Sim Shadow Fix

SCREENSHOTS
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With this mod, Sims' and pets' indoor shadows no longer appear as black rectangles. This problem occurs on many modern graphics cards.

There are 4 versions of this mod:
  • maxis match: exact recreation of the original shadows with a blue tint,
  • dark: achromatic shadows close in brightness to darker object shadows,
  • medium: achromatic shadows with brightness in between the dark and light versions,
  • light: achromatic shadows close in brightness to lighter object shadows.
Use only one version at a time.
This mod also works with The Sims: Life Stories, The Sims: Castaway Stories and The Sims: Pet Stories.

You may use this mod even if your game has no problems with rendering Sims' shadows.

Updates
2 Jan 2025:
  • Recreated the mod to make it as compatible as possible with different graphics cards. There's no longer a split into regular and really not misty versions.
  • Renamed the 0.4, 0.3, 0.2 versions to dark, medium, and light respectively.
  • Added a maxis match version.
Restoring shadows
You might have turned (Sims') shadows off when a problem with black rectangles occurred. To make this mod useful you need to turn them back on. Here's how to do it:
  1. In the game, go to the Graphics/Performance Options and set the Lighting setting to high.
    If you still cannot see Sims' shadows, go to the next step.
  2. Open your Graphics Rules.sgr file. Typical paths:
    • Windows, Ultimate Collection: C:\Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection\Fun with Pets\SP9\TSData\Res\Config
    • Windows, other: C:\Program Files (x86)\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 (latest EP or SP)\TSData\Res\Config
      (if there is no folder called Program Files (x86), go to Program Files instead)
    • Mac: Applications/The Sims 2.app (or The Sims 2 Super Collection.app) → right click → show package contents → Contents/Home/TSData/Res/Config
  3. Find option Shadows and in the setting $High section change the value of simShadows to true if it's set otherwise:
    Code: 
    option Shadows
   setting $Low
      boolProp simShadows       false
      boolProp objectShadows    false
      boolProp guob             false
      boolProp heightMapShadows false

   setting $Medium
      boolProp simShadows       false
      boolProp objectShadows    false
      boolProp guob             true
      boolProp heightMapShadows true

   setting $High
      boolProp simShadows       false   ← if it's false, change to true
      boolProp objectShadows    true
      boolProp guob             true
      boolProp heightMapShadows true
end
  4. Open your userStartup.cheat file, if you have one. Typical paths:
    • Windows, Ultimate Collection: Documents\EA Games\Sims™ 2 Ultimate Collection\Config
    • Windows, other: Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Sims 2\Config
    • Mac: /Library/Containers/com.aspyr.sims2.appstore/Data/Library/Application Support/Aspyr/The Sims 2/Config
  5. Delete the following lines from your userStartup.cheat file if they're present there:
    • boolProp simShadows false
    • boolProp simShadows off

Known issues
Sims' and pets' shadows overlap and cut sometimes, but it isn't caused by the mod.

If you use an old version of this mod (released before 2 Jan 2025) and the shadows of Sims and pets don't appear correctly in your game (e.g. they glow white), try the latest version.

Explanation of the problem


Conflicts
None that I know of.

Overridden resources
Type name
Group/object name
Type
Group
Instance
Instance (high)
Maxis Material Shader3D0xCD7FE87A0x1C0532FA0xFF03CFFC0xD2989BDE

Credits
Alex777
Ciastko
Liv
lorinsv60
Nostural
Creators of dxvk (allowed me to see correctly rendered original shadows)
Creators of SimPE
Creator Recommendations:
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More downloads by Nopke: See more
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