🖥️ Evolution of The Sims technologies
This is information by conversation from 🌎 #ts3-beta-chat channel in The Sims 2 Beta Discord Server about on which engine each game of The Sims series is developed and what technologies are used by each game of the series.
Just to offer clarity/summarize the above:
1. TS1 is built on top of MFC (Edith) and Gonzo/Rizzo. It uses a renderer which utilizes a mix of SC2K, SC3K, and Quake3D code.
2. TS2 extends TS1’s behavior engine but replaces the renderer with a new 3D engine, although it still uses the Gonzo development framework. It’s pretty much TS1 on steroids internally.
3. Sims 3 is overhauled and doesn’t use any of the tech from TS1/TS2, although it retains several assets ported over. It uses a new behavior engine (no name, but it uses traits/commodities instead) and Renderware (plus other stuff like Speedtree) for the 3D engine.
4. Sims 4 is once again built on a new engine, in anticipation of the game being an MMOG instead of single player. It loosely extends GlassBox from SC2013 (dubbed SmartSim now) but they pretty much have to overhaul it to remove the multiplayer aspect, so it really ends up becoming its own thing. It doesn’t reuse anything from TS3 except the concept of the traits/commodities behavior engine being used for SmartSim.
