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Post by paika on Mar 19, 2015 16:53:49 GMT -5
I'm creating some new balloons for my game. Because those EA balloons are just... ugh! Dangling sadly off the wall, they even named them "anti-balloons"! So I need to make some anti-anti-balloons. Flying and bouncing. Anyway I was wondering if I should make a shadow mesh for the ceiling, or will it not show in game? I've noticed the ceiling looks a bit odd in game, and is actually lower than the end of the wall texture.  It looks like the balloons are not high enough to touch the ceiling. But if you look from an upward angle with ceilings on:  Should I just ignore shadow mesh for the ceiling? And yes, I know I didn't map the current shadow mesh so it looks weird :P It is a work in progress. I just wanted to see what a pile of balloons in the corner of a room would look like. Not sure I'll even continue with these, might start over from scratch. Also I was wondering if there's a good object to clone from to create balloons that are not "attached" to a wall. Stove fans seem OK, but they come in 3 different variations for different wall heights, so I'd have to make 3 separate objects for each set. Ceiling lights could work, but they cast light. Any suggestions? |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 19, 2015 17:45:31 GMT -5
I just Updated my Game Today - Hadn't Updated since March 7th...it was a Big Update.
A Chair I was working on did not want to open in S4S - Because when Sims4 Updates, so does the Tool.
Had to Trash my whole Project, was so Pi°°ed, hahaha!
I noticed that stupid looking Shadow Graph too, today - It only shows on Certain things, not all.
I could not get rid of it on the TV that I made today, so I just dropped the 64 Entirely - Bye, Bye.
Worked like a Charm.
On the One Night Stand Light, it did not show up - Thank God. Just a nice Clean Shadow Lod, (Plane), well - not entirely' clean - we did clean off some leftover Vertices from the Original Light Mesh.
Ceiling Objects, I would imagine would be about the same - you would need to clone from something that has a Shadow Plane directly behind the Object. You could probably even move a Clean Shadow Plate up to where your Balloons are - just have to make sure to change the Mesh names and Cuts - to match.
Best of Luck - Rock On!
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Post by Deleted on Mar 19, 2015 17:59:27 GMT -5
Had to sign back in, just thought of something - You could Save a Shadow Plane from one of those Hanging Flat Screen TV's - just Export that Shadow Plane as an OBJ. File and Import it into your Balloon Project - Move it Up and Scale it.
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Post by paika on Mar 19, 2015 18:01:53 GMT -5
So you think the shadow mesh will show on the ceiling? And I know why the weird shadow things show behind, it is because I edited the shadow mesh to extend to another wall (the original was just on one wall) but didn't bother mapping that part yet. Mostly I just want to know if there is a better item to clone from. Something that will go near the ceiling but won't block my sims and other objects. I'm not sure if that has to do with footprint data or what. I'd rather just clone from whatever's closest to what I need instead of dabbling with those settings. I'm so bad when it comes to programming and math :P
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Post by Deleted on Mar 19, 2015 18:05:49 GMT -5
I never Map Shadows - Why are people Mapping Shadows?
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Post by Deleted on Mar 19, 2015 18:15:01 GMT -5
The Plane will act as a type of Light Mod in itself; as far as I know - as long as you have a Plane behind - or Below an Object Mesh - you will have a natural area of Shadow from the Mesh.
To place one Above? Never tried that.
Could have been something in the Update, maybe I need to Map Shadows now... (?), blah - shadows, hahaha!
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Post by andrew on Mar 19, 2015 20:16:39 GMT -5
Shadow maps have been needed since the beginning of sims 3 and sims 4.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 20, 2015 3:54:05 GMT -5
Shadow maps have been needed since the beginning of sims 3 and sims 4. Yes, my problem was when - as an example - I took 3 separate Object Meshes and packed them together to make something else. The Diffuse shadow Map was showing up as a Texture, and I could not click the little minus node in Blender to get rid of the map or replace it. That's why I dropped the 64 altogether. It may Have been something stupid I did on my side - not sure.  When it does work correctly - It's just a matter of hitting the S to scale the "Dirt" - or, Shadow. What is confusing me - People keep saying they are Mapping the Shadow. I don't understand why someone would actually Unwrap this and Map it - or, maybe I am reading more into this than I should. (?) P.S.- paika, I am horrible @ math too and definitely NOT A PROGRAMMER. |
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Post by orangemittens on Mar 20, 2015 7:19:51 GMT -5
The shadow mesh is just a plane that has the cut number EA has given the mesh group that will be assigned to get mapped on the "blob sheet". The blob sheet is that large white image with all the grey...well...blobs on it that is shown in the picture above on the right hand side. Usually the map for a shadow plane is fairly simple because the shadow needed is just a small circle or square. Since that's what's already on the blob sheet you can just put the map of your plane directly over the shape/intensity that you want and you're done. Some objects, like my Love sculpture for example, need a more complex shadow and mapping things like that can take quite a bit of time to make things line up properly. Given that the shadow mesh itself is just a plane you don't need to take one from one object and import it into another. You can just create a plane for the object that you want to have a shadow for as long as the original object has a mesh group already assigned to be mapped onto the blob sheet. I will be posting a tutorial sometime soon that goes over how this shadow works for Sims 4. As far as I can tell it's exactly the same way that the shadow worked in Sims 3. If it is the same you won't be able to get a mesh group assigned to the blob sheet by EA to use anything except the blob sheet for its image. I haven't tried using anything else in Sims 4 but, in Sims3, people did try and it wouldn't show any image but the blob sheet. For the balloon object that started the thread off I think a ceiling light may be something useful to try. It's not difficult to get rid of the light effect using the Warehouse. I wrote a tutorial showing how to do this a short while back and its posted in the tutorials section.  |
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Post by j on Mar 20, 2015 8:39:28 GMT -5
paika, I love your balloons, such a cool idea. In terms of the wall/ceiling height, all Sims games (as far as I remember) had that "issue". It's not really an issue since the floor tiles above (that make up the ceiling on the floor below) are a couple pixels in width, hence you lose some height on the floor below.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 20, 2015 10:48:25 GMT -5
Thanks for explaining that OM. I usually just Scale up or down - with what's there.
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Post by paika on Mar 20, 2015 11:04:29 GMT -5
Thanks, orangemittens, I will definitely be checking out that tutorial. I have to redo the whole item anyway, since the original ended up being way too high poly. One balloon wasn't so bad, but it's an entire pile. It doesn't slow down my game, but maybe because I don't play on huge lots right now. Just to be safe, I remade the original balloon and will be arranging it into a similar bunch.
J, you're right, I guess it's similar to walls, they don't come as paper thin planes. I didn't consider that since the house I'm playing doesn't have a 2nd floor, but I guess it does have floor tiles under the roof.
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Post by paika on Mar 30, 2015 13:48:15 GMT -5
I have cloned a lamp to have balloons right below the ceiling for any wall height, but now it's kind of weird that they have the lights menu available, even though I removed the light from them. Is there a way to disable this?  The textures don't look as smooth as the old version; these are low poly, so the shadows are kind of weird. I figured it's best to make them like that, since it's a large bunch. I think I might make another version of the mesh that is something in between, unless I find a way to make this texture smoother. It had some glitch earlier that I fixed, but these are still not perfect enough for me. |
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Post by orangemittens on Mar 30, 2015 15:06:53 GMT -5
You can get rid of the light menu by changing the tuning to something different.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 30, 2015 16:16:41 GMT -5
I did the same, forgot about the Tuning - was afraid of changing the Tuning due to the Footprint, thought it might mess something up.
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