Tutorial: How to Create and Use an Overrides Folder

This tutorial will explain the purpose of the Overrides folder, and teach the user how to create one. I remember feeling very confused about the Overrides folder when I first started playing, so now I’ve decided to try to help anyone else who might be confused about it.

This tutorial is now also available at Simlogical.

What is an Overrides folder?

An Overrides folder is another folder that you can place in Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\Mods. This folder is given higher priority over other folders in your Mods folder, which allows you to further customize and organize how your mods are loaded into the game.

In order to be able to use this folder as intended, you will need to make sure that your Resource.cfg is set up properly to read the Overrides folder. This is very easy, especially since you can get the Resource.cfg from ModTheSims. That means you won’t have to mess around with your Resource.cfg yourself.

Creating an Overrides folder: The Quick and Easy Way.

1. Download the Mods framework from ModTheSims: Direct Download Link for Framework.zip

2. Double-click the Framework.zip file to open it.

3. Open the Mods folder inside Framework.zip

4. Select the Resource.cfg and hit Ctrl+C (or right-click and choose Copy).

5. Go to your own Mods folder, where you install your mods: Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\Mods

6. Delete the Resource.cfg file.

7. Use Ctrl+V or right-click > Paste to put the new Resource.cfg in your mods folder.

8. Create a new folder in your Mods folder, and name it Overrides.

Ta da! You’re done. You now have a working Overrides folder.

What Makes the Overrides Folder Work

The Resource.cfg from MTS includes these lines:

Priority 1000
PackedFile Overrides/*.package
PackedFile Overrides/*/*.package
PackedFile Overrides/*/*/*.package
PackedFile Overrides/*/*/*/*.package
PackedFile Overrides/*/*/*/*/*.package

Notice the Priority for the Overrides folder is 1000. Here are the lines for the Packages folder:

Priority 500
PackedFile Packages/*.package
PackedFile Packages/*/*.package
PackedFile Packages/*/*/*.package
PackedFile Packages/*/*/*/*.package
PackedFile Packages/*/*/*/*/*.package

The Packages folder has only Priority 500, so that means, anything in the Overrides folder will have higher priority over the Packages folder. This gives you some flexibility in what you do with your custom content.

Now that you know what makes the MTS Resource.cfg read the Overrides folder properly, you can edit your own Resource.cfg yourself. In fact, you could even re-name your Overrides folder to something else, if you so chose. All you would have to do is change all the “Overrides” bits in the Resource.cfg to the name you’d rather use.

Examples of When to use the Overrides Folder

If you wanted to download lilttlecat’s 70 Store Hairs Pookleted, I’d recommend putting those in the Overrides folder. This will ensure that the game uses the retextures for the hair, and not the EA textures.

If you install some store content as package files, but want to use a mod for the store content, you can put the mod in the Overrides folder.

NRaas Portrait Panel and Awesomemod will conflict with each other. To use them both at the same time, you can put the NRaas Portrait Panel mod in the Overrides folder.

Of course, another way to use the Overrides folder is to put my Custom Food OBJK overrides in the Overrides folder, and install the Custom Food itself into the Mods\Packages folder (or via sims3packs). Using this method, you are free to remove my script mod and overrides whenever you want but still keep the custom food.

These are just a few examples of what would be good to put in your Overrides folder.

A Note about Delphy’s Dashboard and the Overrides Folder

Delphy’s Dashboard does not read your Resource.cfg file, and therefore, it does not know that your Overrides folder has a higher priority over your Packages folder. This means that, in some cases, Delphy’s Dashboard will report a conflict when you have certain content in the Overrides folder and your packages folder. This is the case, for example, when you use my OBJK overrides for custom food and install the custom food via packages. Delphy’s Dashboard will report a conflict, but it is a not really an issue, because of the Overrides folder.

Questions? Comments? Criticisms and Suggestions? Don’t hesitate to share to your thoughts.