Height of Summer – Custom Lighting for The Sims 4
I’m happy to announce the release of Height of Summer, my TS4 profile for ReShade.
What is ReShade?
ReShade is similar to, but more advanced than, SweetFX. It is a tool that allows you to use various post-processing effects to enhance colours and lighting in almost all PC games. You can read more about ReShade here.
What is Height of Summer?
HoS is the profile, or “config,” I created to be used with ReShade in The Sims 4. It contains several profiles in one, and aims to make it easy to switch between multiple looks by simple turning on/off a handful of effects.
It comes with a standard profile activated as default. This brightens the scene and makes colours pop. This is suitable for most gameplay situations.
By turning on ‘Ambient Light’ the scene changes to have a more hazy, romantic feeling. It is possible to play with this enabled (I often do), but may be tiring on the eyes after a while, and menus will become almost unreadable. This setting is recommended for screenshots only.
Turning on ‘Monochrome’ drains the world of colour, and allows you to take striking black & white pictures.
There are several additional effects that can be combined with any of the above according to your taste. For example, I like to turn on film grain and levels (for greater contrast) when using black & white to create more drama.
Well that sounds great, but it also sounds like a lot of work.
It is, and it isn’t. It can seem daunting at first, but in reality all that is required to use the full range of effects is a text editor (I recommend Notepad++) and the ability to turn a 0 into a 1 and hit Save. I keep Notepad++ open while playing, and tab in and out to turn effects on and off in seconds. You will quickly learn where everything is.
That said, if that is beyond your technical ability and confidence, I’m afraid Height of Summer and ReShade may not be for you.
So how do I get started?
Download Height of Summer – this includes the configuration files, plus an extensive ReadMe
Unzip the files to somewhere safe
READ THE README
Seriously, detailed installation instructions are contained in there, as well as all the information about how to turn effects on and off
READ IT
You will be prompted (in the readme that you have just read) to download ReShade + Framework (the blue button on the left) – my download only includes the configuration files, you MUST download and install ReShade + Framework first for them to work
Again, there are detailed instructions to help you through every step in the readme
Notes:
ReShade and Height of Summer may be taxing on some systems. I recommend only attempting to use it if you have a mid- to high-range spec. I take no liability for any problems that might arise from you installing and using either ReShade or Height of Summer.
Height of Summer works with ReShade + Framework version 0.18.4. ReShade is in continual development, with updates coming thick and fast. Theoretically HoS should work with every 0.18 release, but I cannot guarantee it. I also cannot guarantee that I will update HoS the moment a new version of ReShade is released. If you experience problems with a current version of ReShade, please contact me and I will do my best to make it compatible. I will update this post with any future version updates.
Update 2015-05-30: Thank you to jenba for helping me realise I should have made a note about other lighting mods. Height of Summer was developed with no other lighting mods (such as Shimrod’s Improved Lighting). If you use one of those other mods, you likely won’t experience quite the same colours and lighting as is intended. HoS is designed to make other lighting mods unnecessary, since it brightens lights via its post-processing. If you really can’t part with your other lighting mod, however, feel free to adjust whatever settings you need to make it compatible. I will not be providing support for the use of other lighting mods, since I don’t use one myself.
Release history:
Height of Summer for ReShade 0.18.4
