This tutorial will take you step by step though the meshing process. It is lengthy but it covers meshing from beginning to end. I included lots of pictures for those of you who learn by seeing. Requires the use of SimPE, Milkshape, and Photoshop (although any graphics program will work as long as you are familiar with it). Designed with beginners in mind but is useful for any level.

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What will be covered: Exporting/Importing meshes,making a texture, creating a new Mesh.

What will not be covered: Installing programs/files,or in-depth explanations of programs.

Programs Needed: SimPE, a graphics programand a 3D modeling program. (I will be using the latest version of SimPE,Photoshop and Milkshape 3D but most programs should be similar). You will alsoneed the Navidia DXT files.

Overview: This tutorial will show you how tocreate a new mesh, create a texture for that mesh and get it into your game. Itrequires a very basic knowledge of the programs used. It also is a lengthytutorial so plan on spending some time with it. Remember to take your time andread carefully, meshing is not an easy thing to learn and requires a lot oftime and patience.

Level: From beginner to intermediate

Getting started: Make a new folder on yourdesktop and name it Tutorial vase (this is where you will be saving all yourprogress). Open all three programs and leave them running while following thistutorial.

Let’s get going!

Step 1.

Start SimPE and click the “object workshop” tab at thebottom. Click “start” and let it load completely. This may take a little while.

Step 2.

After it loads you will get the screen below.

Step 3.

From that screen select “Decorative”, “Sculpture” andthen “ChinaVase”. This is the object we will clone. Click “Next”.

Step 4.

From the drop down menu select “clone”. Leave all theboxes as they are and click “Start”. Give your new mesh a new name, price anddescription (this will be your description in the game catalog). You can nameit anything you’d like with any price and description. When you have finishedclick “Finish”

Step 5.

When the “Screnegraph" Rename Wizard” appears chantthe “ModelName” to something as specific as possible. Include you creator name,description, date and time ( this makes it less likely that the name will beused again). I changed mine totutorialbasicvase-[munchkin-brat-7.12.2006-1215]. DO NOT USE SPACES ORUNDERSCORES IN THIS NAME. Once you have renamed it click “update” and then“OK”. The next screen will be the save screen for the .package file.Navigate to your desktop and save it in the folder we called “Tutorial Vase”.Give it a descriptive name (I called mine munchkin_brat_tut_basic_vase_MESH).You can use spaces and/or underscores for this name. When finished click “Save”

Step 6.

Your screen should now look like this:

Step 7.

In the left small window titled “Resource Tree” click on“object Data (OBJD) (1). Then in the right window titled “Resource List” clickthe object data line. At the bottom left of the screen click the “Plug-in View”tab. Your screen should look like this:

Step 8.

In the bottom window there is a blue link that says “getGUID”, click it. That will bring up the “Register GUID” window. If you are anew user you will need to register to be able to get GUID’s. Once you havefinished registering, type a descriptive name in the “Object Name” box. I used“Basic Vase Mesh”. Then click “Register Object”. This screen will disappear anda new GUID will be placed in the GUID box next to the blue “get GUID” link.Click “Update” button that is below and slightly left of that box, then click“commit” which is above that. I like to save here so I don’t lose what I havealready done.

Step 9.

Next, go to the “geometric Data Container (GMDC)(1) andclick it in both the “Resource Tree” and the “Resource List”. Your screenshould now look like this:

Step 10.

In the small lower left window make sure there is a checkmark in the box in front of sculpturechinavase_design and then click “Export”

The next screen will be the “Export Mesh” window. Keepthe file name the same and save it to your tutorial folder. We are done withSimPE for the moment. Before you minimize it, click the “Texture Image(TXTR)(1) line in both the “Resource Tree” and the “Resource List”. This iswhere we will add our texture later but for now all we need is the size of thetexture. In the lower window, and on the left is a list of sizes. We need thelargest size which, in this case, is 128X128. Make note of this as this is thesize our texture needs to be. Now go back to the “Geometric Data Container” viathe upper windows. Now you can minimize SimPE. DO NOT CLOSE IT!!

Step 11.

Open your graphics program. We will make a texture nowfor our mesh. It is a good idea to make the texture first so that it is readywhen we need it in Milkshape 3D. This is the part where your creativity comesin. You can be as creative as you like and can put anything on your vase. Youcan put simple colors or complex pictures. It’s all up to you. If you arefamiliar with recoloring then you are probably a whiz at this part but since Iwant beginners to be able to use this tutorial too, we’ll make something veryeasy. Let’s start with a new image the size we need (128X128 pixels).

Step 12.

Let’s put a simple gradient layer on our new image. Go to“Layer”, “New Fill Layer”, and “Gradient”.

Step 13.

The “New Layer” box will appear. In this box the “Mode”should be normal and keep the name the same. Click “OK”. Next is the “GradientFill” box. Click on the small window that has the color in it (not the dropdown arrow but the box next to it). You should get a box that looks similar tothe one below. Change the gradient type to “Noise” with a “roughness” of 0%.Under the options box check “restrict colors” and click “randomize” until youfind a color you like then click “OK.

Step 14.

In the box that remains, set the following settings:“Style”=linear, “Angle”=90, “Scale”=100% and “Align with layer” should bechecked. Now click “OK”. Our image needs to be flattened so go to “Layer”,“Flatten Image” and click. Then save it in your tutorial folder as a jpeg withthe name of “Vase Texture”. We are done with the graphics program so it can beminimized.

Step 15.

Maximize Milkshape. This is the program that we will useto create our new mesh. Milkshape can be very confusing and somewhat difficult towork with so PLEASE take your time here. Take it slow and easy. If you getfrustrated easily take breaks often and save even more often. The first thingwe need to do is import the Maxis mesh we exported form SimPE. To import go to“File”, “Import”, “Wavefront OBJ”

Navigate to your tutorial folder and open the file (itshould have the name you gave it in the screengraph box). WOOHOO! We now have amesh we can work with.

Step 16.

Before we start working with it, let’s explain Milkshapea little. You have 4 windows. One is labeled “front”, one is labeled “left”,another is labeled “Top”, and the last is labeled “3D”. If you do not havethese windows displayed so to “Window” at the top of the screen and select“Viewports” and “4 window”. Select the view for each window with the drop downarrow in each box. You will also need some “helpers” in each window. So rightclick in a window and select the following settings: “wireframe”, “show axis”and “show grid.

Step 17.

Do that for each gray window. In the blue window marked“3D” right click and select “Textured”, Show Axis” and “Show Grid”. Alright,milkshape is now ready for us to work with.

Step 18.

We will use the Maxis mesh only for reference of size andplacement (and of course, without it we would not have a way to get it into ourgame). On the right side of your screen is a bunch of buttons that will allowyou to make shapes and manipulate them. We will be using most of them. Don’tworry! We’ll go slowly and I’ll explain along the way.

Step 19.

Under the “Model” tab and near the middle of the rightside, uncheck “ignore back faces”. Ok, let’s get started making our mesh.Select the “sphere” button. Notice the “sphere options” towards the middle ofthe right side. The higher the slices the smother your sphere will be and thehigher the stacks the more dense your sphere will be. For our purposes, 6stacks and 12 slices are adequate. You can play with theses numbers to see theeffects. For example, if you put 3 stacks and 3 slices you get a triangularshape. *Note – to undo an action go to edit and select undo*. Since we don’tneed our Maxis mesh at the moment, we can hide it. Go to the “Groups” tab,click on the name of the mesh and then click “hide”. Now we can start creatingour mesh. Go back to the “Model” tab and click on the sphere button again. Inthe “left” window, click and drag to make a sphere about the size of the oneshown below.

Step 20.

The sphere will not be the size of the finished vase orin the correct position. We’ll partially correct this now. With the sphereselected (colored red) click on the “move” button. Now click on the center dot(also known as a vertex) and drag it so it lines up with the line in the centerof the screen

Step 21.

When you are satisfied with the alignment, click the“select” button and then click the “vertex” button under the “select options”near the middle of the right side. Drag a box around the bottom 2 rows of dots.They will turn red when selected.

Step 22.

Go to “Groups” tab and unhide the Maxis mesh (the sameway you did to hide it) then go back to the “Model” tab and select “move”.Click and drag the selected rows to align with the bottom of the Maxis mesh.Make sure to drag the rows straight down so that it will not be off kilter.When you are happy with the alignment, go back to the “groups” tab and hide theMaxis mesh. Back to “model” tab once again and click “select”. Click and drag abox around the next row of dots to select them.

Step 23.

Move that row down to approximately where mine is in thepicture below. Again, make sure to bring it straight down. Select and move eachrow to make it look like the picture below.

Step 24.

Now let’s change the size of the rows. Select the 2nd row from the top and click “scale”. Towards the middle of the right side youwill see “scale options”. “Center of Mass” should be selected and you will seesome numbers with “X”, “Y”, “Z” and “U” under them. The ones we will use are“X”, “Y” and “Z”. These represent 3 planes: “X”=horizontal, “Y”=vertical and“Z”=depth. The number 1.0 represents a baseline measurement. Any number under1.0 will cause our selection to shrink while any number greater than 1.0 willcause our selection to expand. For example if we enter 1.1 in the boxes ourselection will expand in 0.1 increments and if we put in 0.9 our selection willshrink by 0.1 increments.

Keep in mind that we can not put in exact measurementshere. We can not put in 2 and get say 2 inches. There is no unit of measure forthese increments. That is why we use the Maxis mesh for size comparison. Soonward we go! With our row selected, “scale” selected and “X”, “Y” and “Z”selected put in 1.1 in the “X” and “Z” boxes but leave 1.0 in the “Y” box.Click the small “scale” button (at the end of the numbers) 5 times. I know itlooks weird now but we’ll fix it with the rest of manipulations. Your sphereshould now look something like this:

Step 25.

Select the middle row and scale it down by putting 0.9 inthe “X” and “Z” boxes and click the small scale button 3 times.

Step 26.

Select the next row down and scale down once (with thesame settings). Select the 3rd row and scale down 5 times. Selectthe very top dot and move it down to the middle dot 2 rows directly below it.Our mesh should look something like this now.

Step 27.

Feel free to adlib here and adjust your vase anyway you’dlike to get the appearance you want. You now have the basic knowledge tomanipulate this anyway you desire. Play with the settings and see what they do.*BEFORE YOU PLAY REMEMBER TO SAVE FIRST* When you have finished “playing” comeback here and we’ll continue. I adjusted mine some more and came up with thefollowing. All I did was scale and/or move the rows.

Notice in the 3D view how the bottom of the vase is belowthe grid and how it is not exactly lined up with the guide line in the centerof the screen? That means our vase will sit below the surface of the object itsits on and will be off center when placed. Let’s fix it.

Step 28.

Select the single dot at the bottom of the vase and moveit to line up with the middle dot above it. That will make the bottom of thevase flat. Next go to “edit” and “select all”. Click “move” and align thebottom row of dots with the pink line (right click and “frame selection” to geta better view). With the whole vase still selected move the center column ofdots to align with the blue vertical line.

The bottom of our vase is now flat and will sit properlyon the surface and it is centered for placement. Go to “groups” tab and unhidethe Maxis mesh. Compare it to our mesh for size and placement. Our vase ispretty small huh? Easy to fix.

Step 29.

Under the groups tab click the line that says “sphere XX”(XX represents numbers). Mine says “sphere 04”

Step 30.

Now click “select” and go back to “model” tab and click“scale”. Since we want to make it bigger we put 1.1 in “Y” and 1.0 in “X” and“Z”. This will expand our vase along the Y axis and make it taller. Alternatebetween “scale” and “move” to make your vase about the size of the maxis meshand keep it properly aligned.  After you get it the size you want and theproper placement perform a save. You still have the opportunity to adjust untilyou find a shape you like. I adjusted mine again, simply by moving the rows.Here is mine.

REMEMBER TO SAVE AT THIS POINT AND AS OFTEN AS YOU FEELCOMFORTABLE DOING! Save to you “tutorial” folder.

Step 31.

We have done a lot of work so far and you deserve a bigpat on the back if you have stuck with me. So congrats! We are at the peak ofthe mountain and ready to head down the other side. You have just finished thehardest part of meshing. All we have left to do is apply our texture and get itback into SimPE, save it and check it out in game. Take a deep relaxing breathand we’ll get back to it.

Here’s the scary part…. Go to “groups” and make note ofthe exact name of the Maxis mesh name (it is best if you write it down). Clickon the Maxis mesh and then click delete. Click on your mesh name (sphere XX)and click select. In the “rename” box, type in the name of the Maxis mesh exactly as it was. (sculpturechinavase_design) and click the small “rename” button nextto the box. Then name of your vase should now be renamed with the original meshname. This is necessary so that we can replace the mesh in SimPE.

Step 32.

Now to apply the texture we made earlier. With the vaseselected go to the “materials” tab. Click on the “new” button and a sphere willappear in the black box. Click the first long button that says “none”. Navigateto your tutorial folder and open the texture we created. Now click the “assign”button. Your 3D view now shows your vase with the texture applied.

Step 33.

This next part is not needed for our project but willcome in handy for meshes that require different colored parts and is goodinformation to have. So if you would like you can skip this part.

There are many programs that will allow you to UVmap yourproject. UV mapping will tell your mesh where to pull its texture from. Likemost Maxis meshes, some new meshes will require different textures (set on thesame image from your graphics program) to be applied to different parts (forexample, if we make a chair that requires wood for the frame and fabric for theseat). I originally used UVmapper but found it easier to map right inMilkshape. This is done via the “Texture Coordinate Editor”. Let’s practicethis with our mesh. Select the whole vase and then go to “Window” “TextureCoordinate Editor”. This will bring up a new window. Select the mesh part wewant to work with by clicking on the drop down arrow on the right. *Note – toapply the texture to a specific part of a multipart mesh all the parts need tobe selected* Selecting the mesh part in the drop down arrow will show you whereit is currently sitting on the texture. Notice the buttons on the right side ofthe window. Use these to adjust your mesh to fit in the area it should pull itstexture from. Also make sure that the check box in front of “redraw” is checked.This will allow you to see where the texture is being applied (this can be seenin the 3D window). When you are finished with mapping you can simply close thewindow and perform a save.

Step 34.

Back to our project. Perform one final save before weexport our new mesh. To export go to “file”, “export” and “Wavefront OBJ”. Nospecial naming is used here so you can call it whatever you’d like. I usuallyadd “mapped” to the name so I can keep track of what stage I’m on.

HURRAY! Just a little bit more.

Step 35.

Maximize SimPE. You should still be in the geometric datacontainer section where you exported the original mesh. Now we are going toimport our new mesh and replace the old one. Click “import” and open the fileyou just exported from milkshape (the one with mapped in the name). This screenwill pop up. First click on the file to be imported. Next select “replace” fromthe drop down action menu. Keep all other things the same on this page. Clickok. Only one file should be listed under the bold typed “Models (faces=120,vertices=89).

Step 36.

Let’s take a quick peek at our new mesh before wecontinue. Click preview. UH-OH! What happened to our beautiful gradienttexture? We need to import that too. But first, we need to do a few steps.First, go to “tools”, “object tools” and “fix integrity”. When the screnegraphappears, DO NOT CLICK UPDATE! Simply click ok. Then click commit and OK.Perform a save so we don’t lose our hard work.

Step 37.

Now we can import our texture. Under the “resource tree”click “Texture Image (TXTR) (1)” and again in the “resource list”. Right clickthe texture image and select “build DXT”. Click the blue “open” link and findyour texture image. Click build. Right click the image again and select “updateall sizes” then commit and OK. Perform a save.

Go back to the geometric data container (via the resourcetree and list) and preview your new vase.

Step 38.

WOOHOO!!! We’re done! Start your game and check it out.***Don’t forget to copy your package file from the tutorial folder to yourdownloads folder*** Here is what my finished vase looked like. It is always agood idea to double check that you did not overwrite the original object bytrying to place it on a surface. If you can not place the original object, youmust have forgot to change the GUID. Simply change the GUID for your new mesh.See above.

I hope this tutorial helped you on your way to meshing.If you have problems with it or have questions, please PM me through thewebsite from which you downloaded the tutorial.