I used a less mature version of these tools to make my BioHazard sculpture. There is a furniture set posted on some other site that seems to work for people, the creator credited me, so I presume he used these tools (I haven't had time to test his work yet, too busy here).

I think if you either remake the thumbnails or try teko's advice, and you have renumbered it with the Object Cloner "fix" mode, set the proper room/package flags, updated all of the string tables, .model/.lod files, and all of the textures and tried it in the game, looking close up and from far away, and you are pleased with what you see, you should go for it. It should be as good technically as anything anyone can make right now.

I haven't made any restrictions on creators, although the caveat of experimental means the tools aren't finished yet, but they do seem to make files that the game can use. "Truth in advertising" and all that.

<* Wes *>

I chased that problem down and fixed it, and updated the package to V0.06. It was a dumb programming mistake, and it was using the wrong values to decide if the vertex was weighted and assigned, which is why it seemed random.

I have noted that not all models have weights, even though they have bones. I do not know perhaps all of the practical effects of making assignments on these models, although they seemed to have no place in most of the vertex formats for joint assignments, so if you do assign joints, they will not be exported if the original didn't have them. I don't understand why EA would make meshes and put bones in the files and not use them, but maybe it is just a script they run that adds the bone definitions.

<* Wes *>

Once again Wes thanks for your amazing tools. Thanks Teko for the advice, it worked. I deleted the thumbnails from the package and deleted the thumbnails package and it now shows up correctly. I even tested on a second object that I made. So the method works.

Thanks a lot for the advice on thumbnails. It's so much better this way!

Thought I was finish with my questions but here is one more. Does anyone know which files I have to delete/edit to have my object have only one recolorable part in the game. Since I modified the enclosed shower which had four parts to recolor my shower shows up with four also and I only need one. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

Petallotus, delete the alpha image files from the package. The ones that look like black/grey outlines. Also, try redoing the package and don't check off to use default textures.

Thanks Carrigon I will try this.

Wes, I'm getting a game crash after making a decorative pitcher with these new tools, V0.06. As soon as I click on the pitcher in the catalog, massive crash to desktop. I'm including the file here, maybe you can figure out what's doing it. I have no clue.

The normals are all zero in the lod "00000000" and model "00000001".
And there is only an "00010000" .lod file, and it has no mesh data in it, and no "00010001" .lod file to pair with the model file.
I don't know how you made the meshes in there come out that way, but they are defective, and one is missing.

<* Wes *>

EDIT: I was in a hurry, and came back because my brain told me it sounded too snippy, which was not intended. To fix the two main meshes, you just need to bring them back in and do a "smoothe all", reexport and they will be fine.

These is nothing but a shell for the "00010000" mesh (this is in the group values). No verts, no faces, no nothin'. That alone may be the crash, or the missing mate "00010001", or the commbination of them. I have not studied all of the ways we can crash the game, but this would be one for the books.

I only know what I have seen in working packages, and those generally have an .lod "00000000" (full detail mesh), a "00000001" reduced lod file wit the MODL included, and two shadow meshes "00010000" and "00010001" that are used in the creation of shadows. These are frequently located below and behind the two main meshes and are not visible, but lines drawn between them will cast a shadow where they intersect the ground.

Make a new clone of your starter package in the cloner and inventory the mesh contents, I bet you will find one .model and three .lod files. Look at their design height and positions. Make your package emulate their layout.

How are you importing these meshes for tghen to have no normals? I did a smoothe all on one and fixed it.

<* Wes *>

Thanks for looking at it. I'll try the smoothe. It's not crashing you after doing that?

I figured there was something wrong with the lod. I just kind of ignored that one since it seemed empty.

The base I used was the kitchen utensils sculpture.

I have no clue how they have no normals. The pitcher mesh is just an obj. Am I missing a setting somewhere?

Wes, it's still crashing on me. And I have no clue why. The second I click on it in buy mode, instant crash to the desktop.

Well, whatever way you are importing them, they have no normals (all zeroes) so it isn't going to look good at all unless you fix that. I did a "smooth all" in MilkShape and exported again, that gave them the normals.

I told you that one "0001xxxx" .lod file is missing, and the other "0001xxxx" is empty (no verts, no faces, no bones). I don't think the game is going to stop crashing until you fix those broken files in your package.

<* Wes *>

I used a different mesh and redid the file. No more crashing, but now I've got the problem of the pitcher looking broken in the game. And the lod I just looked at is exploded. Here it is if you want to look at it.

Sounds like you're using an older version of the tools? Did you copy the newest Milkshape-Plugins over to its folder?

I'm using the latest version and I did put the new plugins into Milkshape. This exploding mesh happens no matter what. If you look at the lod in it, you'll see it looks all distorted and broken.

I have fixed and uploaded the file issue. The shadow meshes come in two varieties, one with only the vertices in it (8-byte vertex size) and one with vertices and UVs in it (16-byte vertices). In your example, they were 8-byte .lod files, but the exporter was creating 16-byte version due to a misspelling in my program. It was easier to fix than find.

However, I haven't tested the object in game. If it continues, I suspect that some other, non-mesh issue could be biting you. For most objects, the file with "00000000" for the group seems to be the most detailed mesh, while "00000001" is a reduced poly version. "00010000" is a shadow mesh of "00000000" and is usually displaced in on all three axes down, back and left. "00010001" is a shifted version of "00000001".

Since I don't have your original clone source, there are some things I noticed that may or may not be significant. "00000000" has a groundmesh in it as group 0. "00000001" does not. I know I programmed the exporter not to export if the export and the original group counts differ, but the exporter is not smart enough to not be tricked by starting with a different .model file.

There are some elements of things like the VPXY that we do not have all analyzed, and I do not know if the group numbers and presence/absence of the group count is specified only in the MLOD chunks, or if it is also specified in some other part of the object clone. So I have always tried to make the structure of the meshes just like the original, as far as group count, but of course with different mesh data inside them. The compiler knows how to update the vertex and face counts for all groups, so that is not fixed.

You may want to revert back to the original cloned object and put the meshes in them freshly, as the old decompiled files may not be usable.

Anyway, thanks for the report, let's see what you come up with.

<* Wes *>

Thanks, Wes. This one was done off the small cow plant sculpture. I can try redoing it with your update and see how it comes out.

I am happy to report, the Case of the Broken Pitcher has been solved. And it wasn't your mesh tools, Wes. The DDS plugin for PSP and Adobe is flawed. It was leaving bits of some kind of pictures inside the Alpha file. So it was creating a broken looking pitcher in the game. I solved this by making my own new DDS and then renaming it to the problem one and importing and overwriting it in S3pe. Solved it completely. The DDS file must be made all gray. If you make the DDS all gray, the game will then allow you to use any pattern you like to recolor the object in game.

So the way to make fully recolorable decorative items is to clone the small cow plant sculpture. Redo the one DDS that has all grays in it. Make it a plain light gray. Do the same for the other Alpha, the one with the white in it, but that one, I didn't seem to have to redo, I was able to just put the same light gray layer on it. That's it. The original recolors of the object will show in game and you can use the design tool to change the pattern or colors to anything you like. Also, by using the small cowplant sculpture, you are getting the right placement in game. It's set to be placeable on nearly any surface.

Thanks for your help, Wes. And thanks for all your hard work on these tools.

My new Pitcher can be found here:
http://www.sims2workshop.com/viewtopic.php?t=3262

Ooh, they look nice.

But there was something wrong with the mesh... it may ultimately not have been the source of the crash, but the shadow meshes were not made properly, and would undoubtedly made flawed shadows, if nothing else.

I'm glad you got this working... an example of why the pioneers wear Arrow shirts.

I agree about the shadows, but I think your update helped alot. At first, I thought I still had the exploding problem, but when I did a preview of the DDS files, I saw the junk still in them and that was the problem. The DDS plugin is seriously flawed here. But at least it can be worked around

Wes can you please increase the buffer size? I am trying to get a look at some of the meshes for buildings/rabbitholes and I am getting ERR:Block 3 size 551052 exceeds buffer size [524288] If possible thank you.

I'll do it. Sheesh, those have gotta be some big meshes!

<* Wes *>

EDIT: So I did it, and tested it with the biggest MLOD/MODL file I could find in the game.

Thank You Wes, much appreciated.

yay now rabbitholes can be made!

Wes, I'm having a problem with UV mapping. The game seems to not stick to whatever UV map I do and my textures on new meshes that have no alpha aren't coming out right. Is there anything that can be done to correct this? It just happened again with a mesh I made off the rubber duck. The UV map didn't stick while in game. And the eyes and mouth I colored in didn't come out right. Do we need to set the UV map for the group instead of the mat? Or is the mat just not being saved when we mesh? I'm attaching an example, the file I just did tonight, Mister BananaHead. His mouth and eyes didn't come out right. And duck file I worked off of had no alphas.