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Née whiterider
retired moderator
Original Poster
#1 Old 6th Mar 2011 at 12:00 PM
Default Mesh transparency (aka, Bloom! Halp!)
I've been working on making a single-eye "contact" as an accessory; essentially it's the EA eye mesh, moved forward a little bit, and linked to the default eye textures, the idea being that downloaders can CASt it so they end up with different colour eyes using their default eye textures. (All credit goes to Esme for the idea!)

Unfortunately, using the default eye textures creates problems, because I only have multiplier and overlay to work with - no mask, and since iris sizes differ, I can't make a one-size-fits all mask. I have it mostly working, using a single-channel mask, and with 128/128/128 box as transparency map - I have no idea why it works, but it does; the iris and pupil are visible, the sclera is invisible, and instead shows through from the sim's real eye.

However, I'm having a problem whereby the sim's other accessories' textures will show up on the "transparent" parts of my mesh. It's apparently a common issue, having been seen here: http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=415046 and http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=411433 .... however both times, emh fixed it, and didn't say how. She was also planning to write a tutorial, but never got round to it, and hasn't been online since August.

I've compared her alpha wings to my eye, and can't see a difference, so I'm hoping someone who knows how to do this (I'm looking at you!) can shove me in the right direction. Preferably in such a way that the next person to have this problem can find a thread with an answer in it .

What I lack in decorum, I make up for with an absence of tact.
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Sockpuppet
#2 Old 6th Mar 2011 at 5:53 PM
Your single channel mask texture is a custom standalone texture or does it still has the basegame instance numbers?
Make it a standalone.

I do remember when i first started cloning accesoires i had similar issues and if i remember correct they were eitherl related to the texture format or missing textures
You often have to stick to the games format for a particular object....
Its now DXT1 or 3 with alpha?
Tried DXT5 with interpolated alpha?

If that doesn't work you might have to include the multiplier and overlay in your package
Sockpuppet
#3 Old 6th Mar 2011 at 9:44 PM Last edited by BloomsBase : 7th Mar 2011 at 11:30 AM.
I forgot to say..
Nobody has suceeded to make meshparts transparant yet
The links you referred to are alpha edits on the mesh with the texture file but doesn't enable transparancy.

The only accesoire i know of that supports transparancy are the glasses but both Wes his GEOM and TSRW's WSO importers messes up the rotation of the glasses joint on im/export in MS.
TSRW has the possibility to rotate the joints but i dont get it to work.

I once pulled it off to make custom glasses and make em recolorable, like you i also used the mask texture for the transparancy but never uploaded it as im in doubt if its the correct way.
Ill include the file so you can have a look, if you want to open it you need TSRW RC4_3. CTU will give the format error

The glasses are pretty wicked tho, you even can use the patterns on the lenses.
You might can clone them and use them for your contact lenses?
Née whiterider
retired moderator
Original Poster
#4 Old 6th Mar 2011 at 11:01 PM
I've been using the basegame single channel mask; thankyou, I'll try a custom one. I was assuming that the problem was with the transparency map (or, god forbid, the multipler - that would end the project, as I can't edit it at all, it would defeat the point).

And yes - you're right, it is an alpha edit, not transparency. As for glasses, I imagine the regular EA ones use the glass shader; there is, now, a CAStable glass shader which can be extracted from a particular Store item and used in objects (I've used it to make patternable inserts for windows). However, I don't know where to find the shader info in a CASPart, which kinda stumped me on using it for CAS stuff. I'd say, if it works, go for it. .

Thanks for the file, I'll have another crack at it tomorrow.

What I lack in decorum, I make up for with an absence of tact.
Sockpuppet
#5 Old 7th Mar 2011 at 11:31 AM
Never had any problems with the glasses so prolly save to upload?(I'd say, if it works go for it )
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