Tutorial: Making a geom-based face slider

[CmarNYC]

What this tutorial will do:

Show you how to make a simple geom-based face slider using Milkshape and MorphMaker. (Note that this tutorial was written for the older FaceMorphMaker so some of the screenshots are no longer accurate, but the process is the same.)

Give some guidance on making more advanced sliders using Delphy's tool set.

What it will not do:

Teach you how to find meshes or how to use Milkshape or any other tool to modify them.

Teach you how to make bone-based sliders.

What you'll need:

Milkshape with Wes's plugins or another meshing tool that can export morphs: http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=357403

MorphMaker, formerly FaceMorphMaker, available here: http://modthesims.info/download.php?t=387348
Postal, s3pe, Sims3PackageExplorer, or any tool to search, extract from, and import into package files.

Optionally, Delphy's BlendUnit Editor: http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=372169


First, a quick explanation of the difference between geom-based and bone-based sliders. All sliders morph the geometry of a base mesh, whether it's the face or body of the Sim. Bone-based sliders depend on the association between the vertices of the mesh and the 'bones' or skeleton. By adjusting the bone positions, the shape of the mesh can be changed. In a geom-based morph, the individual vertices themselves are moved to make a morph mesh that consists of the offsets between the original and new positions of the vertices.

Bone sliders are useful for changing the size and positions of whole parts of the mesh, while geom sliders are best at making more detailed adjustments, and for moving parts that aren't assigned to a separate bone. With the exception of the in-game fat/fit/thin/pregnant morphs, geom sliders cannot be used for body morphs because every mesh in the game would need to be changed and I think would require a separate slider. (There are exceptions which require the body part or entire body mesh to be renumbered outside the standard clothing/accessory/hair range, but that's not in the scope of this tutorial.)


Okay, on to making a simple face morph for a slider. In this example I'm going to make a slider for a chin cleft, so that we can have an authentic Cary Grant Sim.

Step 1. First, find and extract the full-face mesh for the adult male, which happens to be amface_lod0_2, with Postal or whichever package tool you prefer. To make the morph, import the mesh into Milkshape, then go to the Group tab and hide it. Import it again over itself as a second group, open the comments for that second group, and change them to:

FVFItems: 3
TableType: 0
References: 1
TGIRef00: 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000

This tells Wes's export plugin to export that group as a morph mesh. You need the first group because the exporter needs to calculate the difference between the original and changed positions of the vertices.

(See first screenshot below)

Modify your mesh by pulling the vertices at the tip of the chin inwards. (Or do whatever changes strike your fancy - but do NOT add or remove vertices.) Be sure NOT to change the original mesh you imported first - that's why I told you to hide it. When you're done, go ahead and do the export. Skip the first group (Geom 00) and save the second group (Geom 01) - that's your morph.

If you want to, do the same morph for lod1 as well. Lod1 will be needed for people using low Sim detail, but lods 2 and 3 won't be necessary for such a small modification. If you're doing a bigger change visible from a distance, you should do lod2 also. All the face lod3 meshes and the toddler lod2 and lod3 can't be morphed because they have no vertex numbers.

Step 2. Now, fire up MorphMaker. Make up a name for your morph - say, "Cleft Chin Slider" and use the FNV hash tool on the menu bar to generate a 16 character hex hash that you can copy to your instance ID. Fill in the text you want to be displayed as the label for your slider - in this case, "Chin Cleft". Select the face region - I'm going to just choose "Face". CAS panel means which part of the CAS Looks section this slider will appear in - I'm picking "Head and Ears". And select the subpanel - the specific part of the detail adjustments panel the slider will show up in. I'm selecting "Chin Settings".

Now, select the morph meshes you made in the previous step. Click the "Select meshes for males" button, look for the adult male, and click the lod0 and lod1 buttons to browse for your mesh files.

It's a good idea to name your project and save it, especially if you do morphs for more ages and both genders. Also the program will include your project name as part of the files it produces. I'm naming my project "Chin_cleft_slider".

(See second screenshot below)

Now to create the files you'll need for the slider. Click the "Create BGEO" button at the bottom. The BGEO file it produces contains the morph mesh information. If you add morph meshes for more ages and both genders to your project, the one BGEO file will contain data for all of them. Next, click on "Create FaceBlend". This will make a facialblend file, which links to the BGEO file. Last, click "Create Slider Files". This will make a blendunit file which sets up the slider and links to the facialblend, and one or more STBL files which contain the label text.

Note that you can choose whether to make only an English STBL or one for each language supported by the game. If you're making a slider to be uploaded, you should make a complete set or games running in other languages will have an ugly hex string displayed as the label text. MorphMaker will create all the actual text in English but you can use s3pe to change them later as you get translations.

Close MorphMaker and on to the last step.

Step 3. You should now have a .bgeo, a .facialblend, a .blendunit, and a mess of .stbl files. Import them into a package using s3pe, Postal, or whatever tool you prefer. The TGIs are all in the file names. Name and save the package, and put it in your game. If you've followed all the steps here, don't forget to use an adult male for testing - any ages and genders you haven't done morph meshes for will be unaffected. (BTW, adult and young adult are separate face meshes.) Again, if you do morphs for females and/or other ages, they will show up for their own ages/genders. (Note: Recent versions of MorphMaker will do this for you by creating the package.)

(Third and fourth screenshots)

More advanced geom-based sliders:

The example is for a slider that goes in one direction, but sliders can also go both ways - logically the two directions would have opposite effects, but they could be completely different. All you need is a second BGEO for the morph performed by the slide's other direction. You can use MorphMaker to make it, and then include it in the final slider.

Even more advanced combination bone and geom-based sliders:

I haven't yet tried this, but my advice would be to use Delphy's Slide Template Creator (another of his Small Editors) to make a 'blank' slider package with all the linkage and label text set up. You can then replace the package BGEO files with your own (keeping the package TGIs!) to use your own geom morphs, and in the same way add your own bone morphs by replacing the bonedelta files.

(Last screenshot)

About file naming - Delphy and the Wiki refer to the files that define a slider as a blendunit, and Delphy's editor looks for files ending in .blendunit. (I like to call them B52 files since the type number starts with B52. :)) Both refer to the files that link to BGEOs as faceblends or facialblends, ending in .facialblend. However, s3pe tags the blendunit files with 'FBLN' and extracts them with a .facialblend extension while it calls the faceblends 'FACE' and extracts them as .faceblend. Very confusing, especially if you're trying to extract a file and edit it with Delphy's tools.

** Edit **
I've uploaded a zip file with the complete set of game full-face meshes. This is the head/face meshes only - does not include the eyeballs or teeth.

[Esmeralda]

Wow, this looks fantastic - thank you for this tutorial! Looks like the possibilities are near-endless for creating both natural features and some pretty unnatural ones too.!

[tedw]

Thanks for the tutorial! Unfortunately, I seem to have run into a problem somewhere along the way - when I apply the slider it causes pieces of the mesh to explode and the texture to go funny. I'm attaching a picture showing, on the left, the slider installed but not applied, and on the right, applied to the face.

Did this happen to you in the course of making yours?

http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/7597/funnymorph.jpg

Edited: Putting the morph together with LOD0 but not LOD1 led to the slider not exploding any parts of the mesh - but the texture was still wrong, as though the shine on it was changing itself around.

[CmarNYC]

Thanks for the tutorial! Unfortunately, I seem to have run into a problem somewhere along the way - when I apply the slider it causes pieces of the mesh to explode and the texture to go funny. I'm attaching a picture showing, on the left, the slider installed but not applied, and on the right, applied to the face.

Did this happen to you in the course of making yours?

http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/7597/funnymorph.jpg

Edited: Putting the morph together with LOD0 but not LOD1 led to the slider not exploding any parts of the mesh - but the texture was still wrong, as though the shine on it was changing itself around.

No, it didn't happen for me. Did you add vertices to the face mesh and/or change the normals? That would cause these effects. All you should be doing is moving vertices. If that's not the problem, could you attach your mesh and BGEO file so I can take a look?

[tedw]

I didn't add any vertices or change the normals, no, but I won't rule out having messed up somewhere along the line (although I did think it was a fairly straightforward tutorial).

I'm attaching the bgeo file and morph - let me know if you need any other files.

[CmarNYC]

The morph geom file you made is way, way too big - the morphs are typically about half the size of the original mesh. The vertices listed in it are 38 to 7170 while the original mesh is only 38 to 1091. If you try to reload it in Milkshape over the original mesh I bet it'll give you an incorrect vertex count error.

I don't think you messed up, though. If you're using Wes's plugin for Milkshape 1.8.5 and have had it for a while, you need to re-download. There was a bug that did exactly this - wrote out a bunch of extra vertices in the morphs.

[tedw]

I did check the thread earlier, to see what date Wes had last updated it, and saw it was early to mid-September - I mistakenly believed that was the version I actually had, so I didn't re-download. Thanks for the tip, though - I did not have that version, so I replaced it, and re-exported the morph, and it works like a charm!

Thanks again for the tutorial!

[savio_araujo110]

Oh, great! I'm off to test this!

[WesHowe]

I did check the thread earlier, to see what date Wes had last updated it, and saw it was early to mid-September

With the problems the previous version caused on morphs, and the extensive testing Cmar and Base have done, I am leaving the Q-Mesh plugin alone until something needs tweaked.

But then it's not like I have any shortage of projects to work on, either.

[CmarNYC]

With the problems the previous version caused on morphs, and the extensive testing Cmar and Base have done, I am leaving the Q-Mesh plugin alone until something needs tweaked.

But then it's not like I have any shortage of projects to work on, either.

It works great, so speaking for myself I'm very happy with this version and hope to get time to try out the renumbering plugin.

Yes, no lack of projects around here, is there? :)

[Rez Delnava]

About file naming - Delphy and the Wiki refer to the files that define a slider as a blendunit, and Delphy's editor looks for files ending in .blendunit. (I like to call them B52 files since the type number starts with B52. :)) Both refer to the files that link to BGEOs as faceblends or facialblends, ending in .facialblend. However, s3pe tags the blendunit files with 'FBLN' and extracts them with a .facialblend extension while it calls the faceblends 'FACE' and extracts them as .faceblend. Very confusing, especially if you're trying to extract a file and edit it with Delphy's tools.

It can get a lot less confusing, as I just found out. If you go to the S3PE directory, there is a text file in there called Extensions.txt It contains the file extensions for each Type ID. You can change the extensions to match the ones that Delphy's editors use.

I just wish I had found out about the Extensions.txt last week before I started playing around with making custom sliders... it would have saved me a mess of trouble trying to figure out why Delphy's editors were not opening the extracted slider files :P

[CmarNYC]

Thanks, that's a great tip! Yeah, for quite a while I was editing files in hex because I couldn't open them with Delphy's tools and couldn't figure out why.

[WesHowe]

I compiled the original versions of extensions.txt. We had a consensus on that as a standard, but perhaps not everyone remembered beyond Peter and I.

If you change .simgeom or .skcon you will adversely affect the way that Q-Mesh searches for the matching bones.

<* Wes *>

[CmarNYC]

The only problem I had was with blendunit files (Delphy's terminology) being given a .facialblend extension while facialblends (also Delphy's term) are .faceblend. Even without the thing of Delphy's tools not being able to open those files, .facialblend and .faceblend are so similar as to be confusing.

[WesHowe]

OK. Everyone is free to do as they please, but in a rare fit of sensibility, a few of the developers and researchers early on tried to harmonize these extensions. While I said I compiled the file, others, particularly Karybdis, contributed to the naming and a consensus was eventually reached when everyone got tired of tweaking the list.

I don't know why .facialblend and .faceblend diverged, but .faceblend was the original extension for type 0x0358B08A, and it is what s3pe and my s3chop extract that as.

[melody2]

Thx for this one.
Well, now I wanted to try it out myself, but I can't find the amface_lod01 thing... ôo
So far I just worked with hair meshes, and only for sims 2... v___v

[melody2]

It would be great, if you could attach more pictures for every step... or maybe even a video tutorial. that would be awesome. *.*

[Menaceman44]

Melody2, the face meshes are found in FullBuild0.package in the game files. At least that's where I've found them.

My problem is how to get them into Milkshape. I've done Sims 3 meshing successfully before now but can't seem to open the face files in Milkshape. I'm probably just forgetting a really simple step.
I've located the file in s3pe, extracted them to a folder on my desktop, run them through S3 Object Mesh Tool to get the s3ac file to import into Milkshape but nothing ever shows up.

Any help please?

[CmarNYC]

Melody: I've attached a zip file with the face meshes to the tutorial post. I agree a more detailed tutorial would be great, and I'll put that on my list to include in my 'Meshing for Dummies' tutorial in the Tutorials section, but it'll be a while before I get to it.

Menaceman: You don't need to run the face meshes through Object Mesh Tool or anything else. When you extract them with s3pe you should get a file with the .simgeom extension which imports directly into Milkshape using Wes's import/export plugins. (I don't work with objects and don't even know what a s3ac file is.) You could download the zip of face meshes I've attached to the tutorial to make sure you're working with the right files.

[melody2]

Oh man. How did I miss that? XD Or have you attached it after my post? Anyway, that's great! XDD Thx so much. x3
Now I can finally start with my projects. >3 Also the idea with the detailed Tutorial sounds good to me. ^^

[melody2]

Okay, now I've tried and made a new slider. Well, 2 actually. One, that moves the ears up and down, and one, that moves them inside or more outside the face area. But in the game I can only use one of them, because the other one does not show up... Could this have something to do with the changes in the comment of the mesh in milkshape? Are they overwriting each other or sth, when I make several morphs with the same comment change (the one u postet)? :/

[Menaceman44]

How many sliders do you have already in your game? There is a limit and if you have already met it then new ones wont show up. There are mods available, including AwesomeMod that increase the limit though.

[melody2]

Yeah, I already have a Mod, so I can have around 60 sliders... And I also already deleted a few custom sliders, but my second own slider still does not show up... ôo

[CmarNYC]

Melody: Yes, I uploaded the face files zip after your post. :)

I see you already have a mod to increase the number of sliders. The comments in Milkshape are what tells Wes's import/export tools what format of mesh it is, so for morph meshes it should always be exactly what I gave in the tutorial. Did you use a different label text for your two sliders? MorphMaker (and the game) uses that text to generate a unique identifier for the slider, so if two of them have the same label I guess they might not both show up. Other than that - try remaking the slider in case something went wrong. (Remake it in MM, I don't mean do the meshing again!) Also check that you're looking in the age/gender that you did the mesh(es) for - and remember adult and young adult are not the same thing for faces.

[melody2]

I finally found the problem... It was the ID, which MM generates for each morph. Both Sliders I made had the same ID, so the game could not distinguish them. XD Maybe I have a latish version of MM, 'cause I followed the instructions in your Tutorial for generating the ID, but with your method it always generates identic ID's for each slider I create. But in my version of MM there is an arrow-button beside the ID-array, which creates a unique ID for each morph. :D
So I used this little button, and now every slider has his own unique ID, so the game can finally tell them apart. ^^ But anyway, thx for your help. ;)
And once again thx for this great Tutorial. ;D

[CmarNYC]

Not sure why MorphMaker's FNV function would have generated the same for both unless you gave it the same text to generate the ID from. Anyway, problem solved. :)

There's actually two IDs involved - the BGEO and blend instance IDs and the label text ID. I think both have to be unique.

[Menaceman44]

Cheers for the face files. I solved my issue with importing into Milkshape. It was something stupid on my part. I was using the wrong import option. Doh!

[melody2]

Hey there. It's me again. XD
I've got another question. Is there a possibility to change the shape of the head? with a slider maybe? :P 'Cause you know, the sims3 heads are always so... thin. :/ I don't know, but they are not really head-shaped, are they? o.o I mean, everybody has another head shape, and I would really like to change this shape in CAS. But I guess, I would need a slider for that. Would the process be the same, like with the face sliders? Or would that be a bone-based slider?

I attached a picture, to make my intentions clear. :P
Don't pay attention to the ears. I already solved that problem. XD

[Menaceman44]

Could you not just widen the whole head and then narrow the jaw with the existing CAS sliders or does that not give the result you are after?

I've still yet to try making any sliders myself. I keep getting distracted.

[melody2]

Well, not exactly... because then the whole head gets broader. But I only want to widen the parts, I marked on the picture. Your solution would probably work, but the result would depend on the shape of the hair mesh used on the sim. It would come out quite acceptable on the sim on my picture, what with the hair mesh used. But there are also meshes, which fit the head shape, so if you widen the head too far, it would look pretty strange, I assume...
Well I can try out and create some more face-sliders and experiment. But it would probably be easier to just create a slider for the marked head area. In case it's not a bone-based issue, that is...

Distracted? ôo Why is that? Do you have any understanding problems with the Tutorial, or do you just have problems concentrating on the whole process? Well, the creating-process itself is only a question of a few minutes. For me, that is. Importing the LOD file in milkshape (2 times of course XD), making the changes, exporting the whole thing as a geom file, and then creating the slider with MM.
What exactly do you have problems with? If you have any problems at all.

[CmarNYC]

Melody: The head shape changes you seem to be talking about would probably be better accomplished with bone-based sliders which would also affect the hair mesh.

[melody2]

Yep. I thougt so.
Well, I made a new geom-based slider, which solves the problem pretty fine for now. I'm not so familiar with bone-based sliders yet. Have never worked with them before. But I know someone here on MTS who is pretty good at creating bone-based sliders. I already asked him for help, so all I can do is wait and see, what he brings up. ;)
However, I think I will skim through some Tutorials and look what I can find. :D

[Menaceman44]

Distracted in a way that I turn the computer on with the intention of making a slider but instead end up spending three hours playing games on the internet. >.<

I think I need to wait until I have a day off work. I have three sliders I want to attempt involving the ears, chin and nose bridge. I'll probably start with the nose one and see how it goes.

[melody2]

LoL
Well, I already have some sliders now. :D I have 2 for the ears to move them up/down and in/out (nearer to the head, or further away from it).
Then one for the facesides (cheekbones/cheeks) to make the face broader or thinner, one for the forehead (to flatten it), and one for this nose thingy (this little part between the nostrils) to move it more up or more down. Yeah, that's all for now. Until I get an idea for another slider, that is. XD The possibilitys are unlimited, als long as you stay in the face area. ;)

[sims_reality]

Could the bone based sliders created with the same method? Do I just move the bones around? Or do I have to do something else???

[CmarNYC]

Could the bone based sliders created with the same method? Do I just move the bones around? Or do I have to do something else???

You'd have to use Delphy's CAS Slider Template Creator to make a package with the basic bone slider files in it. Then extract the bone delta files and use his BoneDelta Editor to add and modify specific bone modifications for the slider to affect. (It comes with one bone set up to - I think - change the head size. Use that as an example.) Replace the bone delta in the package with your modified version, put it in your game and see how it does.

Here's the download for the tools: http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=372169

[HystericalParoxysm]

I'm kind of confused, reading this tutorial and looking at the screenshots, vs. what is actually in MorphMaker. The whole workflow of the program seems to have changed - for instance, the whole "Create BGEO" button, I'm not seeing anywhere - I'm not sure how I'm meant to generate a BGEO without that button... or do the stuff with the other two buttons at the bottom, as they're not there either. I so desperately want to make some sliders and have gotten through the first bits in Milkshape just fine - but I'm stuck when it actually gets to MorphMaker. Help... please? :)

[Rez Delnava]

The create BGEO button can be found by pressing one of two buttons on the bottom left under the "Make Morphs" section. The 'slider' button actually has what you are looking for, but both buttons open to a panel that has a create BGEO button (that both do exactly the same thing). But the make slider panel can create a package (after you make a BEGO, or else it fails assembling the package) complete with english strings.

The tutorial was made when the tools were in beta, so the location of the buttons have changed a lot (and for the better because the original UI was often confusing).

What I think is really helpful for the later part of making sliders is to have the proper plugins for s3pe, that way you don't have to get confused changing the file extensions to get them to work in Delphy's tools: here's some sample code, just copy it to a text file, set the directory to to appropriate location, then save the file with the extension ".helper" and put it into the s3pe helpers folder
For the Blend Unit Editor:
ResourceType: 0xB52F5055
Label: Edit Blend Unit
Command: C:\Users\*****\Desktop\Sims 3 Mod Work\Apps\Delphy Tools\MTS_Delphy_1009047_BlendUnitEditor\BlendUnitEditor.exe
Arguments: {}

And for the other one:
ResourceType: 0x0358B08A
Label: Edit Facial Blend
Command: C:\Users\****\Desktop\Sims 3 Mod Work\Apps\Delphy Tools\MTS_Delphy_1009036_FacialBlendEditor\FacialBlendEditor.exe
Arguments: {}

[CmarNYC]

The problem is that FaceMorphMaker and BodyMorphMaker have been rolled into one program now since they basically do the same things. I should probably modify my tutorial, but for right now:

Screenshot 1 - The basic MorphMaker screen. First, fill in your project name and either click the arrow button to calculate an Instance ID or fill in your own.

Screenshot 2 - Click the buttons under 'Import meshes' to pull up the screens to load your morph meshes. Ex: click Toddler and load up the toddler meshes, etc. You don't have to load all the ages/genders, any morph you make will affect only the ones you load meshes for. Make sure you put them in the right LODs - start with 0 for faces, 1 for clothing.

Screenshot 3 - Click the buttons under 'Make morphs' to get the screens to actually make files and packages. For a facial slider use the Slider button. If you've got your project name and ID and at least one mesh loaded, the Create BGEO button will be active. Select the body region and CAS info and the other buttons will become active. Same for the Clothing button, but the only thing to fill in is the optional Group ID.

For facial sliders, create a BGEO first. If the slider is bidirectional, create a separate set of morph meshes and a separate BGEO for each direction. Then use the 'Create Package' button and select your BGEO(s).

For clothing, create BGEO for as many morphs as you're making. Then use the 'Add morphs to package' button to modify a pre-existing package (probably from CTU) to add and link the modified or new morphs.

Hope this helps - maybe I'll put a whole new tutorial for the combined tool on my to-do list. :)

And I see Rez beat me to it... :D And has a useful suggestion.

[HystericalParoxysm]

Thanks so much, Rez and Cmar! I really appreciate it. :)

Between your help and some from Delphy, I've been able to get a bi-directional slider working, woo! Now to make... so... many... more... Yay!

I'm attaching some .ms3d files - these are the templates I'm using to make my face sliders. They're just Cmar's faces from the first post, but two imported into MS, first one hidden, second one given the comments - so they're all ready to just start editing. I've done lod0 and lod1 for all ages - not lod2.

Figure it might save some other folks some time, if you're making multiple sliders or bi-directional sliders.

[BloomsBase]

You'd have to use Delphy's CAS Slider Template Creator to make a package with the basic bone slider files in it. Then extract the bone delta files and use his BoneDelta Editor to add and modify specific bone modifications for the slider to affect. (It comes with one bone set up to - I think - change the head size. Use that as an example.) Replace the bone delta in the package with your modified version, put it in your game and see how it does.

Here's the download for the tools: http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=372169

Another nice thing some might found out already is that you can use Milkshape to help you create bone sliders.
The same values you use in Milkshape to move the bone you can use in Delphy's bonetool.
when you do this in ANIM mode you can also see wat all related vertices do as they move along.
So you can easily shape a body for instance in Milkshape and use those values in Delphy's bonetool.
Works 10 times quicker then just guessing

It also will give you alot info on how the bones are connected and their movement.

[cwurts00]

I'm getting an error in Morphmaker when I try to create the BGEO file. If I use the file I exported from milkshape, it tells me that it is not a morph mesh file. If I import it to postal and save it as a .GEOM, Morphmaker gives me an error 57: Attempt to read past end of file. What am I doing wrong?

[Rez Delnava]

I'm getting an error in Morphmaker when I try to create the BGEO file. If I use the file I exported from milkshape, it tells me that it is not a morph mesh file. If I import it to postal and save it as a .GEOM, Morphmaker gives me an error 57: Attempt to read past end of file. What am I doing wrong?
It sounds like you didn't change the GEOM comment in Milkshape to the morph data. In the groups tab select your morph mesh, then press the comment button. The only thing that should be in the comment for a morph is this: FVFItems: 3
TableType: 0
References: 1
TGIRef00: 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
Anything else and it will export a bad geom that will not be usable by morph maker.

[cwurts00]

Morphmaker is driving me crazy! I am able to get the slider to show in CAS, but I keep doing something wrong so it doesn't function. I keep redoing it in Morphmaker, and occasionally I get it correct by accident, but I can never figure out what I'm doing right for the next time, and end up loading the game 7 or 8 times for no good reason. So, I export the file from milkshape, choosing one of the two GEOM00 or GEOM01, but not the other. Next, I load morphmaker and type in the name of my file; generate a hash with the same name; select adultMale from the left menu and select ONE file - my simgeom file that I exported from milkshape; in "slider" I click "Create BGEO, and name it mySliderRight; then I go through and save it; Next I choose new Morph Project; Choose Project Name; generate Hash; choose AdultMale; Select the same simgeom file; This time in slider, I click "Create Package", and type in "mySlider.package"; When it asks me to select the BGEO, I choose mySliderRight, and follow through until I get the main menu; then I just select File:exit.

This is what I do every time, with a few glitches now and then. One of the "glitches" is actually correct, but I just can't find it. Do you know what I'm doing wrong?

[CmarNYC]

If you're following the tutorial, GEOM01 should be your morph mesh, the one with the modified comments as in Rez's post just above. This is the mesh you should be using. MorphMaker will only accept a morph mesh so I assume you're successfully exporting one. The first thing you should check is that the morph mesh is correct, by restarting Milkshape and importing the base mesh and then your morph mesh over it. If you see the base shape and a second mesh that's got the shape you want for your slider, then your mesh is correct. If not, you may have moved the vertices of the base as well as the morph or done something else wrong.

Your morph mesh should go in the first LOD0 slot in MorphMaker. (Just checking.)

There's no need to start a new project if you're making a one-directional slider - just create the BGEO and then create the package, choosing the BGEO file you just made. Not a mistake exactly, just saying.

Last, if you have other custom sliders, are you using a mod to increase the slider number limit?

[cwurts00]

It turns out it was the milkshape export after all. I don't know why it didn't work, but the simgeom looked like the original instead of the changed one. Now unless I can find a way to export it properly from the saved file, I will have to start from scratch.

[CmarNYC]

It turns out it was the milkshape export after all. I don't know why it didn't work, but the simgeom looked like the original instead of the changed one. Now unless I can find a way to export it properly from the saved file, I will have to start from scratch.

That's happened to me more than once. Usually I forgot to hide the base mesh.

[cwurts00]

I am now trying to make a bi-directional slider. I am very satisfied with the sliders I have made so far, except that when I move the slider to the left, it behaves as if I am moving it to the right. Is there a known fix for this?

[CmarNYC]

Make sure you're making a separate BGEO for the left action, and loading it into MorphMaker at the 'Make Package' stage.

I had a bug in the left-slider link - did you download the patched version of MorphMaker? This was something like a week ago.

[cwurts00]

I downloaded the latest version, but no matter how many times I reload it, if I use the bi-directional option, it uses the "right" BGEO in both directions.

[CmarNYC]

I downloaded the latest version, but no matter how many times I reload it, if I use the bi-directional option, it uses the "right" BGEO in both directions.

Can you post/send/pm me the package so I can take a look and see if it does the same thing in my game?

[cwurts00]

Here is the rar with three of the sliders. They only show up in adult males.

[melody2]

Hey, it's me again. XD

Okay, so now I've used my own sliders for some months, and everything worked fine. Today I installed WA, and updated both games with the latest patch.
All my CC's and Custom Sliders, which I've downloaded from MTS, work as fine as they did before. Except for my own sliders. They show up in CAS, and I can even use them in CAS, to create my sims, BUT when I start playing with them, they look as if my sliders did no changes to them. ôo
I don't get it. All the other custom sliders work just fine. >.< Why mine not? Q___Q

[CmarNYC]

I'm sorry, cwurts00, I didn't see your second post until now. It looks like you were using the original MorphMaker, which had a bug causing the left direction to use the right-direction morph. That was fixed in an update on 7/4, and why I didn't make the connection before I haven't a clue. Sorry again!

Melody2: Did you update whatever core mod you're using to increase the number of sliders the game can use? Although if your sliders work in CAS but not in the game that's not the answer. Are you maybe playing at low sim resolution and only did lod0 meshes??

[melody2]

Nope.
I'm playing at high sim resolution. And I did lod0 and lod1, as written in the tutorial...
I already used the sliders before in my basegame. They worked fine there. I think it must have something to do with the WA EP... or maybe the latest patch, dunno.
Well, I just noticed, that you can see the changes on the picture of the sim at the bottom of the screen in the game... You know, that tiny thumbnail on the user interface..
But that's it. <.<

[CmarNYC]

How very strange! Did you try deleting SimCompositerCache.package? I'm just guessing here... Can you upload one of your sliders for me to look at?

[melody2]

Indeed, it's VERY strange... ôo
Well, yeah. I just figured out, that this might help. So I deleted the Cache files in my Sims 3 folder, and then restarted the game. But that didn't change anything. Unfortunately...

Of course, here it is:

[CmarNYC]

Did the same thing in my game.

Looking at the BGEO information, you have the same starting vertex ID, 38, for both lod0 and lod1. Lod1 for the YA male main face mesh should start with vertex 1116. Since all the other information for lod0 and lod1 is the same, I suspect you used the same morph mesh for both lod0 and lod1 when you made the slider. It doesn't work that way - the vertices of all the lods are numbered sequentially (including the other face part meshes) and the numbers are what the game uses to do the morphing. If it's using lod1 and doesn't find any of the vertex numbers for the lod1 mesh, it won't do the morph.

Why it should have worked before and not now I don't know, unless the patched game treats the lods differently and maybe uses lod1 for game closeups while lod0 is still used for CAS and thumbnails.

[melody2]

Well, okay. Thx so far. :)

So I have to do what? Make 2 seperate morphs for each lod? Cause, yeah. I used the same morph for both lod0 and lod1...
Then I will have to make a seperate GEOM file for the lod1 thing?

[melody2]

Okay, now I saved 2 seperate GEOM files, but with the same mesh in milkshape... Then I used the first one for the lod0 and the 2nd one for lod1. But it didn't change anything. It's still not working. -__-
I don't get it. <.< What exactly is the problem, and what do I have to do? ôo

[CmarNYC]

I don't totally understand what you're doing so I'll give some basic background. There are separate meshes for each lod, and in the case of the face meshes there are also separate parts of the head. The mesh naming convention is [age][gender]face_lod[lod number][_part number].

For example:

amface_lod0_2 is the mesh for lod0 for the main face for adult males. (very high detail)
amface_lod1_2 is the mesh for lod1 for the main face for adult males. (high detail)
amface_lod2_1 is the mesh for lod2 for the main face for adult males. (medium detail)
lod3, the lowest detail, has no vertex numbers and can't be morphed so we can leave that out.
There's also amface_lod0, amface_lod0_1, etc. which are meshes for the teeth and eyeballs, I think. (Don't have them in front of me.) There are different lod versions of those parts as well. For lod2 and lod3, the main face is combined with one of them.

Anyway, the point is that there are different meshes for the face at lod0, lod1, lod2, and lod3. The vertices are numbered consecutively through all of them, starting at lod0 and ending with lod2. (lod3 has no numbers.) A morph can only be applied to the exact same mesh it was created from, and the lod0 and lod1 meshes are different with lod1 having fewer vertices. You've been making lod0 twice and no lod1.

You already have a morph mesh of the lod0 face. What you need to do is start with the lod1 face mesh and make a morph of that, the same way you did with lod0. Then make your slider with the two morph meshes loaded in lod0 and lod1 respectively.

I've attached a zip of all the face meshes.

[melody2]

Man, how did I miss that >.<

Alright, now it works. Finally. XD Thx so much. <3

[CmarNYC]

You're welcome! I'm glad it's working. :)

[Vondure]

I love you CmarNYC.
Just had to let that out.

I'd usually be following tutorials down to the teeniest details, but feeling lazy recently, I just breezed carelessly through this one.
I literally just went happy-go-lucky with it. And to my surprise, it worked! It must've had something to do with your infinite genius.

So once again, I love you.

[Hermi1]

This is great! Thanks soooo much =D

I have successfully made a slider for YAF I am so so happy!!

Thank you thank you!!

[Hermi1]

I just remember that I learnt how to make clothing longer from you too
( Clothing meshing for dummies )
omg you are amazing! :lovestruc xxx

[porkypine]

Thank you for making this tutorial. I've had to try to create some sliders beccause I can't model the faces I want in the existing CAS.

I would really like to be able to just import a complete face rather than individual parts because I am trying to SIMize real people. I can model the faces in Milkshape fairly well... Anyway. I am finishing up my first GEOM morph for wide cheekbones and we'll see what the final product looks like. Wish me well. I'll show pictures of either my success or explosion. :lol:

[imey1997]

help! i did everything the tutorial said and I just got a big mess of blue squiggles when i imported amface_lod0_2 into milkshop! it also said that it couldnt locate the bone structures or something.

[whiterider]

In Milkshape, go to File -> Preferences -> Misc, and set Joint Size to 0.01. Then restart Milkshape. :)

[CmarNYC]

And the messages about not locating the bone file and (sometimes) 'hashed bone not in skeleton' are normal. Ignore them.

[SuicidalSpiders]

Would this be good for moving the entire nose in/out, or would I need to use the bone-based tutorial?

[CmarNYC]

Since there's a 'nose area' bone that controls the whole nose, a bone-based slider would probably be easier.

[jwghost]

Mine keeps saying my simgeom file is not a morph mesh file. I've changed the comments and everything. What is this? :(

[jwghost]

Thanks so much, Rez and Cmar! I really appreciate it. :)

Between your help and some from Delphy, I've been able to get a bi-directional slider working, woo! Now to make... so... many... more... Yay!

I'm attaching some .ms3d files - these are the templates I'm using to make my face sliders. They're just Cmar's faces from the first post, but two imported into MS, first one hidden, second one given the comments - so they're all ready to just start editing. I've done lod0 and lod1 for all ages - not lod2.

Figure it might save some other folks some time, if you're making multiple sliders or bi-directional sliders.

Thank you so much! :lovestruc I managed to get my slider to work thanks to you and the files you uploaded, it's working, in CAS! I can't believe :anime:

but it's missing the adult female version, can you please make the af version too?
Thanks a million! Everything worked!

-

I have more questions, how can I make my slider to work for all ages, at least just YAF and YAM? without doing multiple sliders for each, I'd like just one file that would work for all, and just one label in CAS, so merging the packages is not what I want, I did this slider for Young Adult Female and Adult Male, and it's showing two nasal bone sliders in CAS, one working for each, I wanted just one slider. :/

It's possible to make my work look the same in all ages? Or I'll have to remodel the nose everytime I choose a age group? :blink: It looks a bit different from the other. :d

[CmarNYC]

In MorphMaker, load the morph meshes for all the ages/genders you're working with into the appropriate places. When you then make the BGEO and slider, it will make one slider for all those ages/genders.

The face meshes are different for each age, so you have to do separate morphs for each.