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Test Subject
Original Poster
#1 Old 11th Mar 2020 at 3:24 AM
Default Can't delete unnecessary ages in SimPe
Hi! I'm following serenity_fall's tutorial here: https://serenity-fall.dreamwidth.org/1743.html ,to import a hair mesh into SimPe. They say to delete the ages you aren't going to use so I selected pu,cu,and tf and right clicked and deleted them but they still show up greyed out with a strikethrough. I tried to proceed to the next step to fix integrity but the other resources still showed up for me, which they don't in the image example for the tutorial. Am I doing something wrong? I searched this and noticed this MTS post here:http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=626426 but I'm not using Cat's hair binner and don't understand how to edit the age and gender for the categories I don't want. I'm posting images of what I see in SimPE if that helps.
Screenshots
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Forum Resident
#2 Old 11th Mar 2020 at 9:37 AM Last edited by vegan_kaktus : 11th Mar 2020 at 11:06 AM.
When you delete files in SimPE they get greyed out like that, but they are deleted. As soon as you save the package they will disappear completely :-)
Mad Poster
#3 Old 11th Mar 2020 at 6:49 PM Last edited by simmer22 : 11th Mar 2020 at 7:18 PM.
^ They're marked like that so you can restore them if you accidentally delete something you shouldn't have. Save first to properly remove them, then do Fix Integrity.
Or do Fix Integrity before deleting the resources, save, delete those you don't want, and then save again.

The easiest is to just extract the files you want. You don't have to extract all of them if you're going to delete most anyway. If you only need adult files, extract only the adult files.

Also, don't click on the resources so they pop up in the Plugin View before you've done Fix Integrity and saved (it occasionally causes a CRES error)

For the recolor files, if you just want the adult hair there's no point in doing the linking steps for the other ages (remember that YA and elder can use the same mesh). For the hair binner, tick the ages you want, and the binner will remove all the unticked ages. It doesn't care about the mesh. There's not much point in removing the unwanted ages before you've done recolors (assuming you're planning to make some), because Bodyshop only adds them back again. You can either remove them with the binner or you can delete the PropertySet resources for the unwanted ages. This makes the hair unable to access those ages. Don't delete the 3DIRs, because they are a bit moody when it comes to hair, so best either leaving them alone or letting the binner take care of them.

Hairs can be set up to work for multiple genders (best to do so for toddler and child, because the older ages have different head shapes/placements and need different meshes), but the best is often to make separate male/female hairs, because Bodyshop tends to be a bit stupid about it (only really recognizes one gender for hair recoloring, but I think it does keep the gender to unisex if that's what you set it as). If you want to use hairs for multiple genders it's best to edit in SimPE (PropertySet - Gender - female=1, male=2, unisex=3 - but unisex ONLY for toddler/child, or for large costume pieces that work for both genders for the older ages). For ages, it's (Age - P/Toddler=1, C=2, Teen=4, A=8, YA=40, E=10, A+YA=48, A+YA+E=58). Don't mix other ages than the ones suggested, as hair palcement depend on the skeleton height.

And just a small note - it's fairly easy to make age conversions of hairs when you're already converting from another game - it's a matter of a bit of reshaping, and more often than not you have to do this for 3t2/4t2 meshes anyway, so it's just more of the same. There's really not much difference in making a hair mesh for a toddler, child or teen than an adult sim. Just a few more meshes to do. It's easy to get intimidated, but it's often a bit more work to add the missing ages later (all those recolors needing fixing/redoing). If it's a hairstyle that doesn't look good on younger sims then it's perfectly understandable, though.
Forum Resident
#4 Old 12th Mar 2020 at 12:28 AM
Quote: Originally posted by simmer22
^ They're marked like that so you can restore them if you accidentally delete something you shouldn't have.

I did not know this! If you don't mind me asking, how do you restore deleted files?
Mad Poster
#5 Old 12th Mar 2020 at 8:00 PM
Right-click the marked file and choose "restore".
(I don't trust this function blindly, but it's good to know it's there).
Mad Poster
#6 Old 12th Mar 2020 at 10:37 PM Last edited by simmer22 : 13th Mar 2020 at 4:14 PM.
Make a recolor, then find the names of the meshes in the PropertySet (for instance, there's "hairlongsimple" - most hairs come in a format with age and gender, then type of item, then name of item, so the hair for adult female would be afhairlongsimple". Sometimes you'll see "casie" in front, or a color at the end - this is not a part of the mesh name). Most hairs don't exist for toddlers, and children have a limited selection, so you'll often find those have another name than adult/teen. You'll need toddler, child, teen, and adult. If you're making the hair for both genders you need male/female of teen and adult (child/toddler can be reused, while YA and elder uses the adult meshes).
If you're in doubt, you can check the name of the mesh at the default database --> https://sims2defaults.dreamwidth.org/

Search up these with the PJSE extraction tool, then extract the sets of resources individually (right-click, extract) - It's four resources for each mesh (GMDC, GMND, SHPE, CRES). When you're done, choose file/new, and import in the resources. Save the new file. Now you can do "Fix integrity" like with a single mesh.

One thing you have to keep in mind is that the PJSE linking tool can't deal with multi-age/gender meshes, so you'll either have to link the meshes to the 3DIR the "old" way (extract new SHPE and CRES, import to recolor file, replace in the 3DIR), or you can "cheat" and make linkable files where you copy the main mesh several times (one for each age/gender you need), then delete all the resources you don't need from each file, and link them up with the 3DIR. A third method would be to make all the meshes separate, link them to the recolor separately, extract the resources, and combine them into one file (this works fine for hair meshes) - basically the second method in reverse.
Forum Resident
#7 Old 13th Mar 2020 at 1:44 AM
Quote: Originally posted by simmer22
Right-click the marked file and choose "restore".
(I don't trust this function blindly, but it's good to know it's there).

Thank you!
Test Subject
Original Poster
#8 Old 15th Mar 2020 at 12:28 AM
Thank you all for all your help! I'll keep these tips in mind for my projects in the future, I'm glad it could help other people too.
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