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Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#1 Old 12th Oct 2007 at 9:15 AM
Default Err. Too many P4 Block A data Items.
I've been working on a mesh that is a bottom of a nightlife outfit (the retro outfit for males), and I have been trying to transfer it to a female body.

I followed tutorial 3, and it helped me drastically. I was able to get the meshes to merge properly, and cleanly, and the fat morph also looked good.

I adjusted the bone weights, changed the comments after regrouping, aligned normals, and also told it to fix underweighted bones. When I exported it out of Milkshape, it was fine. (Though the try before it wasn't. :D)

I imported it back into SimPe, everthing looked ok from there.

When I loaded bodyshop, my mesh dissapeared. All I could see was the sim's head.

I am so confused at this point. I've tried and retried, imported, exported, fixed, merged, commented, adjusted, regrouped, moved, and meshed and meshed myself to death.

I have rebuilt this mesh millions of times, trying all the ways I could think of to get it to show up. Trying to see what may work, what didn't. Nothing is making this stupid mesh show up, and due to that, I can offer you no screenshots because Milkshape won't even re-import my file so I can check it.

What the heck did I do? How do I fix this thing? I'd like to kick this computer.

Help me.


Your Grandma Loves Me.
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Banned Asshat
#2 Old 12th Oct 2007 at 1:18 PM Last edited by bLURR : 12th Oct 2007 at 1:29 PM.
and you never saved as a m3d file?
One of the first things you learn

Few basic's:
*clone a bottom with bodyshop(femalebottom)
*build a mesh package from the filenames you find in the clone(like afbottommomshorts or watever you cloned it from)
*extract the shape and cres and attache/link it to your new bottomrecolor.
*check if the new bottom shows in bodyshop.
*Open the extracted gmdc of the bottom in milkshape
Either you change that mesh in the one you like or
*import you own mesh or one you like, the one from the males(dont import 2nd skeleton), change the shape, fix the waist, fix groupnames/comments/bones if necesarry and make sure you have a proper uvmap.
Save as m3d file
export with unimesh and import your new gmdc into your meshpackage with simpe.
Check it in bodyshop

Good luck
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#3 Old 12th Oct 2007 at 8:26 PM Last edited by Sheyza : 12th Oct 2007 at 9:42 PM.
Thanx. :D

Do you know what the error message I got means? "Too many P4 block A data items"?

The first time I got that message was when I tried to import my bottoms to build my fat morph. It wouldn't even let me import the file then.

Eventually I got it to let me, so then I could build my fat morph. Well, I got both of them built and saved it, exported it, put it into SimPe, then loaded bodyshop and my mesh still wasn't showing up.

I tried to open my m3d file, and it gave me that error message again. It won't even let me open my save up to try and fix whatever I messed up. That's what confused me. So no matter what I do, how or when I save it, it simply won't show up or Milkshape won't let me open it.

Could it be that the male bottoms absolutely cannot be attached to the female mesh I chose?

All I'm trying to do is make some retro bell bottoms with boots for girls. It's for a special event, and I have to have this stuff done by the first week in November. The retro bells mesh for my guys worked fine... it's just giving my girls the gender change that has been so difficult. (Guess my female mesh doesn't want a guys bottom half... XD )

I had originally tried attaching them at the thigh. That didn't work because the male leg had one more row of verticies on the y axis than the female's did; and if I tried to delete some points to remove it, or tried to merge them together, I got all these funky pointy spots on my mesh that just wouldn't smooth out.

So I said scratch that and tried joining them at the waist joint. Maybe that's my problem. Trying to join both of those meshes together at the waist? Merging them together isn't what's giving me a problem now, it's just the fact that they won't import or export when I'm done. I'm sure it has to be something simple that I just screwed up on, and keep screwing up on.

Meanwhile, I'm going to try and get some screenshots of what I'm attempting to do here. Maybe we can narrow it down from there. :confused:

Oh, and did I mention that when I go to use the Unimesh bone tool, my Milkshape crashes for some reason. Is there any way that I can stop that? That just may be my problem, because I am indeed joining them at the waist.

Here are a few screenshots also. This is everything up to the point before the bone tool when Milkshape crashes.
Screenshots

Your Grandma Loves Me.
Banned Asshat
#4 Old 12th Oct 2007 at 11:24 PM
Oh, you want a fullbody femaleoutfit....
Then you should start with a female fullbody mesh and import the male bottom/body mesh later.
You cut of the female bottom and the male top off and use extend manual edit or Wes his vertexdata merge tool to connect the 2 together.
You regroup both to one body, fix the comments and the uvmap.
Joining them at the waist shouldn't give problems if you do it correct.

Wes can tell you wat the error means(maybe you imported both skeletons?)
Alchemist
#5 Old 13th Oct 2007 at 4:14 AM
Quote: Originally posted by Sheyza
Do you know what the error message I got means? "Too many P4 block A data items"?


It means there are way too many individual parts in the file you are importing, generally due to too many groups (as if no regrouping was ever done). Or it may mean that the file is garbled or otherwise corrupted.

Quote: Originally posted by Sheyza
Oh, and did I mention that when I go to use the Unimesh bone tool, my Milkshape crashes for some reason. Is there any way that I can stop that? That just may be my problem, because I am indeed joining them at the


If the crash occurs on all files the I might suggest using the alternate set of OpenGL drivers available at ChumbalumSoft (MilkShape site) called the Mesa DLLs.

If it crashes just on this file, it is probably, as bLURR suggested, having two copies of the skeleton imported. There are 65 bones in the skeleton, so having two copies in there exceeds the maximum of 128 bones for MilkShape. The mesh will not work right in the game like that, either.

<* Wes *>

If you like to say what you think, be sure you know which to do first.
Instructor
#6 Old 13th Oct 2007 at 6:18 AM
Quote: Originally posted by Sheyza
a bottom of a nightlife outfit
A key piece, probably. The other body isn't from Nighlife, right?
It's said here and there that nightlife meshes have 4 bone assignments per vertex, while others have 3. You wouldn't be able to mix meshes with different number of bone assignments
world renowned whogivesafuckologist
retired moderator
#7 Old 13th Oct 2007 at 7:02 AM
Nightlife and later meshes can sometimes contain 4th bone assignments, but you can mix those just fine... It's rare that the *entire* mesh has 4th bone assignments... it's usually just a few selected parts. We've seen it more and more since Nightlife - a lot of the Glamour Life Stuff meshes have many more 4th bone assignments than the Nightlife ones did (which I think were just a couple vertices in the hand).

One can always remove that 4th assignment too... set the 4th joint to -1 and then make sure the rest of the weights add up to 100 (I usually just distribute any remaining amount as evenly as I can between the three).

my simblr (sometimes nsfw)

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Field Researcher
#8 Old 13th Oct 2007 at 12:49 PM Last edited by Lunar Eclipse : 13th Oct 2007 at 12:55 PM.
Here is what may have happened.

You probably got 2 skeletons by accident. You can do this by choosing "select all" in MS3d and "duplicate". If you wanted to duplicate part of your mesh while the rest of the parts were "hidden", this tactic seems quicker than drag and select, or highlighting the part you want in the right menu. I would know, because I did it by accident once.

Thing is, if you dupe the skeleton this way, you will not get a warning or notice that you even did it! You'll only notice when it's too late and you get your wonderful P4 error and the mesh doesn't work.

Saving as a MS3D file beforehand would save it... but if you didn't save as an MS3D, I dunno what to suggest.

I dunno, this is what MAY have happened... but there are other problems that could have caused this too...

Just try to never use "select all" in milkshape. If you want to select something, highlight the parts in the right menu/window. Or you can click and drag with the select tool... "select all" just selects skeleton and everything....

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Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#9 Old 14th Oct 2007 at 3:54 AM Last edited by Sheyza : 14th Oct 2007 at 4:02 AM.
WOW. Thanx a million guys. All of your information has been a big help. I think I understand what I did now.

I am pretty sure both of the meshes came with NL... though I'm not 100% certain... seeing as how my game has never displayed the EP icons on the thumbs as it's supposed to, and I have no idea why.

I have the latest version of Unimesh, so I don't think it imported two skeletons... but the only time it does give me the message is with the bone tool. I can use all other plugins safely. Huh... seems the more I get to know the way my program functions from the way it's supposed to... the more suspicious I get of possibly having a corrupt file somewhere... Because I do have other plugins for games other than the Sims 2 that might just be causing that little crash. But, the others don't crash so, it would have to be the instance of two skeletons.

I did rebuild the mesh again, and saved it as MS3D on two separate files... one before I joined the two parts, and one after I joined them, so I have a little something to refer back to now to try and fix this thing.

So, what it sounds like to me is... I need to delete that second skeleton, or figure out how to import the male body without the skeleton importing also. Right?

Well, I have the latest version of Unimesh, and as I read in tutorial 3, the older versions ask you about loading the other skeleton, but the newer one automatically doesn't import it. I never get any dialogue boxes other than the "If you import two modles it could be unreliable... yadda yadda...". I even reinstalled the latest Unimesh to make sure I had it, and I already did so... that is what confused me so much about the second skeleton. Maybe I missunderstood something?

How can I delete the skeleton without tearing my mesh apart or starting entirely over?

Thanx again! :D

Your Grandma Loves Me.
Field Researcher
#10 Old 14th Oct 2007 at 4:29 AM
Quote: Originally posted by Sheyza

How can I delete the skeleton without tearing my mesh apart or starting entirely over?

Thanx again! :D


Hmm... lemme think...

Try this...

Export your new file as a SimPE file and save it.

Extract a body mesh as similar as you can to your NL one you just saved, but from the original sims2 meshes..... (so one with the same amount of mesh parts and whatnot)... You'll need to make a new package file for it later in BS too...

Import that one into MS3D first. It'll give you a new skeleton with the original game bones. Delete the mesh, leaving the skeleton.

Then import your old saved file over the new skeleton without additional bone definitions. Because you aren't importing the old skeleton, you may not get P4.

I do NOT know if this will work, it may not... but you can try it.... if it does you'll need to reassign any verts with 4th assignments though...

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Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#11 Old 14th Oct 2007 at 5:09 AM Last edited by Sheyza : 14th Oct 2007 at 5:26 AM.
Default Screenshot
This is a screenshot of my model stats. Maybe this will help? The file is still messed up after regrouping and comment change, so this HAS to be a skeleton issue, since it is definately regrouped. This is before the fat morph is made also. It would be wise for me to find the error before wasting time making that fat morph. (I also tried it after the fat morph was made, and still no show).

Also, if I try to import the SimPE file back into Milkshape at this point, it gives the too many data items message. So I know the problem still isn't fixed after a rechecked grouping. I did save a new MS3D file after and before the regroup also. Just to be safe.

I figure the stats should tell us something, though I don't understand all of the stats, just the verts and triangles.
Screenshots

Your Grandma Loves Me.
Field Researcher
#12 Old 14th Oct 2007 at 5:22 AM
Oh, I'm sorry, I'm not sure what to do at this point then...
But maybe it's possible to attach a copy of your ms3d file as a .rar to the post?
Maybe myself or another person could actually open it and check it out?

I'm crap with pictures, I only know what I'm doing when I'm in a program and working with everything first hand.

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Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#13 Old 14th Oct 2007 at 5:32 AM
Quote: Originally posted by Lunar Eclipse
Oh, I'm sorry, I'm not sure what to do at this point then...
But maybe it's possible to attach a copy of your ms3d file as a .rar to the post?
Maybe myself or another person could actually open it and check it out?

I'm crap with pictures, I only know what I'm doing when I'm in a program and working with everything first hand.


Ok, here are all of my MS3D's thusfar. If you need any other files that I've used for that, let me know and I'll attach them too. I hope you can figure this confusing thing out. Something is strange about this mesh that's for sure.
Attached files:
File Type: zip  Everything Thusly.zip (309.5 KB, 7 downloads) - View custom content

Your Grandma Loves Me.
Field Researcher
#14 Old 14th Oct 2007 at 8:31 AM
Aha... yes... you have two skeletons there.

I deleted the extra one by deleting each bone. I then exported the file as a SimPE file.

Brought in a new skeleton from another body (I could have skipped this step, but I wanted to make sure nothing else was wrong with the old skeleton....)

Then imported the SimPE file over it without additional bone definitions.

Your file now imports in as a SimPE file and contains a visible skeleton in MS3D.

But I don't know if it will be working in bodyshop yet. I only got rid of the issues I found in MS3D....

I think you either brought in additional bone definitions on your second mesh import by accident, or duplicated the skeleton by accident in MS.

I THINK it's fixed now.. hopefully...
I used your most recent file too.
Attached files:
File Type: rar  UvMapped_NEW.rar (70.6 KB, 9 downloads) - View custom content

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Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#15 Old 14th Oct 2007 at 1:00 PM Last edited by Sheyza : 14th Oct 2007 at 1:15 PM.
Thanx so much Lunar!!! :D

I'll hurry and do the fat morph and test it and bring you the feedback. Thank you so much.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Ok, I got the error message in the screenshot as soon as I opened the file.

Should I worry?
Screenshots

Your Grandma Loves Me.
Field Researcher
#16 Old 14th Oct 2007 at 2:03 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Sheyza
Thanx so much Lunar!!! :D

I'll hurry and do the fat morph and test it and bring you the feedback. Thank you so much.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Ok, I got the error message in the screenshot as soon as I opened the file.

Should I worry?


Hmm... that's weird.. that does not happen with me.
Do you have all the same plugins for MS that I have?
I also do not see a skeleton in your screenshot.. my MS displays the skeleton unless I check it not to..

I'm sorry, I'm confused now... let me know how it turns out. I'll give you a SimPE file instead of an MS3D file tonight if you still have issues and we'll see if that helps... O.o

Er.. I have MS3D version 8.0
I think you have 7.9
I'm not sure if that makes a difference.. but.. maybe you are missing something I have.....

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Alchemist
#17 Old 14th Oct 2007 at 9:25 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Sheyza
Ok, I got the error message in the screenshot as soon as I opened the file.


You are trying to open a file made in a newer version of MilkShape with an older version of the program.

I also keep older versions of MilkShape installed here when I update. But while the newer version knows how to open new and old files, the older version does not know what the new stuff in the file is for, hence the error message.

<* Wes *>

If you like to say what you think, be sure you know which to do first.
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#18 Old 14th Oct 2007 at 10:06 PM
Oh... lol. God I do feel like an idiot now. :D

I have the newest version of Milkshape downloaded, I just don't use it because I don't remember my registration code, and didn't feel like going to their site and requesting it. But, I got to now. :P

Thanx Wes.

Lunar, do you think you can go ahead and send me the SimPE file anyways? The version I have should open that fine. It'd save me a week of waiting for them to email me that code. I shoulda wrote it down someplace. Is there a way I can look at my old version and find out my code? I figured the file would just replace the other one, like an update, as most programs do, and I wouldn't have to worry about putting the code in again.

Your Grandma Loves Me.
Field Researcher
#19 Old 14th Oct 2007 at 11:12 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Sheyza
Oh... lol. God I do feel like an idiot now. :D

I have the newest version of Milkshape downloaded, I just don't use it because I don't remember my registration code, and didn't feel like going to their site and requesting it. But, I got to now. :P

Thanx Wes.

Lunar, do you think you can go ahead and send me the SimPE file anyways? The version I have should open that fine. It'd save me a week of waiting for them to email me that code. I shoulda wrote it down someplace. Is there a way I can look at my old version and find out my code? I figured the file would just replace the other one, like an update, as most programs do, and I wouldn't have to worry about putting the code in again.


No problem.
Sorry I didn't earlier. I was on my way to work when I wrote my reply.

I thought that was the issue (my MS3D being a newer version) but I still was not sure if that was the entire problem.... but it most likely was.. ^^

Yeah, you should be able to open a SimPE file I export just fine.
Also, I'll better explain to you what was wrong so you can find the problem and fix it if it happens again. (It's easy to do by accident I think...)

Go into the Joints tab in milkshape. Make sure your bone list ends with B_hair.

The first bone in the list is Auskel.

Notice in your old file, you have B_hair, but suddenly.. another Auskel and everything repeats.



What I did was deleted all the bones that reappeared after the first B_hair.
I just Highlighted, then hit delete on the keyboard. It doesn't take long. (All your parts will be assigned to the first skeleton, even if you accidently import another. So your assignments should be fine if you delete the second set and just leave the first.

After that, I exported the file as a SimPE file.
I opened a freshly exported maxis mesh I just pulled from simpe.

Deleted that mesh, leaving the skeleton, and then imported the edited mesh I just fixed on top without additional bone definitions.

That's all. So I hope it will work.....
It's in SimPE format now. So there shouldn't be conflicts.
I'd still grab the newest MS3D when you can though. I used to run 7.9 or 7.8... but 8.0 is better.
Attached files:
File Type: rar  Uvmapped_fixed.rar (93.5 KB, 9 downloads) - View custom content

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Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#20 Old 15th Oct 2007 at 1:09 AM Last edited by Sheyza : 15th Oct 2007 at 1:36 AM.
Thanx Lunar. I'll give you lots of credit when I upload this.

Is it possible to dupe the skeleton again when I go to build the fat morph? Mine doesn't even display my skeletons for some reason. If it is possible for it to dupe again, is there a way to prevent that from happeining in the first place?

Thanx so much for your help. I'll be able to have this done by my deadline now. I was afraid it wouldn't get done because I thought my Milkshape was just screwin' with me, but thanx for finding the problem and telling me how to fix it perchance it happens again.

------------------------

OKAY... er... hee. Take a look at the screenie.

It showed up, but it looks like ET gone berzerk. I laughed and laughed and laughed and laughed.

Now what do we do? And why did it do this? Sorry, it's still hilarious. I almost want to keep it. Who knows, it could actually be cute.

I didn't even change the top half of the mesh at all. At least what I actually changed looks fine. (That being the waist down.)

God ok, 20 lines and 100 looks later that is still hilarious. I'll keep that pic forever.
Screenshots

Your Grandma Loves Me.
Banned Asshat
#21 Old 15th Oct 2007 at 1:59 AM
Oh lol
Import a basic maxis mesh in Milkshape(femalebody)
Import this mesh WITHout the skeleton
Delete the maxis meshes
Export your mesh, should fix it i think
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#22 Old 15th Oct 2007 at 2:35 AM
I think I know what she did. Lunar, when you deleted the previous skeleton... you may have left the one for the male body and deleted the female one, because the body appears stretched and broad like the man's body.

Is that a possibility?

Your Grandma Loves Me.
Field Researcher
#23 Old 15th Oct 2007 at 2:48 AM
Quote: Originally posted by Sheyza
I think I know what she did. Lunar, when you deleted the previous skeleton... you may have left the one for the male body and deleted the female one, because the body appears stretched and broad like the man's body.

Is that a possibility?


thats weird. i stuck it on a female skeleton.. so it should've worked... that's bizarre. It's scaring the crap out of me!! lol.

omg, I'll try again and test it in my bs. lmao.. omg so weird.

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Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#24 Old 15th Oct 2007 at 3:06 AM Last edited by Sheyza : 15th Oct 2007 at 3:33 AM.
HA. I told you, ET's mad at you for some reason.

Goes to show you not to mess with the aliens, cause this is what happens when your sim really gets abducted.

Oh, here's the actual meshfile and a recolor I just made. This should help out for testing.
Attached files:
File Type: zip  Unfinished Mesh File and Recolor.zip (493.8 KB, 6 downloads) - View custom content

Your Grandma Loves Me.
Field Researcher
#25 Old 15th Oct 2007 at 3:31 AM
umm...
I re-did the process.
But I deleted the old maxis mesh AFTER importing your mesh over top, instead of delete and import.

I didn't check in my BS though, because that requires me to make a new package and I don't have too much time at the moment. ^^

If it still looks like ET from hell, I'll do something more extensive.

Darn it. lol I'm sure I just keep messing up stupid little steps here and there that manage to cause huge explosion...
Attached files:
File Type: rar  Uvmapped_fixed.rar (93.6 KB, 6 downloads) - View custom content

Eclipse Sims 4 on tumblr
~°*CAS Custom Content Downloads*°~
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