How to make tattoos show through custom skins?

[porkybork]

Hey, so I downloaded a few tattoos that I really like, but they don't show through my custom skins. The skins I use are in the Skin Details section and are by RemusSirion, if that helps. I'd hate to get rid of either skins or tattoos, so if anyone knows a way to edit the tattoos to make them work I'd very much appreciate it.

[erplederp]

1 hour ago, porkybork said:

Hey, so I downloaded a few tattoos that I really like, but they don't show through my custom skins. The skins I use are in the Skin Details section and are by RemusSirion, if that helps. I'd hate to get rid of either skins or tattoos, so if anyone knows a way to edit the tattoos to make them work I'd very much appreciate it.

If there's no slot conflict (tattoos are in tattoos and skin in skin details), it is probably caused by improperly set SortLayer which determines the order in which the stuff is drawn - so in your case the skin overlay is drawn on top of the tattoos. You can easily check and modify the ordering as you see fit using Sims 4 Studio (see below), so either increase the number for the tattoos or decrease the number for the skin. You may like to first check the SortLayer for the base game tattoos and other skin overlays to see the typical values, so the result of your modification plays well with other CC. Bigger numbers mean outer layers.

 

[Rosario Blackthorne]

Hello erplederp, i've tried it yesterday but unfortunately it is not working. I have several custome skin overlays which i'm using and some of the EA tatoos from older content as well as the custome tatoos are non visible on the custome skins, however most of the new EA tatoos or newly downloaded are visible. I'v compared the number on each and it is 3000 on both those that i want to use as visible and the one that is visible but i don't like to use. I've changed it to 7000 or even 9000 but still nto visible. 

 

any suggestion pls? 

[erplederp]

2 hours ago, Rosario Blackthorne said:

Hello erplederp, i've tried it yesterday but unfortunately it is not working. I have several custome skin overlays which i'm using and some of the EA tatoos from older content as well as the custome tatoos are non visible on the custome skins, however most of the new EA tatoos or newly downloaded are visible. I'v compared the number on each and it is 3000 on both those that i want to use as visible and the one that is visible but i don't like to use. I've changed it to 7000 or even 9000 but still nto visible. 

 

any suggestion pls? 

Could you attach an incompatible pair of .package files, one with the tattoos and one with the skin overlay? I might take a look at it.

[Rosario Blackthorne]

i've sent it to you in private message. if you could take a look in it. 

[erplederp]

So, it looks like CompositionMethod is the culprit. When I changed it to 0 (from the original value 1), the tattoo was visible on the custom skin. The colors might look slightly different than the author intended but at least it somehow works.

 

The value can be changed here (don't forget to set it for all individual CAS parts):

 

 

As far as I know, the composition method defines the way colors blend with the underlying layers - and 0 is no blending, just drawing over them. The interesting thing is that some EA tattoos use 0 and some use 1 for the CompositionMethod. Ones that use 0 show up with the custom skin, ones that use 1 don't - the same thing applies to the custom content.

 

As to why CompositionMethod 1 does not work with the custom skin - my guess is the skin is either missing some texture layers (specular? normal?) required by the blending algorithm or it uses a different shader material (or something).

[porkybork]

Sorry for not replying earlier, I've been focused on other things. Thanks, @erplederp for the info! I'll give it a shot when I get the chance and let you know if it works or not.

[Rosario Blackthorne]

thank you, i found it and modified another file tatoo and it is working! it had the 1 instead of 0 too,

[erplederp]

13 hours ago, Rosario Blackthorne said:

thank you, i found it and modified another file tatoo and it is working! it had the 1 instead of 0 too,

No problem, it is not a perfect solution but it is something .

[porkybork]

Hey, uh, so this is awkward, but I guess I forgot all about this thread. On the plus side, your advice helped! I got this tattoo to show through my custom skin:

Thanks for all the info! I'll do this for any other tattoo that gives me the same issue.

[Excorsion]

So quick question.. how low can you set the numbers? My thinking is this.. going thru my folder and just setting all the skins lower because i have quite a few skins that don't show all the tattoos.. many of them will show base game stuff but not downloaded stuff... last time i tried missing with files tho was when I was trying to change certain hairs from being generated on male sims... which i ended up causing a big probem in my games where npc's showed up with no face... was kinda creepy...so have to reverse what i had changed.