Please Help,

I downloaded some hair, clothes, and objects from this sight and followed the instructions on installing them into the game and now the clothes and objects are not showing up at all and the hair is showing up as long straight hair. I downloaded the meshes when it said it would be needed. Please help me fix this problem.

DSWprincesses_03

OK, this isn't really the right place to ask this question, but let's get it cleared up for you. Downloading and installing custom content is a multi-step process. First, you download the compressed file from here. Make sure that you select "Save to Disk" and not "Open". Save it to My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Downloads. If you don't have a Downloads folder, get to My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2 and click the icon at the top right that says "Create New Folder" when you mouse over it. Name the folder "Downloads". Put everything there from now on.

Now, when you are done downloading, it's time to uncompress the files. If it's zipped, it's a simple matter of right clicking on the file icon (the one that looks like a manila folder with a zipper up the center) and selecting "Extract All" from the pop-out menu. The WinZIP wizard box will open up, you just keep clicking next, and your file is extracted. You can delete the zipped files as soon as you unzip them, or save it for last and delete them all at once. If the files have been compressed with Winrar, the icon will look like a colorful stack of books. You'll need to download WinRAR or another program that will extract .rar files. When you right click on the rar icon, you'll get a pop-out box that says "Open With" in the options. Click on the extraction program you're using for .rar files. WinRAR gives you a box with all the files contained in the folder. You select all, then click the icon for "Extract To". Make sure it's going to "My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Downloads" before you click OK.

Now, this gets the folders into your downloads, but it doesn't necessarily get them into your game. The new Sims2Pack Clean Installer can be used to put them all in at once. At this point, do yourself a favor and make sure you've deleted all the compressed files. It doesn't make much of a difference, but it makes it easier to remember what you've already uncompressed. When your downloads start numbering in the thousands, you'll be glad you did this. So - either go to My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2 and click on the Downloads folder, or, if you're looking at your downloads with all the filenames showing, go up one. Right click on "Downloads" and you should see the option "Install All" in the pop-out box. Select this, and Clean Installer will collect all the files, and you just click the box that says "install". If you are doing this for the second or third or whatever time, it will tell you that such-and-such file already exists, do you want to replace? Just tell it "No to all". In very short order, your content will be in your game.

Now, I do one further step, because some custom content has given me trouble on occasion. Much as I hate to say it, I use EA's content manager, which you can get from the official site. I'll select all the content that shows up red, meaning it can cause game conflicts, and disable it. One at a time, I'll try enabling it to see if it really messes things up or not. If it does, I sadly delete the content. It's also a pretty easy way to track down if you really truly do have the mesh for the thing you can't seem to find in your game.

Hope this helps.