Object Override to Add Swatches Only

What item are you trying to use?

I'm sorry. I meant that I want to override the original and add new swatches. I don't want to have a standalone recolor, I want it to be in addition to the base game swatches. So in this case I would just need to add swatches to the item and nothing else would change.

This is such an interesting question because i've tried several times to do something like this for bg objects. So that there's no extra geometry. What i do is check override, do all the extra swatches, go into warehouse, filter by size and delete everything that is not in 0 (0 means that it is new in the package). And that clearly doesn't work. it's a shame..

isn't model and model lods the geometry? There should be an easier way of recoloring without including the actual mesh that is already present in the game.

It is mandatory to include the Model and Model LODs with a recolor because the reference to the diffuse texture is inside the Model and Model LOD resource. If you do not include these resources the game will not be able to connect your recolor image with the correct mesh. This .package structure is determined by EA. Unlike previous games where images were referenced from outside the resource that holds the mesh, they chose to put both mesh and texture reference inside the same resource. They are aware that the community doesn't find this convenient but, so far, they have indicated no interest in changing this .package structure.

There are only models for the levels of detail EA felt were needed for any given item. Within the models there are entries for each swatch. For an example showing what I mean I'll use a default override (exact clone) of EA's little draped table and look in the Warehouse:



Once there I click on the Model LOD resource that corresponds to the high quality level of detail in the game.  As expected, there is a Meshes section because the Model LOD contains the mesh.  I click the Edit Items button to see what is inside the Meshes section besides the mesh itself:




First I find a section for each mesh group in the Model LOD.  This table LOD has a main mesh that uses the Phong shader, and it has a shadow plane mesh that uses the Dropshadow shader.  I select the main mesh and click the Edit Items button in the Material/Entries section:





The Entries section contains a list of VariantId's.  The list begins with a default set that EA includes in most, if not all, objects.  It then goes on to include a set for each swatch that is in the .package.  A set includes a Diffuse line plus Burnt and Dirty lines if the item can burn or become dirty.  For this example, I will click on the first non-default Diffuse line and then select the Material/Items section:




The next box that appears contains all the data governing the material that is applied for this swatch.  One of the lines is a reference to a diffuse map that shows its group, type, and instance:




If I copy the instance number and return to the main Warehouse screen I can find that the first swatch image has the same group, type, and instance numbers:




That is, this image is referenced from within the VariantId that is within the Meshes that is inside the Model LOD. This reference attaches this image to the mesh that is inside the Model LOD.  Further, if I look at any other resource in this .package I will not find any other reference to this image.  The only place this image is tied to the mesh is inside the Model LOD.  If I delete the Model LOD, the image itself will no longer be tied to the Model.  If I put this unreferenced image into the game, the game will have no way to figure out that I want it to be applied to the table mesh.  This .package structure was determined by EA and there is nothing we can do about it.

I agree with you that this .package structure is unfortunate.  Previous games had a .package structure where the mesh and the texture were both referenced inside some third resource.  You could remove the mesh from the .package while retaining a reference to it.  A .package with that structure allowed you to put a new texture into the game with a reference to the mesh you wanted it applied to without including the mesh.  I wish EA had retained this .package structure for Sims 4 and, I knew the first time I saw that they had not that it was going to be a PIA for our community.  The best that we can do now is reference unedited, but required, resources from recolor .packages so that they will require the original.package in the Mods folder.  That is what Studio's recolor feature does.  Unfortunately, this solution wil not serve the purpose of the OP.

I've added this info to the components of an EA object documentation now too...idk why I didn't put it there in the first place :P