VVQB' Current Lighting and Shader Configuration
This isn't like an official download post as not all of it is mine (but there will be downloads :D) but more like a list of light map and shader mods I personally use for my game to make it look just how I wanted it and I no longer use my old Shader Fixes due to the amount of new shader mods that has come in.
This will be long so under the cut it goes.
1. Lighting Mod: Cozy Home Lighting Mod + Night Light Map Fixes
Goes without saying, I use my own lighting mod. Most of the other shaders won't look right without some kind of lighting mod.
I use Cozy Home, which is the newest mod I did. It's better to read it from the README because this is too long to put here.
The lighting mod also contains fixes to the Light Maps for both lot and neighborhood so they're less blue. Otherwise night lighting will not look right.
README | DOWNLOAD
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2. Neighborhood Shaders and Light Maps: @spockthewok's Reflective Water + @simnopke's Accurate Neighborhood Terrain Lighting + @criquette-was-here's Neighborhood Road Transparency Fix
What Will has been putting up, from the purple soup research to the object limit findings, and now the reflective water shader has been incredible. He's managed to do it much more beautifully than I have (as I can't really do much more than color scalar changes and combining mods together on the shader end of things). I prefer this over Voeille's water mod because the ocean does not go black with reflections off.
Make sure to get the version labeled dreadpirate as that one has @criquette-was-here's Better Nightlife mod integrated already.
The next part of this roundup is the Accurate Neighborhood Terrain Lighting, which fixes the shadow weirdness in the impostor (if you use the version with Criquette's Neighborhood Lighting Remedy integrated, which I recommend if you use any of my lighting mods). I personally use the strong-lightingRemedy version.
Finally, there's the Neighborhood Road Transparency Fix, which fixes the transparent areas on the sides of neighbourhood road, so the objects and decals below becomes visible and âcut-offâ effect disappears.
DOWNLOAD HERE: Reflective Water | Accurate Neighborhood Terrain Lighting | Neighborhood Road Transparency Fix (6.2.1 on the list)
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3. Lot Skirt Shader: @christaskyy's Improved Lot Skirt Shader
This new shader improves on the lot skirt rendering to be closer to the neighborhood view along the surrounding area after the lot boundary. This also means, with the right lighting mod configuration (ahem!), the roads match better. Not perfect, but better than before.
The lot skirt mod was made using my original shader fixes so this already contains @simnopke's Sky Fix and @criquette-was-here's Winter Road Fix.
The original link leads to Boosty, which causes issues for a lot of people so I am instead linking to their alternate link to the download. Make sure this shader loads after the Extended StandardMaterial Shader that will be linked later on.
DOWNLOAD HERE
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4. Terrain Tile/Pond/Pool Shader: Aquamarine Pond Water + No Blue Snow
Now, this one is my work. I based this shader on Moi's Water Mod, but adjusted the colors (especially with reflection off) to be similar to Targa's old water mod. I wanted the colour to be something that isn't solid black without a swimming pool.
This contains both the terrain tile shaders and the pool shaders, which I took inspiration from the old Gunmod shader for but updated for Seasons. The shader also contains the night snow fixes as well, so the snow will not be blue at night.
Note that this is incompatible with water mods like Voeille's water mods or mods like @lazyduchess's Lot Lighting Fixes. I can't get Lot Lighting Fixes to personally work right and the snow issues personally don't bother me as I don't really play a lot of winter seasons.
DOWNLOAD HERE
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5. Roof Shader: Slightly Brighter Roofs + No Blue Snow
I find many roof shaders too bright so what I did for this was just remove the bluish cast on the material shader part and made it just a touch brighter than Maxis, so you can still use roofs that aren't made with brighter roof mods in mind.
This again has the no blue snow fix integrated.
DOWNLOAD HERE
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6. Standard Shader: @crispsandkerosene's Extended StandardMaterial Shader
(Photo is stolen from Crisps)
C&K has already written up a list of what this shader does. I personally use the version with @lazyduchess's Bright CAS Fix. For the lot shader portion, make sure Christa's lot skirt shader loads after this, or delete the lot skirt shader portion in Crisps' file using SimPE.
DOWNLOAD HERE
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7. Sim Standard Shader: My Edit of @crispsandkerosene's Extended SimStandardMaterial Shader
Just an edit I did of @crispsandkeroseneâs SimStandardMaterial shader because I liked a setting somewhere in between the vanilla maxis setting for the scale lighting and the one in the Brighter SIms version.
You can read C&K's post for more information about the shader.
DOWNLOAD HERE
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8. Shadow Shaders: @simnopke's Sim Shadow Fix + @lazyduchess's Soft Outdoor Shadows 2.0
Nopke's mod allows the shadows to even show up as shadows, while LD's soften them so that the outlines are not too harsh. I use dark for Nopke's mode, and No Overlap 100 on LD's.
DOWNLOAD: Sim Shadow Fix | Soft Outdoor Shadows 2.0
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AAAAAAAND, that's it. That's all the shaders I personally use to make the game look prettier at least at the environmental level.
With all the shader talk lately, this is exactly what Iâve been waiting for - a shopping list with pictures! Even better, with explanations
Thank you very much đ
