Captain Nikki

PRE-SETUP: 

There are some steps you can take before you even install the Sims 2 on your PC. Below are some recommendations for your general setup - they are not necessary but will make the setup easier. Feel free to skip over it if you want.

Internet privacy:

A lot of this guide requires an online connection. We live in a world where our data is constantly stored and sold. There’s no real way to stop all of it, but we can definitely minimise the impact by using certain browser extensions and being careful about what information we share online. 

The absolute best way to keep your information safe is to invest in a VPN. VPNs obscure your IP address by filtering your activity through a server somewhere else in the world. This is very useful as if someone finds out your IP address they may be able to track down your physical location.

There are a LOT of VPNs on the market at the moment, both free and subscription based. The free VPN I would recommend the most is ProtonVPN - it lets you to select from a few different countries and allows for a decent amount of downloading before you’re maxed out for the day. Or if you need unlimited data usage I’d also highly recommend NordVPN, which requires a paid subscription but gives you a lot more freedom in what you can use it for. 

As for other privacy solutions, if you’re in the market for a new browser @caramelsmiles12 recommends Tor, a free browser that hides your IP address. 

However, if you have a browser that you’re already happy with you might want to consider adding this lovely trio of extensions: Adblock Plus, Ghostery and Universal Bypass. Together they will annex ads, toast trackers and usurp useless filler links. Very useful for downloading custom content in peace.

There’s also a lot to be said for common sense.  At the risk of sounding like one of those PSA’s from the 90′s, ‘your best defence is you’. Try to limit the information you share about yourself online. Your full name, the name of your work place or school, or photographs with identifying landmarks in them are all a great way to get kidnapped. Or doxed. Or worse, expelled.

Protecting your PC:

You’ll need a decent antivirus if you’re going to take on the sim’s online community (looking at you, Adfly). A great option is Spybot - I've been using it for years and years and even the free version catches obscure malware that often goes unnoticed by other programs. It’s also comparatively cheap to purchase a  licence.

Malwarebytes is also pretty incredible - it detects all sorts of stuff and offers real-time protection for not a lot of money. I have both of these antiviruses and no malware may pass!

I also recommend you install:

7-zip

https://www.7-zip.org/

Most downloadable files come zipped up in .zip or .rar formats to keep all of the files neat and together. You need an unzipper utility to get to the good stuff inside.

7-Zip is a utility tool that works like RAR or ZIP but doesn’t cost anything.  It can extract things from .rar, .7zip and .zip files amongst many others. 

To use it download and install the program. Then to unzip a file right click on the file and select ‘7-zip’ then ‘extract files...’ then hit ‘ok’. There’s a lot of options to play around with, but you only really need to know how to unzip stuff for the Sims 2.

Legal disclaimer (don’t sue me, I’m poor):

I am not sponsored or paid by any of the people or companies that I link to in this post. If you’re under 18 then make sure to consult an adult that you trust before entering payment details online and never use someone else’s money without their permission. Make all payments through a secure service like Paypal wherever possible. Never log in to important sites like your bank when connected via VPN. Take care not to share identifying information online.

STEP 1: Obtain the game

A NOTE ABOUT DISKS

At one point the Ultimate Collection (which included the base game and every available DLC) was completely free on Origin. Unfortunately this is no longer available to legally download unless you were lucky enough to get a copy at the time.

You can also still buy the original game on disks from second hand sellers. Step 2 and 3 are exclusively tailored to the Ultimate Collection and disk versions.

There's also a version called The Sims 2 Legacy being sold on the EA app and Steam, however this currently has several serious unresolved bugs and issues and does not include the Ikea pack, bodyshop and certain songs.

There's also a version available on the Mac store, albeit missing a few of the expansion packs.

Both of these should theoretically install and work right out of the box with no further messing about required. You can skip to step 5 if you have one of these versions.

Pros - Comes with cool guides and cover art, good collector’s items, putting money back into the sim’s community, a good backup incase the internet explodes and all other copies of the sims 2 are lost to the ether.

Cons - It costs money. It also comes with SecuROM, which will infect your computer, take your lunch money and poison your crops. No really, there was actually a class-action law suit filed against EA in 2008 for using it in their games.

If you DO want to buy the disks:

Second hand copies can be purchased from online selling sites such as Ebay or Amazon, or in person from local charity or thrift shops. This is significantly cheaper now than it was at release, but can still set you back a pretty penny. To save some money try to get the bundled editions rather than the individual packs, and make sure to scroll through ‘more purchase options’ on Amazon. 

STEP 2: Install the game

Don’t buy the Ultimate Collection from private sellers online. The Ultimate collection is online only, not the physical disks, and often it’s people just selling their Origin Accounts which is against the terms of service and can get you in trouble with our beloved EA overlords. 

IF YOU BOUGHT THE PHYSICAL DISKS:

Insert the disk and follow the onscreen instructions. If you accidently buy a disk without a CD key then you can search up CD keys online and they should work just fine with your disk as they are multiple use and not restricted to just one user.

Be careful to install each expansion pack and stuff pack in the correct order.

THE INSTALLATION ORDER FOR THE SIMS 2:

The Sims 2 OR Sims 2 Deluxe OR Sims 2 Double Deluxe OR Sims 2 Holiday Edition

University OR University Life Collection

Nightlife (you do not need this if you have Sims 2 Deluxe or Double Deluxe)

Christmas Party Pack OR Holiday Party Pack

Open for Business OR Best of Business Collection

Family Fun Stuff OR Fun with Pets Collection

Glamour Life Stuff

Pets (you don’t need this if you have the Fun with Pets Collection)

Happy Holiday Stuff (you don’t need this if you have the Sims 2 Holiday Edition)

Seasons

Celebration Stuff (you don’t need this if you have Double Deluxe)

H&M Fashion Stuff (you don’t need this if you have the Best of Business Collection)

Bon Voyage

Teen Style Stuff (you don’t need this if you have the University Life Collection)

FreeTime

Kitchen & Bath Interior Design Stuff (you don’t need this if you have the Best of Business Collection)

IKEA Home Stuff (you don’t need this if you have the University Life Collection)

Apartment Life

Mansion & Garden Stuff (you don’t need this if you have the Fun with Pets Collection)

@bisexualmoron reminded me that the disk version needs manually patching now so once you’ve installed everything head on over here to patch your game. Only use the patches for the games that you actually have.

Next up you’ll want a noCD crack (do modern PCs even have disk ports anymore?). There are two options here - Reddit user olivethegreat recommends George’s noCD crack, which can be found here (thankyou @ilovethesims2cc for reuploading the file). However I personally use Lazy Duchess’ launcher which includes a noCD crack as it also does a lot more (thanks for the reminder @osab!). Further details on that later on in the guide.

QUALITY OF LIFE TIP - PIN BODYSHOP TO START MENU/TASKBAR/CREATE SHORTCUT:

You might also want to go through and remove the SecuROM manually.

You’re going to want easy access to bodyshop, the program that lets you build more detailed sims to import into your game. If you have the Ultimate Collection you can find it at: (installation hard drive)>(installation folder)>The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection>Fun with Pets>SP9>CSBin. If you have the physical disks it will likely be in your latest expansion or stuff pack folder.

Right click on TS2BodyShop. Then select either pin to start, pin to taskbar or create shortcut depending on what will help you find it the easiest. Personally I pin everything to the taskbar but you might have a more organised method.

CONGRATULATIONS, YOU NOW HAVE THE SIMS 2! NOW LET’S MAKE IT WORK.

STEP 3: Adapting the game to Windows 10

THE GRAPHICS RULE MAKER:

The Sims 2 was made by people who couldn’t have ever predicted the dual blessing and curse that is Windows 10. As of such the Ultimate Collection and original game on disks is not wired to recognise modern OS’s or graphics cards. This means that without modification the game is unlikely to be able to match your screen resolution or to use edge smoothing. This can make the game look jagged and ill fitting.

But never fear, the Simsnetwork is here! Their instructions are super thorough so I’m not going to repeat them here. Head on over to the page to download and use the program:

https://www.simsnetwork.com/tools/graphics-rules-maker

LAZY DUCHESS’ LAUNCHER:

There are a few issues both inherent within the Sims 2 itself and in getting it to run on Windows 10. Lazy Duchess has resolved some of these by coming up with this great custom launcher for the game:

https://lazyduchess.tumblr.com/post/631915230388158464/sims2rpc-for-mansion-garden

Again, the instructions are great so I won’t reiterate them here. Suffice to say I’d really recommend that you download and use this launcher. I especially find it useful for squashing first born syndrome (where all of your sim’s kids look the same) and for making it so that you can easily dip in and out of the game window without crashing everything.

It’s a good idea to pin to start/taskbar or create a shortcut for Sims2RPC.exe so that you have it readily available for whenever you want to play.

4GB PATCH AND MEMORY ALLOCATION FIX:

By default the original Sims 2 and Ultimate Collection can only utilise 2GB of virtual memory. This can lead to crashing or wonky flashing graphics. This website offers a program to increase the virtual memory usage up to 4GB which makes for a much smoother experience:

https://ntcore.com/?page_id=371

Download the file then extract it with 7-zip. Next, double click on the .exe file and navigate to where your Sims 2 is installed. Select Sims2EP9RPC and hit ok.

Please follow this guide by MaraSims to get your virtual memory sorted:

https://marasims.tumblr.com/post/172990921483/sims-2-crashing-fixed

EDIT: @osab has shared that Lazy Duchess’ launcher applies this automatically, so if you use their launcher you many not need to install the 4GB patch (I still needed to for whatever reason). You still need to do everything else in Mara’s guide.

Reddit user olivethegreat says the 4GB patch is also included in George’s noCD crack. As above, please still do the rest of the steps in the guide.

STEP 4: RUN THE GAME

Run the game from Sims2RPC.exe. Let it load to the neighbourhood selection screen and then exit. This is to confirm that the game works and to generate a folder in your my documents.

STEP 5: PREVENT CORRUPTION AND LAG

Corruption is a nasty little beast. It can ruin your favourite sims families, prevent you from playing with entire neighbourhoods or a giant ball of fire from space might come and destroy your real life house (kidding... mostly).

April Black has an incredibly comprehensive video on the topic, which I’ve gotten all of this information from:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cB67DGDXFQ

Thankfully there are plenty of ways to prevent corruption from happening. 

MODS:

There are a lot of anti-corruption mods and fixes available on the internet. These mods go into your my documents>EA games>The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection (or your latest expansion or stuff pack folder)>Downloads. Just right click on a blank space in that folder to create the Downloads folder if it isn’t there already.

Here are the mods I use to prevent corruption. Make sure to unzip the files using 7-zip or these mods won’t work.

DEATH MODS:

Death is a bit dicey in the Sims 2. That’s because all of a dead sim’s character data is tied to their grave - so a sim essentially IS their grave. The problem is that a grave is also an object which can be smashed up and thrown away by other sims, deleted by the player etc. When that happens it partially shreds the character data, stopping you from ever bringing that sim back if you so wish.

Thankfully there are plenty of creators out there that have mods which can help:

No unlink on delete:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/xalr7vk7qm04ej6/nounlinkondelete.package/file

This mod stops the game from shredding a sim’s character data when they die. This means that sims can be resurrected properly and without problems. Without this mod you cannot resurrect dead sims without significant issues.

No auto urn cleanup:

http://www.cyjon.net/node/535

This mod stops sims from automatically cleaning up broken urns, which can also shred the character data. 

No corrupt death:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/dmca6eqbeevxa43/nocorruptdeath.package/file

Prevents a death memory which can be problematic to game health in the long term.

Select your cemetery: 

https://modthesims.info/d/316426/fixed-ver-quot-select-your-cemetery-quot-after-sims-died.html

Allows you to choose a specific lot to send graves to after your sims die. Useful for getting your graves off residential lots where angry ex lovers might smash ‘em to smithereens. 

PREVENTATIVE MODS:

As my doctor says, prevention is better than cure. These mods prevent problems before they happen.

Nosimloaded:

https://midgethetree.tumblr.com/post/612153281154793472/boiling-oils-no-sim-loaded-bos-no-sim-loaded-but

Midge’s edit of Boilingoil’s no sim loaded. This mod fries a bunch of nasty errors and stops problems before they happen.

Superduperhugetest:

https://modthesims.info/showthread.php?p=5670978#post5670978

There’s an annoying bug called the super duper hug bug which you can get from downloading custom interactions or downloading custom lots from other players. This mod tests for it and deletes it if it finds it.

Pregnancy controller fix:

https://modthesims.info/download.php?t=326049

This stops a problem with pregnancies that can slow down your game over time.

Things you can do:

Manage your  populations:

There’s a hard character file limit embedded within the game. This limit is incredibly high, but if you play a neighbourhood for a very long time and generate lots of sims then it is possible to reach it, at which point your game will no longer allow you to create any more sims.

Things to keep in mind are that: dead sims count towards this total. As do sims born in game, created in CAS, townies, families in the sim bin, sims you have deleted and NPCs. Essentially every sim created by you or the game counts no matter what happens to them. 

Anti-redundancy mod:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/h0oxhcx6bi7ppnq/antiredundancy.package/file

This mod is useful as it stops unnecessary extra NPCs from spawning. However, once you hit that limit you will just need to start a new hood.

Make back-ups:

There are a few game breaking bugs which can occur that players have no control over. It’s also possible that your game’s story may start going in a direction you don’t want, or you may simply want a fresh start but without doing all of that building again. Back ups are useful for all of these scenarios.

There are a few different methods to back-up various parts of your game:

Lots:

You can save lots in-game by clicking on the lot and selecting the ‘upload’ option. This will create a file which you can then install to a new neighbourhood. It’s best to do this with lots that have not yet had sims move into it to avoid transferring any unintentional sim references and other data.

Sims:

https://sims.fandom.com/wiki/Game_guide:How_to_extract_the_appearance_of_in-game_Sims

Sim’s appearances can be extracted via SimPE. Make sure to jot down all of their stats (personality, skills etc) so that you can create a complete replica if necessary.

Neighbourhoods:

You can also back up whole neighbourhoods - here’s how to do that:

https://sims.fandom.com/wiki/Game_guide:Backing_up_your_game#:~:text=If%20you%20want%20to%20back,)%20and%20select%20%22Copy%22.

Don’t transfer sims between neighbourhoods:

It’s possible to move sims between neighbourhoods via the sim bin. However, the game will the unfortunately port huge amounts of data from one neighbourhood to the other, and sometimes errors can occur in doing so. It’s best to just recreate the sims in CAS if you want them to ‘move’.

Play on PC if possible:

Macs seem to have more problems running the Sims 2 due to the way the OS’ are set up. Playing on a PC if you have one is likely to throw up less issues over time. However, I personally play on an MSI gaming laptop and have never encountered any kind of corruption related issues (memory issues though - tonnes of those).

Note when your game crashes:

Any time your game crashes on a loading screen, or just after you have saved and exited, there is a not-insignificant chance of your neighbourhood file becoming corrupted. If you notice any issues on re-load then swap out to a back-up straight away. 

Keep an eye on your sims:

If you notice bugs pertaining to wants and fears, lifetime aspirations or a sim’s data (gender, age, skills etc) it’s best to revert to a back-up right away unless you’re knowledgeable enough in SimPE to manually fix the issues.

MOOTILDA’S HOOD CHECKER:

Mootilda’s hood checker is a great tool to spot issues and to rectify error-ed out sim relationships: (https://modthesims.info/d/456523/hoodchecker-1-0-3-neighborhood-corruption-detector-updated-february-11-2013.html) 

STEP 6: Make the pre-mades playable

Premade neighbourhoods (the ones that come with the game) are notorious for coming pre-packaged with severe issues. Strangetown is especially bad. Thankfully for us, meetme2theriver has us sorted:

https://meetmetotheriver.tumblr.com/tagged/clean-templates-rerelease

(Thankyou @atomtanned and @veronaviile for sending the updated link)

If you want to play any of those neighbourhoods then I’d highly recommend replacing them with meetme’s versions first, lest you wake up one day 10 generations in to your game only to find that the whole thing is gone. 

STEP 7: PLAY!

Congratulations, you’ve made it!

CHEATS:

(To access the cheat panel press CTRL, SHIFT and c at the same time. To close the cheat window press ESC)

boolprop testingcheatsenabled true

This is the big daddy of cheats. It not only enables a bunch of other cheats but it also allows you to do a tonne of stuff by shift clicking on your sims, their mailbox or even some of their stats (like skills and personality points). Make doubly sure you understand what not to use to cause corruption by going back and watching that video again.

maxmotives

Fill all of your sim’s needs up. I use this a LOT when my sims are pregnant as their needs tank pretty dramatically without mods.

kaching

Get 1000 simoleans (in game currency).

motherlode

Get 50,000 simoleans - great for building houses for your rich sims.

moveobjects on / moveobjects off

Allows you to move and delete things that you normally couldn’t. If you delete a sim they will just reappear the next time you reload the household. Do NOT delete graves or NPCs or their cars.

aging on / aging off

I personally have a mod to halt all aging until I want it to happen (http://www.simlogical.com/sl/Sims2Pages/Sims2_Aging.htm) because I’m a control freak. But you can also use this cheat as well. Great for when you want to make sure you tell all of your sim’s story fully, as one default lifetime never seems enough.

boolProp snapObjectsToGrid true/  boolProp snapObjectsToGrid false

Turns off or on objects snapping to the grid. Turning it off is useful for decorating houses, as it gives the game an organic feel rather than everything looking blocky and off centre. Turn both this and moveobjects on off when placing windows or doors. Make sure your sim can actually use objects - sometimes if objects are placed too close together or overlapping then sims can’t route to or use them.

STEP 8: Maintenance

The sims 2 is getting on in years and she needs a bit of looking after. Here are some common troubleshooting tips for you.

USE THE BATBOX:

The Batbox: https://sims.fandom.com/wiki/FFS_Lot_Debugger has several options to fix things that might have gone wrong on specific lots such as stuck facial animations and sim tokens. Make sure to use it regularly to check if there any issues and to resolve them as they appear.

GAME/BOSYSHOP NOT STARTING UP BUT NO ERROR WINDOW:

First, make sure you’re giving it enough time to load up - the game can be slow to load sometimes, especially if it’s the first boot up or if you have lots of CC. If it’s still not working then try Deleting your .cache files from my documents>EA games> The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection. These files store information to make your game load up faster but they become easily bloated and prevent loadup at all. I personally delete them before every play session.

THE GAME LOADS UP BUT SOMETHING IS STUCK/ERRORING

The bat box (available here: http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,72.0.html) has several options to fix all manor of in-game screwery. If certain sims or objects keep throwing errors then use the 50/50 method on your CC (described below).

GAME CRASHES ON LOADUP/NEIGHBOURHOOD SCREEN

Most likely faulty or conflicting/incorrectly installed custom content. Use the 50/50 method to narrow down the culprit if you don’t know what’s causing the problem (move out 50% of your downloads folder, see if the game loads, if it doesn’t try another 50% etc until you’re left with only one file). If the game still doesn’t work with no CC then you need to restore a previous backup of that neighbourhood.

PINK FLASHING:

Your game has run out of available virtual memory. Make sure you followed Mara’s guide correctly. Sometimes, if you have lots of CC or a big neighbourhood then your game with flash anyway. Delete all of the files in your my documents>EA games>The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection>Thumbnails folder before you load up the game. I personally do this every play session. Sometimes, the only way to fix pink flashing is to either reduce the amount of CC you have or to simply reboot your game and/or your computer when it happens.

STEP 9: Make it pretty and improve gameplay (Optional)

Some people don’t care about graphics, and good for them. But also no.

LeyaSun has an amazing guide here:

https://lesyasun.tumblr.com/post/175877657641/i-got-a-couple-of-asks-like-how-to-make-my-game

And I’ve used it to set up most of my game. However, I have a few extra tricks up my sleeve too, which I’ll list here:

ReShade

Reshade does things to me. Wonderful things.

It’s a program that allows you to use various new visual effects and shaders to make any game look a million times better. And I spent months trying to get it to work with the Sims 2, only to realize that the Lazy Duchess’ launcher makes it super easy.

First, download reshade itself:

https://reshade.me/

Double click on the reshade setup.exe then navigate to your Sims2EP9.exe file. You can find it at (installation hard drive)>(installation folder)>The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection>Fun with Pets>SP9>TSbin OR  (installation hard drive)>(installation folder)>The Sims 2>(your latest EP)>TSbin

Use it to setup reshade, do NOT use your Sims2EP9RPC.exe. When asked for the rendering API select the 10/11 option. Now download ALL of the effects that you can! Or not. Up to you.

Now use your windows explorer to go into the TSbin. Take the reshade-shaders folder, your reshade.config file and your ReShade text document and put them into the mods folder. Now take your d3d9.dll or dxgi.dll file and rename it to ReShade.asi (make sure you change the actual file type from .dll to .asi or it won’t work) and put that in to the mods folder too.

Then you can select a preset to try out. This is the one that I use: https://gonerilcapp.tumblr.com/post/637677241473564672/peach-mango-pie-a-reshade-4x-preset-download but if you Google ‘ts2 reshade preset’ you should be able to find more. Take the .ini file and put that in your mods folder too.

Now check that it works! Load up your game through Duchess’ launcher and wait to see if a little box pops up in your game saying that reshade has been installed. Press the shift and home keys at the same time to bring up the menu to adjust your settings.

The Clean UI mod:

https://greatcheesecakepersona.tumblr.com/post/190825573525/download-clean-ui-v14

It’s a pain to install as it requires you to replace some actual game files rather than just shoving it all into your downloads folder, and you need to look over each file carefully as there are some files where you need to choose one and delete the other. But ultimately this mod is totally worth it. It makes your game look all sleek and modern.

NO MORE MAXIS TOWNIES:

The premade townies are fun, but they’re not the best looking bunch and they get a bit boring when they keep cropping up in every new neighbourhood that you create. By emptying out Pleasentview by replacing your N001 neighbourhood with this file (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,4306.msg218734.html#msg218734) and downloading default face templates (the ones I use are here: https://trappingit.livejournal.com/34205.html) you can force your game to create new, randomised and better looking townies and NPCs.

if you still want to play with Pleasentview AND have better townies then you can download meetme2theriver’s version (https://meetme2theriver.livejournal.com/63030.html), rename it something like N008 then stick it in your my documents>EA Games>The Sims 2>Neighborhoods folder.

CUSTOM SPLASH SCREEN:

This is the screen that’s on display when you load up the game. If you have a tonne of CC like I do then you’ll need a pretty screen to look at! I use this one: https://adinc-sims.tumblr.com/post/190397346844/loading-screen-colorful-loading-screen

Make sure to read the instructions, as it doesn’t just go in your downloads folder.

GRAPHICS MODS:

Better bubbles:

https://eddysims.tumblr.com/post/611607346126389248

Improves the appearance of the thought and speech bubbles.

Softer outdoor shadows:

https://lazyduchess.tumblr.com/post/632184499576438784/soft-outdoor-shadows-for-sims-2

Creates beautifully blended, realistic shadows.

Sim Shadow Fix:

https://modthesims.info/d/569585/sim-shadow-fix-updated-2-jan-16.html

Stops sim’s shadows from flashing pink.

CUSTOM CONTENT:

I think it may be physically impossible to list all of the custom content available for the Sims 2. However, here are some links to get you started:

https://deedee-sims.tumblr.com/downloads

DeeDee makes TONNES of cute stuff and there are also a lot of links within their posts to other amazing creators. 

https://rented-space.tumblr.com/

So many awesome clothes!

https://modthesims.info/

Mod the sims 2 is a long standing and reputable custom content site.

https://www.thesimsresource.com/

Be careful, this one is full of ads and incredibly annoying to use. But it does have loads of good CC hidden in the depths.

http://simscave.mustbedestroyed.org/

https://sims2packrat.tumblr.com/

Both good resources for old, unavailable or difficult to obtain CC.

https://poppethair.tumblr.com/

A good database for the kind of hair that I use (poppet V2).

http://www.theninthwavesims.com/

https://www.tumblr.com/tony-veis

Lots of object conversions from other Sims games.

https://sunmoon-starfactory.tumblr.com/

Many incredibly functional objects and mods which add so much gameplay to TS2.

https://lilith-sims.tumblr.com/tagged/Downloads

Lots of nice hair and makeup.

https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/moonlightdragon/index.php

Clothes and hair for baby sims.

https://modthesims.info/m/285828

Lots of clothes for children.

https://goatskickin.tumblr.com/tagged/ts2-download

Nice clothes for elder sims.

https://monilisasims.tumblr.com/

Clothes for plus sized sims.

Mods:

[under construction]

DEFAULTS:

Defaults are custom content that replace something that comes by default with the game with something else. For example, the ugly EA outfits can be replaced with nicer looking custom content versions. There are defaults for almost everything in the game at this point - objects, hair, even sims. You can only have one default of each thing in your game. Sometimes a creator might include multiple versions in one file, so be careful to always make sure you only keep one.

Here’s an incredible database of currently available defaults:

https://sims2defaults.dreamwidth.org/

STEP 10: Screenshots!

I use Gadwin Printscreen to take screenshots, you can get that for free here:

https://www.gadwin.com/printscreen/

And PhotoFiltre to edit them, get that for free too:

http://www.photofiltre-studio.com/pf7-en.htm

LOOK AT ME NOW MOD:

https://modthesims.info/d/268960/fourth-wall-options.html

This mod makes it so that you can click on your sim and make them look at you. Perfect for lining up the line of sight for your sim during screenshots.

POSEBOXES:

Poseboxes are objects that add the ability to pose your sims for screenshots. There’s a great guide to them here:

https://posebox-guide.tumblr.com/

SCREENSHOT BACKGROUNDS:

https://simlish.dreamwidth.org/107989.html

Adds an object to the game that is just a huge, blank background. Good for taking simple pictures of your sims without background distractions.

DONE!

And there you have it - a functioning, beautiful game that was made 17 years ago. I hope it brings you as much joy as it has brought me.

If there’s anything that I’ve missed out here you can probably find it over at https://pleasantsims.com/. The woman is a TS2 legend and has so many guides and videos that she puts my years of playtesting and research to shame. 

I’m more than happy to answer any questions about TS2 - I’m still learning some things myself, even after all this time - but I’ll help if I can.

Special mention to my other sources for this guide:

https://answers.ea.com/t5/Other-The-Sims-Games/installing-sims-2-in-order/td-p/1853107

https://answers.ea.com/t5/Other-The-Sims-Games/I-can-t-find-the-Sims-2-Body-Shop-in-the-Ultimate-Collection/td-p/3191964