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Administrator of Loverat's Tea and Underpants
Original Poster
#1 Old 21st Nov 2004 at 4:50 PM
Default The mysteries of Sim DNA unraveled
I have had no trouble change an in-game sim's skin, eye or hair color (ok hair can be dyed by looking in the mirror) with either just my own SimPE method or the bodyshopping method posted here. However I have found that these changes are only skin deep. They do not affect what genes your sim will pass on to their offspring. Even TS2Enhancer's full cloning does not update sim DNA. Maybe everyone else already knows how to fix this but I spent ages trying to find where DNA info was stored so I could update those and let my sims pass on thier new skin, hair or eye colors to the next generation.

If anyone wants a short explanation of how to change this dna info, please let me know and I'll write something up. It's a very easy process, don't need a hex editor or even to export from SimPE. You can even update a sim's genetic makeup without changing the sim itself, or make that hair dye-job you got from the mirror absorb deep into the genes of your sim.

Cheers
RG
Oh and hello, by the way

You can't use a bulldozer to study orchids.
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Instructor
#2 Old 21st Nov 2004 at 5:53 PM
If it isn't only aboutchanging the Property Files, please go ahead
[ Edited 21-11-2004 05:53PM ]
Administrator of Loverat's Tea and Underpants
Original Poster
#3 Old 21st Nov 2004 at 6:31 PM
Hahaha! Well Quaxi, it depends what you mean by "Property File" I guess. If you change the property sets inside the sim's N00X_User00X.package file, that only changes how your sim looks. It does not change their DNA. They will still only pass on the original values to their offspring. In fact the DNA info is not stored inside the Sim's package, which is why even if you replace the entire package and update the GUID so you've got an entirely new sim, and they will still pass on the old genes.

The sim DNA is stored in the neighborhood file in a group cleverly labeled Sound File Mapping by SimPE (file type 0xEBFEE33F). These files are genetic data and have nothing to do with sounds. (And Sim Unknown files are individual sim's list of WANTS, in case ya'll coders don't know that, but you probably do. You guys are smarter than me.) This is a property set as well, but one that shows dominant and recessive genes.

I don't know if this was generally known information. I could not find anything about it searching on the boards, (if fact still seeing some people here claiming it's not possible to change a sim's skin at all without changing their face too!) and as I said the clone feature of TS2Enhancer does not update this data. So... if anyone needs to know more, let me know, and if this is redundant info, sorry I wasted the bandwidth.

Cheers,
RG

You can't use a bulldozer to study orchids.
Administrator of Loverat's Tea and Underpants
Original Poster
#4 Old 21st Nov 2004 at 6:57 PM
Oh and if you guys knew this, why didn't you spill the beans here? !amazed I have been going nuts looking for this data.

RG

You can't use a bulldozer to study orchids.
Test Subject
#5 Old 21st Nov 2004 at 7:41 PM
I was wondering why the "Sound File Mapping" had a reference to "nose,brow,cheek,ears"

So... How does one update this data? And is the Pol. Tech's DNA stored there? He needs a color change...


<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<cGZPropertySetString>
<AnyString key="1" type="0x0b8bea18">00000001-0000-0000-0000-000000000000</AnyString>
<AnyString key="2" type="0x0b8bea18">00000002-0000-0000-0000-000000000000</AnyString>
<AnyString key="268435457" type="0x0b8bea18">00000003-0000-0000-0000-000000000000</AnyString>
<AnyString key="268435458" type="0x0b8bea18">00000003-0000-0000-0000-000000000000</AnyString>
<AnyString key="268435459" type="0x0b8bea18">32dee745-b6ce-419f-9e86-ae93802d2682</AnyString>
<AnyString key="268435461" type="0x0b8bea18"></AnyString>
<AnyString key="268435462" type="0x0b8bea18">00000002-0000-0000-0000-000000000000</AnyString>
<AnyString key="3" type="0x0b8bea18">2d6839c5-0b7c-48a1-9c55-4bd9cc873b0f</AnyString>
<AnyString key="5" type="0x0b8bea18">nose,brow,eyes,ears,</AnyString>
<AnyString key="6" type="0x0b8bea18">00000002-0000-0000-0000-000000000000</AnyString>
</cGZPropertySetString>

[ Edited 21-11-2004 07:43PM ]
Instructor
#6 Old 21st Nov 2004 at 8:03 PM
Nice found, RGiles. I didn't know about that.
Administrator of Loverat's Tea and Underpants
Original Poster
#7 Old 21st Nov 2004 at 8:11 PM
I think it is. There appears to be one for every sim in your neighborhood, and then extras that just have raw data. I don't know if they are placeholders for default characters like the reaper.

In SimPE, find the Instance number of the sim who's DNA you want to change. the "Sound File Mapping" for that sim will have the same Instance number. (Not the character's package filename.)

I just started playing with these last night, but here's what I know so far, as well as what I think I know. I'm numbering lines starting at the first "AnyString".

Line 1: This is a genetic hair color. I believe it describes your sim's Dominant gene for hair color.

Line 2: This is a genetic skin tone. Again, I believe it is the sim's dominant gene for skin.

Line 3: This is a hair color, and I believe it describes the a recessive gene your sim carries but is not using. This will only be different from Line 1 for characters born in game. Sims you create don't have any recessive traits, so the line will be the same.

Line 4: Skin tone again, and this time I think it's a recessive trait. Same as what I said above about recessive hair color, except it would be the same as line 2.

Line 5: An eye color. I believe it's your sim's recessive eye color. I'm just trying to figure the dominant and recessive thing based on the traits of babies that were born in my game, so I might be wrong.

Line 6: Always seems to be blank, t least in the ones I've looked at so far.

Line 7: Again a skin tone, but in some cases (aliens, maybe custom skins) a strange and usually negative (-) number appears here. I don't know what it does, so when I change it I make it the same as line [color=red]2[/color], which is what it would be on a sim out of bodyshop.

Line 8: An eye color. This I believe is your sim's dominant gene for eyes.

Line 9: a list of facial features. I think it's saying this parents would be most likely to pass along the traits listed. But I can't prove it.

Line 10: again with the skin color. I don't know why. Bodyshop makes this the same as Line [color=red]2[/color], so I do too.

Some odd files may have more lines after that and I don't have a clue why yet.

You could edit this a couple of ways. Just change the lines you want to the new values you'd like, or ceate a new sim in a temp neighborhood that has the skin eyes and haircolor you want, and copy the text from their "Sound Mapping" file into your existing sim. I'd suggest doing it that way for custom skins. For default skin hair or eyes, you use these:

32dee745-b6ce-419f-9e86-ae93802d2682 = Brown eyes
51c4a750-c9f4-4cfe-801c-898efc360cb7 = Green eyes
e43f33602-3a08-4755-8b83-a0d37a6c424b = Light blue eyes
12d4f3e1-fdbe-4fe7-ace3-46dd9ff52b51 = Alien eyes


00000001-0000-0000-0000-000000000000 = Light skin
00000002-0000-0000-0000-000000000000 = Tan skin
00000003-0000-0000-0000-000000000000 = Medium skin
00000004-0000-0000-0000-000000000000 = Dark skin
6baf064a-85ad-4e37-8d81-a987e9f8da46 = Alien skin

00000001-0000-0000-0000-000000000000 = Black hair
00000002-0000-0000-0000-000000000000 = Brown hair
00000003-0000-0000-0000-000000000000 = Blond hair
00000004-0000-0000-0000-000000000000 = Red hair

I forgot to get the codes for dark blue and grey eyes. Oops. Anyway most of you don't need that, you know where to find it anyway.

Oh, after you edit the file do not forget to click "commit" before saving. I make that mistake constantly. %-6

Cheers,
RG

Edit: I fogot to note, changing this file should not have any effect on the way your sim LOOKS in the game. This should change only the genes they are going to pass along to offspring. So to change the look of alien babies that will be born in the game, you shouldn't need to change how Pollination Tech looks (you never see him anyway) only change this file.





[ Edited 21-11-2004 10:12PM ]

You can't use a bulldozer to study orchids.
Administrator of Loverat's Tea and Underpants
Original Poster
#8 Old 21st Nov 2004 at 10:14 PM
I made two misakes in the post above... typed Line 1 where I meant Line 2. The corrections are now in red in the above post.

You can't use a bulldozer to study orchids.
Lab Assistant
#9 Old 23rd Nov 2004 at 10:44 AM
Might want to add this to the wiki.
Lab Assistant
#10 Old 15th Dec 2004 at 7:26 PM
Rgiles you are a legend for figuring this out. =)
Administrator of Loverat's Tea and Underpants
Original Poster
#11 Old 15th Dec 2004 at 7:31 PM
I didn't think many people bothered to notice it at all, actually. But it was driving me CRAZY for a while. If I'd make a blonde haired, blue eyed couple into a black haired, green-eyed couple... they would have a blonde haired, blue eyed baby every time... So I was going a bit nuts.

Thanks
RG
Lab Assistant
#12 Old 15th Dec 2004 at 8:28 PM Last edited by snazza : 15th Dec 2004 at 11:58 PM.
Yes! Previously PatchesSims posted info it was the Skintone XML that determined this. I was very confused. Not to say that the XML doesn't play some part too I don't know.

The lack of enthusiasm probably comes from people not being bothered to confirm it. Myself included because I remember I did read this a while ago but just wasn't concerned enough because I hadn't arrived at the problem yet myself. There was only trouble for people like you and me who change the skintone or whatever of a sim but the info never gets updated in the "Sound File Mapping" . Although Karybydis just told us in the chat that Sound File Mapping is used for Sound File Mapping too. I didn't understand but anyway he updated the wiki in some way.

I think its good to pull this thread back up so people can look at it. I have never seen it referred to anywhere. The fellas in the chat room who I was asking were also unaware of this thread.

Thanks again mate because it was driving me nuts too. Good thing you already had it figured out =D

Also I would LOVE to see this made more easy to edit in SimPE . I want to test some of those values you said you were not 100% sure of. Is there anything you are sure of now that you weren't sure of before when you posted it?
Administrator of Loverat's Tea and Underpants
Original Poster
#13 Old 15th Dec 2004 at 9:06 PM
I would like to see it at least added to the Cloning (Sim Surgery is it?) part of SimPE. It definitely belongs there.

RG
Test Subject
#14 Old 16th Dec 2004 at 4:02 PM
Default DNA file copy possible?
How would you transfer an entire DNA file of this type from one sim to another? For example: I changed a townie (sim A) to look differently (like sim B) and married him to one of my sims. The original townie's (sim A) DNA, of course, will show up in the sim children. I located the changed sim's (sim A)file, and want the data from the change to carry on in the family, so if I can locate the file of sim B, can I copy it wholesale into sim A's file? These two sims are from different neighborhoods. Warning: I am technologically challenged.
Administrator of Loverat's Tea and Underpants
Original Poster
#15 Old 16th Dec 2004 at 4:18 PM
Yep. You can simply copy and paste the text wholesale, of course replacing the original text.

Isn't it nice when something's easy? :D
Test Subject
#16 Old 16th Dec 2004 at 11:13 PM
Default what happened when I tried
After posting, I tried exactly that, copy and paste into the text file. I transferred sim B's DNA text into sim A's file using notepad, then deleted the unwanted DNA text, then clicked "commit". That was when SimPE went all wonky on me. I clicked another file, then went back to the file I changed which then showed me nothing but a blank page, not even a file window. Then file after file started turning up with the same blankness. I finally got out of SimPE, and went back into my game. Everything seemed okay to this point. Then I got back out, and deleted one of the children in the household, with the aim testing to see if the DNA was different. When I tried to enter the house again, the game crashed. Three times. I went back to restore the neighborhood in question from backup through SimPE and instead of restoring, my neighborhood was deleted. I think SimPE screwed me over, and even though it's not a big loss, I don't think very well of it at this point. :flame:
Lab Assistant
#17 Old 17th Dec 2004 at 2:07 PM
Sorry you lost your neighbourhood but please don't blame SimPE. Quaxi when he implemented the backing up of neighbourhoods said as he always does that it that it was very experimental. If I were you I'd keep using SimPE and just back up manually, you cant go wrong with that arrangement.

Sorry you lost the neighbourhood though
Test Subject
#18 Old 17th Dec 2004 at 5:37 PM Last edited by anachronista : 17th Dec 2004 at 5:40 PM. Reason: forgot to say something
Default after I calmed down....
I retrieved my lost neighborhood by finding the backup files and loading them into the neighborhood folder. (whew) My apologies for the rant and chalk it up to inexperience with the program and my own ineptiude kicking in. :dolt: But then I had to test out the theory.

Scenario: My sim, Virginia, (custom blonde streaked hair and Maxis grey eyes) marries the Kennedy Cox townie character. He's Captain Hero, after all, and what sim lady can resist that? I wanted to give Kennedy a different look though, so I made him up to look like a (black haired, deep blue eyed) sim I created called Jack Guapo. (You Spanish speakers out there will get that one.)

Well, when the babies come, The girls have Virginia's custom blonde hair and the boys have Jack's Maxis black hair, but then they all have brown eyes! Now, I have nothing against brown-eyed babies, having been one myself, but this was against type. I came to suspect that the original (brown eyed) Kennedy Cox's genes were still swimming around in the pool.

So to cut to the chase, I finally got to replacing the DNA data from Jack Guapo's file into Kennedy Cox's, and the next baby was a black-haired boy with deep blue eyes like Dad's. Yay! So I'm satisfied as to the DNA text file swap having been effective. The kicker is, though that I grew the boy up and he has pointed ears and eyebrows! Captain Hero's son is little Mr. Spock! I made both his parents and don't remember putting that in the recipe!

I'm not upset about this, in fact it's kind of fun, but the only conclusion I can draw is that Maxis might be hiding surprises in the white-bread DNA. Oh, and RGiles, incredible work finding this out. Thanks!
Field Researcher
#19 Old 18th Dec 2004 at 7:46 AM
I'm so glad I found this thread. I have been cloning over many of my Maxis sims (the Goths, Pleasants etc) to make them more attractive, but I had no idea until I read this that the cloned sims would not pass down their new "genes" to their children.

I think I understand the gist of this post, but I have a very untechnical mind and very limited experience with SimPe. Nevertheless, I am very keen to alter my sim's DNA so that they pass down their new lovlier looks to future generations.

Would you all forgive me if I ask some basic questions and if I request that you fully explain every step how to do this. I am very ignorant!

Here are my questions:

1) To upate my Maxis characters I first cloned the old Maxis sim (let's say Angela Pleasant) with SimPe's Sim Surgery option. Then I gave the clone her new skintone and eyes, modified her facial features a bit, then gave her a name and moved her into my neighbourhood as a temporary citizen called "1 Temp". Then I went back into SimPE and found the Maxis Angela, and cloned the new, customised Angela over the top. This worked fine - my new Angela looks great! Here is my question - if I want my new Angela to be able to pass on her custom skintone and eyes would it be okay to copy 1 Temp's DNA directly over Angela Pleasant's original DNA?

2) The new Angela has softer, prettier features. If I clone 1 Temp's DNA over will Angela's children inherit her facial structure as well as her skintone and eye colour?

3) I have no idea how to find a sim "instance number" in SimPe, or really what to do after I actually find the instance number. Could someone write a really clear step-by-step how to for someone who has 0 technical knowledge?

4) I thought I might ask all of you here also about some sims I have tried to clone to make more attractive who will not change their appearance no matter how many times I have tried to overwrite their apperance. Lilith Pleasant is one of these. She is still looking like her original self in the game despite her thumbnail in SimPE and SimEnhancer being updated to the new version. Are there some sims you simply cannot change the appearance of? Is there another way around this so I can clone over Lilith? I have tried to change her many times both in Sim Enhancer and SimPE with no luck. Other Maxis sims who have not changed their looks are Brandi Broke, and John, Jennifer and Lucy Burb.
Administrator of Loverat's Tea and Underpants
Original Poster
#20 Old 18th Dec 2004 at 8:00 AM
I can't help you with the Lillith Pleasant problem. I haven't tried cloning anything but NPCs, I think.

But for the rest of it...

1) That's right. You'd copy all of the text in the file I've described here (Temp 1's DNA file) and paste it over top of the text in Angela's DNA file.

2) You don't have to anything at all to have her pass down the new features. If you do not alter the DNA file, then she will pass along the old skin and eyes, but the new features.

3) In SimPE in your neighborhood file, click the main menu, and then Sim Browser. Look for Angela's picture and name, and double click on it. At the bottom of simPE, her file will open. On the bottom half of the screen you'll see several tabs... click the one for "Packed File". There is a list of numbers. You want the one labled "Instance".

RG
Test Subject
#21 Old 18th Dec 2004 at 2:57 PM
This thread has provided a solution to a large issue for me in Sims 2. Most of the babies born in my game have been true to parental type, but once in a while I got a surprise. For instance:

Strangetown's Erin Singles (S1 skintone) and Gordon Kim ( S2 skintone, former NPC, grocery delivery) were having S4 skintone babies.

Veronaville's Ariel Capp ( S1 skintone) and Steven Dallas ( S2 skintone, former NPC, maid) were having S4 and S3 babies.

Strangetown's Buck Grunt (S1 skintone ) and Jill Smith (S1 skintone) were having S3 skintone babies. At first I attributed this to the fact that Jill had S2 and S3 uncles, Pascal and Lazlo Curious.

Disclaimer: I have nothing against brown offspring, as long as that's what their parents are, but it's a bit jarring to produce something so drastically off-type.

On examining the DNA text files of Ariel Capp and Steven Dallas, it almost seemed that skin and hair tone numbers got transposed. I wonder if these were the result of programming errors?

Anyway, this thread was the answer to that big question in my mind. Thanks to RGiles, next time I get a skintone, hair color or eye color surprise, I know what to do about it.
Lab Assistant
#22 Old 23rd Dec 2004 at 4:34 AM Last edited by PatchesSim2 : 23rd Dec 2004 at 5:01 AM. Reason: Remembered a previous statement that might have confused people
Quote: Originally posted by snazza
Yes! Previously PatchesSims posted info it was the Skintone XML that determined this. I was very confused. Not to say that the XML doesn't play some part too I don't know.


I was talking about unlocking the alien skin tone for use in body shop, that's how originally re-created the pollination Technition that's currently on the exchange, I never said that controlled his genetics (I'm always bad at explaining things, so that may be why). The skintone xml also has some genetic values that might impact how probable the gene might show up, but I'm not entirely sure about it, if that's what you were refering to.

Anyway, so the Sim DNA sub-files (or whatever they are called) have the same instance as the Sim GUID in Sim Description? I'm just a little confused on that...
Lab Assistant
#23 Old 23rd Dec 2004 at 5:18 AM
Patches I wasn't talking about the pollination tech. I was thinking of something you wrote on the exchange. I can't find that now. I thought you linked to it here: http://72.9.230.162/showthread.php?t=17647 but it doesn't seem to be there. I also asked you in the chatbox. This was all a while ago.

Anyway I don't know the xml probably does have some part to play like to decide which of the two parents' dominant genetic skintone is more likely to get chosen for the child. I thought about it later and realised that your information doesn't necessarily conflict with this and I probably misread it. My apologies

Quaxi has renamed the "Sound File Mapping" to "Sim DNA" now within the neighbourhood file.

About your confusion. The instance of your sim's "Sim Description" file is the same as the instance of your sim's "Sim DNA" file. So find your sim's description file and look at the instance. Say its "0x0000000A", then you click the Sim DNA filetype category on the left, put "A" in the instance filter and you'll see the Sim DNA file for that sim.
Administrator of Loverat's Tea and Underpants
Original Poster
#24 Old 23rd Dec 2004 at 5:28 AM
Quote: Originally posted by snazza
Quaxi has renamed the "Sound File Mapping" to "Sim DNA" now within the neighbourhood file.

Oh cool! I didn't notice. I have been hoping that this would get added to the cloning feature. I didn't want to nag Quaxi about it though. I have definitely nagged him enough, and still have more nagging in mind. I don't know how he eats and sleeps and works and STILL has the time to update SimPE so often. Perhaps he's cloned himself too.

RG
Field Researcher
#25 Old 27th Dec 2004 at 1:02 PM
I have downloaded the latest version of SimPE and am trying once again to change my sim's DNA without sucess.

Here is my process. I am trying to change Daniel Pleasant's entire DNA to look like a customised clone I made of him.

1) First of all, in "Sim DNA" and clicked on the line that matched the clone's instance number
2) I went to Plugin View which opens the "CPF Editor"
3) There are 10 lines of code. I clicked on each one and copied the Value into a Word Pad document
4) I opened the line which contains Daniel Pleasant's instance number
5) I clicked through each line of code and pasted the clone's numerical sequence for each line of code.
6) I noticed two things - firstly the values I entered would instantly default back and I was unable to save the new values in Daniel's file. How do you save the new values?
7) Daniel has an extra line of code in his DNA sequence. On line 9 he has this: "4 (dtString) = -858851246:2143197002:1;"

My clone does not have this line of code. Is this normal?

Thanks for any help.
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