Here are some words used throughout this tutorial that may need a little more explanation. Click the More Info button to expand the definition.
| alpha channel
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| In CAS creation terms, the alpha channel is used in conjunction with the base texture to map out the areas on the mesh that have visible texture. It can also set transparency areas on the texture.
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| anti-aliasing
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| When using the magic wand/fuzzy select tool in your imaging program, enabling anti-aliasing smoothes jagged edges when making selections.
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| auto-smooth
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| In your 3D modeling program, smoothing a mesh softens hard edges created by welding parts together. When meshing for TS3, always disable this feature because it'll create visible seams on your mesh that are hard to get rid of.
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| Blender 3D
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| Blender 3D is a free 3D modeling software that can be used for meshing in TS3. It is more powerful than Milkshape 3D.
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| bone assignments
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| Bone assignments are given to each vertice of a mesh, and determine how that particular vertice will move in relation to the rest of the sim's skeleton. TS2 and TS3 meshes are able to support up to three bone weights per vertex; Allowing for excellent smooth animation in game.
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| bones
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| TS2 and TS3 meshes are animated by a base skeleton. This skeleton is made up of several joints that are interconnected by bones; Much similar to the human body. When meshing, you assign each vertex to a joint or a combination of joints. Assigning a series of vertices to a joint can form a "bone".
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| bump map
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| Bump maps are alpha-layered grayscale images that are used by the game to simulate raised bumps and grooves on the texture without having to mesh the details on.
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| CAS
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| The shorthand acronym for Create-A-Sim
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| CASt
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| The shorthand acronym for Create-A-Style Tool; the tool that lets you customize colors and patterns of clothing/objects in game. CASt also refers to the actually act of customizing an object. E.g. "to CASt something" or "I CASted that chair".
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| CAS Part
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| CAS Parts are what a the game actually displays on the sim (i.e. shirts, shoes, watches, etc); this includes the mesh, shape, color, lighting, transparency or anything else that affects the look of the design.
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| caspart
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| A .caspart file itself can be thought of as a "placeholder" in Create-A-Sim. By linking meshes, textures and other details to the .caspart, you create what is commonly know as a CAS Part.
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| category flag
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| The category flag of a CAS part denotes properties of that item, such as what age it is for, clothing category, etc.
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| channel
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| In the context of imaging programs, a channel is where your program stores color information about an image. All TS3 textures are composed of three main channels Red, Green and Blue (RGB for short). Some textures, such as base textures (multipliers) also have a fourth channel called the alpha. We also use the three base RGB channels to make masks for our CAS parts.
In the context of CAS parts, channels are also another name for the recolorable palettes in game. For example, if someone asks how many channels you item has; If it has three separate parts that can recolor, then you would say "my _____ has three channels".
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| clipping
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| Clipping is when parts of your clothing mesh intersect (unintentionally) with other parts of the sim. It can also refer to abnormal animation of a clothing object. Clipping generally is caused by meshes with incorrect bone assignments. However, some clipping is unavoidable.
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| cloning
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| Cloning is the process of "copying" an existing clothing/object from TS3, and then changing its instances to make the item unique. Almost all custom content in game was cloned from something else. Cloning is done automatically by programs such as CTU, however it can be done manually by extracting files in S3PE and then changing instances by generating new hashes.
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| clothing ambient
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| The clothing ambient indicates lighting intensity of the CAS part. This is rarely used, even by EA, so most are left pure white.
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| commit
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| To store any changes in CTU, you must click the "commit" button before proceeding. If you are ever told to commit changes, this simply means to press this button:
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| compression
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| When talking about compression, we're usually referring to what type of DDS we want to save our textures in. DDS compression comes in various types, but the one used for CAS creations is DXT. DXT comes in three subtypes: DXT1, DXT3 and DXT5.
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| contiguous
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| In an imaging program, when using the magic wand/fuzzy select tool, enabling contiguous selecting allows for you to select one color section within your threshold, regardless if there are other pockets of the same color on the layer. If you don't have contiguous enabled, then when you fuzzy select a color, it will find every color within that layer.
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| CTU
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| Create-A-Texture Unitool (CTU) is the CAS creation, developed by resident ModTheSimmers Delphy and Jonha. It creates finished projects in the form of packages, instead of Sims3Packs. As of now, its only competition is Workshop (TSRW) found at The Sims Resource.
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| DDS
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| A DirectDraw Surface (DDS) file is a type of raster image, commonly used by many games, including both Sims 2 and Sims 3. DDS files can be saved in a variety of formats, both compressed and uncompressed. You will need to save your textures in DDS format for use in the CTU.
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| design
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| Designs are another word for presets created in CTU. Designs are a collection of stencils, patterns and textures grouped together. Each design appears as one thumbnail in CAS. Therefore, to make a CAS part set in Create-A-Sim (one scroll box), add multiple designs in the CTU.
Each design can have its own set of unique textures, or can simply be creative recolors to spice up your creation.
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| DXT
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| DXT is a type of DDS compression that is used with TS3 textures. It comes in three base types : DXT1, DXT3, and DXT5. DXT compression yields textures with the least amount of detail loss in game, however the files sizes are much bigger. This is why DXT5 is saved for important textures, such as the base texture. RGB masks require less detail, so naturally they use the least quality compression DXT1. For a list of DXT compression types used by various textures, see: DXT Compression Types.
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| export
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| In a 3D modeling program, exporting mesh means to save it in a certain file formate (.simgeom in our case). Likewise, in CTU and S3PE, exporting a texture means to save a copy of that texture on your hard drive so that you can edit it.
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| extract
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| Extract is a synonym for export, except usually it only applies to CTU and S3PE. You can't really "extract" a mesh from a 3D modeling program.
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| face
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| In terms of meshing, a face is a plane whose boundaries are defined by three vertices. These vertices interconnect to form a "web" of faces, namely our 3D mesh.
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| fuzzy select
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| see magic wand.
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| GIMP
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| The GIMP 2.0 is a free imaging program that can be used to edit TS3 DDS texture files. In order to import and export DDS files, you will need a DDS plug-in.
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| imaging program
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| An imaging program (also known as an image editor) is any program that can create and edit image files. However, your everyday run of the mill imaging program like MS Paint or Paintbrush will not suffice for TS3 texturing.
Instead you'll need a program that at least has these basic features:
- RGB Mode
- Channel View
- Layers
- Image Adjusters (i.e. desaturate, colorize, etc.)
Most people use Adobe Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro. However, there are free alternatives like GIMP or Paint.NET.
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| import
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| The textbook definition of import is to bring something in. In creation terms it has a similar meaning. When you import something, you are "bringing in" a file into a program. Textures and meshes are typically what get imported into various programs.
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| in-game
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| In CAS terms, to look at something "in-game" can have two meanings. One can simply mean to look at CAS part in CAS (Create-A-Sim). However, usually it means to look at something in actually gameplay (outside of CAS). You typically look at things in-game (outside of CAS) because the lighting and rendering in CAS is way different than what is actually shown in regular gameplay. What looks wonky in CAS can actually look perfectly fine in-game.
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| joints
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| TS2 and TS3 meshes are animated by a base skeleton. This skeleton is made up of several joints that are interconnected by bones; Much similar to the human body. When meshing, you assign each vertex to a joint or a combination of joints. Assigning a series of vertices to a joint can form a "bone".
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| key
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| A key is a TGI string that identifies a resource in a package. Every texture, mesh, XML, .caspart, png, etc is assigned a unique key value.
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| lasso tool
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| In an imaging program, the lasso tool allows you to freehand select any area on your image by drawing (or lassoing) with your mouse.
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| layers
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| In an imaging program, layers are the different levels at which you can place an object or image file. You can stack, merge or define layers to create on final image file. For the purpose of texture editing, working with layers allows you to go back and make individual changes within a layer as you work.
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| lod
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| The word "lod" is an acronym that stands for Level of Detail. Lod 1 is the highest level of detail, where as lod 3 is the lowest. You will see lod 1 during normal - up close - gameplay. But when you are viewing sims from a distance or the game is still rendering sims, you will most likely see them in lod 2 or lod 3 form.
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| magic wand
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| The magic wand tool is undoubtedly one of the most used tools in an imaging program. This tool allows you select pixels of similar color hue within a layer. You can fine-tune the color range by adjusting the threshold value.
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| marquee
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| In a imaging program, when you make a selection (via any method) the program displays a dashed box around you selection. The dashes dance around the selection, hence the term marquee.
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| mask
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| A mask is a texture file that maps out what pieces of the CAS item recolor together, and also in some cases, how they recolor (i.e. transparency/overlapping).
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- material
- mesh
- meshing
- Milkshape 3D
- multiplier
- package
- Paint.NET
- parameter
- part mask
- Photoshop
- plugin
- png
- polygon
- polygon tool
- preset
- RGB mask - see mask
- RGB value
- repository
- RES key
- scale
- skin ambient
- skinning
- specular
- stencil
- S3PE
- tag
- texture
- texture linking
- texturing
- TGI
- thumbnail
- translucent
- transparent
- type
Plugin
Many imaging programs do not initially know how to save/handle DDS files, so you'll have to install a plugin for them. Here are two of the most common ones.
Packages
The CTU saves your finished creations as .packages, similar to what was used with The Sims 2.
For help with installing .packages, see Installing Sims 3 Package Files
Parameters
To help quicken the search for a mesh, you can dial up the type of mesh you wish to use by setting the age/gender/type parameters.
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