Builders' Boulevard

Hello everybody,

I love building both commercial and residential lots and of course I would also love to share them. I know, that even the greatest lots look rather horrible with the custom pics that come with the lots, so I've been trying to change those.

I don't know what I did right, once I managed to upload a lot with the picture I wanted, but since then I just can't do it anymore.

I have the Lepid Lama program, I followed all the steps I found on the Sims 3 forums, but now as soon as I change the png in the Lama program and overwrite the file in the Sims Library the lots I edited don't show up in the game at all.

The pixel size is 512x512, I tried with both jpgs and pngs, but it's always the same.

I'm sure you all here know how to do it. Could somebody please help me out with this.

Thanks in advance.

I found the tutorial that I first used rather confusing, so I wrote some new step by step rules for myself and another friend on the official site which a number of people have found easier to follow. Another trick is to make your own back up in game, rather than fiddling with renaming files.

These are the steps that I follow:

1: Go into your game, move a fresh copy of the house you want to change the picture for into your library. Close your game.

2: Open the program ( Lepid Lama) from the other tutorial with the "start" file.

3: Go to "File" in the top corner.

4: Select "Open"

5: Navigate to your personal "Documents" (or "Documents and settings")then "Electronic Arts", then "The Sims 3" then "Library".

6: Right click away from the files and select "view" then "details".

7: Click "date modified" so that file that you created right at the beginning (the one with the newest date and time) is at the end of your list. Double click the file name.

8: You should have a list of files starting with XML, unk etc. Click "Name" at the top of the first collumn.

9: Now you have a list starting with "png" files.

10: Look in the "group" collumn, the first 3 should be "0x00000000".

11: Go to the "Long Name" collumn and double click on the file called "png icon house large" it will be one of those first 3 files.

12: a 512x512 picture should have appeared. Click "import" above the picture.

13: Navigate to the file where you've saved the picture you want to use. Mine are normally in my ea screenshots folder, yours maybe somewhere else.

14: Double click the picture you wish to use.

15: Click "commit" on the right above the picture.

16: Go to "File" and select "save as", then "save"

17: If it asks if you want to override, click "yes"

18: Once it has saved, hit "name" again to get the PNG files back.

19: Double click "png icon house large" again.

20: Check that you're new picture comes up and not the old one.

21: If it does come up, shut down the program and open your game. (If not, repeat steps 12 to 17 making sure to say yes to override, then recheck to make sure it saved, then continue.)

22: Navigate to your hood and lot library, and use the upload button to change your description and upload your lot.

23: Close you game and open the launcher.

24: Upload your lot.

25: Go to your page and check the custom pick uploaded ok.

I always make sure I have the original down on a lot and the library version. Once I've done my custom picture on the library version and uploaded it, I move that file into a seperate folder with its front cover and use the lot that is still in place to create a new library version so I always have a back up with the default cover, just in case.

If these steps don't help, reply again and we'll see if we can get it working for you.

Thank you very much. I will try again. Your description is really good.

Let me know how it goes

Thank you for posting your easy to follow instructions, Sparkle!  I'm gonna sticky this so all our members can find it easily.

Hope they help someone out

SWEET!

I've been dying to figure this all out; the default EA pictures ALWAYS make my lots look shobby and it makes me so annoyed. I will surely download the llama program & try this all tomorrow!

To change thr photo, does the new photo need to be 512x 512 exactly? And if so, what is the easiest way to resize a screenshot that is larger than that?

(i've been sitting here a while trying to figure it out. I tried this once and It was unseccessful.)

What is the llama program? Where do I get it from. Also, great step by step. I don't need them now but it's nice to see that someone will share how to do things.

I don't know for certain as I always resize my photos but I have been told that it doesn't matter if it isn't 512x512. However it is best to have it at least square, otherwise it distorts the picture on the exchange and you'll see something that's been squashed or stretched to fit it to 512x512.

Mama ShirlLegacy : Click the link in the step by step and it will take you to the lepid lama download. As to what it is, you'll need to visit Simlogical to get all the background info on the program.

Okay, Okay. One last thing (I Hope). I got the photo changed, I saved, and the new photo came up when i clicked it to. But when I went back into my library, the house came up with the old photo as the display. Is this normal, or did it not work?

No, it's normal. It won't show in game unless you also change the medium and small 0x000000 files. They need to be 256x256 and 128x128. Most people don't care if they don't show up in game though, and not changing those two files keeps your file size down so it's easier to upload.

W_T_iSC , I use Microsoft Office Picture Manager so I hope this will help.

1. Choose Edit Pictures from the menu bar.

2. On the right side menu choose crop  and crop the right and left sides until you have 768 pixels and choose ok. This will make the pic square.

3 Choose Edit Pictures again and then resize from the right menu. In the custom width and height type in 512 X 512 and choose ok.

4. Save as "file name of your choice".

And thats it.

Ok, so I went ahead and re-uploaded some of my lots that I felt were not getting any justice So this will be kind of a test.

Before changing upload picture:

Modern Starter

Downloads: 21

Rec: 5

Onsen

Downloads: 124

Rec: 6

Japanese Garden

Downloads: 159

Rec: 6

do the math

lets see if I get more downloads and recs

Im having a problem simply trying to install the program that will allow me to change the picture >_<.  It wont create a directory, not matter what I try.  Is there another program? Or any other way around it?

Hi Animaga!

If it's "suggesting" you install in Program Files, switch to another directory like Documents or your Desktop.  Mine wouldn't install to the default Program Files either, so I just switched it to Documents and it installed there.

Awesome. I'll give that a try.  I tried making it's own folder and moving it to another section but that didn'twork either.  I'll give putting it in my documents a try.

omg thank you for these simple instructions. I am going to use this for my summer of love lot.

Animaga, I had that problem as well, I've stuck it on my desktop, I use it so often it's most useful being there anyway

Sparkle, I was wondering if you wouldn't mind if I made a video tutorial using your steps for those that would rather have someone "show" them how its done than read it and try to put the steps into play.  I'll totally credit you in the tutorial.  I just thought a "visual" tutorial may also be a good idea because it seems like theres always tons of people asking for instructions on how to change their lot images.