Hi everyone,I have a question about my graphics in the sims 3.My game runs fine, no problems there. But when I edit my sim in CAS (as well as in game it's also noticable) my sims hair seems to be grainy or ''pixelated''How can I combat this? I've not always had this problem.My specs arei5 7600K 3.8 ghznvidia geforce gtx 1050 ti, 4gb16gb ramCan any of you help me?Pictures of the problem:you have to look closely in the second picture.(the problem is the black ''dots'' surrounding the hair.. also, while not noticable on the screen, the hair itself is pixelated as well)

You are running what is essentially a 2008-09 game on 2017-18 hardware. There probably isn't much of a solution for things like this. Even with a hefty 4 GB of video memory (vram) as you have, the game can only utilize at most 800 MB of it.

I recently updated my driver to the latest one. I've noticed that turning that one option in Nvidia panel off.. the top one where you can go until like 16x .. can't recall the name, but turning that off fixed it for me, at least in CAS. In game it's still slightly pixelly but not as much as it used to be.

Turning off Anisotrophic filtering does fix it but I refuse to use that option when it makes playing the game look ugly. I have fiddled with the antialiasing settings in the control panel but nothing has made the grainy hair pixels go away. I only got this computer in November and never seen this sort of graphical problem before, even though my graphics card (GTX 1060 6GB) is recognised and way way better than the 630 I had before. All of my options are on high, including edge smoothing. I am now updated to the latest driver 390.77 with no changeFrom what I can tell, the problem started at the beginning of February. That's when I downloaded Nraas StoryProgression_Extra and StoryProgression_Career. I have taken them out, and all of the other cc I downloaded this month, just in case there was a confliction but things are still the same. I have reset my settings in game, restarted and turned them back up but it's still the same.The grainy part as you can see appear on the shiny part of the hair. It appears in all saves. Sometimes it's less with cc hair, but still noticeable. In game I couldn't notice it as much. :confused: https://s17.postimg.cc/tzijmon2n/Screenshot-37.jpgI started a test game on an empty world and I'm not sure if I'm just being paranoid now but everything just looks a bit more jagged from afar even though my anisotropic filtering is back at 16x. It's more noticeable around the green chairs.https://s17.postimg.cc/wguatyeov/Screenshot-38.jpgI feel like something between my graphics card and the game is conflicting but I'm not sure what to do about it now. Igazor helped me match my card to GeForce GTX 480, so it's not that. I'm out of ideas :confounded: Can someone upload their NVIDIA Control Panel settings for me? Since getting this computer I have never changed anything but I just want to check if I'm missing something here.Edit to say: Even when I regenerate a brand new Sims 3 folder the problem is still there.https://s17.postimg.cc/7ouon55cf/Screenshot.jpg

After a bit of testing I can confirm that the jagged lines only appear when I'm in fullscreen with my fps capped at 60.https://s17.postimg.cc/96g4yqs3j/Screenshot-41.jpgWhen I put my game into windowed mode the lines disappear, but my fps goes over 100.https://s17.postimg.cc/wxfigv7q7/Screenshot-42.jpg:tired_face:

I use Nvidia Control Panel + Nvidia Inspector since inspector has a few more options but both work together. I'm not sure why the control panel conflicts with in-game settings for some but not all. The only problem I experience is screen tearing with a certain option enabled through Inspector but that's it. I have quite a few things adjusted with both.My Control Panel settings:Anisotropic filtering 16xAntialiasing - Mode Override any application settingAntialiasing - Setting 8xAntialiasing - Transparency 8x (supersample)Multi-Frame Sampled AA (MFAA) OnPower management mode Prefer maximum performanceTexture filtering - Quality High qualityVertical sync On

Grainy/pixelated hair? | EA Forums

30 Replies

Odonata68
8 years ago
I was just lurking and this thread caught my attention. I haven't been in game (cas) in a while, so I decided to check this out myself.
Wow! I don't' know what happened, but most of the hairs in cas look just like that in my game. :/
Spoiler
https://www.thesims3.com/sims3_asset/sims3_asset/media/shard000/shard000/765/352/019/00/screenshot_original.jpg
https://www.thesims3.com/sims3_asset/sims3_asset/media/shard000/shard000/763/352/019/00/screenshot_original.jpg
https://www.thesims3.com/sims3_asset/sims3_asset/media/shard000/shard000/759/352/019/00/screenshot_original.jpg

Then there are a few that don't seem to be affected
Spoiler
https://www.thesims3.com/sims3_asset/sims3_asset/media/shard000/shard000/762/352/019/00/screenshot_original.jpg
https://www.thesims3.com/sims3_asset/sims3_asset/media/shard000/shard000/761/352/019/00/screenshot_original.jpg

It's not the actual hair coloring, but the sheen has been affected or how it's reflecting light.
Spoiler
This is cc hair, it's hard for me to tell if it's being affected. If it is, it looks better than the others.
https://www.thesims3.com/sims3_asset/sims3_asset/media/shard000/shard000/760/352/019/00/screenshot_original.jpg
Then there's this hair that clearly has a bright sheen but seems unaffected.
https://www.thesims3.com/sims3_asset/sims3_asset/media/shard000/shard000/764/352/019/00/screenshot_original.jpg

Older pic of a cas makeover session (last year maybe) and the shine doesn't appear to be pixelated.
Spoiler
https://www.thesims3.com/sims3_asset/sims3_asset/media/shard000/shard000/409/220/019/00/screenshot_original.jpg
https://www.thesims3.com/sims3_asset/sims3_asset/media/shard000/shard000/407/220/019/00/screenshot_original.jpg
https://www.thesims3.com/sims3_asset/sims3_asset/media/shard000/shard000/618/199/019/00/screenshot_original.jpg
https://www.thesims3.com/sims3_asset/sims3_asset/media/shard000/shard000/613/199/019/00/screenshot_original.jpg

I have a GTX 950. I wonder if this is from a driver update. Mine updates all the time it seems.
Odonata68
8 years ago
Ok, the cas hair thing was bothering me so I decided to check on my NVidia settings. I know that I've played around with them before, but I think a driver update may have changed something. So I restored all my settings to factory in 'manage 3D settings'. Then the only things I changed back were vertical sync-on and Multi-frame sampled AA-on because Gforce experience said my card supported it.
Anyways, it fixed the pixelated hair in Cas! yay!
Spoiler
https://www.thesims3.com/sims3_asset/sims3_asset/media/shard000/shard000/790/352/019/00/screenshot_original.jpg
https://www.thesims3.com/sims3_asset/sims3_asset/media/shard000/shard000/789/352/019/00/screenshot_original.jpg
https://www.thesims3.com/sims3_asset/sims3_asset/media/shard000/shard000/788/352/019/00/screenshot_original.jpg
SimplyJen
Seasoned Ace
8 years ago
@Odonata68 Yay :) Glad you found a solution. I hope the same will work for coco. I do understand how annoying it is once you notice it though and a pain for those who take screenshots in CAS.

Since I don't notice it in-game, I won't bother fussing with my settings. I don't update my graphics driver unless a new game comes out or it makes sense to when I'm troubleshooting something. It's normal for graphics drivers to constantly have updates because new games come out all the time and drivers must support the games.
Odonata68
8 years ago
@SimplyJen I guess I was more worried about something breaking or wearing out, like my graphics card. I'm just glad it was a simple fix.
cocokayla
Seasoned Ace
7 years ago
@Odonata68 :open_mouth: :open_mouth: :open_mouth:
This is very promising! Thanks!
I will definitely try reverting my settings back because I had honestly given up hope.
cocokayla
Seasoned Ace
7 years ago
It worked!!!! Thank you both so much for your insight into this. :heart:

I tried tweaking the settings but if only I restored them to default at the start I wouldn't have had to go through this.

@jean I really hope this solution works for you too.

So shiny with not a single pixel in sight :smiley:

https://s26.postimg.cc/n8x9njju1/Screenshot-50.jpg
https://s26.postimg.cc/4tcsq4xzt/Screenshot-53.jpg
JeanVW
Seasoned Ace
7 years ago
That works for me too, however because anisotropic filtering is back to square one, the ground textures are very blurry.. Something to do about that?
cocokayla
Seasoned Ace
7 years ago
@jean I haven't noticed excessive blurriness like you're describing. Can you post a picture?
JeanVW
Seasoned Ace
7 years ago
It's about the terrains (in the distance) from a certain view. I'll post pics later.
Odonata68
7 years ago
Yay!!! I'm so glad it worked for you! :smiley:
Gosh, now I'll have to check out the terrain in my game. :/

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Grainy/pixelated hair?

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