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Test Subject
Original Poster
#1 Old 11th Jul 2021 at 10:00 PM
Default Mesh options for Mac?
Hello! I have scoured the internet for tutorials and information on how to make Sims 2 meshes…in 2021…on a macbook pro. I realize that without access to Milkshape and SimPE, my options are probably nonexistent. I was hoping someone could give me a more solid idea of what my options are. I don't know if Blender 3D can help with this, or if Milkshape is really the de facto program I need. Any information on how to start meshing Sims 2 content would be great. I've always wanted to create my own custom content, but I'm sort of lost in the waters here. Thanks.
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Mad Poster
#2 Old 11th Jul 2021 at 10:38 PM
You need SimPE if you want to do pretty much anything that involves a mesh, and SimPE needs Windows, but you can run windows on a Mac through various methods - virtual machine, bootcamp, Wine, and probably at least a couple more (exactly how to do each of them you'll have to research - I've never owned a mac, so haven't had to do this).

You can probably use Milkshape once you have access to Windows, but Blender is an alternative that does have Mac compatibility, and while it can be difficult to learn, it does have better options than Milkshape for meshing and UVmapping.

I use both Milkshape and Blender - Blender for meshing, UVmapping, and some other bits and bobs, Milkshape for simple adjustments and stuff with skeletons (there's a set of plugins for Blender, but I'm too used to working in Milkshape).
Test Subject
Original Poster
#3 Old 12th Jul 2021 at 12:19 AM
Quote: Originally posted by simmer22
You need SimPE if you want to do pretty much anything that involves a mesh, and SimPE needs Windows, but you can run windows on a Mac through various methods - virtual machine, bootcamp, Wine, and probably at least a couple more (exactly how to do each of them you'll have to research - I've never owned a mac, so haven't had to do this).

You can probably use Milkshape once you have access to Windows, but Blender is an alternative that does have Mac compatibility, and while it can be difficult to learn, it does have better options than Milkshape for meshing and UVmapping.

I use both Milkshape and Blender - Blender for meshing, UVmapping, and some other bits and bobs, Milkshape for simple adjustments and stuff with skeletons (there's a set of plugins for Blender, but I'm too used to working in Milkshape).


Thanks! I really just needed confirmation of what exactly was needed before I start playing around with this. I've got Microsoft Parallel, bootcamp, and Wine for various other Windows needs, just have an expired Windows pass so I've been trying to find Mac friendly alternatives in the meantime. Not sure my laptop can handle all of that at once in Parallel (meshing and playing the full Sims 2 collection), but I may be able to switch between extracting files in Parallel and editing them in my native OS. I already have Blender so I may just play around it with it. Just wanted to know I wasn't wasting time with this method
Field Researcher
#4 Old 12th Jul 2021 at 12:55 PM
Can't really help with meshing tools, but for recolours/catalog tweaks/updating objects from BG to Bon Voyage options I've been successfully dragging and dropping packages between macOS and Windows/VMware Fusion for many years, and that works fine. I have my old disk based version of Sims 2 and all EPs and SPs installed on a Windows 7 VM, so I extract/clone from that, and can disable the non-Mac EPs/SPs for compatibility purposes if I want to. I then move the packages to macOS and play Sims 2 Super Collection.

The game is basically unplayable under VMware Fusion, because the pass through graphics driver for the VM isn't recognised by the game so the graphics are a mess of red and pink flashing and/or weird objects showing up on floor tiles. But SimPE doesn't care about that. I did find that I had to give the VM at least 2 CPUs; SimPE struggled to launch when I only allocated one.

It's my understanding that Parallels handles graphics drivers rather better than VMware Fusion so you might be able to get the game running in Windows, but it will perform pretty poorly unless you play in Bootcamp.
Mad Poster
#5 Old 12th Jul 2021 at 4:14 PM
You don't technically need the game to be playable for SimPE to work, it just needs access to the resources - so if the game graphics are awful in for instance the VM version but SimPE runs okay, that shouldn't be too big of a problem. If you don't mind playing the Mac version of the game, that is. If you do want the full game, then you'll have to find workarounds.

Compatibility could be an issue between the Mac version and the full game if you make certain items, so be aware of that. Some items will throw errors or not work properly if there's EP functions that are/aren't enabled, so sometimes you may have to make two versions with different compatibility if you want to use them in the different versions.
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