More Awesome Than You!

I have just realised that datgen doesn't work with seasons, it gives empty packages. At least the old datgen I scrounged up after my usual got corrupted.
Since no-one answered my squeals for help, I started using simpe, which is a lot more tedious, but works. I have realised today that the new-old datgen when it worked before seasons made only adult hair and disabled the rest.
But, if you're still there, i have a new problem: when I look at the binned hair in bodyshop, it says black even though it is in the red bin. What am i doing wrong?
I open the file in the right bin, have only compress checked in options, so it keeps the same name.
Edit: I have modified this opening the files in Simpe, and realised I could do it by manually editing before saving in options. One more step to add.
Unless I'm missing something?

Edit 2: if I try to modify while binning, all the packages will have the same name(the one that appears while hovering)

Well, there's another way you can do it.  You'd only be able to bin ONE hair at a time.

For instance, bin the black, go to options, copy the GUID, save the hair.

Bin the brown, go to options, paste the GUID for black, save the hair.

The GUID keeps the colors linked - if a sim's wearing the black, and you decide they should be a redhead, they'll be wearing that style if you hit the red button on the hair section.  It also lets you kill all the extra elder recolors if you want and only use one.

I don't find that I need custom descriptors for my recolors, as long as the description gives me a vague idea of what hair it is.  I can see the color for myself, I don't need to be told! :)  So I bin mine all together, and forget to remove anything mentioning specifically to colors half the time.  I have tons of hairs with text claiming them to be black now...I'm pretty lazy.

Yes, I figured I had to do that... Is this where I moan about the one click datgen?

No, this is where you trot off to Theo's Shack (http://theos.chewbakkas.net/tools/index.html) and pick up the Color Binning Tool.

I think we're talking about the binning tool.

I was, anyway!

From Indiasong's post it sounds like she might be binning hair manually in SimPE. Theo's tool is less complicated than DatGEN was, and takes less time, and gives you more options, so it's hard to imagine Indiasong would have said binning hair is more tedious in SimPE. Although, of course, when you are forced to do something in a new way, it can certainly seem to be slower and less simple.

Right, I get that.  I just thought perhaps she meant doing it recolor by recolor and changing the family GUID manually just to avoid the text being identical for all recolors of the same set would be tedious...and it would be!  But the text remaining the same thing is a bin tool thing, too, so if she's having that issue manually, the bin tool's not going to save her any time.

Unless I really really suck at the bin tool and there's another way to avoid the identical text thing if you fill all the bin colors in one go.

Uh, the color binning tool lets you manually change the text before you save the hair...

Dumb Amber-type People suck. TYDT.

Yes I was talking about the binning tool which is longer than the 1st edition datgen where you just had to throw all the files in the browser, tick the right colours and save in one click. No opening each file individually, or saving individually as I have to do because if you change the text in the tool, it changes all the colours to the text you typed instead. Sigh.I hate change when it is actually regression. But I am getting used to it.

Well, the tool we have now is a huge improvement in terms of what can be done. For example, binning grey hair never worked properly in DatGen, and removing extra age groups often caused glitches. Plus now we can change lots of options besides just the bin the hair is in.

I liked DatGen and used it for ages, but Theo's tool is clearly more powerful and more accurate. Faster is not better if your files get screwed up in the process.

*Plays world's smallest violin*  So omit the hair color name and just put in the style name and you don't have to change them individually.  That's what I do.  Not like you can't see what bin you're browsing or what color the hair is, sheesh.  :p

Since the new SimPE fiddled with the binning tool I'm binning my hair colours individually and I prefer it that way. It makes it easier for the anal side of me to put those ash browns in the blonde, and fix most of peggy's colour binnings. Copying and pasting the GUID has the repetitiveness that calms a racing mind.  :) So I'm happy it's broke.

I've been doing them individually in SimPE all along.  By the time the Theo's tool came out, I'd already done 1700+ hairs the old fashioned way.  You get a system down, I can add the file name to the mouseover, remove extra ages and textures, add the hair and the eyebrows to the right bins, and family them together in less than 5 minutes.  Unless there's more than the normal 4 colors, then the set takes a bit longer. 

Like Panda says, there is something quite soothing in the repetitiveness.

I've managed to prune out enough extraneous haircolors that I guess I might start using Theo's tool (since I don't have nearly so many styles with more than 4 colors anymore), but I still would like a simpler one-at-a-time tool -- I don't care about families all that much (it's nice but not strictly necessary), and even though my downloads are organized fairly well, I still don't relish the thought of trying to correctly locate all four files.

Stupid EA needs to build binning into Body Shop. :P Especially for things like how Peggy tends to bin brown hair as black and red hair as brown.

Peggy does have some odd choices when she colour bins. The only reason I family my hairs, is so they go grey right. Some of my elder sims look good with their grey young people hair, and it saves a trip to the mirror.

I'm not sure what's worse -- no red hair that actually looks natural at all, or a natural red in the brown bin AND some weird shade in the red bin.

Possibly I should start doing more recolors and then actually posting them publicly. I'm not good at texturing (at least, not for hair; I just learned how to use Object Workshop and I've been able to make some passable bedding textures from scratch), but I can recolor decently most of the time. (When I'm not being lazy. I just did a massive batch of red fixes for my own personal use and employed almost exactly the same technique on all dozen different hairs because I was impatient, and thus while they're acceptable, they're not my best work.)