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Frenchie
Forum Resident
Original Poster
#1 Old 3rd Oct 2009 at 9:07 AM
Accessories tutorial?
Hello,

I've been looking all around the site (and actually, other sites as well!) for methods enabling me to make custom non-replacement accessories, as I have a bunch of admittedly stupid ideas. I have a bunch of ideas, but sadly enough, every time I've tried to follow several tutorials, then fill in the gaps by myself, I've failed hard.
I've seen creators like ailivina who've released new accessories. Do they have much more CC-creation-savvy than me, or is there an actual tutorial somewhere around (not Wes'. That one is for the modification and replacement of default meshes) that I've failed to see so far?

Thanks in advance.

PS: I have Milkshape, the CTU and a bunch of other tools I downloaded at random because I wasn't sure whether they'd be required. I also have a bit of experience in accessory-making for TS2, if it can help.
Esmeralda
Mad Poster
#2 Old 3rd Oct 2009 at 10:21 AM
If you can follow the Wes tutorial, then you can make a non-default accessory using the CTU rather than the method Wes gives for importing it as a default replacement- I've only recently learned to do meshing, and it was from the Wes tutorial that I learned how. I then experimented with using CTU to import an accessory as a non-default, and to my pleased surprise, it worked - it was how I created the one red cyber eye for my Anna Navarre sim which is uploaded here on this site.

Create your accessory in Milkshape, then import it into CTU as an accessory of whichever type is appropriate. In the 'Meshes' tab, give your mesh a new name other than the default one (otherwise it will be imported as a default replacement - I learned that the hard way the first time I imported the cyber eye!) and input the names of your LODs, and a bumpmap if you're using a new one.
Frenchie
Forum Resident
Original Poster
#3 Old 3rd Oct 2009 at 10:52 AM
Quote: Originally posted by EsmeraldaF
If you can follow the Wes tutorial, then you can make a non-default accessory using the CTU rather than the method Wes gives for importing it as a default replacement- I've only recently learned to do meshing, and it was from the Wes tutorial that I learned how. I then experimented with using CTU to import an accessory as a non-default, and to my pleased surprise, it worked - it was how I created the one red cyber eye for my Anna Navarre sim which is uploaded here on this site.

Create your accessory in Milkshape, then import it into CTU as an accessory of whichever type is appropriate. In the 'Meshes' tab, give your mesh a new name other than the default one (otherwise it will be imported as a default replacement - I learned that the hard way the first time I imported the cyber eye!) and input the names of your LODs, and a bumpmap if you're using a new one.


There's a problem, though. I used the CTU as the last part of the method without a result either. Not even a messed-up shape in the catalogue, nothing. The star-shaped glasses I've created don't appear anywhere. I can't even view them in the CTU (nor can I view any other accessory for that matter, I get a "no model loaded" message).

As for the meshes, the fields in the CTU are named LOD1, LOD1_1, etc, but the files of my accessory are named starting with LOD0! I'm not too sure about what I'm supposed to do... I'm pondering waiting till there's a detailed tutorial to non-default accessories, but I'd like to make some before...
Tashiketh
Warrior Gryphon
site owner
#4 Old 3rd Oct 2009 at 10:59 AM
Did you forget to add a Design in the Designs tab? You can't just add meshes and have it work.

The release version only supports LOD1 and up, but the development version supports LOD0 too.
Story books are full of fairy tales, of Kings and Queens, and the bluest skies.
Esmeralda
Mad Poster
#5 Old 3rd Oct 2009 at 11:09 AM
Are they sunglasses or regular glasses? The CTU can't cope with sunglasses, though I think this is supposed to be included in the next version (I hope!) - at present, sunglasses will come through with no lenses.

Input your LODs into the LOD1, LOD2 and LOD3 fields in CTU - the LOD1_1 etc fields are for extra bits that are attached to a LOD1 and you probably don't need them for glasses (I've never used them myself for any mesh I've imported), so ignore them. I too have had the problem of importing an accessory wth CTU and it not showing up in-game - I guess there must be some items that CTU can't import successfully for some reason. You have to do a lot of trial and error at the moment, unfortunately!

EDIT: Ah, I see Delphy has given you some helpful advice as I was typing this!
Frenchie
Forum Resident
Original Poster
#6 Old 3rd Oct 2009 at 1:13 PM
I appear to have managed to create my glasses... so far!



Going to edit the texture now.

Thanks for the advice, I'll write a tutorial as soon as I can to help whoever will attempt it after me.
Esmeralda
Mad Poster
#7 Old 3rd Oct 2009 at 2:09 PM
Great, you did it! Fun glasses!
Merkaba
Lab Assistant
#8 Old 14th Oct 2009 at 10:05 AM
I have a problem. I've also been looking for some tutorials and I failed. I've read some advice and CTU tutorial but still I can't manage to get my mesh into CTU... I've added a design, filled boxes under mesh tab and I still can't see my mesh (what appears is ea's mesh) ... Can somebody pleeeaaase help me solve this problem? (I'm creating a head accessory)
BloomsBase
Sockpuppet
#9 Old 14th Oct 2009 at 11:17 AM
A tutorial would be cool on how to adchieve that
I tried about 20 times(prolly more) to make a non default replacement but i failed everytime, wether i add (copied) designes, add custom meshes(renamed)
Nothing works (Nothing shows up) so i have to stick to TSR's workshop, wether i like it or not.
Esmeralda
Mad Poster
#10 Old 14th Oct 2009 at 11:40 AM
I don't think it can be done with CTU, but if anyone knows different, I'd be interested to know. I've had no success importing head accessories other than clear-lensed glasses into the game with CTU, and have had only minimal success doing so with TSR Workshop - they will import with TSRW but the results are often not very good, either poor resolution quality or mashed-up together with the original item you cloned from. I thought the latest version of CTU was going to enable importing sunglasses with both lenses and frames, but I'm still only getting the frames and no lenses coming through. If anyone has had success with importing head accessories with CTU other than clear eyeglasses, I'd love to know how you did it!
Merkaba
Lab Assistant
#11 Old 14th Oct 2009 at 4:12 PM
That's not good news... Well, the main problem I'm facing now is that CTU is not importing my mesh (I decided to mod glasses as a test). I'm starting to feel like an idiot but... What the hell is wrong? x_X
ailivina
Test Subject
#12 Old 15th Oct 2009 at 5:44 AM
I always clone the 3 hoops bracelet to do my accessories, then change its catagory (cas part type) to be what I want, using CTU.
If I choose glasses, importing lods do not change the mesh, I don't know why, but I use the 3 hoops bracelet and it works fine, so perhaps you should have a try too.
ailivina
Test Subject
#13 Old 15th Oct 2009 at 5:48 AM
I tried current version TSRW, glasses there have two parts of meshes, I can import them seperately, but each part must have the same or lower polys than the cloned one, otherwise it will crash...
I have heard they are making a new version and meshes can be imported freely, but I don't know when it will be released...
Esmeralda
Mad Poster
#14 Old 15th Oct 2009 at 11:15 AM
Quote: Originally posted by ailivina
I always clone the 3 hoops bracelet to do my accessories, then change its catagory (cas part type) to be what I want, using CTU.
If I choose glasses, importing lods do not change the mesh, I don't know why, but I use the 3 hoops bracelet and it works fine, so perhaps you should have a try too.


Wow, that's an interesting idea - I'll give it a try! Thank you!

Quote: Originally posted by ailivina
I tried current version TSRW, glasses there have two parts of meshes, I can import them seperately, but each part must have the same or lower polys than the cloned one, otherwise it will crash...
I have heard they are making a new version and meshes can be imported freely, but I don't know when it will be released...


Yeah, you export the frames and lenses separately from TSRW, and then you can only reshape each of them, not add anything or take anything away.
Merkaba
Lab Assistant
#15 Old 15th Oct 2009 at 4:09 PM
Quote: Originally posted by ailivina
I always clone the 3 hoops bracelet to do my accessories, then change its catagory (cas part type) to be what I want, using CTU.
If I choose glasses, importing lods do not change the mesh, I don't know why, but I use the 3 hoops bracelet and it works fine, so perhaps you should have a try too.


ain't working

sorry to bother but... can you please write step by step what you are doing in CTU? it's starting to be really frustrating: I don't know if I'm the dummy or the program is trying to drive me crazy (I believe the first one is true ><). I really miss sims2 right now...
BloomsBase
Sockpuppet
#16 Old 15th Oct 2009 at 9:26 PM
It seems impossible on some computers Merkaba.
I am certainly no noob when it comes to stuff like that, but it aint working for me either.
ailivina
Test Subject
#17 Old 17th Oct 2009 at 1:29 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Merkaba
ain't working

sorry to bother but... can you please write step by step what you are doing in CTU? it's starting to be really frustrating: I don't know if I'm the dummy or the program is trying to drive me crazy (I believe the first one is true ><). I really miss sims2 right now...


I don't know what do you mean of aren't working, current version CTU never show the new mesh immediately after I commit the lods, I need to save and preopen the package to preview new meshes. and I like using previous version CTU to do the preview work...current version only show me grey models...
Merkaba
Lab Assistant
#18 Old 18th Oct 2009 at 8:54 AM Last edited by Merkaba : 18th Oct 2009 at 9:32 AM.
oh lord, it worked x__X I've no idea what the hell I did, but thank you all for help!

edit: nah, right, now it's not appearing in game...
jkessels
Test Subject
#19 Old 18th Oct 2009 at 10:46 AM
Quote: Originally posted by ailivina
I need to save and preopen the package to preview new meshes.

That's the golden tip! Works for me.
BloomsBase
Sockpuppet
#20 Old 18th Oct 2009 at 1:39 PM Last edited by Base1980 : 18th Oct 2009 at 1:51 PM.
I finally figured it out, i hope this will work for others too:
*Open CTU *choose your outfit/accesoire or watever you want ot clone with the 3 tabs Age/Gender and Type
*Click the CAS thumbnail of the part you want to clone
*Go to the tab designe and click the tab add new designe and choose ''copy all from base''
*A new designe will be created(this can take some time!)
*Go to the Meshes tab and rename the mesh name in the box halfway the page.
Put your name in front of it or watever name you want to give it...
*click commit and save your package in your:
The sims3/mods/packages folder

This is how i created a non default replacement part, check it ingame if you like.
You should now have a duplicate in CAS from the part you cloned.
Later on you can replace the mesh/add new textures switch category's or watever.

I am still not sure wat i did wrong all the time, but must have been me.....
Glad i got it working as it is much better then TSR workshop.
Esmeralda
Mad Poster
#21 Old 18th Oct 2009 at 1:50 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Base1980
I finally figured it out, i hope this will work for others too:
*Open CTU *choose your outfit/accesoire or watever you want ot clone with the 3 tabs Age/Gender and Type
*Click the CAS thumbnail of the part you want to clone
*Go to the tab designe and click the tab add new designe and choose ''copy all from base''
*A new designe will be created(this can take some time!)
*Go to the Meshes tab and rename the mesh name in the box halfway the page.
Put your name in front of it or watever name you want to give it...
*click commit and save your package in your:
The sims3/mods/packages folder

This is how i created a non default replacement part, check it ingame if you like.
You should now have a duplicate in CAS from the part you cloned.
Later on you can replace the mesh/add new textures switch category's or watever.


Yes, that's exactly right, that works great for outfits and occasionally (but not always) eyeglasses with no lenses (or in one special case I made, lenses with no frames), but I've never been able to get it to work successfully for any other type of head accessory, unfortunately! Anything else either crashes TS3 when I scroll down to it in CAS, or just doesn't show up at all.

What types of accessories have you been able to get this to work successfully for?
BloomsBase
Sockpuppet
#22 Old 18th Oct 2009 at 1:54 PM
Make sure you delete your caches every time you have made a edit to your package and are rebooting the game,
Otherwise then that i do not know wat the problem can be.
Adding new meshes/or replace them i do with Postal, its easier for me as you easy make mistakes with tgi references in new meshes
With Postal its easier to view all

I need the beard or moustache meshes/packages as i want the transparancy that comes with it(and works)

I think most problems come from people that do not know how to make new GEOM packages and attache them to the accesoires with CTU.
The mistake many make is that the GEOM package containes textures you often need to edit, most do not know how or mess up the tgi references.
I do know how the glasses work, i might be able to help?
Esmeralda
Mad Poster
#23 Old 18th Oct 2009 at 2:02 PM
I'll give Postal a try, thanks for the advice!
BloomsBase
Sockpuppet
#24 Old 18th Oct 2009 at 2:12 PM
Ah, i saw your glasses.
I think you want/need to edit the DDS files located in the GEOM.
The lenses you can uvmap on the same spot as the original, thats not the problem i guess?
Esmeralda
Mad Poster
#25 Old 18th Oct 2009 at 2:40 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Base1980
I do know how the glasses work, i might be able to help?


Do you mean sunglasses? I can make sunglasses with TSR Workshop with no problem, EXCEPT, they come out very pixellated, which really doesn't look at all good. TS3 desperately needs decent sunglasses, especially for men, and I've made the ones below for both men and women, which would look good if only they weren't all pixellated around the edges:


TSR Workshop is very limited and it only uses .obj files, which maybe doesn't produce as good quality as .simgeom files do? Or maybe TSR Workshop itself just isn't much good at producing good quality graphics? If I can figure out how to package the .simgeoms using Postal, I wonder if the glasses would look better quality. Have you successfully made non-pixellated-looking glasses that way?
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