Ok, so I have the Cinema Secrets mod in right now and I do love the dawn/dusk feature and how the Sims look, especially during the day, but I've been really frustrated with what indoor lights look like at night. Like @Softlism mentioned upthread, the two of us were PMing a bit about how we both are bothered by these really bright indoor lights that seem to wash out & oversaturate many objects in the room and we can't figure out if this is the normal, intended effect of this mod or if something is up with our settings...
I attached some images to show exactly what I'm talking about.
Picture 1: This is the Smith living room in Strangetown, basic unedited Maxis house (I mean, I think I maybe moved their chess table, but the light fixtures are the same). I really like how the Sims and the environment look so natural and soft during the day.
Picture 2: ...but, when I switch the hour to nighttime (same moment, didn't unpause, just used the sethour cheat) some of the objects will start to get way too bright. You can see it a little bit on the dining table & plates in this shot. They are very washed out from being underneath a lamp. There is only the ONE main ceiling light in this room.
This "really glaring bright surface" issue seems to crop up with a lot of the Maxis objects especially most countertops, a lot of tables, and even some of the tile floors. Almost anything that's white or just on the lighter side. I've noticed it makes bathrooms a bit of a pain because those tend to be full of flat white surfaces.
Here's two more pictures (3 & 4) showing how glaringly bright it looks on two countertops, a dresser, and the seasons toybox. (Sorry that these pictures are messy and I just shoved everything in one room with moveobjects lol but you get the idea. Again, I just plopped down one random basegame ceiling light.)
Umm, I forgot to take a good shot showing this aspect of it but one of the reasons this is so jarring is that the Sims themselves don't look nearly so bright like this, so they look kind of weird when they're inside at night and stand near or interact with any of these objects.
But... is it supposed to be like this? Or is something wrong with my settings??? When I look at
the CinemaSecrets mod preview images that compare it to the other options, it doesn't look so bright indoors at night, but maybe it's just because of how they decorate that particular room. And most of the posts higher up in this thread seem to have an opposite problem -- they think lighting mods make their game too *dark*.
To the people here who use Cinema Secrets or any of the other similar lighting mods: Does it look like this for you too? If so have you found ways to ameliorate the issue, or does it just not bother you? I'm really annoyed by it but I found that when I tried switching back to Maxis lighting, now I not only miss the dawn/dusk but also dislike how the Sims look half the time