Clothing recolor using SimPE

Overview

This tutorial will explain how to recolor a clothing package using SimPE.

SimPE
A graphic editor that can handle 32-bit PNG files. These are files that use four bytes for each pixel: three of them are the familiar RGB, and the fourth is the Alpha

We don't; Bodyshop does the same thing.

However:

this method allows you to chose the package by name, instead of the time-consuming method of running Bodyshop and searching the file by name
this method modifies an existing file, and the modification is applicable to Sims that already use the clothes

If you are playing, close the Sims 2 game
Backup the package you want to change
Start SimPE
Select the Open option, and chose the clothing package by name
Go to the images directory of the package
Select the image you want to edit and export it
This will create a PNG file. The name is something like ##0x5f20a6c7!body~stdMatBaseTextureName_txtr_1024x1024.png
Edit the PNG file using an external application, modify it and save it
Verify if the PNG file wasn't corrupted: one way is to check in its "properties" to see if it's still a 32-bit PNG
You didn't close SimPE, so you are still in the "export image" option. Now use the "import" option and replace it
Save the package
Restart the Sims 2 game and check if the modification was ok
- If anything went wrong, recover the backup and try Bodyshop