As far as I know,
this tutorial is the only way to do what you want. You have to override the strings with an XML file.
Warning: Incoming wall of text. I'm writing all this for your benefit but also for anyone else who reads it.
I'll try to explain but I'm not sure I understand everything myself, to be honest.
First, strings are just language files. Strings enable the game to be in English, Chinese, Spanish, Russian, etc.
The tutorial I linked talks about hex numbers. “What are hex numbers?!” you shout. Okay, computers use binary “language”, right? Ones and zeroes. A 64-bit number (64 bits is the most a computer's CPU can process) is 64 ones and zeroes in sixteen groups consisting of four numbers. In a 64-bit number, each one or zero is called a bit. For example: 0000 0100 1001 0110 1110 1111 0000 1010 0000 0100 1001 0110 1110 1111 0000 1010. If you count each one and zero, you'll see that there are 64 numbers, or bits, in total. Well, 64 ones and zeroes is a lot of numbers, and you don't want your computer to lag so it's best to reduce everything to hex numbers. Hex is kind of like shorthand but with numbers instead of words. Hex takes each group of 4 ones and zeroes and assigns a number to it (there are charts and explanations
here and
here). That way, you end up with 16 numbers instead of 64 numbers. Each 4-bit hexadecimal group is called a nibble, and an 8-bit group is called a bite. Why not call a bit a crumb? A 64-bit number would then be called a 64-crumb number and would be in keeping with the naming theme, lol. Anyway…all of those numbers I typed out above can be reduced to a hex number of 0496EF0A0496EF0A (see the charts I linked above). There are sixteen characters in 0496EF0A0496EF0A; each character represents one group of ones and zeroes as I explained above.
Okay, so you've taken 64 ones and zeroes and reduced them to 16 characters. Now what? All of these stupid numbers must actually mean something or what's the point? In Sims 4, groups of ones and zeroes actually
do mean something—for instance, hats are represented by 0010, and 0010 has a hex value of 2—but that's not what I'm explaining right now. For your project, you will need to generate a hash and you need to know what that means.
In the game, file types are represented by numbers. For instance, a DST image file is represented by 00B2D882. A mesh is represented by 01D10F34. It’s like how you would use the word "human" to represent what
type of being you are. TS4 uses 00B2D882 or 01D10F34, etc., to represent what
type of file something is.
But wait, there's more! The game also uses groups. Admittedly, I’m not sure exactly what that is. I think it’s a number that represents a category in the game, but I’m not sure of this and I don’t know what method EA uses to come up with the group numbers. Maybe someone can explain this? I’d sure appreciate it. 😊
And then there are instance numbers. You have a username on this forum. It’s a unique name and it’s what identifies you. Instance numbers are like unique usernames—these numbers are what the game uses to identify an item and every item in the game has a unique instance number. If you make a custom content item, you need a unique instance number. If you were making a default replacement, you would use the instance number of whatever you’re replacing. Does that make sense?
This is where the hash generator comes in. This is how you create a unique instance number for your custom content. In Studio, go to tools > hash generator. Enter in some text—many people use their creator name and something else like the date or something—and you will see that it magically creates three instance numbers. A 24-bit number (FNV24), a 32-bit number (FNV32), and a 64-bit number (FNV64). Since the game and your computer are 64-bit, it’s the 64-bit number that you want. For some reason, however, the latest version of Studio (3.2.0.3 Star) is showing FNV56 and not FNV64. I don’t know if this is a bug or not, but it’s the last number that will give you your instance number. The instance number will consist of 16 characters.
Hopefully, I’ve explained this clearly and didn’t confuse you. If you have more questions, feel free to ask. 😊
