Sims 1 Downloads!
The Most Important Question:
Where do downloads go so that they are usable within your game?
First of all you need a tool like WinZip or WinRar to decompress the files you have downloaded to your computer.
After installation of either WinZip or WinRar, double-click the file you downloaded from this site. The archive will open and display all files within the archive. Highlight the relevant one(s) and click on the menu item "Extract". Now extract the files to the following places according to these paths:
- Walls (.wll)
- c:/ProgramFiles/Maxis/TheSims/GameData/Walls
- Floors (.flr)
- c:/ProgramFiles/Maxis/TheSims/GameData/Floors
- Objects (.iff)
- c:/ProgramFiles/Maxis/TheSims/Downloads
- Skins (.cmx, .skn & .bmp)
- c:/ProgramFiles/Maxis/TheSims/GameData/Skins
- Houses/Lots (.iff)
- c:/ProgramFiles/Maxis/TheSims/UserData#/Houses - where # is the number of the neigbourhood you'd like to place your house in. Please be careful as anything that was on that specific lot before is overwritten when you install the new lot.
- Roofs (.bmp)
- c:/ProgramFiles/Maxis/TheSims/Gamedata/Roofs
If your OS is german then replace ProgramFiles with Programme and TheSims with Die Sims.
In all cases if there are any .readme files contained in the download archive, do read them, they may contain information on where to extract special objects (with different animations) or skins that, for instance, new NPC's use.
Sims 1 Help!
Diagnosing your game/solving game crashes etc
- Sims File Cop
- available from The Sims.com - this tool should be run every time you download new walls, floors and skins. It will sort out any bad files or textures and put them in separate folders. Some can be changed in an art program so they will work in the game. Some can't be changed and will just have to be deleted. Follow the instructions and readme files for doing this.
- EliSims
- EliSims is a handy all-round tool that lets you manage, add or delete neighbourhoods. It also displays bad files, often even those that The Sims Filecop didn't find. Bad files usually show up with a red X next to them, also when you try to move them EliSims tells you that the file is damaged.
- Object ID & GUID clashes
- Get the Tool. These days there are so many object-makers/recolourers around that sometimes an object's ID-number can be assigned twice. Objects are assigned GUIDS, unique identifying numbers to distinguish between each piece/tile of the object. Often objects have more than one tile and this is the way the game can identify each relevant piece to the whole object and display it.
Case Example 1
If there are two one-tile objects, for an example two chairs, and both have the same GUID, only one of them will be able to be displayed. Which one is up to the game.
Case Example 2
If you have 2-tile (or more) objects, then it can happen that a tub can have half a sofa attached instead of showing both halves of the tub. The game doesn't know that say number x belongs to a tub and that number x AGAIN belongs to the sofa. The game will stick the objects ID numbers together regardless of what sort of object it is.
If you experience this problem then please download the Object ID tool as it will help getting rid of these occurences. Read the manual to it very carefully. It checks GUID clashes and you are able to manually change them. However! Custom objects like Podiums, Bars, Cash Registers that have their own custom NPC should never be changed! If an NPC or a Podium clashes with a totally different item, like a sofa, then change the sofa's IDs instead of the NPC's or the object the NPC has been assigned to. If you do change the IDs of the custom NPC or it's custom object, these will be unfunctional and may even make your game crash.
If none of these tools and tips work for you then visit TheSims.com and get technical help there.
If any objects that you have downloaded disappear after going to live-mode then you probably don't have the required expansion pack.
Sims 1 Download Limits
In the Sims 1 there are limits to the amount of downloads depending on expansion packs.
In the base game The Sims (no expansions installed) you can only have 90 walls and 65 floors
From the expansion Livin' Large and onwards, the total amount of walls and floors you can put in your game is 65,000.
If you do not own Sims Unleashed or any other expansion released after that, you are limited to 100 objects in the buildmode catalogue. The problems resulting out of this if you have more, is that fireplaces turn into plants and stairs into windows. If you don't have any later expansion and need a work-around to this problem you can do the following:
- Transmogrifier - available here: Lush Creations
- You can use this tool to change the objects to buy-mode. You can change the room functions, but be sure though never to change the category for doors because a door is always a door even in buy-mode. Columns don't work as columns when put in buy-mode so don't change them either. Everything else though can be moved to buy-mode.
- Sims Categoriser - available here: Paladin's Place
- You can alternatively use this tool for moving objects to the right places.