Replacing Hair Textures ~ Easy Tutorial!

UPDATED: I've been told that things with S3PE may not work, so I've adapted this tutorial to Postal, wich seems to work without any issues.

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Hi! This is a simple tutorial to replace the textures on hairs and make your own retextures.

What you need:
- The latest version of S3PE OR the latest version of Postal
- The latest version of Compressorizer
- The latest version of Delphy's Sims 3 Pack Multi-Extracter
- Wills to learn!

What this won't teach you:
- How to use a graphic editor.
- How to change the textures.
- How to make your own textures.
- How to make all the textures a hair uses.


First Step "Finding the Diffuse":

First of all, use Delphy's Sims3Pack Multi-Extracter to convert your sims3pack files into package files.

Using S3PE
- Open S3PE
- Go to "File/Open..." and select the file of the hair you're willing to retexture. It HAS to be a .package file!
- Make sure the boxes "Names" and "Tags" at the bottom are checked.
- Find the "_IMG" tagged files.
- All you have to do is find the Diffuse. It's gray and has an alpha channel. Is the texture itself. 
- Select one "_IMG" file and press "View DDS" button at the bottom. A window will pop-up. Uncheck "Alpha" to see the texture. Now close the "ViewDDS" window.
- Once you found it, right-Click on the "_IMG" tag, go to "Export/To File..." and write a descriptive name (like OriginalDiffuse or ODiffuse) with the .dds extension at the end.
- Now open the saved Diffuse with your graphic editor and change everything you want. Also create the Control and Specular textures. (Control making tutorial here)

Using Postal
- Open Postal
- Go to "File/Open..." and select the file of the hair you're willing to retexture. It HAS to be a .package file!
- Select "Workspace/Show NMap References"
- Find the "dds Image" files. All you have to do is find the Diffuse. It's gray and has an alpha channel. Is the texture itself.
- Go to "Hex View" tab, click "Export" and save with a descriptive name (like OriginalDiffuse or ODiffuse) with the .dds extension at the end.
- Now open the saved Diffuse with your graphic editor and change everything you want. Also create the Control and Specular textures. (Control making tutorial here)

Second Step "Replacing the textures":

Using S3PE
- Go to the S3PE window (if closed, open it up again) and find the "_IMG" files
- Identify the Diffuse, Control and Specular textures (and Halo and Bump Map, if you want to change them at all)
- Right-Click on the file you want to replace. Go to "Replace" and select your new texture.
- Do the same with all the other textures you are willing to replace.
- Save with a different name with "Save As..."
- Check it in CAS and in-game.

Using Postal  
- Go to the Postal window (if closed, open it up again) and find the "ddsImages" files
- Identify the Diffuse, Control and Specular textures (and Halo and Bump Map, if you want to change them at all)

-  Go to "Hex View" tab, click "Import" and select the corresponding file.
- Do the same with all the other textures you are willing to replace.
- "File/Save As..." with a different name.
- Check it in CAS and in-game.

Third Step "Compressorizing":
- Once you have finished the retexture (with all the ages/genders you want) open the CompressorizerRedux.
- Click on "Add Files to List" and select the folder where your files are.
- Select and remove the original files if they're still in that folder, so the Compressorizer won't compress those.
- Check that "Mode" is on "Normal", now press "GO!"
- Once the Compressorizer has finished it work, close it.
- Check your files in-game again, make sure everything's alright.
- It's done! =D

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Did the creator exclude the mesh from their retexture? Follow these steps.
This steps should be done instead of the first one listed before!

Extra Step "Replacing with others retextures":

Using S3PE
- Open S3PE
- Go to "File/Open..." and select the file of the hair already retextured. It HAS to be a .package file!
- Make sure the boxes "Names" and "Tags" at the bottom are checked.
- Find the "_IMG" tagged files.
- Select one and press "View DDS" button at the bottom. A window will pop-up. Uncheck "Alpha" to see the texture. Now close the "ViewDDS" window.
- Do right-click on the "_IMG" tag of the file you have just viewed, go to "Export/To File..." and write a descriptive name (Diffuse for the gray texture with an alpha channel, Control for the highlights/shine, and Specular for the texture that is darker than the Diffuse, it probably doesn't have an alpha channel) with the .dds extension at the end. Repeat this with the rest of the textures ("_IMG" tags)
 - Now, go to "File/Open..." and select the file of the hair you're willing to replace. It HAS to be a .package file!
- All you have to do now are the Second and Third steps listed before.

Using Postal 
- Open Postal
- Go to "File/Open..." and select the file of the hair you're willing to retexture. It HAS to be a .package file!

- Select "Workspace/Show NMap References"

- Find the "dds Image" files. Click one and you'll see the texture.
- Go to "Hex View" tab, click "Export" and write a descriptive name (Diffuse for the gray texture with an alpha channel, Control for the highlights/shine, and Specular for the texture that is darker than the Diffuse, it probably doesn't have an alpha channel) with the .dds extension at the end. Repeat this with the rest of the textures ("dds Image")
  - Now, go to "File/Open..." and select the file of the hair you're willing to replace. It HAS to be a .package file!
- All you have to do now are the Second and Third steps listed before.

I hope this helps! Please tell me if you have any doubt about this tutorial! ^-^

NOTE: With this tutorial, you are including the mesh with your retextures. Mesh-Not-Included retexturing method would be explained later if asked.

44 comments:

  1. Thank you so much! This really helped! ♥

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  2. A tip, if the IMG files are named, the diffuse file should have _d at the end (examplehair_d.dds)

    Thanks for the tutorial Anubis ;)

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  3. Anubis is it okay if i compress specular & diffuse to (DXT1, DXT3 or DXT5)?
    Will it affecting the quality? thx

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  4. I only compress the Specular using DXT3. I never compress the Diffuse or Control textures because I want to keep the best quality possible.

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  5. Wow fast reply Anubis ^^ thx for the advice ...

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  6. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  7. Hey Anubis!

    El color de favorito de:

    Cindy-rosa
    Megan-morado
    Maria-naranja o amarillo
    Hikari-azul cielo
    Amelia-Verde limon
    y Celeste-Violeta

    espero que este en lo ciertoo creoo que es por el color de las letras en el Banner'!!
    >'.'<

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  8. Si, podria decir que son sus colores favoritos, pero para mi serĆ­an los colores que representan sus personalidades :)

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  9. Thank you for this! =)

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  10. Thank you for this tutorial :) I have a question though.


    - Identify the Diffuse, Control and Specular textures (and Halo and Bump Map, if you want to change them at all)

    Where can I find the Halo and Bump map? And how exactly do I replace the texture files? When I import the new ones the old ones don't seem to go away, do I have to delete them?

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  11. Ok Gracias Nubie!

    y Gracias por el post, le entendi un poco por que esta en ingles, pero muchas gracias intentare mucho mas!!
    >x'o'x'o<

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  12. @Anon: Some hairs include a Halo and Bump Map, but not all of them.
    The Halo is a little, thin texture with a yellow spot in the middle. Depending on the yellow spot's size, the hair will shine more or less. It's similar to the Specular, but the Halo controls the amount of shine, while the Specular specifies wich zones would shine and wich not.
    The Bump Map adds volume to the hair texture. But it's not as good as it sounds, most of the times it ruins the hair. That's why you should always use a neutral one (get it at MTS, HystericalParoxysm's Hair Tutorial) and not the ones included with the game.

    To replace textures follow the second step in this tutorial. Press "ViewDDS" to check that the texture has been replaced with yours. Never delete any texture! The hair will use them, even if they're simple black squares, like in some hairs by Peggy.

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  13. Hi nubie :)

    i retexture the peggy hair and when i test in game, seems that it becomes a default replacement.
    what should i do ???

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  14. Hey Anubis,
    Do i start with Newsea or your retexture first, if i want to replace? I'm following the 2nd one.. and i'm a bit confused..

    Thank you for sharing the tutorial and your hair retextures <3

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  15. If you're using the "Extra Step "Replacing with others retextures", you start with my retexture. When you're following the second and thirs steps, you work with NewSea's.

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  16. Wow, super easy tutorial! Well I don't know about the first part, but super easy when using to put your retexture and the mesh all in one. Now I am just kicking myself for not having tried this sooner. :) Oh and thank you thank you thank you!!!

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  17. Hello Anubis :) Im trying to learn how to create hair and textures. Which tutorial did you use to learn how to create them? I do not know much about this, so if there is an easier tutorial that would be great. Thank you very much for your time! ;)

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  18. @Hollywood Sims: I learnt by myself, dind't read any tutorial (and I'm not planning to write one either :P)

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  19. Your amazing.. And thats why your number 1 :)

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  20. Hola Anubis, gracias por este tutorial, me ayudo mucho ^^

    Pero tengo una pregunta, ¿cĆ³mo puedo editar el alfa? Es que un pelo de newsea tiene parte del pelo todo en la cara y yo querĆ­a arreglarlo u.u; jaja

    Pero si es demasiado difĆ­cil de explicar entonces nevermind, no te preocupes :)

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  21. Tan solo borra las partes que no quieres que se vean :)

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  22. I can't open the DDS in gimp once I extract it, what graphic editor do you open it in? Sorry if my questions dumb.

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  23. I'd be very interested in a tutorial on how to share retextures without the mesh included :o Thank you for this, now I can try it out too! :D

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  24. If I want two versions of the same hair (Painted's Holic, as well as a non-leopard version of her hair I'm doing myself), will this method over write the other, or conflict with it, if I rename the file?

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  25. Thanks for the tutorial! I love your work, especially your Newsea retextures, but my game hates .package files. Is there any way that I can convert the outcome of this to a sims3pack?

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    Replies
    1. Thanks! It works well. Last question (if it's not too much): how do you replace the specular? It doesn't appear on the textures map.

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    2. If you are talking about TSRW, it appears on the Hat textures section :)

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    3. Alright! Thank you very much! I really love your works, I can't play my game without them :D

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  26. Does this work on a mac?

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  27. i have both the meshs and your versions of a few newsea hairs, do i have to do this in order to have your retextures in the game?

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    Replies
    1. No, you have to do this if you want to have one single file instead of two.

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    2. okay, thank you. keep up the good work, your cc is amazing.

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  28. Hello, Anubis :D
    I want to say thank you first of all, you're amazing.
    This tutorial is easy to understand even I'm new with it =}
    But I'd like to know how to Mesh-Not-Included retexturing?
    If you can post an explanation, it'll be great!
    Thanks for the tut again :)

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  29. no podrias hacer tus tutoriales tambien en espaƱol?

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    Replies
    1. Me da pereza XD
      Google Translate no lo traduce bien?

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  30. Question: Is the compressorizing (or whatever the 3rd step is) needed? And if it is - what does it do?

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    Replies
    1. As the names says it, the Compressorizer compresses the file, and it's not actually needed, but recommended if the file is too high.

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    2. Okies, thanks for the fast reply!
      (boy, you do check your email, you replied me 2 minutes after I asked you haha)

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  31. just wanted to say, thanks!!!!!! :D love all of your designs

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  32. I did this, but it turned out horrible. Someone mentioned an alpha change or something. I don't know... :/

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  33. where is the specular? D: I only see two IMG files, one is the diffuse map and other is the control map :|
    (no se porque escribo en ingles xD)

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