Sims 3:CTU Guide Designing

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This page is under construction :) - daluved1

Contents

Find a CAS Part

Param.jpg

Before adding any designs to your CAS part, you have to chose which mesh you wish to use.

  • Parameters - Use the age, gender and type parameters to dial up a mesh category. Then select the mesh you want to use from the drop down list. The thumbnail to the right of the screen allows you to preview the mesh.
  • Quick Find - Once you dial up the age, gender and type, Quick Find allows you to scroll through thumbnails to pick which mesh you wish to use.

Part Details

Part Details is for informational purposes only. More advanced users can use this list to help locate specific files and details of the package.


Part Category

Cate.jpg

The Part Category tab allows you to change the categorization of the CAS part. Most of these are pretty self-explanatory.

Changing the age and/or gender of a CAS part can cause some pretty wacky results. So don't be shocked if you get something weird.


Extended Category Other
Valid for Maternity Check if you want to allow pregnant sims to wear the CAS part. Left Handed ????
Valid for Random Check if you want townies to be able to wear the CAS part. Right Handed ????
Is Hat Check if the CAS part is to be considered a hat. Human ????
Is Revealing Check if the CAS part is considered to be revealing.
Hidden In CAS Check if you want the CAS part to be hidden in Create-A-Sim.


Commit

Commit.jpg
By now you've probably encountered the commit button. To save any changes you've made, it is important that you click this button before moving on to something else.


Stencils

Stencil.jpg

A stencil is a design that appears on top of the base texture of the CAS part, however thestencil itself is not recolorable. Stencils can be saved in DXT1, DXT3 or DXT5 compression.

RightArrow.gif For more information on how to add a stencil see Applying Stencils



Patterns

Pattern.jpg

Patterns are the recolorable regions in Create-A-Sim. Here you can set the default colors/patterns you want displayed on your CAS part.

Enabled/Linked

Enabled Tick this to allow the pattern region (defined with the mask) to be recolored.
Linked Unknown

Type

Sets the type of color or pattern you want to use.

Solid

A solid color. To change the color, click the little colored square under Solid Color Options.

Pattern (Colored)

Colored patterns, the kind the Pattern Packager makes. They can have up to four different colors. To change the color, click the little colored squares under Pattern (Colored) Options.

Pattern (HSV)
HSV patterns are base images that are color shifted by a certain amount.
Hsv.jpg
BG Image

BG Image is used for specifying a background image behind the pattern itself.

Channel

The channels are used to control how this image is shifted.


Pattern Browser

The Pattern Browser allows you to easily browse through both the in-game patterns and downloaded and/or user created custom patterns.

Custom Patterns
  • Use the Import Custom Pattern button to add a custom pattern to the pattern pool.
  • To view custom patterns, pick the asterisk (*) from the drop-down Category list.

Tiling

Tiling.jpg

Tiling allow you to change the number of patterns tiles used to fill a pattern region. The default size is 4.0000,4.0000; to use more tiles per region, increase the tiling number (see image) and vice-versa.

RGB Mask

The RGB mask under the patterns tab is used to build a pattern from scratch, that is only used for that specific design and will not show as a usable pattern in Create-A-Sim/Style. To do this, you create a pattern but instead of packaging with Pattern Packager (or any tool of choice), import the DDS here directly.

Specular

The pattern specular is used to give the pattern shiny/reflected effect. Only use this if you're using a custom RGB Mask


The logo is unused at the moment. My speculation is that it'll be used to distinguish items from different EPs, like The Sims 2 did.


Textures

The vast majority of your CAS part will be defined with textures. The following is a list of all the possible textures, and what they edit on the CAS part.

Texture Use Compression Alpha Needed
Base Texture The base texture--sometimes called the multiplier---maps out what parts of the mesh are used (via the alpha layer) and it adds texture (wrinkles and folds) to the CAS part. DXT5 Yes
Clothing Ambient The clothing ambient indicates lighting intensity of the CAS part. This is rarely used, even by EA, so most are left pure white. DXT1 No
Clothing Specular The specular indicates the shininess or reflectivity of the CAS part. DXT1 No
Mask The mask uses the Red, Green, Blue and Alpha channels to define the different regions (patterns) that are recolorable using the Create-A-Sim tool. DXT1 No*
Overlay An overlay is similar to a stencil except it can be placed anywhere, whereas a stencil is confined to the perimeter of the mesh. Necklaces that are attached to a clothing item are usually overlays. DXT1, DXT3, DXT5 Yes
Part Mask Unknown DXT1 No*
Skin Ambient The skin ambient is similar to the clothing ambient, except it indicates the lighting intensity on the skin itself. For the most part all default ambients are the same, so there's really no need to change it. DXT1 No
Skin Specular Skin speculars are like clothing speculars, except they indicate the reflectivity/shininess of the skin itself. DXT1 No
* If you have four pattern regions you'll need to include the alpha channel.
Replacing Textures
RightArrow.gif For more information on how to replace a texture, see Replacing Textures

Other Details

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Thumbnail

Thumbnail.jpg

If you want your own custom thumbnail to display in Create-A-Sim, then import it here. The image must be in .png format and 256x256 in width and height.


Meshes

(coming soon)


3-D Preview

(coming soon)


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