How to Create Custom Occult Rings & Plumbobs

Yes, we (thepancake1 and I) discovered how! And I’m happy to report it is very easy too despite past concerns with rings being VFX, which it turns out they aren’t, so this tutorial won’t be difficult. Depending on what you want to do, you will either need basic retexturing experience for just the ring textures, or experience with Blender in order to create a new plumbob mesh. This tutorial will not cover how to retexture or mesh, only creating a new plumbob, so please refer to beginner tutorials for objects if you do not know how. 

Note: We discovered this a few days ago and there is a chance I missed something during testing/writing. If you notice a detail missing or discover something new, please let me know so that I can update the tutorial.

Edit: I updated the tutorial with marked steps, also uploaded 2 clonable base files for you to use to make the process slightly easier and edited the tutorial in some areas to reflect that.

Step 1: The first thing you want to do is clone PlumbobPCMe (1 texture), or one of my base files as a new project (choose the 2 or 3 textures, I explain more further down). You can do so by going to Object > Create 3D Mesh. Make sure you added my base file to your Sims4Studio's Mods folder (in Documents) before opening the program.

Step 2: To find my base file select Custom from the drop down menu called "Content" and tick the  “Show Debug Items”. Mine should be listed with my name, though you may have to squint to see it (sorry about that, hopefully you don't have a lot of custom objects)

For EA's plumbob, type in “plumbobPCMe” to the search bar and check “Show Debug Items” box. PlumbobPCMe should be the first and only option, you can hover over the item to be sure.

Step 3: Select it, name and save your package. If you are using one of my base files skip to Step 6 (though feel free to read this section to understand the number of textures), otherwise continue here if you are using EA's plumbob.

Now, if you need/want more than one texture for your cloned EA plumbob you need to do this next step. If not skip to Step . Now go to the Warehouse and delete the original EA Model file. Next, go to Tools > Game File Cruiser (GFC). For those who are unaware, GFC allows you to search for items that are normally not available in the object catalog, or inaccessible through other means. It has the sounds, every texture, world meshes, etc.

Below is a list of ALL human, occult, and club leader plumbob Model instances that I could locate (and will update for new occults/finds). While the occult type doesn’t matter in the long run, we do need to choose a base depending on what you want to make. Each file type has a different number of allowed textures/shaders, so whichever one you choose allows you to use more textures and customize if they change color or not when motives are low (more info later). My base files are clones of the Alien plumbob and the Alien club leader plumbob, so hopefully you chose the right one for your idea. Note that it should be possible to get more textures by importing another objects Model, then altering the shaders, but I won't be covering that.

One Texture/Shader

Human Plumbob (PCMe) - 0244A8961273BE6D

The other PC/NPC plumbobs in the debug catalog (seemingly unused and leftover from Olympus) can be used as a clone and model base as well, but they have not been tested.

Human Plumbob (PCYou) - 4E3FDE015A898384

Human Plumbob (NPC) - DCFE38B04E9AB301

Human Plumbob (PCOther) - D3160104D3A479E7

Human Plumbob (PCSocial) - B7B3E2D85FE7FDD6

Two Textures/Shaders

Human Club Leader Plumbob - 21EB096C8A84481C

Alien Plumbob - F849228453326FE9

Vampire Plumbob - A3BC6A14110A519E

Mermaids/Merfolk Plumbob - CDE6205150842E6A

Spellcasters/Witch Plumbob - 529E67F56AA548ED

Servo/Robot Plumbob - C9E4A20E31C9C6DC

Three Textures/Shaders

Alien Club Leader Plumbob - D00EEF1C14F53B01

Vampire Club Leader Plumbob - 391CA842ECFD79A6

Mermaids/Merfolk Club Leader Plumbob - C3DDD67CA29A8072

Spellcasters/Witch Club Leader Plumbob - D4BF93874DDC8635

Servo/Robot Club Leader Plumbob - 39639D9F7A2CB884

For those curious, we got the occult plumbob instances by hashing the plumbob names listed in the trait files. Example: plumbobAlien = F849228453326FE9 (regular occult plumbob)

plumbob_EP02CliqueCrownAlien = D00EEF1C14F53B01 (club leader plumbob)

Step 4: For this new plumbob I want it to have two textures like a regular ring, so I’m going to use the Alien plumbob for my demonstration. Once you’ve got your base chosen copy the instance I gave, go to the GFC window you just opened and where it says Instance paste the one you just copied. Then go to the filter checkbox list and find and check “Model” to activate the search function. A single file should appear, select it.

Step 5: You should see the plumbob you just searched for on the right as a checkered object. Now click “Add to current package” to add it, and then close (or minimize) Game File Cruiser as we don’t need it at this second. 

Step 6: Now you need to give the plumbob model a custom name to generate a new instance (to link in your trait) by going to Tools > Hash Generator. 

Step 7: You can type in anything you want but it is best to make it long and unique, just like if you were making a custom tuning file. Do not select High Bit though, leave the box unchecked. Make sure to save the exact name somewhere safe so you can get to it again for later. For this tutorial I’m naming mine MizoreYukii:NewOccult_plumbobMedieval.

Step 8: Then you need to copy the new instance and replace the current instance of your Model, as well as any references to the old instance. There are quite a few places, but I’ll cover each part, starting with our main Warehouse page. Replace the Model file, the Light file, the footprint if it is present, and the Model LOD by selecting each one and going to the data tab and replacing the Instance under the Key section.

Step 9: Next we do the Object Definition’s reference by selecting it and looking for Model on the page, then clicking the Edit Items button right across from it. Replace the Instance in the popup that appears and then make sure to click Save, do not exit any other way or it won’t save.

Step 10: Then we do the Cutout Info Table by selecting it and clicking Edit Items next to Entries. Find ModelId towards the middle and replace it with your new instance. Make sure to click Save again.

Step 11: Now head back to the Model file. This one has the most references to replace. Go to the Data tab again, then look for Lods and click Edit Items across from it.

Step 12: This page has the two most important references to replace. Without replacing these the old mesh will show up instead. Under HighDetail Flags and ShadowHighDetail Flags replace the Resource Key Instance, but don’t click Save yet as we aren’t done here.

Step 13: Now back to HighDetail Flags, click Edit Items across from Meshes.

Step 14: There are three areas to replace the Instance. Note that if you have more than one texture/shader you do not need to repeat this step for each one. As far as I can tell with some testing, the other ones update to match after you do the first one. (Also note that the Material resource in the second and possibly third texture/shader is unique and won’t match, I believe you change this one to match the plumbob’s new texture but I’m not sure.)

The first one to replace is under IndexBuffer which isn’t far down. 

Step 15: The second one is under Material, towards the middle. 

Step 16: The third and last one is under Vertex Buffer, towards the bottom.

Step 17: And that concludes the instance replacements, make sure to click Save on each popup to save your work. For anyone wondering if there is an easier way, I couldn’t find one after several tests and still had to manually replace. If you find one let me know and I will update the tutorial.

You can skip this step if you used one of my base files as a clone and can go to Step 22 (make sure to read Step 21's note about the plumbob shader), but if you used EA's and imported a new model you need to continue from here. Next, we need to grab our missing textures and import them if we want to alter them, which in this case is the alien ring and would be crown if I was using a club leader plumbob instead. Or, you can skip this part and make your own, then link them later. Either way you’re just re-opening GFC (Game File Cruiser) and searching under DST this time. The ring’s texture Instance is the same as the occult’s Model (not the club one), and the crown is 21EB096C8A84481C. Mine would be F849228453326FE9 since I am using the alien as a base.

Step 18: Now you change the instance for your texture(s) like you did with your Model file. You don’t need to keep track of the name you used and you can also reuse your Model file’s instance for the ring if you’d like, then make a new one for the crown if it was part of your base and being altered as well, or vice versa.

Step 19: Next we need to link our textures after changing the instances. We need to make our way back to the area we were in before where we changed the Model references. Go back to the Model file, Data tab, click on Edit Items across from Lods, then on HighDetail Flags click Edit Items across from Meshes. On your first plumbob shader (that is hopefully your ring) scroll down to Materials again and click Edit Items across from Items. 

Step 20: Here is where you change your texture, specular, etc. references for your ring. Go to Diffuse Map and change your Instance there to match your texture’s new instance.

Step 21: While you’re here, copy/record your specular instance as well so you can go to the GFC, import it, and change the instance and reference as well. If applicable, repeat these last few steps on the crown plumbob shader for your crown’s texture if you changed the instance, as well as your actual plumbob’s shader and the cloned textures if they are to be altered (if you aren’t altering the actual plumbob, just delete the cloned textures from PCMe to save space). 

Note: Also, note the “Ignore Runtime Tinting” set to 1. Setting it to 1 makes the game ignore the rings and crown when displaying a sims low motives (the color changes). 0 means the game will change the colors (needs to be grayscale). You can manually set this yourself for any of the textures. Once you are done here make sure to click Save for each window as usual so you don’t lose your progress.

Step 22: And with that, you can now do your usual object altering methods. You can customize the plumbobs like any other object, but we don’t know how things will look in certain situations. I’d recommend keeping the new mesh the same height or smaller to avoid any issues.

Step 23: When you’re done, it’s time to add it to your trait. Open your trait package, then open my attached package and copy over everything and insert it below n="min_lod_value"> or the icon. Then, copy the name you created earlier for your plumbob and replace the “active_sim_plumbob” listed to yours. Mine looks like this:

Step 24: Save your package and test in-game. Your new plumbob should be hovering above your trait sim while not overriding any of the games’ current plumbobs. Your last step is to repeat everything above for your “active_sim_club_leader_plumbob” if you want them to have the same plumbob while club leaders. If you don’t, it will be whatever you have currently listed. If you want it to be a human club leader plumbob, simply delete any of the occult names from it so it’s just “plumbob_EP02CliqueCrown”.

And that’s it, I’m excited to see what you guys create!