I knew when I posted the plugins that someone would find something that I didn't test, or a file that follows a slightly different track than normal, and I have been right so far.

I tried the weld and unweld, but I didn't see any improvement in the file. I have some changes I am testing that repair the damage caused by a weld left welded on the seams, but essentially you end up with a file that has as many vertices as you started with, and no guarantee that it won't have some shadows in places that shouldn't (like the hems).
So I would stay away from welding as a practice, at least on modifying existing meshes (custom built-from-scratch stuff and expert UV remapping is another story). You can actually take it off the menu if you use the plugin and shortcut manager.

And besides the extra bone assignments being lost in MilkShape on a regroup, they also get lost if you use Duplicate Selection. Mete at MilkShape is aware of the situation now. I didn't ask about when he would fix it, and he didn't say, but he has the ball in his court right now.
<* Wes *>

Wow, you're really fast with your replies. Thanks so much You put me on the right track. I was able to import the game files into Milkshape with no problem. I'll definitely look up Neptune Suzy's tutorial. Thanks again.

Doc, I have done everything you have said and my hair still didn't take the effect. I even started a new project from scratched, used the mirror in the game...no luck. 1 picture is the hair will the clipping effect still, second picture is the bodyshop shot.
I have attached a zip file of the mesh and recolor package, and the GMDC of the mesh. Hopefully you can take a look, thanks.

Tigs:
I am curious... did you rework the hair mesh bone assignment successfully?
I had it all assigned to head, and kept moving it (the whole mesh selected)around up and forward trying to close the gap. I never got the location quite right, but it worked fine otherwise.
<* Wes *>

I am not a hair expert, or even a good artixt, but all the alpha groups have comments showing Opacity -1, which is the same as 0xFFFFFFFF, solid.
Most of the hair groups I see have 11 assigned to the alpha11 group, etc. to get that layered look.
Maybe I'm off base, but the fields in the group comments (for each group) are just text data that 'guides' the exporter to generate something like what was imported. If you change the Opacity: -1 line to Opacity 11, that is what you'll get in the exported file. And similar changes to the other alpha ones may get you the effect you are looking for.
<* Wes *>

Just this morning I got a working mesh! I think that I had 'ignore backfaces' selected so when I selected all the points by doing a click drag with the mouse, that I missed a bunch of them, and so I still had some animation bone assignments causing problems. This is the theory anyway.

You couldn't fix the hairline because it's a girl mesh on a guy's head, it actually required editing editing.

I actually had a completed version of that mesh that I'd made with your original plugin, and I added the new bone assignments following Dr. Pixel's instructions in this thread. I also edited in the transparency values in the comments, because I knew I'd be saving and reloading that mesh who knows how many times.

Now I need to repeat the process for the adult mesh (I'm also lengthening it, as I now can give it better bone assignments) Getting the bone assignments on hair is a fussy thing, because the neck can move so many different ways. I ended up with different values for each row up and down the neck area.

Soon, soon I will have a mesh to release! My first hair!!! (as the other I never got to release, this plugin came out just after I had finished it)

Charlie, both the separate mesh file and the one inside your .package have only single vertex assignments.

When you are using the bone tool, you must click [Commit] on each assignment change before going to the next vertex. You must also be sure to exit the bone tool by using [Commit All] or none of the changes will be taken by the mesh.

Doc, I did what you said about commit each vertex assignment, apply all and commit all. Still, no changes. Any reason why?

The only thing I can think of is that you may have exported the file to a different folder.

Both MilkShape and SimPE have an annoying habit of exporting files to the last place you exported to, rather than the folder you just imported from.

I have wound up loosing files or importing an un-altered file I thought I had just edited several times because I wasn't paying attention where they were being saved or opened from.

Nope, right folder. I am still having problems with it taking no effect whatsoever.
Heres the GMDC that I started over again. And how can you tell it has secondary assignments?

I'm using Milkshape 1.7.7a and using the 4.01 version of the bonetool
I hope you can explain what I did wrong here or what I missed. :salute:

Wes,

Thank you! I have just managed to modify 3 different meshes - things that I have tried to do for the past several months but they never, ever looked right.

They look perfect! I am SO impressed with what you & Mete have done.

I also have a general question - perhaps for the others. How do you handle UV mapping? I have Ultimate UnWrap & I've figured it out (pretty much) but I'm still not sure how to handle the import/exports. Do you all export OBJ from Milkshape? or 3ds? After yuo manipulate the UV mapping - what settings do you use to save it back to Milkshape & what exactly do I do to get the new UV mapping associated with the Milkshape file? Lastly, before you save the mesh, are you supposed to unassign the texture or does it matter?

Sorry, I know these are very basic questions but I just haven't been able to figure it out & I'm one of those people who needs to understand how something works.

Well, I thank you for the kind words, and I am glad that you have been able to put my efforts to good use.
But, I am a toolmaker, and alas, not much of an artist. I have never used anything to UV map except the one in MilkShape, which is more primitive than the specific UV mapper programs.
Since I am not a good artist, I tend to import existing objects and tweak them. Some of the objects I have made from scratch just used the default UV points from the Texture Coordinate editor. I used a cropped screenshot of them on a blank white background, then used that as a layer in paint shop pro to paint the colors between the lines. Primitive, but effective.

I remember Dr. Pixel posting a message, further back in this thread, about importing a .obj file using the same name as an existing group. That may be of some use to you.

<* Wes *>

Morague,

I use LithUnwrap so it shouldn't be very different; I export the meshes from Milkshape as OBJ, and save them also as OBJ in LithUnwrap when I'm done - I usually check everything in the export box, but then I often end up with a bunch of unneeded materials in Milkshape if there are several groups, that I have to delete... When you import the OBJ in Milkshape, the uv-map is okay, but now the newest Milkshape welds the uv-coordinates of all welded parts on export; so to avoid a messed-up uv-map later I first re-smooth the mesh if it needs it (LithUnwrap has its own settings for smoothing, sometimes it's okay and even fixes things, but not always) then I unweld and reweld SEPARATELY the parts that aren't contiguous on the texture before importing the OBJ into the main mesh.
Msd files work as well, but they keep some information that LithUnwrap won't deal with (assignments and such); so if your parts were already assigned you'll have to reassign them anyway.

And yes, Wes is right, in order to avoid losing all your assignments when regrouping, Dr Pixel advises to give your new parts the same group name as your main mesh, so they'll fuse when you import the OBJ.

My understanding is that you uv map the new part (that will be saved as an obj) onto a map/graphic that is identical in size to the map of the body (in this case its 1024x1024) and you uv map the object to some of the unused space.
Then when you read the obj file in (see Dr Pixel's tutorial about doing the shoe replacement on his site) its mapping will be combined with the existing mapping for the body.

Another trick is useful when it comes to add new parts to a body: you can include the surrounding parts of the main mesh in the OBJ file, so you'll be able to map your new parts seamlessly in the existing uv-map, using the "weld uv-coordinates" option; then you delete these parts before importing back your OBJ.

What I do, personally, is use the UV_mapper that is built into MilkShape.

The problem with using an external uv_mapper is that there is critical bone information in each bone's comment section, needed for exporting the mesh correctly, that will be lost if you export the mesh in any other format except .ms3d, such as .obj, 3ds, or any of the rest of them.

Since the comments sections are a relatively new feature in MilkShape, even LithunWrap, which can import/export .ms3d files, will lose these comments.

With a non-boned object, or even a "boned" object, it's not too difficult to replace these comments because even boned objects have only a few bones.

With a body, hair, or accessory mesh this is a serious drawback since there are 65 bone comments that would need replacing.

And when doing body parts it's generally best to leave the original uv_mapping alone for the most part - uv_mapping organic, rounded, curved, body parts is not anywhere as simple as uv_mapping objects.

So, I stick with the built-in uv_mapper in MilkShape for all my uv_mapping.
It's not as feature-ridden as other uv_mappers, but I find it useful enough for what I am doing.

But keep in mind that I don't follow the same uv_mapping method most people use, where the uv_mapping is considered a final step after the entire mesh is made

I much prefer uv_mapping the parts as I create them in most cases rather than after the whole mesh is completely done. Usually I uv_map each part as soon as I have it "shaped", while it is still straight, before I rotate and move it around to line up with the body. I find this much more flexible that trying to uv_map them after the whole mesh is done

I do use LithunWrap to generate a uv_map image (for use in PSP when skinning the mesh) from the completed .ms3d file, but only after-the-fact, I never export the mesh from LithUnwrap.

Now, if you are doing an object (as in non-body-part) mesh, or want to use an external uv_mapper on a new part that will later be added into an existing group your mesh, you can export it as an .obj file and re-import this later - but do be aware that any vertex assignments the part had will be lost, and will need replacing.

Hi guys!

What do you advice for the neck area in a hairmesh, when the neck is exposed? Even when copying the way maxis has done it, (the very lower 5 vertices of the neck 50% neck, 50% head) the part I edited just floats in the air when my sims look up, down, left right, etc.

Maybe I can send someone my files so they can show me how to do it? I would appriciate any help !

Greetz from Nouk

Thanks everyone. I'll have to spend some time with Milkshape's UV mapping utility & see what I can come up with.

I'm just thrilled at this point to actually be able to get something to work correctly! Thanks again Wes - you did a terrific job.

Morague

OK, this one does have the extra vertex assignments. The way to tell is to import the GMDC again, and select some vertices that do have multiple assignments, then look in the bone tool (see pic). If a vertice shows 100% on the first bone, and nothing on the next two it has no secondary assignments. The one shown in the pic has a second assignment, and a third.

Now, on to your problem - it looks like yo did exactly what I did - but that was just a starting point, it definately isn't going to work on a mesh like this.

You have to consider how the Sim will move their head in the game, and how the hair should act. In the mesh I showed as an example, the front "dangly" parts all stop short of the shoulders, so I want them to follow the movements of the head with a slight influence by the neck.

But yours has parts falling down on the chest - I would try doing a gradual assignment "fade" from 100% head to 100% spine_2 down the front parts of the mesh.

I would start around the cheekbone area, and go to just above the shoulder/chest area.

And keep in mind that this is going to require some trial and error - this is all new, we have never been able to do this before. Don't expect instant results.

A good thing to do would be to examine some un-altered Maxis meshes and see how they did it.

Also observe some un-altered Maxis meshes carefully in the game. Even Maxis wasn't able to make them all animate perfectly at all times.

Wes, you are great! Thanks so much for all your effort.

I was sad to hear about bumpmapping but I'll get over it.

Perhaps I'll do something worth posting soon. <fingers crossed>

I just edited an older hair mesh I did with an exposed neck, and it works perfectly.

Things to check:

* If this is a mesh you had already edited with the earlier plugins, it is going to import with incorrect comments. Check the comments of each group and make sure the "NumSkinWgts:" is set to 3. If not, change it. Otherwise your new vertex assignments will be lost.

This is also a good time to make sure the Opacity is set correctly.
The group "hair" is always set to -1
The "alpha" groups should be set the same as their name indicates, for example "hair_alpha5" should have Opacity set to 5. This has nothing to do with the assignments, but it will prevent other problems.

* When you are editing with the BoneTool be sure to click on [Commit] every time you change a vertex information. If you go to the next vertex without clicking [Commit] the changes are lost.

* Always exit the BoneTool with [Commit All] - if you exit with [Cancel] all changes are lost. [Cancel] is only used if you made a mistake and don't want to keep the changes.

* To check your mesh, after exporting it use "Delete All" on MilkShape's menu - then import it again. Select the vertices you know were changed, and look in the BoneTool to be sure they are still the way you set them.

If this doesn't help, please post your file here and I will look at it.

I don’t mean to clutter the thread but I never thanked Dr pixel and Wes for helping me with the whole problem, I was away from a computer for some time and I never expected this to be solved so quickly so again thank you guys so much!!

I have pointed out the issue that assignments disappear with regroup and "duplicate selection" to Mete at MilkShape, so they should be repaired sometime in the future. He forgot to add a few code lines to include the etra assignment data when the copies are made (essentially, that's what both functions do, regroup copies and deletes, duplicate selection just copies).
<* Wes *>

Hi Wes,

Ok - you know that thing about the FAT & the PREG comments being mixed up? Well it is actually mixing them up. I have attached my file. It is designed to modify all of the female silk pjs - make the legs & arms longer.

Anyway, put it into your Downloads or SavedSims, fire up Body Shop & choose the adult female. Get her into the classic silk pjs & then make her fat & you'll see that it is using the pregnant morph not the fat morph.

When I imported the Elder GMDC I got a message about one of the morphs not being necessary - that the game would not use that morph for this mesh (or something like that)

So, I haven't experimented with these yet. I'm going to go try switching the comments around to see if that makes any difference. But as it now stands - fat morphs are actually the pregnant state & the pregnant morph is the fat state.

Sigh... it seems I’ve spoken way to soon. I typed that last message as I was pulling milkshape up and well my results aren’t exactly like everyone else’s. The body shows up and so dose the areas that iv used the bone tool with but nothing else is showing (its pretty bad right now the areas that iv used the tool on seem to make my female look like she suddenly gained male umm "parts" keeping it G rated here haha) but is there any way you think I can fix this? If you need me too I can post the package again here.