The TS4 skintone system has a lot of potential, and I've been working on a tool to make it easier to work with, similar to Skininator for TS3.

Definition of Terms: (These are the terms I'm using - they're not 'official'.)
TONE : A game file which defines a skintone. It links to the color images, the overlays, and contains various settings.
Skintone : The skin you click on in CAS, which is defined by a TONE file.
Body skin details : A texture with shading, contouring, and details such as muscles and belly buttons. (Yes, I know there's a separate 'skin details' in CAS. Couldn't think of a better term.) There are separate textures for each age/gender/bodytype.
Skin color image : A texture which applies color and some shading composited with the skin details. There is one skin color texture which is applied to all age/genders.
Overlay : A texture which is layered on top of the skin details and skin color. The ages and genders it applies to can be specified.

Tool Overview:

Create/Edit Custom Skin Colors

• Cloning Tool : Clones game skintones and creates a package with the TONE files.
• Clone Package Editor : Open and modify cloned packages.
• TONE Manager : Add/Delete TONEs, modify flags defining the type and usage, modify the swatch color and various other settings, import and export the skin color images.
• Overlay Manager : Add/Delete overlays, define which ages/genders each overlay applies to, import and export overlay images.
• Previewer : Preview skintones.

Create/Edit Default Replacement Skin Details

• Make New Default Replacement Package : Select which skin details you want to replace and clone them to a new package.
• Edit/Test Default Replacement Package : Import/Export textures and preview the skin details.

Notes: (Please read these!!!)

• While the preview is reasonably accurate for game skintones, if you modify the overlaid color - especially if you increase the saturation level beyond 40 or so - you probably will not get the same color in-game. If you go over around 100-150 for the overlaid color saturation, you're likely to get weird effects in the game that don't show up in the previewer. EA uses some compositing method I don't understand and can't completely duplicate despite a lot of effort. CAS and the game are the only true test.
• If it seems like there's a million body skin details textures, that's because THERE ARE. There's a separate texture for every age and every body type. For many purposes you're better off using an overlay. As far as I know there can be only one set of body skin detail textures, no non-defaults.
• Speaking of overlays, only one will be used for each age/gender.
• There are two skin color textures; one (a DDS image) is used in CAS and the other (an RLE2 image) in the game. For the CAS image you can import either an uncompressed DDS or a DXT5 DDS. For the game image you must import a DXT5 DDS. You can use the same DDS if you wish. However, you can add a logo or identifier to the CAS image which will show up on the sim in CAS but not in the game. That might be useful since there's no way to customize the swatch except for its color. Note that I haven't tested this with the game set to use hi-resolution on sims.

Moar notes:

• Randomization: Skins are chosen randomly based on the archetypes defined in their flags. The more archetypes a skin has, the more often it gets chosen. If it has no archetypes it will get chosen randomly only if there are no other skins that do have archetypes. The game skins for humans all have archetypes; the game skins for aliens don't have any.
• The 'Occult' flag determines if a skin shows up for humans, aliens, or both. Future occult types will probably have their own skins too.

I've also attached a set of templates showing how the body is mapped to the textures.

Face textures: There are about a billion of them and I haven't even tried to identify them and include them in the tool. I've uploaded two packages with all the face textures I could find, so anyone wanting to work with them can use that as a starting point.

Extract the attached zip, open the folder, and run TS4Skininator.exe. Please report any problems/suggestions/comments about the tool here. Please post problems and questions about creating specific content in the TS4 / Create / CAS Parts forum.

Tutorial: http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=568713

Additional Credits:
With thanks to Peter and Inge Jones, Kuree, and everyone else who's contributed to s4pi and s4pe, and to Snaitf for figuring out how to make non-default skintones.

Updated 12/12/15, version 1.2.0.0
Fixed overlay manager to update the overlay list when changes are committed. Added selection of ages teen to elder to previewer.

Updated 1/31/16, version 1.3.0.0
Fixed bug causing new content clones to replace game skin textures.
Moved property tags to external files which can be easily updated without making a new version of the program.

Updated 6/28/16, version 1.4.0.0
This update is to make the program compatible with the June game patch, which made some changes to the skin details textures:
-- The male and female adult instance IDs have changed and are updated in the program.
-- The new female breast overlay images are now included.
-- Note that the adult females do NOT have breast overlays. Teen, YA, and Elders do.
-- Note that the old male adult textures for the muscle/bony/fat/thin morphs are being overlaid by the new textures. They show through faintly but I dropped them from the program since there's already a million billion textures to deal with and I don't think they're visible enough to matter.

Many of the UI images in UI.package are in a custom EA format - to get technical, they're in pairs of ATI2-compressed DDS files using YCoCg color space. This tool will take a pair of these images and convert them into one bitmap (.bmp) image which any image editor can modify. Then the tool will take a bitmap and convert it to the EA custom format, producing a pair of files which can be packaged and used in the game.

The UI image pairs have the same Instance ID, one has Group 0x00064DC9 and the other has Group 0x00064DCA. Be sure to load each in the right place in the tool or you'll get very strange-looking results.

Bitmaps must have dimensions that are a power of 4 to compress correctly: 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, 2048, etc.

The program is available as a single file (UITextureSquasher_1_0_0_0.zip). If for whatever reason that doesn't work on your system, please try the version with separate files in a folder (UITextureSquasher_1_0_0_0_folder.zip) and comment here.

Requires .NET 4.0 or above.
The latest version of s4pe will preview and extract the UI.package images: https://github.com/s4ptacle/Sims4Tools/releases

The pictures attached are the two Willow Creek map images from UI.package, the combined bitmap image, and a modified Willow Creek in-game.

[img]http://thumbs2.modthesims.info/img/3/2/1/6/5/9/6/MTS_CmarNYC-1637614-MonsterKitteninWillowCreek.jpg[/img]

Additional Credits:
The EA forums and SimGuruModSquad: http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/dis...s-in-ui-package

Everyone who's contributed to s4pi/s4pe

Inge for testing

This is a full-purpose tool for creating CAS custom content for TS4. It's specifically meant to work with Milkshape 3D and to get around the limitations of using MS3D for Sims 4 meshes, but many of the functions can be done with OBJ files which can be used by almost any meshing program.

Here's a summary of the functions:

Cloning Tool - clone from game packages or custom packages

Clone Package Editor - working with custom content packages

• General CAS part properties - properties applied to all recolors
• Recolor Manager - properties for each recolor
• Previewer
• Mesh Manager - export and import meshes
• General Mesh Manager - fixes / changes applied to all meshes
• Mesh Region Manager - view / modify regions
• Thumbnail Manager - set up custom thumbnails

Mesh Tools - working with meshes

• Auto Tool: Conversion/Auto Assignments - auto-assign bones, uv1, etc. from a reference mesh
• Conversions: TS4/other - converts TS meshes to and from other formats
• Separate Mesh Layers - creates an MS3D or OBJ mesh with layers separated into groups, mostly useful for alpha transparency hair
• GEOM Tools:
  • Examine Mesh - see data in mesh
  • View Mesh
  • Combine GEOM meshes - combine two TS4 meshes
  • Clean Mesh - remove duplicate vertices
• MS3D Tools - tools for Milkshape meshes
  • Examine MS3D
• RIG Tools - look at skeleton data

In addition, if you click the Tools menu and Enable Special Tools, you'll see an additional Special Tools tab with various functions I've found useful for searching game packages.

Tutorial: Converting a TS3 dress to TS4
Tutorial: Converting a TS3 hair to TS4, with alpha transparency

This tool is in a perpetual state of beta, so check back for updates, fixes, new features, and so on.

Questions, bug reports, problems, and suggestions for the tool itself should be posted here. Questions and problems concerning a specific project should be posted in the TS4 Create / CAS Parts forum.

Additional Credits:
s4pe/s4pi is used by CAS Tools for package and image handling. s4pi/s4pe and CAS Tools are open source.

s4pe download: https://github.com/s4ptacle/Sims4Tools/releases

Latest working s4pi source: https://github.com/s4ptacle/Sims4Tools/tree/develop

Adds pointed ears to the standard CAS main ear sliders.

Compatible with Basegame. I've constructed this so it should have no conflicts with Get To Work and Vampires, although it doesn't combine well with the alien pointed ears and (I assume) the vampire ears. Should not conflict with Khitsule's Pointy Ears Unlocked mod. WILL conflict with any other mod overriding the macro mode ears HotSpotControl.

Instructions:

• Put the package in your Mods folder as usual.
• In CAS, select the ear for editing. Do not go into Micro mode.
• From the SIDE view of the ear, you can pull a point up and/or back.
• From the FRONT and BACK views of the ears, you can still use the ear size and ears out/in sliders, and the Micro mode is unchanged.

Tested on game versions 1.30 and 1.31. There's a patch version below which it won't work, but I don't know when the changes were made so I don't know which one, although I suspect it was the flexible-gender patch.

Additional Credits:
EA forums and SimGuruModSquad for information about how the CAS sliders work.

Adds more morphs to the EA butt slider, allowing adjustment of butt height and shape. Affects male and female, teen through elder, both frames. The effect is more noticeable in females for reasons that should be obvious. Changes in height of the derrière may cause distortion in some full skirts but it should be minimal. Changes in shape may slightly distort the patterns in some clothing.

Will conflict with any other mod that replaces resources 8B18FF6E_00000000_000000000000274B and/or 8B18FF6E_00000000_0000000000002619, the male and female butt Hot Spot Controls. I don't know of any such mods at this time.

cmar_EnhancedButtSlidersV3 adds the height adjustment from the side view and shape adjustments from the rear view. From the rear the up-down slider changes the width of the top part of the butt, and the left-right slider changes the width of the bottom part. The height and standard size adjustments are available from the side view.

Made with TS4 MorphMaker.

Additional Credits:
The EA forums for providing the information needed to make this.

lumialover8 for kicking my, er, butt to get back to TS4 morphs.

Version 3 uploaded 6/15/2022:

- Updated for the June 2022 werewolf patch. This slider seems to still work, but I updated just in case.

This tool makes custom TS4 morphs from base and morphed meshes and packages them in CAS sliders and presets.

Supports all species/ages/genders/frames/occults.

Meshing can be done using any 3D editor that will import and export OBJ without changing the vertex order or the face sequence or the group/object names. Tested with Milkshape and Blender.

To use: Download the TS4MorphMaker program zip file, extract, open the folder and run TS4MorphMaker.exe


There are three tutorials posted which have much more complete information and instructions:

Making a CAS slider with TS4MorphMaker using a DeformerMap
Making a CAS preset with TS4MorphMaker using a BGEO
Making a Cat Body Preset and Fur Preset with TS4 MorphMaker using EA Morphs and a Deformer Map
Using TS4 MorphMaker to relocate sliders

Check back for updates - now that people are using the tool I'm fixing bugs and updating often.

If something doesn't work, please check to see if an update has fixed it. If not, please report any bugs in the comments, giving as much information as possible. Please upload your meshes if you're having trouble making a BGEO or DMap. Please upload your package if it's not working as expected in CAS or the game. If you'd rather not upload, pm me with a link.

Note that the bone delta editor hasn't had much testing, and that support for morphs of custom meshes is mostly untested.

Additional Credits:
s4pe/s4pi is used by MorphMaker for package and image handling. s4pi/s4pe and MorphMaker are open source.
s4pe download: https://github.com/s4ptacle/Sims4Tools/releases
Latest working s4pi source: https://github.com/s4ptacle/Sims4Tools/tree/develop

With thanks to lumialover8 for encouragement and lots and lots of testing. His beautiful sets of ear and hand sliders and presets made with MorphMaker are here: https://luumiasims.com/post/1740062...headed-toward-a

Updates:

V4.5.2, 4/19/23:
- Updated for 4/18/2023 patch. This version will not read two DeformerMaps: the m to f and f to m frame morphs. These two DMaps have been updated to a new version that MorphMaker can't yet read.
- Will also skip all corrupted or unreadable morph resources instead of throwing an error.

V4.5.1, 3/26/23:
- Fixed bug causing a female base mesh to be exported when the male mesh is selected in the DMaps tab.

V4.5, 3/20/23:
- Added support for infants and werewolves.
- Fixed bug causing crashing when working with a HotSpotControl with no associated sliders.
I've only done basic testing, so please report errors as always.

V4.4.2
Support for the new version of HotSpotControl introduced in the June 2022 werewolf patch:
To fix old slider packages broken by the patch:
- Open the package in the 'Create/Edit Slider and/or Preset Package' tab
- When it asks whether to update the HotSpotControls, click Yes
- Save as a new package
This is likely an interim version since the new data added to the HotSpotControl may turn out to mean something for werewolves.

V4.4.1
Added support for the LRLE image format.
Added ability to append slider/preset packages.

V4.3
Head distortion in DMap preview of certain morphs is fixed.
Bone morphs for preview have been reworked, but animal meshes are still distorting so it needs more work.

V4.2
Support added for mermaids and witches.

V4.1
Corrections to the bone delta editor which hopefully will fix the issue of numbers randomly changing for some users, probably affecting users in countries that use a comma instead of a period as the decimal marker. I can't test this myself, however.
Improvement to the accuracy of bone morph previews.

Updates:
V4.0-beta
Bone Delta Editor (this part is still beta):

• Will now interactively show you the effect of bone morphs as you change values.
• Now allows values to be edited using either global/world or local coordinate system.

All previews now include bone morphs.
Exports of morphed meshes from previews now include bone morphs.
Preset regions which are not supported by the game have been removed from the preset options.

V3.0-beta
This is a beta since there are a lot of changes, and the previous version is still available until this one is final.
Enhancements:

• Full support for cat and dog sliders and presets added.
• The DeformerMap creation has been substantially rewritten to produce smoother and more accurate maps which are also a bit faster to make. The problem of morphs 'smearing' into the wrong areas and causing distortion should now be gone. Any bumpiness in very high poly meshes should be gone.
• *Note this exception: In human sims the fingers and inner mouth are mapped onto the same area of the uv1 so DMap morphs cannot be used for either part without distorting the other.
• Sculpts now include the full set of textures (material, normalmap, specular) and bone deltas.
• Small fixes and changes.

Bugfix: Export of morphs included tiny inaccuracies due to rounding error causing distortion when exported whole body morphs were used as a morph mesh. This has been corrected.

V2.3.2
Bugfix: Corrected bug causing body preset custom thumbnails to not show up. (Use this version to open and save a package with body preset thumbs to fix it.)
Changes: The thumbnail import/export window will now resize correctly. The preset sort order will display as a decimal number.

V2.3.1
Bugfix: Correction of bug in HotSpotControl display causing gender restriction flags to be incorrectly checked in some conditions.
Changes: Addition of custom regions for Sim Modifiers, for use in body presets meant to affect only one body part. Choice of regions in presets restricted to regions that can have presets. Cosmetic and informational changes to screens.

V2.3.0
Bugfix: Correction of bug in the Tight Boundaries option of DMap creation which caused erroring out.
Changes: Addition of mesh export from all previews, including previews of presets, sculpts, and sim modifiers. Exported meshes can now be modified and used as a morph mesh with the correct standard base mesh for the age/gender.

V2.2.7
Bugfix: Correction of DMap compression bug introduced in previous fix, affecting base/morph pairs of any size with areas of unchanged normals. Anyone using V2.2.6 should update immediately.
Change: Body meshes exported from the Previewer tab will now include the head.

V2.2.6
Bugfix: Correction of bug in whole body compressed DMap creation, resulting in a DMap with bad data. Anyone working with whole body size DMaps should update.
Change: A few user error checks added.

*** Updated again for the June 2022 patch. Please report any problems!

This slider replaces breast size with breast separation from the front view. The size can still be adjusted from the side view.

There may be some distortion of necklines and straps at the extremes of the slider, depending on the clothing.

Will conflict with any other mod replacing the female frame chest HotSpotControl: 0x8B18FF6E-0x00000000-0x00000000000023B7

Additional Credits:
Made with TS4 MorphMaker

Update 6/25/2022, V4:
Fixes the problem of males getting this slider. The game now seems to ignore the 'Restrict to Gender' flag and go only by the frame. This version works on females in female frame and males in female frame, but not on males or females in male frame.

Update 6/15/2022, V3:
Fix for new version of HotSpotControl introduced in the June 2022 patch. Note V3 will NOT work with unpatched games.

Update 7/30/2019, V2:
Replaced the bone morph with a deformermap (DMap) morph. No more disappearing chesticles! Otherwise it should work and appear identical to the original. Existing sims should retain breast separation settings, but I haven't tested this.

Added sliders for thighs and lower legs. Affects teen - elder, male and female, both frames.

Thigh, all views:

• Up: upper thigh thick
• Down: upper thigh thin

Lower leg, front and back:

• Up: bow legs
• Down: knock knees

Lower leg, side view:

• Up: calf definition

Additional Credits:
Made with TS4 MorphMaker

Version 2 uploaded 6/15/2022

- While these seem to still be working after the June 2022 werewolf patch, I updated them just in case. Note that the new version will not work in unpatched games.

Converting a pile of CC to be compatible with the HQ Mod can be quite a chore. This tool does it for you.

What it does:

You can select either one package or input and output folders. If you select one package, it will be converted and you'll be prompted to save it with a new name. If you select folders, all packages in the input folder will be converted and saved in the output folder with new names. A status line at the bottom of the window will let you know what it's doing.

[img]https://thumbs2.modthesims2.com/img/3/2/1/6/5/9/6/MTS_CmarNYC-1813675-HQTCwindow2.3.jpg[/img]

Conversion:

• RLE2 textures (diffuse, shadow, skin color, and skin definition) are resized to 2048x4096
• LRLE textures (diffuse and skin color) are resized to 2048x4096
• RLE2 textures disguised as LRLE are converted and resized to true LRLE 2048x4096
• RLES textures (specular) are resized to 1024x2048
• DDS CAS skin color files are resized to 2048x4096

However, these are just the defaults and you can select the output dimensions for yourself. Will also convert from HQ dimensions to standard if needed.

Pet textures are automatically resized correctly.

Requires Windows and .NET 4.7. If you're on Windows 10 you probably already have it; if you're using Windows 7 or 8.1 you can install it if necessary. Requires 64-bit. (If anyone needs a 32-bit version I'll provide it, but it's likely you'll get memory errors when processing large packages.)

How to use:

Use the top button to select a package to process one at a time. Select input and output folders to process every package in the folder. As of version 2.3 it will also optionally convert subfolders in the input folder, creating corresponding subfolders in the output folder if necessary.

Texture output options:

• Choice of which conversion to do and the target texture dimensions should be self-explanatory.
• Keep original size - when converting to HQ, you can choose to keep any textures that are larger than needed as is.
• Sharpen rle2 and lrle textures - using this option will sharpen the main (diffuse) textures of clothing, hair, accessories, skins, etc. You can choose the sharpening strength. Sharpening will slow down processing significantly. Strength of sharpening makes no difference in speed. Sharpening may or may not be useful when working with LRLE textures, you'll have to experiment.
• Don't sharpen grayscale - starting in version 2.2 the tool uses the CASP in CC packages to identify the shadow textures, so this option should normally be left unchecked. It may be useful if converting packages that contain clothing/hair/accessory textures but no CASPs as when converting EA game packages. It may not. If checked, the tool will attempt to identify shadow textures and not sharpen them. The benefit is that sharpening may cause banding in some shadows which might be visible. The drawback is that any black and white or gray clothing and skin details may not be sharpened.
• Use existing mipmaps - starting in version 2.2, if this option is checked the tool will keep existing mipmaps if possible. Leaving this option checked will be slightly faster and retain the quality of original textures in the mipmaps. In cases where sharpening has made a big improvement in a texture you may want to try unchecking it and generating new mipmaps.

With sharpening enabled, conversion will be slow. A package of 1000 rle2 and/or lrle textures could take around 2 hours or more. Without sharpening it's significantly faster. The program will prevent your computer from sleeping during conversion, but your monitor will still time out and sleep and you may see the monitor blacking out for a couple of seconds at a time even while you're using it.

Sharpening comparison:

[IMG]https://thumbs2.modthesims2.com/img/3/2/1/6/5/9/6/MTS_CmarNYC-1811043-SharpenCompare.jpg[/IMG]

Notes/Warnings:

The tool should only be run on packages that include only CAS parts (clothing, hair, accessories, makeup, skins, etc.). Running it on packages containing other CC such as objects may result in textures of the wrong size and/or wrong format and could cause your game to crash or not start.

This should go without saying, but you should keep your original packages in case something goes wrong.

Please report problems, questions, and reasonable requests in the comments.

Windows only, sorry. If anyone wants to convert it for Mac, you have my permission.

Version 2.7
Belatedly updated to use the new compression format for LRLE.

Version 2.6.1
Fix for errors thrown by empty CASPs in EA packages.

Version 2.6
Update for yet another new version of CASP.
Will no longer sharpen when sizing from HQ to non-HQ.

Version 2.5:
Update for another new version of CASP.
Added support for LRLE textures. This needs more testing; please report problems.

Version 2.4:

Update for the new version of the CASP.
I'm doing only a 64-bit version this time. If anyone needs a 32-bit version I'll provide it, but I doubt there's much if any need.

Version 2.3:

Fixes: Corrects an error affecting memory that was causing random crashes with no error message or an access violation.

New features:

• During batch conversion, optionally convert subfolders of packages under the input folder. Subfolders with the same names will be created in the output folder if they don't already exist.
• If any packages fail to convert during batch conversion due to unreadable textures or whatever, the tool will continue to run and display a list of packages that could not be converted when it's finished.

Many thanks to claudiasharon for working with me about the crashing problem.

Version 2.2:

Fixes: Fixes shadow lines again appearing when converting CC on some systems.

New features: Optionally use existing mipmaps.

Many thanks to LunaLechuza for helpful suggestions and testing.

Version 2.0:

Fixes: Corrected the lines on shadow textures and the dark lines around the edges of some diffuse textures.

New features: 64-bit version, sharpening, keeping larger-than-needed textures is now optional.

Additional Credits:

With thanks to Iconic for requesting this tool!

The HQ Mod is here: http://alf-si.tumblr.com/HQ_ts4_English

Image and package handling done with the s4pi library: https://github.com/s4ptacle/Sims4Tools/tree/develop

Folder selection uses Ookii.Dialogs: http://www.ookii.org/software/dialogs/

As of the December 2020 patch this tool is obsolete and skintones converted with it will not show up in CAS. Please use the new version uploaded separately.

With the 'Island Living' patch EA introduced tanning and burning, but older versions of skintones don't support the extra textures needed. This tool will convert a package of CC or cloned skintones by upgrading the version and adding the tan and burn textures by modifying the colors in the base skin texture.

Notes:

Do NOT save the converted package over the original; that will corrupt the package and you'll end up with an unusable file! Give it a new name or save it in a different location.

The program makes fairly accurate textures for natural skin colors and makes its best guess at tan and burn colors for fantasy skins.

It uses the swatch color to judge how light/dark the skin is and decide which color(s) are dominant for fantasy skins, so an accurate swatch is important.

For some custom skintones, conversion may improve or correct ugly spotchiness, especially in dark skin colors, that appeared after the IL patch.

I've uploaded only a 64-bit version which requires .NET 4 or higher. I can upload a 32-bit version but since this program has to process large uncompressed textures I ran into 'out of memory' problems using 32-bit.

If there are more than a few skintones in the package it'll take a seriously long time to compress the files and save after converting. Your system may report the process as not responding but it should complete eventually. If this is a significant problem I'll add threading although that's not going to make it any faster.

This is still beta-ish so keep copies of your original skintone packages and please report errors.

Unzip and run TS4SkinConverter.exe.

Windows only, sorry.

Additional Credits:
s4pi library for package and image handling.
Download: https://github.com/s4ptacle/Sims4Tools/releases/
Source: https://github.com/s4ptacle/Sims4Tools/tree/develop

Updates:

Version 1.2, 7/8/2019

• Now offers several options for handling overlays. I find the 'Fix for light colors, delete for dark colors' to work well but it depends on personal taste and of course on whether the package has overlays causing problems in the first place.
• The package saving step is now in a background thread to prevent the process from being reported as unresponsive.
• A few bug fixes.

Version 1.1, 7/5/2019:

• I found both burn masks and skintone overlays caused ugly blend splotches in the darker skin tones. My attempt to desaturate the overlays either didn't work completely or color wasn't really the problem. So, the new version removes all custom overlays and only adds a burn mask to the lighter tones. Hopefully this will resolve the splotching problem while leaving skintones looking almost the same. Once the new version of Skininator is released custom skin creators can experiment with adding new overlays.
• The option to add a burn mask to darker tones is gone.
• I've changed the defaults for the options.

There's still some pixellation at the tan line edges in very dark skin colors, but I don't think it's much if at all worse than in EA skins.

I am again maintaining this tool here on MTS as TS4 SimRipper Classic, currently version 3.14.2. PLEASE REPORT ALL PROBLEMS, WITH SUPPORTING ERRORS, FILES, ETC. HERE, NOT ON DISCORD.

SimRipper on Discord will be maintained and improved by thepancake1 when he's able to do so.

SimRipper version 4 and up on Github: (V4 has NOT been updated for the latest patches and should not be used at this time.)

--- Tool description ---
This is a tool to read TS4 save files, list the sims, and create a mesh of the sim with all the appropriate morphs applied, hopefully duplicating the appearance of the sim in the game. The mesh can then be saved in a choice of mesh formats. The composited diffuse and specular textures are also saved. Optionally a composited bumpmap and emissionmap can be saved, but these are experimental and may not be useful.

Meshes exported as Collada DAE can be imported into Blender (or other 3D editors that support DAE) with rig and bone assignments.

To use: Extract the tool folder from the attached zip and run TS4SimRipper.exe. Select a save file, then click on any of the sim's names which appear on the left. After several seconds the sim should appear and you can use the outfit dropdown to change outfits and the save buttons to save the sim in the current outfit.

WHEN ASKING FOR HELP WITH A PROBLEM, PLEASE UPLOAD THE SIM TROUBLESHOOTING INFO, PICTURES, ERROR MESSAGES, AND LOG FILES IF APPROPRIATE. IF THE SIM WON'T DISPLAY, REMOVE ALL CC AND MODS. IF IT STILL WON'T DISPLAY, UPLOAD YOUR SAVED GAME AND THE SIMBUILDERLOG.TXT FILE YOU SHOULD FIND IN THE SIMRIPPER FOLDER. IF IT DOES DISPLAY, UPLOAD THE SIM TROUBLESHOOTING INFO zip FILE AND OPTIONALLY THE LOG FILE.

WE CAN ALL SAVE TIME AND ANNOYANCE IF I DON'T HAVE TO ASK EVERY TIME.

Requirements: .NET 4.5, 64-bit Windows. No Mac and no plans to support Mac, sorry.

* Please note that with custom content and default replacements supported, if you're using adult skins and meshes they may show up.

Tutorial on the basics of using these meshes in Blender, including importing textures and animations and transferring normals: http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=639931

Known problems/limitations:
- Some, maybe all, big dogs may have distortion in the meshes.
- Animations for big dogs look like they were made for a much larger animal and there's distortion of the head. Animations for little dogs and cats are fine. No idea why.
- Pet collars and clothing do not (yet) compress fluffy fur and will disappear into the fur on floofy pets.
- When loading toddlers or children, you may get errors saying one or more physique morphs (heavy/muscle/thin/bony) was not found. As far as I can tell this is normal and caused by some of the body morphs not being implemented for children/toddlers.
- The edges of hair meshes may be slightly visible, especially in Blender. This may be a normals problem.
- Some skin details and makeup don't show up as visibly as they should.
- Cleaning DAE meshes seems not to be working very well.

A note about error messages:
- Error messages saying it can't find presets, sim modifiers, BGEOs, DMaps, or BoneDeltas may or may not mean anything. In most cases it's caused by a custom preset or slider you used to have but have removed. The preset/slider reference may still be in the sim's data.
- Error messages saying it can't find a LRLE texture may or may not mean anything. Because of the workarounds used for CC makeup and skins the 'LRLE' texture may actually be an RLE.
- If the sim looks right, don't worry about the messages.

Please note the Collada DAE format will import into Blender with all skeleton and joint assignments intact. Unfortunately their importer will not keep the original normals. IMO in most cases that probably won't make a significant difference but the people who may use these meshes in Blender will have to determine that. Possibly they can export in both DAE and OBJ and transfer data in Blender.

Texturing and alpha transparency:
- Starting in version 2.3, textures are linked into DAE meshes and will be loaded automatically as long as the textures are in the same folder as the DAE. All you should have to do is change the Viewport Shading (next to the Mode selection) to Material.
- To make transparency work and to adjust shine:
-- If alpha hairs or other meshes that use alpha transparency aren't displaying correctly: After importing the DAE, expand the rig and select any mesh, click the Texture icon in the properties under the objects listing, select the first texture, scroll down to the Influence section, and under Diffuse put a check next to Alpha.
-- To adjust shine intensity: select a mesh and click on the Texture icon as above, then select the second texture (which should be the specular) scroll down to the Influence section, and under Specular change the Intensity number. Higher numbers = more shine.

Pictures include sims in SimRipper and in Milkshape. I'm hopeless in Blender but have managed to do a couple of screenshots.

If you're reporting a problem, please, please don't just say 'It doesn't work'. I need to see error messages, a description of the problem, pictures if possible, whether it's happening with all sims or certain sims. If you have an error message saying the tool can't read something, please post a screenshot of the message or the text. You can blur or edit any file paths that contain personal information. Please only include the first 10 lines or so in comments.

As of version 3.3, you can click the "Sim Troubleshooting Info" button and save a zip including the information and error listings and the CC resources the sim is using. Please upload this zip with your report of a problem, it'll save everyone a lot of time. PLEASE INCLUDE IT WHEN YOU POST SO I DON'T HAVE TO ASK.

As of version 3.13.2, if the program crashes or gets an error that prevents the sim from appearing, please upload SimBuilderLog.txt which you should find in the SimRipper folder. Do not use the program again before making a copy of SimBuilderLog.txt or uploading it; loading another sim will create a new log file. AGAIN, PLEASE INCLUDE IT WHEN YOU POST SO I DON'T HAVE TO ASK.




Image and package handling is done with s4pi: https://github.com/s4ptacle/Sims4Tools

4/19/2023, Version 3.14.2.0:
- Did a workaround to get SimRipper working again after the patch of 4/18/2023.

Notes: EA has a new version of the DeformerMap which does most of the human sim morphs. So far it's only updated the frame modifiers that convert male clothing to female frame and vice versa. The new version seems substantially different. SimRipper is using the older version of these morphs at least for now.
Known bug: breast size on male clothing used on females is not working.

3/15/2023, Version 3.14.1.0:
- Added support for infants. Finding the infant skin definition textures is taking a while, so for now I'm using the toddler skin definitions. From the one infant texture I've found so far, they appear to be practically identical to toddler skin anyway.
- Finally fixed the distortions in hind legs and occasionally necks seen in some dogs and cats. This was caused by badly made EA pet DMap morphs.

3/3/2023, Version 3.14.0.0:
- Fixed a problem with replacement heads not categorized as heads not having seams matched with the body.
- Improved pet and werewolf pelt blending so fur shading isn't so washed out. Very light colors still lose some detail but I think this is the best I can do.
- Updated to use the correct werewolf fur shading textures instead of one I picked randomly.
- Added mannequins. (Needs more testing.)
- Added the ability to export a Sim Information/Sim Outfit resource from the currently displayed sim, for future use.


2/21/2023, Version 3.13.6.0:
- Added slot adjustments to make animation easier.
- Added correction for duplicate presets.
- Fixed bug caused by extra uv maps.
- Fixed bug caused by links to region maps that don't exist.
- Fixed bug causing necklaces not to morph.
- Fixed major bug causing pets not to work.
- Fixed bug causing meshes with vertices very close together to be distorted.

10/7/2022, Version 3.13.5.0:
- Fixed bug causing facial hair and probably some hairs and face accessories to not morph correctly and not fit smoothly to the head mesh.
- Will now give a meaningful error message if the log file can't be created, and continue to work without logging instead of crashing.
- Added a startup message so you know the tool is starting and not dead.

9/14/2022, Version 3.13.4.0:
- Updated with a long-awaited fix for the floating eyelashes problem: items near the face did not morph properly when using an accessory replacement head.

8/23/2022, Version 3.13.3.0:
- Updated to handle the case of custom meshes using custom rigs that are not in the user Mods folder, resulting in DAE meshes not being correctly rigged. Please note that vertices with bone assignments to bones not in the current rig will be reassigned and may not animate correctly.
- Fixed bug causing the loading of several outfits for the same sim to sometimes result in increasing facial deformity.
- Fixed bug causing distortion between the thighs in some combinations of thigh morphs.

8/15/2022, Version 3.13.2.0:
- Updated to support teen acne.
- Updated to support DLC content.
- Added logging.
- Fixed bug causing skin color to appear on alpha hair under some conditions.
Log files will now be written in the SimRipper folder you run the tool from. If the program crashes or you get a system error, please save SimBuilderLog.txt and upload it when reporting the problem. Do not run SimRipper again before saving or uploading the log file, it will be overwritten the next time you load a sim.

7/13/2022, Version 3.13.1.0:
- Fixed bug causing most CC clothing and accessories to not appear.

7/12/2022, Version 3.13.0.0:
- Now supports werewolves.
-- Some female clothing is distorted in the werewolf form. It's distorted in the game too so I'm not going to worry about it too much.
- Pets are working again.
- Some speed improvements.

2/23/2022, Version 3.12.1.0:
- Updated to support certain Wedding Stories items.

2/16/2022, Version 3.12.0.0:
- Updated for the new version of CASP, only to have a working version posted here.

1/21/2022, Version 3.11.0.0:
- The older skin blend some people wanted back has been added as an option, called 'Original'.
- You can now separately save the complete composited texture/specular, the 'glass' texture/specular, the skin texture alone, composited makeup texture/specular, composited clothing texture/specular, composited normal map (optionally converted to the RGB format used by many/most tools), and composited emission map.
- Normal maps and emission maps (if any) are now always generated.
- Made shadows more subtle to better duplicate appearance in-game.
- Fixed seam gaps at the ankles in children in some clothing.
- Fixed skin definition textures with facial lines and shadows being smoothed over.
- Fixed bug causing animals to error out.
- Fixed normal maps not being resized correctly before compositing.

12/5/2021, Version 3.10.0.0:
- Overhauled treatment of the combination of a female top with a male bottom, to eliminate gaps at the waist under some circumstances.
- Overhauled the Sim Troubleshooting Info:
--- Now only saves the CC resources actually used instead of whole CC packages, drastically reducing the size of the zip in most cases.
--- Now includes the save game.
--- Now includes resources from expansion/stuff/etc. packs for testing purposes since I may not have the packs you're using.
- Fixed a bug causing some resources to not be readable under some circumstances.
- Error messages concerning failure to open or read packages are now more detailed.

Please note that you must upload a Sim Troubleshooting zip for EACH outfit you're reporting a problem with.

9/20/2021, Version 3.9.1.0:
- Added support for fingernails and toenails.
- Added options for alternate sort orders of skin details. If one's not working, try the others.
- Added buttons to save skin textures and clothing/makeup/hair/accessory textures separately.
- Added sorting of sims by first name and household as well as last name.
- Tweaked the texture sort order to include ordering by composition method.
- Restricted the sim troubleshooting info to the current outfit.

8/15/2021, Version 3.8.2.0:
- Another fix for skin detail overlays. This may be the best I can do in this area.

7/21/2021, Version 3.8.1.0:
- Fixes the issue of clothing textures appearing transparent in older save games, putting your poor sim in a skin suit.

6/17/2021, Version 3.8.0.0:
- Changed the order in which skin detail overlays are applied to fix some being hidden by others. If you still have disappearing overlays, please upload an example package.
- Will now read custom CAS modifier tuning, supporting enabling and tweaking of morphs.
- Added support for skin and makeup sliders.
- Added options for skin blending.
- Changed the preview to an orthographic camera.
Notes:
- SimRipper does not have the same limits as the game on what the color sliders can be used on, so if hue, saturation, brightness, and/or opacity have adjustment values in the save game those adjustments will be shown.
- Since I've never been happy with the skintone blending, I've added additional methods that you can choose. "Blend" is the old method which is almost unchanged. "HSV" retains color better with mid-tone skins but looks terrible with light skin. With "HSL" medium and light skins may look sallow or slightly bluish. Very dark skin looks almost the same in all three but may vary a little in brightness. There's also an option of whether to apply the overlaid "Colorize" color - with most skins this will make little or no difference.
- Using an orthographic camera instead of a perspective one should eliminate perspective distortion making noses, ears, etc. appear too big, and duplicate the view in CAS a little better.

5/11/2021, Version 3.7.0.0:
- Will now skip unreadable packages instead of crashing.
- Will now skip invalid bone assignments when converting to Collada DAE.
- Fixed glitches at hairline with some alpha hairs.
- Fixed very short hair disappearing when used with a hat.
- Fixed some CC with nonstandard vertex paint not morphing correctly.
- Added support for painted pet coats.
- Known problems:
---Textures not saving on some systems. Try saving them in another location.
---Alpha hair and eyelashes may not render correctly. I believe this is a rendering problem in Windows WPF and Blender since they show up correctly in Milkshape and look different in WPF vs Blender.

2/26/2021, Version 3.6.0.0:
- Fixed skins showing up bluish gray after the 2/25 patch.
- Changed how images are saved in hopes of fixing the GDI+ errors some users are getting.
- Fixed bug causing children and toddlers to appear pregnant if loaded after a pregnant adult.

1/16/2021, Version 3.5.0.0:
- Fixed layer order of face sculpt textures causing cheek and forehead sculpts to layer default or blank definition over the other features.

1/13/2021, Version 3.4.2.0:
- Fixed bug causing default replacement skin definitions to not show up.

1/10/2021, Version 3.4.1.0:
- Fixed bug causing some sims in HQ to look like monsters from hell and others to be missing makeup items like eyebrows.

1/6/2021, Version 3.4.0.0:
- Now supports the December patch.
- Added support for the LRLE image type. MAC makeup and all skin definitions should show up correctly.
- Updated the Sim Troubleshooting Info to include only the current outfit.
- PLEASE NOTE: MAKEUP AND SKIN SLIDERS ARE NOT YET SUPPORTED. You'll get the makeup/skin color but without any slider adjustments.

11/18/2020, Version 3.3.0.0:
- Added a button to "Save Sim Troubleshooting Info". This will let you save a zip file with the information and error listings and copies of all the CC packages used by the sim. You can then upload the zip to your comment reporting the problem.

11/17/2020, Version 3.2.0.0:
- Update to support new version of savegame data.
- Toddler eyebrows and other makeup textures along with the eye colors added in a patch are now included along with skin definition files. Most toddlers should show up correctly.

10/20/2020, Version 3.1.0.0:
- Bugfix for sims with alpha hair and no other alpha parts failing to save as solid and glass meshes and textures.
- Diffuse textures now blended with premultiplication to avoid blending artifacts on some parts.
- The preview will now reflect the different saving options, which handle the skin texture a little differently. This will make no difference in the majority of cases but sometimes may give you a more accurate idea of how it will look in Blender or other tools.

10/14/2020, Version 3.0.0.0:
- Lots of fixes for the Oct. 6 patch. This update has not been fully tested but I wanted to get something out there that's at least mostly working. Please report problems.
- Added option to save as solid and glass meshes and textures, like in older versions.
- Added option to save DAE meshes without linked textures.

8/30/2020, Version 2.3.3.2:
- Fixed bug causing textures to not save to some folders.

8/23/2020, Version 2.3.2:
- Fixed bug causing overlays to not appear. They still may be fainter than you expect.
- Bone morphs will no longer crash on faces with a zero length side.
- Fixed unevenness in long dresses and skirts with some morphs.
- Increased the precision of bone morph calculations. Much to my surprise, .NET uses different mechanisms for floating point arithmetic in 32-bit vs 64-bit, which apparently is why the MS3D meshes had the arms at the wrong angle in 64-bit but not in 32-bit. Using double precision has fixed that and may help with small rig errors a couple of people have reported.

8/18/2020, Version 2.3:
- Added HQ texture support.
- Textures are now linked into DAE meshes. Import the DAE and change the Viewport Shading to Material and you should see the model with diffuse and specular textures. See instructions above under "Texturing and alpha transparency".
- Some alpha hairs or accessories may not display correctly using the main diffuse texture if they've been uv-mapped onto face or body areas. In that case you can save a 'glass' texture which has no skin texture background and import it for your alpha mesh that's not looking right.
- Optionally meshes can be saved as one mesh or as multiple mesh parts, one for each part of the sim: head, hair, body, accessories, etc.
-- Separate mesh parts will show visible seams between parts because Blender doesn't import the normals correctly. You may be able to correct this by importing an obj of the same model and transferring normals as explained in the tutorial above.
-- Having "Clean DAE Mesh" checked and saving as a single mesh will in most cases give you a mesh with no visible seams.
- Fix for null reference exceptions affecting occult sims, possibly due to a change in the EA save game format.
- Various fixes.

7/26/2020, Version 2.2.2:
- Fix for new version of the CASP introduced in the Knitting patch.
- You can now select different bone sizes in Blender. A setting of 9 gives you pretty visible bones.
- This is an interim update to get the CASPs working again. Still working on separate part meshes, HQ support, and various fixes.

6/4/2020, Version 2.2.1:
- The June 3, 2020 patch seems to have changed the way makeup textures are compressed, resulting in eyecolor, eyebrows, lipstick etc. not appearing. This is an interim update which uses older versions of those textures. Any new makeup that came with the June 3 patch will not show up correctly.

5/31/2020, Version 2.2.0: (Yes, I messed up the version number.)
- Bone morphs are reworked to hopefully be more accurate in extreme morphs and scaling.
- The creation and save speed for Collada .DAE meshes is substantially improved.
- Uses a better folder browser for choosing paths in the setup.
- *known bug* Milkshape meshes have an error in the rig causing the arm bones to be positioned wrong. Collada DAE meshes seem to be fine.

2/26/20, Version 2.0.2:
- Failure to correctly read CASModifier tuning in countries that use a comma as a decimal marker has been fixed. This caused the modifiers not to be read, and is likely the cause of crashing when trying to load a sim.

2/23/20, Version 2.0:
- There are now three file paths that can be modified in Setup if needed: The path to the game files, the full path to the Mods folder, and the full path to the Saves folder.
- You can now filter the list of sims in a save game listing by species, gender, and age.
- There is now a button to save textures only.
- A missing Region Map should no longer cause crashing.
- Errors are now logged and can be displayed by clicking the Show Errors button.
- The listing of the sim's information (background info, morphs, CAS parts, etc.) is no longer shown in the tool but can be displayed by clicking the "Show Sim Information Listing" button.
- Duplication of sims' appearance, especially children and toddlers, has been improved by the inclusion of CAS Modifier tuning. (Thanks, Menaceman44!)
- Males in female frame now have flattened breasts when wearing female tops.
- Filling of the waist gap when combining female tops and male bottoms should now work correctly in all clothing.
- A pregnant morph can now be applied to cats and dogs.
- Tans and sunburns are now supported, with or without tan lines. (Tan lines must be created in the game.)
- The correct parts of pants should now be removed when combined with boots.
- I fiddled with the bumpmaps and emission maps, but I can't tell if it's an improvement.

1/23/20, Version 1.9.2:
- Fixed Collada DAE meshes exported on systems with languages that use a comma for decimals not importing the rig into Blender correctly.
- Fixed the teeth texture and made the inner mouth color more realistic.
- Tweaked skin colors a little.

1/15/20, Version 1.9:
- Animations should now work well in Blender.
- CAS parts using the SimGlass shader are now supported. They will be a separate mesh part within the Collada, OBJ, or MS3D file, and their texture will be exported to separate images named as Glass. At this time all glass parts will be combined into one mesh part. This will however affect only transparency hair in most cases.

12/18/19, Version 1.8:
- Bugfixes for locality differences.
- Skin details are now blended according to the composition method.
- Occult states added. Occult sims with an alternate form can now be put into that form.
- Pregnant sims will now have a pregnant morph applied, and a slider for pregnancy progress can make any sim appear pregnant. (Human sims only so far.)
- Improved appearance of light skin colors.

12/6/19, Version 1.7:
- Added more robust handling of errors in reading resources. If a resource can't be read, the tool will now tell you the resource type, tgi, and the package it's in; and ignore it.
- Now uses skintone settings for makeup opacity, so your sims should no longer look like they put blush and eyeshadow on with a trowel.