So I have been looking at the internal files of Sims 3 to get familiar with it to help me get more comfortable with modding as well as making other projects. One recent discovery is finding THUM files in the AllThumbnails files but I found, or more I didn't find—lots of missing THUMs. I'd really like to get my hands on all resources to better my familiarity. For example, while looking through the THUM files for Island Paradise, there is no Octopus THUM file, all other fish and seashells are there and I looked through this file like 3 times. Clearly the game has this THUM file, or it be missing/showing error in game. I have other examples, but let just start with that one. So where is it?

You can use S3OC both to clone any* object with its thumbnails included (and with Renumber unchecked, the 'clone' will be an unaltered copy, making it the fastest way to pull all the data relating to a specific item) or use the Find Resource tool to query by resource type and it will load up a list of everything that matches and list the file path(s).
Photosensitivity warning for the way Find Resource will jitter when loading huge amounts of files- I'd recommend minimising the application until it's done

*Some special objects won't come up by name. Apple, for example, actually belongs to a master object called Ingredient.

Querying for THUM 0x580A2B4 as Type and selecting 'Any' for Group and Instance, lists that they're all from the Thumbnails\AllThumbnails.package of their respective expansion- doesn't seem to be any hiding in the other build packages. It's possible some of the expansion ones got mixed in with the base game. Like the special objects mentioned above, it's possible Octopus could have been grouped in as a thumbnail for the more generic 'Fish' object.

While everything from the base game and expansions should have pre-generated thumbnails somewhere, it's worth noting that it's not actually true that the object wouldn't display properly if one were missing. The game can and will generate missing thumbnails and caches them to the My Documents game folder. It's usually just for CC and Store content, but you can check the Thumbnails folder to see if anything has been written to it.

Yes, I did notice I found some missing THUMs in the Store Thumbnails but they were not the high/large quality. I almost own the entire store so that is a hefty file (I also have had a go at the Base Game Thumbnails too not have much luck but that takes longer to look through), and it still left me with many missing ones. All the THUMs I have been looking at and saving to a separate file (or exporting and converting into PNGs for later use) do not have names, so I am use to it. And oh yeah, I have been scanning files at a crazy fast rate, eyes not liking me but I am ok LOL What I have been doing is sorting the groups, I notices most of the THUM files I want all end in 0 or 1 but most seem to be in the 0x00000000 group. So I have been trying to up my efficiency that way.

And get this the Island Paradise Thumbnails had the Seahorse THUM in like 3-4 instances from small, medium and large size and yet no Octopus? LOL

Fireflies/Alchemy Bottles are missing from Supernatural Thumbnails and I do not see them in Base Game but I'll keep looking.

Ok, I am not sure what I was suppose to download from that link, I did the top main (green button) download, all it said was I had an out of date s2se, I guess I updated it? How is that suppose to work? I am not sure I know how to clone an object.

How do use I Find Resource tool?

Thank you again for your time

I didn't notice that because they're all in the same suite that the main download for that folder is just S3PE itself. That's my bad!
You'll want to click on the first folder (from 2017) then the .exe to download and install Sims 3 Object Cloner. I've never had any issues with the most recent version, but it looks like the second most recent (2013) one has more downloads- if you experience anything not working, feel free to uninstall and switch to that one.

Find Resource is one of the options within S3OC, which should have quite a self-explanatory interface when you see it.

I don't have IP installed right now to test it, but I do have a way you can search for the octopus specifically.
All thumbnails have the same instance ID as the object they're for. Open the Cloning > Normal Objects menu, wait for it to load, and find FishOctopus (or whatever it's called) in the list. Right click > Copy Resource Key.
In Tools > Find Resource and press the Paste RK button. Tick 'Any' for Type and Group, then Search.
If the matching THUM is anywhere, that will find it.

Thank you, I managed to work S3oc, but after finding the FishOctopus > Copy Resource Key > In Tools > Find Resource and press the Paste RK button. Tick 'Any' for Type and Group. Results 0 X / LOL I couldn't seem to find Fireflies at all, just so weird.

The silver lining is that it narrows down the hunt quite a lot!

Do you have any examples of missing thumbnails from Late Night or earlier? That's what I have access to for now, so I'd be able to speed through a few ideas if there's something from one of those that I can get my hands on

How about the Will-O'-The-Wisps? I can't seem to find them either.

I mean these things can't be missing they have to be in the games resources, somewhere LOL XD

Similar to harvestables, all objects for the bug spawner are variants of one object called 'Insect'.
This only has one set of generic thumbnails associated with it- which suggests that items like this just auto-generate their thumbnail on the fly every time.

Two things remain curious-
1. Why the octopus, which is its own object, would be the same. Unrelated oversight, I guess.
2. The Sims wiki has and uses a lot of these missing thumbnails- I wonder if they just screenshot them, or if there are more invasive methods to rip images that they use.

In the meantime, if you'd like to make a thumbnail for the octopus you could do so using the Instance part of the ID you queried. As in, copy some other thumbnail and replace the instance in S3PE and then replace the image itself.
The only lead I have for insects, ingredients, and other such items is that there is a mod for ingredient thumbnails. Those thumbnails don't exist by default and the IDs don't match to anything in the game files. It may be fruitful to message that user and ask her how she found the corresponding IDs.

The Sims wiki is why I am trying to get these, they are mostly screenshots and poor quality. As a side project, I like to edit wikis, and as I now have resources from the game I can update missing information and I was hoping to update their icons with the in game resources. I thought it be nice to update and clean up the Sims 3 stuff for the wiki, I am a big Sims 3 kick ATM LOL.

I do not want to replace the thumbnails, but what if I (if I can find it) download an exchange sim/household with the items in their inventory, that is how I think I am getting some of the THUMs in the Store Thumbnail file, my old backup of my legacy household (I redownloaded) had every skull cut gem and now I have at least the medium quality size of each of those thumbnails.

Edit/Update: I found an upload off all in game collectibles up to ITF (sadly only mounted fish, which I did find the mounted Octopus so it isn't the one I needed), I (temporarily) removed my store content (just less thumbnails to clutter up the file) and the Object Thumbnails file for the store (so it would be created fresh). Placed the lot quickly looked at it in build/buy mode and exited game, and some of the collectible items populated in the Object Thumbnail file, so I wonder if I just have to be in game longer or move it to my families inventory to have them all populate. I'll play around with it tomorrow. I may be missing the fish (I mean, I am only missing one so far but I haven't fully cross checked) but at least I should have the rest of the collectibles I couldn't find before

Edit, edit/Update: This worked beautifully! Even managed the larger thumbs, I just need to make IP world and find me an Octopus!

Edit, edit, edit/Update: It is all about the small victories! I finally got this sucker LOL.


Edit, edit, edit, edit/Update: But oof, I cant seem to get those Will-o-wisps that same way X /

Edit, edit, edit, edit, edit/Update: Well, I think I found it or a part of it (if you can't see switch to dark theme). I found this finally in the base Game Thumbnails, missed easily when scanning through files for obvious reasons. So this might be was Will-o The Wisps are based on and some effect overlay is applied after. Similar thing with the Seasons flowers (the un-vased thumbnail version), I found a base thumbnail only the colour overlays might be added on after. This is just a guess though LOL, cause I cannot seem to find these.

Well, I really do think my theory about the Wisps is true (I found a similar Plumbob file that was an almost clear IMAG file (like the Wisp above), which the changing coloured Plumbobs must have it's own effect overlay it uses with), and since it is a THUMB with an Effect apply in game, it cannot be translated into a THUM for the ObjectThumbnails store file. But I managed to make convincing knock offs LOL XD

My THUMB problems seem solved, ty for the help CardinalSims :D

Omg, I finally found the Will-O'-The-Wisps resources files (but it was not in the thumbnail file, it was with the icons) LOL, I honestly think, I was looking in the wrong ep ooof.