Weird. EA's website gives a 404 error when I try to access the license via their website...
Good thing I know a place
that copied it as a way to explain their legitimacy...
I excerpted parts that seem relevant.
From the EA TOOLS END USER LICENSE:
You may include materials created with the Tools & Materials on your personal noncommercial website for the noncommercial benefit of the fan community for EA's products, provided this is beneficial to the product(s) in EA's judgment, and provided that if you do so, you must also post the following notice on your site on the same web page(s) where those materials are located: "This site is not endorsed by or affiliated with Electronic Arts, or its licensors. Trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Game content and materials copyright Electronic Arts Inc. and its licensors. All Rights Reserved." You will not represent that your site is endorsed or approved by or affiliated with EA or our licensors or that any other content on your site is endorsed or approved by or affiliated with EA or our licensors.
From the The Sims 3 EULA for retail game:
2. Intellectual Property Rights and Ownership.
A. Reservation of Rights. You have purchased a limited license to the Software and your rights are limited to the license grant above and subject to this License. You may not otherwise copy, display, distribute, perform, publish, modify, or use the Software or any component of it. You are prohibited from making a copy of the Software available on a network where it could be used or downloaded by multiple users. Except as expressly licensed to you herein, EA and its licensors, as applicable, owns and reserves all right, title and interest in the Software, and all related data, characters, themes, objects, storyline, images, photographs, graphics, animations, video, music, text, and the associated copyrights, trademarks, moral rights and other intellectual property rights therein. This License is limited to the intellectual property rights of EA and its licensors in the Software and does not include any rights to other patents or intellectual property. Except to the extent permitted under applicable law, you may not decompile, disassemble, reverse engineer or created derivative works of the Software by any means whatsoever. You may not remove, alter, or obscure any product identification, copyright, or other intellectual property notices in the Software. All rights not expressly granted herein are reserved to EA.
B. Contributing Content through The Sims 3 Launcher
......
3. In exchange for enabling your contribution of content, when you contribute content through the Software, you expressly grant to EA a non-exclusive, perpetual, fully transferable and sub-licensable, worldwide, irrevocable right to use, reproduce, modify and create derivative works from, distribute, transmit, broadcast, and publicly display and perform the content, or any portion thereof, in connection with the distribution of such content to other users and potential users of the Software (such as, for example, featuring such content for download in The Sims 3 Launcher) and in the marketing and advertising of the Software, without further notice, payment or attribution to you. You grant EA all licenses, consents and clearances to enable EA to use such content for such purposes.
4. In exchange for the right to use content contributed by other users through the Software, when you contribute content through the Software, you expressly grant to other users of the Software the non-exclusive, perpetual, transferable, worldwide, irrevocable right to access and use, copy, modify, display, perform, and create and distribute derivative works from, your contributed content in connection with the Software, and to distribute and otherwise communicate your contributed content as a component of works that they create using the Software, for example, The Sims lots or The Sims videos, without further notice, attribution or compensation to you. You hereby waive any moral rights of paternity, publication, reputation, or attribution under applicable law with respect to EA.s and other players. use and enjoyment of such content contributions in connection with the Software.
Regardless of licensing, you could always draw some ideas from MTS's tutorials... Especially in the skin department (hint, hint).
Along with TSR:W, you may also want to look into S3Pi (Sims 3 Package Interface library) and S3pe (Sims 3 Package Editor), which can be found here:
http://www.simlogical.com/ (note: this link takes you to the same redirected site, but with a more subdued theme...)
MTS (Mod The Sims) forum for these tools:
http://modthesims.info/forumdisplay.php?f=604The main reason I mention these is because, unlike TSR:W, you can obtain and compile these from source:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/sims3tools/files/S3Pi is an open source library to support people wishing to make tools for The Sims 3. It is written in C# under .Net 3.5 and contains wrappers that implement methods to read and write package files, unpack packed files, and interpret several filetypes. This is probably a good place to start.
S3pe is package editor to view package contents and formatted editing of known resource. Includes has tools for searching package content and generating hashes. Also has external editors for VPXY, STBL and OBJK.
Here is a comprehensive tutorial for custom clothing (in the sims 3: clothing=bodies).
More tutorials here:
http://modthesims.info/wiki.php?title=T ... _TutorialsList of Sims 3 Modding tools:
http://modthesims.info/wiki.php?title=T ... ddingToolsAdvanced coding tutorials:
http://modthesims.info/wiki.php?title=T ... _TutorialsPackage files are files that are used in mods. This includes bodies, facial sliders (which can actually be used to change bodies as well), skins, objects in the game and gameplay mods. There also sims3packs which are run by the sims 3 launcher which contain just objects, worlds, patterns and custom sims.
The Sims 3 tools were made by Peter and Inge Jones. You can contact Peter through [url:http://www.drealm.info/contact.xhtml]his website[/url] or through any of the previously mentioned forums.
Also, don't forget, even if there are licensing issues with EA for the default content, you could probably contact some Sims 3 modders to see if its ok to use THEIR original meshes and skins. Some modders have created skins and meshes that replace the default "EAxis" ones. I'm not a lawyer, and these are probably derivates in one way or another.