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Mad Poster
Original Poster
#1 Old 16th Mar 2022 at 12:30 AM
Default Help fixing borky separates made from full body meshes?
So it seems to be fairly well known now that separates improperly made from fullbody meshes will crash the game, most often when a Sim wearing them uses a computer. As far as I know, the only way to fix this is to extract the mesh, make a whole new mesh using the correct base, then relink all the recolours.

Buuuuut that's tedious and annoying and it'd be so much easier if you could fix the mesh without breaking all the recolours. (Especially for me, because all my recolours are merged and I'm still in the process of hunting down all the unmerged files.) Problem is, I'm not sure how to do that. The mesh I'm trying to fix right now is NekoSayuri's Veranka Slouchy Top. If you open the mesh in SimPE, you can see from the filename that the base mesh was a fullbody one. I tried changing every 'body' I could find in the GMND and SHPE to 'top' (couldn't find anything in the CRES) as well as remaking the actual mesh in Milkshape, but it still crashes my game when I tell my Sim to buy a community lot. Does anyone have any other ideas, or is a complete remake/relink my only option?
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Mad Poster
#2 Old 16th Mar 2022 at 12:49 AM Last edited by simmer22 : 16th Mar 2022 at 2:33 AM.
Make sure you change the comments, especially for the morphs. Those could be part of the problem. The main mesh needs to have the number of morphs in the comments, and the morphs need to be properly named plus have the proper top or bottom morph name (top morphs will malfunction if they're named bottom morph).

Fullbody morphs are named the same as bottom morphs. Probably easy to overlook the top morph issue.

Tutorial with top/bottom/fullbody morph references here: https://hermit-fox.livejournal.com/1740.html

Technically it's the comments (when working in Milkshape) together with the name of the group that decides whether it's a top/bottom/fullbody outfit, and what the morphs do. Not sure if you have to start over with a top/bottom mesh, but if you do you get the proper comments, making it easier to copy them from the original mesh. I don't think there's any difference in the skeleton iteself (unless you're working with a different age/gender). I've usually used a top/bottom mesh just to be on the safe side (not that I make these often).
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#3 Old 16th Mar 2022 at 2:04 AM
The comments are all named correctly, all the morphs work just fine, and I imported the mesh over an AF top mesh just to make sure there were no skeleton shenanigans. If I make a brand new top mesh and drop the GMDC in with no changes, it works, which is what makes the whole thing so frustrating, there's really nothing wrong with it at all. Except for it crashing the game when the Sim uses the computer!
Mad Poster
#4 Old 16th Mar 2022 at 2:31 AM Last edited by simmer22 : 16th Mar 2022 at 2:50 AM.
After having a look at the files, I agree that the problem is likely that the base mesh file they extracted was a fullbody mesh (afbodyswimwear, instead of a top mesh), so I don't think it helps to just change the names, or use a GMDC top mesh. That's pretty much what you've already figured out - it's the fullbody mesh file that's the issue.

I think the best option is to make an entirely new mesh file based on a top mesh (noblend and top groups), and then relink it to the recolors (they seem fine).
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#5 Old 16th Mar 2022 at 2:58 AM Last edited by sushigal007 : 16th Mar 2022 at 12:29 PM.
Eugh, I suspected that might be the case. Welp, that's a job for future me, for now I'll probably just buy a second shirt for her to wear when buying this lot. Might try seeing what other things it crashes too, I once had a shirt that crashed photobooths and it'd be interesting to know if this sort of thing was the reason why.

ETA: Had a brainwave this morning and thought "rather than linking all the recolours to the new mesh, what if I linked the mesh to the recolours?" Basically this meant copying all the instances I could find from the old mesh to the new mesh. Didn't work, top just turned invisible. Ah well, it was worth a try.
Mad Poster
#6 Old 16th Mar 2022 at 3:19 AM
Very likely.

I'm wondering if things like this are missed in newer "how to make clothes" tutorials. Maybe only older tutorials had it. I don't make a lot of clothes, but at some point I must've read in a tutorial somewhere that you should use a base mesh of the same type you're making (top to top, bottom to bottom, etc.), because I've had that knowledge for several years. I often feel several things like this are left out from tutorials nowadays, or maybe aren't explained properly.
Instructor
#7 Old 9th May 2022 at 12:07 AM
Quote: Originally posted by sushigal007
So it seems to be fairly well known now that separates improperly made from fullbody meshes will crash the game, most often when a Sim wearing them uses a computer. As far as I know, the only way to fix this is to extract the mesh, make a whole new mesh using the correct base, then relink all the recolours.


Apologies for just dipping in here, I was lurking. Do we know why this causes crashing? I've only just gotten into meshing in the past 2-3 weeks (I started with a shoeswap, then some other clothing things) and am mostly learning by simply doing. And I'd hate to be responsible for crashing someone's game in the process.
Mad Poster
#8 Old 9th May 2022 at 4:19 AM Last edited by simmer22 : 9th May 2022 at 4:35 AM.
Not the exact reason why they crash the game, but whenever the CRES or GMND has issues in the wrong places, crashes are known to happen, so could be something like that. The skeleton is linked to the CRES.

You can always test stuff in your own game first - test animations, morphs if there are any, aging up, and the computer issue if you think that could be a problem.

You can't test for every scenario in other people's games, but if it behaves fine in your game it is more likely to behave fine in other people's games, too.
Blenderized to Pieces
retired moderator
#9 Old 17th May 2022 at 7:12 AM
Hello,
Please review these tutorials. I know you are looking for shortcuts but to do that, you need to understand how mesh packages are made. Once you understand how it all works, then you will know what you can and can not do with a mesh.

New mesh basics - http://simswiki.info/wiki.php?title...New_Mesh_Basics
UV mapping - http://simswiki.info/wiki.php?title..._and_UV_Mapping
Combining mesh parts - http://simswiki.info/wiki.php?title..._-_wiki_version

Alpa parts - http://simswiki.info/wiki.php?title...t,_Step_by_Step
Everything you wanted to know about meshes - https://modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=155772

Assorted bodyshop tutorials - http://simswiki.info/wiki.php?title...Other_Tutorials
Mad Poster
#10 Old 17th May 2022 at 11:59 AM Last edited by simmer22 : 17th May 2022 at 3:07 PM.
^ The OP (who is working on fixing other meshes, not theirs) was wondering why top meshes cause crashes if they're made with a fullbody base (the borked meshes). I think the OP already knows their mesh basics just fine, but was perhaps hoping there was a way that could make their job of fixing the meshes a bit easier.

The links don't explain the why, although there might be a "don't do that" somewhere in the fine print, which doesn't help much when the focus is on fixing, not on making from scratch. If the original mesh maker had followed that advice, the mesh hadn't needed fixing in the first place.

Anyway - the only method I know is what they already knew - extracting a new top mesh and transferring the borked mesh over (and fixing names/comments/etc.) so it has the proper file type/mesh base, and relink recolors.

Sometimes there aren't easy fixes, but it's an easily avoidable problem if mesh makers make sure to use the correct mesh and recolor base for whatever they're making.
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