Replacing Default Clothing

By Windkeeper, 12 May 2006

Replacing Default Clothes

This tutorial will teach you how to replace Maxis default clothes texture with your own custom
texture. We will be replacing default white pajamas for adult female with custom pajamas. Youre
expected to know how to create custom clothes in BodyShop and have basic knowledge of SimPe
program.

Note: This tutorial is not about replacing a mesh but only recolor (texture) of a default Maxis outfit.
It does not cover bump map replacement either. For better results use this tutorial to convert
outfits where bump map replacement is not required.

Step 1.

Start BodyShop. Go to Create Parts section and locate the default outfit you plan to replace. In
this tutorial its female white pajamas.

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 Replacing Default Clothing
By Windkeeper, 12 May 2006

Step 1 Cont.

Create a custom recolor of the white pajamas following all the usual steps, give the project a
name that you will remember, for example mycustompjs, make sure to export it when youre
done. In the example below I used one of the pajamas textures of young adults from University
expansion pack. Close BodyShop.

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 Replacing Default Clothing
By Windkeeper, 12 May 2006

Step 2.

Start SimPe. Locate and open the pajamas recolor file you created in Step 1. The file is located in
SavedSims folder. For easy find switch the view of that folder to Details and sort the files by Date
Modified. The file you created will have the latest date. Then name will look something like
5f232d7b_mycustompjs.package.

In SimPe click on Texture Image (TXTR) resource in top left window. This will display a list of
textures in the top right window. For an outfit there are usually one or two textures. One texture is
the actual outfit; you can tell which one it is by the part stdMatBase in its name. The other,
optional, is the bump map or normal map texture and has stdMatNormalMap as part of the name.
Click on the outfit texture, you can verify if its the right one by checking the Plugin View window
below, you should see the your custom pajamas texture. Right-click on the hgihlighted Texture
Image line in top right window and select Extract from a popup menu. When prompted give it a
name, I called mine custompajamas, and save it somewhere on your computer. Its good to have
a work folder for this kind of projects.

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 Replacing Default Clothing
By Windkeeper, 12 May 2006

Step 3.

In SimPe click on Property Set (GZPS) resource in top left window. Click on Property Set again
in top right window. This should open that resource in Plugin View window at the bottom. Locate
the line that starts with name (dtString). Click on that line and copy its Value by selecting it and
pressing Ctrl-C. In the example below the value is afbodypajamasclassic_whitesatin. That is
the name of Material Definition file that we now need.

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 Replacing Default Clothing
By Windkeeper, 12 May 2006

Step 4.

Locate Finder icon and click to switch to the Resource Finder. The icon is usually located on a
toolbar at the bottom of SimPe window.

In Resource Finder window click in the field below the word Match and press Ctrl-V to paste the
value you copied in Step 3. Click Start button to start the search. The search could take a while,
progress bar at the bottom will be indication.

The result of the search will be a single name of a Material Definition file that we need. Double-
click on that line and wait until SimPe opens corresponding package and locates that resource. At
the end you should see a list of resources appear in the top right window with one of them
highlighted.

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 Replacing Default Clothing
By Windkeeper, 12 May 2006

Step 5.

Make sure SimPe has located the resource and it is highlighted in the top right window. Click on
Plugin button at the bottom of SimPe window to switch back to Plugin View.

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 Replacing Default Clothing
By Windkeeper, 12 May 2006

Step 5 Cont.

In Plugin View locate the line that starts with stdMatBaseTextureName. Click on that line and
copy its Value (on the right) by selecting it and pressing Ctrl-C. In the example below the value is
ufbodypajamasclassic-whitesatin. That is the name of Maxis white pajamas texture, the one we
need to extract.

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 Replacing Default Clothing
By Windkeeper, 12 May 2006

Step 6.

Click on Finder icon at the bottom of the screen to switch to the Resource Finder. Select whats
in the field below Match and press Ctrl-V to paste the new value you copied in Step 5. Click Start
button to start another search. When the search is complete and results are displayed, locate a
single line in the results that starts with Texture Image, ignore other lines that might be listed
there. Double-click on Texture Image line and wait until SimPe opens corresponding package and
locates that resource. At the end you should see a list of resources appear in the top right window
with one of them highlighted.

Step 7.

Make sure SimPe has located the resource and it is highlighted in the top right window. Right click
on it and select Extract from a popup menu. When prompted give it a name, I called mine
maxispajamas, and save it somewhere on your computer.

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 Replacing Default Clothing
By Windkeeper, 12 May 2006

Step 8.

Select File menu at the top of SimPe window and click on New. This should clear out the top part
of SimPe window. Right-click anywhere at the top right window and select Add from a popup
menu. Browse to the file you saved in Step 7, maxispajamas, and click Open.

This should add the texture we extracted to current file. Make sure your screen looks similar to the
one below. The newly created package now contains one Texture Image only. Select File menu at
the top of SimPe window and click on Save As. Give your package file a unique name to make
sure you can locate it later if needed, I called mine adultfemalewhitepajamasreplacement, and
save it to your Downloads folder.

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 Replacing Default Clothing
By Windkeeper, 12 May 2006

Step 9.

Click on Plugin button at the bottom of SimPe window to switch back to Plugin View. Click on
Texture Image (TXTR) resource in top left window. Click on Texture Image line in top right
window. The white pajamas texture should be displayed in the Plugin View below. Locate its
Filename in Plugin View and copy it by selecting it and pressing Ctrl-C, you will need to restore it
later.

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 Replacing Default Clothing
By Windkeeper, 12 May 2006

We will now replace this texture with our custom one. In the top right window right-click on Texture
Image line and select Replace from a popup menu. When prompted locate the file you saved in
Step 2, mine was called custompajamas, and click Open. The texture in Plugin View will change
to the custom one you made.

Select the Filename again in Plugin View and paste back its original value by pressing Ctrl-V.
Click Commit button, click Ok in a small popup window. Save the file from File menu or by
clicking Save button at the top of SimPe window. Close SimPe. You have created a replacement
package file that has original texture name for white pajamas but custom image.

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 Replacing Default Clothing
By Windkeeper, 12 May 2006

Step 10.

Run BodyShop. Go to Build Sims, clone female adult sim and browse through clothes pajamas
section to where default white pajamas was originally located. You should now see your custom
pajamas texture instead.

Scroll to the very beginning and delete your original custom pajamas, the one with asterisk. You
no longer need it. Close BodyShop.

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 Replacing Default Clothing
By Windkeeper, 12 May 2006

Conclusion

Youve created and tested a replacement package file for Maxis adult female white pajamas. The
file is called adultfemalewhitepajamasreplacement.package and is located in your Downloads
folder. All the females in your game that had that pajamas in their wardrobe will now have the new
custom pajamas instead. If you ever want to restore them to the original white pajamas, simply
delete the file you created.

Before you run the game, its better to refresh the thumbnails. Delete the
CASThumbnails.package located in My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Thumbnails
folder. When you run the game the file will be recreated again and all the thumbnails created
anew.

Note: You can use this same method to extract and replace bump map texture. But keep in mind,
some clothes share common bump map texture, replacing it will affect all those clothes. To do
proper replacement in that case you would need to extract Material Definition file for the outfit,
attach custom bump map texture and link it inside Material Definition.

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