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Post by Lanti on Mar 12, 2016 15:20:58 GMT -5
Thank you! I'll do that.
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Post by Lanti on Mar 11, 2016 8:02:43 GMT -5
I really liked the tutorial, it's very detailed. Perfect for a newbie like me. Thank you!
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Post by Lanti on Mar 10, 2016 7:55:11 GMT -5
freeasabird, thanks for the read. I wasn't sure if this was a good idea to anyone else but me (we each have a way of learning, I guess). I was willing to contribute to it too, as far as I could, making some research on basic terms that are already explained around here and just putting it together in a single list. I guess it's something I'll end up doing for myself anyway. But I was waiting to see if anybody else could make a use of it. I guess I thought I could contribute somehow, I ask so many questions around here that sometimes I even feel bad about it, hahah. You say you can make hard stuff sound easy, than I'm like you, but the opposite :p (at least that's how we say it where I come from).
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Post by Lanti on Mar 10, 2016 7:30:17 GMT -5
orangemittens, yes, I noticed that. But I'm using the Scent-from-Heaven one because the smoke fits perfectly on the CC object. The Spring Blossom one looked weird, like the smoke was coming out of the middle of the object, clipping into it. With the first one all I had to do was rotate the CC and it fit perfectly.
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Post by Lanti on Mar 3, 2016 19:41:01 GMT -5
orangemittens, thank you for the reply. The problem is that I need this specific object because I need its functions in-game (it's one of the incenses, and I want my object to have its functions). So I followed the method in this tutorial to get that, but lost the shadow. So I wonder if there is a way to insert a shadow, in this case? Or maybe I can trick the game into thinking that any object is an incense too, by using some sort of code like the ones I see in the warehouse?
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Post by Lanti on Mar 3, 2016 19:19:52 GMT -5
In my super-brief experience so far, the UV mapping was indeed a nightmare and my hand still hurts to this day from all the clicking and dragging, but still, there's something I find to be worse: the specular/bump fantastical mysteries. You take two days out of your life mapping something just so you can find it shining like a precious gem in game. It took me another whole day just to find out which DDS was specular, which was bump and what texture would solve the hellish issue. I must have read (as I wept) all the tutorials available on this. And the worse is having to go in and out of the game to do it, it takes ages and I really worry that all the loading/exiting is gonna mess something up.
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Post by Lanti on Mar 3, 2016 18:55:12 GMT -5
They look amazing. Perhaps if they were a bit more transparent it would add to the glass-effect (or maybe they would just disappear into the walls?). In my experience with glass objects in game, I feel some of them don't translate as glass to me because they're not transparent enough, especially when there's colors involved.
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Post by Lanti on Feb 22, 2016 1:07:57 GMT -5
Hahah! This is awesome. If you ever release it I'd just let him roam around the neighborhood, you know, have Freddy waiting in the bathroom line and stuff like that.
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Post by Lanti on Feb 21, 2016 19:49:12 GMT -5
ladyv, I kind of like putting real-life objects in my game, but I see what you mean. jkaliszew, thank you! But actually, I'm a newbie too! I just had the same problem as you so I could help. I'm glad you liked the posters, they're my first recolors.
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Post by Lanti on Feb 21, 2016 17:59:38 GMT -5
I'm not sure I understood what you meant, but I guess that's it. Create 3D Mesh is used when the CC creators allow you to share their mesh, or when you're cloning certain EA items, or if you're making it just for yourself. And Standalone Recolor is for when you don't want to share the creator's mesh, but you want to share your recolors.
I don't know if you're already doing this, but just to make sure, if you want to make a Standalone Recolor, you don't have to Create a 3D Mesh first, you can go straight to the recolor. Here's what you do: copy the original CC package file and put it in the folder Documents/Sims4Studio/Mods. Then open S4S (not the package) and select Object/Standalone Recolor. The full list of objects, including the whole EA catalogue, will appear. Type in the name (or just part of it) of the CC in the search box and you will see it, because you put it in the folder. Select it, click Next, and from then on you'll be making your recolor without the mesh.
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Post by Lanti on Feb 21, 2016 16:21:24 GMT -5
I think I can answer that. It depends on the choice you make when you first "clone" the original CC, in the S4S first screen. There are 4 choices, and each one of them will have a different effect. If you choose "Standalone Recolor", you won't get the mesh, and the user will need both your package (with just the recolors) and the original package (which will contain the mesh) for your recolors to work. If you chosse "Create 3D Mesh", you'll be including the mesh in your package and the user won't need the original CC for it to work. So if you don't want to include the mesh, choose "Standalone Recolor".
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Post by Lanti on Feb 21, 2016 16:11:41 GMT -5
I've been going through the forum and the tutorials and I see there are a lot of technichal terms that sometimes take a lot of explaining, so I thought perhaps we could use a dictionary for these terms. Things like baking, unwrapping, LOD, TOU, shadow, mesh. From the most simple to the more complicated ones, so that it would benefit users of all leves. Perhaps a thread to which everyone could contribute, like with term definitions and definition requests in the comments, so the thread would be constantly updated with them and it wouldn't depend on only one person.
I don't know, perhaps I'm the only one who thinks like that, or maybe it already exists (if it does, I couldn't find it). Just a suggestion.
EDIT – May, 14 --------------------------------------------------------------
So, here are my first suggestions and also some definitions I could dig up. If anyone sees a mistake or wants to contribute, just leave a reply below.
Alpha: it's one of the channels of an image, editable in some softwares such as Photoshop. It's used to edit Specular Maps and Bump Maps.
Blender: software used for 3D modeling and UV mapping, among others. It's where meshes are created and edited, conversions are done, and textures are mapped.
Blend File: a file extension for the Blender software.
Bump Map: it's an image layered on top of the texture of clothes and objects to give them a 3D effect, such as a small hole in the wood or wrinkles on fabric. It has an effect similar to embossing, changing the way the light reacts to the area. In a .package, it will be in the form of a DDS file and look all grey. It can be edited to match your texture and to maximize its effect. There can be more than one per package and it can also be refered to as a Normal Map.
Color Swatch: usually used to refer to the little colored squares or thumbnails in an item to indicate its different swatches. It can be seen in Sims 4 Studio and also in the game. It can also refer to an specific color used in an editing software.
Conversion: taking an item made for one Sims game and adapting it for use in another one, such as Sims 2 to Sims 4.
DDS: a file extension that has several uses in .packages. It is a 2D layout and can be textures, specular maps and bump maps.
Footprint: the information inside an object that tells the game where it is placed in an environment and how much space it occupies. It is the area below such object and can be edited. [?]
LOD: the Level of Definition of a Mesh. Every mesh has several levels of detail for when you zoom in and out of the object. They are defined by numbers, the LOD 0 being the most detailed one. When editing a mesh, you must edit all of its LODs or it will transform into the old mesh when viewed from a different distance.
Mesh: the 3D model of any item.
Normal Map: similar to a Bump Map, but has a different method of editing.
Polycount: the number of polygons a mesh contains. The higher the count, the heavier the item and the harder it is for the game to display it.
Recolor: taking an item's texture, changing its appearance in any way, and creating a new .package from it. It's mostly done in a way where the mesh is not included in the new .package, so users will need to have both the original and new .packages.
RLES: it's the name of the file that contains the Specular Map in a CAS part package. When extracted from the package, it will turn into two files: the Specular Overlay and the Specular Mask. Both are editable as .png and should be imported back to the .package as .png.
Specs: the same as Specular Map [?]
Specular Map: it's an image layered on top of the texture on clothes and objects to give them shine. Some areas will have more shine and some less, such as a belt and pants. Inside a package, you can identify the specular as the RLES file in clothing and as a DDS file in objects. These maps can be edited to match your texture and to maximize its effect. There is only one per package.
Swatch: a texture option in a item, with different colors or patterns.
Texture: the part of an object or clothing item that contains its appearance, such as patterns and colors.
ToU: Terms of Use for custom content established by its creator. Most creators publish them in their websites and pages, defining what they allow and don't allow others to do to their work.
UV Map: UV mapping is a way to apply a 2D image on to a 3D model, and we do it by putting each one of the faces of our model on a 2D layout that we can color. It is produced by a 3D modeling software, such as Blender, and when finished and extracted, will become the texture we edit when recoloring.
Suggestions:
Blob sheet Bone Geometry Mapping Occluder Phong Phong alpha Shading Shadow Shadow map Spine
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Post by Lanti on Feb 21, 2016 15:24:11 GMT -5
Hi. I'm trying to change the mesh of an EA object for a CC mesh. Things are going great so far, and my mesh appears in game but there's one little problem: the original EA mesh does not have a shadow. It's a deco item, to place on floors or surfaces, but it does not have the plane square on the bottom. The actual mesh, in the S4S CAS Tools tab, is set to None and 0. So I set the CC object's mesh to 0 when it was originally 1, and it works. But the CC has a shadow, set to 0, and I guess there's no way to make it show up because there isn't an original shadow in the EA object?
Thank you!
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Post by Lanti on Feb 20, 2016 17:49:39 GMT -5
Hello. So, these are my first CC ever. What inspired me to do them is that I looked all around for rock band posters for Sims 4 and I couldn't find a single one. So I made these and now I'm sharing them in case someone else's interested. Feedback is welcome! hehe They're a recolor of BLACK's Black & White Pictures. I'm sharing them with the (beautiful) mesh included, as allowed by the creator. There's a total of 25 posters, including some classic rock bands such as The Doors, Pink Floyd and the Rolling Stones. I've tested it in my game and it worked fine. Thank you to all of you here at S4S for the patience and willingness to teach us newbies. This is a truly awesome place. Download (Mediafire)
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Post by Lanti on Jan 2, 2016 9:35:12 GMT -5
Hello.
I'm trying to change the specular on a CC loveseat but I can't import the new black DDS texture into S4S. When I import it, the image in S4S doesn't change and remains grey. In Photoshop it appears black.
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