The Sims Legacy Collection runs on the original Sims engine with very few changes - It is still a 32-bit binary and does not feature modern features like UI scaling.
Simitone [github.com]is an alternative engine for The Sims based off of FreeSO[freeso.org]. It features improved graphics, a custom UI with high-resolution support and a true 3d mode, converting the old 2d object sprites in to 3d in real-time!



Simitone currently only officially supports Windows.

Installing Simitone is quite simple. Releases are available from their GitHub page:

Here[github.com]

Go to the above link and download the latest file, the file named SimitoneWindows.zip. This archive includes the full engine for the game. Once downloaded, extract the file (Right Click->Extract All) and you will have a new directory named SimitoneWindows.

Next you need to add a registry key to tell Simitone where The Sims Legacy Collection is installed. Firstly, find where The Sims Legacy Collection is installed to by right clicking the game in your Steam library and clicking "Browse Local Files". It should open up the game data folder. In the top will be the path to your game directory - Copy this to your clipboard!



Next, open Notepad and paste the following in, substituting the value for "InstallPath" with the path you just copied to your clipboard. Note you must replace all backslashes with double backslashes!


This is how mine looks - Your path will differ based on where The Sims Legacy Collection is installed!



Now, save this file as Sims.reg - Make sure to select "Save as type: All Files (*.*)" in the save dialogue.



Once saved, you can double click this new file and it will ask to add it to the registry. click Yes, continue.

At this point you should be able to run the Simitone.Windows.exe binary to be able to play using the Simitone engine.

Open Steam and right-click The Sims Legacy Collection. Navigate to and select the Manage->Browse Local Files option, which will open a Windows Explorer window in the directory where The Sims Legacy Collection is installed.

Once this directory is opened, navigate to your previous SimitoneWindows directory extracted in the previous step. Select all the files in this directory (CTRL-A) and copy them (CTRL-C). Navigate back to the directory where The Sims Legacy Collection is installed and paste all of the files to this directory (CTRL-V).

You should now have a directory that contains both The Sims Legacy Collection and Simitone. In this directory there should be a file named Sims.exe. You want to rename this file to be named Sims.exe.old. At the same time, create a copy of Simitone.Windows.exe and name it Sims.exe (AKA, the original file you just renamed). Your directory should now look like this:


(amongst other files...)

At this point, you should be able to launch The Sims Legacy Collection from Steam, and it will launch using Simitone!

Once Simitone is running from Steam you can make the game run in true 3d mode by passing a launch argument to the game.

Right click The Sims Legacy Collection in your Steam library and select Properties. There should be a field named "Launch Options". In this field enter the following value:
Click "Save" at the bottom.

Upon launching Simitone and selecting a family the game will now be in 3d! You can toggle between 2d and 3d modes by pressing the F12 key, and can rotate using the middle mouse button.

Some of the 3d models may not look the best due to the way the 2d sprites are converted to 3d, so you may wish to investigate some of the community-made remeshes available here[forum.freeso.org].

If you ever want to go back to the original Sims engine you can uninstall Simitone quite easily.

Simply delete the file named Sims.exe in your install directory and rename Sims.exe.old (created during installation) back to Sims.exe. At this point you will be back using the original Sims engine.