Once again, custom content question

[chilislavecutie]

I realize that a few days ago I said that I was perfectly content with playing my game without all the extra hair styles, clothes etc. However, today I created a new family and as I was creating a child from the two parents, one of the options for a possible offspring had custom hair. I left the girl with that hair and looked through the section where you change the hairstyle and saw none of the downloaded hair, including the hair that was on my sim. I didn't see any eye colors or clothes either.

Just wondering how I came across this, and why none of the other things work. I tried the change appearance option, and got nothing. I bought new clothes and found nothing there either. Help?

[Ghen]

Did you recently re-install or install a patch? If so, Check to see if custom content is enabled in your game.

[chilislavecutie]

I haven't installed or re-installed any patches, and yes, custom content is enabled. I have both the insimenator and then inteenimater, and both work just fine. I just can't use any of my other custom content, except for this one particular hair style, but I can only get it while creating an offspring when making a new family.

[Tenshii~Akari]

Your Downloads folder has a capital "D" in it, right?  I've heard some people having problems with genetics and clothing not showing up because of something as menial as that... :?

[nova-storm]

Have you installed a new EP? IF so make  sure you have the new insim and Inteen for that EP.

[chilislavecutie]

The only EP I have is Nightlife I have the compatible versions of both the inteenimater and the insimenator. And, the downloads folder does begin with a capital D.

Could only having the one EP be my problem if the custom content was made for another EP that I don't have?

[Tenshii~Akari]

:scratch:  ... Well, I guess that could be a possibility.  Though, if the Bodyshop custom content came with a new mesh, most of the time it should work fine with any EP unless the artist says otherwise...

If you did download clothing/hair that required a Maxis mesh from an EP you don't have, then it would most likely not show up correctly or not at all. (sometimes shows up as a base game Maxis hair/clothing.)  But since you say your child sim has a custom hair that's not showing up in any of the hair bins, and your custom eyes are also doing the same thing, try this:

::smilieiforgetwhi::  Move your Downloads folder to somewhere completely out of your "The Sims 2" directory (i.e. Desktop) and load your game.

::smilieiforgetwhi::  After your game finishes loading to the neighborhood select screen, go to a neighborhood and check your Game Options, making sure your content is enabled, then exit out of the game.

::smilieiforgetwhi::  Put your Downloads folder back into "The Sims 2" folder where it belongs, delete your "Accessory.cache", "Groups.cache", and "CASThumbnails.package"* files, (the game will regenerate these upon loading)  and try running the game again.

*This file is found in the "Thumbnails" folder (C:\My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Thumbnails)

::smilieiforgetwhi::  Once again, after the game finishes loading, go to one of your neighborhoods and go to the CAS screen just to check and see if those custom clothes/hairs will show up.

It's a weird method, but this worked for me at and a few other people also.  The game can be very iffy sometimes when reading it's own files.  :lol:  If this doesn't work, please let us know.  I'm sure someone else has another way of finding the answer to this problem if this method fails you!  :angel:

(I hope it does help you... there was a lot of this "disappearing custom Bodyshop content" happening about a month or two ago, and even some of those situations were stumping me... )

[nova-storm]

INdeed it could be. If you have CC that is for Pets then No you can not see it with out Pets. You must make sure that all your DL are for night life. also if the maker has Pets then it over  rides all other EP's and you can not use it unless you hvae PEts. What I mean is that If they make a recolor of something from Night life like a couch you would beable to use it unless they have Pet installed. Pets makes everything PETS.

[chilislavecutie]

Thanks, to the both of you! Tenshi~Akari, I will try out your method and let you know if it works.

And to nova-storm, this may sound like a dumb question (but I am fairly new to this), how do I know if a certain download goes with a certain EP?

[ancienthighway]

That's a good question.  On the surface, you're at the mercy of the creator to tell you.  It is possible to look at each package with SimPE, but that's really not worth it.

[nova-storm]

Well if you look at some of the Downloads here like Erics. it will tell you have what EP it works with. but not all will state that. Also make 100% sure with out a doubt that you have installed the mesh needed to see the items. now look at this thread
 
http://www.insimenator.org/showthread.php?t=50064
 
See where they say "You WILL NEED the original mesh by Sussi is HERE"
 
then you would  go here http://modthesims2.com/member/showthread.php?t=231863
 
and download it. but she also says
"And Nouk's edits are HERE"
 
If you were to Download it with out the meshes you would never see them in game. This goes for cloths and items such as Cars, Chairs etc.
I would maybe delete all your Downloads and start fresh if you are new. THat means you dont have much to lose, and trying to track down all the meshes you need could take forever. Just start fresh and make sure you have EP friendly and meshes

[chilislavecutie]

Thank you all! I'll do all that you've told me to, and hopefully I'll be able to figure all this out!

[chilislavecutie]

Okay, so I did all that I was told to, and it worked! My only problem is that not all of the custom things I downloaded showed up, so I'm assuming that it's because those certain things were created for EP's that I don't have. Thanks a bunch to all of you! You've been very very very helpful!

[Tenshii~Akari]

Yay!  Glad it helped you!  :smile bi:  Hope you continue to have fun with your game.  :angel: