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!
Destroyer of Worlds
retired moderator
Original Poster
#1 Old 29th Sep 2015 at 12:54 AM Last edited by heaven : 30th Sep 2015 at 9:07 PM.
Default Snow Problems - Solved
I've been doing fairly well with my world, despite taking ages to work on it. I've been exporting and testing things to ensure that things are looking/functioning fine in game. I decided to take a look at winter, with deep snow and I've noticed quite a few issues. Not specifically the gray snow issue as that arrived with Seasons on low lying lots. I'm familiar with that and know what I need to do to fix it. Along with that expected problem, there are a couple more things I've not been able to solve and have no idea where to start.

  • Black stains - only partially on lots, only in some parts of the world. There's no consistency or common element that I know of that's causing this.
  • Lines. I've got quite a few very straight lines that show clear discoloration between sides. These seem to be where the chunk boundary lines are.
  • Height: the terrain raises up to show the deep snow (even with gray glitch problem) but the snow doesn't raise the height of the objects around it so I get a weirdness on a board walk type lot.
  • Inconsistency with patches of flat land. Again, I understand the gray glitch issue but appears to be something different.

Can anyone offer some suggestions or fixes?
Screenshots

Heaven Sims | Avendale Legacy
"On the internet, you can be anything you want. It's strange that so many people choose to be stupid."
Advertisement
Scholar
#2 Old 30th Sep 2015 at 12:25 AM
I used to think that the discolouration on lots when it snowed (black patches) had something to do with the transparency of terrain paints either on the lot, underneath it or a combination of the two. I never really looked into it though.

Someone on another forum thought it was down to using seven or more textures:
Quote:
I’ve removed all the terrain-paint (over and over again) and did it again (with different textures and so on…); I’ve used downloaded ones, textures created by my self and original EA-textures – but not matter in which combination I’ve tried… the failure persisted. I’ve figured out, that the problem occurs if I’m using more than 7 textures (regardless if I’m using the same texture again and again and again – or different ones). It doesn’t matter if I’m using just two or 12 textures per chunk; the issue occurs again and again and again… That’s really a problem, because I’m using a lot more textures generally (and this was never a problem at all!).


The last thing I'd try is your graphics settings; I know that waterfalls, for instance, aren't drawn if some graphics settings are off or on low, so black snow might be caused by something similar.

Heaven's Peak, my CAW WIP
Destroyer of Worlds
retired moderator
Original Poster
#3 Old 30th Sep 2015 at 1:00 AM
Hmm, that's...odd. Mostly because in those specific sections of the world, the lots are all painted the same. I'd expect if that were the issue, it would crop up on all the lots affected, no just some. As for my graphic settings, they're all set the highest they can go and my card is a Radeon HD 7850.

Heaven Sims | Avendale Legacy
"On the internet, you can be anything you want. It's strange that so many people choose to be stupid."
Scholar
#4 Old 30th Sep 2015 at 7:33 AM
Does it stay black if you delete the lots and create new ones in their place?

Heaven's Peak, my CAW WIP
Destroyer of Worlds
retired moderator
Original Poster
#5 Old 30th Sep 2015 at 4:11 PM Last edited by heaven : 30th Sep 2015 at 5:26 PM.
I haven't tried that yet. I've basically decided I'm going to delete all the lots and replace them once the terrain sculpting is 100% done. I can try it with these few lots and report back though.

EDIT TO ADD: Completely replacing the lot (not deleting and undoing but deleting it and redrawing it) did not fix the issue. I've also discovered that it shows in frost/other snow conditions, not just deep snow. There is a chunk boundary that runs right through the middle of that lot. There is however, not a chunk boundary running through the other two with the black stain problem.
Screenshots

Heaven Sims | Avendale Legacy
"On the internet, you can be anything you want. It's strange that so many people choose to be stupid."
Instructor
#6 Old 30th Sep 2015 at 7:07 PM
Hey, got your message.
I don't know much about the issue either, unfortunately, but I had the same problem with the black marks a while back when I was trying to CAW - here's a thread I posted about it (don't have to read through the rambles, go to posts #16 & #20) - we chalked it up to my system not being adequate but I'm using a better computer now and I still see these issues with EA and custom worlds, however not as severe as yours seem to be
I thought I figured out it was something to do with the particular angle the lot was placed on, and whether the terrain was uneven or flat, but now I'm not so sure that's correct. You could check out that theory with your world I guess - take a look at it in CAW and see if there's any correlation between the angle of the lots that have the black marks/anomalies and the ones without and also take note of whether they're on uneven terrain or flat.

I think it was something like - if the lot is placed on a 0 or 90 degree angle it didn't matter if the terrain was uneven - the snow would look normal, but if it was on any other angle and on uneven terrain it would cause all sorts of snow issues.

I didn't notice this issue in gameplay before I attempted to make my own world, then suddenly started noticing it in all the sim worlds and now can't unsee it. There are so many issues with snow in this game, it's such a shame.
Destroyer of Worlds
retired moderator
Original Poster
#7 Old 30th Sep 2015 at 8:16 PM
I tried a couple different things, none of which seemed to work, to get rid of the black stains.
  • Completely replacing the lot.
  • Deleting all caches, _IMG files from the world via S3PE, exporting each texture alpha, deleting all textures and reimporting them.
  • Deleted the lots entirely and exported. Issues were still somewhat present in those areas, with or without a lot.
I did install a 6 month old copy of the world and, while it did have some issues, they weren't as noticeable on the lot shown in post #5. So something between then and now has changed. I'm honestly wondering if it's how the world/game looks at the different textures. Because some textures (like my sidewalk paint and asphalt paint) look completely white, with just frost. Rock textures with snow are partially see through and grass textures are almost completely transparent allowing the grass to show through the frost. If that's it, there must be something telling the game which textures to adjust at which levels and it's somehow breaking. Which definitely goes back to what @fentonparkninja was saying about the transparency of the textures. But what exactly the problem is and how to fix it (or if it's possible) is still a mystery.

As for the lot specifics: I have lots varying on angles all over the place. That subsection shown above in #5 - all the lots there are placed with the grid at 0. Only 1 of 5 of the lots there have the issue. There are a large portion of lots not placed at either 0 or 90 that do not have the issue at all. The same lot is placed on entirely flat terrain. Many of my lots that are purposely on sloped terrain do not have that problem. The 2 lots close together with the stains (01BlackStain in the first post) are not placed on 0 or 90; 1 is sloped, 1 is flat.

It's so mind boggling and frustrating that I can't at least pinpoint WHAT the issue is and decide if I'm going to fix it or not. The pier: I know what's wrong, I'm not sure how I'm going to fix it yet, but I know that I can somehow, even if it means doing away with those two port lots.

Heaven Sims | Avendale Legacy
"On the internet, you can be anything you want. It's strange that so many people choose to be stupid."
Destroyer of Worlds
retired moderator
Original Poster
#8 Old 30th Sep 2015 at 9:07 PM
I FIXED THEM!!! *happy dance*

I'm not sure if it was the amount of textures per chunk or what but I slightly adjusted/tweaked some road settings to use a different intersection and get rid of my matching asphalt terrain paint in these sections and *BAM* black shadows gone! I've got asphalt paint elsewhere and the nearby lots do not have the same problems so I'm wondering if it was the amount of textures in those areas. Both the affected areas had 12 textures before I removed the asphalt. They were some of my "heavier" chunks, texture wise. I'm just happy to have figured it out!

Thank you both for your feedback. Now to set off trying to fix that stupid pier area and come up with a solution that works and isn't too hideous.
Screenshots

Heaven Sims | Avendale Legacy
"On the internet, you can be anything you want. It's strange that so many people choose to be stupid."
Instructor
#9 Old 1st Oct 2015 at 2:58 PM
*joins in happy dancing*
So glad you figured it out!
Back to top