I see people all the time asking which HQ mod is âbestâ. The 1st graphic above is an HQ mod.The highlighted line of text pertains to the Sim Detail setting, and is the basis of all HQ mods. See? Itâs a text file. Itâs not scripted or otherwise created out of genius, in which one HQ mod is the ultimate experience and another is crap. We are merely editing numerical text values.
All HQ mods edit at least the first number in the highlighted line of text, in multiples of 512, over the gameâs default Very High Sim Detail setting of 2048. Thus, 2560 is the lowest level of HQ youâll find. This Sim Detail setting is extremely subtle; youâll only really notice differences when zoomed in close-up to your sim. In other words, none of our HQ mods are going to give you stellar graphics or make your weak computer into a massive graphics beast. This mod is simply for enhancement.
How are they different, then, if they all work the same? In terms of Sim Detail, as you can see, they all do indeed work the same. There are however, other things besides Sim Detail that we altered in our mods.
aWT is at S-Club now, and those two mods are the same work. aWT has a little app on their old blog that updates the file for you, whereas S-Clubâs and all other HQ mods require manual installation (that I know of).
Six lines down, youâll find another setting that many HQ mods alter, that of CASRenderTargetSize. This is HQ for CAS, and typically only works well in multiples of 2048, which is why you see it mostly with HQ mods at 4096, or 2x normal strength. 4096, in fact, seems to be the most popularly chosen level of HQ, and is offered by all HQ mods that Iâm aware of. You can see the difference with HQ CAS in the second graphic above. All HQ mods but S-Club/aWT offer HQ CAS.
Ameenahâs mod, which to my knowledge is maintained by Kosmo, also edits the second number in the SimTextureSizes line, as does also one of my HQ variations. This corresponds to the LOD (level of detail) distance. Given the extreme subtlety of the Sim Detail setting, itâs debatable whether increasing that value is worth it, but the option is there for those who want it.
Ameenahâs/Kosmoâs, Dachsâs, and 2 of my variations, all offer some type of staggering of the ingame settings, which allow you to switch between HQ and normal game settings without having to manually switch out the files. This is handy for people who normally only like to turn on HQ when theyâre taking close-up screen shots of their sims, but do not use it for normal gameplay.
Myself and S-Club/aWT offer various levels of HQ, whereas other HQ mods only come in 4096 that Iâve seen.
Mine also has No Glow functionality, which does not pertain directly to HQ.
Dachsâs HQ mod changes shadow map size and texture size settings, likely intending to improve overall game graphics, however Iâve not been able to observe any differences on either mine or my husbandâs computer. For what itâs worth, I have a Radeon HD 7950, which is fairly average. Maybe if I can talk my husband into that sweet $700 video card Iâve been wanting since last yearâŠ.but thatâs a whole ânother topic!
Hopefully this helps you understand a little better about how HQ mods work, and what your options are. Assume that all of my statements are made with a provisional caveat of âThat I know ofâ. I donât claim to know the ins and outs of all HQ mods in all of Simsdom, but am speaking rather of my own personal knowledge of them.
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