jezzster64
Member
Feeling sad because the EA update has stopped CAS work :(
Posts: 11
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Post by jezzster64 on Dec 5, 2018 23:48:56 GMT -5
This may well be more of a Blender question than S4S but I have trawled so many help forums and found no solution.
I wanted to modify the gasmask accessory created by Mahuyu to a version without the filters attached. By the way, Mahuyu's modelling is superb.
So I loaded his package into S4S, exported the mesh into Blender and I carefully deleted all the vertices associated with the filters. I then filled the resultant two circular holes with two squat shaped cylinder objects and merged them into the mesh with CTRL-J. All looks fines in the Blender 3D view in both object and edit modes. I successfully baked a diffuse image and again all looked fine.
However, I saved the new mesh and imported it into S4S and the filters are still there. I checked the poly count on both the original mesh and the modified one for the S4S LOD0 and they both are the same according to s4s. This is impossible seeing as I have reduced the geometry in Blender significantly and the 3D view in Blender shows this to be the case. I am obviously missing something here, hopefully someone can see what I'm doing wrong. I am a beginner with Blender - I just know the basics but am quickly out of depth with the advanced topics - but I'm a quick learner 
I'm running version 2.70a of Blender.
And some dropbox links:
Mahuyu's original mesh: link
My butchered mesh (!): link
I've included some screen shots:
the original mesh in Blender edit mode: link
My mesh looks different because I've deleted textures in Blender. I am more interested in getting the mesh correct, I can sort the texture out later.
If I've completely gone about this the wrong way then please feel free to give me a few bullet points about what method you would have used.
Many thanks in advance.
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jezzster64
Member
Feeling sad because the EA update has stopped CAS work :(
Posts: 11
|
Post by jezzster64 on Dec 5, 2018 23:51:59 GMT -5
... oh, by the way, just in case intellectual property rights come into this - this project is for personal use and I have no intention of distributing the new mesh
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Post by Zelrish on Dec 6, 2018 3:27:36 GMT -5
Hi there jezzster64 More than deleting the textures you messed up the normals which is giving you all that transparency. Appart from that, your new mesh has: No cut number (which is why it doesn't import) and the wrong number of objects/cuts (you need to keep the same number of objects/cuts in your blend or you won't be replacing them at the re-import. Check this tutorial for more info on cut numbers. |
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jezzster64
Member
Feeling sad because the EA update has stopped CAS work :(
Posts: 11
|
Post by jezzster64 on Dec 6, 2018 5:43:44 GMT -5
Damn!
Ok, tonight’s project will be to start afresh with a clean mesh and try and do the job without upsetting the normals, then get the cuts right.
I’ll report back here if I can get it to work.
Thanks for the advise.
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jezzster64
Member
Feeling sad because the EA update has stopped CAS work :(
Posts: 11
|
Post by jezzster64 on Dec 6, 2018 11:25:52 GMT -5
Ok, well some progress made but still have some problems:
I started from scratch with the original mesh, deleted the vertices for the filters, created two plugs for the holes from cylinder objects. I placed the plugs into the holes and then when happy with the positioning I selected all objects and did CTRL-J to join the meshes into one. I made sure that there were two cuts as the original mesh, numbered 0000 and 0001.
The mesh imported into S4S OK and all looked fine. I haven't created a new diffuse image yet - just want to make sure the mesh is ok first.
But... even though it looks ok in s4s, it is weird in the game. Despite there only being one mesh, the two plugs are not fixed to the gasmask in CAS - they float around unattached. I can't understand why this is happening if they don't exist as separate objects in Blender.
Any ideas?
My new mesh in dropbox: link
Screen shot in s4s: link
Screen shot in CAS: link
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Post by inabadromance on Dec 6, 2018 20:15:04 GMT -5
If things are floating then that means they have been wrongly weighted or not weighted at all. please read this guide on how to properly import CAS items : sims4studio.com/thread/10/tutorial-using-sims-studio-accessoryin your case, you need to weight both items to the head bone. the S4S' preview is solely that, a preview. you won't see weights or any type of movement. you must see that in game along with bump and speculars. |
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jezzster64
Member
Feeling sad because the EA update has stopped CAS work :(
Posts: 11
|
Post by jezzster64 on Dec 6, 2018 21:11:42 GMT -5
Kind of had a feeling the word ‘weighting’ would crop up at some point!
Ok, I’ll go read up on that.
But, a question... now that I have merged the two plug meshes with the main gasmask mesh there is just the one object. Would I be able to weight the new single mesh to the head bone or would I need to go back to a previous version before the CTRL-J and weight the two plug meshes individually? I’ve made regular saves so that shouldn’t be a problem. I’m still struggling to understand the logic of how the game can interpret the mesh as three objects when the blender file is clearly one *scratches head*
Thanks for your prompt reply though, I may have thrown myself in at the deep end, but I’ve learnt an enormous amount in 48 hours.
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Post by inabadromance on Dec 6, 2018 22:26:09 GMT -5
if it were a clothing item.. like a belt over a dress and you need to only weight the belt then I would suggest moving the belt to another meshgroup and following the weight transfer tutorial (http://sims4studio.com/thread/81/weight-transfer-blender). you would go into edit mode and select the belt only. press P / selection and that separates the belt.
BUT your item is different. you only need to assign one bone not multiple. so just select the plugs in edit mode and assign the bone as shown in the tutorial.
as for the other question, it's a singular meshgroup. it's not three different meshes, that's how you should picture it.
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jezzster64
Member
Feeling sad because the EA update has stopped CAS work :(
Posts: 11
|
Post by jezzster64 on Dec 7, 2018 3:54:15 GMT -5
It has worked!!! Omg, I’ve just successfully modified my first mesh. Extremely happy here ))) I checked the weighting and the vertices associated with the plugs was blue for assignment to the head bone. I followed the tutorial, selected all vertices in the mesh and assigned 100% weight to the head bone. Back into CAS and live mode and all is well Thank you so much inabadromance and zelrish for your kind advice |
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