UPDATE 09-20-2005 : by request, uploaded french version .

This tutorial aims to explain how to link a mesh to a specific skintone, in the same way you can link a mesh to a clothing texture as explained in Brianna's tutorial.

This allows having different coexisting body shapes for naked Sims, since the resulting nudes won't be default nudes and will only apply to the Sims using the mod'ed skintones.

I had to find a solution for my bodybuilder Sims losing their muscle under the shower, and Eebee was kind enough to point me to Rico_Sugar who achieved this for an enhanced female top - well, I didn't know enough about the package structure to understand how he did it, but then Quaxi gave me some pointers on the SimPE forum about the scenegraph chain that were all I needed.

Here I have to thank my dear friend/partner/boytoy Beosboxboy, who among other things took the time to correct my English and formatted this tutorial, both for this post and the downloadable version.



THE PRINCIPLE

Like any texture, a skintone needs to be linked to a mesh to show up - it uses the current clothing mesh when a Sim is dressed and is then applied to the transparent parts (i.e., neck, hands, arms, legs...), but it has to use specific meshes when the Sim is nude, one or two for each texture - every combination of gender, age and fitness for tops and bottoms - or full bodies for babies and children.

A custom default nude mesh will just replace the default nude meshes for every Sim in the game, and that's not what we want in this case.

Here, we need to use the textures of a specific skintone and link them to our custom meshes, so these meshes will apply only to that skintone, for the chosen age, gender and fitness.

The changes will show only when the Sim is nude - this doesn't apply to nude clothing, which is just a fully transparent clothing texture, linked to a clothing mesh.


THE METHOD

Since any texture is linked to its mesh through the 3D ID referencing file, we have to find which 3D ID referencing files we need to edit to link the right mesh to the right texture, by replacing the resource node and the shape with those of the mesh.

Don't worry, this shouldn't prove too difficult even if you're not very familiar with SimPE and Brianna's tutorial - it's not even as long and boring as this tutorial will be, once you get used to the process. But here I'm trying to be as precise as possible.

Here, I'll assume you already have the mesh package you want to use; to make it simple, I'll just show you how to replace meshes for the adult male, knowing that the same method can be applied to any texture. Of course, in a general manner, you have to use a bottom mesh for a bottom texture, a top mesh for a top texture and a full body mesh for a full body texture.



THIS TUTORIAL WAS MADE WITH SimPE v. 0.48

I - Create your skintone

First, in Body Shop, export the skintone you want to use and give it a recognizable name. Then, without having to exit Body Shop, open the created folder in your My Documents/EAGames/The Sims 2/Projects folder - this is just to quickly edit the swatch icon, it'll make it easier to find your skintone in Body Shop or in game later. Use any texture you want, or just reverse the colours in Paint, you'll be able to edit it later if you wish.

Now import your new skintone, and exit Body Shop.

II - Link your skintone to the meshes

1) First, you need to extract the resource node and shape descriptions from the mesh packages. Create a new folder for your project with two sub-folders, one for the top and one for the bottom.

- Open the top mesh package in SimPE.
Right click on the resource node in the upper right window, choose extract, then save in your new folder without changing the name or the file type; do the same with the shape.

Figure 1.

Figure 2.

- Repeat the process for the bottom mesh.

2) Now, click file > open, browse to your My Documents/EAGames/the Sims 2/Saved Sims folder, and open your new skintone package.

a) Right click anywhere in the packed files window, choose "add", browse to the folder your just created and import the resource node description you exported from the ";top" mesh (i.e., .5cr.xml); then do the same with the shape description (i.e., .5sh.xml).

You don't have to find an empty line to do this; the files will be automatically added at the end of the list.

Figure 3.

b) To find the right 3D ID referencing files, since the filenames aren't explicit, you have look into the property set files to get their instance number.

- Select "property set" in the resource tree window, and click the "plugin view" tab at the bottom of the screen. Then scroll down the list of property sets in the upper right window, the name of the textures should be on the 7th line in the CPF editor window.

For each age and gender you need, you'll find tops and bottoms except for the babies and children, for example the adult male:

CASIE_amtopnaked_nudecut_s1
CASIE_ambottomnaked_nudecut_s1
CASIE_amtopnaked_nude_s1
CASIE_ambottomnaked_nude_s1
CASIE_amtopnaked_nudesoft_s1
(no bottom for either the soft or the cut texture depending on the skintone you
clone in the first place - it then uses the regular one; but this doesn't necessarily apply to other types, so check all the property sets if you're not using the adult male).

Figure 4.

For now, you just need to find one adult male top - each one is linked to the same mesh. Once you find a "top", click the "resource" tab at the bottom of the screen and copy the instance value.

Figure 5.

c) Then, select the 3D ID referencing file in the resource tree window; paste the instance value you just copied into the second field in the instance filter, click "set". Only the one with your instance number will show up in the right window.

Figure 6.

Highlight that line, click the plugin view tab to access the 3D referencing file editor; you'll find the resource node, shape and material definition references.

Write down the resource node instance number, it's the last group of numbers on the resource node line. It'll help you later.

Figure 7.

d) Next, click the "package" button on the right, the package selector form window will pop up. Scroll down the files in that window until you find the resource node and shape, click/drag them in the left window, and close the package selector form.

Figure 8.

Delete the resource node and shape at the top of the list by clicking "delete" in the files properties section, and put the new ones in their place using the "up" button.

Figure 9.

Commit, clear the instance filter (suppr, set).

e) You now have to do the same for the two remaining "top" instances. Instead of looking for their instance number in the property set, I find it easier to scroll down the list of 3D ID referencing files, using the "down" key, and look at the resource node instance number in the left part of the 3D Referencing File Editor to compare it with the one written down earlier - remember, it's the last group of numbers on the resource node line.

f) Before you repeat the process with the bottom, you have to delete the resource node and shape you first added in the packed file window: select "all resources" in the resource tree to get the whole list; you'll find them at the bottom of the list. Then, save your package - else, they'll still appear in the package selector form.

Figure 10.

5) Now, link the bottom mesh to the bottom textures in the same way, from a) to f) - remember, there are only two bottom textures. Don't forget to clear the instance filter between operations and to commit after each change. Don't forget as well to delete the resource node and shape you added in the packed files window - I did and didn't notice any problem, but better safe than sorry.

III - Test your skintone

And here we have a slight problem... I don't know about any way to check the real nudes in Body Shop or CAS. Remember, nude clothing is just an invisible clothing texture applied to a clothing mesh - most of the time, it's done by blacking out the alpha on an underwear texture.

For now, the only way I know to test this type of skintone is to create a Sim, choose the mod'ed skintone, then put him on a lot and make him take a shower to see what happens.
Then, if you made any mistake, it will result in a missing body or body part. Meaning that you have to check your links, or go through the whole process again...



Any comment is welcome! Your observations will be taken into account to improve this tutorial, which I hope you'll find useful.

Let me be the first to thank you Marvine, Beos, and others.

The Timing of this tutorial could not have been better. I have come a long way in a short period of time thanks to you folks. Will be using this tutorial in the next day or two and will report any problem or confusion that may arise if any.

Peace!

Nicely done, Marvine! Your initial notes were invaluable for me to figure all this out, but this tutorial should make it much easier for everyone. I hope to release a set of non-default Female meshes in the next few days.

Thank you thank you.
I have requested that the fat guy and fat girl made here on MTS2 please not lose their shapes when bathing...Now you have made it all possible and if these creators don't get to it, I am sure someone will. HOOORAAAY! This is something we had in SIMS 1 that I have sorely missed in SIMS 2 until your bodybuilder made it all possible. Love you and Beosboxboy!...Thanks again, K :D

Thank you guys! :D

As I told, I didn't invent this, and like everybody I assumed it was impossible until Eebee told me Rico_Sugar had done it - from there it was just a matter of logic.

Sdfisher and Warlokk, let me congratulate you again for managing to find your way through this despite my poor explanations - there are definitely some well-shaped brains on this site!

And soon there will be many more well-shaped sims in the game... even in the shower!!! :D

That you help us all is brilliant!

Thanks for this tutorial Marvine.
Now I can make my tattoos I posted in your original thread into skintones instead of clothing.

Wow, I did it the hard way. I wish I had found this earlier. Great to know in the event that I want to link the mesh to other skintones in the future, though. Thank you.

Thanks for the french translation!! :salute:
learning...

cooooooooooooool thanks for the tut.....I gotta try that when I ll have some time....and link the superhero muscle guy to some skin tones and the athletic guy and so on...too :-)

kiss kiss ;-)

I guess I can make all needed skintones to erect or soft nude meshes?
GREAT!!!

Alas It is too hard to me...i got confused...
After the Figure 3....

Ailias, you can PM me anytime and I'll do my best to explain what you need to know...
But depending on the meshes you want to use, maybe there's a easier way. Just tell me, okay?

i really wana see a ultra fat sim that actually wobbles

My skintone has the right shape but is totally off color what could be wrong? it's all green!

Trident, this has nothing to do with the mesh linking - probably Bodyshop played a trick on you, which happens sometimes. Did you check the textures themselves in SimPE?

That's a great tutorial Marvine, thanks a lot :D
One question though... what do you recommend if the mesh I want to use isn't split in to top and bottom?
(I want to use the legendary BonesChapel mesh... http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=50022)

Bobbins,

Only one solution to my knowledge: Wes_h's Body Chop plugins for Milkshape. Once you get the hang of these, cutting a body mesh in top and bottom is fairly easy. Good luck!

lol.....

i am struggling with the same problem with the xenos heroine mesh. per marvine's suggstion, i have renamed the mesh file and fixed the integrity. attatching both the top and bottom skins to the same one-piece mesh doesn't work. in the shower her body shape is right (which is at least encouraging) and she seems to be moving ok, but she's green.

please keep posting with any progress that you make. also, if you wouldn't mind posting what doesn't work that would be helpful as well. i kind of feel like i'm throwing darts blindfolded here!

After closer examination, I realised Boneschapel's mesh, while a great shape for supportive clothes, was the wrong shape for no clothes.

Instead I used Warlokks meshes (which fortunately has top & bottom), and used your tutorial to link them to existing skin tones. It worked perfectly... So I just wanted to say thank you Marvine for your fantasitc explaination that even I could follow!

I also learned some new things about SimPE while doing it, as a bonus. I definitely recommend this tutorial.

-sigh-
I'm trying to make a shower default for fairygurls biggal mesh. Unfortunately I only made it as far as importing my skins back into the game.

Int the second step of your tut you tell us to open the top mesh package. I um...don't think I have one....I mean I think it's all one mesh. Even with pictures I get lost.

And the screens that I'm looking at don't match the ones in the tut so I know I've goofed up somewhere.

Any suggestions? Anybody?

Ciablue,

In order to apply this tutorial, you need to have a top and a bottom mesh packages; as I stated, the nude state for adults doesn't use a full body mesh. There may be a way to get around this, but until now I didn't find the time to look further.

So if you wish to use Faerygurl's mesh, you'll then need to either morph a top and a bottom in the same shape (using Miche and Delphy's Mesh Tool), or cut the mesh in two parts (using Wes_h's Body Chop plugins), and build new mesh packages.

I'm aware thas this seriously complicates the matter, but this tutorial was first intended for meshers who wish to offer this option for new meshes; I probably should have been more clear about that.

Now, if you're willing to give it a try, you'll find the tools, along with tutorials and tons of information about body meshing, on the create section - I can't possibly explain the way to do it in a few words...

I now this thread is not completely current but I have to say a huge thank you to Marvine. I adore the bodybuilder mesh and love having,different skintones and not losing, shall we say power in the shower. I worked great for keeping my warlokk girls curvy. You don't know how many nights I got 2 or 3 hours sleep to make this work. <kneels at feet in gratitude>

Azurajen,

Positive feedback is always welcome...
I'm glad you found this tutorial useful.