Using the launcher to install FreeSO and Simitone
Guide dedicated to getting FreeSO or Simitone up and running. Simitone is not available for Mac at this time.
- OpenAL
- .NET Framework 4.5
- The Sims Online client
- FreeSO Client
- (Optional) Remesh Package
Once the launcher has been started, you'll be greeted with green tooltips explaining how to install everything. The steps are as follows:
- Go to the Installer tab.
- Click the "Complete Installation" button. This will install every required component in the required order.
- If you don't have OpenAL installed, the standalone OpenAL installer will pop up. Click OK to continue.
- If you don't have the required version of .NET Framework, the standalone .NET Framework installer will pop up. Click continue and let in install.
- Next, the file explorer will pop up, asking you to select a location to install The Sims Online. You can leave it default, which would be C:/Program Files/The Sims Online.
- Once The Sims Online has finished installing, another file explorer will pop up for FreeSO. You can leave it default, which would be C:/Program Files/FreeSO.
- A confirmation desktop notification should appear when finished indicating that FreeSO has been installed and is ready to be launched. Click the "Play" button!
To install Simitone, head to the Simitone tab in the launcher.
You need The Sims Complete Collection installed on your computer for Simitone to work. If you don't have The Sims Complete Collection installed, the launcher will show a message in the Simitone tab indicating that it is missing.
- Click on the "Download & Install" button in the top center of the page.
- When installed, the button will now show "Launch Simitone" instead of "Download & Install". Click the button to launch the game.
- Mono
- SDL2
- The Sims Online client
- FreeSO Client
- (Optional) Remesh Package
Once the launcher has been started, you'll be greeted with green tooltips explaining how to install everything. The steps are as follows:
- Go to the Installer tab.
- Click the "Complete Installation" button. This will install every required component in the required order.
You will need to authorize the installation should a popup appear asking you for permission.
- A confirmation desktop notification should appear when finished indicating that FreeSO has been installed and is ready to be launched. Click the "Play" button!
To install Simitone, head to the Simitone tab in the launcher.
You need a copy of The Sims Complete Collection in ~/Documents/The Sims. If you don't have The Sims Complete Collection installed, the launcher will show a message in the Simitone tab indicating that it is missing.
- Click on the "Download & Install" button in the top center of the page.
- When installed, the button will now show "Launch Simitone" instead of "Download & Install". Click the button to launch the game.
The launcher allows you to install/reinstall components separately instead of clicking the "Complete Install" button. This is useful if you need to reinstall a single component or if you already have a component installed.
To install components separately, click on their image in the Installer tab.
If you have already installed FreeSO or The Sims Online before, you can reuse your installation by installing it in the same directory. If the game files are already present, the launcher will not perform a reinstallation. It will set your previous installation as the primary one.
For example, if you already have FreeSO installed in C:/Program Files/FreeSO, then install FreeSO from the launcher choosing the Program Files directory. For The Sims Online, this would be C:/Program Files/The Sims Online.
The folder needs to be named FreeSO or The Sims Online in order for the launcher to pick up previous installations.
Please note that a "Complete Installation" overrides any installations that may already be present on your computer. To use a previous installation, you should use the solo installers from the installer tab.
The folder needs to be named "Simitone for Windows" in order for the launcher to pick it up.
The launcher (since 1.7.0) detects a running FreeSO instance and checks if the path is set as the installation directory. If it isn't set as the installation directory, an alert will appear in the Installer tab of the launcher giving you the option to reset it:
The launcher keeps track of the Simitone version installed and checks for new releases on the official Simitone GitHub repository (https://github.com/riperiperi/Simitone). Whenever there's a new Simitone release, an update button will appear on the launcher's Simitone screen.
Although the launcher does check for The Sims Complete Collection registry entries and displays a big red error message when not found, the launcher will still let you launch Simitone once downloaded and installed. Simitone will pick up your The Sims Complete Collection files when placed in one of these locations (ordered by priority):
- A folder named "The Sims" adjacent to the Simitone installation folder. For example, if you installed Simitone in C:\Program Files\Simitone, you'd need to place your The Sims Complete Collection files in C:\Program Files\The Sims.
- The default The Sims installation folder: C:\Program Files (x86)\Maxis\The Sims