Comments | pixel_trade: Tutorial: Extracting & Packaging Sims

dragancaor in pixel_trade

Tutorial: Extracting & Packaging Sims

Jun 20, 2008 15:39

Well we all know the Pixel_trade community is all about sharing sims that its members have either created or bred in game. And then installing what we download from others into our games to create stories, or play challenges with. But in order to extract or package a sim, you first need to know how to do it in a way that wont create issues for someone else' ( Read more... )

!tutorial, !mod post

Comments 86

pixelcurious June 20 2008, 15:21:57 UTC

I have a questions. I've downloaded a few sims from pixel_trade members that, when I tried to install them, gave me this error:

( ... )

sixamsims June 20 2008, 15:54:41 UTC

You need to use the Mac equivalent of Clean Installer. Which there is one. I had the link on the front page of my site. Let me go get it.......

sixamsims June 20 2008, 15:56:10 UTC

DBPF Reader: http://pages.infinit.net/origami/Atelier_Quebec/

pixelcurious June 20 2008, 23:30:04 UTC

Aw, thanks for going to the trouble of looking that up! Maybe it will help some Mac pixel-traders. I'll pass it on to Kirk, he has a Mac. :)

Thread 14

jester June 20 2008, 21:27:12 UTC

THANK YOU. I had gotten as far as extracting with SimPE but then wasn't entirely sure what to do after that.

*memories*

mjo5oh June 20 2008, 22:49:19 UTC

I'd just like to say that your icon is incredibly cute! :)

dragancaor June 21 2008, 16:43:28 UTC

Glad to be of Service. =D

kharmakick August 6 2008, 15:35:57 UTC

What's happens if I do all this...and then realize the chick I've uploaded is pregnant? Delete the file, wait out her pregnancy, and do over?

dragancaor August 6 2008, 16:02:18 UTC

If you have packaged a clone the pregnancy wont be an issue as it does not package your personal game data. The clone will only have the genetics & clothing of the sim in question. =)

Sims are inserted into neighbourhoods through CAS, & you can't create pregnant sims.

Don't stress, don't delete & feel feel to share the file =)

kharmakick August 6 2008, 16:36:06 UTC

Hooray for speediness!
Hooray for advice!
:)

highshelf August 7 2008, 04:09:33 UTC

Hi, I was wondering if there was a way to package sims on a Mac that didn't make everyone you gave it to's game crash. If this is explained somewhere else I'm so srry and a link would be awesome! :DDD

dragancaor August 7 2008, 04:40:22 UTC

Packaging bodyshop sims I think is the same. However, extracting sims born in game sims for packaging isn't techincally possible on a mac in so far as I know.

Either copy your neighbourhood to cd & take it to a friend's house with the same (or higher) install as you (on windows), swap neighbourhoods (make sure you make a backup of theirs before you do this) & use SimPE, following the tutorial above.

Then you can use the DBPF Reader, which is the Mac version of clean installer (thanks sixamsims) to install packaged sims into your game.

Or you could run windows on your own machine through a program like bootcamp, or parallels, with SimPE on that partition.

Failing that you might be lucky enough to have a member here or on thesims2 be willing to help you via the net. However you would need to find an online host able to hold your (preferrably rar'd) neighbourhood & someone with a monthly download quota that allows it as well as the spare time to get the sim(s) you need to grab.

Hope that helps.

highshelf August 7 2008, 12:04:21 UTC

woah that sounds complicated. I don't think their would be anyone willing to help me because I'm more of a lurker in the sims community. Alls well though I'll just make sims I want to package in body shop! So for packaging I just use the end of this tutorial right?

dragancaor August 7 2008, 15:15:40 UTC

Yups =)

Thread 6

bondchick_nett August 22 2008, 12:53:19 UTC

Okay, so on paralells I've installed SimPE and copied over my neighbourhoods folder to the correct corresponding file structure. I've extracted three sims and am now up to your ZOMGIMPORTANTNOTEDONOTIGNORETHIS

So I decided to install bodyshop on parallels. Only the problem is that it keeps crashing no matter WHAT I do. >_<;;;

SO! My question is, if I:

1. copy the extracted packages to my mac osx saved sims folder
2. opened Mac bodyshop
3. cloned the packaged sims in question and made a few alterations for safteys sake
4. deleted the original packaged sims from bodyshop
5. made sure they were gone from my saved sims folder

... that it would still screw up my game?

Your 'broken record' warning has put the fear of god into me XD

dragancaor August 22 2008, 15:57:30 UTC

Hrm. Bear in mind I'm just making guesses here as I haven't had a mac since... 99... but...

Bodyshop will probably be crashing as its the mac version & the file structure is different. Lets make a backup of your 'hoods before we go any further with this (copy your neighbourhoods folder somewhere like your desktop or burn it to cd) just in case.

It shouldn't screw up the game as you aren't putting .package files from someone else's system into it, & the data that it points to should all be there. It's more putting the .package file into someone else's pc that breaks things. Give it a go. There's only one way to truly find out & if you make that backup first you've got nothing to lose =)

bondchick_nett August 22 2008, 16:39:55 UTC

OKAY! Well, I decided you would probably tell me back up your neighbourhoods and try it yourself, which you did XD So I kinda tried it out before you replied. Patience apparently is only sometimes a virtue I possess. ^_ ( ... )