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Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#1 Old 25th Nov 2022 at 2:03 AM
Default Rooms aren't dark enough with lights turned off
Has anyone ever noticed that the rooms are still too bright when you turn off all lights? Even during the night when rooms are supposed to be their darkest it's still not dark enough. This has been bothering me on and off for a while. Below is a picture I found online from someone else's game. I never think to take my own pictures while I'm playing. Everyone experiences this in their game regardless of mods or graphics card because it's just the way TS3 was made, but I hope it can be changed.

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Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#3 Old 25th Nov 2022 at 8:24 AM
Quote: Originally posted by nitromon
That's how the game is designed b/c you can't see anything if everything is dark. Even outdoors there's a blue tinge. You can overcome this by downloading "lighting mods" etc... I use the Buhudain one for dark nights where they remove the blue tinge outdoors. However, I like to keep my indoors the way it is so I can actually see things.



I know the reason behind it, but I love pitch black nights. That's why I have a lighting mod that make nights extremely dark. It's out of place when the night is so dark, but the inside of buildings aren't. If I can't see inside of a room because it's too dark I would actually enjoy the realism and all I have to do is turn on the light.
e3 d3 Ne2 Nd2 Nb3 Ng3
retired moderator
#5 Old 25th Nov 2022 at 10:54 AM
Yes, the lighting indoors is a seperate thing from the lighting outdoors. So you need to find a lighting mod which changes both. Or make one yourself!
Instructor
#7 Old 25th Nov 2022 at 12:06 PM
Quote: Originally posted by 17Masso
I know the reason behind it, but I love pitch black nights. That's why I have a lighting mod that make nights extremely dark. It's out of place when the night is so dark, but the inside of buildings aren't.


the Sims 3 isn't a horror game like Silent Hill.

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Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#8 Old 26th Nov 2022 at 11:07 PM
Quote: Originally posted by nitromon
https://modthesims.info/t/608782

I guess they never figured it out. :D


I saw this, but I didn't know what I was doing, lol. I'll try again. Have you tried this out yourself?
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#10 Old 27th Nov 2022 at 12:17 AM
Quote: Originally posted by simsample
Yes, the lighting indoors is a seperate thing from the lighting outdoors. So you need to find a lighting mod which changes both. Or make one yourself!


I understand how lighting mods work to an extent. You say this as if you know how to accomplish what I want so I have hope in your answer. Does the color ramp have anything to do with it or is it something with an INI file?
e3 d3 Ne2 Nd2 Nb3 Ng3
retired moderator
#11 Old 27th Nov 2022 at 11:21 AM
Colour ramps would probably be the best way to deal with this if you want to do it for one world, there are ini files that go with the colour ramps. Each line of the colour ramp deals with a specific aspect of lighting, such as shadow, natural light, ambient, manmade light etc. The inside darkness and outside darkness are affected by different parts of the colour ramp, I remember finding it difficult to play with rooms and environment that were too dark though! It's been a long time since I played with this, I made my last world ten years ago so I probably forgot more than I learned! But it's all in this thread:
https://modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=459198
How I would recommend to start is to open up one of the EA worlds in S3PE and get the ini and DDS files from them (or you can download some of them from that thread I linked), and then import them into your current world and play for a while. You'll see the differences it makes, and what it does to the light in your world. Then you can open up the DDS in your photoeditor and change the colour saturation to something bizarre, so that the shadows are bright magenta and the sky orange. Then when you put it back into your world you will be able to discern which part of your bizarre colour ramp pertains to which part of the lighting. If you put this mod in your world then you can change the sky type at will, so that you can begin to understand which part does what. That's how I learned, anyway! There may well be an EA world that has the indoor lighting that you like also, and then you could pinch the colour ramp from that. The aforementioned blue tinge is definitely from the EA lighting though- they seem to favour blue on a lot of the colour ramps for some reason.
Are you using standard EA lighting on your worlds? Which worlds are you playing?
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#12 Old 28th Nov 2022 at 12:50 AM Last edited by 17Masso : 29th Nov 2022 at 11:52 PM.
Quote: Originally posted by simsample
Colour ramps would probably be the best way to deal with this if you want to do it for one world, there are ini files that go with the colour ramps. Each line of the colour ramp deals with a specific aspect of lighting, such as shadow, natural light, ambient, manmade light etc. The inside darkness and outside darkness are affected by different parts of the colour ramp, I remember finding it difficult to play with rooms and environment that were too dark though! It's been a long time since I played with this, I made my last world ten years ago so I probably forgot more than I learned! But it's all in this thread:
https://modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=459198
How I would recommend to start is to open up one of the EA worlds in S3PE and get the ini and DDS files from them (or you can download some of them from that thread I linked), and then import them into your current world and play for a while. You'll see the differences it makes, and what it does to the light in your world. Then you can open up the DDS in your photoeditor and change the colour saturation to something bizarre, so that the shadows are bright magenta and the sky orange. Then when you put it back into your world you will be able to discern which part of your bizarre colour ramp pertains to which part of the lighting. If you put this mod in your world then you can change the sky type at will, so that you can begin to understand which part does what. That's how I learned, anyway! There may well be an EA world that has the indoor lighting that you like also, and then you could pinch the colour ramp from that. The aforementioned blue tinge is definitely from the EA lighting though- they seem to favour blue on a lot of the colour ramps for some reason.
Are you using standard EA lighting on your worlds? Which worlds are you playing?


I'm playing in a custom world called Oahu and I am using https://modthesims.info/d/490659/en...-6-55-gold.html lighting mod V4.0. It overrides the default lighting in all worlds. I have tried making nights darker through the color ramp only, but it still didn't change anything for indoors. I notice that Sims 4 and even Sims 2 have lighting mods that specifically change indoor lighting. I don't understand why this still isn't a thing for Sims 3.
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