How to convert a lamp from The Sims 4 to The Sims 2: A Tutorial 🛋️
GOOGLE DOC 📓 | PDF 📃
Lots of people seemed to want this, so I finally crawled out of bed and wrote it. Sorry for any poor English, I tried my best 🙃
In this tutorial I detailed how to convert a lamp from TS4 to TS2. They're pretty simple, but lit/unlit states seem to confuse people, so I've gone through how to deal with those as best as I can! This tutorial is meant for people who at least have grasped the basics of 4t2 object conversions, but if you encounter any issues feel free to reach out to me on here or the Simscord.
The lamp that I converted for this tutorial isn't released yet, but you can go to my lighting tag for examples of lamps I've converted with this method!
Oh--and do keep in mind that I've used Blender for this tutorial, not Milkshape, but the process would be pretty similar if you did use the latter. Just a bit more frustrating 😅
If you guys have any other tutorials that you'd like me to write, feel free to send in requests! Happy simming ~ 💝
It's finally finished! 🍾 I got a message last week asking if I knew of any tutorials to convert custom walls from TS4 to TS2, and since I didn't (and couldn't find any), I decided to put one together myself.
This tutorial is broken into three parts, one for each program used, and covers the entire process from extraction to import. Since Tumblr won't let me add more than 10 images per post, it's also going to be spread across three separate posts. Fabulous.
TOOLS NEEDED
TSR Workshop
Image editing software (I'm using Photoshop)
HomeCrafter Plus
Part 1 begins below the cut!
PART 1: TSR WORKSHOP
Step 1
Download the wall(s) you'd like to convert. In this example, I'll be converting the chevron walls from Peacemaker's Floor & Wall Tiles - Chevron and Field Designs, since they've been on my to-do list for awhile now.
Step 2
Extract the file(s). I usually put them in a project folder at this point, just to make things easier.
Step 3
Open TSR Workshop and select Create New Project.
Step 4
When the Create a new project menu opens, select New import (located under Other) and click next.
Step 5
The Import from .package screen will now open. Next to the "File to import" field, select Browse and navigate to the folder where you extracted the walls. You'll need to select Package (*.package) from the file type dropdown (located next to the File name field) for the files to show.
TSRW will then ask "Is this a Sims 4 package?". Click yes and wait until the program fills the "Projectype" field (this usually take a few seconds on my computer). Once the field is filled, click Next.
Step 6
The Project details screen will now open. You'll need to enter a Project Name, but it doesn't really matter what you put in since we're only using TSRW to extract the textures. You don't need to worry about the Title, Description or Diagonal part. Once you've put in your Project Name, click next. The Finished screen will now appear; click OK.
Note: I don't have TS4, so I always get a pop-up which reads "TSR Workshop could not locate the game folder for Sims 4. Would you like to browse for it manually?" If you also don't have TS4 and you get this pop-up, just click No.
Step 7
Once your file loads, it should look something like this:
Above the right sidebar, click on the Texture tab, and you should see something similar to this:
Select the DiffuseMap, which is the actual texture for the wall, and then click the small Edit button that appears to the right. A new screen will pop up. From there, you'll want to click the Export button.
Note: since I don't have TS4, I'm not really familiar with the mechanics of the game, but from what I've read it sounds like recolors occur within the game itself? Someone please correct me if I'm wrong about this, but I've never seen anything other than a base texture in TSRW, so we'll need to recolor the textures ourselves -- hence the need for image editing software.
The Export Texture window will now open. I like to give my textures a more easily-identifiable name than what the program provides, so you can change this to whatever you'd like. Change the "Save as" type to PNG and click Save.
You should get an "Export complete" pop-up once it's finished saving.
Step 8
Once you've checked to make sure your texture has exported, you can close down TSRW. If your conversion involves more than one texture, you'll need to go to the File menu, click New and follow Steps 4 - 7 again (there's no need to save your project when asked). Otherwise, it's time to open the texture in your image editor. Click here for the next part of the tutorial.
Since there isn’t a written 4t2 clothing tutorial guide, I thought I would write one for those who would like one! If you prefer a video, check out @mdpthatsme‘s video tutorial here.
This is PART 1!
Step 1: Downloading and Extracting the Mesh(es):
First of all, you need to download a sims 4 mesh. I downloaded Marigold’s MBottomRollUpJeans since I asked them for permission to convert. 😊
Once your file has finished downloading, extract your rar or zip file (if needed) and open the DPBF package file with the sims 4 package editor (if you don’t have it you need to download “s4pe.0.3.c.exe“ from the link).
Once Sims 4 Package Editor loads, you’ll want to look through the “geom” files.
We are going to be looking for the “geoms” that has a shader listed as “SimSkin”. These files are the base mesh and there are normally between 3-4 of these meshes. You’ll want to extract all of these geoms. Some sims 4 package files will have geoms with a shader that says “none”. Sometimes these can be useful if they contain a small part of the mesh (details such as bows). You won’t know if you need to export these, too, until you look at the mesh in milkshape. For general purposes, just skip them (90% of the time they just contain morphs-which is why a lot of non-EA/Maxis meshes lack these extra geoms). Name them whatever you want or keep the original name. I usually change it to 1, 2, 3, 4, etc.
Once all of the geoms have been “extracted to file,” we can start looking for the textures. The textures are under the tag “RLE2”.
We’ll want to export them to DDS. Once you export all of the recolors that are available (or you can pick and choose), the next step is to use the Sims 4 CAS tools.
Like the picture above, the CAS tool is not installed via exe. It just runs with the files in the folder. Double click that application file.
The TS4 CAS Tools window will pop up and you will want to go to “Mesh Tools” and then “Conversions TS4/other” and from there click “Select”. Search for your folder and if your files don’t show up with the “GEOM mesh files” selected, hit “all files”. I named my geoms 1-4 since there were four “simskin” geoms.
Scroll over to the right so you can see the file sizes of your geoms. You will want to use the largest file since it is the most detailed. Select it and then open it. The popup window will go away and your screen should look something like below:
Most people either convert to MS3D (milkshape file) or convert to OBJ. Personally I prefer the MS3D because I can just double click the file and milkshape will open it. If you choose OBJ then you will have to open up milkshape and then ‘import wavefront obj’. So it is just an extra step.
I clicked Convert to MS3D and so a popup window will ask me what I want to name my file and where I want it.
Double click your newly generated file. (If you chose obj- open up milkshape and import wavefront obj).
Step 2: Editing Your Mesh in Milkshape:
Milkshape should now be open.
You will first want to start off with clicking the mesh in “groups” and then hit “select” for it to select all. Go to “face” at the top and hit “smooth all”. You may notice some black spots but we’ll (try to) take care of those later.
This is where I delete the “skin” parts of the mesh.Hit select again so it deselects the mesh.Now select the vertices that are parts of the sims 4 skin and delete them. If you need more in-depth instructions on this step- here is a tutorial on it.
From this point there are two paths- which will have separate posts to minimize confusion.
Path 1: I am converting a bottom only, shoes, or a sleeveless top/full body.
Path 2: I am converting a full body or a top that has arms or sleeves.
Path 2: I am converting a full body or a top that has arms or sleeves.
!!!!!!
This is a friendly reminder to save what you are doing periodically! You will probably also want to duplicate your groups and work on one of the duplicates. If you mess up you won’t have to start over!
!!!!!
The reason why this is different from Part 2 A is because the Sims 4 and Sims 3 bodies have a different pose from the sims 2. To better explain what I mean:
So we need to do some work before we can get the sims 4 mesh to the sims 2 body. The easiest way to go from the sims 4 to the sims 2 is to use a sims 3 body as a first reference. The sims 4 meshes do not have a skeleton which is why we can’t go from 4t2 directly.
So now we will have to find a sims 3 body mesh to use as our reference.
I will borrow parts of @rented-space‘s 3t2 clothing tutorial to walk you through the steps (because it is slightly different than just the 3t2 tutorial. This is pretty much a 4t3 and then a 3t2 clothing tutorial.
With that short intro into this part...
Step 3: Extracting Sims 4 Mesh to TSRW:
Your mesh should now be “skinless” and just have the clothing part of the sims 4 mesh. At this point you’ll want to rename your group “group_base” (without the quotes).
Now export your sims 4 mesh to TSRW.
Step 4: Downloading and Extracting a Sims 3 Mesh:
Find and download a sims 3 mesh for the same gender and age group as your sims 4 mesh. If the file is a sims3pack you will need to use Delphy’s Sims3pack Multi-Extracter to create a package file(s). Which is a pretty simple and straightforward tool.
Once you have your package file, open it with Sims 3 Package Editor.
Just like in part 1 you are looking for the geom files with the simskin shader.
Export those simskin geoms to file. This time we don’t have to worry about the textures because we are just wanting the skeleton.
Open Milkshape. File --> new.
Import your largest file in milkshape using the sims 3 unimesh plugins. If the geoms don’t show up, hit “all files”.
Again, I named my geom files 1,2, and 3 because there were 3 simskin geoms. With those 3 choices, I would chose to import “1″ (because it is the largest file).
If you get this:
Just hit “OK”. This is fine.
We want to rename the group to “group_base” again. And then we’re going to export it to TSRW again.
I named my file “sims3base” but feel free to name it whatever.
Step 5: Using CMAR’s Mesh Toolkit:
Open up CMAR’s Mesh Toolkit by double clicking the application file. It’s a simple program so there is no .exe for installation. It is an “extract and go” kind of tool.
When the window pops up you will want to go to “Auto tools for WSO” and then select your sims 4 TSRW mesh for the “WSO mesh to modify/2″ and then select your sims 3 TSRW mesh for the “Reference Mesh/3″. Make sure the “Replace all bone assignments” and “Do interpolation (gives better results but may be slow)” are checked. Now click “Do assignments and save”. You can either overwrite your sims 4 TSRW file (it’s what I do) or rename it- just make sure you are keeping track of all the names.
Now that CMAR’s toolkit fixed our sims 4 mesh, we can open up milkshape.
Open milkshape and import your sims 3 unimesh as a base. (Milkshape crashes a lot for me when I am working with the Q-Mesh Sims 3 GEOM importer/exporter- I am not sure if it is just me but it is just a friendly psa).
And then import your altered CMAR sims 4 TSRW mesh (the only TSRW file if you overwrited it OR whatever you decided to name it- the file after Step 5).
Delete the sims 3 mesh. (Sorry I skimped on pictures- milkshape kept crashing- so I had to do things quickly). Save this file as an MS3D because this file now has the skeleton of the sims 3 mesh.
Step 6: Double Exporting:
Unfortunately upon using CMAR’s toolkit, the animations are now a little wonky.
Exhibit A:
To fix this, we will export our file as a “Half-Life SMD” file. Make sure the animation button is unselected.
Save your file with whatever name you want. We won’t be creating many SMD files. An SMD Export window will pop up and make sure our selections match up.
Hit OK. File --> new. Import our base Q-Mesh Sims 3 GEOM file again. Once that has loaded, import our SMD file. Another popup will appear. Make sure you UNSELECT rename bones.
Delete the sims 3 mesh group.
Now upon hitting the “Anim[ation]” button, your mesh should not act like spaghetti.
Rename your group to “group_base”.
It would be wise to save this as an MS3D file now- either overwrite (since you won’t need the old ones, or save as a new file with “fix” at the end).
From here, you can follow @rented-space‘s 3t2 tutorial because the sims 4 mesh is now (essentially) a sims 3 mesh.
Step 7: Follow Rented-Space’s 3t2 Tutorial.
To pick up where I left off, ctrl+f on the tutorial page and paste this line:
we need to adjust the arms so that they match up with the TS2 skeleton
Once you finish that tutorial you will have successfully converted the sims 4 mesh. :)
If you have problems or questions or need further clarification or other tutorials I will be happy to (try to) help. I am by no means an expert though.
Path 1: I am converting a bottom only, shoes, or a sleeveless top/full body:
This is done with much fewer steps than taking the other path- but you can still follow the longer path.
!!!!!!
This is a friendly reminder to save what you are doing periodically! You will probably also want to duplicate your groups and work on one of the duplicates. If you mess up you won’t have to start over!
!!!!!
Step 3: Sims 2 Body and Sims 4 Mesh:
Your mesh should now be “skinless” and just have the clothing part of the original mesh. At this point, I import a sims2body mesh and fit the clothing around the body and/or manipulate the body around the clothing. Remember to save and if you have a top only or a full body mesh- do not alter the top most neck vertices. Also make sure (if the top is skintight) that the waist connects exactly to the vertices of a maxis bottom (if you have a loose or long shirt than you don’t have to worry about it- you will want to worry about how it fits around pants/bottoms at the butt and side areas though). If you are working on a bottom like I am, you’ll want the bottom’s waist to match up exactly with a maxis top waist. (I have separated tops and bottoms of the exported body meshes (which are very useful when doing separates!) but I can’t seem to find where I got them and my googling skills are poor right now).
Once finished, you’ll want to rename your groups “group_base” without the quotes. If you altered the sims 2 body mesh a lot you will want to save/update your ms3d file (or if you originally chose the obj you’ll want to save it as an ms3d). Okay, now delete either the body or the clothing. Export it to “TSRW” with a name like “body for -meshnamehere-” or “meshnamehere” depending on which one you are currently exporting. Hit “undo delete group” and then delete the other group. Export to “TSRW” again (with a different filename). Do not save your ms3d unless you have both groups!
File --> new.
Step 4: Using CMAR’s Mesh Toolkit:
If you have never used cmar’s toolkit- you will want to import the sims 2 body base (age and gender of what you are converting) into milkshape here is a quick guide (it was written very userfriendly by @rented-space So I will be using an excerpt from their 3t2 guide here) :
Import your sims2body mesh into milkshape; if you get these messages, click “yes” to both if you plan to use Cmar's toolkit to make morphs. If you plan to do your own morphs by hand, click "no" to "Create blend groups?"
Go to the groups tab and rename “body” to “group_base” and “~00MORPHMOD.1” to “group_fat” (and if the mesh has a pregnant morph “~00MORPHMOD.2” to “group_special”), and export it as a “TSRW object” file. Make sure to name it “Reference Mesh” or something that is clear so you don’t mix the meshes up. (I normally never mess with the morphs so this tutorial will not work with it).
Open up CMAR’s toolkit.
The “WSO mesh to modify” are the meshes that we exported in milkshape (the “new” body and the sims 4 clothing mesh). You will have to do them both separately but you can either overwrite the files or come up with new names (I usually just overwrite).
Open up milkshape (or switch to the window). File --> new.
Follow the rest of @rented-space’s wonderful 3t2 tutorial.
Step 5: Follow Rented-Space’s 3t2 Tutorial.
To pick up where I left off go to their tutorial and ctrl+f
Start a new in milkshape and import your reference mesh first as a unimesh
Once you finish that tutorial you will have successfully converted the sims 4 mesh. :)
If you have problems or questions or need further clarification or tutorials I will be happy to (try to) help. I am by no means an expert though.
