#ts2 tips

Clutter, clutter, clutter... sure, but in gameplay, I use OMSPs so Sims actually have surfaces to place down bills, newspapers, food, coffee mugs, magazines, cigarettes if you have them, etc etc etc!!! Really adds to the immersion. Just remember where you stuck em!

Hey!

By default, TS2 can handle diffuse textures (alpha chanel included), as well as bump/normal and specular maps. However, the results for those last two aren't very fancy.

This guide on MTS covers transparency, normal maps, as well as a bunch of other material parameters.

It doesn't document using specular maps, so I've shared an example here. PForest has another here.

In my shader mod, I added the ability to use an emissive map (here called "additive"). The download includes a PDF explaining the new parameters.

@sometownie Thank you for your kind comment!

I think being a simblr we all have our fair share of frustrating experiences of crashing, pink soup, or other issues, particularly on large and exquisite lots. This is quite unfortunate as the fear of these issues has essentially narrowed the potential of simming. Luckily, I think I have figured out how to run the game smooth and stable on a modern laptop with moderately powerful CPU and graphics card. It turns out that the game can handle much more stuff than it appears. So I think maybe I should share some tips here, which might come handy if you happen to have downloaded one of my lots (for example, this one). I am sure many simblrs have their own tricks or are already doing these, but there are always people who might benefit from these tips. So here are my two cents:

(1) Use the 4GB patch by NTCore. According to the description of this tool, it allows the game's .exe to use 4 GB of RAM, instead of 2 GB, which is a limit for games designed with 32-bit OS. This increases stability and performance significantly.

(2) All game files take up bits of the RAM when you play the game and load anything (from the neighborhood to the lot, from characters to any piece of cc). However, not everything is needed at all time. After all, the sims 2 is not a seamless world like the sims 3. So, the idea is to minimize the amount of loading unrelated to the gameplay. For example, I always build a new lot in a testing hood, which contains only a small number of lots and characters. Thus, loading into the neighborhood is extremely fast and it also does not use up the precious RAM.

(3) Likewise, if you spend 15-30 min on the loading screen alone, this usually means your downloads folder can use some trimming. Ironically, a larger D-folder means your game can simultaneously handle FEWER items during gameplay. What I suggest is that you should divide the D-folder. Keep only a small core set of commonly used mods (by "commonly used", I mean the mods that creators often use as master meshes or recoloring basis, this should also minimize blue-flashing) in the folder and switch among the others stored somewhere else when you play different lots. The file size of my folder seldom exceeds 10 GB and I find it quite adequate for my purpose (and again this saves tremendous amount of time in loading).

(4) Of course, this requires you to keep track of the mods you use on different lots and anticipate what you might need in a new lot. If, additionally, you categorize and sub-folder every cc along with previews like I do, you can maximize the amount of cc you can actually use in the game. But even with a very crude D-folder division, you can play a downloaded lot with ease -- just put the packaged cc in a separate folder from your core set of cc (similarly, your CAS cc, storytelling cc, and neighborhood deco cc should be put in separate folders) and load the game with just these (do not load other lots as you would lose the cc on those lots). This also minimizes chances of mod conflicts.

(5) Before first loading a lot, turn on testingcheatsenabled. During the final loading process, you can detect and delete any potential conflicting items, so that when you actually enter the lot there won't be any item creating issues.

I don’t see this one shared around much, so I figured I’d share my tip that almost completely stops my game from crashing (you know, after I’ve done all the other fixes that are shared all the time).

I tried to add the “-CPUCount:2″ to the end of the target line like recommended on leefish’s website and it definitely helped my game a lot, but not as much as doing what was recommended on this page over at modthesims.

So here’s the main point: my computer has a quad core, the game can’t really use that. If your computer has more than one core, forcing the game to use only one core can help with performance. Here’s how I force it in a slightly different way than the -CPUCount method.

Change the whole target in the shortcut properties to this:

C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /C start /high /affinity 1 Sims2EP9.exe

Obviously yours will be whatever the name of your executable is. For the record, I now use Process Lasso to force my game to run in high priority although I don’t know if that makes much of a difference. It’s the affinity 1 that matters, but changing it after the game loads apparently doesn’t actually help the game, so you have to run it through command prompt to get it to start with that affinity, and changing your target to that does this for you automatically. You can read more about how it works at the link above.