More Awesome Than You!

I know theres a way to get the cliff textures seen on steep terrain in neighborhood view to appear in lot view but Im not sure how to do it. Castaway stories did it fine. Any ideas? ???

I don't know how to do it, but I would also like to see this. Cliffs look awkward  the way they are on lot. I also wish I could see the hood terrains in lot, like the farms, cement, and flowers

I actually would like to see this too. It is so annoying when the neighbourhood deco doesn't show on a lot properly. But I have no´i´dea as to how this should be implemented. On the cliff note, I think I saw a mod over at MTS2 once that was making the neighbourhood cliffs show in lot view. I'm not so sure about the flowers though.

I searched, but nothing came up on MTS2.

Also, I have noticed the skies look boring since I installed seasons (I think.) As in I never see the sun, clouds, shooting stars, or moon anymore.

seasons makes the game pretty dull.  The sky is just plain now and the trees have become quite ugly since they've been made more 3d and less clumped together. they are crap for forests now.

While we're bitching about 'hood items in lot view, I hate hate hate that I have this lovely in-hood college hidden by a forest, but from the lot I can see a couple of the college buildings, but none of the trees right around it. Why those have to fade before buildings is beyond me.

All in-game terrains can be unhidden from the catalogue (i.e. made available in-game) by editing TSData/Res/Catalog/Scripts/terrainPaints.txt like so:

Before:

terrainPaint "lottexture-canvas-desert"
brushWidth 3
notInCatalog
terrainTypeSoundSuffix "grass"


After:

terrainPaint "lottexture-canvas-desert"
brushWidth 3
#notInCatalog
terrainTypeSoundSuffix "grass"

# is the delimitor for comments in these scripts.

It's extremely useful to edit this script and unlock all terrain paints, since this gives you a desert, beach and grass texture that match the in-game ones 100%. There is an entry called terrainPaint "terrain-cliff" in there; I can't tell whether that's what you want since I don't know what Castaway Stories looks like, but it is a very nice cliff texture. Not sure where the concrete and dirt textures are hiding, probably in an NL subfolder somewhere Yup, NL textures are in Expansion Packs/Nightlife/TSData/Res/Catalog/Scripts/terrainPaints.txt -- terrainPaint "lottexture-concrete-01" and terrainPaint "lottexture-canvas-dirt". So if the base game cliff is not to your liking, try BV/TSData/etc pp. Same thing would apply -- just comment (or remove) "notInCatalog", there you go.



HOWEVER:

I haven't used it in a very long time, but I seem to recall that the (base game) cliff texture was undeleteable in-game -- once applied, I wasn't able to remove it or paint over it. It might have been a different texture, but there was one that behaved different from the others --- not sure which, but I'm afraid it was cliff. So please test this before you use it on your favourite lot.


Also: I'm talking OSX directories here, Windows ones are similar but not identical.

I believe they are talking about (at least I was) the fact that if you look at a NH cliff from a lot, it turns up Grassy rather than rocky like in NH view.

Edit: The thing about seasons, is it has some of the best features in the game, but makes the sky look bland. I do not want to uninstall Seasons, so I must know if there is a way to get those sky effects back.

Edt of the Edit:

I have an idea! Why don't we make a graphical fixes mega pack!

We could get all the best modders on this site come together, and make a ton of graphical fixes. We could fix the following:

-Seasons bland skies (do something to the way skies are generated to show the effects.)

-Visible cliff terrains in lot view.

-Make not only dawn and dusk lighting, but dawn and dusk skies as well.

-Fix the hood effects to appear in lot view.

-Fix the neighboring houses window generation, as to not show directly through the house at some points, as if it's not there.

-Fix the fading of elevators, staircases, and ceiling objects, even with fading off.

I don't think I even remember how the skies looked pre-seasons.

Fake edit: Never mind, I googled base game screenshots, and - it's true - the old skies looked much (http://compsimgames.about.com/library/graphics/thesims2/preview/sim2_77lpscr.jpg) better (http://compsimgames.about.com/library/graphics/thesims2/preview/sim2_18lpscr.jpg). Why would EA mess with the sky to make it look shittier? Was this supposed to be a feature?

I know! Here is my favorite example of the original skies:
(http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n319/UnnieStrawberrie/Screenshot.jpg)

Just... wow. Honestly, I've been playing with Seasons so long I didn't even realize the skies had ever looked any different. Now I'm definitely hoping there's a way to change it. *crosses fingers*

It would be good to get reflective pond/sea water in lot view too but thats very unlikely.

I knew there was something fishy about the sky! I agree with you, this should be corrected. If I knew anything about modding I would be on it, but as it is now, I have no idéa how to do it. Let's just hope one of the modders out there is equally annoyed by the fact that the sky is more or less a blue blanket after installing seasons.

Something else about the seasons sky here
http://stopgame.ru/files/screenshots/8491/sims_2_seasons_the-10.jpg

Looked good huh but where is it?
 ???

I think they decided to change it, because nowhere on earth has orange skies.

That seasons pic reminded me of a sunset, actually. Also, check this sky mod out (http://modthesims2.com/download.php?t=187229) over at MTS2. It acts as a light, but the concept is interesting. I've used it before, for picture taking.

There are yummy recolors at GOS. (http://www.digitalperversion.net/gardenofshadows/index.php?topic=6243.0)

I use this mod (http://www.modthesims2.com/download.php?t=241878) by niol for my pond water, and I think it really improves the pond water in my game (http://pics.livejournal.com/quinctia/pic/0091f26s).

Niol also made a mod for the neighborhood water (http://www.modthesims2.com/download.php?t=225473) which looks great in neighborhood view, but looks strangely transparent in lot view and, as I've got a whole custom hood built with the sea as part of the deco in the background or on flooded lots, that was not going to work for me at all, so I removed it.  I'd be really happy with a mod that had a similar effect as the pond water one when it came to hood water in lot view.

Also, I know that my sky in Seasons is affected by my distance view settings.  If I set my settings to see as far from my lot as possible (Extra Large), I can see stars in the night sky, but other settings keep the sky quite boring.  I'm not sure if all the other effects from the past remain at that view setting or not.  I tend to stay on Medium or so in regular gameplay because otherwise I get a bit of lag from snowfall landing on the entire neighborhood in the background in winter.

I will take you a picture of the next orange sunset. There was a lovely one last night, deep blue-black and orange.

Ah! Then I misunderstood, thanks for the clarification =) I thought they meant a cliff/slope *on* the lot.

rosess: I checked GoS and the sky mod you talkted about. Unfortunately there were no pictures. Otherwise, thanks for the tips. *goes on a downloading spree*

Btw: Does anyone here use Niol's pond water mod with M&G?

does that thing change with different weather types?

From what I've experimented with, increasing line of view does slightly improve the amount of stars, and let the sun and moon show but still, without pressing tab the skies are bland, and no matter what I can't get clouds to appear.
There seems to be something like a giant blue wall.
I used the tab key, and can get a partial sun/moon, but when I move the camera more or less of the sun/moon shows. However if you look up during a storm, the sky looks gray, so why this wall was added is unknown (if it even exists.)

I think this is caused by the draw distance. The stars and moon and stuff are just things hovering up near the skybox, so if the draw distance is too short, they are not rendered.

didn't they appear at any setting before? And there were more of them :(

Drat, they were still there when I linked, unless I was seeing cached images.  As one would expect from GOS, the selections are darker and more dramatic than the original, though there are a couple of blue skies, too. 

Actually, I think I tracked it down to Nightlife.I looked at old uploads to MTS2, and found these pics.

This picture clearly has clouds, and was of the game with UNI:
(http://thumbs2.modthesims2.com/img/1/0/5/8/0/MTS2_wirelessguy_81080_Imperial_Pagoda_Park.jpg)

While this was with NL:
(http://thumbs2.modthesims2.com/img/2/7/5/9/9/MTS2_iamcoming_130954_01_front_pan.jpg)

As you can see, the clouds didn't appear anymore with NL, and might link back to that wall.

It has to be post-NL.

I first started playing on a laptop that barely had a video card.  So I was running just Uni/NL for awhile.  When I got my new laptop, I played a very short while under that configuration, and then I installed Seasons.

I have a few shots then running under Uni/NL.  It was actually these shots that made me realize I used to see stars under a shorter draw distance than I do now with Seasons.  And it's not my video card gimping out with Seasons.  My current video card exceeds all the requirements for all the EPs, I have smooth edges and the ability to see fish, etc.

These shots aren't awesome, as I wasn't trying to get the sky, but they're decent evidence.

Night sky with stars and clouds (http://pics.livejournal.com/quinctia/pic/001a0c8a.jpg), moar night clouds 1 (http://pics.livejournal.com/quinctia/pic/001942qh.jpg), moar night clouds 2 (http://pics.livejournal.com/quinctia/pic/001aczd5.jpg), and daytime clouds where the distance is definitely set to medium (http://pics.livejournal.com/quinctia/pic/001b9wga.jpg).

Contrast with:
Daytime shot under Seasons with medium draw distance that would have definitely had had clouds before (http://pics.livejournal.com/quinctia/pic/001wkq6w.jpg), Daytime, XL distance, empty sky (http://pics.livejournal.com/quinctia/pic/00bewt5f.jpg), Ditto (http://pics.livejournal.com/quinctia/pic/00a33ahg.jpg), and night sky with XL distance (http://pics.livejournal.com/quinctia/pic/00b9gdh3.jpg)--I can't prove it, but I think the stars are appearing in a higher, smaller radius in the skybox.

I think that if I hadn't had installed ceilings and ended up making my interior shots much better, I would've noticed this earlier.

I've noticed this as well

The big question now, is how do you fix it? Knowing EA, something was probably changed for no reason. I know if you look up during any season/weather the sky above matches the sky below, so what is the point of this shrunken sky view? Did they think peoples comps would lag too much if they could see the sky?

I think the pic looks like twilight in certain places I've lived. Sadly, my night sky is often orange when it is overcast, because of the reflection of the city lights on the cloud cover.

Yeah, mine is very heavily red-orange tinted. I live in the city, now in a very congested area. The sunsets and sunrises are fantastic, though.

I still get stars in my game, but the daytime sky is featureless. I have all options at maximum. You can see the stars here. Camera is on the ground level looking through two layers of windows.
(http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/686/snapshot568fb59fb696233jf0.th.jpg) (http://img11.imageshack.us/my.php?image=snapshot568fb59fb696233jf0.jpg)
Daytime: a whole load of nothing:
(http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/8075/snapshotf69b2c3b369b2c4pg7.th.jpg) (http://img443.imageshack.us/my.php?image=snapshotf69b2c3b369b2c4pg7.jpg)

I know, I get stars too, but they used to be lower in the sky, so you could see them without using tab. Same with the sun, and moon.

Also, now that you mention it, my skies are orange at night. I live right near Boston, but I was actually referring to Daytime orange skies, which are found on Mars, but not Earth.

Anyways, there must be some way to fix it.

An orange sunset for Parrot, although he doesn't really deserve it because he's being a bit of a dork at the moment. It's not as good as the one last week but it's quite nice.

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v730/nz_witch/OrangeSunset.jpg)

Wow :o We need absolutely something like this for the game.

It's very pretty. I wish my sunsets looked like that. The colors are more horizontal, and not vertical like that where I live.

Poofs is a New Zealander. You know how backwards they are.

They're not backwards. They're apparently at a 90-degree angle.

So anyway, there still doesn't seem to be any suggestions on how to fix this. There must be some way. If anyone has any suggestions, I would be more than happy to listen to them.

Oi, oi, we're akshully upside down at 180^o last I heard.  :P

I don't know how relevant this is now, parrot, but it is possible to stop objects such as stairs and elevators and trees fading away by editing the Live camera text file. At the very bottom is some text about fade distance and I just set everything to 0.

I know you can, but am not sure if it's safe.

Well I've been using it like that for months and haven't had any ill side effects. I would have thought something as simple as altering the fade distance should be farely safe but then again I'm not an expert like Pescado.

This is a picture of what happens when you can see the sun at all (ignore the common glitch that causes a second sun or moon.)

(http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/5296/snapshotd6975061b69cbc8.jpg)
As you can clearly see, something like a wall is blocking half of the sun.
As you move forward, it gets less visible. As you move backward it gets more.

All we need to do is eliminate, or even just shorten this wall, and we may even get the clouds back.

Leave it to EAxis to not be able to add weather without breaking something else in the sky.

Shader mods 1:

[quoted from reply 17, by Quinctia]
I use this mod by niol for my pond water, and I think it really improves the pond water in my game.

Niol also made a mod for the neighborhood water which looks great in neighborhood view, but looks strangely transparent in lot view and, as I've got a whole custom hood built with the sea as part of the deco in the background or on flooded lots, that was not going to work for me at all, so I removed it.  I'd be really happy with a mod that had a similar effect as the pond water one when it came to hood water in lot view.
[quote ended]

The mod is simply to turn the terrain water into swim-pool water, and it happened that structures of the two were close enough for such a simple tweak.  It takes a swim-pool block in the lot to activate the mirror-reflection in EP5 or later.  There's no tweak made to add in the EP5-based PS2 shader to the earlier swim-pools in the earlier game versions, for I worried I'd get sued.  I regretted I didn't release more variants as I was very busy with RL.

As for the neighbourhood mods, the thing is that the in-lot beach/ocean/sea is yet another shader which I didn't touch much for the fast release of the EP 6 version to ensure the neighbourhood view will be OK at least.  I couldn't catch up as I was deadly busy with RL.
The mod will only affect how the TS2 rendering engine presents the graphics according to the hardwares of the users and shouldn't affect any data saved in the custom folder.  Should it do, blame Eaxis, :P

Your suggestion may be possibly easy to make, but I'll have to be able to open simpe in the first place.  I'm in no condition to test such altered source presently.  Or, finding someone to incorporate the altered source into a shader mod is necessary.


Shader mods 2:

[quoted from reply 20, by Feckless Fool] Does anyone here use Niol's pond water mod with M&G?

Shaders are unlikely altered for SP but EP in a general sense so far up to AL EP8 to my knowledge, so shader mods are unlikely to be affected by new SP, yet a confirmation on whether new SP folder or its subdirectories has an over-riding shader material.package file is good to know.


skybox textures and textures of  suns and moons, stars

There're all in the 3D folder, may use simpe to search them out with keystrings like "sun", "star", "moon", "skybox", "day", "night", etc...  My memories about them start to fade... :P

That'll be just for graphical replacements as global mods.


Camera settings and draw distance:

Seeking out the draw distance settings in scripts may be a way to manipulate.  I've too far from reaching my game copy presently to tell exactly.  It may be in the config and camera folders and the like from both the custom and the game programme folders.

At least some settings are related to object-drawing dependent on how close it's from the camera.