Does anyone know if it's at all possible to remove the flashing from the lightning? It's something I've been thinking about for a long time as many games now have the ability to remove flashing effects. I have epilepsy and the lightning flashes gives me headaches and I heard you'd have to edit the effects package and that it'd be extremely complicated to do.

I love The Sims 2 wholeheartedly but the headaches are awful and I want to find a way (if it is possible) to remove the flashing.

What I would do is extract the effects text list then change all the lightning lines to another effect (don't just delete it, or it'll throw errors). Or try making a default replacement texture for the lightning that's just black, so it'll be invsible. A few people are working on reverse engineering effects, but I don't think anyone has actually edited an effects file yet.

I know nothing about effects format, but maybe there is a different way that specifically changes lightning without creating other conflicts. I would look at the object "Sheet Lightning" (0x7FB95B4F) in "FX/SFX", and skip the lines that play an effect while still doing the sound.

Squinge and Mog Hughson both made mods that disabled lightning. I'm not sure if they still work, but looking at how they functioned might be helpful.