Sims 4 Build Mode - First Look
Next up for wowing was the new Roof Tool which has had a major overhaul and now comes with extra bangs and whistles. For simplicity you can snap roofs to the whole house or individual rooms, or you can drag them out to shapes that are not room specific, so make them as big or small as you like with or without overhang and with infinite pitch and rotation options. Think about the new CAS where you can grab a Sims nose and drag it out to where you like it, and roofs work just the same. You can curve a roof in or out to make pagoda styles or a Dutch barn (the roof can stretch right down to the floor to make the sides of the building too). Quickly build dormer windows and pull the eaves up and down to get the look exactly as you want it. You can change the individual pattern and even pitch of each individual roof component now too. Extra details comes from adding 'Roof Trim', a new category of objects. You can add roof edges, facia and soffit to make the outsides look so much more realistic. Inside you can add freezes on medium and tall walls and ceiling rails and spandrels to add detail. Check out this image which includes many of these plus air con units, extracting fans and new chimneys.
Aaron was keen to show us the work that had been done on lighting with the game, which now spreads across floors, so a gallery hallway will have light flooding down from chandeliers on the second floor to fill the ground level hall for example. Given that in Build/Buy mode you can now toggle between Day and Night in an instant, it's easy to create a home that looks good in all light levels.
And the juicy details just kept on coming... Let me summarize some other great features for you:
Paintings, mirrors etc. can be placed almost anywhere on walls as there are now variable height placements.
No cheat is required to place items above others on walls as the game handles this naturally.
Mirrors reflect what they can see outside windows now as well, for greater zoomed in detail.
ALT removes snapping so objects can be freely rotated and placed a full 360 degrees.
Doors can be placed on diagonal walls.
Floors no longer need supports under them before they can be built, allowing you to quickly form the Lot you want without having to place 'temporary supports' to allow you to build. Check out this 2 box Lot Aaron showed us!
Stairs can be dragged out to any width and don't have to be connected to floors, allowing you to freeform build them and move to where they are needed.
Columns can be placed on the edge of a deck and they will merge with the railings.
Window boxes can be placed at any height acting like decorative wall boxes.
There are already tons of trees and shrubs in game and more should be added. And yes, they do animate in the wind.