TESTERS WANTED: new GMDC-oriented plugins for MilkShape 1.77 and above

[demon432]

ATTENTION!!! This plugins was compiled for MilkShape 1.77 and above. Older versions are not supported!
ExtendedManualEdit is extended version of classic MilkShape's Manual Edit.
This version was oriented on GMDC meshes (only one UV and one normal per vertex supported) and allow manually edition (per vertex) of XYZ coords, UV map coords, vertex normal coords, all 4 bones assignments and their weights. Additionally "show selected only" and show only selected bone assigned vertexes added. All configuration stored into registry on exit and restored on next restarts!
Mini instruction attached.

Changelog:
1.05b - Initial public release;
1.06b - Normals editing added (thanks to Wes_H);
1.06c - Change of verex selection state cause to change texture coordinate
editor selection also (thanks to Wes_H).

msAlignNormals is helper plugin, which allow manual per-vertex based smoothig and renormalizing operation. Istruction attached.

Please post notes and Your minds about this realisation and interface style here.

[WesHowe]

Well, I have tried it and it works.
And looks very nice, too.
I will report to you here if I uncover any anomolies in it's performance.
<* Wes *>

[WesHowe]

Well, so far I like it more every time I use it.
One difficulty that you might help overcome would be to help edit the normals, too.
These are difficult, because in the new MilkShape SDK interface, there are three normals per triangle, regardless of shared vertex status.
I think by selecting and copying values from different areas, some of the shadowing problems could be helped.
Nice work, anyway.
<* Wes *>

[cevic]

Demon

I like your tool very much, this type of tool is what I'm waiting for. You should post this tool to Milkshape website too, instead of just here it is a universal tool.

Anyway, there is a bug I want to report to you. Might be you forgot about this. When editing any vertices that have few UV map coordinates (UV Map coordinates share 1 geometry vertice), your tool only recognize 1 UV map coordinate and resulting the lost of the another UV map coordinates. I've checked in Milkshape, every vertices that has several UV coordinates will represents in different vertices.

Another thing you should add three more column of XYZ normals for every vertices as per suggestion by Wes. Make them editable. Your tool will be a perfect tool when you remove the bug and add the feature. Anyway I give 5 stars. Its really amaze me.

Thanks.

[demon432]

Demon
Anyway, there is a bug I want to report to you. Might be you forgot about this. When editing any vertices that have few UV map coordinates (UV Map coordinates share 1 geometry vertice), your tool only recognize 1 UV map coordinate and resulting the lost of the another UV map coordinates. I've checked in Milkshape, every vertices that has several UV coordinates will represents in different vertices.


I build this editor as GMDC-oriented. GMDC format ant UniMeshTool by Wes_h
support only one UV and one normal per geometric vertex. Into new MilkShape API this cause all normals and UVs for all triangles corners, connected to some vertex, are equivalent. My editor read first occurence of UV for current vertex and show it, and after change UV value new values assigned to all connected triangles corners. Of course, this method are not universal, but worked for GMDC export tools and allow avoid unpredictable lost of multi-assigned UV coords on export operation. May be You see another way?

Normals edition (I do this now) support will be like UV edition - one normal per vertex with duplicating new value to all connected corners. Or I'm wrong?

[OwaizooDE]

its so kool
i had edges darkening problem with my meshes
i heard it can fix it
i will fix them as i find time
thankyou

[WesHowe]

When editing any vertices that have few UV map coordinates (UV Map coordinates share 1 geometry vertice), your tool only recognize 1 UV map coordinate and resulting the lost of the another UV map coordinates. I've checked in Milkshape, every vertices that has several UV coordinates will represents in different vertices.


Welded vertices that have different UV coordinates are not a good thing for Sims2 meshes. That is partly why I have consistently discouraged welding except under controlled circumstances.
When this happens (one vertice, two UV coordinates) the exporter effectively 'unwelds' them by creating a second vertex with the second set of UV coordinates.
While this corrects the texturing issue, the original second normal was lost when the weld occurred, so both vertices share the same normal. This is sometimes a big issue at the seams that have hard turns, because the shared normal makes the shading incorrect on both sides of the seam (shadow issues).
Demon is up against a tough issue trying to correct that condition, because there is a fundamental architectural difference between the way MilkShape can hold a mesh model and what a GMDC can hold [in a GMDC, there are equal numbers of vertices, normals, UVs and, optionally bone assignment/weighting sets and morph maps sets].
You might think about undoing the welding on these joints, because the exporter undoes some of them anyway (putting the vertice count back where it was), and leaves you with a less-than-perfect rendition of what you are trying to make.
<* Wes *>

[Warlokk]

Oooh this may be exactly what I needed... I've been using the Poser/Mesh Tool technique for clothing meshes, and it totally hoses the normals around the bottom edges of, well, pretty much everything... I can clean them up if I Smooth All in Milkshape, but that brings out the seams. Hopefully this will give me another option.

Thanks!

[demon432]

Oooh this may be exactly what I needed... I've been using the Poser/Mesh Tool technique for clothing meshes, and it totally hoses the normals around the bottom edges of, well, pretty much everything... I can clean them up if I Smooth All in Milkshape, but that brings out the seams. Hopefully this will give me another option.

Now I add my new normals-specific plugin msAlignNormals. Please try it - this allow to save lot of time in most cases.

[0O_Andie_O0]

Cool!Thank you! You guys are truly heroes!But it would be better if someone can write a tutorial of how to use this plugin with screenshots. It really takes time to figure it out. I also wonder how to make multiple bone assignment and change the weighting.Thx again!:D

[WesHowe]

These are both very nice pieces of work, demon.
<* Wes *>

[WesHowe]

I was using the extended manual editor, and I was trying to alter the selected state of some vertices to visualize them.
I was able to do make the state changes, but it appears that setting the msFlag to eSelected (==1) does not change the visual display state on screen (which is what I wanted to do).
I can tell that your editor is changing the flag, because my BoneTool (which looks for bit0) displayed the correct vertices, even though they are not highlighted onscreen.
Can you try also setting eSelected2 (==2) when the select state is changed and see if it updates the display? This would be most useful to me.
<* Wes *>

[WesHowe]

That works better.
Thanks for the nice tool!
<* Wes *>

[cevic]

Demon
Thanks to your tool, your new editable normals really works, the body mesh now no longer have the shadow problem with your tool.

[Dr Pixel]

Thanks for this great set of tools!

As luck would have it, I happened to be working on a mesh were both of them came in very handy.

I am trying to convert the Maid's outfit into a separate top, but ran into two problems.

First, when making a separate top or bottom mesh, the vertices at the joining area around the waist MUST align perfectly with the positions of an original Maxis separate top/bottom or the new mesh will not work right with other top and bottom meshes.

I was having trouble alinging them perfectly, but your Manual Edit tool solved this easily.

Here is what I did, for those wanting a tutorial -

1} I extracted a Maxis top GMDC for a reference, and imported it with Unimesh
2} I renamed the two groups, adding an "X" in front of each name, to keep these reference groups separate from my own mesh groups. I export this as a wavefront .obj file
3} I deleted everything, then opened the mesh I am working on
4} I now import the .obj file I just saved
5} I hide both "morph" groups, and set the 3d view to "wireframe" - I find it handier to do most of my selecting in the 3d window
http://thumbs2.modthesims2.com/images14/MTS2_262495_Dr_Pixel_ManEdit1.gif
6} You can see that I got the vertices pretty close to the Maxis reference, but not quite exact. So, I select only one pair of vertices and open the Extended Manual Edit tool
http://thumbs2.modthesims2.com/images1/MTS2_262496_Dr_Pixel_ManEdit2.gif
7} I am interested in aligning the x, y, and z co-ordinates of my own mesh with those of the reference - my mesh co-ordinates are on the top - I can tell because the one on the bottom has no bone assignments, it shows -1 for the bone.
http://thumbs2.modthesims2.com/images8/MTS2_262497_Dr_Pixel_ManEdit3.gif
8} I copy the x, y, and z from the lower vertex into the upper one and click [accept]
http://thumbs2.modthesims2.com/images2/MTS2_262498_Dr_Pixel_ManEdit4.gif
9} The two vertices now align perfectly! I repeat for each pair of vertices around the waist
10} I now hide both these groups, and repeat the whole operation on the "morph" groups

Result: My new mesh now works right in the game, it aligns perfectly with all the separate bottom meshes with no gaps or animation problems!

NOTE: I know some of you don't like to bother with the "fat" morph - but if you are doing separate tops and bottoms, it is important that you do keep the fat morph and edit it properly - otherwise your mesh will not be compatible with other tops and bottoms in the game.

In the next post I will show how I used the "Align Normals" tool to fix another problem with this same mesh

[Dr Pixel]

I had another problem with this same mesh - the Maid mesh has a bow sticking out a little bit on the back, which I want to remove.

I was able to get rid of the bow by snapping the vertices together and aligning them with the rest of the back, but this area still has the "normals" of the bow showing - this will make a weird shadow on my skins.

So, I select all the vertices surrounding this area - then I use the "Align Normals" tool.

This doesn't affect the rest of the normals, but it does get rid of those "bow" shadows!

[Nouk]

Wow, amazing! I have no other words :) Well done!

@Dr. Pixel: Is the shirt up for download somewhere?

[Dr Pixel]

@Dr. Pixel: Is the shirt up for download somewhere?

You can find it here:
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=145643

and also on my Blarneystone site - same mesh, different skins.

[marvine]

A little late in testing those - thank you so much for these tools, they are a great complement for Wes's Unimesh plugins and very user-friendly! The normals editing in particular is a wonderful feature and it works flawlessly; now adding polys won't imply having to reassign everything after a weld/unweld/smooth all, and a selective smoothing is finally easily doable! I also think the possibility of precisely editing the uv-coordinates is very useful, it will spare me the pain of making the mesh go through LithUnwrap in many cases. Well done!! :D

[Warlokk]

I just wanted to chime in that these work great... I've been able to eliminate ALL weird shadow/normal issues in my meshes, and everything looks great!

... except one tiny, annoying detail: the dividing line between top and bottom separates. Not a gap, just slightly misaligned normals along the join. I thought I had that licked, but it's still a problem. I'm thinking of trying a manual edit of those vertices along the top edge of the mesh, and making them match with a default Maxis mesh, since I do not modify them in any way... unfortunately there's no simple copy-paste method I can see, so it's going to be a killer with the sheer number of meshes I'm working with (14 Bottom Separate meshes x 4 sizes, just for the bottoms).

If anyone has any suggestions I'd love to hear them... I also played around with the built-in SimPE mesh importer, but I can't get it to work at all, the whole mesh is displaced slightly and there's no morph support, and I can't find any tuturials at all... so I'm still using Mesh Tool for this part, since I need the bump maps.

Here's a couple shots, one of the 32" shorts, the other is 38" Capri pants. As you can see, it's minor, but it's really bugging me... :wtf:

[Dr Pixel]

Although I didn't show it in my example above, the Extended Manual Edit tool does in fact allow you to copy and paste the "normals" and the uv_co-ordinates info from one mesh group to another just as I did with the x, y, and z.

It helped a lot with my tops and bottoms, although they are still not perfect.

I used it on the vertices around the joining area only, maybe it would be better to also do the next "ring" of vertices above (or below) the jpoining area too.

Also check that your material definitions are an exact match with one from a Maxis top/bottom

========================

DOH! I forgot, it's been so long since I use the MeshTool...

When you import your mesh back into the GMDC from the .obj file, you could just un-check the "import Normals" box, and it will keep the original normals of the mesh, which will save all that editing....

[Warlokk]

Wow... I can't believe I never knew that feature was there... I just bypassed all the normal-fixing I was doing in Milkshape to a mesh I magnet-ized in Poser to get my sizes, and pulled the .obj exported from Poser right in to Mesh Tool... and it's perfect. One stupid checkbox, and I just cut my production time to 1/3... :blink: :D :beer: :lol:
Of course I have to re-do the ones I've done so far, but now that'll take just a few minutes each... thank you Doc!

[0O_Andie_O0]

Thanks for this great set of tools!

Here is what I did, for those wanting a tutorial -......


Thank you!

[Sophia_]

This is just great! Some Maxis necklines are so stupid, and now it's so easy to fix them. ^^

[windkeeper]

Thank you, Demon, for the tools! And Dr Pixel for the visual tutorials! I just happen to use both plugins and they are a great help :D

[Warlokk]

OK, this is getting REALLY frustrating... I'm still getting seams between my hi-res top mesh and any bottom I put it on. I've used the Ext Manual Edit and made the XYZ coords and the normals exactly the same as the default Maxis top AND checked the numbers were the same on the Bottom Shorts, just to make sure. All the numbers are the same, but I still get a weird shadow on the bottom, just below the seam. I can't seem to get rid of it. Any ideas? I attached a few screens to show what I'm seeing. It does it with various skintones as well.

I'm this close to releasing the first stage of my project... if I can just get this sorted out... :rolleyes:

I've also attached the .simpe file from my last attempt, if anyone wants to take a look.

[simboy]

Warlokk, I did some peeking with that mesh. Mated it with frsh Maxis bottom and no shadows here. Yet, looking at the pics, I think, the problem is with the bottom mesh.

Using the Extended Manual Edit Tool, check just the bottoms top line of vertices if there are any doubles. Happened to me when editing. That will cause the shadows. If you find any "Double vertises" snap them together and weld. Should help.

BTW Really Beautiful mesh

[Warlokk]

Well, the only problem with that is, it's an unmodified Maxis bottom shown... I still have to go back and adjust the custom bottoms I've created to match the standard tops, but in this case it's happening across the board. Not sure what's causing it on my end, especially if it's not showing up on yours. Weird.

Here's the current Hi-Res Default replacement MESH package I've put together using that mesh... can you take a look and see if it works OK for you as well? Best test is that black mesh top with the red bra, it uses the same mesh, unless you've got a nude top or something, like the one I released with the original of this.

Thanks for the help, and the compliments! :D

[simboy]

Back from testing... Nothing wrong here. But, that skin on the bottom part, it's not original Maxis skin.. could there be a leak in texture or alpha... Does it happen with all bottoms in your game?.. waistline is quite low...

[Warlokk]

Yes, it happens with all of them, although many don't have the lower waistline so you can't see it... it's the Short Shorts outfit that came with the base game, one of the last Bottom Separates outfits in the catalog. The Capris pants do the same thing.

Incidentally, I just reworked my hi-res Bottom mesh, and it merges with the new top mesh perfectly... but I still see a faint line with default Maxis tops. I wonder if there's a rounding problem, like not enough decimal places, in the Ext Vert editor, so there's still a barely perceptable difference?

Frankly at this point, since I know the nudes will look OK, I'll be satisfied with the results... it will only be visible with nude top/bottom combined with clothing, and I can live with that if there's not a fix.

Here's a couply BodyShop shots, you can see it's really faint, but definitely there... and these are with default in-game clothes.

[simboy]

Ummm, I'm not a pro with milkshape or meshing.. Just got out of Milkshape and Ext.Man Ed.. all the other colums match but not the U and V.. wonder if that has something to with it.. Tell me if I'm totally wrong, thank you. Way for me to learn too.

[Warlokk]

Ahh, never thought to look at the UV coords... I'll check that out, may be exactly the thing.

Thanks! Amazing what a 2nd pair of eyes with a brain connected can do... :D

[simboy]

lol was fun to give you an idea... will have my Questions later, belive me..

[Warlokk]

Well, was definitely worth a shot, but nope... same result... bummer... I'll keep poking around, but I'm running out of things to check...

[simboy]

Daum, well.. lets see if anyone else is reading this. All I can say, guys, please DL the file ant test it in your game.. Could be a graphics gard issue too.

I have a ATI Radeon 9600 Let Warlokk know how you do and what hardware you tested with.

[Warlokk]

Yes, I thought that too, it may just be a weird rendering deal with my graphics setup... I've got a pair of GeForce 6600GT's SLI'd, with the newest beta drivers (84.43). It also did it with earlier drivers (84.25), I upgraded today just to see if it would help. I also have all in-game display settings at max, at 1280x1024.

[tiggerypum]

Okay, I found the shorts (they are base game shorts) I found the red bra with the mesh top over it. Put your mesh in, now I see nipples. Tried also some nude tops and bottoms. Unfortunately your nipples do not align with the simscribbling skins I'm using for my defaults. Flipped to a few other skins I have in the game that are just maxis retinted.

Took her for multiple spins. I cannot see the seam. I cannot see the normals thing in your screenshot. It is seamless no matter which skin I use. So either, your computer is being mega fussy and showing you more detail on the normals than most of us see.... (at which point I would say it's a maxis flaw, just like the neck seam *is* visible a portion of the time) .... or it's the skintone you're using has a flaw.

So stop pulling out your hair; It looks wonderful. We creators stare at our stuff far more than 99% of the players do.

[simboy]

Thanks for confirmation tiggerypum, I did my best and could not see it either. Maybe we will be downloading those nice meshes soon(er). You are so right about those who do and those who play.. Have that same problem.

[Warlokk]

LOL that's pretty much the conclusion I was coming to as well... thanks a lot for taking a look. I know about the skintone alignment thing, I will be releasing a full set of properly aligned skintones with the project, based on ones created by BeosBoxBoy for the BodyBuilder set.

With this flaw out of the way, I just need to rebuild the nude bottoms sizes the same way, and I think it'll be ready to go. Thanks again for the help, every now and then I get an obsessive perfectionist thing going, it's tough to step back and say, "OK good enough" sometimes :D

At this point I want to thank Demon for his most excellent tool, without it I wouldn't be able to get even close to being satisfied with these... sometimes you just gotta go tweak some numbers by hand. Thanks Demon!!!

[Warlokk]

Question/Request for Demon: Is there any way we could get a Copy All/Paste All function for the Ext Manual Edit tool? Basically something to allow us to copy all the coordinates from one vertex and paste them into another, including XYZ, UV and Normals? I'm using it to match up top & bottom separates as shown above, and having to copy/paste every coordinate for every vertex, for each group, is giving me some serious hand cramps... Shift-Ctrl-C(hotkey for tool), click-Ctrl-C, click-Ctrl-V, click-Ctrl-C, click-Ctrl-V...... over and over and over... ;)

I'll probably be finished with this set of meshes today, but I'm sure this feature would come in handy in the future, if it's possible.

Thanks a ton, this tool works wonders! :D

[tiggerypum]

I have been doing some significant mesh chopping, and also some alpha sections on my mesh, and I also would like to be able to copy and paste at a minimum sets of things - like the xzy in one shot, or uv in one shot, or the bone assignments in 1 shot. The hand adjusting power this tool gives us is exceptional, but indeed it's tedious and hand-cramping when one has to do it for entire rings of vertices.

[simboy]

tiggerypum, have you had a problem like this: You chop parts from one mesh and snap together the vertises with the other mesh, you get several vertises in the Extended Manual Edit window. After you have done the hand-cramping clicking and all is fine, you export it with Unimesh and reimport in a new window, all the changes are reverted back!

Happens to me all the time. Could this be a problem with Unimesh or this Extended Manual Edit tool? Anyone else seen this happen?

[tiggerypum]

My changes held just fine, and I made quite a few of them. (that was the painful part). Not sure why your extended manual edit changes might not have worked. Might you have made the changes accidently to the wrong group? Bone assignments are not saved on _morph_ groups.

[simboy]

Thanks, this Sim has a history with steroids, no morphs what so ever.... Will do some more experimenting and report again if needed.. And I was not talking about bones.. they are OK. I was talking about multiple vertices e.g. vertises on vertices...
Happy meshing

[WesHowe]

tiggerypum, have you had a problem like this: You chop parts from one mesh and snap together the vertises with the other mesh, you get several vertises in the Extended Manual Edit window. After you have done the hand-cramping clicking and all is fine, you export it with Unimesh and reimport in a new window, all the changes are reverted back!

Happens to me all the time. Could this be a problem with Unimesh or this Extended Manual Edit tool? Anyone else seen this happen?

Here is a guess, based on the partial description of what you are doing:
In the extended milkshape plugin interface (the one that supports multiple bones and skin weights used by UniMesh and the extended manual editor)) the normal and UV data is associated with each face, but in the GMDC it is associated with each vertex.
If you delete duplicate vertices that have different UV coordinates (as referenced by different faces), as happens when you weld a seam (e.g. front/back seam), UniMesh will duplicate the deleted vertice to restore the association with the UV... otherwise the model will be totally hosed.
I wonder if this is what is happening to you. If the edges of the two parts you are joining are UV mapped on a non-contiguous basis, you cannot get rid of the seam (row of duplicated vertices) because the model will not texture properly.
If you redo the UV mapping first, you should be able to eliminate the duplicates.
<* Wes *>

[simboy]

Thanks Wes, will do another try and see what happens. Yet in the game it shows just occasionally as a black line on the thigh. I need both with and without heels.. thats why I stumbled on this situation. There are like 5 to 6 vertices in the same spot. Playing around with UV cordinates give some odd patterns to the skin, triangles and such. My "Miss Fitness Pleasantview" cant come out untill I resolve the problems.

Just have to keep on trying, I guess. Thank you so much for the latest Importer, makes meshing so much easier now!

[tiggerypum]

I found that the normals tool (from the gmdc tools, not wes) worked well for me to not weld anything, even when I was joining up leg spots. I just made sure to snap all the vertices together, and made sure they all had identical bone assignments. Then once I was done I selected the ring of vertices and did the normals thing.
Then I also touched up the uvmap by hand, simply zooming in 2x or 3x and dragging the individual vertices around to make them appropriately on top of each other. Easier than trying to do it all with the hand editing tool, which gave me cut and paste tired hands.

[simboy]

Thanks guys, It sure was a UV problem. UV map shows that vertices from both legs were connected together.. Started all over from scratch... Looks much better now. Boy, this forum is a well of knowledge. Thanks again

[0O_Andie_O0]

I use Milkshape1.7.8. Milkshape crushes when I do these things: select several vertices at the same time and click bone tool 4.06 or click anything on the manual edit table. Mesa 4.6.1 is installed. Every sims plugin is the latest versions. My PC config is ok. CPU intel 2.6 GHz, RAM 1.25GB & GeForce FX 5900. What possibly causes the crush?

[WesHowe]

Both the BoneTool (which is my work) and the Extended Manual Editor (which I did not write but think highly of) use the same interface ti MilkShape AND also open another window to work with the data.
There have been a few other reports of crashes with MilkShape 1.7.8 on the BoneTool, from users that were able to work with MilkShape 1.7.7a, but I have been unable to replicate the problem here, and thus am unable to make a fix available.
<* Wes *>

[0O_Andie_O0]

Both the BoneTool (which is my work) and the Extended Manual Editor (which I did not write but think highly of) use the same interface ti MilkShape AND also open another window to work with the data.
There have been a few other reports of crashes with MilkShape 1.7.8 on the BoneTool, from users that were able to work with MilkShape 1.7.7a, but I have been unable to replicate the problem here, and thus am unable to make a fix available.
<* Wes *>

Oh, sorry I confused your work with demon's because there are so many tools in the menu. I really appreciate yours work. I sorry to hear that no fix is available for that. I will try to get 1.77a back. Thx for the hint.

[0O_Andie_O0]

Thank you, Wes! 1.7.7a is better but it crushes sometimes.

[Nouk]

These plugins are great for fitting scalps to faces, so that you can convert hairmeshes to other ages and genders. It will fit exactly.


http://upload.modthesims2.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=303583&stc=1

http://upload.modthesims2.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=303584&stc=1

http://upload.modthesims2.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=303585&stc=1

http://upload.modthesims2.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=303586&stc=1

http://upload.modthesims2.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=303587&stc=1

http://upload.modthesims2.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=303588&stc=1
You can even do more than 2 vertices at the same time if you're not easily confused. :)

Thanks again for this easy plugin :)

[Absimiliard]

LOL that's pretty much the conclusion I was coming to as well... thanks a lot for taking a look. I know about the skintone alignment thing, I will be releasing a full set of properly aligned skintones with the project, based on ones created by BeosBoxBoy for the BodyBuilder set.

With this flaw out of the way, I just need to rebuild the nude bottoms sizes the same way, and I think it'll be ready to go. Thanks again for the help, every now and then I get an obsessive perfectionist thing going, it's tough to step back and say, "OK good enough" sometimes :D

At this point I want to thank Demon for his most excellent tool, without it I wouldn't be able to get even close to being satisfied with these... sometimes you just gotta go tweak some numbers by hand. Thanks Demon!!!

I am having the same problem Warlokk has detailed earlier in this thread, specifically, that while these great plugins allow for we to perfectly align my custom meshes, there is the faintest shadow on the custom bottoms I'm making.

I've been very careful to triple check that all the connecting vertices and the vertices of the next row have the same values as their maxis counterparts, but still, no good. I know I'm splitting hairs, but the effect is noticable and I'd like to remove it.

[Warlokk]

Sorry, I just sort of accepted it as a minor flaw that only some people could see... honestly I haven't even noticed it since.

[Absimiliard]

Thanks for the quick reply. I agree it's hardly noticable. (except now that I kow it's there it's all I can see...)

[demon432]

Question/Request for Demon: Is there any way we could get a Copy All/Paste All function for the Ext Manual Edit tool?
Big sorry for my long silence - currently I'm so far from my home and haven't time for working with Internet :((( But my job going to the end and I'm go back at middle of June. I can update editor engine as You need, and new version will be posted approximately at end of June. May be some other additions or changes wanted also?

[Warlokk]

Ah welcome back Demon... glad everything's OK with you :)

I just thought of something that would be amazing, if it's possible. Currently, when you take two meshes and Weld them, there is no control over the coordinates/settings of the resulting verts. If there were a way to take, for example, 2 meshes or groups, overlapping each other so the verts are almost aligned, and perform the Weld function to have the new verts inherit the settings of one set or the other?

For example... I'm working on custom Nude Top meshes. Once I'm done modifying everything, I currently have to go in and edit the verts around the waistline to make them equal the default meshes, otherwise there are visible normals and positioning differences due to the smoothing and import/export functions of Poser etc. What would be absolutely great, is if I could take my Top, import a Maxis Bottom into a separate group, and perform some sort of Weld function that would force the values from the Bottom verts onto the Top verts that align with them. I could then delete the Bottom group, and my Top would merge perfectly with the standard meshes, without having to manually edit every vertex. One could also do it with meshes that are the same type, for example take a custom top, overlap a Maxis top, and Weld the neck verts at the top to force them to the Maxis values.

Does this make sense?

[tiggerypum]

The problem Warlokk, is how would we tell it *which* set of values to use. How would it know to copy the values from the pants to the top vs. from the top to the pants?

[Warlokk]

Yes, I thought of that problem too... I was hoping maybe somehow the group assignment could be used, if possible... no idea if it is or no, but it can never hurt to ask ;)

[grykon]

Hey Demon432! Man thank you for these plugins! They helped alot! especially the alignment one. Had a question on the extended edit one, would it be possible to add a function to it? Like a swap zone? Click the line you want and it swaps its content for what is there, unless it is empty, then it keeps its data, just shares it, then you could click another line to replace its data with the data from the swap area. A clear button for the swap zone would be a really good thing too. Keep up the great work!

[$RaMRoM$]

thanks for the plugins :up: :gjob:

[willywiluhps]

Thank you SO much. These are life-savers!
<3

[melanise]

OK i've had this problem before and so i started all the way from scratch -.- i know auto smooth smooths everything and will make things look weird, i've tried a number of things i have seled a part of the body from a mesh (just the weist) and i wanted to make it an alpha so i proceeded with making it a back face and smoothed all then i tried two ways ... exporting with .obj and exporting with unimes still i get this weird odd tone on my mesh ; ; tigger said to use your tool so i wanted to know exactly how .. plz :cry: http://img127.imageshack.us/img127/1696/problemqo7.jpg

[Warlokk]

You need to use the Align Normals plugin, which is part of this set Demon made. Just select the seam, and go to Vertex--Align Normals, and voila! No more seam. Be careful with it though, cause it can smooth out parts you don't want to smooth if you select too much, so just select the areas you need to work on. Be careful around any sharp edges too, it will make mess of them.

[melanise]

ty so much warlokk ^.~

[SneezeyPicc]

Thanks in advance for these plugins; I think they'll be quite useful.

However, I'm having just a bit of a problem:
I don't know how to install them / get them to show up in Milkshape!

I'm new to editing meshes, so I assume I'm missing something really obvious. I'm running Milkshape 1.8.1b, with wes_h's Unimesh plugins (no problems there - I just unzipped the .dll files into my ms3d program folder). Apparently that doesn't work with these .rar files. What do I need to do?


Thanks,
SneezeyPicc

[WesHowe]

.RAR is a newer .ZIP alternative.

Search and find a program called WinRar, it works very nicely on both RAR and ZIP files. I even use it regularly to compress and archive my entire My Documents folder to my external drive because one of the options allows the program to shutdown the machine when finished, so I can start it and just go to bed.

So you obtain and install WinRAR, then you can right-click on the filenames in Windows Explorer to tell WinRAR to extract them, and then place the extracted files in the MilkShape directory, where the other plugins are located.

<* Wes *>

[SneezeyPicc]

.RAR is a newer .ZIP alternative.

That would be what I was missing.

Thanks!


~SneezeyPicc

[MissLondon88]

Hi Demon,

I have been trying to download the extended manual edit and Align normal tool. I was able to successfully download it, although when I opened it in WinRar and upzipped it so to speak, I received the following error from WinRar:

1 MTS2_demon432_260194_msAlignNormals.rar: The file "msAlignNormals.dll" header is corrupt
2 MTS2_demon432_260194_msAlignNormals.rar: Unknown method in msAlignNormals.dll
3 MTS2_demon432_260194_msAlignNormals.rar: The file "Readme.txt" header is corrupt
4 MTS2_demon432_260194_msAlignNormals.rar: Unknown method in Readme.txt
5 MTS2_demon432_260194_msAlignNormals.rar: No files to extract

Do you what the solution is to this problem or do you have an alternative download link?

Kind regards,
MissLondon88

[marvine]

MissLondon, you should try redownloading until they can properly extract, this sometimes happen when the servers are too busy. I just tested the files and they're ok :)

[Cocomama]

Thank you very much for these very usefull plugins, they make meshing a lot easier.

[bigbette]

Thank you for sharing your talent.

[Alisar]

thank you wes!

[WesHowe]

Well, I would be polite and say "You're welcome", or perhaps be modern and say "no problem" but I did not write them. Demon somethingoranother wrote them. I believe he was a Russian programmer, and has not been around in a long time.

They are excellent plugins. I wish I had the source to the extended editor, I would perhaps extend it a little bit more. But the author seems to have moved on to other things.

<* Wes *>

[Manga_Moon]

This plugin is amazing! I run Milkshape 1.7.10 and it runs like a charm. I make objects with Max 9 and it always has wierd normals, but now my problems are solved. Thanks again, MM :)

[slar]

I'm very much obliged. Thanks!

[Megahue 2]

Thanks I am going to try that!

[yuichen]

I can't get the plugin to show up despite installing it exactly as it says to in the readme file, and restarting both the program and my computer several times. I'm running 1.8.4 if that matters...

[telefen]

I wanna thank you for this great tool. It'll be very usefull.