Fixing bad normals along seams in blender

I struggled. Is it the shoes? The skirt's legs? Lets fix the shoes... Ok it is the legs, shoes are fine with other stuff! Lets redo the legs... Nope didn't work. New WRK project? Nope. Redoing the MTK process ... Nope.

Let's just say i ended up with 3 wrk projects, 8 wso's, and a scrambled brain.

I ended up asking @justmiha97, who had a solution - a while ago he used it and might not work, but it did! So I wrote it down for myself and others.

Tutorial here

You need:

- Obj files/meshes of top/feet/bottom/head (depending on your cc) with all morphs, these should be thoroughly checked to have good normals and preferable unscathed fresh from EA, as they are what the seams of your item have to align with. I used the EA feet (Geom and morphs exported from TSRW) and my edit of JVSmith's torso (for its preg morph) for this skirt.

- Smugtomato geom tools

- Any version of blender that has the data transfer modifier & that works with geom tools (I use 3.6)

I've discovered this method a few years back.

It requires mesh duplication and multiple useage of data transfer modifier. It's a bit tedious, but simple, and if you understand how it works and why it works, you'll remember it forever and be able to get perfect results on seam fixing and custom normals, all inside blender, every time.

Never wrote a tutorial for it so I'm glad that the same method worked for another creator and that it's now shared with the rest of the community.

Bad news everyone...

Unfortunately, the release of the sclera accessory is delayed because I have a problem that I can't solve.

I worked for a texture that would suit me, and at first I checked how it looks only in Bodyshop, where it looked good, and then I checked how it looks in the game, and it disappointed me.

The screenshots show how smooth the gradients and transparency of the texture look in BS and CAS, and how rough it is in the game.

I tried SimStandardMaterial, StandardMaterial and SimSkin, AlphaRefValue 0/127/255, AlphaMultiplier 0/1 — but all in vain.

It seems that shaders in CAS and the game work according to different rules. I have already encountered the consequences of this when I wanted to make an accessory with transparency, an animated texture and several groups. Then the object also looked good in CAS and bad in the game.

If you have any ideas on how to solve the problem without redoing the textures, please share.

I will probably use this even as it is right now!!! I love the idea behind it, and it does exactly what it's supposed to! However, I'll add my two cents on the problem you're facing. This most likely has to do with the fact that when a sim is exported from CAS as an actual character file ready to be used as a sim in game, all the individual textures (eye color, eyelashes, makeup, clothes, brows and all the rest customization options) are composited into 4 different textures: - face - body - scalp and solid hair - alpha hair parts With the last two using the same hair texture composited over the skin scalp texture for the solid parts. If your face skin texture is lower resolution than your sclera texture, it will be composited into the face texture resolution, losing details in the process. Solution? Not sure. I think actual accessories like glasses don't actually get composited and are in fact kept separate, but again, not sure, as this I have not tested. Below on how Sims 2 (and by extension most games) optimize in-game customizeable characters. I hope people find this useful.

@lamare-sims you sneak! this is so cool, thank you for uploading this to MTS. I'm immediately checking this out rn!

Oh I'm so going back to ts2 now!

👩‍🎨 Extracting Hidden Face Morphs in The Sims 2

In The Sims 2, Sim faces contain hidden morphs that can be extracted in different ways. For a long time, only two morphs were known, but there are actually more.

1. Extracting Morphs via SimPE

What You Need:

Steps:

What Do the Morphs Contain?

2. Extracting All Morphs via 5gd File

What You Need:

Steps:

What Do the Morphs Contain?

Additional Information

If you have any additional information about these hidden morphs, feel free to share!

Source (RU):

These are used for animations, all facial animations, and are a reason why sims 2 facial animations still look great. There is actually 27 of these morphs (A lot of maxis documentation that has resurfaced recently confirms this). I've extracted them long time ago using blender, in 2019 possibly, as part of various instances of The Sims 2 Beta Server where a lot of ts2 related research was going on in various channels, also where a lot of simmers recently debunked corruption myths, before Rachel Black stepped to the scene to finish the job. The only way I've ever been able to extract these faceblends (that's how they're officially called by maxis of that time) is in a group of 4, where they're exported into 4 different blend shapes (they're widely known as this in the game industry) in blender, as mix of various of those 27 actual blend shapes. I've managed (inaccurately, because I did this manually) to separate all 27 shapes from the 4 that get exported, but the problem is, you can't import MORE than 4 of these using SimPE, since it only allows for import of 4 copies of vertex data. This, of course, breaks the file, and in game facial animations in return. This started as sims 2 reface project, but the problem was the fact that I had no idea how to import these back in the game, so I just gave up.

I'm glad someone was able to export all of them correctly, if they could be imported back in the game we could make changes to sim's faces, and there could possibly even be a rig made that allows for facial animation controls! (albeit importing animations of that type would need some research, possibly extensive one) I do think someone in this community must know about this way more than I do tho :D Keep reading for a rant on these and why they're still a big deal:

Hi, hope you don’t mind me entering this topic. I’ve also been doing some research on the face morphs for animations for quite some time.

The Gigantic Baby updated project (as cursed as it is) is the first thing I shared with a fully animated “custom face mesh”, which actually is a hair mesh with all the face morphs added. Not the first one I made, but this one is downloadable, so if anyone wants to poke at it a little bit, welp, there’s that. At the end of the day, it’s actually a really similar mesh to the regular Maxis faces, so there's not that much new to see.

Yet another big ramble under the cut (sorry about the long, long reblog chain):

Hey, I know I'm late on this, but the eye stuff is correct! Eyes UV map island and it's UV vertex position data is being moved and stretched to animate eye movement. Idk what kind of a rig control EA had regarding this, but the eye movement is insanely deliberate and satisfying. The game uses same technique to animate textures on models, like for example the repo-man gun. Also, geneticizing these newly imported faces with new morphs might be impossible with current tools. I don't think much people even understand how the system behind it works, besides targeting vertices of a defined area, and assigning their positions to the child sim as well. The face structure mesh is saved PER SIM for this exact reason, which makes genetic combinations practically unlimited and often highly irregular. I'd like to think it's based on vertex groups, but that might not be the case at all. If anyone knows anything about face features genetics in sims 2 more than what I already outlined here, please let me know.

Breakup, New Family Member, and Go Steady Wants/Fears Mod

This was made by a member of my community, Riftwalker, who graciously gave me permission to upload their edited version of the EA WantTrees.

NEED

Clean UI 1/3 Beta Release!

Updated with improved style and some CAS additions as a sneak peek. UPDATED ALL LINKS as well. They should work now.

For those who cannot download from dropbox, I’ve re-added it to G-Drive as well (hopefully this time it does not go missing):

UI Main Loading Screen Gamefreak’s Loading Screen compatible patch (REPLACES the original mod if you use Gamefreak’s Loading Screen Overhaul already).

DROPBOX Download below >>>

It’s finally HERE!

So what is this you wonder? It is a first third of clean UI release, currently in beta testing phase. What does it include? Well, here’s the list:

That’s 30% of it complete already. Here’s some images of it:

Issues with this build: - going into CAST in build/buy gets rid of half camera control background graphic - career tab days off are colored light blue and are thus barely readable These are two issues that don’t seem to be easily fixable but for final release I’ll try my best.

Now onto downloads!

THIS NEXT ONE IS REQUIRED! I accidentally made clean UI itself this mod compatible, will make a version that does not require this mod!!!

Some final words.

Thank you everyone who follows this project. I hope this is enough for now, there’s more to come later, but I will be taking a break from this project for a bit. Next module is CAS and edit town/tutorial/family management. I also have a Ko-Fi page here that is open for donations. If you want and can please consider donating. Thank you once again.

Updated all the links!

Dropbox might be giving you some issues, as it seems to always does, but G-Drive should work completely!!!

Clean UI 1/3 Beta Release!

Updated with improved style and some CAS additions as a sneak peek.

For those who cannot download from dropbox, I’ve re-added it to G-Drive as well (hopefully this time it does not go missing):

UI Main Loading Screen Gamefreak’s Loading Screen compatible patch (REPLACES the original mod if you use Gamefreak’s Loading Screen Overhaul already).

DROPBOX Download below >>>

It’s finally HERE!

So what is this you wonder? It is a first third of clean UI release, currently in beta testing phase. What does it include? Well, here’s the list: - Completed Game Intro Loading Screen (separate download) - Complete Main Menu - Complete Save Loading Screen - Complete Buy mode (without blueprints) - Complete Build mode (without blueprints) - Most of live mode in progress (without most of EP content) That’s 30% of it complete already. Here’s some images of it:

Issues with this build: - going into CAST in build/buy gets rid of half camera control background graphic - career tab days off are colored light blue and are thus barely readable These are two issues that don’t seem to be easily fixable but for final release I’ll try my best.

Now onto downloads!

- Clean UI Main download - HERE - Clean UI Game Loading Screen - HERE (no need to download if you already got it from here) - Clean UI compatible Gamefreak’s Loading Screen Overhaul - HERE (required if you use Gamefreak’s Loading Screen Overhaul!!! REPLACE THE ORIGINAL MOD!!!)

Some final words.

Thank you everyone who follows this project. I hope this is enough for now, there’s more to come later, but I will be taking a break from this project for a bit. Next module is CAS and edit town/tutorial/family management. I also have a Ko-Fi page here that is open for donations. If you want and can please consider donating. Thank you once again.

Updated for people who couldn't download it from Dropbox. Now it's on Dropbox AND G-Drive!

Clean UI 1/3 Beta Release!

It’s finally HERE!

So what is this you wonder? It is a first third of clean UI release, currently in beta testing phase. What does it include? Well, here’s the list: - Completed Game Intro Loading Screen (separate download) - Complete Main Menu - Complete Save Loading Screen - Complete Buy mode (without blueprints) - Complete Build mode (without blueprints) - Most of live mode in progress (without most of EP content) That’s 30% of it complete already. Here’s some images of it:

Issues with this build: - going into CAST in build/buy gets rid of half camera control background graphic - career tab days off are colored light blue and are thus barely readable These are two issues that don’t seem to be easily fixable but for final release I’ll try my best.

Now onto downloads!

- Clean UI Main download - HERE - Clean UI Game Loading Screen - HERE (no need to download if you already got it from here) - Clean UI compatible Gamefreak’s Loading Screen Overhaul - HERE (required if you use Gamefreak’s Loading Screen Overhaul!!!)

Some final words.

Thank you everyone who follows this project. I hope this is enough for now, there’s more to come later, but I will be taking a break from this project for a bit. Next module is CAS and edit town/tutorial/family management. All of my downloads have also been migrated to google drive, because drop box banned me for some reason. All links on this blog work once again. I’m back on dropbox due to popular demand. I also have a Ko-Fi page here that is open for donations. If you want and can please consider donating. Thank you once again.

Clean UI

UPDATE

Yes, you read that right. I was forced to update clean UI because Google Drive failed me (and I've returned to Dropbox, write me in DMs if there's issues with this new download), so now you'll have the most up to date version of it, which isn't much at all, and a similar version to it has been publicly available on my Discord server already. There you can also get updates on the development of this project.

This version includes a lot of changes to the overall style of the UI elements, synchronizing them over the board and making them easier on the eyes.

It also includes some additional UI elements, as well as some parts of CAS redone in that style. None of these changes are fully consistent. However it is not to the detriment of live mode, and live mode's actually looking way better than before, even if not fully consistent (lots of popups have not been updated for the new style, but main parts of the UI all are). CAS however is... well... currently a mess, because it's still in development. However, I've returned to work on Clean UI so expect this to change soon.

👩‍🎨 Extracting Hidden Face Morphs in The Sims 2

In The Sims 2, Sim faces contain hidden morphs that can be extracted in different ways. For a long time, only two morphs were known, but there are actually more.

1. Extracting Morphs via SimPE

What You Need:

Steps:

What Do the Morphs Contain?

2. Extracting All Morphs via 5gd File

What You Need:

Steps:

What Do the Morphs Contain?

Additional Information

If you have any additional information about these hidden morphs, feel free to share!

Source (RU):

These are used for animations, all facial animations, and are a reason why sims 2 facial animations still look great. There is actually 27 of these morphs (A lot of maxis documentation that has resurfaced recently confirms this). I've extracted them long time ago using blender, in 2019 possibly, as part of various instances of The Sims 2 Beta Server where a lot of ts2 related research was going on in various channels, also where a lot of simmers recently debunked corruption myths, before Rachel Black stepped to the scene to finish the job. The only way I've ever been able to extract these faceblends (that's how they're officially called by maxis of that time) is in a group of 4, where they're exported into 4 different blend shapes (they're widely known as this in the game industry) in blender, as mix of various of those 27 actual blend shapes. I've managed (inaccurately, because I did this manually) to separate all 27 shapes from the 4 that get exported, but the problem is, you can't import MORE than 4 of these using SimPE, since it only allows for import of 4 copies of vertex data. This, of course, breaks the file, and in game facial animations in return. This started as sims 2 reface project, but the problem was the fact that I had no idea how to import these back in the game, so I just gave up.

I'm glad someone was able to export all of them correctly, if they could be imported back in the game we could make changes to sim's faces, and there could possibly even be a rig made that allows for facial animation controls! (albeit importing animations of that type would need some research, possibly extensive one) I do think someone in this community must know about this way more than I do tho :D Keep reading for a rant on these and why they're still a big deal:

Sims 1 Alternative UI UPDATE

With this new-old The Sims 1 Legacy edition releasing, I decided to finalize this mod, and release an update that fixes a few things and adds a new resolution.

So, what is new/fixed?

And with that the mod now supports these resolutions:

Get the mod HERE!

Read old text below:

Keep reading

An update to this mod as well, finally finalized, unless I get other resolutions requested (besides standardized resolutions, there's a lot missing still).

The Sims 3 Material Painter Final Version

UPDATE

I've updated the painter, and with it, included some new things as well as a fully interactive tutorial on how to use it.

NEEDED Prerequisites:

THE TUTORIAL

The tutorial is extensive, done in numbered steps, and is UI and workflow oriented, allowing you to click on any relevant UI element to learn more about it, and how it relates to the complete workflow. There's an additional, advanced chapter, for people who are interested in learning more about blender texture painter's functionality and techniques.

PAINTER ADDITIONS

The Painter has been slightly fixed, with multiplier's lines and depth shading being shifted to the correct depth, and with AO being more pronounced. This will make multiplier output even more accurate. Added some new minor tweaks to UI and Color Palettes to accommodate for the tutorial.

DOWNLOAD

Get updated templates with new files HERE!

If you only want to access the tutorial, you can do it HERE.

You can access the original post below:

Updated the painter with few minor fixes and addons, and included an in-depth, INTERACTIVE tutorial on how to use it.

[TS3] Less Banding

Haii honey buns!!! :3

This is an ASI mod for TS3 that addresses banding by giving the game a bit more color depth. Unlike my older attempt using shaders, this one doesn't have any weird artifacts!