Current Version: 1b

History:
Version 1b has added the text list file associated with the the display "Private School Student" under the sim's career display. This is mostly cosmetic and may not have any effect on memories or various text associated with the School. Changing this file is pretty straight forward, if it has text there, change it, if not, leave it alone.

Version 1a has seperated the outfits used for private schools. There is no
direct change to defaults in this file, you will have to make those yourself

Purpose:
This file is not so much a hack as it is seperating the files associated with a
certain aspect so that these files can be changed by nearly anyone as they see fit. This reasoning behind this is because while many people may want something changed, there is no one way to change it to everyone's liking. It also serves as a tutorial of sorts so that less experienced people can become comfortable with making changes that won't totally screw up their game. It makes it easier for skinners to create default replacements featuring their own work for distribution.


Redistribution:
You may not directly alter the package, but can use it as a template for creating your own.
You must include all files in this archive along with any package that uses it.
You may not create a file based on this package and redistribute with someone elses work without their permission.
You may create a file based on this package and redistribute with your own work.
You may only distribute this on a pay site if it applies to the above.
If you do not plan on distributing then you may do whatever you want with this package.

Support and Updates:
Support and updates are made available at www.modthesims2.com, If you have obtained this file from somewhere else it is the choice of that distributor to offer support or updates.


This package was compiled for use for the modthesims2 community by Vagrant.

Please read all provided documentation before use, or simply read through this topic in it's entirety.

How to:

In the first version 1a you can only change private school uniforms. Future
versions may allow additional changes. These changes will affect every lot as
long as the patch is in place. Remember this before complaining about how your Rennisance based neighborhood has Harry Potter, or Anime based uniforms. That said, at this time this document only covers how to change uniforms.

Usage:
*Note* Durring the use of this file you may need to have some understanding of basic actions within windows, the sims, and SimPE. I have tried to explain how to do most things, but there are always exceptional people who just don't get it.

To use this file you must have installed the contents of the archive into the
\Mydocuments\EA Games\Thesims2\ folder. Note that I have not stated to install to the downloads folder, this is so that should you make a mistake when editing you will always have this one as a backup.

Once it is installed, we're ready for editing. To do this you will need to use SimPE which can currently be obtained from http://sims.ambertation.de/

When you have it installed, open the package file DIY_SchoolOveride.package, note that since this file may be updated from time to time, your file may have an extra number at the end to note it's version. Should you decide to update the file the new file will not overwrite your old file so that you can copy your old settings into the new one. This will be covered later.


Changing Outfits:
With the file opened, select the first 3d ID reference file. These files typically
control clothing, skin and possibly hair settings within the game. Within the
plugin view select the line beginning with "Category=" these are the outfits,
hopefully it should show a thumbnail of that clothing's texture. This will let you know what it's current entry is so that you know what to change it to. If you can't tell look at the stuff after the "category=", it displays what category the current outfit belongs in, the age group that can use it, and the internal filename that is used within the game. When you see the outfit you want to change within the window click the button with the "u" or "update" on it this will cause SimPE to scan your folders for all outfits.

*Note*
If you wish to use an outfit that you downloaded from somewhere you will need to add the downloads directory to the Preferences>Filetable list, if not you will only be able to select other default outfits.

It is best to keep changes within the age group of the default settings or else you may cause errors. Otherwise any skin can be used as a replacement, however if you select to use only a top/bottom, the one that is not specified will be missing. Unless you know what you're doing, it's best to stick to whole body outfits for now.

Once you've decided on the outfit, click the "use" button, and commit the changes. If you want to change anything else within the current package, do so, if not continue to the next section.

Saving:
Now that you have everything as you think you want it, you'll want to try it out in the game. Hopefully you havn't already saved over the origional file, if you have then you might have to reinstall once you're done. If you havn't, then you will want to choose "save as". Now select the "Downloads" folder if you don't have it, you'll need to make it. Then save as something describing the changes you made. While you cannot have more than one overide in your downloads folder, or more than 1 type of uniform at a time, you can have multiple files which you switch out before you play. If you don't plan on doing this, save it as whatever you want.

Restoring:
If you want to go back to the default uniforms, simply remove the package from your downloads folder by either deleting it, or moving it to some other folder for storage. You may also want to have a storage folder if you plan on alternating outfits.

If you download a new version with changes that you want, open both the file you made, and the update. Most likely the updates won't be changed files, instead simply adding more files to the package so that they can be edited easier. So in most cases you'll simply want to extract these new files from the update, then add them to the file you created. Try to make sure that you don't have any duplicate files (checking group and instance as well as type) as these may cause problems once you've added the files to your package, edit them to your liking, and save. You may occasionally make a mistake when editing files, so you may want to have a backup available and be careful what you save in game.

This space reserved for further tutorials so that people can read them on the first page instead of searching

That is such good idea! Now people can finally get their Harry Potter Sims to work correctly. And I've always wanted to be able to have Japanese school uniforms. Thanks for the hard work!

Btw, do these changes affect all neighborhoods or just certain ones? (Probably a dumb question, I'm not a modder by trade)

They affect all neighborhoods, although they might not be retroactive, so if you have sims wearing the old uniform, as long as they don't ever change clothes they'll continue wearing it. Once they change to something else, then go to school, they'll wear the new uniform. This is why I suggested that those who didn't want this could swap out the patches before they start playing that neighborhood.

While not really enough to warrant an update, I have added a text file to the archive. It is one of the few files associated with schools that are simple enough to edit directly. Other files I am unsure about as even minor editing can casue significant changes and cause problems. So these files would require some testing by each and every person who edited them to get the disired effect. As such I'm uncomfortable adding them to a package made to be edited quickly and easily.

If however you have some skill, and are interested in trying, they can be found by making a new package in SimPE, importing the semi-global files under "Jobdataschoolglobals". Most files associated with the guts of the school system, memories, vehicles, chancecards, and such are there. The only thing that isn't listed are things involved with changing the headmaster's looks and possibly function (might add some of these to future update if I get them worked out). However most of this stuff is beyond my current ability so unless you have a better than average understanding of simantics it would be best not to change anything you aren't sure about.

what does it do? in a short answer?

Short answer:
It sets aside the areas associated with what clothing is worn for a private school uniform. It does not change anything as it is, you would have to edit it to change anything.

what a great idea! Thank you

Great job, can you make it NL compatible?

Fairly sure that it is compatable with everything.

I follow instructions but nothing changed, i picked a texture that belong to another mesh (shorter skirt), would it be the problem?

mabricius, the file will only work if it is placed in your dowloads folder, along with the texture AND the mesh that came with it.