Downloaded sim won't show in game (The Sims 2)

[Leopardka]

Hey there!

Recently I started playing The Sims 2 after a long time and wanted to add my old beloved sims to the game. I downloaded Clear Installer and everything went smoothly (I extracted sims from The Sims: Pet Stories. The game won't load on my new computer anymore. It probably isn't compatible, but all in all I think it should?) They are in the correct folder (C:\Users\XXX\OneDrive\Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Downloads) and they also show in the game as an existing file. Custom content, even in the neighborhood is enabled. I tried to search for them everywhere, even Universities or Body shop and it's just like I never downloaded them? It's so weird!

Any help would be appreciated<3 Thank you!!

[Tremayne4260]

@Leopardka , something isn't recognizing the sims you downloaded. And you tried to import them into Body Shop? Hummmm...... I have heard of this before, but I can't recall the solution. Let me check on it.

[Leopardka]

@Tremayne4260 I tried to import them, but somehow I thought that having them in "Download" file is enough? Should I try to import them also somewhere else?

[mate54]

@Leopardka You did not just copy and paste the character files, did you? How did you extract them?

Your screenshot shows that the files (Sims?) are in the Teleport folder. They should not be in there if they are .Package files. Teleport folder is used for import files that are transferred to the correct folder once the game is launched. Any installed Sims go to the SavedSims folder if they are .Package files. Also make sure you do not install Sims into the Downloads folder.

[Leopardka]

@mate54 I extracted the files through TS2 Clean Installer. They somehow went to the Teleport folder and Download by themselves after extraction - they are .package file atm). I tried creating a sim in Body Shop and "SavedSims" was created, though even sims that were extracted here from BodyShop don't show up in the game. That's so weird!

[Leopardka]

Alright, I tried working with the BodyShop and I can see sims in-game if I created them there. But extracting those from The Sims Pet Stories isn't working, even in this folder. Guess they aren't compatible? Is there a possibility that I could "transform" the file to fit The Sims 2?

[mate54]

@Leopardka As far as I am aware, the only way that could potentially be successful to extract already created Sims is using the Sims Surgery option in SimPE (which is a 3rd party tool for modding The Sims 2) to extract just their appearances into a working BodyShop package (which should then be placed in the SavedSims folder). Extracting full character files from the game probably won't work because there is extra data in them that might prevent them from working as Sim templates.

To my knowledge, Clean Installer doesn't play any part in this process as I've never needed it for extracting Sims, and I'm not sure what its use would be here because it mostly deals with Sims2Pack files and already existing .package files.

If you manage to successfully extract Sims from Pet Stories and load them in The Sims 2 (they will show up in the Sim Bin and face presets in CAS and BodyShop), be aware that they might have broken face templates because Pet Stories does not have elders so, if you age them up, their elder faces might be drastically different from their adult faces.

I am not sure if I can link to any tutorials related to this here, but I believe Mod the Sims, The Sims Wiki and probably other blogs/creators have tutorials for this process, and a simple Google search should lead you to them.

[Tremayne4260]

@Leopardka , Clean installer checks for corrupted files that have been compressed within the Sims2pack files. For example, say you create a sim and use custom hair from someone to make said sim. Clean Installer checks that the CC file for that hair to make sure it isn't corrupted. 

While Sims 2 and Pet Stories may share similar elements, there could be incompatible parts that may not allow the sims to work in Sims 2.