I've cloned the Bistro dining table and made a glass top table out of it. For some reason though it keeps developing this dark line on the edge of the metal rimming the glass top. It does this even though I'm using the same dds's as the original table does (and the original does not have this line).

Here is a pic of what I mean:



It is less conspicuous with some textures than others but it's still always there no matter what I try. Does anyone have an idea of what could cause this and, if so, is there anything I can do to fix it?

Any help is appreciated.

I think that is the normals and smoothing. I don't think it's the texture. I know a dresser I am working on keeps doing this to me (which is why it is sitting in the recycle bin lol). I guess double check that smoothing didn't get checked when importing. I also have some odd issues like that when I delete and move vertices.

Check your uvmap, i suspect only half of the table is mapped.
I see this constantly with bodymeshes that contains parts that are copied and mirrored.
When you duplicate and mirror a part(half of the table in your case)wich is already uvmapped you get shadow/lightning issue's...
I am puzzled why this isn't showing with the original tho....


I would select the bottom row of verts from the table and scale them bigger, the same with the 45degree edge.
then regroup the whole side of the table and remap it from the top on your uvmap.
then regroup it back again and scale the rows back to normal measurements...
Lol, donno if this makes sence...
If you upload the mesh i will edit it

HL please don't say it is normals and smoothing again...this issue has been doggin me and I've been all over the 'net, read many tutorials. and gone through several forums looking for a solution to that problem and haven't been able to find one. One tutorial I read said the solution to the problem was to make your mesh correctly in the first place...lol...too bad EA made this one.

It's frustrating because I'd like to share objects like this table but there's no way I can with it looking like that...I don't even want the thing in my own game...heh.

Thanks for your answer Base...but I don't think mirroring is the problem in this case. If it were, the original should have the same problem and it doesn't. Just to be sure I'll double check but I think HL has it...I looked at that Selection Editor thingy in MS and in the two areas where I have this mark there are too many of those little lines that indicate normals...I can see them...my problem is I don't know how to fix them.

You edited in the time I was posting Base...let me look at the thing to be sure mirroring isn't the issue before I post the thing. If it's normals I don't want to waste your time with it. Thank you again...and especially for offering to help me with this table.

Well waddaya know...it is mirrored. Here is the package:

http://jaue.com/om/OM_TableDining_BistroGlass.rar

If you can make it look right could you tell me what steps you took to do so? I'd rather be able to fix it myself then have to come crying here every time I get this issue if you know what I mean. Thanks again

Uvmapping it as one whole part will also fix it, im almost 100% sure.
Upload the mesh and ill show you.

Oops, I should have posted instead of editing. I posted the package in my post above.

Need the mesh, not the package.
I never done objects lol, dont know how to extract the mesh.
alot difrent then bodymeshes...
I have Wes his object importer


Edit, got it but...HL is right
Its a normals issue
do you have autosmooth on?
Turn it off and hide group 00, then select the sides of the table.
Select it all(the faces i mean, not only the verts.)
Then choose alligne the normals(vertex menu) from Demon's plugin, got those?

Sorry about that...I was just thinkin I gave you the wrong thing.

Hang on one sec and I'll get it.

K, this is the MLOD...is this right?

http://jaue.com/om/OM_Bistro_MLOD.rar

read my edit in post 7
It is the Model scenegraph you need to export right, that one gave me the mesh in MS.
But i have no clue how to export it, i only have Wes his importerV10

Lol...edits don't work so good when we're talking both at once. I missed it.

I figured it was a normals issue when I saw the extra little normals lines in MS.

Where are Demon's plugins?...I don't have those. Thanks for helping me.

http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=139859
Now i understand why you have these issue's.
You prolly have autosmooth on wich will mess up every mesh you import.
Its the second tab on the right under groups, you must turn it off.
then follow my edit in post 7

Got it...off to try it. Thanks again for looking at the issue ...will post progress.

if you want things perfect you should select the lower side of the table and alligne the normals then select the side under 45 degrees and alligne again.
That way you keep the line on the seam between those 2 sides wich will look much nicer ingame.

A thing of beauty and a joy forever...and it works with a quickness. Thanks so much Base...my table is cured I think...I'll know for sure once I get it into the game.

What is the "side under 45 degrees"...do you mean the part under the small angled thing?

Let me post a pic showing what I think you mean so I'm sure I understand you correctly.

the sides of the table are split in a vertical side and a side under 45 degrees.
You should alligne them seperate.
I upload the ms3d file in post 14


We could not mesh without Demon's plugins with the sims 2.
People who start to mesh for sims 3 do not know it.
I for one do not understand how the smoothing groups tool build in in MS works....Demon's tool works so much easier.
got to go, good luck!!

Here's a pic of the top in MS. It has 3 levels. Do you mean align the top and middle levels separately from the bottom level?



I missed your edit again. Thanks so much for your help...I'll figure out the division of the fix you describe with trial and error.

This plugin is fantastic.

Your welcome
It is easy to understand how it works tho.
Those normal issue's become a problem when you have the autosmooth function on, wat autosmooth does is recognizing each part that is (individually) made but (possibly) joined to one piece later.(lol, donno how else to say it)
EA meshers only made half a table and uvmapped that half on the uvmap.
Then they duplicated that half and mirrored it simply to work quicker and save space on the uvmap/texturefile.

If autosmooth is turned off you hardly have to alligne the normals as EA meshes are correctly alligned, you will find out in the future.
It is still possible you see a line ingame caused by wrong shading, in that case you have to reuvmap the table in one piece.

The issue with autosmooth in MilkShape is cause by a lack of smoothing groups in the model. No games (among those I know well) place smoothing groups in the game data files... they are not needed for realtime rendering. So after importing, they simply do not exist. You either have to make them or try using my automatic smoothing group creator plugin, whereever the heck I uploaded that at.

Autosmooth is like running "smooth all" every time you make any change in the mesh, which would be OK... if you had smoothing groups set up.

The people here that meshed Sims 2 know this, but not everybody had the advantage of making the same mistakes back then. The easiest policy is to turn autosmooth off and leave it that way, if you are meshing from scratch you can always do a smooth manually when you want it done.

"The people here that meshed Sims 2 know this..."

Well, I meshed a lot for Sims 2 and I didn't know this among a plethora of things I didn't know about meshing. That's why I really appreciate y'all here in the forum helping me so much.

Some of the Sims 3 models seem to come into MS already showing the result of not having smoothing groups...the bed mattress springs to mind. That thing has a crease on it whether you change it or not.

"You either have to make them or try using my automatic smoothing group creator plugin..."

Off to look for that. If I find it I'll post the link unless someone else beats me to it.

Edited to ask: Is it one of these that are in the UnimeshPlugin folder?

msSGp1.dll or msTS2MakeSGrps.dll

Are yopu sure you have change your Multiplier and Specular files ?
I had had some problems before by thinking I could keept this files because my new mesh was very similar to the original but in any case we must change this files after mapping the new mesh. The mask could be keept if the new mesh is quitly similar to the original but not these 2 others files.
This dark line could be shadow of original mesh which doesn't apply perfectly on the new table ...
But you have certainly already try this ... ;o)

Thank you for your answer Samelo...but in this case it was definitely not the dds files but the normals of the mesh itself. All I wanted to do for this object was take the EA 3 tile glass top table and make it an EA one tile Bistro table with glass top instead of solid. So I didn't change the mapping at all.

I just pulled apart the Bistro table so I could regroup, made an inner rim for the frame around the glass, etc. But no remapping. It's not the most creative of items but it was more just to try out creating a one tile glass dining table using HL's new tutorial...although it did come out looking cute enough to share I think once the normals situation was fixed.