I've been learning to do basic retextures of hair parts and so far I've successfully followed a tutorial to edit a custom hair in S3PE to replace the original texture. What I'd like to try next is making a retexture that is standalone, i.e. doesn't replace the original work. I've tried to look for answers on this and found instructions on how to use TSRW but I'm getting errors when following these (see below) so maybe they're outdated or I'm missing something.

The second and bigger part of my task is retexturing some select hairs from this collection of 4t3 hairs . This is a collection of default replacements and I'd like to find a way to make to make them standalone so that my various edits can be standalone. On this topic, I cannot seem to find the specular mask on these hairs, so if somebody can give me advice for how I would find it in S3PE (or how I would add it if there isn't one) I would appreciate that too.

I found this answer which I've tried to follow. When I try to open a .package file as a New Import and confirm that it is not a Sims 4 part, there is a pop-up telling me that the meshes are loading and then, when it's finished, it says 'Index was outside the bounds of the array'. If I try to export via Edit > Project Contents > Export I get a pop-up telling me that no project is loaded. This happens even when I try to import any custom hair to TSRW without the overwrite edits). Regardless of that anyway, it doesn't seem to show the right hair (the default one I'm trying to make standalone). It just shows the CC hair I originally loaded in S3PE as a base.

I hope that makes sense, and I would appreciate any advice about where to start.

If these are TS3 packages, you can open them in s3pe, export the geoms and textures to your work folder. Use Meshing Tool Kit to convert geoms to .wsos. Open a similar hair in TSRW. Import your .wsos, and replace the textures. Note, you must replace ALL textures, including the ones in the Mesh tab.

This is really helpful, thank you! If you don't mind clarifying further for a complete newbie, what parts of the package do I have to export to make sure I've exported all the necessary textures? Is it just everything with an _IMG tag?

Edit: Also, when converting the GEOM mesh and its morphs to a TSRW WSO file, how do I know which is the base mesh? There's one that says lod0, another lod1, and so on, up to lod3.

And which are the correct Fat, Fit, Thin and Special meshes respectively? There are three sets of resources that say fat, fit, etc., one set have the GEOM tag, one has the BGEO tag and the other have BBLN. Sorry I'm not used to any of this yet.

Yes, all IMG files are exported and saved. You only need GEOMs, lod0, lod1, lod2, and lod3. New BGEOs and BBLNs are made along with morphs. Convert geoms to .wso in Meshing Tool Kit (MTK). In TSRW, choose a hair to copy (donor) that is closest to what you are remaking. Export and save each .wso for L0, 1, 2, and 3. Use those to transfer morphs in MTK, to your new L0 etc .wsos you converted, then import your .wsos to TSRW. There are also hair tutorials by @CardinalSims, but they use S3OC and other tools.

If you're just doing retextures, the above steps are overcomplicating it quite significantly.

Unless I'm missing something from what you're wanting to make, a standalone retexture is really just a clone of the hair using different textures. Zero reason to remake the hair from its pieces.
Open in S3OC, clone, replace the textures of the clone package in S3PE, done. Textures not being in the package usually means they're just referencing EA ones- tick 'Find missing resources' and S3OC will find and clone those too.
The entire process should take less than two minutes (not including making the textures)

This would work identically for hairs that are default replacements, because they'd just get renumbered and no longer be defaults.

Yes, you are missing something. OP is familiar with TSRW, not s3oc. There is more than one way to do things.

Thanks for all the help, both! I learned some new things about the tools mentioned above so this will be useful information if I needed to do anything more adventurous than a simple retexture in the future.

I picked the easiest hair to work with from hanalinori's 4t3 collection, cloned it and applied the texture using another hair as a base.



Not perfect, but it's a healthy start and I'm happy with it! Mostly I'm just glad it showed up in my game as intended and without any weird visual issues haha.

These maps are quite fiddly to work with so I think this little project of mine is going to be something I tackle over the course of a few weeks.

Nowhere in the post did OP say they're incapable of using whatever tool gets the job done.
If the hairs are erroring in workshop and one is already having to use S3PE instead, what exactly is gained by avoiding using S3PE's sister-program where appropriate? Nothing will make reassembling the hair out of all its individual parts just to make a retexture less silly.

TSRW also renumbers everything on export, so can also be used to clone the packages that don't have errors (as an aside, the errors are normal albeit restricting).
At the end of the day S3OC is the dedicated cloning tool, and only having that one main purpose makes it very user friendly for anyone to pick up and learn It is the only one that can fetch the resources that weren't in the package, too. It's worth being in everyone's toolbelt, even if they have other preferences.

The OP references TSRW at least twice in the original post. Taking time to read the post is something I tend to do before giving advice. Had OP mentioned s3oc, I probaly wouldn't have replied. As I very successfully use TSRW to do 99% of my work, I merely gave advice on ways around the OP's problem using a tool that was referenced and I use often, in a way that I have very successfully done many times when a package won't open in TSRW, ut does open in s3pe.

Not sure what renumbering has to do with anything? Only time that was ever an issue for me, was when making a default af nude top that works with Cmar's sliders. S3OC has it's use, but just because it's your pet tool, that doesn't mean everyone wants to use it. There is much to be said for seeing your work, and morphs, before starting the game, and certainly not something to "disagree" with, especially when I @ tagged you specifically so you could give your alternate method. I think I need a break from MTS.

The original post admits to being a beginner and wishing to be directed to the correct place to start, so the methods they had already tried didn't really seem relevant to me. I gave the most straightforward way there is to achieve what they wanted.

I'm using renumbering as a synonym for cloning, because that's all it really is. All that makes something 'standalone' is the fact that it has new IDs, and so one can use both TSRW and S3OC to achieve that for files without the error.
I appreciated being tagged, it's just that it didn't actually have anything to do with my hair method- it's more of a coincidence that S3OC is the answer I'd give to something that can be achieved entirely by using a cloned package. Nothing stopping one from using TSRW (or CTU, even) to open and preview that package afterwards.

I meant no disrespect to your preferred method, I can just sound very blunt. I apologise