Yes, but it will only work with WA, base game and custom neighborhoods that don't use custom lighting. Shadow changes will still work on all worlds.

Any new neighborhoods added by EP's usually contain their own lighting configs that are different from the base game. They can be located in the world files but it will only change fog and cloud layers.


Files with the word 'Light' controls the outdoor color. Others like clear1 and clear2 changes cloud color. Sky and sea is self explanatory. CommonSky contains some of the shadow settings.


This is probably why Maxis changed the shadows to be very limited before release because problems like these(or just didn't want to fix them). Night shadows don't follow the moon but instead follows the invisible sun that is slowly moving below the horizon. I could make the shadows less dynamic or just separate the shadow changes so it can be an option.

The thing with the files in the new worlds is that they only change the fog effects but not the actual weather, color, and sky.  They seem to be located somewhere else or under a different file type.

Replacing the ini in the world files will still get overridden by the ones in the package. I think the best option is to not have the ini in packages and edit the individual worlds accordingly.

EDIT:
The thing i do need is the names of the new custom lighting files that are hidden. There are 5 in new named ini's in total.

Update to 1.4

I still can't change anything to indoor lighting as there are no INI files related to that.  New worlds like China and twinbrook have their own set of custom lighting files but they are hidden in a non ini format.  So this mod will not have any effect in the new worlds.

EDIT:
Small change to fix green heavy fog evenings and made partly cloudy mornings more brighter.   Heatwave fix isn't working and probably never will be if mods change the sky common or you want heatwaves in all areas.

Seems to happen at random. I had this problem when I switched from different 2 households.

The download works but the game crashes when it loads up the world.

Amount of:
Red, Blue, Green

Is it possible to change those lighting effects like it was with The Sims 2? Only unpackaged files I've found where ones for sunlight for outdoors. There's one in FullBuild0 that changes ambient occlusion but that's all.

Chaavik, The moon will still cast shadows even if the moonlight itself isn't visible. I'm testing the moonlight radii maybe to try and hide it.

Pyromaniac, I've taken a look at this and There was a value that applied an extra shadow skew which ended up making the shadows longer than it should.

with skew:


without:


I've updated the Longer Shadows. Shadows should now cast correctly with the sun throughout the day and decreased the horizon limit.

I'm not fully sure, but it looks like a technical limitation and I don't know where the rest of the lighting code is. I'm going to guess that its located as a core??

I tried this on another house where there are a lot of trees outside and I can now see the problem. Shadows that are from the moonlight overlaps the lighting from the lamps which will cause it to appear darker than it should. Its definitely the way they implemented the lighting system, and it appears change it.

EDIT: it appears to be unchangeable.

Orange, The changes doesn't affect rooms that have no lights on, Seems the value for indoor lighting are not found in the ini.


I don't notice this issue if I place lamps next to garden plants or trees. I do see darker plants still appearing dark, which it's suppose to be.

Change [SunMoonLight] and/or [AmbientSkyTop]
timeofday from 18-23, 0-6.

Does your changes affect inside ambient lighting?

Thanks chann, the files are now package files and added brighter optional file. If you had the INI version of this you need to restore a backup of your original INI files.

Reduces the blue hue during night hours. Nights will have a more natural appearance unlike the blue radiated moonlight of the default. Includes choices of how bright nights are: Brighter, Balanced, Darker.  Shadows will now follow the sun more accurately throughout the day cycle instead of them being stuck at 3pm shadow limit. Some minor tweaks to sun intensity, ambient, and sunset color. Added 3 weather types: heavy fog, stormy, overcast. Stormy and heavy fog will have a reduced appearance chance.

---------------
version 1.5
---------------
-Increased brightness for overcast afternoon
-improved sunset sky lighting color gradient and corrected cloud lighting
-Lighter water color
-Removed color shadows during fog weather type
-fog distance increased
-increased brightness for brighter night option
-fixed an error with partly cloudy using overcast lighting settings, shouldn't be as dark anymore

---------------
version 1.4
---------------
-Added 3 weather types: heavy fog, stormy, overcast. Stormy and heavy fog will have a reduced appearance chance.
-Reduced the fog effect during Clear sky and partly cloudy
-Further reduced blue hue and clouds at night
-Increased sun intensify and reduced shadow ambient
-Changed sunset color
-Merged Shadows and Less nights and applied name change.
-Name changed from Less Blue Nights / Accurate Outdoor Shadows

-------------------
INSTALLING
-------------------
Remove old versions if you have them. "dD-Less_Blue_Nights" "dD-Longer_Shadows"

Extract files.

Pick one of the "Lighting Tweaks" options.
Balanced - nights will be darker than the default game brightness but will still be visible to navigate in.
Darker - Will make nights very dark (pitch black)
Brighter - Will be more close to the default brightness setting.

Put the files inside:
...Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\Mods\Packages
or whatever location you put your mod in.

(if you were using the heatwave fix you should restore a backup of your Egypt world file.)

---------------------------
Also Check Out
---------------------------
Fixes for the broken lights in EA glass doors and arches
by plasticbox:
http://linna.modthesims.info/download.php?t=389222

Night


Dawn, Dusk Shadows: (Default vs Modded) old screenshot

@jerryking
For the stars it depends on your lot view distance. The higher the more stars are in the sky. Those problems in both NL and Seasons.

More information is found here with issues with the sky and EP's:
http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,14368.25.html

@fear
No, The Sims 3 engine supports more graphical features such as realtime lighting and shadows, full time cycles, and bloom.

I was having CTD problems on load until I deleted userPresets.package. What is this file?

I used to have the same GPU and processor. You should be able to run the mod as long as you have lighting and shadow on high.

The mod doesn't cause lot resets and the startup cheat is the same as 2.3 beta. Are you using the shader.package?

UPDATE:


@Gunmod
It's great to hear that your back and your family is well. Yes, it took a while to understand how everything in the mod worked and what limitations there was including lots and lots of testing. Main problem I have now is losing Practical lighting on objects on the upper floors. any ideas why? Welcome back and good luck on The Sims 3.

@jerryking
You can also force error the lights, and if its a overhead light move your camera up close until it fades and it will also bring it back to normal.

@drace
I'm going to guess that its probably graphic card related. What is your video card? If its not that problem then I really don't know what to do about it. Its something really specific that it will probably be while to resolve.

It could be, you can also move the files directly into the folders that they belong to. Problems may happen if the lighting files are placed in the wrong spot. Try not adding any lines into your user.cheat file from the mod and recheck where that the files replaced in the right spot. I think SCRIPTORIUM can install it with language games.

Did you install anything else alone side RLS? Its really strange that this mod would do this in the first place as it appears to be a mesh issue.

Did you revert back you userstartup.cheats when you uninstalled the mod?

Try changing:

boolProp UseShaders true
to
boolProp UseShaders false

inside userstartup.cheats

There be no EP9 in the future then.

The object is a window from the base game. The object itself needs to be edited so it will light on the correct side. Editing the lighting file will not fix this. Round House Window from M&G is also affected by this.

No, the EP9Lights.nlo is in:
The Sims 2 Mansion and Garden Stuff\TSData\Res\Lights

Why is it titled EP9?

There is a typo in the window name (windowTwoTileEmpiren_0_1S_0_S_light) where the n after Empire needs to be removed in the EP9lights.nlo that caused the window to only light one side. The streetlights can be fixed by changing Seven(lightingStreetDeco_light) to Ten(lightingStreetDeco_light)