Desperately seeking advice or help.

This is probably very naughty of me, asking for help here for something I upload at MTS, however, you guys are the most experienced and helpful bunch around.

I recently uploaded recolours of HugeLunatic's 'FIXED' Hope Baylor's Nantucket Bunk Beds. I also put the bed in Milkshape and moved it over a little so it didn't cut into the wall. Today LilSister from MTS let me know the Sims no longer sleep under the covers, I checked it out and for the life of me I can't figure out why it changed, when all I did was move the bunks over a little.

I then decided to take a look at the other bunk beds I recoloured and moved over a little, Shaundak's TS3 - TS2 Converted castle and Traditional Bunk Beds, the same thing happens but this time it happens on the original bunk beds as well as the ones I moved.

Does anyone have any idea what has happened, what I'm missing, how I can fix it. Any help or advice would be much appreciated.

I have included the original and my altered meshes for all 3 bunk beds in the attached zip file, my altered bunk beds still have the original GUID's.

Attached File(s)

  ORIGINAL & My Altered MESHES.zip (Size: 2.98 MB / Downloads: 608)

I'm no expert but I think objects lose their animations if you export from Milkshape using the .obj format? You need to use the ummm "Sims 2 UniMesh" format instead? Could that be it?

I know absolutely nothing of these things, but if you move the mesh, shouldn't the slots move with it? Might that have something to do with it? Or should I just STFU??

I'm on my non-simming netbook right now, so I haven't been able to look at the files, but @fanseelamb is correct, if you export to .obj, the mesh loses its morphs which means the covers will no longer be animated.

@BoilingOil, it depends on how you move the mesh. If you only move it in Milkshape? Then no. If you move it with the CRES, however - then yes. That's really the best thing to do in a case like this, rather than remeshing. Even if you export in UniMesh format (which you most likely can't, because Milkshape will go "OMG too many morphs are you crazy I can't read this I'm gonna explode waaaaaaah!" ) and retain the morphs, the Sim animations will no longer line up with the covers, since the the slot the Sim snaps into hasn't moved, only the mesh has. But if you move it with the CRES instead, then you move the whole thing - the mesh, the slots, the works - so everything will still be in the right place in relation to each other.

@Michelle I can show you how to do that, if you'd like. It isn't as bad as it sounds, I promise, it's just a matter of changing one value for one joint and you're done.

@NixNivis, that was exactly my point. I imagine that in order to work correctly, the slots SHOULD move with the mesh. So if the used program doesn't automatically take care of that, it needs to be done separately, afterwards. So thank you for your explanation.

@BoilingOil ah, I misread your post a bit. I read it like "if you move the mesh, won't the slots move automatically (regardless of program)?" and not like "if you move the mesh, don't you have to move the slots as well?" Sorry about that, but glad we're on the same page.

If all you (general "you") want to do is move the mesh backwards/forwards/left/right, the best thing to do is not to touch the mesh at all, but ONLY move the CRES (or rather, a specific joint in the CRES, one that's parent joint to all the others; a fellow called root_trans, most like). Then you'll only have to change a single value, the Y translation for that particular joint (in SimPE, Y = depth and Z = height), and you're done. But if you move the mesh instead, then you'll have to move all the slots individually to get everything to line up properly (because if you move the parent-to-all joint then, you'll end up moving the mesh twice, and then things will still be out of sync), and that's a lot more work. Yes, the principle is the same - you change the Y translation - but why change four or more different values when you can change just one and be done with it?

@NixNivis Yup, you're right: if there's a simple way to move all at once, then that should absolutely be the preferred way to do it. Glad we got that straight, then. Thanks again

@ fansee, I've never heard of "Sims 2 UniMesh", I found it in the list of exports in Milkshape but couldn't figure out how to import it into SimPE. I'll have to search for more info about it when I get time, thank you.

@ BO baby, thank you, believe it or not I always learn something new reading your posts, so please don't ever "STFU".

@ Nix, "OMG too many morphs are you crazy I can't read this I'm gonna explode waaaaaaah!", I love it, that's about how my brain has reacted to reading your replies to BO. Then I read "I promise, it's just a matter of changing one value for one joint and you're done", I let out a huge sigh of relief and thought thank goodness because as my father says...I'm is as thick as 2 short planks, when it comes to stuff like that. . Your help would be great, thank you , just so you know I have zero experience or knowledge about slots or CRES.

I'm glad my ramblings serve you, @Michelle. Especially, considering I have no experience whatsoever with all this mesh-related stuff. I just thought it made sense that if a mesh moves, the slots need to move with it. Because otherwise the sims will access the object from the wrong position, and things will look weird as a result

(By which I actually meant to say: if your sims end up in the wrong place in relation to the object, maybe someone should check that when you moved the mesh, the slots were properly moved with it. )

@Michelle the UniMesh format is what's used forbody meshes, but also for object meshes that has joints or morphs - the .obj format doesn't understand those. Also, you don't import it into SimPE like you do with the .obj format; instead, you have to replace the GMDC with your file. (You also don't export it from SimPE the same way you do .obj, at least not if you want to keep the joints and morphs, but extract the GMDC instead.)

I think you're selling yourself short here, you're NOT as thick as two planks! Meshing isn't something everybody can do. But we'll take this one step at the time, and I'll be holding your hand the entire way (and you may kick my shin if I'm going too fast or get too technical). I promise you, though, when we're done, you're going to look at me (well, at your screen) and go "that's all??"

Do you want to go through it here, or go to PM? I'm fine with either.