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Guided Tour to Custom Foundations

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Originally posted by devilsrope at maty.  Download Decks.zip

Parts needed for a custom deck

  • A custom deck script – dur
  • A wall script – Probably to be hidden from catalog view.
  • A wallpattern script – This part is not supported by the Scriptorium, so must be added to the basegame wallpatterns.txt.
  • A floorpattern script – Same issues as the wallpattern. I didn’t use one for the white lattice deck.
  • A package containing the texture for the wallpattern
  • A package containing the catalog entry info for the custom deck – I put this in the Scriptorium Decks etc. folder, but it may work other places. Combining it into the texture package in downloads did not work for me.

Custom Deck Script

  • catalogTextResource 50_WhiteDeck 138 – Name of the deck (what I named the file) followed by 138. This number comes from the build.package file, where 138 is the instance that lists the game’s decks/foundations/pools.
  • buildTipIndices 5 5 – The build tips to be displayed. These also come from the build.package. No need to change this.
  • deck 50 – The number I chose to call my deck (just like you would do with modular stairs).
  • wallStyle 200 – The wall my deck displays, in this case, my custom wall. More on this below.
  • floorPattern “deckDarkRedwood” – I didn’t use a custom floorpattern, so this is the default deck floor.
  • supportObject 0xAA75A097 – Stuff I left alone from the script I copied (the original lattice deck).
  • supportObjectUpperLevel 0x9EDE28AE – More stuff I left alone.
  • catalogTextIndices 0 1 – Which lines of the catalog entry package to display for price/name/description.

Custom Wall

  • wall 200 – The number I chose for my wall.
  • defaultPattern “deckwhite” – The wallpattern my wall will display.
  • wallThickness none – I left this alone.
  • mayChangeSurface false – I left this alone.
  • mayAttachObjects false – I left this alone.
  • mayCutAway false – I left this alone.
  • requiresFlatBottom false – I left this alone.
  • requiresFlatTop true – I left this alone.
  • submersible true – I left this alone.
  • verticalSpan floorToFloorBasedCeiling – I left this alone.
  • blocksLight false – I left this alone.
  • deleteTool levelRoom – I left this alone.
  • notInCatalog – I left this alone as I don’t want this wall to show in the catalog.

Wallpattern Script

  • wallPattern “deckwhite” – The name I chose for my wallpattern.
  • material “wall_deckRedwoodB_base” – The texture my wallpattern displays.
  • notInCatalog – I left this alone.

Texture

The texture I used was recycled from the base game. I took an (as far as I know) unused, duplicate pattern of the regular, brown lattice, and recolored it. My texture package is simply a default replacement. You could go this route as well, as I think there are plenty of unused and duplicate textures in there. I have tried every which way I can think of to get a completely custom texture to display, and I can’t seem to get it to work. I ditched all the stuff I was working on in case I’ve just been staring too long and am missing something obvious (it’s not hard to reproduce these little scripts after all). I may or may not revisit them in the future. Please let me know (here, or you can PM me at PMBD) what you find, if you do try these. I probably did something silly, or maybe the game needs to think (by trickery?) that the texture is native. But yeah, I got sick of testing. Sorry to leave that part so flimsy. Hopefully it wasn’t just a typo I kept missing, or I’ll feel really dumb.

Catalog Info

The catalog info package just holds the info listed above (name/price/description). It’s simply the instance 138 of the build.package extracted and edited.

Installation:
downloads_whitedeck.package – This goes in your downloads folder

200_WhiteDeckWall.txt – This goes in C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2\TSData\Res\Catalog\Scripts\Scriptorium_Walls-Fences-Arches. If you aren’t using the Scriptorium, you can try adding it to the Scripts folder. This worked for me when I tested it.

50_WhiteDeck.txt
and
50_WhiteDeck.package – These go in C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2\TSData\Res\Catalog\Scripts\Scriptorium_Decks-Foundations-Pools. They should also be fine in the Scripts folder.

wallPatterns.txt – This is found in C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2\TSData\Res\Catalog\Scripts. Make a backup (elsewhere) then overwrite with this one. I have added just three lines to the document (at the very bottom).

deckfoundations.txt – This is where is gets a bit tricky, and I’m unsure of what installation each game config needs. So this is my best guess, but possibly everyone with a later EP (not Uni) will need to edit this file:

If your game contains both curved pools and stages, the directions are the same as for wallPatterns.txt – back up and replace. If you have neither stages nor curved pools, the script doesn’t need editing and you can ignore this document (please let me know if this is not the case). If you don’t have stages, open the documTo make rounded corners pool corners work and custom foundations.  Move the scriptorium line from the base game deckfoundations.txt to your latest ep’s deckfoundations.txtent and delete the following lines:

# Stages
buildTipIndices 29 29

stage 4
wallStyle 301
floorPattern “loftSmallBirchPlanks”
catalogTextIndices 7 8

If you don’t have curved pools, delete these lines:

buildTipIndices 35
pool 5
wallStyle 29
floorPattern “floor_poolRoundedLipBlue”
thumbnailResource 0x499db772 0xe926159b
catalogTextIndex 9

Save the document and place it in the Scripts folder (make a backup first).


To make rounded corners pool corners work and custom foundations.  Move the scriptorium line from the base game deckfoundations.txt to your latest ep’s deckfoundations.txt