Hi there! You are currently browsing as a guest. Why not create an account? Then you get less ads, can thank creators, post feedback, keep a list of your favourites, and more!
Senior Moderator
staff: senior moderator
Original Poster
#1 Old 12th Oct 2020 at 5:25 PM Last edited by zoe22 : 12th Oct 2020 at 10:19 PM.
Default Shaders - basin water group not showing up in game
Hello!
I am having trouble with getting the basin water part of a wash tub mesh to show up in game. It looks fine in TSRW but in game it's as if it wasn't there :/

So what I did was add a new group in TSRW and set the material to Basin Water, and said yes to the pop up about using most common settings. It looks fine in TSRW, but in game it didn't show up. Also, I used S3PE and a  bathtub as  a reference to make sure those values were the same like in this tutorial but that doesn't seem to help either. 
Now, I also tried using a bathtub as a base as that has a Basin Water group already but I got an error when importing my mesh into TSRW about some vertex thing and that it probably wouldn't work in game? But it did actually look okay in TSRW, and in game the water was showing up properly, however the textures were all messed up! So I'm thinking that using a bath as a base isn't really an option because TSRW didn't seem at all happy about it (I don't get that error when importing using the trash can as a base), so that's why I'm hoping it's possible to add the shader to the object which didn't already have a Basin Water group.

So I'd love it if someone can help with this :p

I added some screenshots. The tub actually has two geostates, so the tub in the in game screenshot that doesn't have a water plane thing has a script to flip between geostates (which is all working apart from the missing water), and you can see in TSRW how it looks okay - I showed the full thing with the two states on top of each other as well as hiding one so it matches the in game picture.
Then the other in game one is of the messed up bathtub version. As you can see it has the water okay but the textures are all messed up even though the uv mapping is exactly the same. It also just has both geostates on top of each other because I couldn't be bothered to add them properly for this test version.

And the package too! There is the script which is needed to make the tub show up in game with the right geostate, and with interactions to change the geostates. Otherwise it would just be invisible when you place it down :p

Thank you!

Edit: so I tried making the water plane as phong because actually the overlay texture from sims 4 has the water part slightly transparent so that's how it displays the water in sims 4. However, when I tried turning it into phong with the original package, it had a weird brown texture for the water in tsrw that I don't know where it comes from. When I did the same thing but with a new base (a decor plant) it actually looked correct in tsrw with the transparent water texture, but in both cases, the plane was missing in game, same problem as with it set to the basin water shader. So I really don't know what the problem is, why this part of the mesh just isn't showing up, as it doesn't actually seem to be a shader problem after all... 
Screenshots
Attached files:
File Type: zip  wash tub.zip (136.9 KB, 4 downloads)
Advertisement
Lab Assistant
#2 Old 13th Oct 2020 at 3:10 AM
Quote: Originally posted by zoe22
Hello!
I am having trouble with getting the basin water part of a wash tub mesh to show up in game. It looks fine in TSRW but in game it's as if it wasn't there :/

So what I did was add a new group in TSRW and set the material to Basin Water, and said yes to the pop up about using most common settings. It looks fine in TSRW, but in game it didn't show up. Also, I used S3PE and a  bathtub as  a reference to make sure those values were the same like in this tutorial but that doesn't seem to help either. 
Now, I also tried using a bathtub as a base as that has a Basin Water group already but I got an error when importing my mesh into TSRW about some vertex thing and that it probably wouldn't work in game? But it did actually look okay in TSRW, and in game the water was showing up properly, however the textures were all messed up! So I'm thinking that using a bath as a base isn't really an option because TSRW didn't seem at all happy about it (I don't get that error when importing using the trash can as a base), so that's why I'm hoping it's possible to add the shader to the object which didn't already have a Basin Water group.

So I'd love it if someone can help with this :p

I added some screenshots. The tub actually has two geostates, so the tub in the in game screenshot that doesn't have a water plane thing has a script to flip between geostates (which is all working apart from the missing water), and you can see in TSRW how it looks okay - I showed the full thing with the two states on top of each other as well as hiding one so it matches the in game picture.
Then the other in game one is of the messed up bathtub version. As you can see it has the water okay but the textures are all messed up even though the uv mapping is exactly the same. It also just has both geostates on top of each other because I couldn't be bothered to add them properly for this test version.

And the package too! There is the script which is needed to make the tub show up in game with the right geostate, and with interactions to change the geostates. Otherwise it would just be invisible when you place it down :p

Thank you!

Edit: so I tried making the water plane as phong because actually the overlay texture from sims 4 has the water part slightly transparent so that's how it displays the water in sims 4. However, when I tried turning it into phong with the original package, it had a weird brown texture for the water in tsrw that I don't know where it comes from. When I did the same thing but with a new base (a decor plant) it actually looked correct in tsrw with the transparent water texture, but in both cases, the plane was missing in game, same problem as with it set to the basin water shader. So I really don't know what the problem is, why this part of the mesh just isn't showing up, as it doesn't actually seem to be a shader problem after all... 


Usually, parts of a mesh getting invisible in-game are the result of not assigning joints to the groups in Milkshape or the bone option in TSRW. Phong, Phong Alpha, and Foliage groups can get away with no joints, but anything else requires one. Murfeel explains how to assign joints here, it's a simple process for static objects: https://murfeelee.tumblr.com/post/154960947076/sdkfj
Senior Moderator
staff: senior moderator
Original Poster
#3 Old 13th Oct 2020 at 2:40 PM Last edited by zoe22 : 13th Oct 2020 at 2:51 PM.
Hey @Deniisu thanks for your reply!
I did actually assign the joints to the whole mesh including the plane that's meant to be the water. But just in case I re assigned it, imported it back in but it's still the same in game, with the part that's supposed to be water just missing.
Also, when I used the bath as a base, I imported the exact same thing from milkshape (except for reordering the groups to match what the bath had) so no change of the joints assignment, and that was when the water plane did show up even with the basin water shader. 

So I'm not sure what to do next :P

edit: okay so i thought I'd check it one more time and weirdly if I export the wso file from TSRW and reimport into milkshape, the water plane is no longer assigned to the transform bone. If I assign it, export and reimport directly to milkshape, it is still assigned, but it seems like once I import it into TSRW and export it again, it loses the assignment... so that's weird right?
Lab Assistant
#4 Old 14th Oct 2020 at 10:09 PM
Quote: Originally posted by zoe22
Hey @Deniisu thanks for your reply!
I did actually assign the joints to the whole mesh including the plane that's meant to be the water. But just in case I re assigned it, imported it back in but it's still the same in game, with the part that's supposed to be water just missing.
Also, when I used the bath as a base, I imported the exact same thing from milkshape (except for reordering the groups to match what the bath had) so no change of the joints assignment, and that was when the water plane did show up even with the basin water shader. 

So I'm not sure what to do next :P

edit: okay so i thought I'd check it one more time and weirdly if I export the wso file from TSRW and reimport into milkshape, the water plane is no longer assigned to the transform bone. If I assign it, export and reimport directly to milkshape, it is still assigned, but it seems like once I import it into TSRW and export it again, it loses the assignment... so that's weird right?


TSRW can be very fiddly with bone assigning - sometimes, if you export a reference mesh, it ends with an extra bone with zero weight that's used by nothing. I suggest you remap the mesh to add space for the TS4 translucent water diffuse, set the shader to phong Alpha and make it an overlay. I know you did it before, but sometimes using two different diffuses by editing the material properties does not work - that's why I'm suggesting the remap. Harder work, but a guarantee your multiplier won't leak to the water :P
Back to top