Need help with Porcelain doll

[BellaRose232]

I changed one of my sims into a porcelain doll and I want to keep him that way, but I wanted to remove the default skin and put my own HQ one in it's place. I have no idea how to do that. If anyone knows can you please explain it for me?

 

[Crashdown117]

First, you would need to find the doll skin within the WW .package file - i.e., open it in S4S and look through, I presume, the entries of type "RLE Image" (these are usually for textures). Once you find it, you have to options:

 

(1) In the WW .package file, replace the doll skin with the one you want, meaning you now have a custom WW variant and need to repeat the procedure after every update.

 

(2) Take note of the ID associated with the skin and create a mod of your own that contains your preferred skin with that same ID assigned, then hope that by placing your mod above or below the WW .package file in your load order (determined by alphabetical order of file names but different between Win and Mac) you successfully override the WW texture with your own instead of creating a texture conflict (which you will instantly recognize due to your Sims looking somewhat off or even downright terrible).

 

I've done option (2) for a few tuning snippets from various mods over the years and once for some Build mode objects, but never for textures - and I've seen some weird stuff happen with texture conflicts, so I'm a bit careful in that regard (probably more than I need to be, as overrides are usually a very clean way of doing stuff like this).

[BellaRose232]

19 hours ago, Crashdown117 said:

First, you would need to find the doll skin within the WW .package file - i.e., open it in S4S and look through, I presume, the entries of type "RLE Image" (these are usually for textures). Once you find it, you have to options:

 

(1) In the WW .package file, replace the doll skin with the one you want, meaning you now have a custom WW variant and need to repeat the procedure after every update.

 

(2) Take note of the ID associated with the skin and create a mod of your own that contains your preferred skin with that same ID assigned, then hope that by placing your mod above or below the WW .package file in your load order (determined by alphabetical order of file names but different between Win and Mac) you successfully override the WW texture with your own instead of creating a texture conflict (which you will instantly recognize due to your Sims looking somewhat off or even downright terrible).

 

I've done option (2) for a few tuning snippets from various mods over the years and once for some Build mode objects, but never for textures - and I've seen some weird stuff happen with texture conflicts, so I'm a bit careful in that regard (probably more than I need to be, as overrides are usually a very clean way of doing stuff like this).

Thank you for the advice I really appreciate it. Could you point me in the right direction to learn how to do #2 on my own? Or if you have any tips on how to find the file in WW so I can identify it? I don't do any modding, but I'm willing to learn.

[Crashdown117]

16 hours ago, BellaRose232 said:

Thank you for the advice I really appreciate it. Could you point me in the right direction to learn how to do #2 on my own? Or if you have any tips on how to find the file in WW so I can identify it? I don't do any modding, but I'm willing to learn.

It's pretty easy, actually. Describing it, on the other hand, will make it look complicated, but I'll try anyway.

 

First, you obviously have to get Sims 4 Studio so you can open .package files. The latest version can be downloaded here: https://sims4studio.com/board/6/download-sims-studio-open-version

Simply pick the one you need (Windows or Mac), download links are somewhere in the middle of the first post in each thread. Setup is as simple as either extracting the program files or running the installer, then running S4S once so that it can detect your Sims 4 installation and load up everything.

 

Once you're at the welcome screen, you'll be able to enter a creator name in the bottom right. This is necessary for creating mods, so you might as well do it right away.

 

Next, click on "My Projects" (which actually allows you to open any .package file) and navigate to your WickedWhims .package file ("TURBODRIVER_WickedWhims_Tuning.package") to open it. Once S4S has loaded its contents (and you're on the Warehouse tab, not the Studio tab), click on the header of the "Type" column to sort everything by type, then scroll down until you see entries of type "RLE 2 Image" (if S4S freezes, especially when using the scroll bar, just give it a sec). This is were the doll textures are found (among other stuff) and just from giving it a quick look, I can already tell you that there are multiple body textures (probably for different genders and age groups, maybe also for different levels of detail), and a extra texture for the ornate headpiece.

 

Anyway, clicking on one of those entries will show you the associated image and other information on the right (on the Image and Data tabs, respectively). The Image tab will also tell you the height and width of the texture (your replacement needs to fit these as well as the positioning of the individual elements in the image) while the Data tab holds the three parts that make up the texture ID (this is what you want to take note of for creating your override).

Using the buttons at the bottom of the S4S window, you can also export these textures if you need some templates for creating your own ("Batch Export" will export everthing that you have highlighted in the list of contents).

 

Once you have all that, you're done wiith the WW .package file and can either hit the "Home" button in the top left corner to return to the welcome screen or simply close S4S, as you will likely be going to work on your replacement textures now.

 

To reiterate, when creating your replacement textures, make sure that they have the same height and width as the original ones and that the individual elements are placed in the same way (otherwise, they will not appear properly on your Sim). File formats supported for import in S4S are .dds, .png and .jpg, but IIRC, I read somewhere that the former two formats are preferred.

 

Now that you're done with your textures, return to the S4S welcome screen. In the top bar, under "Tools", there's the option "Create Empty Package", which will provide you with a blank file for importing your textures (you can use the "Batch Import" function to import them all at once). After importing, all that's left to do is to change the IDs to the ones you noted down earlierand that's it. Save your work and you're done.

 

To test your project in-game, put the file into the same folder as the one your WW files are in. For me (on Windows), such self-made overrides need to be above the original files in alphabetical order, so I usually add something like "!_"  (if it's hard to read, that's an exclamation mark followed by an underscore) in front of the file name. You'll know that it works and your load order is right when you see the changes in-game. If you don't see anything, try a file name starting with "zz" and try again.

 

Some additional words of advice:

As always, remember to delete "localthumbcache.package", found in "Documents/Electronic ARts/The Sims 4", whenever you make any changes to your mods or the game itself (including adding, replacing and renaming mod files).

For some users, S4S tends to run less smoothly, even to the point of completely freezing and becoming unresponsive. So save your work in progress every now and then, just to be safe.

[BellaRose232]

On 9/7/2024 at 6:48 AM, Crashdown117 said:

It's pretty easy, actually. Describing it, on the other hand, will make it look complicated, but I'll try anyway.

 

First, you obviously have to get Sims 4 Studio so you can open .package files. The latest version can be downloaded here: https://sims4studio.com/board/6/download-sims-studio-open-version

Simply pick the one you need (Windows or Mac), download links are somewhere in the middle of the first post in each thread. Setup is as simple as either extracting the program files or running the installer, then running S4S once so that it can detect your Sims 4 installation and load up everything.

 

Once you're at the welcome screen, you'll be able to enter a creator name in the bottom right. This is necessary for creating mods, so you might as well do it right away.

 

Next, click on "My Projects" (which actually allows you to open any .package file) and navigate to your WickedWhims .package file ("TURBODRIVER_WickedWhims_Tuning.package") to open it. Once S4S has loaded its contents (and you're on the Warehouse tab, not the Studio tab), click on the header of the "Type" column to sort everything by type, then scroll down until you see entries of type "RLE 2 Image" (if S4S freezes, especially when using the scroll bar, just give it a sec). This is were the doll textures are found (among other stuff) and just from giving it a quick look, I can already tell you that there are multiple body textures (probably for different genders and age groups, maybe also for different levels of detail), and a extra texture for the ornate headpiece.

 

Anyway, clicking on one of those entries will show you the associated image and other information on the right (on the Image and Data tabs, respectively). The Image tab will also tell you the height and width of the texture (your replacement needs to fit these as well as the positioning of the individual elements in the image) while the Data tab holds the three parts that make up the texture ID (this is what you want to take note of for creating your override).

Using the buttons at the bottom of the S4S window, you can also export these textures if you need some templates for creating your own ("Batch Export" will export everthing that you have highlighted in the list of contents).

 

Once you have all that, you're done wiith the WW .package file and can either hit the "Home" button in the top left corner to return to the welcome screen or simply close S4S, as you will likely be going to work on your replacement textures now.

 

To reiterate, when creating your replacement textures, make sure that they have the same height and width as the original ones and that the individual elements are placed in the same way (otherwise, they will not appear properly on your Sim). File formats supported for import in S4S are .dds, .png and .jpg, but IIRC, I read somewhere that the former two formats are preferred.

 

Now that you're done with your textures, return to the S4S welcome screen. In the top bar, under "Tools", there's the option "Create Empty Package", which will provide you with a blank file for importing your textures (you can use the "Batch Import" function to import them all at once). After importing, all that's left to do is to change the IDs to the ones you noted down earlierand that's it. Save your work and you're done.

 

To test your project in-game, put the file into the same folder as the one your WW files are in. For me (on Windows), such self-made overrides need to be above the original files in alphabetical order, so I usually add something like "!_"  (if it's hard to read, that's an exclamation mark followed by an underscore) in front of the file name. You'll know that it works and your load order is right when you see the changes in-game. If you don't see anything, try a file name starting with "zz" and try again.

 

Some additional words of advice:

As always, remember to delete "localthumbcache.package", found in "Documents/Electronic ARts/The Sims 4", whenever you make any changes to your mods or the game itself (including adding, replacing and renaming mod files).

For some users, S4S tends to run less smoothly, even to the point of completely freezing and becoming unresponsive. So save your work in progress every now and then, just to be safe.

Thank you for all the info I really appreciate it. I'm gonna do my best to attempt the second one, gonna take me some time though I think lol.

[BlackCat1864]

I know it’s a bit late but I had the same problem as you and I found out if you turn on testingcheats and then right click on the sim and click “Remove Clothing Changing Block” it reverts the sims back to their original appearance but they stay a porcelain doll.

 

 The second comment here goes into more detail.