A Complete Guide on how to Fix & Optimize The Sims 2 on Windows 10/11
I've made a video tutorial and written guide on everything you need to know on how to Fix & Optimize The Sims 2 on Windows 10/11, with Performance, Stability, and Graphics Enhancements.
So I finally got around to reinstalling Sims 2, and just so you all know, it's gotten wayyy easier to get it up and running than it used to be. Graphics Rules Maker just had an update last year, and Lazy Duchess came out with a launcher called Sims2RPC, so these days it's a snap.
It was actually easier than when I last did a Sims 3 reinstall.
Video tutorial if anyone needs one by the ever helpful @acottonsock is HERE.
Since it's abandonware and as far as I know not buyable new, the only place I can personally recommend to get it is Old Games Download, which is an archive of abandonware games. Oregon Trail 1.2 anyone? I know they have Sims 1, 2, and some of the console games.
Even though I still own the disc versions of the Stories games, I just downloaded Castaway Stories from there the other day because I couldn't immediately find a mod that would let me play it with no cd. It works fine, just need to do a little tweaking with the resolution. I picked the MediaFire option, but I think there was a also a choice to download via Mega and one other I can't remember.
FYI though, when I picked up the Ultimate Collection from them years ago, IKEA stuff didn't install with the rest of it so I had to download and install it separately. This was good while ago though, so they may have fixed it by now.
I don't want to talk about what happened to all of my original TS2 discs. Big sigh.
Hey guys, I’m having pink soup issues with maxis items and clothing, just a mix of stuff. I do have all the usual fixes and even set GRM.
My ram on my pc is 16.0 (15.9 usable) and I have the force texture memory in GRM set to 4019GB. Is that too much or too little? I don’t want to use up all my memory just for a game but, I don’t want to keep crashing either.
TS2 Tutorial - How to fix: CC Hair and Clothes doesn't show on body shop.
Tutorial By foxmanic (Thank you very much!)
This tutorial shows how to fix Custom Content Hair and Clothes that doesn't show on body shop. (no problem with meshes or missing game files)
From This:
To This:
This problem often happens when you play sims 2 on a computer without having the right Graphics Rules and this causes the game to not have the best settings for your computer.
Here’s the tutorial to fix the graphics on the Main Sims 2 Ultimate Collection. With the Graphics Rules Maker.
And when you fix the main game, you have to do the following path to fix the bodyshop:
Graphics Rules Maker doesn't change the bodyshop graphics settings. Only the game one, you'll have to manually go to Program Files and find
Origin Games\Fun with Pets\SP9\TSData\Res\
And in there find a folder called Config.
In there copy files "Graphics Rules" and "Video Cards"
Don't copy the files that have file extension .bak, copy the ones saying .sgr
And then go on folder level back and right under the Config folder you'll see folder called CSConfig,
open it and paste those files there. When it asks to overwrite say "yes"
Force Texture Memory & Available VRAM...this can change over time?!
So I've recently gotten Sims 2 up and running on my new PC, and of course the Graphics Rules Maker was an essential part. I made a video tutorial on my set up process, and have been working on a written tutorial too.
I have an NVIDIA RTX 4070 Graphics Card which has 12GB VRAM. During my initial setup and time of recording, when I checked my Display Memory (VRAM) in the DirectX Diagnostic tool and used the Graphics Rules Maker's Auto-detect feature to determine what I should set my 'force texture memory' to, they both said 12026MB.
However, when I came to re-tracing my steps a couple weeks later to grab some screenshots for my written guide, I was shocked to find that this number had actually decreased to 12012Mb! I had no idea that this could decrease over time.
This got me thinking, perhaps a cause of some of the stability and graphical issues we run into (pink soup) could potentially be partly because our available memory has actually decreased since we last set it in our Graphics Rules so it needs to be updated!
So please, check how much VRAM/Display Memory/Texture Memory you have now and see if that number is actually lower than what its set to in your Graphics Rules meaning it's decreased since you last set it! Try updating it and see if it makes things any better!
On the off chance I'm onto something here, I'd recommend making a habit of checking how much display memory you have every once in a while and update your Graphics Rules force texture memory setting accordingly. I'm aiming to check it at least every time I get a graphics driver update.
TS2 Tutorials - Fix the poor graphics caused by Intel with the Graphics Rules Maker ! ! !
Recently i had a new laptop with Windows 10 with 4,00 GB and intel graphics (Core TM i3-4005U CPU @ 1.70GHz ) for those who may want to know the specs. And when i download and run for the first time my game (The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection) the graphics were VERY bad and they looked like this:
Not only it looked like mess it was even flickering like this:
Also i couldn't / it didn't allow me to enable Smooth Edges.
I am very glad i was able to fix all of those problems and im happy to share the program and tutorial that helped me, with you guys ! ! !
The main program that helped me and fixed all the problems (the poor graphics, the flickering and enabled the smooth edges) was the Graphics Rules Maker.
What it also can do, if you choose them to do of course:
Force texture memory
Disable Sim Shadows
Fix Radeon HD 7000 series recognition
High Quality on Intel Graphics
Support VSync on Intel
Default/Maximum resolution
You can Download it HERE.
Warning: Back-up the original Graphics Rules File in case your problems can’t be solved with this program and it caused you issues. The original file will be found here: The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection\Fun with Pets\SP9\TSData\Res\Config
Here’s the tutorial from the main site that i followed too:
1. Download The Graphics Rules maker Program. No Spyware, adware etc!
2. Run the installer and follow its instructions.
3. Start the application from the start menu (or directly from the installer).
4. The application will try to locate your game. If it doesn't work, locate the game installation before continuing, by clicking the Browse button.
5. Apply the tweaks you want/need. Every tweak has a brief description as tooltip.
6. Save the files. This may ask you to add your graphics card to the game's database. (Please don’t mind the NVIDIA texts in the tutorial picture. If you have Intel it will have Intel texts instead of NVIDIA.)
7. Launch the game and see if everything works as expected.
The game’s graphics will improve to this (ALOT better):
The Flickering will be gone and you will can enable the Smooth Edges:
Thank so much the Graphics Rules Maker ! ! In my case it really saved me! now i can play again my favorite game! (i believe the program also works with nvidia graphics but i don’t think nvidia users would ever have this problem.. it seems to be more common with intel graphics.) I hope i helped people with the same issues in the sims 2 game, like me.
*The Pictures and The Video are not mine. i use them as example. Credits to the original creators*
Here’s Tutorial How to fix: CC Hair and Clothes doesn't show on body shop.
After this Tutorial MAKE SURE to Follow also this one!! it fixes the crashes.
Hi! I hate to bug but I saw your post about that 'Graphics Rules Maker' improving your game and I wanted to ask if installing it also enables the 'smoothness' option on the Sims graphics - I'm sitting with a game that is super sharp because I can't access the smooth edges option. Just wondering if that tweek changes it at all?
It does! It fixed the “sharpness” entirely AND enabled the option in settings. I just followed the instructions on the page linked. I hope this helps! :D
