Custom skins and townie generation

[seelindarun]

Well, originally I had thought about using DAC on a test 'hood just to check whether townies can receive intermediate custom tones between the Maxis defaults.  Now that I have the answer to this (No), I won't have to think about how to use DAC. 

However, if I had, would the dangling SWAFs come haunting my other hoods, or would they be burninated when I deleted the 'hood that spawned them?

[Jelenedra]

Hmm, theoretically, they should be all gone, as SWAFs and neighborhood dependant. However, I would wait for someone More Awesome Than I to confirm things. I haven't tested DAC like that.

[jrd]

SWAFs are neighbourhood dependent. N001 cannot influence N002 in any way.

[Theo]

This isn't by any means confirmed in-game, but there's a way to fool BodyShop into categorizing custom skins as if they were Maxis':

Open your custom skin file, select the SkintoneXML resource and change the creator property to 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000.
If the version and product properties are present, delete them.

Edit: If the flags value is 0x00000008, change it to 0x00000000

Save the package, and open BodyShop. That custom skin should no longer have the custom content marker (*), and if you click the randomize button, it can be selected.

[Sleepycat]

This isn't by any means confirmed in-game, but there's a way to fool BodyShop into categorizing custom skins as if they were Maxis':

Open your custom skin file, select the SkintoneXML resource and change the creator property to 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000.
If the version and product properties are present, delete them.

Edit: If the flags value is 0x00000008, change it to 0x00000000

Save the package, and open BodyShop. That custom skin should no longer have the custom content marker (*), and if you click the randomize button, it can be selected.

hmmmm...I will have to try that out! 

[Jelenedra]

Would that work on clothes too? So you could have townies randomly generate without the uglo Maxis Clothes?

[Sleepycat]

Addendum:

Over on MTS2, Enayla has been making some very exotic coloured skins with beautiful markings.  I wish to use them for a special otherworldly enclave within my normal 'hood.  I wanted the skins to be heritable in the usual way, rather than having them simply dominate all the time, so that I would have the possibility of interesting matings between my normal playables, and this select population.

My first priority was to avoid having townies cheapen those skins.  Thanks to all of you, I've (mostly) determined that this can be taken care of by geneticising the skins at the extreme ends of the spectrum, or in the interstices between the default values.

My second preference would be to have these skins come up as a genetic option only if one of the parents already possesses it.  What I'm thinking of is that these markings would give the bearer the privilege of joining the elite, but that unmarked siblings could not.

Ideally, I'd like the skins to be blended into the normal spectrum so that children would inherit a skin colour that's of similar depth to their parents whether they're marked or not.  However, if the skins are classified this way, is there any way of conditionally restricting their inheritance?

you should have just posted that separate since most of us don't re-read the earlier posts

[pioupiou]

This isn't by any means confirmed in-game, but there's a way to fool BodyShop into categorizing custom skins as if they were Maxis':

Open your custom skin file, select the SkintoneXML resource and change the creator property to 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000.
If the version and product properties are present, delete them.

Edit: If the flags value is 0x00000008, change it to 0x00000000

Save the package, and open BodyShop. That custom skin should no longer have the custom content marker (*), and if you click the randomize button, it can be selected.

It works perfectly in my game ! Thank you so much Theo
The only problem is that you are no longer able to select the "decustomized" skin in CAS as they do not appear in the custom skin and you can only select the four maxis colors apart of the custom ones. No big deal for me as I am always changing my sims' dna in simpe.
It also works for the eyes, even better, as you can select them in CAS (they appear after the maxis one, without the asterisk)
I'm really happy to see more diversity in my townies/npcs skins and eyes.
I'm using the very nice eye replacements made by TWS (wildstar24 on TSR, got them a long time ago when they had this glitch that made all the sets free all the time  ) and I was sad that the additional colors (hazel and lighter shades) were not used by townies and npcs. it's no longer the case thanks to you 
Pioupiou
edit to add link to the eyes if anyone is interested :
Hazel Default Replacements
Standard Default Replacements
Complete Custom Eyes Set (hazel, standard and lighter shades)

[Theo]

The only problem is that you are no longer able to select the "decustomized" skin in CAS as they do not appear in the custom skin and you can only select the four maxis colors apart of the custom ones. No big deal for me as I am always changing my sims' dna in simpe.

Yeah, the game CAS skin selector is pretty much hard-coded to show the four S1-S4 skintones, and the modified skins can't be categorized as custom... *sigh*

Then again, you can select these skins in BodyShop, so there's always the possibility of creating the templates with the "custom" skins, and using the templates to create your CAS sims.

[jrd]

Cool trick Theo. I am definitely going to use this once I get my game playable again--seeing the new skintones and eyecolours on townies and NPCs would be great.

I have modified the default skintones so there is a lot more nuance between S1 and S3 (To compare: Maxis S3 is my S4, S4 is custom; and Maxis S1 is my S2, S1 is a really pale skin), by making the "custom" skintones not only genetic (which I was doing anyway) but also fooling the game about the creator I can finally get a somewhat more realistic genetic makeup!

[Eleonora]

The only problem is that you are no ;onger able to select the "decustomized" skin in CAS as they do not appear in the custom skin and you can only select the four maxis colors apart of the custom ones.

Just a guess, turn on debug mode, and see if your skins show up.

[pioupiou]

Another good thing : it makes the "simdna" cheat more user friendly : if the game think it isn't a custom skin, it shows not only the family number, but the name (like maxis' "light" or "medium-dark" or "uuface-eye-drkbrown") : so I changed the line "name" in the skintone xml (or xml overlay for the eyes) to reflect what it is and the simdna cheat now says things like "freckles" or "uuface-eye-brown-hazel". I no longer have to refer to my list of family number to know which skin my sims have !!
I will try CAS in debug mode and report back.
edit : even with CAS in debug mode I can't select the skin. But as I said, it's not really a problem for me.
Pioupiou

[jrd]

If anyone else wants Gunmod's eye set fixed according to theo's method, let me know.

Theo's method works for eyes at least: my new townies use ALL eyes, not just the four base colours

[Jelenedra]

Oooh I do. I love genetically coded stuff.

Pssst... Enayla's eye set should be next.

[jrd]

Gunmod's eyes fixed by the theo method: http://members.chello.nl/b.kroonspecker/games/GM-Eyes.zip
All files are renamed after their in-game name.

Remove 'GunMods-Defaults.package' if you have other defaults you want to keep.

Original thread: http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=95972

Note: I don't use the horror eyes myself, or the fantasy ones (except Blue Ice), so those are not included.

[trudy]

where can i download this "genetic" skins?

[Jelenedra]

They're not downloadable, it's a way of editing the files in SimPe so that they behave genetically.

[trudy]

So no way I can let someone more awesome than me do it for me just to be on the safe site? ;-)

[SaraMK]

The only problem is that you are no longer able to select the "decustomized" skin in CAS as they do not appear in the custom skin and you can only select the four maxis colors apart of the custom ones.

I solved this by having two copies of each skin. One is geneticized and decustomized so that townies can use it, the other is part of the genetic spectrum but still shows up in custom content. It's not perfect, since skins take up a lot of space, but it works.

[J. M. Pescado]

I'm sure a bit more skillful SimPE work could get it so that the two skins reference the same textures, and thus don't take up any extra space.

[trudy]

Gunmod's eyes fixed by the theo method: http://members.chello.nl/b.kroonspecker/games/GM-Eyes.zip
All files are renamed after their in-game name.

Remove 'GunMods-Defaults.package' if you have other defaults you want to keep.

Original thread: http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=95972

Note: I don't use the horror eyes myself, or the fantasy ones (except Blue Ice), so those are not included.

When I install those, the sims get black eyes If the roll over there eyes. (Wohoo sinematic or looking to far to a side in the menue) is this normal?

[DrBeast]

When I install those, the sims get black eyes If the roll over there eyes. (Wohoo sinematic or looking to far to a side in the menu) is this normal?

Yes, that's a known side-effect of some of helaene's eyes (if memory serves, Gunmod used a set of helaene eyes to make as default).

[jrd]

Yup.

[DrBeast]

Beat you to the punch, eh Jordi? 

[jrd]

Yeah, annoying :p

Some other custom eyes have the same behaviour by the way. I don't mind it myself.