Maxis-made noserings and necklace . . .

. . . unlocked for your gaming pleasure.

Whilst unlocking some of the cooler uniforms and debug mode outfits from the Sims 3D files, I was quite surprised to find that Maxis had a number of accessories buried in these files which did not actually appear in the game itself. The noserings (one for males, one for females) and necklace are three of them; I also discovered two bracelets, a belly button ring and -stud, one jester mask, dangling earrings, and a partridge in a pear tree. (I'll get to why I didn't include these accessories later.*)

I was, of course, completely psyched to find these, since these were the sort of cool accessories Maxis had promised us in those heady days before the release of Sims 2, (ah, memories) and before we were left with nothing but glasses in the way of sim accessories. But I digress.

(Those unfamiliar with the more technical aspects of SimPE may skip the following two paragraphs; in all likelihood they will only bore and/or confuse you.)

[jargon mode]

Anyway, I was able to procure the Resource Node, Shape, and Material Definition files for each of these accessories, but ended up stumped when I was unable to find the image (texture) files for all but the jester mask. Finally, frustrated in my repeated searches for the missing textures, I decided to just test out the altered packages in BodyShop. I expected the correct meshes with the black texture of the original glasses I'd cloned to unlock the "new" accessories; what I got . . . was the finished product.

As an amateur hacker, I can provide no explanation for the sudden appearance of the missing texture files, except to assume that they are somehow tied to or lie within the Resource Node, Shape, or Material Definition files, which were the only parts of the original glasses which I altered to unlock these accessories. Which leads me to disclaimer number one:

[/jargon mode]

Until someone can figure out exactly where the texture files are, neither you nor I will be able to recolor the noserings and necklace. Sorry.

Disclaimer number two answers the question of why Maxis didn't include these accessories in the game in the first place:

When sims wearing the nosering adopt exaggerated facial expressions, as in the picture below, the nosering will occasionally pop out of their nose. (Thankfully, as the sims are only digital people, this occurrence is not accompanied by as much blood and screaming as it would be in real life. In fact, there is neither blood nor screaming, but it looks dang weird.) The same principle holds true for the sim's portrait at the bottom and side of the screen; depending upon the angle, the nosering may sometimes be seen, but some facial expressions will cause it to pop out of the nose. During my brief period of in-game testing, I did not notice the same flaw with the necklace.

It should also be noted that the noserings and necklace display properly only for young adult-elder aged sims. They are positioned too high on younger, shorter sims.

Despite these anomalies, however, I think that these accessories are a valuable addition to the game, and that you should be able to choose whether you wish to use them or not. The noserings make up for their oddities by the fact that they adjust to the individual sim's nose. As shown in the attached picture, the nosering moves when nose width or length is altered, though extremes in the nosemesh can sometimes cause the nosering mesh to warp subtly. The meshes should be quite stable, as they were created by Maxis itself.

I've labeled the male and female noserings with their own tooltips, so you can tell them apart in game. The necklace I neglected to label; you'll just want to remember that it doesn't "show" on males; it sort of disappears inside them.

Special thanks to Morague for the excellent tutorial on how the unlock the clothing; the technique described therein is virtually the same one I used to unlock the noserings and necklace.

Well . . . if you have any questions, feel free to ask me. Enjoy.

* All accessories besides the noserings and necklace display properly in terms of texture and mesh, but not in terms of position; everything from the belly button ring to the jester mask ends up at the sim's feet rather than where it's supposed to be. If any more experienced hackers know how I can fix this, I'd be very grateful for the info.