More Awesome Than You!

The sleep/shower/whatever hair for the knight's helmet is a very modern short style.  Would it be very hard to change this to one of the Maxis long styles?  Is it simply a matter of changing some flags or pointers, or does it involve reinventing the style.  (Yes, I have no idea how this stuff is done.)

I think fanseelamb did something like that once.  It should be an issue of messing with the package, and it shouldn't require making something new from scratch.

OK, I did some experimenting.

For a custom hair you can do it witout too much trouble using the colour binning plugin.
Export the hat using bodyshop.  Then export the hair you want without the hat.
Open the hat package with the colour binning tool (either in cutom hair, or in the category you want it in), uncheck all the textures that aren't the helmet, go to options and copy the GUID, check what categories the hat appears in (probably just everyday) and save the file.
Then open the hair you want when the hat comes off.  Replace the GUID with the one the hat uses.  Uncheck everyday (and any other categories the helmet shows in) in category and leave the rest checked.  Save.

That should do the trick.
If you want to package them into one file you can open it in bodyshop and just re-import into the game.

I'm a bit in a mood for experimenting with this, so let me know if you want me to make it for you.

Most hathair is enabled for everyday and formal only.

Thanks for the instructions Gwill... I am going to use this.

How bout Maxis ingame hairs? The hairstyle underneath the baseball caps is so atrocious. Reminds me of PeeWee Herman.

Replacements are more difficult, but it should be possible.  Someone more experienced at messing with material definitons should speak here.

I can make a custom package refering to the original maxis textures (to save space) but I'm not sure how to replace one maxis hair with another maxis hair.  I've been trying to find it out.

Gwill - I would be very grateful if you worked on this.  What I had in mind was using the OFB longish hair that's tucked behind one ear, or the University long hair. 

On a related note, I just realized the other day that the mens ponytail has only one "state."  One of my sims was using the open shower and his hair was still in a ponytail.  It works for him, because he's super-neat and grouchy, so he's someone who never lets his hair down.  But it's another example of Maxis weirdness, since they could easily have used the Uni long hair for the sleep/shower style.

(That's not a request, by they way.  Just something that struck me as funny.  I don't know if anyone else has even noticed it, but I've seen other people complaining about the knight's helmet.)

how about the girls chauffeur's cap, I really hate the hair style when they take the hat off!

Here you go:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=59ODK8J5

I only did the black reflective helmet, but I did it for all hair colours.  It links to the maxis textures, so it's a very small file.  If you want other colors, it can be recoloured normally in bodyshop.

It's a lot of fiddly work, so I'm not going to modify any more hats, I just needed to see that it can be done this way and it can, so anyone else who wants to give it a try go knock themselves out.
I might upload it to MTS2 later if I can be bothered to take some screenshots.

Splendiferous!

I'll be happy to take some game shots for you, if you like.  However, the down side to sharing it will be all the requests for other hat hairs.

Would you consider writing a tutorial, or at least sharing some notes with us?  I don't know if I'm up to this kind of project, but someone else might be.

Thanks, thanks, thanks.  I do like it MUCH better with this hair!

I've actually done some screenshots for a quick tutorial.  It's not very complicated, I just have to write it down and decide how basic I want to get.

Here you go:
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=197098

VERY step-by-step tutorial.

Fantastic tutorial!  I'm really impressed.  I will certainly have to play around with this now.

I like the idea of a different hair for every outfit. 

Thanks again!

Now that I come to think of it, it sort of annoys me that I didn't do the helmet as closed visor for everyday and athletics, open visor for formal and the hair just for underwear and pyjamas.
It's not difficult, but it takes a while and it's fiddly.