I've searched and can't find a thread that seems to deal directly with my problem, but if I overlooked something, I apologize.

I've just begun to convert some adult clothing for teens following the basic steps provided by CmarNYC in this thread: http://modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=538913 No problems with seams or morphs, but the shadows or lighting are off in CAS, as seen in the attached pics (original pants vs my conversion). The problem's there whether I change the textures or leave them alone, so I assume it's not a texture issue. I'm just not sure what I'm doing - or not doing - to cause this.

The mesh does look okay in game, so I can live with it rendering oddly in CAS if I really have to. However, I don't want to convert a bunch of clothing and then find a solution that means fixing/re-doing all of my conversions. Does anyone know what causes this or how to fix it? Have I missed an obvious answer somewhere in the forums?

Edited to add: I'm not sure the mesh looks as 'okay' in game as I thought. I just tested the Seasons long johns, to try a full body, and notice that the light changes dramatically from the front to the back of the mesh (visible on the shoulder). Perhaps it's a bigger issue than I realized, but I couldn't see it on the pants as easily.

Hey Tedw!

Your problem could mean 3 things. Your specular map is too bright, You didn't add a bump map (Which is mostly TSRW's issue so far I know) Or you didn't do "Align normals" on the mesh, which is likely not the problem, but you could keep it in mind as a plan B. Though, the Seasons long Johns looks like it could need a "model cleaner" and a "align normals" In milkshape 3D (Those are two plugins, the model cleaner is already in there by default, but the align normals can be found here: http://modthesims.info/t/139859)
The pants, i'm not sure... Maybe it could be the same problem or a specular problem, though in the next picture (where it isn't so shiny) Is that a preview of how it should look like or just the mesh itself? Because that one looks pretty good to me.
But if we are talking about a specular problem, then make sure the specular looks really dark (Like really dark), and save it as a DXT1 (no alpha).

Let me know if you keep having issues with it

Hi Greenplumbbob - thanks for the suggestions/help.

Re: the pants, the second picture is how the pants should appear as worn by YA/A sims - that's why it looks so good. I would be surprised if the spec map is an issue, because I tested it using the specular that the YA/A version uses (exported the map from the adult version in s3pe, imported it to replace the teen) without making any changes/saving it as a DDS. I'll attach a sized-down version here so you can see what it looks like. That level of darkness is exactly the same as what the YA/A pants use and they look normal. The bump map situation is the same - took the one from the proper outfit and used it in my version, so it should be the exact same again.

I'll have to look into the align normals plugin and test that for both the pants and the long johns in case that fixes things. Same for the model cleaner. I'll have a go and let you know if it fixes anything.

The specular looks great! So I guess that's not why the mesh is being all shiny. So I'm pretty sure it's a mesh problem indeed. Converting isn't the easiest job to be honest. Oh I nearly forgot to tell you, if you use Model Cleaner, a window might pop up asking something (Which I forgot) but just click no, else the mesh will have this stretch-y look and we don't need that.

I discovered that the hard way, actually. Let's just say the long johns looked... interesting!

When I used the model cleaner (choosing no at the pop-up) and the align normals, Cmar's Mesh Toolkit refused to allow me to create morphs from the base long john. I then tried it with just the align normals, but it seemed to make it worse if anything - the lighting was still funny and there was a more noticeable seam around the neck. I'm not exactly sure what to try next.

Oh! I didn't thought of that! Well explaining that isn't easy, until you know how to do it. You basically need to copy the normals and vertex data from the EA mesh to your mesh. I followed Simlicious's tutorial for that: http://simlicious.tumblr.com/post/5...ms-in-milkshape
I know on Modthesims there is a tutorial like that as well, but it was hard to follow for me. But that's just me Do you use .GEOM or .WSO? By the way, model cleaner sometimes fixes these weird 'lines' around the body, and align normals just makes them smooth. I didn't really figure out what does what because I use Blender for fixing that before exporting my mesh. I use 'remove doubles', and then I export it. Also, do you use TSRW or another tool?

I haven't been using TSRW at all. The basic steps I'm doing are what Cmar posted in the thread I quoted earlier: export a teen mesh .GEOM as a reference, export an adult mesh as a replacement. Bring the teen mesh into Milkshape, then the adult, then match the seams by selecting vertices and using Wes H's vertex data merge and normal data merge to make sure they match at the ankles and neck. I know there's further editing to do here to match a teen body shape, but I haven't done much yet because I wanted to make sure the process worked before I did a lot of work altering the mesh for nothing.

Next I export the adjusted adult mesh, load it into Cmar's Mesh Toolkit and auto-create morphs using the teen reference mesh as a guide for the fat, fit and thin states. Then I load the adjusted adult mesh (which is really a teen mesh at this point, I guess) into S3PE to overwrite the original LOD, and then use the Mesh Toolkit again to add the morphs. Last I calculate the mesh tangents in the Toolkit, because without doing that there are odd black lines where I assume normals are flipped or otherwise out of sync. When I tried to use the model cleaner, the Toolkit produced an error message when I attempted to auto-create the morphs. I'm not sure why.

I've only seen the tutorial I linked earlier and one for TSRW, but I had no success with the TSRW one. I haven't tried using Blender to do a conversion, although I much prefer Blender to Milkshape in general; I just haven't found a Blender tutorial for converting across ages.

Weird... Because I used to make hair with Daboobs, which needs GEOM files as well and I used those two too... Did you add the comments to it in Milkshape? Sometimes they get lost. Maybe that's why it gives you an error. Or, because this even happen to me accidentally, you accidentally replaced the Reference file with your mesh. If all of this isn't the case, I should try model cleaner only.

Let me know if it worked! ^-^

I double checked comments and which the reference mesh was, but still had the same problem when I tried it.

Maybe there's something I don't know about model cleaner, but I just tried to use it - choosing no to separating the verts when I was prompted - and this is the result when I then attempt to access the long johns in the game. I loaded a teen mesh in milkshape, then the adult mesh, used the vertex/normal merge tools on the neck and ankle seams, and then selected the model and applied the model cleaner. I don't know what I did wrong here.

I've asked someone who has converted some teen stuff if they have a tutorial/process for how they do it, because I'm not sure what other piece I'm missing. It must be on my end if nobody commented on the tutorial here to say it didn't work.

The picture looks like a bad bones assignment (and yes, even that could happen with an exported reference mesh, at least it did happen twice to me). But still i'm really sure something is really wrong with the mesh, especially the normals. Can you send me a picture of how it looks like in Milkshape 3D? I'm willing to take a look as well (I won't use it for my own use, or sharing it with others, etc. Because I know how much work it is too make something like that, especially making it work properly). You don't have to. ^-^

I haven't done enough work to worry about sharing the file I've spent most of my time trying to just make sure it looks right before I go resizing the waist or chest or those parts. I'm attaching a zip that has two files - the most recent version which I used model cleaner on (which produced the borked picture above), and the very first file I created that's pictured in my first post. I think it's my first version - I've tried this at least twenty times so I have a lot of files. If you just wanted a .simgeom or a milkshape file instead, let me know.

I don't know enough about model cleaner to say, but does it affect bones? If so, why would I want to use it? The only thing I did different to the mesh in my last post was apply the model cleaner.

Pictures of the mesh in milkshape also attached: a version that looks okay, and a version that I used align normals. The align normals version creates a patch of dark shadow in the chest, which doesn't look entirely right based on my experience in 3D modeling with other software. But I tested both versions in the game and neither has the right lighting.

Thanks for trying to help me figure this out, btw!

Yeah the black spot isnt suppose to be there... Not that obvious. The model cleaner fixes make some weird lines disappear in the mesh (so far I know) like, lines that were on the shoulder of your mesh. Its a great tool, but lets hope it wasn't the case of the Meshtoolkit acting weird.
I'll take a look at it tomorrow and I'll let you know if I found a fix! ^-^

I fixed the problem! Apparently it wasn't a normals problem, but something like the edges of the mesh that wasn't smooth, I smoothed that for you in Blender. I have no idea how you do that in Milkshape 3D, but here is basically what I did:
Exported your mesh as a obj, imported the mesh in Blender, removed the doubles, selected the lines (Like you saw on the shoulders, where the lighting was just really weird) Smoothed the selected vertexes and exported it to put it in Milkshape 3D. In Milkshape 3D, I used model cleaner and align normals, exported it. Though I firstly edited your package, though for some reason if I did that, the mesh didn't show up in game. (I even checked every category). So I exported the .dds and exported the mesh into a wso. file instead so I could make it in TSRW, which I succesfully did! One thing, I didn't add the LODS yet, though it isn't hard to do. I'll give you my saved project in TSRW and the package self! If you want to finish the project in TSRW, I suggest to do it with version 1.72 and not the latest one. The plugins aren't working properly in the latest TSRW Anymore.

Wow! First, a huge thanks for figuring that out. I have a bad habit of just jumping into projects that are sometimes above my experience level - sometimes it works, sometimes not. I'm going to give the steps you listed there a try, but I may have to come back and ask some questions about parts of what you did. For example, is removing doubles something I should always be doing if I make future conversions? Also, was it obvious in Blender where the lines required smoothing the vertices or did you just base it off of my pictures that showed the lines?

I'm going to give it a go, starting from scratch and pulling it into Blender to smooth the edges, and see how that works.

[Another thought: maybe I need auto smoothing on in Milkshape to smooth the edges? I have seen a lot of comments saying to have auto smoothing off, but my recent research for a solution also turned up comments saying auto smoothing was necessary.]

I learned about all this because of jumping into projects that were way above my experience level! Sometimes we like to try out the unknown part of making CC.
I do use remove doubles, so the normals wouldn't act really weird. I'm not sure what it does, but it seems to fix things when I'm using Align normals in Milkshape. I know that model cleaner basically does the same thing, but mostly it's better to use both. So yeah, for future conversions it's one of the important things to use! ^-^
I mostly use Remove doubles as well to make the weird lines go away in the mesh, but I wasn't used to the fact that this time it didn't. So, (if you have the latest Blender version) There will be green looking lines at the vertexes that needs to be smooth. If you're in edit mode, and selected the vertexes on the green line, on your left side there is another window, select the UV/shading tab and there you can choose between "smooth faces, smooth edges, smooth vertex" Smooth edges might work as well but I used smooth vertex.
I always keep auto smoothing off, because everyone says you shouldn't. To be honest, I haven't done any research on that but I know which comment you mean. I should try this one first, and if it doesn't work with your future projects, I would give auto smooth a try, but I don't recommend it!

Oh! It's okay for asking me about how to fix this or that! Or want to know more about something.

I didn't get a chance to experiment with this at all yesterday, but I gave it another go this morning. The bad news is I think I wasted some of your time; the good news is I've successfully converted a base LOD mesh in about five minutes!

When I tried the tutorial for TSRW, my converted mesh import was always invisible. I couldn't find an answer as to why, but your comment about the latest TSRW plugins not working got me thinking. So I found an older version of TSRW this morning and installed it, exported a teen mesh and an adult mesh, did the vertex/normal merge on the neck and ankles, and imported the converted mesh over the teen mesh. Success! Of course it will take longer to make edits to make the body thinner, and to do the morphs and other LODs, but that's okay. So I might not need to use Blender or align normals or anything like that, after all.

The most annoying thing is the old version of TSRW doesn't have every expansion - Island Life, Uni, ITF, etc are missing - but I'm not sure what I can do. I tried re-installing the new TSRW and replacing the plugins folder with the older one, but then my TSRW crashed on import. Still, at least it's pretty much working now. Thank you for all your time and help!

I'm glad you figured out! And it's okay! I enjoyed helping you though.
You probably saw my post about replacing the plugin folder. I did the same thing with the latest version of TSRW but it's not that great. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. There is a version out here that has all the Expansion packs and was the last released TSRW for the sims 3. TSRW 1.72. I am working with this version as well, so no worries about bad CC or things like that. So replacing the plugin folder with the latest version is optional. I have noticed that importing Meshes for Objects doesn't really work when you replace the mesh with yours. Here is the version of TSRW I was talking about: http://quizicalgin.tumblr.com/post/...-version-of-tsw

If you ever have problems with shadows or normals, and it's not because of the Specular texture or Bump/normal map, you can always try align normals! (That's basically why I use it) ^-^

That's the link I found this morning, but the version there says 2.072, not 1.72. I have it open now and I don't see any EPs beyond 70s/80s/90s stuff. Does your version definitely have them?

I've created CC with Into the Future with that version, but I just realise that this downloadable version did have it, but not anymore. Me and a friend found out about that. I'll link mine to you: http://greenplumbboblover.tumblr.co...005426/tsrw-172 I'll delete the link if they want me to.

Thanks for the link! It showed all of the expansion packs and the plugins still worked, so I managed to complete my first working adult-to-teen conversion (morphs and lods and all): the sweatpants I originally posted about. Thank you so much for all of your help, Greenplumbbob! I'm off to convert more things and tear my hair out over the more complicated ones

That looks awesome! You did a great job over there! I'm glad you got it all working. The Cmar way is working like a charm when Tsrw doesn't accept the file (like when you have shaders in the GEOM). So replacing is basically more bypassing some things That you can't get working in TSRW.
But feel free to ask more if you get any problems with anything! ^-^