Hi,

I have the Sims 3: Pets and I like this hairstyle from that expansion pack.
I'd like to have it without having installed the game. Is there any way to "extract" the hairstyle from the game? Thank you.

Nobody? :S

Yes, there is a way. But since the procedure is also one that would allow you to give content from an EP to someone who has not purchased that EP, (and could, therefore, a borderline form of piracy) it's not something that we can help with here.

The only suggestion that we could give would be to look at tutorials for converting content from Sims 3 for either Sims 2 or Sims 4, then look at tutorials for converting from Sims 4 or Sims 2 to Sims 3, and see if you can figure it out for yourself. You would end up with a CC package of that hairstyle which you should keep for your own personal use.

It's very easy to extract things from EPs so you can save them for later use (for example, I liked some objects from Into The Future but didn't want the whole pack, so I just extracted them). Here's how to do it:

1. Make sure you have the EP/SP you want to get content from installed.

2. Download Sims 3 Object Cloner (S3OC) and install it.

3. Launch S3OC and go to Cloning, then CAS Part. It may take a bit for all the files to load.

4. Find your desired item. Since it's a male hair, the name will start with "amHair". You can click on the EP/SP column to sort by EP and filename, to make things easier. This hair's name is amHairEP5ShortBuzz. Click on it, then on the Clone or Fix button on the right of the window.

5. On the left, tick the Deep Clone, Include Thumbnails, Renumber/Rename Internally and Enable Compression options. On the right, you may change the CAS categories that the hair is available in. When you're done, click the Start button and let S3OC do its thing.

Optional step: open your new package in S3PE and double-click on the resource with the CASP tag, then change the Group to 0, then click OK and save your package. This makes it so that the package doesn't display the EP icon and shows up among the custom content, at the bottom. Of course, this is just a matter of preference and not something required

Afterwards you can uninstall the EP/SP in question and your item will continue to show up and work in-game. However, the method above doesn't work for scripted objects, which will become unusable if you uninstall the EP they came from, since you no longer have the scripts they need to work.

This is not entirely correct. Code for EP scripted objects is patched into the game whether the player owns any EPs or not (that's probably why a game patch was often released shortly before or on the day a new EP arrived). Cloned scripted objects usually fail without their EPs because S3OC does not clone the object-specific animations, audio files, animation accessories, XMLs, etc that are necessary. For some objects, there are hard-coded SKU checks in the C#.

Sorry, you're right. I meant to say what you said. Thanks for the correction!

@sweetdevil I have two remarks or questions regarding the method you described:
First of all you laid out the cloning with internal renaming/renumbering. Wouldn't this mean that the hair is now a new, separate object, i.e. Sims who already use that hair will lose it after you uninstall the EP and the original hair?
Secondly, wouldn't a cloned EP hair still need the EP to work, unless you remove the EP requirement beforehand? I think that's what Ghost sdoj hinted at, as help with this removal of EP requirements is probably not supported here.

Hmm, that's an interesting thought. Renaming when cloning, then removing the EP/SP, would definitely "break" the sims who are using the hair (they'd end up with a different one). I confess I've never tried this method, but not selecting that option would theoretically create a default replacement. I guess it'd be interesting for OP to try it (a renamed clone and a non-renamed one) and see if the non-renamed one still works even after removing Pets.


If you clone stuff like clothes, furniture or hair you get the meshes along with the textures and other resources (like XMLs and patterns), so they won't require the EP/SP anymore. @Butterbot mentioned scripts being patched into everyone's game and I'm curious if this also applies to furniture items (e.g. sofas) that have custom script classes specifically for them i.e. they don't use a basegame sofa's script. Theoretically, those items should still work even if you use a Showtime sofa with a specific script but don't have Showtime installed.

Changing the Group number of the CASP resource is basically an aesthetic choice; I've downloaded CC clothes that used a mesh from an SP I didn't have, where the creator left the group number as it was. The item showed up with the SP icon and in the same place within the catalog it would've showed up if I had the SP installed. Changing the Group number to 0 simply makes it show up at the bottom of the catalog, along with basegame and CC items. Store clothing also has 0 for the Group name for this reason (although they could have given it a number if they wanted to, I suppose).

For objects, you would need to change the OBJD resource's Group number for 0. Changing the Group number of the OBJK resource will render it unusable.

That is sort of my point. If one wants to keep an item but get rid of the EP it came with you want to have an identical copy, i.e. not a renumbered clone.

That's correct. For simple objects like sofas that generally share all non-object/mesh level resources with basegame objects (as in, a Showtime couch might have distinct textures, footprint, STBLs, etc, but uses the same animations as a basegame couch), the EP doesn't need to be installed. Even the group ID of the OBJD can remain unchanged (which is not the case with CAS parts, IIRC).