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Post by Fwecka (Lolabellesims) on Apr 23, 2021 11:36:29 GMT -5
Can anyone tell me what an alpha map is and the shadow resources in the medium LOD, are they floor shadows for indoors, sun shadows for outdoors, or something different? My invisible rink is giving me fits again. The file I have--it was working a few days ago--is showing the stupid snow map and I can't get rid of it...the snow overlay, I mean. I cannot figure out what's going on. I stupidly reinstalled the nvidia Photoshop plugins when I didn't really need to (it's a long story) and I updated Sims4Studio. Photoshop seems to be eating my alpha channel. So, it may be something do with that, or maybe the newest version of S4S is wrecking things. Side question. Anyone have any ideas as to why I can't get rid of this snow and frost overlay? I tried deleting the snow map alpha. Nope. I tried giving the snow map a black alpha. Nope. I tried deleting the snow map altogether. Nope. I even tried making the snow map texture teeny tiny. Nope. Maybe it's something other than the snow map, something like the alpha map, for instance, but I have no idea what the alpha map is. Google isn't revealing much either. Wait. Sorry. I have one more request. Can anyone take a look at my textures and see if the alpha channel is present? I don't know if Photoshop is not preserving the alpha when I save, or if it's just hiding the alpha. Edit: Photoshop will show the alpha if it is not 100% black. Which makes me think I should put a single white pixel in the corner or something. I'm reaching. I know. Here's the file for what it's worth: Download Me  |
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Post by Cidira on Apr 23, 2021 13:20:11 GMT -5
In the context I'm reasonably sure you're encountering it in, 'alpha map' is just another name for the diffuse map when alpha transparency (i.e. the thing that lets you make the texture invisible) is turned on.
My luck with turning off snow has been pretty spotty, so I don't really have anything for you there.
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Post by menaceman44 on Apr 23, 2021 15:23:13 GMT -5
I know how to fix your snow issue!
The snow on an object is controlled by more than just the snowmap texture. Not every object in the game even has a snowmap texture but can still gather snow.
Go to your Model LOD and click Meshes.
For each of the three entries do the following steps.
Scroll down to the Material section and click Edit Items...
For each entry in here click Edit Items... again.
In here you should see a setting called SnowDisallowed.
Set the value to 1. That will tell the game snow is not allowed to collect on your item.
Save each open window after making the changes and then go and repeat all of these steps for the Model entry.
Save your package and test it out in game.
(Not directly relevant to this issue but useful information to know. If you leave SnowDisallowed set to 0, you can alter how high up the object the ground frost effect shows by altering the SnowHeightParams setting. I'm not actually sure what those numbers represent though so it's a lot of trial and error.)
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Post by Fwecka (Lolabellesims) on Apr 23, 2021 22:34:47 GMT -5
In the context I'm reasonably sure you're encountering it in, 'alpha map' is just another name for the diffuse map when alpha transparency (i.e. the thing that lets you make the texture invisible) is turned on. My luck with turning off snow has been pretty spotty, so I don't really have anything for you there. Thank you, Cidera. Could you tell me what the shadow resources in the medium LOD are? Indoor shadows? Or outdoor? In case you're wondering, here's a side-by-side image of the diffuse and the alpha map. The diffuse is on the left.  |
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Post by Fwecka (Lolabellesims) on Apr 23, 2021 22:37:46 GMT -5
I know how to fix your snow issue! The snow on an object is controlled by more than just the snowmap texture. Not every object in the game even has a snowmap texture but can still gather snow. Go to your Model LOD and click Meshes. For each of the three entries do the following steps. Scroll down to the Material section and click Edit Items... For each entry in here click Edit Items... again. In here you should see a setting called SnowDisallowed. Set the value to 1. That will tell the game snow is not allowed to collect on your item. Save each open window after making the changes and then go and repeat all of these steps for the Model entry. Save your package and test it out in game. (Not directly relevant to this issue but useful information to know. If you leave SnowDisallowed set to 0, you can alter how high up the object the ground frost effect shows by altering the SnowHeightParams setting. I'm not actually sure what those numbers represent though so it's a lot of trial and error.) That did the trick. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU! I didn't even have to edit SnowDisallowed in each varient. Just my invisible varient. I'm in the mids of writing a tutorial on how to do this and I will be sure to give you two credit for all the help. I really could not have done this without you.  |
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Post by Cidira on Apr 24, 2021 9:12:55 GMT -5
In the context I'm reasonably sure you're encountering it in, 'alpha map' is just another name for the diffuse map when alpha transparency (i.e. the thing that lets you make the texture invisible) is turned on. My luck with turning off snow has been pretty spotty, so I don't really have anything for you there. Thank you, Cidera. Could you tell me what the shadow resources in the medium LOD are? Indoor shadows? Or outdoor? In case you're wondering, here's a side-by-side image of the diffuse and the alpha map. The diffuse is on the left. Those just look like textures from two different swatches of the original EA object to me; the diffuse map and alpha map would normally be identical (in fact, they'd be the same instance). |
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Post by Fwecka (Lolabellesims) on Apr 27, 2021 2:14:16 GMT -5
In case you're wondering, here's a side-by-side image of the diffuse and the alpha map. The diffuse is on the left. Those just look like textures from two different swatches of the original EA object to me; the diffuse map and alpha map would normally be identical (in fact, they'd be the same instance). No, they don't have the same instance number. I'm going to have to do some digging on this. I want to know what the alpha does. |
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Post by menaceman44 on Apr 27, 2021 11:44:06 GMT -5
The alphamap texture is purely used by the game to know where transparent parts of the object should be. It will usually be the same texture as the first swatch of an object. If you haven't got the first swatch in your package or you have created your own swatch textures then they won't be the same as each other.
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Post by Cidira on Apr 28, 2021 9:54:58 GMT -5
Those just look like textures from two different swatches of the original EA object to me; the diffuse map and alpha map would normally be identical (in fact, they'd be the same instance). No, they don't have the same instance number. I'm going to have to do some digging on this. I want to know what the alpha does. The reason they don't have the same instance number is because they're different textures, which I'm pretty confident based on their content are, at least originally, from different swatches. Normally, when you add alpha transparency to an object, the DiffuseMap and AlphaMap for each swatch are the same texture, with the same instance number. This is the case for every object I have ever added alpha transparency to, both the ones I've made fully invisible and the ones I've added transparency to so that I could fake a mesh edit by making parts of the object invisible. It's probably possible for someone to deliberately or accidentally give a single swatch different instance numbers for the DiffuseMap and AlphaMap, and I'm not entirely sure what would happen in that case -- possibly the object would look different if viewed with graphics settings that didn't support alpha transparency because it would be using the DiffuseMap? -- but it's not the default behavior. |
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Post by Fwecka (Lolabellesims) on May 4, 2021 22:49:25 GMT -5
No, they don't have the same instance number. I'm going to have to do some digging on this. I want to know what the alpha does. The reason they don't have the same instance number is because they're different textures, which I'm pretty confident based on their content are, at least originally, from different swatches. Normally, when you add alpha transparency to an object, the DiffuseMap and AlphaMap for each swatch are the same texture, with the same instance number. This is the case for every object I have ever added alpha transparency to, both the ones I've made fully invisible and the ones I've added transparency to so that I could fake a mesh edit by making parts of the object invisible. It's probably possible for someone to deliberately or accidentally give a single swatch different instance numbers for the DiffuseMap and AlphaMap, and I'm not entirely sure what would happen in that case -- possibly the object would look different if viewed with graphics settings that didn't support alpha transparency because it would be using the DiffuseMap? -- but it's not the default behavior. Sorry for the late reply. My daughter is getting married this month (yes, I'm that old) and real life has been hectic lately. I'm not sure I fully understand. Sorry. I'm trying to learn but sometimes I have trouble wrapping my head around new concepts. What do you mean when you say you've added alpha transparency to something? Are you talking about editing the alpha channel of the diffuse texture? Or are you talking about making changes in the shader data section? The rink has one swatch normally but there are three mesh groups, one of which is the windows. The window mesh has the PhongAlpha shader, and I noticed the following in the shader data area. What I'm confused about, however, is why it's necessary to have an entirely different texture for the windows. I have no experience with this. Every time I've made something transparent I just added and/or edited the alpha channel of the diffuse.  |
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Post by Fwecka (Lolabellesims) on May 4, 2021 22:54:47 GMT -5
The alphamap texture is purely used by the game to know where transparent parts of the object should be. It will usually be the same texture as the first swatch of an object. If you haven't got the first swatch in your package or you have created your own swatch textures then they won't be the same as each other. I kept the same swatch, just added a second one that is the invisible swatch. There are three mesh groups in the rink and one of those mesh groups is the windows. The diffuse has an alpha channel with grey in the section that corresponds to the windows. But then, there's also the alpha map which, after some digging into the files (see my response to Cidira to see what I mean), it appears the alpha map is for the windows. I don't see the purpose for the the alpha map texture given that the diffuse has an alpha channel with grey where the window UVs would be. This is baffling to me. |
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Post by menaceman44 on May 5, 2021 17:27:45 GMT -5
It would appear in this case, that the ice rink is using the same alphamap texture as the regular rollerskate rink. It is in fact identical to the third swatch of the rollerskate rink.
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