#Sims 2 Linux

[simulationprincess]

I think I’m going to bite the bullet and give Linux a try this weekend! Going to grab another internal ssd and work on setting that up. Because the pink flashing and crashing is ruining the vibes 😭. Sims 2 is quite literally the only game I play so I might as well invest lol.

I’ll update here how it goes!

[cozy-sims]

Linux update! (And a few Nvidia tips)

After a dreadful day of trying to make this work, I'm reporting that The Sims 2 finally works on my new Linux system! 😭❤️ Admittedly I have made my own life harder setting this up, but the most important thing I've learned from this experience and thought it might worth sharing:

Before you try to install TS2 on your Linux, make sure that you have your graphics card's driver updated!

When I first installed The Sims 2 on Linux it was incredibly laggy and choppy, because the default Nouveau driver didn't work well enough with my Nvidia card. After I installed the Nvidia driver from the built in driver manager, the game just straightup crashed.

Then I had to find out that Mint's driver manager couldn't install the newest driver for my card (RTX 3070), and even when installed, it didn't work. 😂

So if you have an Nvidia card and struggling or planning to install Linux in the future, below the cut are a few useful tips that I've discovered in the depths of the Internet:

Check what driver the official Nvidia site recommends for your GPU. - I did this and it showed driver version 570.

2. I think this is optional, but open your terminal and type the cmd: sudo apt update - this will trigger Linux to update its driver list.

3. Open Driver Manager, and see if the recommended driver (570 in my case is available). For me it was not available, only the 550, this was my issue.

3.1. If you can see your required driver, awesome, install it from the driver manager and skip to step 5. 3.2. If not, you have to use this PPA. -> Meaning you have to open your terminal and enter the following commands (when I list multiple commands to run, first type the first one, press enter, then type the next one, press enter etc.): sudo add-apt-repository ppa:graphics-drivers/ ppa sudo apt update You can also find installation guide on the link above, but it's basically this. 4. Now you have to restart your system, and repeat Step 3. of this list. The newest driver should show up in your Driver Manager now, install it.

5. After installing, open your terminal and type the following command: inxi -G -> this will allow us to check if the driver works properly. Shock, it did not for me :D When working properly, it should look like this:

Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.11 with: Xwayland v: 23.2.6 driver: X: loaded: nvidia gpu: nvidia,nvidia-nvswitch resolution: 1:1920x1080~60Hz 2: 1920x1080~60Hz When not working, it looks like this: Example 1: Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.11 with: Xwayland v: 23.2.6 driver: X: loaded: nouveau unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa failed: nvidia

6. This is the thread that helped me fix this problem. You have to scroll down to the Nvidia Graphics troubleshooting tips.

7. I had to add this "kernel boot parameter": nvidia_drm.fbdev=1 into the system. On this link you can see how to add it either temporarily or "permanently" (meaning you don't have to add it every time you start your system, but it is removable).

To add it permanently, you have to type the following commands into your terminal:

sudo nano /etc/default/grub GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash nvidia_drm.fbdev=1" sudo update-grub

8. After you added it, reboot your system, and when it starts again, check if the parameter is there with the command: cat /proc/cmdline

9. If it's there, run the inxi -G command again, and see if it looks like it should.

10. If not, you might have to update the Kernel version of your Linux, which you can do in the Update Manager/View/Linux Kernels menu. I had to update mine from 6.8 to 6.11.

After all this you should be good to install the game, I made my life so much harder than it was necessarily so I hope my research on how to deal with an Nvidia Graphics card with Sims 2 on Linux is helpful to some of you. 😂

[moyokeansimblr]

I'm in!

That only took what like 3 hours to get to this screen? Maybe shouldn't have chose a laptop I quit using for being slow to do my test run with because every time I signed in or shut down windows took ~15 minutes each. Had to do it a lot because first I couldn't figure out how to get into BIOS, then I couldn't figure out how to get into Boot Menu. Then I did but there was no option for my usb. Then it did but there were two and I didn't know which was which so my dad suggested I just change the boot order in BIOS. Mind you, each of these is a 20-30 min shutdown and restart. Got in BIOS again and it said the name of the usb option so I was like oh so it's that one not the other one and got too nervous to change the boot order so shutdown and restarted again to choose it from the Boot Menu. My dad has been checking on me every so often to see if I've broke anything yet (so kind) and finally it was on the Linux mint logo. Also, from said logo to that screenshot was less than a minute so maaaaaaybe I won't have 15 minute startup anymore? My dad also said he was amazed at how many people still play sims 2 and then also said sims 2 was the best sims game...despite not getting to play it since 2004 because 8 year old me hijacked the family pc the first time I played it and never let he or my mom touch it again 😅 Anyway idk if I'm gonna get to the sims 2 portion of this tonight because I'm tired but I'm totally getting somewhere here!

[felidae-sims]

Game Fuckery Help and Linux List [Update].

I'm avoiding re-installing this shit again, so in the meantime I'm sorting some stuff into lists. For Linux research purposes.

Edit: Standby Memory Allocation on Windows 10: New info coming in: That's not the issue. However, what i wrote below about TM is my own experience and has worked for me (without doing what Jessa was saying in the SB memory part, I remembered, hope I didn't waste anybody's time). Does it make sense? idk, but it's harmless, and if it's actually a thing and not just a freak coincidence, and can help anybody else then why not. I do remember trying it with and without cleaning cache :/ [for fuck sake the nerve on EA to put out for sale a new edition without improving it to 64bit]. As discussed by Jessa below, it's an OS problem. What worked for me, for some bizarre reason was to keep Task Manager on before and while playing the game. without it my game was crashing often, on my main non gaming computer. What solved it was fixing windows... for anyone's interested, the gory details are at the bottom of the post under the cut.

+ That combined with clearing cache often.

Jessa's video (Memory Allocation and 4GB Patch Repair). Edit: Turns out this video was pulled back, so basically just make sure the patch is applied?

1. Secound opinion on the whole matter by BrandiNotBroke [the whole #pink flash diaries tag is interesting]:

2. Leefish forum - Sims2 Graphic Cards:

3. @celebkiriedhel's Post (Texture Memory):

Linux:

@teaaddictyt & @niamh-sims About Linux.

2. @nonsensical-pixels about Linux.

3. @brandinotbroke, first Linux supporter I've encountered here. A comprehensive post:

Texture Memory Fuckery (Pink Soup, among other things):

Kiri's post linked at the beginning, first an foremost.

Original Post by @fireflowersims, plus; re-blog by @ovytia. Both of their tags, and comment:

2. A recap on Pink Soup/Texture Sizes by @rockethorse in the comments:

That's it for now. Any more information or good links will be welcome.

Task Manager thing briefly, for the curious (as if it interests anyone else but me, but in the interest of keeping track).

So the game was crashing often. That thing was easy to spot because the laptop would make loud airplane noises when I'd load the game. It got stuck or something, so I went to end it by force with task manager and noticed that all the resources where used to the max - right up until I'd open TM, and then everything would cool down. Like it was playing hide and seek with me. So I figured I'd get smart with it right back, and just leave TM open the whole time. Low and behold, the game stopped crashing. That combined with clearing cache often. Does it make sense? idk, but the computer works in mysterious ways.

[kalux-sims]

Last week I got rid of some clothes I never use in my game anymore, found some duplicates DDO missed, and de-bulked some bloated old packages. When I finally got to play yesterday, my game behaved noticeably better. Yay! I played a few households, not just one or two. It didn't even crash. It just got to a point where I couldn't get the graphics back, no matter what tricks I tried. It was completely invisible or white soup. But this was either the third or fourth household and I'd suspended Fedora a few times. Not too bad. Some of it might be because this was in Bluewater, and that seems to be less crashy than some subhoods. But I even played Florence (nee Delarosa) and Alexander Goth and her shop was packed AND it snowed and the game mostly handled it just fine.

This is the power of Linux. 😂 Even my enormous game is significantly more playable than it has been in ages on Windows.

[equinoxts2]

So, I reinstalled Lutris and TS2 on my Linux desktop because I was unwilling to wrestle with purple soup. Configured everything, CEP, Scriptorium, RPC, you name it. Went to recreate Kulo Sena... and got this weird terrain glitch or something that wasn’t there in the previous Lutris install. And I installed that the exact same way.

Basically, you know how the textures for the terrain, the cliffs and the beaches are all meant to be seamless tiling? Well, they are, but they appear to have been shrunk down to cover such a small space that everything looks floodfill ugly in hood view. Give me a few minutes and I’ll post comparison pics from Linux and Windows copies of the hood, with the exact same Downloads folders and everything. I am SO FRUSTRATED, you have no idea.

[maksplaygroundsims2]

Clean Installer and Fedora....

I've been trying everything to install lots with Clean Installer with my linux and for some reason I am having no luck. It seems that my lots that I'm installing aren't going to the Teleport File which then turns it to the Lot Catalog which is how it shows up in the lot bin when you start the game. I've looked on clean instsller to see where the path is leading to and it says the teleport folder but still nothing shows up there. I've set it to Lot Catalog and still, nothing shows up there either. I'm almost at the point where I want to go on my Windows boot, download a bunch of lots, open my Sims 2, create a new hood, add all the lots to the hood, and then zip up the hood,add it to media fire and then boot up fedora, and then download the hood and add it to my game quickly and put those lots in my lot bin. I REALLY don't want to have to do that, but in desperate times... I'm almost willing lol. I just want some houses to fill my PV and ST with that I'm working on.... blahhhh.

IF ANYONE KNOWS HOW TO GET THIS TO WORK, PLEASE RESPOND TO THIS POST!!

[nonsensical-pixels]

hellow, new update, for now this is gonna look a bit more like a random thoughts / gameplay simblr...

ts2 is running amazing on fedora 41 - i'm legit not getting ANY pink even with a full stress test of high lot imposters, a TON of high-poly cc, etc! LITERALLY my dream!

but, unfortunately, i haven't got simpe, milkshape, etc. to run yet. which i've been procrastinating for some time due to lack of tutorials but also laziness, i'm liking my new schedule and i can finally enjoy this game the way will wright intended 🩷

A FINAL UPDATE FOR MY PINK SOUP EXPERIMENTATION

at this point, i have tested sims 2 on the latest windows 11 on various other PCs in my house, with both AMD and NVIDIA graphics cards. there's barely any difference. i still am experiencing major crashing and pink soup issues on systems with an RTX 3060, RX 580, GTX 1660 Ti, and of course my 7900 XTX. dxvk, new drivers, literally everything great minds like @osab and @brandinotbroke and many others have suggested has done nothing.

BUT!

at their suggestion, i tried Linux. Fedora 41 as i said above.

AND ALL MY PROBLEMS HAVE GONE AWAY.

other games are now running smoothly too with 0 errors and crashing; of course i don't have access to the same apps and ease of comfort as i did on windows, but hot damn, i can play sims 2! with and without cc! again!!

i am also not the only one, funnily enough! in our tests this massive pink flashing issue seems to affect not just my PC, but many others who have both NVIDIA or AMD graphics cards. the only link we have found... is windows 11.

with Linux it just all goes away!

so tl;dr;

IF YOU ARE HAVING PINK FLASHING ISSUES ON YOUR WINDOWS 11, IT IS LIKELY NOT YOUR PC, IT IS AN ISSUE WITH THE LATEST WINDOWS UPDATE!

so do NOT go out buying yourself an RTX GPU or a new CPU, it is just NOT going to help! don't bother with trying to reinstall windows because literally it has done nothing for me.

our current theory is that something is screwed with the latest update. in directx, in texture memory allocation - literally do not know. all we know is that a different OS just - fixes it. literally and figuratively like magic.

if you're willing to learn how to install Linux and potentially a new SSD, go for it! hopefully in a few days me or someone else will have a tutorial out.

LONG LIVE LINUX!

[grilledcheese-aspiration]

mini psa:

over the summer i will be preparing to rid my life of win10 and bop over to Fedora finally. i do not want to mess w/ win10 after its no longer supported and i absolutely will not be going to win11 - ew!

theres somethings that i need to know first. do we have a collection of "how-to's":

the best and most reliable method to install sims 2 ultimate collection

reshade

simpe

steam

blender

milkshape

sims4studio

RPC launcher

compressorizor

bulk rename utility

all of these things are required to make the jump with me so i MUST find a way to get them installed and be stable - i cannot bend on this.

i am already familiar w/ lutris so is it all done via lutris or are there additional steps i need to be aware of?

i think the hardest part will be the transferring of data from win10 to Fedora. i will prob need to get my hands on an external SSD so i can transfer all the things from win10 to Fedora as smoothly as possible but that'll take some time ofc. the struggle stems from:

i already win10 as my one and only desktop, obvs since im trying to jump over to fedora, ill need to carve out some space in my storage somewhere, somehow so i can bop over to win10 as needed until im done w/ the transfer. once thats done, i can prob safely get rid of win10.

[moyokeansimblr]

I have officially had enough of playing with the lowest view distance/no neighbors except for screenshots, regularly deleting CC to try and stay under a certain amount, restarting the game approximately once every 20 minutes on larger lots/larger families, opting to not go to any community lots because I just restarted and don't want to again, etc... At this point I've tried everything. I even tried DXVK once out of curiosity and it made it worse. I'm completely unable to play the Curious family (next to play, my queue is packed) or really any family with more than like 4 sims atm without flashing and crashing off the bat and the solution should not have to be smaller lots with fewer sims and not doing certain things.

So I'm gonna hop on the Linux bandwagon, yes I saw teaaddict's video. Per the advice (more like warnings) of my tech-y dad, I'm gonna try to install it on my old laptop rather than risk messing anything up on my current one. He said he wouldn't even risk an external drive because I don't know what I'm doing (and he won't help because I guess he hates Linux) so I dug my old laptop out and plugged it in to charge overnight so fingers crossed it turns on 🤞 I'll try it tomorrow after work. Luckily my queue has like 600 posts while I figure this all out.

Dunno whether it would be better to wipe it and just have Linux or if I should dual boot off the same drive. I got everything I needed off it in 2022 so it's fine to practice on, assuming it works. I was having some issues with it as why I got a new one in the first place. We'll see I guess.

[maksplaygroundsims2]

For those who want a guide on how to get Linux so they can play The Sims 2 (mostly) without pink flashing and tons of crashes! TeaAddict made a very good guide on how she did it. I highly reccommending watching the whole thing through and making the decision if you want to make the switch or not. It's informative, and explains a lot of how to go about getting things working! Thank you so much for doing this! <3

This is a big one.

[cindysimblr]

I present to you - the first object I ever created on Linux! It's really just a town wall I made years ago resized.

[kalux-sims]

This time I got through most of a round in a crampacked household before it crashed. No invisibility though. Thirteen sims and a dog. It crashed at the start of a birthday party.

[equinoxts2]

OK, so I messed up my entire Linux system by thinking I could install TSM through Lutris again. Today I did a clean reinstall of Ubuntu, thought that would solve my problem. Reinstalled Lutris, started up just fine, but TS2 has been failing to install all afternoon. It either exits with error code 256 or the installer grinds to a halt halfway through and stays on 65% for half an hour before I get frustrated and cancel.

I got bored fussing around with it, so I’m back on my Win11 desktop trying to play TS3. Emphasis on trying, in every sense of the word. I loaded my latest BDZ save and guess what? I couldn’t have my sims interact with any of the computers on the lot! So now I have to fix that too.

Technology. It’s mocking me.

[celestialspritz]

went and tested without cc, crashes literally every time a save loads. whats going on?

alright i got it together and installed linux but as soon as i loaded up a hood the game just CTD, no error dialogue or anything

happens a lot or ?

[cora626]

Incase this is not floating around already:

Simblr.cc - Linux Tutorials: Installing ReShade on Linux

I was looking for this because I do love how ReShade makes my game look.