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Post by dottiedk on Jan 23, 2020 14:55:10 GMT -5
Hello I've made my very first meshes for sims4 by following tutorials in here, and I'm so happy with it. At first I had an issue with the small vases being too dark in the game, while it looked fine in s4s. I tried many different things, and it turned out lighter, but now it has this weird shadow/light issue, as you can see on the picture, but only on one side (On the picture you can see the vases from three different sides.) The original mesh used, is maxis fruitbowl. Mesh is hereI've tried: Fix normals look at occludors (there was none) Changed maxheights in footprints I hope someone can help me. I've already used way too many hours on theese vases
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Post by lavsm on Jan 24, 2020 4:41:17 GMT -5
Hi, have you tried editing the specular texture? Also, when you said you fixed normals did you mean the normal map texture, or the mesh normals in Blender?
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Post by MahoCreations on Jan 24, 2020 5:15:36 GMT -5
Many things could the issue. At first some parts of the vase are not correct unwrapped and the texture have lighter grey colors (shown in the pictures). Yes maybe the specular map could be the problem.
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Post by dottiedk on Jan 24, 2020 10:44:43 GMT -5
Like I mentioned this is my very first mesh, and blender is all new to me. I followed loads of tutorials, but havent seen anything called specular map or specular texture, so guess I have to search more on that.. Thank you for taking a look
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Post by simmerish20 on Jan 24, 2020 11:09:02 GMT -5
In S4S, open up the object and select the "Warehouse" tab. You'll find 2 DST image instances (usually for each mesh group) with colors of some sort that don't look like your main texture, which are the specular and normal maps.
Most of the time I just extract them and open in Photoshop, pick what seems like the neutral color, copy a square of it, and fill the entire map (making sure to remove the old one so the new one is still transparent). There's probably a tutorial on editing them properly somewhere, though (I edit them as PNG and remove the info to simplify things, but you can use DDS files or edit them properly if you want your item to have a working bump/specular map).
Looks more like a texture problem, though. Is the problem as visible if you make the white parts entirely white?
The way this is mapped makes the seams not go well together at the ends. A trick I often use when UVMapping is to select a line of vertices, then click S (scale), X/Y (for vertical OR horizontal, not both at at a time) and 0, then press enter. This makes all the vertices line up. It's especially useful for cylindrical items or items where you want seams to line up on opposite parts of the map. Sometimes it also makes recoloring a bit easier, but with some meshes it can cause some stretching, so use with care. You can use it only on end vertices to make sure they line up, though.
Also make sure the mesh is properly smoothed (with smoothing tools to fix normals, not with extra polys/faces!) and that the normals don't make a seam.
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Post by dottiedk on Jan 24, 2020 11:25:03 GMT -5
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Post by simmerish20 on Jan 24, 2020 12:16:41 GMT -5
I think you need to make sure you use a neutral transparent texture (see-through) and NOT an invisible texture (empty texture) for the bump/spec, because there is a difference. One of the maps is pink/green, which I think is the specular map, the other one is grey and I think that one is the bump. I think bump maps usually have 128x128 white/black, and 0 for color as the neutral no bump color (that's what I'm used to from TS2, anyway) - but I'm not sure with the specular map.
The mesh looks alright from what I can see (no normal issues). There are a few minor UV alignment issues, though. There is a small texture seam on the inside of the vase, but I'd say that's more likely to be the gradient and the UVmap not properly aligning. The outside looks fine with these particular stripes, but may not work with gradients and other patterns due to the same misalignments in the UVmap (that's why you want the end vertices to line up, so there isn't a seam). It doesn't explain the clear seam in the first picture. That's more likely to be a problem with the specular or bump, or something else.
Can you upload the Package file, too? The problem could be somewhere there.
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Post by dottiedk on Jan 24, 2020 12:50:14 GMT -5
I've tried to unpack the UVmap again, and apparently i was missing a few UV's. I fixed it, but neither that changed the vase in the game. Thank you SO much for helping me :D Here's the package file
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Post by simmerish20 on Jan 24, 2020 12:53:08 GMT -5
^ The link is to this topic, not to a package file.
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Post by dottiedk on Jan 24, 2020 12:54:51 GMT -5
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Post by simmerish20 on Jan 24, 2020 12:56:01 GMT -5
Doesn't seem like the link works. I only get a page with a lot of random characters.
Not sure which site you're using to upload, but just so you're aware, some characters do weird things when they are in filenames. Besides ".package" at the end, the safest to use are Aa to Zz and 0 to 9 and _
Spaces and other characters can sometimes do a lot of weird things, so best leave them out. Some characters except for the ones mentioned above are theorized to have a negative effect on loading times if there are enough of them, and some the Sims games can have issues reading which causes them to not show up.
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Post by dottiedk on Jan 24, 2020 13:00:10 GMT -5
When i click it, it downloads the package file. I've tried to zip it now, i hope it works. here
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Post by dottiedk on Jan 24, 2020 13:04:06 GMT -5
Doesn't seem like the link works. I only get a page with a lot of random characters. Not sure which site you're using to upload, but just so you're aware, some characters do weird things when they are in filenames. Besides ".package" at the end, the safest to use are Aa to Zz and 0 to 9 and _ Spaces and other characters can sometimes do a lot of weird things, so best leave them out. Some characters except for the ones mentioned above are theorized to have a negative effect on loading times if there are enough of them, and some the Sims games can have issues reading which causes them to not show up. I think it was because it's called kähler, but i changed that now. I'm using my own domain for uploading
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Post by simmerish20 on Jan 24, 2020 13:07:20 GMT -5
The last link worked The seam shows on some of the other colors, but I think it's more due to the textures and a slight misalignment on the UVs. Especially the orange and light grey (you see it best by rotating it while having one of those colors selected, the seam seems to be in Front/F view). Painted gradients to mimic shadow/light can have negative effects if you view them from the wrong angle. Better to have everything in one seamless color, or use ambient occlusion to bake a proper shadow map (which you can use as an overlay) that works on the entire mesh. Not sure what causes the clear grey seam issue seen on the smaller (shrunken?) vases in your first picture, though. Is it still there? Have you edited all the LODs (1, possibly 2) to make sure they're based on the same mesh as the LOD0? It is possible the Specular map has the wrong colors, so that could be one thing to check up on. It's usually green/pink, I think (but as I said, I have no idea what the neutral color is, though there's probably a tutorial explaining it somewhere)
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Post by dottiedk on Jan 24, 2020 13:47:24 GMT -5
I tried now to change the texture so theres no gradient - nothing changed in game I uploaded the same mesh to LOD 1,2 and 3. and saved the mesh as a shadow where i deleted the bottom mesh, and changed the "cut" to 0. Did I understood this wrong? I will try to find a tutorial for the specular map
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