turned out blurry and washed out.
But even on the PC I have suffered from this occasionally. The thing I found out about this is, however, that when your saved wall or floor style does not appear sharp and well-defined when you apply it to the floor tile edge, the pattern itself that you used in your preset will have become corrupt in a way. When I had one wall style come out all blurry on the floor tile edge I saved the patterns that were used in that style to the pattern presets and applied these presets to another wall style and they were blurry there too. The same when I used that pattern on a floor. I am still trying to fugure out whether this is something that I did or whether there is something one can do to prevent this from happening. For the time being the only way to avoid this is to start making a new preset and hoping that this time it will work.

This is very important to be kept in mind because if you want the colour of the floor tile edge to match either your regular floors or walls you will have to fiddle around a lot with the pattern CASt in any case. Because the most annoying thing about this feature is that the colour of any pattern when used on a floor tile edge will always be brighter and less saturated than when used on a wall or floor.
You can see this here:

The pattern on the floor tile edge is the orange wood pattern used on the second floor tile from the left.

In order to half-way match the floor tile I had to create a floor preset that is much darker and stronger in hue (meaning that I had moved the colour wheel into a more orange "region" than the original.
So in the following picture the pattern used on the floor tile edge is the one that is shown as the first floor pattern on the left, while the second one is the one the floor tile edge is supposed to match (I know, it is still too yellow to match exactly):
mature minion
retired moderator
#3 Old 16th Mar 2013 at 2:34 PM
Thanks for this, I've always wondered why they allowed you to CAST it but they still behaved really oddly when you did. Neat work around!
Mad Poster
#4 Old 16th Mar 2013 at 3:22 PM
You get all of my applauds! All of them. And a few of my children and access to Swiss bank account!

REALLY, you are amazing! Thank you!

->> Check Out Checkout: Journey To Employee Of The Month! <<-

~ Just a click a day is nothing short of helpful! ~
Department of Post-Mortem Communications
Original Poster
#5 Old 16th Mar 2013 at 4:29 PM
You are too kind! Your generosity is way above what my humble post deserves. Please, do keep your children! Really, I insist - the Swiss account will be enough.
Instructor
#6 Old 16th Mar 2013 at 7:23 PM
Very cool and awesomely helpful. Thank you!
dodgy builder
#7 Old 17th Mar 2013 at 12:05 PM
This is awesome, and very close to how plattforms are recolored

Matrix can send me the kids, big market for kids out there. I will be a millionair
Mad Poster
#8 Old 17th Mar 2013 at 7:23 PM
Thank you for sharing this find. I used it last night and came up with a cute edge. You have done a great service for the community, those edges were my "scream" moment.

Resident member of The Receptacle Refugees
Let's help fund mammograms for everyone. If you want to help, Click To Give @ The Breast Cancer Site Your click is free. Thank you.
Mad Poster
#9 Old 1st Apr 2013 at 10:27 PM
I finally got around to testing this in my own game today and while it seems very finicky, it does give a much better looking result.

My deviantART, MTS Yearbook Origin ID = Alistu
Back to top