Sims 4 Studio

The Sims 4 Studio is a software that allows you to create customized contents, recolors, objects, poses. It also allows you to manage the mods you own and to update some broken contents.

A creation of Andrew.

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What do you think about it?

Hello Amazons! Do you like to discover new faces, new adventures, new landscapes? And as simmers, do you also like to discover new tricks that are super practical, super easy and that save you precious time with your game?

So come on, take my arm, I'll take you to the RE-discovery of The Sims 4 Studio!
But what is the Sims 4 Studio? In fact, it's a software program for The Sims 4, which the creators use to create customized content (recolorations of clothes, in-game objects, pose creations...) for the fourth installment of The Sims 4. But recently, a topic created by NibletteI discovered a new facet of it!

So I learned that thanks to this little magic software, you can also easily visualize in 3D the CC you downloaded, and decide if you like it or not, if you keep it or not. Because yes, in addition to viewing it, you can also manipulate it, to correct it for example (Grrr, that damn "script error") or even delete it super easily, if you don't want it anymore. Nice, isn't it?
You want to know more, right? Then let's hear from the people who know best: the power users! It's your turn, experts!

- Linette

First of all, Choute tells us a little bit more about this software that she LOVES!

1/ Hello Choute! On the topic about the S4S, you say you love it. Why do you love it so much?

The Sims4Studio is simply magical! I'm a compulsive dowloader, so I download everything! But who doesn't get tired of that clown costume that is no longer useful and that was downloaded just to take a picture for a challenge? That's where the S4S comes in: I can see all my downloads right away and can sort them out before I even say Motherlode!
I don't talk about these downloads that bug: same thing! Deleted in one click!
After that, you still need a minimum of organization. I sort my downloads by category so that I can find them better and manage them more easily. It's also ZE tool to create your own custom charts!

2/ Is it really that easy to use?

Yes, it is! First of all, it's in French: good point!
Want to sort your content? Go to "My CC", and everything magically appears!
Do you want to have your own picture with your beautiful face? Nothing could be easier: Redefine object, and you create endless paintings! Now I have to work on the poses and the CAS. In any case, I can only recommend it!

Next, a brand new user, Little_Lams, explains how you can easily fix out-of-date custom content.

1/ Hello Lams. You discovered a little while ago that you can sort your CC thanks to Sims4 Studio. So, what do you think? Are you convinced?

I was looking for an easy way to sort my CC's, because it is a very time consuming process. I often tend to delay sorting and the CCs pile up in the meantime. I had heard about the Sims 4 Tray Importer, but the idea of having to go through the CUS and put all the corrupted or useless CCs on a sims ... well, I didn't like the idea.
And then, when I came across the topic written by Niblette (after she gave me the link, following a corrupted CC in my game), I opened the Sims 4 studio immediately. I had already downloaded it, to start recoloring paintings one day. And that's when I noticed that I had never bothered to explore this program, which is used not only to create, but also to compact CCs together into one package, and also to fix objects after updates.

The icing on the cake: you can view all the CCs on a dummy (for the CUS items) or the items in the purchase/construction world. You can edit them by choosing not to make them usable for NPCs for example or delete them with a simple click. You can even decide to remove some swatches (for the French, we say colors! NDLR).

In short, I was thrilled because sometimes, on a wallpaper kit found at a designer's, only one or two in the batch appealed to me and I found that some elements weighed down my game. In the end, I went from over 8GB of content, to less than 5 thanks to this program. And still, I haven't finished sorting out.

In short, I am personally delighted. It allows me to save time without having to look for the names of the CCs to be removed in my folder (although it's well sorted by category) and to open my game only to play or to create. I must admit that the idea of opening it just to remove CCs... I wasn't thrilled at all. When I open my game, it's to play or create and not something else.

2/ You also told us that you were able to correct some CC? Can you explain us what it consists in?

Sometimes when you download... I would say a mirror or a new lamp, sometimes once you're in the game, you can't use it. When that happened to me, I thought I'd just have to wait for an update from the creator. This is not always the case, especially when they take a break from sims or stop creation altogether. In this case, I was resigned to uninstall the CC. But opening Sims 4 Studio is enough to solve the problem.

Let's take the example of a lamp that cannot be put in play. The procedure is quick and easy. I open Sims 4 Studio and go to the tool tab, Batch Fix, Objects, and click on Fix CC Light Tuning.

A dialog box opens (make sure the right folders are specified) and I click on Run.

When finished, the program tells me how many lamps have been updated and if any of them could not be updated. You use the same procedure for the mirrors. In the menus you can also see that you can update the bookcases for the toddler patch, fix the televisions for the video games or the children's beds to have the monster under the bed.

If you ever have a CC that seems corrupted since the update (and that you liked), don't panic. Use Sims 4 Studio before throwing it away. In the CUS tab, I click on "Update CAS CC for all genders" and that's it.

The program will also tell you how many CCs have been updated and if any could not be updated.

It allows to fix compatibility issues after a patch. Not always, but it's so simple and fast that it would be stupid not to check if Sims 4 Studio can fix the problem.

3/ Did you have any difficulties in learning how to use S4S?

Honestly? Not at all. I find it rather easy to use and intuitive. But I have to admit that I struggle with English. I think that the tool must be more difficult to learn for someone who has no notion of English at all (which is the case for very young players for example).

As the editor of the Gazette, I will add a precision: The S4S can be easily set to be translated into French. Of course all the menus are not translated, far from it, but it's still possible to understand!

Finally, here is the big part of this article. Rope (but no, he's not the big one!), explains in detail all the procedures he uses to sort the CC he downloads, and then compact it so that the game has less files to read, and consequently, is much less slow! Hang on, it's dense, but very instructive!

1/ Hello Rope. We know that your CC is well organized, tidy, sorted. Would you be willing to tell us a little more about your organization?

My downloads folder is organized like this: at the root, you'll find all the various mods that modify the game's gameplay to a greater or lesser extent, such as the Master Controller, the Pose Player, or any other mod in this vein, since they don't need to be compacted (since these mods are updated with every patch, practically). Then there are four folders (CAS / BUILD / Replacement / TEMP)

First the CAS and BUILD folders, which contain all the elements for the creation of Sims and those for the construction mode, well sorted and compacted. We'll come back to that later.

A replacement folder for all those mods that modify for example textures, correct meshes, well, all those small modifications that unlike gameplay mods, rarely need to be updated. You can if you want compact these files together.
(Note: this is also called CC default, which replaces the game CC instead of adding to it. EDITOR'S NOTE)

And finally, most importantly for the article, a TEMP folder, which contains in bulk everything I've been able to download recently, and that I haven't yet sorted or tested in game. I also put in bulk the poses, when I need them for an image, since I usually don't keep them.

2/ And so, when do you use the S4S to sort it all out? And how do you do it?

I usually let things build up in this folder until I have about 100 files, before I start sorting through them. Since I'm already pretty selective about the content I download, it can take a while. I occasionally delete a few things if I quickly realize in game, for example, that this latest t-shirt I found really doesn't look as good as it does in the presentation pictures. But in general, I don't touch anything until I do my sorting.

I'll use the "MyCC" tool in the Sims 4 Studio to view and delete the content that doesn't fit. In general, it's also better to check the rendering of the content once in game, since some defects on meshes or textures are not visible in the Studio. If you haven't had the chance to use a haircut or clothes and you have a doubt, don't hesitate to launch the Sims to check. Once it's done, close the game (you can't touch your packages when it's on), and delete the concerned content in My CC, by simply clicking on Delete.

I take the opportunity to change some sorting options by checking or unchecking small boxes in the left panel (don't forget to click on "Apply to all swatches" and save) to review the sorting of some decorative elements, and remove the colors with English writings on some objects or clothes (by clicking on Remove Palette once the color is selected in the right part again)

3/ I also know that you compact your CC filesThis means that you collect them all in one file. This has a big advantage, it makes the game run much more smoothly. Can you explain us how you proceed ?

Yes.
Once my content is sorted, I will compact it, again with the Sims 4 Studio tool.

I separate the content for the CAS, and the content for the construction mode, and then compact them separately.

I keep in another folder all the original files, sorted in different folders with the name of the compacted package. By keeping these original files, with an approximate date of their download, I have less difficulty to find them, if I ever had to replace something for example, following an update that caused a problem. If the case arises, I simply replace the file in the folder with the new corrected version, and then recompact the contents of the folder together, quite simply.

In my example, after sorting the content I downloaded at the end of September, I have about 30 files left for the construction mode. In general, we can compact together up to 200 files or 300MB of content without too much trouble. With so few new files, I check the folder where I put the content of the previous month, August, which is named Build_PACK_17_08. It contains about 100 packages for 170MB, so I add the new files in the folder, before compacting all the files. I overwrite the previous Build_PACK_17_08 file which was in The Sims 4\Mods\BUILD.

If the August folder already contained too many packages, I would simply have a new folder, Build_PACK_17_09, and a new package named the same way. In the same way, I would have added the content downloaded this month.

Once sorted and compacted, my TEMP folder is empty again, waiting for new downloads.

Wow! Thanks a lot Rope for all these explanations! And... happy downloading then!
And thanks also to Choute and Little_Lams for their clarifications on the different features of the S4S! It was very informative!

This is finally the end of this long, long article! But admit it, you've learned some pretty interesting stuff, right?
I hope that with all these explanations from some of our S4S specialists, you will no longer be afraid of this wonderful tool that provides many services!
Think about it! Thanks to it, you can sort your CC without even going through the game, compact it, or even correct it!
What a way to give a new youth to our sims 4 game! And isn't this what everyone dreams of? Isn't life great?