Author Topic: Tutorial: Extracting Content from EPs and SPs  (Read 4932 times)

Offline kayleigh

  • Mexican Whooping Llama
  • Wounded Mosquito
  • *****
  • Posts: 155
  • Gender: Female
    • View Profile
    • kkkayleighh@dreamwidth
Tutorial: Extracting Content from EPs and SPs
« on: Jul 09, 2010, 03:54AM »
Extracting Content from EPs and SPs
(have the outfits without installing the packs)

Info: Extracting the content from Expansion packs and Stuff packs without having to install the packs. Working Body Shop, access to the EP/SP, and SimPE required.

Warning: Some images may be confusing. Follow the numbers and the text below each image to better help you understand. Read through the tutorial thoroughly before attempting to follow it. Pay close attention to all steps and be sure not to skip anything.




1) Open Body Shop, duh!
2) Choose Create Parts.
3) Choose Start New Project.
4) Choose Create Clothing.





5) Find and Select the outfit you wish to extract. Click the Export Selected Textures button.





6) Name the project, preferably something that you will remember. I chose "hmextracted1."
7) Do not make any changes to this file. Import directly to game. Add a tooltip if you would like, so you can more easily recognize it, but it isn't necessary. You will be able to delete this file after you have completed all the steps of the tutorial.





8) Repeat the process, only select any Base Game outfit instead. It really doesn't matter which one, this will be the file that we replace in order for the outfit to show up in a game that does not have the EP/SP that it is from. I pulled the scroll bar all the way to the end of the catalog and chose the very last outfit. Just like before, name the project (I named mine "hmextract1_b") and import it directly without making any changes, except adding a possible tooltip. Again, the tooltip is optional and completely up to you.
9) Quit Body Shop. This is necessary because SimPE won't load correctly if TS2 or Body Shop is open. For faster loading time, I would suggest removing your downloads while you extract.





10) Open SimPE. It usually takes a bit of time to load and it WILL make your computer slow, so I would suggest closing out of all your programs except for SimPE. Choose File > New. It will create a blank file for you to work with.
11) In order to gather the pieces of the mesh necessary for the SP outfit to show up, you will have to use the PJSE Extracting Stage tool. Select Tools > PJSE > Body Mesh Tool > Extracting Stage.
12) When the box pops up, select "Browse..." and navigate to your SavedSims folder in My Documents/EA Games/The Sims 2. Select the file with the same name as the FIRST project you made in Body Shop (the outfit you wanted to extract). Since I named my first project "hmextracted1," that is the file I chose. It should make four items show up in the main area: GMDC, GMND, CRES, and SHPE.
13) File > Save As... and name your MESH file. I named mine "MESH_kayleigh_affb_hmafbodycorsettankshorts-extracted."
14) File > Open and choose the file with the same name as the SECOND project you made in Body Shop. I named mine "hmextracted1_b" so that's the file I selected. When the file opens, select the 3D ID Referencing file. Wait for it to load, it could take a few minutes. The loading bar at the bottom will tell you when it's finished. Once it's loaded, make sure "Plugin View" is selected.
15) Take note of the last string of digits on the Resource Node line. Then click Tools > PJSE > Body Mesh Tool > Linking Stage.





16) When this box pops up, click OK. Then select your MESH file and click Open.
17) Another box will pop up. Click OK. Click on something else in the "AlllRes" menu, then click back on your 3D ID Referencing file. Compare the last digits on your new and old Resource Nodes. If the value changed, continue.





18) Open Bodyshop again. Create parts, New Project, Create Clothing just like before. Select the file with the mismatched textures. It used to look like the suit, but now it looks like the extracted outfit! The only problem is that it still has the suit textures, so we're going to change that.
19) Name it something similar to the names you gave the other two outfits you exported. I named mine "hmextracted1_c" to keep with my naming theme. Naming them something similar helps you to decipher what is related to what.





20) Now you need to edit the textures to make it look like the extracted outfit, rather than the suit. Go to My Documents/EA Games/The Sims 2/Projects and open the folder of the most recent project you made. In my case, I would open the folder "hmextracted1_c."





21) Open both of the texture files from the folder you just opened, in an image editing program. Now go back to /Projects and select the folder with the same name as your first export, mine would be "hmextracted1." Open both of those textures as well.
22) Now you should have four textures open in your image editing program. Copy the correct textures (from the outfit you want) and paste them over the suit textures. Flatten the layers so there is only the background. File > Save, and Close both texture files.
23) Do the same as above for the alpha (black and white) textures. Copy the correct textures and paste them over the suit textures. Flatten the layers, Save, and Close.





24) Go back to Body Shop and click the Refresh Preview Sim arrow. The outfit on your Sim should look just like the one you planned to extract.
25) Add a tooltip (I used the name of the mesh, "afbodycorsettankshorts") and Import to Game.

Now you're finished with extracting the mesh! You can delete the other two outfits you imported now, you don't need them anymore. You can also delete the project files from the Load Saved Project screen in Body Shop. Simply put the files from SavedSims in the Downloads folder of the game without EPs and SPs. These meshes WILL pick up recolors of the game content.


If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.