How To Install Skins Into The Game

Many of my skins use a custom skin mesh...( .cmx file and x-skin. skn file) meaning ones that didn't come with the original game.. but were made by mesh designers.

A skin needs 3 parts/ files to run in your game. They need a mesh.. and a graphic that will cover it. The mesh is made up of a .cmx file and a x-skin.skn file. The graphic that will cover the mesh is a .bmp file.
I like to include all three in the zip just in case the person doesn't have the mesh files already. Some skins use a mesh that came with the game.. they will only have a single .bmp file. because the mesh files(.cmx and x-skin..skn) are programmed into the game.

I've placed all three into a folder in order for them to be placed in the same zip... if you put a folder in the "skin" folder in your Sims game.... it will not read it ( show up in your game) So you need to take the files out of that "(skin name) folder" and put them into the "game skin folder" as separate files and not as a folder with the files inside it.

Here is how I do it......

I have a folder that I made on my desktop that is called "Sims skins" (right click... New... Folder... then type in.... Sims skins...)

(If you know how to find your skin folder in your Sims game, you may want to look and see if there are folders with names like.. Blue dress.... red shorts... purple passion... ect. look and see if there are files like .cmx... xskin..skn or .bmp inside them. If so you can click and hold that folder and drag it out and put it into this desk top "Sims skin" folder.)

When I unzip a skin that I have downloaded from the internet... I direct WinZip to unzip them to this folder on my desk top. ("Sims skins") Let's say I just downloaded "red dress" and unzipped it.
when I open that "Sims skins" folder I should see the skin files or a folder "red dress"... (The skin I just unzipped)....
I double click this folder and I should see the separate files.(.cmx...x-skin...skn and .bmp) some sites put a text or read me file in there too, these do not go in your game ... they usually tell you about the skin and who made it and what site it is from..)

I Leave this window open "Sim skins" ..at the top where you click out of the window ... push the box in the middle this will resize the window so that you can open another window and place the two open windows side by side.
Next..... Double click on " My computer" icon on the desk top double click (C:) look for a file called " Program Files" double click look for a folder called "Maxis" double click look for a folder called "The Sims" double click... see a folder called " Game Data" double click... double click the folder called "skins" at the top where you click out of the window .. push the box in the middle to resize the window . you now have 2 open windows.. One is the "Skin" folder in the game and the other is the "Sims skins" on the desk top.

In "Sims skins" right click on one of the files...say B325Fafitlgt_redgirl.bmp... choose copy from the list.
now click on the open "skin" folder in the Sims game..( the other open window) right click anywhere in the window and choose paste... now do the same thing with the other files until you have copied and pasted all the files.
It may ask if I want to overwrite the .cmx file or xskin.skn file? (NO you don't) this means that you already have this mesh in the folder and only need the .bmp file ( graphic/ covering)

say.... I download 5 long dress.... I will only need to put the long dress mesh into the skin folder once.... after that I will only need the .bmp part of the skin. for that certain mesh. The numbers at the front ( B325fa...._....bmp) maps it to the mesh of the same number. (one mesh... several .bmp)

After you put the skins in your game .... X out of / close, both windows.
play the game and if it plays with no problems the skins are good and were installed correctly....After your done playing open the "Sims skins" folder on the desk top and delete the folders/files that are in it.....

If the game should crash ... grrrrr :( you will know what files that you need to remove from the games "skin" folder.. (The ones that are in the desk top "Sims Skins" folder.) This saves time looking for a bad file or having to do a reinstall.

It is kind of a pain but worth it in the long run.

Skins and heads are known for having problems.... for some reason if they are not complete or something else is wrong with them they will crash the game.

This is another reason I like to install skins in this manner.


This tutorial was wrote by Indian







I got my background from Backgrounds Etc.