[Tutorial] Creating Uniforms for your Careers
Apr 22, 2015 14:41:22 GMT
Reena and Sir Fail-A-Lot like this
Post by MissyHissy on Apr 22, 2015 14:41:22 GMT
Uniforms are surprisingly easy to do, once you know how. I highly recommend adding uniforms to your careers. This is because since Patch 1.31, career outfits were a little...unusual for careers and levels which do not have a uniform set. Instead of going to work in their every day wear, sim go off to work wearing something that shouldn't normally be seen
But don't worry...there's two different ways to add uniforms to your careers.
Using EA's standard uniforms
This is the simplest way, and perfect if the career you've created closely resembles an EA career.
First off, open up S3PE. If you don't have this installed by now, then I have no idea how you've been creating your careers.
Open the GameplayData file. This can be found in C:\ProgramFiles (x86)\Origin Games\The Sims 3\Game\Bin\Gameplay OR in C:\ProgramFiles (x86)\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\Game\Bin\Gameplay. It depends whether you use downloads or discs.
Let that file open for a bit. It sometimes takes a while, so wait with it.
Navigate to the Careers XML file. I highly recommend browsing through here often, since it contains all the basic coding for the EA standard careers, from Base Game all the way through to Into the Future. There's quite a few little goodies in here worth looking at. If you haven't done this before, then you'll notice that the coding closely resembles the coding we use for our careers, but there's more of it. Well there are a few other little lines that EA use that I cover in another topic.
But today, we're looking at Uniforms. So browse through that file. It's probably quite handy if you already know which uniforms you want to use. Once you do, navigate to the correct career in the file. So let's take the Political Career uniforms as our example today.
We can see lines like this:
This is exactly what we're looking for. These lines need to go into every level you intend to have a uniform. So it's best to copy this and add it to each level now. It will save you time later on (trust me!).
So in the Political career, levels 1 and 2 don't have a uniform, but level 3 does. It looks like this in the code:
And that's all there is to it. Twallan has compiled a list of uniforms used by the EA careers Here which is worth looking at. But you can also find this information in the Careers XML.
But what about creating custom uniforms from scratch?
Creating Custom Uniforms From Scratch
You Will Need:
Sim Outfitter (SIMO)
S3PE
CAS Texture Unitool (CTU)
The process isn't really that hard. But it's lengthy, time-consuming and sometimes unbelievably infuriating. But the end result really is worth it. This tutorial is more a process I use which I worked out through a bit of trial and error. There could be easier ways to accomplish this, but since I usually seem to end up testing my own patience, this does work for me. So by all means, give it a go, and if you find a faster way to achieve the same result, I'll open a bottle of bubbly for you
So, off we go!
1) I usually have the game open to begin with. I like to look through the catalogue to see what outfit would work. So for the sake of this tutorial, we'll begin with an Adult Male uniform. So look through your catalogue and decide upon your uniform. Try and use only Base Game clothing - unless your career will require another EP anyway. It's not essential, but it does make the career available to more users. Try and avoid CC uniforms, unless you've obtained the permission of the creator.
2) Once you decided on your look, open up CTU and S3PE. In S3PE, navigate to C:\ProgramFiles (x86)\Origin Games\The Sims 3\GameData\Shared\Packages\FullBuild0 OR C:\ProgramFiles (x86)\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\GameData\Shared\Packages\FullBuild0.
EP clothing can be found in the respective files in your Origin Games OR Electronic Arts folders.
3) In CTU, find the item of clothing you're looking for. If you've chosen a top, trousers and shoes, start with one. Click on the item in CTU. You'll see a Mesh Name. For example, if we were to look for the smart suit for an adult male, the Mesh Name is amBodyTuxedo.
4) Call up your S3PE file and find the matching Mesh Name in there. (Note. EP clothing can sometimes be a bit of hit and miss. It's not always as easy as you'd think the find, and I've yet to find a way to nudge CTU to open EP clothing.)
5) Find the CASP file for your chosen piece of clothing. In this case, it would be amBodyTuxedo and the Tag would be a CASP.
6) Right-Click and choose Export --> to file and save it somewhere sensible. Having a separate folder for uniforms in your work folder would be sensible.
7) Do this for all pieces of this uniform. So do this for a top, bottom and shoes. Or just a full body and shoes, whichever you've chosen.
8) Now open SIMO.
9)When the program loads, type in your outfit name. I usually do something like: careername_careernamelevel_male. So for my Advertising Career, this would look like: advertising_advertisinglevel1_male. Make a note of this name, you'll need it later!
10) Now select Add CAS parts --> Add from CASP file.
11) Select the first piece of your outfit. Say the top. A popup will open asking if this is the correct piece. Say Yes. It will then ask which preset you choose. Make your selection (it only registers standard presets) and press Continue.
12) You'll see now that the program has automatically ticked Young Adult and Adult and selected the gender as male. This is good, it prevents mistakes being made.
13) Do this for the remaining pieces of your uniform.
14) When you've finished, you need to save this. At this point, you may want to employ a bit of voodoo because getting SIMO to save can be very difficult. So click File --> Write outfit file.
15) Save the outfit to your work folder. If all goes well, you should end up with a Outfit file in your work folder.
16) Do all this for your Adult Female, Elder Male and Elder Female outfits.
You see how this can be time consuming? Especially if you decide to have a different uniform at a later level. But as I say, the end result is worth the work.
17) Now all your uniforms are ready, we need to import them into the career package. So open your career up in S3PE.
18) Select Resource -->Import --> from file and navigate to your Outfit file. Do this for all four ages. Say yes to all popups.
19) Now the files are in the package, we need to make the career recognise them. To do that, open up the .Careers file in Notepad.
20) Go to the level the uniform is designed for. Ensuring you've got this at each appropriate level:
simply type in the outfit name into the space. Do this for all four ages.
21) Repeat each stage until you have all the uniforms you want. Then save, and test your career out in game!
Congratulations! If all went well, you should have uniforms for your career!
If you haven't, feel free to ask away in this thread. Good luck!
But don't worry...there's two different ways to add uniforms to your careers.
Using EA's standard uniforms
This is the simplest way, and perfect if the career you've created closely resembles an EA career.
First off, open up S3PE. If you don't have this installed by now, then I have no idea how you've been creating your careers.
Open the GameplayData file. This can be found in C:\ProgramFiles (x86)\Origin Games\The Sims 3\Game\Bin\Gameplay OR in C:\ProgramFiles (x86)\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\Game\Bin\Gameplay. It depends whether you use downloads or discs.
Let that file open for a bit. It sometimes takes a while, so wait with it.
Navigate to the Careers XML file. I highly recommend browsing through here often, since it contains all the basic coding for the EA standard careers, from Base Game all the way through to Into the Future. There's quite a few little goodies in here worth looking at. If you haven't done this before, then you'll notice that the coding closely resembles the coding we use for our careers, but there's more of it. Well there are a few other little lines that EA use that I cover in another topic.
But today, we're looking at Uniforms. So browse through that file. It's probably quite handy if you already know which uniforms you want to use. Once you do, navigate to the correct career in the file. So let's take the Political Career uniforms as our example today.
We can see lines like this:
<OutfitMale></OutfitMale>
<OutfitFemale></OutfitFemale>
<OutfitMaleElder></OutfitMaleElder>
<OutfitFemaleElder></OutfitFemaleElder>
<OutfitFemale></OutfitFemale>
<OutfitMaleElder></OutfitMaleElder>
<OutfitFemaleElder></OutfitFemaleElder>
So in the Political career, levels 1 and 2 don't have a uniform, but level 3 does. It looks like this in the code:
<OutfitMale>career_businesscasual_male</OutfitMale>
<OutfitFemale>career_businesscasual_female</OutfitFemale>
<OutfitMaleElder>career_businesscasual_maleelder</OutfitMaleElder>
<OutfitFemaleElder>career_businesscasual_femaleelder</OutfitFemaleElder>
<OutfitFemale>career_businesscasual_female</OutfitFemale>
<OutfitMaleElder>career_businesscasual_maleelder</OutfitMaleElder>
<OutfitFemaleElder>career_businesscasual_femaleelder</OutfitFemaleElder>
But what about creating custom uniforms from scratch?
Creating Custom Uniforms From Scratch
You Will Need:
Sim Outfitter (SIMO)
S3PE
CAS Texture Unitool (CTU)
The process isn't really that hard. But it's lengthy, time-consuming and sometimes unbelievably infuriating. But the end result really is worth it. This tutorial is more a process I use which I worked out through a bit of trial and error. There could be easier ways to accomplish this, but since I usually seem to end up testing my own patience, this does work for me. So by all means, give it a go, and if you find a faster way to achieve the same result, I'll open a bottle of bubbly for you
So, off we go!
1) I usually have the game open to begin with. I like to look through the catalogue to see what outfit would work. So for the sake of this tutorial, we'll begin with an Adult Male uniform. So look through your catalogue and decide upon your uniform. Try and use only Base Game clothing - unless your career will require another EP anyway. It's not essential, but it does make the career available to more users. Try and avoid CC uniforms, unless you've obtained the permission of the creator.
2) Once you decided on your look, open up CTU and S3PE. In S3PE, navigate to C:\ProgramFiles (x86)\Origin Games\The Sims 3\GameData\Shared\Packages\FullBuild0 OR C:\ProgramFiles (x86)\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\GameData\Shared\Packages\FullBuild0.
EP clothing can be found in the respective files in your Origin Games OR Electronic Arts folders.
3) In CTU, find the item of clothing you're looking for. If you've chosen a top, trousers and shoes, start with one. Click on the item in CTU. You'll see a Mesh Name. For example, if we were to look for the smart suit for an adult male, the Mesh Name is amBodyTuxedo.
4) Call up your S3PE file and find the matching Mesh Name in there. (Note. EP clothing can sometimes be a bit of hit and miss. It's not always as easy as you'd think the find, and I've yet to find a way to nudge CTU to open EP clothing.)
5) Find the CASP file for your chosen piece of clothing. In this case, it would be amBodyTuxedo and the Tag would be a CASP.
6) Right-Click and choose Export --> to file and save it somewhere sensible. Having a separate folder for uniforms in your work folder would be sensible.
7) Do this for all pieces of this uniform. So do this for a top, bottom and shoes. Or just a full body and shoes, whichever you've chosen.
8) Now open SIMO.
9)When the program loads, type in your outfit name. I usually do something like: careername_careernamelevel_male. So for my Advertising Career, this would look like: advertising_advertisinglevel1_male. Make a note of this name, you'll need it later!
10) Now select Add CAS parts --> Add from CASP file.
11) Select the first piece of your outfit. Say the top. A popup will open asking if this is the correct piece. Say Yes. It will then ask which preset you choose. Make your selection (it only registers standard presets) and press Continue.
12) You'll see now that the program has automatically ticked Young Adult and Adult and selected the gender as male. This is good, it prevents mistakes being made.
13) Do this for the remaining pieces of your uniform.
14) When you've finished, you need to save this. At this point, you may want to employ a bit of voodoo because getting SIMO to save can be very difficult. So click File --> Write outfit file.
15) Save the outfit to your work folder. If all goes well, you should end up with a Outfit file in your work folder.
16) Do all this for your Adult Female, Elder Male and Elder Female outfits.
You see how this can be time consuming? Especially if you decide to have a different uniform at a later level. But as I say, the end result is worth the work.
17) Now all your uniforms are ready, we need to import them into the career package. So open your career up in S3PE.
18) Select Resource -->Import --> from file and navigate to your Outfit file. Do this for all four ages. Say yes to all popups.
19) Now the files are in the package, we need to make the career recognise them. To do that, open up the .Careers file in Notepad.
20) Go to the level the uniform is designed for. Ensuring you've got this at each appropriate level:
<OutfitMale></OutfitMale>
<OutfitFemale></OutfitFemale>
<OutfitMaleElder></OutfitMaleElder>
<OutfitFemaleElder></OutfitFemaleElder>
<OutfitFemale></OutfitFemale>
<OutfitMaleElder></OutfitMaleElder>
<OutfitFemaleElder></OutfitFemaleElder>
21) Repeat each stage until you have all the uniforms you want. Then save, and test your career out in game!
Congratulations! If all went well, you should have uniforms for your career!
If you haven't, feel free to ask away in this thread. Good luck!