Update 1.8: There's a new experimental live mode camera hack that can be enabled via the -customcamera command. Allows for better, less restrictive camera rotation.
Update 1.5: Cute icons & auto updating. Future updates will now show up in a changelog.txt file inside your TSBin.

Custom Sims 2 Launcher that includes Discord Rich Presence support, borderless and a definitive real fix for First-born Syndrome

You Don't need Discord for this to work!

Detailed instructions on how to run this with ReShade, or install the fix stand-alone without the launcher: Tumblr link

You can also just install the new Light version found in downloads.

This is a custom launcher for The Sims 2 that includes all the aforementioned fixes. It works by reading the process memory of Sims 2 into Discord's Rich Presence and replacing the game's randomization function with "real" randomization via DLL injection, which completely solves First-born Syndrome without any weird workarounds and makes the game more random overall!

It also launches the game on borderless by default, so you don't need to have external programs open such as Borderless Gaming. This is done because The Sims 2 is known to cause issues on modern computers on fullscreen, this is solved by running it this way.

Features:
Better Live Mode Camera:
If you boot the launcher via a shortcut with the "-customcamera" command at the target, or have a default.txt with the -customcamera text in TSBin, you will get access to improved, less restrictive camera rotation in Live Mode.

Discord Rich Presence:
If you have Discord open, it shows what you're up to on TS2 on your status! (Live mode, who you're playing as, how much money you have, what neighborhood you're in, buy mode, build mode, etc.)

First-born Syndrome Fix:
Perhaps one of the oldest bugs in the game, the random sequence for genetics in The Sims 2 is not properly randomized, this leads to your first born, second born, third born, etc. babies in your play session to always come out the same. Up until now, we've had to do workarounds like going into CAS and hitting randomization a few times, no more! Included in this launcher is a file that gets injected into Sims 2, and via memory editing it alters the function inside of the game's executable that advances this broken random sequence to be actually completely random! Now babies will always be different and varied, without you having to do anything weird!
In-depth explanation

Borderless
As the game has issues running on fullscreen on modern computers, such as infinite loading and alt tabbing back into the game taking a VERY long time, this launcher by default automatically launches the game in borderless fullscreen, which looks just like fullscreen with all the advantages of running the game windowed.

Installation:

1. Extract the contents of the zip file in your Mansion & Garden TSBin folder, located in "The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection\Fun with Pets\SP9\TSBin" for Ultimate Collection users or "The Sims 2 Mansion and Garden Stuff\TSBin" for disc uesrs.
2. Everytime you want to play with these fixes, launch the game via Sims2RPC.exe.

Usage and Configuration:

1. Everytime you want to play with these fixes, or everytime you want to play Sims 2, launch the game via Sims2RPC.exe.
2. You can configure the features by going to Your Documents/Sims2RPC/settings.txt, generated the first time you boot Sims2RPC.
3. You can test the Firstborn Syndrome fix in-game by going into CAS or a family and playing with genetics/having a baby, babies should now always be completely random, no need to roll the pacifier or generate random Sims anymore!
4. If for whatever reason you wish to remove the firstborn syndrome fix, you can do so by simply deleting the "randomizer.asi" file inside the mods folder.
5. You can edit the config.txt file to completely customize the text displayed on Discord Rich Presence!
6. Optionally, you can make a shortcut pointing to Sims2RPC.exe, go to its properties and on the Target field add parameters such as:
   -noupdate to prevent auto-updating.
   -hide to not show the ugly black box/console on start.
   -customcamera to enable the custom camera.
   -useRefreshRate recommended if the custom camera is choppy. Should better fit your monitor's rate.
   -rpc to launch without Discord Rich Presence, the other patches will still work
   -fullscreen to launch in native fullscreen instead of borderless, this is the default on Sims 2, which causes issues, especially with alt tabbing, so this is not recommended.
   -w to launch windowed.
   -show to keep the console open even after the game launches, in case you wish to see if anything went wrong.

Troubleshooting and FAQ:

1. If the launcher crashes, you might need to download the latest C++ Package from Microsoft: https://aka.ms/vs/16/release/vc_redist.x86.exe
2. If the updater crashes, you might need to download the latest .NET Framework from Microsoft: https://dotnet.microsoft.com/downlo...ramework/net472
3. If resolution looks stretched/too low or weird in any way: Fix instructions
4. Some issues and crashes can be fixed by launching as administrator.
5. Make sure the launcher is in TSBin, and not in its own folder.
6. You can try repairing the launcher with Sims2RPCUpdater.exe.
7. You can download updates manually from https://github.com/LazyDuchess/Sims2RPC.com/releases and replace your RPC files with those.

Older updates:
Update 1.1: Really tiny update that adds a way to hide the console via -hide and some minor error handling.
Update 1.2: Fixed a bug in the way the program displayed seconds after an hour or more had elapsed.
Update 1.3:
Better injection, which means the following:
Better Reshade support; Ultimate ASI Loader is no longer necessary.
Game shouldn’t occasionally crash on boot anymore like it used to do for a few people.
Update 1.4: 4GB Patch is now applied automatically to the proper executable, should fix memory issues.
Update 1.4.1: Better server to get Sims2EP9RPC.exe from; archive.org was failing me, tiny update to 4gb patching & more transparency about running as administrator on first launch.

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178 people have said thanks to LazyDuchess for this download.

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For more information about this creator and their policies or details, click here.

Basic Download and Install Instructions:

1. Download: Click the download link to save the .rar or .zip file(s) to your computer.

2. Extract the zip, rar, or 7z file.

3. -Extract the contents of the zip file in your Mansion & Garden TSBin folder, located in "The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection\Fun with Pets\SP9\TSBin" for Ultimate Collection users.
-Everytime you want to play with these fixes, launch the game via Sims2RPC.exe.

Need more information?

• For a full, complete guide to downloading complete with pictures and more information, see: Game Help: Downloading for Fracking Idiots.
• Custom content not showing up in the game? See: Game Help: Getting Custom Content to Show Up.