Nightlighting on structures act. too early and are taking too long to deactivate

[fefenc]

Hello fellow SC4D members, I'm facing a little, but annoying problem with some custom buildings from Mattb325.

I don't know why, but the nightlighting of those structures are activating too early and taking too long to deactivate. Is there something I can do to fix this bug?







Althrough I could avoid facing this bug by manually changing the day/night time, I enjoy the natural transition of day and night in the game.

I only have problems with these buildings in the screenshots (all of them are the maxisnite versions), but my real concern is the growable one from the first picture. If there is nothing I can do to fix this issue, what should I do to remove the growable building without corrupting my cities?

[mgb204]

I believe the issue here is down to the differences between rendering models in SC4 BAT and 3DS Max. Normally the nightlights are an overlay that appears over the original model textures. However, BAT 4 Max (used to render in 3DS Max) does things differently. It renders completely separate models in day and night, which is why the model itself appears darkened, as it more realistically represents how a model would look without sunlight. When transitioning from day to night and vice versa, SC4 does not switch all the lights on at once. It transitions buildings to night, but the time this happens can be modified I believe. Your issue arises because lights start to be turned on before it gets fully dark. In the intervening time, such models will look odd if the lights for them are activated. This isn't really a bug, just a drawback to better quality night renders.

Two possible work-arounds I can think of off the top of my head:

- Find a day/nite mod and modify the times darkness appears.
- Mod the buildings to be props and change them to RKT4 timed props, that way you can pick the time to switch the night model on.

Personally I'd just live with it. You can remove the models, although for growables just be sure all the lots are removed in-game before removing the files. That said, by and large the models this affects are of a higher quality, since 3DS max renders are vastly superior to SC4 BAT.

[mattb325]

Mgb204 is right - it has to do with the way the night rendering runs in 3DS Bat4Max vs. the old GMax.

In your screen shots, you can easily tell all of my models that were made using 3DS max vs GMax. And you can see the mask on that pink W2W building - it has a spotlight on the front and in the dusk cycle it changes the building from a pink colour (that you can see near the parapet) to a greeny-brown tint (on all of the columns). In true night mode, that greeny-brown tint is a spotlight.

It only affects the dawn/dusk cycles, but it affects ALL custom models that are made using Simfoxes' Bat4Max script (not just mine).

It's a shame, because I used to like the day/night cycle as well, but given that all new 3DS-made content - ie 90% of the BATs you'll be downloading now - in Sim City really only has an 'on' or 'off' setting, there is nothing much that the user can do unless you want to mod the buildings as props, like mgb204 advised.

[fefenc]

Understood, then I'll see what I can do with them because these buildings (mainly the hospital) are quite balanced and nice looking for a medium/big city like the ones I enjoy to do.

By the way, is there a specific tool to mod these buildings into props? I just downloaded Lot Editor and I'm downloading SC4 BAT right now. Thanks for the help guys

[mgb204]

You could use the SC4-PIM tool, but I would highly recommend getting hold of PIM-X from the LEX. This is designed as a replacement for both the Lot Editor and PIM (Plugin Manager) from Maxis. It's much simpler to use and has many features simply not available with the Maxis tools.

The BAT is only useful if you intend to create your own 3D models, you can't open model files with it.

It's actually possible to do this using the Reader also, but that requires substantial knowledge of how SC4 files work.

If you are going to replace a building on a lot with a prop of the building, you'll also need to modify the building exemplars of the lots to be a blank model. In addition you will need to re-lot the lots that contain the buildings to include the new props.