Llama BuilderA TV Channel is a running order of clips Sims can watch on any television. You build the playlist from the game's own clips, your own videos, or both, then choose how the channel reaches the player's game.
Workflow
- Build the playlist: add clips and put them in the order they should play.
- Fill each slot: pick one of the game's built-in clips, or convert a video of your own.
- Choose the delivery: add a new channel beside the game's, or replace one of theirs.
- Pick the vibe: which of the game's channels yours behaves like.
- Fill in details: name and description.
- Download: click Download, then follow the steps below.
The playlist
The game plays your clips top to bottom, then starts over. Use the arrows to reorder, the bin to drop a clip, and Add clip for another. Empty rows are skipped at download, so you can leave one open while you decide.
The controls over the preview play the channel exactly as it will run in the game, and the bar scrubs across the whole channel rather than one clip at a time.
The game's clips
Each slot can play one of the game's built-in TV clips, grouped by the channel they come from. Mix them freely: a channel can jump from cooking shows to horror movies.
These clips stream from the player's own game install. Your mod only references them, so the download stays small and nothing is copied.
Your own video
Pick any video and it is converted right in your browser, with no upload to a conversion service and no queue. It is resized to the TV's 256x144 screen, retimed to 15 frames a second, and encoded into the format the game's own clips use.
Only the first 2 minutes are used. A longer file is not rejected, it is cut down to its opening 2 minutes. To keep more of a long video, split it up and give each part its own slot.
Length costs real megabytes. A clip runs about 130 KB per second once encoded, so a full 2 minutes is roughly 15 MB that everyone downloading your mod has to fetch, plus a minute or so of converting in your browser first. The game's own clips are seconds long.
Sound is included when the video has any. If your browser cannot read the audio, the clip still works, it just plays silently.
Delivery
Add a new channel leaves every one of the game's channels alone and puts yours beside them. It works alongside other channel mods, but the download includes a small script, so players have to switch on Script Mods Allowed once in their game options.
Replace an EA channel hands your clips to a channel the game already has and renames it. There is no script at all, just a single file to drop in, which is the safer choice for players who would rather not enable script mods. The trade-off is that the channel you pick is hidden while your mod is installed, and two mods replacing the same channel will clash.
Vibe
The vibe controls how Sims feel about your channel: which moods make them want to watch it, the reactions it triggers, and the ambient behavior, all borrowed from one of the game's own channels.
Pick the closest match for your content. An all-explosions channel probably wants Action, a cozy baking channel wants Cooking.
Installing a channel
A replace channel downloads as a single .package and installs like any other mod.
An add channel downloads as a .zip holding three files: your .package, a lbd_channel_injector_v1.ts4script loader, and an INSTALL.txt. Copy the package and the loader into your Mods folder, no more than one folder deep, then switch on both Enable Custom Content and Mods and Script Mods Allowed and restart. If you already have the loader from another Llama Builder channel, keep just one copy: it loads every one of them.
See Install in Game for the full steps.
Tips
- Sims find your channel on a television's Watch menu, not in the Build/Buy catalog.
- Short clips keep the download small and match how the game's own channels are cut.