More Awesome Than You!

i love the maxis style that i'd call a pixie cut, it's got bangs hanging in front and is short... i haven't got access to a pic at present. anyways, i have issues with mixing that style and make up. anyone else having issues? when a sim with that style puts make up on, the bangs kind of fill in and create a solid block of colour across the forehead. any suggestions?
it's happened since the very beginning i think.

Is this the one that girls get by default when they are born in game?  I've never had that problem at all.  I've just checked it out in game, too - no issues.  Is it with all makeup or just some?  Perhaps it could be screwy makeup?  Grasping at straws here!

Or a screwy hair mesh?

*grasps a leftover straw

yeah, the one they're born with. it has happened since i first bought the game (i'm sure) and happens even in a vanilla game. do you guys maybe know where i could get a similar version of it? coz i do like it.

I've got a few alpha edits of it from MTS2.

It sort of sounds like a graphics issue, I used to get something similar, but not only with that hair.

What sort of graphics card do you have?

hey blue, according to the EA easy info thing i have a NVIDIA GeForce Go 6600. i though it might have been a graphics issue. i'm not sure though because all my graphic settings are on high and it all runs smooth. should i try updating my drivers?

You could...  I've got a 6600 in this machine and don't have any issues.  I know there's a bit of a difference between the desktop and laptop versions, but it sorta implies to me that it's not a hardware issue.  Maybe.  This is not my area of expertise!

Lately (as of the 8x series) Nvidia's drivers tend to be hit-and-miss. Try several versions, and once you found one that works for your system, STICK WITH IT.

I sometimes get dramatic differences between two driver versions, from performance to visual artifacts to even system stability.

Yeah, but one hairdo with makeup? Sounds more like a corrupt file of some sort. Messing with drivers if it's not a graphics card issue could make more problems. Maybe try replacing the objects.package.

ness, i'm on a laptop, would that change anything?

i couldn't find drivers for my card apparently, but i'm useless with this stuff so i'll get my brother to check that out.

how would i go about replacing the object package? this happens every time i install.

The objects package is easy.  It should be on the CD somewhere for the latest expansion you have.  I located mine (for pets) in a compressed folder on the first CD, but I recall it should be easier than that.  This path:  C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 Pets\TSData\Res\Objects  should give you some idea of where to stick it in your directories once you've found it on the CD.

As for the difference between our cards...  all I know is that they put smaller versions of the cards in notebooks, but I don't know what the differences are, or what they may mean.

I don't mess with drivers much, either.  If I find it's necessary I generally try to get my techie husband to do it for me, it's something I'm not confident with doing too much of!  But I think BlueSoup is correct - if it were a graphics problem, it should effect more than just that one hair.

wouldn't the object file on the cd be the one that buggered? that's how my brain sees it anyways...

Nope.  The one on your hard drive may have been corrupted.  The one on the CD should still be fresh and clean.

thanks for answering my dumb questions ness, i'm useless at understanding this stuff, my logic doesn't work the right way. i haven't found it yet, but i've been a slack bitch.

Try doing a search on 'replace objects.package' or similar, I'm sure there have been threads on that before.

No problems, Pandagirl.  I'm just sorry I can't answer your more technical questions.

The tricky thing about locating objects.package is that it seems to be in a slightly different place for each EP.  One the CD that is, not on the hard drive.

i'm running up to nightlife at present. i've got pets and i am thinking of reinstalling it 'cause i love the floor dividers, would that replace that objects package?

Yes.  You should get a whole new shiney pets object.package that way.

Then after the clean install, go to objects.package on your hard drive and make it 'read only' - that helps it not get corrupt.

i've installed pets and it still kind of does it...  >:(
i've got a pic, but i don't know how to upload them. it mainly does it, now, from looking down on the sims head and in the pie menu...

You should get an account at PhotoBucket (http://photobucket.com/) and upload through that.

The Pixie hairstyle is located inside the BASE GAME's objects.package. Replacing any other objects.package (from the EPs) would not help at all, since that hairstyle is not included in any of them.

Pull the objects.package from the base game CD, not from whatever EPs you have.

Hairstyle TEXTURES are not in objects.package.

They're either in C:\Games\TheSims2\TSData\Res\Catalog\Skins\Skins.package or one of the expansions' \TSData\Res\3D\ packages.

I actually had this problem a long time ago.  It didn't happen on every sim that had the pixie cut, and changing appearance in the mirror didn't help.  And it was ONLY the pixie cut.

It also seemed like it was only on the child's version, not teen or older.  The bangs filled in like a bar across the forehead.

I think it was my graphics driver.  If I remember correctly, when I upgraded my driver to the next version it solved the problem.  But that was two or three versions ago!

It may have started after I got NL - it's been a long time ago.

I have that exact problem too. You mean with the hairstyle on the alien sim in this picture?
(http://thesims2.ea.com/sims2_exchange/story/63/138363/snapshot_d241c72f_721632ae.jpg)

The fringe (bangs) has filled in randomly since I've had the game. Don't have a picture of it going wrong, because the in-game camera fixes it if I try to take a photo of it. (In fact, I often take photos that I'll later throw away just to have the hair reset itself.) I'd have to remember to take a screenshot to show what it looks like in-game. It looks to me like the alpha slips sometimes, but I don't understand why that would happen with a Maxis hairstyle. It's most common when I've been playing for a while in a single session, making me wonder if it's to do with some kind of memory thing.

I've had that hairstyle on children, teens, young adults and adults, and had the same problem with all of them. I have all the EPs up to OFB.

And I just checked. I have an NVidia GeForce Go 6200. Hrm.