Low Quality Textures Despite High Settings
I went to play the Sims 3 for the first time yesterday after installing it on my new computer. When it loaded, all of the textures were low quality and blurry despite having almost all options set to high. I have tried running it through GeForce Experience, I have changed monitors and I have even updated from Windows 7 to Windows 10. None of these things made any difference. I even tried following a video to change my GPU settings. All that did was make my game ripple like water. Can someone please help me get this issue sorted? Thanks.
@MysticalMumma What resolution are you playing at? If you're not already, please try playing at 1650x1080, the native resolution of your monitor. You can change that value any time you want, without having to quit to desktop and reload. Please also test both fullscreen and windowed modes, and let me know whether the game looks better in either.
Sims 3 is using your graphics card properly, although it's not recognizing the card itself or its the VRAM, referred to as texture memory by the game. While this usually doesn't make a significant difference to the overall image quality, it's easy enough to fix, and worth trying if the above doesn't make a difference. Here's how to get your card recognized:
SpoilerYou'll need to edit a two files called graphicscards.sgr and graphicsrules.sgr, which are both located in the Sims 3 program files. For an Origin install, the default file path is:
Program files (x86)\Origin Games\The Sims 3\Game\Bin
Note: These instructions only apply to and will only work for the original poster's graphics card. If you'd like help getting your own card recognized, please post the same information from deviceconfig and ask for help.
Open graphicscards.sgr (Notepad works fine), and crtl-F to search for 10de. That will take you to these lines:
vendor "NVIDIA" 0x10b4 0x12d2 0x10de
card 0x0fd1 "GeForce GT 650M"
card 0x0fd2 "GeForce GT 640M"Create a new line under the "Nvidia" line, copy this text, and paste it in the new line:
card 0x17c8 "GeForce GTX 980 ti"
So you should now see this:
vendor "NVIDIA" 0x10b4 0x12d2 0x10de
card 0x17c8 "GeForce GTX 980 ti"
card 0x0fd1 "GeForce GT 650M"
card 0x0fd2 "GeForce GT 640M"(with indents from spaces that this site isn't displaying properly). Save, quit, and open graphicsrules.sgr. Crtl-F and search for 8800, which will take you here:
elseif (match("${cardName}", "*8800*") or match("${cardName}", "*9500*") or match("${cardName}", "*9600 GSO*") or match("${cardName}", [etc.]
Change the bolded 8800 to GTX 980 ti. Don't change anything else, not even the asterisks. This will classify your card as uber.
Finally, scroll back to the top of graphicsrules, and look for this, 8-10 lines down:
if ($textureMemory == 0)
seti textureMemory 32
setb textureMemorySizeOK falsechange the 32 to 1024, and add a # and a space in front of setb. Your card has 6 GB video memory, but TS3 can only use 800 MB anyway. The lines should look like this:
if ($textureMemory == 0)
seti textureMemory 1024
# setb textureMemorySizeOK falseYou'll know it worked if you see a [Found: 1, Matched: 1] next to the card name in deviceconfig, and texture memory listed as 1024 instead of the current 32 MB override. If either tweak doesn't work, please post the section of deviceconfig.log under "Graphics device info," so the last 12 lines of what you uploaded before.
If this doesn't make a difference, please take another screenshot or two with the above changes. The one you provided was great, but this time, let me know what furniture you use and where to find the wallpaper. I want to take a look in my own game, in a couple different OSs. Any items from the base game or any EP are fine, although I don't own all the SPs and don't have most store stuff installed at the moment.
