Hæ!

What could the issue be if the texture appears all black in TSRW but shows up in Blender? Parts of it seem to show through, especially when sliding the body morph slider all the way to fat.




Edit: It might also be of interest to note, that the Blender model has a Sims head and lower body I can't seem to get rid of, as it doesn't show up in the Scene Collection.


Thanks in advance!

That's how it looks in TSRW when you make a double mesh that is very close together.

Not sure what you mean by "show thru". If inner mesh is clipping thru outer, you need to delete the inner mesh, duplicate the outer with current bones, flip normals and shrink/flatten inner mesh. Or solidify. Inner and outer mesh bones will be better aligned. Any time you need to repaint bones, you will need to delete the inner mesh, paint just the outer, and remake the inner with current ones.

Fat morphs are notoriously whacky on custom meshes. Vertices move furthest from base, and have more chance to go sideways. MTK is great, but vertices of Sims garment morph donor and custom mesh are never aligned, and MTK does the best it can. I spend a lot of time "adjusting" morphs back in Blender.

TSRW autmatically adds head and body parts. I guess you made that as a top.

What I mean by "show through" is this little patch of blue peaking out at the front:



And when you clip inside the model by zooming in, the texture becomes more visible.

I'm completely new to Blender, so I'm not even sure what a double mesh is. Is that a huge issue and how do I avoid it in the future?

I meant, there were a head and lower body in Blender I couldn't get rid of. But I resolved that issue. They were part of a rig I ended up deleting.

Let's start from the beginning. Where did you get the mesh? Is it a game conversion, TS4, or a TS3 conversion you wish to modify? TS3 and TS4 do similar things with meshes. Foreign game mesh conversions can be more complicated. Kind of sounds like a foreign mesh from what you wrote about a rig???

A doubled mesh is used to show both sides of the garment. Foreign games use different shaders, and backface culling, OR a doubled mesh.

Textures only show on one side of a mesh in game. To show textures on both sides, you must double the mesh (duplicate it), flip normals and move the inner mesh away from outer. Using solidify will automatically flip normals, and create an edge face row. The further the inner is from outer, the less you see black in TSRW, but the "fabric" is thicker.

What you show in the pic, looks like either differences in bone weights between inner and outer meshes, or vertices misaligned. Also from that pic, it looks as this mesh is made similar to some Sims CC hairs, with perhaps no space at all between meshes.

Honestly, a conversion is a bit ambitious for a beginner. If you wish, upload your files, either here, or wherever and link to it. Include your work, and the original, that way I can see how it's put together. I can try to guide you thru it.

The mesh was extracted using Sims 4 Studio from Sims 4 custom content.

I've uploaded my .blend file as well as the original Sims 4 .package here:
https://easyupload.io/m/twt75s

Thanks a lot for the help!

Unfortunately, I get a format error when trying to open the .blend file. I will guess that with you being new to Blender, you have a newer Blender version than I, and Blender is garbage when it comes to older versions opening files made in newer versions.

So, I start at the beginning. I open the package with s4pe (I have not used S4Studio) and save all geoms, and just 1 texture image as .dds. Using S4CASTools, I convert to object and import to Blender 2.93 to figure out LOD 1 parts. Next, I import my af full body mesh. You would use swimsuit plunge L1. I delete the torso area, and shoulders, above sleeves as they are not needed.





A trick to get more space on a UV map is to mirror left arm UV, and move it to the right arm UV. Negatives are that arm tattoos will not work, and the arms will look messed up in CAS, but will be fine in game. At this point, I move to GIMP. I find it easier to make final alignment of the garment UV to the texture by using the overlay feature in Blender. So, at this point, rearrange the texture so it does not cover body parts. Texture that covers body parts will be seen on the body in game.




I will continue...

Yes, I'm using Blender 4.0

I guess I'll need to look into s4pe and S4CASTools. I've never used those programs before.

Well, I use those, because I was able to figure out how to use them. ))) I have studio, but haven't tried it yet. Honestly, probably won't, since I am able to do what I want to by other means. Similar to Milkshape. I don't use that program either, but know that many others do.

Anyway, are you understanding what I've tried to show you so far?

I've downloaded both, and they seem fairly easy to understand. Everything seems clear so far.

Quick update: I went into Blender and manually flipped all the normals. The textures DO show up now.



Now I have to take care of the arms not showing up (I guess I'm not supposed to delete them from the TS3 body in Blender) and the textures showing up on the legs, which I guess is just a matter of playing around with placement.

Both issues are relatively easy to fix, and I began talking about both.

In conversions, there are important mesh parts that you should use TS3 parts to replace any from TS4 (or any mesh conversion). I generally replace the hands, with TS3 hands, because of bone alignment in the fingers, and skin texture map alignment. Finger bones are a PITA to paint, although I have done it for "special" projects. For your project, replace hands with arms, and cut off parts of the arms that are inside of the sleeves.



You cannot have any textures on skin, or other parts that will have a different texture, such as a bottom, since you are making this as a top. This is why I mirror, and overlay arms to "make" more map space, and it is so much easier to make this as an outfit, and either use accessory panties, or add a panties multiplier to your texture. TS3 does not give much room for tops.



I actually used the area that is reserved for bottom parts, since I made this as outfit.

Thanks once again for your willingness to help!


It's starting to look closer to what I had hoped.



Some issues I have still to fix like these weird patterns on the left shoulder and back that aren't on the original texture:





and there seems to be mesh geometry on the edge of the leaf-shaped ends of the sleeves that I can't seem to find in Blender. It doesn't look bad, in fact it looks better than the other gold highlights, but it gives it an inconsisntent look. I might have to look into that further.

In the game the whole thing looks... ok, though the morph seems a bit wonky.



I know, that I have tackled quite a task for my first Sims mod, but I guess that's one way to learn.

Well, it's looking pretty good! Yes, conversions can be a bit much, but as you have the will and patience to stick with it, it doesn't seem to be a problem. )))

I am guessing that the difference in your work file, and what I have, is that I couldn't open you Blender 4.0 file?

Generally, a 3 color mask is filled with the red, and yellow/ magenta, or green/ blue to mark over it. Masks that have a lot of uncolored areas, are usually 4 color alpha masks.

The odd marks, could be from the original normal map... NOT to be confused with normals and UV mapping in Blender. In TSRW Mesh tab, on the line of materials, move your mouse pointer to the right, below face count, and click. 3 dots will appear... click them. For diffuse and alpha, click right of the image, then clcik edit. At top of the new window, click browse. Just choose your multiplier. The alpha will automatically use the same when you close the tab. BBut, also do the same for the specular, but of course, use your specular for that. You need to either make a new normals image, or use a blank. The normal map holds elevation details, which often show as a "ghost" on your project.

Morphs can be a total PITA with a custom mesh. I won't soft sell it. I can work with you on them when you are ready.

Just poking my head in to say that handmade morphs are more viable than ever because of the Blender GEOM tools If one is going to spend a lot of effort fighting with the auto-morphs, can sometimes better to just make the morph you want from the start.

If you're proficient with Blender itself, you can use a handful of tools (Shrinkwrap modifier, Sculpt Mode, etc) to create a perfect reference for MTK's automorph, and then just use MTK to add them directly to the final package (skipping any handling of .wso). I do it that way primarily for converting between ages and genders, but morphs are technically more suited to it given that they are actually the same body.
But it largely depends on one's experience and familiarity with Blender, autos are decent for getting it done if not.