Mesh modifying advice requested.

[SimWardrobe]

I am trying modify one of your halter top meshes ever so slightly, to create a lower cut halter top effect. I believe that I can accomplish this by simply moving two vertices to create a cleavage like effect. I have made the modification in Milkshape and again 3DS Max and it appears to be visually satifactory to me.

The problem that I am having is moving it back into a gmdc again. No matter which method I use to get the mesh into the gmdc, it appears to be "damaged" by the importation process. Specifically, the bottom edge of the halter top becomes darkened and almost wrinkly in appearance. In the game these areas look as if they are lit incorrectly for some reason. Your mesh is so beautiful to start with and so darn right nasty when I get done with it.

What I have tried so far:
Milkshape and Wes_h unimesh pluggin.
Various export and import methods in SimPE 0.56, using 3ds Max 8 for editing.

How are you creating your meshes and getting them into a gmdc in such pristine condition?

As for a mesh request, have you considered making a low cut halter top mesh in your new high resolution series? (think eye popping cleavage here...)

[Warlokk]

You are seeing the infamous Normal Mapping problem that is the bane of all Sims meshers.  It can be fixed sometimes by resmoothing in Milkshape, but this often creates other issues, like seams and such.  If you use only Milkshape and Unimesh, you can resmooth and reweld everything just fine, except you can't do any welding along the bottom edge of the shirt, or it loses the separation between the shirt and the body, and screws up the shadows.

I can't really explain it, it's a major obstacle... in fact my current clothing pieces I'm doing for the 2nd version is causing me the exact same problem.  The only way I got around it in the original version was to not ever weld or smooth everything, ever... which obviously creates it's own limitations.