Is there any way to switch between day and night time while building? (On uninhabited lots I mean - before any sims have moved in)

I have NL, no Uni. Hints appreciated ... perhaps it's something really obvious that I just fail to see.

I do not think there is a light swith. In the sims 1, they never had light swithes. If you put lights in your house, they will turn themself on at night, but at day time the only light you get is sun light that come from the windows in the house

The little moon/sun button

Yes. Exactly. Now how do I turn on "night" when time doesn't pass? (I'm pretty sure there must be a way -- I see lots of screenshots over at the downloads section that are taken at night, and with no sims on the lot)

Yo! Where? Please explain =)

dude, you can only "turn" night on when the time in the game turns into night like at 7 or 6 o' clock at night. or you can forward to night time.

like simmysimsim said, there is a little sun/moon button in the corner when in build and buy mode. Its always been there... it turns the time from night to day and vice versa but it only lasts until you get out of build mode (going back into live mode changes the lighting back to time appropriate lighting)

i assume plasticbox is talking about being in buy/build mode when there are no sims on the lot. In this case there is no way to "fast forward time" because time only runs in live mode.

Ah ... now I found it. Thanks. I was always looking for it in the other menu (where it is in Neighbourhood view), guess that's why I never saw it before. In case anybody else is as short-sighted as I am: it's right next to the Redesign tool!

Another related advise, if you want turn on the lights while building an empty lot, you will have to use the cheat boolProp allObjectLightsOn true

Sounds useful. I will try that, thank you!

Inever knew about that boolprop cheat thanx :nod:

By the way, if there is a family in the lot, it may be better to just switch to live mode and use the regular command to turn on the lights. If you quit and come later, the lights will remain on, while with the cheats they would be turned off again (and, for some reason, it seems this cheat can't be loaded in the userstartup).

This cheat is best advised when building empty houses or community lots, where there is no other way to have lights save to leave a gap in the wall and close it after building the room, and at this point you can't know if the lights will be enough or if they will shine too much over objects

Just for additional info,

1. @ build mode,
one can make the lights on for a lot when they select and place the lights @ night mode. The lights will remain on after saving and reloading. Yet, reinstalling or dumping the lot into the house bin will turn off all the lights by default.
(Updates) Yet for screenshot, to get rid of the ugly grid at build mode, one can select the "design tool" on the left of the "day/night" switch and just below the hand tool and just above the "undo" button.

2. Also, one can use Inge's simlogical's teleporter plus to get a family out of the lot without losing objects regarded as furnishings in-game after turning the lights on. After saving, @ build mode, reenter the lot to remove the teleporter and those assisting objects in the final product lots...

Anyhow, I personally consider the cheat way is more convinient for 1 or 2 times of night-shooting for a lot without a family. Coz I normally take nightshots with all the lights on anyway.
Nevertheless, if one wants some lights on while others off, these 2 additional ways are the ways to go while the cheat, as its literal meaning infers, can only turn on or off ALL the lights.

As Thanos said, the cheat doesn't work on the startup.cheat file. Probably because "with the cheats they would be turned off again". Seemingly, the cheat will affect the game engine setting for rendering but not the saved lot files' light setting. While having a sims to turn the lights on or inputting them at night mode can have the light-on options saved into the lot files...

Probably, there're other ways to go, anybody please? :wave:


Linkage to related threads:

keep rooms from going dark in build mode?
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?p=1004490

"Light switch" in build mode?
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=110944