Helpful links for Sims 2 and 3 since 2011, with a focus on game mods, tips and tricks and tutorials. You will also find on this blog a large database of game-related and technical questions that we have answered. Not affiliated with EA Games.
Well this took a while... anyway I was trying to recreate one of my Sims 4 sims in Sims 2 and wanted all the skin details to match up perfectly so I converted the vitiligo textures to Sims 2 in an overlay box.
There are 71 separate swatches, split between arms, legs, upper torso, lower torso, and face. Face textures do work with other overlays. The preview shows multiple different skins and skintones so you can see what they look like. (The one guy is backwards because otherwise he'd be sideways). For the vitiligo textures themselves I used the Tattooer to get the general shape of the textures over and then used a custom tone of Dreadpirate's Party for One skinblend to make sure the details weren't lost on the face. The overlays work on both male and female, ages toddler through elder. There are a LOT of choices (between 8 and 21 for each body part) so I recommend making a note of what you picked in case you ever want to remove them. The box is a mannequin head (using the same texture as the birthmark overlay box because it fit the theme) and is located in misc > dressers.
Can't forget the male sims! Here are five new defaults for them. Prepare yourself for some dreads!
You can download them at my SFS folder, sub-folder Island Paradise:
Download
Please remember I often have multiple options that replace the same hairstyle. You can only have one, so pay attention when downloading from the folder!
Read further under the cut for all previews, polycount information and individual download links.
TS3 EP10 Default Replacements
Required pack for all: Island Paradise
amHairEP10FreeDreads
TM-EM
Replaced with Anto Tate
Poly: 15k or 25k
Download 15k version | Download 25k version
emHairEP10FreeDreads
Does NOT conflict with amHairEP10FreeDreads. EA didn't link these hairs together so they are treated as separate hairstyles which allowed me to replace both and allows you to have both!
TM-EM
Replaced with RedheadSims Piece
Poly: 10k or 17k
Download 10k version | Download 17k version
Notes:
Converted the hair for males!
amHairEP10GiveMeSizzle
TM-EM
Replaced with Ifcasims retexture of Newsea Rough Sketch
Poly: 11k
Download
amHairEP10WavyAfro
TM-EM
Replaced with Kijiko SelkirkRex (retextured)
Poly: 10k
Download
Notes:
Unfortunately I couldn't find a nice afro that worked for all haircolors (needed with defaults, as the game isn't gonna look which sim has dark hair before assigning) and all other afro's I found where more or less the same as the EA one. So I went with something different to replace it with!
amHairEP10WetMess
TM-EM
Replaced with WingsSims ER0714M (Retextured in Shock&Shame texture)
Poly: 15k or 23k
Download 15k version | Download 23k version
Notes:
Both are lower poly than the original (29k). The 23k one isn’t decimated, I just edited the mesh to remove some strands.
The 15k decimated version isn't my best reduced poly work: it's a bit clunky. This hairstyle was already decimated to 29k (at least, I think so) which make lowering it further tricky.
Has this ever happened to you? Suddenly your object footprint is just a big green square.
Or perhaps you are chugging along, having fun, and suddenly you notice a flickering shadow at the corner of your eye. Perhaps a bed, perhaps a door. Weird black lines move across the object as the camera moves.
Perhaps you have a glass item on the lot, and it decided it wanted to make an attempt at some geometric art.
Or you may have noticed that sinks suddenly look real weird.
If any of these are familiar to you, then I accidentally stumbled upon the fix! A mix of brain fog and fat fingering and sometimes you strike upon something useful 🤭
Turns out if you press Shift-W this happens. And more importantly, if you press it again, it fixes itself. Handy, right? No more having to restart the game to fix it. I thought I'd share in case someone else gets this occasionally and wonders WTF happened.
These are all updated and (heavily) edited. You can read all about what I changed about them in this post, so I don't have to clutter the download post with all the info!
You can download them at my SFS folder, sub-folder BG:
Download
Please beware that the pigtail hair you see here conflicts with my Pigtails: BE GONE replacement - you can't have both!
Read further under the cut for all previews, polycount info and individual download links.
Buy me a coffee
afHairBaseballCapLong
TF-EF
Replaced with IfcaSims retexture of Simpliciaty Moonlight (edited!)
Poly: 10,5k
Download
afHairBaseballCapMed
TF-EF
Replaced with IfcaSims retexture of Anto Marble (edited!)
Poly: 6k
Download
afHairBaseballCapUpdo
TF-EF
Replaced with IfcaSims retexture of Newsea Discoball (edited!)
Poly: 15k
Download
afHairMidPigtails
TF-EF
Replaced with Leah Lillith Bling with ifca's textures (newly converted by me)
Poly: 13k or 22k
Download 13k | Download 22k
afHairMohawk
TF-EF
Replaced with Ifcasims retexture of Nightcrawler Strong (edited!)
Poly: 10k or 19k
The static is achieved via animated textures, here's a video preview. The outfit, head and eyes are not affected by lighting, to keep the static effect as flat as possible. I had to duplicate the face mesh and make it part of the hair because I just couldn't get animated makeup to work.
I don't recommend making them an actual ghost because when that happens, the real face (which is normally invisible) shows up and it doesn't look right.
If your eyes are easily strained by static I don't recommend installing this sim. I lowered the contrast and made the animation not too fast for my own sake but it might not be comfortable enough for you.
Required downloads that are not included
SimNopke's heterochromia (the meshes)
Bink13y's headless skintone and invisible eyes
Recommended mods to use with this sim
Never Nude trait from the 3t2 Traits Project by hexagonal-bipyramid
This mod allows you to manually adjust your vehicle's speed while driving.
A new mod from LORHANDAGOTH, now beside hearing you favorite music (several updates has been done since my post) you can choose the speed you drive.
All credit to LORHANDAGOTH
Sims 2 Traits - Self Interactions! I found a disabled animation!
Reuploaded with a new interaction for Clumsy sims here:
Since I'm obsessed with socials now (and I watch @teaaddictyt streams and VODS where she gives me ideas...) here are some mods that affect Neurotic, Dramatic, Clumsy and Insane Sims! These are fun little self-interactions for storytelling or other purposes... I originally inserted these into the PersonGlobals TTAB. But as some of you may know, this causes a great deal of issues because it conflicts with other important mods.
So, I split them up into three separate controllers, so they don't conflict with anything! they all have unique GUIDS. These are non-autonomous (except for Clumsy) and require Easy Inventory Check and the base traits mod by Hexagonal Bipyramid.
Interactions
Neurotic Sims can now "Freak Out" if their Comfort is low. They will cry, worry, or throw a tantrum and their comfort will increase. Paired great with my "Motive Decay" for traits, because Neurotics have greater Comfort decay!
Dramatic Sims can now "Fake Pass Out" like the Sims 3. Sims will react to your Sim, and their reactions depend on personality and traits (Evil Sims may enjoy it...). They can only do it if their Social is fairly low and it gives them Fun and Social.
Clumsy Sims have a five percent chance of autonomously falling down! Lowers their comfort and people will react.
Insane Sims (and this is my favorite) can now scream psychotically and everyone around them will react. I found a disabled/cut interaction called "Primal Scream" in the code so I just HAD to enable it for Insane Sims. There's an animation for this and everything!
Ok it doesn't show you the Anim, but trust me, it's great! And they actually scream! Like audibly!
Enjoy! Looking at this mod will also help you understand self-interactions if you're into modding!
I also have one for the Clumsy trait where they do the roller-skate fall animation randomly, but I can't get it to work autonomously in a controller. It stays in my PersonGlobals unfortunately. I GOT CLUMSY INTERACTION TO WORK. DOWNLOAD HERE
Credits: JellyMeduza for their "Insane can Summon Social Bunny" Mod!
Fast Lane Stuff Pack Default Replacement Hair Edit for TAM-EM
As suggested by @greenishplumbob
Details:
Default replacement for teen to elder males. You must have the expansion pack installed for these to work as they only replace what exists in your game! Place in your overrides folder to install. :)
Replaces meshes (all LODs) (I have @ifcasims’s default retextures installed and they’re neat!) Any default replacement retextures will still work.
Compressorized | Custom Thumbnails (using the previews above – you can customize or delete these if you’d like with s3pe 🙃)
Notes:
Has the same polycounts as the original.
Any default replacements or default recategorization mods will not work with these mods! Anything that edits the CASP resources, basically. Please reach out if you have any questions!
Download:
SP2 Short (0.5 MB): https://simfileshare.net/download/6186238/
Non-default standalone version is also available here:
http://simfileshare.net/folder/217251/
(^requires respective expansion or stuff pack installed)
Huge shout out to @paluding for collaborating with me on this and who honestly did most of the work as far as I'm concerned.
Download // Simblr Alt
This is a default replacement mesh for kitten and puppy faces that allows heterochromia. This was done by separating the left and right eyes onto different groups and subsets so they can be colored independently. They have morphs, so these cuties will properly emote! This is possible thanks to @crispsandkerosene's blender plugin, make sure to grab it if you're interested in meshing for pets!
Pet heterochromia is NOT hereditary, and in fact only a pet's right eye color can be passed down. Heterochromia is a purposeful decision that you have to apply manually. Do this by opening a pet's AgeData inside their CharacterData.package, then find and change the eyecolor and/or alteyecolor lines to the desired colors. If you need better instructions, I go more in depth in my Pet Genetics How-To here.
Last but not least, consider grabbing my Kitten & Puppy Eye Fix! Maxis didn't enable eye colors for all ages, so without my fix only custom eye colors will actually display with heterochromia.
These days I spent lots of time fixing lot skirt shader - and it turned into something more. I was to rewrite many game shaders to get consistent look of terrain and snow, and now, it's ready to be published!
Attempted to fix inconsistent lighting, implemented transparent lot skirt roads - so that they match the rest of lot skirt terrain, more and more!
Improvements
Consistent lighting - lot skirt, lot terrain and roads now match.
All lighting states compatible - dusk, dawn, seasonal changes work well.
Every lighting mod compatible - works even with maxis lighting.
New snow shaders (lot skirt, lot terrain and roofs) - fixed ugly shading, proper reaction to every lighting state.
Fixed lot imposters - now their terrain is rendered as well as possible.
Transparent lot skirt roads - now it's possible to use road textures with transparent cuts so that it matches lot skirt terrain.
Now reflective pond water doesn't require pools - its reflections work by reflective plane placed in lot corner.
Neighborhood roads have light snow pass.
Included
Lot skirt shaders
Lot imposter shaders
Lot terrain shaders
Lot lighting fixes (requires RPC)
Roof shaders
Bright CAS fix
Extended Standard and SimStandard shaders
Neighborhood road shader
Pond Water Overhaul
NOT Included BUT Compatible
Better Nightlife
Sea Water Overhaul
Accurate Neighborhood Lighting
Soft Shadows
WIP
Multi-road neighborhoods (I will add it later, sorry!)
Installation
Put the contents into your downloads folder (contains default replacement of maxis roads making them transparent, you may delete these files if you use road default replacements). Remember, my shaders must be loaded last to prevent conflicts!
Snow Lighting
Light snow:
Heavy snow:
Neighborhood roads
Vanilla:
Mod:
Fixed lot imposters
Before:
After:
Lot skirt roads
Default texture:
Transparent texture:
Consistent lighting
Radiance (maxis shaders):
Radiance (my shaders):
Reflective Pond Water
First step - choose respective to lot size reflective plane:
Second step - place it in the lot corner so that the plane covers every lot tile:
Third step - enjoy reflective ponds; there's no need to keep pools or something like that in the scene, reflections work independently:
"🍁Hello,Autumn Creatures!This replaces EA's blue interface,so place the "❔_CloudUIv1.4.0.package" file from your preferred version into:
Electronic Arts > The Sims 3 > MODS > Overrides 😊📂
ONCE EXTRACTED,YOU WILL FIND THESE FOLDERS:
📂Non "English" Logo Packages - (keep only your language, delete the others)
📂"Colour_Selections.txt" - (creation details: colors used and transparency)
📂Patches - Mods compatible with the UI (you can delete the ones you don't use)
This project started as an edit of simler90's Biotech Station mod but I ended up changing, fixing, and adding so much stuff that I feel comfortable calling this its own thing completely.
This mod improves the existing Biotech Station mechanisms, adds some interactions it lacked, makes medicine more useful, polishes virus crafting, and replaces medicine and virus vials with pill bottles that are sensible to sell at owned businesses.
Plenty of details and the download link under the cut.
Make medicine. Worry not, it can't cause catching the mysterious disease anymore. Medicine can be made by teens or older sims with at least 3 logic. Children and sims with less than 3 logic can make it if someone who meets the requirements is teaching them.
Medicine can be taken by sick sims teen or older, given to a sick sim (children included) by another sim, sold instantly, or sold at an owned business. It comes in two types:
Moderate medicine (light blue bottle) sells for §100. It instantly cures food poisoning and a cold, and is a pretty efficient treatment for the flu as well, although some additional rest might still be needed. Several bottles of it are needed to cure pneumonia.
Strong medicine (dark blue bottle) sells for §300. It instantly cures any disease except the mysterious one and is usually pretty efficient against that too.
Which medicine you get from crafting depends on your sim's logic skill, mood, hygiene level, and pure luck. Getting the strong version is rare even with high logic. I also added the possibility to make medicine in bulk. When made so, the bottles go directly into the sim's (or the business lot owner's) inventory. Failed attempts add there an empty bottle worth §0.
The relationship between sims is checked when giving medicine to someone. Basically sims won't accept medicine from total strangers or someone they don't like. If the sim refuses the offered medicine, it will cause a hit on their relationship, while accepting boosts it.
Make virus. Teens or older sims with at least 8 logic can also make virus, but they'll risk catching the mysterious disease by doing so. Virus doesn't require the sim taking it to be sick and can be otherwise utilized in the same ways as medicine but can't be sold at an owned business. There are two types:
Moderate virus (light green bottle) sells for §200. It randomly infects either food poisoning, a cold, or the flu.
Strong virus (dark green bottle) sells for §400. It infects the mysterious disease.
Which one you'll get follows the same logic as with medicine. You can make virus in bulk as well. The virus made with Biotech Station uses its own code for infecting sims so even those usually immune to diseases will get ill from directly consuming it.
When giving virus to someone, it requires a good relationship with the giver for the sim to accept. The interaction will cause a hit on their relationship no matter what the outcome is.
Practice. Children or older sims can use Biotech Station for building logic without crafting anything. Since the unmodded skilling with it was super cheaty, I toned it down so that it's now only slightly faster than with non-reward objects. The object still also grants science enthusiasm (these apply to making medicide/virus as well).
If you read all the way to here, congrats! *passes out from explaining*
Download (SFS) (alternate)
The file is compressed. OFB is definitely required but the mod has only been tested with all the EPs. If you experience any problems with the mod, please let me know! It's pretty complex so it's very possible that we missed something.
Additional recommended mods: The buyable career rewards can be found here.
Simler90's grandma's comfort soup mod stops the soup from insta-curing and makes getting medicine instead a lot more alluring.
I also recommend using either my edit of simler90's disease mod or their version of it (from the link above) for sims to be able to get pneumonia. Kestrellyn's pneumonia fix is an alternative, too.
If you want to use this mod together with LimeYoshi's antibodies after sickness, check the updates below for the details.
Updates:
6.3.2024 added Portuguese translation.
3.1.2024 updated the antibodies version to work with LimeyYoshi's update to that mod.
19.6.2023 now there's a version that makes the medicine made with this biotech station work correctly with LimeyYoshi's antibodies after sickness mod. If you pick that version make sure to get LimeyYoshi's mod too, it's required for the compatible version to work! If you use my edit of simler90's disease mod, LimeyYoshi's compatible version with simler90's mod works with my edit as well.
3.3.2023 fixed an error that occurred when giving medicine to a child. Changed it so that virus can't be given to children anymore. Fixed an issue with the pop-up messages, now they show correctly if the sim is healthy or not even when the sim has multiple diseases before taking medicine.
6.8.2022 added Brazilian Portuguese and Hungarian translations.
3.8.2022 added Polish, Spanish, and Finnish translations and ensured that UK English always uses the correct text strings. Toned down the skilling speed some more.
Full credit to simler90 for their Biotech Station mod that I used as a base. Additional credit to Nixy for the pill bottle.
Special thanks to @jellymeduza for sending me the earlier version of simler90's mod and to @deedee-sims for all the cheering and help with the testing!
SUMMARY
Since simmers are becoming more sensitive to object limits, I decided to try adding skill books to the bookcases rather than requiring separate skill books – gotta conserve those OBJDs where we can. I’ll still make separate skill books, but they’ll be optional or mod-specific. Still makin’ progress….
FINE TUNING PROTOTYPES
A whiteboard to learn/teach the skills.
A template for custom skill majors (IN TESTING).
A functioning study book.
A working notif that displays skill trees (WORKS).
RESEARCH & CODING
Adding "study X skill" functions to all bookcases (almost forgot about loops!)
a template for custom skill careers
options to walk/drive off-lot to do skill-related things in the background (code is there, just need to plug-in the skills and give each outing a name and time frame)
CUSTOM SKILL TOKENS UPDATED
VERSION 3 – JULY 2026 (CRITICAL UPDATE – REDOWNLOAD & TRASH ALL OLD FILES)
Tokens have been re-grouped and consolidated. Instead of 170+ OBJS, there are around 20 now - and you can choose which ones to play with!
Stacked Skilling. A sim who studies baking can sometimes score a few more cooking points at the same time. This sim might also stack teaching or leadership points while leading a confectionery class downtown.
Skilling for Cats/Dogs. Fluffy and Fido will be able to build custom skills too!
Bucket Lists, Collectibles, Romance, Fame/Infamy, Prestige, Theft/Petty Crime, Health Conditions, Advanced Degrees, and Supernatural abilities (aura, charge, thirst, blood rage, ghost mastery, and so on) will give your sims lots of opportunities to show off their news skills.
GET THE UPDATE HERE
CREDITS
Thanks: Ch4rmsing, ChocolateCitySim, Echo, Eisbaer, Fractured Moonlight, Fire_Flower, Gdayars, Gummi, Sufficeittisay, Whoward, Jelly Meduza and the rest of the Sims 2 modding community. Sources: Beyno (Korn via BBFonts), EA/Maxis, Magic Skill (Echo, 2006), Offuturistic Infographic (Freepik).
Fixed an incredible "bug" w/ Direct3D9, S3SS should now no longer use 200mb~ randomly… This took me ohh... several days to track down.
Updated dependencies, mimalloc being a notable one
New/merged Lot Streaming Optimization patch and new object throttling patch which is really cool and good and you should enable them all
Add aligned-alloc family support to mimalloc just in case
A big 4k LoC (I am mentally unwell) update to S3MM is also coming soon-ish, with the imgui API coming shortly after. It'll come with a very janky mod conflict viewer that I plan to improve upon sometime in the future (very WIP atm like the rest of the side-features!). Once the imgui API drops I'll then probably move it out of beta and start releasing the patches I've written using it.
