I don't know what mesh is or how to make it work!

[hollymatronic]

Hi I've been playing sims 2 for awhile but I'm a complete newbie to "custom content" all I know is to copy and paste the downloads into the downloads folder. I've copied and pasted a few furniture packages and its not working! Please someone explain to me what this is all about? mesh and all of these things?

[Theraven]

meshes you do need to make things work, or they will flash blue when you try placing them. everything new that isn't recolors of existing ingame things needs meshes (hair, clothes, furniture...). a mesh is sort of a 3D-file that often has got animations. they're colored, and then they are ready to put into the game. make sure you download both meshes and at least one recolor. without recolors it won't show up at all, and without mesh the thing flashes blue.

to make meshes, one need a 3D programme, but you only need a paint programme (like paint, photoshop, paint shop pro... - and possibly also simpe for furniture) to recolor. but clothes, you can recolor yourself using bodyshop that came with the game. if you're still unsure what a mesh is, look for tutorials that teaches how to make them. then you'll understand it a bit better.

think about it like a chair. the chair itself is the mesh/skeleton, but if you color it red, the paint is the recolor.

usually the mesh and recolor come in different packages, that's why you'll need both. that's also why you have to read everything before downloading.

[RBWpg]

Some packages don't like to be copied. Once you download a file you have to unzip it. double click it this process should activate a decompression program if you have one. This should then generate a folder.

Open the folder and gather the program / mesh files from that folder, and place them in your downloads folder. You only need to install the program files, thing's like jpg's or gif's of the file to show you what it looks like in game, or the "read me text", (which you definitely should read as it will inform you of thing's you have to be aware of, if any, when loading the file), don't need to be placed in your downloads folder.

The item's should now be in your game. If they aren't there may be a few reason's.

You may need to download re-colors from another link in order for the mesh to work.

The project was based on an expansion pack you don't have installed, therefore no mesh in the game for the re-color.

Or you may have simply downloaded the recolor and still need the mesh.

I have run into this often and if you can get back to the link where you found the object you may find another file listed that you missed or a link to re-colors or mesh. There will also usually be an indication of any expansion packs needed to use the object, make sure you have the ones listed.

I have the Base game and Nightlife. I occasionally find University downloads that will work with NL, I have a feeling this is because NL was released after UNI.

Hope this helps and happy Simming!