Tutorial: Extracting & Packaging Sims

[dragancaor]

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'

Comments

[sea_serpent]

I have a question! *Raises hand*

Okay, so I own a Mac and don't have the means to extract sims, so what ended up happening was that someone extracted the sims for me in a Windows computer and then they sent me the .package files. I took those and converted them into .sims2pack files with Bodyshop. Will they still be borked despite the fact that they're in the preferred format?

[dragancaor]

It's been years since I used a mac, & never for this game. At a guess it would depend how it was done on the windows machine as to what state the files are in, though I would assume they are okay so long as they are then cloned not just saved straight into .sims2pack.

bondchick_nett made a tutorial on extracting sims on a mac, my suggestion would be have a read through that to check.

[sea_serpent]

Yeah, that's what I did... I opened the .package file on Bodyshop, cloned it, and packaged the cloned file. Will this save the file from borking someone else's computer? :/

I've read through her tutorial numerous times, but I don't have any way to install Windows on my Mac (as in, I have Bootcamp, but not the actual copy of Windows needed to make it work), which is why I had to resort to asking someone to do the extraction for me...

[dutchess_axel]

I have a question.
I hate to feel like an idiot, but here it goes.

I want to start packaging up my sims.
But I have defaults in my games.

Should I take my defaults out while creating my sims? Will they crash someone's game if they are packaged with them? Or overwrite someone else's defaults?

I just want to know, so I don't do anything really stupid.

[dragancaor]

Nopes =)
Defaults only tell your game to look somewhere else instead of at Maxis, & leave the game thinking its still using the Maxis item. So when you package, the game will encode your packaged sim to use the Maxis item in the other person's game.
They won't package at all. =D

[dragancaor]

^.^
Glad to be of service.....

[dragancaor]

That would depend on your operating system. But if you're on windows, download yourself a copy of a program such as Winrar & install it. Then you just right click the file & tell it to 'add to archive' from the menu.

To upload the file to a hosting server, you'd need to have an account with Box.net, Esnips or something similar (there are more details in the community profile, including links). You follow their instructions - they depend on your site.

Anything evil genius related you'll have to figure out for yourself. My plans are my plans & I'm not telling you incase one of the good guys overhears & they foil them again!!!! =P

[pleasureblossom]

Ok, I got the extracting stuff down, but I don't know exactly where or how you do the body shop stuff. Is there a website for it or anything because there's no option on my game for it that I can tell or either I missed it.

[tehlobster]

No, it's on your computer. You need to look through C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Siums 2 (your latest EP)\CSBin and Bodyshop should be right there.

[pleasureblossom]

Yeah I found it, but I've only been able to use it once so far. Any other time it gives me an error message saying the application will now terminate adn I can't use it anymore. Do I need to install any sort of update so that it'll run correctly?

[tehlobster]

That I don't know about, unfortunately. I've heard about other people having that problem but my Bodyshop seems to be working fine. *knocks on wood*