anyone noticed this in CAS?

[AllenABQ]

This has been in the back of my mind now but I never really thought about it again until recently when I was making a new CAS family.  Has anyone noticed that when you make a couple in CAS and then use the option to create a child for that couple by mixing their DNA, the child will have overt features of the sim templates used to generate townies?

I noticed this mainly because when I generate children this way, I usually run the generator so that I can see what the child will look like as a adult.  Yes, they do adopt many features of their parents, but a lot also seem to borrow features from the default templates as well.  This was driven home recently because I'd had a man and woman that I'd done quite a bit of work on to get to look exactly how I wanted, and while clicking through random combos for their son, one adult image was a virtual replica of Komei Tellerman's face.    Eye-area stucture seems to be one that is borrowed a lot.  There's a template of a guy's face who sorta has bug-eyes and that pops up A LOT as well, even when my CAS parents don't have this trait.

Interestingly enough, this doesn't seem to happen for kids that are born in the game.  I suspect a different facial feature blending algorithm is used.

Anyone else know what I'm talking about?

[nectere]

yes and when someone figures out a way to alter those doggone templates it will be the greatest thing that ever happened in the history of simkind

[Motoki]

I'm wondering if I can extract the template meshes, mess with them in 3DS Max and then reimport nicer ones. Of course I'd have to find where they are stored first.

As for the kids, I'm never happy the way they turn out no matter how good the parents look. I always give the kids surgery at some point to get them how I want them.

[AllenABQ]

I'm wondering if I can extract the template meshes, mess with them in 3DS Max and then reimport nicer ones. Of course I'd have to find where they are stored first.

As for the kids, I'm never happy the way they turn out no matter how good the parents look. I always give the kids surgery at some point to get them how I want them.

Maxis took the "economy" way of designing the templates by creating them so that there is a male/female version of each one.  "Twins" I guess.  If you do mess around with the templates, you might end up with only one or the other sex looking decent.  Not that that wouldn't be an improvement over what we have now, just a consideration...

[Andygal]

Motoki if you did THAT I'd bow before your awesomeness. No more random ugly townies!

[Motoki]

Well I found them. They're in this file:

Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2\TSData\Res\Sims3D\CASFace.package

I figured out what their internal names are too. For instance the first male face (the one that actually looks decent if a bit doll/anime-like) is amArchHeart which stands for Adult Male Archetype Heart-shaped.

It looks like I might not even need to use a 3D program but could probably swap out the geometric data container from another nicer looking sim.

Of course that begs the question, what's nicer looking? I've worked on a head mod for another game and people are unbelievably picky about faces. 

[Oddysey]

Brynne's sims? Everyone seems to like them.

[Andygal]

I'd settle for you just removing some of the ones with insanely large lips, no top lip, extremely big noses and that sort. I don't need my townies and such to be beautiful I just don't want to see my sims interacting with sims with mile wide fat lips.

[aussieone]

I'd settle for you just removing some of the ones with insanely large lips, no top lip, extremely big noses and that sort. I don't need my townies and such to be beautiful I just don't want to see my sims interacting with sims with mile wide fat lips.

Agreed...also huge cheekbones are not an attractive trait on a Sim imo 

[AllenABQ]

Well I found them. They're in this file:

Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2\TSData\Res\Sims3D\CASFace.package

I figured out what their internal names are too. For instance the first male face (the one that actually looks decent if a bit doll/anime-like) is amArchHeart which stands for Adult Male Archetype Heart-shaped.

It looks like I might not even need to use a 3D program but could probably swap out the geometric data container from another nicer looking sim.

Of course that begs the question, what's nicer looking? I've worked on a head mod for another game and people are unbelievably picky about faces. 

I'd go for the "something for everyone" approach that doesn't go for beautiful per se but is a nice cross-section of sims that just don't have those awful exaggerated features.  Or possibly just use something like Gigge's guidelines to create a more normal-looking group based on the originals and plop them in.

Maybe ask people to contribute??   

[Oddysey]

I wish townies were generated off the elf template. I actually rather like that one, but nooo. Has anyone ever seen a townie with the elf template?

[nectere]

Personally I would just like to see the extreme features toned down...a lot. I seem to get the same archetypes over and over, those planet of the apes sims, no matter what I do.

We did sorta talk about chaning out facial data not too long ago, which I think would be a great alternative to uploading/downloading entire sims. Of course you would need to have some confidence in using simpe and not be too attached to your game in case you mucked it up. Not a big deal for me.

by the way, feel free to share all the filenames you deciphered, I bet there is an cromagnum type in there though

[Motoki]

Oh it's easy to get the filenames, just go into the CAS in debug mode (testingcheatsenabled true, then shift N) and go to the screen with all the facial templates and hover your mouse over them.

[nectere]

i knew that.


*slinks away...

[Motoki]

Okay, I managed to do it with a test face. I nabbed it from my alien sim.

So it looks like I just volunteered myself for the project. 

Why don't you guys see if you can come up with a group of decent looking sims and then maybe you could point me out to where I can download said packaged sims. Maybe the best thing to do would be to try and take the templates and make them more realistic, if not beautiful, looking. But some of those templates are so eff'ed up it would be hard to do anything with them.

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[nectere]

we cant just provide the facial data files?

[AllenABQ]

Okay, I managed to do it with a test face. I nabbed it from my alien sim.

So it looks like I just volunteered myself for the project. 

Why don't you guys see if you can come up with a group of decent looking sims and then maybe you could point me out to where I can download said packaged sims. Maybe the best thing to do would be to try and take the templates and make them more realistic, if not beautiful, looking. But some of those templates are so eff'ed up it would be hard to do anything with them.

Hey this is too cool.  I've adjusted a few of the males, and I've got the African-American woman I already posted pictures of on the other thread.  Where would be a good place to post packaged sims for this?  The Exchange?

[AllenABQ]

It might help if we used this thread to set up some pictures of the BodyShop interface with the faces numbered.  Then people could volunteer to rework a face by claiming its number.

Just a thought... I could whip up those screenshots pretty quick.

[Motoki]

we cant just provide the facial data files?

Well sure you could. I just figure a lot of people are SimPE-o-phobic and it would be easier for them to just do a package sim.

[aussieone]

we cant just provide the facial data files?

Well sure you could. I just figure a lot of people are SimPE-o-phobic and it would be easier for them to just do a package sim.

*Puts my hand up* That'd be me! 

[AllenABQ]

we cant just provide the facial data files?

Well sure you could. I just figure a lot of people are SimPE-o-phobic and it would be easier for them to just do a package sim.

I would be one of those not too adept at extracting facial data files.  But I did upload four modified template sims to the Exchange.  They can be found here:

http://thesims2.ea.com/mysimpage/uploads.php?user_id=385&nstart=1&asset_type=sim

They were modified from the template faces in Bodyshop if you count left to right starting on the top line of each Bodyshop screen.  Hope you can use them!  They aren't "gorgeous" just more realistic faces.

[witch]

Oh oh, pick me, pick me. I've got some nice looking sims too. I'll post some up on the exchange & some screenshots here in the next few hours. Be interesting to see what others think.

I agree Brynne's sims are pretty generic and pleasant looking.

I HATE those lips, those frog mouths.

[AllenABQ]

I haven't seen Brynne's stuff, but I would caution against making things a bit TOO generic.  I trust Motoki will pick out a good selection.  Remember if this thing is successful, these will be the sims you have to work with in BodyShop as starting points for new creations.

[SaraMK]

Motoki, you are solving so many of our problems lately. First elders, now this! I nearly fell out of my seat when I saw this thread. Can it be true? Deformed townies gone forever?!

There is just so much I hate about the templates. The ear-to-ear mouths. The cow eyelids. The pinnochio nose. The squashed potato nose. The... oh, hell, I just hate all of them.

Personally, I would really appreciate some general info on how we might do our own replacements. I'm good with stuff like that, as long as I'm given a starting point. Just now I tried killing one of the ape faces, but I obviously missed some crucial point, because nothing happened.

I think you said it yourself, everyone's idea of beauty/acceptability is different, so a downloadable package would be unlikely to please everyone.

Out of curiousity, have you actually seen that the game is using your new template(s) to generate new sims? I think someone already pointed out that not all the templates get used by the game. Hopefully the part that tells the game which templates to use is actually in the templates, and not stored elsewhere in some unknown location.

[witch]

Here are some pics of sims I've just uploaded to the exchange: http://thesims2.ea.com/exchange/lot_detail.php?asset_id=267632

Unfortunately I didn't think about all their custom skins, there are 8 of them, and the package is nearly 27Mb. If you like the look of any, I could repackage with default maxis skins.

I try to make my sims a little more realistic by making the eyes smaller, the mouths not so turned up and a bit less puffy. Sometimes the length of the face needs to be altered too. One of the sims is as close as I could make to Maori. I also have a custom townie that looks quite asian, I haven't posted that but could extract it from simpe. Anyway, see what you think.

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