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Post by moonbiscuitsims on Sept 24, 2024 7:24:05 GMT -5
Hi. This isn't urgent. I've made my first ever hair mesh following this tutorialI've tested it in my game as a one cut mesh and it works. I did a data transfer from the "head" reference (still haven't done hat chops or finished the shape which is clipping on the ears and face a bit) But the tutorial has caused me to doubt my process so far in the few items i've converted and now this hair. I've read this post
But i've so far never touched vertex or weight paints in anything I've made (I skipped it on this hair too...) and wonder when/if i was supposed to? or does data transfer also transfer these weights and vertex paint? So far that is what I'd thought the data transfer was doing; the uv-1s of my items also tends to look really bad and i think torn, and in the post it says it is best to close the gaps but I still don't know how to do the uv_1 so it is as correct as possible, and I'm still quite confused about the painting. I usually just follow the data transfer process the same way (like in the post) and don't know what more to do beyond that like the painting she is doing in the video I just don't really understand what the colour is meant to look like or how to make the uv not look ugly. (maybe it is fine but i feel mine look wrong even if they work in game) I'm attaching the items i've made with the hopes of someone inspecting the uv_1s or any possible issues that make the cc not good to share or need improvement (they all work in game as far as i can tell and i've been using them) and learning more about. I've included the older conversions in case I'm repeating mistakes related to uv_1, weights and vertex throughout, and now I'm interested in knowing if my hair mesh is ok since I want to make more alternate versions of it and then do the hat chops etc and want to make sure I get it right. thank you |
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Post by mauvemorn on Sept 24, 2024 9:19:33 GMT -5
Hi. Your hair is attached to the head, naturally it needs to morph with it, but within reason. The facial area has a lot of bones that are responsible for it and you dont really want your hair strands to bend or thicken with cheekbones morphs or jump with eyebrows, so a more reasonable thing would be to transfer all data from the hair of similar shape, not the head. Before making something, you find a similarly shaped item among maxis ones. If there is something like that, you make yours similarly and will never need to adjust weights, uv_1 and vertex paint manually. If there is nothing like that, you should take it as a warning and either adjust the idea or be prepared to jump through many hoops. My point is, your hair is not shaped in a way that is different from maxis ones, it does not cover breasts fully or goes below the tailbone, for example. There is no reason for you to be editing anything manually, so simply transfer all data from something that covers the same area of the head. To avoid torn uv_1 with hair specifically, you can merge the reference by distance. It is not meant to look good
As for tutorials, 99% of them are made by beginners, so take everything you hear there with a grain of salt.
Also, when you mirror something, you need to flip normals |
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Post by moonbiscuitsims on Sept 24, 2024 9:58:53 GMT -5
Thanks that makes a lot more sense now, I understand, and I agree that most tutorials don't make me certain that it is the correct way because there so many opposite info out there. Thanks for explaining!
What is flipping normals? Shall I just tick all those exact boxes every time? I'm not really understanding the process in the image. Did i have to do the flipping normal thing before or may I still do it now on my current mesh? and is it done at any specific point during the process (i.e before arranging uvs, or before joining etc?)
thank you!
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Post by mauvemorn on Sept 24, 2024 10:16:50 GMT -5
Well, since we're making gaming assets for the game, there is only one way something should be made: the way ts4 developers intended. So when in doubts, just look at a gaming asset. At this point it will teach you more than any tutorial.
This is Face orientation. The faces that are red are facing inward. Their normals, the directions, get flipped when you flip the mesh. So every time you mirror something, you flip normals as well. Enable Face orientation, hover over red strands, press L to select all, Mesh - Normals - Flip
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Post by moonbiscuitsims on Sept 24, 2024 10:22:09 GMT -5
Thank you Mauvemorn! There was a point in the process where my mirrored strands looked very odd until i got rid of or checked (can't remember) backface culling so im guessing this must be the reason for that, good to know!
I am wondering why only some of the strands are red and not all the ones i mirrored, but I tried the method from this video then did something else so maybe along the way I did something weird
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Post by mauvemorn on Sept 24, 2024 11:01:38 GMT -5
Backface culling works only in blender
If you mirror them with mirror modifier, they are flipped automatically. If not, then no
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Post by itsonlythee on Sept 25, 2024 20:53:12 GMT -5
Thank you Mauvemorn! There was a point in the process where my mirrored strands looked very odd until i got rid of or checked (can't remember) backface culling so im guessing this must be the reason for that, good to know! I am wondering why only some of the strands are red and not all the ones i mirrored, but I tried the method from this video then did something else so maybe along the way I did something weird You can *sort of* turn backface culling off by using the "DoubleSided" option in Sims 4 Studio but I have no idea whether it applies to CAS shaders or not, though according to this thread, it does. Not super applicable here since your issue was flipped faces, but potentially useful to you for future cc. |
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Post by mauvemorn on Sept 26, 2024 2:43:38 GMT -5
I was never able to recreate it and Maxis doesn’t use it with CAS items, so
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Post by moonbiscuitsims on Sept 26, 2024 9:19:25 GMT -5
Thank you Mauvemorn! There was a point in the process where my mirrored strands looked very odd until i got rid of or checked (can't remember) backface culling so im guessing this must be the reason for that, good to know! I am wondering why only some of the strands are red and not all the ones i mirrored, but I tried the method from this video then did something else so maybe along the way I did something weird You can *sort of* turn backface culling off by using the "DoubleSided" option in Sims 4 Studio but I have no idea whether it applies to CAS shaders or not, though according to this thread, it does. Not super applicable here since your issue was flipped faces, but potentially useful to you for future cc. Hi! yeah I don't really understand much of what it is, just that my strands looked like "open" and broken" until i checked that and they looked normal again, but since it was only these few strands I don't think it was the issue, it was probably just some other unrelated thing, I'm still figuring a lot of this out. Thank you for letting me know if that ever comes up! |
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Post by moonbiscuitsims on Sept 26, 2024 10:54:31 GMT -5
Hi, so I'm experiencing some sort of data transfer issue where there are cracks appearing in my hair mesh and also some parts are deformed and not right. This didn't happen when I did my first one cut version with data transfer from the head mesh. It is happening now that I'm transferring from hairs and doing my 3 cut hat chop version. I've tried with doing data transfer with different hairs that cover the same areas of the head, one gave a better result but still broken, I've also fixed weights paint so they look more like the original hair after transfer and move with the rig properly and also tried to leave it as is, both versions were broken. attaching photo of the problem and blend (ignore my awful hat chops I need to fix them) |
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Post by mauvemorn on Sept 26, 2024 13:01:06 GMT -5
You need to merge by distance the reference before transferring data to hair. Hair is split in many many places, so will be your uv_1. See orange edges?This is all the places it is split in  How to make an item move and morph by transferring weights, uv_1 and vertex paint
Prepare the reference ( done with hair meshes only ):
- Hair meshes are split in many places, which produces a very torn up uv_1 transfer result. It is best to remove those gaps;
- Select your reference;
- Switch to Edit mode;
- Select everything with A;
- Mesh - Merge - By distance, with Merge distance set to 0.0001.
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| Transfer weights, uv_1 and vertex paint with Data transfer. The result may not always be perfect, but it is best to solve problems as they come:
- Unhide the reference. It must be visible* ( eye icon ) and selectable* ( cursor icon );
- Select your hair;
- In Modifiers tab add Data transfer modifier;
- Choose Reference as Source object;
- Enable Vertex data and expand it;
- Enable Vertex groups*;
- In Mapping choose Nearest face interpolated;
- Enable and expand Face corner data;
- Enable Colors*;
- Shift*-click to enable UVs as well;
- In Mapping choose Nearest face interpolated;
- Expand UVs, choose uv_1 in Layer selection ( don't forget, otherwise uv_0 will be overwritten as well);
- Click on Generate data layers*;
- Apply the modifier;
- In Data tab expand UV maps. Double-click on UVmap, rename it to uv_0;
- If uv_1 appeared, it most likely transferred successfully. You can edit it further, but it is not necessary;
- Expand Color attributes. If you see color0, it transferred;
- Expand Vertex groups. If you see names of vertex groups, they most likely transferred successfully. However, there is one ( or two ) more thing(s) you need to do;
- If you're using Blender 2.76 - 2.79, 3.6.1, switch to Edit mode, select everything with A, Mesh - Weights - Clean with Subset set to All groups to fix the result of a bug that exists in these versions;
- Regardless of your version of Blender, in Edit mode, with everything still selected, do Mesh - Weights - Limit total.
* Data will not transfer if you will forget to do these steps!!! | 
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Post by moonbiscuitsims on Sept 26, 2024 16:16:44 GMT -5
Hi, thanks
I did actually do merge my mesh by distance , and it said 0 vertices had merged, do i need to increase the 0.0001 number a bit? I followed this same data transfer process as I have before. I must have done something wrong
Maybe something went wrong when I tried merge by distance but I did it many times because it kept saying 0 and I thought that was odd
I'll try it all again
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Post by moonbiscuitsims on Sept 26, 2024 17:28:54 GMT -5
Hi, So I did it all again, and when I merge by distance it still says 0 vertices merged. So I merged with 0.02 instead and did the data transfer all again, it is less broken, but still broken a bit, even when I clear all seams and do this.
I can't increase merge by distance number anymore without it noticeably changing my mesh appearance
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Post by mauvemorn on Sept 27, 2024 1:46:57 GMT -5
You do not need to increase the distance, the default one is right. Save the file before you click on apply modifier and share with me
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Post by moonbiscuitsims on Sept 27, 2024 6:02:37 GMT -5
drive.google.com/drive/folders/1uVebRITB6lh9DMWzmpmtYSGBGbeCycoQI've included: Older lod before I removed edges to reduce poly and all the strands as separate meshes (after converting curves to mesh) The later lod when I had joined the mesh and reduced the polycount A video showing what happens when i merge by distance on both versions, both showing 0 vertices were merged. edit just reuploaded in case I accidentally saved them after the merge by distance thing, they should be right now, in the state before I merged by distance
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