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Is there a technical reason unnatural skin tones don't tan?

For people who can look at how the game is working better than me. Is the game applying a single like 'color burn' layer onto all skin tones and thus it would look really stupid on the unnatural tones? Or were they just left out "because". And if so does it look like this can be modded?

I'm just frustrated because I can't get my Alien to move on in the new Aspiration without me cheating. Even in his disguise form he can't tan. Vampires are out (which, okay I guess, but why not let them burn to death trying unless they are day walkers.) and Mermaids who don't use the human tones are also kicked out. And the mermaids were packaged with the alien skin tones so that's kind of strange they don't work with tanning. Why was there both a system and an aspiration created that blocks out whole sections of sims.

Comments

  • GalacticGalGalacticGal Posts: 28,290 Member
    Perhaps, it has everything to do with how many colors would have to be added? I can't imagine a blue skin tone going brown or red, even. I would think a tanned form of the light blue would be a darker blue and perhaps something more like a shade of purple for a burn? As in red + blue = purple? Same for the other colors. A tanned green skin might be a darker green, but what would it look like burnt? An ugly brownish-green? Charred? Red, blue and Yellow are your primary colors. From these three comes all other colors. If you add red to blue you get purple. The shade depends on how much red you add, also how dark the blue is. Same with adding yellow to red gets you orange. If you add yellow to blue you get green. Black and White aren't truly colors. Black is the absence of color whereas white is the combination of all color. Studying light will instruct on that. If, however, you add white to red, you get various shades of pink. If you add red, blue and yellow together you get an interesting shade of brown. If you add black to white you get various shades of gray. Paint can be fun to mix. :) Yes, I took three years of art in school.

    Logistically it was probably impossible. Whether or not the modders can figure a way around it, I can't say.
    You can download (free) all three volumes of my Night Whispers Star Trek Fanfiction here: http://galacticgal.deviantart.com/gallery/ You'll need to have a pdf reader. New websites: http://www.trekkiefanfiction.com/st-tos.php
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  • izecsonizecson Posts: 2,875 Member
    I don't think it's a technical reason more like trying to be more realistic, I mean i have no idea what tan color for green or paleish blue are, but way before Island Living is a thing, modder named Flerb already made a mod for this, and it can applies to almost every skin including barbie doll skin detail.
    ihavemultiplegamertags
  • floridameerkatfloridameerkat Posts: 1,190 Member
    Perhaps, it has everything to do with how many colors would have to be added? I can't imagine a blue skin tone going brown or red, even. I would think a tanned form of the light blue would be a darker blue and perhaps something more like a shade of purple for a burn? As in red + blue = purple? Same for the other colors. A tanned green skin might be a darker green, but what would it look like burnt? An ugly brownish-green? Charred? Red, blue and Yellow are your primary colors. From these three comes all other colors. If you add red to blue you get purple. The shade depends on how much red you add, also how dark the blue is. Same with adding yellow to red gets you orange. If you add yellow to blue you get green. Black and White aren't truly colors. Black is the absence of color whereas white is the combination of all color. Studying light will instruct on that. If, however, you add white to red, you get various shades of pink. If you add red, blue and yellow together you get an interesting shade of brown. If you add black to white you get various shades of gray. Paint can be fun to mix. :) Yes, I took three years of art in school.

    Logistically it was probably impossible. Whether or not the modders can figure a way around it, I can't say.

    Isn't white the absence of color and black the combination of all colors?
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  • MarnettiMarnetti Posts: 1,047 Member
    Each tan is custom to the skin colour, so I see nothing wrong with making a darker shade for green, purple, or vampire skin colours. They just didn't want to. It's 'unrealistic' yet there are mermaids in the game. I hope this gets patched.
    ~I just like lifestates. Is that too much to ask for?~
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  • GalacticGalGalacticGal Posts: 28,290 Member
    Perhaps, it has everything to do with how many colors would have to be added? I can't imagine a blue skin tone going brown or red, even. I would think a tanned form of the light blue would be a darker blue and perhaps something more like a shade of purple for a burn? As in red + blue = purple? Same for the other colors. A tanned green skin might be a darker green, but what would it look like burnt? An ugly brownish-green? Charred? Red, blue and Yellow are your primary colors. From these three comes all other colors. If you add red to blue you get purple. The shade depends on how much red you add, also how dark the blue is. Same with adding yellow to red gets you orange. If you add yellow to blue you get green. Black and White aren't truly colors. Black is the absence of color whereas white is the combination of all color. Studying light will instruct on that. If, however, you add white to red, you get various shades of pink. If you add red, blue and yellow together you get an interesting shade of brown. If you add black to white you get various shades of gray. Paint can be fun to mix. :) Yes, I took three years of art in school.

    Logistically it was probably impossible. Whether or not the modders can figure a way around it, I can't say.

    Isn't white the absence of color and black the combination of all colors?

    No, you've got that reversed.
    You can download (free) all three volumes of my Night Whispers Star Trek Fanfiction here: http://galacticgal.deviantart.com/gallery/ You'll need to have a pdf reader. New websites: http://www.trekkiefanfiction.com/st-tos.php
    http://www.getfreeebooks.com/star-trek-original-series-fan-fiction-trilogy/
  • AineAine Posts: 3,043 Member
    No, it's called cutting corners. Basically they couldn't be bothered, as with all the other missing features in this pack.
    Allons-y!

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  • WildIrishBansheeWildIrishBanshee Posts: 2,104 Member
    I remember a guru mentioning why vampires don't tan/burn - because their skin is dead, and therefore it isn't even theoretically possible to do either. Not sure why the rest can't though! Yeah, I don't get that whole white/black thing either - you mix colors, you get black, not white, but okay scientists...
  • RIP-Troika-GamesRIP-Troika-Games Posts: 221 Member
    As many gripes as I may have with The Sims 4, this is not one of them (Except for the bit that it stops you from completing an aspiration).
    They are unnatural skintones. What says they are like sim/human ones with melanin? Vampires are undead, therefore dead skin. They aint really fans of the sun either. Aliens are, well aliens! Their skin pigmentation can work very different from ours/sims. And plant people are more plant than sim. Plants doesn't tan.
  • BOYBOY Posts: 540 Member
    I remember a guru mentioning why vampires don't tan/burn - because their skin is dead, and therefore it isn't even theoretically possible to do either.
    tbh i’m fine with vampires not tanning for lore reasons (though i wish they could moonbathe instead 😐 raise vampire energy instead of getting a tan), but the vampire skin tones are available to normal sims too. they just didn’t make tans/burns for those skins. same as alien/mermaid skins.

    it’s like mermaids not snorkeling. instead of giving them an animation for swimming underwater/near the reefs (minus the snorkeling gear obviously), it just says it’s taboo for mermaids to snorkel.
    Fairies & real Plantsims please!
  • FreechheitFreechheit Posts: 128 Member
    Half-Aliens can tan and they get a moodlet. However, their skin colour does not change, they still look the same.
  • GalacticGalGalacticGal Posts: 28,290 Member
    I remember a guru mentioning why vampires don't tan/burn - because their skin is dead, and therefore it isn't even theoretically possible to do either. Not sure why the rest can't though! Yeah, I don't get that whole white/black thing either - you mix colors, you get black, not white, but okay scientists...

    If you will note, I mentioned this happens with light, not paint.
    You can download (free) all three volumes of my Night Whispers Star Trek Fanfiction here: http://galacticgal.deviantart.com/gallery/ You'll need to have a pdf reader. New websites: http://www.trekkiefanfiction.com/st-tos.php
    http://www.getfreeebooks.com/star-trek-original-series-fan-fiction-trilogy/
  • SimburianSimburian Posts: 6,906 Member
    Looking at it another way aliens wouldn't be able to invade other worlds if they were so affected by their suns would they? Maybe (like in the film Independence Day) it's a protective cover as well as them inventing a human type one? Maybe Sixam is a world conquest!

    I've read too much science fiction!
  • AkilAkil Posts: 253 Member
    edited June 2019
    If there is no technical/game code reason and it's just another area they chose not to flesh out I'm bummed. There is no excuse to use 'realism' as a way to not include their Aliens/Mermaids into a feature. That ship sailed once you made the occult in the first place.

    Also I don't understand calling picking the colors logistically impossible. It might take a few drafts to see what looked nice but the tones are all blue/green/purple. Pretty easy colors to have darkened and effected by red [though why do they need to turn red? Fake skintones could have tinted any direction when burned. That's the fun of fake species] and the white tone would be the one, to me, with the most debate. Does it go darker pure grey? Do we tone it grey blue when tanned? Ect. I took art in school too and would have never gotten my degree if I told them I couldn't conceptualize tans on blue.

    As for the light thing yes, black is absense and white is all colors. The reason it seems different with paint is its because how light reflects off the objects we see. For example an object appears blue because it absorbs light from all sides of the spectrum except blue which is reflects back at us. A black object absorbs all colors and reflects nothing back. The black "light" so to speak we perceive is the absence of all colors. But it's caused by the object or paint absorbing all colors. That's why when we layer pigment it gets darker so we think of it as having more colors but what we're really getting back from light is less.

    The paint gets greedy :>
  • GalacticGalGalacticGal Posts: 28,290 Member
    Thank you @Akil, you said it so much better than I. :)
    You can download (free) all three volumes of my Night Whispers Star Trek Fanfiction here: http://galacticgal.deviantart.com/gallery/ You'll need to have a pdf reader. New websites: http://www.trekkiefanfiction.com/st-tos.php
    http://www.getfreeebooks.com/star-trek-original-series-fan-fiction-trilogy/
  • SheriSim57SheriSim57 Posts: 6,934 Member
    Perhaps, it has everything to do with how many colors would have to be added? I can't imagine a blue skin tone going brown or red, even. I would think a tanned form of the light blue would be a darker blue and perhaps something more like a shade of purple for a burn? As in red + blue = purple? Same for the other colors. A tanned green skin might be a darker green, but what would it look like burnt? An ugly brownish-green? Charred? Red, blue and Yellow are your primary colors. From these three comes all other colors. If you add red to blue you get purple. The shade depends on how much red you add, also how dark the blue is. Same with adding yellow to red gets you orange. If you add yellow to blue you get green. Black and White aren't truly colors. Black is the absence of color whereas white is the combination of all color. Studying light will instruct on that. If, however, you add white to red, you get various shades of pink. If you add red, blue and yellow together you get an interesting shade of brown. If you add black to white you get various shades of gray. Paint can be fun to mix. :) Yes, I took three years of art in school.

    Logistically it was probably impossible. Whether or not the modders can figure a way around it, I can't say.

    Isn't white the absence of color and black the combination of all colors?

    No, you've got that reversed.

    I thought the mixture of colors resulted in brown.
  • floridameerkatfloridameerkat Posts: 1,190 Member
    Perhaps, it has everything to do with how many colors would have to be added? I can't imagine a blue skin tone going brown or red, even. I would think a tanned form of the light blue would be a darker blue and perhaps something more like a shade of purple for a burn? As in red + blue = purple? Same for the other colors. A tanned green skin might be a darker green, but what would it look like burnt? An ugly brownish-green? Charred? Red, blue and Yellow are your primary colors. From these three comes all other colors. If you add red to blue you get purple. The shade depends on how much red you add, also how dark the blue is. Same with adding yellow to red gets you orange. If you add yellow to blue you get green. Black and White aren't truly colors. Black is the absence of color whereas white is the combination of all color. Studying light will instruct on that. If, however, you add white to red, you get various shades of pink. If you add red, blue and yellow together you get an interesting shade of brown. If you add black to white you get various shades of gray. Paint can be fun to mix. :) Yes, I took three years of art in school.

    Logistically it was probably impossible. Whether or not the modders can figure a way around it, I can't say.

    Isn't white the absence of color and black the combination of all colors?

    No, you've got that reversed.

    If you mix all the colors together, you don't get white.
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  • fruitsbasket101fruitsbasket101 Posts: 1,530 Member
    edited July 2019
    Perhaps, it has everything to do with how many colors would have to be added? I can't imagine a blue skin tone going brown or red, even. I would think a tanned form of the light blue would be a darker blue and perhaps something more like a shade of purple for a burn? As in red + blue = purple? Same for the other colors. A tanned green skin might be a darker green, but what would it look like burnt? An ugly brownish-green? Charred? Red, blue and Yellow are your primary colors. From these three comes all other colors. If you add red to blue you get purple. The shade depends on how much red you add, also how dark the blue is. Same with adding yellow to red gets you orange. If you add yellow to blue you get green. Black and White aren't truly colors. Black is the absence of color whereas white is the combination of all color. Studying light will instruct on that. If, however, you add white to red, you get various shades of pink. If you add red, blue and yellow together you get an interesting shade of brown. If you add black to white you get various shades of gray. Paint can be fun to mix. :) Yes, I took three years of art in school.

    Logistically it was probably impossible. Whether or not the modders can figure a way around it, I can't say.

    Isn't white the absence of color and black the combination of all colors?

    No, you've got that reversed.

    If you mix all the colors together, you don't get white.

    You're both right. Black is the presence of all color, but absorbs (is the absence of) light. White is the absence of all color, but reflects(is the presence of) all light.
    Have a super fantastic awesome splendid amazing day! -TheQxxn
  • cmarinetticmarinetti Posts: 147 Member
    The tans and burns are done with additional textures, one for tan and one for burn for every natural skin tone. There's a new version of the TONE file that links up three textures (normal, tan, burn) for every skin. The fantasy skins simply have zeros for the tan and burn links so they're not used. Oh, and there's what I call a burn mask that gives a sort of splotchy appearance with pale areas around the eyes, etc.

    I've made a converter that'll update the TONE and automatically generate the new textures, so anyone wanting fantasy skins to tan/burn can clone them and run the converter on them. For natural colors it's pretty simple, just darken for tan and make redder for burn. For unnatural colors I went with finding whether blue and/or green is more dominant than red and emphasizing those colors in the burn. So if the skin is blue you get a blue burn, etc. Made sense to me. :)
    cmarNYC on MTS.
  • EchovaEchova Posts: 144 Member
    You would think aliens would burn quicker than human sims considering Sixam is nighttime 24/7 and they have black sclera, indicating they’re nocturnal and/or subterranean. It’s just Maxis being super lazy as always. Mermaids have nonsensical restrictions too.
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