#sims on linux

So, I have recently been inspired by @teaaddictyt to try out playing Sims 2 on Linux - more specifically Mint Cinnamon 22.1

...and the results speak for themselves! 😍 😍 😍

FOR CONTEXT: I have Optimized Lot Imposters on, all settings on High, INCLUDING shadows (which I've not had enabled for years!) and downloaded the Sea & Water Overhaul.

Now I have crashed the game but I am still in the deliberate stress-test phase. The crash happened after dipping in and out of 15+ lots quite quickly (as I was adding pool tiles to the lots) and I am IMPRESSED! 😇 😍

In comparison to Windows:

I wouldn't be able to run these settings without crashing and/or pink soup, and those settings were on low/medium.

I did use the Sea & Water Overhaul a year or so ago but it kept crashing my game, so I removed it.

My view distance was set to Small and it still crashed sometimes.

In fairness, I am still modding/cleaning up my Downloads folder - as is the way of Simmers 😂. It's possible I have something in my downloads that's causing the single crash I've experienced after a few hours of testing, but that's still SO MUCH LESS crashing/pink soup than Windows.

I like Linux, even disregarding playing Sims 2. It's very crisp, smooth and feels modern and more professional than Windows.

I should add that I was using Windows 10. I have installed Linux on a separate SSD to my Windows as not all the programs I need work on Linux.

If you want to have a look at Linux yourself for playing Sims 2, then check out Tea's video here.

If you want some more tech help regarding Linux, check out the channel on Tea's discord as well. Everyone's been very friendly, helpful and patient in trying to help out people's troubleshooting as quite a few of us have decided to dual-boot Linux alongside Windows.

TS2, I will play you sooooon.

I have successfuly installed The Sims 2 on my Linux laptop and got it fully working. An absolute miracle. I really just thought I was purposely wasting time and hadn't really considered the possibility that it might actually work! It seems to be running smoothly and looks fine, although I am going to be very, very slowly adding in CC and play testing it properly, because I really don't know if the game on Linux can handle heavy CC. Who knows, maybe I'll be surprised again? And if not, maybe it'll be good for me to go low CC.

I have also got Body Shop fully working, despite the creator of the Linux script apparently not knowing of its existence, and it also seems to be working, apart from an apparent glitch with the (original maxis) skintones not matching the head and body entirely. Some googling seems to suggest this a common glitch on Mac systems and some people fix it entirely by using custom skins, so maybe it won't be problem when I put some defaults in.

The Compressorizor is also installed and working fine!

I have changed my blog theme (just spent way longer on this than I'd care to admit haha) and I have reogranised my tags page yet again. I seem to do this everytime I come back from a break.

Finally, I've created a new sideblog imi-reblogged for inspiration and CC finds, because the pinterest account I was using has become such a mess and I think I need the proper tagging system of tumblr. It's not properly set up yet (still tweaking the theme!), but if you start seeing this account reblogging your stuff, now you know it's me! I'm also going to try and keep this new resources page properly updated with what I actually have in my downloads folder (especially as I think I need to not let it grow too much, at least until I know if Linux can handle it).

What I hope to do next:

Install and get fully working CEP, Scriptorium, SimPE (oh boy, that could be fun), Sims2Pack Clean Installer, Mootilda's Hood Checker.

Decide on my defaults. Especially important if I'm going to keep my Downloads folder small. I have so many favourite maxis match skin and eye sets that I can't decide between and I think I need to go in game to compare. I am also so freaking excited that I now have the opportunity to have a tidy Hair folder. In my old downloads folder, I had about a million different maxis match textures in there with the odd non-maxis match texture getting lost in there too, but this time I will use one texture and it will Poppet's V2 and it will all match and it will be beautiful.

Work out what basic mods I need to stop hood corruption etc.

Download and get camera and lighting mods fully working (so excited about the new lighting mods I have yet to try and fingers crossed they work in Linux!)

Actually play-test for a long period time, not just the few minutes here and there like I have been doing up to now, plus test each bit of CC after adding it to my downloads folder (because, again, unsupported operating system that not many people have tested...).

Sorry, more troubleshooting. But I am completely lost and have no idea what else to try. Has anyone ever had smooth edges one moment and then experienced them randomly disappearing out of nowhere, when everything indicates they should be there?

I was so close to being ready to play. For a well over a month, smooth edges worked perfectly and I have no idea what suddenly caused them to stop working. I had changed nothing about my system the day they disappeared as far as I can tell. The setting is not greyed out, but if I drag the slider to "low" it looks exactly the same as “more”. I’ve tried multiple different Graphics Rules (which wouldn’t have made sense if that had been it anyway anyway, because the Graphics Rules I was using worked for over a month?), cheats in my usercheats, being in contact with the Lutris developer and trying different Linux stuff/wine prefixes, but he’s convinced it has to be do with the game settings itself, because according to everything else it should be working.

Eeee, anon! You have no idea how happy this message has made me! Someone else playing ts2 on Linux! I thought I was alone :’)

Long rambling explanations under the cut, but it feels good to share some of the knowledge I’ve gained over the last few months.

Pictures below cut (and yes my smooth edges are broken in the second photo...they were working a day ago but they’re gone again now oops!) :