[Sorry about that guys. Working on getting the images fixed now]
I often get asked if I'm using mods to make prefabs, or how they look so good. (Thank you!) The short answer is details.
( I run at 15 FPS) on a Ryzen 7 with integrated radon graphics, so it's not my computer.
And I don't have any mods other than custom xml blocks I made myself.
Figured I would share what I am doing to make my prefabs stand out with the vanilla editor. Hopefully, this will answer questions for anyone who comes across this thread. (And for those of you that have found this, I am not veteran modder. I am a novice)
Almost all of my prefabs have custom blocks with an an offset edit. This lets you put things where they should be, and not just where they can be.
Instead of trying to make a step by step guide for this with a custom prefab, I'm going to load the first search result of house in the prefab editor and see what I think of it. This will be my journal.
The MeMaw Residence! abandoned_house_01
Lets take a look! The first thing I ask myself, why is it on a hill? So I fly into the basement to find there isn't one.
We need a measurement to find out how tall that hill really is.
A 2 block difference. Evenly squared, all the way around. We can't have that. 2 solutions. I could bring the whole prefab down 2 blocks. Or, we can use the dev shovel to fix the hill. (Avoid editing the edges of the tile as much as possible.) Let's try to fix the hill first. Smooth out the angle with the dev shovel. Avoid right angles as much as possible. Make sure the track in the driveway have a slight depression (they do, but I'm adding more, except for under the truck, so we have to move it, depress the ground, and put the truck the back. But make sure the depressions are lighter than the rest of the drive way, and the front of the house, assuming the owner doesn't always drive to the back. Work with the texture. On the gravel spots where it looks there are now large spots of rocks, raise the texture. Raise the grass in the middle a little. And then put the truck back an angle, because who parks perfectly in the same spot every time. They don't. Going to need to add some mud under those back tires. And in other spot where they may have parked on the grass. Then run around and get rid of the spike on the land you can only see from certain angles.
That looks better.
Now lets take a look at the house.
Seems the foundation is not a single block type.
View attachment 33071
If one of the floors are wood, we can texture it so it can look like that. But we need to solidify the foundation. Let's use a cobblestone block since it has that texture already on the outside. There is at least one secret backpack in the floor (pay attention to those when changing the floor). If you want to save time, avoid replacing the damage type blocks with square ones. You can either just hope they are cobblestone (because in the long run it doesn't matter), or not care (as they could be concrete). We're not going to check them.
Now that we have a solid foundation. Let's take a look at the exterior texture. It looks someone started adding an first floor addition under the completed second floor. I don't like this. Let's figure out something else, and keep the abandoned look while removing this I can build upside down look.
First off, I notice a base board style on just the front of the house. Let put the stripe all the way around the house and change the texture.
Then, I notice the exterior of the house looks like it's drywall. No wonder it's falling apart. Let change it to wood.
Now the awning, they look like steel, but are wood. Change the texture. We're also going to change to roof texture from diamond singles to rectangle and use the diamond pattern for sides. and various wood patterns on the underside of the edge.
Detailing Exterior
View attachment 33074
This will need more edits later to break up the straight line separating the 2 floors and texture type. (Avoid straight lines)
Now lets go inside!!
View attachment 33075
First off, I'm noticing the TV on the floor. It looks like it was above the fireplace on the mantle. Pretty sure your TV would get messed up if you put it above the heat of a fire. So, we can change the layout of the living room, or change the TV to a wall hanging TV which would allow it to be put further away from the fireplace heat. The interior is incredibly ugly. But, I might have to leave it that way...
It seems my floor modification needs some adjustment. I need to use cube 1/2 trim split to fix this.
View attachment 33078
The ceiling is 4 blocks high and had a crown blocks. Most of the first floor looks good. Except this laundry room light bulb. I never seen a light with a long pole like that, so I'm just going to change it. A chain with a lamp looks better to me.
View attachment 33076View attachment 33077
View attachment 33091
That looks better.
View attachment 33092
And that's it! You could go outside and add random helper loot items (or inside) change the placement of other stuff like cinder blocks, add some trash, etc. Maybe add some hedges, or some more nature, etc. Which is why we're going to call this version 0.1
We're not going to do that. This will now be complete as
New Version 0.1
View attachment 33093
Old Version
View attachment 33094
What do you guys think? Did I make the house look better without changing it too much?
View attachment 33095
View attachment 33097
If you do think it looks better. I posted it here if anyone wants it. It's here: https://www.nexusmods.com/7daystodie/mods/6765/
Future updates will be there as well.
View attachment 33096
I often get asked if I'm using mods to make prefabs, or how they look so good. (Thank you!) The short answer is details.
( I run at 15 FPS) on a Ryzen 7 with integrated radon graphics, so it's not my computer.
And I don't have any mods other than custom xml blocks I made myself.
Figured I would share what I am doing to make my prefabs stand out with the vanilla editor. Hopefully, this will answer questions for anyone who comes across this thread. (And for those of you that have found this, I am not veteran modder. I am a novice)
Almost all of my prefabs have custom blocks with an an offset edit. This lets you put things where they should be, and not just where they can be.
Instead of trying to make a step by step guide for this with a custom prefab, I'm going to load the first search result of house in the prefab editor and see what I think of it. This will be my journal.
The MeMaw Residence! abandoned_house_01
Lets take a look! The first thing I ask myself, why is it on a hill? So I fly into the basement to find there isn't one.
We need a measurement to find out how tall that hill really is.
A 2 block difference. Evenly squared, all the way around. We can't have that. 2 solutions. I could bring the whole prefab down 2 blocks. Or, we can use the dev shovel to fix the hill. (Avoid editing the edges of the tile as much as possible.) Let's try to fix the hill first. Smooth out the angle with the dev shovel. Avoid right angles as much as possible. Make sure the track in the driveway have a slight depression (they do, but I'm adding more, except for under the truck, so we have to move it, depress the ground, and put the truck the back. But make sure the depressions are lighter than the rest of the drive way, and the front of the house, assuming the owner doesn't always drive to the back. Work with the texture. On the gravel spots where it looks there are now large spots of rocks, raise the texture. Raise the grass in the middle a little. And then put the truck back an angle, because who parks perfectly in the same spot every time. They don't. Going to need to add some mud under those back tires. And in other spot where they may have parked on the grass. Then run around and get rid of the spike on the land you can only see from certain angles.
That looks better.
Now lets take a look at the house.
Seems the foundation is not a single block type.
View attachment 33071
If one of the floors are wood, we can texture it so it can look like that. But we need to solidify the foundation. Let's use a cobblestone block since it has that texture already on the outside. There is at least one secret backpack in the floor (pay attention to those when changing the floor). If you want to save time, avoid replacing the damage type blocks with square ones. You can either just hope they are cobblestone (because in the long run it doesn't matter), or not care (as they could be concrete). We're not going to check them.
Now that we have a solid foundation. Let's take a look at the exterior texture. It looks someone started adding an first floor addition under the completed second floor. I don't like this. Let's figure out something else, and keep the abandoned look while removing this I can build upside down look.
First off, I notice a base board style on just the front of the house. Let put the stripe all the way around the house and change the texture.
Then, I notice the exterior of the house looks like it's drywall. No wonder it's falling apart. Let change it to wood.
Now the awning, they look like steel, but are wood. Change the texture. We're also going to change to roof texture from diamond singles to rectangle and use the diamond pattern for sides. and various wood patterns on the underside of the edge.
Detailing Exterior
View attachment 33074
This will need more edits later to break up the straight line separating the 2 floors and texture type. (Avoid straight lines)
Now lets go inside!!
View attachment 33075
First off, I'm noticing the TV on the floor. It looks like it was above the fireplace on the mantle. Pretty sure your TV would get messed up if you put it above the heat of a fire. So, we can change the layout of the living room, or change the TV to a wall hanging TV which would allow it to be put further away from the fireplace heat. The interior is incredibly ugly. But, I might have to leave it that way...
It seems my floor modification needs some adjustment. I need to use cube 1/2 trim split to fix this.
View attachment 33078
The ceiling is 4 blocks high and had a crown blocks. Most of the first floor looks good. Except this laundry room light bulb. I never seen a light with a long pole like that, so I'm just going to change it. A chain with a lamp looks better to me.
View attachment 33076View attachment 33077
View attachment 33091
That looks better.
View attachment 33092
And that's it! You could go outside and add random helper loot items (or inside) change the placement of other stuff like cinder blocks, add some trash, etc. Maybe add some hedges, or some more nature, etc. Which is why we're going to call this version 0.1
We're not going to do that. This will now be complete as
New Version 0.1
View attachment 33093
Old Version
View attachment 33094
What do you guys think? Did I make the house look better without changing it too much?
View attachment 33095
View attachment 33097
If you do think it looks better. I posted it here if anyone wants it. It's here: https://www.nexusmods.com/7daystodie/mods/6765/
Future updates will be there as well.
View attachment 33096
Last edited by a moderator: