The hardest part now over, it's time to make some adjustments in S3PE! Compared to what we've done before, these will be considerably easier and won't require as much time or effort.
First we're going to export the contents of our TSRW project into package format. Contrary to, well, what common sense would indicate, you can't simply go to File \ Export \ To Package, because it is disabled! Nope, you have to go to Edit \ Project Contents \ Export \ To .package to be able to export it. Give it a name and save it to your Mods \ Packages folder (or somewhere else and move it there afterwards).
After this, I like to drag-and-drop the .package file over s3rc.exe to compress the textures; you'll see the difference in filesize can be dramatic, sometimes dropping from 20+ MB to barely 2 MB! Of course, our project isn't that big, but it's not unheard of in the case of clothing items with duplicated textures or multiple texture variations on one mesh, as different presets (e.g. multiple stencils).
In this case, my file went from an uncompressed 4.66 MB to a compressed 632 KB! This may not be the final filesize, though, as we may be adding custom thumbnails, but it's a fairly close indicator of the final filesize.
Let's adjust the outfit categories. You can do this in TSRW, but in some aspects S3PE offers extra control, so I personally don't bother with TSRW's settings. My S3PE window looks like this right now (note that you must have the 'Preview', 'Display Names' and 'Display Tags' options enabled at the bottom of the program window):
The resources of interest to us are highlighted in yellow:
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_XML: this is the same as the first preset, and gets loaded when you first click on a CAS item. Theoretically, if there are n presets listed under the CASP resource (the ones you see in the CAS catalog), it is possible to have n+1 presets if this _XML is different from the first preset listed under CASP (I'll explain in a bit);
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CASP: this resource holds the data linking all the other resources in the package, as well as data pertaining to the location of the item in the game catalog, and its presets;
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ICON: this can be useful for the Launcher, but the Launcher is a pain in the ass so we'll transform it into a THUM resource and make it all pretty and actually usable in-game 😊
First thing I like to do is replace the _XML resource with that of the first preset. I'm not 100% sure if it influences the game in any way, but I hate the format TSRW uses to display the contents of these XMLs, so I prefer having a format I can understand. To do this, click on the CASP resource and then on the Grid button at the bottom of the program window. A new window called 'Data Grid' will pop up, showing the contents of the resource in an editable format, and these are the sections we are interested in:
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Presets: these are the CAS presets of our top, and are as many as we created back in TSRW. I didn't show it, but I created 3, as I usually do. Of interest are the Unknown1 fields for each preset, which represent the groups of each thumbnail that those presets will use in the catalog.
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Unknown1: similar to how we renamed it in S3OC, I am going to paste "StoreUrbanHalter_mat_TF" in the field to the right, in place of that string of numbers. This will help in renaming the resources in the package to make things look more tidy.
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ClothingCategory: this section contains the CAS categories where the item will appear e.g. Everyday, Formal.
Out of these, only the third item should be edited; the others are cosmetic changes I like to make and, again, I can't vouch 100% for them being useful in other ways.
To replace the _XML resource, open the CASP resource in Grid mode, then expand the Presets section and the [0] Presets one (the first preset). Click on the XmlFile field and a menu will pop up. Select Export and save your XML somewhere. Close the Data Grid window.
Right-click the _XML resource, go to Replace and import the XML you just exported.
To edit the catalog categories the top will appear in, open the CASP resource in Grid Mode, then expand the ClothingCategory section. To the left you will see the name of the category, and to the right are the flags which you can double-click to toggle the Enable/Disable flags. Note that since we didn't change them in TSRW, the flags will be the same as those on the CAS item we cloned. For this top, I am going to enable the flags Everyday, Formalwear, Makeover, ValidForMaternity.
Now, let's discuss thumbnails a bit. They have four requirements to be displayed correctly in CAS:
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they must be 256 x 256 pixels, otherwise they will show up either too small or be cut off;
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they must be of the type THUM 0x626F60CE;
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their group IDs must match the ones in the presets. Remember those Unknown1 from the presets? This is where they come into play;
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they must have the same Instance ID as the CASP resource.
If you want to create thumbnails that match those of EA items (3D view and all), you will need to delete any ICON and THUM files in the package, run the game, then locate your thumbnails in the CASThumbnails.package file within the Thumbnails in your TS3 folder within My Documents. You can copy the instance ID of your CASP resource, open the CASThumbnails.package file in S3PE, and filter by your copied instance ID to find things faster.
Before editing the thumbnails, we are going to double-click the CASP resource and:
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make sure the group ID is 0x00000000 (basegame). This is done so that the item shows up at the bottom when sorting, otherwise - if you cloned an EP/SP item - it will show up alongside items from that EP/SP. If you don't want to change this group ID, you must change the group IDs of the presets (see below). I prefer this since I'm lazier 😅
Mine is 0x38000000 since I cloned an item from Generations. Instead of entering 0x00000000, you can enter simply '0'. -
copy the Instance ID.
Next, I'm going to double-click the _XML resource and paste the copied Instance ID into its Instance ID field.
Double-click the ICON resource now and make these modifications:
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paste the copied Instance ID into the Instance ID field;
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change the resource type to THUM 0x626F60CE (you can type 'THUM' and scroll through the results);
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change the group ID to 0x00000001.
To create the thumbnails for the other two (or however many) presets, right-click the new THUM resource and go to Duplicate. After the new resource appears, change its group ID to 0x00000002, and so on.
Again, the group IDs don't have to be 0x00000001, 0x00000002 and so forth. The only condition is that the group IDs of the THUM resources match the ones of the presets. You can call them 0x00000322 if you want.
Next up is creating the actual thumbnails. Save the package, run the game, take some pictures, crop them to 256 x 256 pixels, and export them as PNGs. It's OK if they're not overly high quality, as the game resizes and compresses them a bit anyway. Photoshop CS6 has a Save For Web feature and I use the PNG-8 version instead of the PNG-24 one.
I recommend using the plain Miscellaneous pattern as a background, in colors that make your item easier to see. My thumbnails look like this:
If you have Photoshop CS6, you can use the File \ Scripts \ Load Files Into Stack function to load all your screenshots into one file and edit them more easily 😊
After you've exported every thumbnail, open your package again and import them over the THUM resources. Save and close the package.
Open the Mesh Toolkit again and go to the Package Tools tab, then the Name Those Files one. Select your package, rename it, and save it over the unnamed version. Now you can open it and look at the result!
Another optional step is to take another pic to use as a preview for your clothing item. I like to do this so that I can open the folder and see what every file is, instead of having to open each package and hunt for ICON or THUM resources of even look at the _IMG textures.
And...that's it! If you have any questions, drop me a line! 😊