The Chatterbox

You know how when your in the Neighbourhood option screen and all your custom neighbourhoods are just pictures of the actual bare neighbourhood or whatever? Well, I found out one day when excessively bored that it can be changed, and very easily. If I lose you feel free to ask any questions Very Happy

Right, firstly, I apologise for the graphics...I have no graphics card at present, better pics will follow asap, or if somebody does this then you can change the pics for me if you like Wink

Here's what you do:

The only tool you will need to do this is a paint programme.
I will be using Adobe photoshop, but any paint or photo programme will be fine.
If you are already quite capable of creating an image in your paint programme then feel free to skip the middle section.

First you need to decide which neighbourhood screen you would like to change.
For the purpose of this tutorial I will be using neighbourhood 5, but you can use any you like.

Firstly, navigate to the desired neighbourhood folder...for example, for neighbourhood 5 I will need to go to:
My documents/EA Games/The Sims 2/Neighbourhoods/N005
Inside this folder is a PNG image named "N005_Neighborhood"
This is the file I will be altering.

Firstly, and most importantly, create a copy of this file to somewhere you will remember.
Left click on the image once and on the left hand side of the folder you will see "copy this file"

Click on this and copy to a folder somewhere safe.

Now it's time to open your paint programme.
Go to file and select open, navigate to the neighbourhood folder and select the image.

Now open an image you would like to use in your neighbourhood screen, for my neighbourhood screens, I use several images but one will do for this tutorial.

You can see from this shot that any size picture is ok...as long as it is not distorted when resized.
Select the image you wish to use, in photoshop you would right click on it and opt for 'select all'
Next go to edit on the top menu and select 'copy'
To place the image into the neighbourhood screen we need to firstly select that picture by clicking on it.
Next go back to edit and select 'paste'
Now, the image I have used was loads bigger than the actual neighbourhood screen so I need to go to edit again, select 'transform' then 'scale'. This will allow me to resize my image to fit within the picture. It's worth noting that in the pop-up neighbourhood screen the image will be slightly cropped, so allow for this in your design.
Once your happy with this then go to Layer/flatten image.
All you have to do now is save the image over the original neighbourhood screen, this is why I said to make a copy of the original.
Go to File/save as and navigate to your neighbourhood folder as before and double click on the neighbourhood image.
When asked if you want to replace this image, make sure it is being saved in the PNG format then select 'yes' or 'ok'
The file is now in your neighbourhood screen and ready to be viewed!
You can make your screen look anyway you like, add several images or text, just remember to flatten the layers when finished.
Have fun!

Thanks ali! I used this from you before, now all my neighborhoods have custom pictures. Thanks for it!

Well I skimmed over this but it looks very easy ! When I get back up and running I just might try this myself. Thank you for posting this. Is there a limit to the amount of neighbourhoods you can create? I am terrible at going outside what comes in the game so I dont experiment alot. I did manage to do a plain 'hood for all the challenges I do just because it was running outta room in Pleasantville.

Wow, your graphics card really is f*%$&ed.

Great tute too.

Well, did you think I was making it up so I didn't have to test my own meshes or something? hahaha! I know I'm lazy but.....

Anna--I know this answer is WAY later than when you posted your question, but NO! There's no limit to the number of neighborhoods you can have, but YES! There probably is a limit, really, but it's a VERY high one...read on...

All the ones I have on Neighborly Sims are number in the 100s (N100, N101, N102, etc.), plus the Dickensville neighborhood is number N999. I don't have that many neighborhoods (though I DO have 48 right now).

I have no clue whether or not the game would pick up N1000 or not...possibly, but not probably. I suspect you have to stay in the 3-digit numbers (N999 or less).

Now here's something that I'll BET is going to happen when Seasons arrives, because they ARE putting in a fourth default neighborhood, I believe.

If you leave your Neighborhoods folder in the game folders when you install Seasons, more than likely your N004 neighborhood is going to get overwritten by the new Maxis neighborhood. That happened to me back in TS1, with Hot Date, I believe it was, when we got the Downtown area and they added a numbered folder that coincided with my own extra neighborhood! Ouch! I hadn't backed up. Now I know better.

When I install EPs, I always move my game folder out (just renaming it works), then after the install and after the game is up the first time and all the settings renewed and all, I start moving everything back in: my cheats file and my cameras file, and my collections, then my neighborhoods and downloads, and any movies and all that, until I finally get everything back the way I want it. It takes time, but it saves a lot of headaches later, plus it gives you the new start that makes the game run optimally.

So when Seasons comes out, I'll probably have to totally renumber my N004 folder, which shouldn't be too hard, because it's one I don't use a lot--it was my first custom neighborhood, but just made from one of the game SC4 terrains--not my own.

Linda

Thanks for the warning on that Linda. Very Happy

I'm glad that my N004 is just my testing hood then. lol so if I screw up and forget...i don't lose anything. lol

Cool thanks for the reply Linda. I would guess this slows down your game considerably tho.

Nope...no slow down because of neighborhoods, actually. I suppose there's a small difference, but not enough to bother me. The slowdown comes with the downloads folder.

If you take out your downloads folder, you can have as many neighborhoods as you want, and the game will come up pretty quickly.

What I DON'T like about it is that with the neighborhood chooser only showing three at a time, it takes forever to get through to the 48th hood!

For THAT reason, I take out whatever neighborhoods I'm not playing at any given time, and keep them in a holding folder, then just slip them back in when I want to play them. :-)

Linda