How to get your Mods & CC to Work with Ambitions (Running from MyDocs)

Date Posted: 6th Jul 2010 at 11:53 PM

So as you have probably read on numerous forums.. EA has added a new feature to the game that actually recognizes mods. This means for those of you who played TS2, the mods folder is going back old school lol The mods for TS3 are now going to be running in the MyDocuments folder like before Take a look at the following instructions to make sure that your game is set-up properly for Ambitions and your mods..

1. This first step is completely optional. You can delete the d3dx9_31.dll out of any directory that you have placed it in (TS3, WA and HELS) I chose to do this since the new set-up for mods does not require a framework setup.

2. Make sure that all of your mods are compatible with the latest patch and EP. Most creators are working tirelessly to get all of their mods updated and posted for everyone to use. Once you have downloaded all of the updated mods, you can create your new mods folder.

3. The new mods folder is going to be located in: C:/Documents and Settings/YourComputer/My Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3. So when you add your new mods folder you should have C:/Documents and Settings/YourComputer/My Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3/Mods/Packages. I simply copied and pasted my mods folder that was already created from HELS into the new directory in MyDocuments.

4. You will then need to download or update your Resource.cfg file. I have attached an updated version at the bottom of this post. As for those of you who want to update it yourselves, here is what the Resource.cfg file needs to look like:

Priority 500
PackedFile Packages/*.package
PackedFile Packages/*/*.package
PackedFile Packages/*/*/*.package
PackedFile Packages/*/*/*/*.package
PackedFile Packages/*/*/*/*/*.package
PackedFile Packages/*/*/*/*/*/*.package

5. After you have updated the .cfg file, place it in C:/Documents and Settings/YourComputer/My Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3/Mods. Make sure you don't put it in the Packages folder or your mods will not work.

Congrats! That's it! You're game should be successfully recognizing your new mods folder! Happy Simming!

---------------------------------
**This new mods folder functions just as the old mods folder did in TS3, WA and HELS. Put all of your CC into your new mods folder and everything should show up I know some people were having problems with .dbc files that were created because the new Resource.cfg file does not support them. I did however find another way to setup your Resource.cfg file if you HAVE to have your .dbc files in your mods folder. You will need to edit this yourself because the attached Resource.cfg file is not set up for .dbc files.

Priority 500
PackedFile Packages/*.dbc
PackedFile Packages/*/*.dbc
PackedFile Packages/*.package
PackedFile Packages/*/*.package
PackedFile Packages/*/*/*.package
PackedFile Packages/*/*/*/*.package
PackedFile Packages/*/*/*/*/*.package
PackedFile Packages/*/*/*/*/*/*.package
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How to Get Your Mods and CC Working UP TO High-End Loft Stuff (HELS)

Date Posted: 27th Feb 2010 at 8:14 AM

I was nervous to update my game to version 3.0 because of all the horror stories of every other update EA brings out trying to block third party sims3packs and breaking their own launcher. With that said, I gave in and installed the SP pack an hour or so ago. I am happy to announce that everything went smoothly and all mods are working correctly.

Before I installed HELS, I took out my mods folder and my resource.cfg files to make sure that everything installed correctly.

!!IF you are running framework, I noticed that having my framework (the resource.cfg and the d3dx9_31.dll files) in ALL three directories is making the game run smoothly (this does not include the mods folder).

I then moved my Mods folder from C:/Program Files/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3 World Adventures to C:/Program Files/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3 High-End Loft Stuff and my game is actually loading FASTER then it was before. That's always a plus!

So like I said, this worked for me and my game is running smoothly with no lag. blinking lots, etc. I am now running version 3.0

Hope this helps!
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How to Check to See If Existing Mods Work With a New Patch, EP/SP

Date Posted: 27th Feb 2010 at 8:12 AM

So I've always wanted to know how people check to see if their mods work with new patches, EP's or SP's. I was talking to TFM, and she had some VERY useful information. She then pointed me in the correct direction where I could find a program to help me go through my mods to make sure they are compatible with any changes that EA makes. I decided to take her advice, and write a tutorial for anyone else that wants to learn

You don't have to know how to mod to do this. Even if you have some mods that you are unsure if they are compatible and the creator is hard to get a hold of, you can now do it yourself

What you will need:
S3PE: http://sourceforge.net/projects/sim...e/1001-03-1524/
WinMerge: http://winmerge.org/downloads/

Directions
1. First you want to install the programs that are linked above.
2. Open S3PE
3. Click File --> New
4. Click Resource --> Import --> From Package
5. Navigate through your computer and find the mod that you want to check (your mod should be in C:/Program Files/Electronic Arts/Whatever EP or SP you have/Mods/Packages
6. Once you have found the mod, select it and click 'Import'
7. You will now see you mod show up in the box. It will most likely have _XML and _ITUN files. There can be anywhere from 1 file to many files, don't panic! The more files you see, the more work it is to check the mod but you do the same steps for each file.
8. Click on the first file you see.. when you do this, you should see a bunch of coding pop up on the right hand side.
9. On the bottom of the window, you will see: Hex, Value, Grid, Display (with two boxes, mine are always ticked), and the word 'External'. Next to external, there is a button called 'edit'. Click on that button.
10. You now will see another window pop up. This window should open in Windows Notepad.
11. In Windows Notepad, where you see all of the coding, click File --> Save --> and now name the file and save it somewhere you can find it. For example, we will name our file WA1. It is important that with each file you are saving, add a number at the end. If you see 3 files, name the files WA1, WA2 and WA3.
12. Continue to do this until you have gone through all of the files that you see in that window.
13. Now, after you have completed everything above, leave S3PE open with all the files you opened.
14. Open S3PE again, so you now have two windows open.
15. Now you need to navigate to your most recent EP or SP that you are checking to see if the mod you have is compatible with. Since the mod in the example is from WA, we are checking to see if it is compatible with HELS. Click on File --> New. Once this is open, again, click on Resource --> Import --> Package
16. Like stated above, navigate to your most recent EP/SP, we are going to use C:/Program Files/Electronic Arts/The Sims High End Loft Stuff/Game/Bin/Gameplay --> chose the GameplayData.package inside.
17. On the bottom of the window, where I said I keep my boxes ticked (the name and tags boxes), you will be able to see the name of the files on the right.

This is where it might get a little confusing, so please follow the directions carefully:
18. The easiest way to do this, is click on the 'instance' button at the top in S3PE so the files are in numerical order. So, you now have two windows open. In the first window that you saved all of your text files from, you have to find the matching files from the gameplay.package that you just opened. Again, the easiest way to do this is to look for the instance number is window 1 and find it in window 2.
19. After you have found the matching file, you are going to do what you did before with the other files. Look at the bottom of the window, and click 'edit' in S3PE.
20. You will again have a window pop up in Window Notepad. Click File --> Save --> and now save this file in the same location as the other, but leave the number the same. ex. HELS1, HELS2 and HELS3 (there is a reason for this, it will be explained later)
21. Once you do this for all the files, you are ready to move on.

Open WinMerge
1. Click File --> Open
2. A box will pop up will locations that say left and right. (I personally open my existing file on the left and the file I'm comparing it too on the right)
3. So, you would put WA1 in the first box and HELS1 in the second box and click 'OK'
4. You will have both files now side by side. On the left, under 'location pane', if you see any gold, you need to click on it and examine the differences. If the code is totally different, the mod is most likely incompatible. If the coding is the SAME, just the numbers are different, then the mod is compatible. The reason why the numbers are different is because you downloaded that mod to change something in your game to your liking. The numbers that you see on the right, are EA's default numbers. Make sure that you are cautious if the mod you are checking against the new gameplaydata.package has for example 24.0 instead of 24. This may result in problems.
5. Do this to all the text files that you have created

If you don't see any coding differences (except numbers).. then..

CONGRATULATIONS! YOU DID IT!
You just checked your first mod for compatibility!

Feel Free to post questions! I tried to write this tutorial step-by-step without making it confusing. If there are some parts that are hard to understand, please let me know! I can change the wording and help explain it more in-depth for you

Good luck!
Comments 1
Method to Fix Random Desltop Crashing

Date Posted: 24th Feb 2010 at 1:44 AM

So I have been experiencing some problems with my game crashing lately. It is sooo frustrating to have played for an hour or so and your game will randomly close, and you lose everything.

Here is an option that MANY people have set has cured their game from the random CTD errors. From reading the forums, it seems that you should only follow this method if you are familiar with the computer, since you are making changes to your DEP.

This is a tutorial of information that has been combined into one place from http://forums.modthesims.info/showt...43&goto=newpost and http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/133747.page.

For Windows XP Users:
1. Click Start, Settings, Control panel and run System.
2. Click 'Advance tab' and click on the 'Settings' button for Performance.
3. Click the TAB for Data execution prevention and click the option to (Turn on DEP for all programs and services except those I select
4. Add TS3.EXE to the list.
5. Save it and reboot.

For Windows Vista & Windows 7 Users:
1. Click Start, Control Panel then double click System.
2. Click 'Advance System Settings' on the left.
3. Click 'Advanced' tab.
4. Click the Settings button in the Performance section.
5. Click the Data Execution Prevention tab.
6. Click the option to: Turn on DEP for all programs and services except those I select.
7. Add TS3.exe to the list.
8. Click Ok then reboot.

** I use the 3booter and the FPS_Limiter. I chose to add this to my list, including TS3SP01.exe, since this is how I run my game. So far, I have had no complications and everything is running smoothly

** I AM NOT responsible if something goes wrong with your computer. This is just an option you can try to see if you can alleviate the random crashing to your desktop bug. If you follow the second link above, it is from the official TS3 website forum. This has been successfully executed by many members of the community. Good luck!

Feel free to post questions or feedback if this method helped your game!
Comments 0
Step-by-Step Tutorial to Install Framework for Mods

Date Posted: 24th Feb 2010 at 1:43 AM

Delphy has a tool out that installs your framework so your core mod will work. Now this program is still in testing, so if something goes wrong I don’t know what to tell you. I added my entire framework myself so I'm not sure. I would suggest using this program if you don't really understand the computer The link is: http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=384014

The reason why you have to have framework installed is because this is what is needed to run a core mod. You can only have one core mod in your game or you can have conflict problems (I already made that mistake lol)

To install the Framework manually, follow these instructions.

1. Download the framework .zip: http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/t...e/framework.zip
2. Extract the files and find the d3dx9_31.dll
3. Go to C:/Program Files/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3/Game/Bin and paste d3dx9_31.dll into that file.
4. Go to C:/Program Files/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3 World Adventures/Game/Bin and paste the d3dx9_31.dll again into that file (If you have WA)
5. Then get the Resource.cfg file from the framework zip and open it in notepad.
6. Copy and paste this into the resource.cfg file that you opened in notepad. It should read:

Priority 500
DirectoryFiles Mods/Packages/... autoupdate
PackedFile Mods/Packages/*.package
PackedFile Mods/Packages/*/*.package
PackedFile Mods/Packages/*/*/*.package
PackedFile Mods/Packages/*/*/*/*.package
PackedFile Mods/Packages/*/*/*/*/*.package
PackedFile Mods/Packages/*.dbc
PackedFile Mods/Packages/*/*.dbc

7. Save the file.
8. Put this file (resource.cfg that you just edited) into C:/Program Files/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3/ or C:/Program Files/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3 World Adventures (depending on what you have installed. only place it in one directory.
9. Now again, depending on what game you are running, open C:/Program Files/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3/ or C:/Program Files/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3 World Adventures.
10. Create a folder named Mods and inside the Mods folder, create another folder named Packages.
11. Download your core mod and unzip to your desktop or where ever you want, just know where it is.
12. You can then move your core mod.package file into the folder you created in C:/Program Files/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3/Mods/Packages or C:/Program Files/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3 World Adventures/Mods/Packages. You can also make a subfolder and name it whatever core mod you are using, whichever you prefer. I'm a total neat freak and like to have everything organized so I have sub folders for my mods and core mods.
** So in my game I have it as: C:/Program Files/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3 World Adventures/Mods/Packages/CoreMod
13. After all this is completed, you’re finished! Congrats!

:EDIT: I know some people are wondering why they add the .dbc text into their resource file that is posted above. This is because you can then run your .dbc files from your mods/packages folder. The .dbc files are located in C:/My Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3/DCCache folder. Also, if you read my other tutorial that is posted, merging package files to increase performace, you can combine your own files to make .dbc files to run from your mods/packages folder Smiley

If you have any questions or problems, PLEASE feel free to ask! Smiley

~ºHappy Simmingº~
*Rainbow_Brite* (RB)
Comments 0
Merging Mods/Package Files to Increase Performance and Reduce Lag

Date Posted: 24th Feb 2010 at 1:40 AM

People seem to be having a lot of problems with multiple .package files, especially in WA. After hours of reading forum after forum, I came across a solution that worked beautifully. The problem with Sims 3 is that it doesn't like to load a lot of single .package files at once. When you add CC through the EA launcher, it creates files called .dbc files. Every time you add more CC it continues to add to that file (these files can be found in: My Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3/DDCache) The trick to get your game to load numerous packages file is combining them into larger files. By doing this, the game reads your combined .package files as it does for .dbc files. For example, if you have kept your downloads organized, and you have a folder named "clothes" and there are 200 files in it, you can combine all of those files into one package file named clothes.package so all 200 files are now in 1 file (Hope that makes sense). The tutorial is VERY easy and if you have any questions, feel free to ask!

!!Credit: Anach @ MATY!!

1. Get latest test version of s3pe: http://sourceforge.net/projects/sim...e/1001-03-1524/

2. Then sort the .package files into categories. For Example: body, clothing, objects, patterns, world - 5 total. You can then use this for your basis of creating separate .package archives.

3. Open up s3pe, selected File>New.

4. From the "resource" menu of s3pe and chose EXPERIMENTAL "import as .dbc" and chose one of the categories of .package files. (If you don't have an "Import as .dbc" option, then you have the wrong version of s3pe)

5. Hit CTRL+A to select all the .package files in the import dialogue box.

6. After the import is complete, You can click on words "instance" and all files with an instance of "0x0000000000000000" , click delete. If you have done this successfully, the file will be stricken. The reason why you delete these files are because they seem to be manifest files that appear to be leftovers from the sims3pack versions of the file and don't seem to be required by the game, but will be a main source of conflicts.

7. After making any changes, chose "Save" and saved the file as a .package (not save as, just click save and it will give you an option to name the file, nothing is overwritten).

8. As a cautionary procedure, every new merged package should be run through delphy's bluelotfixer to make sure the new package is readable and fix any possible mod issues at the same time (you can also do this BEFORE you merge the packages). Get Delphy's bluelotfixer here: http://www.modyourpanties.com/hosti...lueLotFixer.rar

*note* Before merging new untested mods into your package files, I would suggest first trying every new mod in-game via a probation folder within your mods folder. It's worthwhile testing every mod you install using process monitor and available modding tools.

If you are wanting to extract and repack .sims3pack (official or otherwise), then you will need this Delphy's sims3pack multi-extractor. You can get that here: http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=364038

Rainbow_Brite: I had well over 1,000 CC .package files and 48 separate mods, including AwesomeMod and after adding all my CC files into 8 single .package files and my mods into 5 single .package files my game loads in 2 min and 30 sec.

Hope this helps! Feel free to post and ask questions!
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