The Sims 2

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The Sims 2

Developers
	Maxis
Publishers
	Electronic Arts
Release dates
Windows	September 14, 2004
macOS (OS X)	June 13, 2005

The Sims
Subseries of Sim
The Sims	2000
The Sims Online	2002
The Sims 2	2004
The Sims Stories (series)
MySims	2008
The Sims 3	2009
The Sims Medieval	2011
The Sims 4	2014

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).

Although it shipped originally with SecuROM, The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection was updated in November 2017 and no longer uses SecuROM. 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.

General information

Official Website (archived)

The Sims 2 Official Forums

Answer HQ for The Sims series at EA.com

Answer HQ for The Sims series at EA.com (OS X)

The Sims Wiki

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		SafeDisc v3 DRM. Later expansions use v4 or SecuROM 7 DRM.
Mac App Store		Super Collection.

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.

The Ultimate Collection from Origin no longer has SecuROM DRM.

HomeCrafter Plus

This tool will allow you to create custom floors and walls

Body Shop Demo

This tool will allow you to create custom sims, hair and clothes

The Sims 2 and the Demo should not be installed on the same machine at the same time. Existing save games may corrupt and other issues may arise

Version differences

List of all different versions and regions can be found on Wikipedia.

DLC and expansion packs

Name	Notes
Apartment Life
Bon Voyage
Celebration! Stuff
Family Fun Stuff
Freetime
Glamour Life Stuff
H&M Fashion Stuff	Also known as Fashion Stuff in Australia
Happy Holiday Stuff	Also known as Festive Holiday Stuff in Europe
Happy Holiday Pack	Also known as Christmas Party Pack in the UK and Ireland and Holiday Party Pack in Australia
IKEA Home Stuff
Kitchen & Bath Interior Design Stuff
Mansion & Garden Stuff
Nightlife
Open for Business
Pets
Seasons
Teen Style Stuff
University

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.

Skip intro videos

Delete or rename video files
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>\Fun with Pets\SP9\TSData\Res\Locale\\Movies\intro_eng_audio.movie (Ultimate Collection) Delete or rename all instances of intro_eng_audio.movie and ealogo_audio.movie

Graphics Rule Maker / Widescreen resolution

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.

Improved view distances

Remove fog
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

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\TSData\Res\Config
macOS (OS X)

<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
macOS (OS X)

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
Origin		Ultimate Collection now requires Origin running to play.

Video settings

In-game graphics settings.

Audio settings

Alt-tabbing may not work properly during the game's loading screens.

In-game audio settings.

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English				Speech is fictional language called Simlish. Speech is subtitled with generic icons.
Czech
Danish
Dutch
Finnish
French
German
Hungarian
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Norwegian
Polish
Portuguese
Brazilian Portuguese
Russian
Spanish
Swedish
Thai
Traditional Chinese

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)

System requirements

Windows

macOS (OS X)

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	15.0 GB (For all Expansion Packs)
Video card (GPU)	ATI Radeon 7200 Nvidia GeForce 2 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; 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