PMBD

A number of people here have mentioned how easy it is to fix a hair mesh, so I was wondering if someone can please point me in the right direction.

I have a hair I d/l from MTS2 (the reno hair). It's free, and the creator does mention the gap, so this is not a complaint *grin*, but it's a little more than a "gap": the back of the neck is almost completely detached from the sim (when he puts his head down you can see all the way through to his teeth, which is a wee but more than disturbing). The hair also pokes through the head and glasses. You can see the gap on the pic at the thread:

http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=108343

I've only ever done hair recolours for my own use (no meshing), so have no idea how to fix this. I wouldn't worry, but it's for a story and I'll probably need to take pictures. I figured one of the hair experts here would be able to tell me where to start, or would be prepared to do the fix.

I do have Sim PE (which I rarely use unless I want to save a born-in-game Sim) but no other meshing tools.

I think only meshers would think it's easy - it's bloody hard!  It took me three freaking days to fix the Exnem mesh, and that's not even including the horrible layers he had.

That being said, I'll point you towards some tutes, though you do need a program.  Milkshape comes with a 30-day trial.

That'd be terrific. It must've been the gappy part of the S2C paysite thread that said something about a good mesher (not me!) being able to fix gaps fairly quickly.

I'll give it a go, though -- may as well. :)

Assuming the mesh hasn't been bump mapped and has no other animation (doesn't sway in the wind at all), you should be able to use Milkshape/Unimesh to edit that... relatively easy.  For a hair mesher it'd be like a 5 minute fix.

http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=158048

Dr Pixel explains how here - scroll down about halfway till you get to the part "There is one more assignment correction we need to make - the 5 vertices at the very bottom of the neck must always be partially assigned to the neck, or the mesh will have an ugly gap in certain positions in the game." - that's what you need to do.

If you don't know how to get the mesh from SimPE into Milkshape, that's covered on the first Unimesh body tutorial, which he links to at the top of that page there.

Let me know if you fix it- I liked that hair a lot except for the weird gappiness. :wink:

Thanks for that, HP. I will read through it all after work tonight and see what I can do once I've downloaded milkshape.

I will definitely let people know if I manage to fix it... although I'm not sure how I'll do, this would be my first meshing project so I'll probably bollux it.  :?

I haven't disappeared. :)

I have just downloaded the tools and am working gradually through the tutorials before I try my hand at the hair.

Gods, what a learning curve!

I hope you can fix it, I like the hair too

Another question for HP:

I've done all of the body meshing and recolouring tuts (well, redone the recolouring, I had those OK before) and they were very good, easy to work through :) but I have a probably stupid q now that I'm at the hair tut you recommended:

With the hair mesh itself, do the elder/adult/YA meshes need to be redone separately, or will reassigning the neck/skull bone for one work for all three? (ie just by resaving the mesh for those ages).

Beth I hope you can fix that reno hair. I love plickas hair but she has some gaps in a few of them. Their so great though. I'm glad your still out there:). :D

Assuming the hair already works the same for young adult, adult, and elder, then you should just be able to have one hair mesh for those ages.  

There are some exceptions with certain hair that was cloned from a Maxis hair that didn't work the same for young adults (like my Gaius hair).  This is due to the only 11 group hair mesh for adults/elders not working the same for young adults for some stupid Maxian reason that's an almighty pain in the ass to fix... but more than likely, most hairs will share the mesh for ya/a/e.

Excellent, thanks HP.

I pm'd plicka re the mesh and she's happy for it to be re-uploaded at MTS2 if I manage to fix it, but she wants it on her thread only. So I'm not sure how that goes insofar as sharing.

I'll try and get it done tonight (work has been a beyatch since last week)... and then I guess I'll need to ask if I can fix it so it doesn't end up going through the glasses... ;)

Well, you could send it to Plicka so she could upload it to the thread herself.

Unimesh has been updated very recently, with new and shiny support for bump maps and hair animation - the sexy natural bounce and sway in the breeze sort.  It may be worth looking into doing some of that to it while you're at it, if she's up for it...  

It's more learning, yes, but it's actually not -that- hard, especially with new Unimesh... just a matter of assigning a little weight to the animation bones for the hair rather than the regular bones...  So you may want to check into it while you're working on it.  Do one super-redo to perfect and animate it, perhaps.  :)

Erhm. Oookay. I will not be afraid...  I have never seen anyone's brain actually explode from getting a lot of information in a few days, so why not? The risks are minimal. ;)

I'm hoping by "recently" you don't mean less than 5 days ago.

If so, any extra tuts I can look at on the new stuff or is it all pretty self-explanatory? I'm one of those people who likes the "pretend I'm really stupid, hold me by the hand and tell me everything I need to know in words of 1 syllable or less," but once it's got, it stays got.

Cos what Reno really needs is even more sexy natural bounce.

And thanks for the idea for the avatar, too, so now I can be a realz fangurlz ;)

Unimesh got a new and major update on the 10th.  It's really not too much different in terms of operation, except for a couple dialog boxes... and just being able to animate hair and do bump maps all together without having to export/import in SMD format in SimPE when you're done (which then makes that GMDC uneditable in Milkshape).  New Unimesh is fracking awesome!

It's pretty well documented... the main change that would trip up beginners who have learned on the old version is if you are combining two GMDCs - where you used to say Yes to excluding additional joints, now you say No to including them.  You probably won't have to do that for hair though - that's mostly for body frankensteins.

With new Unimesh capable of doing animations, it is no more difficult, really, than fixing a neck gap.  It is the exact same concept, just more of the same: applying joint weights to vertices in certain positions influences how they move in relation to the location of those joints.  The skeleton moves, and each vertex gets pulled along according to how much it's weighted to the different joints.

Instead of assigning fully to things like head, neck, and spine2, to do sexy natural bounce animations, you'll find bits that stick out some, like edges of hair, bangs, points, etc., and weight the ends of those somewhat to a nearby animation bone - there are four: left, right, back, and front, and which one you choose influences how the hair will move.  You generally want to choose the closest one (or you can choose a blend of two by weighting equally to both of them) for best results.

It's certainly not necessary - I haven't released any animated hair yet (mostly because I tend to do short, close-cropped styles, but that's a different story).  But you seem to have quite a few brain cells to rub together, and you sound like you're making excellent progress...  If you're gonna do it, you may as well do it right.  :)

Your avatar totally rocks.  :D

Well, my few brain cells are doing something awfully wrong, because I'm stuck at the first instance.

So, I'm at this point at the tute you've linked for me:


Over to that tute:



Right. No problem. Except I can't find the GDMC, GMND, CRES, and SHPE files so I can do the "fix integrity" step, before being able to associate it with the bodyshop recolour. I'm sure I'm (obviously) missing a step somewhere, but I'm doing it with the exact same steps as in the dressmesh tutes (and managed not to mess that up hehe).

I'm going to apologise for the horrendously large capture pic, now.  :?
 
This is what I get when I try to do the "find resource" on what I have presumed is the Property Set: afhairmessedup_black. NB: there is no file with "Property Set" any where in the name, and hitting the "property set" tab on the left gave me the mesh names af, etc. I don't know if this is normal, of course. *grin* As you can see, there's no GMDC, etc files coming up on the find resource search.

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v623/Bethgael/simpe1.jpg)

What have I missed? The only thing I haven't done for this screenshot as in the dress tutes is I didn't do File > new first, but that didn't change the finder result, so I wanted you to see what I actually had.

I'm presuming (probably wrongly) that I'm supposed to do something with the alpha layers to get the GMDC, etc files from. Or is it that I'm working off a custom mesh?


TY. :)

You are searching for afhairmessedup_black - this will only return names that contain the _black part.

If you want to find the mesh for that, you'll need to just search for afhairmessedup

Easy shortcut for getting your parts:

Open SimPE and File - New.  

Tools - PJSE - Body Mesh Tool - Extracting Stage.  

Click Browse and find the recolour package you made in your SavedSims folder.  

Sit back and watch as it grabs any mesh parts associated with that recolour (for hair it'll get all ages - for bodies just the one) and plops them into your new file.  No extracting, no adding, just parts.  If you're doing hair, you can then delete the extraneous ages that you're not currently working on, Fix Integrity, save, and away you go.  :)

In my day we walked uphill both ways in the snow to gather mesh parts.

If you have an MSN, PM me your info - I can help ya there if ya like.

MY god. That was much easier.

Will pm:) PM'd

I am so sorry to ask for help again. I have to stop trying to work on this until 1am.

 :oops:  This time, I know I've done it properly. I worked through a maxis mesh so I had extra practice (and it worked, yay, and there was much rejoicing!), fixed my issues with the file confusion and have tried to do the reno hair extraction and bodyshop file linking three times now. The first time I completely mucked it up but after deleting everything and starting again, the next two times have given me the exact same result.

The original hair is supposed to look like this:

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v623/Bethgael/RenoFixNeeded.jpg)

I end up with this:

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v623/Bethgael/RenoFixFailed.jpg)

AND I've noticed my new file is smaller than the original extracted bodyshop file (only by about 15 kb though), but I figured that was because I've deleted the teen, child and toddler meshes on my working file.

I am remembering to delete the extra shpe and cres files. I am also almost 100% sure I'm getting the correct 3D ID ref file for the elder, ya and adult files to plug the modified into. I am taking Dr Pixel's advice to check on the mesh at this stage using a cloned sim rather than in the "New Project" section of Bodyshop.

I don't know if it's relevant, but the meshes and file names still all reference "af, yf etc" but the resultant hair is male (there are a bunch of m files but they seem to be referring to textures). The mesh has come out in the same way for the adult, ya and elder ages.

What have I mucked up this time?

And I'm wondering if it wouldn't just be easier to start again from scratch...

nevermind :D

Beth, I don't know anything about meshing (still stuck on the very first meshing tut on MTS2), but that hair looks really cool without the ponytail! :P

Yeah I agree. I prefer it without. ^^

Yeah, that hair looks like what I was looking for earlier.

I agree. The ponytail looks rather fake and flat compared to the lovely hair texture

Ohhh...  Okay, see, I took a big dose of Retardin, and thought you were working on a... intermediate experimental other thing with the messedupthingie.

The shortcut thingie is for Maxis meshes, not custom ones. Custom ones you already have the parts together.

She used the afhairmessedup mesh as the base for hers - you don't need to make a new mesh package and link anything to recolours for the edit - nor should you do so if you want it to work for any existing recolours.  Just open her mesh file, extract the GMDC, and edit that.  Save the new GMDC out of Milkshape with a new name, then replace it in the original mesh file, commit, save.

Use her actual mesh. Check. Thanks HP.  :D My god.... so it actually wasn't me this time. This is me doing a happy dance. Seee? :D

I wonder why that didn't occur to me... I guess the fact I was loading Plicka's actual hair into bodyshop meant that I thought the mesh I was accessing was hers. man, what a lot to take in.  :shock:

The good news is, I know how to link a new mesh to a texture inside out now. :)



Yeah, it's not bad, eh. But I'm trying to fix the gappy Reno hair *grin*

I may actually try to improve the ponytail as well. And I'll be lightening the recolour, cos, well, that red is a bit baugh.

And then I'll try animation.

Then I shall take to my bed for a week. ;) I have eschewed sleep for attempted meshing. I am officially addicted.

So I may play with the shaggy hair too. No neck gap there....

EDIT: Omfg. :x  

What can go wrong will....

Opened Plicka's mesh in SimPE. OK. Extracted GMDC to working folder. OK. Opened Milkshape. OK. Made sure settings were correct there. OK.

File > Import > Sims2 Unimesh Import V4.07 > GMDC file



No files shown in the windows.

Then, horror of all horrors (;)), when I go to close Milkshape:



I'm suspecting that whatever Plicka used to modify her mesh, there's a compatibility issue with the most recent versions of MS/Unimesh. Or not. Or I'm an idiot. Or the cosmos is trying to tell me something...

(I don't have Pets installed. I do have the other EPs).

I tried fiddling with that mesh, too, and experienced the same problem-- so it's not you.
To get it to open in MilkShape, I had to export it from SimPE as an OBJ file, then import it into MilkShape as an OBJ file.
But, that didn't seem to work so well when it was time to put it back in the game. (Maybe that's because I tried to be daring, and add animation. Or, more likely, it's because I forgot to put in the comments.)

So, if you try bringing it in as an OBJ, be sure to apply the proper comments!
I think I'm going to try fixing it again, too. The more the merrier, I hope.

Let me know how you go -- and how you did it, if HP doesn't come up with something. This mesh has become my personal Everest. It will be done, dammit, if I have to create the frackin' feckin' thing all over again from scratch, frammit.

No, I do not have an obsessive personality. Not at all. No, really. Erhm... *notes fangurl avatar* Never Mind.

And to think it all started so simply... Sims 2 Reno story idea. Cool. Hair mesh. Cool. Gappy inside-brain images! Hoi vey! Fix it. Can't be that hard, right? Learning curve... OK.... but no.... Nothing's ever simple... I feel like Mal from Firefly ;)

LOL Beth, no you don't have an obsession your just preoccupied with fixing the problem.  8)

hehe. Yes, but I want my Reno story to have pictures. *pout*  :oops:

I have pm'd Plicka at MTS2 in the hope that she may be able to shed some light on what she did to put it together, that may have caused the milkshape load issue, if it's not a compat. thingy.

If it can't be fixed, then I am going to spend my time making a new one, I think. May as well put the new skill to use (I use the word "skill" very lightly and with extreme reservation). I'd already made a new recolour for it, too, as the colour with the download is very dark (compare the pics above with my avatar). I also made a recolour of a left-ear pirate earring I picked up. I'd hate to waste it.

/wondering uselessly how hard it would be to make the EMT accessory he carries... hmmm..

Or I could try something simpler, like, oh, say, quantum physics. ;)

The new mesh version sounds exciting:). You keep teasing me with the Avatar of him. Navetsea made a great Leon Squall now, we need a great Reno. I love Red hair too!

I don't know that I'd do very well. Plicka did a good job (gap aside, still not a complaint) , and I am a rank beginner. I'm still at the "trolling-through-the-Tute3 to see if there are any other diffs between combining hair mesh parts and combining body mesh parts" stage (on that, HP, are there any other hair tutes I've missed on combining maxis mesh parts? I'm considering the male ponytail - the same one plicka used but with the male hair that has the strands already going over his face. I don't have enough experience, though, to know if I can use the last one and make it more boofy. Suggestions welcome).



That texture, btw, is actually the Maxis mesh for an adult female, available in game, with Plicka's Reno recolour. I'm not sure if you need an ep for it.

Oh wow, I didn't realize that.  :oops: I just checked and it comes with Uni.

Good luck with the hair, I'm still stuck on the very first object mesh tutorial.  :lol:

If that's the error you're getting, then she ran it through the SMD export/import to add bump mapping at some point.  You won't be able to edit it in Milkshape.  I was hoping new Unimesh would get past that if it were the case, but apparently not.  :(

You may be able to use Meshtool to edit it, or export group by group with SMD format and edit it in.... well, 3DS Max.

Or ask Plicka for her .ms3d file or GMDC before she did the SMD step.

OBJ format may help but you'd have to reassign the whole thing.  Guess not that big a deal if you're animating it at the same time.

beth, have you done the Unimesh tutorial where you frankenstein two bodies together, to switch shoes?  That'd be the closest to what you're looking for, I think.

If you are going to do that, remember: New Unimesh has changed the question it asks you when it imports a second GMDC from "Would you like to exclude additional bones?" to which you used to say YES to now asking you "Would you like to include additional bones" to which you now say NO.

You won't need any EP for that hair.  Though the base is Uni almost all Body Shop meshes and recolours work with everything, if they're custom.

Ah, well, them's the breaks. Looks like I'll be learning something else new this w/e ;)



Yep, and I'm going to do it a again a few times more, I think, to make sure. I may as well try making the Vincent Valentine clothing mesh I was considering while I'm learning to get this one done... and some three-quarter pants for my self-sim...



Good to know. Thankyou, HP.

Subject line stays the same. :)

BTW, I downloaded your baggy female pjs a long time ago and have been meaning to say since this thread started how much I love them. Use them all of the time-- so good to have some nice pjs that aren't hokey or slutty. :)