#mod tutorials

[keiyusmods]

Hi!

How would you recommend someone learn to make mods for the sims 4? Do you have any tutorials or tips? Or would you be willing to make your own?

- trashypanda

Thank you for asking!

I do have some tips for people who want to get into modding. It took me a while before I got comfortable with the game’s xml, but it’s something anyone can learn with persistence and by going at your own pace.

YouTube Modding Tutorials

Serra, AKA @xosdr

Serra is an active content creator and sims 4 modder. She has a playlist full of mod tutorials for the sims 4 on her channel, and she does reply to comments when she can. I’ve found her tutorials helpful, especially in the beginning when I didn’t know what the heck I was looking at.

Pixified Tips

She is another content creator on YouTube who makes mod AND blender tutorials! Very helpful for people wanting to make CC. Her tutorial style is different from Serra’s since she gets straight to the point and lists off steps in bullet. If you like your tutorials to get straight to the point, then I recommend her videos.

Lot51 Tdesc Builder

The Tdesc builder is a modding website/tool that lets you create tuning files AND search tuning files within the sims 4. It even provides templates for creating your own files from scratch. This tutorial by Waffle’s Mix-Ins will break down how the website works, and how to use it. Lot51 is great, practically essential for making tuning mods, but it can’t make custom content, or recolors. You’ll need a different tool for that.

Sims 4 Studios

This is the sacred forge. Sims 4 Studios lets you import xml files for models, textures, data, anything you need to make a comprehensive mod for the sims 4 (except script mods. Those are different.) And unlike lot51, which is a template website, S4S lets you type the tuning yourself. It can be more convenient, especially when you need to copy/paste large batches of text. You can download it here!

Crack Open a Tuning File 👀

While learning how to mod, I did use sims 4 studios to open the tuning files to see what’s in them. At first, I had no clue what I was looking at, but it helped me get familiar with the structure a little bit. It also made all the numbers look less scary. The goal at first is not to understand everything, but to understand what you need to change, so the mod can do what you want. Once you’ve at that point, you can further customize mods so that they’re more tailored to your experience, BUT DO NOT REUPLOAD OTHER PEOPLE’S WORK!

That is much rudeness.

The Creator Musing Discord

I guess I would call this the social hub of the modding community? Here people post their links, share their WIP’s, and ask modding questions when stuck on their projects. There are recognizable names in this discord like Little Ms Sam, Spinning Plumbobs, PandaSama… and me! ✨

I’ve tumbled in there with my silly questions so many times. Getting creator wisdom from people who are familiar with the game’s systems is probably the most valuable resource on this list. You can click here to join!

These are all the resources I use, so I hope this helps!

Have fun modding!!!

[stop-right-there-criminal-scum]

would you mind giving a brief tutorial on how to edit the vanilla f04 hairs? I'm struggling to find any info on it! Thank you!

Sure~

First step is extract the vanilla hair meshes with BAE. Then open the mesh you want to edit with Outfit Studio. It’s easiest to just edit things in Outfit Studio, but you can only stretch and shrink meshes in Outfit Studio, not cut up. If you drastically edit the mesh, you’re gonna want to reweight it. So to do this, load another similar hair mesh as reference. Then left right click on the name of your hair and click “copy bone weights.” You can use use the reference shape as well reference for where things should be. Then export as big into a folder, either character/characterassets/female or a new one you made. If you want a mesh with multiple parts, I wouldn’t set one as reference and export with reference, I would set each as Outfit separately and have them be separate pieces.

A bit more complicated if you really want cut up meshes so skip this if this is too involved. First, you need 3DS Max with a nif plug-in (or Blender). Then you’d open the mesh, right click and convert to editable poly. Then delete the strips, convert again. Then on the drop down in the third tab click Skin Wrap. Import in the mesh of the hair you’re going to weight this to. Change it to face deformation and click weight all points and then select the reference shape you imported. Wait a second and then click the apply button at the bottom. Then delete skin wrap and add a BSSubindexModifer. It’s easiest to just unlock it, select the whole mesh and then lock it. However, then the hair won’t be hat compatible. If someone wants a hat compatibility tutorial I can go into that… but anyways….

Adding in game time! Since this is just mesh editing you don’t need to do anything to the textures or materials. Open up FO4Edit and optionally another hair esp as well. Copy a record from a hair into your new esp, change the name. Now if you have a second mesh in the hair, copy over the records from a extra piece hairline (or a hair, you’ll just have to change more things). Change the files paths to your path, and if you want it female or male, check that box, if you want unisex check neither. If it’s an extra piece, check “is extra part” and make sure under Type it is “Misc” not “Hair”. In your Hair hair add the extra piece in by right clicking and typing in its ID, ex. “[HDPT:010xxxxxx]”. It’s also a good idea to keep in a vanilla hairline, maybe the one the hair originally had if you didn’t edit it too much. Then save your esp, check it in NMM and check out the barber! (or slm 14)

Invisible hair bug shooting:

- the extra part isn’t properly set up, check other esps for ref

- the paths are typed in incorrectly in FO4Edit

- check above and below your character, after weighting sometimes stuff get mixed up and the hair could be floating 10 feet above or below you. Move the hair up/down significantly in Outfit Studio. This is annoying because you’re sort of shooting in the dark as to where the head might be and the references you bring in will be in the wrong spot :/

other bugs:

- if you get infinite stretching, try reweighting

- if you have an extra part with cloth bones (physics) the main hair needs cloth bones on it too, or the whole hair will be stiff

Any other q’s feel free to ask :)

[kadustuniverse-blog]

Hello! I truly think you and your attitude and your personality and your mods and just YOU - are amazing. Which is also why I'm kinda turning to you for some advice, if it's alright! I'd really like to create new scards since I have a headcanon about my lavellan being partially blind, cuts over eyes and such, but I have no idea where to start. I've tried tutorials, but I haven't found the right sources and ugh... I'm rambling, sorry! Would be fantastic if you had any pointers or such. ;-; !

Thank you, that is so sweet of you to say!

First, i’m not too good with textures and such, but as far as i know there are two ways you can add /  create new scars. You can either edit the complexion texture and have the scars added on that directly, or you can edit the scar files and add new scars through the scar-sliders.

For complexions, the files you have to look at is found in da3/actors/baseheads/inquisitor/textures. You can follow the tutorials for complexion mod edits found here.

For scar-slider, the files you have to look at is found in da3/actors/baseheads/textures/scars/uhm_scars_m. This file works pretty much like the tattoo files, where 1 slider in the game equals one channel in each of these files. Remember to also edit the normal map (uhm_scars_n).

For both of the methods, this post about DAI normal maps is very helpful.

If any other modders have anything to add, please do so. :3

[darkelfguy]

For someone new to installing mods, it can be somewhat difficult to figure out where to start with adding new Morrowind mods to their savegame, or even where to get mods in the first place. In order to help out with all of that, I've created this first episode of Morrowind Modding Tutorials to try and explain everything you need to know about installing Morrowind mods safely and with the smallest likelihood of running into bugs, errors or mod conflicts.

In this video we go over the basics of how to install mods in a variety of different ways, as well as how to install and use some of the utilities out there that'll make your life easier. We also cover a number of additional applications that will make your Morrowind gameplay experience run smoother.

Download links and written tutorials for everything we've shown in this episode can be found below:

Morrowind Mod Databases:

Morrowind Nexus

Morrowind Modding History

Great House Fliggerty

Wolflore

ModDB

TES Alliance

The Assimilation Lab

Written Tutorials:

Beginners Guide

Wrye Mash Tutorial

TES3CMD Commands

Morrowind Mods FAQ

Suggested Mods

Tech Support:

Official Forums

Nexus Forums

GHF Tech Support

Utility Downloads:

BSA Registration Utility

Wrye Mash Stand-Alone

Wrye Mash Command-Line

TES3CMD

Morrowind Code Patch

4GB Patch

MGE XE

MLOX

MGSO 3.0

MGSO 3.0 Patch

MGSO 3.0 Daedric Armor Fix

Enchanted Editor