sdkfj..

lyrea:

theothersim:

i dead been trying to figure out how to do transparent/glass objects for like 2 months now and i can’t. like i’ll try for 2 mins and nothing works and then i give up again until another 2 weeks or so. 

the alpha is so confusing to me like idk how to make it look like how it’s suppose to. and everyone i’ve asked doesn’t know either though. who knows how to make glass/transparent objectssssss?? if you do i’d love you forever if you can lend a handddddd or maybe some advice pleaseee and thanksss.

Same. Every time I think I have it figured out and working because it looks right in TSRW I get in game and it is not transparent. -_- If you ever figure it out let me know because it has been driving me mad for so long and a reblog because maybe @murfeelee or @greenplumbboblover might know the answer.

Hohoho, tutorial time! ^0^

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Welcome to Murf’s School of Crap and Crap-Making!

School Motto: Prepare to be tortured! For Science!

Lesson #10: Through the Looking Glass

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Alright,
so there’s an easy way, and a hard way, depending on what you want to
make. If you want simple decor, lamps, or tables/surfaces, then
this won’t take you any time at all.

However, If you want something more complicated than that, like wanting
the glass to be frikkin recolorable, then you’re gonna run into issues with TSRW, and I don’t recommend futzing around with it when it’s trying to be a douche.

Glass Objects: Decor, Lamps, Tables

I have made a handful of different objects that have glass textures, and I always go about making them the same exact way.

First
thing you do is open up TSRW and start a New Project. Click
Objects,then in the dropdown tree select Decor and then Plants.

THIS is the bad boy we’ll be using RATHER OFTEN. It’s excellent. Why?

Because this baby has not ONE, not TWO, but THREE groups!!! (^0^)/

And guess what?  

EA did us a favor by already setting THIS group with a Glass for Objects Transparent shader! 😀 TOUCH NOTHING IN THE MATERIAL EDITOR YET!!!

So, okay, yeah, whatever – how do I make my object!?

Patience, dear Padwan learner! The Force is with us!

I’ll assume you already have a mesh ready, right?

Okay, say for instance you want to do something simple, like a bell jar.

To get it to go from A to B to C,
you need to separate your mesh (in Milkshape or Blender or where the
heck ever) into the same number of Groups as you see in TSRW.

EA’s
plant has Group 1 as the glassy part with the glass shader
auto-enabled, so YOUR mesh should also have the part you want to be your
glassy part, as Group 1.

EA’s plant has Group 2 as the solid part
of the mesh that can be recolored and visible underneath the glass, so
YOUR mesh should also have Group 2 as the solid part of the mesh.

Get it?

(Group 0 is always the shadow mesh. I usually delete it cuz I’m a lazy bum, even though the mods at TSR told me not to cuz it breaks the realism. 😛 )

If you have a mesh that’s already stuck as ONE group, then don’t panic. All you need to do is Duplicate your mesh. (Edit > Duplicate Selection – you have to Select by Face not Vertices to get Duplication to work, btw)

Select/Delete the excess Faces, so that one group only has the glass portion and the other mesh only has the solid portion. Easy! 🙂

So anyway, back to A to B to C.

Once you have your groups matching with EA’s, with Group 1 as the glass mesh only, now you’re ready to Import.

Import EA’s .wso into Milkshape, and then Delete ALL of the plant’s meshes. You just
need the Joints to open up, so that you can Assign your mesh to EA’s
decor joints. (YES, for some reason even decor has bones that need
assigning, though in this case it’s only 1).

Once you’re good, you can now Export your mesh as a .wso and Import it into TSRW.

You should end up with something like THIS:

Again, don’t panic! It’s just cuz you still need to Import all your Textures, and Delete EA’s extra color variations, so that you end up with THIS:

BUT WHERE IS MY GLASS!?!!!?! YOU LIIIIIED TO ME I WILL BECOME DARTH SIMMER AND MY EMPIRE WILL STRIKE BACK IF ONLY YOU KNEW THE POWER OF THE DARK SIIIIIDE!!! >_<

Don’t. Frikkin. Panic. Jfc.

NOW we may fiddle around with the Material Editor I told you not to touch ^0^

What you want to do is change the Alpha / A section of the RGBA Diffuse control – by default it’s at 0 (100% clear) and you can change it all the way up to 255 (100% opaque). I like to keep it anywhere between 100 and 175, to get a nice transparency.

You can also change the color of the class here. It’s non-recolorable, so the color you choose is the color you’re stuck with, unfortunately.

I managed to create recolorable glass only ONCE and that was on accident; I’ve never been able to do it since. #Fluke

But yeah, once you’re comfortable with how your glass looks, click Done, and Yes when they ask if you want to set the value for all LODs.

Now you’re done! Import your Medium Level Detail mesh, fix the Shadow High/Medium meshes, set your in-game categories, and Export your sims3pack/package to test in-game! (^0^)

The steps are exactly the same for making Tables and Lamps, as when you clone objects that already have glass as a separate group the glass shader will load instantly in-game.

For some reason,it’s always that Group 1 that has the glass shader. Never fails, at least in my experience.

So, I hope this helped, if only a little bit! Happy Simming, everybody!