Hi there! You are currently browsing as a guest. Why not create an account? Then you get less ads, can thank creators, post feedback, keep a list of your favourites, and more!
Instructor
Original Poster
#1 Old 22nd Jan 2021 at 10:53 PM Last edited by t888 : 23rd Jan 2021 at 1:01 AM.
Default Shadow Issues on Mesh
Can somebody help me figure this out? I have a CC bed. 1 side of the mattress looks darker than the other. I mean as in 1 side is white and the other medium dark grey. And the further away from the light the worse the dark side gets, you get one side shadowed and the other black or if the darker sides toward the light you get a shadowed side and nearly normal side. However, DIRECTLY under the light it looks normal ECEPT for a thin dark line in the middle. Any ideas whats causing this or how to fix it? First I've ever seen it.

My ideas are only vague as this isn't my specialty, so someone please tell me if any of these seem right.

Sun shadows
Glowing control in the normal editor
Occlusion shadows
Specular Map
Advertisement
Field Researcher
#2 Old 23rd Jan 2021 at 9:48 AM
Any chance you could upload some screenshots of the issue? From your description my guess is that it's an issue with the normals of your mesh.
Instructor
Original Poster
#3 Old 23rd Jan 2021 at 7:37 PM
Quote: Originally posted by SmugTomato
Any chance you could upload some screenshots of the issue? From your description my guess is that it's an issue with the normals of your mesh.


Sure, Here's one: https://sta.sh/05y0zhikx8u

Does it still look like a normals issue?
Field Researcher
#4 Old 23rd Jan 2021 at 10:00 PM
From the image it looks like the base texture is causing it
Instructor
Original Poster
#5 Old 24th Jan 2021 at 1:11 AM
Quote: Originally posted by SmugTomato
From the image it looks like the base texture is causing it


Sorry, I thought I linked the other screenshots showing where its right under the light (where it looks normal) and when its the other side lit up. I'll upload that and one showing how it looks normal in TSRW.
Field Researcher
#6 Old 24th Jan 2021 at 9:51 AM
That does look like messed up normals, are you sure they are all facing the right direction? In Blender it should be a fairly easy to set all faces facing outward, but I don't know how you would do that in other software.
Instructor
Original Poster
#7 Old 24th Jan 2021 at 11:16 PM
Quote: Originally posted by SmugTomato
That does look like messed up normals, are you sure they are all facing the right direction? In Blender it should be a fairly easy to set all faces facing outward, but I don't know how you would do that in other software.

I do have Blender on my PC and I know a little about it, but normals stuff isn't one of them. You said it's fairly easy (I hope so, lol) so obviously you know more about it. Can you help me learn by telling me, please?
Field Researcher
#8 Old 25th Jan 2021 at 11:03 AM
Google is your friend.
Don't take this the wrong way, but knowing how normals work is pretty much a requirement when working with 3D models, it's one of the fundamentals.
I'd recommend you to take some time to learn a little about what normals are in 3D, how they work and how you can recalculate them in Blender.
Instructor
Original Poster
#9 Old 25th Jan 2021 at 2:53 PM
Quote: Originally posted by SmugTomato
Google is your friend.
Don't take this the wrong way, but knowing how normals work is pretty much a requirement when working with 3D models, it's one of the fundamentals.
I'd recommend you to take some time to learn a little about what normals are in 3D, how they work and how you can recalculate them in Blender.


I do know how they work, what they are, etc. Just never had a need to set them as facing forward as usually when working with them its for a different, unrelated program. Speaking of which is it true sims 3 doesn't support backface culling? If so, wouldn't it just be transparent instead of this bug?
Field Researcher
#10 Old 25th Jan 2021 at 7:35 PM
triangle facing is actually decided by the winding order, normals are calculated based on this order, but don't have to face the way the face does. This makes it possible for weird things like outward facing triangles and inward facing normals(or the other way around) to exist at the same time, though I'm pretty sure Blender doesn't actually allow you to do that without using weird modifiers.

For example, let's say you have the following three vertices;
v1: (-0.5, 0, 0)
v2: (0, 1, 0)
v3: (0.5, 1, 0)

A triangle built in the order of [v2, v3, v1] would face the opposite direction of a triangle built in the order of [v2, v1, v3], normals would then be appropriately calculated, but there's no reason you couldn't manually(or through program error) assign the normal of the first triangle to the second triangle, thus getting an inward/outward facing triangle with the normal pointing backwards, a simple recalculation of normals to face outward will most likely solve it.
Instructor
Original Poster
#11 Old 25th Jan 2021 at 10:12 PM
Quote: Originally posted by SmugTomato
triangle facing is actually decided by the winding order, normals are calculated based on this order, but don't have to face the way the face does. This makes it possible for weird things like outward facing triangles and inward facing normals(or the other way around) to exist at the same time, though I'm pretty sure Blender doesn't actually allow you to do that without using weird modifiers.

For example, let's say you have the following three vertices;
v1: (-0.5, 0, 0)
v2: (0, 1, 0)
v3: (0.5, 1, 0)

A triangle built in the order of [v2, v3, v1] would face the opposite direction of a triangle built in the order of [v2, v1, v3], normals would then be appropriately calculated, but there's no reason you couldn't manually(or through program error) assign the normal of the first triangle to the second triangle, thus getting an inward/outward facing triangle with the normal pointing backwards, a simple recalculation of normals to face outward will most likely solve it.


A friend and I are exploring the issue currently. IF it is the normals I'll try what you've suggested.
Senior Moderator
staff: senior moderator
#12 Old 26th Jan 2021 at 12:21 PM
I wonder if it is the textures, either multiplier or specular? Just because of the way it looks okay in certain lighting. I'm no expert with this stuff so I don't know, but maybe you could try removing each texture with this mod and see if it makes the weird lighting changes  go away. At least then you should hopefully know for sure if it is the textures that are causing it, or if you need to mess with the mesh.
Virtual gardener
staff: administrator
#13 Old 26th Jan 2021 at 1:36 PM
So I took a peek and edited the normals and fixed the specular map as well as the LITE resource... but somehow nothing seemingly fixed it.

I noticed whenever I try using TSRW and export/import the mesh, it complains that the normals data will be lost and therefore won't look good in-game... Usually, this popup only shows up when you cloned an object that has normal map support.

What I did was I cloned a different single bed (no worries, it's not one of the cheap beds ) Merged the groups together in Milkshape 3D so it only has 2 groups and voila! I also made sure this cloned bed didn't come with normal maps in it's shader settings.

Here are some pics in my game and the cloned bed next to it. 
Screenshots
Attached files:
File Type: zip  Adamantine Dream Berth of Solitude.zip (1.34 MB, 1 downloads)
Description: Fixed version of the bed
Instructor
Original Poster
#14 Old 26th Jan 2021 at 3:51 PM
Quote: Originally posted by zoe22
I wonder if it is the textures, either multiplier or specular? Just because of the way it looks okay in certain lighting. I'm no expert with this stuff so I don't know, but maybe you could try removing each texture with this mod and see if it makes the weird lighting changes  go away. At least then you should hopefully know for sure if it is the textures that are causing it, or if you need to mess with the mesh.

Yeah, thats what I thought it was as well. Or lighting/shadows.

Quote: Originally posted by Lyralei
So I took a peek and edited the normals and fixed the specular map as well as the LITE resource... but somehow nothing seemingly fixed it.

I noticed whenever I try using TSRW and export/import the mesh, it complains that the normals data will be lost and therefore won't look good in-game... Usually, this popup only shows up when you cloned an object that has normal map support.

What I did was I cloned a different single bed (no worries, it's not one of the cheap beds ) Merged the groups together in Milkshape 3D so it only has 2 groups and voila! I also made sure this cloned bed didn't come with normal maps in it's shader settings.

Here are some pics in my game and the cloned bed next to it. 

Now thats what its supposed to look like. Its weird it wasn't exactly anything we figured. I mean, kinda but not exactly. Excellent sleuthing my friend!
Back to top