Hi, is there a mod that will change the shading and lighting in the game?
Suffice to say that this lighting isn't ample screenshot material.



Thanks.

I use this by Hook to change the direction of the sun on a lot. It's awesome. I feel so powerful. Scroll to post #12.
http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/s...hp?topic=8076.5

It definitely worked.



Thanks for recommending it!

If you want a more comprehensive lighting mod (which includes the sort of fix that Hook's mod made), many people like Dreadpirate's Maxis-but-better lighting here: https://dreadpirate.tumblr.com/post...-last-i-finally

I personally use Dread's less-blue and more realistic Radiance lighting here: https://dreadpirate.tumblr.com/post...tem-25-now-with I'm very happy with it. My Tumblr is full of unedited pics if you want to see what it looks like when used in the game during general gameplay.

If you decide to install a lighting mod, make sure you keep backups of the Maxis lighting, though, in case you don't like the lighting that you install.

@Sunrader Question I downloaded that package it consist of 6 so what EP do you need for it to work I have all up to SEASONS, nothing after.
The direct for me is a bit confusing as to where they go exactly in the Sims 2 files and if I use all them and if they all are to be in the same place ( where ever that is )

Do you mean Hook's lighting files? They go in Seasons even if you have everything. I have UC. It still went into Seasons.

This one, LightingRTFM, is just instructions. Read those. The ORIG file is just a back up for your original. Save that elsewhere. The other 4 files go in the Seasons folder that the instructions point to (C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 Seasons\TSData\Res\Lights), and then you want to add the aliases for the cheats to change direction of the sun to your userstartup.cheat.

Mine look like this:

alias slr "setlotlightingfile rightlighting.txt" "Set light to come from the right" ""
alias sll "setlotlightingfile leftlighting.txt" "Set light to come from the left" ""
alias slb "setlotlightingfile backlighting.txt" "Set light to come from the back" ""
alias sld "setlotlightingfile downtown_lot.txt" "Set light conditions for downtown" ""
alias slc "setlotlightingfile clear" "Set light to come from default direction" ""

@Sunrader Yes The Hook's lighting file. So if all six files for lighting goes in Seasons ( My last installed ) what files in Seasons should they be place in once I go to C: / Seasons / TSDATA / RES
When I enter RES I see two files there Lighting and another Lights which one do all six Hook's file get place in ? Also I would want to make a backup of whatever it is, before I remove.
Thanks you for your reply back. You type back faster than me I type with two finger (lol )

Cheat ? What cheat do I use and how and when to use it?

Good question. Lights. But you don't need to put the RTFM or the ORIG files in there.
The ORIG file is a backup of original Maxis lighting.txt file that you will replace with Hook's, but you can backup your own lighting.txt file if you want to, too, especially if you have a modded one you might want.

And, to clarify for others... it's always in Seasons. No matter what your latest is.

@Sunrader Thanks for your patience with me. So are you saying they all except the original / RTFM should not be place in the folder that say LIGHTS
Here is where I am confuse do all the other files or not go into the folder that say LIGHTING? there are two folders there One Lights and one that say Lighting.
And what is the cheat and how and when do I use it? If I am still confuse then I will forget it all and move on thanks again.

It's fine. You'll get it. None of them go in the Lighting folder. They go in Lights. You can put all 6 in the Lights and it won't hurt anything, but the RTFM and the ORIG will not be doing anything in there.

As for the cheat, can I assume you have a userstartup.cheat file? If you do, then add the lines that I typed above to the bottom of it. Then when you are in a lot, try them in the cheat window and they will change the sun's direction. slr will change the sun to the right... etc.

@Sunrader I understand now, In your post #6 do I need to add all those Quotation Marks you have there to enter the cheat box? There a lot there. You are very helpful thanks goes to you

If you want your lot lighting and lot imposter lighting to go in the same direction, there's an old fix by Plasticbox. This requires editing the Seasons lighting file.

http://modthesims.info/t/325634#

You're welcome.

You can just cut and paste that text. That's the usual form for writing an alias in the userstartup.cheat

Often there are more words in the second quotation marks, like this

alias slr "setlotlightingfile rightlighting.txt" "Set light to come from the right" ""

becomes

alias slr "setlotlightingfile rightlighting.txt" "Set light to come from the right" "Sun on the right"

The second phrase is optional. These lines are just copied from Hook's instructions.

If using the Hook file in Seasons and cheats above, the 'setlotlightingfile clear' option resets it to the default, which, if I'm reading Hook right, should also be the lot imposter lighting.

Oops, double post, well, two different topics so leaving it.

It doesn't work that way in my game. The default direction for building shadows on a lot has always been the direct opposite of of the neighborhood lot imposter's shadows. I've had an alias to clear the lot lighting file for years. It's never affected the direction of the building shadows. I've always used it to clear up that murky lighting some lots were afflicted with after installing Nightlife.

Hood's cheats cover right, left and back - every direction except the one I need to match the lot imposter shadows. This works great for getting the shadows out of the way for taking screenshots, but I'm picky and want them pointing in the one direction I can't get from Hood's cheats.

(Plasticbox's instructions aren't quite right, by the way. You don't have to buy something from the Build Mode catalog for that to work. ANY change to the lot that the game recognizes will do just fine. Move the batbox over one square, put a smoke alarm on a different wall, etc.)

EDIT: I just took a look at La Fiesta Tech. Maxis managed to get those shadows pointing in all four directions, even on buildings right next to each other. I'm going to need BOTH mods to fix this!

I guess everyone's idea of better lighting is subjective because the first photo is showing the shaded side of the house and while it looks a little dark to me it still looks fine. The second photo to me looks unnaturally bright for the shaded side like someone has used daylight lamps on it, so I actually prefer picture 1.

The default default is the opposite, but it seems that Hook says in the instructions that he changed that and I think that is my experience using it. But, we all know how weird the game is.

"Lighting.txt has been changed so that the light comes from the same direction on the lot as it does as shown in the neighborhood view. The other files will make the light come from the direction specified in the file name."

He mentioned in the thread on MATY as well: "I hate like hell that my houses in the neighborhood all are sunny in front, but when you go to the lot the front of the house is always in shade. Ten lines of change in the Lights.txt file (swapping around minus signs various ways on "light sun" and "light sky") fixed it just fine."

Maybe I just need to poke at it some more. Or having both mods in at the same time confuses one of them - if they both do that, then maybe I should take one of them out.

Criquette has a fix for the neighbourhood Lot Impostor lighting:
http://criquette-was-here.tumblr.co...lighting-always

I've seen that before and for some reason never put it in my game. It looks like it works the same as Plasticbox's fix, but with nicer shadows for the 'hood deco. The main annoyance I have right now is that the lot imposter shadows point in different directions in some 'hoods and I don't think any mod is capable of fixing that.


At least this explains why La Fiesta Tech has shadows pointing in all four directions. How many times did Maxis move all those buildings around before they finally shipped the game anyway?

I see what you are saying now. I think you might be right if you mean a mod that you could plop in the game and have everything changed the right way around. But it should be easily doable that we just create another file(s) like Hook's right/left/back lighting that has the direction(s) that's missing. The player would still have to go into each lot where a change was wanted, but then it would stay that way if the lot stayed in the same location. Wouldn't that work?

EDIT: I'm comparing files to originals. Now I see that plasticbox only referred to the basegame files and Hook changed the seasons one. When I first installed that file, I wondered why it would go in Seasons when there are later ones, but didn't examine it. I'm thinking now that a later lighting.txt file may be overriding it. That would account for the cheat files working but not the default. Going to experiment combining Hook's changes (and plasticbox's if they seem better) with the Pets lighting to see if it behaves as expected.

UPDATE:
@RoxEllen1965, and, yes, it works. I combined Hook's changes with the Pets lighting file, placed two empty Maxis lots, one on each side of the street, built a box on each, and now, the hood lighting on both by default, no cheat, matches the lot lighting on both. The text is here if anyone wants to do it. Just paste this text into your (backed up) lighting.txt file under Pets. In mine with UC, that's
C:\Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection\Fun with Pets\SP9\TSData\Res\Lights\lighting.txt
http://www.dee.email/OPEN/SimPics/S...ts_lighting.txt

I only had a moment to check Hook's cheats with this. They seem fine. I left his files as is in my game. Btw, in case this confused anyone else... me... his slb does not seem to mean sun from the back, it seems to mean sun opposite the default.

I posted a pic on tumblr .

This is great! Thanks so much!

Are you sure that I should put it in Pets though? I can doing see that with the UC, because the UC uses the compilation sets. Pets in the UC is part of the "Fun With Pets" set (Pets, H&M Stuff, M&G Stuff), which did come out after Seasons. I use disks and the individual Pets EP came out before the Seasons EP. With disks, the EPs that came after Pets are (in order) Bon Voyage, Freetime, and Apartment Life. Mansion & Garden Stuff was the very last disk released and I'm not sure whether that counts as an EP or an SP for these purposes.

EDIT:

Yes - all the fixes that have been mentioned should work just fine that way with brand new lots. It's old pre-existing lots like these lots at LFT that I'm having trouble fixing. They're not shown in that screenshot, but in a default LFT campus, Francis Worthington and the Shifting Paradymes live right next door to each other on the same side of the street, but the shadows for their lot imposters point in different directions.

I compared your file with the Maxis ones in my game and in my case (disks), it appears that I should use it to replace the Apartment Life lighting file, so I'm going to try doing that. Keeping fingers crossed.

EDIT 2: I put all the fixes including Hook's extra files into Apartment Life and everything now works properly in lot view. Setting it to default does actually change the direction of the shadow now. Lot imposter shadows on pre-existing lots are stubborn though, and the Worthington house's shadow absolutely refuses to point in the same direction as the Shifting Paradyme's house shadow. That's cool though - I don't spend hours staring at 'hood view and with this mod working properly, I can easily make a house shadow match its neighbors from lot view.

Thanks again very much for checking into this and apologies to everybody for hijacking the OP's thread.

You are very welcome! I'm so excited that it helped you, especially since you've found answers for me so many times! And it's great you figured out where non-UC users should place it. I'll add a reference to your post to my tumblr post about it. Did you redo the blend to mix it with whatever changes are in the apartment life file or have you, possibly, mixed Pets stuff into AL? It probably doesn't matter, but I'm just wondering what worked.

I read something else about the shadows not changing. Seems like I read those are permanent but I don't know why.

I just backed up and renamed the original AL file and put yours in the AL folder instead of it. It worked fine, but Simsample's post reminded me that I just had to try Criquette's version (the 'hood deco contrast fix apparently only works with Criquette's lighting file). So I put the original AL file back and put Criquette's version in the base game files.

I was pleasantly surprised and relieved to find that Hook's fixes and the cheats for them will work with any of the lighting files (Hook's for Seasons, yours for "Fun With Pets" or disk-based AL, Criquette's for the base game).

So right now, just to clear up any confusion as to what configuration I ended up with, my game has:

1. Criquette's lighting.txt in the base game files
2. Criquette's hood deco contrast fix in My Documents > Downloads
3. Hook's extra lighting files (BackLighting.txt, LeftLighting.txt, RightLighting.txt) in Apartment Life and the corresponding cheats for them in my userstartup.cheat file.

As for the lot imposter shadow direction - Sim Earth has two suns, plus there are any number of aliens and mad scientists always messing with who-knows-what, so I'm not going to get flustered over which way the lot imposter shadows point.

I'm glad to hear that my posts have been helpful to you. I hope this one is useful too.