jdkit
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Post by jdkit on Jan 25, 2020 11:09:25 GMT -5
Ok, so one (possibly several, but I'm concerned with one) of EA's windows has an extremely broken shadow that it casts, at least for all but the primary swatch.
The Scattered Panes Embiggened window3X1_EP03MUSEUMTileable5Tile_set1 0000000000020ACA only casts a shadow that's correct for its odd geometric pane pattern. The diamond swatches, squares, and normal panes all get the first swatch's triangles & trapezoids shadow. This bugs me more than it ought to, but I'd like to do something about it.
I'm wondering what resource the game uses to determine this shadow. Is it one of the DST images? One of the several meshes? The tutorials I've gone through do not seem to address what actually determines the light/shadow that gets cast into a room.
If I have to make an actual different object for each pattern to be correct, so be it. But first I'm going to attempt to be bold and use the same kind of trickery described here to make different shadow patterns for each swatch in one package.
All this is moot if I don't know what resource I'm looking for, though.
Thanks in advance, and I hope this made sense :p
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Post by minimonster on Jan 25, 2020 12:32:06 GMT -5
Hi jdkit . Just FYI, there has been an open Bug Report on the Official forums about this since November 2017, verified by BryonyRae herself (one of the few Hero support people on the Bug forums). The report can be found HERE. There are 23 additional reports with the original (my response is #12), and 57 people have added their 'Me Too' to the report. This does not seem to be anywhere near to being on the radar of getting fixed by the official team. Interestingly, in case you weren't aware, peacemaker (peacemaker-ic on tumblr) released an add-on set of windows & doors for that set, that DO NOT at all have the issue. I even reached out to him myself to ask if he were interested in creating a 'fixed' version, to which he basically replied, "Um, No.". Can't say that I blame him, at all. There are so few modders/CC creators whose meshes are indistinguishable from Maxis meshes like his are. Myself, I have opened both that window & one of his clones in side-by-side Studio windows to compare the internal coding/references, and came up with nothing (although to be honest, sometimes all of the reference numbers can start to 'swim around' in front of my eyes and become unreadable). So much is wrong with this game that we all here devote our time to, and this item is simply a symptom of the rot at the core of it and the disdain with which even the official team treats their product. |
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jdkit
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Post by jdkit on Jan 25, 2020 13:52:55 GMT -5
Nice to know I'm not the only one bothered. But does this mean that we're not sure which resource decides what the shadow's shape is? Because I am willing to attempt the fix myself.  |
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Post by minimonster on Jan 25, 2020 17:11:51 GMT -5
jdkit, Basically, yes. There is some as-yet undiscovered 'pixie dust' (or cake crumbs, as the case may be...) within peace's edits that makes them function perfectly, while the original(s) does not. I have read in multiple reports/tweets from the Official team over the some 6 years since this iteration was released that they hire out-of-house for some design things in Sims 4, so I have a feeling that also extends to other things as well (such as why the coding within the tuning can appear to be 'shoehorned-in'). Seeing as there used to be some three separate studios across the globe who used to work on the Sims (at least 3, AFAIK) and they are now down to one, while constantly complaining about lack of dev time & resources (among other complaining from the team & its leads) I am always surprised when most anything ever gets fixed. Sorry (not sorry) for the salt. o_0
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jdkit
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Posts: 7
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Post by jdkit on Jan 25, 2020 22:33:03 GMT -5
jdkit , Basically, yes. There is some as-yet undiscovered 'pixie dust' (or cake crumbs, as the case may be...) within peace's edits that makes them function perfectly, while the original(s) does not. I have read in multiple reports/tweets from the Official team over the some 6 years since this iteration was released that they hire out-of-house for some design things in Sims 4, so I have a feeling that also extends to other things as well (such as why the coding within the tuning can appear to be 'shoehorned-in'). Seeing as there used to be some three separate studios across the globe who used to work on the Sims (at least 3, AFAIK) and they are now down to one, while constantly complaining about lack of dev time & resources (among other complaining from the team & its leads) I am always surprised when most anything ever gets fixed. Sorry (not sorry) for the salt. o_0 No, I totally get it. I understand such salt. I'm a Secret World player. (Talk about a team that had all its resources & devs taken away... right after a relaunch.)
I truly wish I had the free time to go hunting for it myself. If I find myself with time, I'll share any findings on the board, but don't hold your breath :p
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Post by peacemaker on Jan 26, 2020 22:20:58 GMT -5
I honestly didn't realise the originals didn't work until minimonster pointed it out to me. Still have no clue what I did to fix it, but my windows were made prior to the sunshadow update where the mesh was composed differently (merged into a single group instead of 3 separate groups like they are now) so I assumed that could have been why. I did try and fix them by doing what I did which was reimport the mesh which didn't solve the issue. So i left it as 'unfixable'. Now that I know a lot more about creating cc and the ins and outs of a package file (not tuning though, that scares me), I just had another look and i think I pinpointed the issue. My old version uses a different shader and method of compiling for the sunshadow. It requires no textures so i assume it references the textures of each window style to cast the correct shadows. In the new version however, the Maxis version has the same shader as the normal window mesh and references the style 1 texture, which is the shadow that is by default. There are no additional styles for each variant to match the regular mesh, so it's stuck with the one shadow style despite changing swatches. RoM windows got around this by not having a sunshadow mesh and uses the auto-generate feature a lot of decor items use to get the sunshadow. So i created a default replacement, removed the sunshadow meshes, and guess what? They work correctly. I still need to double check this works for the door as well. TBH i have no idea what effect removing the shadow meshes will have but given a lot of items don't have it, it should be safe. I will try and get an update out today or tomorrow with the fix included in my Addons for CL once i test the same method works on the door as well. Edit: Welp, that doesn't work on the doors unfortunately, but at least the windows are fixed? Not sure what magic they used on the RoM doors (get it? Magic? I will see myself out) |
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jdkit
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Post by jdkit on Jan 26, 2020 23:32:24 GMT -5
Well damn, that certainly beats my workaround.
I had finally discovered that the mesh itself contained several references to individual DSTs and kind of went "well that's that, then. It's in the mesh. One shape per object." I had great difficulty hunting down and changing each reference, so instead, I copied the resource instance number for each DST for the primary swatch, deleted it, and duplicated the swatch I wanted to use, then made the instance number the same as the old deleted one. (I hope this makes sense.)
Basically, instead of telling 100 different things "hey, look over there!" I photobombed the spot they were already looking at :p
Anyway, this method should fix the doors, even if it means making separate packages for each one.
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jdkit
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Post by jdkit on Jan 26, 2020 23:33:15 GMT -5
If anyone else would like to do a tutorial for this, go nuts. I don't even really care about credit. I just don't have the time/energy to do the thing myself.
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jdkit
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Post by jdkit on Jan 27, 2020 0:56:11 GMT -5
So i created a default replacement, removed the sunshadow meshes, and guess what? They work correctly. For clarity, the sunshadow meshes are the two that show up as grey instead of checkerboard? Just want to make sure I understand the fix. |
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Post by peacemaker on Jan 27, 2020 8:46:04 GMT -5
yes, they are used as a reference when casting a shadow from the natural light source ingame. The textured mesh is shown as checkered in the warehouse tab, the sunshadows as grey.
i think doors are going to work differently because they are a different shader then what windows use so the shadows may work differently. I would need to investigate more.
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jdkit
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Post by jdkit on Jan 28, 2020 1:06:44 GMT -5
Does this only work for default replacement? I created standalones, and deleting the sunshadow meshes doesn't seem to have solved the issue.
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Post by peacemaker on Jan 28, 2020 8:57:17 GMT -5
You need to delete the 3 resources as well as remove them from the list in the model resource (which lists all model lod resources). That is what I did for my default replacement. I honestly wouldn't remove the sunshadows will-nilly though, as I said i am not sure if they will have a lasting impact on performance etc doing it.
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