Sounds like a new tool to me, so it should probably have it's own thread. Discussion moved from MooTools LotAdjuster thread:
http://www.modthesims.info/showthre...421#post2902421

I believe that the "inside / outside" flag is available (stored in one of the 3D arrays) and can be changed. However, there is a good possibility that this information is recalculated with each build change, or (even worse) every time that the lot is saved. It should be fairly easy to test: after creating a lot with appropriate spaces, set the entire 3D array (check wiki for 3ARY instance) to "outside". Then test:

1) Does this actually mark the entire lot as outside for weather, lighting, etc.
2) Do these values reset when the lot is saved during normal game play?
3) Do these values reset after a non-wall build change, such as changing the wallpaper or flooring, or adding a plant outside?

Once we've determined whether the values work and persist, then we can think about how to decide whether something is "inside" or "outside". Specifically:

1) No roof or flooring on any floor above this one.
2) Enclosing walls (normal, foundation, attic, etc) vs outdoor walls (such as fences).

[Update:]

Well, I may have spoken too soon. I thought that there was just one record which determined the indoor / outdoor status of each tile. However, there's nothing in the wiki and a quick search of the LotAdjuster code doesn't find anything. The only instance which is obviously related is 0x0B (lighting).

So, we'd need more research into the 3ARY instances, especially 0x14, 0x1B, 0x20, and 0x5D00 - 0x5D02.

Thank you. Sorry about the PM; I only sent it because the post had sat unanswered for several days and I knew you had been online because I saw messages you`d posted, *AND* I figured it was something you`d be interested in.

No need to apologize. I try to check this forum every day, but there's no harm in sending me a PM if you want me to look at something.

I've always wanted to be able to have real courtyards, so this is an interesting idea. Especially since I find TS3 incredibly uninteresting.

Sorry about the cross-post; I was updating the first post with some quick research while you were posting.

If you ever write any data-collection-and-analisys tools, I`d be willing to let them examine my neighborhood(s).

As for courtyards, what happens if you create a building that **almost** entirely surrounds an open area, with a doorless-hallway-type connection between the inner space and the outer space, then bridge the hallway with an upstairs room? Is the "courtyard" indoors or out? I`ve been meaning to find out for a while, but have never gotten around to it. One could build a similar second story with the gap elsewhere; I presume that the second floor would have similar results as the first, but it bears checking. Another interesting question is "what happens to the courtyard if you build over it?". I`m pretty sure that Seasons would consider it "indoors for weather", and it would be "indoors for lighting" too. Ever notice what happens when you contrive to have a transparent floor hanging unsupported? The space below it seems to be "indoors for weather", and is certainly "indoors for lighting". Reasonable. Walls with no floor above them manage to make an area "indoors for lighting" but "outdoors for weather". Odd. Apparently there are at least TWO indoor/outdoor flags somewhere. Comments?

P.S.: I used to build around-the-edges "houses" a LOT in Sims 1.

I wouldn't be surprised if different EPs handle these situations differently. I hate Seasons, so I really haven't done a lot of testing with weather. In fact, lately I've been trying to find ways to remove weather completely while keeping some of the other things shipped with that EP.

3ARY instance 0xB has the lighting information; there's probably a different 3ARY instance for weather-resistance. Are lighting and weather the only things that we need to concern ourselves with, or are there other things that we need to research?

Another thing to test: I remember having some problems with grid-adjusted houses being exposed to weather because they weren't enclosed by standard-height walls. I wonder whether this could be used to make a fully-enclosed courtyard?

What's an "around-the-edge" house?

I`m not aware of anything else that would need to be adjusted, but neither can I state definitively that there aren`t any.

An "around-the-edge" house is one that lines the edges of the lot, with an open courtyard in the middle, usually with an open passageway between the courtyard and the exterior space, as I was discussing in the middle paragraph. Sims 1 would consider an almost-enclosed space outdoors for lighting [it didn`t HAVE weather!] even when the corridor was covered. I haven`t tried it yet in Sims 2.

I wouldn`t want the weather abolished in MY game, but I can help you abolish it in yours: Clone the weather control aspiration reward, and learn how IT forces any given season and any given weather, then you can have whatever season and weather you want, including Sims 1 style [and Sims 2 without Seasons style] Always Perfect. Meanwhile, you can already control the season cycle at the neighborhood level, and you can use the weather control device to control the weather [and the seasons] at the lot level. Use it once for setting the season, if you haven`t already at the neighborhood level, use it a second time to prolong the current season "forever", use it a third time to set the weather to sunny, hide the object inside something else [a recessed area under a foundation, perhaps], and forget about it.

You're one of those who can understand and notice what I wanted to say a long while ago.

This is what I'd been trying to describe in this test lot thread.
http://www.modthesims.info/d/282280

I've been trying to say there're at least two compnents for the weather and seasons.
One is the supposedly bhav-based weather check for the sims to "feel".
And an another is the graphical components for the seasonal presentations (rain, snow, hail, leaves, etc). The second is mostly defined in shaders while some arbitary defs are still "else where" (presumably the exe but unnecessarily...) I suspect those in the UI codes. All those graphical components seem to be bound together in the UI codes.
Let's think of the Castaway build tools. The highly reflective water surface and the leavy or marshy overlays are all bound together there, I believe.

Nevertheless, the seasonal change flags used in the shaders seemed different from the bhav ones I had asked for the bhav codes for seasons and EPs from this forum, and I failed to incorporate them into the shader codes to add in further graphical features and options accordingly.

But look, most of the audience at that time were either uninterested or not understanding in this deeper topic




Sorry for my absence again.

RL has been calling.

This thread is very pertinent to the discussion of courtyards:
http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=402863

In it, there's a prototype for a fully-enclosed (apparently) ground-level sunny courtyard.

Thank you!