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Test Subject
Original Poster
#1 Old 22nd May 2022 at 4:55 PM
Help with a 4t2 Conversion | Adding Joints
So just yesterday i began converting a dress by Sentate to The Sims 2. It’s my first time doing CC and i’m following Vulrien’s Tumblr Tutorial ( https://vulrien-sims.tumblr.com/pos...othing-tutorial ) and this tutorial on youtube ( https://youtu.be/rI3M_eFFJk4 ). Everything was doing fine until i got to the part where i needed to add joints to the mesh. I used the meshing tool kit for it and i’m now adding the mesh WITH joints to my project but every time i check the “Draw Vertices with Bone Colours” Milkshape just crashes. I’d really like to know what i did or am doing wrong cause i spent a whole day working on the mesh lol, i can upload the project file here if it’s needed!
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Test Subject
Original Poster
#2 Old 22nd May 2022 at 5:07 PM
Oh! There’s also something i could use some help with to avoid future mistakes. The mesh i’m making will have 2 versions that use different shoes, but there’s one issue with each of them. The shoes come transparent (?) in the first one, and the texture looks sort of messed up on the second one (though in this case i think it might look different in the final version). For reference the first one is supposed to be boots and the second one is supposed to be heels. Thanks in advance!
Screenshots
Mad Poster
#3 Old 22nd May 2022 at 6:18 PM
Can you upload the files?
Test Subject
Original Poster
#4 Old 22nd May 2022 at 6:58 PM Last edited by It’s Cassney, simtch : 22nd May 2022 at 7:00 PM. Reason: Missing info
Quote: Originally posted by simmer22
Can you upload the files?


Of course! The files are the Reference Mesh i used, the 2 versions of the dress i’m converting and the mesh with the joints (the one that’s crashing Milkshape). For some reason it didn’t let me upload them here due to error 102, so i had to create a download link for it https://mega.nz/file/e7pjkZIS#p5TZx...Cx2_RYoeMoFC1i8 Thank you in advance!
Mad Poster
#5 Old 22nd May 2022 at 7:53 PM
The dress looks alright, but the shoes are a bit iffy. I get them to show up for maybe a minute with “Draw Vertices with Bone Colours” active, but they show up with black vertices (blinking in and out in green), and they don't seem to want to show what they're assigned to, but possibly 100% assigned to "none", which could explain why they're acting so weird and crashing Milkshape (can't get a good reading on it because it keeps crashing when I try selecting the vertices).

Make sure you add comments to the second group, or you can experience crashes or other issues (this doesn't seem to fix the issue, but the second group won't be able to keep the joint assignments properly without the comments)

ModelName: (fill in name of group here)
Opacity: -1
HasTangentArray:
NumSkinWgts: 3

It looks like the shoes were skipped in the assigning process.
Test Subject
Original Poster
#6 Old 22nd May 2022 at 8:24 PM
Quote: Originally posted by simmer22
The dress looks alright, but the shoes are a bit iffy. I get them to show up for maybe a minute with “Draw Vertices with Bone Colours” active, but they show up with black vertices (blinking in and out in green), and they don't seem to want to show what they're assigned to, but possibly 100% assigned to "none", which could explain why they're acting so weird and crashing Milkshape (can't get a good reading on it because it keeps crashing when I try selecting the vertices).

Make sure you add comments to the second group, or you can experience crashes or other issues (this doesn't seem to fix the issue, but the second group won't be able to keep the joint assignments properly without the comments)

ModelName: (fill in name of group here)
Opacity: -1
HasTangentArray:
NumSkinWgts: 3

It looks like the shoes were skipped in the assigning process.


Thank you so much for the help! I had previously saved a version of project where i did not group the skin part of the mesh together with the shoes, so i tried deleting them and repeating the process only with the dress and the arms and it worked. Could me grouping parts of the body and the shoes together have played a part on it not working? If yes, then could you give some suggestions on what i should do now?
Screenshots
Mad Poster
#7 Old 22nd May 2022 at 9:30 PM
I think you should be able to assign all the groups in a mesh. I think it might have to do with the group names having to match up with the ones in a TS3 mesh for the process to work. Not sure what you've named the shoes while you've added bone assignments, but if the dress has _0 at the end, and the shoes the same name but _1 at the end, I think that's probably how it works.

If not, it's probably possible to assign the shoes on their own, then export and import them back into the dress mesh with the Unimesh import/export function. Make sure to click "no" if you get the question about importing a second skeleton.

Don't try to assign both pairs of shoes at the same time. I'm guessing there could be some issues with that.
Test Subject
Original Poster
#8 Old 22nd May 2022 at 10:09 PM
Quote: Originally posted by simmer22
I think you should be able to assign all the groups in a mesh. I think it might have to do with the group names having to match up with the ones in a TS3 mesh for the process to work. Not sure what you've named the shoes while you've added bone assignments, but if the dress has _0 at the end, and the shoes the same name but _1 at the end, I think that's probably how it works.

If not, it's probably possible to assign the shoes on their own, then export and import them back into the dress mesh with the Unimesh import/export function. Make sure to click "no" if you get the question about importing a second skeleton.

Don't try to assign both pairs of shoes at the same time. I'm guessing there could be some issues with that.


Thanks a lot for all the help!! As i said before the bone assignment worked once i deleted the shoes, so i tried importing them back in after assigning the joints to the dress and i *think* it’s working fine now! Thanks again!
Screenshots
Mad Poster
#9 Old 22nd May 2022 at 11:46 PM
By the looks of it, the shoes still have the wrong bone assignments - they shouldn't be all purple with the “Draw Vertices with Bone Colours” setting ticked. One side should be pink/purple, the other blue/greenish.
Test Subject
Original Poster
#10 Old 28th May 2022 at 3:16 PM
Quote: Originally posted by simmer22
By the looks of it, the shoes still have the wrong bone assignments - they shouldn't be all purple with the “Draw Vertices with Bone Colours” setting ticked. One side should be pink/purple, the other blue/greenish.


Oof i had an idea to fix this issue, but it didn’t work. I had a version of the project where i still hadn’t deleted the original feet from The Sims 2 af body mesh, but had already fixed the dress, so i tried assigning the joints without the shoes so that maybe once i was fully done with the project i could try shoe swapping it by following another tutorial. However, i got an error message on the meshing tool kit when i tried it out, which i assume must have been because there were no shoes (i don’t remember exactly what it said). I wonder if maybe the issue is with the reference mesh i’m using?
Mad Poster
#11 Old 28th May 2022 at 3:51 PM
Have you tried to assign joints to just the shoes, and then import those into the dress mesh?
Test Subject
Original Poster
#12 Old 28th May 2022 at 6:20 PM
Quote: Originally posted by simmer22
Have you tried to assign joints to just the shoes, and then import those into the dress mesh?


I have, yes, but i’m also pretty sure i got an error message when i tried to do it i’ll try it again and see if i can send the error message i got here
Mad Poster
#13 Old 28th May 2022 at 6:59 PM
Make sure you've done all the naming and such of the shoe group properly. If you haven't you'll end up with errors. If that's the only group you want to give bone assignments to in that round, treat it as if it's the main group.

When you import it back into the main mesh later, you can fix all the group names and such.
Test Subject
Original Poster
#14 Old 28th May 2022 at 7:21 PM
Quote: Originally posted by simmer22
Make sure you've done all the naming and such of the shoe group properly. If you haven't you'll end up with errors. If that's the only group you want to give bone assignments to in that round, treat it as if it's the main group.

When you import it back into the main mesh later, you can fix all the group names and such.


Thank you! Renaming it and editing the comments fixed the issue for adding joints to the shoes separately. I have a better result now, though i think there’s still something wrong since the shoes are only two colors
Screenshots
Test Subject
Original Poster
#15 Old 3rd Jun 2022 at 1:11 PM
Quote: Originally posted by simmer22
Make sure you've done all the naming and such of the shoe group properly. If you haven't you'll end up with errors. If that's the only group you want to give bone assignments to in that round, treat it as if it's the main group.

When you import it back into the main mesh later, you can fix all the group names and such.


Sorry to ask for help again lol, but could you confirm if what i did now worked on my other post? :P
Mad Poster
#16 Old 3rd Jun 2022 at 2:43 PM
Looks like something worked, but there's still some bone assignments missing in the heel/toe areas of the shoes by the looks of it.
Test Subject
Original Poster
#17 Old 4th Jun 2022 at 12:42 AM
Quote: Originally posted by simmer22
Looks like something worked, but there's still some bone assignments missing in the heel/toe areas of the shoes by the looks of it.


That’s quite weird, i wonder what could have gone wrong this time?
Mad Poster
#18 Old 4th Jun 2022 at 12:58 AM
Does the TS2 reference mesh you're using have shoes attached? It probably should be a dress of roughly the same length and shape, and merge everything into one group before using it as a reference.
Test Subject
Original Poster
#19 Old 4th Jun 2022 at 2:17 AM
Quote: Originally posted by simmer22
Does the TS2 reference mesh you're using have shoes attached? It probably should be a dress of roughly the same length and shape, and merge everything into one group before using it as a reference.


It does have shoes attached to it, yes! The dress i used as a reference doesn’t really have a striking resemblance to the one i’m converting though, but it’s only a little bit longer and tighter than it. Also no, i didn’t merge all groups together before using it as a reference, i only exported it as a TSRW object with the groups being separated. So i should merge all of the groups together (including the morph groups) before exporting it? If yes, do i have to do any renaming and add comments or anything of the sort as well?
Mad Poster
#20 Old 4th Jun 2022 at 4:02 PM Last edited by simmer22 : 4th Jun 2022 at 4:12 PM.
In the tutorial it says you should merge the groups together for the reference mesh (not the one you're working on, important difference to note), so it's possible you skipped reading that step. Go back and read those paragraphs again, and see if you've followed all the steps concerning how to link up the mesh. I think the problems you're having are coming from there somewhere.
Test Subject
Original Poster
#21 Old 4th Jun 2022 at 5:37 PM
Quote: Originally posted by simmer22
In the tutorial it says you should merge the groups together for the reference mesh (not the one you're working on, important difference to note), so it's possible you skipped reading that step. Go back and read those paragraphs again, and see if you've followed all the steps concerning how to link up the mesh. I think the problems you're having are coming from there somewhere.


Omg thank you so much!! That was exactly it! I was also following a video tutorial so i probably forgot to read other parts of the written one lol, but i finally got a good result! Thanks again! :p
Screenshots
Test Subject
Original Poster
#22 Old 4th Jun 2022 at 5:52 PM
Quote: Originally posted by simmer22
In the tutorial it says you should merge the groups together for the reference mesh (not the one you're working on, important difference to note), so it's possible you skipped reading that step. Go back and read those paragraphs again, and see if you've followed all the steps concerning how to link up the mesh. I think the problems you're having are coming from there somewhere.


One last question though, now that i added joints i have three groups, one with the arms, one with the dress and one with the shoes, so should i merge the shoes with any of the other two or is it okay to just have them three separated? By the way, the shoes and the dress groups have the same name right now, so i’m assuming there’s no issue with renaming the shoes group if i don’t merge them together?
Mad Poster
#23 Old 4th Jun 2022 at 6:01 PM
The steps did look a bit confusing, and when you use two different tutorials there's always something that doesn't make sense between them (been there, done that). Good that you got it working in the end, though
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