object creation part 2

Contents

2

OBJECT CREATION PART 2 – BY CYCLONESUE FOR TSR

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CONTENTS

1. Introduction ........................................................................................................... 3

1.1. Welcome! .............................................................................................................................................. 4

1.2. What you will need: .............................................................................................................................. 4

1.3. The textures of a Sims 3 object ............................................................................................................. 6

1.4. What size should my images be? .......................................................................................................... 7

2. Standard Textures .................................................................................................. 9

2.1. The Multiplier ...................................................................................................................................... 10

2.2. The Specular ........................................................................................................................................ 20

2.3. The RGB Mask ..................................................................................................................................... 26

2.4. The Overlay ......................................................................................................................................... 30

3. Special Textures ................................................................................................... 33

3.1. Stencils ................................................................................................................................................ 34

3.2. Dirty-state overlays ............................................................................................................................. 36

3.3. Textures of non-recolourable objects ................................................................................................. 43

3.4. Wall Masks for windows, doors and arches ........................................................................................ 48

3.5. Transparency and Invisibility ............................................................................................................... 53

3.6. Glass .................................................................................................................................................... 56

4. Workshop ............................................................................................................ 62

4.1. Importing your images into Workshop ............................................................................................... 63

4.2. Browsing for images already in the package ....................................................................................... 64

4.3. Choosing Patterns ............................................................................................................................... 65

4.4. Making a new colour variation of your object .................................................................................... 68

4.5. The final Complate (and a bonus texture for sims 2 too!) .................................................................. 68

4.6. Saving and exporting your new object ................................................................................................ 69

Appendices .................................................................................................................... 70

Appendix 1: Alpha Troubles? A solution for everyone! .................................................................................. 71

Appendix 2: Replacing images with empty versions......................................................................................... 72

Appendix 3: Frequently Asked Questions ......................................................................................................... 73

Appendix 4: Quick Reference Card ................................................................................................................... 75

1. INTRODUCTION

Welcome to this complete resource on object

texturing. A short introduction on what it’s all

about, what you’ll need and what we’ll be

doing!

1: Introduction

4



1.1. WELCOME!

Welcome to this guide to Object Textures!

Who will benefit from this guide? Hopefully everyone!

Beginners will be able to get started without any prior

experience, people who don’t quite understand EA mapping

and sizing of textures, and the more experienced will learn

about some advanced images such as dirty-states,

transparencies or the textures of non-recolourable objects, and this guide is especially useful for the myriad

people who secretly don’t know how to use the Specular but would never dare to admit it!

This is Part 2 of the Object Creation series. If you haven’t learnt about meshing yet, you need to start out with

Part 1: Beginner’s Guide to Meshing written by riccinumbers first. If you are adept at making meshes but

need information on bringing them into Sims 3, Apple’s Workshop A-Z Manual guide is invaluable too.

I would like to thank the following contributors whose assistance proved invaluable:

Pinecat

Riccinumbers

MoMama

Angela

Sim_man123

DOT

Shino&KCR

Murano

Apple

AnoeskaB

Together with our team of dedicated beta testers who worked tirelessly to test the Object Creation series - and

lastly TSR for the Workshop: a program that has made texture editing so very, very simple.

1.2. WHAT YOU WILL NEED:

You will need a graphics package that will allow you to add alpha channels to your images, and that will

support nVidia’s DDS plugin. Experience with using layers in your graphics program is an advantage.

Some programs that DO support the DDS format and offer varying degrees of support for alpha channels:

Photoshop

Photoshop Elements

Paint Shop Pro (all versions)

Corel Photo (PSP X and X2)

GIMP (free)

For information on where to obtain the DDS plugins and how to install them, see our

Wiki page: http://wiki.thesimsresource.com/index.php?title=DDS#Plug-ins

Reading online? If so, these blue Wiki symbols link to further information in the Sims 3 Wiki

http://wiki.thesimsresource.com/index.php

DDS Plugins

http://www.thesimsresource.com/tutorials/submissions-preview/id/16542/slides/0/

http://www.thesimsresource.com/artists/Apple_/tutorials/view/category/sims3/id/14210/

http://wiki.thesimsresource.com/index.php?title=DDS#Plug-ins

http://wiki.thesimsresource.com/index.php?title=DDS


1: Introduction

5



1.2.1. A NOTE ON DDS DIFFERENCES BETWEEN PROGRAMS

Paint Shop Pro – the image

is cropped but we only use

the area I shaded pink – and

only the two settings

highlighted.

This tutorial will give pictures

of the Photoshop version,

but the settings are the

same.

Photoshop’s DDS is a much smaller window but we use the exact same DXT1 and DXT5 settings (this time,

they’re in a drop-down)…

…and this is the DXT5

setting we’ll use…

1: Introduction

6



1.3. THE TEXTURES OF A SIMS 3 OBJECT

DDS – what is it?

It stands for DirectDraw Surface. It is a

format of image that compiles your

graphics, including environmental effects

like shine and shade), into a single

database file. The Sims uses a series of

images to make shading and shine, apply

fixed graphics and map out how patterns

will be used on your objects.

Click on the TEXTURE tab in Workshop

and you will see all the main images we

need to create. These are really

individual layers of the final texture

applied to the object. Once your object

is in the game, these images are merged

together with your chosen patterns to

form a single texture (a Complate) as

shown below...

You can easily convert your finished Complate to use in a

Sims 2 model too! See page 68 for more

information.

DDS IMAGES


1: Introduction

7



1.4. WHAT SIZE SHOULD MY IMAGES BE?

It’s not the size of your images that is important, but the size of your mapping ON the images. Each mapped

part must be scaled to occupy the same space on your image that it does in the game.

So how do we do that? It’s easy: a Sim floor tile is actually 256 x 256 pixels in width and depth, and walls are

3 x 256 pixels high. Therefore, think about what proportion each part of your object would occupy on floor

tiles, and make sure each occupies the same piece of space on your images.

Look at this dining chair. The seat cushion, legs

and lower fame (in separate parts) are all no

bigger than quarter of a Sim floor tile, so these

can be placed in areas no bigger than 128 x 128

pixels on the map.

However, the back of the chair is a full 256 pixels

high. As it’s still only quarter of a tile wide, it will

need 128 x 256 of space.

The chair also needs to map reverse and under sides separately too. You can

now see how images start growing in size!

On the left is the chair’s UV map (made by EA). The size of the map is 256 x

512 pixels, and I’ve divided this into 128 x 128 quarter-tile squares so you can

see for yourself how it has been mapped - mainly in quarter-tile spaces

because the individual parts of the chair are all around that size in the game

too.

Don’t worry about the professionalism of EA graphics!

Unless you’re Artist of the Year (in which case you can come make MY

Multipliers too), your textures won’t look like this – but they’ll be good

enough!

3-TILE (768 PIXEL) OBJECTS

There is no such DDS size as 768 pixels, so,

for 3-tile objects such as columns, we use

a 1024 pixel DDS image and map an area

approximately three quarters (768 pixels)

on that image.

1: Introduction

8



1.4.1. EXAMPLE OBJECTS AND THEIR IMAGE SIZES

Tiny objects (128 pixels)

Objects that are half a tile or less (like the clutter magazines or the child’s toy xylophone use textures half a

game-tile’s size – that is: 128 pixels wide by 128 pixels high.

Small objects (256 pixels)

Tiny objects that need a more detail like the wall clock (the front and rear

mapped separately) or small objects like gnomes, some lamps and privacy

windows usually have a 256 x 256 map size.

Medium objects (512 pixels)

Medium sized and more detailed objects usually have a texture size that is

at least 512 pixels in height or width depending on how much detail needs

to be mapped separately.

Large objects (1024 pixels – the maximum size)

Extra tall or wide objects, and medium objects with a lot of detail (TVs for example) require an even larger

image. Doors, though only 512 pixels high, have different front and reverse colours so both sides have to be

mapped separately as you’ll see later. Double doors and vehicles use the maximum size of 1024 x 1024 pixels!

Giants!

Some meshes are clearly taller or wider than 4 game tiles

high or wide (a 1024 pixel DDS image accommodates 4 x

256 floor tiles), so you will need to split the parts of larger

meshes into pieces that can be mapped side by side. You

can also overlap parts that share the same shading and

pattern colour. Your DDS textures should not be bigger

than 1024 x 1024 in size so you need to break up your

mesh so it WILL fit on this size.

Fat files The larger your image sizes, and the more you add (for example: adding a number of stencils which we’ll come

to later), the bigger your finished Sims3Pack will be. Ideally, you want to keep the finished Sims3Pack to 1Mb

or less. Some objects, like plumbing items, have 2-3 ‘dirty texture’ DDS files too, and these will be

heavyweight files if you don’t manage your image sizes economically. If you make objects 500Kb or less

(plumbing and dirty-state items at 800Kb or less), you have been very successful indeed!

2. STANDARD TEXTURES

These are the images you will always need for

every object. Included is a step-by-step guide

to making your first Multiplier. 90% of your

effort goes into making a Multiplier because

all remaining textures merely use a modified

version of this image, so learn this part and

you will have learnt enough to make texturing

a breeze!

2: Standard Textures

10



2.1. THE MULTIPLIER

The Multiplier is the main texture you’ll make for your object. It isn’t any

more important than any of the other images, but after making THIS

image, we can very easily make all the others based upon it. So we’ll put

all our effort into this image. The others will be simple after this one is

done.

This comes as a bit of a shock to people who created for earlier versions of

The Sims, but all patterns and colours are now made in the game, not on

the object. We now make the object, add shading and highlights, apply a

couple of pre-selected patterns ourselves, and that’s it!

The Multiplier is used to mark shade and any texture details like grooves

on your mesh’s UV map. These details are permanent, no matter what

patterns are applied to the object in the game.

Multipliers are grey-scale images where 50% grey (RGB 128, 128, 128) is

neutral. Anything darker adds shade, and anything lighter adds a paler

area (useful for embossing and engraving detail).

The key tip is not to be too heavy with dark

shade! When making Multipliers by hand, this can be

rather easy to do, but viewing your mesh in the

Workshop’s 3D view will help you decide whether your

shading is too much or too little. Multiplier shading can

be subtle, yet the shading will still be visible. Over-

shading can result in your object

looking like it’s been burnt.

FACTBOX: Multipliers Does it require an alpha? RARELY Alphas are used only for non-glass transparent mesh parts

Does size matter? YES Multipliers must be the intended size of your UV map

Can it be empty? NO Missing multipliers make your mesh appear invisible in Workshop

Saved as: DXT1/DXT5 Only save as DXT5 Interpolated Alpha if you use an alpha channel.

MULTIPLIERS

http://wiki.thesimsresource.com/index.php?title=Multiplier


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2.1.1. TO BAKE OR NOT TO BAKE?

Some 3D programs will bake a multiplier for you. Baking is an automated process of applying soft shadow to a

mesh’s UV map, generating a grey-scale image that can easily be turned into a Multiplier.

Are the results better? Usually, they are. In the comparison table below, the overall shading of the baked

table (on the right) looks better, showing that I might have been a little heavy handed with my multiplier for

the table underside. However, the baked legs are less defined than I would like and so I would need to touch

those up. There is a step by step tutorial on Baking Shadows by Sim_man123 at TSR which uses the free

Blender 3D program if you ever want to try out baking, but making a Multiplier by hand is quick and easy, and

that’s what we’ll do next!

HAND-MADE Multipliers BAKED Multipliers

Advantages: easily made in advance, so makes UV mapping much simpler (a ready-made texture on which to map). Easy to overlap parts. Shading can be more defined in places where a bake might be too subtle. Disadvantages: easy to be a bit heavy-handed on the shading. Some guesswork means having to check the mesh to ensure shadows are correctly placed. You need a good grasp on where shading will appear.

Advantages: very quick to produce and the end result is professionally-applied realistic shadow. With a good UV map, baking will present no problems. Disadvantages: still needs post-production work to make them look right. Small parts won’t bake well. Sometimes, shading is too subtle. Difficult for less experienced meshers to overlap on the UV map. Baking might need a few attempts.

http://www.thesimsresource.com/tutorials/view/category/sims3/id/15489/


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2.1.2. MAKE YOUR OWN MULTIPLIER BY HAND

A hand-drawn Multiplier is easy to make. You don’t even need to be worried about being ‘artistically-

challenged’ either because there are some simple, generic graphics program tools that will do much of the job

very quickly and easily. In fact, once you’re used to making these, you can make the Multiplier before you

make your mesh; your meshing and mapping will then be incredibly simple and quick, because you already

have a useable texture on which to map your mesh and you can even overlap similar parts of the mesh.

This demonstration is a quick 10-minute demo to make a functional, basic Multiplier. You can improve your

Multipliers later by following ideas similar techniques to those discussed in Enhancing your Multiplier on page

18.

1. Extract an image of your UV map

Unless you’re making your Multiplier before you make the mesh, you’ll

need an image of your UV map. If your 3D program doesn’t export an

image of your UV map (like Milkshape doesn’t) then you can use the free

UV Mapper Classic to generate a bitmap image:

1. load up your High level of detail (High LOD) mesh into Milkshape

2. delete the ground shadow (usually group 0) – we don’t need this

on our new texture map

3. EXPORT your mesh as a Wavefront OBJ file

4. open this file in UV Mapper Classic

5. then click Save Texture Map in UV Mapper’s File Menu

6. For size, see the “What size?” section we covered on page 7.

You should end up with a rather crude black and white bitmap of your

mesh. This will do nicely.

2. Switch to the correct image mode

Open your UV mapping image into a graphics program that supports the DDS format (see page 4).

If using a bitmap (UV Mapper Classic only creates bitmap files), you will need to convert the image mode in

order to be able to use layers and an alpha channel (if needed – discussed later):

For Photoshop:

Image Menu > Mode > RGB Colour > 8 bits per channel

For PSP:

Image Menu > Increase colour depth > RGB 8 bits per channel


13



2.1.3. MAKE YOUR OWN MULTIPLIER BY HAND (CONTINUED)

3. Fill in the shapes

1. Make a copy of the UV map image and place it on a new layer (we’ll keep

the original untouched because we can use it as tracing paper later!)

2. On your copy, select the white outer area and flood-fill it with a dark grey

as shown on the right.

3. Now invert your selection. This will select all our white mapped shapes

4. UV Mapper makes these shapes a couple of pixels too small, so we need to

increase the size of our selection before we flood-fill it:

o For Photoshop:

Select > Modify > Expand

o For PSP:

Selections > Modify> Expand

… and add 2 pixels.

5. Flood-fill your selected shapes with 50% grey (that is: an RGB shade of 128,

128, 128). Your end result should look something like the picture on the

right: dark background with 50% shaded shapes of your UV map.

Note: EA often darkens their grey shades down to an RGB value of around 102,

102, 102. If you find your object too bright in the game, darken your Multiplier

too. However, if you want to match EA walls (for example, when making a wall

designed to join a building wall) you need to keep the grey shade around 50%.

4. Make the original UV map graphic visible for tracing

Remember the copy of the UV map we made in the last step? We want to turn that

into a see-through layer. We won’t be drawing on this layer, but on the grey image

we’ve just made.

Move your pristine UV map image to the top-most layer in your graphics program,

and then set the transparency of the layer to something low (mine is set to 25%).

You should be able to see your new grey image through the UV map image.

We can now trace around areas of our UV map easily.


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5. Add detail and shading

I used some simple tricks, like putting embossed borders around grey boxes for a groove, using a Wingding

font for the pattern in the middle, simple grey gradient fills to create bands of shading on the legs and some

touch-ups with the Burn tool (if you don’t have a burn tool, a soft black brush will work too)…

You can of course do whatever you like, but I will talk you through my Multiplier so you can see how easy it is

to do. You will find it helpful to apply your Multiplier as a material to your mesh in your 3D program as you

work so you can check it, or better still, into Workshop itself

(see page 63 for importing your images into Workshop).

The table top

For the table top, I drew another 50% grey box (smaller) in a

new layer and gave it an embossed border. That created the

groove effect.

The decal in the centre was from a Wingding-style font in

another new layer – again, embossed a little because I want this

to look like a shallow engraving in the wood. To make a deeper engraving, I would shade the inside of the

design, but that’s not what I want.

Because the table-top and sides will be fully exposed to the light once in the game, I haven’t added any

additional shading.


15




5. Add detail and shading (continued)

Table underside

For the table underside, I darkened the main square slightly

because the underside won’t be as light as the top surface.

I then made a smaller square in the same dark shade to sit in the

middle for the lower underside section of the table. I added

drop shadow to this new inner box to give the appearance of

shade all around it (the drop shadow has no offset in any

direction, so shadow is added to all four sides), and to finish, I

used the burn tool on a large, soft brush to make the large

shadow in the middle of it.

The edge of the underside (that right-hand dark strip) I burned where the edge joins the table top. I burnt the

ends too because this is where the legs will create a bit of shade.

Finally (for the underside), I used a soft –edged brush (using black colour) to make four leg holes. If you’re a

bit hit-and-miss about painting, you’ll want to put these on their own layer too!

(note: the grey circle next to the table

underside is actually part of the table

legs, the final part of our Multiplier)…


16




5. Add detail and shading (continued)

Finally, the table legs…

All the legs are mapped onto one area so there is only one that I

need to make. Firstly, I wanted some bands of shadow (at

either end of that lathed part and at each end of the leg)...

To do this, I created a 50% grey box with a simple

grey gradient. I made the gradient go to a darker

shade at each end of the box.

I then copied this box to

make three, and joined all

three end to end.

Finally, I stretched the three boxes to fit the three segments of

my leg (the main top part, the lathed bit, and the small part beneath the lathed section). These three areas

can clearly be seen on my UV template (highlighted in red above).

After that, I placed two grooves at random points for the upper

parts of the leg. How did I do that? Well, I cheated by copying and

pasting a piece of the groove used on my table top. I made it

thinner and not so embossed.

The legs need some inside shading. I simply passed the burn tool

lightly along the length of the leg somewhere in the middle. I used

guesswork for the position, and then popped back to the mesh in

Milkshape just to ensure each leg was rotated so the shade

pointed inwards. The burn is heavier at the right end of the image

(top of the leg) where the leg is close to the wooden base of the

table.

Finally, for the underside

foot of the leg, I just

darkened that small grey

circle situated here just

above the area of map

for the leg.


17




6. Saving your finished Multiplier

1. Before doing anything else, DO save your Multiplier in your graphics program’s main format (e.g. PSP

for Paint Shop Pro or PSD for Photoshop). Some of these layers, like the motif, we can use in the

other images. We don’t need to do all that work again.

2. Now flatten your image to just one layer. For Photoshop, right click any layer and choose flatten

image and for PSP, choose Merge (Flatten all)

3. To save your new Multiplier, choose SAVE AS and select DDS (sometimes shown as D3D/DDS). The

following DDS options window should appear:

The top-most drop down list provides a range of DDS file formats. For Sims objects, we only use two

of these:

DXT1 RGB 4bpp | No Alpha

DXT5 ARGB 8bpp | Interpolated Alpha *

4. Choose DXT1 RGB 4bpp | No Alpha (the most likely choice for Multipliers) and click the SAVE button.

That’s it! Your Multiplier is made and the hard work done now (all of our remaining textures will use

our Multiplier).

* Multipliers only have an alpha channel added to them if there is any transparency in the solid mesh. For

more information, see: Transparency and Invisibility on page 53.

2.1.8. IMPORTING YOUR IMAGES INTO WORKSHOP

See: Importing your images into Workshop on page 63.


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2.1.9. ENHANCING YOUR MULTIPLIER

Whether you make your Multipliers by hand or

bake them, you can add much more detail very

easily.

Here is a stool made by Apple. It was baked in

Cinema 4D which produces a nice, shaded

Multiplier for his stool (Apple is an expert so if

you’re new to all this, don’t worry about being this

brilliant yet).

But Apple has refined his Multiplier with simple

touches that perfect the mesh and they’re fairly

simple to do!

First, Apple lightened the outer edges of the wood parts (this gives a more natural and less ‘sharp’

edge to straight parts).

He then added some stitching to each corner of the cushion by a simple but effective dashed white

line and a touch of shadow underneath it.

Finally, he added creases with some random

black and white lines that he blurred together to

make realistic looking creases in the cushion. A

bit of shade underneath completes a folded-

fabric effect. It is only physically possible to see

two sides of the stool at any one time, so work is

put into two sides of the cushion, and then this

can be copied and pasted to the remaining two

sides.

The finished result looks incredible! Without

these improvements, the cushion of the baked

Multiplier would have looked more solid and less

natural. These are skills you can work on once

you have more experience.


19



2.1.10. USING PHOTOGRAPHS FOR DETAIL

If you feel that drawing by hand is a challenge too far, it’s a little-

known fact that it’s also possible to use extracts of photograph to

add small detail, and the end result can be remarkable!

I wanted vertical indentations for my water pump. They needed

to be long in length, evenly spaced and slightly shaded. The first

object I thought of was a simple radiator! A trashcan would have

served equally well.

I found a free-to-use image of a

radiator. I extracted a section of

those indentations and straightened

the perspective.

And to finish, I turned the extract

into a Multiplier-friendly greyscale –

and it works a treat!

2.1.11. MULTIPLIERS TO REDUCE POLY COUNTS

This matching door and window frame are both using a Multiplier

to add 3D shape.

Compare the door on the left

with the mesh on the right:

there is no real 3D detail in the

mesh’s frame. Most of the

‘shape’ is merely shading on

the accompanying Multiplier.

This helps keep poly counts

down without compromising

on the detail of your mesh.


20



2.2. THE SPECULAR

The Specular adds natural highlights and reflective parts to your object. The

Specular is the most frequently misunderstood texture of all Sims images, yet

it is very easy to make. We’ll look at how to make and use the Specular

correctly.

Do NOT be fooled by the EA Specular!

It might LOOK empty in Workshop, but it isn’t. Speculars usually carry an all-

black Alpha Channel (more on alphas later) which gives the thumbnail image

in Workshop the appearance of being empty, but it’s not.

Failing to update a Specular will add streaks of dullness

and shine to the wrong parts of your object once it’s in

the game – which will be extremely obvious if the player

selects a shiny pattern for your object

2.2.1. HIGHLIGHTS

A Specular adds highlights – points that would naturally be a paler spot on your object when in window or

lamp lighting. Look at any object around you and you will see a varying level of highlight resulting from the

lighting around it, whether indoors or outdoors. Even the dullest materials often have paler spots of highlight.

The main image of the Specular draws out these highlights and then lets the patterns in the game govern how

much reflection (shine) they carry (fabric will have less reflection than veneered wood).

2.2.2. REFLECTION

Speculars also use an alpha channel which we’ll be looking at soon. Any white areas marked on the alpha will

increase the level of highlight, making that part of the mesh reflect the environment around it regardless of

the pattern applied to the mesh. Use reflection carefully as this can remove some freedom of choice from

players. More information on how the alpha channel works is on the next page.

SPECULARS

FACTBOX: Speculars Does it require an alpha? YES Alphas are black except where forced reflectiveness is applied

Does size matter? NO Must be the same size as the Multiplier unless empty

Can it be empty? YES But cases for needing a totally empty Specular are rare

Saved as: DXT5 Speculars always have an alpha channel, so must be saved as DXT5.

http://wiki.thesimsresource.com/index.php?title=Specular


21



2.2.3. ADDING AN ALPHA CHANNEL

Speculars have an alpha channel, but what IS an alpha?

Think of an alpha as a black cardboard mask that you lay on top

of your image to hide it. Then you cut out holes in the mask to

let some parts of the image or special effect to show through.

An alpha is like that, except for our ‘cutting out’, we draw white

areas instead.

Alphas are frequently used for transparency (the black area

masks the image and only the white cut-out allows that part of

the image to be visible).

For the Specular, the alpha controls a special effect: strength of

reflection…

In Photoshop, it’s very easy to add and edit alpha channels.

Simply switch to the CHANNELS window (bottom right of your

screen), and then click the button shown at the bottom of this

picture to add a new alpha channel.

For Paint Shop Pro and other programs, here are some links that

might help you with alphas as we work through the Specular

how-to…

Photoshop Elements

Paint Shop Pro

GIMP

TIP: excessive shine in the game means your alpha is probably

white! Make sure you’re applying a black alpha unless you want

maximum reflection to the brightest areas of your Specular!

(see also: Alpha Troubles in the appendices – page 71)

IMPORTANT! You MUST add

an alpha channel to your

Specular!

If you don’t, Workshop will

treat the missing alpha as all-

white, making your entire mesh

highly reflective!

http://help.adobe.com/en_US/PhotoshopElements/8.0/Win/Using/WSa285fff53dea4f865ba1171040d4ce2d4-7ff0_WIN.html

http://wiki.thesimsresource.com/index.php?title=PaintShopPro#Working_with_Channels

http://docs.gimp.org/en/gimp-layer-alpha-add.html


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2.2.4. MYTH-BUSTERS!

Many artists started with little or no information on creating a Specular - and some are still unintentionally

following what they learned long ago without realising they may have misunderstood what was really

happening when using a Specular…

Indeed, some odd theories have been bandied about and the majority of early creators at one point or

another have made incorrect Speculars as a result. If you are an experienced creator using this and realising

you might have subscribed (or still do) to one of the myths below, then you are amongst many!

Let’s rule out some of the false ideas about Speculars before we begin…

X The Specular is usually empty – there’s no need to create one

Wrong - the Specular is rarely empty! The thumbnail of the Specular in Workshop LOOKS empty, but

that’s because there is usually an all-black alpha behind it (and black alphas turn an image above

them invisible). You MUST create a Specular for object to look right in the game.

X Speculars don’t need an alpha unless we need to use the alpha

Wrong – saving a Specular without an alpha will mean that an all-white alpha will be added by default

– and you will soon realise that this is the very worst thing that could happen to your Specular –

unless you’re intending making the shiniest object of all time, that is!

X Use a 50% grey alpha and the Specular will average out for all patterns

Wrong – any non-black shade on the alpha channel will force a dull sheen onto your object, meaning

that coarse fabrics and materials like fur or rust will have a sheen too, spoiling the overall effect the

player might want to achieve with your object. It will also impede the full-white alpha of a shiny

metal pattern, limiting the shine the player will be able to attain.

X Using EA’s ‘empty Specular’ image is fine Often wrong. EA’s empty Specular is a white image with a black alpha. It doesn’t impede the effect

of a pattern like the other myths, but it also doesn’t really take into account the natural points of

highlight on your mesh either. The underside of a table would be highlighted as much as the top

surface, which wouldn’t be correct.

X You must add a small dot of white to the alpha, otherwise it is lost Not entirely true. The Workshop shows and works correctly with an all-black alpha. However, if you

need to open your Specular in your graphics program to amend it, the DDS plugins DO drop all-black

alphas, so you must remember to re-add them, or add a white dot to somewhere it doesn’t matter

on the ALPHA of the Specular (e.g. in an unused corner).

? A Specular is simply a high-contrast Multiplier

Yes, a grey myth because it is not entirely myth. Upping the contrast of your Multiplier will often be

enough, but you can still do a little more to bring out natural highlights as we’ll soon see.


23



2.2.5. HOW SPECULARS WORK

The alpha channel is infrequently used in Speculars (it is usually all-black) for the simple reason that any white

areas on the alpha will force those parts of the mesh to be shiny – and forcing anything in Sims 3 limits the

choice for the player. If you’ve ever tried to make an EA vehicle appear rusty or simply age it a bit by reducing

the pattern to a less shiny version, you will know how frustrating that can be.

A Specular example!

As an example of the alpha effect, these hand dryers

have been created in shiny and not-so-nice patterns…

The Specular (and its underlying Alpha Channel) are

shown below. The main part of the Specular is the

greyscale image (in this case an increased-contrast

version of the Multiplier), and the alpha is the black and

white image shown beneath.

The entirety of the dryer appears on the Specular’s main image;

it’s merely the Multiplier with greatly increased contrast until the

most prominent parts are more or less white. The air outlet nozzle

occupies the left of the map, whilst the main body of the dryer

occupies the right.

However, only the nozzle appears on the underlying alpha channel.

The main body of the dryer is not shown on the alpha. It is in fact

quite rare to see the alpha being anything but black at all.

So what does this mean?

It means the body of the dryer has no reflectivity forced upon it. Shine will be governed by patterns that the

player chooses, giving the player full control over shine (or lack of) just as shown in the two dryer variations

above: a rusty paint with no shine, and a highly polished chrome with full shine – both merely pattern

variations of the same object!

However, because of white on the alpha, the nozzle will now be reflective, regardless of pattern chosen.

How reflective will still depend upon the lightness of the nozzle on the Specular image: the more white the

nozzle, the more reflective it will be. If I want to lower the reflectiveness of the shine, I would darken the

nozzle on the Specular but leave the alpha white. This overrides the Specular in the pattern chosen by the

player, forcing a shine regardless.


24



2.2.6. HIGHLIGHTS IN COLOUR

You can use colour on the Specular to

tint the highlights of your object.

Colour is added to the image itself

(not the alpha).

This globe is using a blue tint to

ensure highlights reflected on the

ocean areas will always be tinted blue

regardless of the colour of light

reflected on it. The land masses have

no highlight at all (black Specular)

creating the illusion of a different,

non-reflective texture for the land.

2.2.7. MAKING A SPECULAR

A Specular is VERY simple to make. We’ll use a copy of our Multiplier. Increase its contrast until the whitest

areas are as bright as they can go without looking over-bright and losing detail. Photoshop users can use auto-

contrast to do this with a single click.

Sometimes, this adjustment alone is good enough. However, I made

TWO further changes:

I darkened the motif in the middle of the table. I don’t want

this to pick up the same level of highlighting as the table-top

when light reflects across the table surface; otherwise it will

look like a transfer rather than a carving.

The second change I made was to increase the highlight on

the leg – the lathed part between my two lines of shading.

For this, I used the dodge tool and brushed the area back and

forth until the highlight had increased noticeably above the

brightness of the remainder of the leg (a soft white brush will

do if you have no dodge tool).

IMPORTANT! Workshop will not show the full effects (especially reflection) of a Specular very well. You’ll

need to look at your object in the game before you see how the Specular will really take effect. Additionally,

the Specular doesn’t always update in the Workshop 3D viewer. If you see traces of a former Specular on your

model, simply import your mesh again or close and re-open your project.


25



2.2.8. DO I NEED TO ADD AN ALPHA CHANNEL?

Yes, you absolutely do! If you don’t add an alpha channel to your Specular, a WHITE alpha will be added

automatically, and you’ve already seen what white alphas do to a Specular! Unless you want to try for the

Most Shiny Object Ever award, add an all-black alpha channel before you save your image.

Unless you are using Photoshop, you might not be able to see the alpha channel. Many graphics programs are

made only to add white to an alpha channel, which is not what you want. Not to worry; there is a very simple

workaround if you cannot see your alpha channel - see page 71: How To make an all-black Alpha (a

workaround).

2.2.9. AMENDING YOUR SPECULAR – A MISSING ALPHA?

The DDS plugins often drop an all-black alpha. For general purpose use, a black alpha does nothing and is

considered a bit redundant. Of course, in Speculars, it is anything but redundant! One workaround to ‘trick’

the DDS plugins into keeping the black alpha when you open a Specular in your graphics program is to add a

small white dot to an unused area of the alpha. It isn’t needed for Workshop, but it WILL save you having to

keep recreating your black alpha each time you need to edit it.

2.2.10. SAVING YOUR SPECULAR

As with the Multiplier (on page 17), you need to flatten (merge) any separate layers in your image, and save as

a DDS format image. This time we need to pick DXT5 ARGB 8bpp | Interpolated Alpha as our DDS choice

(because we have an alpha in the file)…


26



2.3. THE RGB MASK

The RGB Mask (known correctly as an RGBA Mask

when used with an alpha) simply marks which parts of

your UV map are coloured by which pattern buttons in

the Create-A-Style (CAST) tool in the game. Most

objects in the game can have up to three recolourable

parts, but some objects like doors and windows often

use all four CAST buttons.

By painting our UV map with the simple colours of red, green and blue, we can

make up to three recolourable parts!

And it really IS that simple! We don’t

even need to use an alpha unless the

object you’ve made uses all four

colours.

2.3.1. WHAT DO THE COLOURS MEAN?

The red, green and blue colours represent each of three

pattern selectors in the game (the fourth is used by

windows and doors only).

Red areas of your RGB Mask are coloured in the game by

the first pattern, green areas of the RGB Mask are coloured

by the second pattern, and blue areas are coloured by the

third pattern.

Some objects such as windows and doors often use FOUR

pattern selectors. Although the RGB format has only three

colours, we can use an alpha for the fourth. We’ll look at

that later. For ordinary objects like this table, a maximum of

three patterns can be used.

FACTBOX: RGB Mask

Does it require an alpha? MAYBE Only if your object is using all four pattern channels (RGB + alpha)

Does size matter? NO If your mask is all red, you can safely use a 64 x 64 all red image

Can it be empty? NO An all-red RGB Mask is the minimum you must provide

Saved as: DXT1/DXT5 Only save as DXT5 Interpolated Alpha if you use an alpha channel.

RGBA MASKS

http://wiki.thesimsresource.com/index.php?title=RGBA_Stencil_Mask


27



2.3.2. HOW TO USE THE COLOURS…

For 1-pattern objects:

- make the RGB mask all red


- make the main part of the object red, and the second part green


- make the main part red, the second largest part green, and the last

part blue

(4-pattern masks are covered on the next page)

2.3.3. MAKING AN RGB MAP

Making an RGB Map is simplicity itself. I have faded mine so that the

Multiplier shows underneath and you can see what I did. I’ve made a

table that will use three patterns: the legs will be one colour, the main

table parts will be another, and the centre of the table will be yet

another. For fun, I used a star pattern to show the power of this

simple image…

1. Open your Multiplier

2. Create a new layer

3. Now draw colour over your Multiplier. Don’t forget: if your object is to be

one pattern only, just fill the entire image with red. You can also use an EA

all-red image instead if you prefer – see page 72

2.3.4. WHY RED, GREEN AND BLUE?

RGB Masks can only use pure red, green and blue, but why?

When painting in pure red, green and blue colours, we’re actually

painting white on the RGB channels of the image (and anyone who has

made Sim patterns will already know about these). The game is using

the underlying channels. Each channel links to a pattern slot in the

CAST tool. If you paint white directly into any of these channels, the

main picture will show pure red, green or blue.

However, as many graphics programs don’t make channel work all that easy, using pure red, green and blue

does exactly the same thing! It happens automatically. We don’t need to work in the channels themselves in

the same way we would if making patterns for three-pattern objects.


28



2.3.5. MAKING 4-PATTERN RGBA MASKS

Here is an RGB Mask using all four patterns for a window (an RGBA Mask – the

A stands for Alpha). The fourth colour is the orange area. If you haven’t done

so already, please read the last bit of information on why we use red, green and

blue. This will explain about how we’ve been using RGB channels (not just

making a primary-coloured mess)!

RGB images are only made up of three channels and so will only link to three of

the pattern slots in the game. Therefore, we have to add another channel, and

the only way we can do that is to add an alpha channel and paint THAT white!

Looking below, you see the alpha with white painted on it.

So, what is the orange?

It’s simply a non-red, green, blue colour that is being used to show where the

fourth colour is located. It’s just for our information (the game uses the white

on the alpha channel). The orange could be ANY colour. Indeed, the EA baby

high-chair has a bright pink colour to indicate where the fourth channel is

located. The colour is immaterial; it is the Alpha channel that is read by the game.

For anyone who cannot paint directly onto their alpha channel:

1. paint the main image in dark orange where you want your fourth pattern to be used

2. Select your orange area

3. Save your selection to the alpha channel

See also: Appendix 1: Alpha Troubles? A solution for everyone! on page 71


29



2.3.6. SAVING YOUR RGB MASK

If your RGB mask is three colours (red, green and blue) or less, then you simply save your image as the

standard DXT1 (no alpha) format.

If your mask is an RGBA Mask (i.e. it uses four colours: red, green, blue and the alpha channel), save as DXT5

Interpolated Alpha…


30



2.4. THE OVERLAY

There are two very similar types of fixed images you

can use in your completed package: Overlays and

Stencils (discussed later). Both apply fixed, non-

recolourable decals to your mesh. They’re entirely

optional.

As with all other images, the Overlay is based on our UV map to chart where its image

should appear. Overlays aren’t recolourable, and so their appearance on the RGB Mask

is not important. There is no sign of the flower image in the middle of the red sun

(where in reality it sits) because an Overlay is not recolourable and so overrides any

colouring on the RGB Mask.

OVERLAYS

Overlays Stencils An Overlay shows on all texture variants (recolours) of your object.

Different texture variations of your object can have different Stencils in combinations. A Stencil only applies to the colour variation to which it has been added.

There is only one for the object in entirety.

You can have up to four Stencils layered per texture variant.

Overlays are imported as one of the four main DDS images

Stencils are imported per colour variation in a special area beneath the pattern slots (see page 34-35)

FACTBOX: Overlays

Does it require an alpha? YES Alphas are black except where forced reflectiveness is applied

Does size matter? NO Must be the same size as the Multiplier unless empty

Can it be empty? YES See the appendices for making use of an empty Overlay from EA

Saved as: DXT5 Overlays always have an alpha channel, so must be saved as DXT5.

http://wiki.thesimsresource.com/index.php?title=Overlay


31



2.4.1. HOW OVERLAYS WORK…

Overlays work by using an alpha channel. The entire alpha must be

black EXCEPT where the overlaid image is located (which is usually

white). Typically, the unused part of the main image is some shade

of black, grey or white, though this empty space can be any shade

because it’s ignored wherever the alpha behind it is black.

Therefore, the alpha is the controlling layer. This is usual for many

DDS images for Sims 3. If I drew a white square at the bottom of the

alpha, even though there is no image there on the Overlay itself, my

mesh will be overlaid with a grey square. The alpha must be black

unless you want the Overlay to override any part of your mesh’s

texture. Any shade of grey will show the Overlay image with some

transparency, and pure white or white will reveal the Overlay image in full, solid colour.

2.4.2. MAKING AN OVERLAY

1. Open your Multiplier in your graphics program – we’ll use this as a guide to

where the Overlay image needs to be.

2. Create a new layer above it

3. Draw the image for your Overlay, positioning it exactly where you want it to

appear.

4. Select your new image, but not any of the background around it. I found it

easier to select the blank space with the Magic Wand selector and then invert

the selection.

5. We now need to add our selection to the alpha channel…

If you have Photoshop, you can simply switch channels, add a new

alpha as shown, and fill your still-highlighted selection with white

(EDIT menu, FILL, White)

For any other program, go to your Selections menu, and save your

selection to an alpha channel. For more help with using the Alpha

Channel, see Alpha Troubles in the appendices – page 71.


32



2.4.3. SAVING YOUR OVERLAY

As with the Multiplier (on page 17), you need to flatten (merge) any separate layers in your image, and save as

a DDS format image. This time we need to pick DXT5 ARGB 8bpp | Interpolated Alpha as our DDS choice

(because we have an alpha in the file)…

2.4.4. REPLACING AN EXISTING OVERLAY WITH A BLANK IMAGE

If you have cloned an object that already has an Overlay, but you don’t need one, you can replace it with a

blank image already in the game. For more information, see:

Appendix 2: Replacing images with empty versions on page 72.

3. SPECIAL TEXTURES

Special textures are optional and are only

used in some instances. Familiarise yourself

with making the primary textures before

embarking on these…

3: Special Textures

34



3.1. STENCILS

Most information about Stencils has already been covered in Overlays (page 30).

Stencils are mainly used for flat, 2-dimensional decals, logos and texture effects to

affix to your mesh as part of a particular texture variation. Like Overlays, they are

non-recolourable.

The BIG difference with Stencils is that Stencils only apply to a particular texture

variation. You can have a different set of up to four layered Stencils for each

texture variation of your object. However, DO bear in mind that every image you

add to your object will ramp up the file size and files that are too big will be

difficult for lot builders to use in their uploaded lots (if that’s what you intend for

them).

AnoeskaB made these gorgeous

Milk Churns by layering rust

stencils. The first texture variation

uses a single light rust stencil, whilst

the second texture variation

combines different rust effects on

layered stencils. They are very

powerful in allowing you to layer effects and make

colour options that aren’t just based on in-game

patterns.

3.1.1. MAKING YOUR STENCILS

1. As usual, use your Multiplier as a template.

2. Paint the graphics for your Stencil on a new layer.

3. Make the decals white on the alpha channel

4. Save as DXT5 Interpolated Alpha

STENCILS

http://wiki.thesimsresource.com/index.php?title=Stencil

3: Special Textures

35



3.1.2. IMPORTING STENCILS INTO WORKSHOP

Stencils are not imported with the

main images of our object, but are

imported into the Stencils section of

the Textures tab (there is a Stencils

area for each texture variation).

You’ll find this area at the bottom,

just beneath the pattern slots.

Scroll down below the pattern slots

and you will see + Stencils at the very

bottom. Click the + to expand the

view…

You will see four available stencils: A,

B, C and D. Use them in consecutive

order (i.e.: if you only have one

Stencil, always use Stencil A).

To import your new Stencil:

1. click on the image,

2. click the EDIT button

3. Click the Import button (marked with a green arrow)…

…and repeat for any additional

Stencils you wish to add.

4. Ensure that Enabled is set to

True

3: Special Textures

36



3.2. DIRTY-STATE OVERLAYS

Many objects have Dirt Overlays that

transform an object if a Sim has been less

than clean! These are what you see when

a Sim action triggers the ‘dirty state’ of an

object.

When you make worktops, stoves and any

item of plumbing, these special overlays

will also need to be made. If you fail to

change these, when a Sim dirties your

new toilet, you might find the seat dirt

imprinted on the cistern! Therefore, it’s

important to remember dirty states for such objects. It does mean that an

object with dirty states will be a larger size file, but this is the same for EA’s own

dirty-state objects available in the store.

3.2.1. FINDING THE DIRT OVERLAYS

Dirt Overlays are really just ordinary overlays, but they are stored in a different part of Workshop. To find

them, you need to go to the Mesh tab of Workshop, and expand the materials attached to your mesh.

1. Find the main mesh in the list of

mesh groups. The pedestal

sink’s main mesh is Group 1.

2. Expand the Extra list at the

bottom of the group to view all

materials being used for the

mesh (the number and design

of these will vary with each

object).

3. Select each listed material

4. Notice that the mesh in the 3D

viewer shows the material you

have selected.

This will open the Materials

Editor…

3: Special Textures

37



3.2.2. THE MATERIALS EDITOR

The Material Editor is a pop-up window showing details of the material we have selected. You can see the Dirt

Overlay listed just beneath the Diffuse settings.

Click the Dirt Overlay image and then

click the EDIT button to open the Image

Editor…

3.2.3. EXPORTING AND IMPORTING DIRT OVERLAYS

The IMPORT and EXPORT buttons are at the top right of the Image

Editor.

You can click Export if you wish to examine EA’s Dirt Overlay. When

you’ve completed your own overlay, simply click the Import button.

3: Special Textures

38



3.2.4. MAKING THE MOST OF AN ALPHA

A Dirt Overlay will show us what is really possible with alphas,

and why alphas do all the work in overlays.

This Dirt Overlay by EA also matches the UV map of the sink, so

use your Multiplier as a template when creating a Dirt Overlay as

we did with the main Overlay. Beyond that, the Dirt Overlay is

filled with smeared greens and browns. Some EA Dirt Overlays

are just a mess of greens, reds and browns with no definition of

shape on the main image whatsoever. That’s because the real

design is done on the alpha.

You’ll find you really don’t need to be too particular about the

main image for a great-looking dirt result!

3.2.5. MAKING A DIRT OVERLAY

1. Making the main image: As usual, load up your Multiplier, then add a

transparent layer on top of it.

2. Paint blobs and smears of greens, browns, reds and oranges. If you want a

particular colour of dirt, or a particular texture, paint these where you want

them – otherwise you don’t need to be too careful with what you paint where.

3. To finish the main image, place a new layer underneath your painted layer and

flood-fill it with a dark green or brown to ensure all gaps are filled.

4. Merge your flood-filled layer with your painted image and make the new

merged layer invisible for now.

(continued next page)

3: Special Textures

39



3.2.6. MAKING A DIRT OVERLAY (CONTINUED)

5. Making the alpha: Add a new transparent layer over the Multiplier.

6. Now paint this in shades of grey and white as shown on the right where you

wish dirt to appear:

For areas of no dirt: leave blank - no need to paint anything

For some dirt smears: use shades of grey (the brighter the grey, the more

dirt will show)

For solid dirt with no pattern showing through: paint white on the alpha

If you cannot make a greyscale alpha in your graphics program, then you

can either use gentle amounts of white, or you can cheat and use EA’s dirt

maps (see Cheating on dirt! on page 42).

7. Now add a new layer under THIS painted layer. Flood-fill it with black

8. Merge your grey-scale painting and your black-flood filled layer. It

should look something like EA’s alpha: a grey-scale decorated mesh

where you want dirt to appear from your main image.

9. Save this new image to your alpha channel

10. Now make visible the green/brown layer you hid at step 4.

11. Flatten the image into one merged layer. Your green image now

has an alpha channel and be ready for saving!

3.2.7. SAVING DIRT OVERLAYS

As with regular Overlays, save as DXT5 I Interpolated alpha.

3: Special Textures

40



3.2.8. IMPORTING DIRT OVERLAYS

Once you have made your new Dirt Overlays you will need to replace both the HIGH and LOW level of detail

meshes. This is very easy to forget!

Import the high detail Dirt overlays

first…

1. ensure that you are working on the High

Level Of Detail mesh

2. expand the EXTRAS listed

under the mesh group for

your main mesh

3. click on a material and click the

three dots button to display the

Material Editor…

4. select the Dirt overlay shown below and click Edit to open the Image Editor (it will be a green/brown

image with some transparency and there may be more than one with differing levels of dirt)…

5. replace each of the Dirt Overlays with your replacement Overlays by clicking the Import button at the

top right of the Image Editor window…

6. Repeat for every Dirt Overlay that needs replacing. Ignore any dirt that seems to be a black/brown

image – this is the ‘smoke damage’ image and doesn’t really need to be edited.

3: Special Textures

41



3.2.9. IMPORTING DIRT OVERLAYS (CONTINUED)

Now, let’s update the

materials of the low level of

detail mesh…

1. Switch to the Low Level of

Detail mesh…

2. As before, select each

material to expand it in the

Materials Editor

3. Select the Dirt Overlay in the

Materials Editor and click the

EDIT button…

4. You don’t need to import your Dirt Overlays again (you imported them for the High level Of Detail

mesh, so we only need to point this mesh to those that we’ve imported already.

Click the Edit button to display the Image Editor, and this time click the BROWSE button!

5. Select the Dirt Overlay you imported for your high-detail mesh and click OK…

3: Special Textures

42



3.2.10. CHEATING ON DIRT!

If you are worried about preposterous file sizes, or you have a lot of difficulty creating a greyscale alpha

correctly in your graphics program, then one very easy way to avoid all the headaches with creating Dirt

Overlays is to cheat!

Simply map the key parts of your mesh to the same spots on the original EA Multiplier.

Here is a Multiplier for a toilet made by EA.

The key parts (seat, bowl, pedestal and cistern) are all

discernable. If you map your toilet seat and bowl (at the

very least) to the same places that the EA toilet used, the

original EA Dirt Overlay (shown below) will work for your

mesh too. This will actually be good enough to look

‘right’.

Foe even greater accuracy, map your cistern and pedestal

to the same spots too.

You can still make your own Multiplier, but keeping key

parts in the same locations will ensure that you can use

the original dirt without making your own and inflating

your Sims3Pack file size.

This technique not only keeps your Sims3Pack file size

down, it is also one way you can have great-looking dirt

effects if your graphics program won’t allow you to make

greyscale alphas.

3: Special Textures

43



3.3. TEXTURES OF NON-RECOLOURABLE OBJECTS

Objects that are non-recolourable in the game do not

have ordinary textures such as Multipliers, RGB Masks

and Speculars. Indeed, you will notice that the

Textures tab of Workshop is empty.

Sims 2 creators among you will breathe a big sigh of

relief to find that non-recolourable objects have a

single fully-painted DDS image very similar to those

created in Sims 2!

3.3.1. WHY USE A NON-RECOLOURABLE OBJECT?

This is a GOOD question! Ideally, you won’t unless absolutely necessary because this strips away any choice

for the player. However, there are some instances where using a non-recolourable object is necessary:

1. If a non-recolourable object allows behaviours that cannot be found in any colourable object

2. If an object you’ve made simply would not need recolouring (like the magazines pictured above)

I’m making an object that arguably fits BOTH criteria! I’m usually known for making not-so-nice things, and in

this example I am indeed making something not-so-nice for a bathroom floor. I expect my mother would say

that this is nothing to be proud of, but there we all are.

This toilet roll doesn’t really need recolouring (though had I the

choice, I would have made it so). My primary need for cloning

a non-recolourable object is that I want Sims to be able to walk

over the object, I want it to fit on a quarter tile, sit in front of a

toilet without impeding access to Sims, and I want it useable

both indoors and outdoors, and on floors and counter-tops.

The ONLY object in the base game that meets all these

requirements is the decorative ‘clutter magazines’ object – and

that is non-recolourable!

3: Special Textures

44



3.3.2. FINDING THE TEXTURE

The texture of a non-recolourable

object is found on the Mesh tab

of Workshop, listed as ‘default

material’.

In the case of EA’s Clutter

Magazines, the main mesh is

actually group 0. I’ve selected the

default material (highlighted in

green). Clicking the dots opens

the Materials Editor where we’ll

find the texture.

The image we actually require is

labelled as the Diffuse map. Click

the EDIT button to view it in the

Image Editor.

And here you see EA’s secret! Most of the small non-

recolourables share a single texture held in one of the

internal game libraries (the magazines use the top left

corner of it), but don’t worry, we can replace this with

our own texture…

(and our texture won’t need to be shared!)

3: Special Textures

45



3.3.3. MAKING A TEXTURE FOR A NON-RECOLOURABLE OBJECT

As usual, you will make a DDS image based on your object’s UV map. However, this image is full colour!

Because non-recolourable objects don’t have multipliers or speculars, the impression of shade and highlights

will need to be added to this single image too.

3.3.4. SAVING NON-RECOLOURABLE TEXTURES

Non-recolourable DDS textures don’t need an alpha, and so we save the image as DXT1 No alpha…

3: Special Textures

46



3.3.5. IMPORTING THE MATERIAL

The material appears in two places under the High Level Of Detail mesh, and twice again under the Low Detail

mesh. All must be updated. However, we only need to import the texture ONCE, so let’s do that first…

Import the first texture…

1. Click the Default Material immediately under the mesh group name…

2. Click the three dots button as shown above to open it in the Materials Editor (below)…

3. Click the Diffuse map to open this image in the Image Editor

4. Click the IMPORT button to replace the EA image with your

material…

3: Special Textures

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3.3.6. UPDATING OTHER MATERIALS TO USE YOUR IMPORTED TEXTURE

Now that we have imported our

new Material, we need to ensure all

other materials that previously

pointed to the EA material now

point to ours instead…

The Extra material…

Still on the High Level of Detail

mesh page, now expand the + Extra

list in the mesh group (beneath the’

Visible’ setting)…

The main material is nearly always

the top-listed material (though do

always check). Select the material

and click the three dots button.

If you have selected the correct material, you will see EA’s full colour texture (not a shadow image).

Click the EDIT button to acces the image

in Image Editor.

1Click the BROWSE button and select the image you imported earlier

And now repeat for both the Default Material and Extra material for your Low Level of Detail mesh materials

too!

3: Special Textures

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3.4. WALL MASKS FOR WINDOWS, DOORS AND ARCHES

Doors, windows and arches use an additional special image that creates a

cut-out hole in the wall. These are called wall

masks. Because they don’t contain any real detail,

they are usually very tiny in size – for example: 64

pixels wide by 128 pixels high!

Wall masks are purely black and white alphas,

where white represents a single visible wall

segment, and black represents a transparent hole

in the wall. There is nothing complicated about

making these other than ensuring your hole is not

too big or too small.

Wall masks can now be generated in Workshop.

However, it is useful to know how to make Wall

Masks yourself in case the Workshop does not give

you the result you needed.

3.4.1. WHERE ARE THE WALL MASKS LOCATED?

You’ll find the wall masks listed under

the Workshop’s Misc tab. There will

be an inside and outside mask for

every tile of your window. You only

need to change either the inside or

the outside for each mask (they

update each other automatically).

If your window is more than one tile

wide, you will need to make masks

for each wall segment that the

window occupies.

Select the EDIT button to open them

in the Image Editor from where you

can import and export these masks.

3: Special Textures

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3.4.2. MAKING A TEMPLATE OF YOUR WINDOW IN MILKSHAPE

We start out by using a 3D program that has grid sizes to match Sim tiles. Milkshape does that by default, so

that makes life very easy! I’ll be using Milkshape for this demonstration…

1. Import your low detail window mesh into Milkshape as usual (import a TSR Workshop Object). Low

detail windows don’t have wall shadows to get in the way!

2. Change Milkshape’s grid setting to 0.5 under

File > Preferences.

Although a grid size of 1 is the correct size for

Sim tiles, you will find your window is sat

between two tiles. Halving the grid will

therefore give us a grid we can still use

without moving the window.

Note: sometimes you will need to minimise

Milkshape’s window and restore it to see the

grid change.

3. With a grid size of 0.5, a Sim wall is 2 squares wide, and 6 squares high as shown in the area I’ve

highlighted on the right. We need to cut out this area as the base for our new wall mask.

Take a screen print of the Milkshape window (press ALT-Prt-Scr on your

keyboard) and paste it into your graphics program ready for

editing.

4. Crop your screen print image until it is exactly 2

squares wide and 6 squares high.

5. Then resize the image to match the size of

the wall mask that EA used (this wall mask

is 64 x 128 pixels).

Your resized template will be a bit of

a blur, but that’s okay.

3: Special Textures

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3.4.3. MAKING A TEMPLATE OF YOUR WINDOW IN MILKSHAPE (CONTINUED)

6. Now paint the window area completely black.

For best results, paint the black area to somewhere in the middle of the frame, but try

not to stray over the edge otherwise you will have holes in the wall around your

window!

7. Now paint the remainder of the mask pure white (I selected my black area, then

inverted my selection and flood-filled it white)

8. Finally, put the exact same image in the alpha

channel.

If your graphics program does not offer a visible

alpha channel to edit, try selecting the white area of

your Wall Mask, going to your Selections menu, and

saving the selection to an alpha channel.

For more help on making alphas, see:

Appendix 1: Alpha Troubles? A solution for

everyone! on page 71.

3.4.4. SAVING YOUR WALL MASK

The image is using an alpha channel so save as DXT5 I Interpolated alpha.

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3.4.5. IMPORTING YOUR WALL MASKS

Wall masks are found under the Misc

tab of Workshop.

I’ve opened a 2-tile window so you

can see how these masks are made.

As mentioned previously, although

both inside and outside masks are

displayed, you only have to change

one of these (the other will be

updated automatically).

To replace a Wall Mask image,

simply click on the mask you wish to

replace and click the EDIT button.

This will open the Image Editor.

Click the Import button to import

your new Wall Mask.

Note: it is not possible to add or

remove Wall Masks.

3.4.6. CHECKING YOUR WALL MASKS

The 3D viewer of Workshop will give you a good representation

of how accurate your Wall Mask will appear in the game. On

the Misc tab, you can opt to show a backdrop wall and also pick

a colour for the wall. This wall allows you to examine your Wall

Masks in action.

The Wall Mask for the window on the left is showing some

problem points. Two leaks of wall are showing on the inside of

the window, so the black of my right-hand Wall Mask needs to

be repaired before I finish this window.

3: Special Textures

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3.4.7. THE AUTOMATED WALL MASK GENERATOR

The Workshop includes a facility for generating Wall

Masks automatically. Look to the bottom of the Wall

Masks on the Misc tab and you will see the word

Generate. Click this to open the Generator settings page…

By default, the Wall Mask is generated by using the

window glass as a template. If your window isn’t using

any glass, then deselect this box so that your window

frame will be used instead.

The Generator will make a good first guess at your

window and you might not need to adjust any of the

settings at all.

However, if you find you do need to change the mask,

experiment with the threshold and feather sliders until

the mask looks exactly as you want it in the 3D viewer.

The z-clipping feature will allow you to include or exclude

part of your mesh when basing the mask on the window

frame rather than glass (for example partially closed

shutters – you would want these eliminated from

Workshop’s estimation of the mask.

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3.5. TRANSPARENCY AND INVISIBILITY

It is possible to make parts of your meshes

transparent or even totally invisible by

adding an alpha channel to your

Multiplier and changing its transparency

setting..

3.5.1. INVISIBILITY

To make the chains of this drawbridge

would have demanded a lot of polygons,

so I made simple flat planes and painted a

series of chain links onto the Multiplier

instead. I needed to use an alpha with my

Multiplier to make that part of the mesh

see-through.

The transparent part of the Multiplier is where I’ve

highlighted in red. Although the Multiplier doesn’t show

this area as anything special on the actual image, the

area behind it on the alpha is black (black is invisible).

This, together with an alpha transparency setting (page

55), will be invisible in the game.

The rest of the alpha, including the chain links

themselves, is white (white is solid). This is the actual

alpha of the drawbridge’s Multiplier.

This is how decorative plants are made

too. See riccinumbers’ Tutorial for

Plants at TSR.

http://www.thesimsresource.com/artists/riccinumbers/tutorials/view/category/sims3/id/14239/

http://www.thesimsresource.com/artists/riccinumbers/tutorials/view/category/sims3/id/14239/

3: Special Textures

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3.5.2. SHEER TRANSPARENCY

This beautiful sheer curtain made

by Angela shows a perfect mesh

transparency.

Important! Transparency is an

advanced technique. There are

still uncertainties about the

settings that need to be changed

and you will need to experiment

with the methods described to

achieve it.

In order to achieve a sheer effect, you will need to use

a grey shade on your Multiplier’s alpha, starting with a

50% grey and experimenting with darker or lighter

shades to achieve the sheerness of the material. This

is the Multiplier and alpha channel used to create

Angela’s curtain.

The darker the grey, the more transparent the

material will become.

Some graphics programs will support greyscale alphas

whilst others will not. For more information on alphas,

see page 71.

IMPORTANT! Workshop will not show level of transparency accurately. You’ll need to look at your object in

the game before you see how transparent your mesh will look.

3: Special Textures

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3.5.3. SETTING TRANSPARENCY OF THE ALPHA

When using transparency or

invisibility, you will need to change

some settings on the mesh material.

Go to the Mesh tab and find the

mesh group you need to change.

Click the Default material entry as

shown below...

Click the button with the three dots to expand this selection. This will open the Material Editor. The shader

drop-down needs to be changed from Phong to Phong Alpha.

The Alpha Mask Threshold can be a value of 0 (solid) to 255

(invisible). When EA uses transparency settings, they use values

0 for solid, then 60, 120, 150, 160 and 200 for various degrees of transparency. The

best advice is to experiment with this number combined with the grey on your alpha.

You won’t see the results until the object is in your game, so you might find yourself

working back and forth between Workshop and game until you find the most ideal

settings.

3.5.4. SAVING A MULTIPLIER WITH AN ALPHA

This Multiplier is using an alpha channel so must be saved as DXT5 I Interpolated alpha.

MATERIAL EDITOR

IMPORTANT! Remember to

make these changes to both your

High and Low level of Detail meshes!

http://wiki.thesimsresource.com/index.php?title=Material_Editor

3: Special Textures

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3.6. GLASS

Glass objects don’t use textures at all, so how

do you work with glass objects?

Glass is one of a selection of different materials

we can apply to our objects. We already looked

briefly at the Material Editor when looking at

Dirt Overlays (page 37) and it also popped up in

non-recolourable textures and transparency

too. To change the effect of our glass, we edit

the material directly.

3.6.1. CHOOSING AN OBJECT TO CLONE

Glass is always found in a separate mesh group from the remainder of the mesh, and it’s therefore advisable to

clone an object that already has glass inside it. For decorative objects, the atrium fern is a perfect choice. For

wall objects, the medicine cabinet has a glass front. And there are plenty of glass lamps and other furniture

such as coffee tables with glass too.

Some items currently have no glass-sporting versions (dining tables for example). A planned development of

the Workshop will allow us to add additional mesh groups and we hope to be able to add glass and other

materials as a result. Until that time, we are limited in being able to add glass to all objects. Changing the

material of a mesh that is all in one group will change the entire mesh into glass – usually not ideal!

3.6.2. MAKING GLASS MESHES

Although it’s beyond the scope of this tutorial to talk about making meshes, one detail that is tremendously

important for glass is smoothing any hard edges when you want to achieve a curved glass effect.

On the right, Shino&KCR provided two

examples: the first shows a jar where the

glass has not been smoothed. Each hard

edge reflects light in a different direction.

The jar on the right however is perfect.

The hard edges have been smoothed by

welding together all the vertices that make

up the curved part of the mesh

3: Special Textures

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3.6.3. MAPPING GLASS MESHES

Here is a map of the glass group of EA’s atrium

fern. The first thing you can see is that the glass

has no special area on the Multiplier. This is

because glass does not use the textures we have

created for the rest of the object. Size of the

mapping is also immaterial.

The atrium’s glass is slapped right on top of the

image, but it will make no difference.

The second thing you’ll notice is that all four

atrium sides are overlapping; however, the

curved glass sits in a separate space from the

flat sides…

Overlapping glass on UV maps…

Where the glass reflectivity will be different, you must map

the glass parts separately, just as EA mapped the curved

glass separately from the straight faces. Shino&KCR shows

us what happens if we don’t!

In the left-most glass jar, the glass bottom is mapped over

the glass sides. As the glass does not rely on textures, it

seems a perfectly reasonable thing to do, but if you look

closely, the reflection uneven and lacks the smoothness a

curved reflection should have.

However, for the jar on the right, the glass bottom sits in its

own space on the UV map. The game is now able to render

reflection of the glass sides correctly, giving a smooth and

accurate reflection.

3: Special Textures

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3.6.4. SETTING GLASS PROPERTIES

If you ever created meshes for Sims 2, you will probably be familiar with the Material Definition. This was a file

that would allow us to specify transparency, reflection and colour hues of objects over and above the textures

we applied directly to the mesh. Like

Sims 2, Sims 3 also has a set of material

settings. Most of the time, we have

little need to change them, but glass

uses no textures so this is where we’ll

control how glass will look…

On the Mesh tab of Workshop, identify

which of the groups is your glass mesh.

Often, it will be Group 1, with Group 2

being the non-glass parts of the mesh.

IMPORTANT! You will need to

repeat this for your low level of

detail mesh too!

Select the Default material entry

(highlighted in green opposite) and

click the button with the three dots to

open the Material Editor…

3.6.5. CHOOSING THE RIGHT GLASS

Look at the left of the Material Editor window and you should see a drop-down list called the Shader. The

shader is a type of material effect we wish to apply to our meshes, with the standard, solid material being

Phong.

However, there are a number of shaders for glass. There is Glass for fences,

Glass for portals (windows and doors), Glass for rabbit holes (the glass we see

in community prebuilt buildings – these are actually meshes too!) and finally

TWO settings for objects…

The standard glass for objects shader is best suited to low-reflective, opaque

glass. The glass for objects translucent shader is better for transparent glass

with higher reflective properties. These are the two shaders we commonly use

for glass in standard objects that don’t have a special glass shader already

provided.

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3.6.6. CONTROLLING TRANSPARENCY AND TINT

Click on the Diffuse setting. You

can see a drop-down arrow on the

right of this line. Click the arrow to

open a colour pallet. You can see a

slider to control amount of

transparency (alpha strength) and a

colour selector to select a tint for

your glass.

The more opaque

your glass, the

more the tint will

show.

The effect of tint and transparency will depend on the glass shader you selected. Glass for objects is a better

choice than glass for objects translucent for tinted glass.

3: Special Textures

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3.6.7. PERFECT TRANSLUCENCY

Making pure, translucent glass that gives the appearance of solid glass can be tricky. Glass can look too

opaque, or too thin, or it can lack any real reflectivity. Therefore, finding good material settings is key.

Shino&KCR have found these settings work particularly well.

1. First, choose the Glass for objects translucent shader

2. Change the Diffuse values to zero alpha, and 44, 51, 46 RGB values

3. Reduce Shininess to 10

4. Reduce the Specular down to an RGB value of 190, 190, 190

5. Reduce Transparency to 0.5

The end result will be

a realistic looking

thickness of glass with

the right amount of

reflection.

Remember to make your changes to both

HIGH and LOW level of detail meshes!

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3.6.8. USING GLASS WITH TEXTURES

Sometimes, the Material Editor will show a Diffuse Map

option. A diffuse map will hold a full colour texture that can

be combined with glass.

I wanted to make a realistic looking puddle (and yes, I’m

sorry about that picture)! I cloned the ‘clutter magazines’

because these can be walked upon by Sims (and the

magazines, unlike rugs, work nicely with glass shaders).

I changed the shader from Phong to Glass for objects

translucent and was pleasantly surprised to see this object

offered a diffuse map…

I found a water texture (left) and added an

alpha channel (middle) to it so that only some

of the water ripple would show (right). I did not

want ripples at the very edges of the puddle as

this would not have looked realistic. I set the

Alpha Mask Threshold (see page 55) to 20.

4. WORKSHOP

You’ve made all your images. It’s now time to

add them to your mesh and see your object

spring to life!

4: Workshop

63



4.1. IMPORTING YOUR IMAGES INTO WORKSHOP

Importing the main textures into Workshop is easy! This applies to all the standard textures (Overlay, RGB

Mask, Multiplier and Specular). Special textures are imported in a different way but we’ll come to these later.

To import any of the main textures…:

1. Click the TEXTURES tab of

Workshop

2. At the top (immediately below

the tabs), you will see a drop-

down box. This holds all the

different texture variations of the original object. To the right of it is the COPY AND MAKE NEW

button which copies your current variation into a new one (a very quick way to make new variations),

and a red cross which will delete the currently selected variation.

Using the red cross, delete ALL variations except the first one.

3. Click on the image (e.g. Multiplier) you

want to replace (this will open the Image

Editor – pictured)

4. Click the IMPORT button (marked with a

green arrow)

5. Browse for your

replacement

image

IMAGE EDITOR

IMPORTANT! If you see THIS message, it simply

means your images are a different

size to the originals.

Click YES – otherwise your patterns

will be blurred in the game.

http://wiki.thesimsresource.com/index.php?title=Image_Editor

4: Workshop

64



4.2. BROWSING FOR IMAGES ALREADY IN THE PACKAGE

Sometimes you will have imported an image into the Workshop already, and you might want to reuse it.

Occasionally, when not concentrating, I have imported a wrong image (for example: importing the RGB Mask

into the Multiplier). To correct this, I don’t need to import my Multiplier a second time. I can simply browse

for it. The browse facility is also useful when experimenting with different stencils that you’ve imported.

Next to the Import button we were just using is the Browse button…

Click this to browse through the DDS images already in your file. Only your images are shown. EA’s textures

aren’t loaded into the package; they’re loaded from separate database files that hold the library of game

textures once your object is in the game.

Select the texture you require from the list and click OK.

4.2.1. REPLACING AN IMAGE WITH AN EMPTY VERSION

If you have cloned an object that already has an Overlay or Stencil that you don’t require, you can replace it

with a blank image already in the game. For more information, see:

Appendix 2: Replacing images with empty versions on page 72.

4: Workshop

65



4.3. CHOOSING PATTERNS

Now scroll down the screen of the TEXTURES tab and you should see

some pattern slots. This is where we do the exciting stuff! First, we

need to enable or disable the patterns we need…

4.3.1. ENABLING AND DISABLING PATTERNS

If you only used one RGB Mask colour (i.e. your mask is all red), your

object will only use the topmost pattern shown here, so change all the

other patterns’ Enabled settings to False.

If you used two RGB Mask colours (i.e. your mask uses the red and

green channels), your object will only use the first two pattern slots

shown here. Ensure these are Enabled: True and change the last

pattern’s Enabled setting to False.

If you’ve used all three red, green and blue colours, then you need all

three patterns enabled!

Note: for windows and doors, there is a fourth pattern. This should be

enabled too if you used the fourth RGBA colour.

4.3.2. PATTERN TILING

Each pattern has a tiling setting. Usually, this should represent how

many blocks of 256 x 256 pixels make up your DDS images:

Notice how the tiling of my patterns is 1, 2? That is because my DDS images are 256 pixels (1 tile) wide by 512

pixels (2 tiles) high.

When I said USUALLY above, you might find (especially if you’re new to meshing) that your mapping is making

the pattern look stretched. Looking at your object in the 3D viewer on the left, you can experiment with the

tiling to see whether a higher or lower number will look better. Once you’re experienced at meshing and UV

mapping, you’ll have less need to alter the pattern tiling.

NOTE: THE ROTATION SETTING IS NOT CURRENTLY IN USE.

Image width or height Tiling value

128 pixels 0.5

256 pixels 1

512 pixels 2

1024 pixels 4

4: Workshop

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4.3.3. CHOOSING NEW PATTERNS

Now for the greatest fun of texturing your

object: seeing all that hard work coming to

fruition!

Click any one of the pattern slots, and an

EDIT button appears. Click this EDIT button.

This opens the Pattern Editor. We only

need to look at two things. First, we’ll

look at the folder of patterns (marked

red). Click it to open…

The pattern browser offers all the patterns available

to you from the game. Only EA’s patterns will be

listed.

It’s possible to make custom patterns for your objects

but that’s beyond the scope of this tutorial. In

reality, you won’t need to make your own patterns

too frequently because the EA patterns, combined

with your images, will do a great job.

The drop-down list allows you to select from all the

pattern categories. Choose a pattern for each of the pattern slots you’re using.

Different patterns have different properties of their own. If you left the alpha of your Specular all-black, then

the patterns you select will govern whether your object is reflective or not.

PATTERN EDITOR

http://wiki.thesimsresource.com/index.php?title=Pattern_Editor

4: Workshop

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4.3.4. EDITING THE PROPERTIES OF A PATTERN

If you expand the Pattern Editor window, you will see at least one HSV Shift drop-down (HSV stands for Hue

Saturation Vibrance). There can be up to four colour channels in a pattern, though most patterns are only one

or two colours. Click any one of these to change the palette colours with a neat little colour picker. If you

prefer, you can add HSV numbers directly to the number boxes below the colour picker instead.

Also, notice the 3D Preview tick-box under the pattern picture? If your PC isn’t struggling under the weight of

the Workshop, you can tick this box and see your changes take immediate effect on your mesh in the 3D

viewer! Here is an example pattern comprising three HSV colours you can customise…

.

4: Workshop

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4.4. MAKING A NEW COLOUR VARIATION OF YOUR OBJECT

Once your DDS images have been imported and your patterns have been adjusted, you can make a copy of all

these settings in order to make new texture variations. Making variations is a good idea because not all

players like using the Create-A-Style

Tool, and you will also have ideas of

your own for how your mesh will appear

in the game. I always like to make 2-3

variations at least.

To make a new colour variation,

simply click the button next to the list of

texture variations…

This will make an exact copy of everything you did in your first variation. Your DDS images are already

loaded, and so all you need to do is select some new patterns to complete this variation!

4.5. THE FINAL COMPLATE (AND A BONUS TEXTURE FOR SIMS 2 TOO!)

You’ve finished your texturing and your object is ready for the

game. However, if you’re interested in seeing the Complate

(texture map) that you have created for each pattern

variation, go to the Textures tab and click on the small floppy-

disk icon as shown below.

Select the Diffuse Map option, and save in your

chosen format of DDS, JPG, bitmap etc. There

will be a Complate for every texture variation

you’ve made.

This is a great way to make a Sims 2 version of

your object textures too!

COMPLATES

http://wiki.thesimsresource.com/index.php?title=Export_Complate

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4.6. SAVING AND EXPORTING YOUR NEW OBJECT

If your meshes are imported, your shadows done, your catgories on the PROJECT tab are ticked correctly and

you’ve finished your textures and pattern selections too, then , then you’re ready to export your new object!

Here’s a quick Workshop check-list to ensure you’ve finished…

Project tab

Object, title, description and price are correct

Correct catalog categories ticked

Mesh tab

High detail mesh imported

Low detail mesh imported

Shadow meshes for high and low detail created

Textures tab

Textures imported

Patterns correct and enabled/disabled as required)

Pattern tiling correct for your image sizes

Misc tab (doors, arches and windows

All wall masks changed

3D view of your mesh

Give your mesh a whirl – check

all sides look fine

Click the File menu and SAVE your

Workshop file.

Click the File menu again, and export

your brand new Sims3Pack object ready

for installing into the game!

APPENDICES

Appendices

71



APPENDIX 1: ALPHA TROUBLES? A SOLUTION FOR EVERYONE!

The majority of graphics programs don’t have very visible ways of working with Alpha Channels. Photoshop is

easy and straight-forward, but the other primary programs differ greatly in how they handle Alphas, and some

programs won’t let you create an all-black Alpha at all (a frequent requirement for Speculars).

These links offer some help for some mainstream programs:

Photoshop Elements | Paint Shop Pro | GIMP

However, if you’re still struggling, this method, tested in Photoshop Elements and various versions of Paint

Shop Pro, has proved a simple and failsafe way to make simple Alphas for your standard DDS images

(unfortunately, greyscale alphas will not be possible using these methods, but greyscale alphas are only used

on transparencies and dirt overlays (see Cheating on dirt! on page 42 for another workaround for dirt)…

TO MAKE AN ALL-WHITE ALPHA

1. Select your entire image

2. Go to your Selections menu

3. Save your selection to an alpha channel (most programs offer an alpha channel as a selection save

option)

TO MAKE A PARTIALLY-WHITE ALPHA

1. Select only the parts of the image you wish to add to your alpha


3. Save your selection to an alpha channel (most programs the alpha channel as a selection save

option)

TO MAKE AN ALL-BLACK ALPHA (A WORKAROUND)

1. Select a very tiny part of your image that is not being used (a small piece of black backdrop in one

corner, for example)


3. Save your selection to an alpha channel (most programs offer an alpha channel as a selection save

option)

Although this alpha isn’t truly black, the tiny white fragment will be in a place where it won’t make

any difference to your object, and so is as good as an all-black alpha.

http://help.adobe.com/en_US/PhotoshopElements/8.0/Win/Using/WSa285fff53dea4f865ba1171040d4ce2d4-7ff0_WIN.html

http://wiki.thesimsresource.com/index.php?title=PaintShopPro#Working_with_Channels

http://docs.gimp.org/en/gimp-layer-alpha-add.html

Appendices

72



APPENDIX 2: REPLACING IMAGES WITH EMPTY VERSIONS

You can remove unwanted Overlays and Stencils from any object you clone if you don’t need them for your

object.

1. Click on the image you wish to replace, then click on the EDIT button that appears

2. This opens the Image Editor.

Locate the FIND box and button

at the top

3. Now copy and paste the

following resource number into

the text box:

key:00b2d882:00000000:75f8f21e0f143cac

4. This will replace your Overlay or Stencil with a link to the game’s internal empty image. Click OK to

accept it and close the Image Editor.

5. If putting an empty image into a

Stencil, don’t forget to change

the Enabled setting to False.

IMPORTANT!!!

Empty images are much

smaller than your

Multiplier and other

images will be. When

asked about updating

material sizes CLICK NO!

RGB Masks

TIP: if your RGB Mask will be one colour (red) only, you can replace that with an EA all-red texture instead to

further reduce your Sims3Pack’s file size. The key for an all-red RGB Mask is:

key:00b2d882:00000000:6f04c03483c744ec

Appendices

73



APPENDIX 3: FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

My object is totally shiny in the game – what have I done?

In all likelihood, your alpha channel is completely white. Your alpha needs to be totally black except in any

places where you want shine. The most frequent cause of white alpha channels is the graphics programs that

don’t actually display the alpha channel and therefore you don’t notice what’s happened. You need to redo

the alpha for your Specular. See: Appendix 1: Alpha Troubles? A solution for everyone!

I’ve imported my textures but some parts of my object appear white in the 3D view! Why?

You’ve imported an RGB Mask that is using more patterns than the object you cloned. Simply look at the

pattern slots and check that those you’re using have been set to Enabled: True (see page 65)

My patterns are very stretched and blurred – what can I do?

The primary cause of this is poor UV mapping. Imagine your mesh in the game on a floor tile, and consider

how big (compared to that entire floor tile) the blurred area appears to be (for example: the seat-cushion part

of a dining chair is just a little larger than quarter of a floor tile, so its space on the UV map needs to be at least

128 x 128 pixels (i.e.: quarter of a floor tile). Your mapping needs to be the same sort of proportion of the

space the object occupies in the game to be accurately sized. Any less, and the pattern will appear stretched.

Read up on DDS sizes for a better understanding (page 7).

There is an Overlay I do not require – how do I delete it?

You don’t. Instead, you replace it with an empty image. See the previous Appendix for replacing images with

empty versions.

My object appears to be invisible! What have I done?

Check that you have imported your Multiplier correctly. No Multiplier, or a Multiplier in the correct format,

will give the appearance of an invisible mesh. Failing that, check that your mesh groups (group_0, group_1 etc

match the order of the EA object you cloned.

(continued next page)

Appendices

74



APPENDIX 3 (CONTINUED)

How can I change a window from 1 to 2 tile or 2 to 1 tile?

Unfortunately, you can’t. You must choose a window that’s exactly she same tile size as the window you

intend to make.

My graphics program says “too many layers” - why?

DDS images with alphas need to have a background layer as a minimum. The easiest remedy to this is to

flatten (merge) all layers before saving.

Can I make my own patterns for my objects?

Yes indeed, though this is beyond the scope of this guide. Select any of the pattern slots in which you want to

load your own pattern, click to open the Pattern Browser and editor, and click the NEW icon at the top to load

the Pattern Tool plugin.

Can I convert my Sims 3 textures to Sims 2?

Very easily! Simply export each of your texture variations as a single Complate file (composition of all the DDS

images you used – see page 68 for more information) as a PNG file. Your texture is now ready for Sims 2!

I imported my Specular but my mesh still appears to show the reflection of the original EA

Specular – have I done something wrong?

No. Sometimes the 3D viewer doesn’t show an update of your new Specular until after you have closed and

re-opened your project. However, there’s an even quicker way to update the view – simply re-import your

mesh. That triggers a refresh of the viewer and will update the effect of the Specular.

My object is not shiny/transparent in Workshop

Shine and transparency effects are not all currently shown in the 3D viewer. Check your object in the game to

see whether the effect you require has been achieved.

Appendices

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APPENDIX 4: QUICK REFERENCE CARD

Image Found in Alpha? Saved as

Multiplier Page 10

Texture tab (main section)

DXT1 (no alpha) DXT5 if transparency and alpha used

Specular Page 18

Texture tab (main section) DXT5 Interpolated alpha

RGB Mask Page 26

Texture tab (main section)

DXT1 (no alpha) DXT5 if 4 colours with alpha used

Overlay Page 30

Texture tab (main section) DXT5 Interpolated alpha

Stencil Page 34

Texture tab (pattern area) DXT5 Interpolated alpha

Dirt Overlay Page 36

Mesh tab (materials) DXT5 Interpolated alpha

Non-recolourables Page 43

Mesh tab (materials) DXT1 (no alpha)

Wall mask Page 48

Misc tab DXT5 Interpolated alpha

object creation part 2

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