More Awesome Than You!

...or is it just in my game? This has been bugging me for ages. If I use a Maxis terrain paint it just looks like a load of stretched-pixel splodges, not like grass or soil or whatever it is supposed to be. The default grass looks fine, but I made a hood with a concrete base and I'd like some of my lots to have grass or dirt in.

I downloaded some custom terrain paints and although they looked fine in the pictures, when I used them in my lot the texture came out really huge - like blades of grass the size of a sim's arm. I'm starting to think it would be easier to get some custom floors which look like grass, but annoying due to having to use moveobjects on to place stuff.

I searched and realise custom terrains are bad - I didn't realise this before. However I never package lots so I don't know if it is a problem (and was it fixed in a patch at some point?) I have got all EPs except BV and AL and no SPs, and I have a NVidia graphics card.

Like everything else, the terrain textures are blurry when you have your texture detail set to "low." Switch to the high setting (in the graphics configuration menu), then let us know if you still have this problem.

As for custom terrain paints, a lot of them simply suck. People simply rip free textures from somewhere or use a photo, and don't bother to scale them properly or make sure they are seamless in the game. You should kick them for false advertising.

As for custom terrains, they are no longer a problem if you have NL patch 2 installed, and even without the patch, they are only problematic when you delete them or are trying to package a lot.

Nope, I have texture detail set to high and they still look pixelated. Like if you try to stretch a really small picture. Having looked again at the preview for the custom ones I think that those just do suck, however. But they *are* crisp and unpixelated.

The maxis terrains aren't very high quality textures, and as you observed, they are stretched over a considerable larger area than floor tiles.
As for CC...  Most CC terrain paint sucks.  They're too easy to make, so any idiot with a tiling (or ever non-tiling) texture at hand thinks they can make great terrains.  Most of them never gives any thought to scale.

Ah right, it definitely is my video card according to that link, it's ancient. Just posting this for future reference. Think it's time I went over to the Upgrading a PC thread.

I had actually not noticed a lot of this until my recent crash/BSoD issues.  I also have a massively old video card.  I found new drivers for it (still supported for some unknown reason) and that has made a world of difference.  Old card does not mean "incapable" apparently.  Before upgrading the card or the rig, try updating drivers (unless you're looking for an excuse to upgrade, of course, in which case, happy hunting).

So...you're not supposed to delete custom terrains?

I found this over at N99. It was in the University cheats 

 boolprop lotTerrainPaints [true/false] - False=Removes floorpainting on lot


I have not tried it yet but I am going to because I have a terrain that flashes blue.

 

That cheat only hides it without actually removing it.  Hold down your Ctrl key and erase it all instead, preferably before the terrain paint is deleted.

I know this is a bit old, but custom terrains are fine to delete now.  They fixed that problem ages ago.

Is it still a problem for people who only have the base game?

I thought they fixed that problem for good with the Pets patch. *shrug*