Problem with Pets made content in non-Pets: The "Torso" Factor

[Tenshii~Akari]

This problem just occured as of late last week.  I downloaded some new hairs and clothes and for some odd reason, they show up in all the wrong places, like an outfit showing up in the hair bins, as a naked full body (see the word doc with pics).  It started right after I downloaded a new hair from the Sims Artist Union, which has since been fixed and redownloaded.  I've taken all of the packages out and started the game without them, then redownloaded them and I still have the same issue.  I have up to EP3 with no stuff packs, and all the downloads I have are ones said to be compatible.  If possible, PLEASE help me as soon as possible!

Edit by beosboxboy: changed DOC to 4 JPGs and changed title of thread, made a sticky

A related thread by zizismommy on MTS2.

and another thread by tiggerypum on MTS2 detailing problems with accessories and clipping.

and a similar thread by Zelia Theb on InSIM detailing custom content irregualrities in Pets.

another thread by CynaraBlade on InSIM detailing more issues.

Numenor has made a starter mod that allows you to select a pre-Pets EP Body Shop in this thread at MTS2

A working solution for repairing existing custom content made with Pets EP is available here.

Please post commentary and discussion not related to the main problem here

*attached image removed*

[Sleepycat]

hmmm you could try deleteing the groups.cache and cigen.package from your my docs/ea/sims 2 folder

and delete all the thumbnails from my docs/ea/sims 2/Thumbnails folder

they will all regenerate so deleting them won't harm anything and may help

[BeosBoxBoy]

This is a problem caused by recolours made after Pets EP is installed.  The BodyShop that is installed by Pets EP changes the way custom content is catalogued and sorted.  It is especially problematic with male things.  But also affects genetic skintones, hair, etc.  Clothing made with the Pets EP version of BodyShop should NOT be used if you do not have Pets.

To locate bad files you should use the "scan folders" option of SimPE.  These will display with "unknown version" instead of "OK"

So far nothing I have tried will make a Pets created custom file work right if it is buggered up.  I guess it is EA's little way of making sure we all buy the EP.

Below are the property sets of 4 sample files:

A misbehaving file by Pickpock at MTS2 made with Pets



A misbehaving file by Innocent at InSIMenator made with Pets



A properly behaving file by myself made with OfB



A properly behaving file by myself made with NL



The hairtone= tag in all of these is all zeroes (0s) so should clearly indicate
to the game that these are NOT hair files.

This would not be a problen except that by clicking these items they are added
to the body under the existing clothing and the scalp & hair go missing. Sorry that
I did not think to grab a screen capture of that particular horror. Additionally, once
selected there is no undoing it.

What is discernible with SimPE is that the outfit= tag is missing and there are new
tags priority= and parts= -- the relevence of these I can't guess.
I do notice that when it occurs the parts= tag generally has the same value as would
have formerly been carried by the outfit= tag in packages made before
installing the Pets EP.

Marvine tried adding an outfit= tag and tested them on her system and
this corrected nothing.  Other efforts at reviewing the data with SimPE have not
shown what mechanism is responsible for these errors.  I hope that something comes
to light soon.

So there is something fundamentally missing or changed in the portions of the file
not readable by SimPE or in a placement that has heretofore had no relevence
to clothing files.

In truth, it was Hot Date EP that did a similar disservice to the custom content
community for original The Sims; then later EPs added to the mess, so it can't be
said that they didn't give us ample warning with their nasty tricks in original The Sims.
It was about time for Maxis/EA to heave a sizable spanner at us with the methods
of the game.  So let us hope they will correct this flaw if for no other reason than
enlightened self-interest to avoid getting dragged into another "hot coffee" field-day.

So be certain to specify to your downloaders that you made your CC with Pets EP
and that Pets EP is required to use those files.

I have made a warning banner that we are using at InSIM to tag items made after
installing the Pets EP.



I only recently discovered that custom genetic skintones (two made by SynapticSim)
are misbehaving on the male side.  The Maxis default light is displaying instead
of his blue furry or brown furry textures that should be visible.

I forgot to mention that the version of BodyShop installed by the Family Fun Stuff
and Glamor Life Stuff packs do not suffer this flaw.  It is only the version that gets
installed with Pets EP that does this. In my experimentation so far, still trying,
using the older versions of BodyShop from the base install or earlier EPs has not
shown any benefit once the Pets EP has been installed, and in most instances
doesn't work quite right.

I am still tearing it all apart trying to discover what causes the issue.

[Tenshii~Akari]

Wow... we have a saying for that where I'm from:  That's shiesty.  It looks like I'll have to invest in Pets a little sooner than I had hoped.  I was waiting at least until they had made a first patch to it... oh well. :icon9:

Thanks for the helpful info anyways!

[BeosBoxBoy]

Numenor is now aware of the problem and he may consider doing some work trying
to fix this issue if EA/Maxis does not.  Let us all hope for a patch.

Numenor theorises that the priority= and parts= tags may have relevance to the
comprehensive overhaul in layering made in Pets; Marvine and I discussed this
earlier today (Thursday) and such was also our thinking.

Additional information:

As a possible direction you might consider, I offer that extracting the unpatched
versions of Body Shop from the installation media may offer some hope.  I have
not tried this as yet as I do not have all of the various CDs and DVDs -- poor college
kid or something, you know?  And I really don't relish the thought of spending good
money on a bad EP.

I am attaching below additional image files and comments in hopes that it may eliminate
the need for repeating my research by other persons.

Here are screen captures of two ways the clothing files may misbehave; one clearly
demonstrates a visible incongruity that will alert the user:

Figure 1. - Screen capture courtesy of Ozzucay


However this example demonstrates a situation where the user may not notice the
problem and think it is only a thumbnail package issue.

Figure 2. - Screen capture courtesy of Ozzucay



Additional information gained from viewing the binary index:
It appears that the sort order of the information in the Binary Index has no relevance
on behaviour in the game.

Figure 3. - Binary Index info from a no-EPs clothing by SimderZ (Xianah)



Figure 4. - Binary Index infor from a Pets EP clothing by BlackFairy



Figure 5. - Binary Index info from a OFB EP skin tone by Enayla


Figure 6. - Binary Index ifor from a Pets EP skin tone by SynapticSim


Additional information on genetic skin tones:
Looking at the Property Set information and the Skin Tone XML information, I discovered
that the addition of the priority= and parts= tags is included in skin tones made with
the Pets EP Body Shop.

Figure 7. - Skin Tone XML information from a non-Pets skin tone by Enayla


Figure 8. - Skin Tone XML information from a Pets skin tone by SynapticSim


Figure 9. - Property Set information from a non-Pets skin tone by Enayla


Figure 10. - Property Set information from a Pets skin tone by SynapticSim


The prioty and parts information is present in both the Skin Tone XML and the Property Sets
of any skin tone made with the Pets EP.

The changes are of such a nature as to have no demonstable data other than the
priority= and parts= tags.  The latest release of SimPE (version 0.58.2.21002) at
at the time of this writing may alert a user that an item is a potential problem;
by using the scan folders option of SimPE one can detect Pets EP and other potential
problem files -- these files will be marked "Unknown version".  The fix/repair function does
not correct these files for use.

I hope this information is of use to someone, I am quite certain I have seen the
insides of far too many files the past 4 days.

I am re-openning this thread and making it a sticky in this section so other people
may add their thoughts, data, and expertise on possible causes or fixes.  As much
as I would like to flame Maxis/EA right now, I don't want this thread to turn into
a "oh I hate Maxis/EA" thread.  Posts that have no relevance or pertinence in this
thread will be deleted.

[Tenshii~Akari]

Wow... that's a lot of info.  I hope you guys have good luck looking into this further!

[ancienthighway]

Would Numenor's BaseGameStarter *PRO* be useful as a stopgap measure for creating skins and the like until a better solution could be developed?  If nothing else, modders on this forum could ensure what is created here is suitable for all EPs.

[SynapticSim]

Would Numenor's BaseGameStarter *PRO* be useful as a stopgap measure for creating skins and the like until a better solution could be developed?  If nothing else, modders on this forum could ensure what is created here is suitable for all EPs.

Currently the option that Numenor is considering involves his BaseGameStarter *PRO*, specifically an extension of BodyShop that would completely ignore the Pets EP.  At this time, I don't think the current version would fix the problems.

~ Syn

[BeosBoxBoy]

A related thread by zizismommy on MTS2.

and another thread by tiggerypum on MTS2 detailing problems with accessories and clipping.

and a similar thread by Zelia Theb on InSIM detailing custom content irregualrities in Pets.

another thread by CynaraBlade on InSIM detailing more issues.

A future solution will eventually be avaible by Numenor in this thread at MTS2

[kaneonapua]

I put a very recent clothing download: a pre-Pets mesh and 3 new recolors into an otherwise clean Downloads folder today. I carefully installed it because I had not been able to find it in the game after I attempted to install it the first time. No weird things, the recolors were just not there.

This is the contents of the download folder:



All of the files have a size that is normal in a package file. When they are viewed in SimPE, all of the usual files are visible. I did not attempt to modify or save the files. I just looked at them quickly. After verifiying this, I started the Sims 2 (Uni/NL EPs).

The game comes up and I go into CAS. The recolors are still not visible at all in CAS. I shutdown the game. I check to Downloads folder again to see what I had done wrong. The recolor files are now essentially empty and they can not be opened in SimPe. The date modified has changed to the time that I started The Sims 2 up.



I reextract the recolors and check the files to see if they were created using Pets. I believe so since the version is 4. The mesh was made prior to Pets and did not have trouble with earlier recolors for it.



This is the current free download from the Sims Connection so it is readily available. It is the adult male outfit with jeans and punk band T-shirts.

[BeosBoxBoy]

Hey, everyone, a solution for existing Pets-made content has been explained by Marvine in this thread

kaneonapua , the solution above may solve your displaying problem.  But you may have one of the dread custom content not showing issues.  try deleting the Groups.cache from
C:\Documents and Settings\YourWindowsScreenNameHere\My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2

or

C:\My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2 *Windows 98 & Windows ME

or

Home/EA Games/The Sims 2 * MacOS X

also make sure to delete the content of the Thumbnails folder.  These files will regenerate on the next run of the game.

C:\Documents and Settings\YourWindowsScreenNameHere\My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Thumbnails

or

C:\My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Thumbnails *Windows 98 & Windows ME

or

Home/EA Games/The Sims 2/Thumbnails * MacOS X

[BeosBoxBoy]

Sorry for the double post:

I was just apprised of the fact that Numenor has added the Body Shop element for his installer mod. Yay Numenor!!

[kaneonapua]

Good news and bad news. Marvine's fix cleared up my problems with the latest Peggy Sims donation hair AND one of their outfits that was behaving very strangely.

It did not make a dent in my problems with the download detailed three posts above.
I tried all beoboxboy's suggestion and deleted the groups.cache and/or add the new line as Marvine suggested.

Beosboxboy:  Does the dreaded custom content not showing issues only affect certain downloads? I have tons of CC and this is the first one that has done this to me. I have never seen the game destroy a recolor file before but maybe I've been living a charmed life. I tested all the recolors associated with the mesh that is giving me trouble. The pre-Pets recolors load just fine while the post-Pets recolors get demolished. I wonder if this is because the mesh was created pre-Pets.

[BeosBoxBoy]

I vote the "charmed life" theory myself

As much as 60% of people with NL, OFB, FFS, GLS, and the Holiday Fun Stuff all suffered at some point custom content woes.  The exact causes of this are not well understood.  It seems that for some people turning off then turning on Custom Content in successive runs of the game corrected it, for others it required the fix I listed above, for yet others it required they use the custom content browser at least once to connect to the Maxis Exchange while in game, etc etc etc ad nauseam. For some it took a game patch, for others it just started showing up one day.  Thus you can see there is no clearly definable pattern, so no one solution can be made a panacea to this blight.

If you look through the help section you will locate many such threads offering many versions of solutions.

For most persons who have large amounts of custom content, it required un-installing the Stuff Packs to regain access to the custom content - this was my experience with both the Holiday and Family Fun Stuff packs.  Glamour Life (so far) has not bunged my game.

Pets however presents us with a whole new set of problems, many of which are just beginning to be expressed as the "newness" wears off and the euphoric high wears thin by purchasers.  It will most likely require a patch to repair most of the damage done to this game by the Pets EP, and with Electronic Arts batting average for patches during 2006, I am not holding my breath or betting on it being a real solution.

I will remind you all, I was the one that presaged the Pets EP as being a cancer on the game, for I fully understood the depth of changes that would be necessary for adding pets to the game.  I humbly submit I was right and wrong at the same time; I did not think that Electronic Arts would be so foolhardy as to resurrect the known bad code of the early pre-release The Sims 2 when it was shown it could not be made to work and required a complete re-write of the code that caused a 1 year set back in the release of the game - EA only released Makin' Magic EP for original The Sims as a stop-gap measure to keep the community from storming EA's headquarters and lynching the development team.

So I was right that it is a product of the Devil, but was wrong in thinking from which direction that this menace to my sanity and yours would come.

[kaneonapua]

Ah, yes. There was a reason why I didn't rush out and buy Pets or install any of the Stuff packs. I guess if I get bored with the my charmed existance, I can go install Glamour Life or the FFP if I really want a challenge.