Sims 3 update, Jan 13, 2025: discussion thread

@Gjafar  This update wasn't supposed to fix any performance issues.  The only change was that the game now starts correctly on the Intel processors that used to need the Alder Lake workaround.

This is such an awesome update! Since my computer does have the Alder Lake processor, I'm so happy that I don't have to go through all those extra steps now to get my game to load. Thanks so much for the post puzzlezaddict .

Updated for mine too, I don't know if I'm imagining things, but this update seemed to take care of some of my "lag" issues too.  🤣

DivinylsFan  Alder Lake is the code name of a family of processors, specifically 12th-gen Intel Core CPUs: everything from the lowliest i3 to the i9-12900K.  The first Alder Lake models were released at the end of 2021, and Raptor Lake (13th-gen Intel Core) showed up a year later.

The new version of ErrorTrap is for the new version of Sims 3 released through the EA App, regardless of whether you have an affected processor.  Everyone with an EA App install received the update.  If you don't install the new version of ET, you may get a core mismatch warning, or the game might minimize on launch, but it's not dangerous to play with it.  Nothing about the game core changed at all, and so the only change to ET was the internal build number.

Jaline33  If reinstalling your worlds doesn't help, please create your own thread in the tech forum listing the worlds you're missing, and whether they still show as owned on the Sims 3 Store site.  I don't want your issue to get lost in this thread.

The Sims 3 Technical Issues | EA Forums

Sandraelle  I'm happy for you and all the other users who had to jump through hoops to fix the issue until now.  The only disappointment is it took this long to fix.

NikkeiSimmer  The update only fixed the startup issue, so it shouldn't have helped with lag unless you were limiting the game to one CPU core AND neglecting to lift the limit after your save loaded.  But less lag is always a good thing.

There’s a lot of buzz on Facebook groups right now with several players reporting less lag and much faster load up times. It’s a curious phenomenon if not intentionally built into the update. Just excitement? Either way it’s great Sims 3 got some attention after so many years.

soocoolsim  I would guess that at least some of these players were using the Task Manager workaround for the Alder Lake issue, and lifting the limit at the Main Menu or later, meaning the game was loading at least part of the time with access to only one CPU core.  Removing that limit would make the game load much faster.  Forgetting to lift the one-core limit at all would make the game lag a lot.

The only other good reason I can think of that Sims 3 would run better is if someone's antivirus somehow objected to the Alder Lake patch (or its effects) enough to slow things down, but not enough to block the executable outright.  This can happen, but it seems to be very uncommon, at least from what I've seen in general.  The update coming directly from EA might prevent the AV from interfering.

As for the rest... wishful thinking, maybe?  Or players reapplied other changes to the game's program files that the update removed or reverted, and they did it better this time around?  It's hard to say.

@ puzzlezaddict Re: your comment as follows:

Jaline33  If reinstalling your worlds doesn't help, please create your own thread in the tech forum listing the worlds you're missing, and whether they still show as owned on the Sims 3 Store site.  I don't want your issue to get lost in this thread. <end of quoted comment>

Thank you so much for you follow up, puzzelzaddict - I did manage to track down my problem on the EA Help forum and received directions for how to get those missing worlds to show up again. I wish I had jotted down notes or a lead to the helpful thread as it might have helped others, too. Unfortunately I did not keep track of it, and it's like a forest of words in there! :)  Thank you again.

Thanks for the update information puzzlezaddict .

I did get the activation page and followed your advice to just Exit. That apparently disconnected my account from the EA App but I just closed the App and used my TS3 desktop icon to restart. Everything appears to be working fine for me so far. 

Fix the Sims Medieval too!

Have the people who are experiencing better performance, also got the 'smooth' whatsaface mod? Or is that without? And is that with a new machine with the Alder thing or an older machine without?