Insimenator.org

I made a few recolors of some multi-alpha meshes, but parts I am not using are still being included in the package file. Is there an easy way to remove the references to the unused parts of the mesh? I always get rid of duplicate textures, and these extra parts all have EnvCubes, and removing the extra textures ruins the outfit.

That's why they're called "multi alpha meshes", I guess. So you can use them to create more outfits only by using one mesh. If you remove parts, you most likely have to make a new mesh.
"Remove" the parts with the alpha channel instead (as you're supposed to do) :)

Ah, you misunderstand. I am blacking out the alpha channels, but when I import the project the unused parts still have stuff attached to them, which take up unnecessary space. I want to get rid of those extraneous references, blank textures, unused EnvCubes, etc.

Those files when blacked out dont use much space, maybe 25 to 50 kb......
If you want them out you have to edit the TXMT's with Simpe
The envcube files are ven smaller as they are like 64x64 instead of the 1024x1024

But it is safe to remove them with SimPE? Besides the actual textures, I'd have to pull the material definitions that call them and remove that call from the 3IDR, right?

No, you have to remove the 3 lines in the propertyset that refers to the particular meshpart for the layers you do not want.
That layer/meshgroup will not be used by the recolor file then.
This is very tricky as those lines are in a specific order, linked to the TXMT's
Removing the last 3 lines will not give problems, removing 3 lines inbetween will mess up the links to the TXMT's
The 3 lines you have to remove to delete a layer or meshgroup are:
overrideshape
overridesubset
overrideresourcekeyidx
Depending how many meshgroups you are going to delete you will have to set back the numoverrides to the corresponding #

The envcube files you can disable in the TXMT's that uses them,
There is a line called stdMatEnvCubeMode set it to none instead of reflection.

If you want to disable the bumpmapping you have to delete the 4 files were it says stdMatNormalMapTexture

You must not delete TXMT's/envcube/normalmap or texturefiles!!!!
When done clone your outfit with bodyshop and all files will be gone.

If this is to difficult ask me wat it is that you want and i remove the files.

No, I think I got all that, going to save this post to my tutorial bookmarks so I can refer to it later. Thank you so much!  1fanku

your welcome

May I highjack please? This looks like what I need to do, but I'm stuck.

I'm trying to remove the noblend group from a maternity replacement package. I'm often a bit blind when using SimPE - where is the Property Set hiding? I can't find it at all.

And what do you mean by cloning the finished mesh in Bodyshop?

Thankyou.

A replacement package does not have a propertyset.....
Those contain textures and/or meshes

Cloning the finished mesh?
Were did you read that? You can clone a recolor(outfit) with bodyshop, but not the mesh.

 

That explains why I can't find it then.  :D

As for cloning, it was a misquote from your own words above. So is this irrelevant to my replacement problem?

What I've done is use the BV huladress for the maternity wear, which is working fine except that I can't get Bodyshop to read the noblend or alpha files so I can't recolour any of the accessories. The lei looks a bit stupid on very pregnant sims, not to mention that they all have the SAME lei, so I wanted to remove it.

I was hoping the process you explained above was my missing link, either to get Bodyshop to acknowledge those parts of the mesh or to remove the lei.

So you downed a maternity default replacement and changed the outfit and mesh with the BV Huladress?
Did you relink the textures and meshes to Maxis originals or did you load copy's in that particular package?

I did once made that dress available as a standalone mesh, maybe you can use it?
It has also the noblend part in it but you can delete it within the mesh(the gmdc)
http://www.insimenator.org/index.php/topic,64714.0.html (http://www.insimenator.org/index.php/topic,64714.0.html)
If the replacements use the original maxis files then you could consider deleting the noblend part within the original mesh.
You should make a new package, load the afbodydresshula gmdc in it and delete the noblend.

It is possible that you have my sexyfeet replacements installed which also contains that file, then delete the noblend in there.
http://www.insimenator.org/index.php/topic,64707.0.html (http://www.insimenator.org/index.php/topic,64707.0.html)

I have used the_mystical_one's replacement of the hula dress which has the preg morph added. The textures from the maternity clothes are in my package, and have been changed to recoloured versions of the hula dress. I don't think I've done any relinking, unless by accident.

I've already deleted the noblend wherever I found it mentioned in the package - in the GMND and SHPE. I am thinking there is something I need to do to tell the game that I've deleted those things, which is what brought me to this thread.

Thanks for helping. Hopefully that's enough info for you to give me the right advice. The thread where I've been nutting this out on MTS is here: http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?p=2744670#post2744670

I wrote up notes as I did the last verison, so you should be able to see exactly what I'm doing.

Just had a look at the mesh, couldn't remember how the layers were placed.

I am not sure wat it is that you want to remove but if you only want the outfit you can delete the noblend file and both the alpha files.
The noblend covers the neckless while the alpha's cover the gras thingy's on hands and ankles and the layer arround the waist.
If you delete them in the gmdc of the mesh none will show anymore.

But I have. Assuming you meant the GMND, since those groups don't seem to be listed under the GMDC. Or do you mean I have to delete them from the mesh before putting it into the replacement package?

I only want to get rid of the noblend (necklace) really.

EDIT: I found two places in the GMDC which mentioned noblend - a set of tickboxes under Models, which had Body and Noblend ticked, and the two alphas not ticked. Unticked that. Also, dug into the Groups tab and deleted one from that list too. Committed and saved. But my sims still wear leis! Am I in the right place at all?

The ticking or unticking is only for the preview.
You must indeed go to the groups tab and select the noblend file.
It will take a sec before its selected, then delete it, click commit and save your file.
Seems you did it all correct, check the file again if the noblend is gone.

Never edit the gmnd or cres file, it often makes your meshpackage corrupt so the game will prolly skip it and use the originals.



EDIT,
I read your tutorial but that is not how i make my replacements.
I only put the original gmdc and the textures(TXt and lifo) into one file.
then i switch the mesh within the gmdc and build new textures with nvidia tool

If you really want this to be a replacement you have to include all the txtr files(9txtr's) and the 9 lifo's as you have to fix those also
And including the alpha files of your new dress will be very hard.


Hmm, there is another way, maybe and that does include indeed the propertyset......
But you have to build the full package as if it was a new outfit released by EA.(and will be basegame compatible)
The Carnival outfits/meshes for instance give you a example how to do it.
You have to include
propertyset
3D id files
TXMT's
TXTR's
Lifo's
text lists
Binary index
And the gmdc/cres/shpe and gmnd...

Far from ez.....especially in your case as the outfit you want to change has 9 recolors
All these files you can extract from the basegame but you have to manually edit them to replace them with the hula dress.
I would stick to my method and only edit the gmdc and txtr's and forget the alpha's and noblend.
If you want to give it a try look in: EA GAMES\De Sims 2\TSData\Res\Catalog\Skins\Skins.package
There you find your 9 propertyset's of the afBodyMaternityShirtPants...i say 9 but there are more in the other EP's(BV in know for sure)
That is the file you must start with.

The noblend is certainly gone from the current package. Sounds like perhaps I can't alter the alphas or noblend in this kind of replacement.

Do I actually need the LIFOs? At first I though Phaenoh meant me to put them in, then I decided she only told me to extract them so I could use the larger textures for recolouring. My current file seems to be working...what should be wrong without the LIFOs? I can put them in, naturally. They were included in my previous try.

Your next suggestion sounds even more complex than what I've already done! ;D Perhaps I should just live with the leis and let well enough alone.

I think wat happened is that by replacing the shpe you linked your gmdc back to the original one from BV.
Did you check ingame if the pregmorph still is there?
In your tut your placing your file on your desktop..........the game wont read it if its there ;)
Make sure you edited the correct one and were it is located.

You can simply use the basegame gmdc and load the hula dress in it but the noblend and the alpha's wont be visible then.
If you want the alpha's you should include the SHPE file also and edit it(add the alpha's)
This means you will also need to add custom TXMT's and the alpha textures.

You must use the lifo's, you must build a new TXTR file with them!
The TXTR file stops with the 256x256, you need to include the 512x512 and 1024x1024
It will look like this:
(http://i32.tinypic.com/ngr5uo.jpg)

The sims in-game get pregnant bellies using the replacement file, so the pregmorph must be there - in fact I saw it mentioned briefly when I was looking at that Groups tab.
I must test in an environment with no other CC and make sure though. Haven't quite done that as yet although the minigame I used for Bodyshop has nothing else in it.
I think this may be what you missed from the tute - you might be looking at the draft version of course.  ;)

I did use the LIFOs to build the texture images, and my package shows those larger sizes (definitely the biggest one)  as well as the smaller ones. Without any lifos included in the package. Do I still need to add them as well?

Maybe this is what I did the first time - I had a version that didn't show any of the alpha layers in-game, which wasn't any good because the belt shadow was still there. The next version had all the accessories, and now I'm aiming for somewhere in the middle. I don't know what changed in my method between those two versions.

if you used the lifo to build the new TXTR file everything is fine, you do not have to include them then.

Ill see if i can popout a replacement file, just for one recolor.

Re the LIFO - Great! that's surely better than including them and bloating the file for no real reason.

Thanks a lot for your advice, you're very helpful.

EDIT: Whoa! Just tried with only the replacement in Downloads...and no belly. Must have been masked by something else, although I did think I had checked that earlier. Maybe that was the previous version.

Outfit colours appear correct, but none of the sims have pregnant tummies anymore. Yes, I opened the package and pregbot is there under the Models tab. And I know the original custom mesh worked, although that needs a hack for everyday maternity wear. Which is of course missing just now, and perhaps responsible for making this replacement look like it is working. Or maybe it is becaues of the SHPE file being replaced as you suggested.

Perhaps I'll make another version with your method and see how that goes.

I made a attempt with extracting the propertyset and 3d ID files, gonna check em ingame.

I've done what I probably should have done in the first place - figure out how to remove the belt shadow in PainShop Pro, so I don't need any alphas!  3yay

Wasn't even all that difficult in the end, although maybe that's due to the sharp increase in my Paintshop skills during this project. A few days ago I couldn't imagine how to achieve that, which is partly why I've been chasing alphas. As well as just plain wanting to make it work. I hate thinking something should work, and finding that it just won't.

So I now have a new package, with just the GMDC and LIFO-replaced TXTRs in it. No other CC loaded, sims wearing the right clothes and with enormous bellies. And no shadows in odd places. Hurrah.

Should have asked you in the first place, if I had only known to do so.  :D

I'll have to update my tutorial so it works properly. It would still be nice to have some of the accessories, but I can live without them if your attempt isn't successful.

I am still wondering if you have indeed created a default replacement because.
There are 9 outfits you have to fix the textures for.
Those maternity outfits do not show in bodyshop so you must fix the png's and import new dxt's with Simpe.


I also had a attempt and its not that hard after all, i did not use any meshes/textures and such just a matter of relinking.
Included is a default replacement for the afbodymaternityshirtpants_fall.
I included the propertyset because at first i thought i had to add the 3 extra subsets(noblend/alpa3 and alpha5) to it but the outfit and accesoires works without the extra subsets.
The propertyset you do need to find the correct 3d ID file, you find it by the matching instance number so i left it in.

So i only replaced the 3d ID file with the 3d ID file from the huladress from BV and my ingame pregnant sim changed outfit.
EDIT, also included a new mesh(my sexyfeet mesh) with pregbelly and the fixed noblend.(neckless)

Oh, i can not add attachements in here
just pm me your email if you want it

Note,
It is just one outfit out of 9, all others you have to do yourself.
And since the maternity outfitrecolors are randomly assigned to a sim you got to be lucky to get this outfit ingame. :D
Cool thing is that the mesh included is a replacement for the hula BV and will give all BV outfits sexyfeet and a pregmorph also

(http://i26.tinypic.com/awtbm9.jpg)

I PM'd you. I have a sim wearing the fall maternity already, should be easy to check how it works in my game.

I can send you my package in return, so you can see if I got it right. I believe it is, but then I believed that before.  :-[

I'm not sure why you doubt the current one, though. I've replaced all nine TXTRs with new LIFO-sized images, and am seeing a variety of them in-game.

I have a mod to make maternity defaults appear in Bodyshop, but I haven't done the recolours likie that as Bodyshop wasn't giving me access to the accessory sections anyway.

What did you "fix" about the noblend? On the_mystical_one's mesh, the bottom of the lei sticks out funny on pregnant sims, which is one reason I wanted it gone. On yours it isn't doing that, but your belly is smaller. (Unless yours is just early pregnancy, mine are all in the last stage.)

Do I understand correctly, that you have made two new things - a recolour for the fall maternity outfit, and a replacement for the hula mesh? 

I made a full replacement package, all 9 outfits i relinked to either the basegame alphaskirt or the BV huladress.
It doesn't include SHPE/CRES/GMND/TXTM's, textures or lifo's so you must have BV EP installed.

I used only the game files but included 2 custom meshes.
The hulaskirt with sexyfeet and pregmorph
The huladress with sexyfeet and pregmorph

When the sim is in normal state it uses 4 meshes(layers) for the 3d shape.
the body
the alpha's(outside and inside layer) for the grass thingy's and the belt
the noblend which is the neckless.

All those meshes have a 2nd mesh linked to them, the fat state morph.
When also a pregmorph(the 3rd mesh) is needed you need to build/link again 4 meshes for the pregnant state.
Themysticalone forgot to make the noblend morph for the pregstate.
The neckless shown with pregnant state is the one for the normal body, which doesn't fit.

In my mesh i added that morph for the noblend.
TMO's meshes do have a bigger belly, i used the Maxis(basegame) one.

If you like i upload it, since im finished with it.(except the ones for the EP's)

Thanks, I think I understand that now. It explains why the noblend just won't work using TMO's mesh.

One thing I am not sure of still - should I do some kind of relinking with my package, or is it not needed?

So, if I were to make another replacement using the mesh you've sent me, that one should allow recolouring of the accessories, correct? And those groups should be exported by Bodyshop correctly?

I'm glad you figured out there was actually something missing from TMO's mesh, that makes a lot of sense. :)

EDIT - had a look at your file with SimPE and in-game. I didn't realise it was possible to use more than one mesh within the replacement package. That's why you talked about both the hulaskirt and the huladress. Cool.

I assume I could add TXTRs as I did before? I lke the sexyfeet, but the hulaskirt looks a bit odd under the belly - the long skirt gets away with it but the short one does not. The necklace is great though. I'll look at the package in Bodyshop next and see what I find.

and here i am still puzzled.....how can you view these in bodyshop?
These maternity outfits are hidden from bodyshop and CAS

I do not know if you have Milkshape but if not then upload TMO's gmdc, the extracted mesh and send it to me.
It is 1 minute work to add the noblend morphfile to his mesh.
Load that mesh into my afbodyhuladress gmdc and your done.


I relinked the outfit(propertyset) to all the BV files and you are working with all the original game files so you need to include:
the basegame gmdc updated with the huladress mesh
the basegame shpe  updated with the lines alpha3/alpha5 and the noblend
The BV TXMT's for the alpha3/alpha5 and the noblend file
The BV TXTR's for all 9 outfits.(the TXTR's for the alpha's and noblend are also linked to this file)

This is wat you must include when you want your package to be basegame compatible........really alot of work.(times 9....)
the reason it is still working sofar is most likly due the fact that you replaced the SHPE file with the one from BV
That shpe file is linked to the TXMT's from BV and those are linked again to the TXTR's.
I do not want to dissapoint you but ask someone without BV to test your file.
I do not think it will work...
You can not replace CRES/GMND and SHPE files with others, a way to check if all went well is to use the scenecrapher from the tools menu.
Make sure you disable the BV EP(in options) when you do

There is a older maternity replacement package on MTS, it replaces all 9 basegame maternity outfit with HP's summerdress(custom mesh.)
I do not know how that one is build but prolly the same as mine.
Check that one out.

I thought I had said - I found a hack by Motoki (on MATY) which unlocks the maternity clothes for bodyshop (and I think in-game shopping, although I haven't tried that). It's part of the thread for the Clothing Equality mod. Loads the maternity wear fine in Bodyshop, default or replaced.

I have downloaded milkshape but have never installed it. So far, I haven't had to.  ;)

I replied to your email earlier, but it bounced. I'll try again with TMO's mesh. You want the .5gd file? I've packaged and emailed it, we'll see if it gets through this time.

My current package doesn't include the SHPE, and I don't expect it to be basegame compatible. I have posted it on Mediafire so a couple of people might test it for me, but I flagged it for BV.  http://www.mediafire.com/?ykamldy0zmt (http://www.mediafire.com/?ykamldy0zmt) if you like to look.

I like to be aware of basegame compatibility when I make anything, but I'm not expecting it when I want to use a BV mesh. When I eventually learn to add my own preg morphs, then I can do whatever I like.  ;)

Thanks for telling me how to do it, though. I'll be filing away your hints and tips for next time.

I can't seem to reply to your email, it bounced again. I've put the extracted 5gd on mediafire:
http://www.mediafire.com/?gazmtymjzyr (http://www.mediafire.com/?gazmtymjzyr)

Ah, didn't know about the hack
Installing my package will hide them again :D unless i change soms numbers in the propertyset.

Your package is fine, same way i made a few replacements in the past
I had a look at the mesh but TMO did include a morph for the noblend, does it dissapair or simply looks strange?
I added mine and made it fit over the bigger breasts and belly.
You decide wich one you take but seeing all the work you already did to remove the noblend neckless textures its easier to simply delete the noblend in the gmdc eh?
I see 10 outfit files, this means only BV came with a extra maternity outfit?
http://www.2shared.com/file/6929249/76cbeef1/AC4F8687-F942D385-1C0532FA-FF9A14C75gd.html (http://www.2shared.com/file/6929249/76cbeef1/AC4F8687-F942D385-1C0532FA-FF9A14C75gd.html)

glad i could help

The bottom of the necklace sticks out at right angles to the body, in mid-air above the belly. I can get you a picture if you like, but I don't have one handy that shows it.

I'm not sure about the extra maternity outfits, I'm only doing nine, and haven't seen any others.

thanks for the file, I'll report back later.  

LATER: What should I see when I use the file you linked to? I replaced my current GMDC with that, but see no change in-game - no accessories and no sexy feet. Doesn't look any different to my own version. Am I missing something? Oh, I suppose I would need to add the SHPE to the file again, wouldn't I!

Here is your file with correct neckless mesh and sexyfeet.
I added the SHPE file with the correct links to the BV files for the alpha's and noblend file.
Unfortunate you can link only one TXMT to TXTR file in that SHPE file so all outfits will have the same neckless, gras thingy's and belts.
That linking is normally done in the propertyset.

http://www.2shared.com/file/6944391/b1565fc4/AEHulaMaternityBlooMAllTextures.html (http://www.2shared.com/file/6944391/b1565fc4/AEHulaMaternityBlooMAllTextures.html)


If you extract the gmdc from that package and load it into mine you get all the variety of the difrent outfits and accesoires.
You could even look up TMO's hula alphaskirt and load that mesh in it too.(for a bigger belly, no sexyfeet tho)
But it would be a waste of all the work you put already into your own file ;)


I was almost 100%sure i ran into a afbodymaternityshirtpants file when browsing in the BV files, got to look.
I thought i included it in my own package.

Looked at that file - the flowers sit much better on different tummy sizes, thankyou.

However, the feet have an odd shadow on them - is it a shoe trying to be there perhaps? My no-accessories version doesn't have the shadow, so it must have happened when you added sexy feet I think.
(http://www.mediafire.com/imgbnc.php/cc3212f5626f1c4971673dc76d94abd32g.jpg)
I can't see anything wrong on the texture images, so I don't think I can fix it. Unless you tell me how, of course.

Sorry to keep coming back with more problems!

The feet requier special skintones, i am sorry i didn't mentioned that.
There are alot skintones arround for the feet, even alot default replacements.

I made replacements for the whole game, all maxis blockfoot have been replaced.
Here a few links if you ever decide to keep the feet:

http://www.insimenator.org/index.php/board,411.0.html

skintones:
http://www.insimenator.org/index.php/board,324.0.html (http://www.insimenator.org/index.php/board,324.0.html)

You also can install the mesh i gave you earlier, its the same without the sexyfeet. ;)

Oh, I see. The special skintones is why I haven't used your feet in the past, actually. I have different skintone replacements already.

I must just not have noticed those odd sections on the earlier sexyfeet version. Thanks.