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Instructor
Original Poster
#1 Old 10th May 2018 at 2:34 PM Last edited by sam&skye : 11th May 2018 at 10:17 AM.

This user has the following games installed:

Sims 2, University, Nightlife, Open for Business, Pets, Seasons, Bon Voyage, Free Time, Apartment Life
Default Holes in skyboxes
I've been using sky boxes for months and they definitely worked like they're supposed to before. Now, depending on the camera position, I sometimes get "holes" in the sky that grow as I zoom out and shrink as I zoom in.
This only happens in hood view, it all looks perfectly fine from lots.

I suspected the placement. I had loaded my game with no CC a few times and had to put the sky boxes back into my hoods afterwards. That seems unlikely since it would mean I accidentally got the placing right in all my subhoods the first time, but who knows. Either way I've played around with that to no avail.



Idk if this is how it works but I'ma try to summon @RoxEllen1965
You answered in my other thread a while back when I had a different problem, but now I do have this one... your half an hour of fiddling with the sky box to get this screenshot finally payed off.
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Turquoise Dragon
retired moderator
#2 Old 10th May 2018 at 5:03 PM
Perhaps it is a graphics issue? Did you update drivers recently?
The Great AntiJen
retired moderator
#3 Old 10th May 2018 at 6:18 PM
I don't think it's a graphics issue. Do you have Nopke's fix for the sky boxes? You need to think of the skies and terrains as layers like an onion. Nopke's fix works by, I think, either making some layers transparent or changing their relative position. Basically what's happening there is one of the transparent layers is cutting over the sky (I think - I've not looked at it personally but reading the info and threads, that's what I understand) and you can see the default sky behind it.

Having said that, it can also be to do with view distance which is different, I think, in neighbourhood view to lot view. You might get more certain help if you paged Nopke.

I no longer come over to MTS very often but if you would like to ask me a question then you can find me on tumblr or my own site tflc. TFLC has an archive of all my CC downloads.
I'm here on tumblr and my site, tflc
Undead Molten Llama
#4 Old 10th May 2018 at 6:41 PM
Often, that happens when you use a sky and a horizon that are on differently-sized globes. BUT, since that's one of my skies and one of greatcheesecakepersona's horizons, I know that isn't your problem because I made those skies specifically to be compatible with those horizons and they both build on the same layer so they don't clip each other. It's not a graphics issue. It is, as maxon said, essentially a clipping issue, but as to what you have on there that's clipping both the sky and the horizon...I don't know. But yeah, if you don't have Skyfix, you'll want to install it.

I'm mostly found on (and mostly upload to) Tumblr these days because, alas, there are only 24 hours in a day.
Muh Simblr! | An index of my downloads on Tumblr.
The Great AntiJen
retired moderator
#5 Old 10th May 2018 at 6:59 PM
The mystery deepens then iCad - what else could it be? Cloud layer maybe? You know, imma gonna look at that in my game.

I no longer come over to MTS very often but if you would like to ask me a question then you can find me on tumblr or my own site tflc. TFLC has an archive of all my CC downloads.
I'm here on tumblr and my site, tflc
Undead Molten Llama
#6 Old 10th May 2018 at 7:15 PM
It could POSSIBLY be an animated cloud layer. They're set to draw a layer "lower" than static skies and horizons (Layer 5 vs. Layer 6) and they'll clip if there's a size mismatch. But if that was the case, you'd still see the clouds. I've definitely seen mismatched globe sizes where the animated clouds clip the static sky like that, in my own game. In fact, wanting to use certain skies and clouds together is what prompted me to make a zillion skies that I could use with Lowedeus's clouds. But when that happens, you can still see the animated clouds everywhere except the bit where it's clipping.

So...I don't know. OP, is it possible that you have another skyglobe on the terrain somewhere? If you do, then perhaps it is intersecting mine and GCKP's horizon. (Because both are being clipped, not just the sky.) I would recommend 1) Installing Skyfix, if you don't have it already and 2) Removing all possible neighborhood sky/horizon objects from the terrain and then 3) Re-placing the sky and horizon.

I'm mostly found on (and mostly upload to) Tumblr these days because, alas, there are only 24 hours in a day.
Muh Simblr! | An index of my downloads on Tumblr.
Mad Poster
#7 Old 10th May 2018 at 7:19 PM
Mine does that periodically even with Nopke's sky fix in place. I very much doubt that it has anything to do with the CC or with your computer's graphics.

When I use a sky, I almost always place it in a corner of the map. The placement of the object doesn't seem to affect whether or not the hole shows up. It does seem to depend on the camera placement as mentioned in your original post. As I said in the other thread, I had to mess with the game for close to 30 minutes to get that bug to show up. If I remember correctly, I finally had to use the Tab key and zoom out away from the map to get the hole to appear. I don't recall seeing this bug in my neighborhood view without using the Tab key (at least not often enough to remember it) and if I move the camera toward the center of the map, the anomaly shrinks and disappears. I have also seen the hole appear during cut scenes.

I agree with Maxon - Nopke seems to know the most about this kind of thing, so if it annoys you that much ask Nopke. Personally, I consider it a minor intermittent bug and I just don't let it bother me.
Mad Poster
#8 Old 10th May 2018 at 8:26 PM
I have had this happen when the placement box is not placed right; the "hole" actually is supposed to be on the under-side of the terrain. One of the skies that I got has another mod with it that causes the "effects" boxes to have a triangle in one corner, so you can tell which way it "faces". The skies have to be placed on a corner of the map, with the point of the triangle pointing to the corner (unknown if ALL the skies/clouds/etc work the same)

Stand up, speak out. Just not to me..
The Great AntiJen
retired moderator
#9 Old 10th May 2018 at 10:37 PM
Well, I tested and couldn't reproduce it. I don't think it's the cloud layer causing the hole - I did try that - but see picture. All three boxes were in the same corner. I discovered a couple of things (picture):

1. Using the cloud later can produce odd artifacts, so maybe there can be interference. That does look a bit like clipping too.
2. I bloody love that aurora sky now that I've tried it in game

That mod changes all the neighbourhood landscape object boxes Pat - it's a default replacement. I agree, very handy.
Screenshots

I no longer come over to MTS very often but if you would like to ask me a question then you can find me on tumblr or my own site tflc. TFLC has an archive of all my CC downloads.
I'm here on tumblr and my site, tflc
Instructor
Original Poster
#10 Old 11th May 2018 at 1:46 AM
Wow, so many answers all of a sudden.

@gdayars Definitely no graphics issue. Everything about this computer is too old to get any updates.

@maxon I do have the skyfix. I've had problems with the domes in lot view before, so I probably followed all instructions on how to make them work at least twice.

@grammapat I'm placing the dome in the corner. So that's not the issue either. I've played around with the position to make sure and the hole was always there.

About the clipping: I don't have any clouds, horizons or the like in my hood. Only that one sky dome.

It really acts exactly as RoxEllen said, too. I have to use the tab key and move the camera. The thing is that this is how I take screenshots and that is really the only time I absolutely don't need a stupid sky hole bug to show up. I'm starting to think that that might be the reason it's happening all of a sudden, though. I might have just not taken screenshots in hood view in the meantime and so didn't see it.

(The screenshot is RoxEllen's, btw. Just for clarity's sake. I'm using lowedeus' domes and am getting the same holes.)

Gonna try to summon @Nopke then...
Space Pony
#11 Old 11th May 2018 at 6:47 AM Last edited by Nopke : 13th May 2018 at 8:41 PM.
Holes in skyboxes are a camera issue. Lowedeus has written about it.
@maxon I suspect the reason is two skyboxes being on the same layer (the same stdMatLayer values in their material files). I need to see the files of those skyboxes to confirm it.
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#12 Old 11th May 2018 at 9:12 AM
Oh thanks Nopke, mine does that all the time.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Instructor
Original Poster
#13 Old 11th May 2018 at 9:54 AM
I think the mystery is solved... that must be why it suddenly appeared, I was trying out that camera compilation lowedeus mentions and just reverted back to my old cameras. I'll go try it out.
Undead Molten Llama
#14 Old 11th May 2018 at 9:57 AM
Ah, a camera issue makes sense. I think I had seen Lowedeus's post about that before, even, but then I couldn't remember and thought I might have imagined things. Ah, middle age. Anyway, the camera mod I use obviously doesn't have this issue because I've never seen it in my game.

@maxon Is that one of the animated clouds I made? I can't even tell anymore. If it is, it ought to be set to draw on Layer 5, whereas the static skies draw on Layer 6, because I cloned one of Lowedeus's animated clouds, which is set to draw on Layer 5. But it's possible something went wrong somewhere, so in case that's one of mine, I'll have a look-see at them and see if I need to fix any of them. And I'll take a look at the aurora, too, to make sure it's on Layer 6.

I'm mostly found on (and mostly upload to) Tumblr these days because, alas, there are only 24 hours in a day.
Muh Simblr! | An index of my downloads on Tumblr.
Mad Poster
#15 Old 11th May 2018 at 10:00 AM
That's great! And it's such an easy fix, too!
Instructor
Original Poster
#16 Old 11th May 2018 at 10:10 AM
It's gone!
The Great AntiJen
retired moderator
#17 Old 11th May 2018 at 4:16 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Nopke
I suspect the reason are two skyboxes being on the same layer (the same stdMatLayer values in their material files). I need to see the files of those skyboxes to confirm it.

Quote: Originally posted by iCad
@maxon Is that one of the animated clouds I made? I can't even tell anymore. If it is, it ought to be set to draw on Layer 5, whereas the static skies draw on Layer 6, because I cloned one of Lowedeus's animated clouds, which is set to draw on Layer 5. But it's possible something went wrong somewhere, so in case that's one of mine, I'll have a look-see at them and see if I need to fix any of them. And I'll take a look at the aurora, too, to make sure it's on Layer 6.

Yes, it's one of the animated clouds and it looks like it's on a smaller dome than the sky itself. I still got that artifact though. I placed both the horizons, sky and cloud layer in the exact same spot in one corner of the map.with the arrows in the same direction.

Edit - just read the Lowedus comment on this issue. My clip distance is already set to 5000 which probably explains why I didn't see the problem. I've completely lost track of what I've done with my cameras. I have a Frankensteined camera mod (a mix of several).

I no longer come over to MTS very often but if you would like to ask me a question then you can find me on tumblr or my own site tflc. TFLC has an archive of all my CC downloads.
I'm here on tumblr and my site, tflc
Lab Assistant
#18 Old 11th May 2018 at 6:32 PM
Default Hate to be so stupid, but what is the advantage of a 'Skybox' ?
Quote: Originally posted by maxon
Yes, it's one of the animated clouds and it looks like it's on a smaller dome than the sky itself. I still got that artifact though. I placed both the horizons, sky and cloud layer in the exact same spot in one corner of the map.with the arrows in the same direction.

Edit - just read the Lowedus comment on this issue. My clip distance is already set to 5000 which probably explains why I didn't see the problem. I've completely lost track of what I've done with my cameras. I have a Frankensteined camera mod (a mix of several).


Reading all of this thread but not sure why anyone would even want a skybox.... a sun maybe, but ....??
Instructor
Original Poster
#19 Old 11th May 2018 at 9:59 PM
Quote: Originally posted by SilverFox30
Reading all of this thread but not sure why anyone would even want a skybox.... a sun maybe, but ....??


It just looks better if your sky has some actual texture instead of being unnaturally bright, plain blue. I also use different ones for different subhoods.
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