I need to learn more about flags!

[Gwill]

I feel I desperately need to learn more about flags in property sets, especially for clothing.  I've been hoping to maxify some of my favourite custom clothes, but initial experiments have left me with some unexpected results (mostly, some don't show up for YA, even though the age category is set to 48).  I think I understand most of the values I've been fiddling with, but flags are mostly a mystery to me.
In the past, the only thing I have done to the flag value of stuff is raise or lower it by 1 to hide or unlock things.  I also seem to remember someone mentioning that flag values could be used to make clothing show up in bodyshop, but not in CAS and vice versa, or something along those lines.
Can anyone point me in the direction of a guide, or give me some quick instructions.

[PandaGirl]

There's a post here by me that explains how to de-customise clothes and stuff.  I can't remember what I called it!

try this:
http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,7586.0.html

[Gwill]

I do know how to decustomize.  There are some instructions around, although they all seem to originally be for skins, they do work on clothes as well.
I'd still like to learn about the actual flag values.

[jrd]

These values are known to me:

0x0: clothing or hair
0x1: hidden clothing or hair
0x2: hair hat
0x4: purpose unknown; used on some clothing.
0x8: clothing or hair
0x10: purpose unknown. Appears on the Xmas pack's elder-only stuff, and some Maxis website downloadables

Default clothes and hair use either 0x0 or 0x8. If 0x8 does anything, I have no clue what this is.
Most hats do not seem to use 0x2, but 0xA (0x2+0x8).

I would also really like to know what purpose (if any) is served by the flag values 0x4 (also occurs as 0xC: 0x4+0x8) and 0x10.

Adding 0x1 to any flag hides the outfit or hairstyle from CAS! (occurs both as 0x1 and as 0x9) and prevents it from being used in the Sim generator (for townies and Service NPCs).

Flags can of course be added:
0x9 is 0x1+0x8, and thus would be a hidden hairstyle or outfit. A hidden hat could be 0xB.

Edited a few times to correct mistakes and hopefully improve wording

[Gwill]

Thanks, Jordi, that helps a lot.
Some of the downloadable maxis outfits for T or A/YA are flagged 10 (at least the valentines undies and the gothic teen outfits).

Most of the instructions I've seen on de-customizing clothing says to delete the "version" and "product" strings, set flag to "0" and creator string to "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000".
I've done that to some clothes, with the result that they don't show up in bodyshop, and some don't show up for YA.  The guides in question have all been based on genetizising skin, so I don't think all the steps are necessary to decustomize clothing.
The maxis valentines undies (which does get randomly assigned a lot more than I like), have these stats:
version = 0x00000003
product = 0x00000000
flags = 0x00000010
creator = 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000

[jrd]

Hmm, 10 may be useless then. It doesn't seem to do anything in any case. Maybe it's used as some sort of marker internally?

You shouldn't delete product and version, you should set them.
As of Pets, only items with these strings set, and the 0 creator, are treated as Maxis stuff.

Version is internal file version I think (or is it bodyshop revision?), best set at 0.
Product is game version, so 0 = base game, 3 = ofb etc. -- I set it to 0 for downloadables.

Miss any string, and it it isn't used on townies, and (if a Maxis override), gets the star of shame.

[BastDawn]

I may have to eat my words if what you say about the hair flag is true.  I just ran around adding posts to threads about Theo's binning tool to let people know that I'd learned the "hat" checkbox doesn't make hair into hats, and how to change it in the property flags.  I fixed my own hair by changing the flag to 0x00000002 -- the same value that recolors of the "hip" hat and propeller beanie have.  If that is for FFS hats only, why is that value used for my base game hats?  (I don't have FFS.)

Edit to add: I just tested this by modifying another hair recolor to the flag 0x0000000A, and it also gives my test sim a Nightlife "hat" trait.  Can you tell me what the real difference is, and why SimPE reports both as having the hat trait?

[jrd]

*facepalm*

0xA = 0x2+0x8.
So both 2 (0+2) and A (8+2) should work for hats, but at the time I noted this down originally I was apparently even more of an imbecile than I am now, and didn't do the simple math.

Both 2 and A should of course mark hair as a hat, just like 0 and 8 are both "default" values.
Most default hats seem to use A IIRC.

[BastDawn]

Thanks, I'm relieved to hear that.  I really should learn more about hex coding if I'm going to mess around with it.   

[jrd]

I've posted this over at MTS2 (replacing my old, old thread on flags) in hopes of some more insight. As far as I'm aware nobody has documented any of these flags anywhere.

Property Set Flags.

[jrd]

Thanks, I'm relieved to hear that.  I really should learn more about hex coding if I'm going to mess around with it.   

Hex is actually rather easy, but I seem to have a blind spot for it. For some stupid reason my mind just won't accept the concept of A=10, F=15, 10=16 etc. when I am trying to add or substract. Ah well, that's what calculators are for.

[Gwill]

Do I understand correctly, that hats show up in CAS, but do not get randomly assigned to townies?  Does being a hat has any other effect, aside from being a possible turn-on?

[jrd]

Gwill: correct. Hats will not be used on townies, unless an NPC or downtownie template specifically sets one.
There is no other effect than the turn on/turn off.

[J. M. Pescado]

Gwill: correct. Hats will not be used on townies, unless an NPC or downtownie template specifically sets one.

Pretty trivial to enhattenate a townie, though.

[jrd]

I think Gwill is asking this because it would allow an easy to way to have certain hairstyles not be used on townies, while still being available for Sims, just by marking them as a hat.
I am going to do this with the GLS and SP4 wedding veils I think...

[Gwill]

Right now I was asking because I'm generally interested in flags, but yes, I have also considered binning some extreme hairs as hats to prevent random townies with 2-foot high roccocco hair.  I also have to re-consider how I flag custom hairs with hats.
I'm not really fond of hats.  I'm using a lot of hiders to weed out stuff I don't like, but I won't bother hiding hats if townies don't generate with them.

I once did an adjustment of the knight's helmet for someone, and apparently forgot to flag it correctly, resulting in a carpool driver and a nightlife chef walking around with incurable helmet-ness.