Custom content has always been a part of The Sims series, at least for the PC and Mac games in it. However, how to install it has varied from game to game, and has not always been obvious.
Readers who are unfamiliar with compressed archive files (zip, RAR, and 7z), should read the section on archive files.
File paths given in this guide use the Windows-standard ' ('backslash') separator. Macs may use a '/' instead.
The SimsEdit
In The Sims, different types of custom content are placed in different folders, depending on their file type. There is no need to do anything to the content files other than place them in the correct folders. Sub-folders are not recognized, except in the
Downloads folder used for objects.
It is best to set Windows so that file extensions are always shown. When installing content for The Sims, file icons and listed file types should not be considered reliable, as many of the extensions The Sims uses for custom content are also used by other programs, and those extensions may be associated with those programs.
The file paths given below assume a default PC installation to C:Program Files .[1] Macs may or may not have a Program Files folder. Regardless of install location, and regardless of whether the game is on a PC or Mac, the part of the file path after 'The Sims' will be the same.
Objects normally have the extension .iff, but occasionally use .far . They are normally placed in:
C:Program FilesMaxisThe SimsDownloads , and may be placed in sub-folders. They may also be placed in:C:Program FilesMaxisThe SimsGameDataUserObjects
Skins, for both Sims and pets, have the extensions .skn and .cmx for meshes. The textures are BMP files, and have the extension .bmp.These files are placed in:
C:Program FilesMaxisThe SimsGameDataSkins
Roof textures are 32x32 BMP files, and have the extension .bmp. They can be distinguished from skin textures by their small size. They are placed in:
C:Program FilesMaxisThe SimsGameDataRoofs
Walls, including murals, have the extension .wll. They are placed in:
C:Program FilesMaxisThe SimsGameDataWalls
Floors have the extension .flr. They are placed in:
C:Program FilesMaxisThe SimsGameDataFloors
How To Install Mods Sims 4 Mac
Lots are a spcial case. Their filenames take the form HouseXX.iff, where XX is their lot number. They are placed in:
C:Program FilesMaxisThe SimsUserDataXXHouses The XX is a two-digit number representing the neighborhood. For example, Neighborhood 1 is UserData01 , Neighborhood 2 is UserData02 , etc.
The Sims 2EditSims 4 Mods
In The Sims 2, custom content has been simplified. There is one main extension, .package, and one main folder, Downloads, whose location does not depend on the install location. The location of the 'Downloads' folder is:
Windows XP: Documents and Settings(Your User Account)My DocumentsEA GamesThe Sims 2Downloads Windows Vista, Windows 7, Mac: Users(Your User Account)DocumentsEA GamesThe Sims 2Downloads
If Nightlife or later is installed, the Downloads folder may contain sub-folders.
As a rule, .package files will not be associated with a program unless a program designed to read them, such as SimPE, is installed.
There is no need to do anything to the package files other than place them in the Downloads folder, or a sub-folder of it. However, it is often necessary for players to manually create the Downloads folder. When doing this, there are two things to keep in mind. One is that, as far as The Sims 2 is concerned, the name of this folder is case-sensitive. The first letter must be an upper-case 'D', and all other letters must be lower-case. Also, if the base game was installed by way of a compilation, the base folder name in Documents may be the name of the compilation instead of 'The Sims 2'. For example, in The Sims 2: Ultimate Collection, the Downloads folder is placed under:
DocumentsEA GamesThe Sims™ 2 Ultimate Collection . Skate 2 pc torrent.
Players should note that some content needs to be placed relative to the game's install folder, or relative to the folder for the latest expansion pack. For Ultimate Collection this is always
C:Program Files (x86)Origin GamesThe Sims 2 Ultimate CollectionFun with PetsSP9 [1]
Sims2pack filesEdit
Some content for The Sims 2 if delivered in files with the extension .sims2pack . A sims2pack file is a form of archive file; the format was designed to work with an installer program[2] that is included with all versions of The Sims 2. The sims2pack format can be used for any type of content, and is the standard format for delivering lots, Sims, and custom pet breeds. This is because the installer is designed to place the lot, Sim, or breed in the proper bin.
By default, double-clicking a sims2pack file will invoke the game's installer. It will open a dialog showing the names and descriptions of all custom content files contained in the sims2pack. (A packaged lot or Sim will commonly contain custom content used by that lot or Sim.) The dialog has two buttons, 'Install' and 'Cancel'. Clicking the Install button will install everything in the sims2pack, regardless of whether it is already present. It cannot be told to install to a sub-folder of the main Downloads folder, and may give an installed package file a 'nonsense' filename that is a seemingly-random string of letters and numbers.
An alternative to the game's sims2pack installer is the Sims2pack Clean Installer from Mod The Sims. This program 'associates' the sims2pack extension with itself, so it will launch whenever a sims2pack file is double-clicked. It allows players to see what content is in a sims2pack, and to select which parts to install. When installing to the Downloads folder, it allows the player to select a sub-folder. Players can choose to override the default install folder and browse for the folder they wish to extract to. Players with Ultimate Collection will need to do this if they have a version prior to 1.6.22.0 .
N.B.: Despite what Clean Installer's main page says about needing to install the .NET framework, this should not be necessary with Vista and later versions of Windows.
Enabling Custom ContentEdit
In The Sims 2, it is not enough to install custom content correctly. It must be specifically enabled by way of a dialog that appears when the game loads. For players with Nightlife or later, or any stuff pack, this dialog will not appear unless it is enabled in Game Options. Also, custom buy mode and build mode objects will not appear in the catalogs unless the game option 'Catalogs Display Custom Content' is set to On. Fortunately, these things only need to be done after the game is first installed, or after adding a new expansion pack or stuff pack.
In addition to enabling custom content, players who want to use recolors of Maxis buy and build objects must use the Color Enable Package from modthesims.info .
NoteEdit
Information concerning Ultimate Collection is taken from Game Help:Ultimate Collection FAQs at Mod The Sims.
How To Install Mods Sims 4 Mac OriginThe Sims 3Edit
Installing custom content in The Sims 3 requires some framework. It also requires following some instructions, which vary depending on the type of file being installed. Installation of custom content for The Sims 3 is covered extensively here, and in linked pages.
There are three main file types for The Sims 3 custom content; .package, .sims3pack, and .sim . The .package and .sims3pack files are equivalent to .package and .sims2pack files in The Sims 2, though they use different formats. The .sim extension is used for custom Sims.
The Sims 4Edit
In The Sims 4, there are two custom content folders: Tray for lots and Sims, and Mods for other content. Both of these folders are located in:
Windows XP: Documents and Settings(Your User Account)My DocumentsElectronic ArtsThe Sims 4 Windows Vista, Windows 7/8, Mac: Users(Your User Account)DocumentsElectronic ArtsThe Sims 4
The Mods folder may contain sub-folders. If the Mods folder does not exist, it can be created manually. The Mods folder will contain a file named resource.cfg . If it is deleted, the game should recreate it.
Most content uses the .package extension, though the format is different from that used in The Sims 2 and The Sims 3. As in The Sims 2, installing package files is simply a matter of placing them in the Mods folder, or a sub-folder of it; there is no need to do anything to the files other than place them. However, the archive file should not be placed in the Tray folder.
Lots and Sims use several different types of files. Both use a type known as .trayitem . Lots also use .blueprint and .bpi files, while Sims use .hhi, .sgi and .householdbinary files. These files can be installed by extracting them from the archive file they are in, and placing them in the Tray folder; there is no need to do anything else to them.
Script mods, which use the .pyo extension, are a special case. Unlike other content files in the series, which will not work if they are inside an archive file, these files must remain zipped in order to work. Therefore, installing a script mod involves placing the zip file in the Mods folder. Also, script mods must be specifically enabled in Game Options.
NoteEdit
Information on the resource.cfg file is from SimsVIP, other info is from various places on Mod The Sims.
Archive filesEdit
Custom content for games in The Sims series is usually contained in what is known as an 'archive' file, usually a .zip, .rar, or .7z file. In some ways, an archive is sort of like a folder; it has its own name and location, and can contain other files and folders inside of it. However, the files inside an archive are compressed, so they take up less space and take less time to download. The files inside an archive must be decompressed and copied to a location outside the archive before they can be used. This is called 'extracting', even though the file is not removed from the archive. With custom content, the issue is knowing which files to extract -- and for The Sims, which folder to place them in.
The Sims, The Sims 2, and The Sims 3 do not recognize archive files and cannot read them. While it appears that The Sims 4 does recognize zip files in the Mods folder, it also appears to expect anything in them to be part of a script mod. Therefore, when downloading any Sims content other than a script mod for The Sims 4, the archive files should not be downloaded to any game folder, but can be downloaded to any non-program folder the player chooses. Also, it is not necessary to keep the archive files once the custom content files have been extracted; they can be deleted or moved to an external storage device such as a thumb drive.
Windows and OS X can extract from zip files (which Windows may call 'compressed folders'), but users will need a separate program to extract from RAR or 7z files. There are many programs which can extract from archive files, and most can extract from zip, RAR, and 7z files.[3][4] Prices and licenses vary, from commercial, to nagware, to free or open-source.
Identifying file typesEdit
When installing custom content, it is generally useful to be able to identify the types of files that are in an archive. An archive file may contain files that should not be extracted. For example, it may contain images or text files that are about the custom content, but not part of it.
Identifying a file's type is best done by looking at the file extension; the part of the file name after the final 'dot'. Other methods, such as looking at the file's icon, can be misleading, particularly when installing content for The Sims. By default, Windows hides file extensions that are associated with a program, even if the Details view is used. However, this can be changed:
NotesEdit
External linksEdit
Warning:
Websites such as The Sims Resource and Mod The Sims are great providers of Custom Content and Mods for any The Sims Game. Creators from those websites have already started releasing content for The Sims 4.
Although it seems simple, some simmers still don’t know exactly how to install downloaded content they found online.
First of all, you’ll need a Mod or CC file to begin with. How do you upgrade your ship in starbound. If the file you downloaded is in .zip or .rar format, extract it so that you only have a .PACKAGE file.
Now, copy that file to DocumentsElectronic ArtsThe Sims 4Mods.
You can keep track of all your Mods in that folder, or you can see which ones function properly/have applied correctly by opening The Sims 4 > Settings > Other panel. From there you can Enable/Disable Script Mods (use with caution) or you can just View your Mods.
You may not believe it, but it's now been nearly five years since The Sims 4 arrived on the scene, and during that time the amazing fan base has been hard at work producing the best Sims 4 mods and additional content so you can customise and immeasurably improve your experience with the game. These go well beyond the extras you can find in The Sims 4 Gallery feature in-game, and allow you to make striking changes that can completely overhaul the game. Whether you want to add extra options or gameplay tweaks to make managing your Sims easier, or apply wholesale revisions to how things look and behave, we've picked out the best Sims 4 mods you can download right now to balance your game to perfection.
How to add the best Sims 4 mods to your game on PC and Mac
To install the best Sims 4 mods in your game, all you initially need to do is download the mod file. Then open Windows Explorer on PC, or Finder on Mac, and locate Electronic Arts > The Sims 4 > Mods.
From here, just drop your downloaded mods straight into the folder /Electronic Arts/The Sims 4/Mods. Normally any specific requirements for mod installation are listed on the page you download the mod from, but it's usually a very straightforward drag and drop job. One thing to remember is that if you download a zipped file, don't unzip it - simply just drag and drop the entire zipped file into your mods folder. Newer mods might have a .ts4script extension, and others might have a .package file, both of which you can just drag and drop as well.
Our pick of the best Sims 4 mods you can download right nowMC Command Centre
We might as well start with the mega Sims 4 mod that is the MC Command Centre. This control panel lets you tweak nearly every aspect of your Sims' lives throughout the neighbourhood, which basically means you’re a Sims 4 god. Set employment rates for various sim ages, find out who's pregnant, abort said babies if required, and even filter through settings for non-player controller Sims to make sure they're living their best lives. My favourite tweak is the time-based ones though, which make sure your Sim doesn't take hours upon hours to shower and eat breakfast before work every morning. If I can't do that Mortimer Goth, you can't either.
UI Cheats Extension
A lot of Sims players will know the main cheat codes off by heart, and typing in 'motherlode' for a stack of simoleons is almost second nature. However, there are a ton of cheats available, and unless you plan on learning them all then looking them up can become a time-consuming process. That's where this mod from weerbesu comes it, as it adds all the cheat options directly into the UI without any typing required. Most efficient!
Add new traits
When we moved from The Sims 3 to The Sims 4, one of the things that I missed the most (and there are a lot of things we all miss, of course) was the fact that the traits you could assign to your Sims decreased from six to three. But, thanks to this mod from chingyu1023 (based on the original from Embyr311, which hasn't been updated since 2016) that lets you add more Create a Sim traits, there's a way to get back to the standards that The Sims 3 set.
As you'd expect from the Sims 4 modding community, there are also tons of other individual traits you can add to your game, most of which can be found in this list.
Have Some Personality Please!
If you're fed up with your Sims having meaningless chit-chats with each other, then this mod from PolarBearSims could be just the ticket to spice up their interactions. This extensive mod introduces many changes, but one of the key features is removing idle chat from conversations. This means that instead of nattering, your Sims will have to interact with each other, and the mod will decide how this goes down based on the existing relationship between the Sims, plus their character traits and current mood. Sit back and watch how things pan out, but prepare for fireworks if two Sims don't get along.
Adjust Sim heights
Deciding your Sims' weight and muscle mass is as easy as moving a slider or pushing their bodies around in The Sims 4, but isn't it weird that every single person in your world is the same height? Unnatural right? Well, this height slider Sims 4 mod from GODJUL1 fixes all of that, adding natural stature variations to your neighbourhoods.
Hit the Super Speeds
You know that ultimate speed level that triggers when your Sims go to sleep or are all out of the house? Well, I know that sometimes it either doesn't trigger, or it's just not fast enough. So let's go faster with this SupeSpeed Mod. No, that's not a typo, creator artum knows there's not even enough time sometimes to add the R to super. They get it. Once installed, you can trigger it when you hit the 3 key twice in quick succession. Begone long days and wasted time, begone!
Unlock every item in Build / Buy mode
Although sometimes it's kind of cool that The Sims 4 locks certain Build / Buy mode items and room layouts behind career track goals, it also takes a long time to get them all. So why not just have them all, right now? The Sims 4 BuildBuyMode Unlocker mod by scripthoge is a handy little thing that unlocks every item and pre-made room that was previously off-limits, meaning your house can be at its very best from the get go (with a little motherlode help, of course).
Create ponds on every lot
Fishing can be a huge part of your Sim's life, but it can be annoying when you have to travel off-lot to find a viable fishing pond. Watching a loading screen every time you want to build that angler skill is frustrating, but what if you had a pond in your very own backyard? Download the Buyable Ponds Sims 4 mod by Snaitf, and you can put a pretty little pond in your own lot, saving you having to travel for every fishing expedition.
Bring back cars from The Sims 3 days
Another thing missing in The Sims 4 from The Sims 3 is vehicles. I loved it when you could drive around the neighbourhood to get to different locations, or just watch your kids cycle about from their friends' houses after school. But it all disappeared in The Sims 4. Thankfully, The Sims 4 community is on hand to right some of the wrongs in the game, and thanks to this ownable cars mod from Dark Gaia your Sims can now purchase and drive their very own cars around the neighbourhood as the modern age intended.
Choose to live forever
If you want to turn off the ageing or dying process for your Sim, you can easily do that in the settings, but that'll affect every single Sim in your world. If you want to do it on a case by case basis, you're going to need a mod. The Eternal Youth and Immortal buyable trait mod to be precise, from vitorpiresa. This mod adds two new buyable traits to the game: Eternal Youth, which prevents your Sim dying from old age (but nothing else); and Immortal, which prevents them from all deaths, but they will continue to age regardless.
Go to School
The ability to follow your kids to school (in the least creepy way possible) was always a nice touch in the previous game, as you could actually get a little closer to what they spent their time in class doing. Well, with the As long as you've got the Get to Work Sims 4 expansion, you can download Zerbu's Go to School mod that means you can actually follow your children to school and help them achieve their education, learn from a teacher NPC and even visit the counsellor for a spirit boost. Kids can also earn Emblems from the principal, which they can redeem later in life for reward traits.
Go to College
And if going to school isn't enough, you need to try simmythesim’s Get to College mod, available with an updated patch by Itasan. It'll fill a gap that anyone who played The Sims 2 and The Sims 3 will acutely feel. Although the original mod is fairly old now, it offers three majors for your Sims - Physical Education, Fine Arts and Music - each with their own venues and goals. If that's not quite what you're looking for though, you might want to check out kawaiistacie's University Career mod, which adds a rabbithole university career path for your Sims, where you can choose from 12 different degrees, including childhood development, fine arts, performing arts, culinary arts, game design and more. Each degree has a minimum of eight levels and offers an internship and career boost at the end.
Daily Save
This one isn't going to change your game, but more help you keep your Sim creations safe. This Daily Save mod from temptest literally just autosaves your game with every new Sim day. Using the default settings it'll just save the game at 5am every Sim Day and actually uses seven rotating save slots, just in case you want to roll back to a specific day within the last Sim week. A handy little mod if I ever saw one.
If we've missed any of what you think are the best Sims 4 mods, please let us know in the comments below and we'll check them out!
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