Changing Skin Tone via SimPE?

Zirconia Wolf · 07-25-2008, 04:22 AM

I am interested in playing around with default/non-default skin tones & have read several posts were people say that they have used SimPE to change a Sim's skin tone to a new custom one.

How?

I just poked around in SimPE's Sim Surgery thing & the only Skin Tone options I get are:

- From Archetype (another Sim)
- S1
- S2
- S3
- S4
- CASSIE Mannequin
- Alien
- Zombie (doesn't look green though)
&
- Mannequin (yes, another one)

There is no listing for any of the customized skins I have sitting happily in my Downloads folder & I can find no option to make SimPE even look for such skins.

I really hate to think that I have to create a group of Sims (that I don't want or need) in CAS with custom skin tones just so I can use the "Archetype" feature to change the Sims I care about.

Any thoughts/advise/info??

-ZW

Greg · 07-25-2008, 07:13 AM

We talked about that around here somewhere, maybe at the Hullabaloo. Now it's just a matter of finding those notes.

Zirconia Wolf · 07-25-2008, 01:43 PM

After further poking around, it appears that I need to "tell" SimPE where to go (so to speak) to load custom Skin Tones & such.

Instructions are here...
http://simpeforum.ambertation.de/sim...mPEs-FileTable

...but I may not have much time before work to try it out just yet.

Will report back with more info...

-ZW

Oh, a Google search turned up a Hullabalo link:
http://hullabaloo.sunsims.com/forum/...1513eb7186412b

*** UPDATE ***

Well it works! By that I mean I have successfully set up SimPE to load my custom Skin Tones into the Sims Surgery thingy.

On the "down" side, it's hard to tell several of the skins apart on those little bitty thumbnails & since many of the custom skins show the same "name" (CASIE_tmtopnaked_nudecut_s2) I'm not sure how to be sure which skin I am choosing in some cases!

On the "up" side, so far nobody has "reused" the names of the Maxis default skins, so at least I know which skins not to use!

Greg · 07-25-2008, 05:19 PM

That's a challenge that Warlokk and I talked about a long time ago. Neither of us could come up with a way to provide a tool tip for skin tones; darn it. All I can think of is to really, really stare at those little icons.

Hokieman · 07-26-2008, 03:01 AM

ZW, I have done it. It's actually not hard. There used to be a post at ISA by JankFalcon that told you how to do most of it but it's gone now. But here are the basics:

1. First thing you have to do is determine th skintone internal file names/numbers. That is the hard part unless you already have a sim in your game with the skintone you want to use. It's a breeze cause all you have to do is copy and paste. I'll tell you where further along in this post. If you don't have a sim with the skintone, it's just a few more steps.

2. If you don't know the skintne internal number/name then the way I found them was using Christianlov's CL Tool and his skintone changer. Hopefully you've got it. Also to make it easier, I hope you have all your skintones isolated by directory and bodytype if you're using any of the bodytypes like CPU, Fashion Model, etc. If you have everything in the downloads folder that's ok, It'll work but when you run into a problem, it's just a little harder to track down specific files.

3. Follow the CL Tool directions to load the skintone changer. You have to select the directory where the skintones are and where the changer is located and then let the program read the files. In a window below, where you put in the directory names, you will notice that the Tool will list every skintone it reads. Copy what's in the window and paste it into a note pad, word or some other word processor. If you have multiple directories where you have skintones, you will have to repeat the process for every directory so you can get a complete list of all your skintones. Once you've got all the data in a document, save it and close the CL Tool.

4. For each skintone on the list, you'll see things like the directory path & filename, the tool tip that's used in CAS & Bodyshop, the file size and the last item is the skintn's internal number/name. It's a bunch of numbers and letters separated into 5 groups separated by hypens. Now you have the names you need.

5. Open SimPE, then open the neighborhood where the sim you want to change is located. Select sim description in the upper left window and all the sims in the hood will be displayed in the right window. Scroll down to the sim you want to change and highlight it. Then in the bottom window (Plugin View) select More then Open Sim DNA which will open in the bottom window.

6. You will see two windows, one labeled dominate gene and one labeled recessive gene. In each window you will see a field called skintone and on the right will be the value currently in the field. This is where you need to plug in your new skintone value you get from the list you made with CL Tool.

7. You probably already know this but, the dominate gene window is the sim's current state. The recessive gene only comes into play when you have babies. It's basically, the value from the other parent when the sim is born in game. So you only need to change the skintone value in the dominate gene window to modify an existing sim.

8. So basically all you do here is type in the new value, commit and save.

9. All of the above works perfectly well for the default body type. There is another step involved for non-default bodyshapes like CPU. Ifyou are trying to make a default size sim a CPU for example, what you will get up to this point is a default size sim with a CPU skintone. You will not get the CPU bodyshape on the existing sim. However, since chainging the skintone this way is genetic, any babies born by this sim or his mate will inherit the bodyshape as well. It works the same way between any bodyshapes. If you put a Rio skintone on an existing CPU, you get exactly that Rio skin on a CPU shape but any offspring that inherit the bodyshape will be Rio, not CPU. So how do we get the bodyshape that goes with the skintone for non-default size sims?

10. Not hard. Below the skintone field in the dominate gene window is a field called SkintoneRange. All you have to do is plug the same value that you pluged into the Skintone field into that one as well. The commit and save.

11. If you already have a sim with the skintone you want to apply to your target sim, the process is even easier. Select Sim Description and select the sim that has the skintone you want. Select More in the bottom window then Open Sim DNA. Copy the value in the skintone field. Then go back to Sim Description and select the target sim, Select More and open Sim DNA and then paste the copied value in the Skintone field, commit and save. Repeat if you need to do the same for the SkintoneRange field. It's that easy.

I'm lousy with screen shots so I apolgize for not including them. Just reply or shoot me a PM if you have any questions.

Hokieman · 07-26-2008, 03:48 AM

Ok, I went and found the post where we talked about this before: It's in this thread where we sort of rambled all over the place but the basics are there including a link to a tutorial by RoofMonkey. The posts about the skintone changer, CL tool and changing skins with SimPE start on page 2. Provides a bit more useful info.

http://www.sunsims.com/forums/showthread.php?t=627

Zirconia Wolf · 07-26-2008, 01:15 PM

Oohhhh.

Cool!

Thanks, Hokieman!

I don't have any custom "body shapes" as yet (I like them, but finding a good variety of clothes to fit them seems tricky) & I have all my custom skin tones in 1 folder, so it shouldn't be too hard.

Another "skin tone" question: If I replace the 4 Maxis default skin tones (S1, S2, S3 & S4) with new default replacement skin tones, do I have to "do" anything other than just plop the replacements into my Downloads folder for them to "take", or will they instantly effect all Sims? (I found a neat set of Maxis skin tones that give infants a cute head of hair instead of being bald that I plan on making into the default skin tones, but the prospect of having to manually change every Playable/NPC/Townie/Downtownie in all my Hoods is rather daunting!)

-ZW

Miros1 · 07-26-2008, 02:06 PM

Default skin tone: Yep. you just drop 'em in and they work.

Zirconia Wolf · 07-26-2008, 03:29 PM

WooHoo!

No more bald babies!

Now if I can just figure out how to attach infant hair to my other skintones, I will be able to embark on yet another project designed to keep me from dealing with RL!

I'm hoping I'm smart enough to look at the skins that have infant hair added & dope it out on my own...

-ZW

***EDITED TO ADD***

Hokieman; what's the advantage of changing skins the way you describe vs using the Sim Surgery thingy?

Also, it seems I have one skin (Liquorice) that the CL Tool will not read at all! The skin shows up (nameless) in Body Shop & CAS & I see it in Sim Surgery, but the CL Tool won't acknowledge it, hence I can't get it's internal ID number!

Help!

!!!!!

Hokieman · 07-26-2008, 06:06 PM

ZW, actually you are using sim surgery, but just going at it a different way that I find more direct and easier. Changing a skintone, means changing the SimDNA and you will end up at the screens I talked about anyway. When I open the sim surgery window, the only skintones I see are the defaults. I don't see the cc skintones. And to be honest, I was never very successful doing it that way.

On your Liquorice skintone, I have a few of those that did that too, though, it's mostly for the non-default bodyshapes. Take a look at the file size on your Liquorice and compare it to your other skins. The ones that CL Tool doesn't want to read tend to be quite a bit larger than most of the others. I suspect that something went wrong somewhere along the way when the skin was made. What I did to get them to be read was to use Bodyshop to strip the textures and then create a new skintone.

On default skintones, like Rose said, but you may have to experiment a bit because it's really easy to get more than one type (S1, S2, etc.) in your downloads since some creators don't label them the same as others and some may be deliberately changed (ie, a skin labeled as tan could be an S2 or S3). The game only uses the last one that it reads on load so if you have, for example, two S1s, and the one you want to use is the first one read, then you'll never see it in game. Also, there are actually 9 default skintones. In addition to Light, Tan, Medium and Dark, there are plantsim, vampire, werewolf, zombie and alien. Some like the vampire, act like clothes, like an overlay, so the original skintones' non-barbie bits will still be there, but others don't, they are full replacements.

Zirconia Wolf · 07-27-2008, 02:53 AM

Interesting...

I took a look at my Liquorice skintone & it claims to be 2,333 KB in size. I have a couple others that list as being over 4,000 KB (4,656 KB is the largest) that are being read by the CL Tool with no problem. I think I'll try your Body Shop idea to see if I can get it to play nice...otherwise, I guess I will have to stick with only using it on new CAS Sims, which is "do-able", but kind of a bummer.

I am planning on replacing the Maxian S1, S2, S3 & S4 skins with ones that allow for hair on babies...if I can be 100% certain I am replacing the right tone with the right replacement!

I always thought that it went:
S1= Light, S2= Tan, S3= Medium & S4= Dark

However when I was playing around with the CL Tool in game, I noticed that when I swapped to the different Maxis default tones, it was clearly:
S1= Light, S2= Medium, S3= Tan & S4= Dark, as far as "lightest-to-darkest" was concerned!

I may have to take my chances & match the Tan/Medium tones visually & hope for the best.

As for the other defaults, I plan on leaving them alone & "manually" switching relevant Sims to use a brilliant set of Maxis-match Alien, Were Wolf, Plant Sim, Wilt Plant Sim, Zombie & Mannequin skins that allow for infants to be born with said skintones. (I'm still deciding what to do- if anything- about my Vampires. Just not sure about the "blue hue" thing...)

Think I'll fire up Body Shop & see what damage I can do to that Liquorice skin...

-ZW

***UPDATE***

Well, whatdaya know; it worked! Even has a tool tip & everything! (I renamed it Ebony though...)

Had a brief moment of panic when I got the "Horrible Fog Horn Of Death" sound & was told by the CL Tool that it couldn't access the Custom Skintone Selector file (even though it still coughed up the ID numbers) until I remembered that I had set the thing to be Read Only after my last use. (I do that with all my Downloads. Gonna Have to remember to let the Skintone Selector pass by!)

I feel kind of bad since I am technically "messing" with someone else's creation...but then again, if that creation was broken- at least for my purposes- & I don't upload it anywhere, I think I should be okay.

Now if I can just figure out how in the heck someone managed to get hair attached to the infant skins...

Hokieman · 07-27-2008, 03:48 AM

Great! I'm glad it worked for you. Sorry but I can't help you on the infant hair.

On the S order, the way you listed it the first time is the way I understand it to be. On the second way you listed it, the skintone changer might list maxis, but what it really shows is whatever defaults you are running. So, like I said before, some folks change the S numbers around. I've seen it most when someone runs a really pale skin as S1, a light as s2, a medium as S3 and a dark as S4.

BTW, alien is S5, and I'm pretty sure the rest follow in this order: zombie is S6, vampire is S7, werewolf is S8 and plantsim is S9.

Zirconia Wolf · 07-27-2008, 03:57 AM

Yikes!

I don't remember having any default skins installed at the moment, which is why the "Tan/Medium" switch through me. Better rummage around in my Downloads folder some more...

I do have a complete set of default face template replacements...but that shouldn't effect skins, should it?

-ZW

***UPDATE***

Interesting: I just took a peek at a set of default replacement templates & it lists S2 as Medium & S3 as Tan!

So I guess I had it wrong & the Skintone Selector knew what it was talking about after all! (That & I know I don't have any stowaway skins hiding out!)

Hokieman · 07-27-2008, 04:44 AM

Hmmm. Now you've got me curious. I'm going to have to check what mine are and take a good look at what order CAS shows them.

No the face templates shouldn't affect skintones. Completely different set of defaults as are eyes. They are for structure, not coloration.

Miros1 · 07-27-2008, 12:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zirconia Wolf

Now if I can just figure out how to attach infant hair to my other skintones, I will be able to embark on yet another project designed to keep me from dealing with RL!

Infant hair: You should be able to take the baby-unisex scalps from your default replacements and import them into skintones of your choice. You might want to refer to Yakov's (BeosBoxBoy) tutorial, Pixel Perfect Skintones, on InSim to help you figure out which is which.

Quote:

Also, it seems I have one skin (Liquorice) that the CL Tool will not read at all! The skin shows up (nameless) in Body Shop & CAS & I see it in Sim Surgery, but the CL Tool won't acknowledge it, hence I can't get it's internal ID number!

If you use Roof Monkey's tut, I think it tells you how to get the ID number without the CL tool.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zirconia Wolf

I always thought that it went:
S1= Light, S2= Tan, S3= Medium & S4= Dark

However when I was playing around with the CL Tool in game, I noticed that when I swapped to the different Maxis default tones, it was clearly:
S1= Light, S2= Medium, S3= Tan & S4= Dark, as far as "lightest-to-darkest" was concerned!

I may have to take my chances & match the Tan/Medium tones visually & hope for the best.

Mine are (Jwilson5/Louis) Light, Mid, Tan, Dark Tan. However, jwilson5 does put up 2 sets.

Quote:

As for the other defaults, I plan on leaving them alone & "manually" switching relevant Sims to use a brilliant set of Maxis-match Alien, Were Wolf, Plant Sim, Wilt Plant Sim, Zombie & Mannequin skins that allow for infants to be born with said skintones. (I'm still deciding what to do- if anything- about my Vampires. Just not sure about the "blue hue" thing...)

Vampires are actually done by an overlay. There's a "more sheer" set on InSimAdult that lets more of their original skintone show through.

Quote:

I feel kind of bad since I am technically "messing" with someone else's creation...but then again, if that creation was broken- at least for my purposes- & I don't upload it anywhere, I think I should be okay.

I figure what I do in the privacy of my own computer is my business.

Zirconia Wolf · 07-27-2008, 02:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Miros1

Vampires are actually done by an overlay. There's a "more sheer" set on InSimAdult that lets more of their original skintone show through.

Yeah, that's what I was afraid of.

I suppose there's no good way to tell how a Vampire overlay would look without creating a bunch of Sims I don't want in CAS of various base skintones & having them "Vamped" in game, eh?

(May check out that "more sheer" one though...)

-ZW

Greg · 07-27-2008, 02:30 PM

I have never tried using the vampire skin tone in CAS. If you first use a technicolor skin and then switch to the vampire skin, do you get a technicolor vampire?

Zirconia Wolf · 07-27-2008, 02:48 PM

You should get a Technicolor skin with a vampire (blueish) overlay.

Pretty freaky, actually!

-ZW

Hokieman · 07-27-2008, 05:52 PM

For vampires, plantsims and aliens,the ones I use were done by diva_fidelia. I think these may be the ones that Rose is referring to. There are others though. The vamps have a yellowish tint. She (I'm assume she's a she) did both default and non-default so you can check it out in CAS or Bodyshop before installing the default replacements.

Zirconia Wolf · 07-28-2008, 01:42 PM

They sound intriguing. Might check them out.

Haven't made much progress figuring out how someone was able to get the toddler hair to work for infants, but if I understand the skin files like I think I do, then if "worse comes to worse" I should be able to just "paint" hair right on the bald little buggers via PaintShop Pro.

-ZW

07-25-2008, 04:22 AM	#1
Zirconia Wolf Reticulated MoonBat Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: My trusty computer in Issaquah WA, USA. Posts: 848	Changing Skin Tone via SimPE? I am interested in playing around with default/non-default skin tones & have read several posts were people say that they have used SimPE to change a Sim's skin tone to a new custom one. How? I just poked around in SimPE's Sim Surgery thing & the only Skin Tone options I get are: - From Archetype (another Sim) - S1 - S2 - S3 - S4 - CASSIE Mannequin - Alien - Zombie (doesn't look green though) & - Mannequin (yes, another one) There is no listing for any of the customized skins I have sitting happily in my Downloads folder & I can find no option to make SimPE even look for such skins. I really hate to think that I have to create a group of Sims (that I don't want or need) in CAS with custom skin tones just so I can use the "Archetype" feature to change the Sims I care about. Any thoughts/advise/info?? -ZW __________________ Long Live All Wild Canines! Leader Of The Moon-Bat Revolution!

07-25-2008, 07:13 AM	#2
Greg Da Guy Wut Owns Dis Joint Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Texas Posts: 3,566	We talked about that around here somewhere, maybe at the Hullabaloo. Now it's just a matter of finding those notes. __________________ Who are all these people and what do they know?

07-25-2008, 01:43 PM	#3
Zirconia Wolf Reticulated MoonBat Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: My trusty computer in Issaquah WA, USA. Posts: 848	After further poking around, it appears that I need to "tell" SimPE where to go (so to speak) to load custom Skin Tones & such. Instructions are here... http://simpeforum.ambertation.de/sim...mPEs-FileTable ...but I may not have much time before work to try it out just yet. Will report back with more info... -ZW Oh, a Google search turned up a Hullabalo link: http://hullabaloo.sunsims.com/forum/...1513eb7186412b * UPDATE * Well it works! By that I mean I have successfully set up SimPE to load my custom Skin Tones into the Sims Surgery thingy. On the "down" side, it's hard to tell several of the skins apart on those little bitty thumbnails & since many of the custom skins show the same "name" (CASIE_tmtopnaked_nudecut_s2) I'm not sure how to be sure which skin I am choosing in some cases! On the "up" side, so far nobody has "reused" the names of the Maxis default skins, so at least I know which skins not to use! __________________ Long Live All Wild Canines! Leader Of The Moon-Bat Revolution! Last edited by Zirconia Wolf : 07-25-2008 at 03:24 PM.

07-25-2008, 05:19 PM	#4
Greg Da Guy Wut Owns Dis Joint Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Texas Posts: 3,566	That's a challenge that Warlokk and I talked about a long time ago. Neither of us could come up with a way to provide a tool tip for skin tones; darn it. All I can think of is to really, really stare at those little icons. __________________ Who are all these people and what do they know?

07-26-2008, 01:15 PM	#7
Zirconia Wolf Reticulated MoonBat Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: My trusty computer in Issaquah WA, USA. Posts: 848	Oohhhh. Cool! Thanks, Hokieman! I don't have any custom "body shapes" as yet (I like them, but finding a good variety of clothes to fit them seems tricky) & I have all my custom skin tones in 1 folder, so it shouldn't be too hard. Another "skin tone" question: If I replace the 4 Maxis default skin tones (S1, S2, S3 & S4) with new default replacement skin tones, do I have to "do" anything other than just plop the replacements into my Downloads folder for them to "take", or will they instantly effect all Sims? (I found a neat set of Maxis skin tones that give infants a cute head of hair instead of being bald that I plan on making into the default skin tones, but the prospect of having to manually change every Playable/NPC/Townie/Downtownie in all my Hoods is rather daunting!) -ZW __________________ Long Live All Wild Canines! Leader Of The Moon-Bat Revolution!

07-26-2008, 03:01 AM	#5
Hokieman Solar Max Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Las Vegas Posts: 520	ZW, I have done it. It's actually not hard. There used to be a post at ISA by JankFalcon that told you how to do most of it but it's gone now. But here are the basics: 1. First thing you have to do is determine th skintone internal file names/numbers. That is the hard part unless you already have a sim in your game with the skintone you want to use. It's a breeze cause all you have to do is copy and paste. I'll tell you where further along in this post. If you don't have a sim with the skintone, it's just a few more steps. 2. If you don't know the skintne internal number/name then the way I found them was using Christianlov's CL Tool and his skintone changer. Hopefully you've got it. Also to make it easier, I hope you have all your skintones isolated by directory and bodytype if you're using any of the bodytypes like CPU, Fashion Model, etc. If you have everything in the downloads folder that's ok, It'll work but when you run into a problem, it's just a little harder to track down specific files. 3. Follow the CL Tool directions to load the skintone changer. You have to select the directory where the skintones are and where the changer is located and then let the program read the files. In a window below, where you put in the directory names, you will notice that the Tool will list every skintone it reads. Copy what's in the window and paste it into a note pad, word or some other word processor. If you have multiple directories where you have skintones, you will have to repeat the process for every directory so you can get a complete list of all your skintones. Once you've got all the data in a document, save it and close the CL Tool. 4. For each skintone on the list, you'll see things like the directory path & filename, the tool tip that's used in CAS & Bodyshop, the file size and the last item is the skintn's internal number/name. It's a bunch of numbers and letters separated into 5 groups separated by hypens. Now you have the names you need. 5. Open SimPE, then open the neighborhood where the sim you want to change is located. Select sim description in the upper left window and all the sims in the hood will be displayed in the right window. Scroll down to the sim you want to change and highlight it. Then in the bottom window (Plugin View) select More then Open Sim DNA which will open in the bottom window. 6. You will see two windows, one labeled dominate gene and one labeled recessive gene. In each window you will see a field called skintone and on the right will be the value currently in the field. This is where you need to plug in your new skintone value you get from the list you made with CL Tool. 7. You probably already know this but, the dominate gene window is the sim's current state. The recessive gene only comes into play when you have babies. It's basically, the value from the other parent when the sim is born in game. So you only need to change the skintone value in the dominate gene window to modify an existing sim. 8. So basically all you do here is type in the new value, commit and save. 9. All of the above works perfectly well for the default body type. There is another step involved for non-default bodyshapes like CPU. Ifyou are trying to make a default size sim a CPU for example, what you will get up to this point is a default size sim with a CPU skintone. You will not get the CPU bodyshape on the existing sim. However, since chainging the skintone this way is genetic, any babies born by this sim or his mate will inherit the bodyshape as well. It works the same way between any bodyshapes. If you put a Rio skintone on an existing CPU, you get exactly that Rio skin on a CPU shape but any offspring that inherit the bodyshape will be Rio, not CPU. So how do we get the bodyshape that goes with the skintone for non-default size sims? 10. Not hard. Below the skintone field in the dominate gene window is a field called SkintoneRange. All you have to do is plug the same value that you pluged into the Skintone field into that one as well. The commit and save. 11. If you already have a sim with the skintone you want to apply to your target sim, the process is even easier. Select Sim Description and select the sim that has the skintone you want. Select More in the bottom window then Open Sim DNA. Copy the value in the skintone field. Then go back to Sim Description and select the target sim, Select More and open Sim DNA and then paste the copied value in the Skintone field, commit and save. Repeat if you need to do the same for the SkintoneRange field. It's that easy. I'm lousy with screen shots so I apolgize for not including them. Just reply or shoot me a PM if you have any questions.

07-26-2008, 03:48 AM	#6
Hokieman Solar Max Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Las Vegas Posts: 520	Ok, I went and found the post where we talked about this before: It's in this thread where we sort of rambled all over the place but the basics are there including a link to a tutorial by RoofMonkey. The posts about the skintone changer, CL tool and changing skins with SimPE start on page 2. Provides a bit more useful info. http://www.sunsims.com/forums/showthread.php?t=627

07-26-2008, 02:06 PM	#8
Miros1 Goddess for Life Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: NY State Posts: 3,303	Default skin tone: Yep. you just drop 'em in and they work. __________________ A game that horrible Odessa-person introduced me to: http://www.puzzlepirates.com/?affili...163251&lang=en I'm spreading the addiction by corrupting all my friends (and attempting to make in-game money when they try the game).

07-26-2008, 03:29 PM	#9
Zirconia Wolf Reticulated MoonBat Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: My trusty computer in Issaquah WA, USA. Posts: 848	WooHoo! No more bald babies! Now if I can just figure out how to attach infant hair to my other skintones, I will be able to embark on yet another project designed to keep me from dealing with RL! I'm hoping I'm smart enough to look at the skins that have infant hair added & dope it out on my own... -ZW *EDITED TO ADD* Hokieman; what's the advantage of changing skins the way you describe vs using the Sim Surgery thingy? Also, it seems I have one skin (Liquorice) that the CL Tool will not read at all! The skin shows up (nameless) in Body Shop & CAS & I see it in Sim Surgery, but the CL Tool won't acknowledge it, hence I can't get it's internal ID number! Help! !!!!! __________________ Long Live All Wild Canines! Leader Of The Moon-Bat Revolution! Last edited by Zirconia Wolf : 07-26-2008 at 04:49 PM.

07-26-2008, 06:06 PM	#10
Hokieman Solar Max Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Las Vegas Posts: 520	ZW, actually you are using sim surgery, but just going at it a different way that I find more direct and easier. Changing a skintone, means changing the SimDNA and you will end up at the screens I talked about anyway. When I open the sim surgery window, the only skintones I see are the defaults. I don't see the cc skintones. And to be honest, I was never very successful doing it that way. On your Liquorice skintone, I have a few of those that did that too, though, it's mostly for the non-default bodyshapes. Take a look at the file size on your Liquorice and compare it to your other skins. The ones that CL Tool doesn't want to read tend to be quite a bit larger than most of the others. I suspect that something went wrong somewhere along the way when the skin was made. What I did to get them to be read was to use Bodyshop to strip the textures and then create a new skintone. On default skintones, like Rose said, but you may have to experiment a bit because it's really easy to get more than one type (S1, S2, etc.) in your downloads since some creators don't label them the same as others and some may be deliberately changed (ie, a skin labeled as tan could be an S2 or S3). The game only uses the last one that it reads on load so if you have, for example, two S1s, and the one you want to use is the first one read, then you'll never see it in game. Also, there are actually 9 default skintones. In addition to Light, Tan, Medium and Dark, there are plantsim, vampire, werewolf, zombie and alien. Some like the vampire, act like clothes, like an overlay, so the original skintones' non-barbie bits will still be there, but others don't, they are full replacements. Last edited by Hokieman : 07-26-2008 at 06:34 PM.

07-27-2008, 02:53 AM	#11
Zirconia Wolf Reticulated MoonBat Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: My trusty computer in Issaquah WA, USA. Posts: 848	Interesting... I took a look at my Liquorice skintone & it claims to be 2,333 KB in size. I have a couple others that list as being over 4,000 KB (4,656 KB is the largest) that are being read by the CL Tool with no problem. I think I'll try your Body Shop idea to see if I can get it to play nice...otherwise, I guess I will have to stick with only using it on new CAS Sims, which is "do-able", but kind of a bummer. I am planning on replacing the Maxian S1, S2, S3 & S4 skins with ones that allow for hair on babies...if I can be 100% certain I am replacing the right tone with the right replacement! I always thought that it went: S1= Light, S2= Tan, S3= Medium & S4= Dark However when I was playing around with the CL Tool in game, I noticed that when I swapped to the different Maxis default tones, it was clearly: S1= Light, S2= Medium, S3= Tan & S4= Dark, as far as "lightest-to-darkest" was concerned! I may have to take my chances & match the Tan/Medium tones visually & hope for the best. As for the other defaults, I plan on leaving them alone & "manually" switching relevant Sims to use a brilliant set of Maxis-match Alien, Were Wolf, Plant Sim, Wilt Plant Sim, Zombie & Mannequin skins that allow for infants to be born with said skintones. (I'm still deciding what to do- if anything- about my Vampires. Just not sure about the "blue hue" thing...) Think I'll fire up Body Shop & see what damage I can do to that Liquorice skin... -ZW *UPDATE* Well, whatdaya know; it worked! Even has a tool tip & everything! (I renamed it Ebony though...) Had a brief moment of panic when I got the "Horrible Fog Horn Of Death" sound & was told by the CL Tool that it couldn't access the Custom Skintone Selector file (even though it still coughed up the ID numbers) until I remembered that I had set the thing to be Read Only after my last use. (I do that with all my Downloads. Gonna Have to remember to let the Skintone Selector pass by!) I feel kind of bad since I am technically "messing" with someone else's creation...but then again, if that creation was broken- at least for my purposes- & I don't upload it anywhere, I think I should be okay. Now if I can just figure out how in the heck someone managed to get hair attached to the infant skins... __________________ Long Live All Wild Canines! Leader Of The Moon-Bat Revolution! Last edited by Zirconia Wolf : 07-27-2008 at 03:30 AM. Reason: update

07-27-2008, 03:48 AM	#12
Hokieman Solar Max Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Las Vegas Posts: 520	Great! I'm glad it worked for you. Sorry but I can't help you on the infant hair. On the S order, the way you listed it the first time is the way I understand it to be. On the second way you listed it, the skintone changer might list maxis, but what it really shows is whatever defaults you are running. So, like I said before, some folks change the S numbers around. I've seen it most when someone runs a really pale skin as S1, a light as s2, a medium as S3 and a dark as S4. BTW, alien is S5, and I'm pretty sure the rest follow in this order: zombie is S6, vampire is S7, werewolf is S8 and plantsim is S9.

07-27-2008, 03:57 AM	#13
Zirconia Wolf Reticulated MoonBat Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: My trusty computer in Issaquah WA, USA. Posts: 848	Yikes! I don't remember having any default skins installed at the moment, which is why the "Tan/Medium" switch through me. Better rummage around in my Downloads folder some more... I do have a complete set of default face template replacements...but that shouldn't effect skins, should it? -ZW *UPDATE* Interesting: I just took a peek at a set of default replacement templates & it lists S2 as Medium & S3 as Tan! So I guess I had it wrong & the Skintone Selector knew what it was talking about after all! (That & I know I don't have any stowaway skins hiding out!) __________________ Long Live All Wild Canines! Leader Of The Moon-Bat Revolution! Last edited by Zirconia Wolf : 07-27-2008 at 04:02 AM.

07-27-2008, 04:44 AM	#14
Hokieman Solar Max Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Las Vegas Posts: 520	Hmmm. Now you've got me curious. I'm going to have to check what mine are and take a good look at what order CAS shows them. No the face templates shouldn't affect skintones. Completely different set of defaults as are eyes. They are for structure, not coloration.

07-27-2008, 02:30 PM	#17
Greg Da Guy Wut Owns Dis Joint Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Texas Posts: 3,566	I have never tried using the vampire skin tone in CAS. If you first use a technicolor skin and then switch to the vampire skin, do you get a technicolor vampire? __________________ Who are all these people and what do they know?

07-27-2008, 02:48 PM	#18
Zirconia Wolf Reticulated MoonBat Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: My trusty computer in Issaquah WA, USA. Posts: 848	You should get a Technicolor skin with a vampire (blueish) overlay. Pretty freaky, actually! -ZW __________________ Long Live All Wild Canines! Leader Of The Moon-Bat Revolution!

07-27-2008, 05:52 PM	#19
Hokieman Solar Max Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Las Vegas Posts: 520	For vampires, plantsims and aliens,the ones I use were done by diva_fidelia. I think these may be the ones that Rose is referring to. There are others though. The vamps have a yellowish tint. She (I'm assume she's a she) did both default and non-default so you can check it out in CAS or Bodyshop before installing the default replacements.

07-28-2008, 01:42 PM	#20
Zirconia Wolf Reticulated MoonBat Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: My trusty computer in Issaquah WA, USA. Posts: 848	They sound intriguing. Might check them out. Haven't made much progress figuring out how someone was able to get the toddler hair to work for infants, but if I understand the skin files like I think I do, then if "worse comes to worse" I should be able to just "paint" hair right on the bald little buggers via PaintShop Pro. -ZW __________________ Long Live All Wild Canines! Leader Of The Moon-Bat Revolution!