The Sims 2. SMOOTH. NO PINK FLASHING. NO CRASHING. In 2022.
Hi again Simmers!
Last year (2022) I am really frustrated about running TS2 in my new computer. Short story: as many of you, I can't play normally.
Today I had an idea: a dedicated hard drive only to play safely the game. Installing a Windows 7 2021 Edition (it can be installed in new machines with UEFI) in a new hard drive and later installing The Sims 2 in this hard drive with Windows 7 2021 Edition.
One computer. Two OS. One with Windows 7 to play The Sims 2 and another with Windows 11 for the rest. Only booting the computer with Windows 7 when I want to play the game.
I will try this option next days. Has anyone tried it before?
2 days later...
I did it... and it is working. My game is working as old good times finally. Smooth. No pink flashing. No crashing. And finally I can "play" this damn beautiful game -or (rather) toy- again.
Did you know sims in this game are supposed to autonomously tease eachother for their bad memories just like how they congratulate their good ones? Unfortunately they broke the teasing feature in a patch at some point.
To be exact, the teasing was broken with Nightlife. It never worked anymore after as the error they introduced was never caught in any patch after that.
A while ago I have released a mod that fixes this as well as issues with the Congratulate interaction where Sims could congratulate each other on bad memories. Here’s the link. Look for “Stupid Congrats and Tease Begone!” :)
For anyone wondering what went wrong: Firstly, Maxis changed the Guardian BHAV in a way where the game would never recognise a memory to be negative because the wrong Temp value got checked.
And secondly, they also reworked a large table with all sorts of constants for each social interaction, likely switched some places around and accidentally gave Tease the “Kiss of the Vampire” values, which of course are all wrong (e.g. leading to Teasing increasing the Attraction Score, or unintentionally locking the interaction from children).
Special thanks to @lordcrumps for making maxis and clean ui pics and counting pixels with me. It was his and @simnopke's idea to make this thing bigger
Some behind the scenes under the cut
Stage 1, breaking out of the tiny window
Stage 2, figuring out how to mod UI again
Stage 3, going big! But not quite there yet
Stage 4, "should I move it 1 more pixel to the left"
🤓
Secret bonus version for behind the scenes viewers who think that smaller is better, available exclusively and only in starship colors (you can only have one version)
Old recolors will not work for this (anyone seen any?). Please note the fix goes into CEP-Extra folder in Documents. The simplest way to fix this lamp would be to delete lightpattern subset from GMDC but I took a different route, removed lamp interior subset so the other one could work. That's why it looks less bright inside.
• Orbs Of Connectedness Ceiling Lamp [UNI]
Light fix & texture replacement (optional)
Also includes a fix for the Circle Of Light Friendship aka Groovy Floor Lamp.
Have you ever wondered why Bodyshop makes your PC work so hard?
BODYSHOP HAS NO FPS LIMIT
With limited frame rate, Bodyshop only puts a strain on PC when it loads CAS content. If your GPU fans go significantly faster the entire time you have Bodyshop open, then FPS is very likely way too high.
It's similar case for TS2 game - but FPS also depends on your system / PC /Laptop and the way you run TS2.
➤ To check FPS in the game, use a shortcut: Ctrl + Shift + S to bring up FPS HUD. FPS is displayed right in the upper left corner.
Tip: if FPS is changing too fast, take a few screenshots so you can read FPS from those
➤ If you set a limit to 60 FPS, that tells CPU/GPU to produce 60 game frames per second. This is the sensible number for TS2. Without FPS limit, your hardware is trying to put out frames as fast as it possibly can, heating up and using unnecessary amounts of energy.
The Sims 2 engine was not designed to run any higher than 100 FPS
➤ When you play The Sims 2 with TS2 RPC & borderless window, Windows Desktop Manager usually handles frame rates. Same for windowed TS2 Legacy edition. This is thanks to Vsync*, which forces desktop's default refresh rate on game window.
*In case of high-refresh gaming monitors / laptops, FPS limit imposed by Vsync may not be low enough for TS2.
*I showed a screenshot of my hood, but I recommend checking FPS in lot view, because in hood view, 'heavy' particle effects like clouds can dramatically slow down FPS even on a modern gaming GPU.
➤ On older gear, FPS may never go beyond ~70 even without the limit, but CPU / GPU still try hard to reach the unachievable frame rate.
Varying FPS numbers may be an indicator that the game is running uncapped, OR that the default frame rate is set too high for your system to handle.
➤ On modern gaming GPU, you'll have no problem telling the game runs uncapped - FPS in lot view usually oscillates between ~200 - 600.
➤ A few ways to set FPS limit:
Playing a game in windowed mode often solves high FPS issue. Unless you have a monitor with high refresh rate. But the general recommendation for old, uncapped DX9 games is: do not trust WDM, do not rely on Vsync, set a hard FPS limit.
If you use DXVK, you can set FPS cap in the DXVK config file, both for the game, and for Bodyshop (you pick the same 32-bit d3d9 version). *I've explained how I tweaked my DXVK's FPS in this post here.
If you don't use DXVK, and Windows Desktop Manager doesn't affect your game's FPS for some reason, or if you insist on playing fullscreen, you can set FPS limit for TS2 with driver-level GPU settings: Nvidia 3D program profile* / AMD adrenalin. Same applies to Bodyshop.
*Nvidia's global FPS cap may not work in fullscreen mode, often it's required to set FPS limit for TS2 exe specifically.
➤ In case of laptops using "Mux-less" or "Optimus" technology, the integrated Intel/AMD graphics card may be forcing FPS adjusted to screen refresh rate, ignoring Nvidia 3D profile's FPS limiter settings.
If so, you may need to use DXVK with FPS limit, or an external tool like Riva Tuner Statistics Server. RivaTuner apparently can make FPS feel smoother ;) It can be used along DXVK, too (but in that case you set limit with RTSS only, ofc).
TS2 game actually has the option to adjust screen refresh rate, it's in the middle of the graphic options tab. I was told that in the Legacy Edition, the Refresh Rate box is blank and permanently locked, meaning you cannot fix FPS inside the game menu.
I have Mr Dj's repack, and this box was always greyed out for me because I always used FPS cap. When I uncapped FPS, the refresh box became active, game allows me to switch between 59 and 60 mhz refresh options, but these do nothing. FPS stays at 80 for a while, then it goes uncapped.
Some say the Refresh Rate setting is broken in Legacy version, but ,more likely, it got disabled cuz it doesn't work anyway on modern systems.
just gonna go on about how i fixed the ofb uniform bug a little bit bc i'm feeling like yapping:
i found out that going to plan your swimwear outfit on a dresser after setting your uniform, then cancelling without making any changes fixed the uniform (for some reason only swimwear worked consistently)
so i assumed there must be some englne-level code that runs when the plan outfit dialog pops up that "validates" all outfits to make sure hair, accessories, the sim's face, etc. are all synced across outfits.
i thought i'd try to find and transplant this code to run when the uniform dialog is closed instead, which would solve the problem, however the disassembly looked too nightmarish, and i don't have the game reverse engineered enough to figure that bit out, so i did something easier:
i edited the uniform bhavs to launch the plan outfit dialog right after the uniform one. obviously this looked stupid and brute forced as you'd have to cancel out of plan outfit everytime afterwards, but it "solved" the problem, and it'd be perfect if i could manage to automatically close the dialog as soon as the code that fixes the outfit runs.
so that's what i did next. found the bit of code that runs when the plan outfit window is opened, found the bit of code that runs when you press the cancel button on it, and ran that right after the window is opened. worked good, but you could still see the window pop-up for a split second, which wasn't ideal, so the next step was to figure out where in memory the window visibility was stored and mark it as invisible on creation. that did it! seamless.
after all this was figured out, i created a variable/flag that gets set to true when the uniform dialog pops up, and this code to hide and auto-close the plan outfit dialog only runs if that flag is set to true, then sets it back to false. this means that only the plan outfit dialog that pops up after the uniform dialog is hidden and cancelled, so you can still use the plan outfit interaction freely!
this also does mean that if you install the fix .package without the TS2Extender .asi you'll get a plan outfit window everytime you set uniform. i guess that could also be some sort of fix/workaround if you can't install the .asi for whatever reason.
I'm looking for fresh new Sims 2 content to fill up my dashboard!
Reblog if you're currently active as a gameplay/storytelling Simblr. Whether you post daily, or once every few days, I wanna see what you're up to!
Ideally I'd love rotational gameplay, long-term 'hoods, BACCs, uberhoods, etc. I will still absolutely check out your content if you only do legacies or single-family households though.
i'm in my 30s so preferably only people who are 21+. i'm lgbtq-friendly.
Hello everyone, you may have seen my wonderfully useful no face slider april fools post - It's now time for something a bit more... everyday. This is what I was actually making before goofing off there for a bit. It's a full-face slider for well, face size.
It shrinks/increases the size of a sim's facial features (eyes, brows, mouth and nose) as a whole without altering the outer margins of the face where it connects to the neck/scalp, and I'm hoping the images above illustrate this a bit more effectively than I'm currently describing.
Available in both bodyshop and CAS
GET IT HERE
As always, if you spot any issues let me know and I'll try and fix them asap
No - my game works fine, not much crashing / pink soup
No, it made my game more unstable (I've tried dxvk 2.5+)
No, it made my game more unstable (I haven't tried dxvk 2.5+)
No, my system can't handle it
No. I haven't tried it yet (I often experience crashes / pink soup)
Yes, DXVK 2.0 - 2.4
Yes, DXVK 2.5 - 2.7+
Yes, DXVK 1.10 or older
Voting ended onMar 24
15,6% out of 166 respondents use DXVK. 65% answered their game runs fine and they don't need it.
▣ To check which DXVK version you have, look for the log file in your game exe folder (...._d3d9.log). Second line is the Release number.
▣ If your game is unstable on Windows but you don't know anything about DXVK, check out r/sims2help.
▣ DXVK 2.0+ is very different to DXVK 1.x. But also: DXVK 2.5 and following releases are very different to DXVK 2.4, primarily due to a complete rewrite of memory management code.
▣ GPU driver bugs might cause stability issues for 32-bit DXVK 2.5 or higher and Nvidia RTX 30/40 & especially RTX 50 (beware 576.02 driver). Solution is to try different driver version.
The most recent dxvk is 2.7.1. Remember that latest versions of DXVK have higher GPU driver requirements!
I've shared my DXVK config under the cut:
First off, check your GraphicRules.sgr, seti textureMemory setting. The optimum is 2048 if you have 4GB+ VRAM.
For 2GB VRAM, 1900 may be a 'safer' amount than 2048.
You vaguely recall setting it to correct amount? You're getting crashes and/or pink soup? Check again.
If your game is very CC heavy, and you have 4GB+ VRAM, you could experiment with 3072 or 3328 but be aware it might make the game more unstable. 32-bit game simply cannot use more than 4096 MB.
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"TS2 Legacy" Graphic Rules file
The file does not contain seti textureMemory line at all. This works for TS2 Legacy and more recent 🏴☠️ releases (most of the time??), when the game automatically detects VRAM. but if you have older release, skipping seti textureMemory may be a bad idea.
If you are experiencing pink soup a lot, check your game -config-log.txt (it's located in Documents/EA games/The Sims 2/Logs).
If you see reported TextureMemory: is a small amount like 0MB, 32MB, 512MB, OR higher than 4096, you need to correct your Graphic Rules file. If it's 4096, but you get pink soup on regular basis, consider lowering it to 2048.
I'm on MrDJ's repack. When I tried Legacy Graphic Rules, my game failed to detect any VRAM.
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▣ DXVK.conf = DXVK configuration, a text file with .conf extension. You can create it with text editor like Notepad. It should be placed in your game exe folder (no matter if you're on Windows, or on Linux).
Below I've pasted the contents of my current dxvk config (BOX link). It's very basic, contains four popular, performance-friendly settings plus VRAM HUD.
Notes:
(read this if you wish to try my config file):
▣ The last line: dxvk.hud = memory allows you to track your game's VRAM usage. It is surely not something you'd like to have permanently enabled, so you can remove it. BUT if you have some giant hood or large lots, tons of CC - it's worth checking how much texture memory it actually takes up. Maybe you have some cleaning to do ;)
▣ d3d9.maxAvailableMemory feature was introduced with dxvk 1.10.2. Set it the same as seti textureMemory amount you had declared in your Graphic Rules. I set it to 'standard' 2048.
▣ maxFrameRate (FPS cap) works since dxvk 1.7. I've set my FPS to 58 to reduce latency, as my screen has 60mhz refresh rate. But even if your monitor can do 144mhz+, if you're experiencing game stability issues, you definitely need to set a limit. 60 FPS is reasonable. If you wish to set it higher, like 72 FPS, first check if your game can really do as much (during gameplay, enable FPS display with Shift + Ctrl + S).
Make sure you don't have multiple FPS caps. When you use DXVK it's recommended to set FPS limit with DXVK config, and not via driver-level settings, like Nvidia 3D profile / Nvidia profile inspector / AMD adrenalin.
▣ d3d9.presentInterval = 0 switches off dxvk's vertical sync (v-sync is not required in windowed mode). It's only performance-friendly if you use it along FPS limit.
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▣ If you play TS2 in Fullscreen mode:
With lowered FPS and vertical sync off, you may experience screen tearing. To fix this you can either switch to windowed mode OR enable dxvk's v-sync (d3d9.presentInterval = 1 ), OR enable dxvk's 'mailbox' (available since DXVK 2.3+: dxvk.tearFree = True ). This method is superior to vertical sync but it puts a bit more pressure on VRAM.
/FYI, The Sims2 RPC's borderless mode is windowed mode./
Find out how to run TS2 in windowed mode here.
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The settings below will work for DXVK 1.10.2 and following.
If you've set your DXVK config in the past, and moved to dxvk 2.0+, note that some options that worked for older releases became obsolete or irrelevant.
Comments inside config file should be preceded by # - DXVK will ignore them. Adding # in front of any setting will disable it.
#################my dxvk config #################
# maxAvailableMemory tells the game how much VRAM it has. You set it to whatever you've declared in your Graphic Rules' Seti TextureMemory
d3d9.maxAvailableMemory = 2048
#This sets Low Latency mode, limiting frame cue to 1 frame, improving mouse responsiveness. May cause a bit of lag on old GPUs
d3d9.maxFrameLatency = 1
#This sets FPS cap, meaning: it limits how many frames per second are produced by CPU / game engine.
d3d9.maxFrameRate = 58
#this makes sure vertical sync is off. Vsync is not required if you play in windowed mode, and might cause issues. Note that if you use this, FPS cap is obligatory.
d3d9.presentInterval = 0
#This displays your game VRAM usage on screen - remove the line to get rid of it.
I've always hated how the camera jumps up and down when playing tall and slim buildings. Turns out, it's really easy to fix! It’ll take you less than a minute. All the details under the cut.
All it takes is opening the LiveCamera.txt file in your Documents>Cameras folder with a text editor and changing these two parameters near the bottom to a higher value. Doesn’t matter if you're using a custom camera mod or not. Those parameters should be there. I have set mine like this (remember to save a backup just in case you don't like these changes).
It might seem a bit extreme, but I still think it’s fine.
-The top parameter, floorheightsamplerange, handles how much the floors “extend out”, so the camera object can stand on it mid-air. The higher it is, the further the floor will extend. This will make it so your camera will be able to stick to the floor you’re on, even if you pan away from the building. No more annoying jumps up and down!
-The parameter below that, floorheightsampleinnerrange, handles the transition between sticking to the current floor and dropping to the ground level once it goes past the edge. The higher it is, the smoothest the fall will be.
I’ll note though that the behaviour of these parameters might not be 100% accurate with how the game actually works, but from what I tested I think it’s pretty close as an explanation. If someone knows better how this Live Camera works, please let me know and I’ll try my best to correct any inaccuracies.
Save the .txt file and check how it works in game. It might feel weird at first, but personally I find it so much smoother and easier to handle. If you’re not happy with these values, close the game and edit those parameters until you find your sweet spot. Unfortunately, you will have to close and open the game every time you change it to check how it works.
There’s so many cool Custom Camera mods out there that I thought it’s probably better to just show how to edit those 2 parameters than editing and reuploading all of them.
So yeah, that’s it. Now you can play those tall lots without getting a headache. Go ahead and send your college simmies to that hideous Sim State Tower with a hot tub on top of it. Now you’ll be able to see what’s going on up there.
ohhhh myyy GODDDDDD i need to try this
maybe i'll be able to stop editing out 3 second clips of video where the camera is just crazy jumping up and down
Texture / TXMT replacements for "Multiple Multi Purpose Elevator" aka Industrial Elevator, and "The Ultravator by Schafft Co" aka Modern Elevator - I've replaced elevator floors and light panels.
Plus recolors: grungy beige and non-grunge wood retextures for the Industrial one, and Gold / Black for the modern elevator.
Download: SFS | BOX
*I used rusty metal floor texture converted from FO4 by @davinaojeda
A Shader Edit/Default Replacement
"StandardMaterial" is the shader commonly used by sims objects. It tells the game how to render them, and by default offers features such as making them glowy or transparent. However, most of its effects apply to the whole material at once.
I figured out how to edit it! So here is my improved version. It now supports:
- An "additive" texture map, lighting up specific areas of the material.
- An envCube mask, controlling the intensity of this effect via a texture.
- Two new envCube modes, and improvements to an undiscovered one.
+ "Blend" replaces the base texture by the envCube's.
+ "Multiply" multiplies them together (duh).
+ "DiffuseRadiance", which already existed in the shader, adds the envCube texture to the light received by the material rather than its already lit texture.
All three of them support the envCube mask and the envCubeCoef parameter.
The envCube modes are mutually exclusive, but all effects can otherwise be used with each other.
The download itself contains the shader package, a pdf ReadMe listing features and material parameters, and examples showcased on my envCubeTesterObject (also included). The readme lists the specific shader files I've edited, in case anyone else made an incompatible mod.
(I've not included the recolours from the first preview pic as they're kind of lame lol + I had to make a CEP extra for the robot.)
I'm hyped to see what cool objects and recolours people will make with this! And I'm probably forgetting information.
-> Download Everything at SimFileShare
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If you use LazyDuchess' Overly Bright CaS Fix, download this version instead. It combines the two mod, so you should delete LD's original package file.
-> Download Everything at SimFileShare
-> Download Just the Mod Package at SimFileShare
If you use DreadPirate's ShaderFixes with LazyDuchess' Overly Bright CaS Fix, download either of these versions instead. Delete the shaderfix "main" package. These combine the three mods into one.
-> Download Everything (both versions included) at SimFileShare
-> Download Just the Mod Package (edited lot skirt) at SimFileShare
-> Download Just the Mod Package (Maxis lot skirt) at SimFileShare
The other versions of DreadPirate's mods (including any of the water, roof and hood shaders) don't modify anything mine does. They should be useable alongside each other no problem.
(l'll do more merging with incompatible mods as they're reported to me.)
