Huzzah! I think I finally have a decent terrain.

I may still have a little tweaking to do (such as smoothing some of the pointy peaks), but I’m happy with how it turned out. I wanted hills and valleys, a bridge, rivers and beach lots, room for farmland, and some “out in the boonies” roads for the campground and some secluded cabins, and I managed to fit all of it in. Woot!

And thanks to Jade, my neighborhood deco is showing up from within lot view! She recommended I create a userStartup.cheat file and add “boolProp dontMergeNHFlora false” to it. That worked beautifully. More info on what the blazes a userStartup.cheat file is and what you can do with it here and here.

I am really happy about the bridge; I’ve never gotten one to show up in a terrain before. It looks a little funny in lot view (the road just goes up and disappears into nowhere), but I like its appearance in neighborhood view. I added some deco just for fun, but I’m sure I’ll be rerarranging it and/or adding more as I go on.

Now I just need to figure out the graphics glitches. They’re minor, but they bug me to no end. What can I say? I’m picky as heck. :-) The first one is weird shadows showing up in neighborhood view. You can see them in my first shot up above. See how some spots on the terrain are like dark little blobs? I have no idea what is causing that.

Secondly, I have what I call the “green square” problem. They show up on textures and skintones, mainly. (They also appear on certain textures in my Lord of the Rings Online game, so it’s not just The Sims 2.) Here’s an example:

See how Maury’s and Elvis’s pants have green squares on them, right around the, erm, private area? Heh. Anyway, it’s not a gamebreaking glitch by any means, but having random green squares show up in my pictures is going to drive me batty. :-p

I’ve tried the new Nvidia driver, but that didn’t help. I’m going to keep researching and hope for a solution. Until then, you guys can play “hunt the green square” with my pics!

I’m antsy to start building, but I keep running into snags. I still can’t figure out my weird textures glitch (which doesn’t hurt gameplay but will keep my pics from looking pretty), and the neighborhood deco isn’t behaving as I hoped it would. :-(  I wanted Gnomesby to be nestled in a valley with forested hills surrounding it, but the trees aren’t showing up from lot view. Well, they do, but only within a small radius. I could swear they were showing up from farther away on my old computer, which had a lesser graphics card. So why the heck won’t they show up on my new computer, which has a supposedly awesome graphics card? Did I spend a crapload of money for nothing? Sigh.

I considered going back to my old computer for this project, but that’s just silly. My pics would look nice, but I’d barely be able to play the darned game. So I am choosing gameplay over aesthetics. Which pains me, it really does. I like pretty pictures. But I’m spinning my wheels over this stuff. Time to move on and just start building the town, which is the part I’m really excited about.

So…posting some pictures soon. I’m this close to finishing up my terrain. Just gotta smooth out a few rough edges.

I’m having some weird graphics issues with my new computer, so until I get that figured out, I won’t have any pics to share with you guys. I’m sorry about that. A Sims blog is only as good as its pictures! And this one doesn’t have ANY. Heh. But I thought I’d let you know how Gnomesby is progressing anyway.

If you’re curious, read on…

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Right now Gnomesby is just a blank plot of land in my Sim City 4 game. Eventually it will become a full-fledged Sims 2 neighborhood. As I attempt to build my ultimate town, I’ll post my progress here for whomever digs that kind of thing. That’s right — you will be able to watch Gnomesby grow and evolve…kinda like a Chia Pet.

I have a truckload of ideas floating around in my noggin, but I’m NOT etching anything in stone…except for this: I want to have FUN. If that means I have to scrap and restart the whole hood eleventy times in five months because I’m not having a good time, then so be it.

One more thing: Gnomesby, both the site and the town, are influenced and inspired by the very talented Jade, creator of the Isle of Thyme, my favorite Sims 2 ‘hood. I want to thank her for her patience, friendship, and sage advice. She has told me time and time again to just have fun with my ‘hood-building and not overthink myself into inaction, and by golly, I’m going to give it my best shot.