Duplicating sliders

[Castello]

I hate how big male noses are in The Sims 3 and I'd like to do something about it, The first thing that came in mind was making a male only nose slider so I could make it smaller without changing the appearance of the female version of the sim. I've extracted the "Nose Scale" slider files from FullBuild0.package but I don't know the first thing about Milkshape (nor any 3d software) so my question is: How can I duplicate one of the default sliders?

[CmarNYC]

Interesting problem. Try this:

Import the NoseScale FBLN (type 0xB52F5055) and the NoseScaleUp and NoseScaleDown FACE files (type 0x0358B08A) into a new s3pe package. Be sure to check the option to use the resource name.

Double-click each one, change the Name to whatever you want your new slider to be named (ex: NoseScaleMale, NoseScaleUpMale, NoseScaleDownMale), and click the FNV64 button. Click Okay. The Instance IDs should change.

Highlight the FBLN and click the Grid button. In the data grid, expand the TGIBlocks. Change the Instance ID for the first TGI ([0]) to the new Instance ID for the scale up FACE. Change the Instance for the second TGI to the scale down FACE. Commit the changes.

Highlight one of the FACE files and click the Grid button. In the data grid, highlight the CASEntries line and click the little [...] button. Another data grid should pop up with a list of the CASEntry items. Go down the list and for each one expand the GEOM item and the BONE item, and expand the AgeGender in both of them. Wherever you see a gender: 0x02 (female) change it to 0x00. Wherever you see a gender 0x03 (unisex) change it to 0x01 (male). This should disable the slider action for females. Click Okay and Commit.

Save the package and install. You should get a second "Nose Scale" slider that only affects males. If that works okay we can talk about changing the label text of the slider! :)

[Castello]

Thank you for your help, CmarNYC, I've followed your steps and it worked, the slider is working on male sims only, however, it adds a shadow around the nose on female sims, is there a way to fix it?

[CmarNYC]

Are you sure you set the gender options on all the GEOM items in the CASEntries? That looks like a distortion of the normals, which could happen if the GEOM part of the slider is still working. If everything's set correctly and it still happens, most likely the game uses the flags in the BGEO files instead of the flags in the CASEntries and you'll have to edit the BGEO.

Find the two BGEO files for NoseScaleUp and NoseScaleDown and import them into your s3pe package. Rename them and give them new Instance IDs just like the FACE files.

Use the data grid on each FACE file like above, but this time expand the BlendGeometry item and change the Instance ID to the new Instance for the appropriate BGEO from the last step. (Link scale up to scale up and scale down to scale down.)

Highlight each BGEO and click Grid. Highlight Section1Entries and click [...]. For each Section1Entry expand the AgeGender and change gender 0x02 to 0x00 and 0x03 to 0x01, just like before. Commit, save, and see if it works!

[Castello]

It works perfectly now that I've edited the BGEO files, the GEOM files' CASEntries wasn't the problem, Thank you so much!

[CmarNYC]

Wonderful!!! Now, if you want to change the slider label, the easiest way is to use Delphy's Slider Template tool to make a new slider with the label text you want (the other settings don't matter): http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=372169

Export all the STBLs from the package it creates and import them into your slider package with s3pe. Highlight one of the STBLs (it doesn't matter which one) and copy the hex number it shows in the right panel as in the pic below. (0xA5E30BE6654FDD5D in the example - yours will be different.)

Link your FBLN to them by highlighting the FBLN, using Grid, and setting the NameHash to the same hex number you just copied. Commit, save, and test!

The number you copied and pasted is an FNV hash (conversion of characters to a number) of the label text which the game uses to look up the correct text in the STBL files. The reason there are so many STBL files is that there's one for each language the game supports. If you want to translate the label into other languages, let me know and I'll link you to a tutorial.

Edit: If all you need is English, you can export/import only the STBL whose Instance ID starts with 00.

[Max7]

i have a question :D
i extract the brow width slider from sims medieval but it's only has .facialblend file.
then i found another on that has similar name :

EyesBrowWidercorra (Face & Bgeo File)
EyesBrowWidesas (Face & Bgeo File)

So is it still possible to be converted ?
thx

[CmarNYC]

If you're talking about converting from Sims Medieval to Sims 3, that depends on whether the two games use the same bones and the same vertex numbering for the faces. That's a very big if.

The best way to track down all the files the slider needs is to open the FBLN in s3pe using Grid, and look in the TGI Blocks. That will list the Type, Group, and Instance IDs of the FACE files. Then open those FACE files using s3pe Grid and look in the TGIBlocks for those. Ignore any that have all zeros. They will list the correct BBlend and VPXY files, which in turn have TGI lists linking to the BGEO and BONE files. To convert from one game to the other you'd have to extract all of those files into a package and install that in Sims 3 and see if it works. Most likely renumbering wouldn't be necessary.

[Max7]

If you're talking about converting from Sims Medieval to Sims 3, that depends on whether the two games use the same bones and the same vertex numbering for the faces. That's a very big if.

The best way to track down all the files the slider needs is to open the FBLN in s3pe using Grid, and look in the TGI Blocks. That will list the Type, Group, and Instance IDs of the FACE files. Then open those FACE files using s3pe Grid and look in the TGIBlocks for those. Ignore any that have all zeros. They will list the correct BBlend and VPXY files, which in turn have TGI lists linking to the BGEO and BONE files. To convert from one game to the other you'd have to extract all of those files into a package and install that in Sims 3 and see if it works. Most likely renumbering wouldn't be necessary.

Thanks CmarNYC for the reply ^^
btw if the face file read as error, does it mean that both game don't have the same bone ?
thx

[CmarNYC]

It might mean the two games use different FACE file structures, I guess. If you don't have the latest s3pe you could try updating and see if it'll read okay.

[Max7]

It might mean the two games use different FACE file structures, I guess. If you don't have the latest s3pe you could try updating and see if it'll read okay.

I already used the latest one and it seems that it's impossible to convert them >_<
Btw i just started to make my own slider for sims 3. Do the body slider should use bone based instead the geom based ?
thx

[CmarNYC]

Yes, in almost all cases you need a bone slider for body morphs.

[Max7]

Yes, in almost all cases you need a bone slider for body morphs.
I'm just curious but how come some sims 3 custom slider work for sims medieval ? :)

[CmarNYC]

I have no idea. Which sliders work?

[Max7]

I have no idea. Which sliders work?

in this post Winterhart reported that some slider are work
http://www.modthesims.info/showpost.php?p=3483546&postcount=48

i already tested it and those slider work.

[CmarNYC]

Those are all bone sliders. You should go ahead and try the brow slider and see if it works - just because the FACE won't read in s3pe doesn't mean it won't work in the game. Also of course it's possible that Sims 3 sliders will work in Medieval and not the other way around. Looks like the two games have the same bone structures, anyway.

[Max7]

Those are all bone sliders. You should go ahead and try the brow slider and see if it works - just because the FACE won't read in s3pe doesn't mean it won't work in the game. Also of course it's possible that Sims 3 sliders will work in Medieval and not the other way around. Looks like the two games have the same bone structures, anyway.

So should i only import these 5 file into a package file? (screenshot below)
* it is brow inner width slider :)

[CmarNYC]

You can try it and see what happens! But I suspect you'll also need BONE files if there's a bone component to the morph, which is likely. Since you can't read the FACE files in s3pe, can you upload them here and I'll take a look?

[Max7]

You can try it and see what happens! But I suspect you'll also need BONE files if there's a bone component to the morph, which is likely. Since you can't read the FACE files in s3pe, can you upload them here and I'll take a look?

Here the 5 file for Brow Inner Width
thx CmarNYC ^^

[CmarNYC]

Got it. The FACE structure seems to be identical to Sims 3 FACE files except for the version number. (10 instead of 7.) I changed the version with a hex editor and now s3pe reads the files. The slider appears to be GEOM-only.

You need to also pull these VPXY files (search for the Instance IDs):

736884F1-00000000-845536A3ACD8564B
736884F1-00000000-CE675BA4C6264CE8

I'm not sure if the VPXYs will point to BBLN files or directly to the BGEOs, but you should be able to see that in s3pe. If they point to the BGEOs, you're done and ready to test!

Edit:

You could also just use my MorphMaker tool to create a slider with the BGEO files - it'll create all the supporting stuff and save it as a package. http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=387348

[Max7]

Got it. The FACE structure seems to be identical to Sims 3 FACE files except for the version number. (10 instead of 7.) I changed the version with a hex editor and now s3pe reads the files. The slider appears to be GEOM-only.

You need to also pull these VPXY files (search for the Instance IDs):

736884F1-00000000-845536A3ACD8564B
736884F1-00000000-CE675BA4C6264CE8

I'm not sure if the VPXYs will point to BBLN files or directly to the BGEOs, but you should be able to see that in s3pe. If they point to the BGEOs, you're done and ready to test!

Edit:

You could also just use my MorphMaker tool to create a slider with the BGEO files - it'll create all the supporting stuff and save it as a package. http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=387348

Thanks CmarNYC ^^
Now i found not only VPXY for both AM & AF but also the Bone file.
But again XD the VPXY files are unreadable but Bone files are readable.
And how to change the version from 10 to 7 ?

[CmarNYC]

With the VPXYs it's more than the version - something's different in the structure. Also now that I look more closely at the BGEOs, they're empty - no actual morph data in them. So, there must be something different in the structure of the FACE files too since s3pe says they only have information for BGEO morphs.

Since the bone/BOND files seem to be the standard structure, my advice is to use Delphy's slider template creator (http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=372169) to create a slider, and then replace the BONDs with the ones from Medieval. Just name the slider something unique (EyesBrowInnerWidth might be good), type in the text for the slider label, pick what section of CAS you want it to appear in, and leave the option to link male and female to the same data unchecked. After the package is created, if you've put it in the CAS Eyes section, you can use Grid to edit the FBLN and change the Sort value to 0x00000008 if you want it to appear in the Brows subsection.

[Max7]

With the VPXYs it's more than the version - something's different in the structure. Also now that I look more closely at the BGEOs, they're empty - no actual morph data in them. So, there must be something different in the structure of the FACE files too since s3pe says they only have information for BGEO morphs.

Since the bone/BOND files seem to be the standard structure, my advice is to use Delphy's slider template creator (http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=372169) to create a slider, and then replace the BONDs with the ones from Medieval. Just name the slider something unique (EyesBrowInnerWidth might be good), type in the text for the slider label, pick what section of CAS you want it to appear in, and leave the option to link male and female to the same data unchecked. After the package is created, if you've put it in the CAS Eyes section, you can use Grid to edit the FBLN and change the Sort value to 0x00000008 if you want it to appear in the Brows subsection.

so i just need to replace the BOND file? How About the face file,BGEO and other file?
thx CmarNYC :)

[CmarNYC]

Just the four BONDs. The tool makes everything else. :)

[Max7]

so i just need to replace the BOND file? How About the face file,BGEO and other file?
thx CmarNYC :)

Never mind CmarNYC XD
it works now ^^ though it's not perfect but still it serves the same purpose :D
Thanks for your help CmarNYC