So far I like the new installment of the Sims. The new Build Mode is very cool and fun to play with. Sims animations are Top and very funny. The all over graphic style is pretty, but very low res and low poly even on “ultra” But there is something you really messed up. The light and shadows.
Not only that all the buyable lights, including the most expensive ones, do not produce an adequate amount of interior light, but you messed up the exterior light coming through windows too.
I did several tests, with all available window sizes, and direct sunlight, on a room not using lamps, to check the way exterior light works and this is a real mess.
The exterior light does not brighten up the interior in an adequate way. It almost doesn’t matter if I use windows or not, the room stays very dark all the time. (light passes through, but not very far and not very bright. So that interior lights have to be used all the time) Even when I use several windows next to each other, on the whole length of a wall, the brightness is far from realistic and far from usable.
In addition to this, the exterior light is not raytracing shadows on interior objects at all.
This is very disappointing and not fits possibilities of modern graphics in any way. If you simulate the raytraced shadows on the exterior, you should do it on the interior as well. Especially, because the shadows are very blocky, and not anti aliased properly anyway. And that’s on “ultra” settings.
I hope that this will be fixed in a future patch, because it absolutely ruins the gameplay for me.
EA Staff (Retired)
