Any news on Sims 3 eventually getting the 64bit update?

"kevdayray;c-17432823" wrote:
@igazor Is there anyway to 'un'update my mac so that I can play? And is it true that we can play TS3 from Origin?

TS3 for Mac on recent operating systems (but not updated to Catalina) almost has to be an Origin install. The systems starting with El Capitan and those that came after will not recognize the retail store discs for authentication and there is no Steam option. The game doesn't need to be started by way of Origin like it now does on Windows, it's just needed to manage the installation and the authentication that used to be done by way of having the disc of the base game or most recently released expansion/stuff pack in the drive.

In theory you should be able to downgrade your Mac to Mojave or High Sierra by formatting the boot drive and installing that instead. But that will wipe everything you have off your drive, all applications and all data. Another way would be to have a second boot drive or a bootable removable device with Mojave or High Sierra on it and boot up from that instead. I'm not sure I've seen anyone report back after trying those options though, perhaps others here might.

This is going to depend on the Mac in question, but I wouldn't bother with any of those strategies given how crippled TS3 for Mac is. An arguably better way to enjoy the game would be to Bootcamp Windows onto it and then install TS3 for Windows through Origin, retail store disc, or repurchase the game on Steam. Then the Catalina issue goes away because you aren't running the macOS anymore whenever you wish to play. But your Mac does need to have enough drive space for the Bootcamp partition, a retail standalone purchase of Win 10 would be required, and you would need enough patience to manage two independent operating systems. How well the game performs on Windows would then be a matter of the hardware specs on the Mac you are working with.

Aww, man. I remember seeing somewhere that the Sims 3 would be getting an updated 64-bit version but I had no idea the update would only extend to Mac users, and even that seems to be iffy. I'm actually really bummed out about this.

I am glad I found this topic! I tried redownloading my Sims 3 game so I could play and didn't realize the game was 32 bit and my Windows 10 is 64. I was disappointed that I couldn't play it again. I would love to see them upgrade it.

"discoduck227;c-17433593" wrote:
I am glad I found this topic! I tried redownloading my Sims 3 game so I could play and didn't realize the game was 32 bit and my Windows 10 is 64. I was disappointed that I couldn't play it again. I would love to see them upgrade it.

You could still possibly play it.I play on a windows 10 laptop, and its 32 bit.It all depends on your computer.

"discoduck227;c-17433593" wrote:
I am glad I found this topic! I tried redownloading my Sims 3 game so I could play and didn't realize the game was 32 bit and my Windows 10 is 64. I was disappointed that I couldn't play it again. I would love to see them upgrade it.

That is not correct, 64-bit Windows systems can still run 32-bit applications and will be able to do so for an extremely long time to preserve backwards compatibility. There has been no noise coming from Microsoft whatsoever about this changing. This is why we have a Program Files folder and a Program Files (x86) folder side-by-side. The "regular" one is for 64-bit applications and the (x86) one is for 32-bit applications. When an application is installed, Windows puts in the correct folder for us automatically.

In fact, we would never recommend a 32-bit system for TS3 or much of anything else today because even though they are still officially supported, they can't address more than 4 GB of RAM total. And Windows can hog up so much of that for itself that there isn't enough left to service a game.

This is strictly a macOS issue right now. The macOS had already been 64-bit for ages, but what they did with its most recent version was remove the backwards compatibility. Most players on Win 10 64-bit can run the game just fine, or fine as they ever could anyway.

They actually announced an official update to 64 Bit for Mac users last year somewhere but they haven't said anything about it since...

"ramon475;c-17433981" wrote:
They actually announced an official update to 64 Bit for Mac users last year somewhere but they haven't said anything about it since...

What they announced was an upcoming fix to make the game function in some way in a 64-bit only environment on the macOS. That's not the same thing as updating or enhancing the capacity of the program, it would just be to make it run quite possibly exactly as it does now on pre-Catalina systems, though that of course remains to be seen.

An EA Staff person reported on Answers.HQ just a couple of weeks ago that this effort is still very much a work in progress on their end.
https://answers.ea.com/t5/Technical-Issues-Mac/the-sims-3-64-bit-amp-metal-release/m-p/8820136#M6265

Does anyone know any updated news about it since the coronavirus is now here and they still working on it?

"The_dreamer2001;c-17439461" wrote:
Does anyone know any updated news about it since the coronavirus is now here and they still working on it?

If you mean the patch/update for the Mac version on Catalina, the thread I linked to above on Answers.HQ is the one to watch. The last word from an EA Staff member involved with the project was three weeks ago. We can be reasonably sure that the pandemic is not helping the project move along any faster.

I miss TS3, The depth of it the story, TS4 graphics are better but you cant have everything now can you.....i'll be happy when TS3 is working on macs again......