Playing TS2 On Linux

[leighweightacoma@lemmy.world]

This is from Reddit's r/Sims2Help - Linux Page

Brief Overview of Options for Playing on Linux

• Bottles is a user-friendly manager for Wine that lets you create isolated environments called bottles and auto installs the dependencies such as DXVK.
• Lutris is a game launcher which supports Wine and Proton as well as Native Linux games. You can use install scripts (.yaml) or install directly from a setup executable
• Steam is a store and a launcher that uses Proton automatically for Windows games, it tries to handle everything for you behind the scenes
  • Proton is a custom version of Wine made by Valve (Owner of Steam)
• Wine translates Windows API calls to the Linux equivalent so you can run Windows executable files (.exe)

I will detail installing the game, both with and without the EA App, and running the programs BodyShop, Clean Installer, SimPE, and Hoodchecker for each of the 4 options above.

Which Option Should I Use?

In terms of ease of install, if you have a Steam account or are willing to create one or are using a Steam Deck, then Steam is an extremely easy method to get the game and all associated programs running on Linux. You do not need to purchase the game on Steam for this method to work, you can use a downloaded version of the game (such as the UC download linked in the Download TS2 section of our wiki.

If you don’t want to use Steam, Bottles and Lutris are both very easy methods to set up the game. Lutris may require more fiddling to figure out the correct dependencies for some programs outside the game itself and I also experienced more errors with it (for example, winetricks continuously refused to open after being opened and closed once, saying it was still running but not actually showing up!). However, Lutris does have a nice UI and is integrated with other game stores so you may prefer to use it, and the game itself works perfectly with it.

Wine by itself is the most awkward and least recommended method for running the game on Linux. While it is possible to get the game running this way, it requires the most management and handling of dependencies of all the methods.

Regardless of which method you chose, you will be able to play the game and use the 4 mentioned programs with it, though your install experience may vary slightly depending on your distro. These instructions were written with Ubuntu in mind though equivalent commands for other distros can be easily found online.

Prerequisites

GPU Drivers

Before starting, make sure you have the correct drivers for your GPU. How to do this depends on which distro you're using - if you search "download [AMD|Intel|Nvidia] drivers for [distro]" you should find helpful information on this. This GitHub repo provides the required commands to get the drivers for many distros and this repository also offers the proprietary GPU drivers for Nvidia.

Get the Game

You can download the Sims 2 Ultimate Collection using the link in the Download TS2 section of the wiki. You will need a torrent client to download the game - Deluge and qBittorrent are both available on Linux as well so you can use the same torrrent client links from that section to get one for your distro. Once the game is downloaded, extract the rar archive and then you are ready to proceed with installing using one of the options below.

You can also use the UC from the EA App or the Legacy Collection from the EA App or Steam, or any other repack. You just need to have the games files and/or a setup installer.

Steam

• Installing TS2 via Steam: step-by-step guides on installing TS2 using Steam as a non-Steam game, and via the EA App using Steam.
• Running Related Programs: step-by-step guides on running related TS2 programs such as BodyShop, SimPE, Hoodchecker, CleanInstaller via Steam.

Bottles

• Installing TS2 via Bottles: step-by-step guides on installing TS2 using Bottles, and via the EA App using Bottles.
• Running Related Programs: step-by-step guides on running related TS2 programs such as BodyShop, SimPE, Hoodchecker, CleanInstaller via Bottles.

Lutris

• Installing TS2 via Lutris: step-by-step guides on installing TS2 using Lutris both with and without the install script, and via the EA App.
• Troubleshooting: information on errors and solutions for installing and running TS2 via Lutris
• Running Related Programs: step-by-step guides on running related TS2 programs such as BodyShop, SimPE, Hoodchecker, CleanInstaller via Lutris.

Wine

• Installing TS2 via Wine: step-by-step guide on installing TS2 using Wine, and some details on why installing via the EA App on Wine is not currently viable.
• Running Related Programs: step-by-step guides on running related TS2 programs such as BodyShop, SimPE, Hoodchecker, CleanInstaller via Wine.