Hello! Hopefully I format this correctly as I almost never post here. So I love converting things from other games to TS3, but I've mostly only done CAS items before or very simple objects that are easy to find suitable clones for. For those things, there are all sorts of comprehensive tutorials on how to do them so I never had any major issues. But this most recent object is more complex and is giving me some trouble and I can't seem to find information in my googling to help me with it. So I figured I'd ask for help here. Though I am a smidge fearful of looking like an idiot. But! As we all know it is always better to ask and sound stupid than to never ask and remain stupid, so here I am.

Basically, the object I am working on is a cute trash can from Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight which is just a basic trashcan with a cute little basketball hoop and backboard on it. I love it. It's the cutest thing ever. So I really wanted it in TS3, so I tried my best to brave the unknown waters of modding a more complicated and functional object like a trashcan into TS3 and...well...I am failing.

In TSRW it looks really good!


But then I get in game and there is no transparency in the hoop.


On top of that, when a sim goes to throw anything away, the trashcan disappears and remains invisible as long as there is trash in it.


I am assuming the first issue with the netting is something wrong with my material settings in TSRW or maybe shaders? But I've tried changing the value of the alpha mask threshold and changing the shader for the net's group but none of that helped.

And the second issue is probably related to Geostates, right? But I truly have absolutely no clue how those even work, so I don't have the slightest idea how to fix that either.

Clearly, I am simply out of my element here. All the values and various settings for materials and geostates in general are just beyond my knowledge, so please help. I'd love you forever. I would include my most recently tested package, but it actually crashes TSRW if you try to import, so umm...perhaps it's just irreparably broken? So I'm thinking I should start from scratch anyway. I have the wrk file and that opens, so I'll include that here. Even if the solution is obvious, please be nice I am sensitive.

EDIT: Hi I found a tutorial here on Geostates and tried to follow it. Weirdly, the trashcan still disappears as the sims is throwing something away, but it no longer stays invisible. So I guess I did something right there. I also started the process over again and this time didn't make a third group like I did the first one. However, I'm still having transparency issues with the hoop. So Geostates are at least partly fixed, but the hoop not having proper transparency remains. I replaced the attached file with my most recently tested package for this and it imports into TSRW without issue, so that's good probably. I was really hopeful that the geostate tutorial and not making the hoop a third group would fix everything for me, but eh. I suppose it's never that simple.

Visually, it may partially be the base object/clone interfering with the end result. It seems straightforward to use an object the most similar to your desired end result, but certain objects can have all kinds of weird or unique data that isn't the most user-friendly to replace manually. The trash can has no transparency, so it's lacking for your purposes.
A lot of object creators end up favouring specific generic objects that are reliable to work with and already have the desired data (like the same amount of mesh groups required and the correct shaders, in this case transparency), then recategorise and swap the script later.

One such object that you'll see internally referenced in thousands of CC objects is the PlantIvyBallTopiary - one mesh group, one shadow group, and transparency. Very versatile for most basic objects.
I imported your mesh as .wso into this object and replaced all of the textures, then tested as-is (still a decor object categorised as a plant) and it looks correct- which is half the battle won!

(Transparency is often fixed by using a separate mesh group for those parts, but I personally think this being required is a bit of a myth. Some quirk with the shader data is most likely behind this behaviour and a separate group just sidesteps it altogether, but I don't use TSRW enough to know what exactly. It's a decent workaround, but EA objects don't need to do it so it definitely has a cause... somewhere.)

Functionally, I took a few stabs at dealing with the flickering geostate and didn't have any success (yet!). Hello darkness my old friend... geostates are a bit of a pain, so it's no reflection on your own ability that it's acting up.
There is probably something I'm overlooking about how the EA trashcan uses it. I'll take another look with fresh eyes in the morning.

Tis the complicated nature of making CC. We can only do so much with what we have- and what we have is sometimes a bunch of rocks and twigs that we string together :p
You did perfectly well with where you got up to so far.

The disappearing object is most likely caused by your mesh having no bones assigned. If you're using MilkShape then it's easily doable, just import any mesh (even a decor item should work since your mesh has no moving parts), click the dropdown on the joints tab and select the bone. Then select your mesh, go back to the joints tab and click assign.

And I see nothing wrong with how you did the textures, except for the mask..I think? I've never seen an object with a mask that has a transparent part, so try covering every area with red, or black for the overlay area..

I also thought the bone assignment mentioned above was the issue, but it looked like it had resolved when importing into the new clone (one was listed, so I wasn't sure if TSRW automatically handles that). You can also copy them in TSRW from a .wso of another basic object using the bone icon next to import/export mesh.
If that resolves it, it's good news that isn't actually the geostate- so I hope so!

Thank you both! My initial attempt at this project had the hoop in a third group as that's how you do transparent parts on clothing meshes, but that one also had the transparency issues no matter what I did with shaders or textures.

This might be a silly question, but if I clone that plant is there a way to make it still function as a trashcan? Edit: Oh I just noticed you said swap the script later. I'll have to figure out how to do that, but this seems like a promising solution, for sure!

It's also interesting that you mention bone assignments. Again, most of my knowledge of that comes from working with clothing and I typically assign bones in those instances using MeshToolKit (I am only comfortable with manual assignment when it comes to fixing tiny issues after auto-assigning with MeshToolKit). I tried to do the same for this, using EA's Trashcan as the reference, but when I imported my mesh after that, TSRW mentioned invalid bone assignments. I'll try to assign them manually in Milkshape instead.

As for the mask, I did initially have it looking more normal. The mask that is currently in use I made because I was afraid the transparency issues were caused by that somehow, since the part of the net that is showing as opaque looked a bit like Pattern A, but they are probably unrelated and I will make a proper mask for it when everything is in working order.

I did it!

So I assigned the bones for it in Milkshape and initially I tried to do the whole change the script thing, but that was overwhelming me a bit as it seems a bit more complex than the simple modding I'm used to. So instead I thought, "Maybe I can find a custom trash can that has everything I need," and I came across a trash can from Around the Sims 3 that was an almost perfect fit!

The only thing was it had a couple more groups than mine did. I just ended up deleting these and keeping the group for the transparent part on Sandy's mesh and the drop shadow group. I imported mine, changed the shader from Phong Alpha to just Phong and set the alpha mask threshold to 200 anddddd I think we're in business! It isn't perfect. For one, you can't really tell if its full or not by just looking at it like you can an EA trash can. Actually, I might have this working later as I noticed Sandy did this by having a separate group for the trash and presumably taking advantage of Geostates, so when I have the time and motivation I'll have to try that out. I also don't really like how you have to be super zoomed in to see the net, which I assume has something to do with the alpha mask threshold and I'll just have to play around with that later.

But the important part is the transparency is there!


And when my sim puts trash in it or takes trash out - it doesn't disappear!


Now I just need to make a tiny decorative basketball to go with it and the future rooms for any and all of my sims' sons will feature this trash can.

At some point I would like to learn that whole scripting thing, but for now I'm content with working smarter, not harder and just finding a reference that does all that for me. :P

I believe MeshToolKit is only designed to work with CAS meshes, so it wouldn't be compatible with an object mesh

For future reference, swapping the script is as simple as copy and pasting it in S3PE- it's under the OBJK resource.
Happy you got it working though! It's a cute object, reminds me of the TS3 Store item that is a basketball hoop shaped laundry hamper.

I actually did do that, but while it had interactions like a trash can and I could drag trash into like a trash can, my sim could never actually interact with it. She would either choose to go to the outdoor trash, or (when I locked her in to try to force her to use it) she would act like she couldn't route to it even when I moved it to the middle of the room. Based on just comparing tabs in TSRW, I think it might be that the plant doesn't have the routing components that sims need in order to understand how to approach a usable item. And I had no idea how to add that, so that's where the trouble with the script exchange came. Unless the routing component can also be added in S3PE and I'm just a silly in which case oops.

Well that makes sense about MeshToolKit. LOL At now I know how to copy bones from one object to another in Milkshape, so I can become MeshToolKit. :O Or at least I can play MeshToolKit on TV.

Thank you both again for all your help! I wouldn't have thought of the bones being the cause behind the disappearing act at all if I hadn't come here! And now I know that I should try for objects to find a perfectly suitable object to clone, not just mostly suitable! :P

Yes, I had originally typed out the steps you'd need to make it functional again until I couldn't resolve the disappearing issue. Midnight in my timezone and TSRW's interface = a confused Cardinal Sorry about that!
In S3PE, you can export the RSLT resource from a clone of the base game trash can and right click > Replace it in your new package to restore the routing data. Now you know multiple methods

Best of luck for all your future projects.