Mesh Help

[nbny]

Well, I've followed Brianna's tutorial on MTS2 to a tee (I even went back and double-checked all the steps), but for some reason the new mesh is still not showing up in Bodyshop.  

I would greatly appreciate some help in this area.

[jase439]

*** Moved to Mesh Creation ***

[nbny]

Sorry 'bout that, thought I put it in the right place.

[dajunkhere]

nbny, Sorry to hear you had some problems, I've been able to follow Bri's turorial and come out with positive results.

My words of advice, follow them EXPLICITLY, take your time, use a highlighter and mark down important points. Most of the time your new mesh is simply not being called by the clothing (as long as you got your new Geometric Data Container imported into your mesh and you can preview the changes, then most likely your instance id in your clothing mesh is not matching up with the new mesh)

*If* you were able to upload in this area, I'd suggest you send your body.obj , MESH_ and Clothing from your Download Folder So people could take a look and see if my guess was correct.

But for now, I have 2 suggestions
#1
Download SimPE 0.32 (downgrade perhaps, makes it easier to follow cause the tutorial is old and this version seems to provide me better results)
http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/simpe/SimPe_32.rar?download

#2
just take your time and keep at it.
Good luck

[jase439]

I believe 0.35c was the last version I could use her tutorial with.  Beyond that, everything changed (for the better) with how GMDC's are imported and exported, but Bri's tutorial is still a solid reference for someone just learning how to do this stuff.

[nbny]

Maybe I should downgrade SimPE, although I was still able to follow along with the version I have.  I really don't want to lose the compatibility with Nightlife.

I'm at work right now, but when I get home I'll upload the files.  In the meantime, let me give you guys some more info.  

When following Brianna's Tutorial, I took an existing clothing mesh and modified it using Milkshape.  I then followed the rest of the steps in the tutorial and placed the new mesh in my downloads folder.  When I loaded up Bodyshop, the new mesh wasn't there.  I'm pretty sure I didn't miss anything.  I truly appreciate the help.

[kathy]

Did you happen to use the mesh tool? Also if you are using simpe 48c it has been noticed that the res and shape isn't noting the change.

[jase439]

Maybe I should downgrade SimPE, although I was still able to follow along with the version I have.  I really don't want to lose the compatibility with Nightlife.

I'm at work right now, but when I get home I'll upload the files.  In the meantime, let me give you guys some more info.  

When following Brianna's Tutorial, I took an existing clothing mesh and modified it using Milkshape.  I then followed the rest of the steps in the tutorial and placed the new mesh in my downloads folder.  When I loaded up Bodyshop, the new mesh wasn't there.  I'm pretty sure I didn't miss anything.  I truly appreciate the help.

But did you associate the mesh with a clothing resource?  You need to clone an outfit using body shop and then update the GMDC reference (specifically the 3DIR tables) in it to point to your "custom mesh".  I think Brianna's tutorial has an example of how to do this.

[nbny]

Did you happen to use the mesh tool?

Yep, sure did.  

Also if you are using simpe 48c it has been noticed that the res and shape isn't noting the change.

Hmm. That may be the problem.  

But did you associate the mesh with a clothing resource? You need to clone an outfit using body shop and then update the GMDC reference (specifically the 3DIR tables) in it to point to your "custom mesh". I think Brianna's tutorial has an example of how to do this.

Yep, did that too.  Something interesting happened the second time around though.  I went back through the tutorial and made sure the clothing was pointing to the new mesh, then loaded up Bodyshop.  After going into "Create Parts" and "Load Project" the Clothing was Maxis clothing.  

Edit:
I was going to upload the files, but I don't see a link to attach them.

[jase439]

Are you by chance editing the clothing package file in your Projects folder instead of the one in SavedSims?

[nbny]

Uhhh... Yeah.   Somehow I get the feeling that I'm not supposed to do that....

Can I replace the one in my Saved Sims folder with the one in my Projects folder?

[jase439]

Yeah, Body Shop doesn't read the package files from your projects folder...it reads them from the Saved Sims folder.  That's why you're only getting the original Maxis stuff showing up.

[nbny]

Okay, I replaced the package file in my Saved Sims folder with the modified one from my Projects folder and now the original mesh is showing.  However, my mesh is not.  What did I do wrong?

sorry for the double post earlier...

[jase439]

I think the first thing to do is confirm that the right package file is getting loaded.  Go in and change the texture to some outrageous shade of pink or something, save it, and see if it shows up in body shop.  If it doesn't you're still picking up another package file from somewhere.

The other thing you can do, nbny, is put the mesh file RIGHT IN the clothing file.  SimPE will let you "File | Add" once package file to another.  Brianna's tutorial instructs you to keep the mesh file separate, but there is really little need to do this unless you want to distribute the mesh independently of the textures.  That way, once you determine that the right package file is being loaded by Body Shop (by using the trick I mention above), you also know that your mesh is being loaded (because it lives in the same file!).  If it still isn't showing up at that point, then you at least know that the problem is due to an internal referencing error, and not something silly like a file is in the wrong place.

[nbny]

Go in and change the texture to some outrageous shade of pink or something, save it, and see if it shows up in body shop. If it doesn't you're still picking up another package file from somewhere.

Well, I didn't have a problem with this part.   I was able to change the color of the texture, and the color change showed up in Bodyshop with no problems.

The other thing you can do, nbny, is put the mesh file RIGHT IN the clothing file. SimPE will let you "File | Add" once package file to another.

Okay, as per your suggestion, I tried this too.  Like I said, the color shows up just fine, but it is still referencing the old mesh.

Jase, is there a way I can send you the file and have you take a look at it?