The caustics animation can be reactivated by modding the corresponding shader. but in my case, it slows the game down quite a bit.

but if you wanna try it, pm me.

I have been working on a double-sided maxis-match floor tile for a modern roof, but I am still having problems with the tile being much too bright at night. lightMapAvailable didn't seem to make any difference.

I've read through this thread several times, but I can't seem to find any way to get a tile which matches maxis' original color during the day, but which darkens at night in a reasonable manner.

More info:
Because the pattern is a 2x2 tile, I had to use the following method:This seems to be preventing lightMapAvailable from working. Is there a special way to get nighttime lighting for animated tiles?

if you want both the top and the bottom surface of the "roof" show up differently, as Inge had suggested, may build an extra level for the upper "roof" surface with unmodded floor tiles instead. the lower one can be filled with doubly-sided floor tile with darkened textures or with down-tuned value of stdMatDiffCoef, like from 0.8,0.8,0.8 into 0.2,0.2,0.2.


you may also browse the texture package from the 3D folder from the programme folder, find the texture you want, and link it directly to the modded doubly-sided floor tile to save the file size when the texture is in-game already.



a floor shader mod may work, too.
adding the stdmat defs into the floor shader should do the magics.
but since the floor bottom is simply a duplicate graphical presentation of its top surface when this method is employed, the lighting of the bottom will follow the top surface of the floor tile.

lightMapAvailable is just a check point parameter for a floor tile lighting pathway in the assembly codes for the floor tile. it doesn't check for all. it normally works on floor tiles inside a cell (a closed room).

My problem isn't the lighting on the bottom of the roof... although I suppose that I may need to worry about that next.

My problem is that using "stdMatTextureCoordAnimMode = tile" seems to make the roof "shine" at night; ie, the roof doesn't dim when the light outside fades. If I remove the 3 "...Anim..." lines, the roof dims correctly, but I lose the ability to use the Maxis 2x2 texture. Instead, the texture is compressed to 1x1, so that it no longer matches the original Maxis tile.

If necessary, I'll change my lots to use a 1x1 roof tile instead. I was just hoping that there would be an easy change to get 2x2 double-sided roof tiles that dim at night.

but would this method override apartment life ceiling tiles?

Mootilda,

No, such parameter isn't responsible for the lighting in this particular material type.
It's the definition in this material hasn't the same lighting shader functions as the common floor material shader.

I'm working on a doubly-sided shader mod along with other feather for this set of shader mods.

I need testers though to help figure if I've done it right.


akven,

This approach has nothing to do with EP8 AL's ceiling.
The ceiling is nothing more than an grid object under the next floor.

indeed, the ceiling should cover up the bottomful floor tiles.

OK, I finally understand that no one has managed to solve the night lighting problem yet, for either the base game or animated tiles. I misread the thread and thought that the problem had been solved, but that I was being dense and was unable to properly implement the solution.

niol, is there anything that I can do to help get a double-sided shader mod working and available? Is a shader mod the same thing as a light map?

Do you know which shader is used for the double-sided floor tiles? I assume that it's not the standard floor shader.

Sorry for my long absence, indeed I now consider myself almost completely retired from the scene.

""stdMatTextureCoordAnimMode = tile" seems to make the roof "shine" at night"
That's because that parameter is running the "global" "standard material" from the "standard material shader" rather than the "floor material" from the "floor material shader(s)".
"stdMat" stands for "standard material".
When animation is turned on, lighting and shadow (hopefully I remember correctly for the latter) shaders are turned off even if there is no visible animation.

To get 2x2 for a floor tile, one needs the floor tile scale line. N, you can easily find and spot out the related parameters in the txmt file of any floor tile made from TS2-HCP.
Those 2 are the default floor tile scalers by means simple mathematical inversion.



As for a doubly sided floor tile shader mod(s), one has to tackle with the corresponding floor and floor PS shaders codes to try to make that work.

And as my Pc has been down for a few months, I've no way to check my old digs currently.



Sorry, I should have explained to you why theose can't be solved through txmt-edtting/modding because they're actually "hard"-coded in the corresponding shader codes.

Only if one feels like to tackle with shader codes from PS1 to PS3 and VS1 to VS2, then such problems may be altered to the desired properties.

My old digs are stuck in my HD as my Pc is out for a few months by now. I know the problem is on video connexion though but I'm waiting for money given back to me to fix my PC.


Sorry for triple postings, wensense has banned all the graphics from the site, and I don't risk losing my messages currently.

the shader and txmt pages should have links to the floor shader and the floor PS shader. As far as I've understood, one quite likely has to tackle with both to turn the floor doubly-rendered properly.

Thanks. I'll take another look at this and see whether I can figure it out now.

Sorry that you're having such problems with your internet provider and with your computer.

C'est ma vie..., no need to feel or say sorry.

=)

Here's the wiki link
http://www.sims2wiki.info/wiki.php?title=CD7FE87A

Due to limited time session in a library, I had no time to get the link for you as I would like to do so.

Good lucks...


added:

Floor PS shader is the global floor shader mainly for definitions of the shared graphical components for floor grahpcial components.

Floor shader is a collection of definitions on different specific floor types.

Generally for floor tile transparency, one has only to pay attention to the "colorScalar" (check spelling? I can't remember surely) or the alpha channel of the RGBA for floor tile transparency. For transparency, one may have to edit several places to add in the alpha channel.

Generally for floor side display, one has to add in lines like cullmode=none and its relevant call function lines or alter the parameter values inside the shader codes. May search or find "cullmode" throughout the shader codes from different shaders to learn about how they may be used. The neighbourhood shader must have it and the standard material shaders..

I can't be sure if some codes are in the exe that be arbitrarily hard-coded. These're more likely be in new game version or EP or SP, yet especially for new features.

Also, I've not uploaded all versions and all shaders up to the wiki page coz there're 59-something there.

Some shaders are nothing more than simple but arbitrary txmt file which call for shader functions from other shader files.