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Mad Poster
Original Poster
#1 Old 31st Jul 2020 at 5:27 PM
Default Diaphanous wings
I was wondering if anyone knew how to make these wings more translucent and less cloudy? More like the attached pic.
Screenshots
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Mad Poster
#2 Old 31st Jul 2020 at 8:32 PM
I'd say you need to make them darker.

White=visible
Grey = The lighter, the more visible it is. The darker, the less visible it is.
Black=invisible

As for the cloudiness, not sure. You'd probably have to make a new background texture for that.
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#3 Old 1st Aug 2020 at 3:02 PM
Found the original Sims 4 wings and either they Photoshopped the in game pictures to make them shiny or that's exactly how I want them to look. https://www.thesimsresource.com/dow...-01/id/1316969/

Have to try and figure out how to extract the Sims 4 file and take a look.
Mad Poster
#4 Old 1st Aug 2020 at 5:17 PM
Do you have Sims 4? If so, you can use Sims4Studio. If not, S4PE works fine. You'll also need a program that works with DDS files to extract the alpha (Photoshop/Gimp/similar)

It does look like all the alphas and textures are different. Number one looks the most translucent and least cloudy.
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#5 Old 1st Aug 2020 at 6:05 PM
Used S4PE to extract the image, but unfortunately it extracts without any translucency at all, which explains why the Sims 2 version looks different. Could only extract it as DDS.
Mad Poster
#6 Old 1st Aug 2020 at 6:25 PM Last edited by simmer22 : 1st Aug 2020 at 6:37 PM.
DDS files have alphas, which is what the black and white picture in Bodyshop is, and what creates the translucency

If you open the DDS you can get both the base texture and the alpha. These can for instance be combined in Bodyshop to make a recolor. You can also combine them in SimPE (there's an alpha import) but I've had various results with that.

You can also import a DDS directly, but it needs to have the proper proportions, so you'd have to crop the picture (right now it's a very fun 2048x4096 which Bodyshop probably doesn't like very much).

(I tried to extract the textures and upload, but SFS isn't having files today for whatever reason and the file is a bit big - thought it would be best to PM it).
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#7 Old 2nd Aug 2020 at 11:02 AM
I can't seem to get the alpha. No matter what I click on it gives me the texture, so if you do have it I'd be really grateful!
Mad Poster
#8 Old 2nd Aug 2020 at 12:33 PM
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#9 Old 2nd Aug 2020 at 4:57 PM
Thanks heaps! I can see that the translucency in Sims 4 isn't possible in Sims 2 because too dark an alpha simply makes the wing parts disappear. I think I can get something I'm happy with though; I just need to work out how to make them glossier like the dragon fly's wings.
Mad Poster
#10 Old 2nd Aug 2020 at 5:56 PM
It depends which settings you use. For this kind of transparency you have to tweak the Blend setting into working, and that one can be rather iffy. More often than not it doesn't seem to like accessories very well (causes all sorts of weird issues if you're unlucky). You also have to either use DDS or DXT5 if you recolor in SimPE.

Import is bad, don't use it.
DXT1 is bad, don't use it.
DXT3 doesn't deal very well with translucency. It can deal with black and white and non-gradient transparency to some degree.
DXT5 (or DDS) is what you'll want to use for transparency/translucency. It deals better with gradient transparency.

I think there are some various settings in the TXMT that deals with the alpha and transparency too, but I haven't found a good tutorial on the ones I'm unsure of that describe what they do in a good enough detail to actually use it for anything.
Instructor
#11 Old 3rd Aug 2020 at 7:42 AM
I always refer to Pixelhate's guides (https://modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=316260) when I have difficulties with transparency, shininess, and other TXMT-related issues. Add his tips to simmer22's, and you should be able to manipulate the TXMT to approximate the effect you're looking for once you have an agreeable texture imported.

___________________________

We have been stuck too long with "New Mesh" as the apex of creation.
_ WesHowe
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#12 Old 3rd Aug 2020 at 1:54 PM
Thanks. I'll give it a go.
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#13 Old 6th Aug 2020 at 4:15 PM
I'm working on it but I'm wondering why accessories have so many more TXMTs than TXTRs. Even if it had one for every age it's still too many. Clothes usually have the same number of TXMTs and TXTRs unless TXMTs share textures, but still why so many? It's not different mesh groups because there are only two. And it's not different meshes because there are only 2, one for adult and one for child.
Mad Poster
#14 Old 6th Aug 2020 at 6:15 PM Last edited by simmer22 : 7th Aug 2020 at 12:58 PM.
I'm guessing your mesh has meshes for adult and child, but TXMTs (and other resources) for teen, YA and elders included as well? Adult meshes can usually be used for elders and YA without any problems, but in very rare cases adult meshes can also be used for teens without being off in size or placement (I'd guess the wings are a little higher up on the teens, but otherwise looking fine). This would explain why you'd see all the extra resources but only two meshes.

Other than that:

Usually you see the just the lens TXMTs because the lens group doesn't need a TXTR (they usually don't have textures, the glass material is handled entirely by the TXMT).

"Fun" fact: The lens group is actually not needed, and you can make accessories without it - BUT it's a pain to remove them once you've already made recolors (and removing them is really not worth it for the job it takes). If you do it wrong you get blue-flashing accessories, and removing them only removes a few KB from the file, plus if you remove it from one, you have to remove it from all, so it's a lot of work. The lens group is much easier to remove if you just have one recolor and one mesh file for a new accessory - Properly remove the Lens group from the MeshOverlay and from the mesh, make a new recolor with these files in Bodyshop, make a new recolor with these files, remove the old recolor plus any other old files from the project, and the files should be lens-free). It's the same with the Rim group (if it's there and not needed, of course). Full logic behind it here. I haven't made any accessories with this trick yet, but it makes perfect sense and I'm planning on using it for future projects.

And sorry to say, but they need one TXMT for every age group and gender. You can combine them for some ages/genders, but Bodyshop will split them apart and make new ones when you make recolors. It's just how the MeshOverlay resources work. Only way to combat it is to reduce the ages with SimPE before you make recolors and add them back after (it's what I tend to do - it's a bit more work, but reduces the amount of resources significantly).
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#15 Old 7th Aug 2020 at 8:09 AM
Ah that will be why there were so many. I counted the ages, but didn't think of the genders as well. And yeah, most of the time the lens is just reduced to a single dot on the mesh, but still left in.

Thanks.
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