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Test Subject
Original Poster
#1 Old 1st Sep 2009 at 7:20 AM Last edited by SimsArtGallery : 2nd Sep 2009 at 5:35 AM.
Default Shadows gone haywire.... - Solved
Since the new update of the object tool, my shadows have gone haywire. If you place a newly meshed object on the floor, inside or outside, you get this huge shadow. If you place the object on a surface indoors, the shadows fan out throughout the house halfway up the wall. Something else I noticed that may or may not be relevant is that when I went to check the files, in the first .lod (main mesh) the obj file I renamed to group00 is now group01 instead. I talked to lee this evening and she suggested I resize the shadow but that did not help. Anything anyone can help with would be a godsend. I've included screenshots so you can see what is going on as well as the mesh.

Vase Inside Surface:


Vase Inside Floor:


Vase Outside ground:


Main Mesh File in MS:


In this shot, the highlighted group is the vase mesh, not the shadow.
Attached files:
File Type: rar  Vase.rar (462.9 KB, 6 downloads) - View custom content
Description: Vase Mesh

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Forum Resident
#2 Old 1st Sep 2009 at 11:05 AM
I have the same issue, huge shadows that climb the walls indoors.
This started appearing when I used the newest version of the object tool.
I remade the exact same object with the older version I have, 0.14, and there was no problem at all. (But I'd really like to edit the material definition now and that's only possible with the new one! )
I see someone else too have reported this in the comments here: http://linna.modthesims.info/download.php?t=367086
Lab Assistant
#3 Old 1st Sep 2009 at 11:01 PM
I have this issue too, haha.

Free downloads by me at AweSims | www.sixty-ten.net
Alchemist
#4 Old 2nd Sep 2009 at 12:57 AM
At least I know y'all are paying attention.

Thanks for the excellent feedback. The last revision did fix the rendering issue with the DropShadow parts, which revealed another issue that I did not see, the scaling for those was very far off, now that you can see them, they are huge... too huge. Sorry.

I have cobbled together a fix, pending some more research on a better method. V0.17, which I just uploaded, changes the scaling mechanism and specifically checks for the "DropShadow" shader in the MATD when compiling. With these changes, I got the inside groundshadow to work for me. The exterior one worked, but the bad dropshadow one wiped that out.

You will need to decompile and recompile your MLOD to get all the changes needed. Since it relates just to the groundshadow, for most objects you will only need to rework the "00000000" MLOD item.

You will note that the dropshadow mesh is very small now. It is still there, but it is smaller than the joint at the base of the mesh. Nonetheless, it is still important that it remain in the mesh and remain with the same group order.

<* Wes *>

If you like to say what you think, be sure you know which to do first.
Lab Assistant
#5 Old 2nd Sep 2009 at 1:44 AM
You're the man, Wes, thank you!

Free downloads by me at AweSims | www.sixty-ten.net
Test Subject
Original Poster
#6 Old 2nd Sep 2009 at 2:49 AM
Thank you, thank you, and once again, thank you! You have done an excellent job with this tool and making changes to help us. I really appreciate all your hard work. Off to check it out now.

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Test Subject
Original Poster
#7 Old 2nd Sep 2009 at 5:34 AM
It worked like a charm! Thank you. I can now go on to meshing heaven, lol.

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Forum Resident
#8 Old 2nd Sep 2009 at 11:09 AM Last edited by lemoncandy : 2nd Sep 2009 at 1:12 PM.
Thank you for the quick solution! Now off to recompile everything ..
EDIT after recompiling I get the flawed shadow again for every object. strange
Alchemist
#9 Old 2nd Sep 2009 at 1:50 PM
Quote: Originally posted by lemoncandy
Thank you for the quick solution! Now off to recompile everything ..
EDIT after recompiling I get the flawed shadow again for every object. strange


You will need to decompile your object mesh to get the proper object shadow sized. It needs to be a much smaller size than what you are used to looking at... otherwise, it will still be too large.

<* Wes *>

If you like to say what you think, be sure you know which to do first.
Forum Resident
#10 Old 2nd Sep 2009 at 2:56 PM
Yes I did decompile each first. Maybe need to import into Milkshape too and export again, I didn't do that. Sometimes I'm dumb a little Do I need to edit that flat mesh in MS then? Or is it automatic ?
Alchemist
#11 Old 2nd Sep 2009 at 3:19 PM
It should be automatically sized properly with a new decompilation. It is just too big in the older versions, and instead of a little shadow underneath the object, there is this huge dark fungus spreading out, heading out to eat Buffalo.

<* Wes *>

If you like to say what you think, be sure you know which to do first.
Forum Resident
#12 Old 2nd Sep 2009 at 5:27 PM
*spooky voice* the DAAAAAARkness is spreadingggg.......

Okay sorry to be a PITA but here's what I find

I export the MLOD 00.. from my package, run the tool over it, then take a look at the mesh in Milkshape, nothing changed. I resize the square thingy at the bottom, to 1/4 of its previous size (probably still too large). Export, recompile, import to package, save, test in S3. Now the shadow is considerably smaller, but it still floats above the object and still scary


Actually that object has two shadows, but that just might be my game, it behaves weird lately, the shadows are all over the place. So maybe this whole issue only affects me and the tool is working good. I admit I'm a complete noob to meshing and modding.
Alchemist
#13 Old 2nd Sep 2009 at 8:34 PM
I don't think that is a groundshadow at all... it looks like a misplaced sunshadow, which is created by the presence of the "00010000" and "00010001" meshes.

In your screenshot, the shadow is opposite from the window, as if it is a shadow from the top round reflector part of the lamp cast from sunlight coming through the window.

While this may or may not be a problem with the tools, it appears to be different from what we were fixing before. Sunshadows are affected by the size and position of the extra meshes. These are generally placed below and offset to the side and back of the main object (which normally is centered on the spot at 0,0,0). There may well be a vector or two in the MODL chunk itself that also forms a part of the way the sunshadow is calculated, but I don't know how to easily determine that, the data from the original mesh is copied over currently.

<* Wes *>

If you like to say what you think, be sure you know which to do first.
Forum Resident
#14 Old 2nd Sep 2009 at 8:54 PM
Yup thanks for the info
However, the black blob in the picture is definitely the groundshadow, the one that went to Buffalo before, that's the only thing I edited for this test. As for the outdoor-shadow meshes, I always place them exatly where the one of the cloned object was, and looking at my object outdoors the shadows show up just right, where they should be. That part works
The only reason I placed that lamp and window (and about 20 more lamps) in the picture is to show some contrast, how strong the shadow is.
Anyway, I learned from this now, that I have to size the groundshadow square down even more and also move it somewhere else.
Alchemist
#15 Old 2nd Sep 2009 at 9:42 PM
Well, I didn't change the topic title, the first poster did (I am not a moderator).
I would be interested in seeing a misbehaving version of the package. Whether it is something I am doing or just a game limitation, I don't know.

<* Wes *>

If you like to say what you think, be sure you know which to do first.
Forum Resident
#16 Old 2nd Sep 2009 at 9:55 PM
It's just probably my incapability
Here's the plant from the screenshot.
Thank you very much for looking into this.
Attached files:
File Type: rar  philo_test2.rar (74.1 KB, 7 downloads) - View custom content
Alchemist
#17 Old 2nd Sep 2009 at 10:20 PM Last edited by WesHowe : 2nd Sep 2009 at 10:36 PM.
I will test ingame.
I have been a little confused, I thought the issue was in the lamp...

<* Wes *>

EDIT: The file was not recompiled with the latest version. That is the issue... after you edited the mesh, you didn't recompile, and thus the shadow mesh was still using the bad format.

If you like to say what you think, be sure you know which to do first.
Forum Resident
#18 Old 2nd Sep 2009 at 11:03 PM Last edited by lemoncandy : 2nd Sep 2009 at 11:21 PM.
Whaaaaa O.o
How can that be, I got it right here, it says "S3 Object Mesh Tool V0.17 - by Wesley Howe" on the top. I used it for this test. The only other version I have is the 0.14 which is tucked away in another folder and that didn't show the shadows anyway. Very strange. I'll download 17 again.
Oh and sorry about the confusion, I should have been more clear.

EDIT.
I'm really really sorry to be so difficult but it won't work for me. Downloaded latest version again, decompile/recompile another plant with it, same shadow issue. I don't know. I'll shut up now.
Alchemist
#19 Old 3rd Sep 2009 at 12:15 AM Last edited by WesHowe : 3rd Sep 2009 at 4:02 AM.
I don't want you to shut up... I want it to work. Please stick with me.

I tested here specifically. In your object, the dropshadow mesh vertices are in block 2. The scaler I USED to use in there is 0x7FFF... the new version uses a scaler of 0x0000.

You don't still have the commandline programs, do you? I haven't issued any new ones, you need to use the buttons on the ObjTool itself.

<* Wes *>

EDIT: There must be a reason you and I do not get the same results on this object. Experience tells me that it will be something simple, that one of us is not understanding the other, but that does not make it any less real of a problem. However, I would not be so sure had I not seen your object and seen my tool make the needed change here. I am sure it can be made to work for you.

If you like to say what you think, be sure you know which to do first.
Forum Resident
#20 Old 3rd Sep 2009 at 5:45 PM
Thank you, Wes. I admire your patience.
Quote: Originally posted by WesHowe
You don't still have the commandline programs, do you? I haven't issued any new ones, you need to use the buttons on the ObjTool itself.
I never seen those actually, I'm always clicking buttons.

Good news now!
After several tries, I found this: the ObjTool works flawlessly on packages that haven't been touched. After decompiling, I can see in Milkshape that the guilty mesh is resized. And they show up right in the game. Any package that I already edited seems hopeless though, no matter how many times I decompile/recompile the mesh file. I don't care about those now anyway, as long as it works on new ones!
Thank you for all the help and that you didn't give up on me! :lovestruc
Alchemist
#21 Old 3rd Sep 2009 at 6:28 PM
Ah, OK. I knew there was something simple.

We have had some miscommunication, starting with me thinking it was teh lamp that was wrong, rather than the plant. I meant that the package should be decompiled from the start. I know it is a nuisance to have to go back to square one, but the shadow chunk needs to be decompiled fresh, my previous method was inaccurate on the DropShadow chunks. The only other alternatives would involve swapping some files, which has a high potential for going wrong.

Well, we are not crazy, either of us. I am glad you are "back on track" and I am looking forward to seeing you put some new stuff in the download libraries here.

<* Wes *>

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