whats an easy quick sufficent way of creating a low poly count version of the main mesh ?? -.- so annoying that you gotta have 2 but anyway other than stupidly starting over again how can i go about this ??

You can use Tools> DirectX Mesh Tools.. in Milkshape to reduce polycount. Drag the slider to the left and click the little diskette button to save.

Omg ty your a saint x

i have downloaded all the things at http://www.modthesims.info/wiki.php...s_3_Hair_Basics
and i want to make a hair mesh i dont understand it ???
i get to the first bit then i stuff up
plz help me!

Anyone???

No one is going to be able to help unless you ask a specific question. Start the tutorial and go through it as far as you can. When you get to the step that confuses you come back, describe where you are in the tutorial and the problem you are having going on to the next step. As it is, it isn't possible to tell from your post what the issue is so no one can provide advice.

OM

i posted in a diff forum but i thought i would post here also:

I have a problem, I'm now on the 2nd file of my Mlods, i've created the first Modl file perfectly and exported with no problems, anyway i'm trying to get the shadow files done now and when i resize my chain and turn down the poly count using direct x mesh.. i delete the old mesh and rename mine to group00 and when i go to export back onto that file i get an error mesh saying: ERR:Model has 1 groups; original had 0. i dont understand, i havnt tried this yet without turning the polycount down for the low poly version.. i'll give that a quick try but in the mean time why is this happening ??

all the other mlod and model files saved fine its just the one Mlod file (the shadow mesh) which just wont save i keeep getting an error i even managed to do the low poly detail mesh pleas someone help.

Interesting. I was able to reproduce this error taking the precise sequence of steps that you describe so I clicked ok to accept it thinking that since I wasn't really overwriting a 0 group MLOD that it shouldn't matter. But when I then tried to recompile I got an error message telling me it was unable to open the file.

Edited to add: I tried it again with a simpler object and using an obj instead of the actual s3asc thing. This time when I tried to overwrite using my Direct-X'ed obj following assignment of joints it told me a bone was missing. I accepted that and then tried to overwrite it again. On the second attempt to overwrite it gave me the 0 groups error.

Did you get the error the first time you tried to export or did you try to export over the MLOD more than once?

It seems, at least to my uneducated mind, that Direct-X'ing the s3asc removes a critical bone and that is causing the tool to perceive it as having no groups once the object is Direct-X'ed.

It makes me wonder if there is a threshold beyond which you should not try to decrease the poly count of an s3ascs using Direct-X or if you should just not use Direct-X at all on them.

Edited again to add: And, of course, one solution is to use Direct-X on your model. Save that model as an obj. Then use the Direct-X'ed obj to replace the shadow group after resizing and assigning joints. I did it this way and there were no problems. You just can't use Direct-X when the s3asc is open in MS.

OM

Ty orangemittens for going over this, well i did just that, used the large high detail shadow mesh ( as its the same size as the low detail shadow mesh) and turned the polys down abit on that and then exported this as an .obj file and when importing this into the low poly shadow file i still get this error.
I will go back to the very beginning with the mesh i imported from maya and rescale, assign etc that one, and see if that clears things up.
I'll try with and without direct x and see my results.. ty again and will post back with how it went :-)

No problem. You will have to re-export a new version of your shadow MLOD's because the ones you've been working with have already had the bone stripped from them by the Direct-X'ing you did. If you try to use them over again you will continue to get the error. But with new MLOD's that still have the bone you should be fine. It worked for me without any problem.

I used my non-shadow MLOD, saved it as an obj, closed MS. Opened MS, imported my obj, Direct-X'ed it, saved it again as an obj. Deleted it, imported my shadow MLOD, imported my obj, resized it, deleted the shadow MLOD group, assigned joints, and saved over the shadow MLOD. It all went well and recompiled with no errors.

OM

Brilliant thanks so much thats one thing i havnt tried starting fresh with a new Mlod i'm gonna do that now thanks again your a star :-P

Ok well if you go to that link this is where i get stuck:

Extract Mesh:
Open the mesh file in SimPE.
Click on GMDC in the Resource Tree over on the left. If there are multiples in the Resource List on the right, pick the adult one.
i cant find what mesh it means

I have one problem which was bound to coem about lol the shineyness its not meant to be this way because its meant to be wood for the legs and cloth for the body of the chair and i havnt chosen metal as the material, I'm not sure if maybe i wasnt meant to paint the specular file... but i did i will give that a shot at taking it out but if anyone can come up with a reason for this please tell ty x

Also thankyou OM for your support i nailed something i've been wanting to try with sims2 but never got the chance also flabaliki for a really straight forward tutorial its brilliant x

Hi lovelife4eva...now that is a question that can be answered

I don't work with hair meshes so I may be wrong about this...but when I look at that tutorial it seems like when it says, "Open the mesh file in SimPE," it is saying to open whatever hair mesh it is that you would like to convert to Sims 3. So you could pick whatever hair mesh you wanted and follow the tutorial by using that hair mesh.

I'm hoping someone who meshes with hair could help out more but that's the way it reads to me. Also you could try posting in this thread here which is all about hair meshes: http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=358778

I'm sure there is probably someone there who can help a lot more than I can...but stick to asking specific questions because that is the way that you can get answers.

melanise, did the MLOD's work out after getting new ones? Which chair did you clone that from? You're welcome for the support

OM

I used just a normal dining chair cant remember the name but if thats a problem i can check, also when looking at info in S3OC it says wood and cloth as textures so i dont understand why this is happening... i've tried to black out the specular folder and then checked to see if it took away shinyness but no change... i'm lost as to what to do.. its cant be the multiplier i dont think because isnt that just for shading ?
Oh ya and the mod files all packed fine and recompiled no errors looks perfect in game as show above just the shineyness which is annoying...

[IMG][/IMG] Thats another shot of the problem shiney evilness lol

Have you rechecked your Specular? I had a similar issue and when LemonCandy checked my Specular for me it was wrong even though I thought I had not changed it. Give that a peek.

If that isn't it hopefully someone who knows more about this kind of issue comes along because if it isn't that and it isn't the mtlsrcs I'm out of answers. I'm still learning too.

OM

It would be more helpful to have your package file.

OM

Thx a heap

melanise, to quote HugeLunatic, "Your specular probably has a white alpha, make it black and the shiny should go away..." so there you go. Give that a shot.

OM

well i did try just that, i reimported my files into sim3 pe with the specular being completly black this time and saved as a DXT5 Interpolated Alpha and still the same result persist's i dunno i guess i'll try it again... have you looked at the package ? ( and just for the record i didnt save the other 2 files as DXT5 ) :-)

Hey, you guys...
isn't it best to post this info in its own thread with an appropriate title so it doesn't get buried in this thread. It has gone way off topic to the tutorial guide. Plus @lovelife4eva's questions are on the Hair tutorial!

I'd definitely forget where I read all this useful info a few weeks/months from now.

Well most of it is related to issues with following the tutorial. But OM pointed lovelife4eva to the correct tutorial for hairs and any further questions about that should be posted there since this one is for objects.

Melanise please keep your questions to one thread, and please do some reading. You posted the same thing in another thread here where I answered before I saw this one. And in that thread Norbi had given the answer to a shiny texture (post 48). Which is the specular should have a black alpha, Photoshop imports it without an alpha and you have to add one. If you use another graphics program make sure it is black.

I can't really look at it since I use Photoshop and it will lose the alpha when I open it to look at it. Also make sure to delete your cache files, otherwise you will probably still see the shiny.

ok so i just paint the spec file black or do i need to create another file ?... and where do i find the cache files?. also sorry about multi post i just really need to fix this asap :-S something so near is so far >.< need patience sorry lol ty for replying though

Eurika! i finally solved it 20 mins to 5am and i've finally got the damn thing >.< its perfect! thanks so much for put up with me and the help has been great ty xx
I didnt notice you have to ceate an alpha channel in the specular DDs which will stop it from showing bright shiney woooo :-P