Will Nixon: the man, the myth, the legend ⭐⭐

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:05]Hello everybody. Have you guys heard the news? Pink soup in The Sims 2 has been fixed finally. And no, I'm not going to tell you all need to switch to Linux this time. Although, I still recommend Linux because it's great, and I'm still using Linux every single day for my Sims 2 game. In the last couple of weeks, The Sims 2 Tumblr has blown up because somebody stumbled across a GitHub. And that GitHub contained a university dissertation by a lad by the name of Will Nixon, who for his masters in computer engineering for the University of Bristol decided to look into what caused the pink suit bug in The Sims 2.

[00:00:43]And as part of this process, he not only managed to find the cause of the bug, but also figure out how to fix or remotely remove the bug. Now, it does come with limitations, and I'm not going to right now go into all the details of why it happens and what the fix is and all of that. If you are interested, the video description has links for Will's GitHub where you can read through his entire dissertation document. It also has a link to a Tumblr post that he made explaining the pink soup bug in slightly less university like language. And the results are speaking for themselves. So many players have been able to load up neighborhoods that they could not load before due to Pink Soup. It has been revolutionizing the game. So many players are finally able to really enjoy the game once again for the first time potentially in years. So this is a huge huge deal. But he didn't know that he didn't stop there. After I was made aware of this patch and of Will Nixon as a person, I managed to get in touch with him via email because I was really super duper curious about a number of things.

[00:01:48]I basically sent him this big long email with a bunch of questions about Pink Zoop, about who he was, about how he'd done this. And as a joke, I also mentioned two things. I mentioned that I would love to interview him if I could.

[00:02:02]And the other thing I mentioned was I asked if he had ever heard of The Sims 2 Object Limit because that was another buzz that for me personally really throttled my enjoyment of The Sims 2.

[00:02:14]Now, I had absolutely zero expectations that I would get a reply, that the reply would be, you know, open, and I had no expectation that my email would be warmly received. I had no expectation that he would be interested in looking into more bugs for the Sims 2. I just was excited and wanted to know more about him and wanted to know, you know, if he had maybe if he had any thoughts on this other really big annoying bug in the Sims 2. Now, to my delight and my pleasure, Will responded very warmly and openly and kindly. We have been chatting over the last few weeks, and the idea of this interview actually sort of has continued to be mentioned. And so I actually had the absolute pleasure of sitting down with Will Nixon for a talk the other night and we filmed the whole thing and I am going to now show you guys the interview. I asked a number of questions regarding you know his work, his patches and also just about him in general. So if you've been curious about who Will is, what he's like, if he likes, you know, to play the Sims and all of that kind of thing, you may find this interview interesting, too. So, without further ado, let's jump in and meet the now very famous, one and only Will Nixon.

[00:03:30]I'm just going to giggle my whole way through this because Oh, there's a fly in here. Of course, there's a bloody fly in here. All right, so to start off with, Will, say hi and introduce yourself. tell us about you, where you from, and two things that people might not know about you, but might find interesting.

[00:03:50]>> So, obviously, my name is Will. Um, I'm 26.

[00:03:57]Uh, I was born March 2000. Uh, >> what day of March?

[00:04:04]>> The 28th.

[00:04:05]>> I'm the 12th. I thought for I was like, dude. Oh yeah, I was born in the southeast of England. Uh I've got two younger sisters. 2014 I moved up north just below Manchester, which is where I've been living since. Bachelor's degree is in music. I obviously got a masters in computer science. Um >> it's quite a change like from music to computer science. Well, the the thing with computer science is I had always intended to do computer science as my bachelor's, but I >> did not do particularly well in my final exams in high school. Uh, so I didn't get to do that in the end.

[00:04:51]Um, >> so I mean even though I kind of regret somewhat regret studying music because uh I just don't really enjoy music anymore.

[00:05:03]kind of killed my passion for it. Um, I am thankful I did it cuz obviously it gave me the opportunity to to go back and do computer science later.

[00:05:12]>> So, did you take a bit of a break in between your bachelor's and your masters?

[00:05:16]>> Uh, yeah, quite a long break. I think I finished my bachelor's in 2022 and obviously I start my masters in at the end of 2024. So, there was a couple years.

[00:05:29]>> Well, that's really cool. What kind of music were you into before your degree killed your enjoyment of music?

[00:05:36]>> Um, well, I I still enjoy listening to music. It's more play I hate. But, um, the main artist I listen to at the moment is probably 9 in Nails.

[00:05:47]>> Okay.

[00:05:48]Can't say I've heard of them, but that's probably more a reflection on me and my poor taste in music than anything else.

[00:05:55]So, the username, I love asking people about their usernames. Spock the Walk.

[00:06:02]>> Yes.

[00:06:02]>> Tell me where that comes from. Why are you Spock and why are you a walk?

[00:06:07]>> Well, surprisingly, I'm not a Star Trek fan.

[00:06:12]>> Never really watched Star Trek.

[00:06:14]>> Okay.

[00:06:16]>> Uh, I think I remember where the username came from, so I think I would have been about 12 or 13. Uh, I'd joined my school's Dungeons and Dragons club.

[00:06:30]>> Amazing.

[00:06:31]>> Um, and that was only once a week and I was kind of still need to scratch that Dungeons and Dragons itch. So, I downloaded a uh an online Dungeons and Dragons MMO. Um, I needed a username for that. And uh, I think Spock the Walk was just the first thing that came to mind because of the the rhyming scheme.

[00:07:00]>> Fair enough.

[00:07:00]>> Oh, I think I think the first time I used the username, I spelled walk wrong.

[00:07:05]I got a C in there by mistake.

[00:07:08]>> Classic.

[00:07:10]See, I was trying to figure it out. I was like, are you a Treky? Do you really enjoy stir fry or just really like kitchen wear?

[00:07:20]>> No, it it's just the first thing that popped in my head, I think.

[00:07:23]>> So, tell us about your masters. Um, you started that, you said, in 2024.

[00:07:32]>> Yes, September 2024.

[00:07:35]>> And then you finished it when? December the next year?

[00:07:39]>> Uh, no, September 2025.

[00:07:42]>> Oh, okay. about how long did you spend trying to figure out what to do for a project for your masters?

[00:07:50]>> Well, so the start of 2025 when we came back after Christmas, the Christmas break, we were all sort of gathered into a big lecture hall and sat down and told basically now is the time to like start choosing what you're going to do for your project. M >> and I was like, "Oh god, am I supposed to be thinking about this?

[00:08:13]Everyone around me seemed to know what they were going to do already." Um, and I had no clue. So, they sent out the big list of all the supervisors you could work with and all they all had like suggested projects that >> they might be interested in in working with you on. Um, I was looking through this big long list and none of them really interested me. Um, >> they're all kind of pretty boring to put it bluntly.

[00:08:41]>> Yeah.

[00:08:42]>> Um, there's all sort of stuff that would maybe impress an employer, but I wasn't that like enthusiastic about any of them.

[00:08:51]>> Yeah.

[00:08:51]>> Um, and it wasn't until I came across uh Joe, my who ended up being my supervisor in the end, um, his his suggested projects were all sort of very niche.

[00:09:06]um sort of video game related. Uh his projects were sort of like speed running. So how speedr runners find bugs in games and um >> like manipulate them to >> like get through games quicker basically.

[00:09:23]>> Yeah.

[00:09:23]>> Um and that that took my interest cuz obviously like modding especially my main hobby.

[00:09:30]>> Um so I got in contact with him. I was like, "Hey, I'd be interested in working uh on a project with you. Uh I I do a lot of modding in my in my spare time."

[00:09:43]Um >> he seemed pretty bored when I was talking to him. Um but I was listing off all the games that I'd like had experience modding with. Um and it wasn't until I got to the last last game on my list, which was The Sims 2. um which is when he it sort of grabs his attention a bit because uh I believe he he used to play the Sims one back in the day.

[00:10:09]>> That was going to be another one of my questions like what did your supervisor think of this idea and like was he a Sims fan is like or >> No. Yeah, he was he was definitely familiar with this series. I think he's only played the first game, but the >> as soon as I mentioned The Sims, that's when he sort of >> perked up, >> went from looking kind of bored and uninterested too, but being more eager to to work with me. Um, >> yeah.

[00:10:37]>> So, yeah, it was like, okay, go away and come up with some ideas on what you could do like with The Sims 2 or whatever. Um, so I went home. I was like, "What on earth could I do with The Sims 2?" Um, >> had you made mods for the game before?

[00:10:56]>> Um, not I think I've got one mod on Mod The Sims, but it's like the most basic thing in the world. What is it?

[00:11:03]>> Um, it's called Localized Music Unlocked. It just sort of unlocks all the all the songs in the game that like region locked basically. Huh.

[00:11:16]>> Nice.

[00:11:18]So, so yeah, I only had like basic experience poking around in in SPE. Um, >> which is why it was last on my list.

[00:11:27]Um, yeah, I had like bugs on the mind cuz Joe's projects were all very bug focused. I was like, Sims 2 bugs, what what could I like look into?

[00:11:40]>> You know, I made a video about Sims 2 bugs once. It's called Bugs Galore.

[00:11:45]>> I think I might have watched it. Yeah, >> this is kind of a good lead into like uh what another question I was going to ask you, which is what is your history with The Sims? Like when did you get into playing it yourself? And yeah, which which games have you played? And why in particular do you find The Sims 2 a point of interest?

[00:12:09]Um, so I've only like I would say I've only played The Sims 2 and four. Um, I've played maybe like half an hour of The Sims 1 and The Sims 3. Um, so I I wouldn't class myself as saying I've played either of those games. Um, but I think I started off with The Sims 4 first, probably sometime around 2018, maybe. And it was it was fine in the beginning. I didn't know any better.

[00:12:44]I mean, maybe got a couple of hundred hours of enjoyment.

[00:12:48]>> Yeah.

[00:12:48]>> Out of it. Um, with mods, obviously.

[00:12:51]Yeah.

[00:12:51]>> Cuz there's not really a lot to do in the base game otherwise.

[00:12:54]>> No. But then the sort of the the shallowess of the game started to become a lot more apparent the longer I was playing it. Um, so it's like this is kind of boring. There's not really a lot to do. Like I enjoy the concept of this whole thing, but uh there's just there's no consequence.

[00:13:16]It's too easy >> and everything just feels kind of lifeless and corporate. Um, >> preach.

[00:13:24]>> I was Yeah. Uh, I I was familiar with The Sims 2 cuz it was a game that had sort of caught my eye as a kid. I remember seeing it advertised a lot. I didn't have my own computer to play on. Um, I think I might have actually broken my laptop trying to download The Sims 2 illegally.

[00:13:46]>> Oh, no.

[00:13:47]>> Back in the day, >> way back before the starter pack days.

[00:13:52]Yeah.

[00:13:52]>> Yeah.

[00:13:52]>> And obviously The Sims 3 was kind of a performance hog. Um rather infamously.

[00:14:00]>> Yeah.

[00:14:00]>> So I was like, "Right, I want more Sims.

[00:14:03]I don't want Sims 4. Sims 3 runs terribly. So I guess I'm going to try out The Sims 2."

[00:14:10]>> Mhm. Um, and just the just there are many things I love about The Sims 2, but the the the two major ones are probably just the obvious amount of like passion and dedic dedication that went into it just kind of oozes from the whole game.

[00:14:28]>> Yeah.

[00:14:28]>> Um, the other thing which is probably kind of a hot take, but uh I just really love the look of Vanilla Sims 2. like it's it's from that period of time where you couldn't really do like super realistic graphics. So like artistic style kind of filled in a lot of the gaps.

[00:14:51]>> Yeah. No, I agree. Um, I think like it's so funny when if you do start poking around in SimP some more, there's so many like hidden notes and funny things that the devs put in the code and it's and just you could see the personalities behind it and like but I agree with you.

[00:15:08]I think the the care and the love oozes out in things like, you know, there's videos upon videos that I've watched of like comparing animations. That's a big thing for me. like the details in the animations that they bothered to do because it was fun and they loved it.

[00:15:22]And um yeah, the other thing for me, I guess I'm a player who's who played the Sims one first as a kid, was just the insane scope of the game. Like they really just they were like, "Okay, let's take this base and let's go crazy with it." And I don't think any other iteration has like been as ambitious.

[00:15:44]Like the Sims 3 adaptations with the open world was very ambitious for sure.

[00:15:49]Poorly executed. Um but otherwise they they pretty much like took what was in The Sims 2 and tried to bring it in. And The Sims 4, we we don't talk about The Sims 4. So >> yeah, that that's something I sort of discovered as part of my project. Um cuz I I I was familiar obviously with the the major jump from The Sims 1 to The Sims 2, but I was >> I guess I don't think I really considered just how much The Sims 2 like added >> going from Sims 1 to Sims 2. Um >> yeah. Well, I think in your dissertation you kind of wrote that, you know, a lot of The Sims 2 would have been so fresh and untested and kind of like >> brand new ideas and so it kind of makes sense that a lot of the code was filled with bugs.

[00:16:46]>> Yeah. I was surprised at how many like staple Sims features that we we think of when we think of The Sims started with The Sims 2. Yeah. Yeah. So, this uh brings us to the dissertation which I did read because I I find these things interesting. And in my opinion, you did great. It was quite a fun and entertaining read. My eyes glazed over with all the big numbers as you know because I'm not a computer engineer. But I know myself and a lot of other sims were quite tickled by the inclusion of nut futa in >> an official university paper.

[00:17:26]and you got in pictures and you talked about this this guy who's like a baby but not a how much like sort of extra little tidbits. The other one that tickled me a lot was you referring to spaghetti code because as I've learned to mod oh my god >> spaghetti code all over the place.

[00:17:45]>> Yeah.

[00:17:45]>> Was there sort of some other fun things that you kind of snuck in there that you were like if a simmer ever reads this like they might find this kind of funny?

[00:17:53]No, I I don't think I I put any because I wasn't really expecting anyone to ever like stumble across my dissertation and read it. I don't think I put like any Easter eggs in. Uh unfortunately, >> opportunity, man.

[00:18:08]>> I I was I was laughing to myself when I was writing this academic document and referencing stuff like nut futa. Um but I there wasn't really anything else I could do cuz like there's there are certain sections you have to have in in a >> in a dissertation. Um so I was talking to my supervisor at the time. I'm like am I am I doing the right thing? Like this is this isn't really very like professional and academic this stuff I'm including. But it was like no no this is great. This is fine. So >> yeah. Yeah. So, we sort of were talking about how you landed on your project um a little while ago, but what did make you decide to look into Pink Soup? And what was like the hardest stage of the project?

[00:19:03]>> Yeah. So, like I said, I I had bugs on the mind because all of Joe's projects were bug centric. Um, and the only thing that was coming to my mind that would have been interesting to look at was the pink suit. And I I was not particularly keen because obviously uh like I'd never done any sort of reverse engineering before, never really done any debugging of other people's codes before. Um, and I was like, "This is going to be a a major major undertaking to try and even begin with." Um, like at no point throughout any of the project did I have any expectation that I'd actually get anywhere close to figuring out what was going on. Um, so I just kind of like suggested it to Joe and was like, "There's this big bug. Here are all the fan theories.

[00:20:02]maybe I might be able to figure it out.

[00:20:04]One in a million chance. And he was like, "Yes, that's it. That's what you're doing. That sounds that sounds really interesting."

[00:20:11]>> Nice.

[00:20:11]>> Um, but in terms of what the hardest part was, um, I think, ironically, it it was probably actually getting the pink soup to show up consistently. Um, I I wasted the entire first month of that project just testing out different ways to to get it to actually show up. Many of the meetings I had with Joe at the start were just me panicking like, I can't get this can't get this thing to show up. I don't know if I'm even going to have like a project at the end of this.

[00:20:44]>> Oh no. You should have just posted on Tumblr like, "Hey, I need pink I need a pink soup game."

[00:20:51]Well, I I did consider that, but I my main worry was that I I didn't want to like announce it to people and have like people expecting me to actually try and solve it. So, >> yeah. No, that's fair. Were you like on Tumblr at the time? Were you sort of like a, you know, a community watcher?

[00:21:11]Like, >> um, yeah. So, like it's been really weird for me like having my work like get passed around Tumblr because it I didn't have an account, but like obviously when I was playing The Sims 2 more frequently, I would use I I browse various people's blogs >> fairly often to like download mods and stuff. So, it it's been very strange having people who like I looked up to as a mod user and whose mods I used reaching out to me and and thanking me for my work. It's just been quite surreal.

[00:21:47]>> Yeah. Yeah. We we'll talk more about that in a bit. Um I wanted to pass on this is from my friend Siknoi who is also a modder. He's done a really cool mod called vehicle maintenance. He would like us all to know that as a former hair color consultant, it's magenta.

[00:22:04]It's magenta flashing.

[00:22:07]And he told me that I needed to say because in my Tumblr post I was like, I've always known it was purple. I always used to call it purple flashing.

[00:22:15]And then everyone was like, you mean pink. I was like, it's not pink. Anyway, so um he would like us all to know it's actually magenta and the devs should have called it magenta. But anyway, so I've seen you mention a few times like um on different Tumblr posts and emails and things that you only really figured out what was going on with the pink soup probably like 2 3 weeks before your dissertation was actually due, >> which sounds so stressful. Um and that you had to sort of do a lot of last minute rewriting. So, I'm curious like what were what were you thinking beforehand and and what was your dissertation looking like before you sort of really cracked it?

[00:23:00]>> Yeah. So, I mean thankfully I was quite lazy throughout most of my dissertation. Um, like I I had many sort of solutions that I'd come up with that seemed to work one day, but then the next day when I tried them again like they stopped working.

[00:23:18]>> Interesting. What kind of solutions?

[00:23:21]>> Um, I mean, they're all sort of like memory related. I was I was in the right ballpark. Like yeah, I managed to get the pink soup to stop appearing by having Windows like refresh like memory that that was currently stored uh while the game was loading.

[00:23:41]>> Um that stopped working like the day after I I came up with that one. So yeah, I was kind I got like through most of my dissertation and I was while I was writing I was like collecting all the the screenshots and figures that was uh that I should have done while I was doing the practical a few months before.

[00:24:05]>> Yeah.

[00:24:05]>> Um >> a fellow night before it's due person. I respect that.

[00:24:10]>> Yes. Yeah. Well, I was deliberately trying to avoid that with this one. I was trying to like test myself to not do that. Um, so yeah, my my dissertation was just like a theory of like this might be what's causing it. Here's how someone might be able to fix it if they wanted to. Um, >> yeah.

[00:24:29]>> So, while while I was collecting my figures, uh, I realized that my current theory was again something that I could no longer reproduce.

[00:24:41]Um, so I was like, "Oh god, I'm I'm going to have to go back and redo all of the practical." Um, >> no.

[00:24:48]>> And on top of that, I'd also promised my supervisor that I would have the chapter I was writing. I I would give it to him by the end of the week. So I was like, "Oh god." Um, let's say this happened on Monday. And I I promised I'd give it in on Sunday evening.

[00:25:07]>> Or Sunday evening. Yeah. So, I was like, "Oh god, I'm going to have to like redo all of this practical. I'm going have to stop writing this project." Um, and I think I mean, I was basically waking up at 8:00 a.m. in the morning every day and then not going back to bed until like 5:00 a.m.

[00:25:27]>> Will I was pretty sleepd deprived. And then I think come Friday, let's say, um, it was it was late in the evening. I don't think I'd eaten all day. Uh I've just been like stressing out constantly.

[00:25:42]Constantly just staring at this code trying to figure out what was going on.

[00:25:47]>> And it was sort of one of those epiphany moments that you have where >> you just kind of step back and go, let me just gather my thoughts and like think about what is I'm actually looking at rather than trying to brute force this.

[00:26:00]>> Um and yeah, it just something just clicked. I was like, "Wait, but that that can't it can't be that." Like I I feel like my reaction to figuring out was pretty I wasn't very energetic. Like I I I think people would imagine me like jumping around the room and exciting.

[00:26:24]But it was it was more like oh is that it? Have I fixed it? I didn't really believe >> cuz I'd had so many like solutions that I come up with that stopped working and I think >> my reaction there was pretty muted.

[00:26:39]>> Uh that was actually going to be my next question. So you've already answered that one. I was going to say yeah what what was it like when you got to the bottom of it? Like what were you thinking? What were you feeling? So good job with that. I also was going to mention before that um I've I've said this to you before, but it cracked uh Lord Crumbs, Alex and I up when the tipping point for getting pink flashing was putting in his hood deco trees default >> because I think a lot of players could relate to that. Like, oh, let's download all this pretty Lord Crumbs content. Oh no, my game is a pig soup mess.

[00:27:14]Absolute crackup. Sort of got to the bottom of the pig flashing. by the way, just bow down in awe. Um, and then madly rewrote the rest of the dissertation.

[00:27:26]>> What were your what were your supervisor's comments? Like I I think I saw in one Tumblr comment that you did get a distinction. So, props to you.

[00:27:37]>> Yeah. What did your supervisor think?

[00:27:38]What was what were their comments like >> during during the actual like the course of the writing of the dissertation? was pretty he didn't have much feedback which was which is a good thing cuz means there wasn't really anything to rewrite but um after his his his final feedback like the actual grading um was it was just like uh heaps of praise basically uh without trying to like blow smoke up my own bum but it was just like impressed that someone who had never done anything like this before had uh come in and seemingly solved this this this massive issue. Um, and he he specifically called out EA and the laziness of the Legacy Collection.

[00:28:29]>> Amazing.

[00:28:30]>> Which I thought was quite funny. Was he just like, you know, here's here's a student who's never reverse engineered before who's like fixed this bug that you guys said you fixed.

[00:28:42]>> Yeah, I think I think it specifically said, um, here's this student who's who's never done this before who who's fixed this bug and you guys couldn't even be bothered to do it and he charged £25 for a for a re-release.

[00:28:56]>> Yeah. Yeah. Um, I mean, we could talk about Legacy Collection and the re-release all night. Um, but let's let's not do that yet. So, you posted your findings on GitHub, which is quite random, and then what just collapsed because I would have >> Yeah. So, I mean, the the actual patch came a few months after. um >> like if if I'd had more time in my dissertation, I would have done it as part of the dissertation. But yeah, basically after after I submitted the paper, I kind of Yeah, I just went into a coma, I think, for a few months.

[00:29:37]>> Caught up on sleep. All that sleep you lost.

[00:29:39]>> Yeah, I had sort of planned to make make a YouTube video or something about it.

[00:29:46]Um, I was just so exhausted and burnt out that that never never happened. Um, so over Christmas I was like, "Okay, I think I've had enough of a break now.

[00:29:58]Let's let's see if we can turn this into a patch." Um, which I did. Uh, and then obviously like the whole YouTube video thing wasn't going to happen. So I was like, I'm just going to stick this all on GitHub just in case someone comes across it in like 5 years time.

[00:30:17]>> And now here we are. You're welcome.

[00:30:19]>> Yeah. I was not expecting it to take so quickly.

[00:30:23]>> I'd actually I actually don't know who it was who like initially stumbled across your GitHub. Um I heard of it through Pick and Mix Sims. William, he sent it to me and was like, "You've got to like see this." and I've basic I've compiled the code into a like a experimental patch. Do you want to try it out? Because he knew that I it was something that I struggled with. But yeah, up until that point I'm I'm not sure who actually stumbled upon it for the at at first. So thank you to whoever that was. So couple weeks ago, like what two weeks ago, you woke up one morning with messages and emails from >> all these like people in the Sims 2 community. Um what was that like? Um, well, I have a feeling I'm going to use this word a lot, but it was just like surreal. Um, >> like I'd only had one email notification, and that was from Lazy Duchess um asking basically if they could include my work in uh TS2 extender for for Legacy.

[00:31:28]>> I was like, okay, maybe like cuz I specifically thanked Lazy Touches on my GitHub page. maybe maybe just like stumbled across it that way.

[00:31:37]>> Um so I was like, "Yeah, that's fine."

[00:31:39]>> I didn't really think anything of of it.

[00:31:41]I went and checked the GitHub page and saw that Pick and Mix had uh sent me a message asking if I was ever planning on like compiling the code and releasing it.

[00:31:52]>> Uh which I which I did. Um and then I I thought that was it basically. And it wasn't until my dissertation, uh, my supervisor, sorry, um, texted me out of the blue in the afternoon, it was like, "What's your email?" Cuz I've got a couple of people like trying to get in contact with me to find out how to get in contact with you.

[00:32:14]>> Oh, really?

[00:32:15]>> That's that's a bit strange. Uh, sure.

[00:32:19]Here's my email. Feel free to like uh direct them my way. M >> um and then yeah that's that's that's when Pick and Mix emailed me and yeah >> that's so cool and then you got a random email from me. sorry about that because basically like yeah I read through everything you'd done and all your findings and everything and I was just like I just want to say hi and I had all these questions and I I can't remember how many questions I emailed you but I was like what this is amazing um just as someone who has struggled with pink soup for years but you were so gracious in your reply.

[00:33:04]Thank you to for replying to me. All right.

[00:33:07]>> Just this random person from Australia who likes The Sims 2.

[00:33:11]Um, so you weren't even on Tumblr really uh before you blew up on Tumblr, but what's it been like kind of seeing the community reception and seeing your inbox blow up and all that kind of thing?

[00:33:28]>> Um, yeah, it's been it's been it's been really nice. Uh it's it's been slightly slightly scary only because before this all happened, I was I was always kind of someone who like tried not to have too much of a a social media presence. So I was quite a a private individual. Um >> sorry, >> but it's been kind of a weird shift going from someone who's like anonymous to someone who a few hundred people around the world know very well. Um >> Yes.

[00:34:02]The the other the other thing was like I really hadn't thought about The Sims 2 or anything related to my project for like 6 months before it blew up. And then I've suddenly got all these people asking me these questions and my my memory and my knowledge is a little bit rusty and I'm trying to like pick things out of my brain >> so that you probably answer people's questions. Yeah.

[00:34:28]>> Yeah. Yep. Yeah. I can imagine it being quite strange and bizarre um to suddenly have hundreds of people knowing your name and who you are. But that's kind of why I wanted to do this interview just to like I guess introduce you to everyone and be like this is Will and he he likes the Sims 2. One thing I was also wondering about is what other games you're into. I was gonna ask this at the start of the interview and I forgot, but like you said that Sims 2 was like last on your list for for modding.

[00:35:02]>> It was only last cuz like I had the least amount of experience modding with it.

[00:35:06]>> Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, what are your other sort of favorite games that you like?

[00:35:11]>> Um, so I mainly like old school role playing games unsurprisingly as I mentioned Dungeons and Dragons earlier. Um, >> solid choice.

[00:35:26]>> Uh, big fan. I I'll just list off a couple like, um, Morowind, uh, Fallout one, uh, DSX, um, Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines.

[00:35:42]Um, but I recently also started getting into more horror games like Silent Hill one and two.

[00:35:49]>> Stuff like that.

[00:35:50]>> Yeah. So, your patch seems to be very successful so far, which is great. Um, and a lot of people are like reporting that their games are running super duper well. They're not getting the pink that they used to get. Um, are you aware that people have also been saying that the game just feels smoother in general?

[00:36:12]>> Yes, I am aware of that. That was something I'd noticed myself, strangely.

[00:36:17]So I I've noticed that like immediately when I loaded up with your patch in I was like, "Oh, the camera just feels a bit like a bit smoother." Like do you think that's just due to the same thing like just having extra like cing? Yeah, I imagine it's just it it's probably because the game isn't because the it was coded to like run a load of extra code as soon as it hit 2 GB of memory usage, which is really easy to do, it seems.

[00:36:47]>> Yes.

[00:36:47]>> Um because the patch is either completely removing all that extra code it's calling or just pushing it back to a later point, >> I wouldn't be surprised that that is like slightly improving performance somewhat.

[00:37:01]Yeah, that's really cool. So, for those of you who haven't read Will's dissertation and maybe haven't read your layman's terms explanation on Tumblr, what was pig soup?

[00:37:16]>> Okay. Um, >> you're like, "Damn it, I thought you weren't going to ask this question."

[00:37:22]>> Well, it did make me laugh when you were grilling me about the whole layman's terms thing um on your Twitch stream. Um cuz there is only you can only make it so simple without like relying on >> some kind of jargon. Um >> yeah, analogies are good. Like if I think if you can get a good analogy for it >> um >> like my friend Gummy said the way she interpreted it was >> imagine memory as rows of books in a library that are all storing texture information. And if the information was in certain rows, game goes nope and turns pink when it tries to retrieve the memory.

[00:38:06]>> Yeah. Okay. I I'll try and do it as an analogy then. Um let's say um memory is a big empty cardboard box. Uh, and as the game is loading your neighborhoods, um, it's filling up this cardboard box with all the information about the objects that are in your neighborhood or your lot that you're currently loading. Once the box is about half full, the game starts doing some additional additional checks for some reason. Um, and for whatever reason, whether it be a bug or intentional design, these additional checks the game starts doing go wrong basically, and the game considers any other objects that are put into the box after the halfway point to be invalid. It refuses to do anything with them, which is why your game explodes into a horrendous sea of pink.

[00:39:12]>> Pink disco is what we used to call it on Twitch. That's why I have a little emoji that's a disco dancer flashing magenta.

[00:39:18]>> Yes.

[00:39:18]>> Yep. I think that's good. That's good.

[00:39:20]That's that's that's what we need to do today.

[00:39:23]>> Very simple. Very simple.

[00:39:24]>> Very simple.

[00:39:26]>> Just, you know, hours of staring at what's the word you keep using?

[00:39:30]Obfiscated code.

[00:39:33]>> Yes. obfiscated.

[00:39:34]>> What does that word mean? Please explain to me.

[00:39:36]>> Um, basically, if you don't want someone like me digging around in your code, it it's just a way of deliberately making your code as confusing as possible to read so people can't figure out what's going on.

[00:39:55]Um, there's various methods you can use.

[00:39:58]Um, The Sims 2 likes to hide it all in big blocks of data that you can't actually see, um, unfortunately.

[00:40:07]>> Um, or they're just throwing lots of they'll spread code across lots of different chains that get called and some of them lead to dead ends, some of them Yeah, it's a real pain >> for spaghetti code. Yeah. Mhm. Say no more. I get it. Yeah. I read that word like six times in your dissertation. I was like, I think I know what it means.

[00:40:33]Me sitting here with my English major just like I think I think I know what that word means. So on the I guess just general performance of the game and the fact that you know you re you actually really struggled to get pink to to happen. I'm really curious because over the years, obviously, this game's 20 years old now, and our tech is way newer and way crazier than I think, as you put it, Sims 4, Sims 2's 2004 puny little mind could have ever comprehended. To what extent do you think that computer specs actually matter for The Sims 2?

[00:41:14]Because personally, I've found that like newer hardware, you know, a fast SSD is going to get your game loading quicker.

[00:41:23]Lots of RAM is going to get your game loading quicker. New graphics cards seem to maybe help. Like, what are your what are your thoughts?

[00:41:32]>> Yeah, there's always going to be sort of a a cut off point because the game is it can't use any more than 4 GB of your RAM. it can't use any more than 4 GB of your of the memory in your graphics card. Um, so it's mainly down to to speed. So if you've got a a CPU that's faster, uh, it's got more cores, so the game can like process more tasks at the same time.

[00:42:00]>> Um, but that's that's that's basically it. Like if if you're buying a a graphics card with uh 32 gigs of memory thinking you can stuff the game with like lots of high-res textures. Um it's just not possible cuz it can it can only use 4 GB of that. So it's it's just it's just the speed of the components rather than like their capacity or how powerful they are.

[00:42:26]>> H okay. That's cool to know. I think yeah it's it's interesting. I felt like for a little while having a newer graphics card actually meant the game ran worse than having an older one. But I think a lot of people with like the really new cards have been saying actually no. It seems to it seems to actually help a little bit. Like it seems to improve the game performance.

[00:42:48]So it's interesting that yeah that may just be down to speed rather than anything else. In the first email that I sent you, um, I sent you a couple of questions regarding like older pink soup fixes that we we mere mortals who can't reverse engineer code have been trying to use for the last few years to like manage this bug of of pink soup. And I know you've had a lot of questions on these, but I thought it'd be good to just like sort of go through them and sum up like what's actually helpful, what's actually not helpful. like now that we have this patch and the the landscape has changed a little bit. So firstly, a fairly obvious one is uh and that I asked you about in our email was graphics rules maker and and running that on the game during install basically. Um, in your dissertation you did write a section where you were playing around with forced texture memory and it seemed like it did diddly squat, but in general, do you feel like graphics rules maker is still the go?

[00:43:55]>> Uh, yeah. I mean, I I personally just use the the graphics rule file that [ __ ] with the legacy collection cuz it's like sorted out of the box. You don't need to like mess around with graphics rules maker at all. It just works fine as it is. Like there there isn't any issue with graphics rules maker. It it still has uses. Um like there are certain settings in there that you can turn on that my game will just refuse to refuse to launch if if some of those settings aren't on. The only thing I was skeptical about was the whole like setting texture memory to fix pink soup because um from what I could tell like whatever that value was, it had like no effect on anything in game >> um for whatever reason. I don't I don't think the game uses it for any calculations whatsoever. Um, my my theory is is that it just it reads the value that's in that file and then sets the the base graphic settings using that um like the first time you launch the game. So like high, medium, or low.

[00:45:00]>> Yeah. Right. The one thing that sort of tied into that setting was if you used DXVK on Windows, it was recommended that you then had a DXVK do config file or conf file where you put in the same value I think that you'd used in your set texture memory thing and set it as like a D3D9 available memory or something. So I'm curious about your thoughts on DXVK and you know if that's a good thing to try um if you know that particular value still actually matters.

[00:45:43]Um or not really.

[00:45:45]>> Um yeah, so the setting texture memory in DXVK. Um I mean maybe that's why DXVK didn't work for me. I forgot to do that. Um but uh I I know DXVK has its own like memory handling system, so it probably takes like a lot of the weight off the off the game. um cuz I I don't think the game is doing a good enough job to begin with. Um personally, um but I'd say if you're running the game on on Windows, the DXVK is is something you you can try if you're if you're having like stability or or performance issues. Um for me, it's never it's never works.

[00:46:31]Like the games always run significantly worse if I'm using DXVK or it it just tends to crash a lot more frequently.

[00:46:39]Um, so it's not like a you must use this. It's it's more like a try this out if if you're having issues.

[00:46:47]>> Yeah. Um, another really popular one, yeah, is the empty standby memory list.

[00:46:52]And it was interesting when you were talking before about how during your um your masters, you were actually like forcibly trying to empty and refresh Windows memory as something that might have helped. So, do you think that it's still worth um having Windows clean out its memory every so often?

[00:47:13]>> Um I keep flip flip-flopping on this. Um >> so I mean I when I was doing my project, I was not familiar that empty standby list was something that people were using. Um it wasn't until someone asked me about it recently that I became aware of it. Um, so I I I did do a bit of research because I I I was unfamiliar with the with the concept of standby memory. It's basically just Windows like using parts of your memory to store important data for applications that you have been using. So um the next time you open them, it's just a lot faster. um the game can just not the game that the operating system can just pull that data that's in standby and reuse it rather than having to >> re reallocate it all over again. And and Linux does something similar as well. So it's not just a weird Windows thing. Uh that was something I found out. So um it's a bit odd that only people on Windows are using a specific program to clear clear out all this cacheed memory.

[00:48:22]M >> um but so I think the theory was that the game couldn't use any of this standby memory. Um >> I think so. Yeah.

[00:48:33]>> Yeah. So like the way Windows should be handling it is that it's called this memory and standby. But if if an application needs more memory then every anything that's in standby can just be given to that application. Um there was a bug in Windows 10 around about 2017 2018 when that wasn't happening. So standby memory was just continu continuing to pile up basically.

[00:49:01]Um, and that's like I when I was doing research on it on an empty standby list for the Sims 2, um, a lot of the threads I was seeing linked relating to standby memory were from that time when the bug was present in Windows 10. M >> um I I have been doing some testing on and off and I I've I've launched the game when 50% is currently in use and the other 50% is fully in standby. Um so if the game isn't able to use anything in standby, theoretically it shouldn't like be able to launch because there is no like free >> memory. M but I I have seen the game uh like being given memory from standby to then use uh during while you're playing the game basically.

[00:50:00]So >> I I don't think you need it. Um I mean people on Linux aren't having to do this. Linux is doing a very similar thing. Um, and I think it's just one of those another one of those things that people are desperate to look for a fix and just >> any other thing.

[00:50:22]>> And maybe at one point in time back in 2017 18 it did help for a little while and now it's like not really a thing anymore.

[00:50:29]>> Yeah. And then the other sort of I guess fixes people recommend for helping with pink are to keep your cache files clean and occasionally to redo your thumbnail files. Um and that was something that Gummy Lot asked you about and Gummy Lot did a bit of testing. I I can't remember. I might have forgotten to tell you this, Will, but when she blew up her thumbnails file for her creator sim stuff to like a pretty high amount and it all went pink. So interesting. Like maybe it's still worth keeping those files clean and small.

[00:51:10]>> May how how large we talking?

[00:51:12]>> Let me let me get the number cuz I did forget to send this to you. Wait, this bloody fly. I'm going to kill it. I swear. Uh 153 megabytes she got it up to.

[00:51:22]>> Okay.

[00:51:23]>> And then yeah, she had pink faces in in Cass. I'll send you this picture in a minute.

[00:51:30]>> Well, I wouldn't be surprised if like all the objects in the game. I would not be surprised if the game was also putting all of the thumbnails that are in those package files also into memory. So, I wouldn't be surprised if that was also pushing it over the threshold for the pink soup to like appear.

[00:51:51]>> Um, so I guess if that is happening, it is probably wise to occasionally like refresh your thumbnails just because the game is pretty memory starved. Um, so if you got these huge thumbnail files, tens of thousands of thumbnails the game is putting in memory, um, you're probably more likely going to experience the game crashing when it when it runs out.

[00:52:16]>> Yeah. Yeah, fair enough. And this is a pretty obvious one, but just because we have this fabulous pink soup fix, does that mean we should start putting really large texture files into the game, like high res? Well, the thing with textures, testing high-res textures was like the first thing I tried when I was trying to get the pink soup, >> and it made zero difference on my machine. Um, even when I was running the game through a virtual machine with very little video memory >> really.

[00:52:51]>> Wow.

[00:52:52]>> Like, so textures and text textures are handled by the graphics card. So, and The Sims 2 is not a particularly graphically demanding game to begin with. So, I I think um stuff like I think your graphics card will have a lot more room to store stuff uh in its memory as opposed to your RAM where the game seems to dump all of the object data and stuff like that. Um, so in my opinion, high-res textures might be okay.

[00:53:32]>> Uh, if if it is all being handled by your graphics card >> and you have a good graphics card.

[00:53:38]>> Yeah.

[00:53:39]>> Yeah.

[00:53:39]>> Uh, it should be fine because the the game isn't using much of your graphics card's memory anyway. So, it should have enough to spare. It's more like the complexity of objects and how many objects there are. there are rather than how high resolution your textures are, I think.

[00:53:56]>> Okay, that's fascinating because I would have assumed that yeah, the textures were also handled by that same memory that's doing the material passing for the for the shader. So, that's really interesting to hear. It's actually a bit of a different system. Now, obviously, this one's very close to my heart, but I I do play The Sims 2 on Linux because that was the first thing for me that actually fixed Pig Soup. Um, and I've seen someone ask you on Tumblr about this, but it does seem that the game runs better on Linux than on Windows still. I asked you about this as well, and I know you've replied to this already, but you sort of were suggesting that it's some probably something to do with the way that Linux recreates basically like a 2004 to 2009 game environment for it to run in. That you think that's why it sort of does a bit better on Linux?

[00:54:49]Yeah, maybe. Um >> maybe so obviously on Windows there there are some compat compatibility stuff that Windows modern Windows is doing. Um but it seems to be kind of handsoff like is just redirecting the old old Windows code that the game relies on to more like recent updated versions of the same code. um which like I wouldn't be surprised if the game's not particularly well equipped to handle that. Um whereas on Linux you are kind of forced to run the game with all these different compatibility rappers like Proton or Wine or DXVK. Um which are probably trying to recreate the code that the game is actually expecting rather than it just being >> like chewed off to some some modern modern updated version. Um >> and I I I believe that those compatibility rappers on Linux do have their own memory handling systems um >> which are likely taking over from the game rather than what Windows is doing is just letting it do its own thing. Basically, it the those rappers are probably stepping in at certain points going you're being stupid. Let me >> let let me try and fix what you're doing so you don't like blow up basically.

[00:56:22]>> Yeah. Yep. Nice. Well, like obviously it's not to say that people never get pink on Linux like people still do. I've seen it a very small handful of times while while live streaming which puts extra strain on my computer. Um, and while like loading in and out of a ton of lots, like just in and out, in and out with, you know, lot imposter settings turned up with RPC and this and that and this and that, and it's like, okay, I see a little bit of pink, but not since putting your patch in. So, I think I speak for everyone when we say thanks um for for the pink soup patch that's um that you've managed to make. It's pretty amazing. Uh, but you didn't stop there because I'm annoying and very persistent. And in my first email to you, I wrote, "And finally, my last only half serious, so please feel free to throw a shoe at me question. Have you ever heard of The Sims 2 object limit?

[00:57:22]After reading through your findings, I'm more convinced than ever that this is another bug that occurs due to some kind of fail safe being triggered for objects being simulated. But oh boy, is it above my pay grade to try and understand more than that. So, if you ever want another project, dot dot dot. And I think I put like a laughing face. Uh, sorry about that. I was quite um I really wasn't expecting a serious reply from you on that. I I thought you were just going to be like, "Lol, nah."

[00:57:54]Basically, like, nah, not interested.

[00:57:58]Um, but you were so gracious in your reply and you were like, I've never heard of that, but like can you direct me to some links so I can understand what it is? Uh, which of course made me then reply with a whole essay about this this object limit thing. For me, when I read your dissertation and I read that you'd done this like reverse engineering approach to figuring out was what was going on with pink, my brain just kind of lit up and I was like, could we do the same thing for object limit?

[00:58:27]Is this possible that we could just go, let's let's run this debugging software while this crash is happening and can can we put these puzzle pieces together and finally get this last bug sorted?

[00:58:38]So, what did you sort of honestly think when I asked when I asked about the object limit? Um, were you like were you really interested to look at it or you just kind of like who are you and why are you annoying me?

[00:58:51]>> No, I I was definitely sort of I was intrigued. Um, I like like I said, it been several months since I'd done any sort of this work. So, I was I was very rusty and I was kind of like I'm very like out of practice with this now. I don't know if I'm going to be able to like just jump back into it and and figure this out. Um, and then when you sent me through all the the explanations and the theories about what caused the object limit, that's when I started to break out into a bit of a sweat. You're throwing around like phrases like OBJDs and OBJs. I was like, "Oh god, I don't know anything about CMP. Um, this sounds like it's going to be a nightmare to solve, but I will I will poke around like just in case just in case like um it happens to be like really simple.

[00:59:49]>> Um, so so you sent me your >> my downloads folder which I busted for you. Yes. I saved you a month. you know that month you spent trying to get big clashing like it would have taken you a month to get >> enough objects to bust the object limit.

[01:00:04]>> So >> I I was trying to help in my own way.

[01:00:10]>> Oh yeah, I appreciate it.

[01:00:12]>> And um yeah, so what was your process for kind of Yeah. starting to poke at the object limit once you had my folder in my hood? Um the I mean to be honest, like I said in my Tumblr post, I really wish I'd done it for my dissertation. I basically did nothing. Um, like the the I had some trouble initially cuz what I was trying to do was I loaded up the game your downloads folder and my my initial plan was to like catch the crash in the debugger and then trace backwards to try and find where it was coming from. Um, that that wasn't seeming to work for me for some reason. Um, so what I did instead, I just open up the crash log.

[01:01:05]Um, it' been a while since I'd looked at a crash log and I kind of forgot that it kind of tells you exactly where the crash came from.

[01:01:12]>> So I could have just sent you some crash logs. Oh well, >> maybe. Yeah. Um, so I I saw the exception address, which is the address of the exact line of code where the game crashed from. uh went to that in the decompiler and immediately saw, oh, this is doing something with something that's called a pointer. Um, which is basically just um rather than physical data being stored uh in in a variable. Um, do I need to explain what a variable is?

[01:01:47]>> No, I understand variables. I make sense to mods. You're good. Ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra rather than storing like a physical value in a in a variable um you store an address that points to where the like the value lives.

[01:02:02]>> Okay. Yep.

[01:02:03]>> So that that's all a pointer is. But the the thing with pointers is you need to check that the address that the the pointer is actually exists or like it's there's actually an address there basically and I immediately saw the game was not doing that. I was like okay it can't be that simple but let me just try and put the most the most basic simple check that would be about three lines of codes. Um, that was it. I don't know what else to say.

[01:02:40]>> Your video like that you posted on the Tumblr post being like, "Guys, it's right in front of you." Like, >> yeah.

[01:02:48]>> Oh, man. So, I mean, it was so funny because I sent you this big explanation of object limit, you know, all the theories, the fact that some people were like, "Doesn't exist. It's not a thing."

[01:03:01]Some people were like, "It's per category." And I was like, "No, it's not." And I was thinking, A, there's no way he's going to be interested to fix this. B, it's going to take ages. And see, like, maybe we could get more people involved so you could help some help with this one. You know, maybe we could get William and Lazy Duchess and more people to look at it. And he I woke up one morning to a message from Will.

[01:03:26]And it was like what, two days after I'd sent you the folder and he was just like, "Ah, you want to test a fix?" Yes.

[01:03:35]Um because yeah, I've been dealing with these these crashes for a long time. Um, and I know that's because I have way too much content in my game and you probably are horrified whenever you see my build by catalog, but it was quite shocking to say the least to have a fix that quickly. Absolutely hilarious. And I think you said to me like that this is something you learn on like what day one of computer school basically >> basically. Yeah.

[01:04:08]>> So absolutely amazing. I don't think you have any idea how much you've um you've changed my Sims 2 life. But I guess this begs the question is what are you going to do now?

[01:04:19]See, I've been telling I've been telling you you need to put your feet up, relax, and just enjoy playing some Sims 2 now that you fixed it and it's it's going to work, but um I know you're being bombarded with, you know, can you look at this and maybe could you do this, but you know what what are you actually interested in doing?

[01:04:38]Um well I mean I think my parents would hope that I or say my priority is to find a job. Um >> those postuni woes.

[01:04:51]>> Yeah. So that's that's I probably need to sort my life out at at some point.

[01:04:57]Um, but but Sims 2 wise, like yeah, I have been getting a lot of requests for like different bugs or features people want to see in the game.

[01:05:10]Um, and I I I'm going to try and like poke around slowly. I I I can't promise I'm going to come some like a Sims 2 workhorse who's constantly churning out different patches every week.

[01:05:23]>> Unacceptable.

[01:05:25]>> No, I know. I know. Um, >> it took you two days to fix the object limit, dude. That's You've set a precedent.

[01:05:31]>> Well, that that was I think that was only because it was a crash. Like crashes crashes are surprisingly easy to figure out what's happening with stuff like figuring out bugs with imposters.

[01:05:45]>> Um, stuff like that is because there's no crash. you kind of have to it's more in the line of pink soup where you have to invest do a lot of investigative work and following around leads in the code >> beginning >> yeah so the stuff like that is going to take way more time um >> like there are many things about the Sims 2 that need improving that I would like to do um but yeah I I can't promise I'm I'm going to be like constantly churning out mods unfortunately which is why I I I don't want to take anyone's money yet because uh I I can't promise that dedication >> I think well I mean my last question was going to be how can people thank you and where can people donate to you because you have a lot of people who want to donate to you and I know you don't have a job so let us pay you but um I think it would be more like a a thank you rather than a hey can I pay you to do more kind of thing. Yeah.

[01:06:50]>> That makes you feel any better.

[01:06:52]>> But I understand. I understand. And it's a very noble sentiment.

[01:06:56]>> No. Yeah. It's just maybe it's sort of imposter syndrome, but like I I know in my head that those two patches, the pink soup and the object limit are like incredibly basic and incredibly small.

[01:07:10]Like I even though the pink soup took me a long time, like there's not not really a lot of work was required to actually fix it. So like >> I I don't I don't feel like it's not really worth paying for or like sending me money to say thank you if if that makes sense. because it it was like to put it into perspective, the both versions of the pink suit patch modify a single line of code in the game >> and the object limit is just adding three lines of code to three different parts of the game. Like they're tiny.

[01:07:48]It's not it's not worth sending me money for in my opinion. I think it's more about like the the investment that people have already paid um to try to fix it and then it's like they want to then pass some investment and some thanks to you like you know buying new SSDs, new computers, new graphics cards, doing this, doing that, doing this, doing that. It's and it's been plaguing people for so long. So, it's almost like the time and investment that we've made that we now want to I don't know pass on to you somehow to be like I'm okay. I'm okay. I don't feel an overwhelming desire to send you money. I am going to send you a downloads folder.

[01:08:29]I think you could you could consider a Kofhei, >> you know. Also, um maybe maybe a more helpful thing would be if you need a referee for your job applications.

[01:08:41]>> That's true.

[01:08:42]>> Just send them my number. How long have you known Will? um 2 weeks.

[01:08:48]So, what kind of a uh what kind of a mod would you make for The Sims 2, do you reckon? Like, if it was like a gameplay mod, what would you be interested in?

[01:08:57]>> Gameplay mod.

[01:08:58]>> Yeah. What would you be interested in modding about? Like game play?

[01:09:02]>> God.

[01:09:04]Um I mean, the whole community time thing does get on my nerves a bit. Uh, I've learned to accept it over the years. Um, >> you know, I made one of that, right?

[01:09:20]>> Yes, I am aware of that. If you can see that. Um, >> yeah. What would you do with it if if you could mod it?

[01:09:30]>> Uh, well, I've only ever tried the old one, Chris.

[01:09:35]>> Chris. Yeah.

[01:09:37]>> Um, but it was just kind of janky. I think it it sort of worked, but it like it's not like you came back and the time on your home lot had changed to whatever the time was that you left the community lot. You kind of had to start at the time you left your house and then wait for it to tick down basically.

[01:10:00]>> Um, but I'm I don't think that I'm not sure if that's even possible in the Sims 2.

[01:10:07]There's been multiple attempts to mod it um over the years because as you can no doubt relate to a lot of people have been annoyed by it. Lazy Duchess did some stuff with it and as part of their story progression mod I think and tried to do like a a lot time sync mod where it was like it wasn't like that. I think it it attempted to sync the time properly. It's interesting though cuz this is probably an unpopular opinion. I think it's definitely annoying when you are playing with just like one Sim or maybe two Sims and then you have like you have to just sit there watching the game on triple speed.

[01:10:49]>> But if you have like a family and you send one member out for a few hours and then they come home and you can still play everybody else in their day, >> it does mean you're you're kind of replaying the same day a few times which might be a bit annoying. But for me, I actually like that. I like that I can like I can play through George's day and then I can play through uh Harry's day and then I can play through like >> lots of different Sims days. So, it's interesting. It's a tough one to fix.

[01:11:20]Obviously, like if I could write my own Sims game, we'd just have sort of little open neighborhoods so you could just hop around and >> play whatever Sim you wanted. But yeah.

[01:11:31]So, but you think you would try to mod it so the time synced up?

[01:11:34]>> Yeah, I think I' I would just have it so it works like how it works in games after The Sims 2 where you go to a community lot, you arrive at the time you like left your house, maybe add a bit of time to like simulate traveling there.

[01:11:53]>> Um, and then when you go back to your house, it's the time you left the community lot basically.

[01:12:00]Yep, fair enough. I wouldn't download that mod.

[01:12:04]>> No, I I don't think it's something you could fix and then have everyone be pleased with.

[01:12:10]>> Oh, no. No. But do do you know um I was going to say this to you earlier when you said you were getting requests, like just straight up requests for mods. You got to make mods that are interesting for you and that you actually want cuz otherwise like you just burn out on it and it's like I don't actually want this mod. Like I think a lot of modders can relate to that that you just got to do what you want to do and if other people happen to enjoy your take on it then cool and if they don't oh well.

[01:12:40]>> Yeah.

[01:12:41]>> Yeah.

[01:12:42]>> You know. All right. Well, um to wrap up, Will is currently refusing all donations, so we can't donate to him. We can download his fabulous patches from his GitHub. So, there'll be links below for that. Thank you for joining me today and for chatting with me.

[01:12:59]>> Um, I look forward to seeing what else you managed to fix with our beloved game and any any fun mods that you end up coming out with, but I do Yes, I do think you need to and deserve to just put your feet up and relax and actually enjoy playing the game a little bit.

[01:13:18]>> Yes, >> while looking for a job. Fingers crossed I don't take a a break that's super long and then I just ride off into the sunset and you never hear from me again.

[01:13:30]>> I mean, you could. You do you, man.

[01:13:33]>> It's your life.

[01:13:34]>> No, >> I understand. But yeah, I think that'll do it for today. Do you want to say bye?

[01:13:40]>> Goodbye, everyone. Thank you. Thank you for listening to me ramble for however long this has been.

[01:13:45]>> A while.

[01:13:48]So, there you go everybody. I really hope that you enjoyed that chat. I certainly had a lot of fun. I apologize for all my random laughter. I tend to laugh way too much when I speak if you didn't notice. Got to work on that if I want to have a future in podcasting or interviewing. I guess there was a question that I had written down that I'd actually forgot to ask Will. and that was what would he do if either A EA approached him about taking his fixes and patches and putting them officially into Legacy Edition or B suddenly mysteriously magically just came out with their own fixes that were basically identical or in other words took them without asking. Um, and because I forgot to actually ask these questions live, I messaged them to him after the fact. And I will put his response up here, though, so you guys can read through it and have a look at what he said. And hopefully you can hear it in that charming English voice that he does have rather than my loud and obnoxious Australian voice. But I really hope that you guys enjoyed this interview and enjoyed this video. I know it is a bit out of the blue since I haven't been very active on YouTube lately, but that may all be about to change. So stay tuned for that. If you would like to thank Will, I know that he is just really appreciating seeing, you know, screenshots of before and after, you know, with the patch, without the patch. And I know that he's just really um he's a very humble and very sweet guy. And I think just, you know, to say thanks goes a long way. So, if you haven't thanked Will, um, please do so.

[01:15:23]And if you're in England and you know of any jobs going, maybe see if you can hook him up with a job. But anyway, guys, that's going to do it for today.

[01:15:31]If you haven't subscribed to the channel, consider subscribing. Hit that like button if you enjoyed the video.

[01:15:36]Uh, if you'd be interested to see more like modd interviews or simmer interviews, do let me know. I've always sort of thought it would be really fun to have like a Sims podcast, but I don't know, it might be too hard and timeconuming. So anywh who everybody take care have a great rest of your day and I'll see you next time. Bye for now.