This is an awesome tutorial, very easy to follow. Thanks so much for this!

I have never used mods (outside of the custom content from the exchange) for my Sims games before, just started yesterday after finding some neat ones while looking for more tattoo options. Anyway, I started looking into how to make my own and this is one of the tutorials I bookmarked. After a rough start, because I didn't read the thread all the way through so I didn't know about the file name length issue with PSP Pro 9, I made my very first mod using a screen-shot from another video game. I can't tell you how unbelievable excited and proud I am right now.

So I just want to say thanks for the tutorial(s). If anyone is curious to see what I made, here's a Link to my blog post (if that's ok to post).

I'm glad this worked out for you...thanks for letting me know

I'm going to update the tutorial post to let people know about the PSP name issue...that way people won't have to wade through the thread to discover it as you had to.

Amazing tutorial! :D

One thing I'd like to know is if I can use this method to create custom billboards. I've been trying to do so, but I can't find the .dds with the image of the billboard, help! :/

The dds files for the billboards are in Fullbuild2 and they are the ones with the Tag "_ADS" that have signBillboard in their name. Thanks to Granthes for helping to find these things

Thanks! Now I might be able to make custom billboards for my new series! :D

Thanks Orangemittens for this great tutorial.

Its very easy to do (even for me xD)

You really did a

Thanks for this tutorial, OM. The photo in the above post isn't showing up, and I'm not sure which boxes to check off for "fixing" the package. Could you (or anyone else, whoever has the time!) upload a new photo or list off which boxes should be checked? I'm trying to recolor a custom mesh and can't get past this step...thanks!!

My server was temporarily incapacitated so the picture wasn't showing. It should be back up now

Thank you, OM!

i recently made a custom painting using your tutorial.





what kind of file is it called? is it called an object modification file? i dont know what kind of file it is called. i need help!

The file extension is .package.

thank you, orange, for telling me.

sorry for this complete noob question, but what is meant by "20. Put your new package in your Mods folder as you usually do and check it in the game." ?

after step 19 i'm not sure exactly what i'm supposed to do....

You just put the new painting you made into the game the same way you put any new .package custom content.

If you've never installed .package files this link might help:

http://www.modthesims.info/wiki.php...3_Package_Files

I hope this helps and if you still have questions post again

thats very helpful, thank you!
unfortunately, i'm still having trouble
here are screen shots of exactly what i've done, so hopefully you can she what i've done wrong?

thanks in advance!

I'm not sure what exactly is happening when you say you're having trouble. Is the painting showing up in your game and not looking right or is it not showing up at all? Have you had success installing other people's custom content into your game?

the game's acting as if i've changed nothing at all-- the modern painting is the same as its always been.
and as for other custom content, the only other stuff i've added ot the game has been stuff from the Exchange, and most of it's worked just fine. the only stuff that didnt was the stuff that included expansion packs and whatnot that i dont have.

Let's make sure you have everything installed right for custom content then before moving on to the painting itself. Take this painting I made and install it the way you're installing yours. See if it shows up in your game...it's compatible with base game and all expansions so it should. There's a jpg in the rar that shows what the painting looks like so you can find it in your catalogue easily. Are you still getting the intro when you start the game?

http://jaue.com/om/OM_Painting_Tilted.rar

no, it didnt work either. i extracted and put the .package in the mods fold, right with the nointro and nosparkles ones. oddly enough, THOSE both work! i dont get the intro, and when i build wall, there arent sparkles. so i'm soooo confused as to how this one didnt work! i chceked ALL of the paintings in the catalog, not just the modern one, and they're all just the same as usual.
maybe i just wasnt meant to have custom art

Of *course* you were meant to have custom art...everyone is Is your game patched up to 1.12.70 or higher? If the answer to that is yes we should prolly think of you heading to the Sims 3 Help section here:

http://www.modthesims.info/forumdisplay.php?f=551 before doing anything else. The people there can help you much more effectively than I can with a framework issue.

Once you've patched up or gotten things squared away with your framework if you still have issues with the painting post again

yes, i have the most current patch, so i'll go check out that link. thanks again!

VERY new at this, found a link to this tutorial because I really want to make my own pictures. Followed the link to the newer tutorial, downloaded s30c and texture tweaker. I'm following the steps as they are written - however, s30c and Texture Tweaker were updated this year, and do not match the images in the tutorial now, and there's one step I'm guessing at because the buttons have been renamed. Anyway - I'm using Gimp 2.8 with a DDS plugin, but I can't save files as "interpolated alpha (DXT5)," I can only save as .xcf. So I downloaded the Nvidia DDS Utilities - which is a command line utility, dude... seriously, way over my head now.

If you know how to make Gimp save the file as the tutorial describes, please let me know. I've been hunting on the gimp website and googling, but I'm not getting any answers. It would also be great if someone would update the tutorial with images from the updated tools.

Or, at the very least... someone want to make my pictures for me? I'll email you the jpgs. :-/

Thanks for letting me know the tool updates have outdated my screenshots in the tutorial...I'll take some new ones. Which step in particular is making you need to guess?

I don't use GIMP but I looked at GIMP.org and found someone there saying that to save a .dds using the .dds plugin for GIMP you should use Export in the File menu. The link is here:

registry.gimp.org/node/26961

Also TextureTweaker 3 has the ability to import images in other formats and make them into a .dds. Here is how:

1. You open the painting that you want to edit and click on the Overlay you want to change.
2. The Image Picker box will pop up and you should then select Edit in TT3.
3. A new box will pop up called the Direct Image Editing box. You will see width and height setting boxes with drop downs. Select the correct dimensions for your new image.
4. Then select Import RGB and browse to your new overlay...it can be a jpg or png or whatever. You will see it appear replacing the original although it might look a little funny due to not having your alpha in place as yet.
5. Then click import alpha and import your black and white image that will supply the alpha layer to your final .dds. It can also be a jpg or png or whatever. Your image should now look like a checkerboard with only your new overlay showing on it.
6. Now make sure the DXT5 bubble has a black dot in it and click OK. That box will close. Click OK in the Image Picker box. You will see your new image in the Overlay box replacing the original one. Click File and Save.

I hope this helps and if you have more questions please feel free to ask in the tutorial thread at Simlogical or here