Age conversions have been starting to become very popular. Now many of the creators out there do it the traditional way, and there is nothing wrong with that. They make the mesh then they include the original texture in the package. While this isn't wrong, it does waste a lot of space. If you are like me, anything to make the files smaller so I can have more of them sounds like win-win to me! A 'new' way of making these outfits has resurfaced. The new way is to make the mesh and then simply reference the original outfit's texture. This is very similar in concept to repository objects. Many furniture makers, for example, will make the texture for the chair and the couch will borrow from the chair. This makes the file size for the entire set go down because textures are BY FAR the largest thing in the package.

If you are interested in trimming up your downloads folder but can't bare to part with any of your outfits, this might be a good solution for you. The example I will be showing started out at 68KB and when we are done it will be 3KB! Ok, so its still small numbers but if you have A LOT of these outfits these pennies add up! Lets get to it!

Prerequisites: This how-to is going to require you to have a simple understanding of how to navigate inside SimPE. All the SimPE steps will be very clear and explained, so don't panic. This also isn't going to cover how to create the mesh. I'm either assuming you've made age conversions before and would like to tidy up the file sizes for your downloaders, or you are a downloader who wants more storage space and the original creator didn't do this for you. I'll be showing how to give Grandpa these swimtrunks.

Step 1: Open up the file you'd like to edit with SimPE. I'm starting with a pair of Grandpa's ugly basegame swimtrunks and I'd like to give him the striped pairs that his sons have. You don't have to start with an outfit that has the new texture to begin with. You just need the correct mesh and a texture that fits it's UVmap. Look at the TXTR to make sure that you've got the right outfit. Then you can delete it. (Right-click and delete, or Shift+Delete) This should drastically reduce the file size. It will also make the outfit stop working properly, but in the next step we will fix it back again.


Step 2: Keeping your other window open, open up another copy of SimPE and open the Sims02.package from the EP of the outfit you are linking to. Mine is a basegame outfit so I opened the basegame Sims02 package. Its here: C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2\TSData\Res\3D Find the original outfit (the parent texture) and copy its value in the stdMatBaseTextureName line. For the swimtrunks I'm doing its 'umbodyshorts-magentapurple' If you don't know the original outfit's name you can use bodyshop to make a quick recolor copy and then open that in SimPE to find out its name.

Take this value and paste it into the same line in your TMXT stdMatBaseTextureName. Commit and Save.

You're done! Simple right? If you've got questions try the steps again then ask. I'm more than willing to help if you run into problems.
-Phaenoh

Thanks for this Phae! Just so you know, you can also get the texture name from sims07.package, which will also show you a picture of the texture so you don't have to make a recolor copy in bodyshop.

You still need to make a recolor in Bodyshop, we aren't using it just for finding the name, we need Bodyshop to build us a working recolor package. Glad you found it helpful!

I'm using this tutorial to make texture referencing versions of my ageconversion meshes, thank you for making it, Phaenoh, I need the visual instructions!!
There is one thing that I have found tho, as it is not necessairy to use a Bodyshop copy of the file you want to reference, it is important to check wether or not the texture uses a bumpmap.
As I usually try to give my meshes textures with a bumpmap, I had to make new textures to use as base for the referencing files, if the target texture didn't had one, or they wouldn't work.
Isn't it easier to always make a bodyshop copy from the texture you want to reference and ageconvert that in SimPE and link it to your (new) mesh??

First off, if the original outfit didn't have a bumpmap PLEASE don't give it one. The genius of this system is that it reduces file sizes from around 500kb down to 3kb. If you include a bumpmap and there isn't one to link it too then you have to keep it, and that keeps the file size up. Also, a lot of people's computers can't or don't display bumpmaps, so it really isn't that much of a loss. I've also found it is impossible to remove an included bumpmap completely. Just deleting the texture will cause the outfit not to work, and I haven't figured out a way of untangling the bumpmap from the MatDef's yet.

Secondly, no, you need to get Bodyshop to make you a working clothing package first. It's the same step as making a new mesh. I've never tried to age convert something in SimPE aside from adults and elders. I'm not sure if it would work properly just changing the number to go from teen to child. That will give you the texture you wanted true, but it doesn't link so you still need to go through and follow the tut to link it. Whether you are using the correct texture or a placeholder one, it doesn't matter. You still need to go through and fix them. I don't think it saves you any time.

Thanks for this, space saving is something we all should be doing.

Failure to do this creates enormous bloatware crap, yes. I've seen people who create lousy 18MB+ packages for a single set of skins, and then taken the hatchet to them and gotten them down to an 18K package. The savings in RAMs is thus massive.

Phaenoh - You may want to add a small note about EP requirements. If you age convert clothing from FT and reference FT textures, the downloader needs to have FT for the conversion to work. If you include copies of the textures and don't reference the originals, they don't need FT for the age conversions to work. I know this is obvious to you and most creators and some downloaders, but wouldn't hurt to explicitly point it out.

Phaenoh, I wasn't trying to make a timesaving change, I was talking about textures with or without bumpmaps. If a referenced texture uses a bumpmap. your starting texture (where you make the edits in) must have one too. Its difficult to explain something in a foreign language!
I just finished Texture Referencing all my age conversion meshes. I made new fresh bodyshop textures from the adult clothing I wanted to reference, and changed the age in SimPE and linked them to my mesh. Almost all my conversions from the basegame had textures with a bumpmap, and I was glad to have made a new texture from the original because that way the TXMT could include bumpmap info too. You need that info to include the correct bumpmap with your new TR file, as not always all textures for the same mesh use the same bumpmap.
For example the afbodydresslongloose has 3 different bumpmaps and you must include the corrrect bumpmap or the referenced texture displays wrong.

You can reference the bumpmap too, did you know?

Mmm, yes, that was what I was saying too??

We might be on the same page but it all just got lost in translation. Sorry!

I already do the same thing. I don't use simP though.

What do you use instead?

Hello,
I was wondering is there any harm in linking to the original material definition via the 3D ID Referencing File? I tried it and it gave the same results when tested in body shop but I'm wondering if there is any reason not to do it this way instead of how it's described in this tut?
Also I was wondering if it'd be too confusing for downloaders if I put one copy of the normal map in it's own package and then linked to that for all of my recolors using the same normal map? It would save a ton of space but at the same time I don't want it to get confusing which files to download. I would just put it in with the mesh but it's not my mesh so I don't want to mess with the package.
Thank you for the tutorial btw it has helped and also lead me to think of the ideas above.

Thank you for your time.
-MonoChaos

Objects are linked to other package via the TXMT all the time, so I don't see why it would cause issues with the this. The same goes for linking to your normal map.

The only downside to linking to other packages is, you need to make sure the downloader will always have access to those. Another disadvantage for only including your normal map in one recolors, is that it makes it harder for downloaders to choose only the recolors they want. If someone doesn't like the recolor that includes the normal map, they have to put it into there game regardless.

For objects, creators sometimes create a dummy package that contains things like textures, then link to that for all the other meshes/recolors. If you could create a texture only package and have your recolors linked to that maybe?

Thank you! I was already planning on putting the normal map in it's own package rather than forcing the downloader to download a certain one of the recolors. There are 50 recolors each with two normal maps times two again for the teen version; this should save a bunch of space once it's all added up. Would it be okay to require the adult version for the teen version to work or should I shove ALL the textures in their own package?

Thank you so much for the response.
-MonoChaos