Accessories turns out black in Bodyshop

[Theraven]

I started learning accessory making before the summer holiday, but I seem to have forgotten half of it...
I've got a weird problem with the textures on my new meshes. The meshes shows up - but the textures are completely black (even though I put on the new textures before I made the bodyshop package). The alphas are, of course, white.

I've also tried to make a new project out of the black mesh/recolor - but this too turns out black, even though the texture files shows up correct in the project folder.

I haven't tested them ingame yet, but the other accessories I've made shows up with textures in bodyshop - so something has to be wrong.

Anyone knows what might be the problem?
Thanks for any help


(oh, and one more thing - does anyone know where to find the original infant diaper mesh with SimPE? I've looked, but can't find it. For some reason most of the maxis objects does not show up in the object creation panel, even though I've got the newest CEP. The objects showed up before, but not any more, so I've got no idea what's wrong :-()

[Tenshii~Akari]

An easy way of getting the infant diaper mesh is if you start a new file, go to Tools > PJSE > Body Mesh Tool > Extracting Stage..., and type in bubodydiaper then press OK.  SimPE will extract the mesh files for you.  (...though if you plan on making just a replacement mesh, all you need is the GMDC resource and can delete the others resources that were extracted.)

As for your accessory problem... are you using Milkshape or another program?  And do the meshes have a proper UV map with them?  If so, have you tried re-adjusting the normals for your meshes, importing them back into your package files, and seeing what happens?  Not sure what could be causing the blackness other than those three possibilities.

[Theraven]

I've made everything on them, so there should not be any problems with the UV maps. I'm using 3Dmax to make the models (exporting them as obj files), but I do the rest in Milkshape. I've so far only made body meshes that only need bone assignments to the head or neck, so since I feel more comfortable with 3Dmax modelling, I do it that way. The UV mapping is also easier, and I make sure everything is correct before exporting it (I even check that the texture is right).
Could it be something wrong with the recolor file? I've got no idea what, though...

Thanks for the tip about the infant outfits

[BlooM]

one thing i can think of is the size of the files, are they both 1024x1024 or smaller(512x512/256x256)?
With both i mean the alpha and the recolor file.

If your uvmap is ok then only thing that can cause this are settings in the Material definations(TXMT's)
If you dont get it solved upload it so i can have a look.

Hmm, this also happens when your mesh has all its faces reversed doesn't it?

[Theraven]

Both are the same size, yes.

I uploaded the files here, if you want to take a look. It's probably just me who messed up somewhere...


EDIT: I tested one of the meshes ingame, and the texture did show up - BUT it showed up a lot darker than it should. Like it is a dark grey filter over the colors. The same thing happens with other meshes, too.
However, when I tried to combine an ingame mesh with an obj file, the colors on the original mesh turned out good, while the obj parts turned out greyish. I just keep getting more and more confused...

[BlooM]

Could not find any mistakes in the recolor file but the mesh itself was black when i imported it in Milkshape.
Alligning the normals will prolly fix it!!
You got Demon's tools installed?

Hint
Enable stdMatAlphaBlendMode in the TXMT's by setting it to 1 and make the ice bag partly transparant on the texture file, should look cool.!

[Theraven]

I've got no idea why the mesh is black.

You got Demon's tools installed?

Can't say I've heard of it, so I don't think so.

And what do you mean by "alligning the normals"?

and thanks for the hint

[Tenshii~Akari]

I think from what I've seen in some Milkshape tutorials, there's an option in one of the menus called "Align Normals" that allows you to re-align vertex normals of a selected number of vertices, and fixes the appearance of mesh seams.  It may very well also cure your mesh darkness problem.  

I've tried to look for myself what could be the cause, and I'm going to have to agree with BlooM on the normal part.  Every time I imported them in and exported them out of Blender, they showed up just fine in SimPE.  From my experience with Blender3D, normals can also be recalculated through a few options, but not to the same extent as in Milkshape or other 3D programs... that, and it has an annoying habit of automatically adjusting mesh normals of an object, which in turn causes seam issues in whatever Sims 2 meshes with "separate" parts are made through it, or in this case, fix some odd lighting issues with certain object/accessory meshes.

I'm sure with 3DMax, you should also have that option available somewhere, since it's a power horse of a meshing program.  

[Theraven]

 

The obj files were the problem. The option "force ambient" on the material was hooked off (and greyed out, so I didn't notice it at first). But everything seems to work fine now  

Thanks for the tips, both of you. I'm still learning, so any troubles that arises out of nowhere has a tendency to freak me out quite a bit.  

There are so few tutorials using 3Dmax for sims meshing - especially when it comes to bone assignments. I've found one so far (I think - I've not read it in whole yet, as I did not understand half of it). In comparison, I've found a lot of tutorials using milkshape. So I do the meshes (as far as possible) in Max (since I'm more used to the workflow in max), and do the rest in milkshape.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On a side note (meant for Bloom) - Is it OK that I use some of the infant outfit mesh parts from your meshes for my own meshes (especially the hat and the pacifier)? I'll link back to the originals, and I will of course give you credit for the parts that are yours. I love those meshes so much, but I've got so many new ideas - some which builds upon the ones already made.

You know - like this?


I've not uploaded those meshes yet - I wanted to see if it's OK with you first.  

[BlooM]

You can use Milkshape's auto alligning but you always end up with the seams showing.
Demon's tools is a plugin for Milkshape.
It gives you the option to alligne the normals from the menu.
http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=139859

You can use my stuff for your uploads.

[Theraven]

Thanks a bunch