I do really like default Maxis skins, in fact, I could actually use them just as they are
however, there are two things in particular that I do not like about them

• "thin" texture having muscular definition (more noticeable on darker skintones)
• S1, S2 and S3 being too similar, and then having a huge jump to S4

I've been using IntincrMars's Maxis Match skintone (to fill the gap between S3 and S4) and Jawusa's Castaway skintone (to fill the gap beyond S4 since it doesn't look that dark), and it's good and enough
at least I can ignore muscular definition since Sims are dressed most of the time

however, sometimes I feel like installing a replacement to not rely on custom genetics
I use to find replacement that feel like would suit me, but then I notice how smooth they look (specially on the lips) and... I don't really crave for beauty, just consistency
where can I find a skin replacement that is as close to Maxis style as possible, but balances skin shades a little bit?

the closest I could find is this one by Artemida
S2 to S4 are darker, thin muscle definition is less noticeable, it's nice

I'd like to know if more options exist, thank you in advance

Have you looked at the default database?

If you don't like the texture for the fit skins, it can be fixed in SimPE (two ways, one is fairly simple - by extracting then replacing the textures. The other is a bit more involved - deleting the Fit textures and linking the TXMTs to the Normal skin TXTRs instead. The second option reduces the filesize, too).

It's also possible to make a default replacement that "removes" the fit skins from the original skins, via TXMT repo linking.

Just saying there are options if you find a default you like the textures for, but it's not quite set up the way you like

I have a bunch of genetic skins that are maxis match, that fill the gaps between the maxis shades.


https://modthesims.info/showthread....324#post5849324

yeah I did, in fact, I found Artemida's one in another place since its thumbnail at the default database isn't close enough to faces to notice they are pretty similar to Maxis'


thank you, your advice is very useful for me to learn, I'll start tinkering


I'll check them out, it's not easy to find non-beautified ones

I'm using the default skintone from Whysim.
A little heavy on the poly count... but I love it !!!!

Let me know if you need a more thorough explanation for how to do it

Yes they are just geneticised Maxis skin recolours- no shine or lipgloss or anything.

The Redsims lighter tones don't seem to be available any more, but I can upload them if you like. The Jawusa one was linked earlier and the Purplepaws ones are still on MTS.

if it's not to much to ask
you can also point me to a tutorial if you're busy


by the way, are you using a lightning mod? looks cool

Thank you! Yes it's this one, GunMod-dDefinder:
https://modthesims.info/d/290746/

For the first method, you extract the textures you want from the "normal" skins, then then use the DXT import (Nvida DDS utilities) with DXT3 or 5 (set "sharpen" to "none", too) to import into the "Fit" skins.
Save the file, then compress it (the file will be larger after you've imported textures). You can use the Compressorizer program.

Quick tutorial that shows how the DXT import works here, and a guide to installing the DDS utilities here.

--

For the second method, check if the default replacement file you're working with has "TXMT" resources. If it doesn't have those, you'll have to extract them from the install files and add them to the file. You need the "(age+gender)naked-nudecut..." TXMT files, for teen and above, and all the "bodynaked", "topnaked" and "bottomnaked" files (if you want to be thorough).
You can use the Finder to search for the files ("naked-nudecut" works as a search word, gets you all the files).

For each TXMT file, you need to edit the text from
XXbodynaked-nudecut-s#
to
XXbodynaked-nude-s#
in both the "stdMatBaseTextureName" under Properties, and in the File List.
It's just that one word that needs editing, keep the rest of the line intact.


(For convenience, I edted and added a full set of TXMTs here - so if you want you can give that one a test. Should work with original + (plain texture replacement) DR skins for S1-S4 + alien, as long as they don't have TXMTs in the file, in which case one file's TXMTs will overwrite the other file, depending on which file the game reads last. Could potentially cause the fit state to not appear or show as the regular skin in Bodyshop, so if you want the fit states available for skin recolors, remove the file first just in case).

thank you all for your help, I'll leave the thread open in case someone knows another replacement to check and test