Key Terminology

Here are some of the key terms you'll encounter when beginning to mod Sims 4.

Tuning
Imagine "tuning" a radio to the correct station. You can turn it to disco channel, news channel or sports channel.

Tuning is a file which "tunes" part of the program correctly.


 * Does this interaction exist for every Sim, or just Vampires?
 * When a Sim becomes happy, are they +1 happy or +10 happy?
 * How long does it rain for - 10 minutes or 30?
 * When Father Winter appears, what is he wearing?

And so on.

Tuning files are in XML, a markup language (like markdown, bbcode or html) which is easy for people to read and understand.

There are many different types of Tuning depending on what the task is. For example, Object Tuning describes how an object behaves; Interaction Tuning describes what happens in an interaction; and so on.

To look at Tuning Files, you need a copy of Sims 4 installed. Tuning files can then be extracted:


 * using XML Extractor
 * This will extract all the Tuning files as text files to a folder of your choice.
 * You can then open them in Notepad++ or another text program to see what they do, and edit them.
 * using Sims 4 Studio
 * on the top bar, click Extract Tuning, and you can browse/search the Tuning files by name
 * Shift-select as many as you like, click Add to Package, and you can then read and edit them within S4S.

Buff
A buff is like an adjective. It describes the state something is in. Examples of Buffs include:


 * Mood: Flirty 10

Buffs are created with Buff Tuning.

Buffs can be visible, or hidden;

Learn more: Buff

Loot
A loot is like a verb, an instruction or an action. It's used to attach two parts of a mod together: when this, loot-do that.

An example is to use loots in combination with Buffs. Let's say you've created a Buff -.

When a Sim does an interaction (" "), you want that Sim and the Sim who saw it to have your new Buff. In your Interaction Tuning, you can't link straight to the Buff. You need a Loot as a bridge.


 * WRONG: Interaction:  > Buff:
 * RIGHT: Interaction: >  Loot:   > Buff:

Learn more: Loot