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Post by SimulatedStyles on Jun 14, 2022 17:18:41 GMT -5
mauvemorn - thank you for all of this info! Very insightful! I am aware of the degradation of .dds files when opening and re-exporting multiple times - I generally just work in Gimp's .xcf file and export a brand new .dds after changes (or I just stick with .png altogether) I think my best bet is to try some other software for exporting to see if I have any better luck! Regarding the floral pattern, there is some transparency on tips of the leaves/petals - without it the pattern's edges looked too sharp/pixelated. I may try eliminating some of that transparency to see if that might solve anything. For the stripes, there isn't any transparency in the stripes themselves. And there aren't any stripes as small as 1 pixel, so I don't think that could be the answer for that issue unfortch. And all of my textures are 1024x2048, so couldn't be issues with the game scaling down textures.
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Post by SimulatedStyles on Jun 14, 2022 7:05:12 GMT -5
Hi. This is a matter of how the image is compressed. To be honest, I do not have a good solution for this. You can try getting a psd file into a different software (like photopea, free online software) and resaving it as dds there. Make sure to choose BC3 or DXT5 with enabled Mipmaps. It is possible that it will compress the image in a different way that will yield better results. Hi mauvemorn! Thanks so much for getting back to me. So I guess what I don't fully understand is that this artifacts are not on my textures before importing to s4s. Which would mean that there's a problem with the way s4s is compressing the texture once imported right? If that's the case, and all of my texture files start from the same exact export settings in Gimp, wouldn't every single swatch have artifacts when importing into s4s? I just can't wrap my head around why some colors are affected but others are not... Also should note that I'm a Gimp user and not Photoshop, so I'm working with .xcf and exporting to either .png or .dds (both are completely fine when exporting from Gimp if I open the texture in a photo viewer)
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Post by SimulatedStyles on Jun 13, 2022 19:16:16 GMT -5
Hi all! I've been working on an 18th Century gown that utilizes overlays to add patterns on top of a solid-colored gown. So players start with this (in many swatches):
The player then equips an overlay that will add a pattern on top of the gown's diffuse. The overlay is an accessory in the piercings category - there is no mesh, just a diffuse with transparency. When equipped, you can achieve something like this (in so many different color combinations):
I'm running into an issue with artifacts though on some of the overlay swatches. This doesn't happen with every single swatch, but only a few colors. And the artifacts aren't in the same spot on each of the problem swatches, so I don't think there's any problem areas in my textures? Additionally, I've opened my diffuse files in my image viewer, and the artifacts aren't there on the actual diffuse files. So for whatever reason, I'm only running into some sort of issue when actually importing into S4S - and re-importing these same diffuse files as the opposite file-type (.dds or .png) doesn't solve my issue.
Here's a few of the problem swatches...
This one below is the same exact pattern as the monochrome floral above. For whatever reason some of these swatches get red spots on the tips of leaves/petals. Again, not every single swatch, some are perfectly fine?
Here's a few striped swatches with issues too - you can see some artifacts dead-center on the bodice. And again, not every swatch is like this:
Any insight would be helpful!
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Post by SimulatedStyles on Oct 15, 2020 19:54:55 GMT -5
mauvemorn Hi!! I just tried your package file, and that one worked!! So did you do something different or change anything? Or are we just chalking it up to a corrupted original package file??
edit: okay. so I just tried to create a fresh brand-new package file and re-imported everything from scratch. And for whatever reason, I still get the issue on the new package. I HAVE to be doing something wrong or missing something. So what did you do?! lol
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Post by SimulatedStyles on Oct 15, 2020 6:19:23 GMT -5
FeyonaThanks so much for getting back to me! So the b__ROOT__bind__ bone was added by me to LODs 1 2 and 3 after this issue first occurred. LOD1-LOD3 of the concerto dress that I cloned does have this bone! My original mesh did not use this bone, as I only had compared LOD0s of my mesh and the concerto clone, and then created my lower LODs from there. However, when this arm glitch first happened, I decided to check vertex groups of every LOD against the clone LODs and added the b__ROOT_bind___ bone thinking that not having it was what was causing the issue. Nonetheless, I just went through blender, deleted all instances of this bone, and reuploaded to s4studio. But alas, same problem!
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Post by SimulatedStyles on Oct 14, 2020 16:56:35 GMT -5
mauvemornThanks for replying! So the mesh group for the transparent sleeves being hidden in Blender is not the answer unfortunately. I only hid that mesh group after trying to figure out what could be wrong (after LOD2 had already been imported). Just to be sure, I just unhid that mesh group, re-saved, re-imported LOD2, and I'm still getting the same exact issue in-game. Otherwise, thanks for that note on the base entry in the region map, as that is not what the tutorial I linked states to do. Nonetheless, I deleted that extra region map entry, and moved all those groups to the OG base entry. This doesn't fix the issue either unfortunately. Any other insights on what might be causing the issue? (re: custom skins - unfortch this isn't my primary concern atm)
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Post by SimulatedStyles on Oct 14, 2020 15:20:05 GMT -5
Hi S4Studio!
I'm running into a little issue in creating this late 1820's gown. Here's the problem: when zooming out and allowing lower LODs to start kicking in, the sim's arms stick out to the side. Here's a video of what I'm talking about: Arm Glitch (please ignore those few vertices that seem to be exploding - I've since fixed those!)
Typically, I know this issue occurs when cut numbers for mesh groups don't match up with the cloned item. However, because the sleeves of this dress are transparent, I've created a new cut for these (as per this tut: How To Add Transparency To Clothing). Because of this, there is no mesh group with this cut number in the original clone to match up to. So I'm not sure what to do here! The other thing that has me stumped is that this issue occurs solely on LOD2 and none of the other LODs. I've double and triple checked the cut numbers for all mesh groups in all 4 LODs against those of the original cloned mesh (the concerto dress) - and everything is matching up fine!
Any insight into this issue would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks, Jonathan
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Post by SimulatedStyles on Jul 16, 2020 17:57:28 GMT -5
Feyona! Thanks so much - I was able to fix this. Thank you for pointing me in the right direction. J
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Post by SimulatedStyles on Jul 15, 2020 21:35:58 GMT -5
Hi all! SimulatedStyles here! I've been working on a 1760s Riding Habit based on Glenn Close's iconic mustard yellow outfit from Dangerous Liaisons. I'm getting this strange issue in-game that I've narrowed down to the normal map: As you can see, it's turning her neck and hands gray. From what I've read in the forums, this issue occurs with a missing alpha channel in the normal. However, my normal map does have an alpha channel. The file that I saved and was imported into S4S has an alpha channel. I even tried exporting the normal map from the package file in case something went wrong in the import. Both images (.dds) have alpha channels. I'm certain this is the normal map and not specular, as the issue goes away if I make the normal map blank. Any insight would be appreciated! package fileThanks, Jonathan
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Post by SimulatedStyles on Jul 5, 2020 20:44:01 GMT -5
Hi mauvemornI wanted to send a big thank you for all the help you gave on this project!! I was able to figure out the feet clipping (I ended up raising the bottom of the petticoat a bit higher as I wanted the shoes to be visible.) Here's the finished product: 1760s Robe A La FrancaiseWouldn't have been able to do it without you! Jonathan (SimulatedStyles)
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Post by SimulatedStyles on Jun 25, 2020 18:17:08 GMT -5
mauvemornThanks for this very thorough guide! I followed everything you just said step by step and the weights are SO much better in-game. THANK YOU. I think my main issue was that my original weight transfer was in 2.70 and I didn't have the majority of the settings you just described in my version. I re-did the weight transfer in 2.79 using a CC dress with movement I liked in-game, and it's looking much better after your short tutorial above! (I'll keep this in mind for my future meshing endeavors) The only other thing that may need fixing is the tiniest bit of clipping from the feet with the front of the dress's petticoat. I know before you mentioned "lower the skirt and exclude them in the warehouse", but I'm not exactly sure how to achieve that. The skirt is already completely floor length and there's no mesh for the feet in my blend, so I'm not positive what to exclude. Thanks again! You're a dreamboat.
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Post by SimulatedStyles on Jun 25, 2020 14:32:45 GMT -5
mauvemorn ! Thank you thank you thank you for the help. I was able to fix the vertex painting and it alleviated so much awkwardness (that I hadn't even noticed until it was gone) in CAS. I completely forgot about that detail regarding 00FF00 and 3FFF00 in the tuts I've followed. Thanks for pointing that out! So I think I'm following your directions regarding the weight painting? So the file I did send along to you was after I had removed the thigh/calf/feet vertex group assignments and assigned all skirt vertices to the pelvis group. I've gone back to the save I made before doing this to try and follow your guide here for a less harsh effect. What I think I'm gathering from this: I need to take the vertex groups for the calf/feet/thigh and reduce the weight to .500 instead of the 1.000 that was applied in my OG weight transfer. Is that correct? I cant seem to get that nice blended effect from the file you sent over to me by using the Smooth tool. Can you further explain how to do this?? If not, will you point me in the direction of any advanced weight painting tuts?
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Post by SimulatedStyles on Jun 25, 2020 12:04:23 GMT -5
Hi mauvemornThanks so much for your speedy reply. Correct - my mesh is painted entirely in 00ff00. So I did some searching around - there's a very wide floor-length skirt created by Curbs that has a similar shape to my mesh's skirt (my mesh is also floor-length). I was able to check it out in CAS, and the movement was similar to what I was trying to achieve. In Blender, the entire skirt is just rigged to the pelvis vertex group. I attempted the same thing with mine, and it seems a lot better! I just want to play around a little bit so that the lower portion has a bit more fluidity - with the entire skirt assigned to the pelvis, it looks like a big bell and loses it's fabric-ness lol I'm messaging you the link to the package and blender files. They're not fully finished (haven't even touched the texturing yet) so I don't want anyone downloading the unfinished package. I appreciate any help you can offer!
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Post by SimulatedStyles on Jun 25, 2020 10:55:52 GMT -5
Hello All!
Not sure if anyone might have the insight into this, but worth a shot! Here's my situation:
I've created a mesh for a 1760s Robe a la Française (I haven't found any that I've LOVED in the community). I'm well-versed in blender and whatnot, so everything is correct re: UV mapping, weights, vertex paint, etc.
When I get in-game, I'm not in love with the way the skirt moves as sims walk. As lower portions of the skirt are assigned to different bones, it somewhat splits and "kicks" as the sims legs move (almost looking like two wide pant legs as opposed to a single skirt). I've looked at nearly every EA mesh long dress and this seems to be the case for all of them, as they're all much more narrow than my mesh and would move with a sims legs. So while this is technically correct from EA's meshing perspective, is there anyway I can change this without messing things up in-game?
Ideally I'd like the skirt to stay a bit more stationary as the sim walks. As the skirt is very wide, in a real-life situation, a person's legs wouldn't make contact with the skirt - even in the front or back. Realistically, the skirt would move with the pelvis but not the legs, as it's draped around and suspended from the hip cage a person wears beneath.
So basically I'm wondering if there's a way to just remove some vertices from bone assignments/vertex groups to achieve this. And if so, anyone know which ones? I may do some trial and error here but if anyone has an exact answer or insight, I'd greatly appreciate it! Like could I theoretically remove the assignments for the feet, calves, and thigh bones, and then reassign to the pelvis and skirt bones? Sorry I'm not the most well-versed in manually assigning weights, I've always just done weight transfers!
Thanks, J
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