Great!

The only problem I have is some of the objects looked washed out, and dark, not having any colour. But they're only custom objects, so I suppose it can't be helped. I doesn't bother me, so I'm not worried.
This is great. No more blinding light through the windows!

Some comparisons. Not good ones, but still. This lighting makes my sim faces look really smooth. I'm really happy with it.

Thanks so much for taking up this project! RLS has always been my favorite mod.

I scanned the previous posts and didn't see any mention of what I found. Apologies if I missed it, I'm fairly tired at the moment. I found an issue with one of the wall lamps by accident and figured I'd test out all the Eaxis lights (I have all EPs and SPs, but nothing from the Sim Store) and found a few things of note. I'm not sure if any of this is fixable or just Eaxian messiness. Pictures included.

Pic 1: Sconce light not appearing in appropriate spot, appears on the other side of adjacent wall. Affected sconces are the following:
Waffelhousen Sconce
Antique Metal Scone
Almost Deco Wall Sconce
BeamoLite Extendo Wall Lamp
Illuminating Angles
"Bell Epoque" Tiffany Wall Lamp
"Diamonds Forever" Wall Light

Pic 2: The Belle Lamp's (K&B SP) light beam is misdirected, should resemble direction of the light in Pic 3. (Figured this was a Eaxis mishap, but worth a mention).

Pic 4: Photon-Master 3000, Tabletop Edition lamp. No idea what is going on here, didn't see this problem with any other lamps, custom or otherwise.

Pic 5: The ceiling nightclub lights don't shed any light outside the beam. Table lamps with colored lights looked good to me, but the colored floor lamp(s) (Pic 6) weren't as bright.

Pic 7: The Luna Torch by Glucolux and Pic 8: PrevenTek Tri-Luminlight Streetlamp don't light the ground/surrounding area. Thought this might be one of those foundation issues, but the other (taller) street lamps didn't have this problem.

Pic 9: PrevenTek Tri-Luminlight Streetlamp gave me some issues. I think I placed the light with only the foundation walls up, then paged up to the next level and this weirdness occured. I tried to duplicate it with another lamp, but it seems specific to this lamp.

Pic 10: Nothing wrong here, just a pretty candle-lit bedroom! Thanks again for all your work on this.

@march.violets
@SimzLover08
I'm currently changing how lights are handled such as lights will now gradually lose light falloff.

Find the early release here:
*DEAD LINK*

@Destria
Thanks for the descriptions and screens those will really help me . Photon-Master 3000 uses a shared light source such as the outdoor pole lamp that came with EP3. I don' know why they set it to do that.



I wonder how many use dark objects/walls as I've notice a lot of screens are dark. I test lights in rooms with white walls, floors and objects. This helps determines the threshold I should set it so it won't get that light flashing with multiple windows and lights. however this does suffer with darker colors.

For what it's worth, my pics look a shade or two darker than the actual game does. I took a few shots for comparison so you can see my light walls/furniture as opposed to dark. Everything looks absolutely gorgeous.

light colors/candles/night
light colors/lamps/night
dark colors/candles/night
dark colors/lamps/night

Its an UPDATE!:
"*2.3 Bata 1.5* AUG-17
--Changed how the overall global lighting is handled. (May resolve certain technical problems)
--Lights and windows edited for new light setting including intensity increase.
--Radiance now gradually loses light instead of instantly.
--Changes to the default lighting file. (Custom Lights support. May not appear correctly for every light)
--Removed expansion/stuff packs' default lighting overwrites which prevented RLS changes to those objects/windows/doors that were included.
--Dance Lights will now use correct color lighting instead of just purple.
--Increase brightness to sealed rooms.
--Increase indoor window spill during overcast.
--Adjusted TV and Computers light source.
--Adjusted dawn, dusk and Seasons.
--Fixed archways from using window diffusion.
--Fixed some missing object shadows on walls.
--Fixed incorrect door portal types. (Glass doors' used practical light as if they were archways vice versa and 2 tile arch casting as 1 tile arch)
--Fixed Brassier windows and doors that used a duplicated default setting in IKEA Stuff Pack which then overwritten the RLS ones.

Notice: Userstartup.cheat has been updated. You need to update Userstartup.cheat and The Sims 2 folder. (Check "How to update" in readme)"


@march.violets
sorry i'm late your question. If you just used the SCRIPTORIUM to install 2.3 it will install beta version 1.3 and not any of the newer ones. the files you need to change now is "the sims 2" folder lights and userstartup.cheat.

@Destria
pic4: the Photon-Master 3000 uses the same light source from an outdoor pole light from EP3. A change with a hack might fix this.

Pic 2: Yep it was meshed with a fake light. another hack may be able to fix this.

pic 5: now fixed : )

pic 7: Never had that problem during testing it was a problem before but it was fixed around that time. The current update may resolve it but I'm not sure.

pic 9: actually now i recall something about street lights in gunmod's readme. "Due to the new way lighting works, for an outdoor light on a pole, example, a streetlight, they MUST be placed at least 2 tiles (in build mode) away from a building WITH A FOUNDATION or they will not light properly. You CAN place say a streetlight next to the wall of house, but it must be rotated to face away from the structure."

Does it only happen near buildings?

Pic 1: I've changed positions of some of the wall lights. but haven't had that problem during testing. accrues in small rooms?

Yeah, only near buildings. I didn't know about the trick to rotate them away from the building, so thanks for that.


Probably, it was a hallway that I used with those particular lights. I'll check it out tonight. Thanks for the update!

I love this mod a lot.. It never worked on my old laptop but the moment I installed sims on this one I instantly downloaded it. hehe. first and only download so far.. trying to keep my foldier very low.

my problem though... heh. I don't have seasons installed at this moment so I wanted to try the pool shaders... but with it, my pools turns a flashy purply pinky colour ... lol.

my graphics are up high... so I'm wondering why this happens

other than that this is the best mod every and I wonder why Maxis never did this to begin with

Thanks for updating this. I really hope it resolves some of the problems I was having, as I love the lighting this mod gives, and I hatehatehate Maxis lighting...*shudders*

EDIT:

Okay, in neighborhood view, when I click Day/Night toggle, a lot of my pine trees and a significant number of my houses become pitch black when I switch it back to Day. Any way of fixing this?

I tested the in-lot lighting, and it was very nice. Sunset/Sunrise lighting is still way too bright for me though; maybe I have too many windows...

This is such an amazing hack dDefinder, one I really wish I could properly use! But without the scriptorium's update, I can't for the life of me understand how to manually update the RLS I uninstalled the previous version...but what now? is there any patient soul out there who could talk me into installing this like I was 3 years old?


ETA Forget about it! Incredibly enough I managed to work it out and now I can fully enjoy the awesomeness of this hack. THANK YOU for creating it, it's beyond words!

Not sure if this makes a difference but I am using the Q-Xpress installer for like, everything. Will this work if I use it?

I love this mod! The lighting is awesome
But I find that my sims lack color when outside and look faded. They do not match the outside sunlight.

Example:



Here is another picture of the same sim but with lights (*note* still outside):



I am not complaining. This is a very great mod. But I just wanted to point out that the only way one can make a sim not look faded outside is through the use of lights. And that is a bit odd during a summer day.

I just want to say thanks again for this amazing mod! I never used the first one for fear of crashing or messing my game but now that you've updated, thanks, thanks again. As I've read from earlier posts, some had problems with Murano's reflective floors. Just a little note, Murano's reflective floors come with a package called 'murano_millenium_SHADER.package.' I tested it with and without the RLS and got good results (With and Without). Shaders are always 'true' in my game. I might be wrong though. This hack is beyond words and I don't think I can switch back ever to Maxis Lighting again. Great work! Ang galing!

Hope you can update this for Apartment Life too. It would be so awesome! No pressure though. I love, love this hack! It's going to be very useful. Thought I'll add my screens. In-game. Both were taken in summer, also using Numenor's Smart Lights. Pool pic is early afternoon, the second pic, night time with Chris997's custom atmosphere.


Thanks!

So if I have just installed the apartment life EP.. this will no longer work?
Even if all the files are still in the respective folders?

Or will I have to wait until an AL compatible version of this is released ...

this is my first time downloading this mod... i'm not much of a computer wiz so I must have done something seriously wrong. My neighborhood is blinking purple. need help!

UPDATE

*2.3 Bata 1.6* AUG-30
--Enabled specular highlights for UseShaders true and false
--Compatiable with Apartment Life.
--Increase sealed room ambient lighting.
--Changes to dawn and dusk.
--Changes to seasons.
--Decrease dawn light intensity to objects.
--Reduced Vanity light intensity.


I would recommend that you remove the shaders. It could be a problem with the shaders with certain hardware.


I haven't had problem with it until i re-read what you said and I've only tested that within a lot. I'll get back to you and see if I can fix this.

I've changed the dawn and dusk again see if that helps.


I don't know, never used Q-Xpress.


Thanks for pointing that out. The line for lighting on sims was commented out. I've enabled it and changed it a bit. including the seasons. See if that works for you.

@ticticc13
Thanks for the info. and I've added atmosphere mod to the as a download link. nice screens.

@EddieRiso
Its compatible now. if you used it before the update the objects/windows for that EP pack will not work and some of the lighting will be reverted to default.

@orchidblo521
Did you place the files in the lights folder and not the Lighting folder? That's what usually causes the red flashing.

What if you have Sims 2 deluxe the one that contains both the original game and nightlife? Does the rule still apply with dragging all the files from the zip into your EP files? And I did everything you wrote but there still is purple blinking. Here's what I did step by step.

I clicked on the beta zip thing first. Then clicked on the usershader.cheat and extracted it to doc/ea games/ Sims 2/ confg/ etc since it wasn't in my computer. Then once I did that, I extracted all the files in the zip file into my program files on my hard-drive. Once doing that I checked to make sure no files were in the lighting file and were all in the light file.

Before I said I didn't download anything that had to do with Gunmod's lighting tool. I really did. But it was from another forum. I think this is the reason why everything is blinking purple. I really don't know I could be wrong. Plus another question, sorry if I'm pestering you so much but when do you use the back up zip and when do you use the beta... are you suppose to use only one? I'm confused


PLEASE HELP ME IF YOU CAN. once again so sorry for bombarding you with so many questions!

I'm having a bit of trouble with the lighting... that is what it looks like in my downstairs neighbor's apartment. (it's a real sim, not a random npc) it looks normal with the family I'm playing it with. If i go to that family's house (the one that is very dark) it looks normal and the family i was playing before looks dark.

Great but all of the warmness of the lighting seems to have gone away..even inside. My sims sometime look like they have a flash on them...sort of like when you take an in-game photo. I am grateful for the change in lighting outside but my sims still look faded but brightly faded.

All right!! This is great, dDefinder! I really liked the light radiance by Gunmod, and he is so "bright" to have thought of that cool idea, but I must be honest, it seemed a little too dark at times, like if you are trying to write a story, and you want your sim to be contrasted evenly. But now you've corrected all the kinks. Thanks again!!

BTW, just curious- do you know how Gunmod is doing? I haven't heard or seen from him.

I wonder that the outside sunlight still can't shine through some new windows in EP8 Apartment Life.

Hello again! Thank you for updating! There are only a few issues I have noticed... As per the picture I attached, that's the color my simmies turn whenever they enter the sauna. It was on a Bon Voyage lot so I don't know if that has anything to do with it....

Not to mention I'm having issues with my Bon Voyage lots. They always stay daylight. They only turn darker when it rains.

And the lights seem to be a bit dimmer. Not just the custom but all of the maxis one's seem dark than they were before as well.

@orchidblo521
I'm going to try to explain this as best as I could.

you did userstartup.cheat correctly. Have you extracted it and put the files into your Sims 2 folder and not just in program files? It needs to be where the game is installed

check in "Program Files\The Sims 2\TSData\Res\Lights" check to see if there are files files with the names RLS. If there is non open the zip and open the sims 2 until you get to the lights folder and move all those files into your games lights folder and replace.

you going to have to do this with all other expansion packs that you have. such as nightlife except that it doesn't contain the RLS files but replaces the ones in the lights folder.

The backup is used if you want to go back in using the default lighting. More like uninstalling the mod.

The old RLS will overwritten by this one if you installed it before.

@supermega123
I've tested it on that same lot but I didn't get that problem. I did notice furnitures are viable even when a playable Sim was not in the other families' apartment. It could be a maxis bug I'll be testing it a bit more.

@Will9525
Flashing such as they are flickering? Also fading I don't know what you mean?

@SparkleSim
NP
I haven't heard anything from him either after he left.

@KarenLee
Are you using the beta 1.6 and not the one that came with SCRIPTORIUM?

@missybrina
The BV lots not changing day to night was fixed in a earlier update and I've done a quick test of it along with the sauna and the sims get the correct lighting. You using beta 1.6?

Hi, dDefinder, I removed all my custom content and tried that lot again, and the problem still persists. I went to a custom apartment in Pleasantview and it did not have that problem. It could be an Apartment Life glitch.

Thanks dDefinder... I'll check up on that.

Hi there. I've noticed three majors bugs with Apartment Life (even if I install the AL compatible version).

First, when we change the height of a wall decoration, if it's under its normal height, the wall decoration will be not affect by light.
The new wardrobes are lit by the light of the small room in which they find themselves (ie no light : it's too dark). With Maxis lights, new wardrobes are affect by the light outside the wardrobe.
And finally, in neighborhood view, the night view is too dark, and if we use the diurnal view after the night view, lots, vegetation and some neighborhood decorations are completely black.