help for simblrs ♥

Yesterday I was having major problems with this and saw a lot of other people were too, thankfully tinysimmer came to my rescue with a solution so I thought I’d make a published article for anyone who may be having problems

So the problem was whenever I started TS4 it would get stuck like this and eventually crash:

Save yourself some trouble and DO NOT delete all game folders or try to reinstall, simply follow these steps:

This method works for digital copies

Step 1: Launch origin

Step 2: Right click your game and select game properties

Step 3: Click the box that says “disable origin in game” THEN PRESS OK

I thought I’d post a little guide to removing messed up content that was installed along with something else accidentally. There were a few files in my game that weren’t package files, and I hadn’t installed them as .sims3packs either.

With Nraas MasterController installed, I went into CAS and right-clicked the offending item. Doing that produces a yellow pop-up on the right side of the screen. In the pop-up, you should see the instance number of the item in question. Take a screenshot for reference. Close your game.

Open the first .dbc file from  C:\Users\[yourUsername]\Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\DCCache in S3pe. Type in the instance number that you took the screenshot of into the Instance Number text box (in the lower right of S3pe). Then check the ‘filter active’ checkbox, and click ‘set’. If the offending item is in the .dbc file you’re checking, all other sub-files will disappear and you’ll see just that one (or two if there’s an accompanying thumbnail image). If all disappear, you’ll need to open the next .dbc file and check there. Right-click the filtered sub-item when you find it, and select ‘Deleted’. Save the .dbc. The bad item should be gone.

Please consider reblogging this for others’ benefit - it was driving me crazy until I discovered this solution, so hopefully it will alleviate someone else’s pain. ;)

Sims 4 CC Tutorial: Create standalone CASparts without compromises! Have you ever wished for a tool that combined all possibilities for Sims 4 CAS part creation into one? One tool clones meshes, but does not support swatches or  properties. One tool supports all that, but can’t make standalone files. One tool is powerful enough to do both, but you better be fluent in hash code, or so it seems… I know many people are working on tweaking those tools for us and a big thanks to all of them, you’re the best! But if you are getting impatient and don’t want to wait any longer for the perfect tool, here is a tutorial that shows you how to combine the power of three different tools to create custom content with the feature-richness of tomorrow. What you will learn: This tutorial will explain how to clone a sims 4 mesh and export and assemble all textures and resources into one package. This will include deleting duplicate textures and linking to only one texture to slim down the package. Furthermore, I will show you how to add extra recolors with edited properties as well as custom swatch images. This will create a standalone package with its own thumbnail, not a recolor. With this method, you can incorporate as many recolors as you like and merge them all into one package. I tried to explain everything as detailed as possible and made 10 hopefully very helpful pictures (tumblr doesn’t let me add more), but working with s4pe can be confusing at first, since there are many numbers involved. You don’t need to know what they all mean, you just have to recognize them and mix ‘n match, like dominoes :) Disclaimer: This is my personal way to create CAS Part packages, there might be other ways or quicker solutions that I don’t know of and this tutorial may become obsolete with the evolution of the custom content tools. Note that creating CC for Sims 4 is still highly experimental! The tools I am working with are in beta stage, they might have bugs or produce undesired results - use at your own risk. I cannot guarantee that all custom content will work using this method - I personally had no problems though. Once we have programs that incorporate all features into one tool, these steps will probably become obsolete. Until then, I hope this tutorial will be helpful for you!

Programs you need: CmarNYC’s CAS/Mesh Tools (current version: 0.5.2.0) Grant’s Color Magic (current version: 0.8.1) Kuree’s S4PE (current version: 0.2b) Photoshop or Gimp DDS Plugins for Photoshop/Gimp Make sure you have the latest versions of these tools. They are all still in beta stage and receive updates and bugfixes frequently, so be sure to check for updates regularly. Step 1: Cloning the mesh First, use Cmar’s CAS/Mesh Tools to clone a mesh you want. For this tutorial, I’ll be editing the Bootcut Jeans, as shown in image #1 (the image numbers are also listed on the captions. The teaser image does not count, so the first image is the one showing the TS4 Mesh Tools). Note: there is an option to remove bumpmap or specular. I recommend removing the specular. I like to leave the bumpmap though and create my own, as it makes the colors more realistic. As of now, there is no way to edit the specular yet. I choose to clone only one swatch, as I add more later with Color Magic. You can then export the package, don’t forget to add a unique, descriptive name! If you wish, you can now edit the meshes to your liking (this step will not be included in this tutorial). Step 2: Creating the textures Now, open s4pe and import the package you just created. Under settings, make sure that DDS Preview is checked - this will let you find your image files easier. Now, find the colorful texture with the tag “unkn” and the type 0x3453CF95. This is the main texture. For reference, see image #2. Export this texture by right-clicking on it and choosing “Export to DDS”. Now, it can be opened with Photoshop or Gimp (you need the dds plugin to open it! Google is your friend). You can now edit the texture to your heart’s content and apply any colors or textures you like. The alpha channel contains the alpha mask that is responsible for transparency. When you’re done, save as DDS DXT5. Rinse and repeat for other recolors. My texture looks like this (minus the watermark):

You may now create a normalmap (bumpmap). Make sure to not  use a texture that includes prints or the likes unless you have them on each recolor, because the normalmap will show on all recolors. I had success in creating normalmaps using the ts3 technique (see tutorial here). It might not be the best or right method, as adding normalmaps is very new and not much is known about creating them yet, so bear in mind that this is my personal method and there might be new findings that optimize/adjust normalmap-creating in the future.

The other texture included in the package, also labeled as type 0x3453CF95, is the shadowmap. It is usually white with some dark grey areas on it. The darker areas indicate where natural shadow should fall on the garment and will darken the texture in those places. If you feel the need to adjust it, export the same way as the other texture and again save as DXT5. Step 3: Creating custom swatches If you want your swatches to have your initial on it and/or show an actual preview of your texture, you can create them yourself. In your favorite image editing program, create a file that is 32x32 pixels big. Open your colored texture and crop an area out that you want to show on your swatch. Now paste it into your 32x32 px image and adjust the size to fit into the 32px space accordingly. Now you can add your initials on top or do whatever else you want. If you’re finished, save as DDS DXT1. Repeat to get swatches for all your recolors. This is my final swatch:

Step 4. Creating recolor packages Open your mesh package with Color Magic. To do that, check “manual” upon opening Color Magic and browse for your package. (make sure the package is not opened in s4pe at the same time as this makes ColorMagic crash). Click next. Now clone the one swatch (just click on it, there should only be one there). Click next again. Now you can edit the name of the recolor (ColorMagic will again add your creator name to the package, so delete one of it), add a swatch color, enable the custom swatch and edit flags (see image #3 and #4). Make sure you adjust the color to that of your recolor when you’re editing the flags. The other properties are basically color palettes, they indicate what colors will match your item and on what occasion that item should be worn and in what category filters it will appear. For example, if you were to chosse “pastel”, the recolor would be treated as being of pastel color and randomized sims/townies will receive clothes that are mixed and matched based on this information. If your item is bright red, but the palette indicates pastel, the game might mix it with a pale green - so if you choose completely wrong ones (or ignore the property editing completely), random sims will most likely look weirdly dressed ;) After you’ve finished, click Finish and save your package - it is best to use the proposed name, as this matches the name of your recolor and avoids confusion later on. Rinse and repeat Step 4 for all of our recolors. Step 5: Importing edited textures into the recolor packages Open each recolor, one by one, with s4pe and import your edited textures. For the base texture and the shadow map (if you made edits to it), right-click the corresponding texture and choose “Import From DDS”. For the 32px color swatch and the normalmap, choose “load dds”. Note: The normalmap can only be found inside of the original mesh package! Replace it there. Save your package by hitting File -> save. Repeat for all recolors. Step 6: Importing recolors into the mesh package Next, open the original mesh package with s4pe. First, let’s familiarize ourseves with the texture names and their representation in the CASP. This is important for the manual linking of resources that we’re going to do. Look at image #5 - I have highlighted the matching resources and their entries in the TGI list. Note that the normalmap is currently not associated with the casp, we’re going to fix that later on, as we’re not using that casp anyway, since there is no custom swatch associated and the flags are not edited either. So  for now, delete the casp and the shadowmap, the original base texture and the specular (if present) and replace them with our recolor that we created with ColorMagic. In other words, delete all colored textures and the casp shown in image #5 except for the normalmap (colored yellow in the image) - we still need that one. Click “save” to commit deletion. You should be left with one IMG tag file (the normalmap), one UNKN tag (some data file, presumably) and all the GEOMs (meshes). Now we’re going to import all of our recolors. Click Resource-> Import -> from package and choose all the recolor packages (make sure you don’t import the original mesh package again). See image #6 on the import settings, they’re standard though, so nothing should need to be changed. Click no on the prompt for auto-save. Since they all have the additional shadow map and it will most likely be the same for all recolors, delete all but one shadow map. It is helpful to sort by Type to find them more easily. They have the type 0x3453CF95. Use the dds preview to the right to make sure you only delete the shadow maps and not your colored textures! Make sure there is one shadow map left. Now let’s delete the duplicate speculars as well, while we’re at it: They have the type 0xBA856C78 and show no preview at all. Leave one there. If you don’t have specular at all, this could mean that you checked the “no specular” option in the CAS/Mesh Tool. In that case- don’t worry about it. Save the file again to commit deletion. Now we need to let all casparts point to the normalmap and specular we have left.  Here’s how to do that - let’s start with the shadow map: