Restoring the pre-Seasons sky

[kazebird]

I would have posted this in the original thread, but Mr. Necromancer was too intimidating to bring back the thread.

After several weeks of intense research, I decided to start asking modders for their input on why seasons made the skies cloudless, and bland. First I asked Numenor, and within the hour he responded with this:

I always knew about that sort of "dome" that completely surrounds the lot, and works like a screen where the sky is projected.
The differences in the sky colour were introduced with Seasons, and I think that maybe Maxis didn't find the perfect balance between the various overlays (background, clouds, stars) and the result is not perfect.

At the present time I have no time to investigate more the problem, but probably there are Material Definitions (associated to the textures for sky and clouds) that can possibly be tweaked in order to make them less transparent.

Bye
Numenor

After Googling material definitions, and coming up with nothing but definitions of the word material, I asked him what they were. Today he responded:

We often use the acronym TXMT for the Material Definitions. It defines what texture should be applied to a mesh and how (should the texture be bright? transparent? reflective?...).

If you have found the "wall", then you should be able to find the textures and TXMT associated to it, using the "Finder" plugin of SimPE: select the Finder tab, select "NameMap search" in the Find selector and type in the Match field the first part of the name of the "wall" you have found.
You can also search for "sky", "cloud" etc., and possibly discover the resources you are looking for.

Numenor

Now if I am not mistaken this means that by using SimPE, we may be able to fix the clouds, and restore the star's radius in the sky, if we can find the right file.

This is where the problem comes in. I haven't used SimPE since BV, when I accidentally corrupted my neighborhood trying to remove Bella Goth's death token. I really don't want that to happen again. So if anyone reading this is good enough with SimPE to find the file, edit it, and post the fix, I would greatly appreciate it.

For those unfamiliar with the probem, look below:

Before Seasons:


After Seasons:


Before Seasons:


After Seasons:



As you can see the clouds are gone, and the stars have receded.

[toad]

If you REALLY want some clouds in the sky, go and download this buyable sky from MTS2.  There's also a recolour of it on GoS.

Otherwise, I don't think you're going to get the sky back without uninstalling Seasons, at the very least.

[Mizz Rose Bud]

I'm thinking you are the only one obsessing about this, parrot.

No, we are at least two ... the sky after Seasons are plain boring.

[Strangel]

Three.

[Bonzodog]

Four. I want my moons back, dammit!

[Giggy]

Four. I want my moons back, dammit!

Heh, at first I wasn't interested but now I am.

Five.

I want my moons back too, I miss the occasional mooning sometimes.

[GayJohnScarritt]

Four. I want my moons back, dammit!

Heh, at first I wasn't interested but now I am.

Five.

I want my moons back too, I miss the occasional mooning sometimes.

I'm jumping on the "There's A Whole World Out There" bandwagon.  Pre-Seasons, half of my age transition pics included the moon(s) in the background.  :: sniff, sniff :: 

Me so sad.

[Marhis]

I want my moons back too, I miss the occasional mooning sometimes.

* Marhis moons Giggy

Sorry, spam, but I couldn't resist.

[kazebird]

Glad to see I'm not the only one!

I followed Numenor's advice, and I have found the following:

skysphere_sky_day_txmt

skysphere_sky_night_txmt

skysphere_null_txmt

They were in C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2\TSData\Res\Sims 3D\Objects02.package.

Problem is, what do I do next? How do I actually open the file to edit it? I am in no way a modder, so if a modder could continue my work, it would be appreciated. Also if these are not the right TXMT, tell me, and I will keep searching until I find it.

[rufio]

Well, presumably, if pre-Seasons EPs/the base game used the same resources, something like this might work:

1.  Ppen C:\Program Files\EA Games\The Sims 2\TSData\Res\Sims 3D\Objects02.package in SimPE.
2.  Find the resources you think are the sky textures, and export them.
3.  Go to File->New to create a new package file.
4.  Import the resources you just exported.
5.  Save as preseasonssky.package or something and stick in downloads folder.

If not, you might have to try exporting the same resources from various pre-Seasons EPs (that is, open the file that's in .....\EA Games\The Sims 2 University (or Nightlife, or OFB, or Pets...) instead of the one that's in ....\EA Games\The Sims 2).

Note:  I am not an expert.  Do not blame me if this blows up your game.

[kazebird]

I know absolutely nothing about modding, but I don't think that would work, since that would override the color changes. I am talking about the TXMT, not the textures.

[rufio]

Isn't your goal to override the post-Seasons sky with the pre-Seasons sky?

I know nothing about textures.  When I say "sky textures" I mean whatever resources (TXTR, TXMT, etc.) you think are responsible for making the sky look the way it does.

[kazebird]

According to Numenor, the TXMT is the texture controller. It is responsible for how, and where the texture shows up. His idea is that somehow EA messed up the order in which the layers of sky are shown, or made them transparent, or something.

I really would feel more comfortable if someone with actual experience could take a crack at this, since finding these files are the most I have ever done with SimPE.

[rufio]

Well, if the texture controller was messed up in Seasons, then it is at least slightly logical to assume that overriding it with an earlier, non-messed-up version of it would fix it.

The way I taught myself to mod was to try shit and see if it worked.  Back up your game, and start mucking around.  If it breaks, you have a backup.  If not, you will probably eventually end up fixing the sky.  The alternative is sitting around on your ass waiting for someone else who cares about this to do the exact same thing.

[kazebird]

Well, assuming the newer versions of these files were updated for a reason, I would only want to override the differences involving the clouds, and sky box.

What I don't know, is how to open the file to make changes, rather than overriding it with an earlier version that could potentially ruin everything.

[SaraMK]

Parrot: you already opened the files, silly. What you see in SimPE is all there is to see. Or at least all you can easily get at.

I suggest you open two instances of SimPE, one with the pre-Seasons version and one with the post-Seasons version, and look for any values that don't match. Extract the post-Seasons files and make a new package from them, and then try changing the non-matching values back to what they were pre-Seasons.

Even if you do find values that don't match, you'll probably have to do a lot of trial and error to try to get the effect you want. This is why you should never attempt to modify the original files.

If everything matches, it's the wrong file or we can't see/change the part of the file that would need to be changed.

[kazebird]

You beat me to solving it with the exact same solution!

Time to redownload SimPE!

Edit: I have spent hours looking, and I cannot find the Seasons version of the file! I need help!

[Argon]

Wouldn't the file you're looking for be in TSData\Res\Catalog\Materials\Materials.package?

The sky is a pixel shader script, not that I have any idea how to fix it.

Edit: Might even be 0xFFEA216A, there's a reference to the sky box.

[kazebird]

Thank you! There was an important inconsistency I saw, and I am going to test my file now.

Edit: The file did absolutely nothing, good or bad. I had found that the instance was changed in an earlier expansion. (I don't know why, since having the old number did nothing noticeable.) I explored some other folders and files, but didn't find any working solution.

Point is, for now I am giving up. If anyone wants to take a whack at it, be my guest.

[Giggy]

I want my moons back too, I miss the occasional mooning sometimes.

* Marhis moons Giggy

Sorry, spam, but I couldn't resist.

ROLF

[kazebird]

I am going to try again today. Any info you guys have about the skybox, clouds, or modding in general would be appreciated.

[neder]

In seasons ->3D -> textures, there are 3 TXTRs called skysphere-overcast-(name)-envcube . Envcubes control reflectivity, so that might have something to do with it.
Also, weather BHAVs and BCONs are in group 0x7F232BABA in Seasons' objects.package. Of particular interest (to me anyway) is the BCON Sky Clarity which lists the chances of cloudiness with no precipitation. They are all pretty low.
I don't know if bumping these numbers up would produce actual clouds as in your "before" screenshots, or if it would produce a blurry haze as seems to be the case with the Seasons sky.
In any event, it's a few more things to check out. I intend to play with those BCON values later tonight.

[kazebird]

Neder, I don't think the Sky Clarity would work, but you can give it a try.

[neder]

It didn't.

What I don't understand is where to find the TXMTs that go with the overcast envcubes. The TXMTs from the base game don't reference envcubes, so those would have to have been overwritten somewhere.

[kazebird]

What I don't understand is where to find the TXMTs that go with the overcast envcubes. The TXMTs from the base game don't reference envcubes, so those would have to have been overwritten somewhere.

Actually, the basegame files do reference envcubes. Look in the same location in the basegame files.

Edit: You know, I give up. This is going nowhere, and I can barely understand half the files I've read.