I just got into hacking objects for this game, but I'm unable to follow the various tutorials for IFFP2. The tutorials show descriptive text under the Instructions area of code, but everything in my IFF is represented as the function numbers and their parameters which makes it impossible to see what exactly I'm editing.

I also have an error message appearing on program startup which is probably related. I have no idea what it means. The error doesn't change when I move the .exe throughout the data directory and my game works just fine.

Example pictures attached. Any ideas?

*waves* Yes, me! I'm no expert, but I've hacked a lot of objects in the past six months.

Wow. No, IFF Pencil 2 is definitely NOT supposed to be like that!

There's supposed to be a file in your Maxis\GameData folder called Behavior.iff. If you don't have that, then something is wrong with your game installation. You could try downloading someone else's Behavior.iff file, add it to the GameData folder, and see if that works, but if that file is missing, it makes me wonder what ELSE might be screwed up in your game installation.

Have you played the game? Does it work okay? Do you notice the absence of Behavior.iff only when running IFF Pencil 2?

Edited to add: I've uploaded the Behavior.iff file to my website for you; you can find it at http://corylea.com/Behavior.iff%20f...20Sims%201.html.

Others take note -- This file is normally a part of your game; this is NOT a mod that I'm uploading. 99.99999% of players will have no use for this download.

Have you also tried running Iff Pencil as an administrator? Always possible that it can't open the game files because UAC isn't allowing it.

I actually weirdly do have the Behavior.iff file in my GameData folder which is why I was massively confused as to why IFF couldn't find it. Normal data directory/file path: Maxis/The Sims/GameData/Behavior.iff.
Thanks for the download! I replaced my old .iff with it but unfortunately I still have the same error.

I haven't run into many problems with IFF but then again haven't been able to do much without the text instructions, lol.

Also, my game seems to run just fine, except when Drew Carey got stuck on my lot but that's sort of within the realm of normal bugs I assume. I've played maybe ~30 hours with this current install. I did retrieve the game from an unconventional place; Windows doesn't even support DRM disk reading anymore, right?

Last thing, I also did try running as Administrator with no luck!

My path is Program Files (x86)\Maxis\GameData. I wonder if having a The Sims subfolder is what's screwing up your IFF Pencil 2?

You could try running IFF Pencil 2 FROM the GameData folder, and see if that enables IFF Pencil to find Behavior.iff. Or you could try copying Behavior.iff and putting it wherever you have your IFF Pencil 2. Another thing to try is to put a shortcut to the Behavior.iff that's in the GameData folder into whatever folder you have your IFF Pencil 2 program in.

If none of those work, you might have to reinstall the game, putting it in Maxis, without the The Sims subfolder. (I'm assuming that anyone who's trying to hack objects with IFF Pencil knows where their saved games are, and how to preserve them during a reinstallation.)




There's a Microsoft update that prevents SecureRom from working, and since that's the DRM that The Sims uses, that causes the disk read to fail. But there IS a way around this! At least, there is on Windows 8; I don't have Windows 10, so I don't know about that.

The Microsoft update that makes SecureRom fail is an update called KB3086255. If you have Windows 8, go to Control Panel > Programs > Programs and Features and then click "View installed updates". Find KB3086255 and select the Uninstall button. Your disks will work then. Of course, Microsoft will try to reinstall this update again later, but if they do, you can just uninstall it again. :-)

Good luck!

Update: Success! Most likely culprit was me messing with the data directory after the initial install.

The first time I installed the game I set the install location to my regular Games folder. The problem was that the game installed there loosely, without a Maxis/The Sims directory. No idea why and never experienced that before, so I figured I'd "manually create a directory" by just creating a new file path and dropping them in all nicely. I do this with mods for other games all the time so I figured it would be fine.

I just reinstalled the game and left it loose to check if everything works and it does! No error on program startup, text under Instructions shows up just fine.

The only issue now is that I loathe the loose files cluttering up my Games folder. Any tips for moving them without mucking it up like last time would be helpful. Otherwise I'll have to put up with it.

Thank you guys so much for the replies on this. Sometimes you need a fresh pair of eyes on the situation!

Glad you got it working! I hope you have lots of fun bending the game to your will. :-)

I think perhaps IFF Pencil 2 looks to the registry entry for The Sims to see where you've installed it, so you can probably have a directory for the game if you make that directory BEFORE you install the game and install the game TO that directory.

I have my game installed on my F drive, not my C drive, and IFF Pencil finds it just fine. But I haven't moved the game since I installed it; it was installed to that drive, so the registry entry for the game will be on that drive.

Sorry for necro posting, I'm still having an issue with IFF Pencil 2 not recognizing Behavior.iff no matter where it is, after following instructions here and searching through windows registry

I'm using "The Sims Legacy Collection".

You could try Faith Beam's program FarEdit, which was just made recently and which may play better with Legacy.
https://github.com/FaithBeam/FarEdit

I'm mainly using IFF files, but thank you so much for responding! I will use that program as well. I was recommended to create registry entries in windows, I don't mind switching the Sims version i'm using

I saw you ask this on Reddit too (I'm citrusella over there) but since it was easier for me to find the MTS thread than dig through Reddit to find where you commented there again, I wanted to ask a question here.

Did you actually CREATE the registry entries or did you just look for them? If you did create them, did you follow the structure described in this Reddit comment I just left to someone else describing the registry location InstallPath needs to be at: https://www.reddit.com/r/thesims1/c...legacy/phc3fuw/

If you DID do that (or if you HAVEN'T done that, because I'm about to suggest doing that but with a small modification): What happens if you create a string value in the "The Sims" folder named SIMS_DATA (pointing to the same location InstallPath would)? I double checked just now--by breaking my own Sims registry entries briefly--and the value IffPencil checks to find Behavior.iff is SIMS_DATA rather than InstallPath. (More specifically: Me breaking InstallPath didn't break IffPencil's ability to find Behavior.iff, but me breaking SIMS_DATA did.)



Note that per the instructions at the Reddit link, you need to point this to where YOUR game is installed. This screenshot uses paths for where MY game is installed, which your game might not match, particularly if you're using Legacy.

(Side note: I've blocked out my magic cookie here not because it's secret (it's not! 185042!) but because I don't want someone somewhere down the line to be wandering around in confusion, see this screenshot absent this text context somehow, think they need ALL those entries, make one with my exact magic cookie in it, have Transmogrifier installed, and start making objects with conflicting GUIDs to mine without realizing they've gotten into that situation for some reason. ...Also I don't know why the music is pointing to the E drive. I don't even have one of those mounted right now )

yes that was me! thank you so so much, I looked and edited around in regedit, but I didn't know what entries to add at all. Bless you <3 I shall edit this post once I get it working!

Sorry, I linked to the wrong one! Faith Beam ALSO has a program to edit IFF files, here: https://github.com/FaithBeam/Sims.Iff