@Bob Newbie Thanks for all those links. I already have some of those trees but more items are always good. I haven't tried defaulting my modern hoods road only my medieval which uses dirt tracks.

Where's everyone finding the Sky objects?
I never look at the sky but it'll be great for pictures! Maybe I'll look at the sky more often too!

EDIT: Found some!
https://slig.dreamwidth.org/15420.html
http://modthesims.info/download.php?t=187229

These are only for the LOT though.

@Kankritty
I use Nimi's neighborhood sky object: http://nimi4.livejournal.com/51103.html

Agreed. The grass is the only thing that prevents me from using Curious B's replacements - which is a shame, because I really like all her other terrain textures.

I just left out the grass replacement. The others show up just fine for me. They're listed separately.

That's what I did, too. Just left it out. Though I think I'll try to recolor the default grass again.

Unfortunately my main computer pooped itself, too. ): so that might be a while.

Edit: I would love to use skyboxes but I'm picky, I want them to work with Season )': I also want less realistic skyboxes.

I like Curious B's grass replacement, because the grass near me is definitely not that patchy and pale like the Eaxis grass. However, it seems a bit too green.

I tried niol's water following that tumblr link above, but it ended up being a horrible shimmer of black and white.

SimPE won't open on the computer I'm currently on, but if someone wants to crack it open and link / add the images here, I'd be more than willing to just color correct the images.

I believe the three that are affected have something like Lush, and Emerald in their titles. One is a neighborhood file and the other is a Lot file. There's a terrain paint and a road file, too? Now I can't remember.

Agreed! What would need done for that to happen? Is there a way for them to be made walk-through, like many other objects I know of? Would that let weather through?

I don't understand. The weather works for me when I have a sky object on a lot. Here is an example: it is raining on a lot with a sky object placed on the lot. Although you can't see it from the lot, there is a sky object in place on the neighborhood screen as well.

I might try out the 'dirt' replacement, because their idea of dirt is what I call grass. Australia is a dry place.

On second thought my hood wont show it will it? Right now I have Maxis grass so it isn't dirt terrain. Bother.

I never look up at the sky when I am playing the Sims, I just look at what going on in and around the lot and who is walking pass by Sims lot. If it rain it rain if it snow it snow or whatever season it may be.
I barely look at the Sky in the "real" world accept to see if it look like it going to be a rainy day, so I can take a umbrella just incase.

I added a couple more things to Coral Bay. There isn't a lot of room so just a tweak.

I had downloaded some road pieces the other day and decided to move the bus back off the road edge a little. It's meant to be the main bus stop here. Added a couple of trees and the new TS3 cave and a rock.


The bus stop doesn't quite fit the road peice but looks okay when not close in.

Very nice! A decorated neighborhood can do so much for the Sims 2 visuals! May I ask where you got the neighborhood cars? As far as I can tell, they are not driving on the road right?

The hood is originaly Elsewhere by Plasticbox and came with cars parked off the road edge. I don't know how she did it as they are not hood deco. The large rock was there, but the other hood deco like boats, corals ext are things I have placed. Original here: http://modthesims.info/d/319898

Ok thanks! It looks like that the cars were placed inside the lots. Did not know that there was a house nearby. :D

Regarding the Sims 2 graphics, I've tried to install SweetFX for the Sims 2. This can change colours, enable HDR and other effects. Sadly it just doesn't work with the Sims 2

The cars next to the road are not inside lots either. Could be some trick with large lots shrunk but it's a mystery to me how she did it.

http://modthesims.info/download.php?t=569032
Nopke's SkyFix

Thanks for reminding me that I had put that in Kankritty.

Night falls over Coral Bay and the two silent moons once more grace the sky.

I just noticed that Nopke's mod opens the gate for so much possibilities! :lovestruc Now you could create fake mountains and place them outside of your neighborhood, just like in the Sims 3. But why? Because for once, your neighborhood looks bigger, and secondly you could add things there that can't be placed on the real hills within the neighborhoods, for example the farm fields. Those Maxis fields fit to the terrain (no floating stuff) but you can't see it in the lot. There are of course small farm fields you can see from the lot, but they are flat and because of the Sims 2 limitations they (and all other non-effects object) don't stick to the terrain.

I also thought about that the neighborhood skies (that you can see from now on in the lot) could also change depending on the season? Well, it works with the trees! And also... some buildungs show light when it's dark (just a texture?) so maybe the sky could also change its texture! This would be so great!

I'm quite dreaming right now, but it could be quite possible right?

I hope I'm not digressing from the topic. But I think things like that could make the Sims 2 look much more beautiful!

So I downloaded a hood deco sky thingy and while it looks good on this side

The other side looks like this.

Like it's too small to cover my hood

What a GREAT idea for a thread! (I added graphics card info end of post, sorry just remembered to do that.) And now I have to link to one of my favorite creators for Sims 2: Psychosim http://omicronsimtauri.livejournal.com

From this site you can get the big neighborhood skydome things in more fantasy/sci-fi themes/ colors. Some of the variations work better than others, which, I guess, is why every 5th person I follow on tumblr uses the same ones, myself included. (i would love to see more fantasy variations for sci-fi worlds.)

BUT..as joandsarah 77 shows, those neighborhood domes work best in certain neighborhoods and not others. I could not use one in the Sedona 'hood for exactly the reason shown, however, I was able to use one in downtown without getting that weird blank area.

You can also get from there colorful sci-fi terrain replacements. The ones made for desert and the only one made for concrete are the best. There are also defaults for beaches and cliffs with crazy colors. You can mix them up all kinda ways.

I also use traffic replacements from here for my alien themed version of the Sedona hood as well as UFO replacements for the helicopters.

I've had to experiment a lot with neighborhood deco..some looks great in neighborhood view but terrible when you send a sim to a lot near the deco building..it then becomes obvious that the graphics of the deco building are not sharp.
Even some by the same maker can vary in quality..I have to test everything in 'hood view and lot view.


Bow Newbie, all your suggestions are great. Good list. Your town looks very nice!
joandsarah 77, I like that double moon, beautiful pic. Where did you get the two moons from and are there other variations?

Edited to add my graphics card specs as per the request of the initial post for more specs: ATI Radeon HD 5750 (its an older card by now, I got it about 4 years ago as an upgrade with this iMac.) Pix of my game available on blog in my siggy. Advice for improving welcome and I will be following this thread.
Edited YET again to add: some of the pix on blog are Sims 3, most are Sims 2 and some are obviously playfully photoedited. I still think one could pick out the unaltered ones as reference points and if there are suggestions/experiments I can implement, the results will be viewable in subsequent pix.

That's from putting in the Sky fix that Kankritty linked to, those moons are Maxis content that they broke.

Wait, so those TWO moons will just show up if I use that mod?

I guess so, I thought I vaguely recalled having two moons a long time ago.