What is a MESH and Why do I Need it?

I recently received a private message asking me what a mesh is and I realized that there are probably a lot of people out there who don't really understand about meshes. I know I've gotten several messages from people telling me that they can't find the mesh or telling me that my items won't work and then come to find out, they didn't download the mesh. So I decided to copy/paste my response here in the hopes of helping others who don't quite understand what a mesh is and why they need it. I love your clothes and I pretty much downloaded them all to my Sims2, but can you help me?!?! I don't know what that "Mesh" thing is!!! :( Hmmm...let's see if I can explain it to you. :) The mesh is actually the 3D model or structure that everything in the Sims is based on. There are clothing meshes and object meshes and anything else you might see in the game. When you are dealing with a clothing mesh, some people actually think of it as the article of clothing they just downloaded, but what you SEE is actually the "texture" or the "recolor" of the base mesh model. Everything you download requires a mesh for it to work in your game. Some clothing recolors (and object recolors) are based on meshes that are already included in the game which is why the artists will usually tell you if a custom mesh is required. For example, if someone writes in their item description "recolor of an outfit from the base game" or "requires Nightlife" (or whatever expansion pack) means that the mesh is already in your game if you have the required expansion pack. If someone writes "you must get the mesh from whatever site for this to work in your game", then you have to click on the link provided below the description and follow the directions to where the mesh can be downloaded. One thing to keep in mind...(and this is something a lot of people have trouble with)...the mesh may not look exactly like the outfit that you downloaded originally. This is because artists can further manipulate the texture to create the desired look but still use the same basic mesh. I have people sending me messages all the time that they couldn't find the mesh when in fact, the directions I gave them were very clear. They just didn't recognize the mesh when they saw it. Also, meshes are normally a single color depending on what color the artist uses for a temporary texture. (usually white, gray, or black) The mesh itself won't actually show up in the game unless it has a texture. Let me see if I can show you a couple of examples so that you will understand better. Here is a picture of one of my latest sets that I uploaded a couple days ago. Now here's the picture of the actual MESH file. As you can see, they look very different, but for my denim outfit to work, you must download the mesh which is the base for which the recolor is built on. You can also see that I modified the texture quite a bit by making it a long sleeved outfit and changing the neckline. But you can't let that fool you whenever you are looking for the right mesh to download. What you have to look at is the BASIC SHAPE of the outfit. This trips a lot of people up unfortunately. Here's one more example: A shorts outfit I created. And the mesh: On this example too, you can see that my outfit looks very different from the mesh...but the BASIC SHAPE is the same. Hopefully, this will help you to begin to make sense of all this mesh business and get back down to the business of downloading my creations! Let me know if you have anymore questions. Robin