Post by Ashleigh825 on May 18, 2010 18:51:23 GMT -5
Getting CC and Mods to Work in Your Game
Intro
Are you frustrated because you can't figure out what the heck to do with all the custom content and mods you downloaded? Have you tried and tried to get them to work in your game, but you just can't? Are all those tutorials online way too confusing for you?
This tutorial for beginner CC and mod users will explain how to get CC and mods to work in your game in a simple-to-understand way that won't make your head explode with technical terms and computer geek jargon.
What You'll Need to Know
You'll need basic computer skills to understand this tutorial. By "basic", I mean you should be familiar with how to copy and paste files to different locations, how to navigate the Internet and download files from the Internet, how to find certain locations on your computer and how to create new folders.
If you can do that, you can follow this tutorial.
IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ!
For those of you who either own the Ambitions expansion, or have updated your game to the latest patch, you are no longer able to use the following method to install your CC and mods.
EA has changed the process for installing CC and mods. All CC and mods now go into your Documents folder under Electronic Arts > The Sims 3. Please see this tutorial at Mod The Sims for more detailed information on how to use mods and CC using this new method. If there is a lot of confusion over this tutorial, I will write a simplified version here as well, but please refer to the tutorial at MTS first before asking questions about the new method here.
I HIGHLY recommend patching your game so you can use this new method. It is a much easier, safer way to get CC and mods working in your game without harming delicate files on your computer. I honestly don't know why it took EA so long to offer decent support for mods and CC with The Sims 3.
For those of you who either can't or won't patch your game, refer to the following steps in the tutorial I've written here to get your mods and CC working in your game.
Finding CC and Mods for Your Game
There are many wonderful sites out there with excellent custom content downloads for your Sims 3 game. You can find all kinds of things from hair to clothes and makeup to furniture and more for both you and your Sims to enjoy.
Go to a Sims 3 site with downloads that you like. A very popular one is Mod The Sims. That's where I'll be downloading my example CC from.
Okay, so here I am at Mod The Sims, on their Sims 3 Downloads page.
Hmmm, that hairstyle on the right side of the page looks nice. I think I'll download that for my game. Let's click on that.
Now I'm at the download page. I know you're probably clamouring to go ahead and click that download link, but hold on a second. We haven't read the creator's comments, yet.
If there are comments from the uploader, chances are they're there for a good reason. The download may require a certain expansion or stuff pack or other item that you don't have in your game. Save yourself headaches and always take the time to read what you're downloading, first.
Okay, the creator has listed the polygon counts (the more polygons, the higher quality the hair, but it also makes the file size bigger) and credited the creators of items she used on her models. She hasn't said anything about download requirements, but just to be sure, let's click the Download tab and check MTS's game requirements. MTS has a cool feature that shows you what expansions and stuff packs you need to download a piece of CC.
Awesome! We only need the base game to use this download, so even if you don't have any stuff packs or expansion packs, you can still use the hair.
NOW we can download the hair.
Click the download and download the hair to your computer. If a dialogue box appears, asking you whether you want to open or save the file, click Save.
Installing The Framework
Okay, so now we have our CC on our computer, but we still need to put it in our game, right? Right.
Well, before any mods or CC will work in your game, you need to install the modding and CC framework to your game. No worries, this isn't as complicated as it sounds. The framework is just a file that tells the game to look there for CC and mods.
You may already have the framework files on your computer, so to check, go to Program Files\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3. If you have expansions or stuff packs, go to the folder for your most recently released pack under Electronic Arts.
Do you see a file called Resource.cfg in that folder? If yes, then awesome. That's your CC framework and you already have it in your game. If no, download it from here and pop it into that folder, then you'll have the CC framework installed.
You won't need to worry about the modding framework for our example CC download, because the hair we downloaded earlier isn't a mod, but you should still make sure you have the modding framework installed so that when you do want to install a mod in your game, it'll work.
Go to Program Files\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\Game\Bin. Again, if you have expansions or stuff packs, go to the folder for your most recently released pack under Electronic Arts, instead. Do you see a file anywhere in the Bin folder called d3dx9_31.dll?
If yes, then great. You already have your modding framework installed. If no, download it from here and pop it into that folder. Then you'll have the modding framework installed.
Alright, the framework was probably the toughest part about getting CC and mods to work in your game and you just survived that, so the rest of this tutorial is sure to be a breeze for you!
Installing your CC and Mods
Remember that hair from MTS we downloaded a while back? Now it's time to put it in your game.
Find the folder where you downloaded the hair to. This varies from computer to computer, but it's usually in your Downloads folder. If you don't know where that is, you can run a search for it.
I'll just give you a second to poke around your computer until you find the file...
Found it? Great! I found the file on my computer, too, while I was waiting.
As you can see, this file has a .rar extension at the end of it and chances are, if you click it, it won't open. Almost all custom content and mods you download will be in either .rar or .zip format.
Think of .rar and .zip files as boxes. People put big things into boxes to make them smaller, more compact, and easier to move around, right? Well, creators do the same thing with their CC and mods. They put them inside a box which are these .rar and .zip files to make them smaller and faster to download.
We all know that we can't use an item inside a box until we open the box, right? Same deal, here. We can't use the CC inside the .rar file until we open the .rar file. To open the file, we will need to extract it using WinRAR (Windows) or StuffIt (Mac).
These programs reach inside that pesky box, cut away all the duct tape and staples and superglue keeping it closed, and pull out your shiny new CC for you. WinRAR is completely free to use, though it does nag at you to buy their full version every time you open the program. I believe you need to pay for StuffIt, but I think they offer a 30 day free trial.
Now, I'm not quite sure how to use StuffIt, since I've never owned a Mac and never will. I have a deeply-rooted loathing for Apple and any product they make. I'm sure StuffIt works in a similar fashion to WinRAR, though.
Now, I'll wait for you to download and install WinRAR or StuffIt...
Got it installed? Excellent! Moving on.
Okay, so I'll guide you through how to use WinRAR to extract the CC from the .rar file. Right-click your .rar file and you'll see some new options that WinRAR added. Select "Extract Here". This will take your CC file out of the .rar file and put it in the same folder.
Now you have two new files in your folder. These files have a .package extension on the end of them. Upon closer inspection, you'll see that one file is the child hairstyle and the other is the hairstyle for teens and up.
Now that you have these .package files, you don't need the .rar file anymore. It's just the empty box and no one keeps those, right? You can delete it.
Now you're probably wondering what the heck to do with these .package files, right? Well, I'm about to show you.
Go to Program Files\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3. Again, if you have any expansions or stuff packs, go to the folder for your most recently released pack under Electronic Arts, instead.
Do you see a folder called Mods? If yes, great! If no, create a folder called Mods.
Then, create a folder called Packages inside your Mods folder.
Inside your Packages folder, you can organize your CC and mods further by creating separate folders for different kinds of CC. You can create a folder for each site you downloaded from, or you can have a folder for Game Mods, one for Clothing, another for Hair and so on. However you choose to organize your CC and mods is entirely up to you, but I highly recommend you organize them somehow, otherwise it's going to be a pain in the arse to keep track of it all and find what you need when your CC collection starts to grow.
Now, go back to where your two .package files are and copy or cut them, then paste them into the Packages folder you just created. Like I said, you can create whatever sub-folders you want under Packages for organization and put your downloads in those folders as well.
Now, fire up your Sims 3 game and you should see the hair in CAS when you go to create a Sim.
Installing .Sims3Pack Files
Sometimes, when you download CC, you won't get a .package file. Instead, you'll get a .Sims3Pack file. They look like this:
To install a .Sims3Pack file, just double-click the file and wait for your Sims 3 Launcher to open. The Launcher will then automatically install the file to your game with no extra effort needed on your part.
Simple!
Patching and Installing Expansions With CC and Mods
You just opened up your Launcher and found out that the game needs to be updated? You just got a shiny new expansion or stuff pack and can't wait to install it and start playing?
WAIT! DON'T DO ANYTHING, YET!
Before you click that Update button, or pop in that shiny new disk, go to your Mods folder where all of your CC and mods are.
Cut and paste your entire Mods folder to your Desktop. That means ALL of your CC and ALL of your mods.
Once your Mods folder has been safely removed from your game and stored on your desktop, go ahead and update your game or install your new expansion or stuff pack.
Remember that every time you install a new expansion or stuff pack, your Mods folder and the framework files need to be moved to the folder of your newest expansion. For example, let's say you had HELS and your Mods folder and framework files in your HELS folder. Then you purchased Ambitions and installed it. You need to cut and paste your Resource.cfg and d3dx9_31.dll file to your Ambitions folder, along with your Mods folder.
Just a simple cut and paste procedure. Nothing major.
After your game is all updated, run the game without your mods and CC to see if it works, then if everything looks good, shut down the game, put your Mods folder back in and restart the game again. If it crashes or otherwise becomes buggy, or some of your mods don't work, chances are, your mods are out of date and you need to update them.
I can't help you there. You'll need to go back to wherever you downloaded your mods from to see if the creator has uploaded an updated version. That's why it's crucial to organize your mods and CC. You never know when you'll need to remove or replace some of it.
One Last Note
Delphy over at MTS has a program called the TS3 Install Helper Monkey. This program installs .package files to your game automatically by adding a right-click option to your .package files called Install to The Sims 3. When you select that option, the program will automatically place the file in your Mods folder for you.
Even though I have this program on my computer (as you can tell from my screenshots, since my .package files have a monkey icon), I never use it, nor do I recommend it to others.
There's nothing really wrong with the program itself, but I just don't see why that program is necessary when it's just as easy to put the files in the right folder yourself. Plus, CC and mod users SHOULD know how to install their .package files manually as I've outlined in this tutorial, anyway. That way, they know exactly where everything is and how to organize it.
If you have Windows Vista, your security settings won't allow the Helper Monkey to access the folder anyway, so it's useless for Vista users. If you're really computer-savvy, you could change your security settings yourself, but I don't recommend doing so if you don't know what you're doing.
Still, the program exists and if you really, really, really want to use it, go for it.
