UV not preserving to show texture with sims 3 conversion

Hi. In ts4 things do not work quite like they do in ts3. You need to fit the uvs into the designated area. If you haven’t yet watched a conversion or accessory making tutorial for ts4, it is best to start from that for there are a lot of things to do.

But to answer your question, you need to set this image as the background, shrink uvs back to their original size with S Y 0.5, then move them in the hat area. Then you will need to assign them to the head bone, transfer a uv_1 and vertex paint with 007f00, assign the type and a cut number, import it in a package started from a hat, re-do the texture, edit region map, then change the shader. You may also have to layer the planes to avoid transparency issues.

Share your blend and package files. And did the TS3 item include a diffuse or overlay? Share the textures. I'd like to take a look at your files if you don't mind. Oh, and do you have to original mesh that you extracted from TS3? Can you share that, too?

I'll spare you the agonizing details, but I managed to get the file in OBJ form. Here's the file, if you want it. My hope was that it was already UV unwrapped (it is) and that way you can transfer the texture from the old UV layout to a new one. Problem is the UV map is off the map so it will have to be fixed.



Let's begin. First, if you clone a hat note that you'll have to change the region map. If you don't change the region map when you equip the ears the game will display one of the hair chops and you don't want that.



Open the hat's LOD 0 then import the OBJ

*Select the hat and press X to delete it. Keep the rig; you'll need it. Keep the hat, too. You'll need it to transfer the uv_1.
*File > Import > Wavefront (.obj), navigate to the OBJ and open it.
*Select the ears, edit mode, press A to select everything.
*In the UV editor, press A to select all of the islands.
*In the UV editor, Image > Open Image, open one of the ear's textures.
*In the 3D window, press N to open the side panel.
*Under Shading change the dropdown menu to Multitexture. Enter texture shading and you'll see the texture on the mesh. If you move the UV islands around, you'll see the changes on your mesh in real-time. Press N to close the panel again. Ignore the left side of the screenshot.



*With the UV islands selected, press G, Y, and move the islands on top of the texture. Keep an eye on what's happening in the 3D window.

Transfer the uv_1

*Rename the existing map to "uv_0."
*Click the plus sign to add a new map. 
*The new map will be named "UVMap." Change the name to "uv_1." This is case-sensitive.
*Select the uv_1.
*Do what the screenshot shows to transfer the uv_1.
*You can delete the hat at this point. Sometimes, you need the EA mesh to transfer weights, too, but the ears will need only one weight and that can be added manually.



Vertex paint

*Select the ears and enter vertex paint mode. 
*Press T to open the side panel.
*Click the color bar, in the window that pops up enter the hex #007f00. 
*At the bottom of the 3D window, Paint > Set Vertex Colors.

This screenshot shows you how but it shows a different hex#.

 

Now to add a material

*Click the materials tab, click New.
*Click the texture tab, click New.
*Click Open and navigate to your texture.



*Click the data tab (it has an upside-down triangle icon).
*The UV map, in this case, will be named "UVMap." It should be named "uv_0" if you followed the instructions above. Click the plus sign to duplicate the map. It will be named "UVMap.001." It will be name "UVMap."
*Select UVMap.001. UVMap.



*In the UV editor, press A to select all islands (if not already).
*In the UV editor, press X to remove the current texture.
*Image > Open Image and open the CAS map.
*The UV islands will be stretched vertically because the UV map shape changed. Press A to select all of the islands (if not already), S, Y, 0.5.



*Put the islands in the hat section of the CAS map. Scale them with S if you need to.
*Make sure you've selected UVMap.001!
*In the UV editor, click the X to remove the CAS map.
*Click New and add a black background—make sure your settings match mine.



*Click the Render tab. It has a camera icon.
*Make sure your settings match the screenshot (ignore the right side of the image).
*Make sure all of your UV islands have been selected.
*Click the bake button. Blender should bake the texture to your new UV layout.



*Export the image. Image > Save as Image. It'll save as a PNG.



*Export the UV layout, as well. UVs > Export UV Layout. It will be a PNG. You may not need this but I always export it just in case.



*Delete the UVMap the old uv_0 by pressing the button with the minus sign.
*Rename UVMap.001 UVMap to "uv_0." UVMap is the one that has your new UV layout. 

The instructions above are for the texture. You will need to vertex paint the ears black. If you paint them black they won't respond to the CAS sliders but there's no need for the sliders to work on the ears anyway given that they are on top of the head. Normally, you'd need a uv_1, as well, (which is also needed for the CAS sliders) but again, it's not necessary in this case.

Add the weight
Select your mesh, edit mode, press A, click b__Head__, click assign. Your mesh should turn red. 

Assign the cut number of GEOM and 0000 and save your file. This is your LOD 0. Reduce the polycount to make your LODs. You can use decimate which will wreck your topology (I hate it) or select edges and dissolve them (X > dissolve edges).

Note that your diffuse will need to be a DDS because it requires transparency and transparency requires an alpha channel. You can use Hue/Saturation to change the colors of your diffuse. 

Also, note that you'll have to change the shader of the hat to *I think* Simglass so that the transparency will be displayed.

You'll need to make a specular map and bump map. Neither is hard so don't panic. I can walk you through it when the time comes.

I edited my post while you were posting, lol. Are you at the point where you need to make the specular and bump map yet?

I'm thinking you probably don't want shine on your mesh. If that's the case, export the specular map as a DDS, open it in Photoshop and paint both the map and the alpha channel 100% black. Paint the specular.mask 100% black, as well. Save as DXT5 Interpolated Alpha.

Export the shadow map and paint the alpha channel 100% black. Save the same way you saved the specular. The shadow map is so that the mesh appears to cast a shadow on the sim's body. It's meant to make things look 3D. I don't think it's needed in your case.

The bump map can be made a couple different ways. See this post.

Edit: Mauvemorn wrote this: "...transfer a uv_1 and vertex paint with 007f00, assign the type and a cut number, import it in a package started from a hat, re-do the texture, edit region map, then change the shader. You may also have to layer the planes to avoid transparency issues." She's much better at all of this so always follow her advice over mine. 

About layering the planes. See this post. You can do this in Milkshape, if you want. There are instructions in the comments of that post. I don't know how to use 3DS Max but I can tell you that when you have layers of planes, such as with hair, or with grass, you have to tell the game with layer to render first and which the render last. Layering does this. 

As for transferring a uv_1, don't use Blender 2.70. Lots of tutorials say to do this but it's not necessary. I use 2.78 with no problems. You'll need to add a uv_1 entry by clicking the plus sign and renaming the new map to "uv_1." This is case-sensitive. Make sure the uv_1 has been selected before transferring the uv_1. Note that you'll need to have the hat mesh in your scene so you have something to transfer from. If you've deleted the hat append it into Blender. File > append > navigate to the hat's LOD 0 > object > s4studio_mesh_1. If an extra rig and/or a bone_bone_shape gets appended delete them from the outliner. 

Here's how to transfer the uv_1 and ideally, you should do this before baking the diffuse:




Sorry for any confusion. Hopefully, you've transferred the uv_1 first and then baked the diffuse. You'll have a problem though. The maps will be out of order. Studio requires that the uv_0 be listed first and the uv_1 be listed last. This will require some juggling. 



I'll edit my other post to make things easier, hopefully. Done. Sorry for any confusion. Mauvemorn messed me up by giving different instructions! Arg! Always take her advice over mine. 

If I remember correctly if you use a PNG, I think you'll have to have a transparent background, right?

herbertofury if you use a PNG for your diffuse do not flatten it or you'll lose all transparency.