Exporting Sims WITHOUT using SimPE

[Aggie]

Naturally, Bon Voyage has broken certain SimPE features. I seem to be able to use a minimal amount of functions in it, but not Sim Surgery. I would like to extract a Sim from the game, but the program throws up errors whenever I try. I tried manually locating the package file in the Characters folder, but when I placed it directly into the Saved Sims folder (or inth my Downloads), he doesn't show up in BodyShop at all.

Does anyone know how to extract a Sim from the game without using SimPE, or if they know i'm doing something wrong, could they kindly inform me as to what it is that I'm messing up? Thanks.

[Soylent Sim]

SimPE will start throwing errors as it chokes on all the new functions it doesn't understand, but with patience you can click through the box for every single one.  I did this a couple of times when I had to mess with personalities and interests in SimPE interim periods, and it worked alright for simple modding.  Anything with memories or other areas that has been significantly retooled is off-limits, but the most elementary basics are good to go.

I'd assume simsurgery works alright once you click through everything the game throws at you.  If not, you can definitely grab the basic facial geometry file and append it to other sims as needed.  It'll be a pain to click through everything the program doesn't understand every time you load it up, but all you can do for that is wait for the next release.

[Aggie]

SimPE will start throwing errors as it chokes on all the new functions it doesn't understand, but with patience you can click through the box for every single one.  I did this a couple of times when I had to mess with personalities and interests in SimPE interim periods, and it worked alright for simple modding.  Anything with memories or other areas that has been significantly retooled is off-limits, but the most elementary basics are good to go.

I'd assume simsurgery works alright once you click through everything the game throws at you.  If not, you can definitely grab the basic facial geometry file and append it to other sims as needed.  It'll be a pain to click through everything the program doesn't understand every time you load it up, but all you can do for that is wait for the next release.

I'll give it another try, but I think it keeps throwing the exact same error at me, thus making it never-ending. I'll post the exact error message here shortly.

ETA: Yup, the same error every pop up. Here it is:

Error while trying to open: Package: c:\documents and settings\[name]\my documents\ea games\the sims 2\neighborhoods\N004\N004_Neighborhood.package.

[Gwill]

The only suggestion I have is to be patient and wait for the new SimPE.

[Aggie]

So it's really not possible to export a Sim from the game without SimPE? 

[ZephyrZodiac]

You could try this method of exporting families - move the sim you want to export to an empty lot, and then save, exit and save the lot to a file.  Your sim, plus all memories, will be in the file, so I would only do it with a newly created sim who hasn't met anyone yet, since you can't use SimpE to wipe their memories and relationships.  However, the newly created sim on his empty lot can then be installed into any other (BV) version of the game you want to play.

[Aggie]

Thanks for the tip, ZephyrZodiac. However, the Sims I want to export are all either children or toddlers that were born in-game, so they can't be moved into an empty lot alone.

I guess I'll just have to wait a few months for SimPE to be updated. For some reason, I thought I had heard that it was possible to physically copy their package file from the Characters folder, but I guess I must have misread. 

[ZephyrZodiac]

I'm pretty sure that they become unlinked if you do it that way.  I know that SimPE will not read them.  I had this problem when I tried uploading stuff to online backup, then tried redownloading, which can only be done (at least, with my ISP's backup) one file at a time, whole folders are not allowed, so a) it takes forever and b) the character files are useless as they cannot be read.

[J. M. Pescado]

It's possible to directly export LXNRs, but in order to use the outdated SimPE with BV, you will have to disable a bunch of plugins that try to read SDSCs.

[Aggie]

Would disabling these plugins be fairly easy to do (i.e. choosing which ones to disable), or should idiots such as myself just suck it up and wait for a SimPE update?

[J. M. Pescado]

Would disabling these plugins be fairly easy to do (i.e. choosing which ones to disable), or should idiots such as myself just suck it up and wait for a SimPE update?

Aggies should probably just suck it up.

[Aggie]

Okay, will do so; thanks anyways everyone.

[ZephyrZodiac]

If you want to export a lot of kids and toddlers, you could do it by moving them into the empty lot as I said, by first moving an adult into the lot and then moving them in with the teleporter shrub.  Then save, exit and package the lot to a file, and then go back to the kids' families and teleport them back the same way.  The resulting sims2pack can then be installed into another game, and the teleporter shrub used to put all the kids and toddlers up for adoption.

[Aggie]

If you want to export a lot of kids and toddlers, you could do it by moving them into the empty lot as I said, by first moving an adult into the lot and then moving them in with the teleporter shrub.  Then save, exit and package the lot to a file, and then go back to the kids' families and teleport them back the same way.  The resulting sims2pack can then be installed into another game, and the teleporter shrub used to put all the kids and toddlers up for adoption.

I see what you're saying; if I were to do all that and then install the lot (using Clean Installer to select only the Sims in question), would said Sims show up in BodyShop?

[Soylent Sim]

Said sims would only be available for ploppage in other lots.  They're effectively lotbinned, although if you run them through a cleaning neighborhood with CPI they'll at least be safely lotbinned.  All you'll be able to do with them is drop another copy of them in another 'hood if you want their genes to proliferate.

If you're feeling particularly daring, you can disable plugins willy-nilly from the preferences tab in SimPE.  It will be an experiment to see what needs to be on and what needs to be off, but if you have the time to invest you might be able to make that work.  Just remember to back up your 'hood before fuddling around with all this.

The LxNR is hidden in the sim's personal data, not the neighborhood package.  Upside is that if you know the sim's instance number, you can copy their personal file elsewhere and have fewer if any errors thrown your way.  If you can identify a body shop template that you want to use for such a purpose (usually by making a throwaway one and checking which one was made most recently), you can replace the LxNR with one extracted from the original.  I'm running Pets with the latest Seasons SimPE so I guarantee nothing, but it should bypass SimPE choking on hundreds of other files along the way.

If you just think the sprogs are uncannily cute, you can always either store a backup of the 'hood or else just ensure they don't meet an untimely end in the next few RL months so you can extract them as adults and age them back down in BS.  This is definitely the simplest option, should everything else end up overcomplicated or unworkable.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Said sims would only be available for ploppage in other lots.  They're effectively lotbinned, although if you run them through a cleaning neighborhood with CPI they'll at least be safely lotbinned.  All you'll be able to do with them is drop another copy of them in another 'hood if you want their genes to proliferate.

I never said that my solution was the ideal one, merely that it is a possibility, and although they are, as you say, lot-binned, they can be easily added to the adoption pool in any other hood in your game.  Likewise, although you obviously couldn't upload them to the exchange as sims, you could share them with friends via e-mail if you wanted.  (You could use a popular self-sim like JM as the adult sim on the lot - he's been a foster-father before now... )

[Aggie]

So to clarify: no one knows what plugins are needed to enable Sim Surgery in SimPE (which is the only program that can be used to get a Sim that was born in-game into BodyShop)?

ETA: I don't think it's possible to get a Sim exported using SimPE at this time. I disabled every single plugin I could in Preferences and I still couldn't get Sim Surgery to work. *shrugs*

[ZephyrZodiac]

Well, patience is a virtue, so maybe you should be virtuous!  But it won't be that long, I don't suppose, before the first QA version of Simpe for BV is released....I shan't even install the game until I be sure I can edit stuff!  I had enough of that when Seasons was first released, trying to sort out the muddled family relationships (which eventually was put right in the patch) with only Insim to do it with.  I mean, you can't have babies growing up with a biological father married to their mother who think their father is a female sim that neither parent knows......

[Aggie]

I mean, you can't have babies growing up with a biological father married to their mother who think their father is a female sim that neither parent knows......

That sounds like the topic of a Jerry Springer show. 

[Kazzandra]

This is NOT Necromancy as I do have something to add for anyone who searchs as deperately and insanely for a way to export their in-game born Sims because Bon Voyage started a big fireball of doom (curses-- never, EVER buy an EP when it first comes out).

I am angry at EAxis for putting an emphasis on genetics in the Sims 2, making a Sims 2 Sim dump at the Exchange, and then never providing a tool to allow one to upload an in-born game sim.

Eh, hem, to my point:

http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,9907.0.html
Here you will find that the most kind Paleoanth has provided a copy of the BETA versioin of SimsPe for BV.  I assume that if you know how to export Sims from the older SimsPE then you are proficient enough not to blow stuff up. I tested the simple export feature, and it worked fine. Remember to always clone the resulting file from an export to get rid of the SimsPE bloat of file size and make the package stable. It is Beta-- remember-- desperate times call for desperate mesasuers, but otherwise-- LEAVE IT ALONE!

MOD EDIT: Remove fucked up formatting, tags, and repeated link.

[Inge]

It is Beta-- remember-- desperate times call for desperate mesasuers, but otherwise-- LEAVE IT ALONE!

Actually, it is Pre-Alpha.  Quaxi describes the public release version as Alpha.  We never made it to Beta yet.

[doren]

I feel a strong need to mention that: I think Sim Surgery is shit.

I am not denying that some of it might be due to my own stupidity, but that is a problem with SimPE in general: It makes it very easy to make mistakes. It is very user unfriendly (at least from the perspective of someone who has a fair amount of understanding but is far from being a professional) already because of its weird wording (and it makes absolutely no difference whether I install it in English or German. What is the difference of the "commit" option to the "save" option at the end of a session? When I press "commit" I am effectively saving the changes I have made).
If I export a sim with sim surgery I have absolutely no idea what I am exporting exactly. It is not a simple body shop character but what else goes with it? All I know is that the exports crash bodyshop if I keep them in the "Saved Sims" folder (which SimPE suggests for export) for some time. In my case I was stupid enough to move them into my downloads folder when that began to happen.
I had almost forgotten about this, so it took me almost an entire week to find these files to be the reason why I had these inexplicable crashes in one of my neighbourhoods (or all the other neighbourhods apart from the one where these files were exported from).

Maybe I also lack diligence, but I am still looking for the tutorial that tells me that a lot of crap is exported with the character files and that they should be deleted immediately after making clean copies of the characters in body shop.

[squish]

All I know is that the exports crash bodyshop if I keep them in the "Saved Sims" folder (which SimPE suggests for export) for some time. In my case I was stupid enough to move them into my downloads folder when that began to happen.
 

The tutorial I'd first used that explained how to export sims mentioned to rename the file to something other than the default Userxxxx and call it "John" or whatever, warning that leaving it at the the default name will crash bodyshop. I've renamed all my exported sims (giving them file names of their in-game name) and I've had no problems.

[Kazzandra]

I know exactlly what you mean, Doren. Sim Surgery is what we have due to Maxis' laziness, and it's ALL we have, as this thread sadly indicates. I hope the Sims 3 is more creator-oriented, in that EA offers the tools to create packages and doesn't RELY on the modding community to create tools for creating and mods to fix their broken code. Having said that, I don't mind if I have my first gray hair around the time the Sims 3 comes out. Knowing EA, the Sims 3 will be out WAY  too soon in order to gather more money, will NOT include modding tools, will need tons of patches, and will CAUSE my hair to gray.

Oh yeah, Pre-Alpha, QA Meaning "not even vaguely guaranteed to not screw up your whole neighbourhood." Like I said, desperate times, and lots of backups are needed. But hey-- I'm honoured to have Inge correcting my mistakes!  After all, I'm using the Staythings shurb to backup my lots!!! 

I also apologize for my NOOB formatting, Venusy, as I was as lazy as Maxis and did not preview my first post to MATY!! But hey, who can resist all the pretty boxes on the reply sheet! Ooo.... shiny.

Going back to lurking now... I say too much when I say anything at all...