Milkshape only has a 30 day free trial, then it's.. I think $25 to register, so you might consider that... actually the maya instructions involve using milkshape for some reasons also... unless it does read in smd files, at which point you will skip meshtool and unimesh, and just use the export from simpe.

This is a good tutorial. But I tried in milkshape 3d 8 times and it still comes up with the message "Unassigned bone(s) exist". I am not deleting something from the mesh though, I am just moving some vertices of a dress to make it longer. I dont know what I am doing wrong. In body shop the dress shows up fine but with some parts sticking out like a vertice sticking out or something. Please help, I would really appreciate it. Thank you.

How do you make your mesh bulge out in certain places? I'm editing the maxis nude mesh and I wanted to make ithave trousers so it needs to bulge out slightly at the bottom I don't know how to do that. Also I can't seem to zoom in on a frame.

i searched sims04.package like you said in the 10th step but it doesn't work.

kirsty to zoom in on a part, just select the area, right click and select "frame selection", that'll zoom on what you selected.

Yay!! Took some time but I managed to complete this tutorial, with out leaving any holes, lol. Thank you
Now I know the very, very basics on this I better to find the next tutorial for milkshake/meshing. Although think will have to keep popping back here to make sure am doing the SimPE side right.

Fresh-Prince, are you *only* moving vertices, and what commands are you using?
Are you using the 'move' button (on the tabs with the select button) or some other method? That message is likely to come up if you *add* vertices (because this tutorial did not cover how to do new bone assignments, although it the Unimesh manual has some info on that)

Yes I am only moving vertices. I select the vertices that I want to move and click move where the tab is by select and just move the vertices. I didn't add any vertices.

Okay. I do not understand why you're getting some unassigned bones. But you can try to fix them. The bone assignments are not *that hard* to work with.

First, make sure your body group is visible and hide any morph group you might have.

I'd like you to look for the 'unassigned bone' thing that I hope is in the vertex menu. You should see the vertices select where you see spikes.

Now pick one of them to fix.

Select another vertice *near it*... if you're on the body, select one at the same height, because the bones control the animation, so figure, however the stomach/leg whatever would bend or not, pick one that's in the same area.
Use the unimesh bone tool. Write down the bone assignment or assignments. cancel

now select the one that was missing an assignment
Use the unimesh bone tool again. Do the settings, make sure they add up to 100%. Hit COMMIT.

Repeat this process, use the 'select unassigned' thing in the vertex menu to find another one.

Please let us know exactly the name of the dress you are editing, so that there can be some follow up to figure out why it's coming in that way

Thanks, I will try this. the name of the dress is from nightlife and it is afbodyshortruffledress I appreciate you helping me with my problems.

Am I doing something wrong @_@?

-When I'm only on part II step 3... my package file doesnt have a bunch of numbers infront of it. It just has the name I gave it in body shop.

-There's only 6 things when I open it, not 8 like on your picture (I'm using the same dress to try and get through this tutorial).

I kept going but there kept being less and less stuff and eventually I wasn't able to do some of the stuff the instructions said while still in SimPE for the first part @@;

Turynn~, you're probably looking in the My Documents/EA Games/The Sims 2/Projects/YourProjectName folder, rather than My Documents/EA Games/The Sims 2/SavedSims ... the files in the subdirectories under Projects will just have the name of the project you gave them. You need to finish the project (do Import to Game from Body Shop) and then the finished .package file with a string of numbers and letters, an underscore, and your project name, will appear in your Saved Sims folder. That's the file you need to use for this.

Omigosh I feel retarded. Thanks a bunch! That was the problem xD;. I should've been reading more carefully!

thnx!!

but :P:P

You Create A Mesh But I Dont Create A Mesh Becaouse I Dont Understand The Mesh Programme?? :-0

Help!!!

Thx a lot! I've done the tutorial and now i want to modified ninja face to be yashmak like moslem female wear. So which tutorial should i read next??

So Tig has heard some of my complaining about not being able to get through this tutorial. Rather than random complaining, I took a log the fourth time I went through the tutorial and didn't even get as far as milkshape, in the hope that some error I made will be glaringly obvious to someone and I'll get set straight. Here goes:


Part 1, made new package, 5fe396ad_ammeshvest.package.

Part 2. Opened in SimPE. Property set is ambodyoxfordpants. Created My Documents\Mesh Vest.

Put ambodyoxfordpants in SimPE Resource finder. Opened newfile in SimPE. Extracted gmdc, gmnd, shape, and cres files from ambodyoxford pants to My Documents\Mesh Vest.

Part 3. File>New in SimPE. Added gmnd, gmdc, cres, shape from My Documents\Mesh Vest. Saved as MESH_Faylen_ammeshvest_apr2006 in EA Games\The Sims 2\Downloads. This file is now what shows in SimPE. Fixed Integrity, changed model name to Faylenammeshvestapr2006, clicked update and OK. In this window, order of files is gmdc, gmnd, shpe, cres. (Shows this way in tutorial as well) Saved. Step 19 says “Save your new Resource Node and Shape files to your project folder”. Skinner that I am, I first tried my Body Shop Project folder. Since I got bad or no results from this on previous attempts, I saved them this time to My Documents\Mesh Vest. CRES that I’m extracting is 519C933-9391919E-1C0532FA-FF4547CFR.5cr. saved as modifiedcres.simpe. SHPE is 6EB1F7-622A0D5E-1C0532FA-FF829cb.5sh. Saved as modifiedshpe.simpe.

Part 4 Opened …Saved Sims\5fe396ad_ammeshvest.package. Next step says “Right Click on the packed files window” I’m assuming this is the name for the window that looks like the image below these instructions. So. . .I right clicked on these and selected Add, then double clicked on “modifiedcres” and “modifiedshape” Originally, I had clicked on these filenames and then clicked “open”. This is how it works in other places, but I didn’t see the files added into the window doing this. Double clicking made the new resource node and shape files appear in the window. We’ll see if this works.

A single click on 3D ID referencing files in the same window brought up the plugin view for the file, but since the tutorial said to click on the name in the resource tree window and then in the right window, I did that. The plugin view did not change. I don’t know if this was a shortcut that was added in the new version of SimPE or not. Clicked “package” from Plugin View window. The resource node and shape filenames in the plugin view are the ones from Part 3 above. The CREs in the popup window is E519C933-88A301C2-1C050000-FF231988, and the SHPE is FC6EB1F7-FB5131B8-1C050000-FFF9FE8A. Deleted old CRES and SHPE, used “up” to move new Resource Node and Shape to top two positions. Clicked commit, then OK in changes were committed box. Now, since the only thing in the top right window is the 3D ID Referencing files, I clicked All Resources in the Resource Tree window. The picture shows the Resource Node and Shape in italics (in my case, Faylenammeshvestapr2006) highlighted with the popup box showing “delete” highlighted. So these are the files I deleted. I click “Save” and they disappear. Closed SimPE. Opened Body Shop. Outfit is gone. At this point, the tutorial says I probably need to repeat part three or part four, but since these are the parts where I seem to need a little clarification of terms, I thought I’d run it past you to see if glaring errors stand out before I make the same mistakes, only in different ways.

Faylen, this all looks fine at my first reading. Do you have an invisible body right now in bodyshop?

Where did you save your actual MESH file to (the one named MESH-faylen-whatever)? Your Downloads folder? If it's not in your game downloads folder, put it there. The rest of the stuff is all our working on junk pile and can be saved anywhere. (and yes, your mesh could also be in some other folders, but let's just put it in downloads for now)

Step 19 did mean the folder you're keeping all your stuff in. It shouldn't matter where you save them, as long as you can find them again, but saving it with the rest of the bits and pieces makes the most sense. We just use the 'modified' names because you already have the original shape and cres with those goopy names in that folder already, so later you can grab the right ones.

I'm going to fix that window name in part 4, I can't believe SimPE removed the name from the window How are we supposed to ref it.

Sometimes people weren't seeing the 3did thing, so I added the click left window part. One click is enough if that plugin window shows up. It sounds like you found the correct part, clicked on package, put the bits in, commited, etc, all correctly.

And yes, if you did it as instructed, the modified shape and cres would still be in italic (as in, a change happened but it was not saved yet) and the right clicking and 'delete' puts a line through them, then they disappear when you save.

And to view your mesh, you are doing 'new project' in bodyshop to go looking for it, right?

Yep. Now, I don't think that the final update, after the part that says "Save" was saved to Downloads - the box for Saved Sims is the one that automatically comes up at that point when you Save. I'll open it back up again and save it to Downloads (that folder is referenced only once, at the beginning of the tutorial) and see what happens.

Yes!! It looks like this is where the problem is. In step 27, it just says "Save", Since, in step 20, you opened the Saved Sims package, "Save" put it into. . .Saved Sims. I opened up the Saved Sims package in SimPE, clicked "Save As" and saved it as my package in Downloads (overwrote it - hope that's OK, but we shall see) and it now appears in Body Shop with no strange gaping holes.

Faylen, I am now a bit confused. You have 2 different files you are editing, and they should automatically save to the same place they came from. One is written by bodyshop, the other one you made.

There is your recolor, which was originally in the Saved Sims folder and can stay there. That's the one with the numbers and then the project name you gave it in bodyshop. When we put the modified shape and cres into the recolor, we're telling it which mesh to use. (read on, because I think you have 2 of them)

Then there is your Mesh file (which you build at the beginning) which we usually say to put in your Downloads folder. That's the one that starts with MESH-faylen....... that you named.

It does look like somehow you got 2 copies of your saved sims package, and that it was causing you problems. Please check your downloads folder *and* saved sims folder and make sure you have only one of them. As you said it overwrote the one in downloads, and now things work, go delete the other copy in saved sims. It doesn't matter which folder it's in, but 2 copies is going to produce irratic results.

hmm. I have a pair of overalls that I would like to crop slightly so the calves are showing. Can this actually be done? I've tried it but it just deletes the legs totally, and I'm pretty sure I didn't select any vertices besides the pants.

If you noticed, the mesh includes the arms and legs of the sim, you must *change the shape* to look like shorter pants with legs showing below (and fix the uvmapping), there's no 'body' separate from the mesh you see.

Where is the Unimesh manual?? I did add vertices and faces and am getting this error (although I got it before when I was only moving things)

EDIT: I found it, but I think there is something else wrong. I don't even have the automatic weight thingy and I checked that I have the right version fo rmilkshape and unimesh and simpe. SimPE will not let me replace my gmdc with the new one, it says there is an error bringing it in, I don;t know if they are related. This is driving me nuts, I can't figure out what's wrong!