Hello! Could you tell some more about overlay priority in clothing items? Like which overlay priority to use for tucked items vs items that should go above other items? And do you have a list of good EA items to use for bone references in Mesh tool kit? How do you manually edit bone assignments and how do I even know if there's something wrong with them? I see the option in Milkshape, but I don't understand how it works. Do you need to use lod 2 bone references for lod 2 items to prevent creating neck and ankle gaps, or is using a lod 1 item also fine?
.. that's a lot of questions.
Oh wow!
SOOO
overlay priority: I got my main information from this modthesims thread
The higher the number, the higher it is: so meshed accessories layer on top of tops & shoes, tops & shoes on top of hair and bottoms, and so on.
You see the 0x00000005 that says "for leg covering shoes"? Well, that's the overlay priority you will most commonly change things into for cas items. It is for leg covering shoes you want to be underneath bottoms (such as some of the basegame tall boots), but also for *tops* you would want to layer underneath bottoms. Tops usually go on top, but for a top to be tucked in, it needs to be lower in the hierarchy - a lower number. Tops that are fully painted-on (texture only, painted onto the naked mesh) or partly so ( at the waist and below) should have OLP 5. You can take a look at some female basegame tops in the gamefiles:
(as you can see at the bottom of the screenshot, I filtered on CASP files to make my life easier)
This is the shirt in TSRW. Note, TSRW doesn't always show OLP right, but in this case it did. First with a low waisted bottom:
And then with a high waisted one:
The lower OLP allows it to tuck in high waisted bottoms, while still being full length with lower waisted ones. It is particularly common for tight fitted female tops, as the female top UV space stops at the waist:
if it had OLP 7 like other tops, the multiplier being in the bottom UV space would mean the texture would sit on the waist band of all sorts of bottoms, and we don't want that! But as the bottoms will take priority over it, it doesn't happen. No matter how high or low the bottom, their texture will sit on top of the shirt's.
2) Bone references; I would say most EAxis ts3 items will be ok bone references, and I don't have a precise list. But I do know that some items, especially from Pets and Showtime, have wonky finger bones. The message is to first thoroughly test your reference in TSRW or in game, and the overal shape is most important; similar sleevelength, skirt/pant length, similar fit in terms of tightness etc.
You can manually edit bones in blender. I have a video with some tips & tricks, and also on how to (partly) convert over the TS4 bones in case of a conversion. (I plan to make a fully written version with the same content with another item) Bonepainting can seem intimidating, but if you have any talent for painting etc in general, it becomes quite intuitive - especially if you can see how it looks thanks to a trick I learnt from @virtual-hugs. I would recommend googling general, *not sims* "bonepainting in blender" tutorials as well.
If there's something wrong with them...You'll see. Things might look lumpy, spiky, or move in an unnatural way, like a wrist looking painfully contorted due to iffy wrist bones, or a skirt that goes spiky when sitting. I like to test in TSRW with the pinball machine, sitting down and deathsequence animations, and in game I put a radio on the lot and let my sim dance!
I do not use milkshape at all for any cas item ever, so I don't know what you see in milkshape unfortunately.
3) I finish the bones & morphs of my highest LOD/LOD1, I make those look good, and then I use that wso as my reference for LOD2 & LOD3. With lower lods I just care about the overall look/shape being right, not neckseams, because you need to zoom out quite a bit to see lower lods. If you play on higher settings, too far to see the neck in detail.