[resometownie]

i mostly use tumblr on mobile - one reason i have this sideblog is to reblog cool cc so i can find it again once i'm at my computer. i rarely check download links when i reblog, so if you notice me reblogging paywalled or adlinked content, please let me know at my main @sometownie and i'll delete the reblog. i don't get notifications from this sideblog so i might not notice your message.

[teaaddictyt]

How to do Custom Movies for TS2

Hey all, I'm not sure if there's already a tutorial on this out there (probably is and I'm just stupid) but just in case anyone else has always wanted custom movies for the sims to watch in TS2, today I figured out how to do that and thought I'd share it. Tutorial under the cut.

Note this tutorial isn't for how to get a movie video file - there are other tutorials for that. I just grabbed one off of T$R as a test.

Tutorial assumes some SimPE familiarity.

If you have a .avi file ready to go, go to Documents/EA Games/The Sims 2 (etc)/Broadcast/Movies, make a new folder called TVMovie_[moviename] and put the .avi file inside.

Go to your game install location and navigate to [LATEST EP]/TSData/Res/UserData/Config and open Broadcast.ini

Add a line at the bottom of this top section, give it the next number in the list and a name.

Then in the bottom section, copy an existing movie entry, scroll to the bottom and paste, changing the folder name to the new folder you just created in Broadcast

Next, open SimPE and clone an existing movie object (yes, movies are apparently objects). If you can't find one, use this template that Gummilutt kindly cloned for me because my SimPE was being a PITA - Download. Save the new file anywhere in your Downloads folder.

In your new file, change the Group Number of all resources to something new. I often use the NREF resource to give me a handy new group number (change the name first) and then use that to edit the group number of all resources.

Go to the OBJD, change the filename and give it a new GUID.

Go to Text Lists, MakeActionPrimStringSet, and edit to your liking for a pie menu string.

Go to Material Names and change the model name to the same as your Broadcast.ini entry.

Commit and save.

Your new custom movie should now show up in game :)

I've wanted more custom movies for my sims to watch for ages so I'm a bit excited about this... and if you make any custom movies, please send my way!

[saanst]

I’ve started developing a new section of Oclaire Pass, this one for old Victorian-style homes. The inspiration for this home was this picture.

[lamare-sims]

Fight Can Kill

A way to die from a fight 💀

I've had this in my game for a while, but for you guys, I added traits and made every little detail BCON configurable, because I know many of you would like to set everything just how you want it. Enjoy!

Download Page

For @maksplaygroundsims2, @tedsies, @grilledcheese-aspiration, @katatty and others

[anachrosims]

just in case anyone forgot how wildly colorful Georgian interiors could be, even among the working class to the wealthy:

[anachrosims]

and EVEN WHEN things were more muted/neutral, the neutrality was OFFSET by ACCENT COLORS and HIGH CONTRAST between the wood tones and everything ELSE

ALSO AMERICAN COLONIAL INTERIORS POPPED OFF, Y'ALL (IN TERMS OF COLOR/COZINESS)

PEOPLE USED WHITEWASH AND COLORFUL TRIM OR EVEN JUST COLORFUL FURNITURE IF THEY COULD AFFORD TO DO SO

AND DON'T GET ME STARTED ON FRENCH AND BRITISH AND AMERICAN WALLPAPERS

"ELIZABETH" YOU CRY, "WHY ARE YOU BEING SO EXTRA THIS MORNING?! IT'S MONDAY"

Because, my friend, my war on GREIGE will NEVER end.

Historic interiors were filled with LIFE and LIGHT and COLOR. ALWAYS HAVE BEEN.

Part of the reason we don't see a lot of textile art is because, frankly, textiles tend to degrade over time - especially ones that had utility! And yes, pigments and weaving and dying all boosted the expense of things, when we were finally reliably block-printing fabrics and broad reams of paper, it was no longer just the wealthy who could afford pretty patterns!

In the Americas, a far wider variety of pigments also became available because of the abundance of... well, a shitton of flora and minerals, some of which weren't as common in Europe.

WHY THE HIGHLIGHTER COLORS? you ask.

CANDLES.

Those colors reflect candlelight and natural sunlight REALLY WELL.

Humans LOVE bright colors, it's NOT just a thing for kids. We live in a brilliant, vibrant, multifaceted world. We ALWAYS have.

(STOP MAKING YOUR HISTORIC SIMS 4 BUILDS BE BLAND. STOP IT.)

[christaskyy]

[TS2] Improved Lot Skirt Shader (WIP)

Overview

Hi everyone! This is an experimental (WIP) mod that makes lot skirts in TS2 looking like neighborhood terrain. TSCS inspired me to create this mod; as far as you remember, TSCS has visible neighborhood decals from lot view. It is set in assembly code so that TSCS lot skirts use neighborhood techniques for mapping. Original TS2 doesn't have such functionality. LD attempted to immitate that via fake neighborhood deco but it was created for particular terrains only. So I decided to attempt editing lot skirt shader and got some results; it adds cliffs, rough and meduim stages and improves shores from lot view! Though it is not perfect as it has some misconsistency with lighting (original lot skirts also do) and doesn't repeat the neighborhood terrain mapping but I think it's more practical than neighborhood deco. Hope you like it!

Features

Adds neighborhood decals (cliffs, rough and medium terrain) to lot skirts. Decals are also visible with snow states. No blue snow fix and sky fix are included. Works for every neighborhood automatically. Supports lighting mods (dusk and dawn states). Looks better with default replacements.

Installation

Put the .package file into your Downloads folder.

Compatibility

Incompatible with shader mods that modify lot skirts so rename the file adding "zzzz" prefix to make it load last to prevent conflicts if you use many shader mods. Doesn't conflict with other no blue snow mods that modify the rest shaders (roofs, lot terrain).

Known Issues

May look weird in dusk and dawn states using some lighting mods (still have no idea how to fix that). Seam between lot skirt and lot terrain (original TS2 lacks lot edge blend technique like in TSCS to make smooth transition between lot terrain and lot skirt). Lot imposter terrain paint may be invisible sometimes for unknown causes.

Terrain Types

Recently it has been discovered that it's possible to create new terrain types. My shader contains standard terrain types (temperate, desert, dirt and concrete) and uses dependence of textures on lot texture so if you add custom terrain types it's required for my shader to have added such dependencies otherwise my shader will look buggy for your custom terrain types (you are free to contact with me for more detailed information). DOWNLOAD Vanilla:

Mod:

Light snow:

Heavy snow:

Dawn (using lighting mod):

Dusk (using lighting mod):

[withlovefromsimtown]

Elder female update to my Less Gendered Faces as I just wasn’t happy with them anymore.

Download Less-Gendered Faces 2022 Update

I took the difference between AM>EM, created a WSO from it, & applied it to AF Base to get EF Base, edited THAT a bit, then created a WSO from AF>EF & ran it on all the other faces in the set. The aging changes are a bit more subtle than the previous version; the eyes sink in & get a bit more tired-looking, the cheeks & jowls sag a bit, the mouth corners turn down, & the nose gets a bit bigger.

It’s actually fairly similar to the edit that @ixals did HERE, but for whatever reason I can’t leave good enough alone ever & have to get my grubby hands on every aspect of my game all the time.

This is the full package, including all the face fixes for broken/hidden templates as well, but I’m keeping it separate from the old one in case you prefer that. All other ages/genders remain the same as shown in the previous post & the only changes made are to the EF face.

If you liked it, maybe Buy Me A Coffee.

[rockethorse]

Paralives Beginner Tips, from a Simmer

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. Edit: The bugs are also the reason I do not currently recommend using the game's autosave feature, because bugs aren't always immediately noticeable, and if it auto-saves after something particularly annoying or even game-breaking, that would be bad! For now I recommend double checking all the Paras in your household are "safe" (especially in places where it's easy for them to get stuck, like halfway up staircases) before saving, and saving manually.

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. 🫡

[starlla]

Ophelia’s Kitchen. Inspired by the layout of Allisasims makeover of The Dreamers kitchen :D

[lilleputtu]

Custom Flower Arrangements!

Excuse my horrid preview pictures, it will happen again. But, after pulling my hair out, forgetting about it for like a month and then pulling my hair out some more, I have finished them: @tvickiesims OFB 4t2 Default Flower Bouquets made into custom craftables!

Meaning you can have different defaults and these at the same time! More options! They will unlock at the same badges as the originals, have the same crafting cost (i fixed the difference in the first image after taking it and was too lazy to take a new one) and sale prices and the Snapdragon Bouquet also does the mood boosting things the original does!

There is a main which makes the custom craftables possible, but if you only want a few you can pick and choose the bouquets and recolours as you wish.

Conflicts: This will conflict with anything that edits the "Interaction - Make One and Make Many TEST" BHAV (had to up a number in there to get more than 10 craftable options) as well as the "Craft Obj - GUIDS" and "Crafting - Craftable Object Types" BCONs

DOWNLOAD(SFS)

Many thanks of course to @tvickiesims for the original defaults, the makers of simpe, the peeps over in TeaaddictYT's discord who helped me test and provided some feedback and emotional support and @yoursingrey in particular for kicking of the discussion that got me in that discord and reminded me I was still working on these to begin with :D

[househunting]

$650,000/4 br/5 ba

Detroit, MI

built in 1928

[househunting on ig]

[househunting on substack]

[simnostalgia]

billie you'll never guess what happened to GoS

I JUST FUCKING SAW, BITCH.

Okay okay, wait let me collect myself.

First, let me say that I'm actually so sad to see it go. It's been a huge part of my time in the sims community. It's a shame that was so sudden. I really loved the community and I think it's a shame that it happened like it did.

With that out of the way.

BITCH, I TOLD YOU. I TOLD ALL OF YOU. I told ALL you motherfuckers exactly what would happen and everyone bitched like "Oh!! Well, WHY would you do this? Especially when it's not like GOS is closing down anytime soon???"

I got hate mail for months. Bitches poured out of the woodwork like "Mmmm I've always hated Billie, just another thing he's done to add him to my shit list" Then HL bitched at me and acted like the scrape cost him a huge amount of case in data usage when that shit was fucking cents on the dollar. I even offered to pay HL back the like 2 dollars that it *may* have costed him to scape.

Well GUESS who fucking took their ball and went home with very little warning?

Garden Of Shadows (CUSTOM CONTENT SCRAPE - SEPTEMBER 2023) : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

This is the entire site's worth of custom content scraped. There are a few things that you need to know.- This is not checked to see if depe

Here's the fucking scrape. It's missing 2024-2026. I be that stuff can be scraped as well though, but since it'll have to be done through Wayback it's gonna take time.

[sim-novels]

How to install the Sims 3 and make it run smooth

With DXVK and S3SS living their high days, older Sims 3 installment guides are rapidly starting to become outdated. So here's a brand new and up-to-date step-by-step guide to go through when you do a fresh install of your game that will help you get the best performance you could possibly imagine for this old and laggy gem of a game.

Have Sims 3 installed, but is it performing abhorrently? I highly recommend a fresh install. You don't have to delete your saves or mods. Just get yourself a fresh bin to work with by uninstalling, going into your program files The Sims 3 folder and deleting any remnant files still in there. Then follow my guide!

All of the steps to follow are below the line ->

Step 1: install your game through your respected platform.

Just follow the regular steps and install the game without adding any other stuff yet whatsoever.

(I personally have a legit copy of the Sims 3 on Steam. If you use another app and have any questions, I'll probably not be able to help you.)

Step 2: run the game once through the official launcher. Once you get to the main menu, you can quit again.

It is very important you run your game through the original launcher at least once after installing it. Not doing so can cause problems with programs like CC magic. You only need to do it the first time. After that, we'll be skipping the launcher entirely.

Step 3: Create a short cut of TS3W.exe on your desktop.

You'll be skipping the launcher from now on. This helps with performance and it starts up your game much faster. It is also important to do this because of DXVK.

You can find TS3W.exe in your bin folder. For me (Steam version) it's in this location:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\The Sims 3\Game\Bin

Right click TS3W.exe, click 'show more options' and choose 'create a shortcut'. Place this shortcut on your desktop and Run Sims 3 from there from now on.

Step 4: Run the GPU Add-on Support patcher

You can find this patcher here. It is essential to run this because Sims will otherwise not recognize your graphics card unless it's over 10 years old. This patcher helps to get your GPU recognized.

The patcher will create a new Graphicsrules.sgr and new Graphicscards.sgr for you in your bin folder. After installing this, you can move the ones that have _old behind them somewhere else (or delete them).

Step 5: Install DXVK

Make sure you follow this guide by Nornities and do every single step. Don't skip anything! Make sure you install the version in this guide (DXVK 2.3.1)

I'd say DXVK is pretty essential nowadays, especially if you have a modern graphics card with 6GB of VRAM or higher. It'll greatly help to keep your game stable and can prevent a lot of crashes. The way Dxvk works, is that it loads textures through your VRAM instead of your RAM. Especially when you use a lot of CC or HD textures, this will make a huge difference for your RAM usage. Sims 3 can only use 4GB of RAM at once and will start crashing once you hit the 3GB mark in your task manager. With DXVK, you will use a lot less RAM and it'll take much longer for your game to reach this hard cap.

When not to install DXVK: if you have a shitty GPU (like an integrated graphics card on a laptop, or one with 4GB of VRAM or less).

Step 5: Start up the game

Use your new desktop shortcut that also has 'run as administrator' permissions now if you followed the DXVK guide properly.

Step 6: set up all your settings through the ingame options menu

The best graphics settings for you will highly depend on what computer you're using. But there are some things you should always turn off because they negatively affect performance. I will share my (relevant) settings with you (I use a custom UI so your screen style will look a little different from mine). Click on the images to enlarge them so you can read them:

Things of note about these settings:

I recommend you play in windowed mode, especially if you plan to use ReShade. Playing fullscreen is possible, but it does make Reshade presets behave differently in your game. I will include a step in this guide that you can follow to play windowed borderless. So, when you plan to do this: make sure you set the resolution to your display resolution.

Enable object hiding helps with performance. Advanced rendering is essential because otherwise your game looks like absolute shit.

Set your High Detail Lots to any value between 2 and 4. Don't go lower or higher, because you'll get rendering issues that lag out your game.

All other graphics settings can be set to your heart's desire. I'd say start with the highest settings and only go down if you notice your frames per second are bad.

Disable shop mode and lessons and fully disable memories or use this mod to severly limit them. Disable interactive loading screens as well. These are all performance eaters. Interactive loading screen also causes crashes. Memories also don't do anything for your sim, it's just a scrap book with no in-game effects.

Disable any online mode feature. This also lags out your game. Unless you really want to use these features it's best to just play fully offline.

Save your settings, close the game again.

Step 7: Install Sims 3 Settings Setter

This is the most recent magic genie that Sims 3 was blessed with. Especially combined with DXVK it is a life changer. Installing it is simple. You download the most recent version here and drop the .asi file in your bin. Also grab 'wininet.dll' from here (the 32 bit one) and drop that one in your bin too.

Start up your game and load up a save. Once you're inside your save, you press 'insert' to open up the menu for Sims 3 Settings Setter. Go to the 'patches' tab and enable what you like. These are my enabled patches and they all work really well for me, but feel free to experiment with them to find your own performance sweet spot:

Only enable uncompressed textures if you have a GPU with at least 8gb of VRAM. My game will use over 6gb of VRAM easily with this enabled, so you've been warned.

Once you have everything you desire enabled, press 'file' in the top left corner and click 'save settings'.

Step 7.5: if you're playing windowed mode: go into the Other/QoL tab and enable 'Borderless Window'. Set it to 'Full Screen'.

Save your settings and close your game again. No need to save the game you entered for this unless you want to.

Step 8: Install Nraas Errortrap, MasterController and Overwatch

These 3 mods by Nraas are pretty much essential to keep your game from breaking down in the long run. You can download the mods here. Have you never installed a mod for Sims 3 before? Here's a guide (skip the part about Sims3pack and go straight to the part where it explains how to install .package mods).

That's it! You can now play The Sims 3 and it'll be as smooth and stable as it'll ever be. From here on, you can stock your game with more mods and CC (check out my mods masterlist!), or you can install Reshade (here's a guide).

Some important things to keep in mind while playing:

Clean up your game regularly. You can easily do this by using Regul Save Cleaner.

When you install a new mod or update/change Sims 3 Settings Setter, always restart and clear your caches.

Use CC Magic for installing CC, because it merges your files and this really helps with performance. Here's a handy guide on how to use it. Don't put your script mods in here, just your CC.

If you plan to travel to vacation destinations in the EP World Adventures, Nraas Traveler is a must to prevent most of the bugs and crashes that happen in this expansion.

Always keep in mind: mods and corrupt CC can still break your game, make it laggy or unplayable. Always be mindful of the mods you add, so you can always trace any issues you're having back to the mod causing it. I highly recommend not downloading a ton of mods in one session, but adding them step by step and see what they do to your games performance.

Use 'Reset the entire town' from Nraas MasterController at least every other sim week. It'll help clear up any lag that happens because of NPC sims getting themselves stuck routing or annoying stuff like that.

Got a slow CAS? Use Nraas MasterController Compact mode! (Make sure you have the Nraas MasterController Integration module installed).

Navigate to NRaas > MasterController > Settings > CAS.

Set the following to True:

Show in Compact Form: Accessories

Show in Compact Form: Clothing

Show in Compact Form: Hats

[episims]

Golden Lady Statues

For @yakumtsaki and anon who asked about them! The leaning lady is an edit of Where The Green Fern Grows statue from the S4 Romantic Garden SP, and the lady in the middle is an edit of That's My Dame table sculpture from the S3 Jazz Age store set.

These edits are new standalone meshes. The left leaning lady's textures are repo'd to the right one.

Download (SFS) (alternate)

The files are compressed. The leaning ladies are 933 polys and the single one is 490 polys, with 256x256 and 128x256 textures in the same order. They're under sculptures for §300/§330.

[ollyhoo]

Villa Nottebohm

[simsionic]

Monument of the Lady being built at the centre of the city. Unfortunately, the council ran out of money before completion.

The unemployed builders and a growing homeless population has caused a temporary tent town to appear at the base of the statue.

View of City Plaza from atop the abandonded scaffold.

The overgrown plaza has become a dumping ground for trash and broken appliances.

Tired of the default downtown suburb? This is my take on a replacement. Featuring rundown, cheap, broken and dirty buildings, small cramped apartments, creepy alleyways, questionable venues and a corrupt mayor.

[teaaddictyt]

22 years later, give your Sims 2 kitchens a pantry.

As I hinted at with my club counter mapping fix, I've been invested in a long-term-want-to-do-this-one-day project the last week or so. Pantries. ALL the pantries.

Dusting off my very meagre and rusty Blender skills, I have made some things for you all.

All pics and details below.

The value kitchen gets a pantry at 2 heights - lower (for more generic cupboard vibes) and ceiling height.

Quaint kitchen looking cute. This one is ceiling height

One of my favourites, the Epikouros set, also ceiling height

The "blue ribbon" seasons country kitchen gets a non-ceiling height pantry cos I wanted the pretties on top.

Chiclettina Fjord, at ceiling height (get yourself a non-blue glass default though, it looks better I promise)

The University Industrial Steelate kitchen also gets 2 height variations because I could see these cupboards being useful in a variety of different settings and thought options might be nice (medical cabinets maybe?)

Forbidden fruit, just ceiling height

The club kitchen, also just ceiling height, and make sure you grab my counter mapping fix cos it makes these counters look SO much nicer

The "Fat City" kitchen, ceiling height only. This is actually a really nice kitchen set with some nice recolours.

Castanoga, only ceiling height. This one was the bane of my existence and definitely the hardest one to get right.

Mission, which I wasn't gonna do cos I NEVER use this kitchen, but I thought others might like it. That pantry is at ceiling height.

Surfaco, probably the most underrated Maxis kitchen IMO. Ceiling height only here.

Neo Quartzo which again... I was gonna skip, but I thought, maybe some people use this kitchen sometimes? idk lol, not me... Ceiling height only.

Romantic wood 😍 I love this one. Not quite ceiling height, again for the pretty loopdey bit on top.

And Chez Moi, also a really tricky one to get right. Ceiling height.

These counters did not get a matching pantry:

Sorry 🙈🙈 If you REALLY DESPERATELY need one... yeah, nah, idk. Maybe I'll do a tiki one, but the others, nope. lol.

All pantries are located in surfaces / misc and cost the same $$ as their matched counter. They are all decorative only. I would love if someone smarter and more capable than me could turn them into functional "snack cupboards" but I lack the know how. So if you're inspired to do it, please be my guest!!

Some of the pantry meshes still have some small issues with normals (MY NEMESIS!!) but I want to give a huge shoutout and thank you to @gummilutt and @morepopcorn for fixing some of them for me, and Poppy particularly for helping me understand how to actually deal with normals in Blender. I really tried and I did improve the meshes a lot as I went.

All pantries were cloned from CTNutmegger's set of upper cabinets, so credits to them. These were occasionally a little "interesting" to work with, but again, I tried my best. And if you need some upper cabinets, you can download those and they should match fairly well. Otherwise, I recommend @nixedsims's Counter Completers and Mutske's kitchen addons too.

Oh, and it should go without saying that these are all repo'd to the Maxis counters so will pick up any recolours you've got 🤗

With that said, if you'd like them, here's the link!

Download