Post by amydelabc on Sept 26, 2020 13:32:55 GMT -5
Hi, I hope it's okay to start a new thread about this; the thread with the tutorial hasn't been touched since 2018, and the last question someone posted doesn't appear to have been answered (that's not meant as a criticism, btw 
Just a reason I figured my chances of getting an answer might be better in a new thread, haha). If I need to move this or something, admins/whoever can of course feel free to let me know/move it for me/whatever
Also, I apologize for the wordiness of this post; I'm honestly trying, but my brain is incredibly detail-oriented/has trouble summarizing and figuring out what info is important, and I'm just not sure what I can delete here. I've done my best to bold the bits that (hopefully) matter, but...not totally sure how well I've succeeded... Sorry, guys.
Anyway, I'm trying to follow the tutorial, except with an accessory (according to untraditionalnerd's original tutorial here, it does seem that you can do this with accessories) and a non-flashing glow, and I'm running into a couple of problems/questions. Most notably, my accessory (which is currently a test accessory anyway, not even what I'm actually planning to do with it) doesn't appear to be glowing as far as I can tell. (Question 1: Is it supposed to show the glow in S4S in any way, or is it necessary to test in game to see it? I've tried both, but it would certainly be easier and faster to be able to see it in S4S without having to test in-game until later in the process, since my game takes forever to load, even with only 2 pieces of CC and no mods in it. *sigh*)
NOTE: It is possible that my in-game test is working but that the surroundings just aren't dark enough for me to properly see the glow...I've tried a couple things suggested by Discord people, but my Sim still appears light herself, so it's a little hard to tell if the necklace is glowing or not. But at 0:22 of Bakie's video, there's what I assume to be an in-game shot of his Sim with glowing eye on shirt, and the Sim doesn't appear to be getting lighter/darker as the shirt flashes, which makes me think that you just can see the Sim even in the dark...so is it different than mine? Not sure.
Given this, I'm currently working under the assumption that the thing is not glowing, and that it's not just too dim to see or whatever. (Do y'all think that's the likely conclusion, or should I try something that'll brighten the glow first?) With that assumption, then, I thought back to the tutorial, and since the biggest part I remember being confused/unsure what to do about was during the save-as-DDS step, I think that may be the likely culprit.
So question 2 is, at around 5:47 of the video, bakie says to choose DXT5. But I'm working in GIMP, and my options seem to be a bit more complicated...
Since 5 of these options show DXT5 (6 if you count the one that has "nm" after it)...which one am I supposed to use? (I could go through and try them all, but since I don't know for sure that this is the issue, and I also don't know if the glow is meant to show in S4S or if I have to wait forever for my game to load every time I try a new one...I'm hoping someone here has some insight so I won't have to spend a gajillion years on this, haha.)
I also saw that GIMP has funky things going on with alpha layer editing (here, here, and solution here). I can certainly give the solution a try, but my understanding is that you would only need to edit the alpha layer in order to make it brighter so your object will flash rather than have a permanent glow? If that's the case, I'm assuming I don't need to worry about that RN, since I'm wanting the necklace to glow all the time.
I also followed the tutorial on YouTube rather than here, and so I didn't see the update at the top of the post. I've looked over it, and I mean...maybe the easiest way to go about this is to use PNG instead of DDS (point 1 of the update)? I could do that for the project I have planned, but I'm kind of hesitant because what if I do end up wanting to make it flash after all (or if there's something in the future that I want to make flash, or whatever)? Idk, I'd rather get my confusion sorted now, haha. As far as the other points in the update, they mostly don't seem to apply/I already did them, except point 2. bakie says, "At 2.01 minutes: Since S4S Harmony there's an emission map already added in the Studio tab under Textures. So don't click the warehouse button but skip ahead to 3.21 minutes about how to make the Emission map in Photoshop." This is confusing me somewhat, but it seems--if I'm right--to apply to the shirt he used, rather than just items in general, and so wouldn't be applicable to me? Is that right? (If it helps, I don't think there was an emission map already on the necklace I'm using. I can double check later if people think that's important, as I'm running short on time; just let me know if you think it's worth checking out!)
Those are my troubleshooting ideas, but I don't think I really understand enough about how all this works to figure out what's most likely to be the issue/where I ought to focus my attention. (Not to mention that it's more than possible that I've missed something/am on the wrong track entirely, haha.) Any assistance is appreciated!
Bonus question! Originally asked by believe&become here, and as far as I saw no one knew the answer at the time; since that was 4 years ago, though, I'm hoping maybe someone knows now?
"To make several swatches with different emission maps - in particular I wanted to make the light different colours, obviously each emission map will have its own instance ID etc but then how shall I associate one mesh to several maps (or am I just adding another item like before)? Or shall I copy the mesh with a new instance ID? I'm sorry if that's pretty basic!"
Just a reason I figured my chances of getting an answer might be better in a new thread, haha). If I need to move this or something, admins/whoever can of course feel free to let me know/move it for me/whatever Also, I apologize for the wordiness of this post; I'm honestly trying, but my brain is incredibly detail-oriented/has trouble summarizing and figuring out what info is important, and I'm just not sure what I can delete here. I've done my best to bold the bits that (hopefully) matter, but...not totally sure how well I've succeeded... Sorry, guys.
Anyway, I'm trying to follow the tutorial, except with an accessory (according to untraditionalnerd's original tutorial here, it does seem that you can do this with accessories) and a non-flashing glow, and I'm running into a couple of problems/questions. Most notably, my accessory (which is currently a test accessory anyway, not even what I'm actually planning to do with it) doesn't appear to be glowing as far as I can tell. (Question 1: Is it supposed to show the glow in S4S in any way, or is it necessary to test in game to see it? I've tried both, but it would certainly be easier and faster to be able to see it in S4S without having to test in-game until later in the process, since my game takes forever to load, even with only 2 pieces of CC and no mods in it. *sigh*)
NOTE: It is possible that my in-game test is working but that the surroundings just aren't dark enough for me to properly see the glow...I've tried a couple things suggested by Discord people, but my Sim still appears light herself, so it's a little hard to tell if the necklace is glowing or not. But at 0:22 of Bakie's video, there's what I assume to be an in-game shot of his Sim with glowing eye on shirt, and the Sim doesn't appear to be getting lighter/darker as the shirt flashes, which makes me think that you just can see the Sim even in the dark...so is it different than mine? Not sure.
Given this, I'm currently working under the assumption that the thing is not glowing, and that it's not just too dim to see or whatever. (Do y'all think that's the likely conclusion, or should I try something that'll brighten the glow first?) With that assumption, then, I thought back to the tutorial, and since the biggest part I remember being confused/unsure what to do about was during the save-as-DDS step, I think that may be the likely culprit.
So question 2 is, at around 5:47 of the video, bakie says to choose DXT5. But I'm working in GIMP, and my options seem to be a bit more complicated...
Since 5 of these options show DXT5 (6 if you count the one that has "nm" after it)...which one am I supposed to use? (I could go through and try them all, but since I don't know for sure that this is the issue, and I also don't know if the glow is meant to show in S4S or if I have to wait forever for my game to load every time I try a new one...I'm hoping someone here has some insight so I won't have to spend a gajillion years on this, haha.)
I also saw that GIMP has funky things going on with alpha layer editing (here, here, and solution here). I can certainly give the solution a try, but my understanding is that you would only need to edit the alpha layer in order to make it brighter so your object will flash rather than have a permanent glow? If that's the case, I'm assuming I don't need to worry about that RN, since I'm wanting the necklace to glow all the time.
I also followed the tutorial on YouTube rather than here, and so I didn't see the update at the top of the post. I've looked over it, and I mean...maybe the easiest way to go about this is to use PNG instead of DDS (point 1 of the update)? I could do that for the project I have planned, but I'm kind of hesitant because what if I do end up wanting to make it flash after all (or if there's something in the future that I want to make flash, or whatever)? Idk, I'd rather get my confusion sorted now, haha. As far as the other points in the update, they mostly don't seem to apply/I already did them, except point 2. bakie says, "At 2.01 minutes: Since S4S Harmony there's an emission map already added in the Studio tab under Textures. So don't click the warehouse button but skip ahead to 3.21 minutes about how to make the Emission map in Photoshop." This is confusing me somewhat, but it seems--if I'm right--to apply to the shirt he used, rather than just items in general, and so wouldn't be applicable to me? Is that right? (If it helps, I don't think there was an emission map already on the necklace I'm using. I can double check later if people think that's important, as I'm running short on time; just let me know if you think it's worth checking out!)
Those are my troubleshooting ideas, but I don't think I really understand enough about how all this works to figure out what's most likely to be the issue/where I ought to focus my attention. (Not to mention that it's more than possible that I've missed something/am on the wrong track entirely, haha.) Any assistance is appreciated!
Bonus question! Originally asked by believe&become here, and as far as I saw no one knew the answer at the time; since that was 4 years ago, though, I'm hoping maybe someone knows now?
"To make several swatches with different emission maps - in particular I wanted to make the light different colours, obviously each emission map will have its own instance ID etc but then how shall I associate one mesh to several maps (or am I just adding another item like before)? Or shall I copy the mesh with a new instance ID? I'm sorry if that's pretty basic!"
