Hi, all, I need some help!
I successfully learned how to create new clothing meshes and I created a pretty princess style dresses for the child sim, however I’m at a complete loss as to how to properly recolor it and lay it out correctly. I saw several things on the “texture coordinate editor” thing on Milkshape, and I have done several tries with recoloring the mesh by building a body template with the mesh shapes that show up when I open the editor (with and without the remap) either way I do it, and when I overlay the new templates with the recolors to make sure they line up properly, it still doesn’t work and I end up with these pictures. (Sorry about the bad quality pics) What do I do? Is there somewhere where there is actually useful information that can help with this issue? Thanks in advance!

The UVs are meant to just be a guide. You need to remove (or hide) the UV layer/texture before saving.

You also need to use the UV map that goes with for the item you're recoloring. A UVmap belonging to a different dress won't work.

When you have the proper UVmap, you can put the texture inside/along the lines. The coordinates show where on the mesh the texture is going to appear.

You can extract the UVmap with a few different tools (I don't think you can extract in Milkshape, at least I've never found out how). There's an UVmapper program you can use (can't remember the name, though), Blender works well, Wings3D can work.

Extracting UVs in Blender (you can export the mesh as an OBJ in Milkshape first):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwT_B_cLE_o (2.76-2.79)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riPBFJBwAyg (newer versions)

My computer is small and doesn’t have as much space as a typical PC, so since my Bodyshop works differently, I can’t recollor things the “old fashioned way” as in open the new meshes on Bodyshop and recolor the textures from there. Here is what my Bodyshop looks like. (pics below) For some reason there is only one piece of clothing that shows up for each category in Bodyshop whether or not I made a new mesh. The only way I can tell how it looks with the recolor is when I open CAS. It’s extremely frustrating, and since the Bodyshop that comes with my disc doesn’t want to open on this computer (or any other computer) I tried to find other places to download Bodyshop and I don’t know if there is a specific version I can download for my situation, or if it’s just my computer. I’m a little afraid of updating my graphics card or doing anything to it, because I’m afraid I’ll lose everything, but there has to be a way to work around it. All I think I really need is the ability to have a Bodyshop that shows all the outfits instead of just one. Also Blender doesn’t work on my computer due to the graphics card, (I really don’t want to have to buy another one) I can’t find any helpful tutorials on extracting SIMS 2 UV maps on Wings3d, and other ones I have tried have done nothing. Also the pink dress pic is with the mapping lines, and the blue dress pic is when I covered them, but they still didn’t line up.

Do you mean UVMapper Classic?

That's the one (couldn't remember the name of the free one, and Google wasn't helpful - There's a Pro version too, but it's pay). Fairly sure this one is less resource heavy than Blender, so it could be worth a try.

UVMapper classic works well with my computer. However if there is a solution for my Body shop problem (mentioned in my *extremely long* comment above) until then, I probably won’t be able to use them properly. I even tried making an outfit from scratch to see if it would show up in Milkshape with its own texture map, but it was only showing the body template without the clothing. I’m assuming it would be much easier if my mesh (as well as the other CAS clothing) showed up in Body shop.

You mentioned that you were on discs. Do you have all the EPs? Where are you pulling Bodyshop from?

I’m only using the base game. Whenever I would try to open the Bodyshop that comes with it, it either wouldn’t open or give an Error message. So I downloaded Body shop from fileplanet.com

Is that version of Bodyshop even properly linked up to the game? Are you even sure it's the Basegame version? I think there was a demo version of Bodyshop at some point.

Bodyshop not opening or giving errors tend to be caused by either cache files (the not opening issue), or not having been set up properly (if you're on a newer computer/laptop, it likely needs some edits to the GraphicRules file). If you tell us what the error is, maybe we can help with that.

Hey, that's the demo BodyShop. It even has the beta logo in the corner!
Plus, that's why it has so little items.
You dont need to download BodyShop:
The real BodyShop is in the CSBin of the BG folder in your Program files directory. How does it not open? What error does it display? If you're opening it from a shortcut, open it from the actual file. Also try simmer22's recommendation. Delete the cache files and retry.

I opened my Body shop for my game, and I got an error message saying Direct3D returned an error: D3DERR_INVALIDCALL! If deleting the cache files would solve this issue, where can I locate the cache files? I don’t want to delete anything I shouldn’t. The computer I use is an hp EliteBook and I use Windows 10. I also uninstalled the demo that I downloaded.

What graphics card do you have? Google says that error may be due to a graphics problem.

@cfranck8
Here is a post regarding this: https://modthesims.info/t/591023
Yet another one: http://www.insimenator.org/index.php?topic=39894.0
And I want you to see the other part of this: https://modthesims.info/wiki.php?ti...IDCALL.21_Error

I assume that this is the reason why you cannot preview custom meshes. The demo BodyShop can't have CC, as ironic as that is.

This is a graphics issue like Charity said. The error you're encountering is a very common BodyShop error with Direct3D.
The cache file of BodyShop is located in your userdata folder (Documents/EA Games/Sims 2) and is called "cigen.package", but I doubt deleting it will work in this case so far.

I will have to try to see about the graphics card later today or tomorrow and update you. In the UserData folder there is no cigen.package file (picture attached of what I do have) unless I’m still in the wrong place? I’m going from my Program Files (x86) to access it. I also have Intel HD Graphics

That's the installation files, look here:
Users\[username]\Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2

I did look there and there is still no cigen.package file.

Probably because your Bodyshop isn't complete.

I uninstalled the demo Body shop and the issue I’m having now with the error message is with the Body shop that comes with my game.

I thought you couldn't open it though.

@cfranck8
@Charity

If we knew if cigen.package generates the first time you open BodyShop then that would be useful as we would know then that it isn't there because cfranck8 hasn't been able to even open the real BodyShop.
If that's the case with cigen.package, then it would be logical that it doesn't exist.
cfranck8 has uninstalled the demo version of BodyShop. The main problem is because of the Direct3D error, which is a whole other thing separate from this: It's a graphics driver issue.
I said that deleting cigen.package would have no impact because it probably can't even generate and because it isn't about cache, so I just wanted to see if this theory is correct, which I am assuming is.

Now, the solution has to do with the graphics of your computer.

Whew! Thanks for clearing that up, FuryCat! I was afraid of it being the graphics. I hope I don’t have to resolve to buying extra graphics, unless there is another option or a way to get more for free? I haven’t had as much time to read the links above as much as I wanted, since today’s a busy day, (and I won’t get back home until late tonight) but for the time being, what could be the best and possibly fastest option?

Yeah, that was my point. If he can't open Bodyshop then cigen won't generate.

You need to tell us your graphic card. I strongly suspect that it isn't powerful enough, because the pictures you provided are terrible.

No problem. I don't know what else you can do. Best to leave it and update us tomorrow, that particular error doesn't have any workarounds or any other solutions, unfortunately.
You will have to tell us your graphic cards and then we can see what to do.

I was finally able to locate my graphics card and I got home early. Intel HD Graphics 4000. I hope you all can still help with this.

I've seen many people with this problem having an Intel card, some of them are at the posts I linked to.
A person said that some Intel cards play the game but cant run BodyShop in the Insimenator thread.

DON'T BUY A NEW CARD UNTIL WE ARE SURE THIS IS THE ISSUE!!!!

• Advice at Insimenator says to update DirectX. I'm not sure if this is outdated advice or not; if someone knows please notify me.
• Also see if your drivers are updated.