Hrm... I remember once I had some custom content that wasn't showing up. Here's what I did to fix it:
1. Move your entire downloads folder to a different location, like your desktop.
2. Start Body Shop -- this should make the game generate a new, empty downloads folder.
3. Move your downloads back into this newly generated downloads folder.
4. Start your game and see if things are showing up now.
This is known as the Body Shop Trick, and more detailed instructions can be found here: http://www.sims2wiki.info/wiki.php?...me_Help:GCCTSU3

If that doesn't help, read this FAQ: http://www.sims2wiki.info/wiki.php?...ame_Help:GCCTSU

That's all I can suggest. I hope you get the problem sorted out soon!
(Congrats on your first post, too! )

Thank you very much! Moving such a larger folder would have fragmented my drive, so I just renamed it, then hauled the stuff over into the new folder. That seems to have worked like a charm Your face replacements look like just what I was looking for: the defaults with the extreme features toned down. Very nice work. Now my townies won't look like monsters anymore ... as soon as I can hunt them down and give them plastic surgery, that is.
Thanks again!

Ok I am lost about one tiny thing and the more I read the more I am lost.

Fact:

1- It won't modify the looks of existing sims
2- If you removed the templates after the game created new NPC and townies or if make sims in CAS without modifying their new looks, they will age using the default Maxis face structure and revert.

How is that possible? I do not understand, I thought the new face genetic would be coded in the character file. How come when they age they suddenly forget their genetic and use the maxis default values if I remove these new templates?

So here are 2 things I am wondering about:

1- Let's say I put those templates, I moved the townie teen Meadow Thayer on a lot and age her up to adult, will she be using the new face templates?

2- I create a teen in CAS along with all her family members while I have those new templates in, I remove them after for whatever reason. When that teen created in CAS will become an adult, will it use the former Maxis templates or is it that the new face structure is part of her DNA now so she will age keeping the same face structure as if the templates were still in?

Actually, the second fact isn't true. Your intuition is right. I just tend to express myself poorly.

Whatever sims you already had in your game before you installed face replacements will look the same as they always have.

If you install face replacements, make some new sims with them installed, then end up removing them, these new sims will look the same as they always have. And they should all age properly.

Face structure = DNA, definitely. For example, when you create a child in CAS and open their package in SimPE, you'll see facial structure data for that sim as a child, teen, adult, and elder.

Wow. This is JUST what I was looking for. I love the sim-ish looks on my game, but I really hated the way the townies/NPC's looked. Your toned down versions are exactly what it should have been, IMO.

Thanks a lot for sharing. I will regenerate my townies/NPC's and try these as soon as possible.

Wow these are great!

Just one prob though, and it's not really a huge prob but it's annoying me. These ARE working, but when I go to CAS the pictures for each face are still the old Maxis faces, even though when I click them I get your replacements. (Does that make sense?) So how do I make different pictures show up?

aramatheya, delete these files:

My Documents/EA Games/The Sims 2/cigen.package
My Documents/EA Games/The Sims 2/Thumbnails/CASThumbnails.package

You might notice that things are a little slower when you next open Body Shop or CAS or go to Change Appearance, but it's just because the game needs to generate new pictures.

Personally, I use Dr Pixel's Bodyshop Mechanic to quickly and safely delete thumbnails. Just open the program and click on "Refresh Thumbnails".

I'm happy to hear you like them!

Thanks so much! I've been looking for some replacement faces that fit my taste and these are perfect!

terrakosmos, thanks. I love making beautiful sims, but they still are born like a monster.
So thank you a lot!!!

Hello, this is my first post here and I hope you understand my english (I'm french and usually don't write in english...).

First of all I want to thank you for this beautiful work you've done ! But like the person who have posted before I can't see yours faces in my bodyshop... It doesn't work at all...

I got the Sims2 Deluxe (the base game + nightlife) and recently install University, Open for business and Seasons : I don't have the others add ons or kits or stuff.

I do all the things that you suggest (put the face pack in my "Download" folder in a subfolder named "Face_Default_Replacement" and another sub-subfolder name "Terrakosmos" + delete the CASthumbnails.package, delete the cigen.package + do the manipulation you suggest in my quote to make the BodyShop work right) and I don't know what to do to make this working... It still not working...

I try to install a lot of others faces replacement packages instead of yours, to see if they work... But none of them is working. I don't know what to do and the links you gave to the wiki sims2 don't work well and I can't read this FAQ...

Please, is there anyone here to help a poor little french girl to make this beautiful mod working... ?

(I hope my english is not too bad... )

Your English is fine! My French is horrible, from several years of not using it. Which browser are you using to access the wiki? I'm using Firefox, and I've never had any problems.

Unfortunately, I don't know what could be causing your problem. Maybe you can try putting the files directly into your downloads folder instead of using subfolders, but I'm guessing that you've tried that already. The one time I had trouble getting a download to show up, nothing worked except the BodyShop trick.

Do you have any other files installed, such as hair or makeup, that are showing up properly? Are they in subfolders or not?

I know you must be frustrated. I wish I could offer more help. Bonne chance.

You're so kind ! Thank you for your post !

I didn't try to put the downloaded files directly into my download folder... Oups... Hihi ;-) I will try that but I'm pretty sure this would not work because I got a lot of downloads, all in subfolders, and they work very well... But I'll try, thanks. It's just all the replacement faces packs that doesn't show up...

But It's not very very important because I got à "Plan B" : I read a very good tutorial by Jordi that explain how to create an empty neighborhood and how to make customized NPC and townies : I think I'll create my own characters and transform them into townies with a Teleport Painting.

You see : always having a "Plan B" ! But installing and creating mods for The Sims2 is a lot more complexe than for The Elder Scrolls Morrowind !!! Pfiouuu ! You're very talentuous and again thanks for your answer ! :D

Edit : oh, and I'm using Firefox off course I forgot to answer your question... But I got a big problem with Internet and I think it's my connexion that doesn't work very well. I will retry to go to the wiki pages ;-)

Edit2 : Yessss ! The wiki works ! I go read this ! *happy*

I'm glad to hear it! Hopefully you'll find something useful in the wiki. I hope you can get some face replacements working eventually, but in the meantime your Plan B sounds great.

It's working !

In fact I reinstall all my game and all the add ons and load the game with an empty Download folder and put only those CAS replacement files into the Download folder. And it's working !

Thanks for your patience ! :p

De rien, Catioucha. I'm happy to hear that it's working, though I'm sorry that you had to go through so much trouble. I hope you enjoy them!

awesome!

Thank you very much for this.
I will put this in my game (and I hope it all work).

I like it when you said you like Sims looking like Sims.
I totally agree with that.
I like to download some realistic,unusually pretty Sim now and then. But not all my Sims to look too much as humans.

wow, you did a phenomenal job with these. You kept the essence of all the faces, but finally made them functional. Even the previously grotesque faces now actually look very good. thank you soo much.. they're the only face replacements i'll ever use! xD

I've been using these faces for a while now, and I love them. You kept enough of the quirky features for the faces to still be recognizable and distinct, yet not scarey. thanks!

It makes me happy to see that people are still enjoying these. Thank you all for the comments!

They're beautiful. Probably the most original face templates I've seen yet. Thank you so much for sharing them with us

Hey terrakosmos,

I recently wiped my downloads folder, so I came back here to grab your wonderful face templates. But I was wondering, do you have any plans to make replacements for the missing 21 and 25 faces? Since Argon over at MATY has made a fix for them, and they will show up in CAS now, I had hoped you had already updated yours. For now I just hide the two faces so no townies will spawn with them, but I really would like just a toned-downed version by you. Pretty please?

Argh, I just saw this after I edited the main post to add search tags, etc. How dare you ask so nicely!! And now that you've reminded me... :D
I'll try to have an update up in the next couple of weeks while my homework load is still light. I need some time to reacquaint myself with this particular sims aesthetic because I've been hoarding another set that has different proportions. When I do update, I'll also put the files back into one template per file like I made them originally and compressorize them. Check back in a week or two. Done.

These are the best I've seen, thanks a lot! :D

I have to say, this is by far the best CAS replacement.

I've tried so many of them and most looked too much the same or were weird, plus they took to much space in the download folder (30mb! O_O').

I think this one is so good because it stays true to the game, while being prettier! Plus it takes only 13mb, much smaller than others! ^^ So thanks a lot!