SimRetriever

This program gives people a chance to retrieve sims from an unreadable or corrupt neighborhood. If your neighborhood is working fine, there is no need to use this program.

The SimRetriever will examine your Characters folder and add a Sim Description to your neighborhood for each missing sim that it finds. This will allow you to use Sim Surgery in SimPE to extract your sim's appearance and use that appearance to clone your sim properly.

The SimRetriever works with all expansion and stuff packs, up to and including The Sims 2 Mansion & Garden Stuff.

Requirements:
- The SimRetriever is released under the GNU General Public License.
- The program uses some DLLs from SimPE and DatGen; they are included in the zip file.
- You need the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/down...s.aspx?id=20137

Installation:
To install, just download SimRetriever.zip and unzip it. Run the EXE from the unzipped location. This is "alpha" software and is still in development; it is not guaranteed to work and may corrupt your lot. Be sure to backup your game before using this tool.

I have included the source code in SimRetrieverSource.zip. There is no need to download this file unless you are a C# programmer who wishes to look at or modify the code.

Please do not download unless you intend to:
- Backup your save game first. I will not be responsible for corrupted neighborhoods.
- Be prepared to have your neighborhood corrupted and to restore from your backup.

Running under OS/X:
Please read this thread for information about running the SimRetriever under OS/X:
http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=366580

How to use:

1) Backup your save game. Make sure that you are not running the game or any program which accesses your save game, such as SimPE or BodyShop.

2) Run the SimRetriever

3) Select the neighborhood that you want to retrieve.

3.A) You can use the Browse button to find a neighborhood package anywhere on your hard drive. The neighborhood must have a Characters folder which contains valid user packages.

3.B) If your neighborhood no longer has a neighborhood package, you can select any file in your neighborhood folder. For example, you can select the neighborhood PNG, or create a text file and give it the name of the neighborhood package.

4) If your neighborhood package appears to be OK, but SimPE has problems opening your neighborhood, then you can ask the SimRetriever to generate a temporary neighborhood and add the sims to that neighborhood instead. There is no harm in selecting this option, even if you have no problems opening your neighborhood in SimPE.

5) When you click on the Finish button, the SimRetriever will add sims to your neighborhood and then display a list of all sims added. *

6) Your original neighborhood package will be renamed to <original name>_<number>.bkp.

7) Open your neighborhood using SimPE and use Sim Surgery to extract your retrieved sims.

At a later time, you can clone the packages in BodyShop to clean them, then delete the original packages. Here is a tutorial from Pixel Trade on how to do this step:
http://pixel-trade.livejournal.com/16091.html

Please note that you do not have to do the final step in Pixel Trade's tutorial (Package Sim to File) unless you want to share your sim. If you are just trying to re-create your own neighborhood, you can skip that step. Remove the original unclean package and use the cloned package to recreate your sim in CAS.

8) Once you have finished using Sim Surgery, restore from your backup. **

Notes:
* At this time, all sims will be added as male toddlers. This will not effect your ability to use SimSurgery on your female sims or sims of any other age.
** The SmRetriever.might be able to be used as a quick and dirty way to add sims to your hood, but it is safer to extract via SimPE, clone via BodyShop, and then recreate in CAS. If you decide to keep the sims that the SmRetriever adds to your hood, you are on your own; this has not been tested. At this time, I really see this program as a way of retrieving sims who would otherwise be lost forever.


Additional Credits:
marka93, for the idea for this program.

Andi8104, for the original LotExpander.

Karol Rybak (phervers), for the original Sims2Pack Clean Installer Quaxi and Peter and Inge Jones, for SimPE:
http://sims.ambertation.de/

DarkMatter for DatGen:
http://community.simtropolis.com/fi...-6-0b-complete/

gummilutt, Quatchi, and alisonfan, for feedback and testing.