Cliffs in Lot view?

[arogers]

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?

[kazebird]

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

[Tingeling]

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.

[kazebird]

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.

[arogers]

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.

[Zazazu]

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.

[pbox]

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.

[kazebird]

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.

[Pyromaniac]

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 better. Why would EA mess with the sky to make it look shittier? Was this supposed to be a feature?

[kazebird]

I know! Here is my favorite example of the original skies:

[Sigmund]

I know! Here is my favorite example of the original skies:

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*

[arogers]

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

[Tingeling]

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.

[arogers]

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?
 

[kazebird]

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

[crunk]

That seasons pic reminded me of a sunset, actually. Also, check this sky mod out over at MTS2. It acts as a light, but the concept is interesting. I've used it before, for picture taking.

[rosess]

That seasons pic reminded me of a sunset, actually. Also, check this sky mod out 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.

[Quinctia]

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

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.

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.

[witch]

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

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

[pbox]

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.

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

[Tingeling]

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?

[arogers]

does that thing change with different weather types?

[kazebird]

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.

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.)

[J. M. Pescado]

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.

[arogers]

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