Removing or hiding lifestages from custom hairstyles

[jrd]

I have a number of really nice custom hairstyles which I made genetic. However, they don't all include unique styles for all ages, so I have many duplicates of Maxis hair for children. And often I have quadruplicate greys for elders as well.

Is there a way to either remove the unwanted lifestages from the files without breaking the hairstyle, or marking these not to show?

[Regina]

I really hope someone answers this because I would like to know too.

I finally decided on five custom styles for toddlers, which of course don't have the other age stages.  I was thinking when I start binning I'll just leave these in custom as it's not such an issue with the little ones' hair as it is with the older sims.  I also think in the future I won't download custom hair unless it's very, very special or has meshes for all ages.

[Inge]

I have a vague memory that there is something very technical you can do in the package file to get rid of the unwanted ages, but certainly the standard bodyshop way you aleays get the spare ones.

[RainbowTigress]

Is this what you need?

http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=89652

[JaneSims]

Alternatively, use SimPe, open the hair package & find the property Set. Look for the line that says

Flags [dtUInteger] = 0x00000008

Change the 0x00000008 to 0x00000009 & then it won't show up in the catalog. Click Commit & then save the file.

[Inge]

Yeah, but the files are quite big on disk, and probably still get loaded into the game so it would be better to delete them if possible before sharing the new hair.

[RainbowTigress]

I just altered a set of hairs I just got, and they all appear in the correct color bins in BodyShop now, but all four colors are still showing under Gray for elder.  That is, I have four copies of gray hair, the same style, but on mouseover, it gives the name the creator gave it, which reveals the different hair color names.  How do I get rid of that so I only have one gray color?  Each hair color is a separate file, and the gray hair is included in each one. 

I got rid of the toddler hair in this set by following the tutorial from MTS2 I posted above.  I also deleted the unneeded/unwanted puffy toddler hair texture from each file, and each one is quite a bit smaller, by almost 150k each!

[jrd]

Rainbow: thanks for the link! It seems to work

[RainbowTigress]

Rainbow: thanks for the link! It seems to work

You're welcome.  Actually, I got it from another thread here, this one:  http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php?topic=2119.0

Alternatively, use SimPe, open the hair package & find the property Set. Look for the line that says

Flags [dtUInteger] = 0x00000008

Change the 0x00000008 to 0x00000009 & then it won't show up in the catalog. Click Commit & then save the file.

All the ones I've opened have 0x00000000 for Flags.  I don't see any with '8'. 

[jrd]

It worked!

Additionally, for each recolour I left one grey style with Flags=0x00000000 and set all others to Flags=0x00000009. Now only *one* grey recolour shows!

[RainbowTigress]

Great.  I'll try that.

[ZephyrZodiac]

I suppose if you wanted to change the hair from custom to genetic, you would need all those toddler and grey hair files.

Just to sidetrack a little, does anyone know what happens with those Maxis custom hairs which only appear in the mirror, not in CAS - are they counted as genetic or as custom when you set turnons/off?

[RainbowTigress]

If it appears in the bin marked by an asterisk, it's custom.  If it's in any of the other color bins, even if it has an asterisk, it's considered to be that color.

[angelyne]

I just delete the associated texture and remove the XML line that corresponds to the ages I don't want.  Seems to work for me.  I also delete all the XML lines for gray hair except for one color, so that I don't have multiple gray styles in the bin.

[ZephyrZodiac]

If it appears in the bin marked by an asterisk, it's custom.  If it's in any of the other color bins, even if it has an asterisk, it's considered to be that color.

I really just wondered in the game sees it like that when it's checking turnons - I've found that any sim I've had with one of those custom hairs has difficulty getting 2, never mind 3, LBs if their partner has the Custom Hiar turn on.

so, I suppose what I was really wondering is whether when checking turn-ons, the game actually checks the sim's genetic hair rather than added later custom content.  (Their own custom content isn't available in CAS, so the sim in question would have a genetic hair colour and then one of their recolours added in game.)

[RainbowTigress]

Well I would think that the game looks at what the hair is classified as, and if it has the string for black hair, and the other sim has a black hair turn on, I'd think it would match.  Besides, I have been told that chemistry doesn't depend so much on turn ons as it does other things like zodiac and aspiration.  Sometimes if they are close to having three bolts, though, the turn ons can help tip the scale.

[ZephyrZodiac]

So, it seems that you need to set the turn-ons to their genetic hair, not whatever they have at present.  (Unless their custom hair is what they were originally created with in CAS, which would make it genetic, right?)

[RainbowTigress]

I think it would be whatever hair they currently have.  At least that's how I've been doing it.  If I change the sims hair, I change their SO's turn on to match.  I'll have to experiment more.  I'm pretty sure that I saw one couple that had three bolts, and I changed the girl's hair to a custom style, and they went to two.  I changed his turn on to custom hair, and they went back to three.  The number of bolts is set by the average of the chemistry between the two sims.  I wish there was a way to see what the actual numbers are.  There are some sims which seem to have three bolts without even changing their turn ons, and others it seems like you barely get three even after changing their aspiration, zodiac sign, and turns ons to match.  I have heard that interests play a part, as well as fitness preference, but I'm not sure exactly how these work.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Well, I certainly think they should have included something for having a good relationship with each other!  I have sims who get on like a house on fire, keep throwing up wants about each other, yet can't even get 1 LB!  Surely, since in RL it's know that opposites often attract, they should have allowed for this?

[RainbowTigress]

That is true.  Why do they have to have the same aspiration to have good chemistry?  I could see having similar interests, you have to have something to talk about, but it's boring to always have two sims with the same aspiration.  I need to read the guide again about how chemistry is calculated, but it says the closer personality traits are, the higher their chemistry.  Yet in the first game, they recommend pairing a neat sim with a sloppy sim because you need someone who likes cleaning up!  And you need someone who is more outgoing to make friends, and so on.  I like pairing my two favorite aspirations, Knowledge and Family, but according to their chart, in one direction is a Good match, and in the reverse direction, it is Neutral.  That makes no sense to me.  The attraction system was a good idea, but it definitely needs work.

[ZephyrZodiac]

And since Family sims can be just as slutty as romance, they is it rarely a good match?  Is it because romance are hypocrites and like to pretend they aren't sluts?

[J. M. Pescado]

Well, I certainly think they should have included something for having a good relationship with each other!  I have sims who get on like a house on fire, keep throwing up wants about each other, yet can't even get 1 LB!

Well, the attraction system isn't coupled to the want system at all. In fact, none of the systems really work together, they're just disparate and completely unintegrated parts that act completely seperately from each other.

Surely, since in RL it's know that opposites often attract, they should have allowed for this?

Only if you're a magnet, and in that case you tend to attract thrown sharp metal objects. I can't imagine how people with absolutely nothing in common could possibly find anything to do with each other besides ignore each other most of the time.

If that's what they're happy with, great, but that's not what I call "attraction", that's more "co-existence due to lack of conflict from lack any desire to interact".

[Renatus]

Only if you're a magnet, and in that case you tend to attract thrown sharp metal objects. I can't imagine how people with absolutely nothing in common could possibly find anything to do with each other besides ignore each other most of the time.

Well, they can fight and fuss at each other over not having anything in common. Considering many couples I've seen, that seems to be what those 'opposites attract' types end up doing...

[ZephyrZodiac]

Well, my parents were like that, and they stayed together till the end!  Made life a bit odd for us kids though - mother dragging us off to church, father giving her a ticking off for doing so!

[RainbowTigress]

ZZ:  Here's the answer to how the game considers custom hair when it's classified by color.  I just updated one of my downloaded hair styles so they show up in the correct color bins.  I had one of my sims using the hairstyle to go to the mirror and change appearance.  The asterisk was still highlighted, but I reselected the hairstyle she was wearing under Red hair.  I saved and closed the game, and opened up the neighborhood in SimPE.  In her file, under the Nightlife tab, she has the Trait Red hair marked off.  So that indicates to me that the game does indeed see her as having red hair for the purposes of turn ons/offs, even though the hair is a custom hairstyle, it is in the correct color bin.  Before, she was showing as having custom hair.