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Field Researcher
#51 Old 14th Feb 2005 at 9:32 PM
Hey MaxoidTom...gotta question for a game guru such as yourself...and it kinda fits in this topic...From what I have read in this thread the only DNA is color of hair,eyes,skin? How does the game determine what children look like? I ask because every child born in my pleasantville town looks like every other child of the same sex...The hair/eyes/skin maybe different but the facial structure looks too simuliar...


BTW RGiles...Thanks so much for your efforts on this!!
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One of those Maxoids
#52 Old 14th Feb 2005 at 9:52 PM
In an effort to reduce grotesque looking children, the changes that the modifiers and archetypes make to a sim's face (i.e. in CAS) are toned down a bit. This leads to similar looking characters for the younger ages, but it was a tradeoff because extreme features that look OK on adults do not look OK on children. Also, there is a certain amount of smoothing that happens for this reason. To get rid of this smoothing, there is a cheat, "faceBlendLimits on/off" that you can use before creating a child.

FYI:
Each sim has a copy of its face for each age/gender combination. That is used for passing down facial features.
Field Researcher
#53 Old 15th Feb 2005 at 1:12 AM
Thanks for the reply Tom, but I mean all children in the neighborhood look the same, such as my daughter of the Burps looks like the daughter of the Sims with no 'blood' ties between them...only difference is color of hair/eyes/skin. The son of the Sims looks just like the son of the Kims, again no 'blood' ties, the only children that look different are Maxis characters and NPC's/townies...the only children that are looking any different right now are the children of the Parris family since when I created the father I gave him extremely low cheekbones...makes for some strange toddlers, but they get better as they get older...
One of those Maxoids
#54 Old 15th Feb 2005 at 1:22 AM
Quote: Originally posted by grykon
Thanks for the reply Tom, but I mean all children in the neighborhood look the same, such as my daughter of the Burps looks like the daughter of the Sims with no 'blood' ties between them...only difference is color of hair/eyes/skin. The son of the Sims looks just like the son of the Kims, again no 'blood' ties, the only children that look different are Maxis characters and NPC's/townies...the only children that are looking any different right now are the children of the Parris family since when I created the father I gave him extremely low cheekbones...makes for some strange toddlers, but they get better as they get older...


Yes, because of the smoothing out code, most children will look the same (like the base face for the child).
Field Researcher
#55 Old 15th Feb 2005 at 1:35 AM
Quote: Originally posted by MaxoidTom
Yes, because of the smoothing out code, most children will look the same (like the base face for the child).


Okay..thanks Tom...I'll try that...do I need to turn it off before the couple gets pregnant, or before birth? Thanks again, I appreciate it!
Administrator of Loverat's Tea and Underpants
Original Poster
#56 Old 15th Feb 2005 at 1:40 AM
Thanks for the additions, Tom. This is very helpful to those of us trying to create our own sets of "default" townies, for instance.

RG
One of those Maxoids
#57 Old 15th Feb 2005 at 3:40 AM
Quote: Originally posted by grykon
Okay..thanks Tom...I'll try that...do I need to turn it off before the couple gets pregnant, or before birth? Thanks again, I appreciate it!


Before birth. We figured the time to blend the faces would be acceptable then (birthing) and not straight after WooHoo.
Field Researcher
#58 Old 15th Feb 2005 at 3:50 PM
Quote: Originally posted by MaxoidTom
Before birth. We figured the time to blend the faces would be acceptable then (birthing) and not straight after WooHoo.



Cool...I got a whole herd of babies waiting to be born in different houses...so now I can test this out! Thanks for the great info!
Field Researcher
#59 Old 17th Feb 2005 at 3:25 PM
Too cool...I now have 4 children that do not look like all the other children in the neighborhood! Thanks Tom! Can hardly wait to see what they look like when they get full grown!
Test Subject
#60 Old 17th Feb 2005 at 5:01 PM Last edited by Danton : 24th Feb 2005 at 6:55 PM. Reason: grammar
Tom, when is the sex of the offspring selected? Straight after woohooing or before the birth pop up message?
One of those Maxoids
#61 Old 17th Feb 2005 at 5:24 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Danton
Tom, when the sex of the offspring is selected? Straight after woohooing or before the birth pop up message?


Before the birth pop up message. The gender is controlled in the code and the the scripting system, so there is no current way for modders to determine the sex of the offspring (well, without hacking the executable).
Field Researcher
#62 Old 17th Feb 2005 at 8:18 PM
Quote: Originally posted by MaxoidTom
Before the birth pop up message. The gender is controlled in the code and the the scripting system, so there is no current way for modders to determine the sex of the offspring (well, without hacking the executable).


Argh...I wish I would have asked that question a long time ago. If you only knew how much time I've spent trying to get gender selection for babies to work. Well, at least now I can quit wasting my time and move on to other projects.
Field Researcher
#63 Old 20th Feb 2005 at 1:46 PM
Should the face limits blending be on or off to get more different looking kids? I am somewhat fed-up of all mine looking the same, even as adults. The first child born in my game was Cassandra's daughter to Don and her face has been reproduced so many times (including in townies) it's ridiculous! I even ended-up with a repairwoman who was the spitting image of Bella the other day.

WHY DO SIMS NEVER EXPERIENCE A MID-LIFE CRISIS?
Field Researcher
#64 Old 20th Feb 2005 at 1:57 PM
Off to make them look different...I'm so glad MT told us about this, this is one hint/tip that I wish they would have put in HUGE big letters all over the package. I'm thinking of just adding it to my start file so it will be in the game automatically when I start...if I can get it to handle 2 commands...*grumble grumble*
Field Researcher
#65 Old 24th Feb 2005 at 2:48 AM
I'll be trying it now I know what it's all about. I only have one child waiting to be born at the moment, but I can soon sort that out. I am desperate to see some toddlers who don't look like all the other toddlers, so I hope it works for that.

WHY DO SIMS NEVER EXPERIENCE A MID-LIFE CRISIS?
Field Researcher
#66 Old 12th Mar 2005 at 11:55 PM
What about the DNA for the nose? Is it included in the xml Sim DNA in Simpe? I really would like to change the nose DNA for a Sim that I have.

Have a bright platinum diamond day!
Deb
Part-time Hermit
#67 Old 13th Mar 2005 at 5:56 AM
Quote: Originally posted by simdebster
What about the DNA for the nose? Is it included in the xml Sim DNA in Simpe? I really would like to change the nose DNA for a Sim that I have.


As far as I know, the DNA only says if the the sim's nose is a dominant feature or not. In those about ten lines of code you can't really fiddle with how the nose looks.
Field Researcher
#68 Old 13th Mar 2005 at 9:48 AM
Quote: Originally posted by IgnorantBliss
As far as I know, the DNA only says if the the sim's nose is a dominant feature or not. In those about ten lines of code you can't really fiddle with how the nose looks.


Thanks for the answer. I was afraid someone was going to tell me that LOL! I cloned, changed the nose, and created a sim from an existing sim, then compared the DNA. I could not see any difference between the two in SimPe. This leads me to conclude that the code governing the nose DNA is probably elsewhere (hopefully not in the exe so that we can still find it).

Have a bright platinum diamond day!
Deb
Administrator of Loverat's Tea and Underpants
Original Poster
#69 Old 13th Mar 2005 at 5:52 PM
simdebster,

There isn't a DNA file for the shape of their facial features. The shap of their face is stored in geometry files in the Sim's package. When you change the shape of their face, you've automatically changed the facial features that will be passed down to their offspring. There's nothing else to look for. You're done :D

Yay
RG
Field Researcher
#70 Old 14th Mar 2005 at 6:25 PM
RG,

So what you are saying is that if I change an existing sim with SimPe's Sim Surgery, the new facial features (nose) will be what is passed on to the offspring? I hope that it is that easy!
Test Subject
#71 Old 15th Mar 2005 at 10:54 PM
Non sense
Quote: Originally posted by RGiles
There isn't a DNA file for the shape of their facial features. The shap of their face is stored in geometry files in the Sim's package. When you change the shape of their face, you've automatically changed the facial features that will be passed down to their offspring. There's nothing else to look for. You're done :D


If the thing was like you say, the home plastic surgery kit that shipped with University would change the DNA too, but Maxis guys (Tim almost everytime) always say that it only changes subject's visuals not their DNAs.
One of those Maxoids
#72 Old 16th Mar 2005 at 6:16 AM
We now store two copies of the face. One for the visual representation and one to pass onto the descendents.
Field Researcher
#73 Old 16th Mar 2005 at 7:49 AM
I remember a while back I tried changing the skin colour using the character file. The trick for changing eye colour was to do so in SimPE and then change appearance in the mirror then go outside the house.

But with skin colour, it only managed to change your character's head colour. So I'd have a light coloured sim with a dark head. Sim surgery doesn't seem to work with university so it looks like I'm stuck with the skin colour I chose in the first place.
Field Researcher
#74 Old 16th Mar 2005 at 8:31 PM
Maxoid Tom,

Could you tell me how to change the copy of the face that is passed onto the descendents to match that of the visual representation? I would be so thankful to you if you would.
One of those Maxoids
#75 Old 18th Mar 2005 at 6:42 AM
The facial data used for the descendents has an instance id of 1. The one used for the actual appearance has an instance id of 2 (if the sim has used the plastic surgery kit). If you copy the second record over the first, you should be able to do effectively pass on the facial structure you modified at the plastic surgery kit.
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