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Instructor
Original Poster
#1 Old 18th Nov 2020 at 9:38 PM
Default [Tutorial] Exporting Photobooth Pictures!
Hello!
I figured that we can export the images made with the Nightlife EP's photobooth, in full resolution. Want to know how?

Step 1.: Inside the game... After you made images using the photobooth, you must hang them on the house's wall or else this will not work! Make sure all images you need are on a wall, it can be any wall, and you can take them down after you finished the exporting. Also remember the neighboorhood and the lot's name you put the pictures on the wall.

Step 2.: Have SimPE and an image editor/art software that lets you use layers. SimPE is a third party program in which you can edit your game's files and neighboorhoods among many things, but beware, because you can cause corruption if not used wisely! More info here: https://modthesims.info/wiki.php?title=SimPE.
For the image editor I recommend Paint Tool SAI, as it is a very easy software, free to download. More info here: https://www.systemax.jp/en/sai/

Step 3.: If you had the game running, you have to close it. After that open SimPE that you have already downloaded and installed. Now SimPE opened, click 'File' on the top left corner, then click 'Open'. Then inside the pop-up window navigate to My Documents -> EA Games -> The Sims 2 -> Neighborhoods -> (the folder corresponding with your neighborhood eg. N001 is Pleasantview, N002 is Strangetown, N003 is Veronaville; check the folders to identify from the cover images which folder corresponds with which neighborhood) so if you made the pictures in Pleasantview, navigate to N001. After that you need to open a file like this: " N001_Neighborhood.package " (for other neighborhoods it is different than N001).
You have to wait as this can slow down the program. Wait until you see a list to the left side and on the center.
Scroll down on the left side list and click on "Lot Description". Then search for the lot you put the picture on, in the middle list. There is a row called 'Instance'. After you have found your lot, check the number in brackets in the 'Instance' row. Remember this number or write it down somewhere.


Step 4.: Now click 'File' and 'Open' again. Now inside your N001 (or something else) folder, find another folder named 'Lots', and open it. Inside there is a list of the lots in the neighborhood. Search for the file with the number you checked previously in the 'Instance' row. For example: 'N001_Lot343.package'. Open that file.
On the left side list scroll down until you see something called 'Texture Image', and click on it. In the middle list click on the very first texts, they start with a '#' and have 'painting' written in them. You should now see the photobooth image to the bottom. If you have multiple pictures on the lot, there are more images, and you have to check them one by one.
You should see a button called 'Export' above the picture to the top right side. Click on it. A window will appear, save the picture to wherever you want to, but preferably not to My Documents or to C: Program Files -- save it somewhere else, but make sure you will find it later.
Useful step, but not necessary: After you saved the image, you need to right click on it inside simPE, and click on 'Export Alpha Channel...'. Save it like you did with the image before. This will be useful if the image contains transparent accessories and CC hair! Or if you notice something is wrong with your image like some colors are missing.
You will definitely need to right click on the picture and choose export alpha channel if you see something like this with the hairs: missing chunks of color.


Step 5.: Now open the image editor program, and open the images you just saved. You will have the colourful photo booth image and a seemingly white image which is a result of the exportation of the alpha channel. If you exported multiple pictures with multiple alpha channels, you can easily identify which "white" image goes to which colourful image. You will see gray lines, areas on the "white" image if there is CC hair or transparent accessories on the image. These lines are things like the shine on a CC hair and shadows on eyeglass lenses.


On the alpha channel image, press Ctrl + A, then Ctrl + C. Then switch to the colourful image, and press Ctrl + V. Nothing changed much, but now this is when the layers come into play, this is why you need the software to have layers! Search for the window which shows the layers, and edit the layer properties to anything that results in your image turning into the colourful picture, but with changes (weird looking CC hairs now look normal).
I use Paint Tool SAI, and this is how I did it. In this program the 'Shade' option works.


Now it should look different than without the alpha channel.


Then save the image, but click 'Save as' and give it a different name.

Now you are finished and have your photobooth image on your computer in full resolution!

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This is the first tutorial I did and English is not my first language, so I apologise if my post has mistakes. Let me know if something is not clear!
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