Object transparency tutorial

[mike19]

Object transparency tutorial

For the time being this tutorial will receive minimal support by me. As i can be quite busy with other things


:report: It's back with new graphics and new text with new spelling mistakes/typo's
Also on this thread you will find my adding glass transparent effects tutorial for download. I was going to merge the two tutorial's together. But i have decided to leave them in seperate files.

visit my profile here: mike19's profile (http://www.modthesims2.com/member/mike19)

Thanks to mts2 and all the moderators

also the makers of simpe

and special thanks to numenor
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;


This tutorial will take you through the process of how to create recolor's by removing parts of the graphics, and so creating the illusion of a see through object. Or if you are successful you can continue to add transparency effects by applying the same technique.
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
If you are completely new to recoloring please visit: Recolouring Objects with Object Workshop (NEW tutorial) By numenor (http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=102356)
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
If you want to or need to clone a object : Sims 2 start to finish Object Creation Tutorial V 2.1 (http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=104795) By JWoods
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
What you need:
1. simpe (http://sims.ambertation.de/)
2.jasc paint shop pro or similar such as the gimp
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
A. After any changes always commit and save
B. Please do not publish this tutorial on any pay site
C. Ask questions if you get stuck
D. Please do not publicly critise the technique in this tutorial, if you know of another technique write your own tutorial.
E. If you think I have missed something please tell me
:alarm: F. "Legacy" Nvidia DDS Utilities:alarm: legacy dds utilities (http://developer.nvidia.com/object/dds_utilities_legacy.html)
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
:alarm: Some objects may be too complex for this method. If you do find problems you may have to clone the object and edit the alpha channel or create a new mesh.
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
The object transparency tutorial.v1 rar file contains a web/html document so you will need to be connected to the internet to view the graphics with a web browser such as internet explorer 7. As they are hosted on photo bucket.(once you have extracted it to your pc right click and open)
The adding glass transparent effects contains a word document so you will need a programme that can open this kind of file

If you have found this tutorial usefull and have had success, let me know in the thread. And please say thanks. :Pint:



-----
Tutorials:Object_Transparency_Tutorial

[mike19]

Here are some examples of what can be done using the method in the tutorial/s

[IgnorantBliss]

Yay, thank you for reposting the tutorial, it has been much needed :).

[kihaad]

I have a problem

When I set stdMatAlphaBlendMode in Blend, all the object It's strange...
I want to make only the blanket transparent

http://digilander.libero.it/Ronjaa/FotoVarie/strae.jpg

Why?

[mike19]

where does that bed come from?


at the moment all i can say is it must be something you havent got right.
as i just checked in my screen shot. if you edit a beding texture from an original in game bed then the texture is applied to all beds includeing custom beds.

also i notice the colour in your screen shot is still there last time i got the dxt incorect it showed up on the game black not with the original colors.
have you recolored the texture correctly and did you get a checkerboard effect? i know it appears in paint shop pro but it may depend on what you used to edit the texture.

[kihaad]

I have changed the stdMatAlphaBlendMode in Blend to create a trasparent blanket.
I use gimp 2 for texturing. I Mapping the bed ( the blanket etc...), but I see semi-trasparent all object! ( the cuscions are behind the espalier et...)

[JohnBrehaut1]

That happens with multi-subset objects. They dont support transperancy, except only when using the material definition (not a texture).

[mike19]

i'm afraid it does look like you cant edit the texture in that object. the beds that i tested on have a seperate texture for the bedding. the bed and legs etc are in another seperate texture.
and as i did say at the top of this page:
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
Some objects may be too complex for this method. If you do find problems you may have to clone the object and edit the alpha channel.
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
but as this seems to be a new object your using and not a clone from a game version i dont know you will get any where with it.

[kihaad]

I create this bed by clone object. I would like create a trasparent blanket. Is not possible?
Maybe, us they must be a different part of object...as an example , the bed i'ts composite of two part of objectm frame and bedding, but it's usable only frame, because bedding it's s part of animation.


Excuse me, but I don't speak very well english ;)

[mike19]

you normally need at least two seperate textures, 1 for the bed and another for the bed sheets, from the the texture you have shown it looks like it only has one texture for the bed and bed sheets.
have a look at the screenshots of the test bed i made it shows the texture for the bed and a texture for the beding.
if you do only have one texture perhaps you need to change it so it will have two so it will only be the bed sheets you edit.

[kihaad]

I have tried to make therefore: There are two part of an object, in one I use ONLY texture without trasparent , in two I modify the material definion in Blend, for trasparent.
But I have however the problem that I have made to see.
I see many site that they succeeded to make it.

In the example of the bed , I cannot make what you have said , because the the blanket is part of the first group of objects.

I have read that it must modify the alpha channel, there is a tutorial?

[mike19]

uhm
if you like i'll take a closer look at the file/s
then we may get past what neither of us understand, be it down to language or the tutorial.
send me the file in a rar or winzip if you like pm me for my email address with

or if you have seen success in other objects have a look at them with simpe and see what was done.
if it's any consulation before i worked out this tutorials technique i originally took 3 weeks to make my first transparent/see through object as there was no tutorial or advice available and thats what prompted me to write what i know. there is claimed to be other way's but mine is what i can deal with it's not fool proof and i am happy to help as much possible.

have a look at this link it's one of my first attempts at this idea
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=67747
it's awfull by comparison now, but i made it and it still gets downloads now and then.

[TXSundown]

:help:

I started doing your transparency tutorial last night but still can't get to the recoloring stage. I do not get the Generic RCOL Editor up in the Plug In window like you show so I can't select "Blend". I've checked all over the SimPE site and even downloaded and printed out manuals and tutorials for SimPE but nowhere do I see how to get this RCOL editor. I've even reinstalled SimPE but still don't see it.

[mike19]

with your file open in simpe, up on top left under resource tree, . make sure you highlight material definition. then on the right under resource list highlight the txmt .you should see something like:
beddoublecolonial-[mike190870-23.2.2007-142f23]_frame_rosewood_txmt
then at the bottom you should see the stdMatAlphaBlendMode properties in the list in plugin view.make sure you have selected the content & properties tab
if you still cant see it then you may need to post for help in another thread with simpe

[RealGanacampo]

I got a question:

What do I have to do in my graphic editor to get the checkerboard effect?

[mike19]

I got a question:

What do I have to do in my graphic editor to get the checkerboard effect?

depends on what programme your using


also make sure you have followed step.......
9 & then 10.

Underneath in plugin view change the value from none to blend

(just type blend in to the value box) click commit & save the file. Then repeat for the other material definition ............

and through to step 12
if you are using paintshop pro you will see the checkerboard effect if you are using another programme then as long as you have followed the tutorial then you should have no problem. regardless of the programme you use. any programme that can handle the png format and transparency will be ok.

[Crissie0721]

I thought I had it all figured out! lol Somehow the two smaller versions of this curtain turned out just fine, but why did it make the double one look inside out? :faceslap:

[mike19]

i'm not sure what you mean. I can't see a problem. Or maybe i need new galssses. Without spending the next hour experimenting and trying to duplicate what you have done i cant give an answer with the info so far.

[billielith]

Thanks for the tutorial. I might use this a lot.

[Turenz93]

How does SimPE work?? I can't realy figure out :(

[niol]

Crissie0721,

curtains like windows can be placed from both sides of the wall, may ensure they're placed from the same side.


Turenz93,
may read this tutorial
http://www.modthesims2.com/member/showthread.php?t=31995

[Crissie0721]

mike19:
I've tried again with the same results. Maybe this picture will display my problem a little better. I used the Floor Length Tie back curtains knowing that the texture is lended to the Sill Length and Doublewide as well. The floor length and sill length turn out just fine, but the doublewide looks like the swag portion is behind the sheers instead of in front. Any ideas why?

niol:
thanks but they are all on the inside ....

[mike19]

well i have no idea, apart from maybe it's the way the texture was originally mapped. But i have a suggestion...
that is to leave the sheers as a solid colour

[niol]

The upper piece of the 2-tiled curtain is meshed differently from the 1-tiled one.
I also think mike's suggestion is a neat one.

As for some unmapped region of a mesh, one may try the StdMatCullMode none.
http://www.sims2wiki.info/TXMT/Parameters/StdMatCullMode
Either add or edit the line "StdMatCullMode" to be "none" @ the txmt file.
This can be tried on this instance to see if anything happens, too. I'm unsure tho.

[tiggerypum]

Mike, that sort of defeats the idea of making sheers, yes?
There is a problem in general with using the 'blend' setting, which is that pieces that overlap each other with blend sometimes will display as these curtains are - something about the order of how the pieces were made will change how they display in game.
Unless you made the curtains mesh and thus can remake it Crissie, I think those curtains will have to not use blend.

But if you want to *shorten* them (or put holes in them), you can do that by setting
stdMatAlphaBlendMode:none
stdMatAlphaTestEnabled:1

and then keep everything solid and erase the parts you don't want to show (if it's a png) That setting will work with objects where blend makes a mess.

[Crissie0721]

Thanks for the advice and instruction tiggerypum... I'll try to play around with it and see what I can come up with...

Thanks mike19 and niol for reading and responding.. I appreciate it... maybe if it is the mesh that's different if I recolor the actual double wide cutains it will look right... hmmm can't hurt me to try...

[tish85]

thanx so much,this is more then usefull! :up:

[dalesandbergtheone]

so im new here and i can get through step 14 in the tutorial fine, but at step fifteen i get lost. I have the textures exported in png format, now the tutorial jumps ove what to do when recoloring the object. it just tells you to reimport it. what do i do? :!:

[mike19]

this tutorial was written with the assumption that you would already know how to do basic recolours.
so as step 14 says
===================
Give this file a name you will find easy like I did: make sure it saves with a png format preferably

in the folder which you chose at the beginning. Don’t forget when you finish with your graphics editor to save in the png format

Guess what you got to repeat again for the other image
===================
Then if you are not sure what to do try
Recolouring Objects with Object Workshop (NEW tutorial) By numenor (http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=102356)
--------
PLEASE note this is not a difinative guide as simpe and other ep's progress other slightly more complicated methods can be applied but this tutorial i wrote is a good start.

[Rainncandy]

What about making an object transparent that has it's UV map part of a bigger item - meaning that both of the objects are on the same UV map, but you only want to make ONE of the objects transparent. Is that possible? Or would I need to make the object separate from the bigger item and give each of them their own UV maps?

For example, I made an entertainment center, and I want the shelves on the top part to be like glass (transparent), but the entire entertainment center is mapped all together. Would I need to separate the shelves from the entertainment center and make its own UV map or what?

[mike19]

with this method you would need two seperate textures.
(Unless the non transparent colour was very dark. Although still it may appear transparent when you zoom in close to the object).

you would have the same situation as in my post number two where the curtains are a seperate texture from the tub.

[jennikj1975]

When trying to download the pdf file, I got the following errors, and I don't have Word so I can't use the tutorial in that format...I used to know how to make parts of an object transparent using the old tutorial, but I need a refresher course...any way to help me so I can see the document? Or a link to the old tutorial? Thanks!

! C:\Documents and Settings\Sims 2\Desktop\MTS2_467585_mike19_adding_glass_transparent_effects-pdf.rar: Unexpected end of archive
! C:\Documents and Settings\Sims 2\Desktop\MTS2_467585_mike19_adding_glass_transparent_effects-pdf.rar: CRC failed in adding glass transparent effects-pdf.pdf. The file is corrupt
! C:\Documents and Settings\Sims 2\Desktop\MTS2_467585_mike19_adding_glass_transparent_effects-pdf.rar: Unexpected end of archive

[mike19]

i have added a zip version
if that doesnt work for you it's probably whatever you are using to unzip the documents which is a web page (html document) that can be opened via internet explorer.

but if that fails i just reinstated the old web version for you:

http://transparent-sims2.tripod.com/index
it's still relevant but a little outdated compared to what you get via this thread.

[jennikj1975]

Thanks!

[stonekeeper]

I opened the tutorial in word but no pictures show up, it is an htlm doc. Can you fix it to work in word with the pictures showing ?

Thank you
Stonekeeper :help:

[mike19]

I opened the tutorial in word but no pictures show up, it is an htlm doc. Can you fix it to work in word with the pictures showing ?

Asuming you are talking about the transparency tutorial, please read what it says at the top of the page.

The object transparency tutorial.v1 rar file contains a web/html document so you will need to be connected to the internet to view the graphics with a web browser such as internet explorer 7. As they are hosted on photo bucket.(once you have extracted it to your pc right click and open)

[stonekeeper]

I have made a table lamp with a chimney in the top of it. I want to be able to see it but not in solid color. I want to be able to see it, not for it to disappear what would I do to succeed at this?

Dave

[mike19]

Stonekeeper
did you succed with the tutorial?
It may help if you give a bit more info about your object like:
what was it originally cloned from
what EP was it originally from
also
maybe post the object on this thread in a rar or zip folder and i'll see if i can take a look.

[fovex]

It didn't remove the wright part. I'm recoloring the base of the food processor that came with the base game.
http://chii.modthesims2.com/getfile.php?file=744749

[bluetexasbonnie]

That tells you that the you didn't guess right about which bit of the texture goes where. Figuring out how a texture is mapped to the object is sometimes very frustrating. Try, try again.

[fovex]

That tells you that the you didn't guess right about which bit of the texture goes where. Figuring out how a texture is mapped to the object is sometimes very frustrating. Try, try again.Um, even the entire texture makes only the handle disapear.

[mike19]

if you are trying to change the proccessor to invisible or give it a transparent base.
make sure that you have set the stdMatAlphaBlendMode to blend
for the material definition (txmt) the one with _base_txmt on the end of the name.
And for the texture image (TXTR) the DXT3Format is set.

And dont forget to commit and save when ever you change stuff.

[fovex]

if you are trying to change the proccessor to invisible or give it a transparent base.
make sure that you have set the stdMatAlphaBlendMode to blend
for the material definition (txmt) the one with _base_txmt on the end of the name.
And for the texture image (TXTR) the DXT3Format is set.

And dont forget to commit and save when ever you change stuff.
Everythings like that. I've attached the package so that you could see if I did anything wrong.

[mike19]

You have got it half right, you have the TXMT set to BLEND. And the TXTR is set to DXT Format is correct.
:alarm: But you have no ALPHA in your TXMT's which also means you have no ALPHA in your MMAT's :alarm:
Maybe you deleted them but as far as i can see that may well be your problem.

Have a look at my version.

[maxinerei]

Hello can i ask you why my simpe doesnt have build DXT,,?? when i import the .png image.. and imported the new texture,.. u know.. please help me,.

[HugeLunatic]

You need to download and install the nvidia dds utilities as stated in the first post.

http://developer.nvidia.com/object/dds_utilities_legacy.html

[maxinerei]

Hello.. ive installed the nvidia utilies in my pc., but still theres no menu build dxt,? where should i installed this utilities???

[Bea_ap80]

I have create a tutorial in spanish, "How to create objects with invisivble and transparency recolor", you can find it here:

http://www.simcontrol.es/web/foro/48-tutoriales/38221-tutorial-recolorear-invisible-y-transparente#38221

Thank you for your help mike!

Bea :rofl:

[delonariel]

It seems that the images on photobucket have expired. Is it possible to get this tutorial updated?

[knowledgeSim]

I downloaded the object transparency tutorial but unfortunately it's an HTM file... bad idea.
The pictures are gone and looks quite caotic this way. A pity, it looked like another nice tutorial from mike19.
Anyway, collecting pieces of information around the web works too, so it's no big deal it just takes more time.

[Pixelhate]

May I suggest to have a look at part 3 of this tutorial (http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=316260) ?

[knowledgeSim]

Thanks! I've already found it but I didn't know where to start reading it! (I'll read all...) :)