darylmarkloc,

See the PJSE forums at http://simlogical.com/SMF/

Specifically, the PJSE Includes forum. This is an attempt to document to global constants, and common function parameters. One step closer to converting ts2 hex codes to english.

The PJSE bhav plugin includes those and more. Just get the latest SimPE.

jaxad, No it doesn't. I would know as I moderate that forum

It was discussed about adding these to PJSE part of SimPE, but it would needlessly increase the download size for those not interested in BHAV hacking. That would be the vast majority of SimPE users.

darylmarkloc - I perfectly understand your point, since I'm not a programmer and hex editors always made my head spin
But I'm not, e.g., describing in hex a BHAV line: I'd never describe a code line as "0x0002 - 04000000000500070000000000000000", but I'd use the user-friendly translation provided by the PSJE plugins "Expression (My attribute 0x0004 "Exit?" := Literal 0x0000)".
If - every now and then - we have to use a single hex number just to name an element of the package, it's not "talking in hex"

Back to lights..and sorry for causing this off the track series of posts. I made a 2 storey light for indoors..it wasn't anything particularly original, simply being a transplant of a light I knew reached two floors from outside use to inside. Although it works well enough and lights a 2 floor space just fine, it needs tweaking, I think, because the effect of the light (reflection off walls and floor etc) is different if the space is not a true room, if it is a basement and if it is a true room (eg; no wall gaps). It may be this is just the way the game will display light over those spaces regardless. Anyway, I've thrown it open to anyone who wants to improve it. I've played with an *.nlo file per this thread and frankly, nothing I do seems to make that much difference to changing the spread, reflection or luminosity.

The way the game handles the light effects is complex, and sometimes (for instance, in your case, where the light is put into a non-standard space), editing the .nlo file isn't just enough.

Reading the thread about the Radiance Lighting Mod (and examining the mod itself), I've understood how many variables are taken in account by the game when a light is displayed. Basement, for instance, are known to be a "defective" area, where light is not displayed correctly.

btw, incase this hasnt been noticed,

I put the description of the light values on the wiki a few months ago. http://wiki.modthesims2.com/C9C81BAD
for the less complex lights, just cut values off the end of the floats.

Thank you, Thank you.. This is exactly what I have been looking for! You are truely the best!!

Hi Karybdis! How nice to see you around!
Oh!, I didn't notice that you had recently updated that wiki page... Thanks for the heads up (I knew the older version, with no explanations, but just the "float1", "float2"... values).

Finally I see the complete connections between the parameters in the text files (.nlo) and the LGHT file in the package... I was missing the inner and outer angle in the LGHT...

Sorry I'm trying to follow all this but it might as well be written in Chinese
(or any other language besides English... because I can't understand a thing!)

Here is my issue... I cloned the wall light from the base game with the flame animations.
I want to make a floor lamp and post lamp with the same flame effect.
So I cloned it, changed their placement (which works perfectly)
but they don't reflect light like a regular floor or post light. They still
reflect (diffuse... is that the proper term?) light like the wall light does.

So what exactly would I need to change to get them to have the
same diffused light as other floor and post lamps? I'm not really creating
a custom light file... I just need to change these so they light up the
areas around them properly.

If you changed the placement of the lamp, the origin of the light is likely to be located in a different place/height than the original position. In simple words, in the original wall lamp, the bulb is in a high position, near the wall; while in a floor lamp it is in a lower position and far from the wall.

Moving the mesh in the GMDC isn't enough, because the position of the light is defined in the CRES: if you look in the CRES Hierarchy, you'll see a cLightRefNode (it's the one with a little "bulb" icon next to it). Click on it, and the node will open up; go to the cTransform tab and look on the left, at the "Translation" box. In this box, you see the coordinates of the original bulb: you have add/subtract some values so to "move" the bulb in the correct position.

Remember that:
- Increasing the X moves the bulb on the left
- Increasing the Y moves the bulb towards you
- Increasing the Z moves the bulb upwards.

Remember also that the unit of measure is the tile: i.e., if you add 1 to the X, the bulb will move 1 tile to the left.
You don't have to be extremely precise; mind that the "bulb" we are talking about isn't actually visible in the game: it's only the (invisible) point that the light originates from.

Thanks Numenor... that did the trick! I just copied the placement info
from similar existing objects (cuts down on trial and error. What can I say
I have limited patience. LOL!) and now the glow around the lights is perfect.

I don't know how you can open up those packages and look at
all those random digits and figure this stuff out. Its pretty darn amazing!

Good job, Shannanisims Copying from existing objects is always the best thing to do in most cases.

Hi! first of all I have to say that youre a genius Numenor! Im very new here and id like to start to learn about modding, so please bare with me if I sound dumb ;D
I was wondering if it's possible to change a single object's (lamp) light colour, for exmaple: a ceiling lamp that originally radiates bluish light would be changed to radiate yellowish light. hope you can understand

Yes, Georgia, what you ask can definitely be done.
As explained in the first post, the light sources emit two types of light:

• direct light (also technically called "Practical" light), that hits the surrounding objects and sims;
• diffusion light, that hits walls and floors.

In order to fully change the colour of the light of a lamp, you have to change both types of light.

The direct light can be easily defined within the LGHT file that is automatically included in the package when you clone the lamp. The instruction on how to edit the LGHT file can be found in part 3 of the article above.

The diffusion light can be defined into a separate .NLO file, built using the info provided in Part 2 (NOTE: read also the installation instructions for installing the NLO file into your game; and remember that you need the latest CEP in order to use custom diffusion light in your game).

One last thing that I feel it's important to repeat, though already explained in the article, is that, in order for all these lights to work, the name of the light itself must be unique in the game, and identical in all the light references contained in the package and in the NLO file.
The "light name" I'm talking about is the "customLightName_light" that is named several times in the article: it must be written in the LGHT file, in the TextList 0x8E, in the CRES and in the NLO file, as explained in the several parts of the article.

But before doing anything, please read carefully Part 7, point 2: in your case, probably the easiest thing to do is to assign to your lamp the blue light used by Maxis for the bulb-shaped table lamp.

Wow, thanks for answering Numenor! Ill certainly just read the article first before I ask any more questions

maybe i've lost something... but inside the array "unknown 1" you can't write "PRACTICAL" c'ause it takes only number..
i've tryed with 0x03 'cause it my practical.. but the light didn't work

I said:

You have to edit the string array, not the Unknown1 value.

oh... lol

thnx

I have no idea where to look for this answer so I am going ask here and hope for one. I cloned a light did my thing and it works perfectly...except I can not recolor it - sorta. I can recolor the original from which I cloned mine - so I know I SHOULD be able to recolor it. However mine will hold the recolors, they appear there but the object does not update with the new color selected in design mode - what should I be looking for?

nectere, did you update MMATs with the main GUID? Open the MMATs and see what the value for the line objectGUID is. Is it the original Maxis GUID or yours?

Yes I did, there was actually only one GUID, so it was the main. And yes all 4 of the mmats have the custom GUID not the original.

I cloned the spike light. I have checked this package forwards and backwards, rebuilt it, recreated it over a dozen times. Currently I am having someone else look at it because nothing I have done or someone I had look at it has done has been able to solve the problem. Perhaps its unique to the spike light I am not sure...its been released into the wild as not recolorable but I sure would like to get it working for my own benefit since I know the spike light is in fact recolorable because I recolored it, just not my clone of it. *sniff*

Thank you Ignorant Bliss for writing back and trying to help.

The Spike Light is slave of the "City Dweller Dims" garden light (as stated in the CEP documentation); therefore, it is not autonomously recolourable.
With Maxis items, SimPE is quite smart, and when you try to recolour the Spike Light, it actually creates a recolour for the City Dweller. But the clone of the Spike light might cause problems to SimPE. I suggest you to clone the City Dweller Dims, or - as an alternative - clone the Spike Light with the "Make stand-alone object" option active; but I warn you: especially with muilti-state objects, like a lamp, the "Make stand-alone" option might give unexpected results.

Actually I did use make stand alone (along with uncheck remove useless files) and it still doesnt take the colors. I can make a recolor of the object I have cloned, it shows up in design mode in the catalog and lets me select it in design mode, but when I select it, nothing happens. I have tried cloning it in various ways, checking and rechecking everything, (and I have a learned a lot more than I set out to with all the tutorials I have read lol) so I guess I will need to clone the other light as you have suggested. Thanks for the input Numenor, its much appreciated.

Thanks for this tutorial. It is awsome.