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Post by Fwecka (Lolabellesims) on Oct 28, 2021 4:09:26 GMT -5
What do the offset and stride values represent? I see offset in the screenshot but not stride. Where would I find that? And where you said items that have a highlight use a lightmap, I'm assuming you're talking about items that have a sort of glow but don't light up a room, right? I noticed that items such as a fireplace use a lightmap but I don't know enough about how to include and utilize a lightmap to make any use of one.
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Post by qolygonal on Oct 28, 2021 5:04:35 GMT -5
What do the offset and stride values represent? Google will answer this question better. Just compare between any lamp and a desk. The Stride line is in the previous window, at the very bottom of the list. Yes. Fireplaces or, for example, these items from GF (ep06herowall). Fireplaces work a little differently though. There is a thread about this somewhere on the forum. Ok. 1. LigthMapScale=1. 2. Add a new texture here and in the Warehouse. 3. LightMapAlwaysOn: 1 - the light is always on; 0 - the light is on only at night.
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Post by archangelic on Oct 28, 2021 13:42:14 GMT -5
The thing is that every item has a light source so you do not actually need a lamp tuning to make an object glow . For example when i was asking about the light values it was because i wanted to make the edges of a window to glow when the night falls , so i went to the already light source that the window had , deleted the preset light source that had inside and put a square area light but since the link that qolygonal provided I haven't had the chance ( mood more like it to be honest ) to play with the coordinates yet but it does light in the dark with out me giving any command to open / close the light ( like a lamp needs ) , so it is auto but for the night only . By the way on my window i didn't use and vertex paint at all and as i said the light comes off only at the edges . You can also find an option about tube light . So i am sure you can do something like that with out the tuning of a lamp .
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Post by Fwecka (Lolabellesims) on Oct 28, 2021 22:44:48 GMT -5
What do the offset and stride values represent? Google will answer this question better. Just compare between any lamp and a desk. The Stride line is in the previous window, at the very bottom of the list. Yes. Fireplaces or, for example, these items from GF (ep06herowall). Fireplaces work a little differently though. There is a thread about this somewhere on the forum. Ok. 1. LigthMapScale=1. 2. Add a new texture here and in the Warehouse. 3. LightMapAlwaysOn: 1 - the light is always on; 0 - the light is on only at night. Google isn't revealing anything useful. Or maybe I'm not using the correct search terms. Taking a guess, stride affects the intensity of the light while ouput determines how far away the glow extends from a glowing object? Or is it that I need to toss a virgin into a volcano during the next full moon? I don't know. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ And I guess I should have mentioned that I do know how to add a lightmap resource and link it in the shader data window. What I don't know how to do is actually create a lightmap texture and I don't know how to edit the values. Maybe copy what a fireplace has? At this point, I'm just making guesses. I'm not as good with the technical stuff, golygonal! Edit: This involves math. I have spent my entire adult life successfully avoiding math. I'm terrible at math. As near as I can tell, stride is how the game or your computer reads an image and the data it obtains from reading an image is stored somehow. Cached, I guess. Output would be how the image is displayed based on the data that was stored. Am I getting this right?
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Post by Fwecka (Lolabellesims) on Oct 28, 2021 22:50:40 GMT -5
The thing is that every item has a light source so you do not actually need a lamp tuning to make an object glow . For example when i was asking about the light values it was because i wanted to make the edges of a window to glow when the night falls , so i went to the already light source that the window had , deleted the preset light source that had inside and put a square area light but since the link that qolygonal provided I haven't had the chance ( mood more like it to be honest ) to play with the coordinates yet but it does light in the dark with out me giving any command to open / close the light ( like a lamp needs ) , so it is auto but for the night only . By the way on my window i didn't use and vertex paint at all and as i said the light comes off only at the edges . You can also find an option about tube light . So i am sure you can do something like that with out the tuning of a lamp . Yeah, adding a lamp's tuning made it behave like a lamp in that I could turn it on or off, but it broke the desk function so clearly that's not an option. I didn't think it would work anyway and now I know it won't work. I like the idea of using a tube light. That's something I can experiment with. I can possibly set things up so that the vertex paint will stay using golygonal's instructions. Or, if I can figure out how make or edit a lightmap I could go that route too. A lot of this depends on what the OP wants. If she wants the tubes to act like a lamp then I think it would have to be a separate package with an edited footprint. I'd like to know more about what you did with that window. Would you mind sharing the file so I can look at it? You can PM me if you don't want to share it publicly and I wouldn't share it with anyone else, of course.
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Post by qolygonal on Oct 29, 2021 3:07:36 GMT -5
Bam. You don't need to know what it is. The only thing you need to do is open two windows side by side and copy the lamp values. Copy > Paste After that, you need to reimport your mesh, cause it'll either disappear or explode (this is the most appropriate word). Yeah, you can add light to any item. Vertex color in this case works like a lightmap. It determines with what intensity and in what places an item is illuminated. But unlike a lightmap, vertex color allows you to change the light color in the game or in a package. Also, it doesn't affect other items. Therefore, if you add light, an item without vertex color will not glow. Also, the lights are only on at night. There may be a way to change these two points, but I don't know.
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Post by archangelic on Oct 29, 2021 4:11:21 GMT -5
Owh i have no problem sharing the file but i discard it since i would start all over again :/ .
BUT i have some neon wall lights ( not my files it's other's creators file that i have download from tsr ) and i think if you take a look at that you will have a better point of view , cause i believe you want that desk tubes to act like neon lamp lights so that file will be more suitable for you to take a pick and an idea . Now i don't think i can public share them here ( althose they where free to download ) but if you are still interest you can either tell me to pm them to you or go to tsr and search for neon wall signs , pick one and go for it .
Now that i recall though the thing with my window was that was lighting up the wall the floor and the ceiling but standing alone in the middle of the room wasn't lighting anything up ( or the other side of the wall for that matter since it was a window it should go both way but it went only at front face ) .
<3
So sorry i can't be more helpful with your project mate but i am seriously in no mood to get back to that window ( apparently i got burned up more than i though ) and currently i am downloading cas items to make my sim look better . I did neglect her a lot with trying to make a better home for her ( me that is :P ) :P .
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Post by archangelic on Oct 29, 2021 4:25:20 GMT -5
Yeah, you can add light to any item.Vertex color in this case works like a lightmap. It determines with what intensity and in what places an item is illuminated. But unlike a lightmap, vertex color allows you to change the light color in the game or in a package. Also, it doesn't affect other items. Therefore, if you add light, an item without vertex color will not glow. Also, the lights are only on at night. There may be a way to change these two points, but I don't know. Aha that's why my window was lighting up only from the sides . Gotcha ya . The lights with out a lamp tuning they do light up at night automatically or in dark rooms . To change that you need to a lamp tuning and have the option always on , in order to light up day and night , but if a desk is outdoors or in a room with ceiling lamps you can't actually see the light during the day , you can only see the intensive color of the lamp texture soooooooo kinda pointless to put the light tuning . But the neon wall lights do give you the illusion that they light up day and nigh , i am assuming it's because they are neon ( the texture works as lightmap to get that effect ) you kinda get the illusion that they are lid at day time too . All that i am saying it's from how i saw them work in base game since i do not have any expansions and i am not sure if in any of the other expansions ( city lights for example ) things may work differently .
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Post by archangelic on Oct 29, 2021 14:54:22 GMT -5
Yeah i saw all that ( color and intensity of light i mean ) but i didn't reach the part of the vertex coloring since i was trying to figure out the numbers ....
To be honest it's going to get me a while before i go back to creating anything cause as i said i feel burned up ....
But now that you mention it the point light setting is using some U values that they are totally unknown to me while the area lights setting and the ambiance light setting they use V values where i did had actually a base to work on ( kinda ) . Plus i saw some point light setting in some xmas wall decor ( a tree ) where there where several lights all over the place but the U values didn't made any sense to me at all :( .....
Still i truly believe that the lamps should be set up in a new model group where it will make everything easier and as far for the box they can use the footprint to manipulate it .
Btw who is OP ?
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Post by qolygonal on Oct 29, 2021 17:39:14 GMT -5
Yes, there are a lot of U's. But I noticed that U4 and U5 are always 0, and U6-U9 — 1. I haven't tested all the lights that use the point light, though. In any case, this light type isn't suitable for this case (although there may be an angle setting among these U's). I don't think a separate light group is needed. There is no benefit from this, and it'll only add work. What's the box? what's in the box? Light will not prevent a sim from interacting with a desk. the op
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Post by archangelic on Oct 31, 2021 17:17:25 GMT -5
Light tuning to the table , according to Fwecka , it will though . That is why i suggested a new model , a little bit extra work but you can work it as you like .
Sorry i went missing but i am too dam tired :/ .
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Post by Fwecka (Lolabellesims) on Nov 7, 2021 6:55:56 GMT -5
Bam. You don't need to know what it is. The only thing you need to do is open two windows side by side and copy the lamp values. Copy > Paste After that, you need to reimport your mesh, cause it'll either disappear or explode (this is the most appropriate word). Yeah, you can add light to any item. Vertex color in this case works like a lightmap. It determines with what intensity and in what places an item is illuminated. But unlike a lightmap, vertex color allows you to change the light color in the game or in a package. Also, it doesn't affect other items. Therefore, if you add light, an item without vertex color will not glow. Also, the lights are only on at night. There may be a way to change these two points, but I don't know. No. Your Bam link is not welcome. You have hurt my brain and now I have to go cry and take a nap. Seriously though. I have no background in the things discussed in that article. I don't know what a buffer is. I don't understand what a float value is. This is the kind of thing developers have to know and trying to dive right into the middle of all of that when I know nothing about coding...well, I'm drowning, haha. I appreciate your sharing the article, however. I just need it dumbed down, but at least now I know what to google.
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Post by archangelic on Nov 7, 2021 7:25:57 GMT -5
Fwecka why don't you try to clone a door ? For example Seeing Glass Door that has glass material in it . They have 8 mesh groups in the blender file that 3 of them they apply transparency to any mesh you put in there . You can transfer a window material to the tubes , put the tubes mesh to mesh 2 or 3 ( they are definitely apply transparency I know from a fact ) and chose any other mesh ( i think one more has also transparency check it out ) to put the desk mesh ( 0 could be a good choice ) . Remove unwanted vertex groups ( like _bind_doorSwing_E_ ) and put the light on the tubes rather the desk . Clear the meshes on the other groups ( remember to leave 1 face on each otherwise they will not import to the file ) . Then put the desk tuning on the object definition and i think you are going to be good to go . Just an idea can't guaranty it's gonna work . Example package the door i've made and how it looks in gameThe blender file and how i've set the meshes up in thereHope i've helped a little , maybe gave you an idea .
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Post by Fwecka (Lolabellesims) on Nov 7, 2021 20:14:04 GMT -5
Clone a door? No, I think that would entail more work than this project needs. For the tubes to be transparent, I would need to assign the PhongAlpha shader to it and I know for a fact that PhongAlpha will not display vertex paint. I was helping someone who had a lamp with glass parts and we could not get the vertex paint to show. Tried enabling UseVertSelfIllumination and the lamp would glow but it no longer behaved like a lamp--you couldn't turn it on or off. It would automatically come on at night and automatically turn off in the morning. Part of my issue, as well, is that this desk isn't my project. It's something that a beginner is making so I need to keep things simple since she's still learning. If I could make the tubes a separate mesh group I could play around with shaders and shader data, but I'd need a desk with five mesh groups and there isn't one in the game. Cloning a deco item (or something) with five mesh groups might be doable but it would involve adding slots and changing the tuning. Might be too complicated for the OP. Or...I could make the tubes a separate lamp package. Seems like the simplest solution. My only concern would be if the lamp caused routing problems for the sim. I'm going to try that in the next hour or so. I'll post back with the results. @golygonal you said there's a thread about the lightmapscale. Is this it? And I'm trying to understand this. As near as I can tell, one of the biggest concerns when it comes to computing is that the less memory used the better. To achieve this, oftentimes information is pre-calculated and cached somehow, then the software can access what's been cached rather than run calculations every time the calculations are needed. It's kind of like how you'd enter someone's phone number into your phone so you can access the phone number quickly rather than going to the hassle of looking up someone's phone number every time you want to call or text that person. A lightmap will add brightness to individual vertices and that brightness is stored in a texture. It's cached in this form. The texture is what the game will reference, instead of running calculations every time your object is rendered in the game. It reduces memory usage. The stride is the number of bytes from one row of pixels in memory to the next row of pixels in memory.Offset...this one I'm struggling to understand. It seems to represent where the beginning of the stride information is and where it ends. Every pixel in an texture is stored as...I guess a number (a byte) since computer language is all numbers (math is the only universal language). If you compare a large texture with a small texture, you'd find that the beginning of a row of pixels and the end of a row is a different amount. A different number of pixels per row. So stride is the actual row of pixels and offset tells the computer where that row begins and where it ends. A computer buffer is an area of memory used for the temporary storage of data when a program or hardware device needs an uninterrupted flow of information.
Float is a number with a decimal point. Not a whole number. The reason it's called "float" is because there can be any number of digits before or after the decimal point. The decimal point's location can therefore vary--the location can float. Now, what purpose a float value serves I have no idea other than a float value is needed by the shader a vertex uses. And a shader is basically how light is calculated in a scene and it's calculated pixel-by-pixel. The goal is to mimic how light behaves in the real world. My favorite example is your computer keyboard. If you're in a well-lit room you will see that the tops of the keys are a brighter color than the sides, simply because the sides of the keys aren't as well-lit. There are shadows created. Shaders try to calculate these shadows. There's more to it than that but that's the basic concept, I think. Okay, well I hope I got all that right. It's important for me to know why something exists so that I can have better control of how a project turns out. It drives me nuts when a tutorial tells me to do something but doesn't explain why that step is necessary.
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Post by Fwecka (Lolabellesims) on Nov 7, 2021 23:41:32 GMT -5
@golygonal I'm sorry to bother you but I really need you to clarify what it is I'm supposed to be doing here. I copied over every entry from the Editing Declarations window, added a "Usage: Color, Format..." entry. I vertex-painted the tubes on my mesh. The package will not let me add a light resource. Studio throws an error when I try to save. {Spoiler} The Sims 4 Studio - Version 3.1.5.4 System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object. at S4Studio.Data.IO.Core.Geometry.Sims4GeometryIOExt.SerializeColorRgbSc(BinaryStreamWrapper s, Color c) at S4Studio.Data.IO.BuyBuild.Lights.Light.Write(Stream stream, IReferenceList resources) at S4Studio.Data.IO.BuyBuild.Lights.LampShadeLight.Write(Stream stream, IReferenceList resources) at S4Studio.Data.IO.BuyBuild.Lights.LightResource.WriteData(Stream stream, IReferenceList references) at S4Studio.Data.IO.Core.LinkedResourceSerializer.Write(Stream stream, IReferenceList resources) at S4Studio.Data.IO.Core.LinkedResource.Write(Stream stream, IReferenceList resources) at S4Studio.Data.IO.Package.DBPFPackage.WriteResourceStream(FileStream final_stream, IPackedResource resource, IDBPFResourcePointer index) at S4Studio.Data.IO.Package.DBPFPackage.WriteDataStream(Stream src_stream, FileStream final_stream) at S4Studio.Data.IO.Package.DBPFPackage.SaveTempPackage(String out_file, String tmp, Stream pkg_stream) at S4Studio.Data.IO.Package.DBPFPackage.Save(String out_file, Boolean inline, String temp_path) at S4Studio.Shared.StudioDocumentModel.Save(String filename) The vertex paint does not produce a glow in-game. Likely it's because I can't add a light resource. I really need to know if I'm supposed to copy over every entry from the Editing Declarations window, and add a "Usage: Color, Format..." entry. I'm sorry to be such a pest but I need clearer instructions.
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