Custom Videos in Sims 2

From Sims99Wiki

With The Sims 2, you can very easily change the videos that appear on your Sim's TV Set, or, change the gameplay footage of the games they play, either on the TV, or on their PC. All you have to do is change the files that are stored in the games folders.

[edit] TV Video

To change the videos that appear when your Sim is watching TV, you need to locate the folder "My Documents\EAGames\The Sims 2\Movies\Broadcast". You will then be given the option to choose a TV Station folder. The options are Commercials, Static, Tv_Weather_Fall, Tv_Weather_Spring, Tv_Weater_Winter, Tv_Weather_Summer, TvChildren, TvFood, TvMusic, TvSBN, TvSport, TvWorkout (this may change if you do not have all expansions [to date] installed on your PC). Choose the channel you want to place more videos into. Now you will need to place your video files into this folder.

Your video will need to be a .avi file of any file size, but, ideally, it should be around 15 frames per second and 128x128 pixels. Anything larger will effect game performance on lower end PC's.

This feature is great if you want your Sim's to watch something a little more realistic instead of some of the wierd programs they would usually watch.

[edit] Computer Game Video

Changing the video files for Computer Games is a little more complicated than the TV Station videos. To do this, you have to give your files a precise file name. You will need to find "My Documents\EAGames\The Sims 2\Movies\Games". Assuming you have all expansion packs to date installed on your PC, you will have the following game folders: arcade, bus, esrb, ReNuyu, sc4, ssx, TypeText. Each one of these folders is empty. This is because the game files are stored elswhere on your hard drive, but, placing your own videos in this folder will overide the games defaults.

To do this, you will need six seperate video files, as before, all .avi of any size or resolution (remember, low frame rate and resolution means better game performance). They must carry these precise file names in order for them to appear in game: _ATTRACT, _INTRO, _P1LOSE, _P1WIN, _P2LOSE, _P2WIN. It should be obvious which video file should match each game action, but its not always needed to match up.

It's also worth noting that you will only see the changes made to the game that you edited. If you are testing this feature out, then I would recommend that you place the new video files in the ssx folder. SSX is the default game that all your Sim's will own, meaning you dont have to bother going Downtown to purchase a new game for your Sim before seeing the changes.