Hi there! You are currently browsing as a guest. Why not create an account? Then you get less ads, can thank creators, post feedback, keep a list of your favourites, and more!
Test Subject
Original Poster
#1 Old 5th Sep 2015 at 10:36 AM
Default "Broken" Skintone Sliders - Skininator Noob
So here's what's going on. A while back I finally got on my game to actually play, and in CAS I noticed that the sliders I had made with Skininator weren't working right.



I'm ashamed I didn't notice this problem earlier. Since I haven't had time to play the Sims for sooo long I sent these to my friend to try out. She said they were awesome so I put them up on my site for anyone to downlaod. I've gotten many thank-you letters, and not one heads-up that they didn't work! Of course, I have tried to rule out that this is or isn't a conflict with my mods, and I took all of my legacy mods and overrides out (user of CC Magic) and they were still not working. I'm pretty sure I did clear my cache. My friend could swear these used to work too but now she's noticing this same problem no matter what she does too, and thinks maybe she was just confused. *sigh* It's my fault though for asking a casual player to stress-test these when it was my own responsibility to do the initial debugging.

Although, how could I have gotten these results early on if they weren't originally working?



Here's the link to the skintones in my Dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/8s7x5kq8...Z-VZOXLi2a?dl=0

Why were my other EA and CC skintones working fine with my mods, if it is a conflict? When had it all gone bad?

Photoshop always prompts me to chose the settings for a DDS I am saving, even when I paste and merge down my image onto a pre-existing one, with DDS, it doesn't just go with the settings of the file I've opened, it opens the saver with default settings ticked so I don't know what settings to use. I am not PS savvy enough to know if I can change it so it uses the base file's settings. It does keep file settings for other things, like PNGs. I forget what settings I used before, but now when I use these settings:

...it won't even import to Skininator. I used the mannequin ramp as a base. I saved it with the settings above, trying both 8bit and 16bit settings in Photoshop, and the image is of course 64 x 64 pixels. Now here's a weird thing. When I upload the old ramps (the ones that no longer work in-game) into Skininator, they show up fine in Skininator, but when I open them in Photoshop they load up like this:


I wish I knew why this happened. Why is the DDS halved and why do the colors appear messed up? Maybe it means nothing if it looks fine in Skininator, but the fact that I don't know is bugging me.

Is it actually easier to edit Sims DDS files with Gimp? I have it, but I don't have the plugin to save/edit DDS with Gimp yet because it says there's a missing Gimp file, so I need to reinstall Gimp if I can't get this working in Photoshop.

But what if it is a conflict with one of my mods, or something has gone sideways since I originally tested these in my game? I very well may have altered the files and saved them wrong after I initially made them correctly. But I can't remember. I'm just screwing around, and always in too big of a hurry.

I would be so grateful to anyone willing to try these in-game, with or without mods, and report on their functionality.

If anyone wants to play with these in Skininator, be my guest! Here's my ramps, PNG thumbnails, and the mannequin I was using as base (the DDS for ramp): https://www.dropbox.com/s/yh5kpim8e...wRedux.zip?dl=0


I don't mod, but can sculpt, mesh and texture in ZBrush. If you need a textured obj for a cool Sims 3 project, I might be up to such requests. You are welcome to view my art @: podcreature.com
Advertisement
Ms. Byte (Deceased)
#2 Old 5th Sep 2015 at 5:27 PM
I tested these out in my game and they work fine. Am I correct that in your game the range is stretched so that the middle color is shown when the slider is all the way to the right, but the intended color shows up when the slider is all the way to the left? That sounds like possibly a game mod is conflicting - something that changes the range of the sliders, or maybe the wrong version of a mod that changes slider range or enables expanded skintone selection. You mentioned getting your game working - did you patch up to the same version as when you made and tested these sliders? If you're patched up to date, have you checked that all your game mods are compatible with the latest patch version?

While I don't use Photoshop myself for this, I believe the correct setting for the DDS ramp is DXT1, ARGB, 1 bit alpha, and Generate MIP maps. I have no idea why you're getting that banding in Photoshop unless the DDS plugin isn't working right. Does it look like that if you increase the zoom?

Please do not PM me with mod, tutorial, or general modding questions or problems; post them in the thread for the mod or tutorial or post them in the appropriate forum.

Visit my blogs for other Sims content:
Online Sims - general mods for Sims 3
Offline Sims - adult mods for Sims 3 and Sims 4
Test Subject
Original Poster
#3 Old 6th Sep 2015 at 1:53 AM Last edited by rhodalle : 6th Sep 2015 at 4:24 AM.
Thanks Cmar! Can't tell you how much I appreciate your fast response and helpful input!

You are correct, that's exactly what's going on although, the only sliders I have that optionally increase range are Nraas's Master Controller and your Xcas, and these afik are all body shape sliders, are you saying one could be affecting the wrong sliders due to some other conflict? My friend is having the same problem with my sliders and I'm waiting on her to get me a list of mods she uses, so we can find a likely culprit we are both using. I don't think your XCas and Nraas mods can conflict except for the expanded tattoo, am I right? I know you can only have one instance of the expanded tattoo of course.

I just did a full reinstall, and patched up to 1.67, made these sliders, then a world, and after that I started hunting down mods and adding them, keeping in mind what my patch level was. I got CCmagic but only use it to install pretty much clothes and objects. There's a slim chance I got the wrong version of a script mod or the core, but I was pretty careful. I have made that mistake once before.

The only mod which I've discovered not working right so far are my own sliders. Oddly, Scone's Scatter Genes skintones are working normally! I tried a few to test this. All of the ones I try of my own have this "stretched" ramp issue though. Strange how they work in your game and not mine or my friend's. Would I be safe to assume that it might be a combination of a mod conflicting with a setting I used while Scone's used a different option that is more compatible with various mods? I removed my mods earlier, but maybe I forgot to clear my cache. I will have to test this again and make sure I cleared it this time.

Here's Scatter Genes in my game, working normally:

Here's my sliders, still borked:


Thanks for the tip for export settings! I will rebuild my skintones using your recommended settings, if they don't work I'll try the next closest options and report to you if they are fixed.

As for the weird appearance of the DDS in Photoshop... yes, here's what it looks like zoomed in:

Same as when it's at 100%. I assume you are thinking that sometimes Photoshop's display quality can be glitched, that does happen if I leave it open too long and my computer sleeps too many times...sadly this seems like something more than display. What about the width of the DDS changing from the original? Don't know what all that means but they "work" in Skininator, but even if they seem to work, might this be what's making my sliders buggy and possibly conflicting with a mod that normally doesn't pose a problem to skintones?

UPDATE: I cut my ramp out in Photoshop and pasted it into the mannequin DDS, which I also had open. I can say the mannequin DDS loads up properly into Skininator when I test it. I merged down the layers and "saved as" and used the settings you specified, Cmar, and for some reason, when I try to import the DDS to Skininator, the window where the ramp should be seen is just white. If I load up the old version of my ramp it appears in Skininator. I think it's time to uninstall and reinstall Gimp so I can hopefully get the Gimp DDS plugin. Maybe I'll have more luck?

UPDATE 2: I removed my script mods and core mod. Cut and pasted them to my desktop. Here's a screenshot showing that my CCMagic objects and stuff and the skintones are the only things running. I cleared my cache files for sure this time. My friend doesn't use CCMagic and is having the same issue with my sliders. Scatter Genes still works, and mine don't with or without any other CC skintones in my game.


I don't mod, but can sculpt, mesh and texture in ZBrush. If you need a textured obj for a cool Sims 3 project, I might be up to such requests. You are welcome to view my art @: podcreature.com
Ms. Byte (Deceased)
#4 Old 6th Sep 2015 at 4:43 PM
On closer inspection, your ramp images are the wrong dimensions - the DDS are 32 x 64 and the png are 256 x 256. They should both be 64 x 64. This may be causing the problem - especially the DDS image since that's the one used for the actual skin color and it's not only the wrong size but the wrong ratio. As for why some games would show it correctly and some not - it could depend on the patch level and the graphics settings. If I ever update Skininator that's a check I should add to the import.

Try correcting the dimensions and let me know if it works!

Please do not PM me with mod, tutorial, or general modding questions or problems; post them in the thread for the mod or tutorial or post them in the appropriate forum.

Visit my blogs for other Sims content:
Online Sims - general mods for Sims 3
Offline Sims - adult mods for Sims 3 and Sims 4
Test Subject
Original Poster
#5 Old 7th Sep 2015 at 3:28 AM Last edited by rhodalle : 7th Sep 2015 at 3:53 AM.
Ok, I think it's safe to assume this was a PS plugin problem, or at least partly that. I switched to Gimp, and it all went smoothly. The sliders now work in my game. The fixed versions are now up on my site.

http://rhodalle.wix.com/simmerrho#!Infinite-Rainbow-Skintone-Color-Ramps/c1q8z/8E0C403D-4985-4CFE-8D18-B079DEEDC5BB

Here's screenshots of the export settings I used: (thanks, Cmar, for the advice, it helped!)



Edit: (missed your reply there, sorry)

Quote: Originally posted by CmarNYC
On closer inspection, your ramp images are the wrong dimensions - the DDS are 32 x 64 and the png are 256 x 256. They should both be 64 x 64. This may be causing the problem - especially the DDS image since that's the one used for the actual skin color and it's not only the wrong size but the wrong ratio. As for why some games would show it correctly and some not - it could depend on the patch level and the graphics settings. If I ever update Skininator that's a check I should add to the import.

Try correcting the dimensions and let me know if it works!


Hmmm. Interesting. I never actually edited the image proportions but I don't doubt it at all. I didn't catch the dimensions being changed, other than the one being obviously halved for some reason. That may well have been the real issue with the PS plugin? Because I was opening the mannequin DDS ramp file and pasting my png directly on top, which I know both were 64 x 64, the DDS was the correct size from the start, but I suspect the dimensions could have been changed when I saved. In any case, in lieu of your observations I just checked if Gimp preserved the proportions as they should be and it looks like Gimp did the trick.



Edit 2: And just for good measure, here's how the mipmaps look. I never even saw these in PS. At first they didn't automatically update when I merged down the pasted ramp, but after I exported with "generate mipmaps" and imported it again, they were visibly updated.


I don't mod, but can sculpt, mesh and texture in ZBrush. If you need a textured obj for a cool Sims 3 project, I might be up to such requests. You are welcome to view my art @: podcreature.com
Ms. Byte (Deceased)
#6 Old 7th Sep 2015 at 11:42 AM
Glad it's working now! I know other people use the Photoshop plugin successfully so I wonder why yours wasn't working right?

Please do not PM me with mod, tutorial, or general modding questions or problems; post them in the thread for the mod or tutorial or post them in the appropriate forum.

Visit my blogs for other Sims content:
Online Sims - general mods for Sims 3
Offline Sims - adult mods for Sims 3 and Sims 4
Test Subject
Original Poster
#7 Old 7th Sep 2015 at 7:10 PM Last edited by rhodalle : 7th Sep 2015 at 7:25 PM.
Well it's good to know that PS is supposed to work. I really love that software. I probably installed the plugin wrong.

Edit: oops, I missed what you said earlier about the png display not matching dimensions to the dds. I got that measurement from Pooklet's tutorial on labeling skintones. I didn't think to try making them match, but as long as it works in Gimp I guess... lol..

Quote: Originally posted by CmarNYC
Glad it's working now! I know other people use the Photoshop plugin successfully so I wonder why yours wasn't working right?


I don't mod, but can sculpt, mesh and texture in ZBrush. If you need a textured obj for a cool Sims 3 project, I might be up to such requests. You are welcome to view my art @: podcreature.com
Ms. Byte (Deceased)
#8 Old 7th Sep 2015 at 10:42 PM Last edited by CmarNYC : 8th Sep 2015 at 2:01 PM.
I don't know if the PNG absolutely has to be the same dimensions, only that it's the same for EA tones. The PNGs in your packages seem to work fine, and the larger size makes it easier to add the text.

Please do not PM me with mod, tutorial, or general modding questions or problems; post them in the thread for the mod or tutorial or post them in the appropriate forum.

Visit my blogs for other Sims content:
Online Sims - general mods for Sims 3
Offline Sims - adult mods for Sims 3 and Sims 4
Back to top