Using Expanded Active Households/Home mod by Savanita! 🏠
A new guide for Savanita's mod!
Download Expanded Active Household/Homes mod here! ◀
New updates: March 2026
New features including:
* Visits and Stayovers
* Active/Inactive Daycare
* Ask any Sim to babysit!
* Sim Needs>Handle Motives
* A Daycare Marker (yellow rubberducky!)
* Seperate bills!
This mod requires Lazy Duchess’ MonoPatcher!
🏠
Click on the contents for the full, updated guide and more gameplay ideas!
I've had many people ask me how exactly I make my sims. Well this video answers it with one simple word : proportions ! In this video I show you the step by step process I go through when making my sims, while showing certain sliders and why I use them ! Most of the sliders shown in the video are base game sliders.
Tumblr post mentionned in the beginning of the video
Recommended Custom Content + Mods :
Possible Question : Why did you not list all your CC ?
Answer : I only listed the most important ones because the custom content I use doesn't explain how exactly my sims look like that. I did list some of my favorite creators for bigger categories (hair, eyebrows, make-up). I do stand by the fact that the cc I use make my sims look from generic to LORD GAWD DAMN WHO IS THIS DIVVAAAAAAAAAA BUT it's also because the sims's proportions are just as DIVVAAAAAAAAAAA and that's exactly what I'm trying to show with this video !
In short terms : It's all in the facial proportions ! 🙂↕️
However, if you want to know about anything else that isn't listed, you can comment down below and I will answer !
*Note : my sim details, visual effects and texture quality in game settings are all set on high !
My Reshade Preset
HQ MOD - *kwimii (tutorial used : here)
Shader tweaks
Presets :
Hair Color Presets Replacement
Eye Color Presets Replacement
Face Presets Default Replacement V.2 : Headshapes, Eyes, Nose, Lips
Defaults :
Default Eyes (Redwood)
Default Skin + Asian Skins + No Skin Glow
Default Face Overlay (Replaces Default Eyelashes Texture)
Make-Up :
Main Favorite Creators : @sourlemonsimblr, @smallsimmer, @pleaseputnamehere (their make-up cc is like my religion deadass)
Eyelashes
Eye Contacts (all from @satellite-sims)
Hair :
Main Favorite Creators : @rollo-rolls, @nemiga-sims-archive, @lalasimmer, @cazysims (on TSR), @vmsims25
Eyebrows :
Main Favorite Creators : @sourlemonsimblr, @pralinesims (on TSR)
Main sliders :
*Note : most of the sliders I use are EA sliders, other sliders are just to make my sims look a bit more unique but these sliders I'm listing I always use them with no hesitation
You will need @flotheory's new dinner mod, download it here.
Depending on what you want, choose either
Version 1:
limited to 8 sims having dinner and sims will finish what they are doing before going to dinner
-> best for family gameplay when you only want your active family to have dinner together
or Version 2:
more than 8 sims can have dinner and sims will stop what they are doing and proceed to their chair once you direct them to do so
-> best if you also want inactive sims as guests at your dinner party
Step 1: Assign each sim a chair
Click on the chair
Select "Join dinner…"
Select the sim you want to sit in this chair
Repeat for all chairs/sims.
Sims will now proceed to their respective chairs and sit down at the dinner table:
Step 2: Get them to eat dinner together
If you're doing this with more than one table, pause your game!
You will have to repeat these steps for each table! Do not switch to a different table before you have done them all!
Place the group meal in the middle of the table
Click on the group meal
Select "Serve for dinner…"
Click on the table
Select "Eat dinner together…"
Select the sims sitting at this table
Click OK
Without un-pausing the game proceed to the next table and repeat for every table.
Once all tables have been served their dinner and the sims have been directed to dine:
Press play and watch them all eat at the same time!
Additional tips:
I found it is best to place the group meals on the table after all sims have been seated. If you place them before, you run the risk of a hungry sim grabbing a plate and blocking one of the chairs.
Once all sims are seated at the dinner table you can leave them sitting and just chatting for a little bit, but don't wait too long or they will get up again.
If you want more than 8 sims to dine together, you will need either a custom table seating more than 8 sims (don't know if they even exist…?) or you will need to place several tables. If you want to push them together to make a bigger table, use the cheat "moveobjects on". Take care not to push the tables into each other, or sims may not have enough room to sit down. It's best to leave a small gap.
If you want several tables to eat the same food, either prepare the same group meal for each table or use icarus_allsorts mod "Cook with any ingredient" in order to make a group meal with up to 16 servings. When serving several tables from the same group meal you will have to move the group meal to the table you want to serve before repeating step 2!
Average Polycount of EA Items in TS3: A Reference Sheet
I initially started this list as a personal “cheat sheet” that I could reference to ensure the custom content I'm downloading is appropriate for gameplay when it comes to polycount (and because I intend(ed) to learn how to make my own cc). I decided to share in case others find it useful.
I’m not a Maxis Match purist or anything like that, but purging high-poly CAS items from my cc folder eliminated in-game stuttering for me entirely. For some reason, this is rarely mentioned in discussions about gameplay optimization. Polycount does matter.
There’s a lot of absolutely gorgeous but incredibly high-poly cc out there that is simply not gameplay friendly for the average player. As we see an influx of first-time or rusty players migrating over from TS4, I think it’s important people are aware of this (both players and creators alike).
This might be a nonissue for those whose focus is on CAS and pretty screenshots, or maybe for those who have beastly gaming pcs/graphics cards etc.
But for players whose focus is on actual gameplay, high-poly cc can be detrimental.
With that said, below the cut you can find a list of average polycounts for some EA clothing/objects to use as a reference.
My method
I recorded the polycount of 10 items from each category below so that I could get a decent representation from each one to calculate the average. Since there is a wide range in some of the categories, I’ve opted to also include the minimum, median, and maximum for a clearer picture.
This list is not exhaustive; I feel like after a while, you kind of get the point. Also, this has been sitting on my computer for ages, and I don’t know if/when I will continue collecting data for it, so I figured I would just share what I have for now.
CAS
Tops:
Average polycount: 3538.4
Minimum polycount: 2868
Median polycount: 3443
Maximum polycount: 4872
Outfits:
Average polycount: 4281.8
Minimum polycount: 3865
Median polycount: 4205.5
Maximum polycount: 4932
Bottoms:
Average polycount: 1094.2
Minimum polycount: 770
Median polycount: 1016
Maximum polycount: 1768
Hair:
Average polycount: 4343.2
Minimum polycount: 2298
Median polycount: 4691
Maximum polycount: 6840
Shoes:
Average polycount: 621.6
Minimum polycount: 456
Median polycount: 594
Maximum polycount: 968
Accessories
Average polycount: 520.8
Minimum polycount: 118
Median polycount: 433
Maximum polycount: 1098
Objects
Dining Chairs
Average polycount: 806.3
Minimum polycount: 362
Median polycount: 799
Maximum polycount: 1054
Sofas and Loveseats
Average polycount: 1699.4
Minimum polycount: 958
Median polycount: 1414
Maximum polycount: 2920
Livingroom Chairs
Average polycount: 791.0
Minimum polycount: 290
Median polycount: 920
Maximum polycount: 1006
Beds
Average polycount: 3529.4
Minimum polycount: 1974
Median polycount: 3316
Maximum polycount: 5668
Plants
Average polycount: 746.3
Minimum polycount: 104
Median polycount: 801
Maximum polycount: 1998
Sculptures
Average polycount: 1659.3
Min polycount: 440
Median polycount: 1417.5
Max polycount: 5263
Misc
Average polycount: 914.4
Min polycount: 380
Median polycount: 988
Max polycount: 1926
Curtains
Average polycount: 762.4
Min polycount: 262
Median polycount: 802
Max polycount: 1438
Wall Art
Average polycount: 524.1
Min polycount: 62
Median polycount: 171
Max polycount: 2403
Dining Tables
Average polycount: 754.8
Min polycount: 468
Median polycount: 685
Max: 1262
For vehicles, check out this follow-up from @dhalsims
Further reading from people who are way smarter than me:
Polygon counts and Sims CC by @simlicious, plus their tutorial on how to check polycounts using TSRW. Edited to add: check out their newest essay about polycount vs vertices!
Let’s Talk Polygons by @mspoodle1 plus their tutorial on how to use S3pe to check polycounts.
A warning about high polycount custom content - for downloaders and creators by @tommeraas-cc (this post is for TS4 but still relevant for TS3 as well).
Maybe no one cares about cc polycounts anymore, but I sure do. 😅
Happy simming! I'm on a bit of a break from TS3 right now but I always come back. 🖤
Maternity Morphs & Bone Deltas Tutorial + Resources for The Sims 3
♦︎ Tutorial on how to add maternity morphs and correct maternity bone deltas to CC, Store or EA clothing. Clipping hands begone!
♦︎ Resources include 60+ EA maternity morph references and 90+ EA maternity bone delta references. Yes, that's how many EA made! I simply exported all of these from the game files and organized them with thumbnails for easy use.
Tutorial and resources download link can be found under the cut!
♦︎ You're probably surprised to learn that there are so many maternity references hidden in the game files, while in the actual game there's only a handful of maternity options. Well, EA was silly as usual and forgot to enable a majority of them for our preggo Sims to wear. What's even weirder is that there are a bunch proper maternity bone deltas for clothing without any maternity morphs. Even ones for female teens and elders! In case you didn't know, bone deltas are basically what communicate to the game the shape of a Sim's body. This is to prevent clipping issues like hands going through bellies.
♦︎ So most of the resources included here are for adult female Sims. Like I mentioned above there are some teen and elder maternity bone deltas too, but EA obviously never made any morphs. So for them I've included a few basic pregnancy morph references. These are edited by me, but based on and compatible with teen and elder maternity morphs by sweetdevil and SimplexSims. They should work alright for most clothing, but if you require more maternity morph references, then I recommend you use the ones from the EA conversions done by @sweetdevil-sims or by me. Nothing for males is included in the resources, but the tutorial does have a section for adding maternity bonedeltas to male Sims.
♦︎ Reminder that EA's maternity morphs don't just give your Sims a pregnant belly, but also make your Sims gain a small amount of weight overall. This is why it's very important to assign correct bone deltas alongside the maternity morphs. These not only prevents clipping issues with the belly, but also thighs, arms, hips, etc.
♦︎ I've tried to make the tutorial noob friendly. As such it's pretty long. If you're an experienced CC creator/converter, then you'll probably know how to do a lot of what's explained here.
♦︎ This tutorial has been split into multiple sections. This first section explains how to add maternity morphs to a finished CC or EA clothing package. If you already know how to do this, you can skip to the section about adding maternity bone deltas.
Creating maternity morphs using EA references
♦︎ First, open the package file of the clothing item you want to enable for maternity with S3PE. If you want to enable an EA item for maternity, then clone it with S3OC (Cloning > CAS Part > Select one > Clone or Fix > Uncheck Renumber > Start).
♦︎ If your package has no internal names for the resources inside S3PE, then make sure to generate these using Mesh Toolkit: Package Tools > Name Those Files.
♦︎ In S3PE select all the LODs under the GEOM tag (lod1, lod2, lod3) and export them to your WIP folder. If you see any with a morph name, like lod1-fat, then skip those.
♦︎ If you see any LODs with multiple groups (like lod1, lod1-1), then in Mesh Toolkit go to: GEOM Tools > Combine Meshes. Combine lod1 with lod1-1. Combine lod2 with lod2-1, etc.
♦︎ Next inside Mesh Toolkit go to: Auto tools for GEOM > Auto-create Morph Mesh. First select your LOD1 as the GEOM base mesh to morph. Then click Select file for the reference mesh. Now it's time to select a good reference.
♦︎ This is the way I like to do it. If I'm creating a maternity morph for an adult female top, I'm going to look in the af_Morph_Refs folder, which is inside the resources folder that I've provided above. In the search bar I type: afTop. Right click inside the folder and 'View > Extra large icons' and 'Sort by > Type', then at the bottom right of the window switch from 'GEOM mesh files' to 'All files' so you're able to see the thumbnails of all the references. Then I usually like to start up TS3 and go into CAS so I can compare these in-game to the top I'm adding the morph to.
♦︎ You'll want to look for a similar shape overall, especially paying attention to which parts of the body are bare. Using a long sleeved top as a reference for a top with bare arms isn't the best idea, but the reverse could work alright. With tops it's especially important to pay attention to whether the lengths of the tops match up. For the top shown in the preview I ended up choosing the highlighted reference in the image above, as it matches that top the closest.
♦︎ Right click on the thumbnail of the reference you want to use > Open file location. Inside this folder you'll want to select the lod1 simgeom file. Next select the file for the reference morph. Which is either also a simgeom or a blendgeom file and should have SPECIAL in the filename. Now click the 'Create Morph Mesh' button and save your new maternity morph. I usually name it LOD1_SPECIAL.
♦︎ Time to see how your morph looks. Open blender and head to Scene Properties. Under Sims 3 GEOM Tools click 'Import GEOM' and open your lod1. Then make sure to select it once it's imported and under GEOM Tools click 'Import Morphs'. In the window that pops up make sure to uncheck VertexID Lookup.
♦︎ Now it's time to inspect your morph mesh to check for any wonky geometry or messy normals. This mesh looks pretty smooth and requires no changes. If your morph has especially bad geometry, then you could try a different reference. It's likely that yours will at least have some weird normals (shadows) and you may want to fix that. I won't go over how to fix geometry in this tutorial, as that's more general blender knowledge, but I'll go over how to fix bad normals below. Lots of steps ahead, bear with me..
♦︎ Right, how to fix bad normals on a morph. First duplicate your morph in blender. Under modifier properties, select the 'Weighted Normal' modifier on the duplicate. Now take this duplicate into edit mode. Hover over and press the L key to select parts of the mesh which are supposed to smoothly join together. Press M > By Distance. Repeat until you're rid of the unnecessary seams. Next select all parts on which you'd see a Sim's bare skin, like hands and bare arms for example. Under Object Data Properties > Vertex Groups > Click + to add a new group. Now click on 'Assign' while you still have those parts selected. Now you'll want to import a bare reference. Import GEOM and choose from the resources folder an appropriate mesh. For tops I'd pick 'afTopBra_burnt'. Afterwards import it's morph too. Now on the duplicate mesh apply the 'Data Transfer' modifier. Source: the morph of the bare reference. Vertex Group: the group you added. Checkmark 'Face Corner Data', expand and click 'Custom Normals'. In the drop down below it select 'Nearest Face Interpolated'. Now exit edit mode and apply both modifiers. Go back to your original morph with the bad normals and apply to it the 'Data Transfer' modifier. Select the same options again, minus the vertex group, but this time Source: mesh with fixed normals, and under the dropdown select 'Topology'. Apply and the normals should be smooth now. To export the fixed morph you'll need to export it's base mesh. If you perform this method to smooth normals on a base mesh, then remember to delete the added vertex group before export!
♦︎ Now you'll want to create the morphs for lod2 and lod3. With maternity morphs it's generally fine to reuse the lod1 morph as a reference for the lower LODs. So repeat what you did before, but this time morph lod2, use lod1 as the ref mesh and then the lod1 morph as the ref morph. Now repeat with lod3 and you should have a morph for each LOD.
♦︎ In Mesh Toolkit go to: Morph Tools > Make Clothing/Hair BGEO. Here you'll put your new maternity morphs. Select your lod1, 2 and 3 morphs, then click 'Make BGEO'. Save to your WIP folder. Skip this if you're adding morphs to a clothing item from TS3 Store.
♦︎ Now inside your package file select the BGEO resource of the maternity morph. It's usually the last one and should end with '_special'. Right click > Replace > Select the BGEO you saved in the previous step. With clothing from TS3 Store morphs are saved as GEOMs, so to add those go to Mesh Toolkit > Package Tools > Add Morphs to Clothing/Hair. Tick 'Add as Morph Meshes' and untick the option above. If the LODs have multiple groups then you'll have to create the morphs again for each group, using the morph reference you just made.
♦︎ Congrats, your clothing item now has a maternity morph! Don't forget to click on the CASP resource inside the package > Grid > ClothingCategory > ValidForMaternity: True. You may now save your package or select the BGEO and export it to a new package to make it an override. Your clothing item will still need appropriate bone deltas, so make sure to follow the next section.
Replacing bone deltas using EA references
♦︎ Every clothing item enabled for maternity requires correct bone deltas to prevent clipping issues. You'll want to make sure the shape of the clothing item you're using it's bone deltas from is similar in shape. The shape at each area of the body matters. So for flared pants, you'll want to use the bone deltas of another pair of flared pants. It's NOT recommended that you use the bone deltas of a full body outfit for a top/bottom or vice versa. Teen and elder females have a lot fewer maternity bone delta references. In some cases the best option may be to use an adult female bone delta for them. You'll usually want to use the bone deltas of the clothing item you got your morph reference from, but this isn't always the case (some of them don't even have any, thanks EA).
♦︎ Open your package with S3PE. Select the maternity BOND (it's usually the last one and should end with 'BOND4' or 'special'). Right click > Copy ResourceKey. Then, right click > Replace. Go into the BoneDeltas folder inside the resources folder that I've provided above. Open the folder that matches your clothing item. So for an adult female top I'd look inside 'afTop'. Right click inside the folder and 'View > Extra large icons' and search '.png'. Make sure that at the bottom right of the window it says 'All files', so you're able to view the thumbnails of all the references. Pick one that matches your clothing item in shape. It helps to compare them in-game. Right click the thumbnail > Open file location. Now select the .bonedelta file. After it's replaced, click on Grid > Expand ChunkEntries > Expand again > Double click the value next to TGIBlock > Paste > Commit.
♦︎ Your clothing item now has correct maternity bone deltas, yay! You may now save your package or select the BOND and export it to a new package to make it an override.
There's a tiny summary of these steps inside a .txt included with the resources. Now, if you somehow still can't find the bone deltas you need along the 90+ references, then there's a painful process you can go through to convert the bone deltas of a full body outfit to ones suitable for a top/bottom or vice versa. This is only recommended if you're as tedious as I am. These steps are also included in the .txt file.
Custom bone deltas (male maternity clothing)
♦︎ If you'd like to give a male clothing item proper maternity bone deltas or if you'd like to edit female ones, then you'll want to use the BoneDeltaEditor tool. For males it will be a bit less straightforward without any already created references for you to use, but it's still doable. All existing male maternity clothes only seem give your Sim a pregnant tummy, without any weight gain on other areas of the body like with female Sims. Male maternity morphs are scattered all over by different creators, but they all seem to use the ones by our dear departed CmarNYC as a base. Right, let's get into it (yuh).
♦︎ First we'll have to replace one of BoneDeltaEditor's files. Otherwise the bones won't have proper names and it'll be impossible to determine what's what. At the bottom of this tutorial: LINK download the Pets_updated_bones.zip. Extract the bones.xml and replace the one in your BoneDeltaEditor folder with it.
♦︎ Open your package with S3PE and export the BOND that ends with 'BOND0' or 'normal'. Open BoneDeltaEditor.exe twice. Open the reference you want to use in the first window and the BOND that you just exported in the second one. Now, which bone delta reference to open in the first window is something you'll have to find out by doing a few comparisons. Either in-game or in blender. You must find a clothing item with a base mesh or morph that has a similar belly shape as your maternity morph. Which age or gender it's from and whether the rest of the body matches up doesn't really matter. You'll only be transferring over the bone delta values of the belly. Once you've found a match, it's time to transfer over some numbers. Copy and paste over the Offset values of R_frontBellyTarget_slot, L_frontBellyTarget_slot, R_BellyTarget_slot, etc. You get the deal. Make sure to do both R and L. Also don't forget to click Commit before selecting another bone. Repeat this with: R/L_carry_slot. Then File > Save (As). Now you'll have your male maternity bone delta ready for use. To correctly import it to your package, repeat the steps from the previous section.
That was a lot of yapping, but hopefully you'll find some of it useful! Feel free to ask me any questions if you have them. ✌
Suggested Skill Level: Pretty basic honestly. But this is written with the assumption you know these programs and how to use them. This is also focused on the mesh and getting it into game, in a working state, not textures.
Programs needed for the mesh
_____________________________
TSRW
Sims4Studio
Blender
Milkshape 3D
s3ce (Converting sims3pack to package files)
Sims 3 Package editor
Art program with dds stuff. (I use Photoshop, GIMP scares me, sorry)
_____________________________
STEP ONE: Pick 'n choose wisely, smash 'n grab
Pick your fence and your fence base from sims 3. This is the most important bit or else everything will go tits up.
Alpha map or no Alpha map.
And whether you are going to choose a fence with glass for this lil thingy, and the fact it has two mesh groups, not just one.
Levels of difficulty, most to least difficult
Glass
Alpha Map
Sans Alpha Map
So we are going to do both glass and an alpha map one. :)
Now youre gonna grab these three mesh bits from sims 4 studio and export to blender.
LOD 0 - Straight fence
LOD 1 - Diagonal fence
LOD 2 - Post
(In this case for both the Vampire and Spa Day one. On other fences you may have to go further down to even LOD 6 to find the post, so scroll down carefully!)
Dont forget the diffuse texture and the specular, keep the specular dds or else TSRW will spit on your face and steal your kidneys.
In blender, do your exporting. Remember to tick that selection only box.
Behold. Your Bounty.
STEP TWO: Prepping to slam it into TSRW
Make your TSRW Base file, remebering to rename the project and title cuz this program is finicky as fuck. Im using the Into the Future Fence because it comes up when you search glass in the search bar.
Its mesh groups
Group 0: Non glass bit
Group 1: Glass
In milkshape 3D, import your obj file, select the one mesh group to highlight it. If its the glass, move that boi down. If you grabbed the fence but, shift it up. And then. Just export it as a tsrw object
there are no bones/joints praise fucking be!!
Repeat for the Vampire fence. Just import, export.
What you want is just the, I hope, neatly named Spa fence parts, vampire fence parts, and the diffuse and specular. That is all we need for this.
Now, go back to your TSRW file and head to that mesh panel. You will see this.
Dont fret, just replace it with my handy dandy naming system in your head! Cuz its all it is.
______
High level of detail: Straight fence
Modular 1: Diagonal fence
Modular 2: The post
______
Import on the straight fence bit and you should see this. This is how you know you did the grouping right.
Finish that importing. Do the whole renumbering shpiel not saving when prompted yadah yadah. Repeat the process with the vampire one. Im using the wrought iron fence because the tall one doesnt show a texture section, for some reason.
Once you set up both files, exit TSRW fully to reset the program and give yourself more time before it runs out of memory but only tells you when you to go fucking save.
You did a good chunk already!! Yay!! Take a moment, breathe. Get yourself a cuppa. Because now its time for
STEP THREE: Those Gosh Darn Texture Maps
GLASS FENCE
You will see that there is no texture for the glass bit, and that is because that mesh bit works entirely on its own internal shaders, unlike Sims 4 that relies on the diffuse map.
If you keep the glass texture on the diffuse map, you will run into issues.
Open up your diffuse texture and delete the glass texture bit. Repeat with the specular map. (Remember, this is not including how to make a recolourable fence, so we wont be colour editing. Just make a fully red mask as big as the diffuse, and slap it on. If you want, you can also make an overlay file like I did. For funsies. )
You want this!
Go through to make sure you dont have duplicate texture files. Save the file to solidify your changes and export to Sims3pack. Congrats! You just made a glass fence! High five!
ALPHA MAP FENCE
For this fence you can easily import the diffuse and specular with no edits.
But when you make the mask map, clip that layer or else you loose the bit that makes it alpha and its just a hot mess.
YOU WANT THIS FOR ANY FUTURE MASKS YOU MAKE. DONT FORGET. You should see this in the mesh texture bit. Youre good if you do!
Behold your finished alpha mask fence!
Save, export, all that jazz.
STEP FOUR: We have A Post Issue
Convert the sims3packs to package files. Im sorry, but this is non negotiable due to one teeny tiiiny issue.
The fences will look like this if you just click and drag. But fear not! We can easily fix this! Open the package files.
Click CFEN
Grid, go to Tile Spacing
Turn that 1 to a 0, hit commit.
Save the file and tadah!
Problem solved. Now you dont need to deal with posts every single time.
STEP FIVE: Practice practice
You made functional fences. Draggable, will block routing unless you edit it in the CFEN data grid, and will allow for the placement of gates.
Now you just need to practice these steps until they become muscle memory and easy to execute. Go forth, make those fences. And the day I work out double gates' verts, I will release a tutorial on those buggers too.
4to3 texture conversion with UV to UV baking method tutorial
4to3 texture converting through baking Written version of this video https://youtu.be/JofDMt7eYz0?si=zzZRLwlCSj1cExa7 Also touched upon in t
The doc might seem long/overwhelming, this is because I wanted to be very, very precise, truly step by step. Every single task by itself is just a matter of clicking buttons and takes a few seconds, except for altering the UV lay-out and the off-screen mesh editing. This is a repeat (but more precise) of things I wrote in this big 4To3 tutorial , as well as functioning as a written version of the contents of this video
I touch upon how to nicely convert the specular, normal map & main diffuse (and other swatches) of a TS4 item to the TS3. Because I only do maxis match/mix stuff it is done with that, but you could extrapolate this to different cc aesthetics & conversions from other games.
I use blender 3.6 and photoshop 2025.*
*for your photoediting program, a very important thing is that it allows you to open DDS files with the alpha layer shown as a channel you can disable/enable/remove/replace, instead of only being able to open it as the sheer image as-is.
