Importing a save file into a .world file for CAW editing, objects missing on lots.
tl;dr - After merging a save file with a .world file and importing it into the game I find that all objects on lots that were already present prior to merging are gone. This includes everything from furniture, trees, plants and windows and doors. It makes no difference if it's custom content, base game content, store content or content from an expansion pack. It's all gone and only the walls and roofs are left...
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So.. I've had this town that I started working on in.. I don't really know when it was, 2021 or 2022 or something, at a time when I could still use the "Edit in game" function from Create a World. Back in the day when everyone was on Origin and the world was bright and full of sunshine.. but then came the EA App..
Anyway, what I'm trying to do now is.. I've been building lots of houses on lots now for this town, saved them all to bin and in a save file, but..
..that never felt good enough, I wanted them to be a part of the actual world file, so... I searched the forum and found some threads (these are my sources)..
https://modthesims.info/showthread....5#startcomments
https://modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=416989
https://modthesims.info/showthread....5#startcomments
..read them and put what I found together in this method.. some of the below is just copy/paste from the sources, I did not necessarily write this myself. Just put it together trying to figure it out.
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IMPORT SAVE INTO WORLD FILE.
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Before starting: Create a temporary work folder to save all files to be worked on.
1. Open CAW. Make a new world, large 300 flat map. Save it and close CAW.
2. Open S3PE. Open the .world file that you just made. Choose Resource> Import> From package, and browse to the world you want to open- for example, Bridgeport.world or France.world.
It can be any INSTALLED world, you can't really use a S3Pack for this.
Click replace duplicates, use resource names, and compress- choose NO if it asks do you want to autosave. Click okay, and let
S3PE import those files.
3. When it has finished, delete the following resources if they are present:
WPID 0xF609FD60 and UNKN 0x296A6258. (Island Paridiso and city resource)
Those files give the world its identity and type, so you do not want to copy those. (Exception- you might want to keep the city resource if you wish to make an amended version of Bridgeport, or the vacation resource if you with to make a vacation replacement world. See this thread for more details.)
Save your world in S3Pe- just click SAVE not SAVE AS.
4. Find save file you want to import. Open in S3PE. Export resources to work folder. This exports lots, houses and households (sims).
5. Open CAW and open the base world you want to import into (the one saved in point 3).
6. Remove lots layer and save as new version witout lots. This creates a file with only landscape, roads and 'Create a World' objects. Then back up this file.
7. Open S3pe. Import resources exported in point 4 into file saved in point 6. This should combine landscape, roads and world objects with lots, houses and households...
8. ((Check for resources WPID 0xF609FD60 and UNKN 0x296A6258 again. If you don't want them, delete if present. )) Then click save (not save as).
9. Open in CAW to see if it works. It may take some time. Save as new world with new name.
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Everything looks fine up until point 9, I get lots of blue lots. If I wait around and move around the town, the lots load in eventually and replace the blue lots with actual lots and everything looks fine. I save as, export and import the world into the game to test it..
..and here begins the story of my test sim Archie. She just heard about this new town, again, since she lives in a time loop doing the same things over and over again, and so she eagerly and happily bought this new little house and was excited to move in.. except..
..that when she set foot on her new lot, she found something odd about her house. There was no front door or windows! She took a walk around the yard, but there wasn't single door or window to be found! And even if she could've walked inside, she would've found that it had no furniture either.. and also, the scrubs, plants and trees that should be on the lot, weren't there either..
After, disappointed and confused, taking a walk around the neighbourhood, she found that this was true for all the lots there.. no doors, no windows, no trees, no furniture, just empty shells all over the place..
..and from a distance, some of the buildings didn't even look like buildings at all...
..now a little terrified and still confused, she decided to head to the local neighbourhood dog park to unwind and take a breather, but.. what would otherwise have been a vibrant park with trees, bushes, maybe some fish in the pond, a small playground and some dog houses where now just as empty as everything else.. was she just having a bad dream, or was this for real?
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So yeah, basically, this is what I'm left with when opening the world in game.. all the old lots that were part of the world already are now empty shells without any objects, just walls and wall/floor coating. No doors, no furniture, no trees, etc...
As for the mangled look of some of the buildings, that can be fixed, as mentioned in one of my sources above, by going into the lot from Edit Town mode and planting a tree there or doing some other minor change and the lot will look fine, so that's not the most major problem...
...what I'm really wondering about is where all the furniture, doors and windows went..