Changing eyecolor?

[Insanity Prelude]

Okay, so I recently downloaded a gorgeous set of eyecolors. Problem is, a good chunk of my neighborhood uses older, less awesome custom eyecolors, and they'll be passing those on to their offspring instead of the nice ones. How do you change a Sim's eye color, or at least the genetics? (I don't know my way around simPE very well. Figured I'd ask before I broke something.)
I know I could just use contacts, but I apparently like making things more difficult for myself


Edit: While I'm at it- I know SimPE Simsurgery has issues. Is there another way to clone/export a Sim?

[Invisigoth]

I am sure that someone more awesome than me knows of a way to actually change the eyes of a sim, so maybe you should wait for someone else to come along, but I CAN tell you how to change it's genetic value so that you can haev an easier time of breeding it out over time. You open the package in SimPe and click on Texture Overlay XML then you click on the name that shows up under resource list and look in the plugin view area on the bottom (picture!). You should see something taht says genetic (dtSingle). Change that value from 1 (dominant) to 4 (almost never see it because it's so recessive). You'll almost never get a 3 or 4 eye from breeding (unless both parents have a 3 or 4, obviously). So if you want to breed out the old eyes you could make them all 4s and then make sure that they only mate with sims with eyes with a 1 or 2 genetic value. 2 is just recessive, but not to the extremes that 3 or 4 are. 0 is what un-geneticized CC comes with and it will always be dominant.

When you use Sim Surgery to clone a sim in SimPE and put that sim into body shop you must make a clone of the clone and delete the first clone. The second clone will be safe to use in game.

[witch]

There are tutorials on how to change sim eyes and make it genetic. I've done it in the past.

[Insanity Prelude]

Thanks, I'll google the tutorials. (I did know how to change the dominance values, at least. Because alien Sims should have alien eyes, damnit.)

As for Sim Surgery... I tried that yesterday and Bodyshop wouldn't load at all afterward. The progress-loading-bar-thing would get a quarter full and then just quiet crash to desktop. It started working again after I deleted the Sim Surgery clones- maybe I had too many of them, or something? I'm using the newest version...

[Madame Mim]

Open the eye file with SimPE and copy down the number (best to copy and paste into a notepad file) the family line under the xml. Open the neighbourhood and select the sim. Use the more options to get to said Sims DNA. Change one or both of the eye lines to the previously copied data.

This will only work for the genetics of it and will not change the Sims eye colour.

[Roux]

You actually can get the new eye color to show up in the game. I recently removed some custom eyes from my game, and was able to get characters to display the 5 defaults. After some extensive searching, I found some instructions posted here by SleepyCat.

you should be able to fix the eyes in the sims "character file" under "age data" (open the neighborhood and go to sim description, find the sim and under "more" you can access their DNA and Character file)

you could copy the eye code (ctrl+c) from a sim that has those eyes and then paste it (ctrl+v) into the eye line, then hit 'commit", I'd do it under DNA also. save.

then they can "change appearence" with a mirror in-game to get the "new" eyes to show up.

So, change it both in Sim DNA and in the character file age data, and you should be good to go. Worked for me, though it was a PITA to do all the SimPE changes, and then summon each of the sims in-game (townies, to my chagrin) and fix their appearances. No more townie-enabled custom eyes for me!

[Swiftgold]

Changing skins and eyes and DNA was the reason I got the TS2Enhancer originally, since it just involves choosing from a drop-down menu and hitting "save". I remade my three custom skins to match my default replacements and was able to replace it on all the Sims with it with just a few clicks, which was nice. You still have to change appearance to get the eyes to show up any way you do it, though.

However, I am upset with having to pay for updates so often (and Freetime didn't change things as much as Pets did, for example!) so I am not buying it anymore and just using SimPe instead, even if it's more time-consuming. If you just want to make quick one-time changes, though, it does have a trial period and would be worth trying.

[Insanity Prelude]

Thanks again

I guess one of the files I saved with Simsurgery the other day was just more corrupted than the rest or something because I tried again last night and it worked fine (albeit iwth some graphical glitches until I'd cloned and deleted the exports.) No crashes this time. Weird.

[Ellatrue]

I've had that happen with a downloaded sim before. Sometimes it just borks.

I wonder, can this method be used for replacing custom skins as well? Or should I just give up and edit the texture files directly?

[witch]

There is a crack for Sims2Enhancer, don't know if it still works. I haven't bothered with the program for ages/years. It corrupts hoods if you have compressed files.

[Roux]

I wonder, can this method be used for replacing custom skins as well? Or should I just give up and edit the texture files directly?

I'm pretty sure I have been able to change skintone either from one default to another, or from custom to default just by editing Sim DNA (never tried custom to custom). That's why I got frustrated when it didn't work for removing custom eyes, and started searching.    If my memory is correct, the characters automatically changed to the new skintone in-game and didn't need to 'change appearance', though portraits probably had to be regenerated.

[Insanity Prelude]

Madame Mim and Roux- It worked perfectly! And you guys put it in a lot less words than the tutorials. Thanks again.