Sorry, I haven't used Blender, only looked into it. When I read about it's limitations I decided to spend the $35 for MilkShape.

There are plugins for Sims 3 GEOM files, and Medieval GEOM files have the same format. If you look into the Sims 3 Meshing Tutorials there are tutorials on both using the plugins, and installing them.

If at some point I get a chance I may look further into Blender, but for now you should look to the TS3 meshing tutorials, and forums. Please do post any information you figure out, the point of this thread is for both teaching and learning, and I'd love to see some of this information come from other Sims Medieval modders.

@ChickieTeeta:
Looking at the dds there you've only made part of the change that I was suggesting (I probably wasn't clear). I have edited your dds in this fashion

Yours



Mine



In MilkShape the difference show a such

Yours



Mine



You can see even in MilkShape that some of the bandage lines remain on yours, but have dissappeared in mine. Please give this edit a try in game, and let me know your results.

I already removed those parts when I took the arm bandages off too, but had deleted that file.
At that point I was more concerned about the skintone not matching up.
I did take a screen shot though, and although the bandaged part is better it's not gone. To me it looks like the 'shadowed parts' are the actual skintone, and the lighter parts are the parts on the skintone file to the sides which are untextured (under where the bandages sit). So I guess this won't ever look right unless it can display the nude file properly.....unless this is due to something I haven't understood, hoping that it is

Alright, I've had enough of a chance to look into it that I know what is going on with the transparency.

Sorry, it took me awhile to figure out uv's in MilkShape, but I think I've got it now, and this is where the solution lies.

Editing the alpha seems it will only be a portion of what you are trying to accomplish. For a true fix the uv coordinates of the model must also be altered. I tried to see if I could figure out a trick, but it seems that TSM has no set area for things to be applied to (ie. in one image the legs are in one spot, but in others they may not be in the same spot).

Anyway, here is an image from MilkShape which shows the right leg selected in the UV editor.



You can see that some of the vertices are on the actual foot, while the others are over on the bandages. The vertices on bandages would need to be moved over to the foot in order to make the legs appear as you want.

I know this makes it more complicated than a simple texture edit, but this seems to be the only consistant fix. You could alternatively copy the legs in the skins to the place where the UV's point to, but it would only work for this one model.

I hope this at least explains what is happening. I know you don't have MilkShape, but it seems this program will be necessary for the edit you're trying.

ripple:
After trying several different things, it seems the current state of Blender and it's plugins don't work for TSM. Also, 2.59 only has a GEOM importer, no exporter, so any change you made wouldn't be able to be added to the game. As far as I can tell, TS3 GEOM files are only truely workable with Blender 2.4x. I have not tried this version with TSM models, but I think it will also have trouble with TSM.

At this point the only 3D program that I know works with TSM meshes is MilkShape, and only the registered 1.8.5 version. If anyone knows of other alternatives let me know.

I'd guessed at this much, but didn't know the right terminology to express properly what I was thinking. Ouch.
I bought milkshape last night. Don't think I've ever felt so intimidated by anything before lol. So far I've figured out how to move things around, I added (very basic) 'rat tails' to the back of my monarch's hair but wasn't sure I'd done it right, or hadn't messed up something along the way, so I ended up not saving it.
Re-mapping the UV (if that's the correct term) is way out of my league.
I'm kind of missing the way TS1 textures were laid out now, they were so straightforward.
In your opinion, how easy should it be to fix the skintones in transparent re-textures if you know what you're doing?
I'll look at some tutorials and hopefully I'll figure it out to the point I can actually save something.
Thank you for all the help and the time you've spent on this, it's been very much appreciated

If you mean fixing the UV's, I don't think it would be too hard. The only issues I had was figuring out where MilkShape hid the darn UV Mapper, and figuring out how to select vertices to edit. The UV Mapper is under Window->Texture Coordinate Editor, and to select vertices it seems you have to select the faces with the Select tool.

I'll try to make a tutorial section that covers UV mapping when I can.

That would be excellent, I look forward to that. No rush though

I managed to save something from milkshape and get it to show in game, I was so surprised, I'd expected it to crash the game at worst and not show at best.
I've included a screenshot since it was so exciting for me when it showed up lol.
It's a mess just now since I hadn't expected it to work at all, so I didn't want to waste time doing anything but the basic idea.
I looked around at some TS3 tutorials, but most of them are so in depth, and obviously written for people who already have some clue what they're doing, and the most common answer in threads to any basic question seems to be 'well if you don't know that you shouldn't be attempting to mesh' which is quite depressing. Your tutorial is the best I've seen.
I saw you said in another thread that you know you come across as being a jerk sometimes, but you really don't, you seem to be as far from being a jerk as anyone can possibly be.
So thank you for your tutorials and your patience and for your understanding that some of us have never done this before, which has been quite encouraging If I'd been relying solely on the TS3 forums I'd have probably given up by now.
I'll see if I can get my attempt to look better and more natural looking now (not holding my breath though lol)

Would it be possible to get this thread stickied since it's a tutorial?

I appreciate that you think this thread is worthy of being stickied. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like this thread has inspired a lot of attention. I'll keep messing with this stuff anyway because that's how I am.

I've figured out a lot more stuff about meshing and textures and stuff, and I plan to update when I have time, and my AADD isn't acting up.

As always, I'm here to answer any question you may have.

By the way ChickieTeeta, I am glad to see you have made some meshes work. I actually had meant to post that earlier. I know it can be a challenge, so Good Job!

using this, can we remove parts of an outfit? like taking that cape thing off of the sorcerer's outfit with the ram-skull knee pads? I got the pants to look like leather, and it would look so badass without that gay cape.

Honestly, the best way to do this kind of modification is by editing the mesh. With Milkshape it wouldn't be hard to remove the cape. With textures, it may be possible to make the cape transparent. I know I can do this edit, in one way or another, are you asking how, or asking for? :D

If you have time in your busy schedule I would be most appreciative if you could. Unless you make a highly detailed tutorial video, I wont be doing any of this for myself anytime soon.

I was going to try some stuff, but after reading this my brain hurts a little

I will go through it a few more times before I attempt anything. Awesome stuff, keep on teaching us

Honestly, take things in parts, and ask questions. I'd hoped to fill this thread with questions and answers. I honestly don't even care if they seem like stupid questions. If you're wondering about something, chances are, someone elses is also wondering about it.

I could ramble about what I know, but I believe it's more helpful if I lead people to their own answers.

haha it's not that, but I have a nonverbal learning disorder so unless i see it being done before my eyes, i can't do it. But oh Lordy, if I could!

IMHO I think this is the most important thread so far, because it's the best tutorial around, because of the heaps of work you've put into it and since it's the first steps towards cc for the game, (not including the thread for your core, shimrods threads for mods and simmodder99's thread, which obviously already offer a lot of cc) but I'm also confident you'll be the one that gets new objects into the game too, and to me I think clothing is probably easier to make, so it's an excellent place to start from to find your way round milkshape. I was kind of hoping it would be stickied according to usefulness rather than attention, so I'll still keep my fingers crossed.

Thank you for the encouragement =) I've redone that 'rat tails' hair from scratch 6 times now, each is different, but I've noticed that the skin on the neck becomes lighter than the top of the body mesh where it meets the head mesh. I did one long at the back still with the rat tails to the side, and the difference in skin tone is most noticeable on that one. I was going to start again and just change something very minor and run it in game to see if it's any change that causes it. It's probably something I'm doing to it though. I'll figure it out.

I've been struggling with pneumonia for the last month, so have pretty much forgotten how to do everything. I came looking for this tutorial last night and found it around page 3. Would so love to see it stickied.

well, in the mean time you can book mark it so it's easier to find. I tend to do that.

I already have Darth, but thank you I just think it should get the 'stickied importance' it deserves.

True, buuuuuuut until I become a moderator, all we can do is keep asking/pestering.

It sounds like you may have AutoSmooth selected on the groups tab ChickieTeeta. Milkshapes smoothing doesn't work well with TSM meshes. Unless you're adding polygons there should be no reason to apply smoothing. If you are adding polygons use Align Normals, or similar plugin.

Thank you I will check it out. I haven't touched any of the settings, so unless it's applied by default.....hopefully it is and that will solve the problem.
Thank you again

*Update*
Yes you are right it's selected by default. Thank you

did like what is explained in this tutorial (i did the burned pajamas), edited the dss as well but when i play the game, my cloth appeared in the cas but when i put it on my sims it looks no different from the original pajamas

What kind of edit are you attempting? (Texture/Mesh)

Do you mean the thumbnail showed up with no change to the sim in CAS, or does it not show in game after leaving CAS?

If you want to include the package your trying I can also give it a look.

i edited the texture. edited the dss file, removed the burned marks.
i did everything like in the tutorial. i made the bgeo by putting the simgeom files in the adult tab in morph maker (did the same for fit, fat, thin, special and teen as well). when i put it the game folder, it appears in the catalog but when i put it on the sim, the burned marks still appear like the original ingame burned pijamas



here is the files
and here is the package file

I see two problems with the files you uploaded.

First, your DDS Overlay file is not sized correctly. They should be 1024x1024. The one in yours is 1024x847. I can't even save a DDS at an odd resolution. This may affect loading, and will definately affect texture alignment.

The real problem, however, is in Updating the CAS preset. Any texture change will require updating the XML in the preset to to include the new texture ID's. Post #9 in the tutorial goes over how to do it.

Good luck.