Hi

Assuming that two meshes are identical in terms of vertice count and polygon count (in effect the same mesh) I was wondering if it was possible to somehow transfer the bones from the original onto the newly created mesh in milkshape without reassigning them by hand?

The reason for this is that I want to take a dress mesh, export it out of Milkshape as an obj file and reshape it in another program, before exporting it back in to Milkshape and continuing

The only way I can think of doing this would be to split each assigned bone group into different groups by regrouping it so that when I reimport back into milkshape I can just select the relevant group and assign it to the correct bone group, but I don't know how to get smaller groups out of a larger group in milkshape, or if it is even possible (I'd be interested in knowing that too)



Any thoughts?

I do not know all of it, but to get your smaller groups in Milkshape: under Model Tab select the faces you want in your smaller group and under Groups tab hit Regroup. That will form a new group with the selected faces. You can now Rename your group so you will remember what it is for.

It is possible but i am not 100% sure if it will kill the relation with the morphs or not....
You need to install Wes his Unimesh sims 2 plugin but those prolly already come with Milkshape.

Import your mesh with Wes his GEOM plugin
Export the mesh as body.objx( sims 2 unimesh objx data split export V4.09)
export the mesh as body.obj file(Wavefront obj)

Edit your mesh to your liking with any other program, when done export as obj file and overwrite the body.obj you used as base.

Back in Milkshape:
Import the custumized body.obj(Wavefront obj)
Import the body.objx
Check if the mesh has boneassignements.
FIX!! the meshcomments(they will be gone)
Export as GEOM using Wes his GEOM exporter.


Edits to the base mesh(without adding vertices) gets automaticly aplied to the morphs when using CTU.
If you are working with TSRW you need to reimport(and update) the morphs aswell
Updating the morphs is easy(in theory...haven't tried it yet) but i know how to do it.
Let me know if i need to explaine the TSRW way.



Edit,
Did a small test with TSRW meshes and it works.
If you make changes to the base mesh as obj file you can later make the same changes(with one click ) to the morphs with Wes H his morphmangle tool

Thank you,

SJBequeath, thank you, your reply helped me figure out what was wrong I think, you can only regroup faces from what I can tell? As you can only select the vertices assigned to bones that would be why I could never get it to regroup that way.

BloomsBase thank you so much, your reply is going to save me so much time and agravation. I'm working with TSRW. I did have to insert one step before importing back into milkshape as my editing program removes the normals, throwing up an error when I imported the .objx, but I was able to rebuild the normals, after that everything was fine.

If I am working with TSRW do I still need to update the comments? And I would be very interested to hear your theory on updating the morphs.

TSRW:

Export the original mesh out of TSRW
Import the original mesh in Milkshape
Delete the 4 morphs
Export as WSO file first!
Start new and import the WSO file with the one group(base) back again.
Export as objx(name it body.objx)
export as obj(name it body.obj)

Edit you obj file in another program.
export as obj, overwriting the one you started with.

Back in Milkshape:
Import your custom edited obj file
Import the objx file
Check if the bones are there
Export as WSO file(no need for the comments)

Start new in Milkshape
Import the original mesh with morphs(WSO file) you first exported from TSRW.
Import your custom WSO file
Duplicate the original base_group(not your custom one)
Rename the duplicate to ''reference''
Delete the original base_group
Use morphmangle from the menu
If you have done it all correctly all edits you made on the custom mesh will now appear on the morphs aswell.
export as WSO

You find morphmangle here: http://www.modthesims.info/showpost...4&postcount=107

BloomsBase thank you for taking the time to write all that out so clearly and for answering my question so well, I really do appreciate it. It is getting late here now, but I look forward to trying this out tomorrow.

Many thanks

Altho this method works in Milkshape and displays the base mesh and morphs correct i do not know if it will actually works ingame.
Try to do a few simple edits and check the mesh out ingame first

I have now gone through the process from start to finish (including altering the morph states with morphmangle) with a very simple edit to the mesh and I can confirm that your method works perfectly. The new mesh works well in game and all the morphs seem to be functioning fine, I have not played for an extended period of time but certainly I can't see any evidence of problems. BloomsBase I can't thank you enough, I'm thrilled to bits that I was able to produce this in just under an hour. And I feel confident enough now to start on a more drastic and time consuming edit.

There is just one small question I have. In the step to rebuild the normals after editing that I mentioned above I notice that the process I am using creates seams at the neck and shoulders, although this is not something that bothers me for use in my own game, I wouldn't be happy to distribute a mesh with such a flaw.

Does anyone know if it is possible to rebuild the normals in milkshape itself? Or can you think of another way of doing it?

When exporting the obj out of Milkshape the normals stay intact so i suspect they get messed up when you import the file in your fav 3d program.
Check if there are any options on the normals when importing the file.
It is also possible your proggy has some sort of autosmooth enabled, try to turn it off.

Alligning the normals when you get the file back in MS is a option but try to avoid it.
It often doesn't look as good as the original.

If you can not figure it out then you can alligne the normals as you did now but fix the seams(neck/waist and ankle) by copying the normals from the original base mesh(it is there already when doing the morphs)
To do so you can use extended manual edit(included in Demon's alligne normals plugin) or you can use Wes H his data merge plugin.
Here is a small tutorial that explains them.
http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=398865
Instead of the vertex merge you use the normal merge tool, just make sure your original mesh is on top in the meshgrouptab.
You can use the merge tool from the menu but a shortcut works so much quicker.

Yes the normals are definately getting messed up in the program I'm using. I've done some experimenting and have found two ways to get rid of the seam issue, but needless to say they each come with their own different problems (the first way for some odd reason makes the mesh really shiny when it is imported into TSRW and the second has done something strange to the uv mapping) I'm most likely to be able to fix the mapping issue I think, as I don't have a clue about shiny meshes, so I will probably continue along that line when I next get time to play.

Thanks again for your help BloomsBase