Lens Flare Effect

Well, after playing Simpsons Hit & Run on PlayStation 2 and PC(although MUCH later on), I've noticed the lack of the lens flare effect. Basically, it's like stuff changing when you look at the sunlight, which is strangely absent on PCs. I was wondering if it is possible/would be possible to recreate this effect on PC? Oh, yeah, and here's a picture of the lens flare effect, taken from Cutting Room Floor(from the GameCube version, but it's still pretty much the same on other consoles):
imgur.com/a/v7wHm

Radical most likely removed it because they struggled to get it to working.

Lucas is working on re-adding this feature, as seen here:

However right now, this is an issue. Basically he's unable to detect if something is in the way of the sun, so it renders anyways:

Oh, it's in the works? Cool, although for that second image, wouldn't it be possible to edit the transparency of objects to make them, how can I say this, solid and not translucent? I have horrible knowledge of coding, but I do think it's possible to change the transparency, if not, then oh well. Although to be fair, that'd require A LOT of reworking, but it's still an option, although a time consuming one(if it's even possible).

I don't really understand your suggestion since the issue as it is, like Jake said, is being unable to detect when the sun is behind a building to not render the lens flare.

Lucas thinks it's possible the console platforms had some easy way of detecting this sort of thing and it might've been a technical limitation on some level that made them decide to remove it.

This is one of 2 intentional graphical downgrades in the PC release, the other being the refraction effect on the Hover Car.

I know it's a stupid suggestion, but I thought there was something for the transparency/shinyness of certain objects, like there is for cars, for example.

I don't see how that's relevant. We already explained why this effect isn't implemented.

Loren, he already stated he doesn't fully understand it and he was trying to give a suggestion.

The lens flare is not controlled by any object. It's just if you look in a certain direction in the sky, it will happen. The problem is, Lucas is unable to detect if an object such as a tree, car, or building is in the way because the game was built on really old technology that barely supported it. It is possible for him to do it, however insanely tricky because of this.

So to reiterate:

This is what happens right now, the object isn't being detected and the lens flare shines through it:
This is what should happen, the object in the way is detected and the lens flare doesn't shine through:

Well, here's another blind suggestion from me. If the buildings are detected in the console versions, is there a code for that? If so, couldn't it be ripped from the consoles and imported to the PC version? I mean, if the sunlight also passes through the building, it won't work if there is no code for the sun reflection behavior. I mean, I'm pretty sure it's possible to rip the code off consoles, so there might be a code for the sunlight's behavior. (Again, if there isn't, then ignore this.)

The code was removed from the PC version as it was not compatible, so using that code wouldn't work. Plus it's not as easy as "ripping code". Lucas would have to decipher it and reintroduce his own logic into it as it's not readable code for us to see.

Oh, well then. There go my suggestions. Unless there was some way to re-work it using the original code as a inspiration. Also, I don't get by ''deciphering'' it, like decoding it into something else?