Turned out it wasn't the plumming alone. everything in my game looks much nicer now. Even the wood textures have a luster they didn't have before.

THANK YOU SO MUCH -this is how it looks in my game now:


I'm happy

No fish? I didn't check that, but I rarely use the fishtank, so...

Thank you for your suggestion, but it is already turned on.

Jordi, which nvidia card do you have? I had the Geforce 6800 GT on my last pc, but the colors were dull then as well.

Ok, more toilet pics -and if you don't behave, I'll start posting pics of my real life one

Outside -no difference, just as dull looking:



-and here's the thumbnail in buy mode, why can't it look like this 



I'm starting to realise I may be toilet fixated, but I swear my parents never tied me to one

Hm -the card I had in the old computer, was an Nvidia Geforce 6800 GT, and it looked likewise. I don't remember which card I had on the first computer,Ii played Sims2 on, but there was a shine to certain objects, like toilets etc.

This is how it looks.

Ok -so I'm not alone I hope it isn't an ATI problem, I just bought the card.

Ziggydoodle - I think that was the driver I had, but I just reinstalled it to be sure. It didn't make a difference, though.

I looked for the readme file, but couldn't find it, do you know where it is located?

Ok, I guess I could try some different drivers.
It seems it is my problem, not a general problem with the game, if none of you have it.

It's all set on high.

The problem is the same, whether I have custom objects in the game, or just stick to Maxis objects.

Yes, it's in the Scriptorium now.

The bumpmaps in the game looks fine, all the skins, clothes, I can see every detail, and I also have some clothes with glitter ,it looks great.

It's only the objects that are supposed to be metallic/shiny that looks dull and kind of clay like.

I know about the Gunmod lighting. The objects looked dull before I installed it  and there is no difference now that I have uninstalled the mod.

Thanks for replying. Yes, I have the latest driver, and everything in the graphic settings in the game, is set on high.

I wonder why the ojects that are supposed to be shiny -like toilets, sinks, cars- are looking so dull in my game. When I look at them in buy mode, the thumbnails look so good, but when I place them, they are just dull. I hoped it would change with the new computer I bought, but no.

I have an ATI radeon X800 XL video card, 256 MB, maybe that's just not enough?

Can't understand it, though. I'm pretty sure I had the shiny effect once, but that was a couple of computers ago.

It's just starting to really bug me, I want the game to look the best.