Creating default replacements eyes for pets and fixing black spots

[Bij0ux]

(I am a real noob concerning creating for CAH, I am really sorry for the annoyance that I may cause)
First things first: I have 2 projects that I want to achieve

creating default replacements eyes for cats and dogs
fixing the reflection issue with pets eyes

I've looked through the whole creation forum for any threads relating to creating for pets without much to work with. I have found out that people tried to fix the reflection issue and never found a solution but those threads were old. Anyone found a solution by now?
Also there seems to be no tutorial on how to create eyes for pets. Should I follow a sim eyes default tutorial to start? (the only one on MTS I could find is by Aikea and the pictures do not work anymore) What resources should I extract for the pets eyes?
Really what I'm asking for is where to start since I have no knowledge whatsoever on this particular process =/
I thought about using cmomoney's cats eyes defaults as base but they're only for cats so this could help halfway but I still wouldn't know which files I need for the dogs eyes.

A big thank you to anyone patient enough to put up with my noob'ness :)

[HystericalParoxysm]

Looking at the eye textures, at least for cats, it seems that making replacement eye textures is pretty pointless - the textures are so tiny, any changes you could make to them would be pretty mild. The eyes are basically just specks on the texture.

You can look yourself by using s3pe to open the Program Files\EA Games\The Sims 3 Pets\GameData\Shared\Packages\FullBuild0_p10.package - make sure Display Names and Tags is ticked at the bottom, click the Tag column to sort by type, and scroll down till you see acBodyEyeColor_o, then do Resource > View DDS. Untick "Alpha" and you'll see the textures. If you really want to replace them still, you can export the DDSes you want to replace (you'll need to find the others too, for kittens, dogs, puppies, etc. if you want to do them all for all pets) and import them into a new package file using the same TGI (type/group/integrity) settings as the originals, then replace the actual textures.

If someone knew how to fix the black spot reflection issue, well... they'd have already fixed it, wouldn't they? :)

[whiterider]

I believe the black spot is a shader thing. It might be possible to override the shader the game uses for pet eyes, but I don't know how one would go about doing so.

[CmarNYC]

You'd have to set the eyeballs mesh to a different shader. I think I tried that for cat eyes at some point with no results, but it was a while ago and I'm too lazy to look up the thread right now.

[whiterider]

I thought so. I don't know how/where the shader info is stored, though. :)

[cmomoney]

You'd have to set the eyeballs mesh to a different shader. I think I tried that for cat eyes at some point with no results, but it was a while ago and I'm too lazy to look up the thread right now.

This is the thread: http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=461506

[Bij0ux]

Thank you all :)
First: I tried to export the DDS file of acBodyEyeColor_o but at this point my s3pe is really really really laggy and whatever I do makes it unresponsive. When I try to select a file it doesn't work (it's still not selected). I don't know if it's because the FullBuild0_p10 is 1.06go (I always encounter problems with huge files in s3pe) or because I have the x64 version of s3pe (I've read that there are some issues with it but that could be completely false and I'd just sound stupid, I'm sorry). Actually I really have no idea why it's acting up right now.

Second: That's what I thought and read CmarNYC but I also thought if you can't find a solution I don't see myself finding one XD But thank you for your answers

EDIT: I decided to redownload s3pe and try again hoping it was an issue with my version.
EDIT#2: After trying for 3 days with the latest stable version of S3PE, I just realized what was my mistake: dragging and dropping the FuilBuild0_p10 package instead of opening it through S3PE -_- I would of never thought this could affect it that bad but anyway I finally could extract acBodyEyeColor_o

[CmarNYC]

Thanks, cmomoney. Since cat eyes are already using the human eyes shader, that's not it. BTW, you can easily see/change a shader by opening the mesh in Delphy's small tool GEOM Editor.

[Bij0ux]

Alright, I've managed to achieve something :D It is still a work in project and needs more details since it's really really simple right now but I wanted to share what I did ^^ and maybe get suggestions (but I do not want to make it realistic looking, I prefer cartoon-ish)
So far what I did is expand the pupil for a more dilated look (I thought it always look too constricted ingame) and darkened the outer rim of the iris for a bit more depth
http://i.imgur.com/4RfO7.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/a5POV.png
http://i.imgur.com/Ru8aF.png

EDIT: @cmomoney: I opened your cats defaults in S3PE and extracted the DDS to look at how you did yours (also to understand what I should include in my package and what are the names for the kittens and puppies img resource in FullBuild) and I couldn't see any difference from the original resource. How is that possible =/? Did I miss something?

[cmomoney]

I would have to say you missed something:

http://thumbs2.modthesims2.com/img/2/5/4/5/4/5/7/MTS_cmomoney-1280925-eyedif.jpg
(upside-down, sorry :P)

[Bij0ux]

Wow, I really think there is something wrong with drag and dropping files in S3PE since now I just looked at it again and I saw it. What is the key file used for exactly :S?
Also I can't get painted catchlights to work. At first I thought it was because it was pure white but then with an off-white it still doesn't appear (yet the rest of the texture does). Alpha related?

EDIT: I have found the problem!! My catchlights replaced one of the color channels in CAP and that is why I could not see it ingame since it was the same color as the rest of the eye. Now to understand how to make it unrecolorable, just plain white...?

[Bij0ux]

I think I have found partway where the issue of the black dots is coming from. In this picture you can see that the black dots are actually not black.. They're the color of each eye. I don't know how this is even possible. I'm sorry if this is old news or completely unhelpful but it is the first time I ever see this happening.
http://i.imgur.com/QmxmX.jpg

Also here's my biggest issue right now: The catchlights being recolorable with normal eyes but only the part in the pupil is pure white, the other half is a ligther shade of green I guess since it's a part of the iris
http://i.imgur.com/Qou1o.png
http://i.imgur.com/cIZbO.png
And with heterochromic eyes they're not recolorable because there aren't enough channels I think so they are a lighter shade of the eye's color.

What should I do now to make them unrecolorable =S?