Texture Oddities

This is a sub-page of The Sims 2 (Windows)/Oddities.

Accessories & Props#

Hidden Early Logo on Simoleon Banknotes#

money010_lifo, money020_lifo, and money030_lifo contain a hidden early logo for the game used in prerelease media.

Hidden Create-A-Sim Images#

Though not unused, some of the photo frames in Create-A-Sim are either obscured or hidden from view. The photo of a firefighter holding a baby isn't seen at all.

Create-A-Sim Studio Lamps#

The texture maps for the studio lamps exclusive to Create-A-Sim (lightingfloorstudiolights-lights-lit0_lifo and lightingfloorstudiolights-lights-unlit0_lifo) contain the early logo for the game seen in prerelease media. That oddity is also present in the Create-A-Student in University.

Sim-Related#

Suntan Texture Oddity?#

In Seasons and Bon Voyage, the suntan textures for Sims of varying Life Stages vary in appearance and texture size for some reason. The Toddler Sim textures (pubodynudesun-tan0_lifo) cover up the entire sheet rather than just the body, while the textures for other Life Stages (Child, Male Adult, and Female Adult) are unusually 1024×1024 in the highest LIFO resolution, compared to the average 512×512 size. Despite this, the textures still render normally in-game.

pubodynudesun-tan0_lifo	cubodynudesun-tan0_lifo	ufbodynudesun-tan0_lifo	umbodynudesun-tan0_lifo

Servo Head#

Introduced in Open For Business, female Servos are usually distinguished via a lipstick and bow on their antenna. The bow is also present on the Male Servo's texture sheet, along with all their Hybrids, even with their Werewolf variant introduced in Pets and Witch variant in Apartment Life.

amhairlobot-basic0_lifo	amhairlobotvampire-basic0_lifo	amhairlobotwerewolf-basic0_lifo	amhairhatlobotwitch-basic0_lifo

Texture Resolution Oddities#

High-Resolution Coffee Beans#

The textures used for the coffee grinder in the coffee machines (grindercoffee0_lifo and grindercoffeeground0_lifo) are unusually high in resolution, being in 256×256 for each rather than the 32×32px to 128×128 average for food objects.

grindercoffee0_lifo	grindercoffeeground0_lifo

High-Res Revolutionary Rebellion Poster#

The Revolutionary Rebellion Poster (posterpunkrock-poster0_lifo) included with University has a rather high-resolution texture count for a small-sized horizonal poster (despite a few compression downscales), with it being a whopping 512×256. Other posters of that size (ex. posterangstred-poster0_lifo in base game) in comparison are 256×128.

posterangstred-poster0_lifo	posterpunkrock-poster0_lifo	In-game comparison

Low-Res Driveway Texture#

The second option for the driveway texture included in Nightlife and FreeTime has the texture (drivewayconcrete-asphault0_lifo) at an unusually low resolution for something that's 1024×512.

Garden Weeds#

The weeds that appear around garden plants introduced in Seasons (gardenplantweeds-weeds0_lifo) has an unusual JPEG-like texture.

Other#

"Readable" Textures#

Generic Book Oddity#

The texture used for generic books appears to read "Reference For The Simple Sim", which seems to be written in a half-Simlish writing.

Bookshelf Cover Titles#

There's some legible writing on some of the book covers that appear on many bookshelf objects, some of them in Simlish and... in English.

• The red book cover says "The Sims In The City". This very likely refers to The Urbz: Sims in the City, which would be released about two months after The Sims 2.
• The computer book cover says "HOFA 4.5 For Beginners".

Billboard Sign#

One of the billboard signs that comes with the Open For Business expansion says "Shop at the Store!" in near-English writing.

Computer Blog#

The "website" that appears in the Blog About Hobby... interaction appears to be a Sims 2 custom content site.

Reflection Envcube Textures#

Outdoor Reflection#

The texture for the outdoor water envcube map (reflectionoutdoorwater-envcube_txtr) shows an unknown neighborhood with a different skybox. A mockup of the four textures are put together, forming a panorama.

Sedona Neighborhood Reflection#

There are six unused graphics consisting of a scrapped envcube map of desert environments (neighborhooddesert-envcube_txtr). Four of them appear to form a panorama of what would be the scrapped Sedona neighborhood.

That said, there are many differences to be found and considering Sedona was not shown in prerelease media, it's obvious that it's a very old leftover from development.

Cityscape Reflection#

The envcube map reflection for neighborhoods with concrete terrain introduced in later expansions use a graphic of the skyline of San Francisco, taken from Colt Tower.

UI Textures#

Missing Aspiration Graphics#

Exclusively in the base game, there are two blank spaces for Aspiration graphics, in between Family and Fortune, and after Grow Up. While not confirmed, it is possible that the two missing slots were intended for the two scrapped Aspirations.

Early Icons in Aspiration Slot Rolling graphics#

Early icons can be seen closely in the aspiration slot graphics, which both share the same icons for Wants and Fears. The following are displayed from left to right:

• "Be Friends with Sim", where the icon on the bottom-right corner was a square graphic, similar in style to this leftover graphic. Also, the Sim resembles Skip Broke, making a mugshot expression identical to the final ones.
• "Get Engaged", as evidenced by a singular diamond ring.
• "Be Best Friends with Sim", similar to the Friends icon, except green which is probably a best plausible guess.
• An unknown Want/Fear where the bottom-right icon seems to have a "baby" enclosed within it.
• An unknown Want/Fear with a group of people together with a green graphic behind it.
• "Get Skill Level to 3", which is displayed a "+3" at the bottom-right corner rather than "3" and at the top-left corner.
• "Get Married", showing a man and woman, rather than two rings bound together.
• The Skill icon except with that same unusual icon.
• Order Pizza. Icon is identical to final.
• Unknown icon that looks like a slice of cake.

The early icons for "Be Best Friends with Sim", "Get Skill Level to 3", "Get Married", and "Order Pizza" can also be seen in this early screenshot where Skip Broke proposes to Brandi Broke in a bar:

Loading Screen Background#

The background seen in the game's loading screen is actually that of a scrapped neighborhood, Waterside. It was prominently shown during the game's E3 2004 demo.

SimCity 4 icon#

With the introduction of Sub-Neighborhoods in University, this button is used to create a neighborhood with a custom terrain template. As the neighborhood terrain template format is derived from SimCity 4 and it's possible to create custom neighborhood templates with it, its desktop icon, in the style of other icons from The Sims 2, is used.