Darknite with Maxisnite plugins

[zencoz1 28]

I have a silly question, really, but i need to find out. How many of you guys use darknite mod with buildings mods with maxisnite built-in? Asking because if there are too many maxisnite building mods prior to dsrknite, what will happen? Will my computer crashed? Btw it happened before (not because of Darknite mod though). My game crashed midway and changed my calendar from 2023 to 2048. Had to reinstall and start all over (which was unnecessary but too late to realize. I just had to change the calendar back at the time). Just trying to avoid myself from messing things up again with my number 1 city building game.

[kaimai 1,042]

I tried out darknite without bothering to update any of the buildings from their maxisnite versions and, as far as I can tell, no real problem except that some of the buildings are too brightly lit for the setting and not all of them light up.

[zencoz1 28]

47 minutes ago, kaimai said:

I tried out darknite without bothering to update any of the buildings from their maxisnite versions and, as far as I can tell, no real problem except that some of the buildings are too brightly lit for the setting and not all of them light up.

I see. Thanks for the info. Got plenty of maxisnites so that worried me. Thank you again.

[matias93 7,535]

@rivit included an automatic script on the newer versions of his GoFSH tool to convert Maxisnite building textures into something very similar to Darknite. Sadly, it's impossible to do in the opposite direction and get a good result.

[rsc204 21,808]

There is some myth about using DarkNite or that you can't use DarkNite buildings without the mod, but as mentioned here, mismatching them just doesn't look right. Otherwise though it causes no harm.

[zencoz1 28]

1 hour ago, rsc204 said:

There is some myth about using DarkNite or that you can't use DarkNite buildings without the mod, but as mentioned here, mismatching them just doesn't look right. Otherwise though it causes no harm.

Good to hear because i dont plan to revisit mods just for the Darknite because there are just too many. My concern is only on the crashing side or other more serious issue, and a mismatch isnt much of a problem to me. Still look good in my opinion despite many of my building mods are from the pre Darknite era. Only thing i am dissatisfied is that Maxisnite still allows you to save a city in night setting to be viewed from the region view though it looked horrible, but Darknite wont allow that at all. Would be nice to see the region view in night setting.

[SIM-ple Jack 17,444]

All DarkNite does is darken the terrain and sky in order to increase the contrast of the buildings, and does nothing to the buildings. Maxis buildings will tend to have a more glowy, sometimes blue-ish appearance at night. I think it would be nearly impossible to use DarkNite buildings exclusively, unless you like a lot of repetition. BTW, there are several other night mods including Mashty's Night MOD and, I think rivit's Day-Night Mod(sorry, don't have links) with varying degrees of darkness.

[matias93 7,535]

On 1/6/2024 at 1:43 PM, zencoz1 said:

Good to hear because i dont plan to revisit mods just for the Darknite because there are just too many. My concern is only on the crashing side or other more serious issue, and a mismatch isnt much of a problem to me. Still look good in my opinion despite many of my building mods are from the pre Darknite era. Only thing i am dissatisfied is that Maxisnite still allows you to save a city in night setting to be viewed from the region view though it looked horrible, but Darknite wont allow that at all. Would be nice to see the region view in night setting.

The reason why that happens isn't exactly due to the mod. As Jack said, the mod only makes the night colour darker, and because of that, the buildings that came with the game look darker as well. Those buildings, in fact, look the same in night and day, but during the night they add a "lighting mask", which is a semi-transparent texture that covers some windows and make it look as if some rooms were illuminated. It's basically a transparency trick.

The only buildings that look strange are those which include "baked-in" night textures, which are a full lighting mask that covers the entire building. This was created by modders around 2006 (IIRC) to allow for more detailed nightscenes on which the exterior light illuminate the facades. A bit after, and based on this method, it was proposed to switch to a darker night lighting and to make all of those baked-in night textures comply with the new standard, but not everybody switched in, so now there are two standards.

[Herschel 10]

On 06/01/2024 at 3:08 PM, rsc204 said:

There is some myth about using DarkNite or that you can't use DarkNite buildings without the mod, but as mentioned here, mismatching them just doesn't look right. Otherwise though it causes no harm.

I can't install DarkNite because I am a Mac user, but it sounds like I can still use custom buildings that are DarkNite only? I play in permanent daytime, so not too fussed about buildings not showing up or showing up weird at night. 

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

2 minutes ago, Herschel said:

I play in permanent daytime, so not too fussed about buildings not showing up or showing up weird at night. 

Yep. You've got it. That'll work fine for you.