We get to control everything about our Sims, from their hairstyle to their career. But tell me, how cool would it be to have the ability to create shorties and tallies in the Sims 4? Very cool! Luckily for us, there are now mods that allow us to change our Sim’s height, making for some very fun possibilities! Read on to learn about the different height slider mods available for the Sims 4!
What Are Height Slider Mods? Why Would You Want To Use Them?
As the name on the tin suggests, a height slider mod is a mod that will enable you to use sliders in CAS to adjust your sims’ height. It’s another subtle way to make each sim feel unique, and it will allow you to more accurately recreate real-life people who are shorter or taller than normal within the game. Varied heights are so coveted in the sims community that you will often find body presets with modified heights, and even pose mods that will modify sim heights as part of the poses!
Despite how popular height slider mods are there are only a few available for download, likely due to the complexities of getting them to work correctly. That being said, unless otherwise stated the following mods are only designed to work on teen bodies and older.
Reach new heights with height slider mods!
Each of the following mods will allow you to manipulate the stature of your sims. If you find one you like, be sure to bookmark it for future changes as the Sims 4 continues to update!
1. Height Slider and Shorter Teens Mod by SimmyTheSim [DEPRECIATED]
This mod proudly touts itself as the first height slider for the Sims 4, and Simmy managed to figure it out less than a year after the game originally launched! The mod comes in 2 versions with one being the height slider only and the other version including auto-shorter teens, like the one we recently featured in our article about teen mods. It works by adjusting your sim’s feet in CAS which was mapped to adjust their height instead, and proved to be very popular. Though the mod has been declared as deprecated Simmy did begin working on an updated version in 2016, the thread of which you can access here, but it seems since then they have moved back to working primarily on the Sims 3.
2. Height Slider by Godjul1
An improvement/update of SimmyTheSims’ mod, this version of a height slider mod fixes some janky animations and offers a few more options for the extremes of which you can adjust sims’ heights, also by way of dragging the feet in CAS. Comments in the thread seem mixed as to whether or not this mod still works; in my testing with patch 1.93.129.1030(PC)/1.93.129.1230(Mac) they appear to function correctly! You can find the mod options here.
3. Height Slider Collection by Redhead Sims
Redhead Sims made an assortment of height slider mods for sims of all ages with the teen & older control being based on the back leg, and younger sims’ controls being on the head. These sliders were released in 2018 and comments are mixed, but in my testing they worked as they should. Get the links for the various sliders on their blog here.
4. Height Slider by Luumia
As an incredibly active member of the Sims 4 modding community, Luumia has what might be the only maintained height slider mod out there with its last update only a few months prior to the time of this writing. While also based on SimmyTheSim’s original mod, this version has been modified significantly and the height is manipulated by adjusting the sim at the neck. This allows you to maintain the adjustability of your sims’ feet as the effect isn’t overridden here like it is with the other mods. The Sims’ head, hands, midriff, and feet remain proportional to the size of the body as you adjust the height, which keeps things looking realistic.
In addition to the slider mod, Luumia also has a collection of body presets available in short, medium short, medium tall, & tall heights that you can use instead. They’re a great option for players who don’t want to sacrifice any vanilla slider capability, are intimidated by the idea of manually changing heights, or just want a simple click-and-go height option. Both the slider and body presets are available on their Patreon page.
5. Edited Body Height Presets for Kids and Toddlers by Redhead Sims
For those players who prefer to modify sim height via presets instead of height slider mods, Redhead Sims also created some height presets for younger sims based on Luumia’s presets for teens & up. The kids version offers 4 height presets as well as a rig version for posemakers, and the toddlers version includes 4 preset heights, matching posemaker rigs, and several other optional sliders for editing other parts of a toddler’s face and body.
Visual Glitches that can be caused by Height Slider Mods
Using height slider mods may cause visual glitches in the game, and it’s not unusual to experience any of the following:
- Because the Sims 4’s animations are all programmed based off of standardized body heights it’s to be expected that animations may look off between sims, especially those of drastically different heights. For example, when my sim Sasha hugged her friend, due to her larger height the friend’s arms clipped into Sasha’s shoulder. Things like these are purely visual and don’t affect actual gameplay.
- Animation glitches also occur when a sim of extreme height is interacting with objects in the world such as clipping into/through items, their hands not actually holding objects which instead float above or below, etc. Again, this doesn’t actually affect gameplay and just looks funny. The easiest way to limit this is to keep your height adjustments fairly close to the standardized height, or play around with your sim’s height until you find something that achieves the desired effect.
- Though it’s not totally clear why, sometimes a height slider can cause one of your sim’s appendages to disappear. It appears to be random and unpredictable, and while it’s merely a visual glitch it can be a bit alarming if you don’t know it can happen. There doesn’t appear to be a one-size-fits-all fix as I’ve found advice on everything from popping into CAS to reset it, changing the sim to normal height and then back to the desired height, deleting cache files, traveling to other lots, or changing clothes. Unfortunately it’s a risk you take when playing with height slider mods, though it doesn’t seem to be the case if you use presets instead of sliders.
Closing Thoughts
Though there are several ways to create the illusion of height differences in things like poses, for actual gameplay you can’t go wrong with height slider mods – these are a major game-changer! They have their quirks, sure, but aren’t quirks what made us all fall in love with Sims in the first place? Enjoy your tiny and towering ‘toons!
