In this tutorial I will show you the mechanics of making Walls and Floors. I however won’t teach you how to make beautiful walls, but check out my tips at the bottom of the page for further inspiration.
If anything is unclear, please let me know by posting a comment!
Step 1: Tools
You will need these tools:
WallEz by Granthes
A Graphics Program That can export .dds – I use Photoshop.
Text Editor – I just use Notepad from Windows.
Step 2: Get Organized
Make a folder on your hard drive for your creations for example D:\MySimsCreations
In this folder extract the WallEz files.
You will also be saving your image and text files into this folder
Optional: Get Super Organized – If you are going to be working with many images and want to keep order in the chaos you can use sub-folders for your images but you will need to point to the right sub-folder in the text files
Step 3: Create the Images
Walls: You need to create 3 images for the 3 different wall heights and then resize them (they will look squashed in Photoshop)
256×768 -> 256 x 512 (short)
256×1024 -> 256 x 512 (medium)
256×1280 -> 256 x 1024 (tall)
Floors: You will only have to create a 1 image with the following size:
256×256 or 512×512
Save these images as a .dds DXT5 format. For your own convenience make sure the filename shows which size it is and that it is recognizable for you. You need the exact names of each image in the next step.
Step 4: Text Editor time
Walls: Create a text file with the following text, you can repeat the <wall></wall> bit as many time as you want within <package></package>
Type the following in notepad, do not copy/paste – you will get error messages! Alternatively (aka easy route) you can download my templates and adjust to your situation.
Here is a blank template so you don’t have to type everything yourself.
<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”utf-8″?>
<Package Creator=”Your Name” Filename=”File Name”>
<Wall Price=”1″ Name=”Wall Name” Description=”Wall Description”>
<Tag Type=”Color” Value=”Green”/>
<Tag Type=”Style” Value=”Paint”/>
<Swatch Top=”#00ff37″ Middle=”#00ff37″ Bottom=”#00ff37″/>
<TextureShort Filename=”wall768.dds”/>
<TextureMedium Filename=”wall1024.dds”/>
<TextureTall Filename=”wall1280.dds”/>
</Wall>
</Package>Super Organized: Replace wall768.dds with subfolder\wall768.dds
Here is my template if you want an example on how I made my walls.
Don’t forget to edit the Creator, Filename, Wall name and description. The name of your file depends on creator+filename but you can change this afterwards.
– For <Tag Type=”Color” Value=”Green”/> you can replace the value with any of the following options: Red, Blue, Green, Gray, Black, Orange, Yellow, White, Pink, Purple, DarkBrown, LightBrown.
– For <Tag Type=”Style” Value=”Paint”/> you can replace value with any of the following options: Paint, Wallpaper, Tile, Paneling, Masonry, RockAndStone, Siding.
– With <Swatch Top=”#00ff37″ Middle=”#00ff37″ Bottom=”#00ff37″/> you define the color of little square in the game.
– <TextureShort Filename=”wall768.dds”/> (and Medium and Tall) are your images, put here your exact image name and if you use a subfolder, don’t forget that!
Floors: Create a text file with the following text, you can repeat the <floor></floor> bit as many time as you want within <package></package>
Here is a blank template so you don’t have to type everything yourself.
<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”utf-8″?>
<Package Creator=”Your Name” Filename=”File Name”>
<Floor Price=”1″ Name=”Wall Name” Description=”Wall Description”>
<Tag Type=”Color” Value=”Green”/>
<Tag Type=”Style” Value=”Wood”/>
<Swatch Top=”#00ff37″ Middle=”#00ff37″ Bottom=”#00ff37″/>
<Texture Filename=”floor.dds”/>
</Floor>Super Organized: Replace floor.dds with subfolder\floor.dds
Here is my template on how I made my floors. – huge thanks to Rosie for sharing her floor template with me
– For <Tag Type=”Color” Value=”Green”/> you can replace the value with any of the following options: Red, Blue, Green, Gray, Black, Orange, Yellow, White, Pink, Purple, DarkBrown, LightBrown.
– For <Tag Type=”Style” Value=”Wood”/> you can replace value with any of the following options: Wood, Carpet, Tile, Stone, Masonry, Linoleum, Metal, Outdoor.
At this point you will have 1 big folder with all the images and files or the super organized method of a separate image folder. Here is how my folders look:
Step 5: Creating the package
Drag the xml file on top of WallEz.exe, it will say “Open with WallE” and then it will ask you to run the file – say yes.
When it is done (it takes a second or two) it will popup a window informing you if it worked and what it did. If everything is good it will look something like this:
Anything else it means that you need to double check your text file and if the images are the correct names (easy to do this wrong), also that the quotes ” are all the same.
You now have a package file in the same folder as your xml and WallEz.exe
Step 6: Test in Game
Always test your creations!
Place your package files in my documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 4\Mods\
Load the game, you will get a screen like this:
Find the creations in the game, this will depend on what options you chose as ‘value’ before. Test every color, see if you are happy – probably not, go back to the image file or the text file and adjust.
My creation is not the prettiest, but I needed it for functionality 🙂
Extra Tips
Start with re-coloring/re-texturing – If you are new to custom content creating, use Sims4Studio to extract existing walls from the game and start with changing the colors or add a pattern on them. Get the hang of it.
Why didn’t I write this tutorial using Sims4Studio? I find it a bulkier program than WallEz and once you create your own images (no recoloring) you will find WallEz much easier, also Sims4Studio’s tutorial is good, better to just link you there!
Be mindful of Copyright – you can find an amazing texture on Google Image Search does not mean you can use it, they are copyrighted. Instead go to stock websites like sxc.hu or browse the stock image area on deviantart.com. Or draw yourself if you are good at drawing!
Be Inspired – while you cannot use the images from Google Image Search directly, you can be inspired by them! Also look how in RL walls and floors are made. For example my own kitchen walls have tiles 2/3 up the walls and the rest is paint.
Get the techniques – there are some Photoshop techniques that I use every day for so many things that I learned because of creating custom content for The Sims 1/2/3. Spend a little time learning the program and it pays off in the long run (especially masks, avoid deleting any pixels, use masks!). Here are some great tutorials for Photoshop:
Changing color with Hue/Saturation
Understanding Layer Masks In Photoshop
Share your creations
Did you use this tutorial? Show us what you made!
Is this WallEZ tool still available? I get an error going to the link.