Tutorial: Converting all types of CAS CC to work with color sliders (+ how to disable it)
This enables CAS CC to work with Color Sliders for Hair, Clothes, & Accessories by thepancake1 and @mizoreyukii.
Since S4 Studio only let's you batch convert hairs and update makeup for compatibility, I present to you: TS4AlphaConverter_2_2_0_0 by CmarNYC.
Keep in mind that enabling CAS CC for color sliders will increase the file sizes of your .package files!
Sliders will also always affect all the texture, i.e. you can't exclude accessories like buttons or zippers, so some textures might not work well.
Also check out this tutorial: Fixing slider compatible CAS CC with broken textures
💜 Requirements:
Color Slider mod
TS4AlphaConverter_2_2_0_0
CAS CC you want to enable
Featured CC by @trillyke @daylifesims @jius-sims @magic-bot
💜How to enable CC for color sliders
1. Download the required program, mod and CC you want.
This is my outfit before sliders:
2. Open up Alpha Converter
3. For enabling sliders, you can only use the folder option and not single files:
Select your input folder which contains the .packages you want to enable.
Then select your output folder where you want to save the new files.
"Include subfolders" is handy if your CC goes into more folders inside your input folder. It will reproduce the same file structure.
4. I would recommend enabling "Don't change package names" so you can just replace your input files directly, otherwise it adds "_Fixed" at the end of the filename.
I will also leave "Don't copy unchanged packages" checked.
5. Next we will select "Convert RLE2 to LRLE" to enable color sliders. I will explain the others later.
It then enables "Convert only textures linked from CASPs" which is good, e.g. it will only target actual CAS CC textures then and no Build & Buy for example.
Leave "Convert all diffuse textures linked from CASP" checked if you want to convert all types of CAS CC.
6. These are my finished settings:
7. Press "Go". It will then take a while depending on file amount and swatches, as it will have to go through textures one by one.
8. Check your finished files. The file size should be bigger, in this case it went up by 30 MB for only 5 files.
This is how the outfit looks after applying sliders to all pieces:
💜 How to disable CAS CC for color sliders
This time select "Convert LRLE to RLE2". You can leave "Convert only textures linked from CASPs".
2. Press "Go" and let it do it's thing.
3. As you can see, the file size went down again (middle), but it is not the same size as from the original file (right).
You will no longer be able to use sliders on the CAS CC piece, except transparency, which always works.
💜 Fixing slider compatible CAS CC with broken textures
If some of your CAS CC displays huge areas of missing, pixelated textures there is an issue with compression.
I don't know how and why this happens, but check out * this tutorial * on how to fix it.
So idk if I'm late to the game in figuring this out and ya'll knew this already BUT I wanted to share in case someone else can benefit from this tip!
Historically when I'm working on a scene and a character is overexposed, I mess around with light placement and decreasing the intensity of the lights. Sometimes I'd get it just right and other times I'd get it close enough and say "screw it"
While working on a scene for chapter 6 I tried something different. I changed the color of the light from white to grey. NIGHT AND DAY DIFFERENCE! It fixed the issue and didn't impact the overall brightness of the room. It makes total sense when you think about it and I'm kicking myself for not thinking of it sooner. I'm sure there's instances that it won't work but it's a great tool to have in your back pocket!
Here's the difference:
Here's the exact settings I have all of the lights on:
well hi :3 welcome to deja’s skinblending guide. this is my first full written tutorial so excuse me if its not very good LAWL
before we get started, here's the tools i'll be using
sims4studio
tray importer
photoshop 2022 (theres cracked version everywhere on tumblr)
blender 4.1
sims 4 ripper
blender + the ripper aren't required to make skins, plenty of people don't go that extra step, but i love using it for placement help
okay lets fuckin go gamers heres my very in depth process for making my ocs skins
miss dolly is gonna be our model today. she already has a skin but im gonna add some little details for the sake of example + some tats cause ive been meaning to anyway.
so when i first get started on making someone a skin, ill find a good base to use and then add details from other categories like nosemasks, eyebags, contours, etc.
my fav skin creators are @sims3melancholic and @thisisthem. my bases are usually thisisthem, and then i'll pick through a couple s3m skins and make notes on my phone about what parts i wanna take off of them (like, say, i like how a certain s3m skin's nose looks. i'll use that instead of a nosemask)
my goal when im gathering things i wanna add is to free up as many slots as i can. id rather add cheshire's freckles onto her skin than use up the freckle slot in skin details that i could use for something else, yknow?
ill repeat this process for makeup next. obviously im not giving my ocs permanent full glam, but some lipsticks can add better texture, you can get highlights/blush from........the blush section LOL and i love using this obscurus eyeliner at a low-ish opacity
just adds an extra level of detail i love. i think what keeps my sims looking consistent next to each other is that i tend to use some of the same details all across the board
make sure for all makeup/skin detail/tattoo category swatches you use, you make note of what swatch it exactly is. when you go into s4s to export the file, you're gonna have to manually select it and if u cant remember what skintone u chose out it can be annoying :/
note that she is completely nakey aside from her piercings while i pick what im gonna use for her skin! no clothing but u can keep on their hair. this is so we have a clear view of everything (and i mean EVERYTHING) for blender.
after you make sure u save the sim/household to ur gallery, you can close out of cas and save ur game! i forgot to do this bc im a fucking idiot but its okay bc you will not. its not REALLY necessary to do this as long as you know exactly what packages you need to locate for texture exporting
step one is done!!!! close out ur game
i have a million fucking characters so i made a deja senti skinblending folder to keep it all organized :-)
this is what it looks like inside. gives u a pretty good overview of what ur gonna be doing tbh. the 't' folder is all the textures we're about to export
thankfully i do have a version of dahlia saved in my gallery so even tho i didnt go it before i closed my game i can still show u what to do in tray importer lol. i have multiple sims in one household, so i narrowed it down by going up top and selecting dahlia / human / and her everyday outfit.
since im gonna give her this blush, i right click and hit open w package viewer so itll find it and open s4s for me
anime wow sound. im gonna change the color manually in photoshop so it doesnt matter to me what swatch i export. hit that green export button under the list of diffuse/shadow/etc (u dont need to worry about all those options, just diffuse) and save it to ur folder!
once ur done gathering ur textures ur good to close out of tray importer and s4s(we'll come back to s4s later tho)
thats step two! the quickest step lawl
this is where i start being a little extra. u dont have to rip ur sim and use blender if u dont want to, but i think it can rly help bc the default sim in s4s doesn't have ur sims facial features and can make ur skins look wonky/wont give an accurate representation of how itll look in game. this cuts out having to go in game/out of game over and over to check
so in simripper once u load up ur sim, the important part is to make sure u have it set to export the dae with separate meshes. once thats done u can import it into blender and there's plenty of other tutorials out there how to use simripper n all that.
so once u get the dae loaded into blender im gonna send u on a little side quest over to this ask i answered where i explain how i separate eyes from the head mesh. next thing ur gonna open is photoshop! or whatever u have thats similar
say hi to flat dahlia. u should have ur own guy but flat open now too :-) along with everything else ur gonna combine. in my case its blush and a titty mask. im gonna start w the blush so i zoomed into her face in blender. i went into the blush file and copied, then back into my base skin file and pasted into place with crtl+shift+v
please do not be like me. make sure u rename ur layers as you copy and paste them into the main skin file. do this because it DOES matter what order ur layers are in. u dont want to put ur highlight under ur nose mask cause the nose mask will just cover the highlight etc etc. i already lost what layer the new blush i added is. what is wrong w me
so when u have ur first detail pasted on and in place, ur gonna save the base skin file as a psd. then go into blender, and in the little textures window ur gonna replace the diffuse file ur dae came loaded with with ur new psd file
u should see the change u made but mine was super subtle so im gonna show it to u when i put on the cleavage overlay
when it comes to stuff like this, ur obviously gonna want to pick the closest to ur skintone swatch as u can. i did not do this, because again, im an idiot
mine is way too pale LAWL whoops. we can fix this tho
i add a hue/saturation adjustment and make it a clipping mask using that square w the arrow so the adjustment will ONLY affect the mask
from there i just make little adjustments until the color match up is as perfect as i can make it. for example for this, ik that it needs to be a little warmer and a little more saturated, so im gonna bump the hue and saturation sliders to the right and it was pretty much perfect
tiddies with no mask > with mask no adjustments > with mask and adjustments
and ur gonna go ahead and repeat that process with every single thing u wanna add to ur skin.
so as for tattoos! this is another thing ur gonna wanna rename the layers for because depending on how heavily ur sims can be tatted it can get A LOT
here's psyche's neat little tattoo folder. its separated into where the tattoo is and then
what it is
i find all my tattoo inspo on pinterest using flash sheets/keywords in the search. my ocs usually have sub-boards that i hoard inspo in for them specifically. dahlia doesnt have one bc ive never seen her as the most tattooed person, but i think she'd have some at least
this process is pretty much the same as putting on skin details! its all about adjusting to what u like. for example, i like when my sims tattoos are a little faded and a bit blurred at the edges cause it looks a little more real
when it comes to images i find on pinterest, ill save the image and first try to make it as clean as i can
for example, this lil guy
a curve mask made the whites brighter and the blacks darker as u can see. then ill go into filter > reduce noise to soften the harsh edges
then i flatten it, copy and paste to the skin file, n place it wherever i want it to go :-)
louder anime wow!!!
okay so now ur gonna want to make sure u .psd file is saved (it should be bc we've been checking our progress w blender) and then merge the visible layers (NOT flatten, merge visible. we need the transparency around the skin to be in tact)
ur done in photoshop and blender!!! good job :-)
step whatever number we're on. back into s4s!
ur focus is over here. make sure the option filled is the top one, and then hit the cas button
this menu will open, ur gonna go up to part type and find the option skin details, forehead. pick the first forehead wrinkle option that appears and hit 'next.' itll prompt you to save ur new file n give it a name, i usually just make it my sim's name cause i have a folder in my mods folder for specifically my cc
remember wayyyy back when we were exporting the skin details? ur gonna go back to that same section and hit 'import' instead of export. select ur skin's .png file, and poof !
ur skin :DD it looks great man good job
this part is EXTREMELY important. go up to the warehouse tab
in the 'data' section ur gonna see a box at the top labeled 'filter.' thats where i typed in 'compos' just so it would show me JUST the compositionmethod section since theres a lot of shit in there lawl. yours is initially gonna say '3,' but we're gonna change it to '0' mind you, this is because MY skins are all alpha. maxis match overlays do not show up on my skins because my comp method is set to 0, meaning it has top priority essentially.
after you do that, you can hit save and place that .package file you created into your mods folder!!! and GUESS WHAT BESTIE UR DONE!!!!! U DID IT :DDDD
of course, as always, you can always dm me if youre stuck on anything or need any more clarification. i am always open to help as much as i can. i rly hope this helped :-)
After a thorough analysis of all 709 food in the Sims 4, it is proven that Batuu recipe: Braised Roast Shaak is the single best recipe for your Sims.
Here's why:
I refined Carl’s Food Efficiency, with a brand new formula, the ability to take food buffs and food with 0 calories into account, as well as all DLC compatible.
The basic idea is to not define efficiency, but consider this instead: After how many in-game minutes will the hunger need decay to the same value.
The first part of the formula is hunger value of the food divided by hunger need decay. The hunger value is a modified value due to two reasons:
Firstly, It choose the minimal value among hunger value and 150, because it takes 12 in-game hours for a Sim’s hunger motive to decay from full to -50, after that it slows down so Sims don’t starve easily. Most Simmers allow their Sims to eat before this because it makes their Sims uncomfortable, and most Sims have at least two meals a day. As a result, a meal with 200 hunger value is equivalent to a meal with 150 hunger value at most times.
Secondly, some highly-skilled, high quality recipes apply a potent buff to Sims so their hunger need decay slows down. An Outstanding Level 8 Gourmet Cooking Lobster Tortellini make their hunger need decay slows down 80% for 6 hours! We calculate those slowed decay as equivalent long-term hunger need gain.
Batuu recipes, however, will give Sims the most potent buff despite being Level 1 recipes; 3 Tomarani Entrees grants the second most potent buff.
The second part is how long it takes to finish the meal. Each food has a consumption value, which is how many times the eating animation is played. It takes 4 minutes for Sims to eat a turn on average. Sometimes we might also consider the time in-between, so there’s an optional part for that.
The third and last part is the calories. Sims grow 1 pound for every 150 calories, and it takes them 13,33 minutes to jog it off. We subtract those time
The final formula apply a coefficient to each part, to allow Simmers to count it differently according to their playstyles. (e.g. Only eat when they’re dying, hates gaining weight, has 200G mod so it lags so much between eating animation, etc.)
For a COMPLETE ranking of ALL food in the Sims 4, see this sheet:
For a thorough deduction of the formula, see this video:
Above: before-and-after pictures of this process. Thank you to @cloudywithachanceofsims, @silverthornestudfarm, and @blueridgeequines for giving me permission to use their coats as examples!
CK's Guide to Fixing Pixelated Horse Coats
As we all know, every time you paint a horse (or any pet or werewolf, really) in Create-a-Pet, it inevitably gets pixelated. This is due to the TS4 engine's compression of Sims textures, which it does to theoretically save on file space and load time. The more you paint on your horse (and the more you save it over and over again), the greater the artifact damage becomes, until you're left with a pixelated mess.
Luckily, I've figured out a way to fix it. Yay!
This method uses a program called chaiNNER, which is an incredibly versatile node-based graphics UI that (among many other things) uses AI models to upscale and process images. After a month and a half of experimenting on multiple different types of coats with about a dozen different models, I've identified two AI models that work best at repairing the artifacting damage done by TS4: RealESRGAN_x2plus and 2xAniscale. I extract the painted coats from the tray files using Cmar's Coat Converter, process them using chaiNNER, use Photoshop to make any touch ups (softening hard edges, fixing seams, adding in the appropriate hoof texture), and then create a new hoof swatch to put the newly fixed coat back into the game.
Fair warning: chaiNNER is a bit of a hefty program that requires significant RAM and VRAM to run. If you have a beefy gaming computer, you should have no issues running this (as long as no other major programs - games, graphics programs, etc. - are running as well). If you've got a lower end computer, though, your computer might not be able to handle it and this method might not be for you. Make sure to read all the documentation on chaiNNer's github before proceeding.
Before we begin, we're going to need to gather some resources. We will need:
A graphics program. I use Photoshop, but GIMP or any other program that can work in layers will work too.
chaiNNER
AI Models; these are the ones I use are RealESRGAN_x2plus and 2xAniscale
Cmar's Coat Converter to extract the coat textures from your tray files
Tray Importer (Optionally) to isolate your household tray files and save you the trouble of searching the Tray Folder
The TS4 Horse UV as a helpful guide to make sure all our textures are lined up properly
Sims 4 Studio to create your new package.
I recommend using S4S to export hoof swatch textures from the game or from existing hoof swatch cc. Some popular hoof swatch CC include @walnuthillfarm's Striped Hooves and @pure-winter-cc's Glorious Striped Hooves
This tutorial assumes you are familiar with the basics in how to use Sims 4 Studio, such as how to clone a base-game item & how to import and export textures, and the basic functions of your graphics program, such as adding multiple different image files together as layers. I'll try to keep my explanations as straight-forward as possible.
STEP ONE: Extract the Coats
Install Cmar's Coat Converter and run it. Cmar's Coat Converter works by looking through your tray files for specific texture files (ie. The coats of cats, dogs, horses, and werewolves) and converting them to png files. You can go through the households of your Tray folder one by one, but I typically just use Tray Importer to separate the household containing the horses I want to fix.
Save the extracted coats in a project folder. These are your OG coats.
STEP TWO: Extract the hoof textures
Open up S4S. To extract the hoof swatches from the base game, create a new package by clicking CAS -> New Package, filter everything by species (ie. Horse) and then part type (Hoof color). Highlight all the basegame swatches and then save your new package.
Open up that package and then extract the texture for each swatch. Save them in your project folder (In a 'basegame hooves' folder to keep things organized).
To extract the textures from Hoof Swatch CC files, simply open them up in S4S and repeat the above.
STEP THREE: Download the AI Models
Right as it says on the tin. These are the models I use currently & some notes about them:
RealESRGAN_x2plus - this model is THE workhorse. It repairs artifact damaging with minimal loss to texture quality and results in a very smooth coat. It may sometimes darken the texture a little bit, but it's not noticeable in-game. That being said, it has a harder time with finer details such as spots, individual ticking for roans, dapples etc. I run this one first on all the coats because it usually does the job.
These models are trained to find and repair any incidence of artifacting/jpeg damage and approximate what the image is supposed to look like. The reason RealESRGAN_x2plus has an especially hard time with spots/dapples/tiny repetitive details etc. because it registers those areas as particularly damaged and works extra hard to smooth it out… which can sometimes result in a bit of an iffy coat repair. When things don't turn out the way I want, I turn to...
2xAniscale - I use this model for any appaloosas, roans, sabinos etc. that have very fine detail and came out mangled by RealESRGAN_2xPlus. It's also good for light-duty repairing (in cases where people have only 'saved' the coat once, as opposed to working on it on and off). While not strong enough on its own to tackle the more heavily damaged coats, it still does a decent job while keeping the fine details intact.
Go make a folder somewhere and name it 'AI Models' or something similar, and drop these guys in there.
STEP FOUR: Setting up chaiNNER
Obviously, go ahead and download chaiNNER, and then (through chaiNNER itself) download & install the dependencies. You really only need PyTorch for this, so if you'd like, you can skip NCNN, ONNX, and Stable Diffusion.
At first glance, chaiNNER is a bit overwhelming. It is unlike any other graphics ui I've seen before, but the basic premise is pretty straightforward: you 'chain' together specific functions ('nodes') in order to get your result.
We're going to start by setting up a chain for single coat conversions.
Drag & drop these nodes into your workspace:
Load Image
Save Image
Upscale Image
Load Model (From the PyTorch tab only!)
Text append
Next, connect the nodes just as I have connected them in the image.
Load Image, obviously, loads your image. We then tell the program we want to upscale that image by linking to the Upscale Image node. Upscaling can't happen without a model, so we then want to link Upscale Image with Load Model.
Text Append takes the original name of the image and combines it with the model name. This is super helpful, because if you're playing with many models at a time, you need to tell your result images apart. Link the output text to the Save Image Model.
Finally, Save Image obviously saves the image. We link the directory from Load Image to save it in the same place as the OG image, or, optionally, add in a file path link to another folder (in my case, I load images from a folder called 'Unprocessed' and save them into a folder called 'Processed'. Link the image from Upscale Image to Save Image to complete this chain.
Go in and select your image, model, and save locations.
Ta dah! You made your first chain.
To create an Iterator to batch process coats, we follow the same general idea, only we use 'Load Images'.
STEP FIVE: Run chaiNNER
Go ahead and run chaiNNER. Repeat using 2xAniscale if your spotty/dappled coat comes out funky.
Optionally, you can also add 'Resize' between 'Upscale' and 'Save Image' so the output texture is the same size as the OG. I like keeping mine big, as it makes it easier to fix any fine details in Photoshop.
STEP SIX: Combine in Photoshop
Go ahead and open up the horse UV, your coat texture & hoof swatches in Photoshop. This is a fairly straightforward process: layer the hooves overtop the texture, and then hide all hoof layers except the one you want. Make sure everything is lined up properly using the horse UV.
This is also where you would go in and fix any sharp, jagged edges you might spot. I often notice jagged edges on white face markings. Since the head is often one of the worst areas for artifacting, the AI models don't really have much to work with, resulting in jagged edges as they try to extrapolate what had been there 'before'. Either paint over it or use blur to smooth it out.
I personally would also remove any stray color that isn't the horse texture (body + ears). It won't hurt to leave it there, but I personally like things neat and tidy. Use the horse UV as a guide.
I also add in any little details using extracted stencils & layer masks.
Save your new coat as a png. Optionally, downsize it by 50% back to the original size. I don't do this because I'm very forgetful, but this would definitely help in keeping your package size smaller.
STEP SEVEN (Optional): Make a thumbnail
I make thumbnails for all the coats I do because it makes it much easier to identify them under the Hoof Swatch category. TS4 thumbnails are 144 x 148. You can label it with your horse's name, or stick a headshot in there etc. whatever works for you that will help it stand out from the other hoof swatches.
STEP EIGHT: Put it all Together
Finally, we've come to the end.
Using S4S, create a new package cloned from a hoof swatch. Import your new coat into 'Texture', and your thumbnail into 'Thumbnail'. Make sure you import the thumbnail for both Male and Female!
Check to make sure there aren't major seams, and that your texture is properly projected onto the S4S horse model. If there are seams, go back to check that your texture is lined up properly with the Horse UV. If there are minor seams (legs, chest, underbelly etc.) you can carefully paint (using the same color as on either side of the seam) just beyond the UV mesh boundaries to close the seam.
Then, go into Categories, scroll down, and uncheck Random. This will prevent random townie horses from wearing the coat.
Hello everyone! In reference to this post, I have created a guide for deleting objects outside the lot using Sims 4 Studio. The guide was created in Google Docs so that you all can download it for whenever you need it.
This is my first tutorial, so I hope it is comprehensive enough to help you. If anyone has any additional information or advice to provide, please let us know. We are all here to learn!
A guide for making a horse stencil (but it also works for cats and dogs, technically).
Edited 16/10/2023: Updated to add more info on hash ID generation and better practice.
If you've read my previous guide on making custom brushes, you'll find that it's relatively similar.
If you're brand spanking new to making any mods, this will probably take you through every single step, because I have an issue with being over-detailed.
Things you'll need:
Sims 4 Studio
GIMP
Notepad
Tools in S4S we'll be using:
Begin by making a new, empty package file, after that, open up the game file cruiser.
Find the "Pet Pelt Layer" and tick the box, after that, in the search box below the file types, write in "EP14", as this will hide cat and dog stencils that will show up.
From here, it's important that we find the right one to work with, it has to be tagged as "Stencil", in this case, it'll be the 3rd from the top of the list or - 00000000000554B4
You can definitely work with just the first one which is a pattern if you want to, but if you're completely new to modding, it will be much easier with the one I've linked. If you do choose the pattern route, remember to change it from pattern to stencil and ThumbnailKey is responsible for the thumbnail you'll see in game.
Now, grab your trusty notepad and make note of these ID's:
In our case it's:
810049F2B4EC687B
CF239313C7BCBD54
Once you've made note of these ID's, make sure you add the file to your current package. You can also skip writing down the ID's and just view them from your package editor screen, but I find it helps keep the workflow more compact, however it is up to you.
Now, go back to your filetype list and select "DST Image" and "RLE 2 Image":
Additionally, make sure you still have "EP14" in the search bar, for the next part we'll be using the instance search bar, as marked on top right.
Enter your first ID -
Add to package and do the same with the second ID.
Now, your new package file should look like this:
Once you're at this point, it's relatively easy sailing.
Start by going to Tools > Hash Generator and generate 3 ID's:
Edited 16/10/2023: When generating your hash ID's, please use your creator name ie.: "[YourCreatorName/Blogname]TutorialCustomFurCoat1", this will give you a more unique hash code than hoping to be as descriptive as possible when generating the hashes (in this case instance ID's). PS. You should still be descriptive.
Thanks to Mizore Yukii for this advice, from Creator's Musings.
I do it this way, descriptor + numbers, but you can do it whatever way you want to.
After that, we'll assign your newly generated ID's.
These are the ID's I generated:
AEED8D2DC03FCFCA
AEED8D2DC03FCFC9
AEED8D2DC03FCFC8
Respectively, my first ID will be used on the Pet Pelt Layer, Second ID will be used on the RLE 2 Image and 3rd ID will be used for the DDS image:
The package you're working on should now look something like this:
After this, you should save your package (so you don't lose your progress, I had a bluescreen happen and I'm still mad, so don't make my mistakes, it's easy to fix, just takes too much time).
Once you've saved your package, we can begin exporting/importing images.
For editing, I recommend actually grabbing the horse skin file. I've uploaded it to SimFileShare, it comes in two flavours .dds and .png, .png will be easier to work with, since it won't have the same layers are .dds.
Anyway, back on track we go:
Export the RLE2 image, it'll be saved as a .png, keep that in mind for later.
Once you're happy with your results, get to exporting your image.
IMPORTANT: remember to export the file in L8 format.
Once you're done with that, go ahead and import your picture into the package:
Repeat the same steps for the DST image, and you're done.
Now, save your file and load it into the game:
The Valve Texture Format (VTF) is the proprietary texture format used by the Source engine. In case some of you might want to convert mdl files for Sims 4.
I firstly discovered this problem a long time ago. I was just about to snap a bake button when I saw that the texture is half-transparent in the UV editor. Model is different but the texture looked something like it:
"Why? How? The model looks fine. It has no visible transparency." It does indeed, but when you try baking VTF something strange happens. Baked texture looks like someone lowed down the brightness and half of it gone completely black. So how do we avoid baking transparency channel? Quite simply, honestly.
Save all the VTF textures you are going to bake in TARGA (TGA) format. Why not png / jpeg? Because only a TGA format preserves the transparency channel we need. Another way of doing it - use VTF Edit utility.
Open our exported TGA in Photoshop (or any other image editor that can work with channels)
Go to channels. What do we have here? An alpha channel. This is what cause our texture to darken. Simply delete it.
Now you can save edited texture in any format comfortable to work with.
