The Sims 3 Steam Deck Setup Guide

This is a guide on how to set up modding frameworks for The Sims 3 on the Steam Deck. This guide will cover settings up a mods folder, setting up .ASI mod compatibility and setting up GPU compatibility on Steam Deck.

Introduction

Hello!

Welcome to my guide for The Sims 3 and how to set up modding frameworks and tools for the game on Steam Deck. Every step that I have listed are the steps I personally use to make my game on Steam Deck run with these modding frameworks.

If you have any questions feel free to look at the F.A.Q Section or leave a comment.

Happy Simming!!

This guide is intended to be used with game version 1.67 Steam on the Steam Deck and Steam Deck Oled Models. Versions of the game installed through EA App are not supported.

Versions obtained without purchase are not supported at all!

Looking for bug fixing mods? I have a separate guide for them!

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1131162350


LIKE ANY TYPE OF GAME GUIDE THAT MAKES YOU EDIT THE GAME FILES ALWAYS, ALWAYS BACK-UP YOUR FILES BEFORE STARTING!

Step 1 - Steam Deck Desktop Mode

This guide will be done in desktop mode!

Step 1 - Press the "Steam" Button on your steam deck to bring up the Steam Deck Menu.

Once it has appeared scroll down to "Power" and select it.


Once selected a new window will appear, scroll down to the option "Switch to Desktop"


Step 2 - You are now in Steam Deck Desktop Mode.

Step 2 - Making The Game Able To load .ASI Mods

Step 1 - At the bottom on the screen press the Steam Icon in the tray. Once selected a new menu will appear then select the option "Library" and you steam library will appear.


Once Your library has opened locate your The Sims 3 game and select it next go to the far right of the screen until the Cog Icon is highlighted and select it.


Step 2 - Once selected a smaller window will appear.

Go down to "Properties..." and select it, a new window should open again.

Step 3 - Once the new window has appeared under the "General" tab scroll down until you find the option "Selected launch Option".


Under it there will be a small greyish rectangle were you can type, selecting the box then pressing "Steam Button + X" this will bring up the onscreen keyboard.

Once selected type out the following command line into the box...

 WINEDLLOVERRIDES="wininet=n,b" %command% 

Step 4 - Once typed you may back out of the on screen keyboard by simply pressing the "B" button. The command has now been set for the game and '.ASI" mods should be able to load on startup.

Install Location For .ASI Mods

.ASI mods will be installed in the games bin folder located at this location on Steam Deck in desktop mode...

"/Home/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/The Sims 3/Game/Bin/"

Note: If you can't get to this location make sure you have "Show Hidden Files" turned on! It can be turned on in the top right hand corner of the Dolphin File Manager window.

Step 3 - Making The Game Recognise Steam Decks GPU

Step 1 - Download this file as it contains the files needed for the Steam Deck's GPU to be recognised, download them HERE![drive.google.com]

Step 2 - At the bottom on the screen press the Steam Icon in the tray. Once selected a new menu will appear then select the option "Library" and you steam library will appear.


Next find the game in your library and press "R2" a menu will appear next go to "manage" then "browse local files".


Step 3 - A new window will appear, you will need to extract the files from "GraphicsCardSteamDeck.7z" into the games bin folder located at...

"/Home/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/The Sims 3/Game/Bin/"

Step 3 - When placing these two items in the bin folder...

• GraphicsRules.sgr
  
• GraphicsCards.sgr

Make sure to allow any over wright that is asked.

Step 4 - The game will now recognise the Steam Deck GPU.

Step 4 - Installing The Mods Folder

For new users to The Sims 3 Modding this will show you how to install the Mods Folder into your game so your game will be able to read and use ".Package" file mods.

The "Mods" Folder is for .package files, .sims3pack Files need to be installed through the games launcher. I recommend this depth video by @SimMattically for more information about the different package types can be found HERE!
　
Step 1 - Download the mods folder using the download button from ModTheSims HERE![modthesims.info]
　
Once on the download page scroll down a little until you see a "Download" button, once found click on this link and it will download the file.


After the download is complete place the file somewhere easy to find like the desktop.
　
Step 2 - Once downloaded go to...
　
"/home/deck/.local/share/steamapps/compatdata/47890/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3/"

Note: If you can't get to this location make sure you have "Show Hidden Files" turned on! It can be turned on in the top right hand corner of the Dolphin File Manager window.

　
Once there, open up the downloaded mods folder file and extract its contents right into The Sims 3 documents folder.

　
Step 4 - Just to make sure open up the mods folder and make sure the contents inside looks like this image below!

Files that should be present and that are needed are...

• Resource.cfg File
  
• Packages Folder
  
• Overrides Folder

　
The two package files that come inside the packages folder called...

• NoBuildSparkles.package
  
• nointro.package

these files are for testing purposes only and can be safely deleted after launching the game to see if the mods folder is functioning correctly.

If the maxis logo is still showing up on startup even with the "nointro.package" present in the mods folder for testing this is normal since the "nointro.package" was made before that intro screen was added in a later patch and uses a different file path to the other intro videos.

　

　
If you want to keep "nointro.package" to disable the intros and want the Maxis Logo Intro gone as well, you can download a mod for it HERE[modthesims.info] to be used along side "nointro.package".
　

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　

The Mods folder is now installed!

F.A.Q. Section

Change Log Section

2025

• 15/03/2025 - Published the guide.
  
  
• 24/03/2025 - Made "Step 3 - Making The Game Recognise Steam Decks GPU" easier to follow thanks to @ButterflyCrimeScene for the idea.

[frostbitees]

Ran out of space on the last post.....

Also the last time I used your guide I never could get I think it was the .asi to work. Kept getting the error message even after I updated the bios file but with the changes you made to add the blurb in Steam, it's now working. I hope this made sense since I'm typing from memory what I did. Thank you for updating and fixing a perplexing problem.

Again thank you for the guides and sharing your knowledge!

[frostbitees]

Thank you for replying so quickly Anime. I don't have the exact path you have but got to Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3 and deleted those files you mentioned. Also used RegulSaveCleaner but it still brought up the normal Sims 3 loading screens that goes through all the different sims scenarios. It probably has something to do with the graphics but I cant remember any of your tweaks that would have changed the loading screen. I'll go back and look at what I loaded from Lady D and the other mod to see if those have anything to do with the loading screen. I had made some of your changes from your guides a while ago but changed PCs and just now got to reload and see that you've updated since the last time I used your guide. I like how you show animation in the guide and make it very clear and easy to follow. Thank you for all of your hard work on the guide.

[Anime_Boom]

@frostbitees - You may have to clean your games cache files some mods require them to be cleaned to take effect in game. they are lcoated at...

"/home/deck/.local/share/steamapps/compatdata/47890/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3/"

Delete these files...

- CASPartCache.package
- compositorcache.package
- scriptcache.package
- socialcache.package


The files will re-generate at game startup and should include any new changes from mods when re generated.

[frostbitees]

I followed this your Enhanced Vanilla Graphics and enhanced vanilla game-play guides and since my Clean UI is not working. I liked the new game load of Clean UI. Do you by chance know what settings I changed using your guides that might have disabled Clean UI?

[ButterflyCrimeScene]

hi thx for this amazing guide i made a download for the graphics rules and cards if you're lazy like me just drop in the game's bin folder https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3246678395