good evening.
I'm new to the forum and I'm Italian, so I hope to be able to make myself understood.
I have been in love with the sims 2 for a lifetime and despite having tried the 3rd and 4th, I am still fond of the second!
I searched everywhere but couldn't find an answer to my question. Basically I would like to know if it is possible to play the sims 2 using textures in hq as it was done with the 3rd and 4th. I know that in these a variation has been made to the Graphic Rules file contained in the config folder of the installation catalog. Unfortunately I could not find any mod of this type applicable to the sims 2 and so I was wondering if anyone knows how! I hate the fact that I spend a lot of time creating textures (especially concerning eyes and skins) in high definition (2048x2048) which, however, once loaded on Bodyshop and in the game become blurry as if the resolution were always 512x512!
I thank you in advance! )))))

^ The resolution issue in Bodyshop is a problem with the graphic card/chip compatibility, and is (usually) easily fixed either manually, or with the GraphicRulesMaker.

https://simswiki.info/wiki.php?titl...y_Shop_Projects
https://www.simsnetwork.com/tools/graphics-rules-maker

If you've already fixed your GraphicRules file with the GraphicRulesMaker to work for your graphic card (something a lot of people have to do these days with Windows 7/8/10 and newer cards, especially if you have dual graphics), you can copy the file from "...TSData\Res\Config" to "...TSData\Res\CSConfig" (in Program Files, find SP9 for the UC or "Fun with Pets", M&G if you have all as discs, or the folder for your latest EP if you don't have all). This should fix Bodyshop.

HQ for CAS in TS2 is a headache when it comes to textures because the bump maps cause a lot of problems. Stick with the original sizes for anything using the SimSkin shader, at least if you want bump maps to work (or if you don't want to fix 1000+ bump maps on every single piece of CAS content you download, or want to turn off bump maps entirely). For anything using the SimStandardMaterial you can use other sizes (just don't use a bump map). However, using larger maps does seem to make the game more likely to crash or pink-flash, so you may not want to take it too far. 1024x1024 isn't too bad, honestly.

The SimSkin group is a pain to change, because if you change something you really have to change everything. Everything that's painted onto the body and face - eyes, eyebrows, makeup, skin, clothes... all of this would have to be sized up, or the textures you use just won't work. If you put HQ textures on a LQ skin, they'll automatically go down to a LQ resolution (nothing you can do about that). If you put LQ textures on a HQ skin, you're probably going to see a lot of blurriness.

Actually, you do get a whole lot further with 1024x1024 (and 512x512) in TS2, because you can use as many 1024x1024 maps as you need. In TS4 you're kinda stuck with using the same overlapping map and have to be very careful with where things are mapped, while in TS2 the SimStandardMaterial shader doesn't overlap anything, so you can use as many of them as need be, which means you can have tops and bottoms that don't overlap the skin, and accessories plus hairs that don't need to be mapped small on a huge map. Being able to actually use the entire UVmap helps a lot. Compared to a lot of TS4 maps, TS2 is already almost HQ because when you cut away those empty spaces you're left with just a 1024x1024 or 512x512 map most of the time (I've seen even tinier), and only occasionally 2048x2048 (I've checked a lot of them - most of the maps tend to be empty space)...

thanks for the answer, yes I have already edited the graphic rules file what i meant is if there is a possibility, as has been done with the sims 4 (hq mod switch), to make the game not resize the texture files but show them in the game exactly like when i open them on photoshop. I have a fairly powerful computer and I have no problem with the fact that this would inevitably make the game heavier. I suppose that as happened with the sims 4, the game was created with default settings that make the textures appear blurry, but the fact that by means of graphic rules (contained in hq mod switch), this setting is possible change it both with the third and the fourth, I wonder if it is not possible to do the same thing for the sims 2, adding or modifying some parameters in the graphic rules file. I want to underline that I have no problem with the video card, nor with the game display. it's about eventually improving the game!

I post 2 photos to make the concept even better understood, one is the cutout of the eye texture (2048x2048) and the other is worn on the sim where you can clearly see that some details are lost! as you can see I'm a perfectionist LOL! I add that I have done several tests through SimPE but I absolutely failed to improve with any format!

The problem is that the game doesn't understand it's supposed to show the larger size eyes if you're still using a small size face underneath. So you have to scale up the face before you can do any sort of impact on the eyes.

I spent several months sorting out this headache of a problem a while back when I wanted to make larger sized infant outfits. Turns out, I couldn't. No matter what I did, they would not show as the 1024x1024 texture size I used (they showed as 512x512 no matter what I did, because they showed with the default skin size) - That was, until I scaled up the skins with a skintone changer (this was back in the really old days). So I tried scaling up the default skins I had, which worked. Then I tried scaling up the toddler skins to see if that could work too, and got a bump map explosion (honestly, it looked absolutely terrible in that CAS). So I scaled those back down, deciding it really wasn't worth the work. I kept my default baby skins as 1024x1024, because those are too tiny to work with, otherwise.

if i am not mistaken, the only way to be able to view the eye in a larger size is to use SimPE to increase the size of the game's default skin?

Increasing the size of the skins you use (not necessarily the default skins, but all skins you want to be HQ) is the only way. They would need to be HQ for all other items that overlay skins (body, face, head - although the head rarely is more than a floodfill texture so it doesn't need to be more than 512x512 unless you add other details) to properly show HQ. And then you'd have to start the large job of making everything else HQ too. Anything that's connected to the SimSkin shader, that is (you can check in the TXMT for clothes and hairs - if it's the SimStandardMaterial shader instead, it doesn't follow skin size rules).

Non-HQ skins would technically still be compatible with HQ because of mipmaps, but you'd have to expect some blurring. Maybe not with clothes that use the SimStandardMaterial shader forr the main parts (some have an invisible texture for the SimSkin parts, those could probably be fine to use for a HQ skin).

It's still a lot of work, and there's no guarantee for the results, so I suggest you make a test skin and some other items, and play around with them a bit in CAS and ingame to see if it behaves the way you want, both together and along with other non-HQ items, preferably with bump maps and shaders properly turned on, so you see if it behaves nice with clothes, hairs, face details and makeup. Nothing is more annoying than having put in a lot of work and figuring out it's all for nothing because it's either too much work for too little gain, or it's not working at all.

on mod the sims, i found a skin that uses skinStandardMaterial. could i try to edit that and then add the eyes above?

Nope. Probably won't work, at least not the way you want.
Skin uses the SimSkin shader. If you try anything else with it, you'll run into a whole heap of issues. Pretty sure if that skin uses a different shader, it's a rather special skin (one of the invisible/transparent skins, maybe? They do work, but don't exactly look normal, and I think you'll run into trouble if you try to use them with a regular-looking skin).

SimStandardMaterial kind of removes the texture from the skin. Good for anything with a standalone alpha texture (like hair) or accessories, or clothes you don't want to overlay on skin texture. If you want it to have skin texture as a background (makeup, eyes, under most clothes), you usually need to use the SimSkin shader in the TXMT.

I understood. thank you. probably the answer to my question was already contained in previous conversations. but being Italian I find it hard to translate when it comes to technical things. so I also thank you for the patience you had! Could you write me the steps that I should take to be able to realize my wish? maybe if you feel like it, and when you have some time

I've never tried, so I don't know where all the potential problems are, but I think I've covered most of what you'll have to do already. I think the first step is to see if it even works the way you want, so make some test HQ items (skin, makeup, eyes, etc.) and see if they behave alongside regular non-HQ (read the last section of post 7). If they don't behave, you have to look at it and see if it's really worth the job.

Keep in mind that you scale things up just one size, so if it's 512x512 you go up to 1024x1024 (face textures and toddler + infant body textures). If it's 1024x1024 you go up to 2048x2048 (body textures). Otherwise you may get a size difference you don't want between the details of the face and body skins.

And it's entirely likely that Bodyshop isn't going to like the larger sizes for skins, so be prepared to use SimPE for switching them out after making files. Bodyshop is very moody when it comes to texture sizes, especially if there are bump maps (then you should be prepared for errors). Sometimes it can be better to just remove the bump map entirely when you're experimenting (bump maps are usually only a problem with clothes, but can cause problems for skins if you try to use the bumpmapped clothes with a skin of a different size than the bumpmap is).

Tutorial on deleting bump maps - https://skellington7d.livejournal.com/89327.html (scroll to "just delete them" at the bottom)

I succeeded !!! but in a totally different way. I practically realized that I had contact lenses among the accessories !!! who knows how long I have had them and I had never noticed them and I don't even know how I managed to create them! I just edited those and got the result I wanted! I had to make one for the right eye and one for the left because the accessory was practically used for heterochromia!1
this way you don't even need to change the skin below. i didn't even use SimPE but only bodyshop. the amazing thing is that they behave just like lenses (in the sense that they adapt if you transform the physicality of the sim) but at the same time they don't adapt to the underlying skin!
the more you zoom in, the more you see the difference!

Contact lenses would work if they're accessories and (or?) use the simStandardMaterial setting (there could be ways to get them to work with the SimSkin setting, but not sure if that would work with larger textures).

Zooming in activates mipmaps (if they're available in the texture - in SimPE you can usually see them as a set of textures of varying size to the right in the TXTR resource). They work so that the game uses a smaller texture if the camera is zoomed all the way out, and a larger and larger texture the closer you get to the item. When you're up close you see the largest texture. It saves on resources, because you don't need the game to show the largest texture if the camera is zoomed all the way out.

i don't know .I did a search and found them right on mod the sims, they are called Heterocromia !!

Woooooooow

The ones by SimNopke (Nopke?) or someone else?

yesssssssss