Difference between revisions of "Game Help:TS3 Patching:Patch Download"

Revision as of 22:13, 20 September 2010

Game codes and numbers

In order to carry out manual patching ie via the direct download files you need to understand how EA has categorized the games and their versions for each patch level. You need to read this mostly once to understand the concept.

Patching via Launcher

Run the launcher. It will pick up the version automatically and you should be able to update it just fine. If the downloads cuts out before completing or you are not prompted to update, check if you had disabled Automatic Updates and also check your EADM program's connection to the Internet and if necessary, uninstall & reinstall EADM.

Also ensure that your Firewall & AntiVirus application(s) do not block the EADM, Launcher programs to run or block access to the thesims3.com site .

If the process is halted or interrupted, check that you're running the latest version of EADM. See TS3_Patching:Common_Errors for some suggestions to fix the most common error messages encountered. Or you can just choose to use the direct download method as outlined below.

Downloading an executable/archived file

Alternatively, if your computer playing Sims 3 does not have internet access, choose one of the following based on:

1. what Operating System (i.e. Windows or Mac) you're running,
2. what region/language your DVD is and
3. what version you had patched it to before.

Warning:

Note that you have to download a separate file for each of the games you have installed, so that the games are all on the same game engine level. See the table in TS3_Patching:Common_Errors for your matching patch levels.

Downloading for Windows Systems

Remember : you have to download separate files for each of the games/tools that you have installed. Always use current patches, most mods/hacks work on the latest updates only

Current

Archived

Downloading for OS X

There is no way that we know of to patch OS X from 1.0 with a downloadable patch. This means if you're running 1.0 under OS X, you have to patch with the launcher. Again: back up your entire game before installing! If it turns out the most recent patch doesn't work for you, the only alternative for OS X users is version 1.0 if you don't have a backup of a working version.

EA have a lovely habit of removing the OS X patches once the next one is available, leaving OS X users with no way to roll back to an earlier version when they find out that the current one doesn't work as expected. So here's how to find and back up a patch once you've upgraded your game via the Launcher:

The EA Launcher downloads the archived patch to

/private/tmp/tgUpdate_XXXXXXXX/

In here you'll find 4 files, along the lines of:

• app.txt
• MD5.txt
• To-3332-1.8.25.003002-From-3043-1.7.11.002002.tgz.md5
• To-3332-1.8.25.003002-From-3043-1.7.11.002002.tgz

The file that ends in .tgz (gzip'ed tar archive) contains the actual patch. The exact filename depends on your game version and region – this example is what I have at the moment (after upgrading from 1.7.11 to 1.8.25, worldwide).

Move this file somewhere safe (desktop or wherever – if you leave it in /tmp, the system will clean it up at some point since that's only a temporary location (hence the name)), and when you need it again, uncompress it (right click > Open with > Archive Utility) and doubleclick the extracted app to run it.

As a side effect, now that you know the filename, you can also construct the direct download URL (as long as it's still valid) – so far it's always been

http://llnet.thesims.cdn.ea.com/sims/u/f/sims3/mac/To-3332-1.8.25.003002-From-3043-1.7.11.002002.tgz 

Might be useful for people with sucky internet connections or those who prefer to bypass the launcher.

Remember : you have to download separate files for each of the games/tools that you have installed.

[The above has been lovingly plagiarised from plasticbox's stickied How to back up a game patch under OS X thread]