Latest version (0.4) is being uploaded after I write this post.

As I said, I needed to rewrite the import which necessited changes to the export. I'm slowly testing this on several objects, but I have been able to clone ClutterTableTissueBox and replace the mesh with sculptureDeskSupplies3 from TS2. I've also been able to import, export and recompile LoveseatParkBench.

At the moment there is one slight workaround you have to do before exporting (if you replace the mesh). My code tries to activate the UV Layer, but fails for some reason, but it's easy to do manually until I can find out why it's not activating it.

Select the mesh for each group that has a UV and in the F9 buttons under Mesh there should be one or more UV Textures named groupXX_x. On the left of each of these is a little gridlike button and it's most likely to not be selected. Just select the one next to groupXX_0. Once it's on, you can't switch it off again, but that's how it's supposed to be.

Looking at a windows object from another topic error and the import is throwing an error for that object. Working on it at the moment.

EDIT: Made the change and uploaded the new version.

I'm doing some updates to the scripts, mostly because I've hit an object with VRTF-6 (still unknown that this is for) and also because in this case the record was out of sequence in the VRTF, i.e. 0125346, instead of 0123456. I'm testing the scripts tonight and most probably tomorrow as I have an object I wish to upload (which is the reason I started writing the scripts in the first place). I also made a change in how the vertex groups are handled during the import which should make the export work a bit better.

I also need to update the pdf tutorial with a few small things.

A question for Wes:
Is it possible that VRTF-6 could be vertex colours? The only reason I can think it wouldn't be is because the vertex colours (in Blender) requires Integers and not floats, but the conversions are easy enough.

May well be. I don't think vertex colors are actually used in the game... there was no discernable effect when they were replaced with zeroes. But I think the MODL and MLOD was built using exporters from RAD Games (Granny) and perhaps on a few models the artist painted on some vertex colors while they were making the mesh, and later changed the materials to textured.

However, you are in a good position to determine if it is the same way I learned what was what... just add the lines in a test script to import them as vertex colors. If it looks right, you are right. If it looks random and ugly, well, they are something else. If you figure it out, please update the Wiki spec, or get someone else to do it for you. With a good spec, someone may decide to tackle plug-ins for something else (any Max programmers out there)?

The object I'm working on is a bit complex so it might take longer for me to deliver that than is reasonable to hold back the update scripts.

So I've uploaded the latest versions:

Import - Fix needed for Vertex Groups where the related bone was a duplicate and therefor removed
Export - Error on no default UV Texture now provides a better error message. Making provision for VRTF-6 and non-sequenced VRTF/VBUF sections

I still need to update the .pdf, but the changes aren't that big.

Forgot to remove some console debug printing in the import script which would make no sense to anyone else and just fills the console. Uploaded a new verion. If you've already downloaded the previous, it's no biggie.

So recently I've been trying to mesh a simple new fence using the Deck Wood fence. When i go into import or export, I get errors stating "Python Script Error." Looking at the console window I see that it says "Blender Text object has no attribute 'setselectpos'." What is going on? I'm importing the .s3sacg file and i'm not really sure what I should be exporting it as.

The only thing I can guess is that you're exporting without importing first, but then you did say you're importing the .s3ascg file.

I'm attaching the views from my import and export menus. Are those the same you're using? If so, could you please attach your .blend file so I can have a look? Or describe the steps you're taking during your creation?

Thanks

I've updated the export script:

0.4.8 - Ensuring no errors are reported for meshes which do not have/should not have UV textures

I may be incorrect but I think it's most helpful if you say which item it was that you cloned so Ceixari can look at it and see what the problem is.

Thanks OM. Always good to know what was cloned and attaching a saved .blend (zipped) file is always welcome as well.

I tend to play around with a few options, but in this case it looks like there are either orphaned vertices/edges or unassigned faces. Best way would be for me to clone the same object and play with it to see.

To attach a file you need to place the file on a server. I think MTS has one you can use although I've never figured out how...I always just use my own. But once it's on a server you type:

http://servername/where it is on server/file name

Don't click that link...it's not gonna work. Is that what you mean? If so, and you don't have server space somewhere, hopefully someone can post how to use the MTS server.

You just go to modyourpanties.com, browse to your file, click upload, and copy the link it gives you.

Good to know...thank you

actually i got a vase to work for exporting but when i tried every other car it said ERR: Invalid vrtf item 3: expected 5 [vbuf: line 2980, group 1].

just like before

also here is the model if its poly count is way too high can you tell me how to "fix" it?

I've just extracted a car and I will attempt to replace that with a model of a BMW1. I will fix whatever occurs on my side.

EDIT: The polygons on the BWM1 model I have is WAYYYYY too high, S3ObjTool can't even handle the numbers

The one comile error I did have was because group00 had two UV maps assigned and when I replaced that I forgot to reassign two texture maps. After I assigned 2, it then compiled fine until it hit the huge numbers

how many polys?

The ObjTool, as currently written, does not handle more than 40K polys and 20K vertices per group. That is many more than are used in any model in the game.

I'd take this opportunity to request some relief with the quantity amount with the AnimTool but that's a different thread I suppose.

Hi Wes, thanks for your response. I wasn't complaining. Really

In any case, I was trying to just grab any car mesh trying to see the errors ertt95 was experiencing, but I see we'll have to be very careful with some objects. That said, it does mean I can now write those figures into my script and not actually do the export if the number exceeds.

I have however found a few low poly models and I'm playing with one at the moment.

I've been able to export my lowpoly and get it in game. The ingame looks a bit wheels only, but that's because I didn't fiddle with the UV or with the .dds images. I'm working on that to get a proper looking car to show

But it does show (at least to myself) that it is possible to use the scripts to produce a car.

I'm guessing the error that ertt95 got was due to the problem I raised in the Blender group about orphaned vertices/edges. There is a script in edit mode called Clean Meshes that could help.

During my experiments with the car mesh, I found something unrelated to the error ertt95 was experiencing. A fix has been put into the export script:

0.4.9 - A further fix to the VRTF/VBUF sequencing when multiple UVs aren't next to each other

I didn't think you were. The question was asked, however.

I have a method to most of my madness. Each item I read from a file has some sort of range checking done on it, in case the file is corrupt or the format changes and the reader gets 'lost', a sure recipe for a crash. I set values that are far enough above all of the game models in order to accommodate good construction practices, but not so large as to cause excessive memory allocation.

Most people that are playing Sims 3 probably have sufficient memory for me to just set it to 64K (which is the limit for face count using the 16-bit integers used in the game binaries), so long as they are not running lots of other applications. Windows will allow up to 2 Gb (more on a 64-bit version) per application, but if all you have is 512 Mb or 1 Gb of physical memory, the rest is allocated on disk, and it can be slow, sometimes making the machine almost useless.

The other thing is that if people start trying to place very high poly models in the game, it may crash. The way to get very detailed models is to make a decent low-poly representation, then make a high-poly version from that and use it to generate a normal map. This gets you the shading detail without so many polys placed in the game.

MilkShape is probably not the right tool for doing that level of work, but I think blender is fully capable of making and rendering the high-poly models needed for detailed normal maps.

I agree with everything you say. Apart from the gmae and machine being able to handle high-poly models or not, there is also the fact that high-poly models are also bigger in file size.

Blender does have a decimator modifier which if used properly can reduce polygons by a large amount (around 60%) with the object still looking pretty decent.

I have a pretty decent machine which is why I didn't even worry about grabbing a proper car mesh and tried to work with it. The lowpoly one I used was most probably too low, but it did what I needed to proove to myself that it was exporting. I'll most probably go back to a better mesh, beause if I have to do the images and the UV and the mesh, I could jsut as well put a nicer car into the game.

Thanks again for more info

TY for posting this...it never even occurred to me to try that. I'm always so focused on keeping the polys down that by the time I get to the shading part the thing is stripped of most of what would make it bake better.