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Field Researcher
Original Poster
#1 Old 24th Jul 2016 at 10:20 PM Last edited by AuzzPanda : 31st Jul 2016 at 12:06 AM.
Default Joints=Transperancy?
Hello!

Why in the name of flying baboons does it happen that when I assign neck joints to the scalp, it causes wierd transperancy?

This is the hair with the scalp (By scalp I mean a duplicate of the scalp, then hair-ifying it) where it is ONLY assigned to the head. Nothing else.


THEN, since I don't want my sim having a gash on her neck, I grab the a few of the bottom line of vertices, and assign them 50% head and 50% neck.
BUT, it makes this happen!


It makes every face connected to those vertices show through all the layers.
I made sure to make it opaque.

Any ideas ? :D
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Not actually evil.
#2 Old 9th Aug 2016 at 3:57 PM
Never seen this with neck bones before but I'll hazard a guess. Did you make sure the scalp part of the hair and the loose hanging part of the hair are different groups? Did you assign different transparency priority numbers to those groups? You want the loose hair to be "on top" or "outer". To see how this is done, you can take a look at some of the hair tutorials or my alpha skirt tutorial, although the skirt won't have any neck bones. It may be helpful to find a hair mesh and recolor and take a look at them in MilkShape and SimPE to see how they are put together and what the transparency numbers are set to.

See the red top your sim is wearing? It has an opaque layer around the torso. That layer has no transparency and the material is sim skin. The red top also has an alpha layer. It is a separate group, has a different transparency number (see MilkShape), and the material is sim standard material (see SimPE).

If you have already done all that correctly, I can't think what the problem might be. In that case, may want to upload your package so folks can take a look and find the issue.

Please spay or neuter your pets. --- Cat Music Video! --- my meshes
Field Researcher
Original Poster
#3 Old 11th Aug 2016 at 8:07 PM
Quote: Originally posted by CatOfEvilGenius
....


Hi!
I retraced all of your suggestions, but they were all correct!
So I decided to take someone else's mesh and see what would happen.
This hair didn't have any animation bones so I thought I'd give it some. It's nymphy's Nouk re-make;



It can't be an animation bone problem because it happens with the neck and other stuff too...
Do you think it could simply be that my MilkShape is... Corrupted?

Hehe yeah thanks for the gorgeous tunic and the help!
Lab Assistant
#4 Old 19th Aug 2016 at 10:38 PM
Can you describe more in detail the steps you took? Maybe pictures of the groups, comments, or the mesh info under the debug tab in SimPE?
Field Researcher
Original Poster
#5 Old 21st Aug 2016 at 3:44 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Surei
Can you describe more in detail the steps you took? Maybe pictures of the groups, comments, or the mesh info under the debug tab in SimPE?


Okay the steps I took went like this:
-Open body shop, export blonde version, name it, import to game and everything
-Do the whole SimPE process. So starting a new file, extracting the texture file, I deleted all except AF (Which is the wrong thing to do if you want to make it available for other ages, right?), saved, fixed integrity, saved, then went to the texture file and linked it to the mesh (Deleting all ages except AF), fixed the family d-string, as well as the flags, then changed the texture image.
-Alright then I extracted the GMDC, imported it to MilkShape with the sims 2 unimeshimport, and then exported it one by one as a SMD.

-Then Blender comes in! I start a new file, get rid of the random cube and import the SMD. It imports with the skeleton and everythings good.
-Then I do my horrible meshing skills and mesh-ify a hair shape with planes.
-THEN, I parent with empty groups to the skeleton, making sure to select the skeleton last
-I also grabed each mesh part and assigned it completely to the head.
-THEN I export them as SMD
-Milkshape is opened, and I import each SMD.
-I then just start assigning! I used head, l_hair, B_Hair, and F_hair.
-I export it with sims2 unimeshexporter, open SimPE, copy the filename, rightclick on the GMDC, choose replace, look for the new mesh, click Ok, then paste the new filename, and fix the opacity values.
-I open up the game and its all good! No transperancy or anything. But I am unhappy with the joints, the animation bones weren't quite right, and even though you couldn't notice it that much, I hadn't assigned a bit of the ''hair'' group to the neck.
-So then I export the mesh, open it in MilkShape and re-assign. (Mabye I didn't have to export the mesh, and just open it in milkshape, for I had saved it)
-Replace in SimPE -And that's when the transperancy comes in.

Phew haha

Okay here are some specs of the mesh! (It's super high poly for such a simple, small mesh)



The hair_alpha3 is a duplicate of all of the groups with the normals flipped over.
The hair alpha_5's have the same name but the opacity in each of them is different. It should be alright I hope because it did work in the first place. I used Nouk's tutorial for help!
http://modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=280447

Now something strange I find is that in the joints tab here, it isn't showing ''B_hair'' which is one I assigned it too...


Okay. Bleh, sorry for the huge information spam >_< But thanks so much!
Lab Assistant
#6 Old 22nd Aug 2016 at 12:45 AM
In MS under the joints tab check "Draw vertex weights" and hide the skeleton if it's in the way. Select the bones you assigned the hair to view the weights (b_hair, f_hair, r_hair, l_hair). If you select l_hair for example, and there's hair weighted on the right side and vise versa that may be your problem. Make sure the parts of the hair are assigned to the correct bones.

You also may want to have SimPE in advanced mode.
Field Researcher
Original Poster
#7 Old 23rd Aug 2016 at 7:56 PM


So strange! I was showing the differences between the working file, and the other non-working file. This is the working one. When I click on ''show'' it shows the right assignments and everything:


All I did, was load up this mesh, change some bone assignments, nothing else.
Then I get the transperancy BUT I did notice 2 things:
1) EXACTLY in the part in which I did not assign any new joints, but keep the same ones from the working file, were the only ones that WERE animated. Everything else I changed was stiff and stuck to the head. (and well transperant)
2) When I loaded up this mesh in MS again, I grabbed some of the vertices whom's assignments I know I changed, clicked on ''show'', and all it did was show me the head assignments. It had nothing else.


I thought that mabye what you had to do was to get rid of all of it's previous assignments from before... I had tried making all the vertices assigned to ''head'' first and then change, but it made it all stiff aswell I recall.
Lab Assistant
#8 Old 24th Aug 2016 at 10:20 PM
Did you see any gradient weights when "Draw vertex weights" was checked?

In the picture b_hair is selected. Are the vertices highlighted in red assigned to that joint?

Also, are you assigning weights to one group and duplicating it to flip its normals (the preferred way)? Or are the assigning weights both the group and its duplicate separately (this could cause problems)?
Field Researcher
Original Poster
#9 Old 25th Aug 2016 at 5:14 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Surei
Did you see any gradient weights when "Draw vertex weights" was checked?

In the picture b_hair is selected. Are the vertices highlighted in red assigned to that joint?

Also, are you assigning weights to one group and duplicating it to flip its normals (the preferred way)? Or are the assigning weights both the group and its duplicate separately (this could cause problems)?


When I checked ''Draw vertex weights'' the whole thing just went a ligther shade of grey, and if I tried draw with bone colours they were all 1 colour (Well on the bad version...)

Mmmh all of the side vertices I assigned to it's coressponding horizontal animation hair! (Meaning left side of the hair was assigned to l_hair, whilst right was r_hair)

Ooh... Thats interesting! I actually haven't been duplicating. I mean I have all groups showing, and assign. You're saying that I should delete the one with the normals showing ''inside'', then re-make it?
Lab Assistant
#10 Old 26th Aug 2016 at 1:05 PM
Quote: Originally posted by AuzzPanda
When I checked ''Draw vertex weights'' the whole thing just went a ligther shade of grey, and if I tried draw with bone colours they were all 1 colour (Well on the bad version...)


The lighter shade of gray implies no weights assigned for the joint selected.

Quote:
Ooh... Thats interesting! I actually haven't been duplicating. I mean I have all groups showing, and assign. You're saying that I should delete the one with the normals showing ''inside'', then re-make it?


Yes, to ensure that the weights are the same for both groups. Still keep track of the opacity of each group.
Field Researcher
Original Poster
#11 Old 26th Aug 2016 at 5:14 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Surei
The lighter shade of gray implies no weights assigned for the joint selected.
Yes, to ensure that the weights are the same for both groups. Still keep track of the opacity of each group.


That makes sense, I think it's what I used to do, but for some reason am not doing it with this hair. I'll let you know!
Field Researcher
Original Poster
#12 Old 20th Sep 2016 at 8:58 PM
Hi,
I'm devastated. My computer had to be re-formatted, so I have lost EVERY single program and every single bit of CC I was working on.
I really want to keep on going, but honestly, I feel like I'm hopeless at this anyways, lol!
I ran into doubts every single minute I passed working on it. I will give it another try in the future though of course. At least I'm satisfied to know a tiny bit about how objects are created. Well, at least basic alpha hairs. Which I never understood, is something considered to be alpha when the texture has transparency, or when it's made with planes? I'm guessing it's the transparency. Which is interesting because the Sims Medieval looks like the hair itself was made just like TS4 hairs. I don't know what pre-made shape they use to make those, cylinders? But the texture has transparency and realism, unlike TS4. Hm!
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