There's a few pre-made houses I like in Pleasantview, but there's not enough space for car park.

Can SimPE be used to expand the lot size?

Everything I've ever seen has said that lot size is unchangeable. We don't have modded lot sizes, and there's no way to change a lot's size once it's placed.

I'd be willing to bet it could be done, it's just that nobody has figured out how yet.

Hehe, I hope you're right Amber lol.

It might be part of the lot description (in the neighborhood's package file).

I put in a request over at the EA BBS Suggestion Forum. Specifically, it was for a new add-on feature that would give us the ability to resize/enlarge a lot. It always seemed such an obvious function to me, that I wonder why it was never done before. It may be more complicated that it seems to me, but all you need is a way to overlay your current lot down on top of a bigger lot.

HD

Size is included in the lot description, but there's no way to tell what it'd do if you changed it.

I know this is an old thread but I thought I would add my 2 cents worth. I am doing a bit of digging around in the Lot Description and have figured out a few things.

It seems the lot description may only hold the size of the lot as it pertains to the Neighborhood map, including direction, etc. Changing the size of the lot IS possible here, but it isn't straight-forward with SimPE and you will need an additional hex editor (unless the hex editor in SimPE is more functional that I realized after only 1 day of using it).

First of all the width and height is directly linked to the number of entries in the "Unknown List" (UL). Each entry in the UL is a series of 4 bytes. Typically these will all be set to "00" although this isn't always the case and I haven't determined exactly why. The number of 4 byte entries in the UL depends on the width and height listed byt it isn't straight-forward either. All lot dimensions that have the same width will increment by certain number and that number increases as the width number goes up. I is like this:

widths of 1 increment by +2 for each height increment
widths of 2 increment by +3 for each height increment
widths of 3 increment by +4 for each height increment
widths of 4 increment by +5 for each height increment
widths of 5 increment by +6 for each height increment
widths of 6 increment by +7 for each height increment

The starting number of UL entries for each width sequence is double the amount of the increment.

I made a table to figure it out but this should give you a little clue:

increment of 2
1x1 = 4
1x2 = 6

increment of 3
2x1 = 6
2x2 = 9

increment of 4
3x1 = 8
3x2 = 12

By following those rules you can get: 6x6 = 49 entries in the UL.

This is where it gets tricky. As far as I can tell you can't add new UL entries with SimPE... so you have to export that particular lot hack the SimPE file with a hex editor and the delete the lot in SimPE and import the hacked one. I used UltraEdit32 to edit the SimPE file. You need to add the appropriate number of BYTES (not number of entries) to the middle of the exported PE file. You can tell the right place because the middle should be filled with 00 byte codes... or whatever combination of byte codes were in the UL. Immediately before the listing of UL bytes will be a counter byte. This holds the total counts of ENTRIES not bytes.

So... if you are changing a 3x3 (16 4byte entries) to a 5x5 (36 4byte entries) you are going to have to add the difference in byte count to the file:

36-16 = 20

20*4 = 80 bytes to add to the SimPE file

Then you need to change the counter to match the number of entries:

Using the same 3x3 to 5x5 example from above, the counter would be initially set at 10 (the Hexidecimal for 16). You have 36 entries now so 36 in Decimal is 24 in Hexidecimal.... so you would change the counter byte to 24

You will have to play around a bit with the "Left" and "Top" settings to get it placed right after words since changing the lot size seems to screw up the placement. I have really studied it in depth to determine why.

This doesn't give a fresh resized lot ready to play. What you will wind up with is a lot the same size... but with a hole in the Neighborhood terrain the size of the lot you want. I have an idea about what might change the actual size of the lot's ground to fill the gap, but I haven't tested it yet.... I believe it might be in the packages in the "Lots" folder. If anyone has any idea how to figure out which one goes to which lot please let me know.

In the mean time I will fool around with this some more and see what else I can find out.

Or you could use the LotExpander: http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=175884

Already tried that.... it crashed in the middle of working and destroyed my neighborhood every time I tried to use it.

Regardless, any knowledge on how it works should be welcome I would think :D

Moved to Modding Discussion - anything that can help identify the Unknowns in the file formats is a good thing.

mooman, You might also want to check the wiki out, since most of the existing formats are already there.

Regards
Delphy

Thanks

mooman_fl,

Have you tried Andi8104's manual notes to alter the lot of you interest?
These posts from the thread may be of your interests.:
http://www.modthesims2.com/showpost...44&postcount=13
http://www.modthesims2.com/showpost...02&postcount=18
http://www.modthesims2.com/showpost...04&postcount=74
http://www.modthesims2.com/showpost...43&postcount=97
http://www.modthesims2.com/showpost...6&postcount=106
http://www.modthesims2.com/showpost...9&postcount=110
http://www.modthesims2.com/showpost...9&postcount=111
http://www.modthesims2.com/showpost...0&postcount=116
http://www.modthesims2.com/showpost...5&postcount=120

you can ask maxis if they can maker bigger lots

OK, so the chances are that I am nowhere near you guys, as I really don't play the sims 2 that often (More of an RCT3 man) but, looking on the simPE, I managed to change the lot size, so that it was 6x10.

It showed up in the game and everything, but when I clicked to play it begun loading then on load complete I was returned to my neighbourhood!

LittleMac,

cool experiment.
The presently known size limit for lots is 64x64 for a whole lot page. So,
You may try to mod that to 128x64, 128x128 or else, too.

Good lucks...

Please note that the problems with the LotExpander have been fixed. Please try again with the new version:

http://www.modthesims2.com/showthre...180#post1747180