Mod The Sims - Mini Tutorials

OK deleting in game - a mini tutorial:

Well, I say a tutorial but it's more a procedure you can follow to delete cleanly. I've written it before on here but can't find it. So here goes again.

There are three main things you can delete in-game: floors, walls and terrain paints; objects; skins. They all need slightly different approaches.

There are many things you can't delete in-game - mainly mods and hacks and watch out because there are some mods need special uninstallation and any object mod which uses an invisible NPC (usually a moving object) needs to be handled differently. Watch out also if you have catalogue mods which make EAxis stuff gain the CC star (usually done by putting said mods into Downloads instead of the game files). If you attempt to delete an EAxis object/skin/whatever you'll bork your game. This can be prevented by making the objects.package read only - something you should probably do anyway. Other things like changes to game settings by fiddling with files can't usually be uninstalled in game either ... anyway:

1. Walls/Floors/Terrain Paints
Delete these at will - there's only one file involved and it can be deleted without problem.

Provisos - you can't delete any of them if they're in use on the lot (true for objects too). So use an empty lot. Generally, deleting this type of file is no problem but .... if you delete a wall, floor, terrain paint and it's been used elsewhere in your neighbourhoods, when you go back to the lot in question, there will be a gap - missing floors or walls - not usually a problem but can be irksome if you didn't remember. Terrain paints can occasionally be a PITA with this - sometimes they disappear, sometimes they flash blue (a sign the game can't find the texture - you deleted it so no surprise there). This can usually be remedied by using the terrain paint tool to delete. Just a warning though.

2. Objects
Objects often come in two or more files. There will be the mesh file with the base colour and one or more recolour files. Deleting the mesh file - the one you see in the catalogue - without deleting the recolours first will orphan those recolour files. In other words, they will lie around clogging up your Downloads folder doing nothing and you won't be able to see they are there. So you delete the recolours first before you delete the main mesh file. You do this by using the swatch tool. Place the object on lot, use the swatch tool on it which brings up the recolours to choose from. Delete the recolours - the swatch tool will have a little dustbin/trash icon you can press. Delete all the recolours before you then come out of that menu, remove the object from the lot and then delete the object including its base colour from the catalogue. Incidentally, recolours to EAxis objects can be deleted with the swatch tool without problem.

Provisos - if you're deleting recolours from objects with multiple channels, bear in mind that one channel recolour maybe connected to a colour in the other channel. This happens when people recolour both parts of the object at the same time. You will know if that's the case if you then see a white texture with writing on it if you select it. This is usually not a problem if you're deleting everything but if you're only deleting selected recolours because you want to keep some of them (and the base object), then you can sometimes end up deleting something you wanted to keep. Anyway, the white colour with writing means the texture is no longer there.

Watch out for slaved sets - in this regard, slaved sets are a PITA and is one reason I generally dislike them. The recolours for a slaved set are linked to one master object only in the set (or sometimes to EAxis recolours - don't try and delete those). You can delete recolours for slaved sets just like you can regular recolours but bear in mind that deleting a recolour for one member of the set, means all the members of the set lose the recolour - because they all use only the one, the one for the master object. When you delete a recolour for any member of the slaved set, you delete that one recolour. You can also delete the main files of slave-master sets from the catalogue but if you delete the master but retain some of the slaves, they will no longer work. You have to have the master whether you like it or not if you want to use any member of the set. I'd generally advise deleting slave sets by hand.

3. Skins
Skins also generally come in two files - a mesh and recolour. There are lots of different skin files, of course, but the main distinction for deleting purposes is whether they are part of the genetics system or not.

Genetic skin files include eyes, skintones and hairs. If you delete them (from CAS say or Bodyshop) and you have a sim using them, you can cause problems for that sim. Fixable problems, as it happens, but problems nonetheless. It will bork their genetics. You can correct this with SimPE but I'd avoid it generally - at least for skintones and eyes. Hairs can be fixed by changing their hairstyle at a mirror. The other thing you might want to delete are defaults. You can't delete these in game - because you can't isolate the file - and they have to be deleted manually.

You can delete stuff like makeup and facepaints without a problem (though any sims using them might end up looking peculiar). Unfortunately, if you have the full game, you can no longer delete make up in game though you can in Bodyshop.

With skins with meshes you can only delete the recolours in game. There's no way to delete the mesh and that has to be done by hand (which also means being able to identify the mesh file). Deleting all recolours for a mesh makes it invisible in game.

All skins actually have meshes it's just that some of them are EAxis meshes and come with the game. If you have recolours of EAxis clothes or things like make up, you can delete them without problems (only bearing in mind that they will be missing - usually replaced with something hideous - from any sim using them).

Skins with custom meshes, e.g. an outfit with a new shape, new shaped glasses etc, can be deleted in game but, as I said above, you can't delete the mesh in game (and can't see it if you delete all the recolours). So you need to know what the mesh file is called and delete manually.

Provisos - watch out for slaved sets, especially those which share recolours across ages. I really dislike those - they're a complete and utter PITA to delete in game.