Hello!

I have no knowledge in game mods, so this is more of a "is this possible?" question. Sims 4 lighting has been patched so the light that comes in gets filtered by doors/window, making beautiful shadows (here is a comparison pic). Can a mod like that be done for Sims 3? I suspect it can't because this is quite an old feature now, but I would like to understand why anyway. Or maybe it's possible and no one paid it much attention? Thanks!

This is probably something @lyralei would have to answer, but there was some experimentation here seeing if the Sims 3's shaders could be cracked open: https://modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=623606

Otherwise, there are some workarounds that utilize fake floor-to-ceiling windows that retain outdoor lighting with its own shadow systems.

But to make the matter short- not yet, and likely far beyond any modder's ability if the game lighting is locked up in the compiled game engine.

I will be honest, yesterday you had me thinking like this: https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images...546/775/e73.jpg

But that's a good question there. With the resources we currently have, I'd say yes? I think? Most of the lighting stuff is indeed defined in the shader params.

However Not all lighting is. I actually would have to compare TS4's shader params (and the in-game settings they have coded into their UI)  to that of ts3. The reason is, is because both games (since they're built on the same engine  Whether EA likes to admit to it or not) happens to have sunlight lamp that the game renders the light inside the game. This is very normal for games to have. Now usually these are incredibly deep inside an engine, but I think with some hex editing you'd be able to see it and extract it. Most of Ts4's code seems relevant to TS3, just updated/refined. 

We also have the concept of SunShadows here as well. These are ALSO rendered by the game. (Not to be confused with the shadows you'd add for your objects, these are actually part of said sunshadow). 

Now, some of us might know that particular resources in the game make us define how much light should shine through a window, how the sun will have to calculate the shadows of the object and where that boundary box is exactly. etc. 

I know this was a bit confusing and rambly, but hopefully, it's sort of helpful. I'll look into it myself and see if i can see anything suspicious. 

Allright so here is a compiled list of Lightmaps & stuffs that TS3 & 4 has:
- LightMapScale
- Lightmapsizeparameters
- SamplerTerrainLightMap
- SamplerRoomLightMap
- TerrainLightMap
- StaticTerrainLightMap
- LightMapSampler
- SamplerLightMap (why? :p)
- LightMap
- CeilingLightMapScale
- RoomLightMap
The List TS3 Doens't have but TS4 does:
- OPT_LIGHTMAP
- OPT_LIGHTMAP0
- OPT_ANIMATED_LIGHTMAP
- LightmapAlphaEmissive
- LightMapTex
- OPT_LIGHTMAP_ALWAYS_ON (refers back to LightMapAlwaysOn)
- LightmapAlwaysOn (probably refers to a setting in-game)
- OPT_SECONDARYLIGHTMAP
- SharedTerrainLightmap
- NoDynamicLightmaps
- SecondaryLightmap
- WaterLightMapOpacity
- WaterLightMap 
- OverlayLightMap 
- ConvertLightmap
- NonAnimatedLightmapScale
- lightmapgeneration
- RoadLightmapgeneration
- LightmapGenerationDisabled
- AdditiveLightMap
- SpeedLightMap
- VideoTargetsLightmap
- UsesWallLightMap
- lightMapColor
- LightmapOutdoorContribution
- LightmapGenerationDisabled
- ScrollSpeedLightMap
- AdditiveLightMap
- DiffuseOpacityOverLightMap
- lightMapDarkColor
- samplerBakedLightMap
- NextFloorLightMapXform
- GenerateSpotLightmap
- samplerSecondaryLightmap
- samplerProceduralLightmap
- NonAnimatedLightmapScale
- GenerateWindowLightmap
- LightmapLightDirection
- GenerateRectAreaLightmap
- GenerateTubeLightmap

Now, from the looks of it, what EA did here was to not *just* making a lightmap that's editable, rather than rendered in-game (Therefore non-dynamic), but also split the lightmaps into smaller pieces, rather than 3 main big ones, which ts3 has. Terrain, Room, ceiling.  Also, Ts3's lightmap is rendered inside the game, so not dynamic exactly. 

Therefore I'd actually say, EA's approach on ts4's is way better, and I can see why back then this was the only change in the patch. It must have taken quite some work for this to work. 

In other words! If someone has time off, you could go off this list with a hex editor and try and somehow merge it together by using the template me and Tash shared: https://modthesims.info/showthread....893#post5600893

Do keep in mind that to see the changes to show up, you also need to hex edit it inside the lamps. Anything that sounds more global should be fine if you use the existing samplers and such in mind

Hello!
I couldn't answer to the previous message because... honestly... I think that's too much advanced stuff for my knowledge *hides*. sorry, Lyralei! I'm really interested on this and I wish I could be helpful in finding more info, but I only have a pale idea about how a shader works.
I tried following a tutorial that suggested deleting a wall (so the game would readthe lighting inside the room as outdoor lighting) and using some half walls with glass. It works fine! Well, almost. The shadows are interrupted by the sofa shadow's mesh, but otherwise, it's very similar to TS4. Which seems to me such thing is possible... it's just a matter to... I don't know... use different windows? change some configs?