Tray Ceiling Problem

[Antalia]

I saw some pictures of a house with tray ceilings, and now I've been trying to build one myself. I found two video tutorials for it, both from 2010. The tutorials made the process seem pretty straightforward--building a tray ceiling is a fairly simple application of ConstrainFloorElevation, kind of like building a split level, which I've done before.

The process seems to work perfectly for me, except for one fairly major problem. My result always looks like it ought to, from the outside of the room. But from the inside, if I zoom the camera in to the bottom of the room and then tip it upward to view the ceiling, where the top level of the tray ceiling should be is just transparent--nothing. I can see the sky.

I wonder if the problem is that the tutorials I found are quite old. Does anybody perhaps have experience with building tray ceilings? Have you seen this problem before, with the top level just being transparent when viewed from inside?

I'm stumped! Thanks in advance for any help.

[Swirl-Girl]

It's difficult to get a good view of the ceiling. I don't know what a tray ceiling is, but looking at the ceiling is awfully fiddly.

[intl_incident]

... if I zoom the camera in to the bottom of the room and then tip it upward to view the ceiling, where the top level of the tray ceiling should be is just transparent--nothing. I can see the sky.

You have probably already thought of/tried this, but just in case... remember that the tray ceiling is one floor up from the main room.  So if you are looking at the ceiling on the ground floor, you have to hit page up, or click the "go up a level" button.

Otherwise, when I have had missing ceiling tiles, even when the floor looks right from above, the only fix I have found is to delete all of the floor tiles that make the ceiling and then put new floor tiles down in their place.

[Antalia]

I've looked at this a little more - my problem actually isn't just with tray ceilings. I built a room with the ceiling two floors above the ground instead of one, and the same thing happens - from the bottom floor, I just see the sky.

This is a little disappointing, because I'd hoped to use the new ladder object to build a loft visible from below--but the ladder will just appear to ascend into the sky from below, I think. Also, I built a kitchen in my dynasty house intended to have dramatic lighting from windows on the floor above (obviously the natural light doesn't actually make it from second-floor windows to the ground floor--but it would provide a nice screenshot setting if I could see both floors at once.

It leaves me puzzled how I've seen a number of screenshots and videos of house walkthroughs, with tray ceilings in them. I think there's a trick being employed here that I don't know. I'd sure like to use it in my dynasty house!

And yes - if I take the camera up one floor, the sky disappears and I'm pressing my nose against the tray ceiling. (It's easiest to see outside Build mode, with the Sim view/Tab camera.)

[intl_incident]

Yeah, unfortunately the game doesn't render upper floors if you are on the lower floors, so I think your ladder idea is not going to work the way you want it to. I don't know ALL the tricks and tips so maybe someone will be able to chime in with something I haven't heard of but there are two possibilities for how people are showing tray ceilings and two story screenshots, as far as I know. One is that they go into camera mode when their "nose is pressed against the ceiling" (good description. ) and then they use the q or e button to raise or lower the camera, the arrows to zoom in and out and the mouse to change the angle until they get the shot they want.  That's how I get screenshots of two story foyers, etc. I actually shoot them from the upper floor.

Alternately, you can build the tray ceiling as all one floor and warp up the part you want raised with CFE. That gives you more of a cove ceiling than a true tray ceiling but it looks pretty good especially if you trim it out with bordered tiles etc.  You can do vaulted ceilings under attic roofs that way too.

A third possibility for something that looks two stories high is of course to just make the walls that high with CFE.  But you can only put windows in the bottom of the extra tall walls (unless someone has learned how to do something else that I haven't figured out.)

[Antalia]

I think you've explained it, intl_incident - I didn't think to try shooting from the upper floor, just the lower. I tried it now in my two-story kitchen and it's perfect--I can see my windows and ceiling on the upper floor from the ground.

That explains a walk-through video I saw of a pretty house with a tray ceiling, too. The camera came in the front door and around a corner, and there was an open staircase to an upper balcony area. High above everything there was a dramatic tray ceiling. I remember an odd lack of windows, and knowing what might cause that, I started playing around with stretching the wall, thinking I was on to something. I couldn't shape a tray out of that, though--just a cove ceiling type of effect (which is also nice! I never knew how to do it until I chased this trail). Well, I think that striking video I saw was simply shot from the top floor. That sure simplifies the problem!