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    modifying skin tone?

    «1
    fewlinesfewlines Posts: 1,488 Member
    in The Sims 2
    hey all! i haven't played TS2 for a long time, but recently went back to it... so i apologise if this is a silly question!

    i've noticed that some of the Sims i've created have different skin tones for their body and face. i don't know if this is something i messed up while in CAS. so is there a way to change this? thank you!

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      CinebarCinebar Posts: 33,618 Member
      The only way I know to change a Sim for anything like that is with SimPE. Not sure what exactly the term is in that program but the only way in TS2 to edit Sims after creation and already in game.
      "Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
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      Seera1024Seera1024 Posts: 3,629 Member
      Do you mean their face has a different skin tone than their body? If so, that's likely bad CC. And it would be hair, clothes, skin tone, eye color, or make up that would be the likeliest culprits. Or other CC that you would find in CAS.
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      fewlinesfewlines Posts: 1,488 Member
      thanks, both of you, for replying! i forgot to mention that i have no CC in-game. and today, i noticed that it doesn't happen with all outfits. odd!
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      OldeseadoggeOldeseadogge Posts: 5,000 Member
      It happens to me as well, and it did so before I had any CC installed. For some reason the skin tone on some head types is darker than that on the bodies, whether you use just the stock tones or add custom ones. Fortunately, unless you zoom in really close, it is not really visible during gameplay. One of those things I just learned to live with. Clothing styles help, too. A high neck top will be less of a problem than a low one.
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      fewlinesfewlines Posts: 1,488 Member
      it's odd. some night clothes cause it, too! i'd never noticed before.
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      CinebarCinebar Posts: 33,618 Member
      edited July 2018
      Could you possibly list which Maxis outfits do this with which Maxis skins? I've never noticed this but I do use a lot of custom skins and custom outfits, and sometimes with those this is caused by the outfits having bumpmaps which can make the Sim skin too bright, discolored like whitewashed, (washed out) or too shiny, or glowing.
      "Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
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      fewlinesfewlines Posts: 1,488 Member
      edited July 2018
      i don't know how to identify them. :blush: i've never learnt how to do this, ever! do they have codes/special names assigned to them? i've seen that done with TS4 items, but i don't know how/where to find that info.

      anyway, if you don't find it too tedious to look at them, i can take screenshots of the ones i've noticed. it's strange to, only now, have discovered that this happens. thanks for replying!
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      fewlinesfewlines Posts: 1,488 Member
      edited July 2018
      these are some of them. i apologise for the terrible quality. i can take some more later.

      these Sims have the lightest skin tone available in-game.

      2018070459.jpg

      2018070436.jpg

      Screenshot2.jpg

      Snapshot.jpg

      edit: here's another one, with darker skin:

      2018070404.jpg
      Post edited by fewlines on
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      CinebarCinebar Posts: 33,618 Member
      edited July 2018
      Wow, that's awful your game is doing that! I don't think I have that problem. It might be related to a particular video card? I recall Intel chips and cards have always had some weird effects on this game from long ago. Maybe that is still the problem or a driver problem for a video card.

      What is the brand of your video card and have you updated the driver lately, or better yet, rolled back the driver version if this just started happening? It's really obvious and I would guess a video card problem since you don't have any cc on these Sims at all.

      ETA: The only time I saw anything like this in my game is when kids (girls) would wear that puffy sleeve top, a moder had to fix that mesh it was a mesh problem by Maxis. But never like this on so many outfits.

      ETA: The only thing remotely known about this from way back is using the shader cheats if you don't have any custom skins in game at all.

      http://modthesims.info/t/202297

      Or have you tried to make any outfits and have unfinished projects in game for recolors etc.?
      "Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
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      fewlinesfewlines Posts: 1,488 Member
      hm... i haven't tried to create any outfits or have unfinished stuff.

      about the card, your observation is accurate, because my computer *does* have an Intel one. i have tried the previous (older) driver before, but it didn't make a difference.

      and i totally forgot about the useShaders thing. i'll give that a try today!

      like the commenter above said, it's not that noticeable all of the time. it's just inconvenient because i *do* like to zoom in really close! ;)

      thanks for your help!
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      OldeseadoggeOldeseadogge Posts: 5,000 Member
      Have learned over the years that Nvidia cards give the fewest problems of this type. Never had an intel card, but am less than pleased with ATI.
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      fewlinesfewlines Posts: 1,488 Member
      i'll keep that in mind! thanks for the info!
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      CinebarCinebar Posts: 33,618 Member
      edited July 2018
      @fewlines a few days after this post I loaded my game and one of the townie DJs had a problem like this. He is a black guy ( I made him selectable to see what his natural skin tone was supposed to be) but he had a white face, white hands and though he is black this hair had a white scalp showing through his dreadlocks. I was like what?! I hadn't seen this sort of stuff in years when I had a really old Intel Chip. In my game it's probably some weird custom hair messing up the Maxis Mullet/dreadlock hair style but it shouldn't have changed his face and hands,when rest of body is black. :o Now, I have to go dig for bad cc. :'( (It's going to be hard to find that sort of stuff). ETA: Black face over a white scalp and white outline etc. It was crazy.
      "Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
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      fewlinesfewlines Posts: 1,488 Member
      so weird. i have since started over and created more Sims with different skin tones. seems like it's always the same outfits that cause the issue. and like you, i noticed it also happens to townies!
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      CinebarCinebar Posts: 33,618 Member
      fewlines wrote: »
      so weird. i have since started over and created more Sims with different skin tones. seems like it's always the same outfits that cause the issue. and like you, i noticed it also happens to townies!

      Darn I wish we could sovle this for you. Stuff like that drives me nuts and I don't give up until it gets fixed. :/
      "Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
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      fewlinesfewlines Posts: 1,488 Member
      edited July 2018
      thank you, @Cinebar! i know some of it is a graphics issue, because i also notice weird-looking ground sometimes. i tried to update the drivers (because things looked fine before) but i apparently have the latest ones. mine is not a very good computer for gaming.
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      CinebarCinebar Posts: 33,618 Member
      fewlines wrote: »
      thank you, @Cinebar! i know some of it is a graphics issue, because i also notice weird-looking ground sometimes. i tried to update the drivers (because things looked fine before) but i apparently have the latest ones. mine is not a very good computer for gaming.

      I wonder if you turn down the graphic setting for the Sim themselves if that makes that line on their neck go away? But in truth some never saw the line on the kid's neck from the girl's puffy sleeve blouse because they didn't have very good graphic cards, those who did have a supported or better card did. It was a Maxis mesh problem not anyone's pc, so maybe you see something the rest of us don't because your shaders are better in some area? Maybe so. And it could really be a Maxis mesh problem (not unusal) and the rest of us aren't seeing it for some reason. I may go see if this is true in my game if I use the base game skin and those outfits. Most my Sims have cc skins so I will have to test it on a townie.
      "Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
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      fewlinesfewlines Posts: 1,488 Member
      edited July 2018
      thank you, i'll try this when i play tomorrow! :)

      edit: i changed the graphic settings for Sims to low, and i can still see the line on their necks. some outfits are fine, just like before, but some others look even worse--the line is thicker.
      Post edited by fewlines on
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      CinebarCinebar Posts: 33,618 Member
      Can you change any settings of the Intel card? We can with Nvidia and AMD/ATI cards so I hope changing a setting might help your game. How old is your Intel card/chip? I can't remember if you ran the Graphic Rule Maker app or not, but maybe follow the instructions again because even a newer Intel chip since the last ten years shouldn't be doing that.
      "Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
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      fewlinesfewlines Posts: 1,488 Member
      hi! i did modify the Graphic Rules at one point and it helped the overall look of the game, but not the Sims themselves. everything looks quite good, it's just that weird body/head skin issue that puzzles me.

      the chip must be about 3 years old, which isn't so great to begin with. and i know i changed some settings but it didn't make a difference.
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      OldeseadoggeOldeseadogge Posts: 5,000 Member
      Do you see it with all sim heads, or only certain ones? All heads suggests a graphics issue, while certain ones suggests something wrong with the head itself, which no amount of graphics work will eliminate/
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      fewlinesfewlines Posts: 1,488 Member
      so far it's been all Sim heads and skin tones, but only with certain clothes. or tops, actually, because most full body outfits seem to be OK.

      i still have some more heads to try, though.
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      CinebarCinebar Posts: 33,618 Member
      edited July 2018
      Three years old Intel should be good enough to play TS2. It looks like shader issues so I wonder if you can set Intel (in it's panel) to clear that up. And sorry, I forgot (without rereading thread) if you have updated your driver. You will have to run Graphic Rule Maker again if you do ever update any drivers.

      ETA: By the way, what is your Intel card/chip? So someone can look up if it's in the supported GRM list of cards it knows about or if you will have to do more than just run the Grapic RM. (You may have to change the CS config files too).
      "Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
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      fewlinesfewlines Posts: 1,488 Member
      edited July 2018
      hey! augh, i'll have to check later, but... i'm thinking that it might be more than 3 years old, because i want to say it's an integrated Intel HD 4600 chip, maybe 4700. which isn't exactly ideal, if it is...

      i do know that i tried both the latest driver and also rolled back to the previous one, to test them both.

      oh, and now that you mention it, i do remember having to modify both Graphic Rules files. and (IIRC) the Video Cards files as well, because the card wasn't found on the database. but i'm not that sure, TBH. ;)
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      CinebarCinebar Posts: 33,618 Member
      edited July 2018
      I'm adding these old instructions(Windows 7/to Windows 10) for updating Intel drivers. In case someone else needs the how to info. Before anyone updates a driver normally you are supposed to remove the older driver. Not just add a new one. However, you wouldn't do this if you don't have any VGA driver (MS) left in there until you install a new driver. (This happens if you built your pc and it didn't come from a manufacturer> they wouldn't have a VGA driver to fall back on).

      I would advise before anyone updates to a new driver(since some new drivers to any card may cause more problems than it was worth) to always create a restore point so they can undo any changes to system settings and drivers etc. they installed. If you never do, then one day you may find out you wish you had. Some newer drivers really aren't worth updating to, for many diff. cards as I recently experienced with a new driver for AMD.

      https://www.drivereasy.com/knowledge/solutions-to-fix-intelr-hd-graphics-driver-issues-after-windows-10-update/

      ETA: @fewlines, have you ever used ipiccy to lighten the skins or the outfits in your game? This also looks like when players have used ipiccy(photo editor) to lighten a skin but forgot to lighten both the head and body or vs versa.
      Post edited by Cinebar on
      "Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
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