Sims 2 Tutorial: Setting up the Game for Modern PCs

*Note these instructions are for those with the Ultimate Collection via Origin. These tips will still work but you'll need to find out where you game is installed first and navigate there instead of the directiories in this guide. This guide is not required for the Sims 2 Legacy Edition.

4GB Patch

• The Sims 2 only uses 2GB RAM as it's an older game, you can install a patch to increase this to 4GB. Download the 4GB Patch , extract file, double click on it and locate you sims 2.exe file, normally located at: C:/Program Files (x86)/Origin Games/The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection/Fun with Pets/SP9/TSBin and then click "open". You will get a confirmation dialogue box pop up when the patch is applied that says "executable successfully patched!" you can then click ok.

• Once done, run the game and load a neighbourhood then close again. Then open up your config log (found as shown below) in notepad:
  

• Open this file in notepad, and check what it says under memory and free memory and if the 4GB patch applied correctly it will say 4096MB for both.
  

Graphics Rules Maker

• Download the Graphic Rules Maker* , install the programme and run it. This programme will update the graphic rules files for your Sims 2 game and allow it to recognise modern graphics cards, run on modern resolutions and get the game looking much better. Once you run the programme, your game should have been found but you can click browse to navigate to where you game is installed which is usually: C:/Program Files (x86)/Origin Games/The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection/Fun with Pets/SP9/TSBin

• Click "auto-detect" to get the programme to estimate the best settings for you. You can also read the information and follow the instructions on the website to edit things specifically for your set up if you wish to.
  

• TIP: For my game I ignored the auto-detect setting for "force texture memory" and set it to force texture memory to the same as my display memory (VRAM) which can be found under "display 1" when you run DxDiag on your PC (type DxDiag in the search menu of your PC and run this programme, then click the tab Display 1).

• Check your video card is found in the database, if not you should have have a pop-up to add it to the database when you click "save files".
  

Increasing in Game Resolution, Smooth Edges and More

• Graphics Fix Guide - you can find the instructions of how to increase the screen resolution to 1920x1080 and enable smooth edges here. Note: I ignore the playing in windows mode section and play in borderless mode using Lazy Duchess’s RPC Launcher which is optional (see below). In Summary,

  • Navigate to a file called graphicrules.sgr located usually in: C:/Program Files (x86)/Origin Games/The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection/Fun with Pets/SP9/TSData/Res/Config and open it in notepad.

  • Hit CTRL+F on your keyboard and search for  option ScreenModeResolution and under settings $Low, change maxresWidth and maxResHeight to the current resolution to 1920×1080 (or the resolution of your monitor).

  • Hit CTRL+F again and search for enumerateMultisampleLevels and wherever it says false next to it, correct it with true. There are multiple lines with the enumerateMultisampleLevels so going down the search list and changing to true until there are no more results.

Still Having Issues?

• For regular crashing, check your standby memory, see if there is an issue and fix it by watching this youtube video by The Jessa Channel.

• Check this post make sure you read it all before starting as there are hidden tips throughout even in the troubleshooting section and some important pre-checks to make before going ahead to ensure your PC is compatible. FYI, this really helped me with crashes that resulted in ACCESS VIOLATION being stated in the crash log.

• Regularly delete the accessories.cache, groups.cache and the contents of the thumbnails folder found C:\Users\username\Documents\EA Games\The Sims™ 2 Ultimate Collection

• Pink/Purple Flashing? Turning off neighbours and decorations and reducing the view distance may help as your game has less to load in the background when you are playing a household/lot.

• Still Pink/Purple Flashing? Delete some of your neighbourhood decorations especially trees! If you're playing on a map with a dense population of trees then you try deleting a lot of trees (Tip: you can hold escape whilst you're on the decorations menu in neighbourhood view to remove them faster).

• Do the 50:50 method of checking your mods and cc to check there isn't something dodgy affecting your game. Also run the Hack Conflict Detector Utility (HDCU) to check for any mod conflicts.

Optional Programme

• Install the RPC Launcher by Lazy Duchess as per the instructions on the website. I have the relevant settings enabled:

  • Apply 4GB patch ticked

  • Automatically clean cache ticked

  • Smooth camera rotation ticked

  • Lot Imposters: Classic