The Sims 3: Clothing age conversion (how I do it)
PAGE 1: Getting ready
Step 1: getting ready
Before we begin, there are several items we need to gather:
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TSR Workshop (referred to from here on as TSRW)
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S3RC (s3rc-win.rar only)
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Milkshape 3D v1.8.5
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Milkshape plugins: Align Normals & Extended Manual Edit, GEOM, Unimesh plugins (the first .zip)
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Reference body meshes: for basic meshing reference (separate morphs), AF maternity morphs, TMF+AM+EF maternity morphs
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A graphics editing program (I use Photoshop CS6).
If your are experiencing issues with that version of TSR Workshop, get the one that Greenie uploaded HERE.
Note that the "running out of memory" error is a featu- to be expected.
To install Milkshape plugins, simply copy the .dll files directly into your MS installation directory (e.g. C:\ Program Files (x86) \ Milkshape 3D 1.8.5). After this, edit your basic Milkshape settings (1 and 2) and shortcuts. For the latter, I use the following:
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msTS2NDM=1,N
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msTS2VDM=1,C
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msAlignNormals=1,V
Where msTS2NDM is the Normal Data Merge plugin, msTS2VDM is the Vertex Data Merge plugin, and msAlignNormals is the Align Normals plugin.
For the TSRW import/export plugins, navigate to your TSRW install folder, then to the Extras and Milkshape Plugins folders within it. You will find two .dll files, msTSRWorkshopExport and msTSRWorkshopImport, which you install like the ones above.
In Milkshape, you can click on one of the viewpoints (I typically choose bottom-right) and hit Space to maximize it. You can go back to the other 3 viewpoints anytime by pressing Space again. You can also leave the viewpoints as they are, but only one viewpoint is easier for me to work with.
By right-clicking the blue space in the Milkshape window, you can access a menu with different viewing options:
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type of mesh overlay: Wireframe, Flat Shaded, Smooth Shaded, Textured. Switching between these is important to check for UV map errors, issues with normals, and whether or not you selected the vertices you wanted 😊
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how groups are displayed: if one of these isn't selected, the mesh will just look gray. I recommend enabling 'Colored Groups' all the time, unless you want to see how textures look on the mesh, in which case you enable only Textured mode above.
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Wireframe Overlay: toggles the visibility of your vertices.
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Transparency: for some meshes you may need to switch between the types for the textures to look good, but in general 'Depth Buffered with Alpha Reference' is recommended.
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Projection: different viewpoints to look at your mesh from. '3D' allows you to move your mesh around.
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I typically enable 'Show Axis', disable 'Show Grid', and enable 'Draw Backfaces'. If the latter is disabled, your mesh may look transparent in the back.
In the Groups tab, make sure 'Autosmooth' is turned off! If you leave it on, it can cause issues with normals down the road.
Some basic controls are:
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Shift + Left click: zooming in and out.
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Ctrl + Left click: moving the mesh around the screen (for viewing only).
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Alt + Left click: select vertices until you release the mouse.
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Alt + Right click: deselect all selected vertices.
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Alt + Tab + Left click: select vertices until you release the keys.
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Alt + Tab + Right click: deselect specific vertices while keeping others selected.
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Ctrl + A: select all vertices and faces on your mesh.
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Ctrl + D: duplicate a selection.
(Alt + Tab cycles through the installed system languages, which annoys me to no end!)
For the purpose of this tutorial, I am going to be converting this Store top to Teen: Urban Halter. This one will also present some challenges that will be interesting to discuss.
Step 2: extracting the necessary files
After installing everything above, we need to gather the necessary files for our project.
If you are working with Store files in .sims3pack format, you first need to decrypt them by dragging-and-dropping the file onto the s3rc.exe, then convert them to .package format using Delphy's Multi Extracter. If you are working with a Store set, this process will result in multiple .package files that you will need to open one by one to identify the one you're looking for.
Open your .package file in S3OC and clone it (process described here). You don't have to select 'Find Missing Resources', but you MUST select 'Renumber/rename' and 'Include thumbnails' (in case you forget the latter, I'll explain later how to add them manually).
Give your file a new name, making sure it's unique - mine is something along the lines of "sweetdevil_Store[ItemName]_mat_[AgesGenders]", with the "mat" part depending on whether I include a maternity morph or not. In S3OC, I also copy the "Store[ItemName]_mat_[AgesGenders]" part into the Unknown1 field to the right of the window. Editing the categories is not important now.
From now on, we'll be working solely with the cloned .package.
Open the cloned .package file with S3PE and locate the _KEY resource. Delete it.
Open Mesh Toolkit, navigate to the 'Package Tools' tab, and the 'Name those files' tab. Select your .package and give it a name, then save it.
By deleting the _KEY resource, Mesh Toolkit picks up the value I entered in Unknown1 back when cloning, and the resource names look neater :) Of course, you can give it a different name if you wish.
Open the .package file in S3PE again and you'll notice the resources have been named in accordance to what you specified.
Out of all of them, I only need the following:
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textures: listed as _IMG, I only need the ones named Multiplier (base texture), Specular (shine texture), Mask, Normalmap. Sometimes you may have Overlays and Stencils as well; this top only has one Overlay.
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mesh(es) for LOD1: listed as GEOM. I will explain a bit later why I only extract LOD1.
I select the resources highlighted above, then export them using right-click \ Export \ To file..., being careful not to rename them.
Step 3: getting the mesh into Milkshape
Open Milkshape (MS). I will be switching to a single, 3D viewpoint for the the duration of this tutorial, as I find it easier to maneuver around in.
Extract the body reference meshes from the archive provided by Nysha. They are in .OBJ format.
Find the one you need (in this case, the reference mesh for teen females) and import it into Milkshape with File \ Import \ Wavefront OBJ.
In the Groups tab, you will notice 3 groups named default (top), GEOM-01 (legs) and GEOM-02 (feet). You can delete GEOM-01 and GEOM-02 by clicking on each and then on the Delete button. Then, you can rename the remaining group to something that makes it easily distinguishable from the other mesh(es) you will be working with; I typically name it "ref", for "reference".
Next, we will import the GEOM mesh of the adult top, by going to File \ Import \ Q-Mesh Sims 3 GEOM Importer, and looking for the file wherever we extracted it. Say yes to the popup saying "You are importing over another model. Do you want to continue?". After importing, you will get a message saying a bone is not in the skeleton; you can ignore that.
Now, for clarity's sake, rename the group with the top to "group_base". You can name it anything you like at this stage, but when exporting to use in TSRW you will need to use the naming scheme "group_base/fat/thin/fit/special" for your mesh groups.
Rename your mesh groups to avoid confusion.
Delete the mesh groups you don't need (e.g. if you're working with a top, you often don't need the reference legs and feet).
However, when exporting to WSO, you need to re-rename your meshes to group_base, group_fat, group_thin etc.
On the next page, we will start working on the mesh!