More Awesome Than You!

Sleepycat was kind enough to answer some of my questions this morning, but despite her kind advice I seem to be getting nowhere fast with the TV volume cheat (floatProp tvVolume 0.1). It makes no difference whether I enter it in-game or as a startup cheat it simply doesn't effect the volume at all. I can use other cheats without any problem and, oddly, it accepts the cheat in-game as if it were valid, but the volume stubbornly remains unchanged. I'm patched and have the base game, only. Does anyone have any idea what's going on? :-\ Thank you.

I don't bother with the cheat panel for that.    Use the ingame audio options.   In the bottom left hand corner where your controls are when the game is open,  Choose the round button with the three little dots on it.  This will open up your options.  Then choose audio options.   Once you have that open just use the sliders to put the audio on the level you want.  If you turn it down too much, just go back and adjust it.

If it makes you feel better, I am also unable to get the tv volume cheat to work with just the basic game.   Maybe it's meant for University on up?

I haven't heard of the TV volume cheat- in my game, I just use the options to turn off sound effects entirely. Also the voices.

I just finally made a userStartup.cheat last night and it worked great for the debug mode, but I haven't tried buying a TV yet to see if it works.  I haven't bought my Sims a TV in so long that I'm used to not buying them one, although some of my more possession-minded Sims always want one.

I do have the music completely muted via the sound options in-game though, which works great, but is hilarious when I see my Sims dancing and no music is heard.  :D

yeah, sometimes I miss the music. I am just waiting for someone to make a hack to kill the television noises

I'm pretty sure the tvvolume cheat requires Uni or higher, I don't think it works in the base game. I use it and it works fine for me.

I don't know that this works as a cheat (although I don't know that it doesn't). One way to get it to work is to add a line to the  globalProps.xml file in the following directory:

<AnyFloat32 key="tvVolume" type="0xabc78708">0.2</AnyFloat32>

C:\Program Files\Games\The Sims 2\TSData\Res\Config (or wherever you have the game installed).
You will need to edit the globalProps.xml file for whichever version of the game you are using (original, Uni, NL).

The line is:

<AnyFloat32 key="tvVolume" type="0xabc78708">0.2</AnyFloat32>

In the original game you need to add the line, but in NL (and perhaps Uni) you just need to change the value from 0.5 to whatever you want (in my case I chose 0.2).

I think the TV-volume cheat requires University. I tried and tried and couldn't get it to work for me with just the original game, and no luck, but it worked at once with Uni installed. I wish I had better news, the full-volume TVs are annoying as heck.  :(

Thanks for the info everyone! I don't like the tv noise either -especially the yummy channel.

This is probably because the anyFloat32 key for tv volume isn't in the globalProps in the original game. But it's easy enough to add (see above). Whether that enables the cheat I don't know, because once I set the volume to 0.2 I don't have any reason to change it.

I waffled between changing it to 0.3 or 0.2.  Finally decided on 3 because somewhere I read recommended it.  Naturally,  the 2 setting would have been better.  Will change it before I play next, that's for sure.

I like it set at 0.1  ;D

I hope what Hegelian posted works for Talismana and others that only have the base game.

Thank you all for chiming in with advice re this annoying aspect of the game...oddly, it does make me feel better that I'm not the only one finding no success :-\ hmmm...misery loves company I suppose.

I'll attempt your suggestion Hegelian, though I'm so technically inept I'm sure I risk FUBARing my game by doing so. It truly is laughable how easily I can muck up the simplest process when fiddling about with my computer. For the benefit of anyone else interested who only runs the base game I'll be sure to post should I actually find success...again, thanks to all!

EDIT: Welp, I can't say it was a surprise with my luck and 'skill' but I'm sad to report no success...

Hegelian, I'm not sure if you're still following this thread, but just in case...this is what I entered in the directory you instructed. Does it appear correct to you? (I simply added the last line)

  <AnyUint32 key="AudioPerformance" type="0xeb61e4f7">1</AnyUint32>
  <AnyUint32 key="edithConfigFlags" type="0xeb61e4f7">0</AnyUint32>
  <AnyFloat32 key="tvVolume" type="0xabc78708">0.2</AnyFloat32>
  </cGZPropertySetString>

thanks, again!

I don't mind the cheap tv, or the new one which came with NL, even the freestanding expensive one is bearable - but the expensive wall mounted one is just so LOUD!  So my sims just never get it, no matter how much they whine!