Hello! I've recently started creating custom content for the sims 3.
After some time exploring tools and doing some test projects, I feel like I have an okay overview of the tools available to modders.

My goal with the post is to hopefully get some direction / resources from experienced creators.

I've been primarily using TSRW, but I'm finding it to be very buggy with some features seemingly disabled.
The most recent version seems to not allow adding material parameters, and will not automatically add common material parameters upon changing shaders.
An older version (posted by user greenplumboblover on tumblr) seems to allow these features, but throws a rather unhelpful error when importing wso meshes. So I'm hesitant about trying to use TSRW at all.

A part of why I was primarily using TSRW is because (besides it having a somewhat user friendly UI- when it works haha), was because the wso import export addons for Blender it has seemed to work pretty well for the most part.
It wasn't too difficult to update the addons such that they worked with Blender 4.1 as well.

Given how buggy TSRW is, I'd really like to transition to using other tools. I gather that S3OC and S3PE are the primary alternative workflow.

Here are some things regarding S3PE I'd love more info on:
- What tools exist for import and export of meshes to and from Blender? Are they available for modern blender versions? (I'd REALLY like to avoid using milkshape at all lol)
- What other tools are out there to supplement CC creation using S3PE? I'm finding some other tools on the simlogical site, but as with a lot of these things, many of the download links no longer work.

In general, I'm wondering what the workflow for CC creation without TSRW looks like. For example, If I wanted to create an object that uses a particular shader with some tweaked material parameters, would I be editing the MODL file's data directly? or do tools exist for this type of thing?

Attached is some custom shell buildings i'm working on for context of what kind of stuff I'm wanting to make.

Thanks for your time! Any info / resources / advice is greatly appreciated <3

First thing... Yup, TSRW can be temperamental... or just plain mental. This works on one version, and not on another, etc etc. It's why I currently have 4 versions on desktop.

As for Blender tools, there are the geom tools here on MTS by Smug Tomato. Blender has options in preferences for import/export wavefront object. I have the .wso plugin that came with TSRW 2_2_119, but find it worthless. I don't see how to apply bones to the .wso in Blender, to export as .wso and use. And, those .wsos won't import to Milkshape. Honestly, I've been doing this for 5 years, and avoided MS until I decided I wanted to mess with motorcycles (objects). I only use it for grouping and assigning joints (bones).

I believe there are a few object creation tutorials here on MTS, but they probably use MS.

@CardinalSims is familiar with using s3oc, and can tell you about using that tool.

sweet! thanks very much for the info !

If you're making objects, Milkshape is unavoidable if you're also avoiding TSRW- but it's not in a huge way.
I often describe Milkshape as my format converter, as that's all I use it for. There hasn't been a new MLOD/MODL plugin in years, and the outdated Blender one is hit and miss with what objects it will work with.

I use Wes Howe's plugin + the meshHelper for Milkshape to swap meshes I make in Blender into an object package (cloned with S3OC).
Export the MLOD or MODL to .s3asc format, import that in Milkshape, import the .obj of what I made, delete the original, rename my mesh to the mesh group it belongs to, export and overwrite the .s3asc, and finally import from s3asc in S3PE. No actual meshing done in Milkshape, it's purely the middle-man of obj to S3PE.
Then yes, I would make material and shader edits directly in S3PE Grid edit. It's intimidating to learn, but being familiar and confident with S3PE goes a long way in making just about any project possible. Definitely a worthwhile skill.

As noted, bones are troublesome because .obj won't retain them.
For basic objects that only have one bone assignment, it's very easy to apply this in Milkshape with a couple of clicks. For doing specific assignments of multiple bones, the interface can be a pain. I've been meaning to experiment with polygroups, or spoofing a .geom to copy bones from- but the short answer is we don't have a perfect method for this yet. It will certainly be more accessible in time, in the same way that CAS projects are easier than ever now.

Awesome shells by the way!

thanks so much for this great info!

that workflow of using S3PE with meshHelper and that MS plugin for conversion seems much more reliable!

Grid edit looks cool as well! Before I was only reading the file previews in text, which can be hard to parse.
I'll keep experimenting with object configuration with that.

Thanks!

You always get different workflow from @CardinalSims and me, which is a good thing for finding what works for you. What I've been doing with objects (motorcycles) is to work my mesh as object in Blender and split into groups. Then, export as groups. I then import the object to Milkshape, rename groups and assign joints (bones), then export as .wso. I import the .wso to TSRW. Motorcycles have a geostate to play with, so I also take care of that, and rig assignments. Then, I export the package.

I have had some success changing shaders in TSRW with objects, but can also do that in s3pe. If I make changes in s3pe, I reimport that package to TSRW, make a new TSRW work file, and a new package, so the work file has the changes, should I need to go back and make adjustments.

ah i see! exporting individually as groups seems interesting too.

nice motorcycle btw!

Not individually. Blender can import/export groups, similar to MS or TSRW, but I then use MS to rename the groups and export as .wso after assigning joints/bones.

And thank you. I have about 10 or 12, and am testing to be sure of the rig alignments before uploading. That one is a combo of 4 or 5 xps and mmd models, and some of my own work, like adding the suicide shifter. )))