Finishing Up

We have just a couple more things to do before we get to finally open Monte Vista in CAW and start editing away. 

Create a New Folder on your desktop. Call it MV .Ini Files & Color Ramps. While we're at it, created another New Folder and call it MV Textures. We won't need the Textures just yet but they come from the same place so may as well grab them all at once. 

While I'm sure there is a way for us to extract the needed files ourselves, AuntieLynds has helpfully provided them to download >Here<. While you are there scroll through the thread, she explains a little about how we're going to use the .Ini Files and Color Ramps. She also has the Height Map to download but so far I haven't looked at whether I should be using it or how and I've been able to do what I want to Monte Vista without it. I will edit this post if that changes. Once you've downloaded the .Ini Files & Color Ramps and the Textures, extract and place the files in the folders we created. Keep the Road files with the Texture files.

Copy and past the files in MV Textures, including the Road files to C:\Users\[you]\Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3 Create A World Tool\UserToolData\SourceTextures.

About .Ini Files and Color Ramps

Basically these are the files and instructions that make Monte Vista feel like a Mountain Town. They control the light, the water color and so on. They even set up that flyover you get when the game is loading. There are 2 ways to get these files to show up in your edited world. The first way is the best because if it works, everything will show up when you are editing in CAW and then export with your World file when you are finished, but if it doesn't work you can still use the second way as a Plan B. The only problem is Plan A requires you to rename the files and color ramps while Plan B requires them to be left as is. So lets go ahead and create another folder on our desk top. Call it MV .Ini Files & Color Ramps Renamed. Copy and paste the files you downloaded to the new folder. 

You can find a tutorial by SimSample >here< on how to make this work. For now we are just going to rename the files. 

Open up your "Renamed" folder and change the names as below.

0x3EC0CF0CC4A6540F 0x00000000 0x1F886EAD - rename to World.ini
0x7886A7F59355762F 0x00000000 0x1F886EAD - rename to CameraFlyThroughPath.ini
0xD89F9D186B7BB372 0x00000000 0x1F886EAD - rename to Sea.ini
0x5E20253AF53E517F 0x00000000 0x1F886EAD - Rename to SkyCommon.ini
0x5E4F8E7B226066CA 0x00000000 0x1F886EAD - Rename to LightingCommon.ini

0x967BC6C3B3808C00 0x00000000 0x1F886EAD - rename to WorldEnvtIni_Clear.ini
0x560C0FD7012DA7F3 0x00000000 0x1F886EAD - rename to WorldEnvtIni_PartlyCloudy.ini
0x8DEA7AE7631A026A 0x00000000 0x1F886EAD - rename to WorldEnvtIni_Overcast.ini
0x2C02B3532B64EB49 0x00000000 0x1F886EAD - rename to WorldEnvtIni_Stormy.ini
0xFE1F6A95A24A604A 0x00000000 0x1F886EAD - rename to WorldEnvtIni_Special.ini

0x7529C26EE8E2A9E6 0x0076A684 0x00B2D882 - rename to WorldEnvt_Clear.dds
0xECCBBCB773C02131 0x0076A684 0x00B2D882 - rename to WorldEnvt_PartlyCloudy.dds
0xF0A86F660985BF20 0x0076A684 0x00B2D882 - rename to WorldEnvt_Overcast.dds
0xE422CDDE7FE1F25F 0x0076A684 0x00B2D882 - rename to WorldEnvt_Stormy.dds
0x28C841C9462BCDE0 0x0076A684 0x00B2D882 - rename to WorldEnvt_Special.dds

0x4261039931560B4F 0x00000000 0x00B2D882 - rename to Sky_Sun.dds
0x51EAD515780CFC7D 0x00000000 0x00B2D882 - rename to Sky_SunHalo.dds
0xDAA22EF57F391561 0x00000000 0x00B2D882 - rename to CloudNoiseBase.dds
0xE65DA8A3892F387C 0x00000000 0x00B2D882 - rename to terrain_detail.dds 

Next download the Distant Terrain package from Cawster. Extract the file so it's ready.

Once you've finished just leave the files in their folder for now. We're not quite ready to place them yet.

Export the Character XML

The last step before we get to go on to editing our world is to extract the Character Import XML. This is the file that controls who is related to who, skills, jobs and basically every household's story. I've edited some worlds where this file just automatically stays in the World file. Monte Vista is, as always, more difficult, so the Character Import drops out of this world.

Of course some people prefer to remove the existing population when they are editing premade worlds. Myself I would rather go through a mammogram and a colonoscopy than sit and make enough sims in CAS to populate a world so for the purposes of this tutorial I'm going to assume you feel the same.

Open S3PE. Click File>Open.

Select the package from the world file that we set aside in the safekeeping folder. Once it is open in S3PE, sort the files by the "Tag" column. Scroll down until you find the 2 files tagged _XML. If you look in the right hand pane as you click on each file, one is a "Manifest". I have no idea what it does but adding it to your new world file doesn't seem to do anything, neither does leaving it out. The other file will say character import at the top. If you scroll through you can see the information it holds.

Highlight the character import XML. Click Resources>Export>To File and export it to your MV .ini Files and Color Ramps folder with the original format files. While it is neither a Color Ramp nor a .ini file, it is added to your world file package in the same way and they can all be added together if you have to resort to Plan B for those files.

Ready, Set, Go!

For the next bit we are almost going to follow the steps in this forum post by SimSample but with a few changes.

Open Create A World. Click File>New. Select the Large 300 Flat Map. Save as 'test', wait for the pop-up that says the save was successful then close CAW.

Open S3EP. Select File>Open and then your test.world file. The path will be C:\Users\[your]\Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3 Create A World Tool\UserToolData\Worlds.

Next click Resource>Import>From Package. Instead of browsing for a .world file you are going to import the package you put in your safe file. Replace duplicates, use resource names and compress. You don't want to Auto save.

Click the header on the Tag column until it sorts from Z-A. Scroll down to the WPID tag. There will be 2. One crossed out and one newly imported. Right click the one that isn't crossed out and delete so both will be crossed out. Save.

Give it a minute or 4 to do it's thing and once it's saved (all of the crossed out files will be gone) close S3EP.

Open Create A World again. Click File>Open and open your test.world file. Click Save As and save it with the name you want to use for your town. Wait until the pop-up appears saying the save was successful - it takes a while and doesn't really look like it's doing anything but it's working. Close Create A World again. 

 

Let's start moving the files we've prepared into their folders.

Putting everything together

Copy & Paste the distant terrain package into the Package folder you created C:\Program Files (x86)\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3 Create a World Tool\Packages. 

Copy and Paste the _xml file you extracted into your new World folder. So I'm going to call my new world Monte Vista II. The file goes C:\Users\[you]\Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3 Create A World Tool\UserToolData\Worlds\Monte Vista II

Then copy and paste all of the renamed .ini files and color ramps into the Config folder. So C:\Users\Vanes\Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3 Create A World Tool\UserToolData\Worlds\Monte Vista II\Config

Now you can open CAW and your new world. Check for the bridges, city walls, rabbit holes. If they're all there you're ready to start creating your own special Monte Vista.