Making Walls With Sims 4 Studio: Custom & Maxis Match

Introduction

This tutorial will show you how to use Sims 4 Studio to create your own new Wall Recolor .package. 

If you are interested in making walls that use EA's special corner trim feature see this tutorial instead: Make Sims 4 Walls with Corners

If you are interested in making a mural wall see this tutorial: Create a Mural Wall for Sims 4

and if you're interested in learning more about wall bump and specular images see this tutorial: Wall Bump & Speculars the Painless Way

What you will need

You will need Sims 4 Studio
A 2D  editor

Blender is NOT required.

Instructions

Open Sims 4 Studio and add your creator name if you haven't already done so.

1. Click the Wall radio button.

2. Click the Build button.

1. Choose the wall you wish to clone. 

**Note: If you want a flat wall that will not require editing anything but the texture image choose a plain painted wall with no trim.  If you want a Maxis match trim select a wall with trim and only edit the part that isn't trim.  If you want a wall that will give you bump and specular maps clone a wall that has brick or tile on it.** 

2. Click Next.

3. Choose the name you want for your Wall .package and Save.

1. The wall you just cloned will appear applied to a wall in the Model Viewer box.

2. The Catalog tab is selected by Default.  

3. Add your new wall's name in the name field.  Add your description if you want one and change the price if you like.

The catalog name, description, and price only need to be added once to a given .package.  The same ones are used for all textures added to the .package.  You don't have to do this step first.  You can make the wall first and do the catalog information later by clicking on the Catalog tab when you're ready to fill this part in.

1. Click the Texture tab.

2. For a wall where you want parts or all of EA's wall you may export the three wall images (one for each wall height in the game) all at once by clicking the Export All button.  Note, that if the wall you selected has bump and specular images this step will export those images as well.  

3.  When you click the button you will be asked to name a folder and choose a location for it. Studio will then export all the wall images to that folder and name them so you know which is which.

**Note - if you are making brand new walls that don't need any part of the EA texture you can skip this export step and just skip to the Import Texture step below.**

Prepare your wall textures in your 2D editor of choice.  I used Paint.net for mine but any 2D editor capable of saving as .png will do.

You will note that the EA images you export do not look exactly the same as the corresponding EA wall in the game looks.  If you make your walls the same size as the EA wall is it will be stretched in the game.  Investigation indicates that the following sizes will make your walls look right in the game although they will need to be resized to match EA's image sizes after you make them:

Tall          - 256 x 1280

Medium    - 256 x 1024

Short        - 256 x 768

Make your walls these sizes initially and then resize them so they are the same size as the EA wall for any given height.  This will make your texture look somewhat squashed but in game it will be stretched so that it looks right. The right size after you resize is:

Tall          - 256 x 1024

Medium    - 256 x 512

Short        - 256 x 512 

**Walls which are not resized correctly will show up with question mark images in place of your new images for some players.  For this reason, wall images should be resized so they match the size of EA's wall images.**

**Simension has posted a very helpful discussion with pictures that illustrate how to size your walls HERE**

Once your walls are ready save them as a .png.

1. Click the Short line in the Height box to select it.

2. Click the Import Texture button. You will notice your new texture appears on the walls in the Model Viewer.  This allows you to check your tiling, sizing, and placement of fine wall details.  You will also notice that Studio has updated the thumbnail image so that it matches your new wall.  If you prefer to make a totally custom thumbnail you can import a new one in to overwrite the one Studio made.  If you want to keep the Studio generated thumbnail but put your own icon over it as an overlay please see the thumbnail overlay tutorial HERE for a quick and easy way to do that.

1. Right click in the first Swatch Thumbnail Colors box to bring up the eyedropper tool.  

2. Drag that over your wall and pick the main color that you want to show in the swatch thumbnail. Left mouse click when you see the color you want show in the box. 
3. You will see the swatch box above change color updating to show your new color instead. Repeat this for the other color boxes if you want more than one color. If you want fewer colors than the original has you can clear the unwanted color boxes.

4. When you're done coloring the swatch thumbnail click the Tags tab.

1.  Change the existing tags to match your new wall by removing the check marks from inappropriate selections and putting check marks for the Type and Color that match your new wall.

Adding More Color Choices to the Wall .package

1. If you want more than one color choice for your wall in the .package return to the Texture tab. 

2.  Click the Add Swatch button and you will see a new swatch thumbnail appear in the Swatch Thumbnail box.  Prepare your walls as before and then import each wall size as before.  Again you will see your new wall textures appear on the walls in the model viewer and the thumbnail will be updated.

3.  Repeat the color picker step so that your swatch thumbnail matches your wall.  Change the tags so they match the new swatch.  Add as many more swatches as you want.  Click the Save button.

Put your new .package in your Sims 4 Mods folder.

Check out your new wall.package in the game

  Feel free to use this icon when sharing your own content made with Sims 4 Studio