Curly hairs for today! (requests by anon and @nosferatusim)
They're all just recolors. The Simpliciaty hairs use the Simpliciaty May Curls version instead of the original textures (those were already recolored in Simgaroop's before). The Honey hair is a recolor of its og textures.
6 natural colors, gray linked to black. Meshes and bodyshop swatches are included, enjoy! :)
Playing Sims 2 made me realize how limited social interactions were compared to other Sims titles. So after some tutorials, I made my very first mod: More Social Interactions!
Here are the list of interactions. Some are triggered by relationship dynamics so you won't see them all at once. There are no new animations, just more options for storytelling purposes.
Beg For Forgiveness
Compliment Outfit
Compliment Personality
Small Talk
Ask About Day
Deep Conversation
Good Night Kiss
Ask What Their Problem Is
Compliment Appearance
Talk About Music
Say "I Love You"
Hold Close
Argue About Parenting
Criticize WooHoo
Compliment Hair
Give Reassurance
Talk About Past
Argue About Money
Friendly "Say I Love You"
Talk About Weather
Big shoutout to picknmixsims, echo on MTS, and The Sims 2 Guru on YouTube for all of the help on pointing me in the right direction.
I don't *think* this should conflict with anything, I have almost 10 gigs of CC and mods and haven't run into any issues. I also don't have any coding/modding experience so, idk how much I can help if something goes wrong.
Soooo... I didn't intend for two highly requested fixes for The Sims 2 to drop within the space of a week and a half, buuuut...
Here's where you can download an experimental patch to fix the so-called 'object limit'!
https://github.com/spockthewok/TS2ObjectLimitFix
(Ultimate Collection only at the moment, I'm afraid).
The good news is:
Both @lordcrumps and @teaaddictyt have tested it with stupidly large CC folders and report that it works.
There isn't a dissertation the length of Tolstoy's 'War and Peace' you need to read through to understand wtf is going on.
The crashing wasn't caused by some hardcoded object limit at all! (That I know of).
An explanation of the issue for programmers:
And for everyone else:
The code for the Build/Buy menu was missing basic checks to confirm that the data it was trying to do things with was actually valid. No, I'm not joking.
Basically, it appears that all of the objects you can buy in the game are stored in something you can think of as being like a big, long list, which grows in size with the more custom objects you have.
The only purpose of the code that this plugin patches is to sort the items in the list into some kind of order. This is done by assessing if the value of the previous item in the list is larger than that of the item currently being looked at, and swapping their position if this is true (also known as an insertion sort).
In short, the game wasn't asserting that the data it was about to compare for sorting was valid before accessing it, and then promptly blowing up when it tried to do so and discovered it wasn't.
I imagine that the odds of the game making an oopsie and dumping some funky data into the list increases with the number of objects it is having to process - this might be why this issue only presents itself to those using multiple GB of Build/Buy CC. It was much easier to patch the code encountering the bad data within the list than to try and hunt down the mysterious culprit putting the data in there to begin with, so this is all the information I have at the moment unfortunately.
Either way, one of the first things you're taught when learning to code is to ALWAYS check that the data you're operating on has been initialised (i.e. it holds some kind of value). I guess someone at Maxis must have skipped that lecture :D
Is the 255 objects per subcategory limit theory true?
The Downloads folder I was using for testing had ~672 objects in the Deco/Misc subcategory (Maxis objects included). With the patch, I can freely navigate throughout the entire subcategory with zero crashes, so I guess not?
What about the whole OBJD limit thing?
People have varying beliefs of what the limit on OBJDs might be, but HCDU reports my Downloads folder had an OBJD count of 20,787. Again, without the patch the game would crash when switching categories in the Build/Buy catalogue, with the patch, no crashing.
If you want to hear my opinion on whether such a limit exists, watch this video.
Do I even need this patch if I don't use much CC?
As it adds some fairly important crash-prevention checks to part of the Build/Buy menu's functionality, I'd probably recommend using it anyway, just to be safe - we all know how much this game loves to crash!
Aaaah! I'm still getting crashes with the patch!
I'm aware that a few of you CC addicts out there have Downloads folders larger than the total size of everything ever uploaded to the internet, so if you still experience crashing in Build/Buy mode with this patch, please take a look at the mod's GitHub page and send me over the information requested there. Fingers crossed that shouldn't happen, but if it does, I'll try my best to investigate :)
Anyway...
Will
(I wish I had looked at this for my dissertation, as it was literally only a day's work).
Burglars and repo people are taking over in this update! More info after the cut!
EDIT: Small update below: ROSs should stop popping up right upon loading a lot.
The Scope of This Update
There is now a chance that burglars and repo people can visit a maximum number of 4 times in a 24 hour span in a row. That means burglaries can happen in broad daylight, and repo people can reclaim your Sims' items as they see fit.
Burglars will steal a max of 2000 simoleons (tunable) worth of items. The repo person will reclaim 1000 simoleons (tunable) worth of items with a minimum of 100 simoleons worth of items to trigger them.
There is also a ROS where your Sim can annoy a walkby (tuned at a max of 20 times), which comes by immediately after the ROS.
For the car repairs ROS, I added a check to see if there is actually a car on the lot. I had to remove the job check for the job ROS as something got messed up with the code. *shrug* I'll fix that in another update, so if your Sim is already unemployed and loses their job, disregard for now.
False returns don’t require a 24 hour (or however long you set the cool-down period) wait.
Conflicts
This mod is somehow blocked by @lazyduchess Story Progression (SP), despite having a unique GUID (0x00E1C028) but works fine loading BEFORE SP. Thank you to @cityof2morrow for originally reporting this! There shouldn’t be any other conflicts. The mod should load BEFORE: 1) story progression, 2) global overrides (visiting/go to work/hospitals/go to school/etc), 3) vehicles/phones/cars cost money, and 4) the religions mod.
Please remember to remove the older versions of this mod.
Credits
Simsky, for their burglar scheduler, which helped me figured out how to implement the repo people and burglars into the game. The maintainers of SimPE. Downloaders and viewers like you!
Not gonna lie, converting these took a while since I've already kinda forgotten everything I have to pay attention to while converting so there was a lot of tweaking done, but I still couldn't fix some visible hard edges near the hairline in hairs 1,2 & 4 (mostly visible on blond), and there are some gaps in areas between the forehead and the hair in hairs 1 & 2. While converting the mesh they weren't there but i guess the fault lies in the bone assignment for the animated hair, yet I just couldn't figure it out in the end. Please let me know if these issues are annoying - I'll try to fix them again but for now I'm still satisfited with the results :D. Also let me know if there are some other issues with these conversions that I didn't spot myself.
credits: Sunivaa, AHARRIS00BRITNEY, Orchiona, Ezrelea & Simandy for additional custom recolors of 'Psylocke'
If ever you struggled with how to hide the necessary pool tile for the sea/pond water mod? I have, and so has my friend @ladyvondolladay. She had an idea, and I made it a reality.
I present to you — the terrain rug. A two poly sheet with terrain paint textures that you can slap over your pool tile and hide it completely. Thank you @picknmixsims for sharing the shader info I needed to make the texture actually blend in this perfectly!
There are recolors to match all 30 maxis terrains, swatch folder is included. I chose to only do full strength, as the combinations quickly get out of hand otherwise. If you are interested in making your own recolors to match custom terrains or common blends you use, I'll include an explanation of how I did it under the cut.
You'll find it in deco/rugs, it costs nothing. 2 poly, textures are 256x256.
Download on simfileshare
Credits: Calibrat who helped me with the names of terrains in English for swatch purposes. LadyVonDolladay for the original idea. @pforestsims who suggested the problem with getting texture to match might be shader related.
The textures were made by taking a screenshot of the terrain painted ground from straight above and at a level of zoom where 1 tile in game measured about 256x256 pixels. By matching the mesh size to the image size I grab, the scale of the pattern remains the same. I included a texture reference image to hopefully make it a little easier to understand what I mean.
I haven't tried with floor tile textures, but I think it would work somewhat well for them too though the mesh is just a smidge bigger than exactly 1 tile.
Someone suggested some more wedding mannequins, so here they are! They're from my Ruched Gown and Aphrodite Gown. They come in the original 10 and 6 recolors. Credit also goes to Leh for the mannequin skin.
Underrated CC-free TS2 tool: the Decoration Transformer
The Decoration Transformer is a classic modded object for The Sims 2 that I used a lot before I learned about OMSPs, but now that I'm getting back into CC-free builds, I'm finding it's become extremely useful again.
Simply put, the Decoration Transformer changes how the game recognises the "size" of whatever object you place on it, so now that object will be able to fit into small decorative slots such as shelves, fireplaces, coffee tables, the backs of counters, etc.
Take the BG alarm clock for example. Even with moveobjects, it will not snap to the decorative slots on the coffee table, shelf, or fireplace - but after using the Decoration Transformer, it will snap easily to all of these decorative slots (right).
This is useful for Maxis decorative objects which are incorrectly flagged (such as this vase), plants, stereos, lamps, and some functional CC such as books-as-bookcases.
Unfortunately, there is a limitation, in that only objects which can be placed on an end table can be transformed.
"Can't I use OMSPs for that?"
You sure can, but I find this a lot more convenient - if I move a shelf, I don't have to move a bunch of floating objects along with it - but most importantly for CC-free builds, transformed objects stay transformed and do not require CC to be uploaded with shared lots.
"Aesthetically, what's the benefit over just shifting the object with Shiftable Everything?"
Partly convenience, but mostly: routing. If you raise an object with Shiftable Everything, Sims will still consider it to be in their way, which can cause issues with trying to go places or interact with intersecting objects. But objects on decorative slots will not interfere with Sims trying to interact with those objects/surfaces, and objects placed on shelves will not interfere with routing at all.
This is, once again, very convenient for CC-free builds, as it does not require CC such as walk-around or walk-through blocks.
Make sure to read the Decoration Transformer's MTS2 page to understand the instructions for how to use it before downloading. But enjoy a little added flexibility and convenience in your low/no-CC decorating!
I made a bunch of supernatural recolors of various paintings in the game. I really enjoyed making the quilts, even though it took a long time.
Every type of supernatural has a number, so that means that "Jodelie_Art_Arghist_01A" is the alien recolor of the Arghist painting. The A is just in case I make more recolors in the future (such optimism lol).
The "Dead" life state includes zombies, ghosts, skeletons and Grim Reaper.
There are of course no mermaids in the game, but I found so much cool art that I just added them anyway.
Download at SFS. (update 03-12-2025: new link)
I've worked on these (and other paintings) for a very long time, to the point I was feeling really insecure about most of them. But I realized that I just needed to share them and get over it lol. So anyway, enjoy!
Another bunch of supernatural recolors of various paintings in the game!
If you want a challenge, try recoloring the Circulator masks! It was really frustrating at times, but I'm glad what I ended up with. I even added a bonus holographic one.
Again, I really enjoyed making the quilts, I especially love the one for the PlantSims, it's so elegant.
Every type of supernatural has a number, so that means that “Jodelie_Art_Arghist_01A” is the alien recolor of the Arghist painting. The A is just in case I make more recolors in the future (such optimism lol).
The “Dead” life state includes zombies, ghosts, skeletons and Grim Reaper.
There are of course no mermaids in the game, but I found so much cool art that I just added them anyway.
Download at SFS.
I was planning on ending the uploads here, but I have alts of a couple paintings that I'll be uploading next week!
@deatherella posted these recolours last week on GardenofShadows. I really liked them but they made them on a mesh by Nutty. And I already had the same conversion by @veranka-downloads. So I pasted Deatherella recolors on Veranka's mesh. Thats all.
The recolour are original made by @lovefooly-sims for sims 4 HERE
The mesh is included. It is the animated mesh by @pforestsims
Leather recolours by Caro are here
Flower recolours by Pixelry are here
Thanks to SimPe and Yape by @chieltbest
Deatherella made the textures already small and thanks to Yape they are all in DTX1, so really tiny.
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).
P.S.: if you pirate your game you'll have to do this manually, there's guides online for it but since I have a legit copy I can't help you here.
Step 5: Install DXVK
Make sure you follow this guide by Nornite and do every single step. Don't skip anything!
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 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
