Hi everyone,

I'm completely new at editing objects, and I'm hoping someone can point me towards an answer:

I have several files for a deco item from one artist that is all made from the same mesh. I don't like clutter, so I would like to combine the files so there are multiple variations in one file instead of many individual files. I was using cmomoney's tutorial on creating paintings with multiple images, but got stuck when editing/adding materials in S3pe--my object has no materials. Now what? Have I gone about this all wrong?

To give some info, the object is non-recolorable. It's a stack of books and I don't know what the original cloned object was (the dds is of one of the bulletin boards, if that's any indication). Basically, I'm cloning a clone. I'm using S3pe, S3oc, Postal, Graphics Converter, SquishDDS, and Photoshop. I hope that helps.

Thanks!

The tutorial you're using takes advantage of default pattern selections that many, if not all, recolorable EA items have and that none of the unrecolorable ones possess.

Those default pattern selections show up in S3PE in the materials within the OBJD allowing you to add new dds files and point a given default to one of your new images instead of the main dds it was pointing to initially.

If there are no default pattern selections for the object it won't have those materials.

One way you could do what you're trying to accomplish is clone something that is recolorable and has a mask part. You could then make the book texture the visible part of the mask alpha and map the books so they lie completely over that book texture on the dds. Once you had the original made you could follow the tutorial to add in the other image choices for your books.

So that means that if I wanted to use one of the unframed non-recolorable posters to add multiple variations to one poster, I would have to clone it from a picture with a recolorable frame? Is what you described basically the process used when making Autumn Painting and Vintage Painting on Indigo?

I see I have to look into mapping and...stuff that's slightly beyond my abilities at the moment. Thanks for the help, orangemittens. At least I have a bit more direction about what to do. If you were a new to this, would you prefer learning with TSRW or S3pe/S3oc for a project like this?

That's definitely one way to get a multiple image poster based on the EA mesh. As far as I know, it is the easiest way and it is how I made those paintings for Indigo.

Making a poster style painting using Milkshape to mesh and map it is pretty straightforward. I wrote a tutorial on how to map with Milkshape that's for beginners and it's pretty easy I think. You could also try one of the other mapping methods that have been discussed in tutorials here. Ella's object meshing tutorial describes one way of doing it and Wes describes mapping yet another way in his tutorial. Both of those tutorials can be found by checking the S3 Wiki here.

I would prefer s3oc/s3pe. They're easy to use, have great support, and a lot of flexibility which would come in handy once you get going and want to move on to more advanced projects.

Thanks! I'll check out those tutorials, especially the one you wrote since your painting tutorial was very straightforward and easy for beginners to follow.

EDIT: Okay, I hate to be a nuisance: I found the Wes Howe and Ella's tutorial no problem, but I'm having trouble finding yours. When searching the site, the most relevant result is the "Meshing (and Milkshape): Troubleshooting & Tips" post that you wrote. However, I don't see any links a general mapping with Milkshape tutorial. ...It's probably right in front of my face, too.

Sorry about that, my fault...it isn't linked to at this forum except in a thread or two somewhere. I should have posted the link above.

Here's the link:

http://jaue.com/om/OM_TextureMappingwithMilkshape.rar

If you have any questions about it feel free to ask It was written when I was making meshes for Sims 2 but it's pretty much focused on Milkshape stuff that's the same no matter which game you're meshing for.

Also, if you're looking for a painting to clone with multiple images already in it you're welcome to clone mine. All my stuff at Indigo is fine to clone and use as your base mesh to change how you want to. All you would need to do then is copy one of the paintings with multiple images, change the name of it, and run it through S3OC to get new numbers.

Then export the MLOD and MODL. Change the shape how you want. Map your new painting. Export all the dds IMG's. Make your new ones based on your new map and copy them over the img dds files. Import all that back into s3p3, save, and check in-game.

I think I have one with 11 images and maybe one with 9 up at Indigo.

Anyway, this is pretty easy so don't let the multiple steps dissuade you from trying. Ask questions too if you need to.

Thanks! That's very generous of you to offer your help, and I love your uploads so I feel like I'm getting some quality assistance. As a matter of fact, I'm going to take you up on that right now :

Before I tackle mapping anything in a program I've never even opened, I'm going to learn something a bit more basic: adding multiple images to one painting file. It seems I already hit a snafu. The object has 3 materials, but I want the painting to have 6 images. I tried adding more materials in S3PE by using the copy feature and changing the Unknown3 to 0x00000005, 0x00000006, and 0x00000007 accordingly (I don't even know if it matters to do this). Well, the first 3 images show up fine in game, the last three are the same image as the 3rd (I renumbered each with its own FNV64 per the tutorial, and added those in the TGI Block list editor). Well, it seems that the copied materials automatically take on the instance of the material it's copied from (in this case, the 3rd material), so I couldn't change them to anything unique. I also tried to add the materials, but since I didn't know how to add the rest of the TGI Block contents, it froze my game when testing (though I completely anticipated that since I'm basically a monkey with a tool box right now).

So... is it possible to add more images than there are material slots for them?

Did you import a new dds IMG which was renamed with the FNV64 of one of the new materials you had copied?

I did. I imported all six of them, each one with a different FNV64.

Can you post the object?

When you copy a material, change the Unknown3 and commit out of the OBJD. Then go back and make the changes. See if that works.

Sims_3:Catalog_Resource#Material_List^wiki The Unknown3 is the order in which it shows in that catalog, so you will need to change each one consecutively higher than the first one. In walls/floors I have noticed that the first does not always have a value of 0x00000001.

What I'm doing is merging these vintage ads into one file using the modern painting from the base game and cmomomey's "Creating Paintings with Multiple Images" tutorial.

A pretty straightforward tutorial and easy to follow, I'm just getting into trouble at the step where I have to edit the materials and the TGI Block. The modern painting mesh only has materials 0, 1, 2, but I want to have 6 different images.

cmomoney, I will give that a try and see what happens.

HugeLunatic, thanks. Though I can't tell if numbering those consecutively worked since images 3-6 were duplicated so it was impossible to tell the order. Blargh.

And thank you to everyone for all the help, I am brimming with appreciation!

It sounds like you *did* change the unknown3...did you verify that the change "took"? If it did it seems the thing is picky about which exact numbers you have and it wants them in sequence...I didn't know it would if that's really what's going on. I just saw you changed the Unknown3 and figured that oughta be sufficient.

Anyway, if this is the issue (the exact sequence thing) then from what you said initially all you should have to do is find the ones that you numbered 0x00000005, 0x00000006, and 0x00000007 and change those so that they are 03, 04, and 05.

Verify as in go back after committing and look? I... think so. Eesh, I'm pretty sure I did but I'll double check when I try again. Also, I believe I numbered them that way because the unknowns for the 3 materials in the original mesh started with 2. (i.e.-0x00000002, 0x00000003, and 0x00000004). So continued with that sequence... Should I still try 02, 03, 04?

No...if that's how it's numbered what you did should be right.

Based on what you posted in the first place I'm kinda back to where I was yesterday when I asked if you could post the object.
I think the steps you've described having performed are correct and I can't think of anything to help you other than to just have someone look at it.

Before that I guess the only other thing would be to look at it in S3PE and make sure the changes you made to the unknown3 lines actually "stuck"...because the problem you're describing only happened to me when I put my painting into the game after forgetting to change them.

Okay, I deleted the object file when it wasn't working (since this is a learning process, I'm going to keep starting from the beginning until I get it right). Homework demands my attention for the next couple days, so I'll have another go at it over the weekend and I'll try cmomoney's suggestion while I'm at it. If the issue persists, then I'll post it for you. :-)

Thanks again!

Well, now the same thing happened to me so I don't think this is something you're doing wrong. I was able to get things to work after fixing the painting with s30c. I went back into s3pe, hunted down the two IMGs that were pointing to the same dds, and changed one of them. This time the change stuck without changing both. Of course, then I had to fix the painting again with S3OC to get the thumbnail on the one I changed to show the right image.

ETA: I just downloaded the latest test version of S3PE and whatever was making this happen is gone now. I was just able to copy the appropriate line, renumber in sequence, and change the hash without it altering the one I had copied it from. Weird. Anyhow, try getting a new version of S3PE if you haven't gotten this to work already.