Insimenator.org

IMPORTANT EDIT:  New pictures are finally in place, and also better texture templates and clearer alpha map included below in the attachments field.  Note that the steps each pic corresponds with is BELOW it.  All pictures are thumbnails, so you will have to enlarge them to see details.  Let me know if there's anything else that I can do to improve this tutorial in any way!  :angel:


Introduction:

The one area where I felt that Maxis and EA failed us utterly was not giving us the option to do much with infants, other than having them eat, sleep, poop, being played with and talked to, and cry like screamin’ meemies… not that it’s not realistic, but there’s still a lot missing.  They don’t have hair until they turn into toddlers, you can’t sit down and hold them, sims leave them on the floor when they’re tired of holding the poor little things, and my main pet peeve is that you can’t change their clothes like every other age group!  So many can understand now my overwhelming joy when I first found out about files that could replace the original diaper!  

After trying out a few of the diaper replacements, I could say I was satisfied to a point, but I still wanted to see more variety.  In fact, I was ready to try out my hand at re-coloring some of the meshes.  The only thing was, I never found a tutorial that was publicly available on how to make diaper override re-colors, so I thought I’d never figure out how to do it… that is, until I did some fiddling around with SimPE.  It’s almost the same as making default replacement genetics, if you’ve done those before.

I’ve decided to write-up my own tutorial of how to make and re-color your own infant override texture.  It’s not a complete walk in the park if you don’t know how to use SimPE, but pretty soon the new pictures I'll take for this tutorial in the very near future should be of some assistance.  

Tools Needed:

You will need the following…

   •   SimPE (http://sims.ambertation.de/)
•   The Nvidia DDS tools (Found at this link (http://developer.nvidia.com/object/dds_utilities_legacy.html)... this is essential for enabling the "Build DXT" function when importing the texture.)
•   A graphics editing program, like GIMP (http://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/stable.html), Photoshop, or anything else closely related
•   My infant override example posted here on InSim (http://www.insimenator.org/showthread.php?t=53696) (or any other override of your choosing... so long as you ask for permission if required.)
•   (optional)  The two “.png” files attached at the bottom of this post as a base image/alpha map to work on (And once again, you can also choose to export the textures/alpha maps you need from other diaper overides, unless you'd rather use mine.  If you do... well... please excuse the quality of the textures.  Yes, they look quite fugly, but it's for experimental purposes at the moment...  feel free to make them look 499% better than they are at the moment if you'd like.  :oops:)

Instructions:

(If you plan on making multiple infant override re-color files remember this:  You can copy the file and edit the copies however you like with different styles… BUT you can only have one package enabled at a time.)

The two files that I have included are the actual texture and alpha map for the baby clothing.    Open these two images in your image editing program and alter them to your liking.  Remember to save them after you make any changes (I’d suggest you save them to an easy to remember place, like to your Desktop), then follow these steps…

1.   Open the infant override file (i.e. “(~TA12~)-Diaper_Override.package” if you're using my example override) with SimPE, and make sure that “Plugin View” is selected at the bottom.

2.   After it loads, click on the texture image file name in the “Resource List” box.  Here you will find the skin of the mesh that you will need.


3.   When the image in the “TXTR Editor” box comes up, right click it, and a menu will come up.


4.   Select Export…

5.   When the Save box pops up, choose the location of where you want to save the changes to the texture, and click OK.  


6.      Repeat steps 3-5, only this time for #4, choose the Export Alpha Channel… option.

7.      Once you have both your original texture and alpha map exported, you can edit them however you like using your image editing program.  Once you've made all the changes, save your work and return to SimPE.

8.      Going  back to the “TXTR Editor” box, right-click the texture image, and choose the Build DXT option.  (...this option actually preserves the quality of the textures, unlike the "Import" option which can lower it.)


9.      When a small box with the title of DDS Builder pops up, click on open underneath the small "preview" box to the left, and find the name of your main texture image that you just edited.  Click OK, and a small thumbnail of the image will appear in the box.


10.  Click on the second scroll-down menu entitled Sharpen (located to the right of the DDS Builder window), and scroll upward until you find "None".  Select this, and choose Build.


11.   After a little DOS window pops up momentarily and disappears, the image in the “TXTR Editor” should now be changed to your edited image.


12.      Right click the image again, then select Import Alpha Channel…

13.   Locate the name of the alpha channel, and press OK.  The image in the box, if it hasn't before now, should now take the shape of the alpha map that was just imported.  Hit the Commit button.

14.     Now for the slightly confusing part.  Because the alpha map was imported, this will result in the textures becoming blurry and pixelated if you save your changes now and exit.  In order to avoid this,  re-export the image currently in the "TXTR Editor" box, and use the Build DXT function to re-import the exact same image.  The end result should be slightly similar to the below picture.  Afterwards, you can commit your changes, save, and exit without a second worry of image problems.


15.   Now for the easy part:  Testing!  Load your game and either find a family with a baby, or spawn the Tombstone of Life or Death to create a new baby. (type boolprop testingcheatsenabled true in the cheat box, then shift + click a sim for the spawn option)   Your babies should now be wearing the new outfit you’ve made.


The best part about this override is that it will come off when changing diapers or bathing the baby, along with the ability to fit with any diaper mesh override to your choosing.  If you are recoloring another diaper mesh, (i.e. one of BlooM's multiple override meshes in his section) the mesh is already included... so there's no need for enabling other recolors/override meshes to get yours to work, as you can only have one diaper override package working in your game at a time.  

I hope that this tutorial will help make a difference in the variety of removable infant clothing.  If you have any questions, feel free to post questions here in this thread.  I'll be happy to help you out in any way I can.  ;)

Enjoy!  :angel:

Thank you so much for this tutorial!
I'm of to download SimPE. :P
*Hugs*

EDIT: I'm having problems. I get this strange effect. Why? And why is the image that I import so tiny compared to the origional yellow one? :(
(http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p13/manfraumanfrau/snapshot_b49fcccd_74a39a55.jpg)

I should've updated this thread... :doh:  Sorry, manfrau, but I need to tweak this tutorial a bit more before we can officially call it one.  I was using an old photoediting program I'm used to using, and it doesn't use the same techniques as any of the newer ones... therefore the issue you have here.  :(

I'll be sure to get around to cleaning this up ASAP.  :angel:

It doesn't matter - I managed to gigure out what went wrong, and have now completed a onesie. :)
Aaahh.
Thanks again!

Oh, and I think that the problem was I saved the images as they are here, instead of clicking on them and saving the larger version. ;)

Okay.  Glad you got it settled.  :angel:

I still plan on getting this thing updated for everyone else, though.  ;)

ETA:  90% fixed... all I need now are new and better screenshots.  :smile bi:

great tutorial tank you very much

Images have now been included once again in the tutorial.  This time, I even changed the yucky yellow texture blob I called a base that was originally attached into something a bit more pleasing to look at... that is, if you're one that's into pink like I am.  Hey, it's better than the one I had on here before, so change it up however you like.  :lol:  

Hope you enjoy, and please give me some feedback if you see anything that could be improved in this tutorial.  I always like to know what I can do to make things better.  ;)

I use normal paint, I don't have paintshop pro and all those others, but to make it easier I save my clothes tetures as png files, if you save it as a jpeg it smudges and when you have to make the part around the outfit invisible it does not do it properly. Just incase someone do not have the fancy programs like me :( thought I would mention that :)

Fabulous Tutorial Tenshii :D Love it to bits, wish I could save it as a pdf so I could have it handy forever :P

Thank you so much!  This was infinitely useful.  Although I can't seem to get Build DXT option...  Hmmm... Will fiddle more tomorrow, thank you!

You have to enable the Build DXT option through the "Preferences" under the Extra menu in SimPE.  

Once the Preferences window pops up, (making sure that the tab to the left highlights "System Folders") look at the line that says Nvidia DDS Tool Folder.  

Click on the "Browse" button next to the box, and search for the directory where you installed the DDS tool (i.e. C:\Program Files\NVIDIA Corporation\DDS Utilities), then find and select the nvdxt.exe file and press OK.  

Once you exit out of the Preferences, it should be enabled for your SimPE.  ;)

Thank you so much!  When i get home from work I will have to check how much the quality improved.

Yay!  I made my own onesie for a Sim baby!

Thank you so much.

You're welcome!  Glad it worked out for  ya.  :smile bi:

ummm, i made one using bloom's mesh, and i wanted to point out this:
1. the outfit ended up esactly the same as blooms.
2. i have the dds stuff, i just got it, but, basically steps 9-14 don't work for me. i don't have the option to bulid that or whatever. HELP!!

oh, nevermind, i think i got it...



I GIVE UP. THIS TUTORIAL MAKES ABSOLUTLY NO SENSE.

did you actually download and install the DDS tools? There are several different things to download at the site, and it's easy to get it wrong.
I know I had some troubles figuring out what exactly to download, and managed to get it wrong twice - both the first time I tried, and when I re-installed things on my new computer. I actually downloaded the wrong thing first  :-\

Did you do this, by the way?

Also, remember to click "commit" after you've changed the texture, or the change won't show. Then you save the new file :)

Oh, and a couple of other things:

To be as sure as I can be that parts comes on the right place when I recolor the outfits, I use the UVW maps as recolor guides (Bloom added these with some of the meshes), and hide that layer afterwards. :)

Remember to save the file as a new file with a new name. Also, make sure the only infant outfit you've got in the DL folder when you're testing it, is the one you recolored. Otherwise it might show up wrong.

For saving texture files, I use the ctrl+alt+shift+S command in photoshop, and save as 24bit PNG (in the window that pops up). I also make transparent textures at once, so I don't have to do the alpha channel step (works with Bloom's meshes). Combined with the DXT3, this usually gives the best result.

well there is no commit button when i do it, and could someone please explain to me what program to install??

Okay I downloaded GIMP and i dont know how to recolor it! Please help!

it's very simple, for mine, i just took the mesh, (i used blooms), and made the stripes different colors by using the 'select color tool' in the top left corner, then pick a color, and use the paint brush to fill in just the area of that color. my first attempt didn't turn out so bad, except i have no patience to make it look real...

So yours is just a solid color? What if I wanted to use a pattern then how would i do that?

... I think it's smart to learn the basics of photoshop/gimp before going straight on recoloring. Otherwise you'd never get a good result.

Patterns should be easy to do. Just copy the texture, and paste it in. If the programme has the opportunity to use layer masks (almost the same as alpha channel) then it's even easier. There are plenty of photoshop tutorials, so I won't list up everything here...
Photoskinning is a lot more complicated, and requires that you at least have basic knowledge of the texture editing programme you use.

Here's a quick SimPE review of the tutorial:

(click the picture for a bigger version)

(http://i422.photobucket.com/albums/pp310/Traven_storyphotos/howtorecolor_simplified_small.png) (http://i422.photobucket.com/albums/pp310/Traven_storyphotos/howtorecolor_simplified.png)

1: open the file/mesh you want to recolor
(oops - messed up numbers)
3: click on the texture file (if the plugin window doesn't show, click "window--> plugin view")
2: export the texture file, and save it to wherever you want.

Texture the outfit. Remember that everything except the head will have color on it, so places where you want the skin to show should be transparent (or black in an Alpha channel). If you work in layers, it's a smart thing to also save the workfile, just in case you want to use a part of the texture later.
Save as PNG ("Ctrl+alt+shift+S", as 24bit PNG if you've got Photoshop)

4: Right-click in the texture window, select "Build DXT"
5: use the DX3 format if you have transparent textures. DXT1 gives a more pixely result. On the sharpen option, select "none". Then open the texture you made.
6: when the texture is updated, click "commit".
7: Save As... whatever name you want.

Then test it, and see if it works :)

How do you create a texture? With GIMP?

I use photoshop myself. But GIMP is a free programme, so some people prefer that instead of photoshop.

I recommend you try to find some tutorials on the GIMP/photoshop basics, Ashleycsy. It's a lot to figure out otherwise.

OK! I found one...but what exactly am I trying to do? Sorry I'm so difficult! LOL! Thanks for all your help!

wow, you think you are having problems, creating the outfit recolors are nothing compared to the issues i am having with getting it in my game!!

LOL!!! What program did you use to recolor it?

Scroll up your question has already been answered ;D

YAY! I think I have it now. Just have to test it! How can you access your pictures that you take in the game?

If you haven't already, make sure you don't have duplicate or more than one infant override files enabled in your Downloads folder.  Otherwise, you'll have that happen.

As for #2, theraven already has that quoted for ya, so no need for me to double up on that.


If your screen resolution is small like mine, make sure the scroll bar on the very right of the SimPE screen is up all the way to the top, and you should see the Commit button. 

As for the tutorial not making any sense... well...  considering that it survived the transition from vBulletin to SMF, there may be some things odd with it... or not.  1eyebrow 

Many thanks, theraven, for doing a single-screenshot version of the tutorial.   I guess my wall of detailed words tends to scare people a bit... I was sure just bolding some of the important points would help out a bit there for those who like to skim, but what you did works out loads better.  ;D

@ ashleycsy:  Go to your My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Neighborhoods\N00X*\Storytelling folder.  * X= the neighborhood number... for example N001 would be Pleasantview, N002 = Strangetown, N003 = Veronaville, N004 = your custom 'hood, so on and so forth.  Whichever neighborhood you were in when you took the screenshots, you'd go to its numbered folder's Storytelling file and search for your screenshots.  ;)

Thanks... to everyone who created this post! 2hug

Many thanks for making this tutorial in the first place. Thanks to you and Bloom I learned making infant outfits myself ;)
I'm one of those who learns best with quick and easy picture tutorials, so I just thought some people might think the same... I never manage to find where to click at the first try, unless there's a picture showing where to find it (a bucketload of impatience doesn't help either  :-\)

How do we upload images to our posts?

now I wish there was a FAQ here too...

Upload the pictures to Photobucket or similar (make an account first), copy the [img] code, paste it into the post. If there's only an Http address, then use the "insert image" button (second one on the second row) and paste the http address in between the [img] [ / img] tags.

Oh yay, it took me a while but I got it right!