Updating GunMod's Radiance Lighting System

[jrd]

Ellatrue: I play with all on high.

Chesspieceface: that's probably it… gamma. My monitor is too dark even with brightness and contrast at full (recommended for any CRT), and unfortunately TS2 blatantly ignores the vidcard gamma settings.

[Chesspieceface]

Well JS, Those lights don't do that in my game:



So all I can suggest is that you have some hack/mod that is altering lighting behavior in some manner.

The one cheap overhead light called 'Lunatech' that is the little black can, is broken.  Gunmod couldn't make it function normally so he modded it into a pinpoint spotlight.  Other than that I've not seen any issues.

With that blanket I was wondering if it might be that it has some invisible component above the ground level that would be blocking the light.  Again, I've not seen issues like these in my game at all.

[jsalemi]

Hmm, interesting. Ok, the only lighting hacks I have that I'm aware of are:

1) Dizzy2's smart-lights-nl -- don't think this is the problem, though...
2) commlightson -- a hack to automatically turn community lot lights on at night. This is part of JMP's Director's Cut, but I suspect this one may be the problem (or at least influencing the problem). 

I'll disable these two and see if I still have this issue.

One other question about your files vs the defaults.  In my The Sims 2\TSData\Res\Lights directory, I still have these original files:

CAS_lighting
CAS_lights
LightRig
LotLights
Lighting (however, this is not the original -- it's the gunmod modified version).

Any of these I should get rid of?  Is it possible the Gunmod version of Lighting is conflicting with your RLS-* files?

[jrd]

Commlightson is Pescado's, from the DC zip.

[jsalemi]

Commlightson is Pescado's, from the DC zip.

Yea, I edited my message just now -- did a search on my disk for the original, and found in in the DC.

[jsalemi]

Ok, now this is a D'oh! moment -- I think I found my problem. It wasn't the two hacks I mentioned above -- it was the fact that I still had the original Gunmod version of 'lighting.txt'.  For some reason it didn't get overwritten when I copied all of your files into the directory; maybe I hit 'no' instead of 'yes' when Windows asked if I wanted to overwrite the file.  I've put your version it, and I'll bet this solves the problem. 

joe bangs head on desk: "Stupid, stupid, stupid..." 

[Chesspieceface]

Ok, now this is a D'oh! moment -- I think I found my problem. It wasn't the two hacks I mentioned above -- it was the fact that I still had the original Gunmod version of 'lighting.txt'.  For some reason it didn't get overwritten when I copied all of your files into the directory; maybe I hit 'no' instead of 'yes' when Windows asked if I wanted to overwrite the file.  I've put your version it, and I'll bet this solves the problem. 

joe bangs head on desk: "Stupid, stupid, stupid..." 

Funny.  Do you also have all the RLS-*.txt files in there?

[jsalemi]

Funny.  Do you also have all the RLS-*.txt files in there?

Yes, I double-checked and they're all there.  Using the right lighting.txt fixed the 'excessively bright' lights problem, but did nothing for the toddler blanket -- it still looks dark gray/black under any lights.  But that's a minor thing. And the morning twilight is as pronounced as the evening one now.  Can't believe I did something so dumb...

On the other hand, now that I'm seeing what this is really like (still banging head on desk ), I kinda have to agree with Jordi somewhat -- this seems  a bit darker in the daylight than Gunmod's 2.1 did. Not a lot, but noticeable in some rooms, especially those with only one window or the small, high windows (like bathrooms).  Still, I'm going to keep using it for now while you tweak it some more -- I do like the effect.

[Argon]

this seems  a bit darker in the daylight than Gunmod's 2.1 did. Not a lot, but noticeable in some rooms, especially those with only one window or the small, high windows (like bathrooms).

the 2.1 version had brighter nighttime lighting because I kept bugging him about it (and got support from other people); he did a poll, people said they wanted brighter night lighting, and he went with it. Later he ignored the previous poll and went back to his "realistic" and impossibly dark night.

At one point I suggested he make the downtown lighting brighter since that area would have more light around it (city setting), I can't remember how that turned out.

[Theo]

I am getting an odd blue tint on some objects depending on the camera angle.

Using the right lighting.txt [...] did nothing for the toddler blanket -- it still looks dark gray/black under any lights.

Just wanted to say that these two symptoms are surely not related to this mod, because I get the odd blue tint and the dark toddler blanket without using any lighting mod

Maybe it's just the graphics configuration or maybe something wrong in the lot, but these things happen with the default configuration.

[Hegelian]

I'm liking this quite a bit so far, although I've mostly been playing a challenge lot with no walls, which gives a rather different effect. Some observations, somewhat in response to other posts:

1) 

I am getting an odd blue tint on some objects depending on the camera angle.

With directional lighting (like the sun), some surfaces are in shadow and can appear grey or bluish. This actually happens in real life but our brains automatically color-correct . . . most of the time, that is; in one of our bathrooms, the white fixtures pick up the color from the walls, so that they look as if they are the same color. But if you take a sheet of white paper and look at it under an incandescent bulb at night, and and really look at it, you will see that it actually looks yellow, which is the color of the light produced by the bulb.

2)  In houses with walls, depending on my monitor settings, the light can seem a bit dim, even during the day. Again, this is realistic, but I find I sometimes turn on the lights in order to see better. This is partly a function of having turned down slightly the contrast and brightess on my monitor in order to reduce the brilliance of white objects in direct sunlight. I can't really give any guidance in this regard because every monitor is different and as CRT monitors age, they lose brightness. BTW, it is not true that brightness and contrast should always be maxed out on a monitor (or that the color temperature should be 9300°K)—my relatively new Samsung CRT is so bright that I have it set at about 9 out of 100. Many folks set their monitors too bright! "Brightness" is really setting the monitor's black point (the point at which true black will not display any darker); "contrast" adjusts the monitor's white point (after you've set it in hardware, preferably at 6500°K). For more than you really want to know, try these links:

http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/11/10/the_secret_sauces_of_thg/
http://www.alpenglowimaging.com/monitordisplay.htm
http://www.drycreekphoto.com/Learn/Calibration/monitor_black.htm

In any case, without a calibrated monitor, getting good results using someone else's recommendations is pure luck. Properly calibrating our monitor(s) is something we should all do, even if it is with something as basic as the Gamma applet in Photoshop (I think this is available even in the old Photoshop 5 LE). From what I've seen, most people's monitors are way out of calibration (just like their televisions!)—too bright, and with an inappropriate white point (the typical factory default of 9300°K), and most folks don't have a color profile for their monitor installed on their PCs (go to Display Properties>Advanced>Color Management to see what profiles are installed; you should have one for your monitor and one for each color printer you use. Color profiles for monitors can usually be downloaded from the manufacturer's Web site.).

BTW, I am using Dizzy's smart lights and it seems to work alright, although I may take it out in the interest of being able to see the entire interior better at night.

3)  For whatever reason, when I installed the native shader version plus the RLSshader.package in order to have both bumpmapping and no censor blur, I got the blur, so I took out the RLSshader and reinstalled Quaxi's censor.package, a combination that seems to work. I will say that I do not have the games installed in the default locations and therefore had to copy the mod files to their appropriate locations manually; I am fairly certain I got everything in its place (I extracted the zips with full paths and then just moved the files from the various Lights folders into the game Lights folders). Do I lose any lighting features by not having the RLSshader.package installed if I am using the native shaders (OFB version)?

[Argon]

I'm betting that GunMod's fix for the "bright green pillows/newspapers/etc." can be removed, since that only affected Nightlife and it's been fixed in OFB and FFStuff.

[jsalemi]

I got Dizzy's smartlights working by adding a 'z_' to the front of it and having it load last.  That resolved whatever was keeping it from working reliably.

[Chesspieceface]

@Hegelion Your points about Monitor Calibration are right on, its a concern I've had about putting this out but I didn't really know how to discuss it.  I have a 6 year old Viewsonic CRT and I keep it at 75 bright and 90 contrast with 6500K whitepoint.  It is very common for non-artist/photographer PC users to not consider whether they are receiving colors as intended by the artist.

@Argon  Well thats an interesting point.  You are the only person I know who'd be able to identify that though, and I'd like to keep the mod compatible for those w/o OFB and FFS as well.  If you mind doing me a favor and looking at that beta release thread from Chocolate Pi @ MTS2... woodchuck has posted some video samples and I'm not sure what to make of them.

[Mike]

Yo Chesspieceface, does this increase game performance like GMRL 2.1 did?

[Chesspieceface]

I couldn't really say one way or another. I suppose its possible, but it would depend on whether or not you were already playing the game with maxed settings, as this mod does very little without that.  I wouldn't advertise it that way though.

[Orbit]

I've noticed that with all RLS versions, when you go to try to build a community lot, because of the way the lights are set you can't see anything in the building.  Is there some way to fix this?  Or is it just a side-effect of RLS that has no workaround?

[jsalemi]

@Hegelion Your points about Monitor Calibration are right on, its a concern I've had about putting this out but I didn't really know how to discuss it.  I have a 6 year old Viewsonic CRT and I keep it at 75 bright and 90 contrast with 6500K whitepoint.  It is very common for non-artist/photographer PC users to not consider whether they are receiving colors as intended by the artist.

OTOH, with more and more LCD monitors out there, you don't have as much control over these things -- especially with the new fully digital monitors. I don't think my Dell digital LCD has a color temp setting at all.  Brightness and contrast are about it.

[Argon]

@Argon  Well thats an interesting point.  You are the only person I know who'd be able to identify that though, and I'd like to keep the mod compatible for those w/o OFB and FFS as well.  If you mind doing me a favor and looking at that beta release thread from Chocolate Pi @ MTS2... woodchuck has posted some video samples and I'm not sure what to make of them.

The lines I'm talking about have comments that tell what they do, I wouldn't know how to fix them though.

I can't see the difference between the two bumpmapping videos either.

[Chesspieceface]

@Argon  Well thats an interesting point.  You are the only person I know who'd be able to identify that though, and I'd like to keep the mod compatible for those w/o OFB and FFS as well.  If you mind doing me a favor and looking at that beta release thread from Chocolate Pi @ MTS2... woodchuck has posted some video samples and I'm not sure what to make of them.

The lines I'm talking about have comments that tell what they do, I wouldn't know how to fix them though.

I can't see the difference between the two bumpmapping videos either.

Thanks for looking... my curiosity was mor that he is claiming that the shader package is doing those spec highlights, where you said that hadn't been implemented.  Whaddya think?

[Argon]

I can say for certain that it's not the shader package that is doing it, that's why the cheat was there in the first place.

[Giggy]

  I hope this isnt abandoned!
is there anything else?

[Standardliving]

Shit. For some reason I can't find the file to put this in (Yes, go on, point and laugh).

Its not under my documents. (Gumod had an Auto install, that's how I got away with it the first time)

Could you give me a step by step install?

Jesus, I may sound very dumb, I'm sorry for pain this may, and probably will cause. :/

[jsalemi]

It actually goes in the game directories under Program Files, not in My Documents.  If you just unzip it it'll write all the files in the proper places.  If you look at the zip file before unzipping it, you'll see the directory structure so you can backup your originals first (always a good idea) before installing these.

More specifically, you're looking for the directory string .../TSData/Res/Lights under each respective game episode you have.  So the original files are in:

C:/Program Files/EA GAMES/The Sims 2/TSData/Res/Lights

And for Uni they're in:

C:/Program Files/EA GAMES/The Sims 2 University/TSData/Res/Lights

and so on.

[J. M. Pescado]

In any case, without a calibrated monitor, getting good results using someone else's recommendations is pure luck. Properly calibrating our monitor(s) is something we should all do, even if it is with something as basic as the Gamma applet in Photoshop (I think this is available even in the old Photoshop 5 LE). From what I've seen, most people's monitors are way out of calibration (just like their televisions!)—too bright, and with an inappropriate white point (the typical factory default of 9300°K), and most folks don't have a color profile for their monitor installed on their PCs (go to Display Properties>Advanced>Color Management to see what profiles are installed; you should have one for your monitor and one for each color printer you use. Color profiles for monitors can usually be downloaded from the manufacturer's Web site.).

I've tried "correctly" calibrating my monitor before, but the result is that everything that I actually USE it for is invisible. Ever try playing Bloodlines on a "correctly" calibrated monitor? You may as well be playing it with the monitor off! It's not until you turn the gamma to about 15 or so (WAAAAY above the normal settings you can even set in the config, you have to open the console for this) *AND* jack your monitor brightness all the way to the top before anything displays in the game!

Just because your MONITOR may be set to display correctly doesn't mean any of your programs will care!