UV Map again

There's no easy way but to re arrange the whole map to fix those type of meshes UV since everything is overlapped. it's easier to do one from scratch instead of editing someone else's creation that looks perfectly fine. Also, that item has already been converted by mio-sims.

Hi leo4sims, sometimes an item can be difficult to work with because of issues with the mesh...this is why, as inabadromance says, it's sometimes just a hell of a lot easier to make your own rather than borrow the flaws of someone else's. In the case of this mesh the interior faces of the bag are situated so closely to the exterior face that it can be difficult to select the exact faces you want.

I think one of the easiest ways to deal with this bag if you wanted to pull the map apart and reorder it for baking would be to sync the UV map and 3D editor windows and l-select whole chunks of faces that go together in the 3D editor.  Once you got some of the overlapping parts out of there you could turn off the sync and select sections from the map side instead.  It can be done but it won't be as easy as it would be had the mesh been made so things were a little further apart in the mesh.

You're welcome. UV mapping is one of those things that can take awhile to wrap your head around. If you stick with it though you will get it

Well, I think it's a matter of practice. My personal feeling is that the best way to begin is by doing something really easy and working up to the more difficult projects like that bag. The mapping tuts I wrote use easy items for that reason. Try those and then try something a little more difficult afterwards. If you run into questions with either post em

MisterS, To be honest, I don't think there is anything about separating the item's faces into islands rather than keeping them in sections that will affect the bake. As long as each face that receives a different amount of light is in a different place on the map the bake will be fine. I agree though that mapping in sections, or lining up your islands so they form sections, will result in a more seamless appearance for the diffuse texture and make it easier to recolor later on.

inabadromance and leo4sims, I think that just because an item has been converted by one person doesn't mean someone else shouldn't convert that same item unless the first person who converted it got special permission from the original creator that wasn't given to anyone else. If the TOU covering an item made for some other game allows conversion there is no reason why multiple people cannot convert it...the process of converting it doesn't make it belong to the first person who thought to do so after all. It's free game for anyone who's interested in having it in their game or sharing it with others.

Especially in cases, where the original conversion was not done all that well, it's worth it for someone else to give it another try and maybe do it better. This bag for example has had the shadow plane mesh completely dispensed with so in the game it won't have that extra floor shadowing that gives an item a more realistic look. The original texture was made for a different game and it does not have a bake on it...there's a lot of room for improvement here. If the map were pulled apart and the item was baked for a better texture it would have a much better appearance in the game in my opinion. If I were to have a choice of which conversion to download I would pick the one that had a floor shadow and a proper baked texture and it would be worth re-downloading it and replacing the first one I had downloaded to have that improved look.

The only way a creator can claim rights over a mesh and ask that others don't work with it is if they made that mesh themselves. In the case of EA items and conversion items made by someone else anyone can come along and work with those meshes and it's completely ethical and ok.

Gotcha. The bag looks really cute and I like the texture a lot. I think your example is a good illustration of the idea that sometimes the better route is just making your own rather than dealing with the flaws in someone else's. Your map has nice neat straight lines and is in good order...the other has crooked map lines and is, as you say, a complete jumble.  Different games have different requirements and Sims 2 didn't have the absolute demand for a baked texture like Sims 4 does (if you want the item to look realistic in the game).

Hi inabadromance, I apologize if my post made you feel I disagree with you and there is no reason to keep personal opinions to yourself. I agree, moving to something easier just makes sense in this situation. It wasn't the shadow LOD that was removed...it is the shadow plane mesh. The item doesn't have that little plane that sits under it and provides a floor shadow indoors.