Half-baked horses central

They often look off, the developers always making the same excuse that horses are hard to make. I disagree strongly with that. In my experience most quadruped beings are pretty equally hard to make so I'm really bummed constantly that the horses don't look closer to their real life counterparts.

When I saw the that horses were coming to the sims 4 I was kinda excited because I really thought there wouldn't be any at all. Well we have them now but I really gotta say that the horses look weird and it's not because of stylistic choices (just basic lack of understanding of the anatomy). I have some experience with modding (not with ts4 tho) so I thought why not try to make them look more anatomically correct! So far I did make a small test mod for the head and it went surprisingly smoother than expected :D

I mostly want to tackle the mesh first so that's what I'll be doing for the next month or so. Any tips & tricks are welcome! Like I said I'm pretty new to ts4 modding so anything is appreciated.

Cheers

*ps both those images use the same exact nokota preset, I didn't touch the sliders ^^

This is a simple tutorial on how to make a body override for the sims 4 horse ranch ep. I'll be using the adult body here but you can also do that for the foal one. Needed software:

sims 4 studio (link)

blender can be 2.7x-3.x (link)

optional: my blender files -> set up for easier editing (press z and select "solid" to see the seams)

Blender Files: patreon drive

First you need to know that the body is split in 3 parts (better than ts3). The head, body and legs from the fetlocks down each have their own entity. You can't pack those three into one package so you need to make separate packages when editing. After you're done you can always merge those packages with the s4s merge tool. S4S PART 1 (you can skip this if you know how to use s4s)

In Sims4studio select "override" in the CAS column. Select "horse" in the species box, select desired age, then scroll down to the bottom and select one the three files. First one is the head ("ahHead), second one is the body (ahBody_nude) and the third are the legs (ahShoes_nude).

Okay now you gotta make a package file for your mod. Write a name for your file in the highlighted box. You can name it whatever you want but I suggest you use some markers that'll tell you if it's the head/body/legs. Also I usually don't use spaces, instead I use underscores. It's good practice to save it in a folder that's strictly made for your mods, don't save it in your actually game mod folder!!

Congrats! You created your package file. S4S opened the studio for you where you can make your edits and save them there. Select the "meshes" tab so that you can access the import/export utilities.

There's also the 3d preview window where you can check your edits later. Use your mouse scroll button and the right click to navigate it.

You can export the mesh if you're used to the way the s4s creators set up blender exported files or you can use my own file which is edited a bit. (personal preference really!) If you're exporting the file you have to name it again like the package file.

BLENDER EDITING (editing geoms)

Okay, we're done with the first part. Now open blender whatever version. I'll be using 3.5 for this tutorial as it's the one I have installed right now. It will look like this probably so just click wherever aside from the window to close it.

Use the File -> Open option in the top left corner, find your .blend file and open it.

Once opened it should look like this! *or like the s4s exported file

The name of the mesh that you're editing will always be "s4studio_mesh_1" so it has to be selected. It's already selected in the files that I provide but just in case.

If you're using the s4s exported file you need to press the "sculpt mode" option

We did it, the blender file is set up. Now onto the fun part :D

I mostly use the grab brush (shortcut is G) at around 300-400 strength. You can change the size with the shortcut F on your keyboard and the strength with shift + F. Once the green circle appears, drag it outward or inward to set the size then left click to confirm.

From here on it's up to you! You can edit the horse how you like but be careful not to go close to the neck!! It's where the seam is so you might get those visible seams like me if you're too ambitious haha

You can also experiment with other brushes on the left bar (long one) or the brush settings in the tab on your right.

Seriously try to not edit around the seam, it will leave holes where the red line is.

Also another advice, start small! Tiny edits go a long way, you can't fully change the appearance because of the rig limits. The animations are made for the vanilla mesh so it might be tricky to edit so that you won't break them. You've got this tho, once you'll learn it won't be too hard. You just gotta experiment a bit.

Once you're happy with your edit go ahead and save your file as a .blend file (native). Go to "file" -> "save as" and create another one so that you can use the base file for another time. Name it whatever you like again.

I manually closed the eyes just for the sake of the tutorial to show an edit, don't close the eyes in blender like me tho it will clash in the game!

S4S PART 2

Okay by now you're supposed to have a .package file and the edited .blend file. Make sure you choose the edited one or nothing will happen!

Let's go back into s4s now and click on the "import" button. Select your edited .blend file and open it. If you did everything correctly you should see your edit in the 3d window.

So for now all that's left to do is press the save button in the bottom left corner.

Put your saved .package file into your ts4 mods folder and test it out! It should appear straight up in CAS.

Ta da!

You can do this for all three body parts. This is the basics of how I edit the geom for the horses. I wish we could do more than that but this is currently what we're working with :D

Also it's good to take into account that other mods might not work with your edits. You can always try to make it compatible but sometimes it just doesn't work out which is completely fine.

Jessica X

First the links: patreon drive

So I finally managed to pack these. The shorter ones work well, while the longest mane has some clipping issues especially on the heavy body type. These are simply meant to add some variety to the lacking cas options that we got for horses... They're a bit more toned down versions of the original mane styles. They work with maxis models and my own mod!

There's four styles in total:

shorter standing mane and forelock

longer mane and droopy forelock

button braids

short pulled mane and forelock

I couldn't merge the packs because now I really have issues while preparing to reinstall windows so the manes are packed into a zip file. It contains a folder so that the package files won't fly all around your mods folder. I'll update and merge the files once I get windows running well again (currently I'm getting an error lol)

Loving my new pink models :)

I wanted to make a couple of mane styles for some more variety. They're all edited maxis manes as I won't be making any own models for now. There's 4 styles and they all come with a mane and forelock combo. I wanna release them by tomorrow but s4s and my own computer currently aren't cooperating T.T

Heya ^-^

I always try to answer any questions I get so feel free to ask anything anytime.

Now for the answer: I'm guessing what you're looking for is a tool called TS4 MorphMaker by CmarNYC. That would let you create custom body morphs. The tool hasn't been updated for horse ranch ep as of yet, so you will have to wait for the creator to do so.

Here's the link:

Hey again ^-^ I decided to make another mesh mod that's now compatible with other creator's cc. It has a shorter head an the original legs from the knees down! It's in two separate packages if you want to mix with the previous one. I also added a hotfix for the body of the first test mod because of the huge booty haha.

Here are the links:

patreon (always free)

drive (mod) drive(hotfix)

*please remember the TOS when using these mods! Also if you paid for them you got scammed!!