Sideblog mainly for reblogging Sims 2 CC and occasionally otherwise TS2 related stuff | I’m a mom now and unfortunately don’t have the luxury of time to tag all these posts anymore. Sorry!
I was going to write this up in a reply to a specific person, but I thought it would make a better standalone post.
I think Paralives is a case where a little knowledge is a dangerous thing - if you're coming from a Sims background, some of the subtle differences can leave you way more confused and stumped than someone coming to the game completely fresh-eyed.
But having sunk the past few days into the open access, I truly feel like it has good sandbox life sim gameplay, so here are some tips for anyone coming to Paralives from a Sims background who doesn't know how to quite approach this game!
(It's very long, because I cover a lot of stuff, but I tried to make it clear enough that you can skip around to the parts that interest you:)
Quick tip for the Paramaker: In my opinion this is a really great character creator, BUT if you're coming to it from The Sims 2 or even 3, you'll need to alter your mindset. It's a lot closer to The Sims 4's CAS in that to achieve certain features you to pick a preset that's closest to what you want and edit it - you won't be able to reverse-engineer every feature from every starting point.
Visual example: If you want a rounded nose closer to the one on the left, don't start with a pointed nose like the one on the right, and vice-versa.
Below: Some more examples of features which are only or most easily attainable through presets; cleft and bulbous chins under the "chins" presets, cheekbones and jowls in the "cheeks" presets, etc.
Basically, if you're having a hard time wrangling a Para's features into what you want, double-check the related presets for a better launching pad.
Unlike The Sims 4, though, you still have the benefit of manual sliders; here's the eye modifiers for example - if I were to click and hold the button for "eye position", I could drag the mouse around to move the eye around the Parafolk's head. HOWEVER, if you click on that modifier, you can see sliders for the parameters I'm actually controlling when I do that - namely, how far apart the eyes are (width), and how high on the head they are (height). So you have the benefit of being able to sculpt your Para's head in broad strokes, and then manually edit the sliders to make very fine alterations.
And if you make a mistake, don't worry. At any time during gameplay you can open the cheat console (CTRL+SHIFT+C) and enter "editcharacter" to open up the Paramaker again and edit them as much as you want, so you aren't locked into anything.
Another Paramaker or outfitting tip: When selecting clothing with layers, check for the layering icon (outlined here in red). This allows you to swap out the clothing underneath, which you can also customise. Secondly, the tucked/untucked icon (outlined here in green) allows you to choose whether some pieces are- well, tucked in to pants or not, lol.
I like big households in The Sims, so I picked a household with 3+ Parafolk in it for my first playtest, but in retrospect I think it would have been better to start by playing a single-person household. The core mechanics of the game can take a second to get used to and there's so much in the world to explore that I think it would've been nicer to worry less about multiple Parafolk while I was still learning to walk.
The skill system in Paralives is nested: There are broader "knowledge" skills, and then other related but more focused skills under them; for example, "music" is a knowledge skill, under which are the skills "guitar", "piano", etc. Practicing a specific skill - for example, playing the guitar - will not only raise your guitar skill, but your broader music skill, too. And if you then start learning how to play the piano, your existing music skill means you will pick up the piano faster. Sometimes your Parafolk will not be able to increase the base knowledge skills, usually because of something like being in a bad mood or having low motives. So a Para who's really tired when they're practicing the guitar might still raise their guitar skill, but it won't raise their broader music skill.
Parafolk have "wants", but you get to/have to pick them, based on their emotions. Emotions in Paralives work in a similar way to moodlets in The Sims 3, in that Paras can feel multiple emotions at once, and to different degrees. These impact various things; your success rate at certain social interactions (see below), how effectively you gain skills, whether your Paras will even agree to perform actions at all, etc. Randomly, these emotions will get little exclamation marks next to them, which means your Parafolk wants to choose how they "react" to that emotion. This is a want! Click on the emotion to choose from a little list, which is decided by their personality, recent actions, hobbies, etc. The option you select from this list becomes one of their wants and the rest are discarded. Wants reset when Paralives sleep and at the end of the day, but you can pin one want to hold onto it until you fulfill it (or un-pin it).
Fulfilling Parafolks' wants earns them personality experience points. When they level up, you get to choose upgrades along trees based on their personality (vibe), social perk, and talent (hobby). These perks are less like personality traits and more like the Aspiration benefits from Sims 2 Freetime, or the Professions your farmer can choose from when skilling up in Stardew Valley. IMO they don't dictate your Parafolks' personalities or railroad them into certain behaviours. This system is definitely still being worked on and some of these perks aren't very useful lol (while others are VERY useful), but it's a neat system so far. IIRC I also had the option to add to one of my Para's Physique/Mind/Creativity/Charisma points during one level-up? I presume they might add other ways to increase or change these stats in the future, because there are some things like jobs that require you to have them to a certain level.
Socialisation in Paralives is like a series of mini event cards, and increasing friendship with other Paras is not the only or even the primary outcome. It is not like the Sims, where socialisation is a pretty shallow and easy grind until Sims achieve the relationship you want. In Paralives, the most immediate outcome of talking to other Paras is that you have the chance to improve (or dampen) your Para's mood and the mood of the Parafolk they're talking to. What mood you want your Para to be in can depend on their personality, perks, wants, goals, and the direction you want to take the conversation/relationship.
I kept falling back into the thought process that a "good" outcome from conversation cards was the same thing as 🧑🤝🧑➕➕, but that's not what a positive outcome (usually) achieves. And a "negative" interaction does not necessarily lower your relationship. Think about it more as if you are trying to keep a game of cards going: avoiding bad cards, playing neutral/bonus cards, until the card you REALLY want comes up. This might sound tedious until you realise that the right card can immediately make your Parafolk friends, or romantic interests, etc. and then the way it scales with socialisation in The Sims makes more sense. Play your (together) cards right, and you could befriend another Parafolk within a short conversation. I really enjoy the feedback loop of socialisation in Parafolks once I got the hang of it!
Your Parafolk's personalities and interests matter much more in how well they get along with other Paras. You can't just force a friendship between two clashing Paras the way you can force a friendship between any two Sims by spamming social interactions. Find a Para with a personality closer to yours and you'll have a much easier time befriending them.
There are other bonuses to conversations, too. There are cards that give you the opportunity to learn more about the Parafolk you're talking to, such as their relationship status, family, job, personality, etc. You also sometimes get options to boost your and other Para's moods, and my favourite part: talking about skills increases that skill for all interested Parafolk! (Uninterested Parafolk get bored instead, which is another good way to learn more about them.)
In The Sims, group activities - playing games, watching TV together, WooHoo, etc - often require one Sim to initiate the action, then call the other to join, or to interact with the other Sim first and ask them to start the activity together. In Paralives, similar activities are usually initiated by selecting multiple Paras and directing one of them to start. For example, click and drag to select two Paras, then click on a couch to get them to sit together and chat, or a bed to get them to "get intimate". Parafolk are also experts at body doubling and a lot of actions can be done "together"; cooking, eating, showering, walking, etc. The entire time counts as raising the conversation bar to get new together cards, so socialisation doesn't have to be a static thing like in The Sims; see how far your Paras can get going about their lives without breaking a conversation!
This gets interesting with certain needs. For example, I had two Parafolk in a group and directed both of them to use a toilet. I expected one of them just to kind of hang out while the first one did their business (gross but socially efficient), but the other Para actually hunted down a second toilet on the lot to use! Can be useful when managing multiple Parafolk's needs in a hurry?
Speaking of selecting multiple Parafolk - you can also hold down shift, then click and drag over individual Paras to add them to the group, kind of like computer files, lol. This helps you avoid including other random Paras. CTRL+U also automatically selects all the Paras in the household you're currently playing (useful with smaller families).
Parafolk not only automatically wash their hands after using the toilet, but also after cleaning and repairing objects, so keep this in mind when queuing actions 👍
Books do still exist in Paralives, but computers kind of better fill their role. Basic skilling and other grunt work is better handled by a computer than a bookcase, so if you have to choose one, choose the PC.
Careers in Paralives seem to make a LOT more use of lateral motion than The Sims, and most jobs have much higher application requirements than anything in The Sims. What I mean by that is that it makes a lot more sense to just find any job your Para qualifies for, then use that time and experience to gain skills necessary to qualify for the job they actually want (and they can suggest wants or long-term goals for certain careers, usually talent/hobby-based, which can be worth pinning and working towards). Sometimes experience in one field can allow you to qualify for a job in a different field; for example, you can work in the service industry to get enough experience in service to get a job as a waiter, which also gives you experience in the food industry, which you can use to qualify for jobs in the kitchen. You should also have your Parafolk manually apply for a job in a higher position in the same career after earning experience in their entry-level position rather than randomly waiting to get promoted from, like, a fast food line cook to a restaurateur.
If your Parafolk works in a store (e.g. the salon), then the front door is a rabbithole during their work hours. I didn't know how to best prepare my Parafolk for work so I sent them directly into the shops ahead of their shifts, but if you're doing that it's better to just let them loiter around outside; they will disappear at the front door when their shift starts and reappear when it's over, so there's no point in being actually inside the building, or even loading it at all.
Make use of the bus!! I thought the map was small enough not to need them unless I was going from one opposite end to the other, but they really are a life saver, especially for moving multiple Parafolk at once (click and drag to select all of them, then direct them to catch the bus - voila!) Learning the bus "zones" helped me break the map up into smaller chunks to get a feel of where I need to go. (Some bus stops are only the sign, not the whole shelter, for example at the base of the hospital.)
Calling Parafolk on the phone is currently borderline useless, but it's obviously something that will be fleshed out as the game grows. Instead, when you check on a Para's relationship - you see this thing here where it says "Find Parafolk"? The part that looks like a nothingly header between a banner and some actual stats?
Yeah, that's a BUTTON. Click it.
It will immediately show you on the map where that Para is so you can hunt them down like a conversation-seeking missile.
This is currently the best way to try and seek out specific Parafolk to befriend, because they're almost never home. It ALSO glitches sometimes unfortunately, but it usually works if I wait and try again later.
On the flipside you can break & enter into any Parafolk's house and they won't care. This is surely a bug and not a feature so take advantage of it while you can and just use everyone's furniture while they're out and about👍 Then bother them as much as you like when they arrive home at like, 12 AM.
Parafolk can check if they're pregnant via peeing on a stick on the toilet.
If you're lost on what to do next, check the newspaper (the one you the player read, not your Parafolk - look for the button in the top right corner of the screen) and one of the request noticeboards (there's one by the train station, usually with an exclamation mark above it). The newspaper will tell you about interesting events going on that will generally attract other Parafolk, allowing you to meet new Paras, take advantage of objects like computers or exercise equipment, etc. They also showcase areas of the map you may not have paid attention to before. The request noticeboard is a good way to befriend new Paras, earn Paradimes, and learn about mechanics such as hunting for collectibles, etc. (Note that these can sometimes be a bit glitchy, especially in befriending Parafolk I've noticed, but it's still a nice way to explore the game.)
Photo mode is super interesting and I can see how it will be incredibly powerful for machinima & storytelling, especially as they continue to iron out the kinks. But for casual gameplay screencaps I found it more useful to hit CTRL+H to hide the overlay. The navigation (click/dragging the mouse, etc) also seems to work closer to photo mode in this mode. It's kind of like cameraman mode in The Sims. The game doesn't tell you about it except for when you're in photo mode, and even then it doesn't explicitly tell you that CTRL+H still works even outside photo mode, so it's good to know early.
When it comes to decorating, a lot more objects are modular than you might think! Many can be lengthened, shortened, widened, and scaled up/down, while retaining functionality. Single beds can become queen, double, king size; bookshelves can be shrunk up or down; you can stretch one counter to size rather than placing multiple; the same table can be a tiny two-seater or a family dining table; desks and standing clothes hangers can be as wide as you want them; windows can not only go wherever you want on the wall, but be whatever dimension you need! Try it with a BUNCH of different buy AND build objects to achieve the vibes you want.
Also, this is specifically a tip for people coming from The Sims 2 since this became a lot more normalised in other Sims entries, but check objects for these three dots:
It means that object has variants, such as these matching corner, island, and cabinet counter pieces.
SAVE OFTEN! This game is in open access and bugs are inevitable. Do your part by making sure you save frequently so that you don't lose too much progress when something unintended happens.
That's it for now! I have played Paralives pretty much every day since I got it because I've wanted to, so if you have any questions, I can try my best to offer my advice from the perspective of a Simmer. 🫡
Update 19/5/2026: Added another version cloned from Monique's Hacked Computer. Both versions have the same GUID, so choose only one. For the hacked version to work you need to install the mod files.
A frankensteined version of the Moneywell Computer. The main object includes the screen, speakers, keyboard and mouse and it is functional. The case is a separate object and decorative (use cheats to place it under desks). Both objects can be found in the Electronics / TV and Computers catalogue. Requires all expansion packs, the Ultimate Collection or the Legacy Collection.
Known issues and differences
Sims will play the insert CD animation in the monitor when playing games. I didn't like that so I removed the CD. The animation will still play, but without the CD. Edit to clarify: in this computer.
When the computer breaks, sims will look as though they are repairing the monitor. This doesn't bother me, as broken monitors can sometimes smoke and spark (speaking from personal experience). Sims will turn the screen around when repairing it, their arms might clip through the speakers a bit when doing so.
5 transformer cribs made from cribs by Simaddict99.
These are 2-in-1 crib/toddler beds. Just one click on the bed to convert it from one model to another. The crib can be used for babies and toddlers, the toddler bed is for toddlers only. They can use the toddler bed by themselves.
The cribs are all repo'd to the game files. They have a new guide, so you can keep the cribs and the transformercribs (if you want)
SA99-MissionStyleTransformerCrib needs OFB. Other parts HERE.
SA99-AtomicAgeTransformerCrib needs PETS. Other parts HERE.
SA99-SeasonMatchTransformerCrib needs SEASONS. Other HERE.
SA99-TikiTransformerCrib needs SEASONS. Other parts HERE.
SA99-GLMatchLuxuryTransformerCrib needs GLS. Other parts HERE.
All credits to Simaddict99 for the cribs, Rebecka for making toddlerbeds first and to @lamare-sims for making the transformercribs possible!
Download: SFS
The beautiful crib bedding is by @curiousb. Post is here, SFS here
For those of you looking for a Sims 3 camera mod that is not behind an early access pawall, here is a mod from @arro-now on Nexus mods:
Makes Paralives camera behave like the one in The Sims 3.
I'm not going to be using mods unless they are available on the Steam Workshop, and I know that means I won't be using scripted mods. However, I want to support modders who are providing free mods to the community, so I wanted to give this a plug.
I am pretty content with the camera at the moment and only have one setting set up on a local mod. I'll share how I did that in a later post. In the meantime, here is your Sims 3 camera. 😘
I needed a few storage solutions for my workshops so I made some.
Here are two new objects (both take their textures from the BG Independant Inc. Easel and will pick any recolors you have for it).
Single Storage Shelf. One tile. 36 deco slots. 892 polys. Costs 89$. Categorized as Surface > Shelf.
Double Storage Shelf. Two tiles. 84 deco slots. 1012 polys. Costs 149$. Categorized as Surface > Shelf.
Both can be used for businesses but you won't be able to set the price of all objects on it at once with the Set Price tool like you can do with OFB shelves : you have to set the price of all objects one by one (but it also means you can sell the shelves themselves !).
I also made a random recolor of the BG Independant Inc. Easel for testing purpose and I quite like it in the end so I'm also sharing it.
✅ Download : SFS | MTS
2026/05/24 : Fixed footprint (Sims walking through the shelves), and fixed slots refusing lots of deco clutter.
(yes it's a reference to the ultimate collection because...it is indeed an ultimate collection)
The Lighting Mod Ultimate Collection is a lighting mod/framework that allows players to switch lighting configurations on a lot-level basis.
Now, the game itself already utilizes lot-level lighting as far back as Nightlife for Downtown lots, and some lighting mods have combined this with the usage of cheat aliases to use different lighting configurations that potentially suit different lots of neighborhoods, or using different lighting color definitions (as in Cinema Secrets's implementation of World Lit by Fire), or the lighting direction changes in Maxis Match Lighting Mod.
However, Lighting Mod Ultimate Collection takes this a step further and features five lighting mods in one setup. This means one installation and you can switch from one config to another on the fly.
You may know how sinks get wiped from counters if you put some clutter in their corner slots (usually with moveobjects) and went to Live mode. I fixed that!
This is something I started in January and I finally found the will to finish what I started! Yay! It's my very first clothing conversion so it's not perfect by any means but it's good enough for my game :p
4t2 Arethabee's Noah Cargo Pants paired with Madlen's Bonnie Boots
Download -> SFS
AF-TF | Casual | Thin & Fat morph | 24 swatches | ~2600 poly
These same pants were converted before by others in the community: diwasims and e-neillan so pick whichever best fits your vision :P me personally i wanted BAGGY pants and HUGE shoes lol
Swatch under the cut!
This completely adorable deco giraffe was one of the TS2 bonus items, but the colors were a bit muted for my taste. So I gave them a refresh, and now they're good as new! Mesh included.
Again some more recolors of things I didn't want to make multiple uploads for. Some had been sitting in my folder for a year and I took a break from playing and making cc.
A couple of Ikea objects in cluedo colors. Swatch:
Fredrik Workstation
Strind End Table from the Ikea preorder things. These also come in colors from @withlovefromsimtown 's The IKEAning. Additional Swatch
Seasons tiki seating cushions in flower child colors. Swatch:
Bamboo Chair By Island Lumberjacks
Stranded From Nothing Atoll
A BG recliner and BG sofa in watchmen colors so they kind of match. Recliner texture is an edit of slig's edit of the original textures. on their defaults. I then made the fabric texture for the sofa from this. Swatch
Cheap Eazzzzze Puffy Recliner. I made the wood for the handle black, but it turns out it the wood is a separate non-recolorable subset. I haven't seen a cep extra to make it recolorable but I recommend this cep extra that repo's it to the craftmeister bookcase.
Durable Value Sofa
All files are compressed with included Strind table mesh, preview and swatches.
Okay hi! Yeah, this took way longer than expected. Kind of had to be pushed a few times to get my butt up and sit. That's neither here nor there lol. I hope you like them, please let me know if any issues.
The plantsim default uses Jawusa's default that includes child/teen life stages. If you don't use Midge's mod it should be fine. Again, let me know if any issues.
Download All - LC | MF | SFS
Pick & Choose - MF | SFS
info below the cut
Curls | CU-EU | animated | base colors | 9.233 poly
Fade (Design) | UU | base colors | 4.130 poly
Fantasy | TF-EF | base colors + 8 | 5.525 poly
Fern | UU | animated | base colors + 1 | 4.008 poly | default inc.
Loc Bun | CU-EU | animated | base colors | 5.502 poly
Long Leaf | CU-EU | animated | base colors | 5.502 poly
Messy Bun (Tinsel) | CF-EF | animated | base colors | 4.388 poly
Mullet | UU | base colors | 4.668 poly
Twist (Tinsel) | CU-EU | animated | base colors | 6.776 poly
small update: Naming convention for male hairs has been updated from EP20 to EP19. If you weren't aware, the defaults for leafy were updated back in March (fixed property set, new color for wilted), and now there's a folder for SFS.
cute witchy recolours by simsticfairy on 4t2 meshes by Balkopat, LordCrumps, EnjaToki (edited by JinxxSims, I believe) and littlelittlesimmies. Meshes included with my thanks to all.. <3
Hey cuties! ₍^. .^₎⟆ Im sooooo glad that I am finally done with this top ૮ ˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶ ა I had so many problems with it and was working on it for months. I originally wanted to make a teen and elder version too, but I have no nerves left. I’m just happy the stress is finally over xD 𐔌՞. .՞𐦯 Its not perfekt, but it has a great personality
First off, I just wanted to say thank you for all of the positive feedback I've received over the past few days — I'm really pleased to see that my mod seems to have been effective for so many of you!
I am aware that my dissertation/thesis is really rather technical, filled with lots of academic/flowery language, and probably quite overwhelming to try and understand if you're lucky enough to have not studied computer science, so I wanted to attempt to break the key parts of it down into the simplest terms possible, to hopefully help answer some of the questions I've seen people have.
What is the pink soup?
The pink/purple strobe lighting we all know and love is 1 of 4 uniquely coloured shaders the game uses to indicate a specific type of error has occurred when trying to display something on-screen. The 3 other colours it uses (you've likely seen at least one of them) are red, blue, and yellow.
These shaders serve two main purposes:
To let you know something has gone wrong in an obvious (albeit obnoxious) manner.
To allow the game to keep running in spite of whatever error has happened (otherwise it would just crash).
Internally, the error that the pink soup represents is known as a "material parsing failure", i.e. the game has failed to understand some piece of material data (textures, rendering properties etc.) about an object it is trying to render.
Part of the process the game goes through before rendering an object to the screen is checking that its data only contains specific characters (numbers, letters, and certain symbols) — an example of when this would fail and trigger the pink soup would be if the game came across a random emoji during these checks.
What does 32-bit/64-bit mean?
A 'bit' is just a single digit of a binary number. All you really need to know is that a 32-bit number is a binary number that is 32 digits (bits) long, with the largest binary number possible being 32 consecutive 1s (1111111…).
I'm not going to bore you to death and show you how to convert binary numbers to decimal, so you'll just have to believe me when I say that 32 consecutive 1s in binary is equivalent to 4,294,967,295 in decimal.
4.2 billion might seem like a pretty high value to be able to represent, but if I said this is roughly equal to 4GB, you might be able to start to see how 32-bit computers/software could be a bit (no pun intended) limited memory-wise. For comparison, the largest decimal value a 64-bit binary number can represent is 18,446,744,073,709,551,615, or just under 18.5 exabytes (EB)!
But what if I wanted to represent the number 5 billion in 32-bit binary? Here's the fun thing — you can't. If you tried, the binary number would 'wrap around'. As in, it would max out at 32 consecutive 1s
before resetting back to 0 and continuing to count up until it reached the binary value of 705,032,705 (5,000,000,000 - 4,294,967,295 = 705,032,705).
This is what is meant when we say that The Sims 2 can only use up to 4GB of your computer's memory (RAM) — it is physically unable to access/store data in more than 4,294,967,296 different memory addresses (it's 4,294,967,296 because the range of possible addresses would be 0 to 4,294,967,295).
If you're not sure what I mean when I talk about 'memory addresses', you can think of the concept as being like your home address (your house number, street name, and postal/zip code). It's just the location a piece of data lives at in memory so the game knows where to find it if it needs to use it for something.
Once the game has run out of memory addresses to use to store things, it will crash. The only way this could be fixed would be if EA magically decided to rewrite the game's engine to be 64-bit, thus allowing it to use an exponentially larger number of addresses.
Why does the pink soup happen?
This is where things get interesting. While the game is loading, the material data for the objects in your neighbourhood/lot is stored at individual addresses in your computer's memory so it can be processed.
Part of this processing involves the game taking all of the shader code found in the Materials.package file and linking the relevant shaders to the relevant pieces of material data of an object (e.g. a reflection shader
would be linked to the glass part of a mirror object), creating shader 'packages' for the whole object. Again, both these packages and the information that links them to the object are also stored in memory.
As you can probably imagine, if you have a large number of different objects in your hood/lot (particularly more complex/detailed objects with many rendering properties), the amount of free memory the game has to use to keep storing things starts to decrease FAST.
Back in ye olden days of 2004 when The Sims 2 was released, 32-bit was the most commonly used architecture for consumer-grade hardware and software. Despite its known drawbacks, the 4GB memory restriction was not really a huge issue, as the technical limitations of the time meant your parents' PC would likely catch fire and explode long before this level of memory usage could be reached in-game.
Windows XP (the operating system the game was primarily developed for) was also a 32-bit operating system. The way XP handled the 4GB memory limit was simple:
2GB was given to the kernel (the core of the operating system).
2GB was given to applications (i.e. The Sims 2).
This is why it is commonly recommended to apply what is known as a '4GB patch' to the game, as by default, it still thinks it's living in 2004 and is only allowed to use 2GB of memory — the 4GB patch therefore permits the game to use the full 4GB of memory it is able to support.
So, where does the pink soup come in to this?
Basically, there is a piece of logic within the game's code that is used during the process of linking shaders to material data described above. All this logic does is check whether the material data it is being given is stored at a memory address above or below the 2GB mark, presumably some kind of relic of the Windows XP days.
For whatever reason (either due to a bug or intentional design), for data stored above 2GB, the game performs additional checks which will ALWAYS FAIL, and the game will treat this data as being malformed/invalid, refusing to link any shaders to it.
Hopefully, the chain of causality should now be clear:
The capabilities of our hardware has increased dramatically in the past 20+ years.
We've all been applying a 4GB patch to the game to allow it to make use of more of our RAM.
We've also all been installing a load of cool custom content and creating highly decorated hoods/lots because our fancy graphics cards can handle them easily.
All of these objects are causing memory usage to quickly surpass the originally intended 2GB range.
The game is considering any data for the objects stored above this range to be invalid and refusing to do anything with it.
The pink/purple error shader is instead being applied to these objects because the game thinks there is something wrong with their material data.
In conclusion, The Sims 2 is confused and elderly, frequently soiling itself when presented with high-tech information from the far off future of the 2020s that its puny 2004 mind can't possibly comprehend.
What are the differences between v1/v2 of the mod?
Both versions of the mod patch the same piece of logic in the game's code, but with differing approaches.
With v1, the additional (and always failing) checks the game performs on material data stored above the 2GB mark are essentially patched out, meaning they are not executed and shaders will always be correctly linked to them, regardless of their location in memory.
This is great, as you should never see any pink soup that would usually be triggered by these failed checks. Consequently however, the game will give you no indication that it is running out of memory, except for when it inevitably crashes once all free memory has been used up.
On the other hand, v2 makes use of these faulty checks. Instead of removing them completely, they are repurposed to warn you of high memory usage, with the game not performing these checks until material data starts being stored above the 3.5GB mark. This means you will still see pink soup, but only once memory usage exceeds 3.5GB.
This is intentional, and is meant to be a trade-off between allowing the game to correctly process more data in memory, but also still letting you know that a crash may be imminent some time after the pink soup appears, giving you enough breathing room to save and restart the game before this happens.
To illustrate these differences better, here is roughly what the code is doing in the vanilla game, v1, and v2 of the mod:
Vanilla:
if memory address <= 2GB
everything is fine, continue as usual
if memory address > 2GB
pink soup time!
V1:
if memory address <= 2GB
everything is fine, continue as usual
if memory address > 2GB
everything is fine, continue as usual
V2:
if memory address <= 3.5GB
everything is fine, continue as usual
if memory address > 3.5GB
pink soup time!
Which version should I choose?
There's no correct option, but if you play with a lot of CC or with highly decorated hoods/lots, I would probably recommend starting with v2, only for the so-called 'safety' reasons I outlined above.
I personally use v1 because I play very vanilla, so I know memory usage should never really get that high. If you're like me, or you just don't care about potential crashes and want to be rid of the pink soup, then v1 of the mod is the one for you :)
I know people likely still have many questions, so I've enabled the 'Ask me anything' option on this blog - feel free to use it!
hello hello! I wondered if you might like to convert a few plants from aroundthesims4 from their plant life set? Plant (hard) Life in their room sets, I believe. Specifically the spilled plants (the snake plant, succulent and terra cotta pot plants) I thought this would be especially fun in my cat loving sims houses haha - mog
Plant Life Spilled Plants for The Sims 2
These are 4to2 conversions from AroundTheSims, low poly, all recolors.
DOWNLOAD HERE
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[insert simlish] @commonsimmer - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag
