Some people may notice some distortion with the wallpapers they download (not just mine but any). Here's the issue: Apartment Life expansion pack: This expansion pack altered the hight of walls by a fair amount and the game mearly stretches wallpaper files to fit the new dimension. The result is a circle made to be a circle on a 256x512 template or from any ealier EA release becomes an oval, a square is now a vertical rectangle.

This can be compensated for in the creation proccess: start with an oversized image and shrink it on the vertical by 70%.  This will look like a sqat oval or horizontal recatagle in your image editor. Be sure to still fill the entire 512 pixel hight. Once imported it will be stretched back into the proper shape.

Basicly for proper shaping in Apartment Life you should use a 256 x 732 pixel template then reduce the hight 30% to 256 x 512 & then import it with homecrafter.

Problem with doing this: Anyone useing that pattern who dose not have Apartment Life will see it as being squished.

Best solution: Comprimise: Granted no body will have a perfect circle /everyone will have some distortion but it won't be tragicly noticable to anyone. 85% is the perfect middle (256 x 603 pixel original shrunk down 15% to 256 x 512 & imported). Viola! Everybody's happy!

Another issue with wallpapers I've noticed is with the crown molding, Especialy if your designing a detailed crown. Any crown looks great in normal mode, but in screen shots, video or any viewing with where the cieling is applied, crowns get buried in the cieling. Basicly the cieling covers the top 24 pixel rows. Solution: Use a 24 pixel high header on your crown, any critical detailing should be below the 24th row. This, I believe, applies to games with or without Apartment Life expansion.

Have fun & play well,

SKS