I have a residential lot in my town with a high number of tombstones and I want to import that lot into another town but it would just corrupt the neighbourhood, wouldn't it?

Anyway, I took a lot of pictures of that lot and I recreated it from scratch.
It is easy to rebuild the house itself but the most difficult thing is terrain painting.

I can't redo them, it is too unique.
Can I simply export the terrain paint from the old lot and import it into the new lot using SimPe?

I'm confused ... Is it even possible?

I do it all the time. If I remember correctly, just extract all of the Lot Terrain Geometry files with instances of 0x5CC0 or above (do NOT copy 0x3B76) and the Lot Texture from the original lot using SimPE, remove the existing files from the new lot, and then add the extracted files.

Each Lot Terrain Geometry contains the data for one terrain paint and the Lot Texture contains the information about which terrain paint is controlled by which Lot Terrain Geometry record.

Thank you I'm going to try it out.

But I have a question, does it carry any previously sim references?

And can walls, foundations, wallpapers, floors or staircases also be exported and imported into a new lot using this technique?

No. There are no sim references in those records.

Walls, foundations, wallpapers, floors and staircases would each require their own set of records. It's not something that I've done, but I believe that the wiki documents those records at least partially.

Walls and foundations will require WLL^wiki, WGRA^wiki, WRLD^wiki and any other associated records. Possibly the record with the correlation between wallpapers and IDs - which might be the SMAP^wiki. As well, some of the 3ARY^wiki records contain room IDs and should probably be copied.

I believe that the floors and foundations are stored in one of the 3ARY^wiki records, but there will definitely be other associated records that are required, specifically the ones that associate floors and IDs (another SMAP^wiki instance?).

I've copied the grid elevations from one lot to another before... that's another 3ARY record and is pretty safe.

Staircases are probably the most problematic. I believe that they involve objects and will contain sim references. In addition, objects are very complicated, with lots of associations between different records.

So staircases can carry sim references but how about doors, windows or gates? Do they also count as objects?
Because those ghosts used the gates quite often.

By the way, this is really complicated.
I'm afraid of exporting and importing sim references from one lot into another lot.

I once moved a house without furniture into the bin and placed it into another neighbourhood but the HoodChecker reported some not exsisting sims.
It was a 100% empty neighbourhood...
The staircases may (or may not) summoned those not exsisting sims.

Yes. Doors, windows and (I believe) gates are all objects.

Ok, basically everything that a sim can interact with, is unsafe to export/import.

But can walls, foundations, wallpapers or floors also contain sim references?

I think I already asked something similar (about sim references)
And you said there are also unknown sim references.
I asked a SimGuru (EA) too but they didn't answer...

Can I also export/import terrain sculpting?
(Ex. ponds, little hills etc.)

We don't know everything that's in these records. The only way to know is to get access to the EA source code. Therefore, there's probably no definitive answer to your questions. However, you can certainly look at what we do know about these records in the wiki. If there is even one unknown field, then there is a possibility that the unknown field contains a sim reference.

As far as I know, the walls, foundations, wallpapers and floors do not contain sim references, but I can't guarantee anything.

Yes, terrain sculpting is what I referred to above as "grid elevations". They are in one of the 3ARY instances. However, it's difficult to get just the ground level; you'll probably want the whole lot.

Ok, I can redo the walls, foundations, wallpapers, floors and so on by hand (in-game)

But as said, the terrain paint is too unique to redo.
And if I look to the terrain sculpting, I also find it too unique and time-taking to redo it.

If I only would export terrain painting and sculpting, there won't be any sim references ... or?
And, can't the sims interact with the ground too? (e.g. for stargazing or searching for bugs)

So is it safe to export/import terrain sculpting or downloading previously occupied houses (even without furniture)?

If you just do the terrain painting and grid elevations, you should be pretty safe. I've never seen any indication of sim references in those records, and I've done those two myself lots of times without any issues.

I can't decide which files the ones are which I have to extract.
Can you help me?

I've already told you which records are needed for the terrain paints above.

Grid elevations are in 3ARY instance 1.

It didn't work.
In the neighborhood view everything seemed to be there.

But after I entered the lot, the ground was stil unpainted.
There was no terrain paint.

As for the lake, it didn't work too.

What did I wrong?

Edit: I tried again.
As for the terrain sculpting, it worked now.

But the terrain painting still disappear after entering the lot.

Which records did you copy for the terrain painting?

I exported those records.

OK, you shouldn't do instance 0x3B76 and you'll need the Lot Texture record. If they are custom terrain paints, it's possible that you'll need some other records too. But, try the Lot Texture record first to see whether that helps.

I extracted the 0x5CC0/ 0x5CC1/ -C2/ -C3/ -C4 instances but I'm not sure if I have to extract the 0x5CBC/ -BD/ -BE/ -BF instances? Or the 0x5CEE instance...

Now it worked but it's like I extracted something unnecessary and imported it with.
Are only the 0x5CC0/ 0x5CC1/ -C2/ -C3/ -C4 instances the necessary ones or are all instances necessary except 0x3B76?

The sand and dirt terrain paint showed up ingame.
But the dark grass terrain paint didn't.

0x5CBC-0x5CBF are the standard 4 terrain paints, so you'll want those. 0x5CEE contains the controls for all of the terrain paints, so you'll need that one too.

I restored from back-up and re-did it again.

Now the dark grass terrain paint isn't missing.
I can rebuild that house now.

Anyway, as you said there are no sim references in those records.
So is it 100% safe to share this lot?

I said that I don't know of any sim references in those records. I believe that you're probably safe. But I can't guarantee anything. I have personally shared lots where I copied terrain paints and grid elevations, but they were unoccupied lots to begin with.

Do you mean I should restore from back-up and redo it (even if it is unexact)?

It's really up to you. I just can't guarantee that there are no sim references. At this time, we don't even know whether all sim references are unsafe; it's an issue which has only come up fairly recently and I don't know of anyone who is researching this issue.

How can I figure out that there are sim references?
I mean there are no objects.

Is the HoodChecker able to find corrupt lots?

Look at the wiki. Find all unknown fields in the records that you want to check. Do the research necessary to determine what the unknown fields do. (Note that this usually involves making changes to the fields in SimPE then running the game and determining what's changed. Sometimes, the change will be obvious, sometimes it's difficult to see. You may need to try a number of different values for each field in order to determine how that data is being used. Another way is to run the game and then watch for changes in the field in SimPE... you can then compare what you did in the game with the data in the unknown field to try to determine what the field is.) Document your results in the wiki. That's basically how we've managed to get the info that we have now (although occasionally someone at EA has given us some help).

No, the HoodChecker doesn't look at lots.

I looked at the wiki.
It is really complicated to understand it.

Firstly, I checked 3ARY instance 1.
I read the wiki page for that and there wasn't anything unknown.
(If I didn't overlook something)

As for Lot Terrain Geometry files (LOTG) and Lot Texture (LTTX),
There's no wiki page for them both.

(Why is EA making such awful mistakes and decide not to fix them?)

I'm just wondering, can those records (which are unknown) be deleted from the instance?
Wouldn't this remove the sim reference?

Anyway, I'm rubbish when it comes to codes and modding.