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Test Subject
Original Poster
#1 Old 13th May 2019 at 1:02 AM
Default Blocky Shadows on Hair Mesh
For starters, I'm no expert with Blender. I know very little about its actual functions and honestly only really use it to tweak meshes or make my own; Everything I know how to do is the result of my own messing around. That said, I'm currently editing a mesh that was formerly ripped from another game...

I've been deleting and adding spiked sections here and there but I've noticed these very straight and unnatural shadows popping up. They're just solid lines of shading where there shouldn't be a shadow at all. I've seen them before with meshes from KH games specifically, but these are particularly annoying. They do show up in game in most lighting. If I attempt to use the 'smooth' function on this mesh, 'holes' are created and it looks worse off than before. I've also tried subdividing these sections. Would these shadows be caused by the UV? Or something else? Anyway, sorry for the messy meshing. Figured I'd try to sort of the shadowing issue before I simplify it.

Images attached! LMK if additional info is needed!
Screenshots
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Field Researcher
#2 Old 25th May 2019 at 9:54 AM
I'm not much of an expert with Sims 3 CC at all, but I will say it's really helpful if you upload problem meshes. It could be an issue with the UV map if that area of the map is going off where your texture is, so say if it had a flat gray background around the hair texture, and the UV map has segments going over that flat gray it absolutely could cause that, it could also be an issue with the shadow or specular layers (not sure what these are called in Sims 3 programs). I'd check your UV map first and see if ANY of the map is going off texture first, and if not upload the mesh here so someone can take a closer look.
Virtual gardener
staff: administrator
#3 Old 25th May 2019 at 3:07 PM
Hey there!

Just wondering, does this happen to be a question for ts4 hair? Because if you want I can move it to that category for you

It COULD indeed be UV mapping. But it could also be normals on the mesh. Would you be able to show an image with no textures on the mesh in Blender? It makes it a little easier to see if it's actually just hard/splitted edges causing this
Test Subject
Original Poster
#4 Old 26th May 2019 at 12:11 AM
Quote: Originally posted by Lyralei
Hey there!

Just wondering, does this happen to be a question for ts4 hair? Because if you want I can move it to that category for you

It COULD indeed be UV mapping. But it could also be normals on the mesh. Would you be able to show an image with no textures on the mesh in Blender? It makes it a little easier to see if it's actually just hard/splitted edges causing this


Yes! This was meant for TS4, so sorry! D: I had a little trouble navigating tags I guess... lol.

Sure thing, though. The UV seemed alright to me, but I at least attached an image without texture and I can definitely still see some hard edges here.
Screenshots
Field Researcher
#5 Old 26th May 2019 at 7:44 AM
Quote: Originally posted by woeflowers
Yes! This was meant for TS4, so sorry! D: I had a little trouble navigating tags I guess... lol.

Sure thing, though. The UV seemed alright to me, but I at least attached an image without texture and I can definitely still see some hard edges here.


One thing I'm noticing is there are ridges in the mesh where the shadows are in game. Are the pieces fused together after UV mapping? For example, you came up with the original hair clump, UV mapped it, and then moved them around the head, cutting and splicing together different segments? I've had this happen on frankenmeshes in Sims 4. You could also try blanking the specular and normal maps with these: https://simfileshare.net/folder/15148/
it worked for me on some of my more stubborn projects.

Also, if you're using S4S, I highly advise checking this area out: http://sims4studio.com/board/8/creator-help

Everyone there is super helpful and replies are generally very fast.
Virtual gardener
staff: administrator
#6 Old 26th May 2019 at 12:17 PM
Looking at the preview images in-game and the solid mesh, I think this is actually a 'doubles' related thing rather than anything UV map related. This is really an easy thing to accidentally screw up when converting things (Been there done that :P) So, the quick way of fixing this is:

- Select the entire mesh in edit more
- Press the spacebar
- type in "Remove doubles"
- Enter
- And boom! Should fix the edges issue

The longer version would be going in edit more and merging every single vertices that are split together. I would recommend doing "Remove doubles" First just for the sake of saving time. If that creates black spots then the longer version would be a better way of fixing it

Also moved it to the right category for you! Just to keep things more organised on the site
Test Subject
Original Poster
#7 Old 27th May 2019 at 1:25 AM
Quote: Originally posted by Lyralei
Looking at the preview images in-game and the solid mesh, I think this is actually a 'doubles' related thing rather than anything UV map related. This is really an easy thing to accidentally screw up when converting things (Been there done that :P) So, the quick way of fixing this is:

- Select the entire mesh in edit more
- Press the spacebar
- type in "Remove doubles"
- Enter
- And boom! Should fix the edges issue

The longer version would be going in edit more and merging every single vertices that are split together. I would recommend doing "Remove doubles" First just for the sake of saving time. If that creates black spots then the longer version would be a better way of fixing it

Also moved it to the right category for you! Just to keep things more organised on the site


Thank you tons for this answer! The quick way fixed it in an instant. :^) I'll keep it in mind for next time I'm converting as well!
Field Researcher
#8 Old 27th May 2019 at 6:44 AM
Quote: Originally posted by Lyralei
Looking at the preview images in-game and the solid mesh, I think this is actually a 'doubles' related thing rather than anything UV map related. This is really an easy thing to accidentally screw up when converting things (Been there done that :P) So, the quick way of fixing this is:

- Select the entire mesh in edit more
- Press the spacebar
- type in "Remove doubles"
- Enter
- And boom! Should fix the edges issue

The longer version would be going in edit more and merging every single vertices that are split together. I would recommend doing "Remove doubles" First just for the sake of saving time. If that creates black spots then the longer version would be a better way of fixing it

Also moved it to the right category for you! Just to keep things more organised on the site


I learned something new too! So thank you!
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