08/04/2026 edit: Fixed the weights on the huts and their shadows. They seemed to be working fine anyway, but I'd recommend redownloading, just to be on the safe side.
22/03/2026 edit: the huts won't fade anymore, even if you zoom in reaaaaally close. If it was bugging you, please redownload! Same files so the huts you've already placed will stay where they are.
11/12/2025 edit: The textures and the tuning moved out and will be living on their own from now on. You can find them HERE! They also got an update, so I'd suggest you redownload if you want your MM huts to look more MM.
25/11/2025 edit: The texture files have been separated, so that I could easily reference them in case I create more deco buildings 👀 I'm sorry to ask you for that only 5 days after the original publication, but please delete the old files and redownload! You'll need: 1) the tuning file; 2) one or both of the textures' packages; 3) one or both of the merged huts' packages. If you already placed the huts in game, no worries. Those are the same packages, just edited, so in your save everything will still be where you left it.
The tuning file and the textures packages say 'DO_NOT_DELETE' and - yeah, really, don't do that unless you want the huts to turn disco purple. Of course, if you decide to throw everything away you're also free to remove those packages. They don't have to stay on your disc forever, those are no viruses 😉
Today I bring you something that's been on my mind for a veeeery long time, but I lacked the skills to make it work the way I wanted. Now, thanks to the lovely @zeehasablog who's introduced me to the realm of VFX magic, I could finally make the vision come true! A bunch of ready-to-go Brythonic huts, to be used as world deco, especially in combination with TOOL. So that we could all create not only single farmsteads but also bustling oppida 😊
The design was changed halfway through (ok, 'halfway' is putting it mildly, I was basically almost done 😬) to include all the things I learned from late Peter Reynolds, the once director of the Butser Ancient Farm and a kind-of-patron of this post. Mesh-wise we get three huts: a big one with protruding rafters and a porch, one without the rafters and a small, simple one. All of them take their textures from the first, most complex version - so in case you unmerge, do not delete those. Edit: now the textures are separated into their own files (MM or alpha). Pick your favourite and download them together with the huts of your choice and the tuning file!
The regular occurrence of daub fragments, occasionally burned and thus preserving the impressions of wattles, argues that such houses were made of wicker wall in the form of a circular basket (...). The height of the walls of such houses is to a large extent conjectural although an experimental conduct of the second type of house discussed below indicated a height of 1.50 m. The waterlogged remains of an Early Christian round-house in Northern Ireland supports this estimate.
-- Peter Reynolds, 1996: Rural Life and Farming, in Miranda J. Green (ed.) The Celtic World
Rafters, no rafters and a small, porchless hut. Wicker + different swatches of thatch.
Texture-wise, each of the huts comes in three versions: with walls of wattle, daub and lime wash. Additionally, the small hut also has a version in stone. All of them have a number of swatches. (They're separate files so that they could use different bump maps, in case you wondered).
Over time the wattles dry, become brittle and lose their strength but the power of the wall now lies in the brittle strength of the daub which is plastered into the wattles both inside and out. Daub itself is a specific amalgam of 30 per cent clay, 60 per cent earth and 10 per cent straw, grass, hair or any other fibrous material. Initially it is mixed with water to apply to the walls. Gradually it dries out and provided the mixture is correct, there is little cracking and ultimately the fibres both hold it together and reinforce it. It is not unlikely that a lime wash was finally applied to give a waterproof and, incidentally, an attractive finish.
-- ibid.
Wattle, daub, lime wash and stone, with the very creative names of v1, v2, v3 and v4 ;)
And then all the files come in two versions: Maxis-Match, using (except for wattle and pillars) only textures from the game, and alpha, where the roof and stone textures were replaced by ones by k-hippie. So that the huts would fit your aesthetic no matter which one it is 😉. You can use both if you want to. The difference is the most striking in case of the stone huts:
Left: MM, right: alpha, which in this case means k-hippie's textures
For the full list of credits and links to the textures used, see below! (Technically you don't need them, but I guess you'd like to, so that your world would look consistent, right...?)
As the huts' meshes are not in any way constrained by the TS4 limitations - the walls are lower, the door fit wherever I put them etc. etc. - they don't look exactly like the huts you can build in game. But they're close enough to fit in relatively well, I think. Here's my attempt at making an in-game copy of one of the lime-washed huts:
An in-game built hut vs the premade deco one. No offence EA but I like mine more ;)
Last but not least: the VFX thing. Long ago I came up with the idea that it'd be cool if the huts could emit steam from their roofs, just like in real life (they had a hearth right in the middle of the floor, after all, and all the resulting smoke had to somehow get outside). And now they do! Which makes them look reeeeally cool, especially during cloudy weather:
It's an oldish screenshot, things have been fixed since, but the steam remained the same. Please ignore the mess in the foreground ;)
Important note here: in case you unmerge your package, DO NOT DELETE THE TUNING FILE. That's the one responsible for the steam appearing; without it your huts will be referencing non-existing tuning and your PCs will explode. Or something along those lines.
(Edit: or the textures. YOU NEED THE TEXTURES. Download and DO NOT DELETE them!)
Hope you'll find them useful - I certainly believe that I will 😁 Enjoy (and tag me if by any chance they star in your screenshots)!
DOWNLOAD (free on Patreon, no Early Access)
Stucco wall, Cleanwall, some stone wall and CL roof by EA
wall wattling 1 by mammut (Simszoo)
thatched roof and stone wall by @k-hippie (shoot, the site is down again so I can't link, but it's k-101 and k-202)
rustic tree trunk column by IDBD - looks like they retired and their stuff is gone, but you can download the file HERE.
big barn door by @simverses (mesh edited/simplified by me, to make the door more solid)
Big heartfelt thank you to all the creators - both for their work and their generous TOUs!
