I'm creating AL Wood recolors of various custom object meshes (thanks @Michelle for your help), but I found out that the color of a custom mesh (right desk) looks off compared with a Maxis mesh. In this example, it's about Mutske's Lucky bedroom set from T$R. For adding recolor images, I follow TheNinthwave's tutorial where he set the format to DXT3 and MipMap Levels to 12 (the originals are Level 9 usually), Sharpen = none and unchecked Filters.

So I wonder, could it be that the mesh has some lighting/shine effects that makes the recolors look off? Is it ok if I upload the mesh later on?

Twelve mipmap levels? That seems unnecessary. They will be fine if you simply buildDxt (3) and leave as is. The shine and lighting are set in the txmt, so you will want to copy the values used in the Maxis item to your cc one.

@HugeLunatic thank you for the quick reply. What do the MipMap levels and the DXT levels mean?

Do I have to modify the TXMT in the recolor files or in the meshes?

The mip maps are what draws the textures when you zoom in and out.

You can modify the txmt settings in either the mesh or the recolors you have made, every recolor has it's own txmt. If you intend to make a lot of recolors, it might be quickest to edit the mesh txmt to match the maxis first. Once you have those settings how you want them, each recolor you make of that mesh will have the same txmt settings.

If you build a texture with DXT and the mipmap levels are set to a certain number, they'll usually be built automatically according to the size of the map. A 1024x1024 sized map will often have one more level than a 512x512 map, for instance. If there's just one level set, only the largest one will be made.

The lighting/shine effects are set in the TXMT resource. There's some info here: https://modthesims.info/t/316260 (more a guide on what you can use the TXMT for than a tutorial, but it can come in handy).

If the color and shine looks off, there's probably one of the settings below that's off. They give various effects (see guide above), but most can be turned off.

My preferred settings for a very matte look that doesn't mess with the colors are these, or variations of them if I want some effects but not all.
reflectivity - 0.1 (0 works if you don't want any)
stdMatDiffCoef - 1,1,1 (0.8,0.8,0.8 is mostly used for objects, but darkens the item somewhat. 1,1,1 is used for clothes and I also recommend it for accessories so it matches the clothes. For furniture it could be useful for bright color swatches like white, if you're having troubles with the swatches being too dark)
stdMatEmissiveCoef - 0,0,0
stdMatEnvCubeCoef - 0,0,0
stdMatEnvCubeMode - none
stdMatSpecCoef - 0,0,0 (0.091,0.091,0.091 is used for clothes/accessories)
stdMatSpecPower - 2

@simmer22 thank you so much! I managed to fix the lighting, but I have some questions left:
* Does stdAlphaBlendMode "blend" vs "none" influence the degree reflection as well?
* If the reflectivity is set on 0.5 in both a Maxis Match object and a Custom object, does the stdMatDiffCoef = 0; 0; 0 (Black) no longer makes objects too dark?

1: No. "Blend" allows for transparency, while "none" either removes transparency or allows for alpha cutouts along with the "stdMatAlphaTestEnabled" setting set to "1" (if it's "0", alpha cutouts are off). The Blend setting is dependent on proper layering of the mesh groups to look good, or they'll "bleed through" the other layers.

2: stdMatDiffCoef should be 0.8 or 1 (x3). If you set it to 0, it will turn very dark. I don't think reflection has a say here. I've mostly experimented with this one on accessories (they're 0.8 x3 by default), and with that setting they always go darker than clothes (1 x3 by default), which I find really annoying. For objects it's not that big of an issue to keep it at 0.8, as they tend to be over-brightened sometimes.

One thing to note - reflectivity and effects on the objects look different in inside and outside lighting. I think it has to do with the difference in sunshine light (outside) and lamp/window light (fully incased in a room), so depending on whether it's an object for inside/outside or both, you'll want to check it in both light situations.

@simmer22 I just checked various lighting settings and I'm going to figure out which object I want to pick as references for parameters. Two more questions:
1. What are the purposes of stdMatSpecPower and deprecatedStdMatInvDiffuseCoeffMultiplier?
2. Which settings are the most Maxis-Match for wood colors? Are your settings a good reference for AL Wood recolors?

ETA: I'm torn between two different types of coefficients
Maxis 1-tile desk table
All coefficients are set to 0;0;0 (black)
MatLightingEnabled: False
MatSpecPower: N/A
Reflectivity: 0.5

Pro: it looks more 3D

Furniture with a bit of shine (forgot to screenshot it)
MatDiffCoeff: 0.8
MatSpecCoeff: 0.5 (I suspect this contributes to the reflection because I haven't seen a shine when I've set this to 0)
MatSpecPower: 20
MatLightingEnabled: True
Reflectivity: 0.5

Pro: I want a subtle shine on the wooden furniture
Con: it looks flat when it's dark



The one-tile Maxis desk table and the Hemnes chest have more three-dimensionality in the dark
I use Dreadpirate's Secret Cinema lighting mod

diff=diffuse (the texture)
spec=specular (shine in the reflectivity)
I think the specular and reflection work in tandem, so you need to have reflection and specular over 0 for it to show.

The specular power has to do with how shiny or matte the highlights are.

I'm really not an expert on the settings, so if you want to learn more, I suggest you look through the guide I linked to. Usually I tend to copy settings I like off of furniture/items that look roughly the way I want them to be, and maybe adjust a few things here and there if need be, and use the guide if I'm after a particular look. After a bit of trial and failure you'll figure out what works and not.

@Softlism - The normal values I use for the AL Wood textures are below along with the Maxis values and values to make it a little brighter. I also did a couple of recolours to show the colour difference, when values are changed. One of the reasons it looks flat is Mutske did not add shadows and highlights to the texture image. I did one recolour and added some very subtle shadows and highlights, which is something you learn by trial, error and a lot of practise.

@Michelle thank you very much for your demonstration! Which of ypur three values versions have you used for the "No Shadows" and "Shadows added" versions of Mutske's recolors?

The shadows Michelle was talking about are painted on the texture itself, it is not a parameter in the txmt.
That's what I thought when I saw the pictures, most probably the textures look flat because they don't have shadows and highlights while Maxis meshes usually do

Here is an example of what I mean: this is a texture for the same chair, one has only the wood grain, and the other has details and shadows added. It will make a lot of difference in game and make it look more 3D. It is more work than a simple recolor and takes some practice to get them right, but you can make it an overlay and just change the background color to make more recolors

@Michelle & @simmer22 : Do you know what the effects are of deprecatedStdMatInvDiffuseCoeffMultiplier and stdMatTextureCoordTfAnimScaleStartEnd (0.0 - 1.0 vs 1.0 - 2.0)?

@simmer22 Do you know what the purposes are of "forceHighQualitySkinning" and "forceIgnoreShapeBlend"? Most of the meshes I recolor don't have these parameters included.

No, those aren't parameters I usually add/remove/edit.

Usually when I wonder what one of the parameters do, I do a search for the whole name and see what pops up (add "sims 2" if you get weird results). There's a catalog with brief explanations somewhere on MTS and/or at the wiki (I never remember where it is, but that's usually one of the first results).