Hey I've tried my hand at making a lamp, I've done the usual and exported all the mesh parts image parts etc. now I create my objects in maya and usually when I export them into Milkshape their exactly the same as when I exported them from maya. (.obj)

Here is the mesh in maya.



and now when I export the mesh as .obj and into Milkshape -.-




I tried everything but Cant seem to find the problem, or thinking of it now maybe smooth all in milkshape is turned on because of how the EA lamp is structured ? I noticed on the shade part of the lamp inside is really low poly and outside is crisp smooth am I missing something here.
You can see the only part of my mesh that is correctly showing without weird shadows is the base part. all help is appreciated thankyou hopefully its someting straight forward *bites nails* :-S

turn off autosmooth before you import.
Then use demon alligne normals to alligne the normals(if needed)
http://linna.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=139859

If your using demon's tool you prolly have to splitup the in and outside meshlayer of the lamp first if they are duplicates(but from your screenshot doesn't look that way.)

Thanks a bunch will give that a try straight away :-)

Nope same problem its still showing up dark when i import without autoshade on... I never have this problem with all my other meshes O.o

Mine always looks black like that when i import it into milkshape, you need to press ctrl + shift + w to unweld the mesh, then it ought to look normal But if you do import it straight into TSRW even though it is black, it should look normal, especially if you did your welding in maya you don't want to ruin that!

If you cant alligne the normals with Demons tools the only thing i can think of is that those black faces are reversed.
If you cant figure it out, upload the mesh and ill have a look.

Looking at the parts that are imported without black and those that are makes me believe that there are a significant number of faces reversed in the Maya model. Since by default Maya displays faces as double-sided, they show as shaded. In MilkShape, as in the game, polygons have only one side that gets rendered. In MilkShape, the reverse side can be optioned to be shown as black or as invisible, while in the game they will always be invisible.

To tell for sure, in the MilkShape 3d viewport, right click and uncheck "Draw Backfaces". All reversed faces should become invisible. Since the lamp top is a double sided cylinder, you should be seeing the inside of the inner surface through the invisible surface.

To fix this in Maya, select the faces that are black, and in the Polygons Menu set choose Normals -> Reverse.

Thanks alot wesh that was partly the resolve to my problem as in this picture you can see parts of the lmap are showing properly, the top part of the stand near the bulb it self, the bolb shows correctly, and the base again but the shade is still an issue I tried the disabling of the Draw back faces in Milkshape and that showed me the outside faces.. inside the mesh I dont understand how thats happened...

I don't quite understand what that means. However, the common issues that would cause this are reversed faces, lamina faces (two sets of faces close together) and non-triangulated meshes. MilkShape/Sims 3 cannot manage quads, you need to triangulate the mesh before export (Mesh -> Triangulate).

If that is a new screenshot with Draw Backfaces unchecked, the same faces that are gray now were gray before, so it isn't reversed faces. Look for doubled faces on the black parts, and check that you have triangulated the mesh. You don't have to model with triangles (quads are so much easier), but you will have to convert the model before export as .obj. otherwise the .obj file will have quads, but will be imported as triangles.

Ok fine. thanks Wesh, I figured you would try and understand related to your reply earlier "you should be seeing the inside of the inner surface through the invisible surface." I got this effect. The image I posted is not the draw back unchecked .. its the emsh after I reversed in maya.
I will try converting the mesh.. and see how things go... thing is when I reversed faces in maya I got the same black effect its almost as if its fine in maya then some how flips when it hits milkshape?
never had this problem before so I'm really confused but will give the convert option a go and report back.

Success!!




Thanks so much Wesh that was exactly the problem, so weird how it does that... and thankyou everyone else for your imput x

Glad you got it going. After using Maya for a while, it is hard to go back to working in MilkShape. However, programming plug-ins is much easier in MilkShape, and because of the pricetag, there are really few Maya users that are not professionals with no time for hobby work.

In your Shading menu (in the viewport menubar) in Maya is a checkbox "Backface Culling" which will make reversed faces invisible. I do not know of any way to make them appear as black in Maya, but by checking that box if any faces disappear, they are reversed. Unchecking it reverts back to the default two-sided display. Sooner or later, everybody gets bitten by reversed faces.

<* Wes *>

Its about time someone with the time and skills, will build a obj import/export tool for TSR, or translate the one from SimPE.

If TSR ever decides to support animations and bone editing, the more preferable option would be to create a WSO importer/exporter for Maya.

This is in the works.

I keep bumping into this exact same problem< I try to resolve the way you have told me and the way I resolved the lamp issue but I'm getting no where and its very frustrating looks fine in Maya but there is a small area which is back face outward O.o, I tried reversing the faces which I'm having problems with and all that happens is they turn black in maya.
Here is the mesh in maya



With Backfaces turned on in Milkshape



Back Faces turned off In milkshape

If you're meshing in maya, then make sure you fix all the normals whilst in maya, then when you put into milkshape, do not unweld it, in fact just don't touch anything, just import it in, then export it back out, and when you put it through TSRW, or S3PE it should look correct. I use wings 3D to mesh, and i correct all my normals and such in wings, and if i then unweld it in milkshape it makes it all go pear shaped :/ Not an exact science but it works for me Also if that doesn't work, try tesselating the mesh, that might be the issue for those black faces.

I never edit my meshes in Milkshape, Surly not unweld either, As you cans ee the face on the side of the chair is black and thats a backface for some weird reason . Tesselating ? where can this option be found, I always correct normals in maya before I export.

OK I deleted that face and just edited it accordingly and its all fine, In the pictures before those faces were extruded but I'm confused as to why it reversed it self O.o guess I wont be taking the easy way anymore with the whole extruding thing lol.

OK this is getting frustrating to the point I'm almost giving up I am getting a repeat of this problem over and over I've never ever had this problem before like altogether and so funny because I'm using a part from my old mesh to recreate a Reading Chair version of a 2 seater sofa. and they both came out perfect. Maybe I should pop the mesh up for anyone to take a look wesh ? Deluxe or Bloom ? let me Know and I will put it up I give up :-S
I've deleted the faces made new ones and bump into the exact same problem over and over -.-



Now its on the back of the seat lol what a nightmare
When I do try to fix the normals the sides turn black in maya and it looks really awful. I havnt tested in game yet to see if its a minor problem but its defenitly a back face so It wont even be there in game lol

Last edited by melanise : 24th Sep 2010 at 02:25 PM.

Ok again I've just resolved the issue by deleted those black faces and using a cube face to take its place It seems milkshape dont like extruded faces :-S I'm so confused lol

Two issues when extruding. Example is a simple square plane. Normals face upward, UV layout is a nice square.

If you extrude the plane upwards, you will get a cube. However, this cube will have the normals on the bottom face still pointing up, which will be inward on the cube. When using "backface culling" (check the viewport menu under Shading) it will be invisible from below (just like in MilkShape). The cure is to reverse the normals on that face, or select the whole cube and do a "Normals -> Conform".

Second issue: In the UV mapping, all the UV points will be lying on top of each other. That will look OK for a simple, solid color (except on the face that is reversed), but it will look bad if you are trying to use any design or pattern on your texture.

Extrude has a place in the modeling world, but it may not be the best way to fix what you are trying to do. The way I described it working would be perfect for extruding a plane into a building, because you would want the normals on the floor to point upward. One technique I have used is to make a new cube or something, shape it roughly like the part I need, delete the unwanted faces, move it close, use Mesh -> Combine to group it with my main object, and then I use the Edit Mesh -> Merge Vertex Tool to weld the edge vertices to the original, and tweak the final mesh for shape. The one downside is this leaves the UV map for the replacement area separate from the mapping from the rest of the object, but that is not hard to fix if having a single shell is a requirement, but it is a manual operation, not automatic. If you intend to do a full, new UV layout later, it is not necessary to fix it at all.

I tried to reply to you last night, but after typing everything in my internet connection got sick and puked on a lot of sites, including this one, and my comments did not post. I would like to take a dump on my ISP company, except the only other alternatives available here are worse.

Brilliant ! your the best help Wesh thank you so much, Loads of detail in your feedback I will remember this thanks alot ^.~