Hi all - new to posting in the forums, so I hope this isn't breaking any rules. I looked at the "Please Read Before Posting" resources but didn't see my question answered there.

Anyway, as many of you are aware, last year EA discontinued Origin in favor of the new EA App, and this had the unintended consequence of making the Edit In Game feature of Create A World no longer work.

There are plenty of threads across the internet from a year ago about bypasses to continue using Origin; however, I haven't found many posts more recent than October 2023. The most recent thing I found was this thread on the EA forum from two weeks ago that still suggests downloading an old version of Origin from a sketchy site in order to get around the EA App issue. I also saw another thread that suggested the issue was now resolved, but when I tried using Edit In Game with EA App still installed I had the same error.

I am new to using Create A World, and the first time I tried to use the Edit In Game feature, it opened the Sims 3 launcher, which is apparently not what should happen. Then I came across this file from 2011 to bypass an issue that apparently existed pre-EA App and tried that out. The first time I tried it, the game started to load and then the game crashed after a while. Every other time I tried using it, the game crashed almost immediately.

My question is, is there a 2024 update to how one can use the Edit In Game feature of Create A World while also using the EA App? Is the strategy of using an old version of Origin still the correct procedure for utilizing this feature? Or is there a newer strategy? If the former, are there any tips for avoiding security issues associated with doing this? I saw in another thread that the issue with EA App was fixed, but in my experience it still appears broken.

Thanks in advance for your guidance! I've always wanted to try making my own world, and fifteen years after the game's release I hope that I didn't wait too long to finally do it.

Here's the most recent thread I'm familiar with where alternatives / workarounds were discussed. You may want to skip to the last page and start with the most recent discoveries, but hopefully there's something in there that works for you.
If none of those solutions worked, feel free to bump that thread and let people know what issue/error you encounter and some of the creators following that thread may be able to help

Geat that you are looking into this- I've had people ask here too:
https://modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=441595

Please, if anyone is reading and has had this issue, please let us know what you have tried, and if you managed to make it work, please post what you did.

I think it's possible to run CAW's Edit in Game function work in the EA app (for Windows):
1. Locate Sims 3 Create a World on your desktop or search it if you don't have it on your desktop. (I don't fully remember it's original location because I did this a while ago, but I think it's located at C:\Program Files (x86)\Electronic Arts)
2. Copy or cut the entire folder that CAW.exe is in (it's named "Sims 3 Create a World Tool").
3. Paste the folder in "C:\Program Files\EA Games". The Sims 3's folder should also be there.
4. Delete the original folder.
5. Edit in Game should work now.

Hi, thank you for the response. I am a little confused, however. On my computer my Sims 3 folder is saved in "C:\Users\[MyName]\Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3", as is my Create A World folder. Are you saying that the game should instead be saved in a different folder entirely for the Edit In Game feature to work? I have an EA Games folder in Program Files but it's empty (based on the creation date, it looks like this was created when the move from Origin to EA App happened). Does both the Sims 3 game itself and the Create A World tool need to be moved here? Can I just drag and drop or would this involve reinstalling everything in the new destination?

The My Documents directory is separate from where the game itself is installed.
Wherever the actual game files (The Sims 3 > Game > Bin, the .exes, so on) are located on your PC is the install location.

I'm not sure if it has to be the EA app's default location, but it seems like they're generally referring to making sure the CAW installation shares that location whatever it is.

Thanks. On my computer Sims 3 .exe is saved in C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs. I tried moving Create A World to the same Programs location (I had two different CAW folders on my computer, one titled The Sims 3 Create a World Tool and the other titled The Sims 3 Create a World Tool - Beta. Not sure which one is the correct one, but I moved both) as well as the EIG Forced Launch tool I mentioned in my original post. I tried both CAW exes and both opened the launcher instead of EIG. I then tried force opening my world in the forced launch tool and it started to load, but towards the end of the second loading screen it crashed to desktop. Unfortunately it seems that this solution is not working for me.

I might try moving everything to the EA Games folder mentioned in supermeatboy's post later when I have more time to troubleshoot.

That is just the start menu shortcut, and not where the game is installed
But you can get to one from the other, by right clicking the shortcut and choosing 'Open File Location'. You'll know it's the correct one when the path ends in The Sims 3\Game\Bin. Whatever parent folder that's in is what you're looking for- if you have any expansions, you'll see them in that folder too.

Oh, I see. Rookie mistake

OK, I think I have the right location now: C:\Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\The Sims 3\Game\Bin. This makes sense, as I installed the game before EA App was released so it would be in the Origin folder.

I moved everything over to this folder and unfortunately, it's still not working for me. I've tried using CAW in a few different places (the Bin, Sims 3, and Origin folders) and it still opens the launcher when I click the Edit In Game button. The EIG Launcher also crashes still.

At this point I have three possible ways forward that I can think of:

1. Uninstall the game and reinstall it in the EA App destination. Not ideal as it would be a lot of work, but it might be the most stable way to get the EIG feature to work. However, it's still not guaranteed to work as intended so it's a gamble. Alternatively I could try moving the folders over manually instead of uninstalling/reinstalling, but I'm not sure if this would work as well.

2. Download Origin from a sketchy website and use the unsupported old software instead of EA App. Probably my least preferred option as I don't want to deal with the security risks associated with this. But from all accounts it apparently works well.

3. Do as much editing as I can in CAW, then publish my world as an incomplete map. Open the world in The Sims 3 and try playing it as normal. Go into edit world mode and do all the construction and world editing I want, using NRAAS to edit sims relationships and things like that. Then export this save file to CAW and save it as a completed world. This way is clunky but might be a decent workaround. However, since I am new to CAW I am not sure if there are any unintended consequences of this option.

At the moment I am leaning towards Option 3. Would this be a decent way to get around this issue, or are there other considerations that I should take into account first?

Before you do anything, try refreshing your virtual store:
C:\Users\<Username>\AppData\Local\VirtualStore
Delete anything in there to do with Sims 3 or CAW.
If you do reinstall, I would also recommend to install to a custom location outside of the UAC protected files. For example, I have a folder in my C drive called 'games' (just a nice short name to type) where I put all my games and apps which might require me to mod the files. So your game and CAW would go into C:\Games\ Origin or C:\Games\ Electronic Arts or whatever. This prevents file virtualisation and just makes adding mods simpler.

Thank you for the information! For now, I exported my CAW project to the game as a playable world and have been working on editing lots. I see there are multiple issues I'll have to address in CAW later (missing EA bridge, all sims memories/bios wiped, indestructible trees, etc.) but at least I am able to edit the world without using the EIG feature. I'm hoping I will be able to bypass the need for it completely using this method.