creating in workshop

A-Z Object Creation in TSR Workshop V0.02

TSR Workshop:

Step by step guide to creating your new object

Written by:Apple

Welcome!

The Sims Resource A-Z Workshop: Introduction

Welcome to this guide to the TSR Workshop program!

What is this guide for?

This document will teach you the basics of creating objects in the TSR Workshop. It’ll cover things like the different types of meshes, how to import / export LODs, what the different textures do etc. Let us get started by teaching you how to open and clone an object in TSR Workshop, and the tutorial begins.

What you will need:

* A Graphics Editor capable of supporting DDS* The TSR Workshop* Milkshape 3D (Recommended 1.8.4 or later)

Note:You must be familiar with your graphic editor, the DDS file format and know some basic commands in Milkshape 3D. (You must have purchased Milkshape 3D as the trial version does not allow import / export, this is vital in this tutorial).

Tutorials I will refer to throughout:

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Object Creation Part 2 – Cyclonesue

“Welcome to this complete resource on Sims 3 object texturing. Ideal for both beginners who have no idea how to create a texture from scratch, right through to experts who haven't harnessed the full power of a specular or would like to make transparencies...”

Object Creation Part 1 – Riccinumbers

“The long awaited beginner’s tutorial has arrived! This tutorial is a must for anyone wanting to learn to mesh. Beta Tested, this tutorial has already helped some create who thought they never could. ..”

The Sims Resource A-Z Workshop: Steps 1-3

Right, start off by downloading the Workshop software, which can be found here http://www.thesimsresource.com/workshop/ (The latest version is available here), and once it has downloaded make sure you install the program.

Step 2 – Installing the plugins

Before launching Workshop for the first time, you need to install the Milkshape Plug-ins.Go to this directory: C:\Program Files\The Sims Resource\TSR Workshop\Extras\Milkshape plugins\ and copy the following two files to C:\Program Files\Milkshape 3D 1.8.4\.

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Each time you install a new version of TSR Workshop, the plugins MUST be re-installed. Each version of Workshop includes all new features which can only work properly when used with the updated plugins.

Step 1 – Download TSR Workshop

Important note:

Step 3 – Launching TSR Workshop

Go to your Start Menu > All Programs and load the TSR Workshop (it may take a while to load if this is your first time loading it).You’ll be greeted with a splash screen where you can see the loading progress of Workshop, and then the main Workshop Interface after that.

We’re going to now clone an object, and load it into the Workshop ready for editing.

Tutorials I will refer to throughout (continued):

Auto-generate Sun Shadows - Murano

“The new version of TSR Workshop offers a great feature to autogenerate sunshadows. TSRW is the first tool which can make them look correctly in game.”

http://www.thesimsresource.com/workshop/


Navigate to the top left of the Workshop UI and click on the ‘Create new Project’ button which looks like this:

For future reference, 'Open project' will open up any .wrk file (The file format in which TSR Workshop saves a project, so it can easily be edited later).

'Recent projects' will list your recently opened / saved .wrk files, so you can load them quickly if need be

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Step 4 – Creating a new Project

Step 5 – Loading the object list

Select ‘objects’ from the next pop-up, next you should select 'object' again like I have in the image.

Click on ‘Next’ on the bottom right, and wait for the objects to load (Again depending on your computer this could take a while).

Step 6 – Selecting an object to clone

Once the object list has loaded, select the item you wish to create. I’ll go through this tutorial creating a simple stool, but feel free to explore and clone whatever you wish to.

If you're unfamiliar to the concept of object meshing, then I would strongly advise that you start off by making a chair or table, they’re the simplest items to mesh.

The process of loading the object list can vary depending on the speed of your computer.

I’m going to clone the Barstool Brasserie here, but as you can see from the picture that’s pretty much the selection process; just click on the item you want to clone.

And once you have selected the object you wish to clone, in the bottom right corner click on ‘Next’.


After clicking next you’ll be presented with a screen that asks for some of your project details. The screen looks like this: (picture on the right)

The Project Name is kind of like a GUID, so you must put something pretty unique in there. I find it easier to come up with a formula as then there’s no chance anyone will have the same GUID as you.

This is the format I use:creatorname_objectname_date_time

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Step 7 – Object unique identifier

Step 8 – Give your object a name and description

Fill the rest in with whatever you want. ‘Title’ will be the name of your object in-game, and ‘Description’ will of course be the description of your object in-game. Below is an example of what I put as mine:

That format is optimized to make it very, very unique and there’s next to no chance of anyone coming up with the same. So mine will be something like this:

Apple_simpletonstool_060310_2140

Click ‘Next’ in the bottom right corner and then a ‘Finished!’ screen should appear. This just confirms and tells you that the object has cloned okay. Click the ‘OK’ button to proceed.

You should now see your cloned object in 3D view along with a lot of information, text and numbers on the right hand side. Don’t be scared by this; it'll all make sense over the next few pages.

The Sims Resource A-Z Workshop: Step 9

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When you’ve clicked ‘Finished!’, you will be presented with a screen like this. I’ll just go over quickly what all of the buttons at the top do:

Step 9 – Discovering TSR Workshop

Click on one of the icons to show the corresponding LOD (Level of Detail). You can see objects only have two LOD’s. Hairs and clothing have 4.

This button turns the grid on/off in Workshop. Can be useful to see the scale of your object against the in-game tiles.

The blue one will toggle wireframe view mode. The yellow one will toggle ‘highlight vertices’.

You can toggle whether the ground plane shows (the green plane on the picture above).

This toggles whether you can see slots/joints or not. Yellow spheres indicate object slots, whereas red shapes will show joints.


Now we’ll export the high poly mesh from Workshop and open it in Milkshape.

Click on the ‘Mesh’ Tab like so:You’ll then see lots of entries (This will vary depending on the object you clone).

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Step 12 – Exporting the High Level of Detail LOD

The 'High Level of Detail' should load up first.

There are different groups there for the different pieces. For a table you'll see Group 0 (Which is the stool mesh) and Group 1 (Which is the ground shadow mesh).

If you cloned a stool with glass, and then another group will be listed here, as a glass component has it’s own group.

Step 10 – Loading up the mesh tab

Step 11 – Discovering your LODs

If you just want to click on the dropdown list, you should see 4 options. Don't do anything with these yet, but just make sure there are 4 there before you proceed with the next steps, otherwise you'll become stuck.

To export your mesh, click on the 'Export' button, which is placed right next to the dropdown list in the image above. Select a place to export the file, and name it. Give each LOD a distinct file name.

Overview of buttons

This button will export your selected LOD.

This button will import your new, edited LOD later.

This button will auto-generate sunshadows, you’ll need this one later.


Open up Milkshape3D. I’m going to use version 1.8.5for this tutorial as it’s the version that the Workshop plug-ins have been tested in.

You should have already installed the Milkshape3D Workshop plug-ins (Step 2), we need these to import the .wso file into Milkshape to edit.

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Step 14 – Exporting the High Level of Detail LOD

Step 13 – Loading up Milkshape3D

Once Milkshape3D has loaded, go to 'File > Import', and look for the one that says 'TSRW Object'. Locate the file you've just exported from TSR Workshop and it'll load up in Milkshape.

Important note:

Your version of Milkshape3D must be purchased and fully licensed. If it’s not licensed, then the Import / Export functions are disabled and you will not be able to import your LODs in.

If you have purchased Milkshape3D, double check that your license has been activated onto your software, as sometimes it doesn’t do it the first time and the plugins won’t work.

Some users may have to scroll down to be able to see the ‘TSRW Object’ option in the import list.


You’ll see the mesh in Milkshape3D now, with a weird circle around it (The circle is a joint/bone, and I’ll cover that later). See the image right.Now the fun part begins. We’ll now start meshing!

Before you do anything, you'll see that 2 objects have been imported. The stool mesh and the groundshadow mesh. It's important that you note down which order these items are in (The stool mesh is usually at the top of the list, and the groundshadow mesh the second one down), you'll need this in Step 18.

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Step 16 – Create your own mesh

Step 15 – Cloned object in Milkshape3D

This may seem daunting at first and you may have just had a ‘Oh gosh, I can’t mesh in Milkshape!’ moment, but don’t worry.

If you’re not a Milkshape user, like me, you can simply mesh your object in your own 3D program and then import into Milkshape.. Easy.

So do your stuff, mesh and map your object as you would have done for Sims 2 (If you made Sims 2 objects).

Here’s mine (picture below). Notice I haven’t deleted the original object yet. Firstly you need to use it as a size guide to check your object is the correct size, secondly we need to check the bones, and we’ll do this in the next step.

Object Creation Part 1 – Riccinumbers

If you’re completely new to meshing, and haven’t the faintest idea of how to mesh an object, there’s a new and very useful tutorial...

This tutorial will show you the functions of Milkshape, and how to make a proper mesh in Milkshape3D from start to finish.

If you’re new to meshing, this resource will be very valuable.

http://www.thesimsresource.com/tutorials/view/category/sims3/id/16544/Object Creation Part 1: The Beginners Guide To Meshing


Click on the 'Joints' tab in Milkshape. This lists all of the bones that are assigned to the cloned object. Stools usually only have one, but objects such as beds can have quite a few.

The name/number of the joint has no significance, it's just a reference so the game knows which type it is.

Click SelAssigned and the original object should show up red, this means that the object has the ‘0xCD68F001’ assigned. You need to assign this bone to your new object for it to work correctly in-game.

When you're sure you know which objects have bones assigned, you're ready to proceed to the next step.

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Step 17 – Cloned object in Milkshape3D

Sometimes noting down the bone names and which items have which bone assigned to it can be helpful, especially for objects with many bones (doors, for example).

Step 18 – Assigning the bones

Now you’re ready to assign the bone to your new object.

If your object had no bones or joints then again just go ahead and skip this step.

Select your object. I do this by going into the ‘Groups’ tab and double clicking on my new object in that list. It should appear red.Go back into the ‘Joints’ tab, select the bone and click ‘Assign’. This should have now assigned the bone to your new object.

So, you can see here that just EA’s stool mesh has the bone assigned. Not my mesh yet or the shadow plane mesh.

The Sims Resource A-Z Workshop: Steps 18.5-19

To make sure your bone is assigned to your object, you can simply follow the latter part of Step 18 again and click ‘SelAssigned’. Both objects should now appear red.

You can now go ahead and delete the original table, so just yours is in there. You can do this by again going into the ‘Groups’ tab, double clicking on the original object in the list and simply hit ‘Delete’.

Referring back to Step 15;Your High Level of Detail export will have 2 items, the groundshadow mesh, and the stool mesh. Before exporting back to TSR Workshop, make sure that the 2 meshes are in the SAME ORDER as they were when you imported them, otherwise you'll get a very mixed up object.

Okay you should be left with just your object now in Milkshape3D with the bone assigned. Now just export is as a .wso file. (Follow Step 15 again but for Export this time).

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Step 18.5 – Checking the bones and Exporting from Milkshape

Back into Workshop now. Remember Step 12? Clicking the 'Export' button to export your .wso file? Well right next to that button, was another button.

This is the 'Import' button and you use this to import your .wso file back into TSR Workshop.

Go right ahead and import your .wso file, the one that you've just exported from Milkshape3D.

If you did it correctly you should now see something pretty disgusting in Workshop. If you can, well done! You’re doing well so far. If you cannot maybe you missed something in the steps, re-read the steps and check.

Mine worked, and here’s what I can see, my new mesh but the old textures (see the picture on the left).

Step 19 – Importing back into TSR Workshop


To export your Low Level of Detail LOD, you simply do the same as you did with the High Level of Detail LOD, but this time select Low Level from the dropdown list under the 'Meshes' tab.

Low poly LOD's are a lower poly version of your item. This object is viewable when the object is viewed from a distance, or whilst the object is loading. It's very important that the low poly version of your object can use the same UV Map as your high poly version.

Do the same as High Level of Detail. (do the same from Step 15 but for low level of detail). The low poly version of meshes also have bones, so do that too, and import it back into TSR Workshop when you've finished.

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Step 20 – Exporting the Low Level of Detail

In the dropdown list, you'll see two more options. 'Shadow High Level of Detail' and 'Shadow Low Level of Detail'. These ones are used to generate outdoor sun shadows, when your object is placed outside.

Step 21 – Shadow High/Low Level of Detail

The geometry is a lot more simple, no chamfered edges, the overall shape is more basic than the high poly. But as mentioned above and this is very important, they must share the same UV map.

Also take note that the Low Level of Detail mesh has no ground shadow plane mesh.

Important note:

Auto-generate Sun Shadows – Murano

This tutorial shows you how to automatically generate the sun shadows in TSR Workshop.

This tutorial is very handy and is a must-read to get your sun shadows spot on.

http://www.thesimsresource.com/tutorials/view/category/sims3/id/14670/Autogenerate Sunshadows Tutorial


Yep, my High Level of Detail and the sunshadows are showing up fine.

Sometimes the Shadow High Level doesn’t quite match, but don’t worry –only the Shadow Low Detail is used in game.

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Step 22 – Creating your textures - Multiplier

Quick check-up

My Low Level of Detail is also showing up, the sun shadow too.

Now that I’ve seen that all of my meshes are showing up as they should in Workshop, I can move on.

Now you have the shadow meshes, the high poly and low poly versions of your new object in Workshop, you’re all ready to tackle the textures.

We’ll start with the ‘Multiplier’ first. This is basically the texture that controls the shadows on your texture. Mine looks like this (See image to the right).

To import your new multiplier, click on the Multiplier in the Workshop and click the little ‘Edit’ button, as shown in the image below...


This tutorial is a very useful resource. It talks you through how to create each one of the textures you need for an object.

It’s very useful if you’re unsure about how to create the different textures.

http://www.thesimsresource.com/tutorials/view/category/sims3/id/14670/Autogenerate Sunshadows Tutorial

http://www.thesimsresource.com/tutorials/view/category/sims3/id/16543/Object Creation Part 2: Object Textures


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Step 23 – Creating your textures - Mask

Let’s do the RGBA ‘Mask’ now. This image basically determines how many recolourable parts your object has. The red area will be recoloured in the game by the first colour palette in "Create-A-Style", the green will be the second, blue third etc

For more information, see Cyclonesue’s tutorial:

Draw out your mask in your Graphic Editor, save it as a .DDS and import it into Workshop, the same as you did for multiplier. Mine looks like this (see the image to the right).

Step 24 – Creating your textures - Specular

Now it’s the turn for the specular map. This map determines how shiny your object is in places when shiny patterns are applied via Create-A-Style (For example chrome or leather).

Draw out your specular in your Graphic Editor, save it as a .DDS and import it into Workshop. The specular is usually just a higher contrast version of your Multiplier, so that’s what I did here:

Specular maps can be difficult to understand the concept of, but there’s a useful article in Cyclonesue’s tutorial which can be found here:






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Step 25 – Creating your textures - Overlay

The final texture. And this is also an optional texture, the Overlay. This is used for any details which you may want on your object but can’t be recoloured. Painted on decoration, screws, all that kind of thing.

My overlay is black as I don’t need one for this object.

Overlay maps are optional, it depends what you want out of your objects. Although the concept is simple, I’d like to point out that Overlay maps has been written about by Cyclonesue in her tutorial:

Step 26 – Brief check of your object

Now you should see all your textures applied in Workshop, although it still may look a bit odd. This is because you need to change the patterns and tiling etc.

Here’s what mine looks like at the moment, not perfect huh?:(See image to the right).

It’s mostly there and by now you should be able to see your mask working, the multiplier, and overlay. There’s no real way to test the specular map until you get in-game. We’ll get on with the next step then.

When importing your new textures, you may get asked if you with to update material masking sizes. If your textures are bigger than the ones that EA used for the object, then click Yes.

Important note:




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Step 27 – Editing your objects patterns

There should be a ‘Patterns’ section underneath where you imported all the textures. Select Pattern A. This is the pattern that would cover where your red parts on your Mask are.

First of all set your tiling in accordance to your map. My multiplier was 1024 x 1024, so my tiling will be 4x4.

Enabled needs to stay as ‘True’ otherwise it won’t show in game (that particular palette if you ‘disable’.. Select your pattern by clicking on the ‘Edit’ button.

Clicking the 'Edit' button will bring up a window that looks like the one in the image below. This allows you to change the patterns on your objects easily.

Browse Sims 3 patterns. Create a new pattern. Import/Export


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Step 27 – Editing your objects patterns (continued)

In the bottom right corner, you'll see ’Colours’ and a colour swatch next to it. If you click on the colour swatch you will be able to pick the colours of your pattern. Patterns with 4 colour palettes will of course have 4 of these values listed in the window.

I want to browse existing Sims 3 patterns, so I’ll click on the button which allows me to do that (see the bottom of the previous slide), and I’m going to select the pattern I want.

The patterns will load and then from there you can select the pattern you want to use. Click ‘Done’, and then done again, and it’ll apply your new pattern to your object in the unique 3D Preview.

Step 28 – Enabling a new colour option on your object

If your object only has 1 subset, you can skip this step and continue. If your object has 3 subsets, you’ll have to repeat this step again afterwards. Remember subsets having been explained in step 22 .

Because I have 3 parts (red, green and blue) on my map, I’ll need to select a third pattern. So I just go through Step 26 again, but do it in the Pattern C section.

My object didn’t have 3 patterns before, so I have to make sure that Pattern C is enabled. Look at the picture below to see how I did this:

I selected the material I wanted. Because the pattern tiling has remained the same as EA’s mesh (I used the same texture size as their original) I won’t need to change tiling, but you may do if you’ve used a different texture size.

The Sims Resource A-Z Workshop: Steps T-29

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Tiptorial– Adding a new preset colour variation

You often see objects with preset colour variations, and I’m just going to show you quickly how to do that yourself, and the proper way to do it.

A preset colour variation is a pre-saved alternative colour option for your object.

Step 29 – Enabling a new colour option on your object

It should look more or less finished in Workshop now, as you imagined it... That’s because it is more or less finished! Here’s what mine now looks like in Workshop (see left image).

Don’t forget to check both the high and low poly versions, make sure they look alright, the patterns have applied correctly, and that all your textures still look alright.

Export your object as a .Sims3pack and check in-game! :

Clone current preset.

Quick button overview:

Delete the current preset.

Save the complate (For Sims 2 textures – refer to Cyclonesue’s document).

Start by cloning your colour package. You can do this by clicking on the button seen above which ‘Clones the current preset’.

This’ll bring up a brand new colour option. From here you can just change the patterns. Refer to Step 27 on how to do this.

You can create as many colour variations as you like, but adding lots results in quite a large file.

The Sims Resource A-Z Workshop: Steps T-29

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Step 30 – Checking your object in-game

Check your object in-game. With any luck it should look half decent, and that’s fantastic if it does.

Change the textures via CAS, have some fun with it, go and grab a coffee, you deserve it!

See the image to the right to see how mine turned out in-game.

Congratulations!

Congratulations! If it worked okay for you, that’s great. If you’re having any problems at all, just read back through the steps and check you’ve done them again.

It’s likely it didn’t go right the first time, whether it be meshes, textures or anything. There’s a lot of trial and error to be had here and you’ll need a lot of patience, too.

Thanks for reading the tutorial and I wish you all the best in where you decide to go from here.

Special thanks

I would like to say a special ‘Thank you’ to a few people. Murano, Cyclonesue and Riccinumbers for their fantastic tutorials. I’d also like to thank the TSR team for their ongoing hard work on the TSR Workshop, TSR Launcher, the Sims 3 Wiki and the website.

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