Neighbourhood Terrain
Changing the Verge
Details of how to do step 5 here
Before doing anything else, backup your neighbourhood!
Start SimPe and select your 'hood
In the top left hand window, select "Neighbourhood Memory (NGHB)"
In the top right hand window, right click over the (only) entry and select "Extract..."
Select somewhere to save the extracted resource (eg the Desktop) and click Save - you'll get TWO files named something like 4E474248-00000000-FFFFFFFF-00000001.simpe and 4E474248-00000000-FFFFFFFF-00000001.simpe.xml
Now we need a hex editor, search the web for "neo hex editor", one of the links should be for "Free Hex Editor Neo - HHD Software - www.hhdsoftware.com › free-hex-editor"
Follow the link (ensuring that you're visiting an https, ie secure, url) and download the hex editor
Install the hex editor
Start the hex editor
From the File menu, select Open, then Open file
Browse to where you saved the extracted resource (eg the Desktop), and select the file ending with ".simpe", eg 4E474248-00000000-FFFFFFFF-00000001.simpe
The first four bytes should be "48 42 47 4e" / "HBGN" (highlighted in magenta below) - if not, close the file as you've done something wrong
In the screen shot above, the 'hood is temperate, as highlighted in green.
Make sure the editor is in overtype mode, this is indicated by the OVR in the bottom right of the editor window. If this shows INS (insert mode), press the Insert key or from the Edit menu select Insert Mode.
To change to dirt, click on the t of temperate and type d then i then r then t and press the Delete key on the keyboard five times.
Notice how dirt is in red and we also have 64 69 72 74 in red
To the left of the 64 we have 09 00 00 00, click on the 09 and type 0 (zero) then 4
Our edits are now made, so save the changes (File menu, then Save, or just Ctrl+S)
To change to desert, you need to enter desert instead of dirt and press the Delete key three times, and then change 09 to 06
To change to concrete, you need to enter concrete instead of dirt and just press the Delete key once, and then change 09 to 08
If your original 'hood is concrete, the 09 will be an 08
If your original 'hood is desert, the 09 will be an 06
Now we'll look at making the 'hood terrain type longer
In the screen shot below our 'hood is dirt, we're going to change this to concrete. Start by clicking on the d of dirt
Now type c then o then n then c, this will change "dirt" to "conc", we now need to add the "rete" bit
Press the Insert key and type r then e then t the e, as you do this you should notice everything after "conc" shuffling across to make space
Press the Insert key again, and change the 04 to 08
To change to desert, enter 06 instead of 08
To change to temperate, enter 09 instead of 08
With your edits saved, exit the hex editor
Go back to SimPe
Right click the NGHB resource again, but this time choose Replace...
Choose the ".simpe.xml" file, eg 4E474248-00000000-FFFFFFFF-00000001.simpe.xml and click the Open button
You can answer Yes or No to the dialog about the resource changing, as we're just going to save the 'hood next it doesn't mattter
From the File menu, select Save
Exit SimPE
Start The Sims 2, enter your 'hood and check the change has happened