#ys conversion tutorial

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YS to TS4 Hair Conversion Tutorial Part 9: Testing the hair + extra tips

1. Copy the new package file and paste it in your Mods folder (Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 4 > Mods).  Then start the game and go into CAS.  Look for the new hair in the hair menu.

2. And there you go.  If you did it right, your hair should look something like this.

Extra Tips

1. Converting Accessories

Converting accessories is almost exactly like converting hair, only easier.  In S4Studio, click Create 3D Mesh under CAS, then click the CAS button.  If the accessory you're trying to convert has a low-detail texture file, you can get away with using earrings, glasses, or a necklace as its base.  If the texture is high-detail, you'll have to use a hat as its base.Once you've chosen your base, follow this tutorial to finish your conversion.

2. Converting MMD Hair and Accessories

First you need to get rid of the other parts of the model using MMD Editor.  Then export as a .obj file and proceed from there.  Note that a lot of MMD meshes do not work very well in Blender - vertices often randomly appear and disappear, and some may be unselectable.  You will probably run into some weird issues.

And that’s all for this tutorial.  I hope you find it useful, and happy simming.  :)

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YS to TS4 Hair Conversion Tutorial Part 4: Adding Textures

1. Open the "Texture 2D" file that was extracted from Unity Studio alongside the hair mesh.  Right-click and open the hair texture in your art software.  I'm going to assume that you've already installed a DDS plug-in if necessary.

2. Resize the texture to 512 x 512 pixels.  Then copy the entire image.

3. Open the hair texture base (like the diffuse map exported from S4Studio). Then Paste the YS texture onto it and move it over the green box on the top left.  Cut out any parts of the texture outside of that top-left box.  Then export as a PNG file.

4. Now to make more color swatches (optional).  For hair with accessory parts like this one, use the lasso tool to select those parts and then inverse your selection.

5. Color the hair using your art software's hue/saturation tool (or Colorize if you're using GIMP).

6. Optional - if you want to recolor the accessory parts too, inverse your selection again and use the colorize or hue/saturation tool to make it the color you want.  Once done, export as a PNG file under a new name.

One you've saved it, undo three times and repeat steps 4 and 6 until you have all of the desired color swatches.

7. Open the package file in Sims 4 Studio (unless it's already open), then click the little blue Import button to the left of the texture file. Choose Rival-chan's first texture and click Open.  Rinse and repeat with every other texture.

8. Make the swatch thumbnail match each texture.

Continue to Part 5

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YS to TS4 Hair Conversion Tutorial Part 8: Importing the hair into Sims 4 Studio

1. Open the package file in Sims 4 Studio (if it isn't already open).  In the Meshes tab, click Import.

2. Choose your latest Blender save and click Open.

3. Click on LOD 1 and repeat step 2.  Do the same for LOD 2 and LOD 3.  

If your computer has lower specs, you might want to just import the hair to LOD 0 and 1 to decrease the file size.

Either way, click File > Save As and name your new package file.  You're almost done!

Continue to Part 9

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YS to TS4 Hair Conversion Tutorial Part 5: Placing the hair on the model in Blender

1. While still in Sims 4 Studio, click on the Meshes tab and click Export Mesh.  Name and save the new Blender file.

Note: If you get an error message, make sure that the Blender Path is set up correctly (as shown above).  Click on Settings to check.  If it's not, click on the blue "..." button to the right of Blender Path and make it lead to the Blender.exe.

2. Open the new Blender file.  Find the one hair mesh that isn't a hat cut (in the pigtail’s case, it's s4studio_mesh_2). 

Look at the stuff below "S4Studio CAS Tools, then write down the file type (GEOM) and the cut number beneath GEOM (in this case, it's 0002). 

Click on the triangle tab and write down the geom number (in this case, it's geom.006).

2. Start a new Blender file (File > New).  To remove the gray box, press the delete key and click Delete.

3. Click File > Import > Wavefront (.obj).  Choose the YS hair mesh that you converted to a .obj file earlier, then click Import OBJ.

4. Go into Edit Mode, then click on the Scene tab.  Change the file type to GEOM and the cut number to 0002 (or whatever the cut number is).  Then click on the triangle tab and change the geom name to geom.006 (or again, whatever it’s supposed to be).

Then type Ctrl + c to copy the hair.

5. Open the S4Studio model/base file.  Then type Ctrl + v to paste the YS hair onto it.  Go into Edit Mode and use the red/green/blue arrows to make the hair fit properly on the sim's head.  The blue arrow moves the hair up and down, the green arrow moves it forward and backwards, and the red arrow moves it side to side.

Tip: Make the EA hair invisible while you do this by clicking on the eyeball icons next to their names in the right menu.

Continue to Part 6

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YS to TS4 Hair Conversion Tutorial Part 6: Using the UV Editor

1. With the YS hair mesh selected, click on the checkered ball icon.  Click on the dropdown menu just below Assign/Select/Deselect and choose Diffuse Map.

2. In Edit Mode, click on the icon to the right of "UVs" that looks like a photo (as shown above), and choose Diffuse Map from the popup menu.

3. In the left screen, highlight the vertices (those polygons) by first typing b, then drag-clicking over all of them.  They will now be orange.

4. Resize the vertices and move them so they fit over the correct parts of the texture.  First type g, then s, then move the mouse up to make them smaller.  Type g, s, then x, and move the mouse to stretch them horizontally (or type y instead of x to stretch them vertically).

Once you're done, Save As.

I don’t know how to make hair hat-compatible, so I’m going to skip over that step.  Instead, I then copy the YS hair mesh that’s on the model right now, paste it into a new Blender window (after deleting the gray box), rename it s4studio_mesh_(w/e number’s next), give it the correct .geom number and cut number, save it, then paste it onto the model in the previous window.  I then go into the checkered ball tab and assign it to Diffuse Map like I did the other one, then do the same on the right (in the photo icon drop-up menu).  Rinse and repeat for the next and final mesh.

Hope that wasn’t too confusing.  It still won’t be compatible with actual hats, but that way the hair will at least work properly when you put an accessory in the hat category on it.

Continue to Part 7

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YS to TS4 Hair Conversion Tutorial Part 3: Making the package file in Sims 4 Studio

1. Open Sims 4 Studio.  Underneath CAS, select Create 3D Mesh, then click on CAS.

2. Select an EA base game hair.  I'm going to choose the short pigtails here.  Choose a hair that resembles the YS hair you're converting.

NOTE: The pigtails actually aren’t a good choice most of the time.  Now I use the long hair that’s pulled back from the crown:

3. Once you've selected the hair that will serve as your base, click Next and choose where you want the package file to go (put it in the folder you made earlier).  Name it and save.

4. You will then be taken to this screen.  

5. Make the Shadow, Specular, and Normal blank.  To do this, click on each one of them and then press the purple "make blank" button below the blue import button.

After you've done that, select Normal, click Import, and open a blank gray box that is 1024x1024 pixels.

If you don’t already have something like it, save the diffuse texture.  You’ll use this as a base for your hair textures.

Continue to Part 4

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YS to TS4 Hair Conversion Tutorial Part 7: Transferring the weights and assigning joints

1. In the right menu, click on the non-hat hair (s4studio_mesh_2 in this case), then shift-click on the YS hair.

2. Go into Weight Paint Mode.  Then click Transfer Weights on the left menu.  Rinse and repeat with the other two s4studio_meshes and the YS meshes that will replace them.

3. Go into Edit Mode.  Select the non-hat YS hair mesh and click on the triangle icon.  In Vertex groups, click on b__Head__ and then click Assign.

For the other two, I assign them to the same joint as the EA hair they’ll replace is on, which is usually the left eye area joint at the very bottom.

4. Delete the EA non-hat hair by right-clicking it and selecting Delete in the popup menu.

5. Select the YS hair meshes.  Click on the objects tab and give them the same names the EA non-hat hairstyles had.  Then click on the triangle tab and give their mesh data the following names: geom.005 for s4studio_mesh_1, geom.006 for s4studio_mesh_2, and geom.007 for s4studio_mesh_3.

Then Save As.

Continue to Part 8

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YS to TS4 Hair Conversion Tutorial Part 1: Extracting the hair from YS

1. Open Unity Studio, then click File > Load File.

2. Go into YandereSimulator > YandereSimulator_Data.  Click on level10 (level 9 in older builds).  Then click Open.  You may have to wait a minute or two for it to load.

3. Search for the hair you want to convert.  I’ll use Rival-chan's hairstyle for this tutorial.

Ayano's alternate hairstyles (and most of her accessories) can be found within level8 > YandereChan (under the CAMERAS header) > Character > PelvisRoot > Hips > Spine > Spine1 > Spine2 > Spine3 > Neck > Head.

The female student hairstyles (and teacher hairstyles) can be found within sharedassets8.assets (under the MISC header) > StudentChan > Character > PelvisRoot > Hips > Spine > Spine1 > Spine2 > Spine3 > Neck > Head.

The male hairstyles (including all of Taro's) are located in sharedassets8.assets (under the MISC header) > StudentKun > Character > PelvisRoot > Hips > Spine > Spine1 > Spine2 > Spine3 > Neck > Head.

Other hairstyles can be found somewhere under the MANAGERS header (to my knowledge - I don’t have the latest build at this time).

Once you've found the hair you want to convert, check the box next to its name.

Tip: When there is a little plus sign to the left of the checkbox (which is the case with Rival-chan's hair), click on it to open the subfolder, find the hair mesh, and select it.  The actual mesh usually has "mesh" in its name, but there are exceptions (as seen above).

4. After selecting the hair, click Export > Selected 3D Objects.  Choose where you want the hair mesh and it's texture file to go.  If you haven't already, make a new folder to hold your hair files.  Name the file and save it.

Continue to Part 2

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YS to TS4 Hair Conversion Tutorial Part 2: Converting the hair to a .obj file

1. Open Autodesk FBX Converter, then click Add.

2. Choose the hair mesh you extracted from YS, then click Open.

3. Click on the Destination Format dropdown menu, then click OBJ.  Then click convert.

Continue to Part 3