#sims2defaultreplacement

[tvickiesims]

The Ultimate Road Default Replacement (No Overlay Needed)

Yes, you read that right: it’s a default replacement which not only replaces roads in neighborhood view but also ALL THE ROAD TILES in lot view! Yay!

It is a huge hi-res replacement that will liberate you from putting road overlays on all lots in your neighborhoods.

Technical stuff:

(Below are the things that were a revelation to me personally. If you already knew that - that’s great!)

To avoid placing of overlays this replacement had to be extremely maxis match. This means that the terrain part must be visible on all roads and that only short dashes or full lines could be created in the middle of the road.

As you might probably know, the road in lot view is composed of multiple floor tiles. The cental “dash” tiles are floors with the dashes drawn all the way to the edge of the tile, it’s not centered. In neighborhood view however, road pieces are much bigger and allow centering of the middle dashes as they are painted over. Because of this they would never align with lot edge.

What Maxis did to resolve this is that they centered the dashes on neighborhood roads and then slightly shifted them for tiles seen from lot view (these are lot skirt roads and they do not share textures). The problem with that is neighborhood roads or lot skirt roads can be flipped 180 degrees by the game and in this case the dashes will never align.

Yes, Maxis dashes are wonky :

So I had to choose: either I accept no alignment on nh road pieces (between the junction of different pieces like straight and angle, straight and end etc.) or no strict alignement between lot and nh edge.

I chose the second. So there will always be a slight shift of alignment for middle dashes on the edge of a lot. It doesn’t bother me that much, this is just the kind of compromise you have to make in this game.

Turned out it was not the only weird thing Maxis did to their roads. They also edited the color of lot skirt roads to make it warmer and made them more narrow (you can also see the shift in middle dashes I’ve talked about previously):

In my opinion they did this to compensate the difference in lighting between neighborhood and lot without modifying the TXMTs of road floor tiles. This is the reason why there is always a difference between NH and lot view roads, sometimes even with overlays.

So I had to do some more Photoshop witchcraft to make it work the right way colorwise.

Some screenshots (no editing except cropping, Maxis lighting):

Lot edge under different Maxis seasonal lighting:

What to download:

This replacement comes in two parts - lot road replacement (which replaces all 30 (yes yes) road tiles for lot view roads) and neighborhood road replacement (which replaces nh view roads and lot skirt roads). You must download both parts!

Lot road replacement also includes a new sidewalk with paws, a sidewalk with puddles/splashes and an asphalt driveway to match the rest (all three are default replacements):

Downloads (everything is compressorized and clearly labelled):

Step 1. Download lot road replacement (SFS)

Step 2. Download the files below that correspond to your current lush, desert, dirt and concrete terrain replacements (SFS):

Lush:

- Zeussims - Sims 3 Lush (original terrain)

- Criquette - Rural Charm (original terrain)

- CuriousB - Lush (original terrain)

- Siletkasims - CuriousB lush edited (original terrain)

- iCad - Lush (original terrain)

- Peppermint and Ginger - Lush (original terrain)

- Peppermint and Ginger - Lush V2 (original terrain)

- Suratan Zir - Lush (original terrain)

Desert:

- CuriousB - Desert (original terrain)

- iCad - CuriousB desert edited (original terrain)

- Peppermint and Ginger - Desert (original terrain)

Dirt:

- CuriousB - Dirt (original terrain)

- iCad - Dirt (original terrain)

- Peppermint and Ginger - Dirt (original terrain)

Concrete:

- CuriousB - Concrete (original terrain)

- Peppermint and Ginger - Concrete (original terrain)

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Maxis terrains

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PNG templates to make roads match terrain of your choice (creator’s resource)

Credit for all these beautiful terrains goes to @zeussims​ @criquette-was-here​ @curiousb​ @siletkasims​ @dramallamadingdang​ @peppermint-ginger​ and @suratan-zir​.

@criquette-was-here​ originally made a nh bridge road replacement to fit their rural charm roads here so I thought it would be a good addition to this replacement. And then I also did a stone bridge nh deco replacement (the one that can be seen in Veronaville):

Download nh big and stone bridges replacement (SFS)

Textures for this road replacement were extracted from the Sims 3 by auntielynds and shared in this thread on MTS, I used the sidewalk and asphalt textures.

Special thanks go to @hypersaline​ who once told me about the way roads can be replaced in lot view which led to this whole replacement idea.

In case you would like to have access to all road floor tiles I replaced (for exemple, for building purposes) in build mode, I suggest following this tutorial to unlock them. They won’t show up in catalog but if you use the eyedropper tool anywhere on lot road, you’ll see all of them.

If you are using your own terrain replacement not shared anywhere and would like to use my roads - feel free to ask and I will send you the PNG files I made. And if you use a replacement that I didn’t include in the list - just tell me and I will try to add it.

UPDATE:

Fixed some lot skirt road pieces reverting back to default in light and heavy snow. I’m sorry for the inconvenience, please redownload your neighborhood road replacements!

Also added a new lush terrain road to fit the replacement by Suratan Zir.

UPDATE 2:

Following Anon’s request, added road replacements to fit Maxis’ original terrains. And I also managed to get it to work with no quality loss for roads so yay for that!

UPDATE 3:

Added a missed puddle/splatter floor replacement to match the sidewalk. Please redownload lot road replacement if you want it to show up.

UPDATE 4:

Added a nh bridge road replacement.

UPDATE 5:

Added a stone nh deco bridge replacement.

UPDATE 6:

Replaced stone nh deco bridge

[tvickiesims]

All Terrain Paints Default Replacement

I love nice and crispy terrain paints. I hate blurry and dull ones. Default ones are of such kind. Let’s replace them!

My favorite terrain paints are conversions from The Sims 3. I used a selection of the most fitting and close-to-the-originals beautiful and hi-res (1024x1024) extracted terrain paints by @suicideloversims​ and the no less beautiful ones by @fireflowersims​. I highly recommend getting full sets of those, they are incredible!

To make this default I used the templates by @peppermint-ginger​ and the ones by Omena at Leefish, the remaining ones I found myself. Thank you so much for them! It simplified my work quite a bit!

The swatch:

All paints in neighborhood view:

27/06/22 - added a V2 version which replaces a blue terrain paint with a more neutral one:

The file is compressorized, Ultimate Collection (or simply all EPs and SPs) is required.

Download V1 (25 mb archive)

Download V2 (19 mb archive because no pictures)

For those interested, I also made a neighborhood and lot view sand texture replacement to match the new one using this replacement by @an-elegant-simblr​. The image size is once again 1024x1024 but please know that it will still look a bit stretched and blurry in neighborhood view:

Download beach sand replacement at SFS

[tvickiesims]

Less Neon Hydrangea Bush Default Replacement

Hydrangeas are great, blue hydrangeas are marvellous! But not in the Sims 2.

This poor bush was made NEON blue, it would hurt my eyes and I always tried to delete them on all lots I was playing. Until I made this replacement :)

Before and after:

This replacement was made with @an-elegant-simblr​ ’s aka Voeille winter plant fixes in mind, it makes them drop flowers in winter and look more “dead” overall, so I higly recommend getting their fix. Without it, hydrangea will revert to its original winter state - with neon flowers and a bit of snow overlay.

The file is compressorized and the picture is included.

Download at SFS

[tvickiesims]

Heavy Snow Default Replacement

You all will agree that @vegan-kaktus​ is the sweetest person in the community. So when I wrote her asking if it was possible to replace the game’s heavy snow texture, she not only found the texture itself but also helped me make up the package file when I had some technical issues. Thank you! (●´□`)♡

So here it is - the heavy snow texture replacement!

Worth noting that I don’t use lighting mods but there’s no reason it behaves strangely. The texture size is 512x512.

As usual, the file is compressorized and the image is included. Seasons EP is required.

Download at SFS

[tvickiesims]

Dormant Orchard Trees And Orchard Flowers Replacement

So recently I released this fix to have no sheen on orchard trees in winter. And then I thought: “Wait a minute, why these trees even HAVE leaves in winter to start with?”. And the idea was born.

You see, in the Sims 2 we only have 3 orchard trees - lemon tree, orange tree and apple tree. Apple trees do go dormant in real life dropping all of their leaves. But lemon and orange trees are evergreen, they are tropical trees and don’t have to go dormant. That said, they can still drop their leaves under certain harsh conditions. So technically, Maxis leafy dormant version is correct. For citrus trees.

I understand that it’s a game and we don’t need it to be that realistic, but I still came up with 3 versions to suit most of tastes.

First version is a bare trunk with only big branches.

Second one has small branches and no leaves at all.

Third version has small branches and some of the leaves (a middle between full leaves and no leaves at all).

My trees also have a new model for their dormant state in winter and thanks to wonderful @lowedeus​ and their fix for dormant orchard trees in neighborhood view (you should totally grab it if you want my replacement to show up!) it now works properly :

This default replacement was meant to go with @episims​ bark replacement as I used their bark texture for my new painted branches.

I also made a replacement for orchard trees flowers that look like real life citrus flowers (instead of hibiscus flowers, like why Maxis?!):

The flowers replacement is standalone.

My fix for no shine is still recommended if you don’t want the white outcast/sheen on tree branches in winter.

Files are compressorized and pictures are included.

Remember, you must choose only one tree replacement!

Download at SFS

[tvickiesims]

Phlox Default Replacement

This file will replace the base game phlox shrub texture with a new one, with real-life phlox flowers and leaves (and not some kind of weird moss).

It also contains texture replacements for light and heavy snow states so if you are using @an-elegant-simblr​ plant fixes I highly recommend opening up their file in SimPE and deleting two texture files - shrubcreepingphloxseasonal-main-swx06_txtr and shrubcreepingphloxseasonal-main-swx05_txtr.

If you don’t do it - that’s fine, nothing horrible will happen. But the last loaded package will override the other (meaning either mine or Voeille’s textures will appear in your game).

Compressed, picture included.

Download at SFS

[tvickiesims]

Sea Foam Default Replacement

Since I learned how to default replace textures I just can’t stop!

This time it’s a replacement of the sea foam which I wanted to see done for ages but couldn’t find anywhere.

The file is compressorized and the picture is included. Bon Voyage EP is required.

Download at SFS

[tvickiesims]

Ice default replacement

The ice texture in game is not bad but I wanted to try and replace it and see how it goes. And I ended up liking it!

The credit for finding the ice texture name goes to @gingerplaysthesims​, I just found a nice texture.

Before:

After:

Because of how the game works, this replacement will also change the ice texture of all in-game fountains:

Before:

After:

I use this default replacement for icicles by @gingerplaysthesims​, it goes well with this replacement.

The file is compressorized and the picture is included. Seasons EP is required.

Download at SFS