Key points
- Large modding community.
- All Origin versions get a free upgrade to The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection (contact EA Support for non-Origin versions).[1]
- Although it shipped originally with SecuROM, The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection was updated in November 2017 and no longer uses SecuROM.[2] However, it; along with all other digital releases of the game - were already pulled in August 2014.
- The disc version may not run properly on Windows 10 due to issues with SafeDisc and/or SecuROM.[3]
General information
- Official Website (archived)
- The Sims 2 Official Forums
- EA Answer HQ
- EA Answer HQ (OS X)
- The Sims Wikia
Availability
- SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows Vista and later (see above for affected versions).
- The Windows version is no longer sold digitally.
- All Origin versions are automatically upgraded to The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection. Contact the EA Support for retail versions.[1]
- The Ultimate Collection from Origin no longer has SecuROM DRM.[2]
Version differences
- List of all different versions and regions can be found on Wikipedia.
DLC and expansion packs
Name |
Notes |
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Apartment Life |
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Bon Voyage |
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Celebration! Stuff |
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Family Fun Stuff |
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Freetime |
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Glamour Life Stuff |
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H&M Fashion Stuff |
Also known as Fashion Stuff in Australia |
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Happy Holiday Stuff |
Also known as Festive Holiday Stuff in Europe |
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Happy Holiday Pack |
Also known as Christmas Party Pack in the UK and Ireland and Holiday Party Pack in Australia |
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IKEA Home Stuff |
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Kitchen & Bath Interior Design Stuff |
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Mansion & Garden Stuff |
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Nightlife |
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Open for Business |
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Pets |
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Seasons |
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Teen Style Stuff |
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University |
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Essential improvements
In-game camera and game recording settings.
Patches
- Retail versions of the base game, expansions, and the Family Fun Stuff pack require patching after installation. The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection on Origin is already patched.
- Although the game's patch site has now gone down, many expansion pack patches are available from the PCGamingWiki filespace.
- The patch notes can be found here here
Skip intro videos
Delete or rename video files[6]
|
- Go to
<path-to-game>\TSData\Res\Movies\ealogo_audio.movie (base game)
- Go to
<path-to-game>\Fun with Pets\SP9\TSData\Res\Movies\ealogo_audio.movie (Ultimate Collection)
- Go to
<path-to-game>\Double Deluxe\Base\TSData\Res\Movies\intro_eng_audio.movie (Ultimate Collection)
- Delete or rename all instances of
intro_eng_audio.movie and ealogo_audio.movie
|
Improved view distances
Remove fog[7]
|
- Open cheat console with Ctrl+⇧ Shift+C.
- Type
boolprop dontMergeNHFlora false and uintProp lotSkirtSizeIncrease 120
- You can load the cheats whenever you start the game by placing them in the configuration file
|
Game data
In-game general settings.
Configuration file(s) location
-
<path-to-game>
changes according to what expansions you have installed. For example, if you have Ultimate Collection or all expansions path would be ...\Fun with Pets\SP9\...
Save game data location
System |
Location |
Windows |
%USERPROFILE%\Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2
or %USERPROFILE%\Documents\EA Games\The Sims™ 2 Ultimate Collection |
macOS (OS X) |
|
System |
Native |
Notes |
Origin |
|
Ultimate Collection now requires Origin running to play. |
Video settings
In-game graphics settings.
Template:Video settings
- Fixes common issues like graphics settings being disabled or not getting applied on newer GPUs, and black square Sim shadows. Adds widescreen support.
Download Graphics Rule Maker[citation needed]
|
- Go here and download and install Graphics Rules Maker
- Open the program and select
The Sims 2 in the Game dropdown menu. If it doesn't automatically find the game, browse to your latest installed expansion/stuff pack
- Modify the settings under Game Tweaks in order to fix what you want.
- Press
Save Files... and click Yes in the window that appears
- If despite using the tool you still can not run above 800x600 resolution, or the game is locked to 4:3 aspect ratio, see 800x600 resolution fix
- If you intend on using the Sim Shadow Fix described in the Black Square Shadows section of this article, don't enable
Enable Sim Shadows on Graphics Rule Maker or it won't work.
|
- Each of the game's cameras can have their FOV set independently using the fov parameter in their Camera Settings files, which are contained in
%USERPROFILE%\Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Cameras
- If your "Edge Smoothing" slider is greyed out in-game, then it's likely that the game cannot determine how much VRAM your GPU has and is defaulting to its failsafe of 32 MB.
Raise amount of fallback value[citation needed]
|
- Navigate to the configuration file location.
- Open
Graphics Rules.sgr .
- Find the following section:
if (not $useSoftwareRasterizer)
# failed to obtain device texture memory size, force to 32 MB
if ($textureMemory = 0)
seti textureMemory 32
endif
and change seti textureMemory to the value of your GPU's VRAM in megabytes.
Notes
- This makes game use your VRAM amount as fallback value. Do not put value higher than actual VRAM amount is!
|
Input settings
Template:Input settings
Audio settings
- Alt-tabbing may not work properly during the game's loading screens.
Template:Audio settings
Localizations
Language |
UI |
Audio |
Sub |
Notes |
English |
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Czech |
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Danish |
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Dutch |
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Finnish |
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French |
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German |
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Greek |
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Hebrew |
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Hungarian |
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Italian |
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Japanese |
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Korean |
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Norwegian |
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Polish |
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Portuguese |
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Brazilian Portuguese |
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Russian |
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Spanish |
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Swedish |
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Thai |
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Traditional Chinese |
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Simplified Chinese |
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Issues fixed
Vista/7 Compatibility
- The Sims 2 is compatible with newer versions of Windows, however the original release of the game has issues, and will show an error message when loaded.
- Patching the game or installing the expansion packs will correct this.
Game stuck in 800x600 resolution, or 4:3 aspect ratio
Force fullscreen windowed mode+texture memory[citation needed]
|
- Download & Install Graphics Rules Maker.
- In Graphics Rules Maker, set the 'Force texture memory' to
4000 Mb (if your game crashes, try lowering this value).
- Change 'Default resolution:' and 'Maximum resolution:' to your desired resolution.
- Click 'Save Files...'
- Right click the desktop shortcut to Sims 2 and open the properties
- Add
-w to the end of the target path.
- The game will open windowed, change the resolution in-game to your desired resolution.
- Use a borderless fullscreen tool to make the game fullscreen.
|
Stuck Sims/Poorly Placed Objects/Frozen Objects
- Periodically, a sim may become trapped or a special object may be placed in a bad location, preventing a sim from doing anything. In other cases, a normal object may be improperly tagged as "in use" and cannot be moved, sold, or manipulated.
- Use this cheat carefully. Some objects like the mail box cannot be replaced once deleted.
Use "moveobjects" cheat code[citation needed]
|
- Open cheat console with Ctrl+⇧ Shift+C.
- Type
moveobjects on and enter buy mode.
- Move the object to another location.
- Restore game back to normal with
moveobjects off
|
Black Square Shadows
Use custom config file[citation needed]
|
- Go to the configuration file location
- Make backup of
Graphics Rules.sgr and paste content provided here
Notes
- This method may allow setting shadows to high but don't fix the problem (making the shadows work correctly just make it dissapear as disabling it to render in the options...)
|
Download Sim Shadow Fix(Square Shadow Fix)[citation needed]
|
- Go here and download the file that suits your preferences (0.2 shadows are more opaque, 0.4 more transparent and 0.3 are in between).
- Extract the .package file inside the zip file you downloaded to
%USERPROFILE%\Documents\EA Games\The Sims™ 2 Ultimate Collection\Downloads\
- If you're using an Intel HD Graphics card, the author recommends downloading the
xReallyNotMisty versions of the fix.
|
Neighbourhoods inaccessible in Ultimate Collection
Remove ™ in registry key[citation needed]
|
- Go to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\
- Find the EA GAMES folder and open The Sims 2. Change the Display Name, Deleting the ™ out.
- Before the entry should look like this : The Sims 2™ Ultimate Collection
- After it should say: The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection
|
Issues on newer CPUS
- The Sims 2 was made before the release of multi-core CPUs. It may have issues at the startup loading screen on newer CPUs with multiple cores and Hyperthreading. Try following if The Sims 2 does not progress in loading at startup.
Set affinity[citation needed]
|
- Run the game.
- Open Task Manager, and right-click the game's process. Click "Go to details".
- Right-click The Sims 2's process under details and click Set Affinity.
- Untick all CPUs except CPU 0.
Notes
- Setting is not saved and needs to be repeated after startup whenever necessary.
- With the Ultimate Collection or any installation with many Stuff and Expansion packs, the initial loading screen will always take some time due to the amount of content included.
|
"More..." button does not work in conversations
This issue is caused by using a mouse when playing on a laptop with a touchpad. It is solved by either:
- Disabling the touchpad whilst playing The Sims 2, if possible.
- Using the touchpad to play instead of a mouse.
If playing on a PC Desktop it is solved by:
- Pressing tab when selecting options in the pie menu
Low quality neighborhood terrain
Enable high quality neighborhood terrain
|
- Navigate to the configuration file location.
- Open
Graphics Rules.sgr .
- Find the following section:
boolProp simpleTerrain true
and change true to false .
|
Other information
API
Executable |
32-bit |
64-bit |
Notes |
Windows |
|
|
|
macOS (OS X) | |
|
|
Mods
- The Sims 2 attracted a large modding community, allowing further customization features. Unfortunately, even properly designed mods could increase the chances of crashes and errors in the game. Mods have a major impact on loading time and stability, and should be used with discretion if you are having issues with the game.
Official Tools
- These tools created by Maxis and formerly hosted on the games official website.
- BodyShop (Demo) - This will allow you to create custom sims, hair and clothes
- The Sims 2 and the BodyShop Demo should not be installed on the same machine at the same time. Existing save games may corrupt and other issues may arise
System requirements
Windows |
|
Minimum |
Recommended |
Operating system (OS) |
98SE, ME, 2000 |
XP, Vista, 7 |
Processor (CPU) |
800 MHz
| 2.4 GHz |
System memory (RAM) |
256 MB |
1 GB |
Hard disk drive (HDD) |
3.5 GB |
15 GB (with all DLC installed) |
Video card (GPU) |
ATI Radeon 7200 Nvidia GeForce2 Series 32 MB of VRAM DirectX 9 compatible
| ATI Radeon 9600 Nvidia GeForce 6 series 64 MB of VRAM |
- When the Seasons (or Later) Expansion Pack is installed, T&L incompatible graphics chips can be used;[8] however it requires a Minimum CPU speed of 2.4 GHz.
macOS (OS X) |
|
Minimum |
Operating system (OS) |
10.3.8 |
Processor (CPU) |
1.2 GHz PowerPC G4/G5 |
System memory (RAM) |
|
Hard disk drive (HDD) |
3 GB |
Video card (GPU) |
ATI Radeon 9000 Nvidia GeForce FX5200 32 MB of VRAM |
Notes
- ↑ SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows 10[4] or Windows 11 and is disabled by default on Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 when the KB3086255 update is installed.[5]
- ↑ When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below
%PROGRAMFILES%
, %PROGRAMDATA%
, or %WINDIR%
might be redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore
on Windows Vista and later (more details).
References