Hi there! You are currently browsing as a guest. Why not create an account? Then you get less ads, can thank creators, post feedback, keep a list of your favourites, and more!
just a girl
Original Poster
#1 Old 19th Oct 2017 at 6:28 PM
Default Lighting mod you use and its pros and cons
I tried Gunmod's Radiance Light System and it blew me away at first. I enjoyed dusks and dawns and deeper shadows so much. I still think it's a brilliant mod. However, there is one thing that drives me nuts. It's a known bug, I'll quote it from mod's readme file:
Quote:
5. Lights lose their Practical lighting (lighting on objects):
-There are two incenses that this happens. One is when you are on a lower floor and you go up a floor
and there is a wall light but the walls are down, it will lose its practical light. This is confirmed
to be a Maxis bug do to the default lighting being very bright where it’s very unnoticeable. The mod
makes the problem more apparent than before. This can also apply to why some lights only use 1 type
of lighting instead of 2 as both were not as needed before. A temp fix is to pick up the light and
drop it, buy a new one or force error it if you are in downtown lot. If it’s a wall light you need to
make the walls up and you can put the walls down after. Ceiling Lights can be fixed faster by moving
one level up and down but it will not all ways work.

Do you use Radiance Light System or some other mod? What do you like and dislike about your mod of choosing?
If you get the same bug I mentioned, how do you live with it or go around it?
Advertisement
Top Secret Researcher
#2 Old 19th Oct 2017 at 6:43 PM
Weird, never noticed those bugs... But I have noticed hiccups where the windows and rooms lose their lighting with addition of new windows to the room, or objects just going completely black for no apparent reason. Resolved with reseting the object or the lot, which does not really bother me.

But yeah, what other TS2 lighting mod is there except radiance?
Inventor
#3 Old 19th Oct 2017 at 6:51 PM
I use Gunmod's Radiance (it's the one simsample links to below) at the moment. I do like it, especially when the light shifts such as from dawn to morning and during the sunset, but yes, that bug is the reason why I tend to use wall lights on my lots even though I would've preferred ceiling lights.

One thing I struggle with is that yes, I have to periodically raise the walls for lighting, and I have to click the ceiling lights for them to work again, which is a pain on larger community lots - imagine having 20 ceiling lights on each floor on a 3 floor building. When the walls aren't up, all of those lights on the floor I'm not on will stop functioning as soon as night hits or when I even arrive at the lot at night, so I have to pick every single one of them up. It's gotten so tedious on some lots that I just use a bright-enough wall light as it saves me the hassle as I have to just raise the walls and lights return.

And I don't know if it's just me, but I sometimes dislike having to use more lights for a brighter scene. Sometimes I have to use 4 wall lights in a 4 x 4 area for me to be able to see everything clearly. In some cases, I gave up and just decided to slap on some of those wonderfully bright fluorescent lights I found here to save myself the effort of placing more lights for the same level of lighting. With the way I play, most of my sims don't have much in the way of excess money, which makes matters worse in terms of home and business lighting. I overuse a specific set of lights because they're the brightest for their price.

Also, I'm not sure if it's Radiance's fault, but when I accidentally delete a wall or window, everything in that area gets covered in a shadow that only dissolves when you pick the object up. It's a bit confusing when I'm trying to find the right color for objects and then I realize that it's much darker than it's supposed to be.

Still, I like how the light looks indoors and outdoors and even when there aren't indoor lights, it isn't as dark as Maxis default. Some of the default Maxis lights gain a nicer glow, like the ones meant for clubs and the medieval purposes.
e3 d3 Ne2 Nd2 Nb3 Ng3
retired moderator
#4 Old 19th Oct 2017 at 6:54 PM
I use Ddefinders RLS:
http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=290746

I love this mod because it has custom NLOs for all of the Maxis lights, and I prefer them to the default. It also allows you to have pictures like this one. You just wouldn't get that kind of shading with the vanilla lighting, and also light goes through arches and across stories too. :lovestruc

I don't often notice the lights losing their practical light- usually I just grab the lamp as in Gun Mod's note. One bug I noticed with this version of the mod is that two of the coloured lights had the wrong glow- pink lights with blue glow. I just edited the NLOs as I use coloured lights a lot!
Inventor
#5 Old 19th Oct 2017 at 7:07 PM
@simsample, if you don't mind me asking, how do I edit the NLOs? I used those lights for the giggles of the wrong color light but maybe it's time I started using them properly in some hoods.
e3 d3 Ne2 Nd2 Nb3 Ng3
retired moderator
#6 Old 19th Oct 2017 at 7:13 PM
@Sketching If you look in [install Location]\EA GAMES\The Sims 2\TSData\Res\Lights you'll see the RLS text files that define which colour glow each light uses. The ones I noticed were in RLS-Neon.txt and RLS-Wall_Lamps.txt. I just opened those files, found the affected light and changed the values from violet to Magenta.
Inventor
#7 Old 19th Oct 2017 at 7:16 PM
just a girl
Original Poster
#8 Old 19th Oct 2017 at 7:50 PM Last edited by Lamare : 19th Oct 2017 at 8:01 PM.
Quote: Originally posted by mixa97sr
But yeah, what other TS2 lighting mod is there except radiance?

I've heard of others, but can't remember. Gunmod's is the most well known and there are different custom edits of it. I used the one from Scriptorium.

Quote: Originally posted by simsample
I use Ddefinders RLS:
http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=290746

I understand it's a version of Gunmod's mod. Is this one different from the one that goes with Scriptorium? You have to install it manually?

Quote: Originally posted by Sketching
One thing I struggle with is that yes, I have to periodically raise the walls for lighting, and I have to click the ceiling lights for them to work again, which is a pain on larger community lots - imagine having 20 ceiling lights on each floor on a 3 floor building. When the walls aren't up, all of those lights on the floor I'm not on will stop functioning as soon as night hits or when I even arrive at the lot at night, so I have to pick every single one of them up. It's gotten so tedious on some lots that I just use a bright-enough wall light as it saves me the hassle as I have to just raise the walls and lights return.

Yeah, I find myself using table and floor lamps more often for this reason (on upper floors).

I wonder, if there's something we could do about ceiling/wall lights, so they play nice. Maybe we can edit them to be more like table and floor lamps in terms of not having this bug.
Inventor
#9 Old 19th Oct 2017 at 8:15 PM
I really wish we could. It's rather tedious having to pick all of them up or raise a wall to work, especially on community lots.
Former Hamster
retired moderator
#10 Old 19th Oct 2017 at 9:17 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Lamare
I understand it's a version of Gunmod's mod. Is this one different from the one that goes with Scriptorium? You have to install it manually?

The version included with the Scriptorium is Ddefinder's version. Gunmod's used to be the one included.
Turquoise Dragon
retired moderator
#11 Old 19th Oct 2017 at 9:22 PM
I use Spookymuffin's. I love the dawn/dusk thing.
Mad Poster
#12 Old 19th Oct 2017 at 9:26 PM
I use the Gunmod one, and I'm surprised that everyone else has the same problem that I do-unequal lighting in a house. It's very frustrating to play a house and have to reset the lights all the time, or buy new ones on top of the old ones, and end up with a over-light nightmare.

I also didn't know it's an unresolved problem. I thought I was the only one having this problem...

Receptacle Refugee & Resident Polar Bear
"Get out of my way, young'un, I'm a ninja!"
Grave Matters: The funeral podium is available here: https://www.mediafire.com/file/e6tj...albits.zip/file
My other downloads are here: https://app.mediafire.com/myfiles
Field Researcher
#13 Old 19th Oct 2017 at 9:33 PM
Spookymuffin's mod is here.
I use the lighting mod that installs with the Scriptorium, along with tweaks for seasons by Nightracer. (Link leads to a reblog on my personal tumblr, as the original poster deactivated their blog.)
I love the more realistic lighting, but one thing that sucks about it is the fact that light up hood deco doesn't work with Radiance. It either won't light up at all or only the immediate buildings will light up if you place a light at the edge of the lot, and even then I've found them iffy.
Mad Poster
#14 Old 19th Oct 2017 at 11:32 PM Last edited by simmer22 : 20th Oct 2017 at 2:20 AM.
I've got the radiance mod that installs with the Scriptorium. I have noticed a few bugs with it (furniture/rooms going dark sometimes, lights losing their beams, shiftable items going much darker when placed below the original height - that issue isn't purely Radiance, though). but other than that I'm quite happy with the mod.
Mad Poster
#15 Old 19th Oct 2017 at 11:47 PM
Lighting mods and I have a long history. I've made many modifications to the light files myself over the years. For a long, long time I could not see squat when it turned night. Turns out this was because of my monitor being old, because now I've gotten a new one I reverted back to maxis lighting and I can see just fine. But for years I was trying to find ways to make nights less impenetrable. I modded it myself to use Spookymuffins dusk setting all night, which helped with seeing, but made indoors look really ugly when lights were off.

I had radiance for a while too, until I realized it was contributing to making me unable to see, since it makes lights less effective over all. I used to have to have lights every few tiles, just to be able to see, even with my dusk-nights. So I got rid of it. When I got the new monitor I decided to start from zero with maxis lighting to see what kind of changes I really want, and what was due to the bad monitor. These days I can see fine, but instead find there's a weird oversaturation when lights are on. Haven't figured out if it's a maxis thing, or if I did something weird. Doesn't look that way in pictures from other peoples games, so I suspect it's something with my settings. Might give radiance a try, see if I like it now I have a better monitor. I imagine it would help with the oversaturation thing.

@simmer22 the shiftable items thing is not radiance, it's a mesh thing. When it goes dark, the game thinks you've shifted it below the floor because it's perception of where the mesh is is lower than what you see visually. The only fix (I believe?) is to use replacement meshes that start at the bottom of the wall and move them up instead. There's some rather extensive sets that fix most maxis items, so if it bothers you enough you could get those. But it will shift everything in your game to the bottom of the wall, so you'll need to re-adjust heights on every lot in game, which is kind of a PITA. And if one shares lots built with the fix in place, I imagine the downloaders would have to have the fix too, or the wall-objects would be too high up.

Creations can be found on my on tumblr.
just a girl
Original Poster
#16 Old 20th Oct 2017 at 12:26 AM
Funny thing is, even when I reverted to maxis lighting, I could still see that lamps lose their practical light. Once I knew, I couldn't unsee it =) So Gunmod wasn't kidding about it being an original maxis bug, it's just a lot less noticeable, because maxis made ambient light so much brighter. I remember thinking, that must be the reason why they haven't made radiance-ish lighting themselves.
Mad Poster
#17 Old 20th Oct 2017 at 2:15 AM Last edited by simmer22 : 22nd Jan 2022 at 11:54 PM.
Gummilutt, I know it's a problem with shiftables even without the radiance mod, but the problem sometimes seem a little worse with the radiance mod since everything gets darker. I've not installed the fixes (I don't use the Eaxis pictures much, and if I do the original height usually works fine), but I usually make sure any wall items I make are placed a little further down the wall than I'm planning on placing them, so I've got some space to work with.

Back when I installed the game on my laptop (I think - The game has had a few hiccups on my laptop due to the graphics card playing hide-and-seek once in a while) I forgot the radiance mod, and suddenly everything looked awful beyond comparance. The lights were either too bright or way off scale.

I have noticed another problem, but I'm not entirely sure if it's the radiance mod that's at fault. Occasionally when I play, sims' faces and bodies will go somewhat darker, except for their scalp (so you can see a visible line between the face and head). It's especially annoying when I'm taking pics, because the sims need to be in a certain place, and moving the lights don't always fix the issue. Picking up the sim and placing them down again sometimes fix this, but not always. If the sim moves, they'll sometimes flicker between dark and light, possibly when going in and out of the light's area, or if in the area of two lights. I still haven't figured out exactly when this issue appears, but it's annoying. Mostly happens indoors with more than two lights, but other than that I haven't the faintest idea...

Picture:


EDIT (in 2022) - turns out this hair issue is caused by the "bright CAS/hastangentarray" mesh comment issue, so it's not the fault (at least not direcly?) of the lighting mod. I've since found that the hairs I had some particular issues with all had this problem (and a few other mesh issues that I kinda ended up fixing while I was at it).
Inventor
#18 Old 20th Oct 2017 at 6:16 AM Last edited by Sketching : 20th Oct 2017 at 11:29 AM. Reason: added pictures
I'll ditto simmer22's observation about the sims' faces and bodies sometimes being a different color. It usually happens when I bring a toddler or a baby to the birthday cake on a table underneath a light. Strange set of circumstances but that's the only way I can deliberately induce it in-game.

I also have sims who are in the same area yet have different lighting on them and some of them don't make sense with their positions.

Edit: Okay, now that simmer22 added pictures, it's not exactly the same problem, but here's a few issues:

Inventor
#19 Old 4th Dec 2021 at 9:12 AM
*bump* I use some kind of RLS lighting mod, but what bothers me is the color bleeding of objects/Sims in rooms with colored walls.

Which lighting mods don't have this effect? And is there somewhere a list with all the lighting mods?
Screenshots
Inventor
#20 Old 20th Jan 2022 at 7:55 PM
Bumping this thread because @baticeer and me haven't made up which lighting mod would suit or needs the most.
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#21 Old 20th Jan 2022 at 10:59 PM
I use SpookyMuffins with tweaks by Dicreasy. https://app.box.com/s/c52ujti29g

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Forum Resident
#22 Old 22nd Jan 2022 at 5:57 PM
I find Cinema Secrets Lighting Mod the best it's by veronavillequiltingbee it's a combo of Maxis Match Lighting mod and the Radiance lighting mod
Inventor
#23 Old 22nd Jan 2022 at 7:20 PM
Quote: Originally posted by joandsarah77
I use SpookyMuffins with tweaks by Dicreasy. https://app.box.com/s/c52ujti29g


@joandsarah77 how does this one differ from the Radiance and and Maxis Matching/Cinema mods?
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#24 Old 22nd Jan 2022 at 11:40 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Softlism
@joandsarah77 how does this one differ from the Radiance and and Maxis Matching/Cinema mods?


I would suggest checking out Spooky Muffins lighting pictures, since this is Spooky Muffins lighting, Di just tweaked it a little. The main reason I like SM is because nighttime is not so dark. My eyes are not the best so a less dark nighttime enables me to see my game better. I also really love dawn and dusk.

Spooky Muffins Lighting
https://gardenofshadows.org.uk/gard...hp?topic=7999.0

Evening and night pictures from my game. I am unsure where my dawn pictures would be although I would have a few I am not normally taking pictures of it, but dawn does look different to dusk. Last two would be dusk since I use a sleep in patch so my sims don't wake up until 7am.
Screenshots

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Mad Poster
#25 Old 23rd Jan 2022 at 12:00 AM
The dawn/dusk is a great addition to gameplay, or it just goes from night to day instantly. Plus, it's nice for pictures.

bugjartimedecayoff's version of Spooky Muffins' dusk/dawn options are included in dreadpirate's mods (Possibly the Maxis version too, but definitely in the regular Radiance) - I use the regular radiance version of this one (2.5). I used the original 2.4 version from MTS earlier, but since there were a lot of neat updates to the 2.5 version, I decided to go with it. The installation was a pain, though :/

https://dreadpirate.tumblr.com/post...tem-25-now-with

It also has the feature of turning on and off Hat's "world lit by fire" with cheats, if you so desire. Haven't tried it yet, but could be useful.
Page 1 of 2
Back to top