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#1 Old 3rd Jul 2025 at 3:35 AM
Default Extracting sims 2 character models into Blender not working properly
So I don't know if this is possible but I have tried to extract a premade sim from the game using SimPE but for some reason I can only extract the face mesh and not the rest of the body. I have followed multiple tutorials on extracting sims 2 character models and importing it into Blender. However all of the tutorials used CC characters and no premade characters. Which gives me the feeling that it only works with CC characters but I don't know. I only wanna import premade characters, like the ones in each neighbourhood. But yeah like I said can only extract the face mesh since that is the only thing visible in the preview screen in SimPE (Generic Rcol Editor I think). So I was wondering if it's possible to extract the whole character model and import it into blender and if so how do I do it?
Mad Poster
#2 Old 3rd Jul 2025 at 5:49 AM Last edited by simmer22 : 3rd Jul 2025 at 6:07 AM.
Only the face is unique to a sim. The rest can be extracted from the clothes, hair, etc. the sim was wearing.

For any characters, premades and otherwise, you can extract them via SimPE, clone in Bodyshop, and then package with Bodyshop. This pulls all the CC you need (minus the occasional accessory mesh). Any maxis items or default replacements the sim uses aren't packaged, so you need to find those too.

Maxis items can be extracted directly from the game with SimPE (PJSE tool, Finder tool, Bodyshop). You need the names of the items you want to extract, so you can either use Bodyshop to make recolors, or use the https://sims2defaults.dreamwidth.org/ site to find the names.

https://modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=691695 (tutorial on extracting/cloning sims)

For premades it's probably faster to just extract the face and then find the clothes/hair/skin/etc. via the Finder and/or Bodyshop, since they don't come with CC.
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Original Poster
#3 Old 3rd Jul 2025 at 8:48 PM
Quote: Originally posted by simmer22
Only the face is unique to a sim. The rest can be extracted from the clothes, hair, etc. the sim was wearing.

For any characters, premades and otherwise, you can extract them via SimPE, clone in Bodyshop, and then package with Bodyshop. This pulls all the CC you need (minus the occasional accessory mesh). Any maxis items or default replacements the sim uses aren't packaged, so you need to find those too.

Maxis items can be extracted directly from the game with SimPE (PJSE tool, Finder tool, Bodyshop). You need the names of the items you want to extract, so you can either use Bodyshop to make recolors, or use the https://sims2defaults.dreamwidth.org/ site to find the names.

https://modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=691695 (tutorial on extracting/cloning sims)

For premades it's probably faster to just extract the face and then find the clothes/hair/skin/etc. via the Finder and/or Bodyshop, since they don't come with CC.


How do I use the PJSE tool and finder tool correctly because I can't get it to work properly. Everytime I put in for example "ambodylooseopencoatpants", a clothing item, from the dreamwidth site you shared in Finder it doesn't find anything and same goes for PJSE body mesh tool and OBJD tool. Clearly I don't understand how any of these features do so I need a bit a help on how do search for sims 2 clothes, skincolour and such
Mad Poster
#4 Old 3rd Jul 2025 at 10:28 PM
For the Finder, use "NameMap search" and "Contains [match]".

Some items use the same resources for several ages or genders, so if I'm looking for "ambodylooseopencoatpants" I'll usually type in the item name "bodylooseopencoatpants" without the "am" prefix, to make sure I get the "um" or "uu" variants for other ages/genders (in this case there's an em variant, so the textures are "um"). For textures, you want the LIFO files.

You also need to make sure SimPE is set up to properly read all your EPs/SPs (can't find anything if it's not set up).

PJSE tool - you need to first do file -> new, then use the "Extracting stage" and type in the exact name of the mesh (in this case, "ambodylooseopencoatpants" would be the right name for AM). You can extract the GMDC/mesh from here, but not textures. If you use the FInder, you can get the GMDC there, so there's no need to do both things. If you have a recolor of a maxis item, you can use "Select package" instead, and extract via the recolor (reasonably sure this won't work with items that have custom meshes, only maxis items).
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#5 Old 3rd Jul 2025 at 11:30 PM
Quote: Originally posted by simmer22
For the Finder, use "NameMap search" and "Contains [match]".

Some items use the same resources for several ages or genders, so if I'm looking for "ambodylooseopencoatpants" I'll usually type in the item name "bodylooseopencoatpants" without the "am" prefix, to make sure I get the "um" or "uu" variants for other ages/genders (in this case there's an em variant, so the textures are "um"). For textures, you want the LIFO files.

You also need to make sure SimPE is set up to properly read all your EPs/SPs (can't find anything if it's not set up).

PJSE tool - you need to first do file -> new, then use the "Extracting stage" and type in the exact name of the mesh (in this case, "ambodylooseopencoatpants" would be the right name for AM). You can extract the GMDC/mesh from here, but not textures. If you use the FInder, you can get the GMDC there, so there's no need to do both things. If you have a recolor of a maxis item, you can use "Select package" instead, and extract via the recolor (reasonably sure this won't work with items that have custom meshes, only maxis items).



All of my eps and sps are setup correct however the program complains in system check saying that it couldn't find the folders because there are no exe files in each ep/sp folder. So that's probably why nothing is showing up when I for example put in "ambodylooseopencoatpants" or "bodylooseopencoatpants" into their respective appropiate fields. But none of my folders have any exe files in them nor a TSBin. It's just EP9 that has it for me.
Mad Poster
#6 Old 4th Jul 2025 at 1:46 AM Last edited by simmer22 : 4th Jul 2025 at 2:02 AM.
The problem is likely the setup, then. Potentially the TS2 version combined with the SimPE version.

Which SimPE version do you have (number), and which TS2 version do you have (original UC, LC, discs, "other")?

If you have either the original UC or the LC, they only have an EXE file in the EP9 folder, so if the SimPE version is looking for EXEs in the other folders, it's not going to find any.

I'm using "SimPE 0.75f-QA" - it has some annoying hiccups, but does work with the UC (needs some fixes - the spoiler buttons in the first post in the SimPE topic here shows some tips: https://modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=630456 ) and haven't had it complain about EXEs. I think SimPE 0.75.69 or SimPE 0.77.69 should be working with the UC too (but haven't tested them myself). I've seen some LC users struggle getting SimPE set up. Users of "non-official" game versions might have some issues as well.
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Original Poster
#7 Old 4th Jul 2025 at 5:01 AM
Quote: Originally posted by simmer22
The problem is likely the setup, then. Potentially the TS2 version combined with the SimPE version.

Which SimPE version do you have (number), and which TS2 version do you have (original UC, LC, discs, "other")?

If you have either the original UC or the LC, they only have an EXE file in the EP9 folder, so if the SimPE version is looking for EXEs in the other folders, it's not going to find any.

I'm using "SimPE 0.75f-QA" - it has some annoying hiccups, but does work with the UC (needs some fixes - the spoiler buttons in the first post in the SimPE topic here shows some tips: https://modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=630456 ) and haven't had it complain about EXEs. I think SimPE 0.75.69 or SimPE 0.77.69 should be working with the UC too (but haven't tested them myself). I've seen some LC users struggle getting SimPE set up. Users of "non-official" game versions might have some issues as well.


I'm using the latest SimPE version "SimPe_075f_qa_hoods_fix" and I am running sims 2 LC.
Mad Poster
#8 Old 4th Jul 2025 at 7:03 AM
Are you directing it just to the EP folders, or deeper into the structure? (each base EP folder is enough)
And have you set up the savegame folder to be one step above the Neighborhoods folder?

As I understand it, if you're playing via Steam, the setup is a bit different than it would be with discs or for the UC.
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Original Poster
#9 Old 4th Jul 2025 at 10:52 AM
Quote: Originally posted by simmer22
Are you directing it just to the EP folders, or deeper into the structure? (each base EP folder is enough)
And have you set up the savegame folder to be one step above the Neighborhoods folder?

As I understand it, if you're playing via Steam, the setup is a bit different than it would be with discs or for the UC.


Everything is set correctly because they're pointing at their root folder. So for example savegame is "...\Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2 Legacy" and ep2 for example "G:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\The Sims 2 Legacy Collection\EP2"
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Original Poster
#10 Old 22nd Aug 2025 at 1:22 AM
Quote: Originally posted by simmer22
Are you directing it just to the EP folders, or deeper into the structure? (each base EP folder is enough)
And have you set up the savegame folder to be one step above the Neighborhoods folder?

As I understand it, if you're playing via Steam, the setup is a bit different than it would be with discs or for the UC.


HI, late update. I just wanted to say that I found a new version of SimPE that was under a MTS thread, before that I used the SimPE that was a public upload on MTS. So now all of my EPs and SPs from LC worked great on SimPE and I was successfully able to extract the premade character model I was interested in, and all of its other stuff like skintone, clothing, model material and etc. And everything worked wonderfully, import the character model into blender, until I couldn't plaster the image textures for my character's hair, face, body etc. I had the texture images as pngs and added a new material for each mesh in blender. And I tried to insert the png texture images that corresponded to the right mesh but nothing happened. So I don't know what I did wrong.
Mad Poster
#11 Old 22nd Aug 2025 at 3:52 AM
Which verson of Blender are you using?

Are you sure "textured mode" was showing? Blender often has the meshes set to a "smooth shaded without texture" setting as default, and models look grey until you switch it to textured (even if textures are applied), should just be a setting in the viewport.

Extracted faces can sometimes be a problem - depending on which face you extract and how you extract them, they can end up without proper UVmapping. You'll just have to see if they take on texture properly when you get the textures to work.
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Original Poster
#12 Old 25th Aug 2025 at 1:50 PM
Quote: Originally posted by simmer22
Which verson of Blender are you using?

Are you sure "textured mode" was showing? Blender often has the meshes set to a "smooth shaded without texture" setting as default, and models look grey until you switch it to textured (even if textures are applied), should just be a setting in the viewport.

Extracted faces can sometimes be a problem - depending on which face you extract and how you extract them, they can end up without proper UVmapping. You'll just have to see if they take on texture properly when you get the textures to work.



I am using Blender 4.5.2

And thank you! omg I am so dumb I should've been able to figured it out. But it works, anyway thanks again! xD
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Original Poster
#13 Old 25th Sep 2025 at 2:53 AM
Quote: Originally posted by simmer22
Which verson of Blender are you using?

Are you sure "textured mode" was showing? Blender often has the meshes set to a "smooth shaded without texture" setting as default, and models look grey until you switch it to textured (even if textures are applied), should just be a setting in the viewport.

Extracted faces can sometimes be a problem - depending on which face you extract and how you extract them, they can end up without proper UVmapping. You'll just have to see if they take on texture properly when you get the textures to work.


Hey do you know if it's possible to extract sims 2 default eyebrows in different color? I have the name of a particular eyebrow texture (uuface_browcombed_brown) that I wanna extract but SimPE can't find it. It can find the material definition for it but it can't find it with the pjse tool. I even tried face_browcombed_brown but it couldn't find anything.
Mad Poster
#14 Old 25th Sep 2025 at 4:10 PM
Try uing the "name search" in the Finder tab instead, if you want the textures. Should result in either TXTR or LIFO files (LIFO files are usually the 512x512 and 1024x1024 sizes). Also try using shorter search words if you can't get results ("Browcombed")

The PJSE tool finds meshes, and not all the items you're looking for are considered meshes. Reasonably sure regular eyebrows are just texture overlays (there's perhaps one exception).
Test Subject
Original Poster
#15 Old 26th Sep 2025 at 1:22 AM
Quote: Originally posted by simmer22
Try uing the "name search" in the Finder tab instead, if you want the textures. Should result in either TXTR or LIFO files (LIFO files are usually the 512x512 and 1024x1024 sizes). Also try using shorter search words if you can't get results ("Browcombed")

The PJSE tool finds meshes, and not all the items you're looking for are considered meshes. Reasonably sure regular eyebrows are just texture overlays (there's perhaps one exception).



Alright thanks, I found it now!
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