Fixing the deck skirt to work with an invisible floor edge

[Mootilda]

From: http://www.modthesims.info/d/459833
I just tested out the invisible one but it doesn't work well with the deck foundations. The floor "floats" above the foundation so that's not going to work for meHoneywell and Mootilda I wonder how deck foundations differ from walls? Why is the desk foundation not being drawn where the invisible floor edge overlaps it? Is that a question for the technical discussion thread of the floor shader mod?Actually, that's a very good question. I believe that this might be fixed with a simple modification to the walls.txt file. Stay tuned...

[ETA] Yes, it looks like the deck skirt defaults to a vertical span of floor to floor-based ceiling. I'm testing a change to floor to floor now.

[ETA] Well, that makes a difference, but it's not quite right. I'll have to look into the texture, alpha, and light map for the deck skirt to see whether the problems can be resolved.

[ETA] My guess is that the vertical span is the determining factor in the wall shader. Floor to floor means that the wall is opaque. Floor to floor-based ceiling means that the wall has an alpha channel.

[ETA] After some research, I'm reasonably convinced that the vertical span is tied to the material shader inside of the game EXE, which would makes it unavailable to be modded.

However, I notice that the deck texture and deck alpha are separate; I wonder what would happen if they were merged into the wall material, while maintaining a wall thickness of none?

[CatOfEvilGenius]

I like that you're attacking this from several different angles. If using an invisible floor edge, would it help any if the floor mesh were a bit trapezoidal, so the sides of the floor stuck out a bit, rather than being parallel to and overlapping the wall/deck? Would the game then draw both the invisible floor edge and the wall/deck behind it, instead of trying to combine their textures on the same surface? Or maybe it doesn't work like that, so the idea is a nogo?

[Mootilda]

The game isn't trying to combine their textures on the same surface.

The problem is that the vertical span seems to control both the height of the wall and the material shader used to display the wall. When I set the deck wall to touch the floor above it, rather than the ceiling (which is a click or so lower than the floor), then the material shader is automatically changed and we lose the alpha channel and possibly the lightmap. This means that we can't see underneath the deck and the deck material appears too bright.

I can't find the logic where the vertical span controls the material shader, which means that it may not be accessible to us.

So, I'm investigating whether it's possible to restore the alpha channel without access to the shader control.

Quatchi may be able to find an alternative solution, but I believe that he's pretty busy these days.