WRITING THE CMX FILE
(NO ACESSORIES, THE BODY ALONE)
In this step, I am just going to make a basic cmx file for the new body model, no acessories, just the body. It will be realatively easy, and I will show you just how easy it can be, so long as you are careful and take your time, and profread like a maniac. One wrong letter or number and your mesh will either not work, crash the game or simshow, or just generally be a pain in your butt.
The easiest way, I found, is to write over a pre-existing .cmx file. For a more detailed chapter on this with more specifics, go here.
I will even give you one for a fit female as a starting point. It's just one of Maxis' basic cmx's, but if you would like to take a peek at it yourself, snag it here.
Open up the .cmx file in a text program. Notepad, works just fine. (just right click on it, and selct the open with option. Scroll down to find Notepad. Just be sure you do not leave the box checked that says "always use this program to open up this type of file" because it will ruin all of your cmx's.) When you open it up, it will look like this:
// Character File. Copyright 1997, Maxis Inc.
version 300
0
1
b002fafit_01
0
0
1
PELVIS
xskin-b002fafit_01-PELVIS-BODY
0
0
0
I'm going to change the b002fafit_01 part to b531fafit_shi and rename
the cmx file when I save it to b531fafit_shi.cmx .
You can see where the file name and number are in the original .cmx twice.
I will copy the b531fafit_shi part of the xskin file name to make sure
I don't misspell or mistype and paste it over the b002fafit_01 parts in
this cmx file.
Now it looks like this:
// Character File. Copyright 1997, Maxis Inc.
version 300
0
1
b531fafit_shi
0
0
1
PELVIS
xskin-b531fafit_shi-PELVIS-BODY
0
0
0
The cmx file has been written. Now to save it, I select "save as" and then save it as b531fafit_shi.cmx , this time, typing in the .cmx part.
And I save all of this to my project folder where the .skn file is.
Done.
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