How to install & setup The Sims 2 on modern systems!

Graphics Setup

TS2 cannot detect modern graphics cards out of the box, resulting in errors, crashes, and visual bugs, but luckily we have fixes included for this.Once you close the pop-up from the Starter Pack Installer, Graphics Rules Maker will open automatically.Choose "The Sims 2" under the "Game:" dropdown box. If everything went properly, it should say "Game found." Hooray!You'll see the default settings with no changes applied.

Click the "Auto-detect" button to automatically choose recommended settings for your PC hardware.

You can increase the resolution limits as desired (higher res = smaller in-game UI).If you have AMD or Intel graphics, make sure you check their associated fixes. The "AMD Radeon HD 7000" fix also applies to the latest RX 7000 series, but won't be auto-detected until a future update.I recommend also checking "Disable Dirty Rectangle optimizations" if it didn't auto-detect it. It prevents objects from flickering and going invisible when you move the camera, and adds depth buffer support for ReShade.When you're done, you can click "Save Files..."

Make sure you click YES here to add your graphics card to the game's database.

If you'll be using The Sims 2 Body Shop, select it from the "Game:" dropdown as well and repeat the same process.If the files all saved successfully, you can close out GRM and return to the installer.


If you chose to install DXVK, a message box will now pop up - take note of the result and move on to the DXVK Setup section.

If you didn't get the Vulkan text box, move on to finalizing the setup with Sims2RPC.

• DXVK Setup
• Final Setup

DXVK

When installing DXVK through the Web Installer, you should have gotten a pop-up testing your PC's Vulkan capability.

Take note of the result. When you press OK, you should get another prompt.If the Vulkan-Test text box said "Successfully created a Vulkan instance," press "YES" to install DXVK. If it said otherwise, press "NO" and move on to Final Setup.You can also download DXVK separate from the installer via the DXVK GitHub, and install by extracting the 32-bit version of d3d9.dll into "The Sims 2 Starter Pack\Fun with Pets\SP9\TSBin."

DXVK.conf setup

If the Vulkan test was successful, you should setup the included DXVK.conf file for best results.Go to “The Sims 2 Starter Pack\Fun with Pets\SP9\TSBin." Find "dxvk.conf" and then right click > open with > Notepad.Press Control+F to search for a certain value. Type in "d3d9.maxAvailableMemory" and press Find.

Delete the "# " before "d3d9" to un-comment the highlighted line and allow it to be read by DXVK.Then change the 2048 or whatever number is there to match your "Force Texture Memory" number from Graphics Rules Maker. (If you need to open it again, you can use the Start menu or find its folder under The Sims 2 Starter Pack).Now you can save the file back to dxvk.conf. Make sure you save it as "all files" so it isn't turned into a .txt document.If it doesn't allow you to save over the file due to being in Program Files, try moving the file to the desktop while you make your changes, then moving it back afterwards.Now move on to Final Setup:

Finalizing Setup

When you reach the end of the installer, you can leave the box checked to configure Sims2RPC Settings.Shortcuts will be made for Sims2RPC, Lazy Duchess's launcher used to run the game, on the desktop and in the start menu.

I recommend leaving the advanced settings alone. The rest in the General, Screenshots, and Graphics settings are up to personal preference.On the Graphics tab, Sim/Object shadows and lot view reflections are basically a free upgrade. I would NOT advise putting lot imposters above "optimized" though, as it may result in pink flashing and crashing.

Then you can save the settings and test the game out!

Custom Content Dialog

When you first launch the game, you're most likely going to get the custom content dialog, as shown below. This is not an error or bug, it's simply letting you know there is custom content present in the game (in our case, it's CEP, one of the included fixes, which allows for custom recolors of Maxis items.)

If it is not enabled, click "Enable Custom Content" at the bottom and restart the game.
You can disable the pop-up from showing every time you boot the game by going to the game options once you reach a neighborhood.

Notes:

If you get a DirectX 9 error when running the game despite doing the Graphics Setup, set the Window Mode in Sims2RPCSettings to Borderless or Windowed and try again. Or, if you installed DXVK and that didn't help, try deleting "d3d9.dll" from TSBin. (Right click on The Sims 2 shortcut and choose Open File location to get there, or go to "The Sims 2 Starter Pack\Fun with Pets\SP9\TSBin.")If your camera jitters when you turn it in-game, come back to Sims2RPCSettings and turn off the "smooth camera rotation" option.

Custom Content & Modding

In TS2, custom content goes to the game's "Downloads" folder (distinct from your personal Downloads folder). It is located at "Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection\Downloads."CC and mods that come in .package format will almost always go here, unless their instructions say otherwise. (For example, some special mods require installing in the Program Files/"Starter Pack" folder).Downloads that come compressed (in .zip, rar, 7z, etc.) will need to be extracted in order to get the raw .package files that the game can read. Placing a zipped file in Downloads won't do anything.Best practice is to make a subfolder in the root Downloads folder for each type of CC you're adding, such as "BuyMode_Comfort," "Hair_AdultMale," etc. It's also good to keep default replacements and game-altering mods in their own separate folders.Tips:

Default Replacements

Default replacements, as the name suggests, are custom content used to replace existing items in-game such as clothing, hairs, and objects.
You can only have ONE default at a time for any given item. Therefore, it's a good idea to keep track of which items you have replaced with a spreadsheet/document or at least folder organization. This helps in case you want to remove or update them and to prevent duplicates.

Compressorizing

The Compressorizer can be used to internally compress .package files your Downloads folder, shaving off file size from your custom content but still allowing the game to read it.

Merging CC

If you have large amounts of CC, you can use the CCMerger by Lazy Duchess to combine related files which may help the game load or run more smoothly.After merging you can remove or backup the original files.Items that should NOT be merged:
- Fences/doors/windows/etc.
- Game-altering mods
- Sliders
- Face templates
- Default replacements

ReShade

ReShade is a popular post-processing injector that allows you to add new shaders to games. Using these steps, you can get ReShade to work with TS2.

PRIOR SETUP:

Before using ReShade, make sure "Disable Dirty Rectangle optimizations" is checked in GRM to support effects that require depth buffer access. (Remember to open GRM as Admin and "Save Files" when you're done.)After these steps, your depth buffer addons in ReShade should work properly.Note that past guides may advise turning off Smooth Edges, but this is not necessary anymore. Since ReShade 6 depth buffers now support anti-aliasing, so you can leave it on "More." (If you still have a prior version, you’ll need to update ReShade to do this.) Turning off reflections is also not necessary, you just need to choose the correct depth buffer which is the MSAA one.

INSTALLING RESHADE:

Method 1 - Sims2RPC Injection
This method requires Sims2RPC and uses the DirectX version of ReShade.
This method is not compatible with DXVK (d3d9.dll in TSBin) installed. If you already have DXVK, try the second method first.1. Open the latest ReShade installer (with full add-on support) from https://reshade.me.
2. Click Browse and navigate to your Sims 2 Folder (usually in "C:\Program Files (x86)"), then to Fun with Pets > SP9 > TSBin. Choose "Sims2EP9RPC.exe" and click next.
3. Select "Microsoft DirectX 10/11/12" from the list of Graphics APIs. On the next page, you can press "skip" unless you already have a preset to use.
4. Select the shader packs you want to install. For best compatibility with presets, you may want to install most of them. After this, ReShade Setup should be completed successfully.
5. Go to Fun with Pets\SP9\TSBin and find the newly created "dxgi.dll," then rename it to "reshade.asi" and confirm the file extension change. Lastly, drag it into the "mods'' folder from Sims2RPC. (If you can’t see the file extensions, check the view settings in the File Explorer to make sure they aren’t hidden.)When you launch the game using RPC, ReShade should take effect.If you get graphics errors or crashes\issues, remove Reshade.asi try the other method instead.Method 2 - DXVK/Vulkan
Uses the Vulkan version of ReShade which requires installing DXVK.1. Open the latest ReShade installer (with full add-on support) from https://reshade.me.
2. Click Browse and navigate to your Sims 2 Folder (usually in "C:\Program Files (x86)"), then to Fun with Pets > SP9 > TSBin. Choose "Sims2EP9RPC.exe" and click next.
3. Select "Vulkan" from the list of Graphics APIs. On the next page, you can press "skip" unless you already have a preset to use.
4. Select the shader packs you want to install. For best compatibility with presets, you may want to install most of them. After this, ReShade Setup should be completed successfully.When you launch the game with DXVK installed, ReShade should take effect.If you get graphics errors or issues, remove DXVK and try the other method instead.