Numenor.... no problem, I really didn't expect anyone to know what that error message ment but had to ask just to make sure. Why can't they put them in plain English. I am using an account with Administrator privileges and I have tried redownload the installer. All well, maybe I'll be able to find something on the net.

Edit: Is there another way to do recolorings of custom objects without the DDS Utilities?

Yes, although the texture quality is often lower this way: When you're ready to import your texture, right click on the texture image and choose Import and choose the texture you want (and Open). Then right-click on the imported texture and select Update All Sizes, then click Commit and Save.

Once again, thanks IgnorantBliss. I would like to make higher quality recolorings though, so I'll probably try to figure out what's wrong for a few days. My brother is also going to try to download the DDS Utilities onto the other computer we have and see if he can install them on there. If so, then he thinks he could just upload the folder to an email and send it to me. I personally don't think this will work, but I guess it's worth a try.

EDIT: Okay, I THINK I have the DDS Utilities. I have no idea why my computer is having trouble. It's only a month old and this is twice in the last 18 hours I've had trouble downloading something. I ended up downloading it/installing it on another computer (with no problem). Then I zipped the folder and sent it via email so I could download/unzip it here. So as long as there's no "shared componants" or stuff like that, I should have it. I guess I'll know when I go try to recolor an object... wish me luck.

EDIT 2: Okay, tried recoloring and it works (both to Maxis and my own object) so the DDS Utilities must work. And it was so simple... thanks for the tutorial.

Hi,
after downloading the lastest DDS utilities files, I still get no Build option when I right click. I have included a screen shot. Do you have any more suggestions of how I can get it to work?
Cheers for any help :D

(Answered to Mish by PM)

Okay Pulling all of my hair out here, and I have a lot of it. Okay I got as far as import picture back in. for some reason photoshop pro4 wouldnt open a .png file. So I took it into paint and yes it looks like crap but anyway when I go to right click on it the Build Dxt is not clickable so I am screwed up before I really get started. Can someone please tell me whats going on here. I need the rest of my hair.

oh yeah I do have the dds files installed.

Have you also pointed SimPE to the folder where the DDS Utilities are installed in SimPE Preferences?

why when i try to go to the page to get the nvidia dds utilities, it says services unavailable? is it because i have a radeon =p

Have you tried this link? It works for me. It should not matter whether you have an ATI or nVidia card, the link should work. At least it does now .

I don't know if this is the right place, but what causes the "newspaper" effect? Where the recolor comes out as numbers on white. I haven't had it happen in ages, but I tried 2x to recolor the 3 tile poster and I still haven't succeeded. I haven't had this problem in a while.

That happens when the texture can't be found, or it is corrupted.
If you have followed exactly this tutorial, I guess that the problem is not related to a bad reference to the TXTR; probably, there's something wrong with the image itself.
Repeat the "Build DXT" procedure, and be sure that the size of the image is correct (both the width and the height must be powers of two: 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, ...)

Halloweenscorpio,
I believe the 3-tile poster was the one with the wrong reference
some of the old meshes have a !0X0500 etc missing in the material definition, if I remember correctly
try recolouring a working recolour, since that should have a fixed mat def file
install a working recolour of that poster, then 'open' it with object workshop
you can just select recolour and follow the rest of the procedure

Thank you both, I never actually have done any of the tuts but I will be checking this one out, in case I come across this again. I had noticed it hadn't been happening for a while, now I know why. Thanks again!

Talk about stupid! When I had to reformat last month I never reinstalled the Nvidia utilities. You don't want to know how long I waited for the dss option to come up! I think I need more caffiene.

i asked this in simpe help and support but nobody will help me and i been reading here and i though maybe you guys can help me im having a problem with simpe when i go to recolor a object lets say the toybox and when it goes to where you export the picture like the template thing in the plugin part the picture is not showing up and i waited and waited on it, i recently unistalled it cause my university game crashed and unistalled every sims stuff on my computer and now my univeristy wont work but i dont mind but only game i have is sims2, do u need univeristy to make it work?, i have the net frame work thing it worked before unitl i had to unistall my game and now it dont work i cant get the export picture to show up, is there another way to do it, it happens on the toybox,paintings and another one but says on the list that they are recolorable, is there a simpe just for sims 2 and one for university thanks for the help

The Toybox is recolourable only if you have installed the CEP3. Since you have reinstalled everything, perhaps you have forgotten to install/re-install the CEP.

If you do have the CEP installed, then I can't understand what is happening...
Perhaps it's a problem related to the size of the windows, within SimPE? Try enlarging the lower window (by dragging the horizontal separation line upwards)

i have installed cep already i never unistalled that but i will try to unistall it and reinstall that, and i think i have done the horizontal thing but i will try thanks for your help

i reinstalled cep3 and it worked i dont know why i never thought about that lol thank you so much i really appreciate it now i can recolor again lol

I've looked around and can't find an answer to my problem and can't figure it out on my own, so some help would be much appreciated.

I have the newest simpe and have been recoloring several of the new meshes, today I went to do some game objects for a bathroom and my game objects don't show up I just installed nightlife last week and also have University.
Today I even redownloaded simpe again and it didnt help. The 2 pictures below show my simpe with the objects not showing and also a picture of my preferences, the only folder I added was for the DDS tools, could the others possibly be listed wrong?

Thank you
Jessica

Jessica: Well the path to your nightlife game looks off for one thing, but that may be a language setting. If you installed the English version, then try using the "browse" button and directing it to your nightlife install directory. Typically, it's here:
C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 Nightlife
When you do that, the "Sims 2 Nightlife" line should change to something like:
C:\PROGRA~1\EAGAME~1\THESIM~4\

This is what is shows now Echo, it didnt come up with the little squiggley4 at the end... and also the original showed University as 4 is that correct? and yes it should be the english version, you can see on the left of this photo also that like plumbing and different catagories dont even show.

Jessica

In the SimPE preferences, which options do you have checked under Simple Settings? Do you have "include original game files" checked?

For me, the folders in the File Table are:
Sims 2 folder: C:\PROGRA~1\EAGAME~1\THESIM~1\
University: C:\PROGRA~1\EAGAME~1\THESIM~3\
Nightlife: C:\PROGRA~1\EAGAME~1\THESIM~4\

Thank you Echo and IgnorantBliss
I did have include original game checked and tryed putting your settings in but still nothing.
I have no idea what was wrong, but I completely wiped simpe from my puter and redownloaded all again and installed. My settings are at what I had originally (kinda weird) but my objects are now showing!! So I'm a happy camper again So I have no solution for any one else for this happening except to redo everything again.
But thank you both again for trying to help me out, its very much appreciated.

Jessica

hello there! i would like some help if thats okay.
first of all, thank you for this, but i dl the four things and it still dosnt work, maybe im just stupid and do not know how to use it though i cant find something i need for the simspe to work for some reason, i THOUGHT i had it