Hiya.

I know it's a bit late in the day for me to be learning how to CC for the Sims 3, I was pretty good-(ish) with 2, but never got round to learning new tricks when #3 came out.

Anyway, I'll cut to the chase. I've been having a go at creating new outfits, never my strong suit, and have experienced a range of problems, exploding mesh's and so forth...but on the texture side of things I've not had any problems, until now.

I finally have a mesh I am happy with, doesn't expode, no gaps etc, but suddenly I am falling down on the texture side, specifically the mask. All of a sudden they have stopped working. Instead of getting the normal seperate areas being a seperate channel it always ends up only noticing one and colouring the entire mesh the same, and now I have started to get strange lighting to boot. I was eventually able to trace it to an issue with the mask.

I did a few quick tests, cloned random clothes using S3OC and S3PE, altering nothing except the mask, and only a simple change, and the same result, all one colour. I decided to use TSRW to do a similar test as I can view the results quicker, and the same thing, all a single colour.

I was saving the mask correctly, DTX1 no alpha. I read on here somewhere to try DTX5 interpolated Alpha, and in TSRW that seemed to solve the problem. (Regardless of using the Alpha Channel). So I returned to my original project, re-cloned the same item I used to begin with so I knew I was working with a fresh package, re-imported my new mesh/textures and redid the mask saving as DTX5...but no, back to the same problem. All one colour + strange glows.

I have spent 4 days trying to work out whats going wrong, I am at a loss.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Update, I've partly resolved the problem, seems I didn't know that if the object you clone has a 4 channel mask, it expects a 4 channel mask. I know that with 3 channels you can import a mask that only uses one or two channels with no problem but not with the 3 + Alpha. So I made a 4 channel mask but just made the alpha channel in a small corner that isn't mapped to anything. I still need to work out how to disable that 4th channel completely otherwise I will always have the 4th item in the colour palette which does nothing.


However, I am still ending up with an odd lighting effect, almost like burnt spots on the clothes, which is strange as in my initial package that didn't happen...

Should have put an image up before, here is the effect...I am sure there is a simple solution but I don't even know what it's referred to so searching for an answer is proving difficult...

How does the outfit look in-game? A lot of times CAS lighting is completely inaccurate as to finished product.

always stick to the game's texture formats.
But you can change a outfit from a 3 channel to 4 channel castable item if you change the format of the mask with it.(or vice versa)

It looks the same in game, just slightly reduced. (I did get a screenshot but it didn't take and I wasn't going to wait another 10 minutes to reload the game lol). I had to artificially brighten the screenshot as it comes out really dark for some reason.

I also stumbled across something else wrong as well, when in CAS I stuck on a pair of EAxis stockings and noticed that the affect is on the arms and legs along with seams down the sides of the legs and at the ankles, that aren't visible without the stockings on.

I am guessing it's a mesh issue now ?

I did another test using the original package I cloned from which I always leave untouched as I know from experience with TS2 how easily a package file can become corrupt. This time I just imported the mesh files and left the textures untouched, so they are still the original textures.

I think I am looking at two different problems. The shadowing is still present along with the damaged seams at the ankles, however the burnt effect is gone along with the vertical seam on the legs.

Your meshes are linking to a bumpmap/normalmap (0x00B2D882-0x58000000-0x1D4CE4F8A8B56CAD) which doesn't exist in the package or apparently in the EA packages. When the bumpmap is missing you get those weird lighting effects.

There's an image (0x00B2D882-0x58000000-0x22E366E36AD16AC7) which looks like it's supposed to be the bumpmap. I just changed the Instance ID of that image to 0x1D4CE4F8A8B56CAD using S3PE (double-click the file to get Resource Details, change the Instance, click Okay and save) and now the dress looks terrific:




The stocking seam problem seems to be gone too.

Ahh you're a star!

I had an incline the issue was centred somewhere in the normal or specular maps, and even after a bit of reading thought it might be the mesh.

To the point where whilst waiting for a reply here, I went back to the beginning and made the skirt and top as two seperate items, the plan was to get them both working first, then use those to build them into a single outfit, repeating my original steps. I went wrong somewhere as Mesh Toolkit told me there was too many bones, 63 to be exact, so don't know where I went wrong this time.

But thanks to you I can resume with my original item, which at this point is almost finished, I just want to fine tune the specular on the blouse to make it have a satin look and leave the skirt matted.

I don't know what is going on with the bump. I have a funny feeling my PS6 is on the blink, as I have made bumps before with other things and they work fine and then with something else they don't, same with Speculars...might be time to re-install everything.


Thanks again, I am in your debt


PS: I like those shoes!

I don't think there's anything wrong with the bumpmap, it's just that the link in the meshes was pointing to a non-existent file. This link is in the mesh itself. If you use CTU, when you import meshes you should also import your bumpmap.

RIght, got you now. I don't use the CTU method. I use TSRW to find the resource name of what I want then search for it in S3OC and clone from there. Then I make use of S3PE and Mesh Toolkit.

For future reference, is that something I can change in the comments in Milkshape ?

Yes, the bumpmap TGI is usually the first in the list of TGIs in the group comments in Milkshape, when you use the GEOM importer.

Thanks. Are the TGI's always listed in the same order? If so, do you know what that order is ?

Not always. The link info is in the MTNF/shader, which also shows up in the comments but as raw data. If you look at the mesh data in s3pe, look in the shader for the Normalmap entry. It will show an index into the TGI list and the actual TGI. The other links are (I think) a specular and ambient which are overridden in the CASP, and a skeleton adjustments (.skcon) file.

Works a little diffrent in tsrw though.
You can change the tgi link under materials in the meshtab.
I often use CTU to get the instance id as you can choose edit the texture, copy the full instance number and then past it in tsrw.(key:00B2D882:00000000:451181B606BD2E92)
The normalmap id can not be copied this way but it usually differs one number from the diffuse texture, so i copy that one and change the last number.

Thanks folks. Most of that went over my head, but I'll keep it all in mind next time