bluetexasbonnie
8th Feb 2011, 06:06 AM
I did not find a tutorial specifically about preserving object animations using UniMesh. With the help of discussions and other tutorials, I cobbled together a method that worked for the few items I’ve done so far. Hope this helps others get started.
Retaining Object Animations
This tutorial shows one method of retaining the original object animations in your new object. It assumes that you are familiar with basic object creation and meshing.
Requirements
– SimPe (http://sims.ambertation.de/en//)
- Milkshape (http://chumbalum.swissquake.ch/)
- Unimesh Plugin by Wes_h (http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=122399)
Preplanning is very important with any mesh making – especially animated ones. It can be helpful to review how the object animates in game before starting. Start the game and put the object you intend to clone through its paces. Watch whether the sim actions are high or low. Things don’t have to line up exactly, but it looks really dumb if your sim is reaching high to open a door on the refrigerator and your door is low. This is about preserving the existing animations, not making new ones. Either adapt your vision for your new object, or find another object to clone if there is a major mismatch.
Clone your object in the normal way, assign new GUIDs.
Go to GMDC. Extract the GMDC with the mesh by right clicking on the entry in the resource tree. If there is more than one applicable GMDC (like for counters), then you will need to do these steps for each one.
http://thumbs.modthesims.info/getimage.php?file=1174317
Give it a name you can understand/remember.
http://thumbs.modthesims.info/getimage.php?file=1174318
Import the extracted GMDC into Milkshape. Use “Sims2 UniMesh Import V4.09A”.
http://thumbs.modthesims.info/getimage.php?file=1174319
If you get the message “Some skin weights do not equal 100%. Do you want these corrected?”, answer “Yes”.
If you get the message “WARN: Unhandled UV Delta Blocks Present. Model Name(s) were truncated. ….”, click “Okay”.
If this is your first time doing any animation in Milkshape, then you probably have a lot of random looking blue lines like this.
http://thumbs.modthesims.info/getimage.php?file=1174320
If so, the joint size symbol in Milkshape is too large. Go to File>Preferences>Misc and change the “Joint Size” to 0.01. (Thanks for the tip Wes!) The result should look more like this:
http://thumbs.modthesims.info/getimage.php?file=1174321
I clean the extracted GMDC up by deleting wall shadows and groundshadows. They are not included in joints and are not needed for this. So far, I have not encounted an object where any shadows were included in the joint. However, just to be certain, I do not delete any of the miscellaneous shadows (like the handles on counters) until I confirm that they are not part of the joints.
It is helpful to rename the groups at this stage. Just adding ‘old’ to the beginning of the group name works well. Export using “Sims2 UniMesh Import V4.09”.
http://thumbs.modthesims.info/getimage.php?file=1174322
More preplanning. Review the joint assignments. Select “Joint” tab on the right in Milkshape. Click first joint name, then “SelAssigned” (select assigned). Look at the points that become highlighted. Not all joints will have points associated with them. We can ignore those without points (but do NOT delete). Repeat for each joint name, paying attention to what part of the mesh is highlighted.
http://thumbs.modthesims.info/getimage.php?file=1174323
In the case of the refrigerator, there are 3 joints with points assigned to them, which I'll refer to as – frame, left door & right door. There were two joints that had no points assigned. When you make the new mesh, the elements that make up these three parts need to be in separate groups. You can have more than one group that makes up the parts – such as a glass panel and its solid frame – but you can not have a group that belongs to two joints. Every point (vertex) of your mesh should be associated with one, and only one part.
We are finished with the GMDC for a little while. Close it in Milkshape.
Make your new mesh in object format – keeping in mind the need for separate parts. Here is what my new refrigerator looks like.
http://thumbs.modthesims.info/getimage.php?file=1174316
Note 1: Before doing the joints, I make a preliminary .obj file with everything grouped as needed for the final object. I test this in game before I bother with the joints. If you are doing something very similar to the original Maxis mesh, this is probably not necessary. This one is a repository slave to a custom counter, hence the atypical group name ‘countertop’.
Note 2: The Maxis refrigerator has ‘content’ (food) showing in the doors like modern refrigerators. In their mesh, part of the contents moves with the joint. If you were doing a normal refrigerator, you would have 3 additional groups that together make up content -- FrameFood, LeftDoorFood, & RightDoorFood (example names).
Retaining Object Animations
This tutorial shows one method of retaining the original object animations in your new object. It assumes that you are familiar with basic object creation and meshing.
Requirements
– SimPe (http://sims.ambertation.de/en//)
- Milkshape (http://chumbalum.swissquake.ch/)
- Unimesh Plugin by Wes_h (http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=122399)
Preplanning is very important with any mesh making – especially animated ones. It can be helpful to review how the object animates in game before starting. Start the game and put the object you intend to clone through its paces. Watch whether the sim actions are high or low. Things don’t have to line up exactly, but it looks really dumb if your sim is reaching high to open a door on the refrigerator and your door is low. This is about preserving the existing animations, not making new ones. Either adapt your vision for your new object, or find another object to clone if there is a major mismatch.
Clone your object in the normal way, assign new GUIDs.
Go to GMDC. Extract the GMDC with the mesh by right clicking on the entry in the resource tree. If there is more than one applicable GMDC (like for counters), then you will need to do these steps for each one.
http://thumbs.modthesims.info/getimage.php?file=1174317
Give it a name you can understand/remember.
http://thumbs.modthesims.info/getimage.php?file=1174318
Import the extracted GMDC into Milkshape. Use “Sims2 UniMesh Import V4.09A”.
http://thumbs.modthesims.info/getimage.php?file=1174319
If you get the message “Some skin weights do not equal 100%. Do you want these corrected?”, answer “Yes”.
If you get the message “WARN: Unhandled UV Delta Blocks Present. Model Name(s) were truncated. ….”, click “Okay”.
If this is your first time doing any animation in Milkshape, then you probably have a lot of random looking blue lines like this.
http://thumbs.modthesims.info/getimage.php?file=1174320
If so, the joint size symbol in Milkshape is too large. Go to File>Preferences>Misc and change the “Joint Size” to 0.01. (Thanks for the tip Wes!) The result should look more like this:
http://thumbs.modthesims.info/getimage.php?file=1174321
I clean the extracted GMDC up by deleting wall shadows and groundshadows. They are not included in joints and are not needed for this. So far, I have not encounted an object where any shadows were included in the joint. However, just to be certain, I do not delete any of the miscellaneous shadows (like the handles on counters) until I confirm that they are not part of the joints.
It is helpful to rename the groups at this stage. Just adding ‘old’ to the beginning of the group name works well. Export using “Sims2 UniMesh Import V4.09”.
http://thumbs.modthesims.info/getimage.php?file=1174322
More preplanning. Review the joint assignments. Select “Joint” tab on the right in Milkshape. Click first joint name, then “SelAssigned” (select assigned). Look at the points that become highlighted. Not all joints will have points associated with them. We can ignore those without points (but do NOT delete). Repeat for each joint name, paying attention to what part of the mesh is highlighted.
http://thumbs.modthesims.info/getimage.php?file=1174323
In the case of the refrigerator, there are 3 joints with points assigned to them, which I'll refer to as – frame, left door & right door. There were two joints that had no points assigned. When you make the new mesh, the elements that make up these three parts need to be in separate groups. You can have more than one group that makes up the parts – such as a glass panel and its solid frame – but you can not have a group that belongs to two joints. Every point (vertex) of your mesh should be associated with one, and only one part.
We are finished with the GMDC for a little while. Close it in Milkshape.
Make your new mesh in object format – keeping in mind the need for separate parts. Here is what my new refrigerator looks like.
http://thumbs.modthesims.info/getimage.php?file=1174316
Note 1: Before doing the joints, I make a preliminary .obj file with everything grouped as needed for the final object. I test this in game before I bother with the joints. If you are doing something very similar to the original Maxis mesh, this is probably not necessary. This one is a repository slave to a custom counter, hence the atypical group name ‘countertop’.
Note 2: The Maxis refrigerator has ‘content’ (food) showing in the doors like modern refrigerators. In their mesh, part of the contents moves with the joint. If you were doing a normal refrigerator, you would have 3 additional groups that together make up content -- FrameFood, LeftDoorFood, & RightDoorFood (example names).