Author Topic: Tips before uploading a house to the swap shop  (Read 13362 times)

Offline Twinmum

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Tips before uploading a house to the swap shop
« on: November 09, 2011, 02:34:27 AM »
I've been looking at some of the houses available here and I think there are a few things people could do before they upload houses.
I know sometimes we are excited about building a house and sharing it, which is good, and we want to upload it as soon as we can. Maybe it's for a contest and you want to get your entry in quick, maybe you just want to share a house that you are proud of. Whatever the circumstances, I think we can all benefit from taking the time to do a few things before we upload.

 When you are finished your house, take a good look in every room to make sure you haven't forgotten anything. If all seems right, then share the build.
Once the file is in the export folder, move a sim into the house (this is of course presuming you built without occupants) and have them walk through the house and do things. By this I mean everything.. have them use every toilet, shower and bath. Have them sleep or at least relax on every bed and every side of double beds. Make them enter every room and use every door. Have them use every appliance. Make a mess in the kitchen and have them clean up.. is there a garbage close by or do they have to walk all the way to the garbage by the front gate?
Take particular note where you have things close together or have used moveobjects  to place things, can appliances still be used, can sims get where they want to go?
As you do this, make notes on things that need to be fixed, and believe me, you will be surprised at what you find that you thought was fine.
Once you have done this, move the sim out and bulldoze the house. Import your shared house into the game and then delete that share file. Go back in and fix everything and re-share the house. This may be time consuming, but the end result will be a better build that people will appreciate more when they move their sim in.

Edit: Another important thing to check is how the house preforms if you have used cheats (mainly the constrainfloorelevation cheat) while building. Because the game can do some strange things because of this cheat, it is really important to not only test the house as it was built, but to demolish that house and install it again from the share file. A perfectly good looking house can have some major problems when it is installed from the share file. See this topic for an example of what can happen.

Please don't be upset by my comments, but I have seen some wonderful builds that were really let down by the fact that they were not tested before sharing.

Norma
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Offline Lesleyxxx

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Re: Tips before uploading a house to the swap shop.
« Reply #1 on: November 09, 2011, 03:44:53 PM »
Point well made.  I never thought of doing that. If I had the railings around the top of the stairs in my octagonal tower house would have been deleted before uploading.



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VampirePlasma

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Re: Tips before uploading a house to the swap shop.
« Reply #2 on: November 09, 2011, 03:55:47 PM »
Very good point, I need to keep this one mind.

Offline Pam

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Re: Tips before uploading a house to the swap shop.
« Reply #3 on: November 09, 2011, 06:33:29 PM »
Thank you for sharing your thoughts, Twinmum.  I hope this will improve the experience of the Swap Shop.
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Offline Gheez

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Re: Tips before uploading a house to the swap shop.
« Reply #4 on: November 18, 2011, 01:20:50 AM »
I think you've made some excellent points, Norma and explained really well.  I have to admit to not checking every single thing when I play test any house I build, I will do in future, as I agree, it's disappointing to download something and then have to move things around because it doesn't work properly.  Thank you.

Offline kiko94

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Re: Tips before uploading a house to the swap shop.
« Reply #5 on: November 22, 2011, 11:48:58 AM »
indeed this is a good tip, I have recently started messing around with moveobjects on, and I find it necessary to test before uploading, I also have seen some Items switching levels (landscaping when placed on other then the ground level, making sure everything was play tested gives the down loader a better feeling about the house, and also leaving enough room for routing, but that is a whole other story ;D

maybe I would suggest sticking this in the house and lots sub forum instead? it would get more attention there, and it deserves it :)
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Offline Twinmum

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Re: Tips before uploading a house to the swap shop.
« Reply #6 on: November 22, 2011, 06:37:15 PM »
I've just updated the original post to include my latest lesson using CFE lol
Maybe it probably would be better in the houses and lots sub forum. I'll have to ask a mod to do that.
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Offline donatello

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Re: Tips before uploading a house to the swap shop.
« Reply #7 on: September 12, 2012, 12:20:53 PM »
Ok so i've been living in this house for more than a whole sim week trouble free. Upload time... Except I don't know what to do. I can't find it in search because my browser has some sort of aversion to the search function on this forum. Could someone provide me a link to the Read First topic? It will mean so much to me.
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Offline samoht04

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Re: Tips before uploading a house to the swap shop.
« Reply #8 on: September 12, 2012, 12:26:40 PM »
Ok so i've been living in this house for more than a whole sim week trouble free. Upload time... Except I don't know what to do. I can't find it in search because my browser has some sort of aversion to the search function on this forum. Could someone provide me a link to the Read First topic? It will mean so much to me.

Do you mean instructions on how to upload to the forum?
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Offline donatello

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Re: Tips before uploading a house to the swap shop.
« Reply #9 on: September 12, 2012, 01:20:13 PM »
Yes please Tom, that's what I meant. This will (quite obviously, I think) be my first share ever. I feel a bit helpless.
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Re: Tips before uploading a house to the swap shop.
« Reply #10 on: September 12, 2012, 01:41:09 PM »
You can find the how to guide here but another way to look for it would have been to go to the Swap Shop main area and it's one of the stickied threads on the main board.  That is also where you will find the rules & the instructions/guidelines on what information needs to be in your post.
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Offline donatello

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Re: Tips before uploading a house to the swap shop.
« Reply #11 on: September 12, 2012, 02:09:09 PM »
Thank you so much!
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