TIPTORIAL: ROADS

STRAIGHT ROADS

1. Click the ROAD TOOL, a panel will open on the right.
2. By default PLACE ROAD is already selected
3. Turn on the GRID, this ensures that your roads are straight.

4. Now zoom in close so that the grid is visible like in Fig A. But DO NOT zoom in too close like in Fig B. That is useful for placing sidewalks.

5. Put your Mouse pointer at the centre of a square, the BLUE spot on the picture below. Click and drag from Point A to Point B. then Click again to stop, Hit the ESC key. You MUST hit escape to stop the road tool

6. That is how you place a simple straight road.

CURVE ROADS

1. Place a Straight Road like above, going from point A to point B. BUT when you get to point B, do NOT hit the ESC key, ONLY click ONCE. then drag the road to point C, click once, drag to point D, click once, drag to point E, click once, and finally to point F. Click once and hit the ESC key.

2. Each click creates a JOINT and these joints allow you to manipulate the degree of curve. So, the more joints you have, the more control you have over your curves.

3. Select the MOVE TOOL. 

4. Click the Road between Point B and C. Blue line will appear with squares on the ends. These little squares are like handles. Click one end and drag left or right. As you can see the Road will bend. Adjust till you are satisfied. 

5. Repeat at each Joint till you get a smooth curve.

6. Now you can create different types of curvy roads. Just practice.

JOINING ROADS AND INTERSECTIONS

1. Intersections must be placed at the same time you place your roads. You cannot place all your roads and squeeze in the intersections later.
2. Click the ROAD TOOL again. Select Place Road and drag a Straight stretch of road
3. Select Place Intersection and put it next to your road. click and Hit ESC
4. Place another Stretch of Road after the Intersection Piece

5. Click MOVE TOOL and select one road piece. A dark blue square shows at the edge. This is a handle. Click and drag it to the edge of the Intersection piece. Then let go. If you do it right, the two pieces should become one. The little blue square handle should now be green.

SIDEWALKS

1. Select Place Sidewalk, under the Road tool panel.
2. Click the Sidewalk on the Road piece, Point A and drag till you get to point B. The same rules for placing Roads apply to side walks. As long as the ends are touching the roads, the connection is complete.

3. Sidewalk Intersections are placed the same way as road intersections. See Picture below.

CUSTOM ROAD TEXTURES

1. You must create your custom roads before placing your roads in the world. You can not place your road system and later decide you want to change the colors.

• To create your own custom texture you need a graphic tool like Adobe Photoshop  that can open png, jpeg, bmp, tga or dds file formats.
• The textures in the CAW tool are located in C:\Users\YourName\Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3 Create A World Tool\UserToolData\SourceTextures
• If you are using Adobe Photoshop you can download the Nvidia DDS Plugin from here. This will allow you to view and edit the original textures in CAW.
• Anyway the important thing is that your texture is saved in any of the above file formats and is 1024 x 1024 pixels. Save it in a folder somewhere and be careful not to over write any of the original files.

2. I'm just going to use the stuff EA gave us, since making textures is not my forte. 

• So on the Road Tool Panel, select Create Custom Road. A new window will open and all you have to do is select the right texture for each section.

ROAD NAME	Give your Road a Name…eg Dirt Road, Gravel Road
STREET TEXTURE
BASE TEXTURE	Select the main texture for your road
DETAIL TEXTURE	Select the detail texture, that is lines and borders. If you want a blank road, Create and use a Transparent texture.
SIDEWALK TEXTURES
BASE TEXTURE	Select the main texture. It affects both the sidewalks on the road pieces and normal sidewalks. If you want the side walk to be the same texture are as the road, then use the same texture for both
NORMAL MAP	I just use the EA normal map texture, usually with an ‘n’ at the end of the file name.  Eg “dirt_intersection_corner_n.dds”
OPACITY MAP	This texture affects the visible edges of the sidewalks. Leave this section blank if you want you sidewalks solid.
INTERSECTION TEXTURES
CORNER TEXTURE	Select the main texture. I suggest you modify the EA file, “sidewalkTile_concrete_corner_D.dss” if you are making your own.
CORNER NORMAL MAP	Use EA file
CROSSWALK TEXTURE	These affect the white stripes at cross walks, you could make zebra crossings here.

3. Click OK and you are done.

4. Your new road should show on the Right hand panel. Right-Click it an select SET ROAD AS ACTIVE.

5. You can make as many custom roads as you need. Just select the one you wish to use at any given time.

NOTE: ALWAYS END YOUR ROAD WITH AN INTERSECTION PIECE IF THAT END IS NOT ATTACHED TO ANOTHER ROAD. Otherwise you will have Routing Issues.

So that's all about roads. Thanks for reading.