Help With Unzipping

Introduction & Installation

All the objects on Xenisis come in zip archives. They end in .zip . You can get a program called WinZip from www.winzip.com which can open these files and decompress them (zip files are compressed to be smaller, so you don't have to wait so long to download them). Whenever you download WinZip, double click on the icon. Then click on "setup". It'll ask where you want to install it to. The path it shows should be ok. Click Ok. Press next, press YES and press next again. It'll ask whether you want to start in the wizard or classic interface. Select wizard and press next. Select quick search, and press next. Then press next again.... If you want to change the associations, then do, but they should be fine, and press next. A folder should popup, with all the WinZip icons in it. Ponder at your excellence, then close it. Press next on the Winzip setup, and its finished. Just press close. Enjoyable? I wish they would think of something more exciting than next". Anyway, on we go.

Exe V's Zip

On Xenisis, the objects, as well as coming in zips, also come as exe's. If you can't be bothered to get Winzip (You should, most sites don't bother making exe's) then exe's are for you. They self-extract, so you just have ot tell it where to extract to, which is explained later on in this document. The exe's are very easy to use, though take longer, so if your on a slow connection, I recommend getting Winzip, it'll save loads of time in the long run.

Here's how to unzip them:

Double click on the file and the Winzip wizard should pop up. You click the "next" button to get to the next window. This offers you the option to "unzip" So put a dot next to unzip and click "next" to get to the window where you choose the destination. You can leave things as they are so that the file unzips into your "Unzipped" Folder. If you do this you can move the file to the correct location afterwards. OR you can click the "Select Different Folder" button and direct the file to the correct place immediately. I prefer this latter method. So,click the Select different folder button and then click the + sign alongside "C". Look down the list of folders under C until you come to Program Files. Click the + sign at the side of the Program Files folder and look down the list until you come to Maxis. Click the plus sign again and look down until you come to The Sims. After that you go to the relevant folder for the download you have got. Once you find the right folder highlight it by a single click and then click Download Now.

The destination folders are :-

.iff goes in the Sims > Download folder

.wll goes in the Sims > GameData > walls folder

.flr goes in the Sims > GameData > floors folder

.bmp goes in the Sims > GameData > skins folder

house##.iff goes in the Sims > UserData > Houses folder

It is always a good idea to click the "Windows Classic" button in WinZip before actually unzipping files. That way you can see if there is a text file giving special instructions. Some downloads should go into the downloads folder for example.