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Mad Poster
Original Poster
#1 Old 27th Feb 2018 at 5:22 PM
Default Reverse/change order for mesh groups
I've got some objects that need the mesh groups to to be in a particular order to show properly (they've got glass parts), but when I import the mesh parts, they often end up in the wrong order.

I know I can import the parts separately to get them in the order I want (it's what I usually do), but this means the first parts of the mesh won't be added to the bounding mesh (not grabbable ingame, plus various other problems). I've on occasion had issues with using the "add to bounding mesh" function, so I was wondering if there's another way to reverse the mesh group order.

(example: I need the "sculpture" and "glass" parts to be in that order for them to show up, but in SimPE after importing, they're in the order of "glass" and "sculpture" (which ingame makes the "sculpture" parts not show properly if the glass cover them).

Any tips?
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Mad Poster
#2 Old 27th Feb 2018 at 8:34 PM
Maybe..
What happen, if you change the opacity of each group comment, from -1 to 0 or 1?
The smaller value will be on top, while the highest will be at bottom.
I just tested it
-1 for sculpture, and 1 for glass.
sculpture is first in group mesh, glass is second, after import.(replacing the gmdc)
Tested again, with the opposite (1 sculpture and -1 glass)
glass was first in group mesh and sculpture was second.

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Mad Poster
Original Poster
#3 Old 27th Feb 2018 at 11:53 PM
It works if exporting as a GMDC file (I tested it a while ago on a few meshes I'd stacked with several layers), but on my laptop I'm stuck with OBJ files and the regular import (unless there's a Blender export/import plugin for GMDC or SMD or whatever the format is called somewhere?)

Thought I'd test the "add to bounding mesh" thing, because it's been a while since I tried it, and there's the possibility I messed up something else and thought it was the culprit.
Mad Poster
#4 Old 28th Feb 2018 at 12:07 AM
Oh! Sorry. I thought you were gmdc-ing.

Je mange des girafes et je parle aussi français !...surtout :0)

Find all my old MTS Uploads, on my SFS, And all new uploads Here . :)
Former Hamster
retired moderator
#5 Old 28th Feb 2018 at 12:17 AM
Sounds like a similar problem: http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=440377
And if it is, there is a solution. (And even if it's not the same problem the solution may still help.)
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#6 Old 28th Feb 2018 at 9:55 PM Last edited by simmer22 : 1st Mar 2018 at 10:19 AM.
The objects with the issue have transparent textures (glass with texture, occasionally sharing the texture but not the TXMT with the other groups), so the blend mode need to be on (if there's another way to get transparency, I'd like to know). I often use "stdMatAlphaTestEnabled" set to 1 for items that need alphas but not transparency, but that won't work since there's actual transparency in these objects.

The issue with group order only happens when using blend. For opaque objects or fully invisible objects, group order isn't that important.

I've tried reversing the group order in Blender by renaming the groups to force them to import in a different order, but while this occasionally works in Milkshape, Blender isn't that helpful (I've only recently started using Blender, so I have a lot left to learn). I know it's got something to do with naming, though. The "glass" group tends to end up first and "sculpture" last, but renaming them doesn't always work either.

If there's several layers of meshes, I tend to use several groups named "glass" or "sculpture" so they layer properly but don't need extra textures. That's what's causing the most problems, because they never import in the proper order unless I use GMDC.

My laptop won't install Milkshape (dunno why, it just won't - it only ran the first time after the first install, never since, even after reinstalling multiple times), so unless there's some Blender substitute for the GMDC (or whatever it's called) import/export, I'm stuck with OBJ files.
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