Tutorials / Sims 3 / View
Posted by Thomas|TSR on Aug 27, 2009• Merlin Manual
Setup and Configuration
So you’ve downloaded and installed Merlin and are ready to start installing your custom content? Great! But there are a few important steps you must complete first.
Once the program is installed, you’ll find the shortcut to start Merlin on your desktop (fig 1).
Fig 1
Just double click the shortcut to get started! Merlin will then prompt you to set your options (fig 2). This is a CRITICAL step! Make sure you get this right, because if you don’t, Merlin will not function correctly!
Fig 2
You have to tell Merlin two things:
- Your game data path: This is the path to your Sims 3 installation, usually located in C:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3.
- Your game save path: This is the path to the Sims 3 folder in your “My Documents” folder.
For XP users, this is located in C:\Documents and Settings\Your Name Here\My Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3.
For Vista users, it’s C:\Users\Your Name Here\My Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3.
Note that depending on the version you have, you may have more options. Just set them as you wish. (The 1.0 version of Merlin contains an option entitled “Copy Sims3Pack files to Downloads directory?” which is no longer functional. Checked or unchecked, it won’t do anything, so feel free to ignore it. It will be replaced in later versions.)
Once everything looks good, click the Save Options button (fig 3).
Fig 3
Merlin will then prompt you and ask if you want the framework installed (fig 4).
Fig 4
This is VERY important. The “framework” is a set of folders (Mods\Packages) that is installed to your Sims 3 data directory along with a file called Resource.cfg that allows the game to read Custom Content. If your paths are incorrectly set OR you do not install the framework, installed custom content will NOT show up.
(In the event that you configure things incorrectly the first time, you can simply delete the options.txt file from wherever you installed Merlin (usually C:\Program Files\The Sims Resource\TSR Merlin) and Merlin will prompt you to go through the configuration again.)
Once you finish, Merlin will ask you to restart the program. Just click OK and double click on the shortcut again.
Interface Overview
- Open Sims3Pack – This button will allow you to open a .Sims3Pack file for installation.
- Open Package – This will allow you to open any .package files to install them.
- Manage Installed Custom Content – Clicking this will bring up the Merlin Manager, which is described in more detail later on.
- Install – This will install the current file you have open. If it is not available as an option, it must mean that it is already installed.
- Uninstall – If this button is lit up, it means the file you’re viewing is already installed, and you can delete it if you so wish now.
- The File Menu – Here you will find the “Batch Install” option which will let you install all the .package and .Sims3Pack files in a given directory.
Installing and Managing Downloads
So let’s say you downloaded an awesome house you want to install now. Just click Open Sims3Pack, locate the file, and click Open. Merlin will now look like this (fig 5):
Fig 5
To install, all you have to do is click the Install button in the middle of the bottom row of buttons and it will extract the .package file from the .Sims3Pack and copy it to the proper place in your My Documents directory. Now that that’s done, you can open more files to install or choose to batch install a whole group of them. But that’s up to you!
(Important note: Due to technical limitations of the way CC is currently installed, many installed files will NOT display as custom content in the catalog! The game will register them as EA made objects and so you may have to look a few times before you can recognize them.)
For now, however, we’re going to manage our already installed files by clicking the Manage Custom Content button. We’re then greeted with this screen (fig 6):
Fig 6
Once we get to this screen, we just need to choose the folder we want to look at by clicking button number one. In our case, I’m just going to select the entire Sims 3 directory in the My Documents folder. Once done, it looks like this (fig 7):
Ah, there we are! I’ve already located the house I just installed and am looking at it now. Nice isn’t it? Note that we have multiple pictures available of the house. We know this because of the lit up arrow underneath the image I’ve already selected. In this case, of course, it’s just several versions of the same picture of the house in different sizes, but no matter! Not all packages will have pictures, of course. It depends mostly on how the artist made the item in question, and what program they used.
Some other things of note:
- The Filter Button – This allows you to force the list to only show the type of content you’re interested in. You can choose from objects, Create-A-Sim (CAS) parts, lots, households, sims, or unknown packages.
- Move File – This lets you move the selected package to a new location.
- Delete File – Allows you to delete the file you’re currently looking at.
- Rename File – Rename all those horrible number-names to something more sensible!
These are the functions that are available when you click any .package file from the list. If you click a folder, however, you get a few more options:
Fig 8
- Mass Move – This will move all the files in the folder you’ve selected to a new location.
- Mass Delete – This will delete all the files in the folder you’ve selected.
With that, that’s pretty much all you need to know to get started in Merlin!
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