Zeciety

If you've had some trouble accessing the site over the past week or so:

The situation is directly caused by the greed and encroachment of something we’re all uncomfortably familiar with: AI companies and the companies investing in them (of simmer relevance, that includes EA and Krafton (InZoi)).

NRaas is not the first nor will it be the last to be affected. Website servers already suffer from bots trawling and scraping their content – including your content that you write and share just about anywhere. Now they’re being bought off entirely. Archives and file-hosting are at high risk. Myrient is a recent example of an archive that went offline for this very reason.

It can feel a bit grim, but I want to assure you that the burden isn't yours to bear as an individual. As a community, it's actually quite easy to become hostile - and more important, unprofitable - to these invasive species as it were.

The past 26 years of modding and storytelling was OVERWHELMINGLY built upon free software, non-profit websites, and shared resources. A few unscrupulous paywallers and corporate greed isn't going to rewrite that history. Greed is the minority - but it does try to eat everything in its path.

That's all I ask - if you enjoy the fruits of The Sims community or enjoy being a part of it, make it just a little more inconvenient to swallow us.

Do not tolerate GenAI in our community spaces.

Do not support EA or Krafton. Let obscurity and irrelevancy devour them.

Do participate in the community wherever you think you'd find a little piece of purpose - make a blog for your stories, come chat with us in the Chatterbox forum at NRaas, make your first mod.

Lastly:

In a separate post, I'll be posting some CC incentives that will be released as milestones are reached. This content will not be paywalled - it will be posted for free as thanks to the community.

This is being offered on my own accord and is not the official reward for any particular tier. None of the proceeds are going to me!

Please look out for that over the weekend, I still need to take all of the preview screenshots which is perhaps the least exciting part of making CC.

Backup your files, even the entire folder (EA Games\The Sims 3\Game\Bin or steamapps\common\The Sims 3\Game\Bin) if you want to be extra safe; you will thank yourself later. If you do not wish to backup the entire folder, at the very least backup the following:

reshade-presets

reshade-shaders

Reshade.ini

Options.ini (Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3)

Keep them somewhere secure, for your peace of mind (and sanity).

Firstly, to fully uninstall DXVK, you should remove the following files:

d3d9.dll (if you hover your cursor over the file, it will read: Company: DXVK)

dxvk.conf

TS3.dxvk-cache (or TS3W.dxvk-cache)

Secondly, remove remnant files of previously installed ReShade (you did create a backup, right?):

d3d9.dll (located at the Bin folder, if you hover your cursor over the file, it will read: Company: crosire)

ReShade.ini

ReShade.log

⚠️There are a couple more steps. Please follow the instructions here.

Get the latest version here on GitHub:

Click on the version that has the 'Latest' tag next to it (2.7.1 as of now), scroll down to 'Assets', and click on dxvk-x.x.x.tar.gz to download DXVK.

Open dxvk-x.x.x.tar.gz, click on x32, and locate d3d9.dll from within.

Download a copy of dxvk.conf from this page by clicking on the tiny icon on the right.

Drag both d3d9.dll AND dxvk.conf to the Bin folder (EA Games\The Sims 3\Game\Bin or steamapps\common\The Sims 3\Game\Bin); that is where TS3.exe and TS3W.exe are located.

Open dxvk.conf with Notepad or Notepad++, 'Ctrl + A' to select all, and hit delete. Yes, delete everything inside. Once you've emptied the file, enter the following:

d3d9.textureMemory = 100 d3d9.presentInterval = 1 d3d9.maxFrameRate = 60 d3d9.samplerAnisotropy = 16 dxvk.hud = devinfo d3d9.customVendorId = 10de d3d9.customDeviceId = 1080

Hit 'Ctrl + S' to save. That is DXVK installed!

Copy your Options.ini from your backup folder (you did make a backup, right?) into your Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3 folder.

Because we have 'tricked' the game into recognising our modern GPU as a GTX 580, we must edit one single line within the Options.ini to keep our preferred in-game settings intact.

Hit 'Ctrl + G', type in '150' to go to that line, and replace it with:

lastdevice = 0;10de;1080;65535

'Ctrl + S' to save.

⚠️Thanks to DXVK, from now on whenever there's a GPU driver update, we no longer need to keep the 'lastdevice' line up-to-date to prevent your in-game settings from being reset. You can leave it alone forever, once and for all. The last digit of '65535' is a placeholder value for driver versions and remains constant as long as you are using DXVK.

Launch the game to confirm that DXVK is working. By default, the debug HUD should show up in the top left corner of your screen. What's more, your graphics settings should not have reset.

If you're still not convinced that DXVK is working, go to your Bin folder and look for a file called: TS3_d3d9.log or TS3W_d3d9.log and inspect its content:

If you see these correctly documented in your log file, DXVK is working as intended.

⚠️ NB: This newer version of DXVK no longer generates a cache file by default, meaning that there will not be a TS3.dxvk-cache or TS3W.dxvk-cache any more.

Get the latest version here on GitHub:

Click on the version that has the 'Latest' tag next to it (1.5.0 as of now), scroll down to 'Assets', and click on Sims3SettingsSetter.asi to download S3SS.

An ASI Loader is required for S3SS to function properly, and now so we need to install it.

However, if you use any of the listed LazyDuchess mods:

Mono Patcher Library;

Pixel Shader Modding Framework;

Shadow Extender (TS3);

or Split Level Light Fix,

you should already have an ASI loader (in the form of wininet.dll) located inside your Bin folder, and you can use that instead.

As you can see in the screenshot below, LD's Shader Framework came shipped with an ASI loader, as the other 3 mods do.

If you do not use any of the mods listed above, or that you wish to get a newer version of ASI loader for the game, you can get it from here (Ultimate ASI Loader by ThirteenAG):

To install, drag Sims3SettingsSetter.asi AND wininet.dll to your Bin folder.

And that is S3SS and its prerequisite successfully installed, now we should launch the game (again) and check if it's working.

Once the game has launched, hit 'Insert' key to toggle on S3SS interface.

⚠️ If nothing happens after pressing ' Insert', remove a folder called 'S3SS' (located at: Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3) and reinstall from Step 2 again.

From S3SS interface, select 'Patches' on the top.

Here I recommend enabling all performances patches, but choose only one flavour for the Smooth Patch: Original or Precise.

Next, click on 'Other/QoL' tab, tick the box next to 'Enable Memory Warning', and increase the warning threshold to 3.8 GB.

Navigate downwards to 'Borderless Window' and choose 'Fullscreen' in the drop-down menu. This will allow you to play in borderless windowed mode.

⚠️ Please note that I do not play TS3 in exclusive fullscreen mode, nor do I recommend doing so; therefore, I cannot provide support for that.

Lastly, don't forget to click on 'File' on the top left corner to save any changes you've made.

Exit the game, it's time to install ReShade.

Download the latest version (with full add-on support) from the official site; it is 6.7.3 at the time of writing.

Select TS3.exe (EA App) or TS3W.exe (disc, Steam), and then choose Vulkan as rendering API, click 'Next'.

If you would prefer not to install any shaders/effects (i.e, you want to keep using your existing ones), click 'Skip'.

On the following page, you'll get to choose to install add-ons. Hit 'Skip', unless you know what you are doing.

Click 'Finish' to complete installation.

At this stage, a new, vanilla ReShade.ini file will be placed in the Bin folder; you may now replace it with the one from your backup folder to recover all preferred settings (such as hotkeys for taking screenshots, directory for shaders etc.). Same thing goes for your reshade-presets and reshade-shaders folder.

Launch the game (for the final time) to check that ReShade has been properly installed.

To toggle S3SS interface, press 'Insert' (or whatever hotkey you've set it to).

⚠️NB: under ReShade's 'Settings' tab you may need to change 'Input processing' to either 'Pass on all input' or 'Block input when cursor is on overlay' to tweak S3SS settings whilst ReShade's GUI is visible. Otherwise, you'll need to toggle ReShade's menu off first.

That is the end of this tutorial.

Congratulations, you have successfully installed DXVK, S3SS, and ReShade! You may now open dxvk.conf and remove line dxvk.HUD from it.

Whew, what a long tutorial. If you've made it this far, great job. 🎉

Hope you've found this helpful; comment down below, or send me an ask/DM if you've any questions. I'll try my best to troubleshoot with you. Happy simming! ⭐

Credits:

doitsujin for DXVK

ThirteenAG for Ultimate-ASI-Loader

@sims3fiend, just-harry, @lazyduchess, and swiffyjk for Sims3SettingsSetter

crosire for ReShade

🌟Features:

✔ It copies the folder structure from your Mods folder, including only the necessary files, keeping the CCs organized.

✔ Compatible with three languages: Portuguese, English, and Spanish. (If your system language is not one of these, the tool will default to English.)

P.s.: If you’d like your language included, just send me all the tool’s text already translated, and I’ll add it.

⚠ Important – Please read before using!

🔹 Windows only, sorry. :(

🔹 You must use only .package files when creating your Sim or building your Lot.

🔹 You must convert the .sims3pack content exported from the game to .package format before scanning the custom content it uses.

🔹 If your converted .sims3pack files were separated into multiple packages, you need to merge those packages again to make it easier for the tool to correctly find and gather all custom content (or you select one by one to verify).

🔹 Right now, I'm also working on adding support for reading Sims3Pack files directly, which should make the process even easier in the future.

This ensures the tool can properly detect every file being used.

🙏 Credits and Thanks

Special thanks to Peter Jones for S3PI (package reading library), and to Kitilith for the idea and basis of their Find Merged CC tool used in this project (credits will be included with the readme file as requested on their GitHub).

I’d also like to thank Ash (@cowplantcartel) for testing this tool in every build. 😅

🚀 Download Info

Pants Polycount: 1250

Shirt Polycount: 4269

CU Sleepwear, Not Valid For Random, All LOD’s

6 Presets + Pants Recolorable. I couldn't figure out how to make the mask for the shirt look good, but still wanted to include the pants one as it's decent. Sorry

TS4 Original by LiyahSim TS4 Age Conversion by vintage-simmer

Additional Credit:

@scourge-by-name, thank you for all your help and for figuring out how to fix the issues that I had with this! I might've not been able to do it without you :( I appreciate it so so much

Download: Shirt, Pants (SFS)

Finding Potential Matches

By default, the game has very loose filters when it comes to determining which Sims will populate the Online Dating interface. Most of the time it ends up overrun with Sims who are already in committed relationships or not even attracted to our Sim’s gender in the first place. Add to that the amount of Sims from different age groups that our Sim might find a little too old (or too young!), and we’ve got ourselves a very complete list full of Sims that we won’t be pursuing.

The mod makes the matchmaking process a little smarter by adding the following rules:

Sims within the same age group as our Sim are preferred. Sims of a different age group have a lower chance of being selected.

Homeless Sims are now eligible as potential matches, with a lower chance of being selected than resident Sims.

Gender preference is taken into consideration. Only Sims who are attracted to (or at least not opposed to romancing) our Sim’s gender will be selected.

Sims in committed relationships will not be considered for possible matches unless they have Commitment Issues or a negative relationship with their partner. - Sims who are Family Oriented or Hopeless Romantic will not be selected even if they have a negative relationship with their partner.

Note that in order for the new functionality to take place, the Online Dating system has to “refresh”. This can be done manually by deleting and re-creating the active Sim’s profile, or by waiting roughly one Sim day for it to update automatically.

Body Type

The vanilla game allows Sims to describe their physique in their Online Dating profile as Slim, Athletic or More to Love.

For some reason, EA’s original code for this feature makes it so that any Sim whose weight is above 0 (i.e. dead center of the slider) is considered More to Love, leading to some Sims being unfairly accused of lying about their appearance after even the slightest weight change.

The mod corrects this issue and makes some general changes to the body type system to balance things out:

Sims can now choose an Average Figure body type from the drop-down list when creating an Online Dating profile.

Sims have a Slim body type if their body weight is under -0.5.

Sims have an Athletic body type if their fitness slider is over 0.5, unchanged from the vanilla game.

Sims have a More to Love body type if their body weight is over 0.5.

Extras

The Online Dating UI can now display each Sim’s age:

If Battery’s Real Age mod is installed, the Sim’s age in years will be shown next to their name in the messages, profile grid and full profile.

Without Real Age, the Sim’s life stage will only be shown in the full profile. Disabled by default.

Additionally, when a Sim is directed to Check Messages, the “No new messages” dialog now shows as a much less disruptive notification in the top-right corner.

Tuning

As always, the mod comes with many tunable settings to help you adjust all of its features to your liking. Below is detailed information about each setting:

Possible Matches

Include Homeless Sims: Set to False to only consider resident Sims when populating Online Dating matches. Default: True.

Use Gender Preference: Whether to consider gender preference when populating Online Dating matches. Default: True.

Different Age Weight: Weighted chance of matching Sims who are not in the same life stage. Default: 4.

Homeless Sim Weight: Percent chance of considering a Homeless Sim when populating Online Dating Matches. Default: 2.

Relationship Level Threshold: LTR threshold for Sims in committed relationships to be eligible to populate Online Dating matches. Default: 0.

Online Dating Profile

Show Age in Profile: Displays Sim’s life stage next to their name in the Online Dating profile. Example: “Betty (Young Adult)”. Default: False.

Show Real Age in Profile: Displays Sim’s age in years next to their name in the Online Dating profile. Requires Battery’s Real Age mod, will simply do nothing if not installed. Example: “Betty, 25”. Default: True.

Slim Body Type Threshold: Negative weight slider threshold for a Sim’s body type to be Slim. Default: -0.5.

Athletic Body Type Threshold: Fitness slider threshold for a Sim’s body type to be Athletic.

More to Love Body Type Threshold: Weight slider threshold for a Sim’s body type to be More to Love. Default: 0.5.

Compatibility & Issues

The main mod file uses Mono Patcher to replace the following EA code: - Sims3.Gameplay.Objects.Electronics.Computer.CheckDatingMessages.Run() - Sims3.Gameplay.Utilities.OnlineDatingManager.OnlineDatingRecord.PopulateMatches() - Sims3.Gameplay.Utilities.OnlineDatingProfile.GetDefaultBodyType() - Sims3.Gameplay.Utilities.OnlineDatingProfile.LieAboutBodyType() - Sims3.UI.OnlineDating.BrowseDatingProfilesDialog.UpdateProfile() - Sims3.UI.OnlineDating.CreateProfileDialog

The main mod file is compatible with Gamefreak130’s Smartphone Dating mod. The provided compatibility package simply replaces one method to maintain consistency with my edit of the original Check Messages interaction: - Gamefreak130.SmartphoneDatingSpace.Interactions.CheckDatingMessagesPhone.Run()

The compatibility package for Battery’s Real Age mod replaces the following EA code: - Sims3.UI.OnlineDating.BrowseDatingProfilesDialog.PopulateGrid() - Sims3.UI.OnlineDating.BrowseDatingProfilesDialog.UpdateProfile() - Sims3.UI.OnlineDating.CheckMessagesDialog.PopulateGrid() - Sims3.UI.OnlineDating.CreateProfileDialog

The mod is fully compatible with @nectar-cellar’s More Active Online Dating and Online Dating Inbox Messages, since they all modify different parts of the online dating system.

If a Sim is directed to edit their Online Dating profile, the traits section may show blank slots. This can be fixed by clicking one of the blank slots to bring up the traits picker, then hitting Accept.

Strings & Language Support

All languages are supported; the only new text added for the Average Figure body type is copied from an existing game string that hopefully fits the context well enough across all languages.

I made a small change to the Spanish text to grammatically match the other options in the body type picker. Any corrections to other languages are more than welcome.

Download: SFS / Patreon

This download contains three package files:

simbouquet_OnlineDatingSanity: Main mod file.

simbouquet_OnlineDatingSanity_COMPATIBILITY_RealAge: Only necessary if Battery’s Real Age mod is installed.

simbouquet_OnlineDatingSanity_COMPATIBILITY_SmartphoneDating: Only necessary if Gamefreak130’s Smartphone Dating is installed.

Changelog

12/03/2026: Initial release.

Credits & Thanks

Battery’s Script Mod Template Creator

Lazy Duchess’ Mono Patcher Library

Visual Studio 2026

Notepad++

s3pe

Adobe Photoshop