I have no idea why that is, amy9301, but I get the same thing... even if I don't try to follow the link and just type it in, I get that... Googling it comes up, I can get to it through there, and then the links on this page and typing in work fine. They've got to have some weird referring links strangeness settings on their server, or sunspots, or swamp gas, or something.

Great tut However, I'm having difficulty making plain paint walls. I've tried various noise filters to the walls, but they aren't showing in-game the proper color. I've searched the forums but can't find anything relevant. Perhaps I'm not using the right search terms..

I don't have a Mac, I've saved the images both at the 768 and 512 heights, doesn't make a difference. I've checked when the walls are in actual rooms, not just on a lone wall, and though they seem 'right' in a full room, the colors are still off.

Suggestions? What can I do or how can I alter the way the file saves to improve color quality in-game??

ladylarke, I think a lot of that depends on your monitor settings, your graphics program settings, your eye for colour, the colour of the light in the room you put the walls in, the time of day in game, and a number of other factors... but I do know what you mean. My recent set of Victorian wallpapers I uploaded, they look like a really aged yellow on my texture, and in the game they're sort of... greyish beige. It seems like it desaturates some... maybe by like 5%... I think if you add a little saturation right before saving with each one, you should be able to get a little closer to your intended colour. You may have to play with it a little bit to get the exact mixture and feel for it right.

I used photoshop my walls came out great but my floor and groundcover had white lines running through, I guess space inbetween the tiles. Do you know what i did. This tutorial was helpful and I would like to make more floors and groundcoverings but I need to no what I did wrong. Thanks in advamce.

jdbRISTOWE, that does sound like what happened... spaces in between your tiles. Make sure you are using tiling textures like from the Inspiration Gallery, resize your images so you're sure they're the right size, and if you're putting several tiles together, I'm not sure but the "snap into place" thing in Photoshop may be a feature of later versions (CS/CS2). If it is and your image pieces don't seem to snap right into place, you can uncheck "show transform controls" so you can see all your edges, maximize the image, and zoom in. Use the arrow keys on your keyboard to nudge the image exactly into place, paying attention around the edges for any white space.

thank-you HystericalParoxysm your tutorial was very helpful and your instructions on how to fix my problem were very accurate and I had it fixed within seconds once again thank- you for all your help

Thanks so much for this! I've finnaly found something i'm good at! (Except for re-colouring clothes...)

Nice tut! Very helpful

My thanks too. I definately needed a "for dummies" guide, but the well-structured layout let me jump over bits I didn't need - something which, unfortunately, a lot of people don't take into account when writing instructions. I am horribly afraid of the creations I might now unleash upon my unsuspecting Sims...

In the interests of clarity (and because I am a pedant and you may quote me on that!) - right at the end of your tute you mention you don't know why the HomeCrafter template prompts you to save walls in 256x512 format. Obviously you've since answered that one (ie for Macs as you edited to include earlier) and I just thought it might be good to update that bit too.

And now I'm beginning to wish I'd never started this, I do sound like I'm having a whine! My main point is to say thanks, so thanks!

D'oh, you're right, ingaus. That bit of info on the template sizing came up after the tutorial was complete, and I sometimes forget to edit little bits out. Thank you.

No worries HP, always glad to make my tiny contribution... :D

i have coral paint shop pro and none of the buttons and stuff are the same and i have to things to say:

1. This is really complicated and i was wondering if maybe you could explain to me how to do it in coral paint shop pro X?

2. i dont mean to say your work is bad its really good.

3. please help me!

I have photoshop 7, but when i try to save the file as a .bmp there is no selection for it in the dropdown menu. Is there any way i can make it appear there?

Is there an option for Windows or OS/2 Bitmap? That should be the same thing as BMP.

shelldevil, I have photoshop 7 and BMP is like the second choice on the list. That's a bit puzzling.

Thank you for this wonderful tutorial

Thanks way much now im cool

Thanks for this tutorial, but i made something following every single step and it looked good on homecrafter and everything, but when i zoomed in in the game it was all pixely. is that just my graphics settings or what?

Yeah your tutorial is just wondeful !!!!!!!!!!!! I was just 0 in all this things to create such as walls - but now ,well.... i understand it !

tomasz25, sorry for the slow reply, didn't see your message till now - if you save your images at the default size, if you're zoomed all the way in, even if you have your graphics settings to the highest level, you'll see some pixellation. After all, the wall texture you're using is 512 pixels high - and the game is stretching that texture over a wall that, when zoomed in, is quite a bit taller than 512 pixels in the game. Now, if you've got your texture detail settings set lower, then everything is going to look pixellated like that, your wall texture, Maxis walls, other custom walls, and everything else in game. If that's the case, turn your graphics settings up.

If it's just a matter of it being pixellated when you've got your nose up against the wall, so to speak, you can either not worry about that (as Maxis walls are going to be like that too), or you can use a larger graphic when you save the image. Using graphics at 256x768 gives you an image at the actual aspect ratio the game uses (which is why I show you how to build your graphics at that resolution, so they look right) but if you save at any other size than 256x768 your walls simply won't work for Mac users. You should probably try to be as compatible as possible, but if there's a particular wall you really want to be nice and sharp and crisply detailed, well, just make sure you note that it won't work for Mac users somewhere big and bold if you upload it anywhere.

I did that on my Victorian Advertising Wallpapers because I really wanted the images to be readable in the game as that's the charm of that sort of wallpaper, so I built it at... erm, double 256x768... 512x1536. This is normally REALLY not necessary for walls, but for something very special like that, where I had a really specific goal in mind (readability of some of the larger text and headlines) it's okay, and I tried to make it very prominent letting Mac users know it won't work.

Hope this has clarified that some for you.

i followed every step but when i tryed to save it didnt have the .bmp choice only the psd one. I'm using photoshop 5.5 is there anyway to get the .bmp one on it? :S
Please help!

I really want to thank you also, HP, for a wonderful tutorial. For the first time since I discovered The Sims in 2002, I feel like there might actually be *something* I can finally create for my game. Your tutorial was packed full of step-by-cohesive-step information, leaving nothing out, including your own patience. I wish others who write tutorials would write them that well! Someone suggested a book for Dummies. Would you consider writing a Sims 1 & 2 Creating ALL Custom Content for Dummies book in the future? LOL Can't wait to try all this out!

Thank you very much! You are the king.

Okay, sorry for my slow reply. I tried your suggesetions and things are working better. I assumed that the size you stated was the only one that worked. I didn't want to reply until I tried lots of different possibilities. I also tried different thing with floors, and a floor set that I made got accepted to the site a few days ago. Without your wonderful tutorial, it would not be possible. Thank you. The set that I am talking about can be found here:
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=196221

I've made some decent floors and walls and found both this and Faylen's texture tutorial very helpful, however, I wonder if I am trying to do the impossible. I have some images from TheFatStrawberry and also some photos of my own that I want to use for walls and carpet. The problem is, there seems to be no way to keep them from showing obvious seams. I was able to successfully make some by choosing a spot in the pic where there was less detail but that wasn't the effect I was after. Am I trying to do something that simply can't be done? Are there certain patterns or heavily textured images that can't be used without the seams showing? Or is there an advanced magic trick that I am not aware of? thank you.