#Sims 2 Resolution Fix

[belladovah]

A Complete Guide on how to Fix & Optimize The Sims 2 on Windows 10/11

I've made a video tutorial and written guide on everything you need to know on how to Fix & Optimize The Sims 2 on Windows 10/11, with Performance, Stability, and Graphics Enhancements.

Watch the Video Tutorial on YouTube:

Read the Written Guide on my Website

[celestialspritz]

Why Sims 2 has been so broken the last ten years

This is down to my own research, and I'm not saying it is the one and only reason why the game is so broken these days, but I have some points worth mentioning.

So, you're bored one day. You remember this game you had so much fun playing a few years ago, or maybe as a child. It's The Sims 2!

The game has a few issues than from when you last remembered playing, so you search on google for some fixes for the tiny resolution, and among the countless posts you may find, you may find this:

Or this:

(to the creators and players mentioned here this isn't me making a dig at you, i'm just pointing out some cc that could affect the game from working properly. your stuff is all beautiful :D)

Lesya's game is gorgeous!!! Oh, how can I get it to look like that?

So you, with a clean, vanilla (ugly) game you decide to download a few mods she listed, such as:

Skylines by GCKP (you can get optimised ones by me here)

Skies by Lowedeus (you can get optimised ones by me here)

Trees by Criquette (you can get optimised ones here)

No More Blurriness by Voeille (you can get optimised snow only here)

Cool! And then you notice some cheats than can give the game that open-world, interactive feel. Even better!

And you shove them into your folder and you boot up the game. Everything's going great!

Until...

You search hundreds of posts looking for the fix. Some recommend 3rd-party tools, but they seem to make the problem worse. You reinstall, finding you only wasted your time. Something has to be causing this, but you'd never guess it'd be the mods everybody swore by.

Well, in fact, it is. Partly.

I've struggled with pink flashing since 2019, when I reinstalled Sims 2 after I got a decent computer for once. I did everything above, searched for fixes, found Lesya's blog which was my primary inspiration. It was through Lesya's guide that I was able to make my game look pretty!

These mods, which are a staple in the modding community, are beautiful indeed... but what if I told you that the reason they're so beautiful, is because they're high-quality. With textures soaring up to 4k, when, hang on--

In 2004, 4k resolution was... probably unheard of. With the leading monitor size being 1024x768, what would be the point of using such huge textures on an engine that was designed for monitors of at least this size? Would you be able to see the detail of 4k on a monitor of that size? Definitely not.

The max visiting sims, okay, a little hit or miss. If your sims are all wearing high poly alpha CC, then it's a problem. If not, good luck.

Then comes the cheats I mentioned. The lot skirt cheat expands the view distance a significant amount. With the mergenhoodflora cheat, that displays more trees. Combining the two, what do you get?

A massive view distance, blinded by trees.

With skies and skylines with large textures up to 4k, and trees with textures up to 2k, The Sims 2 will collapse. It's like forcing an old man with health conditions to do 20 situps, again and again.

It'll overexert him, by the very least. And you're overexerting the game by cramming custom content that is not optimised for the engine TS2 was built on.

So please, next time you encounter the pink soup, please check your CC folders, and research changes and cheats before you put them into your game. You will enjoy the game much more if you do this, and won't encounter this problem so often.

Don't use Graphics Rules Maker

Instead, opt for a maxis original Graphics Rules uploaded here by Veronavillequiltingbee. It's essentially a rewrite of an old tutorial I made a long time ago.

Once you download the file from VVQB, open DXDIAG by pressing WinKey+R and typing 'dxdiag'.

This value I've underlined is what you need to put after seti textureMemory. Open the sgr file and do CTRL-F and input seti textureMemory.

Add the value from DXDIAG and then save it.

You can use GRM for adding your GPU to the game, but I do not recommend it for anything but that.

Optimising the game... inside the game

*shoves GRM off the table*

We're going to go into TS2 in-game settings for this one.

These settings are optimal if you play CC-heavy households. It will ease the load on your game to make space for the heavy CC you have in your current household. You can tweak these when you want to take photos outside, but for playing I recommend them all to be off - especially at community lots as there are lots of sims there.

I never see anybody talking about Object Hiding.

Object Hiding hides objects from floors that aren't in view. If you're playing downstairs, objects upstairs won't be rendered, thus minimising the load on your game.

I have reflections and smooth edges off because I use ReShade.

Snow on Ground is optional. Sometimes snow can cause pink flashing, I believe it's due to texture replacements that are huge in size too, Voeille's is 2k. I've linked a resized one above.

This post will be updated with later findings. I hope you all found it informative :]

[dystopianam]

[DOWNLOAD] 20 3t2 SKIES RECOLORS FOR LOWEDEUS LOT SKYBOX [PART 2] - FIXED 08/22/2024

I was very undecided about publishing these skyboxes because they didn't convince me much, but since it seems that someone is interested in them...

Like the other skyboxes the resolution is 1920 x 470 and I tried to keep only the skies with the best textures. If you are wondering why I wrote "3t2" it is because I made these skies by taking screenshots of the sky of The Sims 3 in its various phases of the day using the Uranesia lighting MOD!

Unfortunately, since the skies must be bright even at night, at certain angles sometimes the "sunlight" illuminates the skybox so much that it becomes blinding. I can't do anything about it, I can't adjust the brightness intensity of the material (if there is a way I would like to know). The brightest skies therefore cannot be seen very well from the direction of the light...

I had also prepared another set of skyboxes with pastel colours, but due to this problem I had to discard it for the moment…

08/22/2024 - I FIXED THE BRIGHTNESS PROBLEM! PLEASE DOWNLOAD THEM AGAIN IF YOU HAVE THEM!

All files have been compressed and as usual, these are just recolors, you need Lowedeus mesh which you can find here to make them work! (MORE PREVIEWS HERE)

CHOOSE ONLY ONE VERSION!!

DOWNLOAD INTENSITY 2 (SFS - less saturation)

OR

DOWNLOAD INTENSITY 3 (SFS - more saturation, like in the screenshots)

[brandinotbroke]

Sims 2 Ultrawide CAS Fix (3440x1440) in Clean UI, Starship UI and FlawlessPink UI

My fellow ultra widescreen users, it has been 84 years but we do not have to suffer anymore 🤠

This mod comes in Clean UI, Starship UI and FlawlessPink UI and also includes a camera mod.

Up until now, on ultrawide monitors, the CAS UI is in the way of seeing your sims even with a regular widescreen fix. I have moved those UI elements further to the right side of the screen so they are "out of the way" and have also adjusted the camera, so you can actually see their feet and hair. This mod was made with 3440x1440 resolution in mind, but I think it should be a significant improvement on any monitor with an ultrawide aspect ratio.

Two minor problems:

The camera mod is a little bit wonky, it will zoom in too far whenever the camera changes (e.g. changing from clothing to face). When that happens, simply zoom out a bit and it will "fix itself".

I was not able to extend the hitbox that lets you turn a sim. So, if you want to turn a sim around, you have to do it at their legs, the upper body won't work.

Installation:

CASCamera.txt goes into Documents\EA Games\Sims 2 Ultimate Collection\Cameras.

Of the three package-files included, choose the one you want and put it in your downloads folder.

Delete the original CAS file that came with your UI mod (the one named "cas-min-width-1920-additional-596px" or somethig along those lines), as my mod replaces that one.

This mod requires that you have the corresponding UI mod installed, so go download Clean UI, Starship UI or FlawlessPink UI.

Credits:

@greatcheesecakepersona for their Clean UI, as I have used their fix as a template

Chris Hatch for his 500Extra CAS mod, which helped me figure out which coordinates I needed to change

my brother for helping me understand EA's nonsense lmao

DOWNLOAD: SFS | MF

[paluding]

Please, please, please, I know it was just a teaser, but pleeeeeease tell me more about our loved psp puppy 🤩!

Hi! Of course, how could I deny such thing to a fellow Sims 2 PSP enjoyer. So far I have managed to reshape the werepug model to a T pose.

I also swapped the lowpoly hands with the Bigfoot ones, which were the ones that made the most sense from Sims 2 PC, I think. I'm considering adding 3D claws to them, just to complete the look. And for the stuff that's left to do, here's what I have planned for this project: -Fixing the bones assignments and reshaping where needed, right now it's a bit of a clipping mess. -Fully repainting and retexturing it all to a higher resolution. -Adding face morphs so the face is animated.

... and that's it for now! Quite the conversion process. I do have some extra ideas I would love to try before sharing it, but I'm not so sure I'll be able to actually make them, so for now I'll just keep them for myself. Ya know, modding is not my best skill in this game lol.

[osab]

[Guide] Using Magpie to upscale TS2/3: no more tiny UI!

After finally getting the older Sims games set up for modern resolutions, you may be shocked to find the UI is super tiny! The older games’ UIs are designed around lower resolutions, and don’t scale for high DPI like in TS4. If you try to use Windows DPI scaling to fix it, it can make the game blurry.

Luckily, there’s an easy solution! Magpie is an open-source window scaling app for programs and games, which lets you upscale from a lower resolution without losing too much quality. It comes with well renowned scalers, such as Lanczos and FSR. Upscaling from a lower resolution solves the small UI issue and can even improve performance. You can also use similar programs like Lossless Scaling for the same result.

Here’s how to use it:

Set the game to run in windowed mode. For Sims 2, you can do that through Sims2RPCSettings, or by adding “-w” to your shortcut target if you don’t have RPC. For Sims 3, you can use the in-game options.

Once running in windowed mode, set the game to run in a resolution lower than your native screen resolution, such as 1080p if you have a 1440p or 4k screen, or 720p if you have a 1080p screen.

Install and open Magpie. Once it's running, press Windows+Shift+A while clicked inside of the game window. If everything worked, it should upscale to borderless and fill the screen!

You can configure your scaling settings through the sidebar in the Magpie app if you want to try out the different filter options.

Download Magpie here: Github

[sonqgmi-sims]

SIMS 2: My Essential Mods/CC

Hi everyone! I figured since I have been playing Sims 2 a lot lately, I'd provide my current essentials! Will update as I try more things, but this is valid as of February 1, 2024! ♥

Links for everything are under the cut! Found throughout MTS, Tumblr and other Sims Youtubers!

If any links don't work please let me know so I can try to find replacements!

View my video here!

AFTER INSTALLING SIMS 2 (Windows 10) Sim Shadow Fix: Fixes that weird shadow box glitch! Increase Resolution Fix: Have to go into the data files and alter some things to make it compatible for Windows 10!

NEIGHBORHOOD MODS Seasons Icons In Color: Colors the Season Icons in gameplay and in neighborhood view! Easy To Decorate Camera Mod: See more of the neighborhood map that you couldn't see before! CAS MODS Widescreen CAS Fix: Fixes the UI so your sim isn't covered! There's options for every resolution! (I use 1920x1080) More CAS Columns: Adds more Columns in CAS! Just like in TS4! Evie's Equal Genetics: Equal chance for offspring to receive dominant and recessive genes! 5 Custom Genetics Haircolors: Custom recolors for the Maxis hairs! Chocolate (Brown+Black), Sandy (Brown+Blonde), Icy (White Blonde), Auburn (Brown+Red) and Caramel (Brown+Red+Blonde)!

BUILD & BUY MODS Sim Blender: The holy grail of Sims 2 Mods. Can do anything with this! ACR: Sims autonomously Woohoo, Try for Baby, Get into Relationships, etc! Great for drama & storytelling! OFB Shelf Recolors: Beautiful wood recolors for the OFB Shelves! (The OG's were kinda ugly lmfao) Stay Things Shrub: Choose which items stay after a sim moves out! Monique's Hacked Computer: Pay bills, Order clothing, etc! Object Rotator: Rotate objects on an angle! Small, Large and End Tables! Lifetime Want Chooser: Pick your sims LTW!

LIFESPAN MODS 1 Day = 1 Year (Sims): As the title says! More realistic as I consider 1 sim day a year! 1 Day = 1 Year (Pets): Same as the Sim version, but for pets!

UNIVERSITY MODS Uni After Birthday Party: Teens can throw a birthday party and before blowing out candles, the game asks if you'd like to go to college first! Semester Changes: College is now 8 days instead of 24! Faster Uni Education: 24-48 Hour semesters! There Can Only Be One Professor: 2 per major seemed much, so I like this one! Generates less NPC's for me :D Doctors Need Degrees: Depending on your sims education/grades, they can either be stuck at career level 1 or 10!

GAMEPLAY MODS No 20K Handouts: As it says :) Now my sims aren't wealthy! Extended Family Treated As Family: Always hated it when second cousins could marry. This prevents it :) Community Time Project: Time spent on community lot matches with time at the home! Memory Manipulator: Hide/adjust Sims memories without using SimPE Break Up Via Phone: End a relationship over the phone! (Going Steady, Marriage, Engagement) 50 New Lifetime Wants: Adds new LTW's to the game! OFB Adopt Teen&Townie: Adopt Babies-Teens!

PREGNANCY MODS Shorter Pet Pregnancy: Pets give birth within 1 sim day! The default seemed way too long, so this is a must :) PregRel NL+: Can't find original post so I can't remember what it does, but I found a secondary version below! PregRel Compatibility Patch: Negative reactions to baby bumps if your significant other suspects cheating! Alternate Pregnancy Controller Lite: Possibility of your sims getting a miscarriage (Only had it happen once so far!) Triplets & Quads: Allows up to 4 babies to be born at once!

DEATH MODS Death By Childbirth: Morbid, but I like this for storytelling! Select Your Cemetery: When your sim lives alone and dies, a prompt shows up to move the tombstone to any lot! Now you don't have to cram the younger generations in your home ♥

MISC MODS/HACKS Last Name Copier: Edit/Change a Sims last name without using SimPE! Baby Pet Creator: Create a puppy/kitten with stray genetics! CJ Smart EP Checker: Does nothing, but it is required if you use any of Cyjon's mods! TS1 Prank Calls: Get the same funny and scary prank calls from Sims 1!

BONUS & EXTRAS The Christian Collection: On a MTS forum post, (look for Liv Lukas's post) but ChristianLov's mods are no longer able to be found separately. This is also linked where I put the Baby Pet Creator! Sims 2 Store Content: I only use the extra cars in my game, but there's loads of new stuff!

TOOLS SimPE: Edit ages, relationships, memories, family trees, etc! Sims2Pack Clean Installer: Used to install new lots and sims into your game! Mootilda's Hood Checker: Check any custom neighborhoods for corruption! Bat Box (FFS Lot Debugger): Similar to the Sim Blender. Here's the Vase version!

[digisims2]

Sims 2 on Windows 11

Alright, the new computer with Windows 11 is up and running and Sims 2 has been installed. These are the steps I took to get it running and looking pretty:

Installed the game through EA App

I installed "George" so I won't need to start the game up through EA App and let it waste resources and spy on me.

I ran the 4GB patch on the Sims2EP9.exe and TS2BodyShop.exe

I ran Graphics Rules Maker and tweaked things through that enabling it to use my full texture memory etc

I installed the EmptyStandbyList since without it I got pink flashing very quickly

????

Profit.

If this helped somebody else out, you're welcome! :)

(long, pretty messy and image heavy version of this process written as I did it is behind the cut. I mean it, it's very long!)

added my graphics card in the video cards file manually

did the common graphics rules tweaks (these) manually

applied 4gb patch to bodyshop and game exes

tested bodyshop, it started up but has no smooth edges, otherwise textures are good and new projects export and import as supposed. 4GB patch works as supposed. It'll likely require tweaking it through nvidia control panel so leaving that for later.

Started up game, after turning the edge smoothing on it looks this good (no mods thus the boxy shadows):

6. However my log is reporting only 1gb of RAM for the game to use, will have to reapply the 4gb patch and try again. But it's using all 12 gb for texture memory so that's cool, I probably won't need to worry too much about pink flashing but I'm going to stress test it a little.

View distance maximized:

Shaders work:

"I probably won't need to worry too much about pink flashing" I said earlier and then left the lot and:

:'D But looking at task manager I see my standby memory has filled up the remaining RAM already so this is actually working as expected, I just forgot one step.

7. installed the EmptyStandbyList.

8. This is where I closed game, applied the standby memory fix, rechecked my exe and remembered that you weren't supposed to run it in compatibility mode so I turned that off but just in case I also reapplied 4gb patch and restarted the game. Now it's correctly showing me 4GB of RAM to use for the game so that should be handled.

Side note: Mr. Humble spawned, I haven't seen him for years as I have mod to stop him from appearing. Was this sim always so ugly? It looks like his face is melting.

No pink flashing after leaving the lot this time:

But it crashed when I clicked on the sims icon.

New try, game restarted and this time we'll go straight to CAS and... *immediately gets distracted* There are this many bin families by default?

I've used clean templates for years so this was an unpleasant surprise. I don't like them, you're all getting nuked soon once I've made sure the game runs as supposed and can go ahead installing clean templates. So then to the CAS, it loads and I click to create a sim and....

Oh. Okay then. :| Guess I'm missing some tweak still. Let's try graphics rules maker instead, it should also easily fix my resolution etc since I forgot to do that manually.

One restart later, are you fucking kidding me?

but hey, nice crisp textures. Too bad it's so tiny I can't see shit. (I realized this was my error after a moment, I thought graphics rules maker said minimum resolution in the spot I didn't change but it actually says maximum, so I fixed that and all is good) But I'm gonna ignore that now and try loading CAS again, pls work.

.... Hell yeah, at least that finally loaded up as supposed.

She is beauty, she is grace, maxis defaults really ruin her face.

After the final restart with screen size etc fixed I went back and forth to different lots trying to make it flash pink and it never did so I'm going to say this was success.

So to recap:

Installed the game through EA App

I installed "George" so I won't need to start the game up through EA App.

I ran the 4GB patch on the Sims2EP9.exe and TS2BodyShop.exe

I ran Graphics Rules Maker and tweaked things through that enabling it to use my full texture memory etc

I installed the EmptyStandbyList since without it I got pink flashing very quickly

????

Profit.

And seriously, that's all, even if this post ended up this long.

I still need to get smooth edges in bodyshop but that will likely be done with nvidia control panel rather than texture settings. Here's one more random maxis sims image to end this with a pretty picture instead of just huge wall of text.

[catbrokensims3]

So I finally got around to reinstalling Sims 2, and just so you all know, it's gotten wayyy easier to get it up and running than it used to be. Graphics Rules Maker just had an update last year, and Lazy Duchess came out with a launcher called Sims2RPC, so these days it's a snap.

It was actually easier than when I last did a Sims 3 reinstall.

Video tutorial if anyone needs one by the ever helpful @acottonsock is HERE.

Since it's abandonware and as far as I know not buyable new, the only place I can personally recommend to get it is Old Games Download, which is an archive of abandonware games. Oregon Trail 1.2 anyone? I know they have Sims 1, 2, and some of the console games.

Even though I still own the disc versions of the Stories games, I just downloaded Castaway Stories from there the other day because I couldn't immediately find a mod that would let me play it with no cd. It works fine, just need to do a little tweaking with the resolution. I picked the MediaFire option, but I think there was a also a choice to download via Mega and one other I can't remember.

FYI though, when I picked up the Ultimate Collection from them years ago, IKEA stuff didn't install with the rest of it so I had to download and install it separately. This was good while ago though, so they may have fixed it by now.

I don't want to talk about what happened to all of my original TS2 discs. Big sigh.

[adelarsims]

Hi, you are more than welcome to ignore especially if you have answered before and I missed it/it's elsewhere on your blog but can I please just ask how you get your CAS photos to look so incredibly clean? Especially around the edges, they're so smooth it's incredible. Thank you in advance, I really appreciate it! You inspire me so much tbh, everything you post is so beautiful. (Also also also the eyebags you released recently are my new gold standard and I use them for everything now tysm for sharing them) 🖤

thank you!

ok so here are a few tips, you don’t need to follow all of them, but if you like exactly my cas style, maybe some of them will help

1. edge smoothing. sorry for being obvious, but use either in-game anti-aliasing, or a smaa shader if you’re a reshade/gshade user, or you’ll get a pixelated staircase for the edges that will be hard to fix. if your PC doesn’t handle high graphics well and you play without edge smoothing, you can toggle it on temporarily just for taking a few good cas pictures and then turn it back off.

2. use MXAO. if you use reshades, use mxao shader for pictures, it's really a life changer. though i don't use it during the regular gameplay and only turn it on when i take pictures, because moving a lot with it slows down your game and is a visual overload for me.

3. but don’t overdo it with MXAO. seriously, don’t go all out with mxao. for a cleaner look shadows need to be delicate, just to overline shapes and give your sim more dimension. every time i tweaked my reshade presets, i made mxao even more thin and gentle and realized that it only got better.

4. background makes a huge difference. solid colors. in my personal opinion, grey gives the "cleanest" look (i said while still using my old dirty yellowish that i'm too lazy to find a replacement for). also, if i want to use black or white background, i make it a little darker than white and a little lighter than black, they look pretty much the same but will attack your eyes less (especially the white one).

5. CAS lighting makes a huge difference. maxis light isn't that bad, but cc lighting definitely give you more clean, crisp image. my personal favorite neutral one that i use by default is v2 by helgatisha. sometimes i use lightings with side highlights for more “rendered” look, but they aren’t always comfortable for everyday use and i only use them for specific pictures and then get back to my default neutral one.

6. shadow overlays. i mean cc that imitates shadows on sim's face, it gives sim's face so much dimension. there are spotlight v1 and v2 by simandy and lighting overlay v1 and v2 by joshseoh. i'd say josh's overlays are for fancy portrait pictures (they imitate a very strong light source from different angles, very cool for sim photographers but not for regular gameplay), and simandy's are more neutral and are very gameplay-friendly on lower opacity. personally, i only use v2 by simandy now, it's my holy grail and i don't take sim's pictures without it.

7. SRWE. it's a program that emulates having a bigger display resolution than your monitor can afford, meaning much better screenshot quality and cleanliness for small details. srwe can be a bit of a hassle to use for a lot of pics and most of the time i’m too lazy to use it and just take my regular small pixelated screenshots, but sometimes i want just one, but extra clean picture.

8. Topaz Clean 3 (photoshop). i don't usually edit my pictures and just drop them like whatever, mostly because i don't know how to do it, but sometimes i make them sharper and cleaner with a gentle touch of topaz on very low strength.

[yoruqueenofnightsims]

How I edit my Sims' shadow in Photoshop

as requested by @adelarsims

& based on this tutorial.

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1. Taking a screenshot

First of all take a screenshot of the Sim - I always do CAS but in-game works too ofc.

I take mine in front of a background that loosely matches the color of the background of my edit, in this case white. If you have a fancy CAS background, I recommend this CC by @sonyasimscc to easily get a simple background for screenshots.

I also use this tutorial by @katverse to get really good screenshots, I use 4000x3000px resolution, and this tutorial by @vyxated to not have a CAS UI in your screenshot if you use a reshade like me.

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2. Setting up the Photoshop file

Now in Photoshop create a file, I use 1250x2000 px.

I made a few guidelines, pink being the middle of the image and dark blue guidelines for my shadow editing.

I have a usually white background and a slight Curves adjustment layer with a gradient layer mask so it gets slightly darker at the bottom, completely optional ofc.

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3. Removing the original background

Import the screenshot and place it however you want. I try to align the Sim in the middle and make it as big as possible.

Then select the layer and go to Select - Subject.

This will usually do a decent job.

If there are some leftover unselected areas (like on her left hand on the hip) you can either add them to the selection now or edit the layer mask later.

Then create a layer mask.

Since the screenshot has a similar background, it shouldn't show too much if it is not perfect.

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4. Creating the shadow

First duplicate the Sims' layer (Shortcut: Ctrl + J).

The layer is probably a Smart Object, so you need to rasterize it and right click the layer mask to apply the layer mask.

Now lock transparent pixels and paint the layer black.

Next unlock the transparent pixels again and move the black layer below the actual Sim. Leave it selected.

Now you will need the Perspective Warp tool.

Draw the grid over the Sim, it doesn't have to be perfect, but make sure every part of your Sim is in the grid and nothing pokes out.

Press enter.

Now you want to drag the upper 2 corners separately wherever you want the shadow to be. I always put mine to the left and around the upper thigh area. I also try to match how slanted the left and right side are.

Now move the bottom 2 corners to try and match the shadow with the Sims' feet kinda. It won't work perfectly and you will need to fix it by hand after.

Press enter again.

Now go in by hand and fix the shadow around the feet.

Simply paint with black on the same layer and erase parts if necessary.

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5. Making the shadow look nice

I like to change the layer opacity to 35%, but it depends how strong you want the shadow to be.

Next I apply a tilt shift blur, unlike in the video.

I use a blur of 15px.

Move the circle at the edge of the image basically or a bit below by dragging the middle of it. Then rotate it on the bottom line by around 10°.

Next move the solid line to the middle of the circle and the dashed line around the ankles.

Then press OK at the top.

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6. Optional: Gradient layer mask

Lastly I like to make the shadow fade out a bit towards the top.

Apply a layer mask to the shadow.

Then get your gradient tool and the default black to white gradient.

Hold shift to make a straight line and drag the gradient down.

This is how I roughly place mine so it's not too strong.

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And that's it!

If you have any questions, let me know~

[sims2idea-lientebollemeis2i]

For the people who struggle to find a computer to make The Sims 2 work and get the answer "It's from 2004, it can run on a toaster."

Once and for all well explained (by ChatGPT and checked if it's accurate. )

The idea that The Sims 2 from 2004 should work on any computer since 2009 is not entirely accurate. While The Sims 2 was released in 2004 and had modest hardware requirements by today's standards, several factors affect whether it runs smoothly on a newer computer:

1. **Compatibility**: Modern operating systems like Windows 10 and 11 often have issues with older games like The Sims 2, as these games were designed for much older versions of Windows.

2. **Hardware**: Although modern computers are generally powerful enough to run The Sims 2, there can be compatibility problems with modern graphics cards and drivers.

3. **Software Support**: The drivers and software required to run the game may no longer be supported or updated by manufacturers.

4. **Resolution and Display Issues**: The game was designed for lower resolution displays, and running it on high-resolution monitors can lead to graphical glitches or improper scaling.

5. **Digital Rights Management (DRM)**: Older versions of The Sims 2 use SecuROM DRM, which is incompatible with newer operating systems, creating additional hurdles for installation and play.

6. **Processor Performance**: Processors can lose performance as they age, which may cause older computers to struggle with running applications efficiently, including The Sims 2.

7. **RAM Requirements**: The Sims 2 was designed to run on systems with very low RAM compared to today's standards. However, modern operating systems require significantly more RAM just to function properly, which can leave less available memory for the game itself. This can result in the game running poorly or not at all unless adjustments are made.

While there are solutions available, such as using compatibility modes and community fixes to make the game playable on modern systems, it can be quite a hassle. So, while it's technically possible, getting The Sims 2 to work on a newer computer can be problematic and may require significant effort.

[gloomiegalaxie]

Simblr New Years Resolution 2024~

@sparkiekong tagged me for a new years resolution tag, thank you!

What's your Resolution for your Simblr?

i want to do a better job interacting with other folks and their content, there's so much amazing stuff out there but im letting shyness get in the way. there's a lot of stuff on my blog i was to fix, too. finish my lore and character sheets, maybe better organize things. i want to post more, but i worry that i'm spamming folks.

What do you want from the Sims Franchise?

oh wow the list is very long. i would say faeries (again, my FAVORITE occult from 3) but at this point i'm pretty sure they'd fuck it up. i guess here's a short laundry list: ~ expanded plant sims and aliens. neither have skill trees or special skills. ~ expanded hair colors. we have many more now than when the game originally launched, yes. but i still find the unnatural colors limiting; neon pink, neon blue, neonish green, the weirdest shade of purple ever and neon yellow. CC fixes this too, sure, but it would be cool to have a standard of colors the CC creators can use so that you don't need additional CC (though hair overlays are neat). ~ fix the bugs. please, for the love of loki. i get that my game is broken from mods, but folks playing vanilla or lightly modded should have functional games. ~ BRING BACK THE KITSCH. i want nonsense, not realism ya'll. mods can give me realism, give me THE ABSURD. ~ maybe just burn everything down and start over? mash 2 and 3 together and give me that, but with certain updates from 4 (IE custom pronouns, body shaping in CAS, emotions).

Any other New Years Resolutions?

i need to be kinder to myself and not self-sabotage. (vulnerability time) i have very low self-esteem and a lot has hit me like a ton of bricks in 2023. i'm working through everything, but it's been very difficult. i started blogging to try and find other people and encourage myself to be less afraid and just let my brain go. my negative feedback loop sometimes goes haywire and tries to sabotage me (nobody likes you, you're boring, this didn't get any notes because it sucks, everyone is better than you), but overall it's been helping (thank you to everyone that encourages me, it means so so much).

sorry, i kinda went on a tangent there, i guess this hit me in the feels in just the right way.

anywho, i would like to tag @plumbewb, @boobpancakes, @glitchedsins & @simfestation

if you want to! also pls tell me if you don't want me to tag you in these things and i will desist!

[salemsimsrender]

Beginner Blender Tutorial Basic Render: Part Two (Posing Our Sim, & Setting up a Scene)

(Continued from Part One)

Welcome back!

In this tutorial, we'll be posing our sim & setting up our scene!

For this tutorial, you'll need Sims 4 Studio, which you can download here!

Step 1: Exporting Poses for Blender

Before we can pose our sim in blender, we need to prepare the pose. I'll be using this pose set by @roselipaofficial for this render! Download your pose and open it in Sims 4 Studio. Click "Clips" at the top

For my render, I'm going to use Pose #3 When you select your pose, the Clip Name will change (Each creator names their poses differently) Before we export, make sure you're set to the right rig! Blender does terrifying things if you export to the wrong rig. I'm posing an Adult Female sim, so we're good to go! Export the pose and save it somewhere that's easy to find! Now let's go back to Blender

Step 2: Posing Our Sim

In Blender, click on "Pose" in your Outliner Then hover over your sim/3D viewport area and hit I on your keyboard (not L) to open the Keyframe menu Select "Location & Rotation"

In your right-side workspace, change your editor type (window) to Nonlinear Animation This is where we'll pose our sim!

You'll see rig and rigAction. Click the little dropdown arrow next to rigAction, then you'll see a highlighted orange track

Now let's add in our pose Click File -> Append and navigate to where you saved your pose Double click your pose file, then elect the "Action" folder Double-click the file that comes up under "Action," that's your pose

It'll appear as though nothing happened... but it did! In your Nonlinear Animation window, click "Add" and select "Add Action Strip" Make sure your rigAction line is highlighted orange like mine is!

Select the Roselipa pose we added from the list, and TA DA! Our sim is posed!

Step 3: Setting up our Scene

I always add in my camera before doing anything else, that way I can adjust as necessary based on what I want the final render to look like. To add in a camera, you can either select "Add" in the top bar of your 3D viewport window, or hit Shift+A on your keyboard and select "camera"

You'll see that a camera has been added to our Outliner, and we can see it in our 3D Viewport (If you still have a lamp in your Outliner like I do, go ahead and delete it now, we don't need it)

I personally like to move my camera around in real time so I know where it's going. To switch to camera view, click the little camera icon in the right toolbar of your 3D Viewport You'll see that our camera is in a weird spot, but that's ok we're going to fix it

I want a portrait, so I'm going to switch the resolution settings. To do this, go to Output Properties and change the resolution values. The default is 1920x1080, but I like higher resolution renders personally, so I'm changing mine to 2080x2920. Only go up in resolution if your computer can handle it!

Now let's move our camera I like to use the Axis directions on my keyboard to get the camera where I want it Select your camera in the Outliner, then hover your mouse over the 3D Viewport Using the "G" key (the shortcut for move), combine G and "X, Y, or Z" on your keyboard to move the camera where you want it This will be fiddly at first but you'll get better with practice! I've set my camera up like this:

For basic portrait renders, I like to just use lights and a simple cube Remember the default cube we deleted in the beginning, we're going to bring it back now Add it in the same way as the camera, either by selecting "Add" in the top menu and choosing Mesh -> Cube, or by pressing Shift+A on your keyboard and selecting Mesh -> Cube I use keyboard shortcuts, so I'll add mine with Shfit+A like so:

You'll probably have something like this, your sim floating in a box

Use the same method you did to move the camera ("G" plus axis directions (X,Y,Z) to move it up and use "S" on your keyboard to scale it up To scale up, hit "S" then move your mouse outward Then center the box over your sim We want to have something like this:

Click into Camera view (click the camera on the right) and you should have something like this:

In Part 3, we'll adjust our render settings, add lights, and render!

I'd wanted to include those in part two, but Tumblr is yelling at me about my photo limit.

If you have any questions, please leave a comment below and I'll help as best I can!

[seanst-r]

Simblr New Year's Resolution 2024

thanks for the tag ! @veone @bubblepopsims

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

What's your Resolution for your Simblr?

1.) Learn how to do renders.

2.) Actually play the game..

This isn't an aesthetic build sim/ dress-up game.

3.) Learn how to mesh if I'm lucky?

( don't hold me to it 😶)

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

What do you want from the Sims Franchise?

bands, bug fixes, pottery, fairies, NO MORE DAMN KITS, get to work/alien overhaul, more stuff packs, hotels, clothes for elders and infants;

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

Any other New Years Resolutions?

Go out more ; SAVE MONEY! Read ;

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

Tagging @eatasslikegrass @nak4yuta @ezra-trait

[paluding]

Updating... The Tattooer (ver. 3.4)!

Finally! Took me a while, huh. This is the updated version of the Tattooer project. It skips some steps, making the workflow much, much faster! Huge thanks to @applewatersugar for his suggestion on how to bake textures while preserving the transparency. This is kind of a repost of the original Tattooer post, but it actually has some new stuff and a few changes here and there, so please take a look if you want to learn how to use this new version.

This is a series of Blender template files already set up to quickly bake textures from The Sims 4 to The Sims 2. The different Blender files will allow you to: -Bake body textures from TS4 to TS2 (Female) -Bake body textures from TS4 to TS2 (Male) -Bake body textures from TS4 (Female) to TS2 (Male) -Bake body textures from TS2 (Female) to TS2 (Male) [Bonus!] -New! Bake face textures from TS4 to TS2 (Unisex) [Bonus!] -Bake head textures from TS4 to TS2 (Face + Scalp) (Unisex) [Still experimental] Check the file names to see which one is which, and the resolution of the baked texture it will give. Everything you see in the render above was 100% converted using those Blender files.

Download here! SFS / GD

Update: Version 3.4.1 (27/08/2023) Fixed some issues on the shoulders for the AF-body-4t2-1024 and AF-body-4t2-2048 templates. Now the top straps on most converted underwear/swimwear should look right.

Update: Same version (13/12/2023) As requested, added a new spanish version of the included pdf guide!

These templates were made mainly to bake and convert tattoos, but there’s more you can do with them if you get creative. I have to say, these are NOT perfect. Results may vary depending on what you are trying to convert, so! With that in mind, this is all the stuff you will be able to convert almost seamlessly from TS4 to TS2: -Tattoos. -Other body details such as body hair, scars, freckles, supernatural/occult details… -Body painted underwear and swimwear, as well as some other clothing that’s mostly painted on the body. -Socks, stockings and maybe leggings. -Even skintones! In some areas they will look weird, so I recommend editing and blending them with other existing TS2 skins. -Makeup, eyebrows and beards. In the old version this was just a proof of concept, but now I’ve added a new Face file template which gives some pretty decent results! -Hair scalps. Very useful when converting some hairs! Although keep in mind part of that texture might also need to be baked on the face mesh, you know, that hairline makeup stuff.

Got your attention? Nice! Editing some of the textures from TS4 to match the UV mapping in TS2 using a 2D editing program can be incredibly hard. That’s where texture baking in Blender comes to the rescue!

You will need to download Blender, at least version 3.4, but you could always use a newer version. It is only incompatible with versions older than 3.4. -You can download Blender for free here. -You will also need Sims 4 Studio to extract the original Sims 4 CC textures you want. In the first version of these Blender files, there was a necessary step using Photoshop, but that’s no longer needed. However, there’s still a tiny extra step which requires resizing the newly baked texture on some of the high resolution templates, so you might need a 2D editing program like Photoshop. More on that later.

So, before we begin, let’s clear out some questions you might have. What the heck is this texture baking thing and what does it do? Well, let’s imagine you have a video projector and point an image into a blank wall. Then you pick up some brushes and start painting and copying that projected image in that wall. Texture baking is kinda like that when it comes to 3D models. You align two models and match them as closely as you can in shape and form, and once you adjust some parameters and values, Blender does the rest for you: it will give you a new texture for a new model with a different UV map. These files I’m sharing have everything already set up, so it’s a matter of plopping in that Sims 4 texture and you will get that new texture for TS2 in just a few clicks.

This tutorial assumes you know literally nothing about how to use Blender, so if you feel uncomfortable with it, worry no more! This will guide you with pictures showing where you need to click and explaining what is happening. For Sims 4 Studio and Photoshop the process might be a bit less detailed, but still this should be pretty beginner friendly. For this tutorial, I will use some tattoos as an example (properly credited at the end of the post). Alright, enough with the rambling. Let’s get started!

·EXTRACTING TEXTURES IN SIMS 4 STUDIO: First things first, you will need to extract as pngs all the textures you want to convert from TS4 using Sims 4 Studio. It should be pretty straightforward. Just open the packages and export the Diffuse textures. Keep them organized in a folder for easy access.

·BAKING THE TEXTURES IN BLENDER: PRELIMINARY STEP 1: CONFIGURING BLENDER’S GRAPHICS SETTINGS: Open your preferred Blender file depending on what you’re going to bake and the desired resolution (in this example I’m going to use the AF-body-4t2-1024 file). Before we start messing around in Blender, there’s one thing you should set up. It is a onetime step, and once it’s done, you won’t need to do it again. So, does your computer have a dedicated graphics card? If you don’t know or you’re not sure, just skip to the next step. Configuring Blender so it uses your graphics card instead of your CPU will make the baking render much faster, so it is recommended you set it up correctly. If your computer has a dedicated graphics card, click File (1) > Preferences (2) > and on the window that pops up click System (3) > and select CUDA and make sure your graphics card is there and tick it (4). I have an Nvidia Graphics card but your case may vary. Once you’re done, click on the tiny button on the bottom left corner and Save Preferences (5).

PRELIMINARY STEP 2: CHOOSING THE RENDERING DEVICE: Click on the tiny camera button on the right, called Render Properties (1), and on Device (2) select GPU Compute if it’s not already selected. If you’re not sure if you have a graphics card or not, just select CPU. Then select the Material Properties tab (3) and Save your changes, either by pressing Ctrl + S, or clicking File (4) > Save (5). You might need to do this second step with the other Blender files, but once you have it done and saved, you won’t need to do this again. Okay, time to get into the good stuff!

·STEP 1: LOADING YOUR TS4 BASE TEXTURE: In the Material Properties tab, click the folder icon that says Open (1) and on the window that pops up, navigate through your folders and select your first texture. To navigate easily, the 3 buttons on the top right (2) are for the display mode. They will show your files in list mode, vertical and horizontal, and the one on the right will display the file thumbnails, pretty useful if you want to easily preview your textures here. The icons on the left side (3) will let you go one folder back and forward, go to the parent directory, and refresh the folder in case you just dropped something new in there. Double click on the image you need and that will load the texture into the Sims 4 body model, named “ts4 body”.

·STEP 2: SETTING UP YOUR SELECTION AND BAKING THE TEXTURE: On the top right of the screen, you will see the names of the 2 models in the scene. Hold the Ctrl key in your keyboard and left click on the “ts2 body” model (1). If you did it correctly, you should see “ts2 body” in a yellowish orange color, and right down below, “ts4 body” should look more like a red orange. If not, try again by clicking first on ts4 body, and then while holding Ctrl click again on ts2 body. Then switch to the Render Properties tab by clicking the tiny camera icon (2) and click Bake (3). Depending on your screen resolution, you might need to scroll down a bit with your mouse to see the Bake button. Wait a few seconds for it to finish. You will see the progress percentage down on the bottom of your screen. Don’t panic if you notice your computer fans start ramping up, that’s completely normal! As I said in the beginning, using your GPU will bake the textures much faster than the CPU.

·STEP 3: SAVING YOUR NEW TS2 TEXTURE: Once it’s finished, switch to the UV Editing Mode by clicking “UV Editing” on the top of your screen. And there it is: your new texture! You might have to scroll up your mouse wheel a bit to zoom in and see it in all its glory on the left side of the screen. We’re still not done yet though. You need to save it to yet another new folder (always try to keep your stuff organized!).

You can save it by pressing Shift + Alt + S, or clicking on Image* (1) and then Save As… (2). That will pop a window where you’ll need to navigate again and save it somewhere. Give it a proper name (3) and hit Enter to save it… well, Enter doesn’t always work for me for some reason, so if that happens just click Save As Image (4). And that’s it! You’ve successfully converted your baked texture. Congrats!

·STEP 4: GOING BACK TO STEP 1: Alright! If you’re done with your textures, you can close Blender without saving and call it a day. But let’s say you want to keep baking other swatches. In order to go back to step 1 and start the process once again, click Layout (1), go back to the Material Properties tab (2), select “ts4 body” (3) and click on the folder icon (4) to open and load your next swatch.

Then it’s just a matter of repeating the process from step 2. When you’re ready to move on, close Blender without saving. If you see a small check telling you it will save some images, make sure you uncheck it, so you will be able to use it again in the future from the starting point with no issues. I don’t think it really matters if you accidentally save your progress in these files, but I like to keep it clean and fresh so I can do the process where I left it from the beginning next time I open it. And in case you mess up and save somewhere, you can always just delete the .blend file and download the template files again.

In case you’d like a video tutorial on how to use these files, the amazing @platinumaspiration recorded this fantastic video showcasing the process! You can watch it here.

One final note: some of the baking .blend files save the textures with a resolution of 2048x2048 pixels, as clearly stated at the end of their file name. That’s way too overkill, because TS2 only properly supports up to 1024x1024 for most of its textures and you should always resize your final product to that max resolution (or lower if needed). I just made those 2048 versions because there might be some really tiny and slim details on some tattoos that might look a little too blurry when baked into a 1024 resolution texture, so for those cases use that if you want and then resize them using your 2D editing software of choice. In Photoshop, in the Resample mode of the Image Size menu, there are a few options to choose. For the fine details, I like the Nearest Neighbor (hard edges) option, which, even if it looks a bit pixelated, it still preserves most of the texture and quality.

For anything else, I would just directly bake them using the 1024 versions in Blender (512 for the face and scalp).

And for the folks who feel comfortable playing around in Blender, this is just the beginning! Texture baking opens a LOT of possibilities, so feel free to move stuff around and edit the models to your liking! If you notice the baked textures look warped or stretched somewhere, or don’t like where some textures are placed in the S2 body, poke around that area moving stuff and then give it another try. The main objective of the baking process is keeping both overlapping models as close in shape as possible. You may also edit and save new copies of the templates, or make new ones from scratch using mine as a reference (keep a close look on those Baking settings and values, I think they work pretty well) and share them if you want to. Go ham, do whatever you want with them! I still have plans on making templates to convert body textures from Sims 3 to Sims 2, but for now it’s not on my priorities, so we’ll see when that happens.

Whew! Hope none of this was too confusing. Need help or have any issues with these? Please ask/message me here and I’ll be glad to help when I’m able to!

Credits for the CC used in the render demonstration: -Skin by Sims3Melancholic. -Eyes by Northern Siberia Winds. -Eyebrows by PeachyFaerie. -Tattoos by xtc. -Top by SerenityCC. And the Tattoo I used for the tutorial can be found here, by ValhallanSim.

Last but not least, a huge thanks to all the people who somehow contributed to make this project and update possible, either by doing initial testing, finding issues to fix, or teaching me new Blender tricks to make the workflow way faster and easier. So thanks again to @elvisgrace @moyokeansimblr and @applewatersugar on Tumblr! <3

And thank you for reading! Hope you have fun playing with this (not so) new toy hehe.