How to fix "broken" clothing that doesn't show up in game?

[baratron]

I've recently downloaded some clothing that will not show up in the game.

I am fairly sure that it is the clothing at fault rather than me, because it's all stuff from new sites (e.g. Botan Clothing) or people at Mod The Sims 2 who mention in their post "this is my first ever upload" . I'm pretty careful to check whether meshes are needed at the time of download. Some of these items do successfully show up in Bodyshop, but some don't even make it there.

The .package files seem to be ok, and open in SimPE. The textures are present, but don't always show up in the SimPE thumbnail. (Some of them show a kind of "embossed" greyscale image, which I can only assume is a bump map?). I edited the Property Set for the stuff from Botan because it was trying to show up in a non-existent category (according to the list I found on the SimPE forum), but it still doesn't show up.

So what's the problem, and how can I fix it?

[gali]

I am not expert in that, but I have read, that clothes appear in the game only if their packages are pasted straight in the Downloads folder (no sub-folder), or in the "Saved Sims" folder. Otherwise they dissapear in the game.

So, you can't put them in a special Botan folder, which is a sub-folder of Downloads.

All my clothes and meshes are kept in "Saved Sims" folder.

[jennydeenyc]

Actually, with NL installed, you can now sub-folder stuff like clothing & makeup within the Downloads folder.

[Motoki]

Do they have meshes? There's a couple of different reasons I can think of for this. One may be that people sometimes upload packages from the projects directory instead of savedsims when making things in the bodyshop. Another may be if the mesh was made with an older version of SimPE that had a bug where recolors will not show up unless the original color for the mesh exists in downloads. There could be other possibilities too, but I usually just delete such content as I don't have the time to hunt it all down and mess with it.

[Ness]

I've had a pair of purple toddler pjs from simsquirts that wouldn't show up to be purchases, or in CAS (don't think I tried bodyshop, I can't get it to actually do much of anything at all), but sometimes, after an age transition, a toddler would wind up having those purple pjs as default...  Eventually I deleted them because they would just show up randomly, and contacting the web site owner didn't achieve anything at all other than that theywork for her, so she doesn't have a clue.

Not helpful, I know...  but I share the experience, and would love to hear what fixes come up.

[baratron]

Do they have meshes? There's a couple of different reasons I can think of for this. One may be that people sometimes upload packages from the projects directory instead of savedsims when making things in the bodyshop.

Yeah, I think that's the problem - uploading the wrong .package file. I guess it's an easy mistake to make, if it's your first upload... I don't really get why BodyShop needs so many stages...

So how do I fix that?

[dewshine]

If you have the mesh... export a new package in bodyshop, import it into the game, use SimPE to extract the textures from the "broken" file into your new one using export and Build DTX. Just make sure it's your package from saved sims you use, 

[skandelouslala]

Ack I just delete it lol  No time to mess with it.

And yeah you can have subfolders in your downloads folder now.  All my downloads are put into subfolders (clothes, makeup, hair so on and so forth) and they all work just dandy.

[KellyQ]

Actually I'm having a similar problem with some p.j.s I downloaded from MTS2. They are just recolours of the "slob" type of pjs from the game, so no mesh requiered. I can see them in SimPe but for some reason they don't show up in the game at all. Anyone have any idea why that might be?

[dewshine]

They were pulled from the projects folder, not the saved sims folder, I'd bet. 

Do you have a link?

[KellyQ]

Here's the link to the p.j.s I was talking about: http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=94332

[dewshine]

I'll take a look at the files okay?

[KellyQ]

Great, thank you.

[JaneSims]

Just to make sure - you do have NightLife installed, right?

[Motoki]

I got some urban designer clothes at MTS2 a little while ago that looked very nice but it turned out they were pulled from the projects folder. Someone should tell the noobs at MTS2 not to do that. I just deleted it because I couldn't be arsed with it.

And I hate how people rush to gush and post all these thank you posts and looks great bla bla bla bla without even actually trying the damned thing out. I've downloaded plenty of stuff that looked very nice in the picture but in the game either looked terrible, was buggy or glitchy or didn't work at all! On the other hand, I've downloaded some stuff that looked even better in the game and the picture didn't do it justice at all.

It really does the creator no service to thank them based on a still picture and not real use of their actual object either.

[ZephyrZodiac]

I'd definitely second that, Motoki - I've had stuff from MTS2 that was absolutely awful in game - the thank you buttons, though a good idea, are actually rather unhelpful in these cases!  Better, really, to just ask for comments, and then if people are really impressed, or the opposite, they may well return to post their opinion - which can be helpful!

[dewshine]

Ah.. yes.  these are pulled from the project file, as there are no numbers at the beginning of the file. 
Has anyone tried PM'ing the creator for a fix?
I'd redo them if anyone here wants me to.
I posted in the thread... 475 downloads and noone said a dang thing...   
Anyhow, I noticed that the normal maps don't match the new graphics so I'll have to redo that part for my own game anyhow...

[KellyQ]

Ahh, ok. See I didn't post to let the maker know because I thought (after reading the other posts) that it was something I must be doing wrong, especially after I saw them showing up in SimPe. I don't know anything about making recolors/meshes, etc., so if something doesn't work, usually I assume I've done something wrong in installing it. I'm guessing a lot of other people are the same way and maybe that's why nothing has been said to the creator.
Thanks for looking into that for me, dewshine, I appreciate it (because it does tend to drive me nuts when I can't figure out why something isn't working in my game .)

[ZephyrZodiac]

Well, if you've installed a one set of downloads successfully, one would assume that you had mastered the technique (which a six-year-old could learn, let's face it!) and threfore you'd be within your rights to assume that, if something appears wrong with a downloaded object or outfit etc., that it wasn't anything that you did that caused it.  Have confidence in yourself - you didn't make the object, all you did was put a copy of it in your game, and therefore it isn't your fault if it doesn't work as the creator intended!

[KellyQ]

Lol, thanks for the pep talk, ZZ, I will keep that in mind! Having roughly around 2,500 downloads in my game, you're right, I probably have mastered it!

[ZephyrZodiac]

I'd tend to agree there! 2,500 takes a lot of practice!  And you know what they say about practice!