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Post by simmerish20 on Jul 1, 2020 11:29:30 GMT -5
Are we talking floor shadows on a flat surface, or meshed shadows?
Meshed shadows are really easy if the original object you cloned has them - just make a lower-poly version of the mesh and replace it in the LODs for the shadow mesh (make sure the cut number is 0).
If you're making a deco object that doesn't have the meshed shadows, but you want them, you could simply clone an item that has them, and transfer everything over to this item.
I'm not sure how to add shadows to objects that don't have them without going around the "cloning second item" step, but there's probaby a tutorial somewhere on the site if it's possible.
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Post by simjemma on Jul 1, 2020 11:36:10 GMT -5
It's a floor shadow I'm needing, I haven't found a tutorial online yet only put-in ones for Meshed items (which I can do). Thanks for your input though!
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Post by simmerish20 on Jul 1, 2020 12:04:37 GMT -5
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Post by simjemma on Jul 1, 2020 13:17:32 GMT -5
The first link is for baking and image and putting that on top of the design of your image, true I haven't done that yet but I know how to do it and just didn't bother - wanting to focus on the ground-shadow. It's less shadow and more "making it look realistic".
The second link only really works if your shadow is a square. If you look at the image I attached you'll see my balloons with a shadow of a gnome riding a flamingo (because that's the original item I replaced). So it can't really be replaced with a square.
I downloaded someone else's balloons CC and theirs had their own shadow when placed outside so it is possible; I just don't know how to do it.
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Post by simmerish20 on Jul 1, 2020 13:47:16 GMT -5
Didn't look too closely on the first one (I guess it reminded me of another I had in mind). I know a couple tutorials for possibly improving the flat floor shadows, but they're for TS2, so I'm not sure if it helps much. Maybe you can use some of the same principles? I think some of the same can be achieved in Blender instead of Milkshape (orthographic views, black texture with shadeless ticked?, make sure to not save that file). Keep in mind that shadow colors are reversed in TS2 (white on black) vs TS4 (black on white). modthesims.info/t/146169gardenofshadows.org.uk/gardenofshadows/index.php?topic=25139.0I think TS4 shadows are more or less auto-generated from the mesh and/or mostly uses the shadow texture blobs (which you can change to a different blob by remapping), but there usually aren't a lot of artful shadows to go around. I have no idea how to change the texture from the shadow blob picture to a custom one (can't say I've seen that particular texture reference in S4Studio), so that one is on you...
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Post by simjemma on Jul 1, 2020 16:22:51 GMT -5
I'm the biggest fool in the Simverse.
I completely forgot to re-do the different LODs (under the Mesh tab in S4S). You download the original Maxis shadow file as a .blender file, open the file in Blender 2.7, import your object (as a .object file) into blender and then replace the Maxis image with your Mesh' image and then saving that as a .Blender file. Then you go back to S4S and replace the Shadow LOD files (all of them) with your new Blender files, containing you Mesh' image. This shadow is only important and seen if you place your object outside as it's different from a simple "bake" shadow.
I thought I could hide my shame in this thread by simply deleting my starting post but unfortunately, it can't be deleted so I guess I'll live with my learning experience and maybe help other if they find themselves with the same issue.
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Post by simmerish20 on Jul 1, 2020 16:41:30 GMT -5
I kind of did wonder... Maybe think of it as a good learning experience, and remember there's probably someone who has wondered the same thing as you on at least one occasion
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