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Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#51 Old 28th Jul 2020 at 10:38 PM
Quote: Originally posted by simmer22
The transparent/see-through issue is covered in my tutorial (both in the recolor section and under troubleshooting), mostly because it's one of the most annoying problems I had back in the days, and it took ages to figure that one out (I swear, that one was a giant headache that turned out to have the easiest fix ever )

Simply set the "frame" and "Rim" textures (any TXMTs with textures for the helmet) to "SimStandardMaterial" instead of "StandardMaterial" in the "cMaterialDefinition" tabs in the TXMTs. Commit after each change, then save the file. It's a bug carried over from the original glasses. For some reason it's not a problem in the glasses (or so it seems, anyway), but it is a problem for cloned accessories.

Thanks! this also fixed it, but I had a small issue setting this up. I had a sim on a lot already wearing the helmet. As I made each change to the standard material, I would go back in game and the sim in the lot wearing the helmet still had the same issue. It wasn't until I made another sim using the helmet that it fixed and also got that sim on the lot to change his apperance and re-apply the helmet that fixed the issue. I also followed your tutorial and set "stdMatAlphaBlendMode" to "none" for some of the TXMTs that also didn't have this preset. I also set all of the TXMTs to simstandardmaterial, I hope thats all good to.


(Sim on left with the helmet transparency issue, sim on the right with it fixed)


(Sim on the right after re-applying the helmet through "change apperance" in a mirror, fixing the helmet's issue)

Excellent! that is the first part done. Now all I have to do is get the outfit in the game. I take it to do this, I should follow the same steps in the accessory tutorial, but this time I need to apply the outfit to all the joints of the sim skeleton?

JESSE!
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Mad Poster
#52 Old 28th Jul 2020 at 11:20 PM Last edited by simmer22 : 28th Jul 2020 at 11:30 PM.
The issue with the two sims probably came from not deleting caches (remember I said caches could act weird? That's one of the things they do - if you put an accessory on a sim, save the game, then change the accessory and go back ingame without deleting caches, some of the old info will lag behind on that sim. Re-applying the accessory, or applying it to a new sim will fix it, though).

Clothes are somewhat different from accessories, with enough differences to need separate tutorials. They're a bit easier to link, have fewer resources, but have a LOT more joints to worry about, plus a bit of UVmapping or grouping to sort out for conversions (skin parts need to be one group, anything from another game that has a separate texture that clashes with the skin texture usually needs to be a separate group).

For the outfit, I suggest you first read the Unimesh tutorial to figure out how to make a basic clothing mesh, then try the 3t2/4t2 method I suggested on the first page, simply because there are a ton of joints to assign otherwise, and I don't recommend doing that manually (I have done it manually on occasion if I've had meshes I couldn't convert otherwise, but I know what I'm doing - it's very tedious and can be very difficult). You also need to fix the arms, and that's better done with the method shown in the tutorials.

There's a video tutorial for the 4t2 method, and a text tutorial for the 3t2 method. They're quite similar, and I do suggest you look through both of them. The 4t2 tutorial in particular shows how to put an OBJ mesh on a TS3 skeleton so you can move the arms, then onto a TS2 skeleton to autoassign the joints, and various fixes and adjustments to adjust the mesh and make it ready.

(I don't usually convert or make a lot of clothes, so I'm not too steady in either of the methods, but I probably know enough about these tutorials to guide you through if you stumble over any problems).
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#53 Old 28th Jul 2020 at 11:59 PM
Quote: Originally posted by simmer22
The issue with the two sims probably came from not deleting caches (remember I said caches could act weird? That's one of the things they do - if you put an accessory on a sim, save the game, then change the accessory and go back ingame without deleting caches, some of the old info will lag behind on that sim. Re-applying the accessory, or applying it to a new sim will fix it, though).

Clothes are somewhat different from accessories, with enough differences to need separate tutorials. They're a bit easier to link, have fewer resources, but have a LOT more joints to worry about, plus a bit of UVmapping or grouping to sort out for conversions (skin parts need to be one group, anything from another game that has a separate texture that clashes with the skin texture usually needs to be a separate group).

For the outfit, I suggest you first read the Unimesh tutorial to figure out how to make a basic clothing mesh, then try the 3t2/4t2 method I suggested on the first page, simply because there are a ton of joints to assign otherwise, and I don't recommend doing that manually (I have done it manually on occasion if I've had meshes I couldn't convert otherwise, but I know what I'm doing - it's very tedious and can be very difficult). You also need to fix the arms, and that's better done with the method shown in the tutorials.

There's a video tutorial for the 4t2 method, and a text tutorial for the 3t2 method. They're quite similar, and I do suggest you look through both of them. The 4t2 tutorial in particular shows how to put an OBJ mesh on a TS3 skeleton so you can move the arms, then onto a TS2 skeleton to autoassign the joints, and various fixes and adjustments to adjust the mesh and make it ready.

(I don't usually convert or make a lot of clothes, so I'm not too steady in either of the methods, but I probably know enough about these tutorials to guide you through if you stumble over any problems).

I'll take a look at them all and I'll post in this thread if I have any troubles (probably will). As for assigning joints, how come you said that you shouldn't assign joints manually? I saw in the 4t2 tutorial a program was used to auto-assign joints which I found weird. I remember modding for UT2004 and joints in milkshape would be done by selecting parts of the model to assign them to each joint. Is it just glitchy in the sims 2?

JESSE!
Mad Poster
#54 Old 29th Jul 2020 at 1:14 AM
I guess it depends what you made and how complex the rig was - an accessory may just need one or two joints to work, but clothes usually need more.

It is possible to do joint assignments manually, but it takes forever if you want a good result (trust me on that, I've manually assigned several meshes - particularly infant meshes, and also several accessory meshes with more complicated joint assignments than "head" or "left hand").

To make a smooth assignment it's not enough to assign one part of the mesh to one joint and the other part to another joint - you have to assign maybe 50/50 or even 20/40/40 to various joints (and similar - I usually compare and copy off a similar mesh, and it takes a while). Some joints need to be assigned to as much as 3 or 4 joints to look good. That's what the auto assigning is for - it approximates the assigning for you. Some fixing may be required afterward, usually around any skin parts and in the neck area, possibly in the pelvis area or under the arms, but if you're lucky the auto tool does a good job.
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#55 Old 29th Jul 2020 at 1:33 AM
Quote: Originally posted by simmer22
I guess it depends what you made and how complex the rig was - an accessory may just need one or two joints to work, but clothes usually need more.

It is possible to do joint assignments manually, but it takes forever if you want a good result (trust me on that, I've manually assigned several meshes - particularly infant meshes, and also several accessory meshes with more complicated joint assignments than "head" or "left hand").

To make a smooth assignment it's not enough to assign one part of the mesh to one joint and the other part to another joint - you have to assign maybe 50/50 or even 20/40/40 to various joints (and similar - I usually compare and copy off a similar mesh, and it takes a while). Some joints need to be assigned to as much as 3 or 4 joints to look good. That's what the auto assigning is for - it approximates the assigning for you. Some fixing may be required afterward, usually around any skin parts and in the neck area, possibly in the pelvis area or under the arms, but if you're lucky the auto tool does a good job.

Oh I see. When I was modding for UT2004, the joints are straightforward such as Pelvis = pelvis rather than having all sorts of other joints being part of the Pelvis. I'll probably just use the auto joint tool because I'm not experienced enough, but I may need to tweak some of the areas as you said, afterward if the outfit appears awkwardly in-game. In the 4t2 tutorial I was a bit puzzled with how the "draw vertices with bone colors" tool works and what MDP was doing when she was moving some of the vertices in the calvicle areas.

I did read through the tutorials on the first page just now, what I'm having a lil trouble understanding is how the skins work. For my outfit, the only area where the body will show is the hands. For the 4t2 tutorial, MDP used a custom skin for the body but in-game they are able to select other skins. This is the only confusing part for me so far. When I get to placing the outfit on the sims 2 skeleton/mesh, do I just add a skin from the game and apply it to the hands? (also I have a default replacement skin, do I just use that one?). For the alpha texture (the texture that is black and white) as well, I need to use a custom texture for my outfit which I'll do by using the DXT build up as I did with the helmet, but how do I create the alpha texture as well, do I just base it off the texture I'm using in photoshop and outline the black and white regions?

JESSE!
Mad Poster
#56 Old 29th Jul 2020 at 2:08 AM
If you need a skin as a base texture in Milkshape, you can use any skin (but leave the texture in SimPE/Bodyshop with a black alpha!). Ingame the clothes use whatever skin the sim has. Groups you want to have skin showing should be set to "SimSkin" in the "cMaterialDefinition" tab in the TXMTs, while groups that aren't linked to the skin should be set to "SimStandardMaterial".

The "draw vertices with bone colors" tool show how the joints are weighted. You can easier spot problems if you turn this on (not always, but often), but with it on you can't see which vertices you've marked, so I tend to turn it on and off a lot.

The alpha texture
- The easiest way is to import the PNG you have in SimPE, and SimPE will automatically make a working alpha texture for you.
- For non-transparent textures where nothing is supposed to be hidden, you can just make the whole alpha white. Keep it simple. **
- White = Fully visible
- Black = not visible (or grey/mesh-colored/skin-colored, depending on settings and mesh)
- Grey-toned = transparent (translucent/transparent OR partly skin-colored, depending on settings and mesh).

**From what I saw, your texture/armor needs to be in a separate group, so this would be the easiest method. Keep the regular skin group for the hands (and maybe neck?), and make an additional group for the armor with the "SimStandardMaterial" setting (should be explained in the 3t2/4t2 tutorials).
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#57 Old 29th Jul 2020 at 3:57 PM Last edited by mousedroidz21 : 29th Jul 2020 at 4:59 PM.
Trying to follow the 4t2 and 3t2 tutorials right now and they aren't explained well. First off, I cannot find any sims 3 mesh bases as the links for the freesims3 tumblr isn't working anymore. I did a search for their tumblr and found the same mod they were referencing but when I downloaded it, it wasn't a package file, instead it was a sims3pack file which has created confusion for me. Can't I just get a sims 2 base mesh and base it off that?

EDIT: Decided to just use a random male outfit from Modthesims instead, still following the tutorial

JESSE!
Mad Poster
#58 Old 29th Jul 2020 at 5:02 PM
I think you can just use *any* TS3 clothing mesh as long as it's the right format and age/gender (I think it needs to be a package format, and you may want to avoid heavily edited ones, so maybe just get a simple edited one off here at MTS?).

There's a Sims3pack unpacker here that extracts package files from Sims3pack files: https://modthesims.info/d/364038/de...-sept-2009.html (in case you ever need that)
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#59 Old 30th Jul 2020 at 6:02 PM
Righteous, I have got the Samurai armor into the game and I have to say I was surprised. A lot of users make out meshing to be a really "difficult" process but I found it quiet simple and straightforward actually, obviously, for a first this isn't 100% perfect but it surley does look good in my eyes. I think my past experience with Milkshape and Photoshop is probably the reason why I found this quiet simple. I was also surprised with the auto-joint tool doing a great job at what it does as I thought it would mess things up, but surprisingly it didn't! here's what it looks like in bodyshop and in-game:




(works well with my helmet!)


(walk animation, left foot seems to be clipping through the grass slighlty)


(run animation, left thigh is having issues trying to move and is dragging polygons incorrectly as seen when running)


(sitting on floor animation, I was expecting this to be honest, the lower body doesn't work quiet well because of how many different details there are to the lower body, I wonder if this can be fixed)


(sofa sitting animation, hands seem to clip through the lower body)


(Jump rope animation, again, left thigh having trouble)

I'm actually pleased with this outcome, obviously its not perfect and needs adjustments but it works pretty damn well!

the first thing I want to fix is the hands. As seen in the screenshots on the first page, the gloves didn't work out in the end but that's not to worry about as I could make them an accessory in the future, or edit the gloves on as an image ot make it look like there are gloves. What I tried to do was delete the gloves and let the hands show out normally but for some reason, the hands are being applied to the same texture as the outfit. What can I do to fix this?

The second thing I may need to fix is that alpha texture (the black and white boxes texture). All I did with the textures is replace the original texture from the reference outfit in the package. I didn't make a alpha texture with the black and white boxes so I'm wondering if I should do that.

Third thing to fix might be the feet as seen in the image above it seems to be clipping through the floor when walking. I'd also like to fix the left thigh if possible because it keeps moving incorrectly. Not sure what to do with the sitting floor animation as that just looks impossible to fix because of how much detail the lower body has.

If I fix all these issues, I probably will upload this to MTS, I think this is a good clothing item. Obviously its not 100% perfect but it works! Then I'll probably make another set of armor for this game

JESSE!
Mad Poster
#60 Old 30th Jul 2020 at 7:26 PM
The gloves (and various other parts that need fixing) - you'd have to do joint assignments on those anyway, accessory or clothes, so it's probably better to make them alongside the hands so they fit together in the same mesh. You can copy over joint assignments by selecting a vertex on the area of a properly assigned mesh, clicking "show" in the Joints menu, then selecting the vertices you want to assign that particular assignment to, and clicking "assign". You can also do adjustments by selecting joints and how much you want to assign them in the menu above those buttons, but I do advice you to get familiar with roughly how the vertices are weighted first.

(I tend to use the naked meshes for this since they're easy to reemember the names of, it's just "--bodynaked" with the age and gender in front, so "ambodynaked" or "cubodynaked") - import it, but make sure to NOT import a second skeleton (you may get a prompt, select NO to this, and also to the prompt about morphs).

For the hands (if you want them to be skin colored), remember what I said about the hands having to be on the main group with the "SimSkin" TXMT setting and a blank texture, and the armor being on the second group with the "SimStandardMaterial" TXMT with the armor texture.
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#61 Old 30th Jul 2020 at 8:11 PM
Quote: Originally posted by simmer22
The gloves (and various other parts that need fixing) - you'd have to do joint assignments on those anyway, accessory or clothes, so it's probably better to make them alongside the hands so they fit together in the same mesh. You can copy over joint assignments by selecting a vertex on the area of a properly assigned mesh, clicking "show" in the Joints menu, then selecting the vertices you want to assign that particular assignment to, and clicking "assign". You can also do adjustments by selecting joints and how much you want to assign them in the menu above those buttons, but I do advice you to get familiar with roughly how the vertices are weighted first.

(I tend to use the naked meshes for this since they're easy to reemember the names of, it's just "--bodynaked" with the age and gender in front, so "ambodynaked" or "cubodynaked") - import it, but make sure to NOT import a second skeleton (you may get a prompt, select NO to this, and also to the prompt about morphs).

For the hands (if you want them to be skin colored), remember what I said about the hands having to be on the main group with the "SimSkin" TXMT setting and a blank texture, and the armor being on the second group with the "SimStandardMaterial" TXMT with the armor texture.

I think I will be skipping the gloves because it just adds on more work and it didn't look good on the Sims 2 body base anyway. As for the hands, I looked at the TXMTs I have and there is only one that is already set to SimSkin. Maybe I've made a mistake with the comments in my mesh file? I do have two Textures in the package, one is the armor's texture and the other being what seems to be the alpha texture of the original reference model

JESSE!
Mad Poster
#62 Old 30th Jul 2020 at 8:35 PM Last edited by simmer22 : 30th Jul 2020 at 9:06 PM.
That sounds a bit strange. There shouldn't be any alpha files in SimPE, at least not viewable in the TXTR without doing some trickery to it (the black and white textures, I mean - there will be in Bodyshop and Project folder). Now, if you named the second group "alpha"-something, then it wouldn't be so strange. I don't think it matters that much what you name the second group (some name them "noblend" since they're not meant to blend with the skin group).

The comments don't matter that much for the recolor file, but the settings in the PropertySet/GZPS would (it's basically the same as the MeshOverlay/XMOL for accessories)
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#63 Old 30th Jul 2020 at 8:42 PM
Quote: Originally posted by simmer22
That sounds a bit strange. There shouldn't be any alpha files in SimPE, at least not viewable in the TXTR without doing some trickery to it (the black and white textures, I mean - there will be in Bodyshop and Project folder). Now, if you named the second group "alpha"-something, then it wouldn't be so strange. I don't think it matters that much what you name the second group (some name them "noblend" since they're not meant to blend with the skin group).

The comments don't matter that much for the recolor file, but the settings in the PropertySet/GZPS would (it's basically the same as the MeshOverlay/XMOL for accessories)

I'm a little bit confused with this part, sorry to bother, but could you take a look at it for me if you don't mind?
Attached files:
File Type: zip  5f6008c6_SamuraiOutfit.zip (1.68 MB, 9 downloads)

JESSE!
Mad Poster
#64 Old 30th Jul 2020 at 8:59 PM
The second texture is a normal map (which you probably should remove from the file, because it could be causing problems). Delete the "##0x5f6008c6!body~stdMatNormalMapTextureName_txtr" resource, then go to the TXMT and delete these four lines:
-stdMatNormalMapTextureAddressingU
-stdMatNormalMapTextureAddressingV
-stdMatNormalMapTextureEnabled
-stdMatNormalMapTextureName: ##0x5f6008c6!body~stdMatNormalMapTextureName

The texture is a bit too large for the game - it should ideally be 1024x1024. The game isn't too fond of very large textures, and this one is 4 times that size.

You also have to add a second group to the texture, and to the mesh (you may already have 2 groups in the mesh? You didn't add the mesh so I can't check). The hands need to be in the "body" group, and the samurai armor need to be in the new group (for instance called "noblend").

How to add groups to recolor files:
https://rented-space.tumblr.com/pos...groups-in-simpe
(for the mesh you make sure the second group has the same subset name you use for the group in the recolor name, and that the group name and the name used in the comments for that group match, and it should be fine)


----------------------------------------------
A few other resources you may find useful:

I found an older tutorial using roughly the same method as the 3t2/4t2 tutorials (but explained a bit shorter, and not with the arm fixing, because this was before TS4) here:
https://modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=487443

Nintendolover also has a 4t2 tutorial here, if you prefer having things written down:
https://nintendolover13.tumblr.com/...othing-tutorial (there's a "path 1 and path 2" at the bottom)

Other than that I use this site a lot: https://ts2tutorialdatabase.tumblr.com - you could find some useful tips on meshing and recoloring along with SimPE editing there.
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#65 Old 30th Jul 2020 at 9:56 PM
Quote: Originally posted by simmer22
The second texture is a normal map (which you probably should remove from the file, because it could be causing problems). Delete the "##0x5f6008c6!body~stdMatNormalMapTextureName_txtr" resource, then go to the TXMT and delete these four lines:
-stdMatNormalMapTextureAddressingU
-stdMatNormalMapTextureAddressingV
-stdMatNormalMapTextureEnabled
-stdMatNormalMapTextureName: ##0x5f6008c6!body~stdMatNormalMapTextureName

The texture is a bit too large for the game - it should ideally be 1024x1024. The game isn't too fond of very large textures, and this one is 4 times that size.

You also have to add a second group to the texture, and to the mesh (you may already have 2 groups in the mesh? You didn't add the mesh so I can't check). The hands need to be in the "body" group, and the samurai armor need to be in the new group (for instance called "noblend").

How to add groups to recolor files:
https://rented-space.tumblr.com/pos...groups-in-simpe
(for the mesh you make sure the second group has the same subset name you use for the group in the recolor name, and that the group name and the name used in the comments for that group match, and it should be fine)


----------------------------------------------
A few other resources you may find useful:

I found an older tutorial using roughly the same method as the 3t2/4t2 tutorials (but explained a bit shorter, and not with the arm fixing, because this was before TS4) here:
https://modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=487443

Nintendolover also has a 4t2 tutorial here, if you prefer having things written down:
https://nintendolover13.tumblr.com/...othing-tutorial (there's a "path 1 and path 2" at the bottom)

Other than that I use this site a lot: https://ts2tutorialdatabase.tumblr.com - you could find some useful tips on meshing and recoloring along with SimPE editing there.

The problem appears to be the texture groups not working correctly. I understand that you didn't find my mesh because I didn't even know anything about this step. I did add the groups following rented-space's tutorial as well as doing what you also said (I haven't resized my texture yet and I will do this soon) but here is the problem.

Numoverrides is set to 2 and there are 2 groups in my model. "body" and "noblend". For some odd reason, the game only wants to detect override0 and is completely ignoring override1 even after setting numoverrides to 2. If I mess around with override0, changing it to "body" or "noblend", then either one of the two will be detected whether it is my mesh or the default suit that appears if I change it to "body". I recently edited my mesh to make sure the "model" line in comments is set to the right group but even after doing this, nothing changed. The game is being stubborn and is pretending as if override1 doesn't exist.

How can I fix this?

JESSE!
Mad Poster
#66 Old 30th Jul 2020 at 10:49 PM
You have to change the settings and then make a new recolor with that file. I can't see any changes having been done in the PropertySet/GZPS (which is where you have to do the settings) in the file you posted above.

This is essentially what you have to do with the file (and then make a new recolor using this one - but remove the one you have that's got the same name) - https://simfileshare.net/download/1964752/

The new file will have an extra group added. It still needs SimPE editing when you've made the new file in Bodyshop - make sure to set the "Noblend" TXMT to SimStandardMaterial, and to replace the "body" texture with a blank 1024x1024 texture so the hands draw the proper skin texture from the "SimSkin" TXMT.
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#67 Old 30th Jul 2020 at 11:20 PM
Quote: Originally posted by simmer22
You have to change the settings and then make a new recolor with that file. I can't see any changes having been done in the PropertySet/GZPS (which is where you have to do the settings) in the file you posted above.

This is essentially what you have to do with the file (and then make a new recolor using this one - but remove the one you have that's got the same name) - https://simfileshare.net/download/1964752/

The new file will have an extra group added. It still needs SimPE editing when you've made the new file in Bodyshop - make sure to set the "Noblend" TXMT to SimStandardMaterial, and to replace the "body" texture with a blank 1024x1024 texture so the hands draw the proper skin texture from the "SimSkin" TXMT.

Thanks! the problem has now been solved. However the file you sent wasn't showing up in game for me. So I did as you said in making a new recolor file and after changing those areas in SimPE the hands now show up correctly. But I now have two Samurai models, one with the hands and one with the hands problem. Should I just rename the new one as the same name as the old one? One of my sims is already wearing the samurai armor in-game with the hands issue and obviously, he needs to be wearing the fixed one

JESSE!
Mad Poster
#68 Old 30th Jul 2020 at 11:50 PM
Remove the old recolor files (and the one I tinkered with - it was just for the purpose of Bodyshop, not for ingame), and keep just the fixed file you've now made plus the mesh. You can put the fixed armor onto the sims when going ingame.

(If you remove CC clothes, sims should just be put into some random Maxis clothes - it's worse to remove anything that's genetic, like eyes/skin).

I'm assusming you'll want to fix the hands and the other issues on the mesh, and it's really all down to the same type of fix. It's a matter of tinkering with the joint assignments, either by trying to redo it with the auto tools, or by doing some manual assigning.
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#69 Old 30th Jul 2020 at 11:55 PM
Quote: Originally posted by simmer22
Remove the old recolor files (and the one I tinkered with - it was just for the purpose of Bodyshop, not for ingame), and keep just the fixed file you've now made plus the mesh. You can put the fixed armor onto the sims when going ingame.

(If you remove CC clothes, sims should just be put into some random Maxis clothes - it's worse to remove anything that's genetic, like eyes/skin).

I'll do that and update the thread in a moment to see what happens

JESSE!
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#70 Old 31st Jul 2020 at 12:15 AM
Wonderful, the outfit's technical side is complete, all it seems there is left to do is fix all these weird joint problems. I was able to fix the left thigh by finding the verticies that were causing me problems:



now it looks better when they run in the armor:



however, there is noticable clipping as seen in the image above


most of it appears to be in the legs



I've also noticed that the knees tend to have an issue when sitting on the floor:


(this was taken before we fixed the hands issue)

To fix these issues should I assign better verticies to the joints? or should I use the vertex data merge tool to speed up the process? or actually I was thinking of just assigning the verticies that are part of the detailed armour (like the flabs seen in the lower body) to spine or pelvis so they don't move when running or walking. One thing that I find weird when assigning joints for the sims 2 is that you can't preview the animations in milkshape whereas with UT2004 you could import animations into milkshape to see where you went wrong (obviously, this probably isn't possible with the sims 2 and how many animations the game has). I guess moving the joints themselves would be a better indication for this.

Do you think it looks good and would satisify those that download it?

JESSE!
Mad Poster
#71 Old 31st Jul 2020 at 12:49 AM Last edited by simmer22 : 31st Jul 2020 at 1:06 AM.
Do you have a full body inside the armor?

I'd probably just remove anything that wasn't showing, leaving just the hands and neck area (any parts showing if the helmet is off). That would leave the clipping to a minimum (and less worry about getting those parts to perfection).

The hands still look a bit weird, though - doesn't look like the bottom one uses the proper texture, and did you remove the armor on them?

---

You can preview animation in Milkshape in a few ways. Save the file first, though (and if you're smart, work on a copy - you don't want to do an accidental save at a bad moment, but you can absolutely do progress and get it saved without ruining anything).

Click the "Anim" button. Then click the "rotation" button (switch to "local" rotation, it's better for hands/arms), double-click the joint you want to check, and rotate it in either one of the three viewports (3D is no-go). Click "Anim" again to reset. I do this all the time to check difficult assignments. It's not perfect (you can move the sims a whole lot more than they normally move ingame), but it gives you a good idea.You can make a crude animation and test with it to see if things are working. If that doesn't satisfy you, I think Omglo and a few others were working on how to import animations from TS3 and TS4 to TS2 and they had some animations imported to Milkshape - you may want to have a look and see if you can find that project (I've misplaced the link somewhere). Personally, after I've done some serious contortion yoga sessions with them in Milkshape, I tend to load up the game and send the sims jumping on a couch - They do get a proper workout when I'm doing joint assignments...
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#72 Old 31st Jul 2020 at 1:09 AM
Quote: Originally posted by simmer22
Do you have a full body inside the armor?

I'd probably just remove anything that wasn't showing, leaving just the hands and neck area (any parts showing if the helmet is off). That would leave the clipping to a minimum (and less worry about getting those parts to perfection).

The hands still look a bit weird, though - doesn't look like the bottom one uses the proper texture, and did you remove the armor on them?

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You absolutely can preview animation in Milkshape. Save the file first, though (and if you're smart, work on a copy - you don't want to do an accidental save at a bad moment, but you can absolutely do progress and get it saved without ruining anything).

Click the "Anim" button. Then click the "rotation" button (switch to "local" rotation, it's better for hands/arms), double-click the joint you want to check, and rotate it in either one of the three viewports (3D is no-go). Click "Anim" again to reset. I do this all the time to check difficult assignments. It's not perfect (you can move the sims a whole lot mroe than they normally move ingame), but it gives you a good idea.

Yes the full body is in the armour and that sounds like a better idea, just removing the areas that are clipping as they shouldn't really be there. As for the hands, I think they do look fine


They do seem to be clipping through the armour but thats to be expected. Also, I am using a default replacement skin which is why it may appear different, but from afar I don't think the hands are a big issue. I think the issue is the other areas which need to be assigned to the correct joints. I can see that the front plate in the lower body should be assigned to pelvis for example (in the picture above, the front plate is having issues moving around. applying it to Pelvis should fix the problem. Oh and for milkshape that was what I was doing, just rotating the joints using the animation option

JESSE!
Mad Poster
#73 Old 31st Jul 2020 at 1:14 AM
I can see some lines on the hands, which is something you'll want to be aware of for future mesh making - I'm guessing you may have had the "Auto smooth" option ticked when importing the meshes. It does weird things to your meshes. Leave it unticked.
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#74 Old 31st Jul 2020 at 1:33 AM
Quote: Originally posted by simmer22
I can see some lines on the hands, which is something you'll want to be aware of for future mesh making - I'm guessing you may have had the "Auto smooth" option ticked when importing the meshes. It does weird things to your meshes. Leave it unticked.

Damn, you're right as I completely forgot about that. Can it be fixed through editing in milkshape or is it not possible?

JESSE!
Mad Poster
#75 Old 31st Jul 2020 at 8:36 PM
Easiest is to "start over" with the skin parts. Import a new naked mesh into the file you already have (with autosmooth off), replace the hands, make sure names and comments are proper, chop off any parts you don't need, and it should be fine. (Make sure to NOT import an extra skeleton or morphs!)

I can't see any problems with the armor in the pictures (but I can't be 100% sure since I'm just looking at pictures). It's easiest to spot this without the texture in Milkshape because borked normals pop out easier without being masked by a texture (right-click 3D view, switch to "Smooth Shaded", look for any lines that shouldn't be there, and switch back to "textured" when you're done).

It's worse if you have a full mesh with lines. If it's just hands or a few skin parts it's easy to fix.
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