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Test Subject
Original Poster
#1 Old 31st Aug 2009 at 11:56 PM
Default Meshing Help
I have just a couple of questions about creating a Dining Table mesh in Sims 3

1. During the meshing stage when meshing on to the MLOD is there anything i need to know about the flat piece at the bottom I.E What it does, anything that could cause me prblems.

2. When you get to the UV map stage does it matter what size used to create a new texture map

3. Do you have to have colour in your uv map. If so is there a specific way it has to be done

4. How do you create a glass effect

Thanks
Screenshots
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Alchemist
#2 Old 1st Sep 2009 at 12:26 AM
I only see the bottom of your table in your screenshot. If you mean the small square mesh that was in the original, it is use by the game to make a groundshadow.

UV maps do not have color. The textures you link to your mesh have any colors. The UV map itself is a part of the mesh that links particular spots in any texture map used to the vertices (and by extension, the faces) of the mesh. Imagine it being a guide for the game to cut your texture map up into little pieces so it can glue the colors onto the right spots on the mesh.

Glass is a material with a lot of transparency. The easiest way to get a glass material is to start by cloning an object that already has a glass part. The second best way is to clone one that has a glass material and copy the parameters into the material used on whatever you did clone.

If you like to say what you think, be sure you know which to do first.
Test Subject
Original Poster
#3 Old 1st Sep 2009 at 12:49 AM
cheers for the help understand a bit more now just one more thing when trying to export my new MLOD file it comes up with "bone assignments missing" i am guessing this has something to do the with the joint and my new mesh but i have already assigned those two together, do i also have to assign the joint to that small square mesh
Alchemist
#4 Old 1st Sep 2009 at 1:16 AM
The exporter is just a mindless tool. I programmed it to "warn" if there is at least one joint and there are any vertices unassigned anywhere in the mesh. It can check them all a lot easier and faster than you can.

So it warns on unassigned vertices on the groundshadow meshes, too. Unless I make the process more complex, this will happen because the exporter thinks a mesh is a mesh, and there is a joint for many of the groundshadow meshes, even though nothing is assigned to it. However, assigning the vertices of the groundshadow mesh also does no harm. In actuality, the file format used for the groundshadows has no space for the assignments, so they end up being thrown away when the file is written. But assigning the all the vertices in the mesh will shut the exporter up. Or you can just click past the warning when you know it is done... but forgetting to update bone assignments is one of the common meshing mistakes people make.

<* Wes *>

If you like to say what you think, be sure you know which to do first.
Test Subject
Original Poster
#5 Old 1st Sep 2009 at 1:53 AM
cheers for all your help wes i think ill leave the texturing till tomorrow
Test Subject
Original Poster
#6 Old 1st Sep 2009 at 10:52 AM Last edited by damon7191 : 1st Sep 2009 at 11:02 AM.
Just started the texturing stage and have not got a clue what to do if any could help me out i would be really grateful
Also are these the DDS files i need to be working with???
Screenshots
Test Subject
Original Poster
#7 Old 1st Sep 2009 at 4:04 PM
So if finally managed to get my object in the game but now i have a problem when you are zoomed close to it, half of the objects dissapears. See pictures

Also is there a way to colour seperate parts of the table such as the legs and the base IE i want the legs to be a mettalic colour and the table top to be black
Screenshots
Test Subject
Original Poster
#8 Old 3rd Sep 2009 at 11:11 PM
so anyone know where ive gone wrong
Alchemist
#9 Old 4th Sep 2009 at 12:40 AM
It is for certain the table top is not UV mapped properly (or the texture itself needs remade). The left photo indicates that the entire mesh is present, at least in the second LOD. It is not evident from the pictures whether the first LOD ("00000000") is missing elements or is just UV mapped differently from the other. The game switches between meshes as the viewing distance changes, but from one picture it is hard to tell whether that is the problem. It could be the mesh, it could just be that everything in the first LOD is mapped to something transparent except the table top itself.

Some more you can check yourself: In MilkShape, you can place your textures on your meshes for preview. While you can't get the total rendering effect with all of teh recoloring options that are available in the game, you can do it to a level that will help you decide if your UV Mapping and texture modifications are going to work, and you can do this in a lot less time that one cycle of game testing.

You do this by creating a material in, of all places, the material tab. There are two buttons there which you can use to load DDS or other graphic files with. To apply the material, you select your groups, select the material and then click on "apply". In the viewing windows, you right-click and select "textured" to see the material applied, and "smooth shaded" to see the default gray shading.

Using this as a preview, you can go back and forth between editing your textures and checking your results pretty handily. The two levels of texturing can be selected to display the second texture overtop the first, using the transparency values in the second (top layer) to allow the lower layer to "peek" through.

It is unlikely that you will be able to get any mesh that you cannot get to preview this way in MilkShape to show satisfactorily in the game. While you may get minor defects in your work that do not show clearly in MilkShape, almost anything that does not look good in MilkShape will look just as bad when rendered by the game.

<* Wes *>

If you like to say what you think, be sure you know which to do first.
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