Binned hair sharing

[sara_dippity]

I hope u don't mind but I have another question, I was reading buffysmg81 from N99 who posted a tutorial from leave_me_anonymous at MTS2 with pictures to help with custom binning hair.

Do you have a link to the tutorial?

Ok, I have an odd way of learning. As I'm learning I write the information as if I'm teaching. So, do I have this right?

Removing unwanted ages

1. Open a hair texture in SimPe. From the Resource Tree, select the Material Definition resource. On the list that shows in the window to the right all ages in that package will be shown. Age groups are identified by the letters that follow a small string of numbers. The first letter will be p for toddler, c for child, t for teen, y for young adult, a for adult, and e for elder. The next letter represents gender. F for female, m for male, u for unisex.

2. Select the top file in the list. In the bottom window on the Properties tab, look at the stdMatBaseTextureName and take note of it. Click each file on the list and notice when this number changes. If an age group shares the same number as another age group, the texture for that age group should not be deleted. Age groups that do not share a number with any other age group are safe to delete.

3. For age groups that can be deleted, select a file for that age group from the Material Definitions list. Select the stdMatBaseTextureName listing. Copy the Value listed and paste it onto a notepad opened on a seperate window for later refrence.

4. Select the File List tab in the lower window. This is the name of a Maxis hair that will replace the ages you are deleting. If the color is wrong, it can be changed. Select the hair name. In the text box, change the last part of the file name to match the correct color if needed. Correct colors are: -black, -brown, -blonde, -red, or -grey. Copy the filename. Select the Properties tab. Select stdMatBaseTextureName. In the Property field to the right, paste the file name copied over the value listed. Hit the Commit button. Repeat for each file in the age group(s) to be deleted.

5. From the Resource Tree, select Texture Image. Delete the textures that match the names listed on your notepad. Commit Changes.

And yeah, I do care if the toddlers are deleted correctly, since I know there's a difference, I want to do it right.

[Motoki]

Anyone who belongs to a certain yahoo group should check for a new post there. 

[Simsbaby]

*Simsbaby hates how little he knows*
 

[Motoki]

It's a secret society. You have to make the right friends and then wait to be kidnapped. 

[BlueSoup]

*cough*Yay!*cough*

[Motoki]

So you got it Blue?

Let's just say very soon creators will have no valid excuse not to bin their damned hair or use the Maxis textures from the game files instead of duplicating them and wasting space.

[gypsylady]

*cough*Yay!*cough*

   Ditto

[Simsbaby]

 

[Renatus]

*cough*Yay!*cough*

Indeed. It is a thing so shiny it is glittery!

[Motoki]

Yes and people better start using it. Creators I mean. We really are going to need to get on them and insist they use it. Custom hairs are an absolute mess, this should fix the situation but only if the creators use it. We shouldn't have be cleaning up their messy half-assed files and then starting secret groups to share their cleaned up files in private because we don't want to offend them. They need to do it right in the first place and they need to update the old hairs too.

[liegenschonheit]

Neat. Does it put the recolours into families and all that jazz too? I didn't see any mention of it.

And also, I hereby solemnly swear that any hair recolours I do in the future will be properly binned

I can't promise I'll take out the duplicate parts though, because when you go to recolour it causes problems.

[Renatus]

Damn straight, especially people who are charging for their custom hair. It's really pathetic that out of all of the hair I have, everything that came from a paysite was NOT binned by the creator and I had to do it myself. Everything I have that came binned by the creator was free.

[BlueSoup]

Yeah, I got it, but I have to wait until I get home to check it out.

And, I personally don't care about offending creators, but I also have no wish to bring down the wrath of everyone who doesn't think sharing is good.  So, the secret groups remain, I guess.

[Motoki]

Renatus: I think I know what paysite that is. And what's worse is, Pinhead actually went to the trouble of binning a couple of hairs recently posted on said pay site AND having them use the Maxis texture so as to save lots of space and not duplicate textures we already have. He sent the file to that site owner and offered to let her host it on her site and she ignored him and instead the half-assed bloated one she made is the one being distributed, being recolored off of, having a female version made of the male hair etc.  

Lein: Yes it should do families. I've been told it will also do eyebrows and facial hair.

[Renatus]

Motoki, it's actually paysites, plural, but the one you brought up is definitely one of the offenders. Their continued asshattery regarding binning amazes me, but I won't go into it lest this turn into a very long vitrolic rant.

Onto happier things - The shiny will do EYEBROWS? I'm going to faint from sheer glee. I went to geneticize some eyebrows a few days ago and stopped dead when I saw there were 12 XML files to edit in each file. *glee!*

[idtaminger]

What? A binning tool? May I have a link, please? Pretty please?

[Motoki]

Their continued asshattery regarding binning amazes me, but I won't go into it lest this turn into a very long vitrolic rant.

Oh yes, that would be the one that says "Oh but then people won't be able to find the hair!"

Because, you know, SO many people have had SO much trouble finding the Jeanette Biedermann hair, and Seomi's hairs, and my female afro. 

[nikita]

Damn straight, especially people who are charging for their custom hair. It's really pathetic that out of all of the hair I have, everything that came from a paysite was NOT binned by the creator and I had to do it myself. Everything I have that came binned by the creator was free.

If I was a paying subscriber to any paysite, I would demand that they properly binned the hair (so I guess paysites are lucky that I'm not).  Most know how to do it but they just don't bother. 

I just finished properly binning all my hair and am now moving on to eyebrows and facial hair, which must be done manually so any tool that could ease this process is worth a cookie, possibly even two! 

[Renatus]

If I was a paying subscriber to any paysite, I would demand that they properly binned the hair (so I guess paysites are lucky that I'm not). 

So would I, Nikita, so would I!  As the situation is, I snark at them from afar.

[Chezzie]

How does one join a secret group.....

is there a special handshake involed, or a naked rain dance, or perhaps the pledging of a first born child. or do i just have to pay off the right people 

I *need* binned hair dammit lol (and am admittedly way too unawsome to do it myself  )

[Bain]

How does one join a secret group.....

is there a special handshake involed, or a naked rain dance, or perhaps the pledging of a first born child. or do i just have to pay off the right people 

I *need* binned hair dammit lol (and am admittedly way too unawsome to do it myself  )

Inquiring minds wants to know!!!

[BlueSoup]

I don't know why y'all keep talking about a secret group. There's no secret group. 

Really, the first rule about any secret club (which I'm not saying exists), is DON'T TALK ABOUT IT! 

[Motoki]

Look, if you all want binned hair, tell the creators to do it. It's really up to them. We shouldn't have to do it. If we keep doing it ourselves, they won't.

[Ephraim]

I'm so glad to have this tool.  There shouldn't be any reason why creators can't properly bin hair (because obviously not everyone knows how to do it), and will have even less of an excuse after it'll be properly released.

Oh and yeah, there is no sercret group.    Don't be silly.

[liegenschonheit]

I tried taking out the duplicate parts I didn't want in a hairstyle with the tool, then loaded it up in bodyshop. I then exported it to recolour, and it works fine. It just substitutes a default hairstyle in the apropriate colour for the missing parts, and pulls the correct gray style. So it seems that what I've been told about removing extraneous parts from hair packages messing up recolouring is false.

The only small problem I see so far is that only one package can be added to each colour, so if you have a light brown and a dark brown, you will have to do one of them by hand.