Mod The Sims 2 Clean Pack Installer!

Its really easy to use, you can use it for installing complete Sims, and for walls, floors & ground covers for some websites have those in a sims2pack format.

Simply download the executable file from here:-

http://sims2pack.modthesims2.com

You are looking for the 'Downloads' link on the left hand menu, click on the link underneath 'Latest version 1.5.1.4' - save this file to your computer.

To install the program, find the file you downloaded (note the actual executable file is called 'Sims2PackInstaller_v1514.exe) - double click on it and follow the on-screen instructions. 

ALL your sims2pack files will now be associated with the Clean Pack Installer. To use follow the instructions below

To install a house (or Sim, or wall, floor or terrain paint in a sims2pack) with the Clean Pack Installer all you have to do is just double click on the sims2pack file, just like you did before with the Maxis installer! When it has loaded you will see a screen that looks like this one:-

Instead of the blue box which doesn't really tell you anything, this one gives you a few different options:-

If you want to install everything in the lot, all the custom content, plus any Sims that might be living in it just leave everything as it is and click on the INSTALL button. 

If a box appears telling you that some of the files already exist - do you want to overwrite them - choose 'NO' OR 'NO to ALL'

Why? 

This means some of the custom content in the house is already in your Downloads folder - if you choose Yes, or Yes to All, it will replace your existing copy with the copy that is in the house. Since you are probably happy that the copy in your game is totally fine and working because presumably you've already been using it, there is no point in replacing it with a different version that perhaps might be older or maybe even damaged by the lot packaging process (it does sometimes happen as the way the game packages houses is just as bad as they way it unpackages them!).

Choosing what to install and what to leave out!

The best thing about this great little program is you have different options on what you keep and what you get rid of BEFORE you add a house (or a Sim) to your game. You don't need to go and clean up your Downloads folder of unwanted stuff afterwards. You also don't have to have lots of extra junk files inflicted upon your game every time you add a new house (more on junk files later on in this topic!)

If you decide you DON'T WANT ANY of the custom content then it is very simple, just choose the Lot File Only option from the top menu. You should see that all the check boxes next to any listed items are now unchecked. Click on the INSTALL button and you will just get the lot on its own. Obviously if it has walls, floors or furniture which you do not have in your game, those will be missing or replaced with a different item so the house may not look like what you downloaded. If you do have those custom items installed then the house will find them!

If the house contains Sims already (a family) then you can keep the family but again, not install the custom content by choosing the 'Select Lot and Family' option. Don't worry, if the lot doesn't have a family it wont do any harm at all if you choose the Lot and Family option, same as if the lot has no custom content, picking any option from the menu will install your lot just fine!

Sometimes you may find a scary looking red highlighted item in the list of contents! This is generally known as a hack but not a lot of people really understand what a hack is! Whilst not all hacks are bad, they really shouldn't be put in houses, and most often if you do find such a thing it is because the creator of the house didn't check their house with this handy little program before they shared it online (tsk, tsk!). 

What a hack actually is, is any file that deliberately disables an existing file that comes with the game and whatever that file does, the new hack will take its place and do something different. It doesn't remove the other file, it just prevents it from working whilst the hack is there. Some hacks ARE bad because they may not work with a particular expansion pack, perhaps the person who made it wasn't a very good coder so they might have made a mistake. Some hacks are Ok, they might even be beneficial if its in fact a fix for a Maxis bug or something that upgrades a feature in the game to make it better or more stable, but generally it is better only to install hacks by downloading them from the site that publishes them so that you can READ ALL the information about the hack and make an informed choice over whether or not you want it in your game.

That's why any files like that show up in RED in the content list and why there is the 4th 'Select all files except for hacks' option. Like regular custom content, it is your game, so it is your decision, but my motto is 'if in doubt, leave it out'.

So what do I do if I want to install SOME of the custom content, but not all of it?

That is easy too, by each item there is a check-box - although you can quickly check or uncheck some options using the top menu, you can also check or uncheck each individual item yourself. Uncheck any items you do NOT want installed into your Downloads folder. When you are done choosing, click on the INSTALL button and it will install the house plus the files you selected. The other items wont be in the house unless you already had them in your Downloads folder.

How do I know what the files listed are?

You can get more information by clicking on the item name. For files like objects, walls & floors you will probably get a little pop-up box with a picture in it. If you hover your mouse over the name of the file, you'll see a hover box with more information appears, this tells you the actual filename as well as being able to see the description and catalog name in the bottom window of the Clean Pack Installer (the hover feature only works intermittently in Windows Vista, so you may have to rely on the name, description and picture alone).

Unfortunately some of the furniture pictures aren't very pretty! You do see the actual texture of the file, not a nice 3D view of what the object looks like in game, but it can help give you some idea of what the file might be.

Installing STUFF PACK houses without having the Stuff Packs installed:-

This is one of the most frequently neglected uses of the CPI although please use with caution - if you find it doesn't work then you can find information here on how to remove an unsupported house from your game which we recommend you read before using this method. 

Using the Maxis default installer, any house you install will require all the expansion packs the creatore used when they made it. Using the Clean Pack Installer you can bypass *some* of the lots requirements where you do not have particular packs installed. Whether or not you can do this depends entirely on which packs the house needs - details below, do note that some features of the house may be missing if the creator used items from a specific pack on their lot.

• Family Fun Stuff
• Glamour Stuff
• Celebration Stuff
• University
• Bon Voyage
• Nightlife (unless the lot has a driveway and or cars on the lot)

• Open for Business
• Pets
• Free Time
• H&M Stuff

• Teen Style
• Kitchen & Bath Stuff
• Seasons

There are other benefits to using the Clean Pack Installer:

The section below has lots of information about some of the Maxis installer problems and why using the Clean Pack Installer is generally beneficial EVEN if you have all the packs that Maxis have released.

What is a junk file?

Junk files can be a royal pest. Mostly they're completely harmless, they may even be fully functional packages that you can use all the time in your game and not know it isn't the original file. When junk files go bad though they can make your Simming time a miserable frustration! 

They can on rare occasions become so corrupted that they cause your game to crash, can make families, even whole neighbourhoods unplayable. 

Even if your game seems fine with lots of junk files remember that they are increasing your game's load time and if you share your houses with other people without managing your game files well you could be making the problem worse for others. 

Example:

Lets say that I make a blue sofa. Creator A decides to use my blue sofa in a house they're making. You decide to download Creator A's house. But what if my blue sofa is already in your Downloads folder? If you use the Maxis installer, it doesn't bother to ask you awkward questions about whether or not you want to over-write or skip installing the sofa again. 

No, it decides instead that you must like the file so much that you want another copy of it! Instead of ignoring the file and leaving it out, it renames it with a big long name full of random numbers and letters - most likely you'd find it has a _0001 on the end of the filename, or _0002... or if it happens a lot that you keep downloading houses with the same files in _0025 or more! 

If you use the Clean Pack Installer it asks YOU what you want to do about an existing file in your Downloads folder, if you choose Yes to overwrite (or Yes to All) then it will REPLACE the copy you have with the one that is inside the house file instead of creating a new copy (generally I would advice choosing No to all if the house was published a few months or years ago in case the items included in it are earlier version than the presumably working ones you have in your Downloads folder)

So what you're saying really, is that the Clean Pack Installer is tons better than the Maxis installer?

Yes, it is heaps better BUT it isn't perfect! It only checks your Downloads folder, it doesn't check your Saved Sims folder if you're installing a Sim and may have the included hair or clothing textures already stored in there, it doesn't check any subfolders within the Downloads folder. If you're a neat and tidy Downloader like me and you put your downloaded files into subfolders, the Clean Pack Installer doesn't look at those, so it may install a second copy of something if you've already got one copy of tucked away in a subfolder. Then again, if you're neat and organized like me, you probably have a pretty good idea what is already in your game so will recognize repeat files and weed them out as you organize your newly acquired custom content into sub-folders. 

If I use the Clean Pack Installer carefully I don't ever have to have lots of junk files in my game ever again?

Yes, that is entirely possible BUT... 

Not all house builders and creators of Complete Sims are as careful as they should be about keeping their own Downloads folders neat and tidy. When packaging a house, the game can often pick up junk copies of files that the creator may have installed and put those in the house instead of the original file. That is why it is important to use your mouse to hover over the files listed inside the sims2pack to read the filename. If its a big long stupid name with _0001 or _0029 or similar at the end, it isn't the original file! It could be that the creator doesn't even have the original file. They may have gotten the junk copy from yet another creator who wasn't checking carefully what they were installing, but either way, if they forgot to check over the filenames in their sims2pack before they published, you might get stuck with all sorts of rubbish if you don't check out those filenames when you install!

You can see how junk files can spread very easily, simply looking at the descriptions in the Clean Pack Installer isn't always enough. To be more sure, you can always open your Downloads folder before you install, and watch those new files appear and see for yourself what they all are. If you see those long and silly filenames with the _0001 or _0009 etc, on the end you can just select and delete them there and then. 

If your new house is missing one or two items, but you can always open the house sims2pack again with the Clean Pack Installer, read those descriptions (if the junk files still have their original descriptions - many broken junk files do not) to see if you can find out more information about the file so you can track down the original.

It may seem like extra fuss, but being organized and paying attention to what you put in your game can really make a difference! If you've got tens of thousands of files and a large portion of those are duplicated junk files you could save lots of time off your game's load time by clearing those out and avoiding them in the future, it can often be a factor in game crashes too if a lot of files have tiny corruptions.

Creators!

If you are a creator who shares their houses online, you can save people who download from you a lot of time and irritation over game issues, by being careful, getting your own game files in order and looking after what you put out into the community. Remember that your negligence can only make a bad problem worse! Plus, a lot of custom content creators probably don't want their files distributed as junk copies with unidentifiable filenames, intentionally putting out broken copies of their files could put you in violation of their terms of re-use!