Useful TS3 shortcuts you might not know about - quickly copy and recolor! (GIF)
• Hold Shift while dragging a palette to recolor the entire floor or wall
• Ever get frustrated copying objects with an eyedropper? Hold Shift and place the selected object to copy it without loading it! Works in both Build or Buy modes, can copy Debug objects with no codes ;)
• Hold Shift and drag fence or wall tool to create a room; hold Ctrl to remove the wall or fence
These shortcuts have saved me lots of time! I rarely use both sledgehammer and eyedropper :)
By the way, the support team has said that my tumblr is finally unbanned! Whew, let's see!
CASP Editor - Easily change clothing categories in TS3
Have you also felt frustrated with how many nice outfits were categorized in TS3 as everyday, but not outerwear? Wanted your sim to wear the high heels to the pool?
Use the Easy CASP Editor (only works for TS3 versions up to 1.67 though!) to easily change the categories of clothes. You can also hide them in CAS, make valid for random/career and more!
How to do that?
Just open the Easy CASP Editor and in the lower left of the app window you will have a field to choose your CC/EP from:
Select where the piece you want to edit is from and find it in the list above. I will pick the jacket from Supernatural, which was only enabled for Everyday/Formal:
Then, in the menu on the right, click the categories you want the clothing to appear in. NOTE: Pregnant clothes will not have morphs, and checking the other gender or age will *not* convert the clothing or actually enable it for that age.
You can edit as many clothes in one go as you'd like. Then, you just click File -> Save package...
Sims 3 Reset: Bittersweet CC Cuts, Bigger Stories 🧜🏽♀️💎
So recently, I have been going through a lot with my Game. I have been going through a lot of growing pains trying to fix my CC folder and one thing that always happens to me is that first I start out small-ish, not very small, but small enough and the game is working even though it takes forever to load and all that stuff. But I keep thinking to myself that it's worth it as long as everything loads. Or I keep thinking that it's worth it once I get all the things (CC) I want.
Those of you who watch my YouTube content, I am definitely a create-a-sim girlie. I absolutely love creating sims. I'll stay in there for hours. If it was possible that I knew the game would never crash and I could add all the create-a-sim CC I wanted, I would be in there for hours creating modernized versions of cartoon characters, creating beautiful sims, creating main characters for stories. I always have a story in my head. But recently I realized that I'd be doing too much and I think we all go through that sometimes in our CC journey. We pick up everything we find, whether it is that you're a builder. So you pick up every furniture piece of CC or a new wall or a new pattern. Or if you're a create-a-sim girlie like me and every time you see a hair that be looking good that was originally a sims 4 hair, you're like, oh my god. Hell, yeah. I got to stop myself.
So I'm just going to bring you guys through what I plan to do. Honestly, I am going to be focusing on my stories more. Honestly, I am such a story girlie, and I've been losing that. I've been spending so much time trying to work with aesthetics and I've made so many create-a-sim videos, a good like 10 to 20 that haven't even been posted. I feel like I can take a take a little break, for right now. So, I will just be putting in what is already needed. For example, if you've seen a let's play that I've done and you like the way a certain sim looks that CC will be in my game. When it comes to makeup and stuff like that, I'll just leave all of that in there. But when it comes to hairs, I'm going to have to be a little bit more careful. Also, when it comes to clothes, I'll just try to only put in what's necessary.
Now when it comes to accessories, that's a little bit more difficult. Because accessories always be loading slow, but you kind of need the accessories. Or maybe you don't. Please let me know below. These sims don't need necklaces and nails and glasses. Even just saying that hurt me. But yeah, this is what I plan to do.
Also as it comes into the building because I do have a lot of build by CC and as some of you know watching some of my videos, I've been getting into my building. Well, not really building more like interior designing and you can see the progression of how much better I got. But honestly, I think at this point I'm just going to be using other creators houses that they post here on this platform and giving them credit in the videos. That'll have to be it for now. That way I get the small, curated amount of CC that they placed in their houses. And if anybody's like, oh my god, where'd you get that? I'll just be like I downloaded this from this creator. Just get that because even though I do like doing it myself, my game is not stable enough where I can do every little creative thing I want in there right now. My storytelling is being sacrificed because I'm spending so much time with all the aesthetics.
So please give me any tips you have for better game optimization, and the way that you curated your Sims 3 saves folder. I'm not going to delete all my CC. It's in a database, but I'm not going to be putting all of it in my game anymore. I'm slowly finding default skins, default eyes, and maybe even a little bit of default makeup. It's a bittersweet, but it has to be done. Thank you, guys, for taking a moment to read this.
I was struggling to smooth the normals at some clothing seams in blender, then found this video and it helped me a lot.
I went through the same process: duplicated the mesh, merged the problematic verts and smoothed the normals in the duplicate, and then aplied these changes on the OG mesh with the data transfer modifier. Selecting the Topology option in the Mapping dropbox helps to avoid the modifier messing with the other normals that are already fine.
Okok so we all know the Sims 3 is like, not super popular and is also notoriously buggy BUT on the off chance anyone is like me and loves it, i have some tips that have greatly helped my game run better. I also am including links to any specific creators or sites I recommend. Tips under the cut bc it's a long post, but I tried to be thorough! You will need to understand like, basic reading comprehension and basic computer-y stuff (downloading files, unpacking files, dragging and dropping into folders, editing the occasional file text) but most stuff I link to have tutorials for adding mods into the game and whatnot.
I really hope this helps people like me who love TS3! but know the game is.... outdated for basically all computers. These are all things ive learned over the past couple years, so I hope this can be a helpful resource for anyone wanting to play TS3.
Number one will probably be using this tutorial to make the game recognize your current computer specs. Because the game is, yknow, old, it wont recognize newer drivers and whatnot. This tutorial will allow the game to actually recognize them and therefore run better https://www.carls-sims-4-guide.com/forum/index.php?topic=26753.0
Nraas will be your best friend for managing things in-game. It's similar to MCCC for the sims 4 but you completely customize which like, modules you use. I highly highly recommend specifically Story Progression and Master Controller https://www.nraas.net/community/home
LazyDuchess is a goddess and I highly Highly recommend her Smooth Patch mod. It makes the game run so much better. Also she has so many other mods that make things like CAS load faster plus a search function for Build/Buy https://www.patreon.com/lazyduchess/posts
ModTheSims is a great resource for Sims 3 Mods as well, definitely recommend making an account and perusing their sims 3 mods https://modthesims.info/
Speaking of ModTheSims, I highly recommend Regul Save Cleaner to... clean up the extra data in your saves https://modthesims.info/download.php?t=652440
Also on ModTheSims theres an excellent bug fixing mod from Simler90, it touches on a bunch of like longtime bugs that havent been fixed (like the firefighter career being bugged) https://modthesims.info/download.php?t=659969
Make sure that before playing or after adding any new mods, delete the files: caspartcache.package, compositorcache.package, scriptcache.package, simcompositorcache.package, and socialcache.package. If not, the game WILL load slowly and/or crash. These files are found in Documents\ElectronicArts\The Sims 3. Not sure about Steam bc I use the EA app, but I assume its a similar path.
Save every half hour or so to prevent crashes killing too much progress. And don't play for longer than an hour per initial load (like, play for an hour, save, quit and load the game again). I find it helps the game run smoother when you dont play in 3 hour stretches.
make a backup saves folder for your saves. Im not sure why, but i found that keeping only one save in the actual saves helps it loads faster and smoother.
Also when saving your game, ALWAYS use Save As. If you Save As, you wont have to worry about accidentally corrupting your saves, which happens a lot
Also, when you're about to save, move the save you loaded into your backup saves folder BEFORE saving. I find it crashes/corrupts way less if its not trying to compete with the other save
also keep your sims personal inventory fairly empty (like 10 items max) to prevent a known bug from occurring when saving. Use a storage box or something to store collectibles like gems, plants, etc.
WHEN IN CAS WAIT UNTIL THE LITTLE FLOWER LOOKING ICON IS BLUE TO SCROLL THROUGH THE CATEGORY. When it turns blue, all the items have properly loaded, so it wont lag nearly as much.
Prev point applies to build/buy, wait for the category to load before messing with things. You'll save yourself a lot of stress
Dont use 4 speed, i find it just lags and stops progressing time. I use 2 or 3 max, even when sleeping
In BuyDebug you can buy these invisible lights that make the lighting much much better in game. Just have an actual light, like a lamp or outdoor light, to be able to change brightness and color in Live mode. Bc.... Its invisible so non-clickable
Sims 3 Nraas Tutorial: How to have sims follow each other.
You will need Nraas Retuner.
Previous
Next
Click on City Hall: Nraas>Retuner>>Settings>General>ByObject>Sim
Then do the same for Retuner>Settings>General>By Age Species>Dog/Cat/Horse
Change petfollow /follow to include humans.
Now back off to Retuner top menu and turn on debugging and object menu
Then click on your SIM
Nraas>Retuner>Settings>General
And change these to allow human sims too.
Turn off debugging again from City Hall Retuner menu then SAVE and QUIT.
Upon reload your sims will now be able to do this:
Couple of things I’ve noticed in testing - Sims will keep following until their motives fail, so use SP or MC to keep motives on max if you want a permanent chaser.
Sims will only follow until the pursued leaves the lot at which point the follower will give up. However, if both sims are out in the world and not on a lot, the follow interaction is available then (as in video above).
Your sims can be at the opposite end of the map and as long as both are not standing on a lot, the follow interaction is there.
It also works with both sims on horses, provided both are mounted before you click Follow, but I found sometimes the chaser would sometimes stop and dismount before running after their lead on foot. Too buggy as it is with horses anyway, so meh!
Handy for guards and servants to follow their masters.
Also, you can stop pets following sims by changing the advertised outputs in the PetFollowSimAround, (in above pic) although I set to Zero anyway as I was worried this would stop humans doing it autonomously too.
I would love a global version of this setting as a mod so that sims can follow each other on and off lots regardless.
With my recent error scare in Sims 3 I'd like to make a little post here to some links that helped me reduce the save game size and perhaps prevent the errors in the future.
Tips for a better game in Nraas website
Regul Save Game Cleaner in MTS
Cleaning Town Inventory
Erasing Memories
Also I'd like to thank @simstryingtheirbestok for their help!
