Sims 4 Sim Upload Guidelines

• Likeness: Sims based on a person or character must be recognizable as who they are meant to be.

• Uniqueness: Any "other" sim, not based on an existing person or character, must have a unique, interesting face sculpt with all the features sculpted, not resembling the default faces. When it comes to sims, having a pretty sim or one with nice content is not enough. Anyone can take a basic face with a few tweaks here and there, add some pretty content, and make an attractive sim - we're looking for unique, interesting sims with unusual facial features. We would rather see sims that look more like real people - not so pretty but interesting - than another "hot model" type sim with a bland face that anyone could make. There is no reason for anyone to download a random sim that they could have made themselves with a few minutes and the same content. Please make a real effort to make interesting, unique faces that not just anyone could put together. This includes anime/cartoon sims, and some effort should be made to give them a unique look, and to differentiate characters by more than just content.

See this excellent tiptorial on creating unique sims: Game_Help:Creating_Sims

We've also made our own small example page of default sim faces in the game so you can clearly see what we check the sim's face is the closest to, and therefore considered not unique: Sims 4 default faces

• Other content: If you have made content for your sim, you must also provide additional pictures and/or information for your custom content (like polygon counts if you've made a mesh). Make sure you see what we require for Sims 4 CAS uploads. Tip: Consider uploading content you have made separately first, to the appropriate section (clothing, hair, etc.) so people looking for that type of content can more easily find it, and so you can show it off better with its own separate pics and info. Then you can just link it as credit to yourself when uploading your sim.

Note: Sims in TS4 are saved as households rather than individual sim files. We ask, however, that when you upload here, you only upload household files with single sims in them. If you'd like to upload a set of sims, please do it as separate households. Households can be merged by the downloader if they want to combine two or more one-sim households. If you have made a household with multiple sims, save it first so all your sims are saved, then remove the extra sims, and save the household again as a separate file.

A) Open the My Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 4\Tray folder.
B) Click the button at the top right to bring up the folder view options, and choose Details.
C) Click on the Date Modified header to sort by date.
D) There should be five files that have all the current date and time (when you saved your sim). There will be one .householdbinary file, one .trayitem file, one .sgi file, and two .hhi files. Don't worry if these files have different icons than shown (icon doesn't matter). Select all five of these files. These are the five files that you will need to put into a .rar, .zip, or .7z file to upload to MTS.

For instructions on compressing your files into an archive, please see: Creator Guidelines: Creating Archive Files.

• Do not include multiple archives with the same contents - that is, please don't put your files in both a .zip as well as a .rar because some people only want .zip files. Choose one format.

• Do not double-compress your files... a .rar file inside another .rar file (or any other archive inside another) doesn't compress it anymore, and it makes it so we can't see the contents without downloading, and also just makes an extra step for the people downloading.

• The file size limit on MTS is 50 mb. If you exceed this limit you will need to split your archives. This should probably never come up except for large worlds for The Sims 3, or huge sets of smaller items.

Crediting and Linking:

You must identify everything on your sim, and track down who made it so you can give them credit for their creation, plus and a link back to the original thread or webpage where you downloaded the item. This will be a "shopping list" for downloaders so they can get each item of custom content (CC is not saved with your sim and must be downloaded separately).

A proper link and credit should look like this: "Long Wavy Hair by Nouk: http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=427745" - what the item is, the creator's name, and a link to where the item can be found. Start a text file on your computer where you can type everything out as you locate the parts. It's a good idea to start your text file by typing in the custom items you know are on your sim (skin, hair, lipstick, etc.), so you know when you have a credit and link for each item. Then you can begin filling in each item as you find out where it came from.

• Tip: To find custom content, you can try to search MTS or Google with the information you can find on the item (from the description or filename) to track down the source. If all your searching fails and you can't find the item on your own, try the Where Can I Find (WCIF) Forum at MTS. You can search the forum in case someone has asked about the same item before, and if you can't find what you're looking for, you can post a new thread to ask if someone knows where the content came from. Give as much information as possible, like a screenshot, the description, filename, and any other info you can to help people help you track it down.

• Close-up pictures of the sim's face, from the front,and from the side with the sim wearing a neutral face expression (like a passport photo) - not smiling, laughing, etc. A 3/4 view is highly recommended, but not required.
• At least one full-length picture of your sim from the front and in neutral stance (not very posed or on the move).
• Your photo should be taken in-game, although CAS photos are acceptable if they have a neutral expression and pose AND a neutral backdrop is installed.
• For sims based on a person or character, a comparison picture of the real person, ideally similar to the close-up pictures of your sim, following the format above.
• If your sim normally wears a mask, goggles, sunglasses, etc., you should also include a picture of your sim uncovered as well, if their face is too covered to tell whether the sculpting of the face is unique and interesting or accurate to the person they're based on (if applicable).
• If your sim wears heavy makeup that limits what can be seen of their face, please also provide a makeup-free photo.

Keep the following in mind for your screenshots, especially the required ones:

• Size: 800 pixels wide by 600 pixels tall is a good size for the smallest pic you would want to upload. Your images can be up to 2560x1440 pixels, and 800 kb, so you have lots of space to work with!
• Lighting: For most things, it's best to take pictures in an interior room with good lighting. For lots, pictures should be taken during a nice sunny day, for floorplans, take the pictures with the lights ON.
• Clarity: Neither blurry, nor pixellated/crunchy. Do not size up small pictures to make a large one as this will blur them, and make sure not to use too much compression/too low quality when saving your images.
• Distance: Take your pictures so that your creation fills the screen without anything cut off at top or bottom - neither zoomed in too close, nor zoomed out too far.
• Distortion: If you resize your images, retain the aspect ratio so they don't get stretched or squashed. Take care when zooming in and out with the camera that you do not create a fisheye effect on your pictures.
• Photoshopping: Do not apply filters like sharpen, contrast, etc. to the required pictures, as downloaders want to see what your creation will look like in their game, not your skills at using Photoshop.
• Attached: All required images must be attached directly to the MTS upload, not just inserted using the img tag, so that even if the pics get deleted from your Photobucket (or other host), the upload on MTS is still complete.
• Show all items: For most areas, if you are uploading a set, you must take all the required pics for each item in the set. If there is an exception, it will be noted.
• Picture limit: You may upload up to 100 pictures for a single upload thread, so feel free to add some additional pictures just to show off your work to its best. Of course, keep it reasonable - nobody needs 50 pics to show off one sim or hair.
• Inline pictures: Inline pictures are those that use the [img] tag to show up in with the description text. So that it doesn't take too long to load, please keep this to no more than 4 pictures done inline, unless you put them inside an [infobutton] tag. To do this, see our guide on post formatting.

Please remember, for your required pictures:

• As packaged: Your pictures should show your sim as you have saved them, so that what downloaders see is what they'll actually get.

Tip: You may, of course, include other pictures like a full-body picture, posing pictures, whatever, to show off your sim how you like, and if your sim is a child or teen, you may want to include a picture of how they'll look when they grow up, just so downloaders aren't surprised when if your cute kid turns into a weird-looking adult.