Skins Disappear From Sims

[MellissaSue]

I did a few searches for this issue and found nothing specific so I'm hoping I can get some help. Sometime over the weekend, when I loaded my game, a lot of my female skins had turned black and by that I mean, that inside of the arms and chest being the skintone they'd been the last time I played, they were black or a combination of colors.

I went through my Downloads folder and removed some of the game mods that I had downloaded. Problem still there. I removed half of the folders, still there. I removed just my clothing folder and the problem disappeared. I thought it was solved -- a weird mesh or file had been included. Not a huge deal. Instead of worrying about narrowing it down any further, I went a head and just started my folder over. 

I downloaded a bunch of clothes just from SimChic, some Elder outfits, some Adult Female Designer, Celebrity and Everyday files and of course all their meshes and just like that the problem was created again. I can't imagine it's actually a SimChic file, but maybe a hack that's conflicting with the file as weird as that might sound. Does anyone have suggestions?

Edit: I should mention that I did not install the FreeTime patch.

[snabul]

I tried to download the FT Patch, but it is said to be corrected and was not available anymore.

[MellissaSue]

Yeah, I heard it was messing things up and I read a few places that people had this problem after installing the patch so I mentioned it to say that I had the problem even though I had never touched the patch.

[Zazazu]

Try this, MelissaSue. Sounds like the poster in that thread had a similar problem.

Numenor found the problem. I'll copy/paste the text here:

   1. Open the folder where you have installed your game: I mean the PROGRAM folder, not the Documents!

   2. Browse to: EA Games\The Sims 2\TSData\Res\Catalog\Skins

   3. If you see a small file named Skins.package, with size 1Kb only, delete it.

   4. RENAME the file Skins.disabledpackage to Skins.package.
      (If you DON'T see the .disabledpackage file or the Skins.package is NOT only 1Kb, then this solution is NOT for you: don't delete anything!)


That's all. All the crashes in the CAS, or changing appearance, or entering the lots should immediately stop; the unexpected hair colour or skin tones over your sims should also revert to normal.

NOTE: if you HAVE SAVED a lot while the sims were showing unexpected hair or skin colour, I'm not 100% sure that the hair or the skin in that lot will automatically revert to the right tones.

Of course I'd already gone down the road of uninstall/reinstall before he came up with this, but it may be of help to someone who still has the problem.

If not, try binary search with your cc outfits and any custom skins you may have. Take out recent downloads first.

[MellissaSue]

Unfortunately, the first solution didn't apply to me. (It's never that easy *sighs*) and I'm not entirely sure how to go about doing the second. Can you point me in the right direction?

Thanks so much for your help

[cenoura]

Binary search: Take out half of your downloads to see which half is causing the problem. From the half that is causing the problem, take out another half. Repeat until the problem download is isolated.

[Emma]

I still have the pulled FT patch on my hard-drive. I am wondering if it would work, if you copied your skins folder before applying the patch, then put it back after it is updated?

I am glad I installed the patch, my game is working much better than before.

[jolrei]

I still have the pulled FT patch on my hard-drive. I am wondering if it would work, if you copied your skins folder before applying the patch, then put it back after it is updated?

I thought of this, but didn't bother, for the following rationale:

If you take out your skins folder, and the patch alters it, and then you replace it again afterwards with what is essentially a pre-patch skins folder, I thought there was a chance that:
1) the patching would be useless as the game would be looking for the altered patched skins folder and not find it.
2) this might break further whatever was broken by the patch.

I decided to stay patch free, in the end.

[Emma]

I suppose you're right

[Sivany]

I'm regretting not downloading that patch when I had the chance now. I've never made any custom clothes on the sewing machine so I would have had no trouble there. Instead I'm stuck not being able to complete my sims bug collection and with several other annoyances that were apparently fixed by the patch.

[Emma]

Like I said, I have it if you want it. Just pm me with your email address, I'll zip it up. Just don't blame me if something gets borked. None of my sims had used a sewing machine, and all I had to do for the patch to run was replace my objects.package from the disc, for what I don't know. I am pleased as I can call NPCs and chat or invite them over, and one of my sims has the complete bug collection now.

[J. M. Pescado]

Emma, what's with this annoying "PM me" shit? Is this some kind of attention whore thing? Why do people do that? It's not like this is an illegal item.

Anyway, get here if you want it. Death to EMMA.

[Emma]

Emma, what's with this annoying "PM me" shit? Is this some kind of attention whore thing? Why do people do that? It's not like this is an illegal item.

Anyway, get here if you want it. Death to EMMA.

Look at me...LOOK AT ME!!!!!

No, I just didn't want to upload it. I am lazy. But you have done my job for me, so my work here is complete.

All Pescados Suck.

[Kyna]

Emma, what's with this annoying "PM me" shit? Is this some kind of attention whore thing? Why do people do that? It's not like this is an illegal item.

Anyway, get here if you want it. Death to EMMA.

Since you've got it up for download, I'm assuming it's Awesome-approved (or at least not disapproved of) and won't bork my game any more than installing FT did.