Sorry about the unexpectedly long beak! Didn't get back from my cat feeding duties until after 11 PM (multiple car "rear ending chain" on the bridge I needed to cross) so I pretty much just crawled into bed.
I was very tickled to see the "special post" in the Help section linking to this quasi tutorial of mine! I only hope it helps/makes some sense!
Now where the heck was I....oh, yeah...
I should explain a couple things about "part 1" of this tutorial...like why, for instance, did I say Body Shop & the NVidia Tools were needed when I haven't said anything about using them yet?
Because you will need Body Shop & the NVidia Tools to create the DXT files you need to put into those empty Default Templates I posted. Also, if the file you want to replace is a
face texture- not just a hair or skin file- you will need to replace the appropriate Texture Image (DXT) in your Default Override package, as just linking the Default face file to the Custom face file will result in an error when Sims age.
Note that if you are just tweaking an
existing Default Override, this step may or may not be necessary, depending on what all you're doing.
Let me explain:
DXT files are what you need to replace the actual Texture Image files in a given package.
The "cut-n-paste" thing was about the Material Definitions files.
Material Definitions tell the game what files to use for a given Sim part, where as the Texture Images
are those files!
Confused? Okay, how about this:
Let's say you already have a set of user-made Custom Default Overrides installed. Since they already have a complete set of (custom) Texture Images, there is no need to do any DXT building if all you want to do is point the game to different Material Definition file (or two) to use. (Unless what you want to replace is a Face!)
So say one of your Overrides is called PurplePeople, & it overrides the S1 (lightest) skintone so all S1 Sims are varying shades of purple. You have a thing for people who are purple, so this is is good & makes you happy.
Then one day you happen across a skin file called CustomPurplePeopleGlitteryScalps, which is a Custom Skin that not only makes Sims purple, but also gives them a nifty rainbow glittery looking scalp. While purple Sims are cool, purple Sims with glittery scalps are even cooler...but *sigh* it's a Custom Skin, so while you can create new Sims with glittery scalps it won't effect your existing Sims. You
really want all your currently purple "S1" Sims to have the cool glittery scalps, but don't want to hand edit them all in SimPE.
Then you notice that, heck; that new glittery skin set is nearly (if not exactly) identical in color to your current Default. In fact, the only thing about it that is really all that different is the cool glittery scalps, which would blend so nicely with your existing Override...hold on a minute? Didn't you just read somewhere that you can cut-n-paste Material Definition files?
So first you...
...fire up SimPE & open up the Glittery Scalp custom skin. You are only interested in the cool glitter scalps (what the game calls "hair" for skins) so you go to Material Definitions & select the Toddler hair file. In the Lower Left Plugin field you see...
...a strange alphabet soup name listed next to the stdMatBaseTextureName. Taking a look to the Lower Right...
...you see that same soupy file listed next to Value. You copy the soupy file name & paste it into a Notepad (or equivalent) file next to a description like "Glittery Toddler Scalp" because you are smart & realize that you need to get the soupy names for
all the Glittery Scalps & don't want to be bouncing back & forth between the Glittery file & your current Default. If the Glittery skin uses the same file for all it's scalps, you won't need the Notepad step as you can just highlight, copy (CTRL+C) & leave it it on your clipboard...but make sure those scalp files really ARE the same, as many times (especially with custom skins) they are not!
Okay, you have all your scalp files safely stored in your Notepad file, next to a brief notation as to which file is for which age. Now it's time to open up your current non-glittery purple Default skin package...
...and once again navigate to Material Definitions. We will start with the Default's Toddler Hair file for no reason other than this whole Purple Default v.s. Purple Glitter thing is total fantasy & the only pictures I faked-up were for the Toddler Hair files.
Looking at the Lower Left of our Default, we see...
...that the stdMatBaseTextureName looks quite different. Rather than alphabet soup, it has a name. Actually, it could be a series of soupy stuff too, but as these pictures are faked, I wanted to help ease any confusion!
While it may be a cool name (I spare no expense when it comes to doctoring up tutorial pictures) it's not glittery, so...
...you pop over to the Lower Right, highlight the cool non-glittery file name...
...& replace it with the one you ever-so-smartly copied/pasted into that Notepad file.
Remember to hit the Commit button!
Now do this for all the scalp files, save the package & *poof*, your Default will now draw on the files in the Glittery Scalp custom skin when it makes Sim's scalps.
Cool...but what about replacing Faces or using that set of empty Default Templates I posted earlier?
Well, now it's time to learn about DXT building!
This involves more pictures, so I will break off here & get them ready.
To recap what we know so far:
You can copy/paste the stdMatBaseTextureName files to your hearts content, but you need to make sure that you also have the Custom skin(s) whose textures you are "linking to" in your game as well.
If you are just making changes to an existing ("fully functional") Default and are
not linking to a different
face texture, you don't need to worry about the Texture Images & DXT stuff.
If you
are changing a face file, or wanting to use the empty Templates I posted earlier, then you will need to get comfy & learn about DXT files!
Hang on while I type my DXT tutorial up frantically!
-ZW
(Greg, as soon as I post Part 3: DXT Files For Dummies, I will be done...)