Opening Sims 3 object in Blender (from tutorial)

If it's a CAS mesh or something with joints, a few tips on getting the proper files from S3PE from SerenityFall's 3t2 tutorial, here: serenity-fall.dreamwidth.org/1366.html (at the top, with images - you can probably use the first parts of this tutorial to extract the TS3 parts you need for a 3t4 conversion, too - mind, this method won't work for an ingame file, where you'll need TSRW, just for a ".package" file).

I think you'll want the steps down to the line "Once you have all the files you need, close down s3pe and open up milkshape." That's where she starts modifying the rig into a T-pose for TS2, and from there it's TS2 all the way, which is probably not what you want. 

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If it's not a CAS mesh, just a regular object without joints, use an OBJ mesh. They're much easier to handle than anything containing joints, especially if you're making a plain deco item or a chair or table or anything like that. 

I'm kinda guessing it's something with joints since it's Fresh-Prince, but if it's a car or something like that, you could get away with not needing joints since TS4 vehicles don't have much in the way of joints, anyway. I guess it depends what you're planning to do with it. 

An OBJ mesh is a format widely used in 3D programs, and is one Blender can also import/export. If you can use this format, it's absolutely the easiest one.

In TSRW you can extract a mesh as either a WSO or an OBJ. I mostly extract as OBJ in TSRW (I think you need plugins in Milkshape or something to use WSO files).

It's not the same as OBJD or OBJK. You can't export as OBJ in S3PE. You can however export as OBJ in Milkshape, so if you figure out how to import from some or another format to Milkshape you can export as OBJ from Milkshape, and the way to import the rigged mesh to Milkshape is in the tutorial I linked. 


If you're having problems, maybe link to the file you want to extract, and I can either help extract the file or guide you through it (if you say which programs you have access to - you need S3PE and Milkshape to extract it with the rig, or TSRW and Blender to extract just the mesh without the rig). 

I don't have TSRW at the moment, but have an older version ready to install (the newest version is really bad, especially the one with TS4 because it keeps crashing), so I can always figure that one out (and I do have TS3 installed, so that's no problem either). 


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CAS meshes and other rigged meshes use very similar setups, so the extraction process is pretty similar. If you know how to work with CAS meshes, you're on the track with rigged objects too. That goes for extraction/import, as well.  

If you just want it for decoration - no, you don't need the rig, you just need the mesh.

If you want a poseable (in Blender/Milkshape, mind) mesh, you may need the rig for this, but again, it's not necessary, and you can rig it up later.

If you want a driveable car, you'd most likely need a driveable car rig in the game you wanted to export it to (and since there's no such thing for TS4... really not much point to it). I think the closest you get is converting it to a bike, and then you can use the bike rig - the TS3 rig is completely unnecessary.

Long story short, you can manage fine without the TS3 rig.

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Is TSRW usable without TS3? I haven't the faintest idea. I think I've had at least the basegame when I've used it (I have all the EPs now), so I don't know how it reacts. I vaguely (and potentially not accurately) remember I could open some TS4 CC files without having TS4, but I'm not sure. the program never worked particularly well with TS4 meshes.

S3PE is probably a lot more useful in those regards, but also has the annoying problem of not having exportable finished textures like TSRW has (you can only export the overlays/DDS files), so you'll have to do that job in Photoshop/Gimp/similar. And the fact you most likely need Milkshape to get a use out of it (unless there are Blender plugins for the GEOM files? I'm not entirely sure). 

Milkshape isn't technically free, but there are some... options, I guess you could say? 
The rest of them are free. 


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Anyway, I can poke around in the files and see if I can find a free and no-TS3 friendly method for you that hopefully doesn't require Milkshape (can of worms...) or TSRW (another can of worms...) that could be of help to you and perhaps others with similar issues. 

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If you can link to the download page that would be fine (as long as they use clean links that go directly to the download page, like Mediafire/Box/Simfileshare/GoogleDrive/DropBox, etc. - I don't download from adfly-like sites on principle, as lately these are immediately being detected and blocked by my antivirus so I don't trust those...)

Eh... I forgot that really annoying thing I used to struggle with - only body meshes come as GEOM files. Object files come as Lod/Model files if exported from S3PE, and I have yet to find working plugins for those files in Milkshape or Blender (Even found an old post by me from last year about that very problem, so I'm not sure if there ever was a solution ). 
Plugins are mentioned here at the bottom, but not linked, so I don't know if there actually are any  --> murfeelee.tumblr.com/post/146959802986/ts4-to-ts3-extracting


But there's still TSRW. You probably won't be able to access anything CAS-related, but objects could work. If you can get it to work with CC files, that could still be a solution.
The (apparently) less annoying/buggy version is here: greenplumbboblover.tumblr.com/post/169394981331/tsr-workshop-the-good-version-so-a-while-ago-i

slkjsdalfkj This version of TSRW ALMOST let me import...but then at the last second it was like "TSRW cannot run without the base game files, exiting." GAH.

EDIT: Okay so I downloaded the Blender 2.7 TS3 Tools thing, but my S3PE doesn't appear to have an option to do s3m2b? I'mma try it as what it does have, which is MODEL file type...

EDIT 2: ...nope. *sigh*

*nods* Yeah, the MeshExpImpHelper link was bad, but when I Googled, I got this... Which ended up leading me back to S3PE... I was trying to decide if it was worth messing with a different version of S3PE, haha. But YOU ARE FREAKING WONDERGUL FOR EXPORTING FOR ME THANK YOU!! And oh--yeah, sorry, I should've mentioned about the auto-detection for the game folders; it does have that, because it found my Sims 4 folder just fine, but it said it couldn't find the Sims 3 folder and did I want to put it in manually, and it was when I said no that it was like "fine I'll just exit then."

And yeah haha...there definitely is that, and if I end up liking this whole conversion thing enough I might invest in TS3 once I actually have some money to spend. I mostly just didn't want to spend it if I was only going to do this once, you know? I even looked into it briefly to see if I could find it on the cheap, and I mean...it's cheapER than TS4, but any versions I actually trusted were at least in the range of $10 (sketchy-ish-looking but okay) to $15, and the official version was like $20...and I'm just like...that's a little much to spend if this is a one-off project and I'm pretty much broke. Haha. So yeah, idk...I'll have to see. But in the meantime THANK YOU SO SO SO MUCH AGAIN.