The Sims Resource Workshop .WSO models filter

Meshing and animating The Sims3 models.

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The Sims Resource Workshop .WSO models filter

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The Sims Resource Workshop .WSO filter guide

General Information.
The filter is intended to import/export .wso models between ZModeler and Workshop. Model groups and bones information is retained, so both static models and CAS soft-skin models can be imported/exported.

Materials and textures information is not imported/exported, but UV mapping is retained. You can manually apply desired textures in ZModeler and Worshop onto respective materials.

Skeleton and bones can be loaded from .wso file or should be loaded into ZModeler prior importing .wso file (preferable). Additional skeleton-only import feature is added: *.rigfiletxt capability is for loading *_rigfile.txt templates. These templates can be found on The Sims modding forums with example rig models. An adult and child rig model is attached to this thread.

Import
Load your project in Workshop, locate desired model/group on Mesh tab and press Export button to save a .wso file. Then press Import button in ZModeler, locate your .wso file, check desired import settings and press Import to load the model. It might take from several seconds upto a minute on very detailed models to load (even when progress reaches 100%), so just wait a little.

The model can be loaded in different variations depending on "Merge" settings you've specified. They are:
Merge groups will merge groups on static model into single ZModeler object. Groups are generally usually for different materials in Workshop, while ZModeler support multiple materials on a model. When importing a static model with this option, you will get a single geometry model in your scene. Multiple material templates will be created and assigned, so you can load desired textures and see a textured model. Random color is assigned on material templates so you can see the different materials initially.

When this option is off, static model will appear as a set of groups under a dummy node. Each group uses it's own material. There is no preferable choice for this option, it's all upto you.

Merge blends will merge CAS blends into models for simplicity. This option affects only .wso files with skeleton/bones structure (clothes, hair, etc.) and does not affect static models (furniture, construction objects etc.) This option will merge Thin and Fat blend stages into single model group_thin&fat; Base and Fit into model group_base&fit. The group_special is added as stand alone object if it has any blend information. Otherwise, it's omitted. Blending is stored on vertices damage state, so you can toggle Damage option on/off in Structure tab to see and edit associated blend stages.

When this option is off, morph blends are not merged and added as individual objects. You will generally get four-five groups (base, thin, fat, fit and optionally special).

The general rule to deal with morph blends is to keep geometry structure exactly the same on all blends. vertices can only be moved, rotated, scaled. Any topology-depend option will make blending model inconsistant.

Skeleton option is used to specify skeleton model in your scene that will be used for CAS model loaded. For example, if you load an adult CAS model, you should load adult.rigfiletxt skeleton into your scene and specify adult option for Skeleton when loading .wso file.

When no skeleton loaded/found, the skeleton from .wso file is created. This skeleton is inconsistent and it might be hard to edit model with such a skeleton loaded. So it's preferable to use rigfile skeletons. In both cases, you can export .wso file with any skeleton loaded in your scene (either from rigfile or from original .wso file)

Loading of CAS .wso file will always create a dummy node and put all groups under this dummy node. Material templates are also created with random colors.


Export
In order to export a mymodel.wso file, the filter will search for an object named mymodel in your scene. So make sure your scene object name matches the file name you are exporting to, or vice versa: specify the filename that matches the model name in your scene when exporting. No export options available, the filter will determine everything from your scene settings and will prompt error or warning messages if something is wrong or needs your attention.

The filter will locate (by name) either single geometry model or a group dummy node - in both cases it will export entire hierarchy starting from this node. So, if you have a blend groups (group_thin&fat, and like this) you should point a name to their parent dummy node name, so all blends are collected and exported. Dummy nodes (if any) are ignored and all geometry models are collected for export.

CAS or Static? The filter will determine whether you are exporting CAS model by locating a binded Skeleton to any of geometry models it has collected for export. Thus, for example, if you group_base or any other blend is binded with skeleton, this skeleton is used to create proper CAS .wso model on export. If you have skeleton loaded, but no blend models binded to this skeleton, the filter will export as a regular Static model groups instead of CAS blends.

In case of CAS model, the filter will try to locate all required blend models or merged blends if available. Both cases suit. For example, you can have "base" and "fit" blends merged on one model "group_base&fit" and have a pair of "group_thin" and "group_fat" non-merged, it's Ok. The group_special is missing, the filter will create it as a copy of group_base.

Each CAS blend model must use only one material. If they don't, a warning message is prompted, but the model is exported. This is a limitation of .wso, so pay attention to mutiple materials on models.

Static model/groups can be exported as a set of "group_*" nodes under a parent dummy, or as a single model matched by name on export. If you prefer to deal with non-merged groups, please respect groups order in ZModeler and use only one material per geometry object. Otherwise, the filter will export your set of groups as multy-materials static geometry.

Mutly-materials static geometry model is exported by splitting into groups (note that your model in Workshop has several groups and your .wso file must have the same amount of groups in). Each material will produce one group. The order of groups is specified by the order of materials in Materials Browser. Thus, if you need groups in specific order, rearrange materials order in Materials Browser.
Attachments
rigfiles_20121016.zip
Skeleton rigs for ZModeler
(4.08 KiB) Downloaded 707 times
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