Introduction

The CAS Texture Unitool (hereafter referred to as CTU), is a tool to basically allow you to edit the CAS Part files that control which textures appear on which meshes. Using this tool, you may add new textures that appear in CAS for a specific mesh. You may also edit the pattern cutouts for those textures, the specular, the base colours, and pretty much everything possible thats available in the file. Additionally, you can add brand new, non-replacement meshes into the game.

What this program does NOT do

It's not a program to do meshes. Use a meshing tool.

It's not a program to do textures. Use an image program.

It does not send satellite pictures to your PDA.

It does not (by default) allow default replacements.

Installation Prerequisites

You must have the following BEFORE using this program:

- A PC running Windows XP or Vista, OS X (with Mono 2.4), or Linux (with Mono 2.4)
- For Windows XP: .NET Framework 2.0
- For Windows Vista, get .NET Framework 3.5 - it includes .NET 2.0
- For XP and Vista: DirectX runtime (March 2009)
- For OS X and Linux, http://mono-project.com/ - please see this thread for more info: http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=366580

Please note: If you had previously used one of the older versions of CTU from the other thread, then you'll notice that this new version now needs .NET 2.0 and not .NET 3.5. This is entirely deliberate and not a typo. If you ONLY have 3.5 on your PC, make sure to download and install the .NET 2.0 from the link above.

In fact, the .NET 2.0 was done for a reason: So that, in future, if somebody finds a squishinterface dll file for Mac OS X or Linux, it's theoretically possible for this tool to run on those systems.

How to install

DOWNLOAD BOTH FILES! You MUST download and extract both CasParts.rar AND CasTextureUnitool.rar to the same place.

Note: CasTextureUnitool.rar is the Windows version. CasTetxureUnitoolNo3d.rar is the OS X/Linux version. This one has no 3d view.

Extract the contents of both rars to the same place. KEEP FOLDER STRUCTURE INTACT. You will probably need to copy some files around after extraction.

You should see the CasTextureUnitool.exe and a bunch of other files, and then a casparts folder and an xml folder. Inside the casparts folder should be over 1000 files.

Do not delete/move/change or otherwise do anything to the files in casparts!! If you do and you complain I will beat you with a set of clocks since we are running out of lime.

Quick and Dirty How To Add a New Texture Thingy To A Wotsit CAS Mesh

Using the 3 dropdowns, select your poison... aka Age, Gender and Type.

Using the Mesh Name box, select your mesh (ie a T shirt, or a Bra, or whatever)

Click "Add a Design"

Disable any stencils that are enabled (it copies the default values) and Enable Stencil A

Click "Replace" and find the DDS file you want to use. NOTE: Make sure you saved in a DXT format (DXT1 for things without alpha channels, DXT3 or DXT5 for with alpha channels). Do not use 8.8.8.8 ARGB (R8G8B8A8) as it is uncompressed and you will end up with massive files. It's fine for patterns, but not good for this stuffs.

Click Commit

Click File -> Save As.

Note: You may add multiple Designs to a single file - this could be different t-shirt logos, etc, but all designs in a file affect the same mesh

Simple Usage Instructions

daluved1 has written a great guide on CTU and how to use it - please check it out on the wiki here: Sims 3:CTU Guide^wiki

Detailed Usage instructions

For more help and information about using this tool, please see the CAS Parts forum, located here: http://www.modthesims.info/forumdisplay.php?f=597

For additional tutorials, see: Sims_3:Modding#CTU_Tutorials^wiki

I get a System.Core error when saving

You don't have .NET framework 2.0 installed or installed properly. Go get it and install it. If you have it already, reinstall.

What happens if I blow up CTU!?

You should get an error box. Hit Ctrl-C, and then paste the clipboard into a reply on this thread. Tell me exactly what you did to get to that point.

PS: Use the [ spoiler] [ /spoiler] (remove spaces) around your error message to help cut down the amount of scrolling.

Thanks.

Changelog

Changes in v1.9.3569 r131:
- Mostly minor bugfix release
- Addition of extra mesh LOD fields on Meshes tab
- Better bumpmap support
- Better morph support
- Fixed some bugs in the pattern code

For a full list of changes, see: http://code.google.com/p/madscienti...ons/source/list












Thanks and Credits

Thanks to all who decide to test this, Snaitf and Rabeeto for being initial guinea pigs, and fanseelamb for some of the UI suggestions.

Thanks to the CTU Team (Delphy and jonha) for coding this!

Credits to:
Rick, for the Gibbed libraries
TigerM, for the DDS decompression routine