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#1 Old 8th Jun 2021 at 7:49 PM

This user has the following games installed:

Sims 3, World Adventures, Ambitions, Late Night, Generations, Pets, Showtime, Supernatural, Seasons, University Life, Island Paradise, Into the Future
Default Something I don't understand about S3rc
Hope this is OK. I've seen posts/threads about this before that were about legitimate uses of the tool (i.e. with properly bought store content), so I'm assuming that it's OK since that's the case here with me.

I've had this on my mind for a while. S3rc removes the encryption on store content you've bought, so you are then able to extract the contents and edit them, right?

I've seen other threads about this on MTS over the years and I understand what the tool actually does. What I don't understand is what is the point of using the other tool, specifically decrapify.exe, on anything like store content?

I'm only asking because I've seen people posting instructions to do so on various mod pages for a while now. They specifically say if you decrapify your store content, then you must do so for your mods as well. But I don't understand the point. From all accounts, decrapify essentially makes it a new item/package altogether and breaks the package instances and resources, which I guess is then why a mod has to be decrapified as well.

As far as I can tell, decrapify itself was only ever intended to be used to "fix" old Sims3Pack packages with cc from early TS3 days that wouldn't install. If S3rc is enough to allow you to edit the store files themselves without breaking anything, why do people still decrapify them.

Or am I not understanding something about how it works?

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#2 Old 18th Jun 2021 at 6:11 PM
OK, so if anyone is coming across this now, I've pretty much through trial-and-error figured this one out myself.

So basically, S3rc and Decrapify both allow you to edit the contents of store Sims3Packs that you own. The key difference here is that decrapify specifically renumbers IDs and whatnot in the resources themselves inside the Sims3Pack. This is why your content ends up broken and requires "fixing" after using it and why mods have to be decrapified as well if your store content is as well. S3rc, as in the actual s3rc.exe, safely removes the encryption (which is necessary even for content you own to be able to edit the packages in S3PE), WITHOUT renumbering anything. Essentially, it's left as EA designed it. So if you want to keep everything inside the packages intact, use this one.

So, as a definitive answer to this once and for all, if you are looking to edit the contents of your store packages, only use S3rc. Never ever ever use decrapify on them, it is absolutely unnecessary.

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retired moderator
#3 Old 18th Jun 2021 at 9:03 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Pescado
Should fix all busted s3packs that don't install correctly in the launcher, like those old TSR ones.

A long time ago, but if I remember correctly there were some particular borked files that couldn't be installed, that the decrap function was for. Maybe someone with better recollection can elaborate!
http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/s....html#msg518282
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#5 Old 18th Jun 2021 at 9:25 PM
Quote: Originally posted by nitromon
from what I understand, people only use that program to decrap sim3pack so they can be converted to package b/c sim3pack sucks.


Yes, but the key factor here that I've found out is that people use s3rc and decrapify synonymously when speaking of "decrapifying". Even if they intend to use them as packages, using the actual decrapify program will still renumber the resources inside of those packages. Decrapify itself was only ever intended to fix old Sims3Packs in early TS3 days when they wouldn't install for whatever reason.

In the end, both will allow you to edit the packages or use them as is, but only s3rc.exe will keep the references intact. It's the only reason mod makers have to note about decrapifying their mods if you do it to your store content, because most people use the wrong one since they're used interchangeably and most people don't know that s3rc does anything outside of compressing packages.

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