Retexturing custom meshes

[Juicy_jess]

Hey guys!
I have been retexturing meshes fine... ( and have started creating my own.. finally yay!) But when I retexture the base texture on CASunitool... it does this...

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a274/Yeehaa710/problem-1.jpg

I have put new bump maps on, sorted specular and overlay and added the LOD's. It's just when i repalce the texture.. p.s Alpha is fine. I am so confsued! Any help will be REALLY appreciated!

Jess

[CmarNYC]

The only thing I can think of that would cause this is a transparent alpha so the skin texture shows through. Can you post screengrabs of the base RGB and Alpha?

[BloomsBase]

you say that the alpha is fine, did you export the texture and review it in your texture proggy? :)

[Juicy_jess]

How do i do that? (noob here) haha! ofcourse.. here is the photo of the RGB and alpha.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a274/Yeehaa710/rgbalpha.jpg

(thanks for the replies , its really appreciated.. I am on the verge of throwing my monitor out the window, ha!)

[CmarNYC]

Looks fine, but something's obviously wrong. How did you save your dds texture file? Should be DXT5 format.

If you could upload the dress package we can take a more detailed look.

[Juicy_jess]

Yep DXT5.. interpolated Alpa! Coould it be because it's not the 'base' EA texture ? Becuase im replacing somebody else's texture or would that not matteR? May I email you the package , please?? Or how do i put it up here? Its bugging me so much.. I just cant figure out whats going wrong! :faceslap:

[BloomsBase]

So your working on a custom package created by someone else?
I would start over with a basegame clone and load texture and meshes in that one.

[whiterider]

You can attach files here the same way you attach images, using the Manage Attachments box on the "Go Advanced" reply screen. You'll need to rar/zip the file first.

[Juicy_jess]

What do you mean by basement clone? I did try using an EA long dress mesh and loaded the new lod's but when i went in game, the neck and shoulders were sliced through.. like the mesh didnt fit.

Here is the original zip file.. see if you guys can retexture it, please!: )

[Juicy_jess]

I also tried it with another mesh and when I increase body weight,it does this.. ARGH!! Feel like crying.. haha! Really want to fix it because I took hours texturing it andits turned out so pretty. =[

[whiterider]

That's just because you haven't made the morphs yet, don't worry; there's nothing wrong with the mesh. :)

[Juicy_jess]

oooh, is it easy making morphs? :blink:

[Juicy_jess]

Just been usig your morph maker but when i click ''create BGEO'' this error appears...

I am so sorry for being such a noob.. you are all very patient and I really appreciate all youe help :)

[CmarNYC]

I meant for you to upload your recolor so we can look for the problem, not the original package. :) You could remove it later if you don't want it up here, or send it to me via email.

You're getting that error in MorphMaker because you're trying to load a base mesh, not a morph mesh. The basic way it works is that there's a base mesh, which is the unmorphed shape and what you're used to working with, and there are morph meshes for the fat, fit, thin, and (if applicable) pregnant states. The morph meshes are different - they contain only information on how to move the base mesh vertices to get the morphed shape, so they're about half the size of the base mesh. In Milkshape the base has to be loaded first and then the morphs are loaded 'over' it. MorphMaker takes the morph meshes for each morph, converts them to the format the game uses, and adds them to the clothing package. You still have to make the morph meshes.

Rather than explain how to do morph meshes here - I did a tutorial on how to make a pregnant morph which is in the second lesson in this thread: http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=397260

The other morphs are done the same way. It's best to load the base and morphs of a similar basegame mesh to use as a guide. (Whichever mesh you're importing a morph for has to be on top of the list in the Milkshape Groups tab. Be sure to rename the groups after import so you don't get confused!)

In this case, if all you're doing is a recolor I think it would be easier to try to fix whatever your texturing problem is rather than build new morphs. If you get into meshing, though, you'll have to learn how sooner or later! :)

[CmarNYC]

Okay, I finally realized you replaced the base texture in CTU, took that screenshot, and never created a new package, so there was no recolor package to upload. :)

Anyway - I tried it myself with the CC package you uploaded, and got the exact same 'skin dress'. Very, very strange. When I tried saving the package anyway, I got the same thing you did again - a package with only a CASP and the base texture, no meshes or anything else.

Then I tried opening the original CC package in s3pe and replacing the base texture that way (highlight the image, right-click, click Replace) and that worked. When I open the package in CTU the correct texture is there, and it looks fine in-game.

http://thumbs2.modthesims2.com/img/3/2/1/6/5/9/6/MTS_CmarNYC-1238526-MaxiDress.jpg

I can only think the CC clothing package is not correctly formatted in some way, or there's something nonstandard in it that confuses CTU. The only thing I noticed is that the base image is in there about 5 or 6 times, apparently all the same, when there should be only one copy. I replaced all of them.

[Juicy_jess]

You are an absolute STAR!! Seriously, I would give you a huge hug right now if I could!! Im jumping up and down! I seriously cant thankyou enough but I will credit you in my post! Does the dress look nice in game?! hehe! Ill try it now :D Thanks again!!! You're so patient and helpful :)

[Juicy_jess]

sorry! one more thing.. in sim3pe.. it doesnt show photo previews for me? Which one is the base texture? :)

[Juicy_jess]

I have no luck ( or im just dumb!) I replaced the texture and the mask in the simpe software and when I load the game up.. its invisible?? siigh

[CmarNYC]

Did you get the s3pe preview working? Did you check in Settings in the menu bar that Enable DDS Preview is checked?

Don't know why it would be invisible. Can you upload the modified package?

[Juicy_jess]

Ok, I got it working but design 2 is still in the pack.. so i opened up CAS... deleted design 2.. put the geoms in lod's and bump and save. But it is a 0kb save and doesnt open. hmmm!!

[Juicy_jess]

This is what it looks like.. I have enabled DDS preview, too.

[CmarNYC]

CTU just doesn't seem able to work with this package. If you want to try building a new package, do this:

Extract the geoms - I think you already did this.

Extract the BGEO files, which are the morph information. You can tell which is which by highlighting the CASP, then look in the detail window for BlendInfoFatIndex and note the hex number, which in this case is 0x0D. Then scroll down to the bottom of the CASP info window to the CountedTGIBlockList at the end. Look for number 0x0D and note the TGI (Type, Group, Instance) next to it. In this case it's 0x062C8204-0x00000000-0x2833BF3A0BC64C78. Look for the BBLN in the package with those TGI numbers and highlight it. Then in the info window look for BlendGeometry and note the TGI next to it, in this case 0x067CAA11-0x00000000-0x59873B806A0669A0. Look for the BGEO in the package with those TGI numbers and that's your fat BGEO. Extract it and name it something so you know it's the fat morph. (You can remove the numbers from the file name too.) Repeat the same procedure for the fit, thin, and special (pregnant) morphs.

Open CTU and start from scratch like Bloom recommended, picking a similar dress and importing the meshes from the custom package and your textures. (Maybe you still have the package you did this way before, the one that exploded when you increased fatness. If so, use that.)

Now run MorphMaker. On the bottom right click the Clothes/Hair button. Then click the "Add morphs to package" button. Find your package from the previous step. Then you'll get a window where you select a BGEO file for each morph. Import the BGEO files you exported from the custom package. Click 'Save as a new package' and save with a new name.

Hopefully that new package will work with CTU and the morphs will work correctly. Let me know!

[BloomsBase]

You could try to clone it with s3OC but updating or cloning custom packages with CTU isn't possible, you must re add the meshes then.
Remember you neither can update meshes or bumpmaps with CTU, you need to do that with s3PE or Postal.

Lol, s3OC crashes :)
But you can clone the file with TSRW, it is prolly made it with in the first place as it contains the bond and bone files

[Juicy_jess]

http://simply-me-designs.blogspot.com/2011/10/striped-pencil-dress.html ::D

[CmarNYC]

Not sure my comment took at BlogSpot - fast work and it looks really good!

[Juicy_jess]

Thankyou! Can't express how grateful I am. I have just been practicing my meshing on milkshape . I wish there was an easier programme! It's so hard to select certain points you need. Im going to sit down tomorrow an read through your instructions for the maxi dress. My head is going to explode if I try now. Haha!! I will let you know how I get on :)

[whiterider]

Selecting vertices in MS is much easier if you remember a few tricks:
You can click and drag to select all vertices within a box. So, rather than trying to click right on a single vertex, it's often easier to click and drag a small box around it which contains only that vertex.
Holding shift while clicking and dragging selects new vertices without deselecting the old ones. You can also hold shift and click a single vertex.
If you select a vertex you didn't mean to, you don't have to deselect everything and start again. Hold shift, and either right-click the vertex or click and drag with the right mouse button; this deselects one/some vertex/vertices while leaving the others alone.
If a vertex is in your way and you don't need it right now, select it and go Ctrl-H to make it invisible. This makes it much easier to focus just on the area you want to work with. :) Ctrl-shift-H to unhide anything you've hidden.
Ctrl-A selects everything.
You can select everything in a specific group by clicking the Select button on the Groups tab. Use groups liberally - they make it much easier to experiment, add things temporarily, delete things, hide a big section of the mesh quickly, etc. without affecting the other parts of your mesh.
If you find that you're accidentally selecting several vertices at once, don't forget that you can then deselect the ones you don't want in another panel. This is useful, for example, if you have several vertices one behind the other, and you need to select just the first one - you can select them all first in front view, and then deselect the vertices behind the one you want in side view.

[Juicy_jess]

Thankyou Whiterider! I dont know how I managed before reading that. It is so much easier now :)

[Juicy_jess]

Sorry guys... here I am again! I bet you all hate me :P So, i altered a dress in milkshape.. made it shorter and less wide...but when I opened it in CAS.. this happened... Anyone have any ideas what went wrong?

[Juicy_jess]

oooh, i found out its because I put the original LOD's in. I put LOD1 in the other 3? and its worked but can you do that? :blink:

[Juicy_jess]

oooh no! Another problem.. im goig to scream! So i have created a mesh, and dragged the bottom down but the legs are cutting through the bottom. Does that mean I have to morph it??

[CmarNYC]

You CAN put lod1 in all three slots, but it's not a good idea. The lods are meant to reduce the amount of work the computer has to do to run the game by using less detailed meshes for distant views.

What do you mean by "the legs are cutting through the bottom"? Can you post a picture?

[Juicy_jess]

This is what it looks like.. I tried making it wider but the legs still show through when she moves.

And oooh really?? How are you meant to make them exactly the same, three times? Thanks again for your patience!

[CmarNYC]

That's called clipping, and it often happens when you have two layers of mesh. You've pulled the bottom of the skirt down, creating a layer of skirt over the top of the legs. You could try making the bone assignments of the sides of the skirt identical to the sides of the legs under them, but you'll probably still get clipping. The better way is to remove or lower the tops of the legs so they come just above the hem of the skirt, the way EA skirt meshes are made. If you remove the tops of the legs you'll have to make new morphs, so lowering the tops of the thighs and scaling them down a bit to fit would probably be easier.

When making lod2 and lod3, normally you'd use the EA original lod2 and lod3 and make the same changes as in lod1. If you've got an entirely new mesh or one with so many changes you don't want to do that, you can use the Milkshape DirectX tool: http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=429672

[Juicy_jess]

oooh! Thankyou Cmar.. I will try and fix it now, ill let you know how it goes! It takes me ages to edit a dress though... do all the lod's have to be exactly the same or just a similar shape?

[whiterider]

Remember that the DirectX Mesh Tool will delete all your bone assignments, so it's not great for use on body meshes.

They don't have to be exactly the same, no. The lower LODs (higher number = lower LOD, so LOD3 is the lowest level of detail) are used when you zoom out, so that your graphics card isn't having to render a load of beautiful meshes that you can't see properly anyway due to the camera being too far away. The LOD0 and 1 (LOD0 doesn't apply to clothes) should be perfect; the LOD2 should be pretty close but a bit blocky, and the LOD3 just has to look sort of vaguely human. Here are a few EA LOD sets for comparison (and I really hope the autoresizer works on this, 'cause it's a fracking huge image :p ):
http://www.modyourpanties.com/hosting/30645_111009102351composite.jpg

[Juicy_jess]

Oh wow.. it all seems so complicated. Do you think I will ever pick this up? Literally nearly been in tears.. everything I do NEVER goes right ejrgbakbg! I gave up on that dress and thought 'ok, i will try a simple jumper'.. so I just made a little bit longer and I keep on going in game and editing and here are the problems I have been getting. You acnt see the legs with a top in milkshape and I only dragged the bottom down so i dont think i created a new layer??
Seriously never been so stressed out :faceslap:

[whiterider]

Sure you did - a "layer" isn't anything special, it's just having two parts of the clothing over one another. After all, where else is the sim going to put her leg?

To fix something like that, you need to change the bone assignments at the bottom of the top so that that part of the top moves when the sim moves her leg - so if she steps forward, the shirt moves with her leg instead of staying straight, because the shirt is "attached" to her leg bone.
The easiest way to do that is to import a trouser mesh into Milkshape and use it as a guide to give you an idea of which bits should be assigned to which bones. Then you can delete the trousers once you're done. :)

[Juicy_jess]

oooh, I see! Would you say its pretty easy to do?? I'm so glad you guys are here to help me or I would have NO clue at all! So kind of you helping noobs like me :giggler:

[whiterider]

First up, go to the Joints tab in Ms and tick Show Skeleton. It's easier to work with bones when you can actually see them :p .

There are two methods for editing bone assignments. You can use the default Milkshape method; select a vertex (or a group of vertices, but be careful editing the assignments of multiple vertices at once, they usually all need different values), then in the Joints tab you can pick up to four bones using the coloured sliders. The sliders themselves decide how strongly the vertex is attached to each bone.

The second method uses wes h's UniMesh bone thingy plugin, which is found in the Vertex menu (if you don't have the UniMesh plugins yet, get them!). It works basically the same way, except you set the "strength" of the assignment using percentages instead of sliders. The percentages have to add up to 100%, so you can have a vertex assigned 100% to bone 1, or 60% to bone 1 and 40% to bone 3, or 20% to bone 1, 70% to bone 2 and 10% to bone 3, etc.

Which method you use is up to you, pick the one you find easiest to grasp. :)

[Juicy_jess]

Oohh, I just tried and I just dont have a clue what I am doing :( Is there a step by step tutorial on bone assigning? If not, can I pay someone to do one?! :P

[CmarNYC]

I don't know of a tutorial specifically for clothing bone assignments - maybe someone else does? Hopefully soon I'll have time to get back to my "Meshing for Dummies" tutorial and do a chapter on bones.

There's an excellent comprehensive meshing tutorial here: http://simswiki.info/wiki.php?title=Tutorials:3D_Meshing_Index

It's not specifically about Sims clothing meshing, but it gives a good overall picture of what meshing is all about and how bones and animation work. The Milkshape joints panel and the bone tool are covered in the last chapter. Meshing is a big topic and takes a lot of time and work to get good at, so don't get discouraged!

[Juicy_jess]

Thankyou Cmar :) Feel a bit better, today..I went to bed all stressed, haha!! I will keep at it .. I didnt realise meshing was so complex and time consuming. I thought it was literally 'bish bash bosh' done! I will look at that tutorial now, thankyou! And if you could do a tutorial on bone assigning it would be a god send!! ;) Hope you're well!

[CmarNYC]

Today I'm ripping my hair out trying to write a scripting mod - got everything done except it refuses to do what it's supposed to do! So I know how you feel. I do have time now so I'll definitely get back to my tutorial series.

[Juicy_jess]

Oh god... I would have no hope trying to do that. How do you know how to do all these things?? Self learn?

Just a quick question.. In CAS uni tool, I am trying to make a long top but it only shows a short bit of the torso .. is there anyway to enable a full body view in CASunitool?

[CmarNYC]

Yes, self-taught with lots of help, tutorials, and information sharing from the more experienced and brilliant modders here. Also time - I've been working with Sims 3 for over two years and already was familiar with Milkshape from Sims 1. :)

In CTU you should be able to zoom the view by moving the mouse up and down on the preview window. I don't know any way to move the model up and down.

[BloomsBase]

left mouse = rotate

middle mouse= up and down :)

right mouse = zoom

click and hold

[Juicy_jess]

Thankyou guys, but I meant the actually legs are missing.. I will post a photo:) I was trying to make a long top but I couldnt see the bottom torso so had no clue if it looked ok!

[CmarNYC]

I see - CTU will only show you the part you're actually working on. As a workaround you can import a bottom into Milkshape to check for clipping.

Thanks, Bloom. I have my middle mouse button programmed to scroll so I guess I don't get that up and down function. :)

[Juicy_jess]

Hey guys,
How are you all? Have you all played 'Pets' yet?
I have a question if someone could kindly help me... I want to use a mesh from the Late Night EP, but in CASunitool it only shows the base game meshes. I was just wondering where the package files for outfits are saved ?

Thankyouu

[CmarNYC]

Hi! Here's a tutorial: http://simswiki.info/wiki.php?title=Tutorial:Cloning_EP_content_with_CTU

Make a copy of Fullbuild0.package first in a workspace before opening it with s3pe, or you can open the game packages directly with Postal as long as you're very careful not to change or delete anything.

[Juicy_jess]

Yet again, you are a complete star!! I won't need to mesh nearly as much... so many meshes in the ep's! Thanks again!

[Juicy_jess]

Here I am again with yet another problem. haha!
I want to make morphs for a dress.. but when I open the package in PE.. it only has the four geom base meshes... It has four bbgeo and bblend files ( I think that's what theyre called) . But I was following a tutorial and it states the morphs should be geom's, too?
Do you know where I am going wrong?
Thanks in advance :) x

[CmarNYC]

Morph geoms are present for EA clothing. If this is a custom dress the package may not include the morph geoms since they're not necessary for the dress to work. One of the things I have on my list to include in my next meshing tools program is the ability to generate morph meshes from BGEO files.

[Juicy_jess]

Ok, thanks again Cmar! Wow.. it's all so complicated! Taking it one step at a time :)