Combining tops and bottoms into single mesh

[sapique]

It must be possible but i don't know where to look  I want to combine bottoms and tops into one GEOM, and combine their shapes etc. 

[Nonsequitur]

Experiment around with Cmar's MeshToolKit found on MTS. It has about every tool you'd need - including the FrankenMesh tool for combining meshes of up to 3. 

I've not used it myself as I just plug meshes together in a 3D editor.

 

[Guest]

On 4/5/2021 at 2:03 PM, sapique said:

I want to combine bottoms and tops into one GEOM

Bone count! There is a full tutorial on using "frankenmesh", but I believe it was combining parts of just tops... don't remember. Anyway, the problem is that TS3 can only handle reading 60 bones in a single mesh group before it becomes a Picasso. The basic EA swimsuit plunge is 59 bones. A nude top is 50 or 51 bones and a nude bottom is 14... total 65 bones, so just combining them to make a single mesh won't work.

 

Get TSRW (if you don't already have it). Look at the adult female tank ruffle dress. That has 2 mesh groups, and is how you get around the 60 bone limit. You can use group one for the top and group 2 for bottom and have a total of 65 bones, but each mesh is within the limit of 60. You can actually split the mesh anyway that works for you, as long as no one part has more than that 60 bone limit. EA will cut off a couple of fingers and make a separate mesh group! One finger is 3 bones.

 

If you ever go insane, there is a tutorial by Bloombase on adding a 3rd mesh group. I currently have a few in testing. )

Spoiler

To show it can be done, this is Red Queen... She is 3 mesh groups to allow for both more than 60 total bones (because the feet are attached), plus a second shader for glowing parts. Just making the fingers separate was sufficient for bone count.

 

 

 

[sapique]

So the real challenge is this bone number limitation. But there are one piece full body meshes too, like swim suits. How do they lower bone counts without butchering them? They just seem like combined bottoms and tops

[Nonsequitur]

My understanding is it is boned to the armatures, however individual meshes taken from the clothing object files have bone assignments. When combined - it's easy to overstep the limits. The process is to combine all of it, at all levels - even bones.

 

The Tank dress has two groups, like Ladysmoks stated. 

Use group_0 as the body-only, and group_1 for everything else.

You can also split the combined garment into pieces and place those parts in group_0 along with the body as needed to limit bone numbers. Just be sure that both UV Maps (body group_0 & garment group_1) - which share the same UV Space - have nothing overlapping each other or sharing the same space on the maps. 

 

Once you have the groups set up as you think will be a good balance - rebone & morph the individual groups each named internally as group_base - Check the bone assignments - re-do the balance if still out of wack. Then import into TSRW. Just remember which is the body file and which is the garment file... especially if you are changing shaders on the 2nd group... lol.

 

This is just a rough method... so grain of salt here. I usually don't do things this way. 

Ladysmoks is much more familiar with these things.

 

[Guest]

On 4/8/2021 at 1:51 PM, sapique said:

swim suits

That is EA's most basic single piece mesh. You don't lower bone counts that I am aware of. You increase the number of mesh groups, as I mentioned by using something like the ruffle dress or halter dress as your base. In the package, you will see 2 "geoms" for LOD 1, listed as LOD 1 and LOD 1-1. They are connected, yet separate, which allows each to have up to 60 bones in each, although I have never seen anything like that necessary.

 

There are many ways to split up meshes to achieve bone count. I try to use what will be easiest, however, easy doesn't always work. Again, you can split a mesh top and bottom. Easy. You can split a mesh skin and garment. You can split a mesh with just a few fingers cut off as the second group. Ultimately, how you have to do things will depend on what you are trying to do.

 

As my example of Red Queen's mesh. As a FemmeBot body, her feet are attached. This was done for several reasons, mostly seams. They are custom meshes. The waist and ankle seams don't conform to EA standard, so tools don't smooth the appearance of those seams well. To get a smooth seam, I removed them by joining everything. So, this brings her bone count above 60. Her hands ARE in standard EA position, so they do blend properly, and as EA will "cut off" fingers and make them a separate group, that is what I did. I forget the exact count, but this brought the body around 55 bones and the fingers to 12. There is bone overlap where the fingers join the hand, but that helps blend the seam. The 3rd mesh group is for parts that use a glowing shader, so they must be a separate mesh group to apply the shader to. That group, although fingernails, nipples and boot heels, has 14 bones which make her a 3 piece mesh with a total of 81 bones. 

 

So, what you want to do, CAN be done. Adding a 3rd group IS a major PITA!!! Maybe pics of the top and bottom you are thinking to join and I can make more specific suggestions how to proceed?

 

 

[sapique]

Great, I want to thank you both for sharing these tips  I want to combine rather simple parts, not too complex ones. Like base gaem shorts, itf leggings, some ruffled tops etc. Maybe open skirt bottoms too if possible.

[Guest]

54 minutes ago, sapique said:

base gaem shorts, itf leggings

That's different, if combining 2 bottom textures to have shorts with leggings. THAT is straight texturing and would be done using GIMP (free) or Photoshop (pay) or paint.net (also free)... and would be a matter of layering textures, as trying to combine 2 bottom meshes that occupy the same space does not work.

 

Open bottom skirts... OY! Where I began...