[FIXED] Trees display "winter" shadows in summer, without leaves

I have the same issue! I never bought Seasons but it did start right around when it was released now that you mention it. The only trees that have shadows for me are the Dancing Maples and Lilacs and Lanterns. Never had any mods, didn't mess with any settings; it felt like it happened overnight :/ It affects both old lots and new, and also all the ambient, untouchable trees throughout the worlds. Still don't know how to fix it.

@setmoon14

We're definitely having the same issue and your image illustrates it perfectly. 

I'm almost certain it started after the pre-Seasons patch. I confirmed this by reinstalling without Seasons and the problem was still there (which surprised me).

Like you, I didn't change anything. It seems really weird that a clean install wouldn't solve the problem.

Yeah it's super irritating for me because I don't play The Sims to play the game, I only play it to design houses. So it's really irritating whenever I'm designing a house and I can't tell where the shade will be. Hopefully this bug gets fixed soon.

@setmoon14 @bsozz  Have you both tried the following: 1) remove mods/CC (if any), 2) clear your cache, 3) repair the game via Origin, 4) start a new save, and 5) test in the new save?  If not, please do so.  If that doesn't help, I'd like to know what season you started your save in.  I know you mentioned that this issue occurred in summer, but was that after experiencing other seasons in the save or starting directly with summer?  Which neighborhood and lot were you playing on?

@BryonyRae Thanks for replying.

I've tried all of the things you suggested. I don't use mods and I completely removed my Sims 4 folder (the one in Documents\Electronic Arts) and let the game generate a new one. This would have reset the cache files, obviously. I've also tried repairing my game.

I even went as far as completely reinstalling the game. Twice. And both times I made sure there was no trace of the previous install (folders) left behind.

I've loaded old saves and started new ones and the problem persists. I've started a new game in spring and transitioned into summer and still fully bloomed trees display "dead" shadows. I've tried starting in Summer and the same thing happens.

It occurs everywhere. No matter the lot. I've tried several lots in Newcrest and several others in Willow Creek - most recently the empty corner lot across from the BFF household. Here's a screenshot:

Thanks for the added information @bsozz.  Have you also made sure that your graphics drivers are fully updated?  I was asking about which season you started in because it looks to me like the game is using winter models for the tree shadows, and I thought it might be glitching after going through a winter season.  However, if you start a new save in a different season and are seeing them, I'm not sure what could cause it.  I am not able to reproduce the behavior in my game.  As there are two of you (at least) with the issue, I wonder what you both have in common.  Do you both have the same packs installed?  Speaking of which, I was a little confused about whether you have Seasons or not...  Do you perhaps have the same graphics cards and operating system?  If you could both share your specifications, it might be helpful.

Drivers are fully up to date. I do have Seasons, but I also tried installing the game without it and the problem still exists.

I hadn't played the game for a couple months. The last time I played, which was before the patch that preceded Seasons, my shadows were fine. I went back and checked past screenshots to confirm this.

When I logged in to Origin a few days ago, the game patched itself and I bought Seasons. Since then I have this issue. I have never had a problem with the game previously.

My specs are:

i5 6402 @ 3.0 GHz

8 GB of RAM

RX480

Windows 10

I also clicked Me Too and have an AMD card. I wonder if this is an AMD issue then? I know I saw a report on Twitter about this and they were also an AMD card owner.

This just started happening to me with the Seasons patch, I think, it might have been the last one before today in July. I haven't playing a lot, so I'm not terribly sure. It's not a huge issue for me, but a bit annoying nonetheless.

AMD R9 370 4GB

i7-5820k 3.3GHz (factory overclocked to 3.6GHz)

8GB RAM
Windows 8.1

ETA: I'm running older drivers, because all of the newer Crimson drivers cause my card to crash.

@manzana0807 The AMD theory is very interesting. That might explain why this issue has gone mostly unreported, given AMD's smaller market-share. I couldn't find anything on this issue before posting here, but now it sure seems like it isn't a one-off, isolated issue.

Unfortunately, there are more than a few reports of this to SimGuru Nick on Twitter, but only the one person who stated their specs in the report. So, I have no idea if the other players reporting are AMD owners or not, since only the one said so. 

At least one of the folks I saw sent saves to SimGuru Nick to investigate this, but I couldn't find a response from him about the problem. I'm guessing it's just a wait and see type of thing, but it would be nice to know if anyone else experiencing this has an AMD card or not.