Progress marches on

Hello All!

I may have been quiet on here but progress has been moving at pace. There is a small private Beta test on-going at the moment and the feedback has been amazing for shaping the World Architect.

Along with shaping and refining existing features, new features have been pouring in to the editor.

Since our last update:

Editor

• The editor has had a facelift throughout. The existing right hand panels were getting too cramped with options so the whole UI has been given some breathing room.
• Auto updates have been implemented for the editor and world installer. Both can be installed to your system using the installer or downloaded 'portable' with no install.
• Effect routes and zones: the effects viewer draws spawner routes, and release and attractor zones (for example butterflies).
• Select multiple objects: either with a drag area or 'Select all objects of type'

Import from world

• Takes lighting, sky, terrain textures, road materials, water, ambience, or climate and day from another world.

Region editor

• Crop guides show what the game displays at 4:3, 16:9 and ultrawide.
• Added streets work in game
• Street tag colours: background, name and description text for streets in regions World Architect made. Streets added in the editor used to show black tags; that is fixed.
• Street icon: this world’s icon can be a shipped icon or an imported PNG.
• Region and world text: their names and descriptions can now be edited.
• Several worlds in one region: One world owns the region and others join it. This adds File > New world > "A street in the region of another of my worlds"

World settings tab in the Tuning hub

• New World settings page: world type, day/night, climate (copied from a shipped region), summit weather, pedestrians and strays, townies, eco footprint, civic policies, fishing and region buffs.

Walkable surfaces

• Make walkable (Objects): finds the floor of the selected objects’ models, such as curved bridges, and turns it into a walkable area that follows the surface, including slopes and steps. So far it has only been tested on synthetic bridges, not in game.

Plex/Apartment floorplan improvements

• Floor plan orientation fixed: the Apartment window’s floor plan was mirrored and is now the right way round.
• Diagonal walls decoded: rooms now follow diagonals, and plex outlines can have 45° edges.

Ambience

• Play and Stop in the ambience window play a random installed sample of the selected event. (Windows and macOS)

Roads: turning heads, crossings and junction boxes (untested in game)

• Cul-de-sac turning heads: either end of a road strip can have one, with smooth curves where the bulb joins the road.
• Crossings: added or picked on the road, in their own material, with an optional dropped kerb.
• Junction boxes: a junction can be paved in a different material.
• Turning head and crossing surfaces: a cul-de-sac’s turning head can have its own material and texture, so a lined road can end in a plain head. Crossings get separate edge bands along each side.

There is more that has been going on in the background to make this the most robust and feature full world editor for The Sims 4.

There are a few new screenshots in the gallery :)

Until next time