I use a lot of mods to make my game look good, but also to improve my gameplay so that writing stories is even more fun. I thought some of you might enjoy knowing what's in my game. So I decided to make a Mods Masterlist.
This is not my CC collection, however I did include a lot of the default replacements I use. I have divided everything up into categories: - How I improved my game's performance - How I made my game look pretty - How I made my game more fun
Using all of these mods and tweaks obviously comes at your own risk. They can work fine in my game, but make yours laggy or unplayable. That's always a possibility with mods. I won't be able to help you with that, as these obviously work well for me.
First of all, my specs:
Why am I sharing this? Because I think it's always good to know what a person is running with before you install their entire mods list. Just in case you're wondering if your pc would be able to handle the same amount of mod load.
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-10850K CPU @ 3.60GHz, 3501 Mhz, 10 Core(s), 20 Logical Processor(s). RAM: 32 GB GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti 16GB VRAM Storage disk my game is installed on: 1TB SSD SAMSUNG MZVLB1T0HBLR-000L7
Game version: Steam edition.
How I improved my game's performance:
DXVK: this has stopped *all* access violation crashes in my game since I installed it. I know I'm probably jinxing myself by typing this, but I for real haven't had my game crash to desktop since I followed these instructions.
Nraas Errortrap, Overwatch, Mastercontroller, Saver: Errortrap catches in-game bugs and glitches and fixes them by resetting the sim automatically for you. Overwatch cleans up the game overnight. Mastercontroller (+ cheats and integration modules) gives you compact mode in CAS and allows you to fully reset the town which is recommended to do once every sims week or after you had a big party event with many sims. Saver prompts you to save your game every 30 minutes as 'Save as...' and this will save your life from losing your game to a crash after hours of gameplay.
Sims 3 Settings Setter: Sims 3 Settings Setter is a collection of patches that improve your game's performance. You can enable them by opening a save game and pressing insert. Make sure to save your settings by clicking 'file -> save settings' at the very top of the UI, so you don't have to redo them each time you open your save. Here are my enabled patches, but please see for yourself what feels good for your game. Don't enable uncompressed textures UNLESS you have DXVK installed and plenty of VRAM.
GPU Patch: I have a very new GPU and need this for my game to recognize my graphicscard. It is basically mandatory to do this unless your pc is over a decade old.
Intel Extreme Tuning Utility: I overclock my CPU with this program. I sincerely advice against you doing this unless you are 100% sure you know what overclocking is, whether your CPU is capable of overclocking, and what a healthy overclock speed is for your CPU. I use IETU to do this, but your computer might have a built-in tool that lets you overclocks safely.
Tweaking my GraphicsRules.sgr: I honestly only do this because other guides told me to. I have no clue if it actually does something. But change these settings to these numbers. They're at the top of the file: seti cpuLevelUber 4 seti cpuLevelHigh 3 seti cpuLevelMedium 3 seti cpuLevelLow 3
CC Magic: USE THIS FOR YOUR CC. Like, for real, USE IT. It is a life saver. I feel like an idiot for spending over a decade playing this game without CC Magic. Follow this video for easy instructions.
Regul Save Cleaner: I use this every other session to keep my game clean.
Turn off memories, lessons, online features, interactive loading screen: yes, these all cause lag in your game. If you still want to keep some of the memories, use this mod instead.
Set the max amount of fully active/rendered lots to 2 or 4. This will reduce camera lag. I recommend setting it to the amount of houses in the direct vicinity of your sim's house. So if there's only 2 neighbors set it to 3, if there's 3, set it to 4. Don't go any higher than this and don't set it to 1.
Tip: Do not throw the entire Sim 3 store in your game. Handpick what you want to use and only download/buy those. The sims 3 store is 5gb worth of content and having it all in your game severely lags out your CAS and build mode, making it take way longer to load everything.
Just a rule: don't use Sims3Packs. Don't install CC through the Sims launcher period. You can use Delphy's Sims 3 Pack Multi-extractor to turn Sims3packs into .package files. Installing through the launcher works alright, but uninstalling stuff through the launcher is not clean. It leaves behind a lot of bloat. Keep your CC organized and clean, otherwise you'll regret it when you're years into playing Sims 3 and everything is an unsolvable mess.
How I make my game look pretty:
Some of these things work smoothly in my game because I have a very good graphics card. Not everyone can run all the stuff below and still have good game performance. I recommend trying these things one by one and seeing how your game handles it. If something makes your game an unplayable mess, just uninstall and forget about it.
Uncompressed textures patch from Sims 3 Settings Setter: This highly improves the quality of your sims in-game. They will look more like their CAS model and are a lot less blotchy/pixelated. This honestly replaced my need to increase the simrendertexture through the Graphicsrules.sgr, because sims look really good with this patch turned on! Only do this if you have DXVK installed!
Reshade 6.4.1 (with add-on support): Allows you to use Reshade presets that will change the look of your game entirely and make it look a lot better (depending on the preset you choose). Here's a full guide on how to install Reshade 6.4.1.
Shadowmapsize tweak: In my Graphicsrules.sgr, I have set the Shadowmapsize to 8k. That way the shadows in game will look less pixelated and more real.
Lazyduchess Shadow Extender (8k preset): this makes it so that the shadow draw distance in game reaches a lot further.
S-club's 3D lashes: Gives your sims nice 3D eyelashes, available in the eye-liner make-up category and in accessories. Don't forget to download the sliders. And also, I recommend downloading the mod that removes EA's eyelashes. Apologies for the TSR link, they're not available elsewhere.
Mango-smoothie default skin replacement: Nice, smooth HD skin replacement. there is also a link for non-defaults if you prefer it. I also use a bunch of other non-default skins but these are the main ones.
Yumedust's Eye love set conversion by Brntwaffles: my default replacement for the eyes. I use V2.
Agnelid's default hair replacements: these are proper low-med poly and give me the least render issues out of all those default hair replacements out there, so I highly recommend them.
Angelsimoleon's make-up default replacements: These are really good, because now default make up doesn't look like your sim is trying to be a clown anymore. I also recommend the color presets default replacement.
Default replacement for eyebrows: ugly EA eyebrows begone.
Default beard replacements: ugly beards BE GONEE. Also, more beards here. Can't have enough beards.
Muted Maxis Cloud UI: really pretty UI that looks light blue in my game with my reshade preset which I find very pleasing on the eyes.
Plants default replacement: Omedapixel made a lot of default replacements for plantable crops. They only work for newly planted crops. Please read their instructions carefully, it requires some set-up.
The Sims 3 Project Renaissance: replaces a bunch of textures from trees and plants, making them more HD.
Sims 3 HD Textures terrain: I use the 1k version because I was too scared of overloading my game with HD textures. Still makes a nice difference though.
Uranesia Lighting mod PLUS: I use the version with darker nights and intense blue water. Makes your game look very pretty with better shadows and pretty sunsets.
Milky Way Night Sky: For the amazing startfield you see in my nighttime screenshots.
Realistic Clouds: For some pretty clouds.
Simsi45 Improved EA Lights: For better indoor lighting.
Sims 3 Medieval facial expressions override: I've been playing with these for so long I don't even remember what the normal facial expressions used to look like.
Pigtails glitch fix: Ugly pigtails on every random sim, begone.
LazyDuchess Random Sim fixes 2.0: Fixes the puddingface syndrome and the ugly green-blonde haircolor some sims were born with. Also comes with some other minor fixes. This also makes male sims gain body hair on age up, which is tuneable.
Sliders: for better sim creation.
How I make my game more fun:
Nraas Storyprogression: I also have the modules Career, Extra, Money, Population, Relationship and Skill. This mod is absolutely essential to me. I can't play this game without it. However, it is a heavy mod. It will cause some lag in your game. To me it's absolutely worth it. I highly recommend setting the speed to 'snail pace' to make the lag problem minimal (except maybe pregnancy, I have that one manually edited to speed 500, because I need people to make lots of babies, okay.) and to turn off notifications for anyone who's not related or romanced with your sim, it'll save you some hassle.
Nraas Retuner: essential for more autonomy control. It requires a bit of practice to be able to use it properly. I highly recommend you go into the settings of this mod (City hall -> Nraas -> Retuner) and turn on the retuner menu for objects. That way you can, for example, click on the computer, go to the retuner menu, and turn off autonomy for playing computer games. Or click on the radio and turn off autonomy for sims to turn it on.
All other Nraas mods I have: Consigner, DebugEnabler, Dreamer, Gohere, Hybrid, OnceRead, Porter, PortraitPanel, Register, RelationshipPanel, Tagger, Tempest, Traveler, Woohooer, WrittenWord. Just check out their respective pages to see what they do. They're all useful because they either help you control your game more (Register can turn off paparazzi!!), or they add other handy gameplay things. There's even more Nraas mods that I currently don't use (yet), feel free to check them all out.
Simler90's Gameplay core mod: This fixes a lot of annoying stuff in the game. However, if you want to use it alongside Nraas Overwatch and LazyDuchess Random Sim Fixes, it requires a small bit of tuning. To make it compatible with Overwatch: change the Overwatch clean up hour to 5AM (default is 3AM). You can do this in the game by clicking City Hall/any computer -> Nraas -> Overwatch -> Settings. To make sure Lazyduchess puddingface fix takes priority over the one in Simler's core mod (I did this because the one by LD is better), you need to open Simler90's tuning file in S3PE and set the puddingface fix to false. If you don't know how to do this, here you go. There's more things to tune in this mod, so learning this is a good idea regardless. Put it in your overrides and keep Nraas in packages.
More interactions mods: There's a bunch of them. I highly recommend the following: - Moar Interactions - More Pregnancy Interactions - More Baby Interactions - More Toddler Interactions - More Romantic Interactions - Outdoor activities for Toddlers - Toddlers Can Ride Rocking Rider - Children Can
No Mutant Hair or Eyes: No more mutations in haircolor or eyecolor, because these were way too common in the Sims 3. Your sims will now always inherit their eye and haircolor from a relative (parent or grandparent etc.).
Expanded Genealogy: adds a lot more family relations to your family tree, so your game will recognize more sims as family members. Like 2nd cousin and such.
Neuroblazer's Random Genetics: overhauls the genetics system so your sim babies become more of a blend between the two parents instead of copy-pasting 100% of their slider values. I only recommend using this if you move town often and keep the gene pool fresh, because if you stay in the same town for a bunch of generations this mod will cause everyone to slowly crawl towards the 0 slider value puddingface. This mod will lag your game a little bit at the start of your save while it loads.
Painting Replacements: Makes the painting skill a ton more fun because it adds so many painting variations to the game!
Routing fixes and less whiny sims: Sims 3 is a lot more fun when your sims aren't constantly suffering from routing errors or blocks. Here's a whole list of them: - Ohrudi's routing fixes - Twoftmama's routing fixes (need a free Sims Asylum account) - No whining about motives - No whining about route fails - Better routing for game objects (need a free Sims Asylum account) - No foot tapping - More Entry Points: This one makes it so sims don't wait in line forever to go into the school building and such!
Human Lifespan for Supernatural Sims: If you're like me and you avoid occults like vampires or fairies because they tend to live forever, this mod makes it a lot more fun to play around with occults. It gives them a regular lifespan, like any other sim.
Traits enabled for all ages: Tired of your born sims all having the same traits because the choices are so limited at a young age? This mod enables all traits for all ages.
Autonomous toddler skilling: makes teaching toddlers their skills fun, so sims will do it autonomously. Requires a free Sims Asylum account to download.
Faster Gardening: I have picked the 50% option. Now my gardening sims can finally have a life again since weeding and harvesting doesn't take them all day.
No Social Groups (Uni only): Your sims won't instantly turn into nerds just because they like to play games or browse the web. I picked the one that does enable the groups in the university world.
CrossEye Fix: No more crossed eyes when Sims age up.
Be Productive: sims will clean up after themselves more often.
Opportunity Phone Call Fix: If you have into the future installed, this fixes the bug where you'd not get any opportunity phone calls anymore.
New Lifetime Goals: Normally, when your sims complete their LTW, the Midlife Crisis LTR to pick a new one will disappear. Your sim can therefore only complete one LTW by EA's default settings. This mod prompts your sim to pick a new LTW once they have completed theirs, so they always have a new goal to strive for.
Famous Artists: changes the celebrity system so you earn celebrity points for skills and jobs that actually make sense.
No Autonomous Pranks: Because pranks suck unless you actually want them to happen and then you can just do it yourself. You can also just do this with Nraas Retuner of course, but it'll be a bit of a hassle.
Scolding mod: will prompt you to ask you whether you actually want to scold your child instead of it becoming an interaction you can't cancel.
Baking mod: adds a baking skill to the game
Flower Arranging: adds a flower arrangement skill to the game.
Medical career reworked: adds all sorts of extra stuff for the medical career.
Writing is fun! Makes it so the writing skill adds fun instead of depleting it, also extends the royalties to 12 weeks instead of 6 and decreases the amount of books you have to read to get a (hidden) writing speed bonus. Writing is a big hobby of mine and it never made sense to me that it'd deplete the fun bar.
Expanded Active Households/homes+: Really awesome mod by TheSweetSimmer that ads a ton of gameplay to your game in regards to sleepovers, house visits, owning multiple active residential lots and dividing your sims across them, custom babysitters and even a new interactive daycare system.
