Insimenator.org

I wrote this a long time ago because there is not a tutorial from the ground up.
The tut's i have seen are missing alot info.

However, i was far from finished....but decided to upload it anyway.

I decided to make this Tutorial in chapters because its time consuming.
I will try to explain how to get a custom car working in the sims2.

At first, this is wat you will need before we even are going to start:
*simpe:
http://sims.ambertation.de/en/download/realdownload/
Also make sure that you install the 2 proggy's Simpe needs!!
*Microsoft.net Framework:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=0856eacb-4362-4b0d-8edd-aab15c5e04f5&displaylang=en
*Direct x 9.0C:
Also install DDS Utilities from Nvidia and link Simpe to it in its preferences.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=2da43d38-db71-4c1b-bc6a-9b6652cd92a3&displaylang=en
*Milkshape:
http://chumbalum.swissquake.ch/
*Milkshape plugins by Wes H:
http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=122399
I have no experience with other 3d programs, i do have zmodeler/Blender and Poser but only use these to convert 3d models to other formats.
*Photoshop or a similar program to edit or make new textures


And another important thing.......The custom car 3d model.
When looking for a custom car model:

--make sure the model is in a format that you can import into Milkshape like a obj, 3ds or lightwave file(there are more but these are the ones i use)
So before you start check if you can import the desired 3d model into Milkshape.
When the model shows up:
-Look if the doors are seperated from the mesh and even more important if those doors are completly build with a inside/sides and bottom.
Do not use a model that doesn't have complete doors(for beginners that is!!)
-Use a model that doesn't have to many polygons, i personal dont use models that exceeds the 20.000 polygons as they give trouble on heavier lots/garages with 10 of those cars etc etc.
That doesn't mean a 30.000 polygon or higher will work, it definatly will on smaller lots and such.
-Also look if the model is build in a way that understand the parts, in other words:
Dont use a car with 40 to 60 carparts, keep it simple(for now) Look if the body is one part, the chrome one part, the doors seperated, windows seperated and that the details(interieur,seats/lights) are seperated.
-Important!!!!
There are hundreds of free meshes arround but unfortunatly arround 80% of those meshes are build very bad.
So if you finally found a decent mesh, check it first for errors
*alot 3d models i have seen had reversed faces(the triangles faced insideout) and altho this is fixable it will take you a huge ammount of time.
another fix for this is to texture both the inside and outside of the car but this can cause some lag ingame(we use this method only for the windows)



Chapter 1, clone a excisting car

The first thing we are going to do is to clone a excisting Maxis car that we can use for our own custom project:

*Open Simpe
*Start object workshop(this will take a while before all files are loaded)
*Open General/Cars
*Pick a car
This is important, you need to pick one of the five maxis cars that comes close to your mesh!!!!
-the lenght of the car isn't that important but the width is!!!
-choose the height that comes close to your 3d model
-Pick either a four or two seater, dont use a four seater on a sportscar unless it has backdoors ;)

*When you picked a car click next.(sometimes, (depending wat screenresulotion you using) the next button isn't visible, then pull up the object workshop window a little)
On the next tab you have some options, i always tick all the boxes except the''reference original mesh''
*choose clone(not recolor)
*click next
*On this tab you can change the description/prize etc etc, change this to your liking
*click finish(Simpe will now get all the files and make a new package, this will take a sec.)
*A popup will appear, change the name of the package to your name, part of the cars name or watver you like and click update
*Tick the university ready box when it is there(bottom popup window)
*click ok
* a second popup will allow you to save the package, save it somewhere in your downloadfolder!
Give it a proper name so you always know wat car it is/who made it etc etc.
* If you did it all correct your now viewing the complete carpackage with all its files in Simpe.
One important thing:
This package is build from all the game files wich means that it will overwrite the car i cloned it from, we have to give it a new Guide to make sure it works as a standalone custom object.
*Click Object Data in the left windwon(resource tree)
*Click it again in the right window(resource list)
*Click plugin view
Your now viewing the Object data editor were you can change the Guide for the car
*Click Get Guide
A popup appears, its smart you register with Simpe so you get your own personal ID wich is very easy to use on future Objects/projects.
*If you have registred click Register Object
*The guide will automaticly change in your personal one
*Tick the box ''update all MT's''
*click Update
*click commit
*Save your File

You now have made a standalone package with its own guide that you can use for your own custom car





Chapter 2, The Mesh/es and UVmapping


This is prolly the hardest part of it all, making the mesh ready to use for sims2
I am assuming you have a mesh that you can import into milkshape and that this mesh has its complete doors seperated!!
We first have to split/join all those groups in 8 new understandeble groups:
*The windows(front/rear/left/right)
*The chrome, all parts that you want chrome and reflective ingame(bumpers/handles/rims/moldings, you name it)
*The surface wich is the body and is reflective ingame.
*The matte, the chassis/some bodyparts/interieur/cockpit etc that have matte look ingame)
*The headlights, the glass of the headlights

The windows,(and your first uvmapping practice)
Speaks for itself, find them and give them a correct name so you can find them back easy and know wat it is ;)
Some 3d models have a inside mirror or door mirrors(Glass, not the frame) you can name those like the windows if you like.
all will look like this:
Wfront
Wrear
Wright
Wleft
Winsidemirror
Wdoormirror

Now the most difficult part(in my opinion) UVmappin your parts
You want every part to be textured ingame right? So you have to fold out the mesh parts on the uvmap so you be able to texture them.
If you do not uvmap your parts that part will get assigned to exactly one pixel wich is ok for solid colored parts like the body or windows and also the chrome will work that way.
But if you are also going to use the reflection i strongly recomment to uvmap all your parts as they will look much better ingame.

Uvmapping

*Select everything
*hide everything
*bring up the Wfront
*select it
You will see something like this:

*assigne a material to it
-click the material tab
-click new
-click none
-a popup will appear, surf to the file i incluced(templatecheckpattern1024x512) and open it
-click assigne
Now right click in your main 3d window and choose textured(make sure colored groups is unchecked.)
You will see something like this:

If it turns out black or as a dark solid color it means the part isn't uvmapped so you have to do it yourself:
Make sure the Wfornt is selected and assigned to a material(like we just did)

*Open your texture coordinate editor(windows tab)
*Look up the Wfront in the first box
*choose front in the second box
*click region
*Draw a big rectangular on the map
*choose remap
If you did it ok you will now see the front window folded out on the uvmap.
close the editor and look in your 3d window, your window should now have the pattern of the uvmap drawn on to it.


Try to map all the other windows yourself using the same method.
The only diffrence is the direction option you choose in the texture coordinate editor when mapping the other windows.
So if you have to map the left window you choose Wleft in the first box and left in the second box.
I am aware(before i get some comment on this) that if you want to uvmap the windows perfect you have to rotate the window itself first so that it stands up straight and then uvmap it.(and when done you rotate it back.)
But in this case its not that important(unless you want to see the sims reflection in the car windows, but maybe i write that down in a advanched tut lol.) ;)
The windows will work fine this way, even without uvmapping.

When you have done all the windows, you will see something like this:

I'm wondering about the separated doors. I have two complete doors exterior interior sides and glass all separated and they fit well. What I'm wondering is do I delete the faces from the surface where the doors would go?

I am not sure i understand wat your asking, srry.
But the body and doors should be build the same way as a real car so if you would select one door and pull it out completly you will leave a hole just like in real life :D
When you assigne diffrent bones to both doors and body they will be able to animate independent.
I usual scale the door a bit smaller to make it more realistic, but that is up to you.

Import a maxis car and go to the bones tab and select the door bones.
All verts will light up and you be able to pull the door out with the move command.
You then have the idea on how to build yours.
Hope this makes sence :)

Well what I was saying was the original surface had the doors included and then the mesh had fully built separate doors as well. I ended up cutting out the door on the surface layer and then fitting the separate doors in that space. I think I may have screwed up by regrouping them again. I'll probably have to do that over. Yawn! I've been burning the midnight oil on this. This is what I've got so far.
(http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h111/Cylais/Mustang1.jpg)

(http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h111/Cylais/Mustang4.jpg)

Getting there. UV mapping and textures next if I don't have to do the doors over that is.

Looking good! :)

When you are at the point of uvmapping:
*It doesn't matter how you remap the glass or chrome, just map it.
No need to fit it on a texture file and such
*Map one rim and one tire and copy it then for the other wheels.
Mapping the tire is a pain, look how it is mapped now and you might can move/scale it to fit a existing tireprofile texture.
*the body doesn't need specific mapping either unless you want stripes and such on it.
*Use already mapped seatmeshes from a maxis car to save yourself some work.

The material settings have a option to texture meshparts on both sides, no need to copy the glass and reverse the faces.
You could use one of my meshes as base, those often have modded meshnames and extra groups for the chrome.

Well I got the model looking pretty good. I managed to set the bones too. (I think) But UV mapping is proving to be better than I. I get the glass and the lights ok but when I get to the rest I'm lost. I've got the tires and the interior grouped together, the chrome is grouped together, the lights are grouped together and the surface makes up the last group. I see what you mean when you say that UV mapping is the hardest part of this whole process.

I often make my texture file first(or make both at the same time) and import it in Milkshape.
The i move the parts till they fit the textures.
The meshgroups are not that important as there is a possibility to add more to the file.
The thunderbird i once did has a few more meshgroups as planned.

But im afriad there is more to come ;)
You need to fix the skeleton when your satisfied with the car, in the meshfile but also in the cres file of the car your going to clone.
dont be afraid to ask, i love making cars for the sims :)

Well I'd be happy to pass it on to you if you want to work on it. I don't think it will ever get done if I keep fumbling around. Send me an email and I'll YOUSEND the model file back to you I've got the textures from the conversion too. WOuld you please make this Mustang for me?

Hi Bloom!

Does your tutorial apply to making NPC replacement vehicles too? The reason I asked is because Hexameter did a series of NPC carriages for themed neighborhoods (as seen here: http://www.modthesims.info/member.php?u=75890).

But several important NPC vehicles were neglected: Police, Fire, Repoman, Exterminator and Delivery. I tried to use his carriages to complete the set, but I just don't know enough about changing meshes, etc. on an object - I usually just do recolors. I cloned the Repotruck and then attempted to insert the carriage mesh/texture but leave the rest alone. The result was that the truck was invisible, the repoman just floated there and never got out of his vehicle, lol. Clearly Im in over my head.

Any advice or help on this project?

Thanks!

You can send the files(all) to info@bloomsbase.net
Not promising anything, need to see wat needs to be done.



It works the same as with normal cars
You clone the default car you want to replace and change indeed its mesh and textures.
Wat you prolly forgot is to check the names of the meshgroups, thos you prolly need to change in the ones the original car used.

Sorry I was feeling alittle frustrated but I'm not quite ready to give up yet. I can be such a wus sometimes. I managed to get the UV maps of the original model but they don't fit with the regroups I've got going so I'm starting over (ARRRGH!) from the beginning. Should be easier this time though since I understand the files better now. I'll still send the files but I'll delete the damages first and get the doors out of the middle of the model. Yeah I know you probably have no idea what I'm talking about so I'll send you the original too just for sh**s and grins.

OK. So I started over and got all the parts textured as you can see.

(http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h111/Cylais/cars/Mustang503.jpg)

But I've got a couple of questions.

I'm wondering how to go about copying the wheel so I can have 4 wheels. I tried duplicating and mirroring but the textures got mixed up somehow.

The other question is about the windows. Now you see them...

(http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h111/Cylais/cars/Mustang50.jpg)

Now you don't.

(http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h111/Cylais/cars/Mustang502.jpg)

It seems that the texture that is on the windows shows up on the carpet inside. There is a matte under the windows that I thought was there to catch that vanishing texture but it doesn't seem to be working.

(http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h111/Cylais/cars/Mustang501.jpg)

Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

I got the wheels acting right. I duplicated them by group and mirrored them left to right. I made sure the texture was right and I had to move them a bit to make them fit where they were supposed to be. I selected both sides, duplicated again and mirrored front to back then moved them back into the proper position. So the wheels are now in place but the windows still aren't acting right. Maybe it's a comment thing? 

strange, cant remember i had something similar.
But if you already have set the comments try changing the opacity.
Glass is set to 0 while all other are -1 if i remember correct.
But i shouldn't worry about it anyway, glass is normally not done by texturing.
Hmm, if you want to keep the matte edges you should assigne a texture to the glass instead of the game settings.
using
The car is looking pretty cool!!

dont regroup the wheels with other parts before you assigned boneassignements to them.
Regroup as less as possible so its easier to update parts if needed.
If the wheels are going to be part of the interior textures then dont regroup them but name them the same.
Do this also with the doors and other parts, just name parts that belong together the same. ;)

Lol, i was looking and found a few unfinished projects.
Check em out if you like http://www.megaupload.com/?d=1YTY0LYI
I have tons of unfinished stuff...
If your done ill have a little present for ya ;)

If you cant figure it out send it to info@bloomsbase.net
And ill have a quick look

Wow Bloom! You really have a thing for classics huh? That Mustang convertible is great! They're all great actually. Love the cab too.
Yeah I'm done. If you completed the 5.0 I'd love to see it. Don't tease me please!

Lol, no i once converted another classic stang from GTA but never received permission to post it.
Its my favorite :)
I was working on the convertible (with permission of the original creator) but some one beat me to it.
The cobra was missing the inside doors, was working on that.
I used Z modeler to convert the GTA cars but could only export them to 3ds format.
Then used Poser to convert them to obj file wich often mixed all the parts like on the Javelin and cab.
I dont have a 5.0 mesh but if you cant manage ill help, for sure ;)

If your mesh is ready you need to clone a maxis car wich has a bit of the same seats height and roof height
You import that mesh first in Milkshape so you have the correct skeleton, then import the 5.0
Then move the 5.0 till the seats and steering wheel are in the same position as the maxis one without lifting the car.
Then look to wich bones the doors/wheels/body are assigned and use the same settings on your own mesh.
After that there comes a nasty part of fixing the skeleton in both the mesh and Cres file of the package.

You did see the cars i uploaded in my section?

I had no idea! You are no joke! Making tractors too! I used to drive big 18 wheelers over the road. I don't miss it really but it'll be nice to have some trucks in my game. HOT!

Hey I looked at that Polonez 2.0X Coupe and I was wondering if it's possible to clone custom cars to get the skeletons and bones assignments. I'm remembering what you said about cloning a car that is similar. Well if not could you tell me which car you cloned to do this vehicle? It will probably work for the 5.0 since it is a 2-door with a back seat.

no, i need to explain how to move the bones wich is already done with custom cars and that will things make more complicated(srry, i forgot)
Clone the default starters car

Cloning a default car
*open Simpe
*Hit Object Workshop(bottom line by default)
*Start(takes a while)
*lookup the car you want to clone(General/cars/)
i would pick the starterscar(2door) because the sportscar might be to low?
*next
*select clone at TASK box
*tick all boxes exept the box ''reference original mesh''
*next
Give it a title, a price and description
*finish(takes a while)
* a popup will apear
At this point i am not 100% sure if the modelname is already unique or if its still the default one as i am registred with Simpe wich gives me automaticly a updated name.
To be sure, add your name to it and click update then ok
*Save your file

Go to the Geometric Data Container(resource tree window) and select it.
In the left window(resource list) right click the gmdc(tslocator) and choose extract
Save the mesh.

Import the default mesh and tick the skeleton box(joints tab)
You now see the cars skeleton(blue circles)
In that same tab there is a list with the bone names, highlight the first bone and hit the button selassigned.
Vertices that are assigned to that bone will become red, if not go to the 2nd bonename and repeat.
At one point you will see(arround the 5th bonename) that the vertices will become red.(prolly the vertices from the body)
I always used Wes H his bonetool to change boneassignements, its in the Vertex menu.
experiment with it and see if you can assigne the vertices of your car.
You import the 5.0 and look to wich bones the rear wheels are assigned on the maxis mesh.(then lookup the bonenumber with unimeshbonetool.)
Hide the maxis mesh.
Then select the rear wheels of the 5.0 and use the bonetool to assigne them to the correct bone.
when done, hide the rear wheels
Repeat these steps for the doors, then the front wheels.
If you hide the individual parts all wat will be left is the body, assigne it also to the correct bonenumber.

This is one of the reasons i want people to keep all the parts in seperate meshgroups.
You can simply select the meshgroup in the groupstab, select it and assigne the bone to it.
You even can regroup the left and right door/frontwheels to work even quicker.

Also fix the group comments and the meshnames.
Keep the groups seperate, just name them the same if they use the same texturefile!!!
When done delete the maxis car

This will keep you busy i guess.
You now have seen the skeleton/bones but you must have noticed that the bones are not in the correct place.
Like the 2 bones for the rear wheels, they are centered on the rear wheels on the maxis mesh but prolly far off comparing them to the the ones from the 5.0.
Next thing is moving that bone to the center of the 5.0 rear wheels.
Same with both individual front wheels and the door hinge.
Moving them in the mesh aint that hard but you need to update the CRES(in the cloned package) at the same time.
Take a look at it, open your package:
*Resource node(resource list)
*Cres file (resource tree)
*hit the tab CRES hierarchie
This is the full skeleton........still want to continue? :D

I have seen the the car, looking good!
The model does have some normal problems, but might not be that visible ingame.
You have to revisit the bonesettings on the wheels tho, parts of the body are assigned to it.
Doors are ok, but you need to assigne the doorwindows also to it.
Also the interieur chrome etc needs bones.
If you have fixed the wheels you select the bones again in the joint tab(also use it to fix the wheels).
Select the rearwheel bones, then hide them,
Do this again with the front wheels and the doors, all wat will be left needs to be assigned to the bodybone.
The textures will be a awfull lot of work and im thinking it might be easier to use all existing ones although i dont like the way how they gave the car recolors.
Personal i would not use the tires, they give the car a high polygon count.
If it wasn't for the textures this car would be up and running in a hour :)
Going to look at the original model.

Lol, you got me addictive....
it will be a shame not to use the original textures!
The mesh does however use duplicates, prolly to give it a reflection

I said I would start over and I did. Now I'm looking at the 5.0 and the maxis minima. The bones are all assigned but the skeleton is still under the Minima so I've opened up the package in SimPe. I hope I'll be able to figure this mess out. Talk soon.

Have taste victory so many times when finishing cars like this but this one is pretty hard for someone who's just starting....
also started from scratch and choose the sportscar as this is a difficult car to scale to maxis size.
If you like i finish it ;) (going to do that anyway cos i want to see it ingame.)
I did change the rims on it tho...

(http://img30.imageshack.us/img30/1995/stangt.jpg)

I have a few minutes left to explain how the bone changes work.

Your mesh is ready and bones are assigned to the body/wheels and doors, you renamed all meshgroups.
Wats left is its skeleton and your mesh and the basegame car
You can already extract your mesh with the unimesh plugin and load it in Simpe by right clicking the gmdc and choose replace but delete the basegame car first.
Use ctrl z to bring it back, works easier to find the correct bone.
In the bottom window in Simpe you can see a preview of the mesh and its bones.(textures are still screwed) and so are the bones.

Milkshape
go to side view of the car and select the rearwheel bone(the circle becomes red)(Model/select/joint buttons)
Click move button and fill in some numbers, like 0.3 in the z box, then click move
You see the bone move at the screen but still of the centre of the wheel, click ctrl z and the bone will jump back to original position.
Repeat these steps till you have figured out the exact number so the bones ends up in the centre of the wheel.(these could be negative numbers!)
Write this down!
Now do the same with the y box(if necesarry)
The x box aint important for the rear wheels.
You have written down how much the bone should be replaced in y and z direction.

Simpe,
Go to the cres file in your package and click the creshierarchie tab.
Look up the rear right wheel rot and click it, you jump to the cTransformnode
In the translation boxes you fill in the numbers you just wrote down.
NOTE, To make things even more complicated, the Y and Z axes are switched when you update the movement of the bone in the cres file.
So Y in Milkshape is Z in the Cres file and vice versa
 
Click commit
Repeat for the left rear wheel rot.
click commit and save your file.
You can in the mean time extract your mesh(without the maxis car) and load it in simpe.
Go to the gmdc and look at the preview, if you have done it all correct the bones are now were the wheels are, centered.

Note,
When editing the bonepositions on the axes you sometimes need to switch positive and negative, use Simpes preview to check.

The next bone is the door hinge, called the door rot in the cres file.
Take a good look on how its position on the default car and reposition it on your own car by moving it.
You always can export the file and import it in simpe to see wat you have done.
Then the front wheels(r_wheel_rot i guess, forgot), same way, hope you can figure this out.
When done correctly you see something similar as this:
(http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/8908/stangbones.jpg)

Oh, it is important that the 5.0 is as wide as the basegame car and that the seat and steering wheel match!!
I scaled your model in porportion but i had to extend the steering wheel and colum and move the seat forward to make it all fit.
This is really important before you start with the bones!!
You can not change it after you adjusted the bones, you then have to start over....

BlooM you is da man! I was just posting another bunch of questions about the CRES when you put this up! Wow! It looks so HOT! Love the rims! Dude when you finish it let me know. You did in a couple of hours what I haven't accomplished in a couple of weeks. I'm gonna try to contact the mesh creator.

uh, i spent more then 8 hours on it lol :D
but i love stuff like this 1rock
Still need to figure out the backlights, the last thing....

8 hours he says. Did I say 2 weeks! Late nights! getting bags under my eyes! You da man BlooM! Don't even play!
The back lights were colored by the 93br_body_ texture. The file is one of the 93fbr_bdy_[en02].

I made a mistake(its been to long....)
To make things even more complicated, the Y and Z axes are switched when you update the movement of the bone in the cres file.
So Y in Milkshape is Z in the Cres file and vice versa

If you need to start over(have had that many times....you simply start fresh by importing the original default cloned car and then import your own mesh without additional bonesettings.
you will have the original skeleton and its positions back while the vertices of your custom mesh are still assigned

The door hinge and the frontwheel steering rot

These 2 rots(4 total) are difficult to adjust but you can use the animate tools in Milkshape to actual see the movement of the door and wheels.
Unhide the skeleton and hit the ''anim'' key at the far right bottom of Milkshape(Make sure the ''show keyframer'' is enabled, you find it in the Window Tab)
Go to top view and select one of the bones(Select/joints at select options)
The bone(blue circle) becomes red.
With the rotate button you now can open the door or see how the front wheel is steering.
Look at the screenshot, i need to move the doorhinge(bone) a bit more inside the vehicle.
(http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/1835/stanganim.jpg)

It really looks great BlooM! Are you still using all the different groups or have you narrowed it down to the surface, the matte and the windows already?

Yup, used the basegame groups
Unfortunate there will be no reflection on the body as almost all the parts were textured on one big file.
If i enable reflection the seats, rubbers and such will become also reflective....
Regrouping those parts will take ages.
It took me some time to figure out the windows and heavily modded the material settings.
Just booted up the game since months but the car wasn't there lol....must have done something wrong.

It looks pretty reflective to me in those last pics! It seems that the texturing is the main problem. Let me see if I can find some images. Perhaps if I can make new UV maps and re-texture it. I'm going to go back and take another look at the first model I did. The one I regrouped into maxis groups.

Normally you have 2 main groups, the matte for the interior, tires and such and one for the body.
I can use the games reflectivity but it looks stupid on the interior....
Same with the windows, they have nifty settings, you even can have tinted ones but the 5.0 windows require a texturefile wich kills all the nice settings....
Ill spend another hour on it then ill send you the file, take a look and let me know. ;)


Edit,
you got mail ;)

Wow it's perfect! It looks great in the game. I've posted screenshots for the mesh creator Burner here.
http://forum.mm2c.com/viewtopic.php?p=310858#310858 (http://forum.mm2c.com/viewtopic.php?p=310858#310858)
I'll let you know when permission is given.