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ladysilverwolf) wrote2018-07-22 10:51 pm
Section A - Windows 10 and Ultimate Collection
| A1. System Specifications A2. Know your Graphics Card A3. Gaming Directory Details |
Know your system specs, to include your graphics card and RAM. Note it down somewhere you can find it. Also be aware you need two folders for UC to work if you plan to add any additional mods beyond the corruption free ones. Those details will be covered in sections B and C of my guide.
There is a TON of information out there for the old and new simmer alike, to look over, read, review and decide upon in regards to installing The Sims 2 on different operating systems. The only reason I am posting this, is because Win10 is 'a thing', and TS2 works on it, and I wanted to provide my own experiences on installation/game-play in hopes that perhaps it may be found useful to other simmers who are using Ultimate Collection on a Win10 operating system. Thus I bring you my series of recommendations for a FRESH game installation approach.
One last clarification: None of the links provided by me (other than some SFS links) are my work. This guide is simply a compilation of work done by others, to make it easier for you to find things in one place, and hopefully not miss a step in creating a safe environment for your Sims 2 game. This guide would not be possible without the effort done by other simmers who had to find the answer for us to use today. Take a moment to thank those folks as you visit their pages, either by 'liking' the post or dropping a comment of thanks. Shall we move on? Lets Go!
Section A1 : System Specifications
On this page, you will see from detail my system specs. This should give you an idea of what to expect from your system/game-setup, and if you run into problems, you would be able to relay this information to others as you attempt to trouble shoot. These notes are specific to the system I run on [Windows 10]. So please, no questions or asks about Macs, Win7, or any other operating systems - I won't have the answer.
The following information can be found on your Settings->System page, under the "About" link, aka the image with the circled ' i '.
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-> Operating System: Windows 10 Home Edition, version 1809, build 17763.437 (current as of Apr 2019) -> Installed Ram: 32.0 GB -> System Type: 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor |
Section A2 : Know your Graphics Card
I have a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti graphics card installed on my system. My card was not on EA's known card list when Sims2 came out, so my game did not initially run well at all. To fix this, I had to track down all sorts of posts on how to get the game to run correctly (I will cover how to do this in section B of my guide). Please keep in mind that every PC setup is slightly different, and that I am no expert on how to fix issues that might arise. Because of this, I will be pointing you towards a ton of information for you to read, either by link or by putting info in Section B4 of my guide. And don't forget, Google is our Friend. Google-Fu is Strong with us! So lets go about to finding the information we will need to get your game running smoothly. First up is finding your desktop resolution and can be found as follows:
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Click on your Start button Click on the gear wheel icon (also known as Settings) Click on System It will default automatically to Display. Scroll down on the right side until you see "Advanced display settings" and click it. The following information is what I found on my system: S200HL(Digital) Display1: Connected to NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050Ti --> Desktop Resolution: 1600x900 |
Jot down the information you find on your system either on your pc or a piece of paper, or remember how to get back Advanced display settings. Now let's find out the details about your graphics card. All you need to do is click on "Display adaptor properties..." (it may mention display 1 or 2 here, depending on your setup). A new box will popup, showing what your Adaptor is. Following these directions, I find this information for my graphic settings:
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Dedicated Video Memory: 4096 MB System Video Memory: 0 MB Shared System Memory: 16358 MB |
After writing down/copying this information, go ahead and close the window by clicking Ok or Cancel.
I can not stress enough how important it is to update your graphic hardware/software. I have never had a single issue with Sims 2 running on my system after updating my graphics card. Perhaps I have been fortunate, perhaps I have been lucky, but I live with a man who does IT for a living and stresses the importance to keeping your system up-to-date for security purposes. Be whatever it is, my Ultimate Collection is stable on my system, even after I do the updates. If however, you run into problems, I will be setting up a troubleshooting guide as well and will update this page accordingly when I get that guide finished.
The next thing I am going to have you do is run a DX Diagnostic.
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Click on your search bar (also known as Cortana). In your search bar, you need to type dxdiag, then mouse over the blue and yellow circular icon and click it. This will bring up your DirectX Diagnostic Tool. Click on the Display tab. Under Device you need the following information: Approx. Total Memory: 20376 MB Display Memory (VRAM): 4018 MB Shared Memory: 16358 MB |
Now you have all the necessary information for setting up your game files. Lets move onto the next step!
Section A3 : Gaming Directory Details
First and foremost, this section is purely information. At this time we are NOT creating any directories. I am simply providing this information so you are familiar with it. These directories will be created during the process of following my guides. It should go without saying, but I will say it anyway. Do not mess with these files UNLESS you know what you are doing. Mess with those files at your own risk. But enough of that.
The Ultimate Collection, as installed by Origin, will be found at the following location on your PC:
C:\ProgramFiles (x86)\OriginGames\The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection
Other things to mention about Sims2, Ultimate Collection and Win10 is that troubleshooting is a tad bit different than other systems and game setups. You will have your gaming folder and your troubleshooting folder. Your gaming folder is obviously going to be as follows:
C:\Users\YOURuserNAME\Documents\EAGames\The Sims™ 2 Ultimate Collection
Your Trouble-Shooting folder HAS to be ...
C:\Users\YOURuserNAME\Documents\EAGames\The Sims 2
... in order for one very important piece of programming to work for you and help you trouble shoot. That program is called "Sims2 Hack Conflict Detection Utility" aka HCDU. And I can already hear you asking why.
The thing is, HCDU does not read the " ™ " in the Ultimate Collection. UC came out years AFTER the author that created the program, AND, the author is no longer in the community. Further, there are no options to setting up HCDU. It was designed for one purpose: To read the game downloads folder, and at the time, there was only ever one game download folder location: "The Sims 2".
If you do not already have HCDU, you can download the file at SimFileShare, thanks to the wonderful Bulbasaur001 who has generously shared the file since Paladin's Place is now forever lost. Look for the file Sims2HCDU-02.00.03.zip.
Updated: 04-2019