Converting Clothes for Teens

[nbny]

Doing better.
 
Jase, can you post or pm me a screenshot of your example mesh in this thread?  I'm having some trouble with the neck vertices.  I have them lowered down really far, but it doesn't seem to be resolving the issue.  

I'll attach a couple of examples.

[nbny]

Okay, come to find out there were two meshes in that file and I hadn't done anything to the other one.  After re-sizing it, it did make a difference.  It didn't fix the problem, but it did make it less obvious.

[jase439]

Judging from the fit of the neck (in the first set of pics), I would say that your modified mesh isn't even loaded - or you haven't imported your changes properly.  The screenshots you have provided look exactly like the unmodified adult mesh.

One way you can verify if your mesh edits are taking is to grab one of the neck vertices and do something ridiculous with it (create a giant spike).  If it shows up in the SimPE preview window and Body Shop you know you are loading your exported mesh correctly.  If not, you need to revisit the above steps and make sure you're re-importing the modified file you exported from Milkshape.  Also, did you remember to scale your model by 0.94 before adjusting the verticies?

Here's a screen shot of the earlier formal I posted:

[jase439]

OK, well based on your new photo, I'd say you're loading the right mesh now, but the verts still need to come down.  Keep lowering them until you have a gap between the head and the neck, then nudge them up to close the seam.  Then you can tweak individual vertices to get the perfect fit.

[nbny]

Will do.

[jase439]

I realize this is a pain in the arse, but once you have a set of neck vertices that work, you can just copy your modified vertex positions across to any new meshes you edit.  Getting the initial fit is the painful part.

J

PS. You might want to try a scaling factor < 0.94.  I found 0.90-0.92 works well for me.  The scaling factor used in the game and that used in Milkshape don't appear to be 1:1.

[nbny]

Okay, what on earth am I doing wrong?  I have the neck vertices lowered to the point where they are halfway down the body, but it doesn't seem to make one ounce of difference.

Here's what it looks like in Milkshape:

And it still looks the same in Bodyshop as the screenshots I posted...

[jase439]

Then you are referencing the wrong mesh (or an old version is lying around in your Sims 2 folder somewhere and it is eclipsing your changes).  Make sure your clothing's 3D reference table refers to the Resource Node and Shape defined in your mesh package (if you never changed these, then they are undoubtably pointing at the original Maxis mesh files).  You might benefit from going through WDS Brianna's meshing tutorial over at MTS2.  It's a bit dated and involves the use of some older tools to import and export, but it will give you some idea of how to properly construct a body mesh package.

[nbny]

Sounds like a plan.  I'll spend some time checking it out.  I thought I followed your instructions pretty closely, but it's very obvious that something isn't working right.  I do appreciate all the help and advice you've given so far.