Ever wanted to get your hands on some of the hidden outfits or hair styles buried inside the game files? With this simple tutorial you’ll be able to do just that! For this tutorial the Villain outfit that came with Bon Voyage is unlocked, but you can easily use the same principles to unlock hairstyles as well.

Download PDF »

Ever wanted to get your hands on some of the hiddenoutfits or hair styles buried inside the game files?  With this simple tutorialyou’ll be able to do just that!  For this tutorial I extracted the Villainoutfit that came with Bon Voyage, but you can easily use the same principles tounlock hairstyles as well.

 Step 1. Creating Your Base .package

Start a new project.  Since we’re unlocking a full bodymale outfit, we’ll be using a full body male outfit for this step.  You’llalways want to use a base mesh of the same gender and type.  Simply import yourproject into the game: don’t worry about the texture files, we’ll be changingthose later on.

Step 2. Extracting the Resource Nodeand Shape Files of the Hidden Outfit

In SimPE, open the Sims06.package file of the expansionpack that has the outfit you want to unlock.  These are found under C:\ProgramFiles\EA Games\The Sims 2 [Name of EP]\TSData\Res\3D\.

You’ll have a list on the right hand side.  Scrollthrough until you find ‘amBodyVillain_cres’.  This is the resource node file. Right-click and extract the file to a place where you won’t lose it, such as aproject folder on your desktop.

Open the Sims05.package file.  Scroll through until youfind ‘amBodyVillain_untagged0_shpe’.  This is the shape file.  Right-click andextract the file to the same location you extracted your amBodyVillain_cresfile.

Step 3. Exporting the Texture File

Now open Sims08.package and locateambodyvillain-black0_lifo.  It’s important that you extract the lifo with ‘0’in the name rather than ‘1’, as the files with ‘1’ in the title are very smalland would thus look blurry if used.  Right-click on the image and choose‘export…’.  Save the file in the same location as your extracted cres and shpefiles.

Step 4. Linking the Hidden ResourceNode and Shape Files to Your New Package

Still in SimPE, open the file you created in Bodyshopfrom your SavedSims folder.  You can find this easily by right-clicking andsorting by ‘date modified.’

When the file opens, right-click on the Resource Listpane and choose ‘add’.  Locate your extracted cres and shpe files, select themboth, and click ‘open.’

Click on ‘3D ID Reference File’ in the Resource Listpane.

In the Plugin View at the bottom of the screen, click onthe ‘Package’ button on the right-hand side; a list will pop up.  In this list,select and drag the Resource Node and Shape files into the left-hand pane.

Delete the original Resource Node and Shape files byselecting them and clicking ‘delete’ in the right-hand side.

Move your new Resource Node and Shape files to the top ofthe list by selecting them and clicking ‘up’ until they’re at the top of thelist.  ‘Resource Node’ should always be first, followed by ‘Shape.’

Click ‘Commit’ and hit ‘OK.’

Go back to the Resource List pane and delete the cres andshpe files you added earlier as they’re no longer needed.

Step 5. Changing the Texture Image

Still working in your Bodyshop file, click on ‘TextureImage’ in the Resource Tree.

Right-click on the image and choose ‘Build DXT…’

Click on ‘open Image…’ and select the lifo file youexported to your project folder.

The above settings are a good guideline.  Anything lowerthan DXT3Format will cause bad pixelization on your texture.

Click ‘build’.  The new texture image will now be inplace of the old one.

Click ‘commit’, ‘OK’, and save your file.

 Step 6. Checking the Newly UnlockedOutfit in Bodyshop

 If you’ve followed the tutorial, you should now have theunlocked outfit available!  You can either use it as-is, or create new texturesfor it.

That’s all there is to it!