Generally, there are some objects that are more ideal for cloning than others. I'm working on a list "good cloneable objects", but I'd like to test them all personally before releasing the list, so it's taking some time to get it out .

The "stand-alone clone" means that everything is included in the package itself, mainly, all the textures and material definitions, while clones that are not stand-alone often borrow something from other sources. Say, if you clone a bed, it's usually recommended not to make it stand-alone, so that your bed frame would borrow its bedding from the Colonial Ironwood bed, like all Maxis beds do. Most (I'm not sure if all) bookshelves also borrow their book textures from an external source, but for some reason it doesn't work properly, unlike with beds, and often you might end up with a missing texture for the books. That's why, in that case specifically, it's good to make bookcases stand-alone clones, so that the book texture will be included in the package itself (and also edited if needed).

wow. you are a fountain of knowledge, IB! And I appreciate you sharing it. I had no idea that some items/meshes were better to clone than others. Therefore I am looking forward to this list. I, for one, appreciate how much time is involved, so thanks for doing this! Also, I'd like to say thanks for clearing up the "stand alone" issue. I just assumed that because one tutorial suggested we leave that box unticked, then all clonings should. Shows just what assuming does, so thanks for clearing that one up for me!

ever-so-grateful-padre

I saw that no one in their right mind would start with Blender. Heh, fits me perfectly. I'll try this tutorial and remember the check the normals before I finish and put it in the game. Heh, thanks Lethe_S.

I have a question: Programs like Milkshape, Blender3D, SimPE, JWood's are all free?

Milkshape, Blender and SimPE are all free programs, yes. JWoods is the name of the guy who originally wrote the object tutorial .

Milkshape is shareware,
which means it's free for the first few weeks and is like 20 dollars for the full version (someone correct me)
Blender and SimPE are free, like IgnorantBliss said
Jwoods is indeed not a program, unless he's a very intelligent and extremely nice AI construct...

OK, I don't know what I was thinking when I said Milkshape is free . It must have been too early in the day for me to think straight. Sorry about that. I think currently the price is 25 in both Euros and American dollars. It's not free, but very cheap.

Ok! Thank you very much!
And Objects Workshop is a program?

Object Workshop is a part of SimPE .

Ok thank you!

where do u download the actual blender

there's a link in the beginning of the tutorial,
the adress is blender3d.org

I wish i understood wath you all are talking about. I really really want to learn this stuff, but my english is too bad.. I dont understand the "big" words, and then i cant learn.. I have just downloaded SimPe, and all i could find out of that program was how to change sims intrest and stuff.. And how to get Bella..

Why on earth isnt there programs like this with a tutorial in norwegian?.. Everything is always in english.. blah.. But i really mean it, it is to bad. Maby i must go to school again and learn...

If you can use Milkshape, there is a Norwegian version of JWoods' object tutorial available . If Milkshape is not possible for you, maybe we could contact kenny who translated the Milkshape tutorial and ask if he could translate the Blender version also. There is also a Blender version of JWoods' tutorial, but at the moment that one has not been translated into Norwegian. The tutorials are the same for everything else, but the mesh editing parts are different.

Since lethe_s seems to know all about blender, i thought i'd ask...

I was wondering if there is a way to assign certian verticies to a group that can be reconized by UV mapper. I know you can assign to groups, but what are the export options you need for them be included in the .obj? Because currently the only way i know of to get this to happen is to do 2 completly different objects in object mode...(which can be annoying if you want to make a table with a glass center and a frame ---trying to get the glass and frame to meet with out overlapping)

And one other question:
Since blender doesent reconize groups the way milkshape does (I.e for a dresser, it all comes in one object, no groups = no animated drawer [from what i can tell...]) can you get them seperated so that you can fix the drawer?

umm,
not sure if I understand you,
but the new version of Blender does recognize groups (the tutorial in this thread is for a previous version)
and they work pretty much like milkshape groups. a mesh can be made up of different 'objects' in blender, and exported as such, in UV Mapper, you can then sort by group and find them there
refer to post 86 of this thread for the export options that seem to work fine
for a more detailed description of all this, try the blender version of JWoods' tutorial, which I did update for the newest Blender

I know about ob'ject groups', and was wondering if you could export 'vertex groups'.

I'll go read JWoods' tutorial again

The creation of vertex groups in Blender is explained in the Blender Wiki.

http://mediawiki.blender.org/index.php/Manual/

The creation of joints & bones (armatures) in Blender plus the relationship to vertex groups is demonstrated in the beginners tutorial

http://mediawiki.blender.org/index....s_Part_II_v2.41

Oh, ok

Thanks!

how do you get blender? and what do you need for it to work?

The links and instructions are in the tutorial

Sorry for asking this but is this the next step to becoming a game creator being a sims object making dude?

I'm not sure I understand your question, jovin666. What you want to do next is up to you and what you can handle. If you want to create objects, I suggest you follow one or more of the object making tutorials we have here, starting with simple, non-animated objects, and possibly moving on to more complex meshes and animated objects later on. I don't know what your current skill level is, so it's hard for me to say what's "next" for you .

Lethe, im having trubl downloading. What do i do???

koolken3, are you trying to download the PDF or the DOC version? I can email it to you if you give me your email address .