Tutorial for Separating Subset Components in Milkshape
#1 08-10-2016 
Would anyone please be able to link to or write a tutorial explaining how to take an already-existing mesh and separate the fabric from the wood or the frame from the painting, etc? I have found several tutorials for the SimPe part but all of them skip over the Milkshape part (and I think I can do the SimPe part).
Screenshots would be great but I'll take whatever anyone has the time for Blush And would the Freetime incentive Director's chair be a good mesh from which to learn?
Any help is appreciated, thank you Smile

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#2 08-10-2016 
Do you happen to have UV Mapper Pro? You can import a mesh, select a group and delete it. How does that help, you may ask.. well, you can then save that edited mesh, reimport the original and repeat the process.. deleting the other group. Then you'll have 2 new meshes containing ONE subset each that you can then import into MilkShape (or straight into SimPE). Smile (Just be sure to rename one after importing, otherwise the second one will just regroup with the first in MilkShape.)

OR, you can do it the long way by duplicating the mesh in MilkShape and deleting the wood/frame/whatever from one and fabric/painting/whatever from the other very carefully.

Edit: Looking at the pic of that chair, it should be fairly easy to separate it into 2 subsets in MilkShape. I'm not 100% sure how the seat is "attached" to the frame but it looks easy enough. Having the texture applied (in at least 1 view) will help you "see" what you're doing because if you delete too much it'll be immediately obvious.

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#3 08-10-2016 
!!!! That sounds within my skillset!? :o "select a group" sounds vague enough to convince me I'd be doing it wrong until I got through it haha
Thank you mlc! *runs off to find UV Mapper Pro*

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#4 08-10-2016 
WAIT! Come back!!

Now that I've hauled you back here: not sure you'll be able to find a free version of UV Mapper Pro. If you're not willing to *ahem* look for one.. I could probably zip mine up and send it to you, although I'd have to find my registration code.

Edit: This would be super easy to do in MilkShape. Trust me. I already did it. Big Grin (I would like to know the logic of having 2 subsets in SimPE, both named cushion.. but one if the frame and the other is the fabric. They share the same texture but the subset names didn't need to be the same. Silly.)
(This post was last modified: 08-10-2016 05:10 PM by mustluvcatz.)

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#5 08-10-2016 
I got the demo right now so no worries! Smile

Thank you for your help with this, I really appreciate it!
It sounds like you've opened the chair in SimPE and already see 2 subsets? What?

And step-by-step guessing, please let me know how I'm doing:
1. Do the SimPe stuff first? So you have a cushion and a frame listed in the GMDC when you export it?
2. Import into UV Mapper Pro and select by group "cushion"
3. Delete the cushion group & save
4. re-import orig GMDC and select by group "frame"
5. Delete the frame group and save with new name
6. THEN MAGIC HAPPENS MAGICALLY?
7. Import edited cushionless GMDC into SimPe and replace frame part?
8. Import edited frameless GMDC into SimPe and replace cushion part?

(08-10-2016 04:32 PM)mustluvcatz Wrote:  Then you'll have 2 new meshes containing ONE subset each that you can then import into MilkShape (or straight into SimPE).
"import into MilkShape" ???
"(or straight into SimPe)" ??? Don't I need to do some selecting or removing or deleting somewhere in Milkshape? Undecided

Thanks again for your help! I've got a thousand other projects I'm working on so please don't think I'm just sitting here waitingfor you (or any other fish) to respond Blush

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#6 09-10-2016 
Ack! So many questions! LOL That's what I get for typing on no sleep. Sad Now that I've got a little nap, let's see if I can explain this in a much clearer way.

Yes, I've opened the chair in SimPE and noticed that there are already 2 subsets. Both are named cushion though, so when you export you'll get just ONE subset, not two. BUT - there isn't any need to export the mesh and do anything with it in UV Mapper Pro or MilkShape. All you need to do is rename one of the cushion subsets in the GMDC in SimPE. (Hint: The higher poly cushion is the frame.) After that, you can finish the rest of the "adding a new subset" tutorial I'm going to assume you're following.

Is it really that easy? Yes and no. All of the textures are included in the chair package and the frame and the cushions share the same texture. If you don't want them to share the same texture anymore, you'll have to add a texture for the frame. (You could use the existing "white" texture and not have to make a new texture for it.) Personally, I think that would be silly since you'd have 2 of the same textures in the package. What *I* would do is have them keep sharing that texture - but the way to do that is a bit different than tutorials for adding a new subset show how to do.

NOW. Truth-be-told time. I edited that damn chair. The file is compressed and when I recompressed the resources I edited (in SimPE, not with the Compressorizer) I got an error message. But, when I tried to do a recolor, both subsets showed up just fine. (So the error I got was probably entirely my fault and wouldn't have caused any problems in game.) We got company right about then so I didn't finish the recolor and didn't try the edited mesh out in game. So if you do the edits and the mesh doesn't work right, blame it on me and give me a holler. I will then put on my battle gear and see if I can straighten it out. Smile

******************
Alright. It's apology time. I'm sorry I didn't explain what you needed to do in a clearer, more sane way earlier. I didn't know that there were already 2 subsets in SimPE when I first posted.. then when I DID know, I still kept thinking the mesh needed to be edited to have 2 subsets. Duh MLC. NO! In SimPE there are already 2 subsets so that step is not needed! So.. I'm sorry. Sad I promise to never make you do more work than is necessary in the future.
IF you want to pick a different mesh and learn how to separate it into 2 subsets, let me know...
(This post was last modified: 09-10-2016 12:56 AM by mustluvcatz.)

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#7 09-10-2016 
Glorb I see the other cushion subset now, I missed it before. Yes, okay this particular mesh should be pretty straightforward - please don't apologize, me not seeing that really confused me Undecided
I'll work on this tomorrow following your very helpful and detailed latest post and see how it goes, it if goes well, I might attempt the FT collectible shelf incentive in the same folder as the director's chair pff

And the chair is a .bundle Dodgy They are notoriously uncooperative when it comes to edits so I think that's part of the error message? I have some ideas of how to work past the bundle's limitations, I'll let you know if they work

Thank you again for your help! Smile

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#8 29-01-2017 
I'm sorry to wake up this thread but I can't get it to work. mustluvcatz, if you still have your edited chair, could you share it please? Maybe I'll be able to figure out what I missed by looking at yours.

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#9 30-01-2017 
I will have to wade through the mess of folders scattered about on my desktop - I'm sure I still have it. It looks like I never throw anything away... omg, what a mess. Smile

(Note: I DO throw stuff away, I hate clutter, I hate messes. What's on the computer is a whole 'nother story.)

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#10 30-01-2017 
I'm the exact opposite...
IRL, I hate clutter and messes, but couldn't throw anything away if it was killing me. There *is* a system to the madness, which works along the following principle: everything I need, is somewhere in that pile! Entropy is eating away at the system, though, and it has begun to fail.

As for electronic data, that's a different story: I know where to find EVERY SINGLE WOOHOOING THING on my desktop. I'm never ever inclined to look in the wrong place: I decide what file I want to have, and without using windows' "find" system, I simply navigate straight to it! I still have a problem with throwing crap away - and even make backups of the crud - but if I have multiple versions of a file, and one of them satisfies all my needs, performance-wise, I destroy the rest!

In-game, I'm yet another version of crazy. I couldn't clutter if I wanted to, because I just don't know how! When I try to clutter, it just looks like I didn't know where to put that, and then just dropped it. My sims' houses would be a mess that even *I* can't bare looking at. And you haven't seen the sty that I dwell in!

But I believe I might be veering slightly off-topic. I apologize!

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