Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Dec 5, 2014 6:17:27 GMT -5
While it was an Idea...No Longer Recommended. I heed the Advice of wiser ones....sometimes. ;°)
|
|
|
Post by esmeralda on Dec 5, 2014 7:14:22 GMT -5
I think most people here are aware of CASTools, and many of us use it. However, using CASTools in combination with Sims 4 Studio for clothes meshing isn't a good idea, as S4S is not yet enabled for clothes meshing, doesn't support clothing morphs, and you can end up with unexpected/unwanted/weird results. It's best to stick to CASTools and Milkshape for clothing at the moment and wait for clothing to be enabled in S4S before getting your hopes up about doing it with S4S and Blender.
(I know it's hard to have to wait, but it's better to be safe than sorry - I'd rather wait to use a method that works properly than sit around tearing my hair out over things going wrong!)
|
|
|
Post by orangemittens on Dec 5, 2014 9:20:32 GMT -5
sims2germany, the situation with CAS meshes is that clothes and shoes are designed by EA to respond to the body sliders in the game. The component of a clone which allows them to do this appropriately appears to mostly be the second UV map.
Our early tests with S4S demonstrated that our inability to recapitulate the 2nd UV map for a new clothing mesh caused clothes made with this tool to become unacceptably distorted in the game when the body sliders were used. Because this tool is made to make brand new meshes that function with the sliders correctly the team disabled Studio's ability to clone clothes. It's a waste of a creator's time to make something that isn't going to work in the game.
CASTool approaches the problem differently and requires a specific work flow that appears to involve either deleting the second UV entirely or taking advantage of EA's second UV by retaining EA's mesh. While this approach is completely valid, clones made for that work flow aren't going to work with Studio very well for most applications.
If you clone a clothing mesh using that tool and use Studio to swap it for your own mesh you will run into trouble with mesh distortion in the game. For this reason, this forum does not recommend that you do this and will not provide support for issues you run into if you do. You're much better off following Esmeralda's advice.
Esmeralda, I wasn't aware that CASTools isn't able to work with Blender. Is it not even possible to make the mesh with Blender and use something like .fbx or .obj to get it to MS as a bridge back to the .package?
|
|
|
Post by MisterS on Dec 5, 2014 10:30:36 GMT -5
Ive tried all sorts of things with CASTools and S4S, you can sometimes stretch a mesh, ie make a skirt longer, but you run into all sorts of issues if you try and make it shorter. I dont even bother trying anymore.
|
|
|
Post by esmeralda on Dec 5, 2014 11:24:07 GMT -5
Esmeralda, I wasn't aware that CASTools isn't able to work with Blender. Is it not even possible to make the mesh with Blender and use something like .fbx or .obj to get it to MS as a bridge back to the .package? Maybe I wasn't clear, I didn't say CASTools can't work with Blender, but that CAStools .packages can't be used with S4S to make clothes that require morphs, because of S4S not being enabled for clothes. I'm not familiar with .fbx, but it is indeed possible to export/import .obj files between Milkshape and Blender. (Once you have your .obj file, you can use CASTools to give it S4 bones by using a similar S4 reference mesh.)
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Dec 5, 2014 11:45:15 GMT -5
Obj. Files with Blender are a Pain in the A°°, I learned that back in the Day. I was starting to Learn Blender recently, but alas. ;°(
I had Milkshape in the past, way in the past -(hehehe.). That PC Crashed along with the prog...was 15 bucks or something, Chumbuwaba(?); Some funny name....Nice guy though! Time to re-download it, I suppose.
2nd UV Map, erg! That explains a lot of really bad looking experiments, thank you for the advice and sorry for wasting anyone's time. ;°))
|
|
|
Post by penelope on Dec 5, 2014 14:14:01 GMT -5
Hmm...as far as I followed you this far it seems (to me) it is a mayor prob of the Bone Weights from the original Body. Second Life released not far ago the Mesh Option...all we had to do is to Copy the Bone Weight from Avatar to the Mesh (rig it). The Sliders are connectd to the Bones. So,if the Mesh is rigged the Sliders should work properly.
|
|
|
Post by orangemittens on Dec 5, 2014 15:10:30 GMT -5
Penelope, the Sims 4 sliders and their relatedness to the second UV are a little more complicated than that. Here's what the Sim representative said about them over at EA forum: "Dmap resources define a displacement for model vertices when the model is constructed to achieve deformation of the Sim geometry based on user customization. There are many Dmap resources, a particular resource will define a gender/age, region and a morph state (for example "yfBody_Heavy", "yfBody_Fit", "ymFeet_Long", "ymFeet_Short"). Furthermore there are two variations of the resource, one the contains the normal and one that contains the vertex delta - for example, "ymFeet_Short_Normals" (resource db43e069:00000000:c351e7260b39e239) and "ymFeet_Short_Shape" (resource db43e069:00000000:cbe85057a5c4ac2a). Within a Dmap resource itself there can be two sets of data defined, one for skin tight geometry and one for "robe" data (i.e. with clothing on). This is because deformation should affect the geometry differently depending on if the geometry is loose clothing as opposed to skin or skintight clothing. The 2nd UV set in the CAS part geometry maps to the displacement data encoded in the the Dmap resource which is used to modify the geometry when the Sim is built. Additionally vertex color in the geometry is used to weight between the "skintight" or "robe" data - this allows gradual transition from skintight to clothing. The Dmap data is encoded in a pretty custom format (RLE, with skintight and robe data interleaved, data normalized, plus some additional complexity due to optimization)." The original thread with pictures showing what clothes look like with no 2nd UV is here: forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/797774/simgurumodsquad-0xdb43e069-deformermap-resource#latestWe've known since the main game came out that the second UV was responsible for making the sliders work and that for many items vertex painting was necessary to proper function. This statement by EA really didn't tell us anything new. They have released some documentation on their DMap but it is very complex and no tool maker coding for Sims 4 has figured it out unless TSR has and isn't telling. S4S has not abandoned the idea of working on clothes but since the team is small it made more sense to prioritize things that could be more readily achieved. Walls, for example, could be added without significantly delaying clothes...the reverse, unfortunately, just isn't the case. The bottom line is that in order for a new clothes mesh to work properly with the sliders in the game it will need to have an appropriate second UV and no Sims 4 custom content creation tool is able to make one for a brand new mesh at this time. I have not seen any clothes that work with the sliders made by any tool that aren't just an edited EA mesh using the original 2nd UV. Esmerelda, I misunderstood what you meant by "It's best to stick to CASTools and Milkshape". I apologize. MisterS, basically the issue is, from my reading of EA's information, that you're working within the constraint of the second UV map the item had. If your edited mesh strays too far from the original the original's second UV map isn't going to work for it anymore.
|
|
|
Post by penelope on Dec 5, 2014 16:59:12 GMT -5
ok,thank you for the detailed explanation.
I had a look at the DMAP resource and indeed it is very complex BUT not impossible to solve. Maybe it is so simply we don't see it at te moment!
Possably some Brainstorming would help...... :D (Not only TSR has some "Brains" *giggles*)
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Dec 6, 2014 11:09:17 GMT -5
God, I feel so STUPID. Call me Newb, getting Feet Wet again. I figured out the Problem that I was having with Clothing and it was not a Mesh problem. It was a simple Texture problem. I was trying to cut off the straps for this Corset and the Shadows kept showing, so then I used the nice Female Body texture provided by OrangeMittens on another thread to make a Nakie Skin and then layering them together with the Corset. Every time I placed the File in Sims4, the Model looked Crazy....Blonde hair..Crazy looking Mouth, etc. To cut away @ Clothing, yes - you do need another Skin Texture, (Depending on what you are changing.), and Only a Skin Texture for that Area. It works, no more Shadow. I need to re-do my Skin, because the Feet area should not be skinned over for this, either. Coffee! Coffee! ;°)
|
|
|
Post by orangemittens on Dec 6, 2014 13:45:24 GMT -5
sims2germany, if you do that then Sims who don't have that skin color won't be able to wear it without turning the color of that skin. I'm working on a tutorial showing how to do what you're trying to do and it should be out shortly. In the meantime though, the process I used is very easy. I just used Studio to clone the naked female top and made my garment on that. Then I made it buyable by changing what s4pe calls the Parm Flag. I wrote a brief minitutorial on changing the Parm Flag for buyable uniforms and that will tell you how to go about doing that. For full body outfits you will have to clone them as a separate bottom and top because as far as I know the game doesn't have a naked full body to clone.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Dec 8, 2014 11:43:42 GMT -5
My Apologies to the Staff for my Adult Humor and sims pics. I will keep it @ SexySims2 from now on. I just wanted to check back in with Orangemittens to say, Thank You. The problem has been solved. There are 2 Texture Files listed when you import a Package to S4pe. Just take the Package you've Created in S4Studio and open it up in S4pe. The 2nd Texture File listed is an Alpha mipmap(?). Right Click on that line and a Menu will pop up to EXPORT that. Export that alpha and erase the entire shadow area. Save like normal DDS with generate mipmaps. Import that new empty Alpha back into S4pe. It will automatically add to your package and Delete the Original Alpha. SAVE under your Package. Done deal. (Ignore my Screenshot with, "Select All" - Just a Screenshot. Now you can cut away at any material in Clothing and it works.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Dec 8, 2014 11:57:59 GMT -5
Sorry for not posting a pic...it's ADULT....ehhehe....Love to you all! -Sims2Germany
|
|
|
Post by orangemittens on Dec 8, 2014 12:24:04 GMT -5
No worries Sims2Germany. Also, I posted a tutorial this morning that shows a way of achieving transparency on a garment and avoiding unwanted shadows, bumps, and specular maps on it. It doesn't require a second tool and I think it's pretty easy. That's here: . Maybe it will be of use to you.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Dec 9, 2014 6:14:38 GMT -5
Cutting into the Clothing and seems to work fine with this method, but like MisterS pointed out - raising the dress will require a Mesh re-do. The Corset came out great because the straps are right on the body, there is no Mesh sticking out to deal with. This is a Dress I was working on last night, not so Adult - racy. (Example of cutting into the Clothing.).
|
|