Greetings. So I tried to make my first clothing mesh. Followed everything what tutorial from this site says, and at least it works, but I encountered two problems.
1. Neck part is cut off for some reason. Maybe I forgot to do something? Also I can see the same thing on legs, which is fine because it's a different mesh, but everything is cool in Milkshape.
2. Neck and hands textures got replaced with clothing texture. Is there any way to prevent this?

Thanks in advance.

For the neck, you need to
1: Make sure the head and neck match (the neck should match the position for another body mesh).

2: Make sure you've assigned the neck vertices properly to the joints (otherwise they won't align with the head) - if you're using auto assigning of some sort, or converting between ages, it's possible you need to do some manual fixing. You can copy the assignments off another body mesh so it matches the top line around the neck.

3: Make sure the body mesh has the proper comments (if you use Milkshape) - Body meshes need the "NumSkinWgts" line to be set to 3. If it's lower, or comments are missing, the mesh defaults to using fewer joints, which can mess up the assignments.

ModelName: [Name of subset]
Opacity: [opacity number]
HasTangentArray:
NumSkinWgts: 3

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For the hands/skin texture, it depends on the mesh. Does it have one or more subsets? If it only has one, check if the alpha in those areas is white. If it is, you need to fix it so it's black (alpha layer in Bodyshop - white = visible, black = skin/not textured).

If the skin is its own subset, this group must be linked to a TXMT that uses the SimSkin shader in the "cMaterialDefinition" tab. The other group can use "SimSkin" or "SimStandardMaterial" (depends what kind of subset it is - anything that's not meant to show skin texture when you use a black alpha needs to use the latter)

If it's just an alpha/texture problem with the top, it's likely the black texture is bleeding over to the pants.

You see, I forgot to tell that this is a default The Sims 2 mesh. All what I did is working with UVs and replacing legs. So that's why I bringing this up, because it shouldn't be that way.
I remember I used "TS2 UniMesh Autojoint", just to be sure. Never thought it will rewrite already assigned vertexes, so maybe I shouldn't use this. And comments are proper, yeah.


Can I ask you for some explanation about it or maybe it was highlighted in some tutorial, please?

Can you upload the files (mesh + recolor)? It's easier to see what's gone wrong that way, instead of having to guess.

If your mesh is a body mesh and only needs one subset (also called group), you shouldn't need to worry about the TXMT materials. Tutorials for TS3/TS4 conversions tend to show how to add groups, and tutorials that show how to add alpha-editable mesh parts should show how to set up the TXMT (if need be).

In your case I'm not sure that's the problem, but it would depend on how you've added the legs. If you've added them to a body mesh below the top, it should be fine. If it's a top and bottom mesh, you may need to do some changes.

Sure, there you go. Don't pay attention on the holes on his torso, that's just not fixed by me.

The problem with the hands/legs is from the UVmapping. All parts you want skintone-colored, you need to keep the original UVmapping for (in your case it's hands, legs, etc.). If the mapping for the clothes you're converting don't fit with the original body map, you need to put the clothing parts in a second group (like for 3t2/4t2 conversions), and keep the skin parts in the original "body" group.

Another issue is the bump map - It should always be the same size as the texture you're using. If it's smaller or bigger, it can cause problems if bump mapping is enabled. Alternatively, delete the "...stdMatNormalMapTextureName_txtr" resource, and the 4 lines in the TXMT with "stdMatNormalMapTexture..." in them (bump maps usually aren't needed, especially when it has the wrong texture anyway).

Also, if you're using Milkshape, make sure the "Autosmooth" button in the Group tab is unticked before you import in a mesh. Looks like your mesh has some issues from that one (black lines/spots + lines in the mesh). It is fixable but very tedious. Often the easiest is to start over.

It also looks like the joints haven't been assigned properly. When I export the mesh from SimPE, they get the look of when the "NumSkinWgts" has been set too low. The comments seem to be okay, but there are other things that can cause this bug. It does explain why the neck isn't proper ly aligned, though. The legs/shoes also have the wrong assignments ("auskel" joint instead of the leg joints).

Ah, so keeping multiple groups is fine? Aight, I'll try this next time. I used to combine everything into one group, hoping it will work in this case, heh.


Really? Auto Smooth was off, I checked that.
But what's funny that when I welded leg part and smoothed it, it seemed to be fixed. I really don't know how it would affect in future tbh, most TS2 tutorials recommending not to smooth anything at all.

You can have multiple groups, but it's best to keep to as few as possible (most clothes don't need more than 2).

There are various ways to smooth a mesh (and to fix the mesh "normals"). Some methods can cause issues - for instance, you shouldn't do "align normals" on the entire mesh, since it will cause issues several places. The same tool (and a couple others) can however be used on smaller areas, as long as you're careful. There are areas you'll want to avoid, and use other methods instead (neck, seam between top/bottom outfits).

Ok, cool. Thanks for your help!

Ok, I encountered another problem, now with accessories. So to not make another thread, I'll ask it here.
Unfortunately, accessories tutorial isn't that "rich" as others, but somehow I managed to make it work. But! I removed meshes in mesh package, leaving only AM mesh (because I won't be able to link 3IDR file). And here's the problem - there's a duplicates of original glasses mesh for AF, TF, TM. So I guess I have only two ways, which one you can recommend me and how to perform it?
1. Making AF, TF, TM meshes. These somehow needs to be recognized by game and I didn't realised how to do this yet.
2. Make a new glasses available only for AM. If so, how?

I've got a tutorial here on how to make multi-age/gender accessories (including toddlers/infants, if you ever want that).
https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/moo...rial-t1979.html
There's no pictures and it doesn't cover how to make a mesh from scratch (but all the needed info on how to make the mesh ready for SimPE is there), and the tutorial assumes you've got some knowledge of the outlay of SimPE, so I suggest you've at least done one or two other CAS meshes first, possibly also dabbled a bit with accessories. The Unimesh tutorials here at MTS have some useful pictures of some of the steps.

There's also a couple others here, but I'm not sure if those cover multi-age/gender.
https://modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=233103
https://modthesims.info/t/295369

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Making the accessory available for only one age/gender is fairly simple - for the mesh file, you delete the 4 resources that belong to each age/gender you want to remove (CRES/SHPE/GMND/GMDC), and keep only the ones you want to keep. For the recolor file, you delete the "Mesh Overlay" resource for the age/genders you want to remove. Then you make a new recolor using that file (not the original project!). Bodyshop removes all the resources the file no longer needs (don't delete them manually, as it's too easy to delete the wrong resources + Bodyshop sometimes fixes some stuff).

Which is which for Age/genders are listed in my tutorial (somewhere...)

Yeah, I'm experienced with meshes already, so it won't be a problem. It's just always a trouble for me to find a proper tutorial, some of them are way too outdated. Thank you so much for links and stuff. Hope to release my first upload very soon.

Got accessories working, along with another stuff. Only problem with hairs (there's supposed to be a hair curl, but it gets transparent for some reason) and neck and hands is still a problem, but I will learn further about it. And of course the body begs for more proper rigging.

The transparent part with the hair could be from the UVmapping (there's a "square" the UVmap needs to be inside, usually marked out in UVmappers. If the UV coordinates are outside that "square", the texture will be invisible - most noticeable on hairs/accessories. Potentially also has to do with the setup of TXMT settings and/or shader). If you export a mesh as an OBJ file from SimPE, this can sometimes happen (especially with body meshes) - it shifts the entire UVmap one full square down or up. Some files from other games could have a similar bug, too.

For the neck/hands/etc. you need those in the main group tied to the skin (Simskin shader), and the clothes in a secondary group (Different group name usually works, if not, use the SimStandardMaterial shader - that one won't pick up skintone, though).

Thanks! Also with TS3 to TS2 conversion tutorial I realised you need to add additional group in Property Set if there's any. So it solved 2 problems.
Here's another one. Neck part and hands is now responsive to skin color but it's way too bright. What's that?

Probably a good idea to remove the ages you're not using (teen male - The YA and EM recolors can use the AM mesh) - delete the "tmhairshortcombed_red" PropertySet(GZPS) from the file. It can't use the male mesh anyway.

Recolors are going to pick up some or another toddler-through-teen hair, but those can be removed with Cat's hair binner.
https://modthesims.info/d/434016/qu...11-v1-1-02.html

If you cloned the "hair_alpha3" TXMTs from the "Hair" TXMTs, you need to do "Fix TGI" (blue "button" in the Plugin View) on both of them to fix the instances.
- You also need to change the "cMaterialDefinition" to "SimStandardMaterial" (otherwise the hair strands can't show proper transparency).
- They also need to be set to "stdMatAlphaBlendMode" = "blend".
- When you've done this, open the 3DIR that matches the "Instance" for the age you want to fix, then click the "Package" button, find the "Material Definition" line in the list that matches the "Instance" for the edited TXMT, drag it into the list inthe 3DIR, and use the up/down buttons to put it below the original one. Then delete the original line.
- The PropertySet for the edited hair needs to be edited, too, to properly add the new group (adding a couple tutorials below)
https://rented-space.tumblr.com/pos...groups-in-simpe (quick-adding groups, I recommend doing it this way as it fixes the Binary file + 3DIRs for you, and the only thing you need to do is a few small edits in the TXMTs, especially if you only have the "Hair" group)
https://skellington7d.livejournal.com/89549.html (more tips/tricks)
(Only edit the "hair_alpha" ones - keep the "Hair" ones as-is).

I'd also recommend starting with a hair that already has a "Hair_alpha" group (most hairs with transparent/loose parts), as the TXMT usually has all the settings you need already applied. It's easier to remove stuff you don't need, than adding it back correctly.

Thank you so much for explanation! Unfortunately I've deleted my previous post and made a new one, could you please take a look?

I mentioned the (possible?) solution to this issue above - the bump map is too small, which causes the brightness (deleting it when it's not in use is the easiest fix):

Yeah, I've deleted it and it seems to work now. I think I have learned everything I need for now, thanks again for your patience and knowledge! Will make my first upload very soon.

Uh, I'm sorry, but it looks like it's not over yet. I'm still getting confused with accessories.
1. About the linking part. In recolor pack, there's a 3 AM mesh overlays, how to find out which one I need? Sometimes it gets linked to elderlies or not linked to any age at all (screenshot 1).
2. I tried to replace a mesh in one of my successful attempts, and this is what I got. What may cause this and how to fix (screenshot 2)?
3. By making my own facial hair mesh, I tried to edit it, exporting as a TXT file (Milkshape 3D ASCII) because this is the only way to edit it and keep bones and everything. When it seems to look ok in editor (screenshot 3), it looks like this in the game. Like it's clipped into a chin. Why so?

For both hairs and accessories that are in the head and hand area (except for a few cases), you can link them to the same AM or AF mesh. Adult/YA/elder use the same head/face shape, for each gender.

For the AM files, have all resources showing, then sort by "instance" (NOT "instance (high)")
Click one of the Property Set (for hairs) or Mesh Overlay (for accessories) files for AM. Look at the "age".
Adult = 8, YA = 40, Elder = 10 (a combination/addition of these means the accessory/hair shows for multiple ages, so all together would be 58).
The 3DIR that has the same number in the "Instance" category belongs to the PropertySet/MeshOverlay.

For accessories they usually use the same numbers each time, and it corresponds to the age. Female is 1, male is 2.
801 is female adult (8=age, 01=gender), child male is 202 (age=2, male = 02), and so on.

(toddler=1, child=2, teen=4, adult=8, YA=40, elder=10)

Hairs usually use numbers 1-7, and those can occasionally be more mixed up, so go by the age in the PropertySet. There's small "bug" in the hair PeopertySets that causes the 3DIR to list the wrong PropertySet in the 3DIR list - so don't trust that one, or you'll risk linking them up wrong. Trust the instance numbers.

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2:
Are you using the PJSE mesh replacer?
If you're linking up the meshes manually, you should only change the first set of Resource/SHPE files in the 3DIR.

Also make sure you've given proper bone assignments + comments to the glasses.

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3: I'd think it's placement + different face morphs (if you're using the standard male face, it's not going to look exactly the same on a completely different face). Getting the placement right isn't always easy. If you have the opportunity to extract the face mesh for your sim, you could make the beard have a snugger fit.