Tutorial - How to clean hairs

What do we want:

- one family id (if you switch the color of the hair or the age of the sim, Bodyshop sticks with the selected hair)
- one grey file for all colors (it comes with the black hair file, no more tons of the same grey hair)
- no unsupported age levels of the hair (no more tons of duplicat maxis hair)
- correct eye brow color
- correct color bin
- no unnecessary image files of age levels in the package file (smaller package files)

What do we need: Simpe and color binning tool

What do we do:

1. Preperation:
Identify the colors of your recolored hair files and give them a corresponding name. So you will find the correct color file in the next steps very easily. One way to do this is opening the package file with SimPe, clicking on "Texture Image" in the Ressource Tree, selecting one image in the Ressource List and view the file in the Plugin View.


There you see the color.


Rename the files and give them good names, for example my_hair_1_blond.package


2. Run SimPE and open the Color Binning tool.
Click on Tools and then Color Binning Tool.


A new window opens.


3. Select the black tab, right click on the empty field and select open package.


Open the black package file


4. Click on package and then options


Select the guid number int the package tab, right click on the selected id and choose copy. Insert the ID into a text editor. It is the family id of the black file. We will copy this id and replace the ids of the other color files with this family id. So every file will have the same family id.


Select the output tab and make sure "remove unchecked colors", "rename files" and "compress textures" is checked. By clicking on "remove unchecked colors" all unnecessary image files will be removed from the package. And we say the color tool which files are unnecessary: the ones we do not check in the next steps. Close the options window.


5.Uncheck all age levels which are unnecessary.
Uncheck all unnecessary age levels of the hair. I have choosen FloOos hair recolor of a Helga hair Mesh. The mesh is only for teen to elders. So we uncheck child and toddlers. By doing this, the hair won't be shown for toddlers and childs. Moreover we have choosen the option "remove unchecked colors". So the unnecessary image files will also be removed.


6. Save the black file.
Click on package and then "save file".


Give your hair a name. Now you don't have to include the color of the hair in the name, because we have checked the option "rename files". So SimPE will add the color name as suffix.


7. Clean the other colors.

Click on the "brown" tab, right click on the empty field and choose open package. Uncheck the unnecessary age levels. Make sure the elder age level is unchecked! We want only one grey color file. In the next step we will give the brown hair file the same family id as the black file. So if the adult sim has brown hairs and becomes and elder sim it will get the grey hair which comes with the black hair file.


Now click on package and then options. Insert the guid of the black hair file, which you have once copied to your texteditor. Now save the file by clicking on package and then save as. Type in the same package name you have once typed in. Normally it should be allready typed in. Then save.


The brown hair is finished now. Go on with the red and blond hair. After this you have cleaned your hair. The new package files are much smaller then the old ones. The hair will have the correct eye brow and hair color, because you have added the corresponding package file in the correct color tabs.

8. Final Step: Reduce the package size with jfade's Compressorizer

Put your edited hair files in an folder. Start The Compressorizer and click on "Add files to list". Choose your folder. Click on "Go!" and the files will be smaller after this step.

as i already said at maxistraum, awesome!!!