Hello all, I am trying to create super hero meshes by frankenmeshing the darth vader cape onto different bodies. I've had some limited success but I keep running into an error that is preventing me from importing some of my edited meshes into the package files. What I'm specifically doing is first adding the cape onto a basic Top Mesh, which worked and I have a functioning file for a top with the cape. Now I'm trying to combine that top with bottoms into a full body mesh and that is where I encounter a problem.
I"m using CAS TOOLS to export the top mesh from one package, the bottom mesh from another and combining them into one new mesh. It's when I try to import the newly combined mesh that this error pops up.

This seems to be the relevant part of the error message but I can't make heads nor tails of what it means, so I'm not sure what I need to do differently. Does this error message make sense to anyone. ANy help would be appreciated. Thanks!


************** Exception Text **************
System.IndexOutOfRangeException: Index was outside the bounds of the array.
at Xmods.DataLib.GEOM.getUV(Int32 vertexSequenceNumber, Int32 UVset)
at XMODS.Form1.ApplyOriginalMesh(GEOM sourceMesh, GEOM referenceMesh, Boolean oldBones, Species species, Age age, Gender gender, Int32 lod, BodyType partType)
at XMODS.Form1.PackageMesh_dataGridView_CellClick(Object sender, DataGridViewCellEventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.DataGridView.OnCellClick(DataGridViewCellEventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.DataGridView.OnMouseClick(MouseEventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmMouseUp(Message& m, MouseButtons button, Int32 clicks)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.DataGridView.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.OnMessage(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)

That message means something's going wrong involving the uvs as it's importing a mesh but there's no way to tell what's causing it from this information. Please explain what you did to combine the meshes, in detail, and upload your packages and the mesh you're trying to import, and anything else I'd need to duplicate what you did.

Awhile back I made a mesh that took the darth Vader Cape mesh and frankenmeshed it with a nude top to create a caped top. Now I want to take that top and merge it with the bottoms to make a full body mesh in one package. I export all 4 lods from the top mesh that I'm using, and all 4 lods of the bottom mesh that I'm using and then use the function in CAS Tools to merge the top and bottom meshes together, going through and merging the LOD0 top with the LOD0 bottom, etc so that that I end up with all 4 lods merged. I then open each merged LOD in milkshape and combine the mesh groups so that the new mesh has the same number of mesh groups that the package expects the mesh to have. From there I Open my Final Package, the one that is set up to be a full body and has the 3 meshgroups in my mesh. I can' get LOD0 and LOD1 to import, but LODs 2&3 bring up that error. I didn't make the meshes any differently so I'm not sure what's going on.

I'll upload the package and the mesh files.

Sorry but you need to be more specific. What format did you export the meshes in? Was it simgeom, and then you merged them with the GEOM mesh merge tool? If so, how did you open the merged files with Milkshape? Or is my guess totally wrong? What format are you importing into the package?

I started with the two package files attached. I exported the meshes from them using the mesh manager in CAS Tools. I exported the meshes as Milkshape MS3D files. I also used the "Merge MS3D meshes" tool in CAS tools to merge the extracted meshes from these files.

And then did you try to import the modified MS3D right into the package? That's not how CAS Tools works with Milkshape, it can only be used to modify a mesh without adding any vertices or faces, or if you convert an MS3D mesh to a simgeom using the Auto Tool: Conversion/AutoAssignments tab with an appropriate simgeom reference mesh. MS3D meshes don't include the uv1 information necessary for a TS4 mesh and can only be used by getting that information from a geom reference mesh. When you import MS3D into a package the original mesh in the package is the reference and if the MS3D contains parts that weren't in that mesh it will fail. Only simgeoms can be imported into a package without having been exported from the mesh already in the package.

There are two ways to approach this:

1:
Extract simgeoms of the meshes you want to combine, each meshgroup separately.
Use CAS Tools / Mesh Tools / Conversions tab to convert each one to MS3D.
Modify each MS3D, ONLY moving or removing vertices and faces or modifying normals or uvs.
Convert each one back to a simgeom using the lower part of the Mesh Tools / Conversions tab, with the original simgeom as reference.
Use the Mesh Tools / GEOM Tools / Combine tab to combine the meshes for each meshgroup.
Import the simgeoms into your package.

2:
Extract and combine MS3D just as you did.
Convert the MS3D to a simgeom in Auto Tool: Conversion/AutoAssignments tab, making sure the Autoassign Bones option is not checked since it already has the bone assignments.
Import the resulting simgeoms into your package.
NOTE: Unless you have a simgeom reference mesh that already includes both a cape and body, the uv1 morph data may not be right for the cape. You may be able to fix this later by exporting the uv1 in an MS3D, modifying the uv, and importing it back. But that would be tricky and it's worth a try to see if it works adequately right out of conversion.

This is probably going to sound really stupid, but I'm not sure how to import the simgeom back into the package.

Exactly the same way you'd import an MS3D, in the package editor meshes tab.

I just want to say that I was able to get my meshes imported into the package file finally by following your first suggestion more or less, lol. You can mark this as resolved.