I love landscaping and use quite a lot of terrain paint for each lot. However I have to build my lots in a clean game with only my build and terrain folders downloaded into it to prevent or at least seriously lessen the chance of terrain paint being lost after exiting a lot. Its a bit of a pain as I have to then upload my lot to my main game in order to use the hacks and any custom objects but it works.

I don't know if anyone else has experienced this or maybe Its just because I abuse my custom terrain paint folder, poor thing but I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere so I thought I would share this just in case anyone else was experencing problems.

I suppose it helps keep my main game's download folder a little lighter and helps prevent a lot of unwanted stuff such as customised but unused terrain paints, wallpapers etc from entering my main game. The packaged lot is also a lot cleaner and because I know I am working with no hacks testing the lot is easier. The biggest bonus? An almost complete lack of crashes mid build even when I forget to turn cheats off, pure bliss!

But I would be interested to know if anyone has found a way around this problem.

KOs

I don't really understand what you are saying is the problem. Are you saying that not all of the terrains in you custom terrain folder come over when you upload the lot to your system? If so, that is how it is supposed to work. Only those custom terrains, walls and floors that were used in the building process should be in the lot file.

Is your terrain "normal" or is it in flashing blue or with terrain paints in tiles (a terrain filling a whole square)... explain it or add a screenshot to show the problem.

I have found that if you use a number of overlapping terrain paints for subtle effects to create what is effectively a 3D painting then when you exit the lot you find that a fair bit of terrain paint doesn't seem to have been registered and so when you reenter the lot it has simply disappeared and you have to repaint over what has already been done. If you only use a few paints it still happens but unless you are already aware of it you wont particularly notice it. Except that you might think 'hmmm I thought I had done that better'. Definition is lost. It still happens in a clean game and I have to keep exiting and entering a lot to see what has taken before I continue but less often and more paint does seem to take.

I have noticed the 'fading' of terrain paints sometimes. Because of that, I tend to use the more elaborate terrain paints more often, than elaborately painting with simple terrains.

Thats exactly what I mean bonnie its a lot more obvious when you are trying for more subtle effects tho. I know that there are some issues regarding terrain paint, I just hadn't seen this one mentioned. Does the game give low priority to paint or something like that? Sorry I don't pretend to know much about proramming.

Patul sorry I couldn't find a better pic but if they are not right I tend to discard them. This is what I mean though. In this shot the green in the background should be the same as that in front of the sim before the cliff, I kept it because overall the effect is to create a somewhat blended background but it wasn't like this when I first painted it.

For closeup shots, at least to me, it matters. Bonnie called it 'fading', but essentially it never really took. But since the green behind the sim also 'faded' a bit I have left it as it is. Hope you understand now.

I understand that not that many would be interested in the subtleties of landscaping, and I know most of you will use bonnies' alternative of using bolder terrain paint and less of it. It works, it looks stunning so why not.

Its not necessarily for me, though I have used that approach for some builds. A carefully constructed landscape makes for some fantastic camerawork results. Its hard work especially after you have spent time and effort on the build itself, but I think its worth it.

For those who are interested I really hope someone will make a note of this and make a tutorial available to anyone who does enjoy landscaping. I know I could have seriously done with it before losing a lot of painstaking work through ignorance.

After many mistakes I have found but one solution and it works, though care is still needed, the one given here. But I am sure someone with a lot more experience might and I hope WILL have something else to add to this.

KOs

PS looking forward to the tutorial

I only occasionally do the landscaping and the terrain-painting, so my experiences aren't rich at all...

But, i personally like to use a few terrain paints at the time to make up a region of the terrain... The ground level layer is more complex than other level layers... Like others, it has "layer 0" for the floor. But, the ground terrain paints appear on lower layers... The custom terrain painting seems to be on layers in-between.

I've done a landscaping for some rocky regions, but I then realised the same problem when I reopened the lot, the terrain painting got diminished... Oh, well, I only added a little bit more painting work over those regions... I didn't even use any custom terrain-paints, still this problem is there. In my cases, i'd to add a little bit more for better blending... Sometimes, I even erase some of the trrain paint works and reapply more of this and/or that...


Related threads about [terrain paint/ ground coverings] linkage:

@MTS2,

Blue Flashing Terrain Again
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=178214

Disappearing terrain paint
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=192050

Ellatrue's suggestions
http://www.modthesims2.com/showpost...75&postcount=13

Flashing terrain in downloaded lots
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=142042

Package with ground textures
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=120589

Removing Ground Covers on pre-built lots
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=109695

Turning off Terrain paints
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=116045

cyclonesue's experiences
http://www.modthesims2.com/sh...88&postcount=15
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=52036

http://www.variousimmers.net/
Game crashes when I try to upload a lot
http://www.variousimmers.net/vsimfo...hread.php?t=622
Lot Packaging Terrain Glitch
http://www.variousimmers.net/vsimfo...read.php?t=2576

TSR - cyclonesue
The Terrors (and Triumphs) of Terrain Paints!
http://forums.thesimsresource.com/s...ad.php?t=282627

Kos i have noticed that also! It really sucks and dunno what is causing it.It's yet another one of terrain paint drawbacks the game has... :-(

I love using terrains also but it can become frustrating at times.

One tip for raised ground my friend Stw402 told me is to use maxis default terrains, click repeatedly switching between the grass and sand one till the hill (or whatever) gets totally covered,then use your custom terrain.I thought it wasn't possible to do that until he told me. By fully covering you have better chances for no disappearing layers of terrains.

I have also found that the less terrain paints layers the better.


I hope i was clear in what i just said lol

In case anyone hasn't come to that conclusion, painting is one of my passions. Using a minimal amount of terrain paints, used properly can produce absolutely stunning effects, particularly when accompanied by building talent. However, I am pretty sure I am not alone, though perhaps in a minority, of those who are interested in this aspect of a build...releasing creativity and all that lol!

There are plenty of minority groups catered for, and if like me anyone else was interested in this aspect of things PLEASE I would very much appreciate it if an appropiate tutorial on the subject was available.

Many regards
KOs

Corvi tedious as it may sound this does work. You just have to remember to exit and reenter a lot reguarly. Once the paint sticks, so to speak, and you upload it to your regular game it stays . Then any modifications made there are subject to the usual cleaning process etc. Like I said tedious but by transferring my build files to the new game the most annoying process is switching to my regular game for any further work.

ps for raised ground blanket everything in what you decide is your base paint its then easy to spot what won't paint easily, then fill in finer details or modify your terrain accordingly. Oh dear (though stronger words came to mind), I sound like a pro which I'm not, but I have spent a lot of time over this problem.