Hi everyone,

I've searched high and low and cannot really find a proper solution that works for my issue.

I've recently taken my game from my old 32bit pc at my parent's house to my boyfriend's window 10 pc (lucky me!). It used to work perfectly graphically there.

I followed all the guides on how to make the game run smooth on win 10 (graphic rules maker, 4gbpatch, double-checking if they are properly installed etc.)

Everything works fine except for these 2 things:

Problem number 1: the game is a tad too bright/shiny/saturated, this is most notable when looking at white clothing and neon haircolors. It's also a bit reflected in some skins. I also noticed that the skins I used have a different hue then what they should be (I use Lillith's honey honey see pic)

When I pressed ctrl right click on the preview images of the clothing, for instance, the gorilla-suit, it changed from the normal colour to the neon atrocity, so I assume it is not a calibration issue of my desktop. (I've also checked in the preferences whether there is an issue there with the colors or brightness, but no)
My UI looks fine too, it really is the sims and their clothing.

The issue remains in live-mode.





Problem number 2: some random hairs (older default replacements are very bright/shiny).
This problem goes away when the sims is out of CAS.
I did find a post of someone experiencing the same thing, and their solution was to manually add something to each hair that does this. I was hoping there would be a solution to just fix the root of the problem. I've had these hairs for ages on my old pc, they never had this problem.
the blog mentioning the same problem: https://jawusa.tumblr.com/post/6383...the-dxvk-fix-or
They also mention the dxvk fix but I looked into it and it says it's not recommended if there is an alternative, if you have a lot of cc (I have 18GB) and it is mostly being used as a fix for the more common purple/shadow problems that I fixed with graphic rules maker already. So I want to try other things first.

This issue however goes away outside of CAS so I would be willing to live with this one.



I don't use shaders.

my graphics.sgr file: https://we.tl/t-v1N4Ee7uHU (couldn't upload through the system, I got an error.)

Hope someone can help, thanks in advance .

edit 1: I forgot to mention I tried to boolprop useshaders false and it only gets worse, true made no difference.

The "different hue" problem:
New, updated graphics, new rules. You probably got upgraded to shaders, which means having shaders that actually work. This means a bit of a hue on some clothes, slightly reflective textures and, but also much better graphics overall. Might take some time getting used to it.

You can deactivate shaders if you don't like the new look, but just so you're aware, some hairstyles and clothes could start show invisible if they're high-poly (there's a cutoff at around 25-30.000 polys, shaders are needed to make these items show). You also won't get reflective pools or fish in the aquariums and things like that, and the game will look a bit "flatter" overall.

Cheat:
boolProp UseShaders false ("true" turns it back on)


The shiny CAS items problem:

It's most likely a mesh problem. The items lack a line in the mesh comments for each individual mesh, the "HasTangentArray:" line. Without it (for all mesh groups) the mesh glows.

To fix it, the line should be put in here in the mesh comments, for all the mesh groups (and whatever info is for the other lines should be kept, of course).

ModelName:
Opacity:
HasTangentArray:
NumSkinWgts:

It seems to be more of a problem for newer graphic cards - but exactly why is a mystery not solved yet.

The DXVK can potentially be of help: https://modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=633003

I have this issue myself. The items still look fine when you're playing on a lot, so if you're not too annoyed by it in CAS, and don't want or can't fix them, you can still play with the items on lots. They just look weird going onto sims in CAS.

Thank you so much for you reply!

First of all It did not occur to me that the first problem could be a 'better quality' issue rather than a problem. Would it be possible to maybe install a shader that combats the shiny/reflective-white things and correct the hue issue a bit? Of course I can get used to it but if you think there are shaders out there that can solve this I might look for them first since I do prefer it the old way.

As for the second issue, you mention to use the boolprop shader cheat, which I did, but then I got different lighting issues that were way worse, where the circle-carpet thing is completely lit as well as the sims (like this; (not my picture)

https://preview.redd.it/q3vuxho6fsn...o=webp&82713a2c

I read somehwere that the DXVK solution is not a good fit with games that have a lot of cc, do you perhaps know why and should I still risk it with my 18GB cc? If not, then I might just fix them with the meshcomment line thingy whenever I have time.

Thanks again

I have a lot of CC, tried the DXVK fix because I had a lot of pink-flashing, which did help somewhat, but then found a different fix for that issue. I ended up removing the DXVK because it caused random crashing, and removing it helped for the crashing issues. You can try, though.

I've gotten used to the game looking like it does with shaders on, although with my new graphic card it is a bit "brighter" and a bit more intense than it used to be, but it's not that much different, so I guess I'll get used to it after a while. I played for about 4 years without shaders on a crappy laptop, and it was quite a drastic change - I was shocked to see there were fish and pool reflections and even car reflections and all that - but it's been almost 11 years since then so I've grown used to the shaders, and now I don't want to play without.

The mesh comment fix is as I said per item, or per mesh, so you can fix each mesh whenever you feel like. They'll still work ingame even when not fixed. If you do fix them, remember to delete the cache files, and it's possible you have to do "change appearance" on sims already wearing that hair after you've fixed it. I think maybe the DXVK makes this problem less so? I don't know. I don't think I opened CAS with the DXVK because my game kept crashing and pink-flashing all the time, so I didn't get the chance to check. I do know that I had some issues with these items in my old game too, as they would sometimes not seem to light up properly on-lot, showing dark when they should be lit up. I think this means the problem has always been there, but now it actually shows up and is easier to fix because we now know what causes it.

Oh, and for why CC could look different - remember that when you see a piece of CC on a picture and when you see the same piece of CC in your game, the lighting could be different (Bodyshop VS CAS VS on-lot, various lamps, lighting hacks, light setup, etc. VS picture editing), so if the colors look a little bit off, there could be several reasons for that.

I don't know of a shader replacement like that - I think the closest you get if turning shaders off doesn't work is lighting hacks, maybe? But those are mostly made to make the light nicer. I think you can turn off individual shaders, but I'm no expert with which of them and how it's best to do so.

Okay thank you simmer22!! Since I don't have any issues with the game crashing I don't think i'll risk doing the DXVK thingy.
As for the cc, it really is the game itself as it also happens to non-cc clothing and wasn't happening on my older pc (with the same cc). That being said, the problem is most noticeable in CAS but in-game with all extra context added, it's not as noticeable so I could probably get used to it, although I do have to remove some completely white objects because of them being too bright/reflective now and looking out of place because of it. Luckily there aren't a lot of those.
I like your suggestion for lighting mods though, I'll try that! thanks