Hi there! You are currently browsing as a guest. Why not create an account? Then you get less ads, can thank creators, post feedback, keep a list of your favourites, and more!
Field Researcher
Original Poster
#1 Old 28th Jul 2014 at 2:56 AM

This user has the following games installed:

Sims 2, University, Nightlife, Open for Business, Pets, Seasons, Bon Voyage, Free Time, Apartment Life
Default Sims 2 stuck in 800x600 resolution
So, Origin/EA released The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection for free (for a limited time) if you type a code to redeem a game. So, I did that and I finally got The Sims 2 back on my new computer, after for some reason getting rid of all of my Sims 2 games that I had. The game runs, but it is stuck in an 800x600 resolution, and I can't fix it. I've tried going into all my of my settings folders and changing lines of text inside the Graphics Rules.sgr file, but nothing helped. I looked all over the place, but nothing works. Any suggestions?

There is nothing to see here. Move along.
Advertisement
Field Researcher
#2 Old 28th Jul 2014 at 3:36 AM
Try going on the shortcut properties, and writing ' -rWIDTHxHEIGHT' (whatever resolution you want) in the end of the destination.

Example: "C:\Program Files\Maxis\SimCity 4\Apps\SimCity 4.exe" -r1280x768
Scholar
#3 Old 28th Jul 2014 at 4:33 AM
Instructor
#4 Old 28th Jul 2014 at 8:03 AM
Check this tutotial. I just got my game to work in diferen window sizes again.
Well, this is the site where the tutorial is:
http://www.wsgf.org/dr/sims-2

I am Brazilian but I live in Switzerland!!!!
Call me Paula if you want :)
My Tumblr =)
Field Researcher
Original Poster
#5 Old 28th Jul 2014 at 8:17 AM
Quote: Originally posted by moveobjects
Try going on the shortcut properties, and writing ' -rWIDTHxHEIGHT' (whatever resolution you want) in the end of the destination.

Example: "C:\Program Files\Maxis\SimCity 4\Apps\SimCity 4.exe" -r1280x768


I already tried this. I know it works with SimCity 4 but it doesn't work for The Sims 2, or at least not for me.

There is nothing to see here. Move along.
Field Researcher
Original Poster
#6 Old 28th Jul 2014 at 8:27 AM
Quote: Originally posted by gwynne
http://www.leefish.nl/mybb/showthread.php?tid=5446


Tried all of the suggestions at that link. None helped.

There is nothing to see here. Move along.
Instructor
#7 Old 28th Jul 2014 at 8:28 AM
Well the tutorial I tried worked before and also now for me I got windows 8 and was very easy.

I am Brazilian but I live in Switzerland!!!!
Call me Paula if you want :)
My Tumblr =)
Instructor
#8 Old 28th Jul 2014 at 8:30 AM
Quote: Originally posted by LOLZpersonok
Tried all of the suggestions at that link. None helped.


Did you check the link I posted?

I am Brazilian but I live in Switzerland!!!!
Call me Paula if you want :)
My Tumblr =)
Field Researcher
Original Poster
#9 Old 28th Jul 2014 at 8:38 AM
Thanks for all of your help, but none of this works. The game is still stuck in 800x600 resolution and the graphics quality can't seem to be increased.

There is nothing to see here. Move along.
Instructor
#10 Old 28th Jul 2014 at 8:57 AM
Quote: Originally posted by LOLZpersonok
Thanks for all of your help, but none of this works. The game is still stuck in 800x600 resolution and the graphics quality can't seem to be increased.


YOU NEED TO FIND THE CONF FILE IN THE FOLDER ULTIMATIVE - FUN WITH PETS-EP9-TSDATA-RES-CONFIG-GRAFIC RULES
You need to change there the resolution... just like the tutorial says(the tell to coy and paste like this u change it) -than download the file and pick one of the resolutios rate for the camera and place on camera folder on docs( I got for my 10:9)

I also tried several times until i got the right folder. if u made changes before then you need to first put back all backups u did (i reinstaled the game was easier to find the folder)

I am Brazilian but I live in Switzerland!!!!
Call me Paula if you want :)
My Tumblr =)
Field Researcher
Original Poster
#11 Old 28th Jul 2014 at 11:09 PM
Quote: Originally posted by amora_selvagen
Did you check the link I posted?


I went all the way through it and tried every file I could find.

There is nothing to see here. Move along.
Field Researcher
Original Poster
#12 Old 28th Jul 2014 at 11:21 PM
Quote: Originally posted by amora_selvagen
YOU NEED TO FIND THE CONF FILE IN THE FOLDER ULTIMATIVE - FUN WITH PETS-EP9-TSDATA-RES-CONFIG-GRAFIC RULES
You need to change there the resolution... just like the tutorial says(the tell to coy and paste like this u change it) -than download the file and pick one of the resolutios rate for the camera and place on camera folder on docs( I got for my 10:9)

I also tried several times until i got the right folder. if u made changes before then you need to first put back all backups u did (i reinstaled the game was easier to find the folder)


I just tried that, and I'm now going to see if it worked. I changed a few more other settings too, such as changing the texture memory lines from 32MB to the true texture memory (which for me is 2560), found a couple lines that were true for forcing low graphics and resolution and changed those to false and I set a large screen resolution as the maximum for all settings. Here goes nothing...

There is nothing to see here. Move along.
Field Researcher
Original Poster
#13 Old 28th Jul 2014 at 11:25 PM
Quote: Originally posted by amora_selvagen
YOU NEED TO FIND THE CONF FILE IN THE FOLDER ULTIMATIVE - FUN WITH PETS-EP9-TSDATA-RES-CONFIG-GRAFIC RULES
You need to change there the resolution... just like the tutorial says(the tell to coy and paste like this u change it) -than download the file and pick one of the resolutios rate for the camera and place on camera folder on docs( I got for my 10:9)

I also tried several times until i got the right folder. if u made changes before then you need to first put back all backups u did (i reinstaled the game was easier to find the folder)


Ah, yes. What I tried finally worked. Thanks for directing me to this folder, I never would've tried it.

There is nothing to see here. Move along.
Instructor
#14 Old 29th Jul 2014 at 9:53 AM
Glad you got it!!!

I am Brazilian but I live in Switzerland!!!!
Call me Paula if you want :)
My Tumblr =)
Field Researcher
#15 Old 13th May 2019 at 5:09 AM
Not everyone has The Sims 2 Ultimate, some of us started with just one retail base game, stuff pack and expansion at a time, and I have on disc... The Sims 2 Deluxe, Sims 2 Seasons, Best of Business Collection, Teen Style Stuff, H&M Stuff, Glamour Life Stuff, University, Bon Voyage and lastly, the Apartment Life expansion. Mind y'all that I have Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit as an OS, a MSI Radeon R5 230 2GB Video Card, because my Gigabyte GA-P45T-ES3G rev.1.3 ATX motherboard has no onboard video, and I have 8GB DDR3-1600 RAM!
So why don't one of you come up with a solution that does NOT involve typing code or messing with stuff that should not be messed with or software shit that does NOT universally work?!

If anyone, like me who runs The Sims 2 on disc and has fixed this 800x600 resolution issue without messing with files and folders and system shit, and found a fix then I'd like to hear it!


Sincerely Frustrated,
Cloud_Strife
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#16 Old 13th May 2019 at 5:56 AM
@Cloud_Strife you are replying to a 5 year old thread. You need the graphic rules done to change that and you should also use the 4 gb patch. Check the sticky thread. Unfortunately, you have to mess with the files or find yourself an older computer made before 2010 to run it on. Its because sims 2 is an old game and we are trying to run it on new systems and it needs help. Also if you plan to use a lot of CC you preferably want to get a 4Gb card not a 2gb card and 16RAM. If you are playing CC free you can get away with what you have.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Instructor
#17 Old 13th May 2019 at 6:12 AM
This worked for me. Exit the game. Download and install the Graphic Rules Maker (use version 1.1.0). Follow the instructions on The Sims Network webpage to properly set up the program. Then, where your Default resolution and Maximum Resolution are, bump them both up to the Maximum resolution your monitor has.
https://www.simsnetwork.com/tools/graphics-rules-maker
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#18 Old 13th May 2019 at 6:17 AM
Also, it needs to read the same in both Config and CsConfig folders and many of us had to do that manually.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#19 Old 23rd May 2019 at 12:19 AM
@Cloud_Strife If you know exactly what sims 2 wants why don't you share the information.

What we are trying to do is help our games run on what we have.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Mad Poster
#20 Old 23rd May 2019 at 1:01 AM
@Cloud_Strife, If TS2 doesn't work, it can both be a hardware and software problem (sometimes a mix of both, plus some additional stupidity from Microsoft, who doesn't seem to be able to design an OS that's backward-compatible with games, or even game-friendly overall).

On most setups (unless you have Win10, which is a bit touch-and-go atm, and may complicate things for some players, me included) you can usually do a little editing here and there if the game doesn't work straight away, even if you've got hardware that's a little too new for TS2 to recognize - and most of the time this does eventually make the game work.

I've managed to make the game run well enough on 3 different computers, though it's possible the hardware was within what the game could handle, running on XP, Vista and Win7 (with only a little tinkering, like the 4GB fix on one computer and some video card software editing on the other) - but on the 4th computer I've ran into a bunch of issues I'd only ever heard of from other players. Did manage to fix most of them, except for a memory/pink issue that's mostly a design issue in TS2, but also may be a very big issue with Win10.

My biggest problem was that it's not easy to find a laptop (because that's what I wanted - atm I don't have space for a stationary) with TS2-spesific compatbility in 2019 that also runs newer games fine, unless you go for an old model. If you build your own computer, it's probably easier to make it compatible. For me, the hardware doesn't seem to be the biggest problem, but instead how Win10 handles RAM. My ancient XP laptop from 2006 had a better grip on RAM than this one, despite having 1% of the RAM and 0% of the graphics RAM of my new one (I miss XP... And almost wish I'd gone for Win7 for the new one - because I'm sure that would've worked a lot better. Figured out just a few weeks ago that I never even used the 4GB fix on my Win7 laptop). I'll probably eventually manage to fix the problem, but it's most likely going to be a software and file fix.

I did have the resolution issue, btw, but editing the GraphicRules file fixed that.
Mad Poster
#21 Old 23rd May 2019 at 3:59 AM
So you have the perfect Sims 2 computer, then why do you still have the problem?
Mad Poster
#22 Old 23rd May 2019 at 4:38 AM
It was a Win 7 update awhile ago that has made me need to have a graphic rules file handy to copy and paste into the Config and CSConfig to allow the game to have a resolution above 800x600 in both the Ultimate Collection and the disc versions. (Sims 2 works great with my Win 7 at least. After ransomware exploited the fact that all computers at work run on Win 10 and fucked all computer systems, I refuse to go to 10.)
Mad Poster
#23 Old 23rd May 2019 at 11:33 AM Last edited by simmer22 : 23rd May 2019 at 11:52 AM.
Quote: Originally posted by Charity
So you have the perfect Sims 2 computer, then why do you still have the problem?


Me?
The problem seems to be with Win10, which is causing a lot of strange issues with the RAM handling...

The OP?
Looks like they managed to fix the problem.

Cloud_Strife?
Did they have a problem? Or were they just popping into a very old topic to at the same time gloat over their Perfect computer and complain over not being able to fix their game without having to edit any files?
The issue is probably that the game doesn't recognize their graphics card and sets everything to low resolution (possibly because of onboard graphics), so edits are required to make the game recognize the card and to edit the resolution settings manually. That's what the edits of the VideoCards and GraphicsRules files are for. You're probably (like me) trying to play a 15 year old game on a computer that's built for running games that's 2 years ahead of now. It's pretty much like wondering where to put a cassette tape in a Tesla to listen to your favorite 80s Music. You've gotta do some trickerey and find a few alternative routes to make it work, but with a little creativity it may be possible.
Mad Poster
#24 Old 23rd May 2019 at 3:20 PM
Quote: Originally posted by simmer22
Cloud_Strife?
Did they have a problem? Or were they just popping into a very old topic to at the same time gloat over their Perfect computer and complain over not being able to fix their game without having to edit any files?
The issue is probably that the game doesn't recognize their graphics card and sets everything to low resolution (possibly because of onboard graphics), so edits are required to make the game recognize the card and to edit the resolution settings manually. That's what the edits of the VideoCards and GraphicsRules files are for. You're probably (like me) trying to play a 15 year old game on a computer that's built for running games that's 2 years ahead of now. It's pretty much like wondering where to put a cassette tape in a Tesla to listen to your favorite 80s Music. You've gotta do some trickerey and find a few alternative routes to make it work, but with a little creativity it may be possible.


Quote: Originally posted by Cloud_Strife
If anyone, like me who runs The Sims 2 on disc and has fixed this 800x600 resolution issue without messing with files and folders and system shit, and found a fix then I'd like to hear it!


The third option. I was too lazy to quote the relevant post. XD
Scholar
#25 Old 23rd May 2019 at 3:34 PM
em... guys WTF happened?
I've read a lot of such topics, from hilarious to miserable, confused and desperate, but (am I wrong?) I've never seen such hostility, really, yet. @Cloud_Strife chill out mate...


favorite quote: "When ElaineNualla is posting..I always read..Nutella. I am sorry" by Rosebine
self-claimed "lower-spec simmer"
Page 1 of 2
Back to top