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Sprottenham's avatar
Sprottenham
New Vanguard
3 months ago

What I did to make 'Edit in Game' work again

This is not a feedback post. I am posting this here as per puzzlezaddicts suggestion so that it can be moved later, because I had trouble posting this in the Sims 3 forum where it is really meant to be. Thanks for moving it.

Before trying the method below: Note that Origin is no longer supported (pointed out by thesims1depot below), and as such using it has the potential to cause security issues. So.. proceed at your own risk... I was hoping this would be a good solution that would help.


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So yesterday I was once again searching for a solution to see if there was something to make Edit in Game work again.. I've been desperate about that since I was forced to use the EA App.. 

And I found something again, in a reddit post that linked to a youtube video explaining the process in portuguese (but with english subtitles).. I wrote all about this in a blog post on my blog, so anyway... 


What I did:

1) Downloading and installing Origin from this link. https://taskinoz.com/origin/
2) Making sure the EA App is not running. Opening Origin without logging in.
3) Locating the local.xml file in My Computer/Program Data/Origin (turn on hidden files to see the folder). You may want to save a back up of this file before moving on.
4) Opening local.xml in Notepad to insert the following code (without the vulgar url as suggested in the portuguese youtube video):

  <Setting value="true" key="MigrationDisable" type="1"/>
  <Setting key="UpdateURL" value="http://someadress.com" type="10"/>
  <Setting key="AutoPatchGlobal" value="false" type="1"/>
  <Setting key="AutoUpdate" value="false" type="1"/>

I inserted the code near the bottom of the file, but before the line that read

</Settings>


5) Then I logged in to Origin and waited for a while for a notification telling me Sims 3 was added to the library.

6) Clicked Origin in the top left corner and disconnected to go offline.

7) Created a new directory called 'Worlds' in my Documents folder outside the regular Electronic Arts/CAW directory.

8) Opened CAW and the world file I want to edit, and chose Save As to save it in the newly created Worlds folder. Remember to delete the file path and leave only the world name before saving, or you'll just be saving in your regular folder again...

9) Closed CAW and reoponed it again to open the newly saved .world file.

10) Opened it in 'Edit in Game' and was happy that it worked.

How many times have I posted this picture now? :P


Also note, if you play the game in any other language than english, this will make your game open in English... but maybe that's a sacrifice worth making...

Well, that and I noticed that the lots after saving will when viewed from a distance not load the textures, but instead use the ground texture - which means that the buildings (atleast in my town) now look like grass buildings. Not ideal, but maybe there is some solution to this as well.. (which I do not know).

  • Not saying that this doesn't work or that no one should do this, but if you're a dedicated worldbuilder, it's better to just either convert to Steam (and use the registry hack) or purchase the pre-Origin base game disk + EPs off of eBay.

    The reason is that as Origin is no longer supported, people run the real risk of making themselves open to security issues. There's also no guarantee that this website hosting the Origin client will be there in the future

    • rpagan2's avatar
      rpagan2
      Newcomer

      I am having a problem getting "edit in game" to open my Sims 3 game with the intention to edit my new world I am creating.  I can use the CAW and save but it just wont open in "edit in game".  How will having the original base game and expansion packs in hard copy help me with that?  I'm not sure what your saying about "purchase the pre-Origin base game disk + EPs".  What will that do?

  • thesims1depot 

    I see what you're saying. Well, if converting Steam means repurchasing everything, I'm not going to do that.. Definately not. I'm not going to 'reward' EA by purchasing everything twice because they messed it up with the EA App. I mean, some expansions packs I just recently bought, such as World Adventures, which I haven't even made use of yet..  so I'm not doing that...

    So... for me it's either this way, or not at all.

    Also, I didn't consider the security issues, but I suppose I should add now that I don't want to be the one to recommend for people to do something that can put their computer or data at risk...

  • simmerLella's avatar
    simmerLella
    Seasoned Traveler

    I absolutely do not recommend saving a CAW world without at least a few (preferable extensive) changes to it, because savings adds to the file size, unfortunately. If you want a copy of your world, you can copy the .world, .settings and its folder (with the world name).

    Personally, I don't think using an old version of Origin is bad. I do this myself, with a different method. Installing to Steam didn't work for me (a lot of people have found it no longer works for them, for no known reason) and the stuff packs out there are crazy overpriced, not to mention buying up all the discs is expensive anyway and should not be our burden to (re)pay.