Introduction
Welcome to part 2 of my tutorial on how to recolour friezes for The Sims 4. If you have not read part 1, you can find it here.
Step 11: Exporting Components
We are going to export the files you need from each recolour package.
Open Sims 4 Studio.
Click on My Projects on the right side of the screen, and open the .package file of one of the recolours you made in Step 10.
You will see a long list of resources.
We are going to export some of these. The resources we need are:
Trim
Material Set
Frieze
DST Images
Buy Build Thumbnails
…so basically everything that is not a String Table or Model. Select these resources using Ctrl + Click
At the bottom of the screen, choose the green Batch Export button, and save the resources.
I saved mine in a sub-folder called Parts, inside the folder for that recolor.
Observe the file names. Each file is named according to its Type, Group, and Instance, delineated with exclamation marks.
SteP 12: Getting Data from Primary Package
Close that recolour package.
Open the primary package (yourName_friezeFrameRecolor.package).
We are going to need to write down some notes about data within the resources in this package. Make a Notepad file or something to record this stuff.
Click the Frieze resource and copy down the Description Hash and Name Hash (you can copy it from the fields on the right side of the screen).
Also in the Frieze resource, scroll down and copy down the PrototypeID.
This is all the data we need.
Step 13: Importing Resources to Primary Package
Now we are going to import the first recolour. At the bottom of the screen, click the blue button that says Batch Import, and import those pieces in the Parts folder.
They will appear at the bottom of the list of resources.
Step 14: Combining Thumbnails
The PrototypeID controls whether recolours all show up under one thumbnail. If they have different numbers, your frieze recolours will come out like this, as separate thumbnails:
Open the Frieze resource you just imported, near the bottom of the list of resources. (If you ever get confused about whether you are clicking the right one, here’s a tip. Look in your Parts folder for the Frieze file in there, and find the one that has the same Instance number).
In the panel on the right, scroll down to PrototypeID, and paste in the one we copied before. (mine was A38BAD239E586664)
Step 15: Linking the Name and Description
We need to tell the program to use the existing name and description, which are stored in the strings resources. Otherwise it will look for ones that do not exist, and it will show up with *DEBUG* in place of the name and description.
In the Frieze resource, scroll to the top, where you’ll see Description Hash and Name Hash. Paste in the values we copied before. My nameHash for this project is 65491DAB and description hash is 1B0B1D95.
Step 16: Testing
Save again.
Place this primary .package into the Sims 4 > Mods folder, and load your game to test it out.
Step 17: Add Remaining Colours
If it works, then you can repeat steps 13-16 for each recolour package, to add the rest of the colours to the primary package.
Project Complete!
Congratulations! You have completed your project, and now have a working recolour for a frieze!
Of course, you may have run into some problems. I will provide some troubleshooting tips below.
Troubleshooting
I Didn't Tag My Colours in TSRW
This is a pretty easy fix.
Open Sims 4 Studio, and open your package. Click on the Frieze resource. Click Tags on the right, then Edit Items.
You will see some tags in a box. One will be a colour. If you cloned the white frieze, it will say Color_White.
Change this one to the color you want, using the dropdown menu. (This will automatically change the corresponding number, or TagValue, below it, so you don’t need to change those numbers).
You can add as many color tags as you need. Just click Add at the bottom left, and then choose the appropriate color in the dropdown menu on the right.
I Didn’t Set a Micro-Swatch Color in TSRW
This colour can be changed by clicking the Frieze resource, then click SwatchColors, then click Edit.
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In TSRW, we set the colour using RGB values. In this case, we have to use a different color system. This resource uses sRGB (0-1), which means the Red, Green and Blue values are given as decimals between 0 and 1.
To convert your RGB colour to this mode, you can use the online Colormath converter.
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Choose sRGB(0-255) in the first dropdown box, then paste in your RGB values in the next area.
The values you want will be in the table below, next to the line sRGB(0-1).
This website generates these numbers in the order RGB. But in Sims 4 Studio, they’re in the order BGR, so make sure you put each colour in the right box.
Sometimes the numbers you paste into Sims 4 Studio will change (and it will if you are using the converter I linked, because the numbers it gives are a few decimal places shorter than the ones Sims 4 Studio needs). But it seems to change to the nearest valid number, and the color still looks correct, so it’s okay.
To check if it worked, save, close, and re-open the package in Sims 4 Studio. The swatch to the left of the Frieze resource will change color if it did work.
Also, when you change these swatches, they are not image files, so you will not need to delete your localthumbcache.package
I Need to Change My Product Name and Description
Of all the troubleshooting tasks, this is one of the most tedious. But still do-able.
In your primary package, go to the first String Table resource. On the right panel, click Entries, then click Edit Items.
There will be 2 entries. The one with the key 1B0B1D95 is the description, the one with the key 65491DAB is the name.
Enter your desired text in the Value box for each.
Repeat this process for every String Table resource.
I find the most efficient way to do this is to have the name and description typed out in a text file. Copy the description to your clipboard, then paste the description in every String Table. Then copy the Name and paste the Name in every String Table. This will be faster than doing name and description, name and description, across each String Table.
My Swatch Image Is Wrong
There are two DST images per recolor. There is one for the texture of the object, aka the DiffuseMap. And the other is the swatch.
To replace the swatch, select the DST for that recolor that is Not the one showing the image of the frieze.
At the bottom right of the screen, click the word Import, and replace the image with the 32×32 thumbnail you created earlier.
Conclusion
I hope this tutorial has helped you create some wonderful Sims 4 custom content. If you like my work, Follow me on Tumblr, puremorphinsims.tumblr.com
Any part of this tutorial you need help with? Leave a comment below, and I’ll do my best to help you out.
Peace, love and sunshine,
