📺 The Sims 2 Re-release Is A Mess - Corruption Update

Why Sims 2 has been so broken the last ten years

This is down to my own research, and I'm not saying it is the one and only reason why the game is so broken these days, but I have some points worth mentioning.

So, you're bored one day. You remember this game you had so much fun playing a few years ago, or maybe as a child. It's The Sims 2!

The game has a few issues than from when you last remembered playing, so you search on google for some fixes for the tiny resolution, and among the countless posts you may find, you may find this:

Or this:

(to the creators and players mentioned here this isn't me making a dig at you, i'm just pointing out some cc that could affect the game from working properly. your stuff is all beautiful :D)

Lesya's game is gorgeous!!! Oh, how can I get it to look like that?

So you, with a clean, vanilla (ugly) game you decide to download a few mods she listed, such as:

Skylines by GCKP (you can get optimised ones by me here)

Skies by Lowedeus (you can get optimised ones by me here)

Trees by Criquette (you can get optimised ones here)

No More Blurriness by Voeille (you can get optimised snow only here)

Cool! And then you notice some cheats than can give the game that open-world, interactive feel. Even better!

And you shove them into your folder and you boot up the game. Everything's going great!

Until...

You search hundreds of posts looking for the fix. Some recommend 3rd-party tools, but they seem to make the problem worse. You reinstall, finding you only wasted your time. Something has to be causing this, but you'd never guess it'd be the mods everybody swore by.

Well, in fact, it is. Partly.

I've struggled with pink flashing since 2019, when I reinstalled Sims 2 after I got a decent computer for once. I did everything above, searched for fixes, found Lesya's blog which was my primary inspiration. It was through Lesya's guide that I was able to make my game look pretty!

These mods, which are a staple in the modding community, are beautiful indeed... but what if I told you that the reason they're so beautiful, is because they're high-quality. With textures soaring up to 4k, when, hang on--

In 2004, 4k resolution was... probably unheard of. With the leading monitor size being 1024x768, what would be the point of using such huge textures on an engine that was designed for monitors of at least this size? Would you be able to see the detail of 4k on a monitor of that size? Definitely not.

The max visiting sims, okay, a little hit or miss. If your sims are all wearing high poly alpha CC, then it's a problem. If not, good luck.

Then comes the cheats I mentioned. The lot skirt cheat expands the view distance a significant amount. With the mergenhoodflora cheat, that displays more trees. Combining the two, what do you get?

A massive view distance, blinded by trees.

With skies and skylines with large textures up to 4k, and trees with textures up to 2k, The Sims 2 will collapse. It's like forcing an old man with health conditions to do 20 situps, again and again.

It'll overexert him, by the very least. And you're overexerting the game by cramming custom content that is not optimised for the engine TS2 was built on.

So please, next time you encounter the pink soup, please check your CC folders, and research changes and cheats before you put them into your game. You will enjoy the game much more if you do this, and won't encounter this problem so often.

Don't use Graphics Rules Maker

Instead, opt for a maxis original Graphics Rules uploaded here by Veronavillequiltingbee. It's essentially a rewrite of an old tutorial I made a long time ago.

Once you download the file from VVQB, open DXDIAG by pressing WinKey+R and typing 'dxdiag'.

This value I've underlined is what you need to put after seti textureMemory. Open the sgr file and do CTRL-F and input seti textureMemory.

Add the value from DXDIAG and then save it.

You can use GRM for adding your GPU to the game, but I do not recommend it for anything but that.

Optimising the game... inside the game

*shoves GRM off the table*

We're going to go into TS2 in-game settings for this one.

These settings are optimal if you play CC-heavy households. It will ease the load on your game to make space for the heavy CC you have in your current household. You can tweak these when you want to take photos outside, but for playing I recommend them all to be off - especially at community lots as there are lots of sims there.

I never see anybody talking about Object Hiding.

Object Hiding hides objects from floors that aren't in view. If you're playing downstairs, objects upstairs won't be rendered, thus minimising the load on your game.

I have reflections and smooth edges off because I use ReShade.

Snow on Ground is optional. Sometimes snow can cause pink flashing, I believe it's due to texture replacements that are huge in size too, Voeille's is 2k. I've linked a resized one above.

This post will be updated with later findings. I hope you all found it informative :]

Some default replacement requests because I gathered enough to make a proper post!

tmbodyopencoatlongpants_pvtschool replaced with this outfit by Amaryll. I generated some new resources so this outfit could be replaced separately from the other suits.

Download: SFS

afbottomflairedpantssandals replaced with this shoeswap and retexture by @megamassikalove. I set these as outerwear as well because they seem warm enough.

Download: SFS - swatch

afbodysweats replaced with Power Jogger Set by @platinumaspiration. Set as everyday and athletic.

Download: SFS - swatch

pfbodybadger and pmbodybadger replaced with 4t2 EP11 Sweater Animal + Jeans Cuffed by @lucilla-sims. Set as everyday only and everything is unisex. These come in two versions, one that replaces all outfits and one that only replaces the panda and polarbear recolours.

Download: SFS - swatch v1, swatch v2

📼kestrelteen's 4t2 nostalgia living set furniture in goat wood and pooklet naturals📼

really cute and versatile set in some more realistic woods and my fave palette for woods. a before and after img under the cut.

the polys are pretty low (they're like 2k at most i blv). texture sizes for the wood is 1024px and the glass is 512px. all have working mipmaps.

i know the glass looks a little iffy but i had to manually separate the design from the transparency which took forever to get right so pls know i tried my best xd

also, im aware that the centre and the bookshelf have identical textures and i made recolours for them each, but i couldn't repository them in my usual method and i just dont have the patience for doing it manually, srry!

i included kestrelteens' original collection file in case you dont have it and the meshes are included too. make sure to visit their original post for more details!

dl @ gd

credits - awingedllama, kestrelteens, goat, pooklet

MISE À JOUR DU PACKAGE DU SIM BLENDER

Veuillez le réinstaller. Une erreur de saut de ligne dans le fichier Dialog prim string set rendait les informations demandées complètement incohérentes avec l'action demandée.

Merci à @barbiepinklady de m'avoir averti.

TRADUCTION FRANÇAISE MODS ET CC

Sul sul !

S'il y a bien quelque chose que nous savons, c'est que Les Sims comportent beaucoup de mods intéressants qui modifient grandement l'expérience de jeu. Cependant, un manque existe dans la communauté française des Sims 2 : la traduction des mods et contenus personnalisés en français.

Je déposerai désormais sur ce post des mods et contenus personnalisés entièrement traduits en français, afin que plusieurs puissent en profiter.

_____________________________________________________________

Mods et CC traduits dans leur entièreté:

Vous retrouvez un fichier Google Drive comportant plusieurs mods et contenus personnalisés traduit et classé par créateur juste ICI.

Ce que le fichier comporte:

Mods par twojeffs

Le Sim Blender [Maj - 18/02/25]

Visitor Controller

ACR (Uniquement le fichier ACR - Controller - Main) Mods complet ici

Mods par ??? (Si vous connaissez les créateurs, merci de le partager pour les crédits de leur création)

_____________________________________________________________

En cours de traduction:

Mods par J. M. Pescado

ffdebugger, tout simplement appelé la Batbox. [95%]

Mods par Sun&Moon

Makin' Hay [100%]

The Ultimate Fruit Collection [75%]

Wild Berry Bushes [75%]

It’s A Trap - Animal Trapping Stations [75%]

Wooden Wonders - Woodworking Set [100%]

Barnyard Bash - Ultimate Livestock and Poultry Collection [0%]

Forging On - Metalsmithing Station [0%]

Pottery Party - Functional Pottery Making [0%]

Mods par Lazy Duchess

Story progression [0%]

Contenus personnalisés d'Anouska

Les toiles d’Anouska [100%] ainsi que les conversion TS3 [10%]

_____________________________________________________________

Notez que le document est sujet à des modifications régulières. De nouveaux mods seront ajoutés dans les prochains jours, mois et années à venir.

Merci de m'aviser d'erreurs potentielles, je tacherais de mettre rapidement à jour.

all Gamestar Sims 2 CDs for download!

Its finally done! ive finally finished uploaded the stuff thats on these CDs! and you can get everything for yourself just like that :D

March 2005

July 2005

January 2006

March 2006

July 2006

March 2007

June 2007

All links lead to simfileshare, CEP is required for a lot of the items, and using clean installer on all builds and sims included is recommended!

these are all gamestar sims 2 cds that exist TO MY KNOWLEDGE, if you know of any more than these please let me know! finding information on these is not easy!

Have fun! :D

succession: capp edition

SUL SUL, DEAR SIMMERS!

We've got something special for you! 🩵

Yes, you've read correctly! With the amount of artistic talent of all sorts that has amassed over the years and the persisting loyalty to this game, we felt like it was about time to call the production of a free, digital zine for the summer of 2025 into action!

I'm intrigued. But what's a zine?

For the sake of brevity, let's ask Britannica: Zine, a small-circulation print or online publication that is produced through noncommercial means and is meant to appeal to a niche audience. The term zine derives from fanzine, an amalgamation of the words fan and magazine.

How can I contribute?

There are a number of ways! From edits using any of the games, to digital art, writing and physical crafts, you can put your creative talent to use! The central theme is Sims 2 Nostalgia, so while you are given a lot of liberty on your chosen medium, it should feature the characters, townies, NPCs, or even objects from the pc game and its spin-offs!

Sweet! How do I apply?

We're so ready to welcome you on board! While we are planning on a big-scope project, we cannot predict the number territory of applications and thus haven't set a specific number of spots in stone. All you gotta do is fill out this form and we will get back to you after the deadline, January 29th!

This should cover the most vital points for now! Further zine specs and details will be covered on the faq page we're currently setting up, or follow post application. But if there's a burning question you think you need answered right away, shoot us a DM! 🦙

See you soon!

Recolors for Helier set from Mansion & Garden EP. Four basic shades plus glowing recolors

❗ glowing recolors require Extended Standard Material Shader by @crispsandkerosene - without it the texture glow effect will not be visible!

Helier's Curves [M&G] - recolors & add-on

& 'Arc Deco Entranceway Accent' recolors

Download: MEGA | BOX | SFS

Glowing recolors are all repo'ed to basic shades and to additive texture packs (make sure you don't remove those by accident).

*This is for The Sims 2

Enjoy!

I thought I was done recolouring and then I remembered there's that Arc Entranceway canopy thing - I've never used it in my game so I didn't know it had two subsets.. Glowing recolors are only for the edges cuz otherwise it wouldn't make sense - and it doesn't look as good as I'd like it to.

There's also a Helier archway, I didn't feel like recolouring it at this point but might do that in the future.

As I mentioned above, glowing recolors are repoed. "Additive texture pack" packages contain additive maps used for neons so there's no texture redundancy. You can tweak or replace each additive map -(I've included texture resources) the change will affect all neon recolors in the set, that are linked to the edited texture.

If you'd like to replace glowing texture in specific recolor file, you open TXMT settings and edit texture name in stdMatAdditiveTextureName line, plus the same texture name in File List tab. Don't forget to commit changes.

New day, new project!

So what's this?

With recent re-release of The Sims 1 and The Sims 2, I decided to fix my UC install (yay!) and return to an old project! It's been a couple of years but I learned how to edit sims 2 lighting, and thus I decided to get Radiance lighting closer to what I've always been expecting of it.

So what's new in this?

For now, only night has been significantly changed, but I plan to apply this to all the weathers and times of day, as well as make the time of day switch just a bit smoother.

Keep reading for some more details:

Lights are a bit more intense, and the highlights are more visible, while shadows are darker (but still affected by the room color). Blue ambience minimized.

Outdoor lights get the same treatment (and yes, that is a base game light, they all have different shapes)!

More precise and dramatic window light spillage indoors (Now also affecting objects)!

Same applies to the outdoor objects (The spillage is softer but still visible)!

For now, this is what I've done, but for example, day is too bright, and there's still way too many shadows during overcast. There's not a lot to be done (day, morning, evening, overcast, winter, spring and autumn all have their own modes, besides the night, which I just finished) and it's easy to edit and test this (just keep reloading the lot), so I think it will most likely take just a couple of days to finish it.

Will keep you posted on this one.