No shadows on Parallels Desktop on M1 Pro mac

@costalovesit  The missing shadows doesn't have anything to do with the unrecognized graphics card directly.  And I haven't heard of this problem happening on a Mac, but then again very few Mac users play through Parallels.  The only other examples I've seen of missing shadows all happened on Windows systems with newer AMD graphics cards.

In those cases, the fix was to run the "Sims 3 GPU Add-On Support" tool hosted on NexusMods.  You'd need to create a (free) account to download it, then you'd run it to edit graphicsrules.sgr.  This might not get your graphics chip recognized—I have no idea whether this tool supports ARM Macs—but it makes other changes that restore the shadows for systems with AMD GPUs.  In at least two of those cases, it wasn't getting the GPU recognized, which we did by hand, but running this tool that restored the shadows.  Point is, you can try it yourself and see whether it helps.

If you don't like the effects, just repair the game, which will restore the .sgr files to their original form.

If you'd like to get your GPU recognized and this tool doesn't accomplish that, please post the first 40 or so lines of deviceconfig, which is in Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 3.  (Stop when you get to Options.)  You can delete your user and computer names, about 20 lines down, but the file doesn't contain any other personal info.

@puzzlezaddictthanks for your help! the tool did not fix the shadow issue ☹️ i just leave the changes that the tool made because i so no difference.

these are the 40 lines of my deviceconfig:
=== Application info ===
Name: Sims3
Version:
Build: Release
=== Rating info ===
GPU: 5 GPU Memory: 4 CPU: 4 RAM: 4 CPU Speed: 3200 Threading: 3
Adjusted CPU: 3867 RAM: 8186 Adjusted RAM: 7674 Cores: 6
=== Machine info ===
OS version: Windows 8 6.2.9200
OS prod type: 0
OS major ver: 6
OS minor ver: 2
OS SP major ver: 0
OS SP minor ver: 0
OS is 64Bit: 1
CPU: Virtual CPU
Brand: Virtual CPU @ 3.20GHz
Family: 15
Model: 4
Cores: 6
HT: 0
x64: 0
Memory: 8186MB
Free memory: 1843MB
User: costa
Computer: ...
=== Graphics device info ===
Number: 0
Name (driver): Parallels Display Adapter (WDDM)
Name (database): Parallels Display Adapter (WDDM) [Found: 0, Matched: 0]
Vendor:
Chipset: Vendor: 344c5250, Device: 353030, Board: 00000000, Chipset: 0000
Driver: prl_umdd.dll, Version: 20.18.1802.53077, GUID: E3FB5CB0-7370-11FA-E5AC-0A27BDC2D935
Driver version: 53077
Monitor: \\.\DISPLAY1
Texture memory: 2048MB
Vertex program: 3.0
Pixel program: 3.0
Hardware TnL: 1

@puzzlezaddictso i looked up this guide https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/300915/a-help-for-pixelated-shadows-ati-cards/p2 and i edit the graphicsrules files. Now it says it found 0 but matched 1 which is confusing to me. How can you find nothing but actually found a match. However, the shadows are still missing.

What i did:
I found out that the card vendor has no name, the GPU name is Parallels Display Adapter (WDDM).

So I added this to my graphicsrules file:

elseif (match("${cardVendor}", "")) < no vendor name so blank
if (match("${cardName}", "*Parallels Display Adapter (WDDM)*")) < GPU name
seti cardLevel $cardLevelUber
seti isCardMatched true
else
seti cardLevel $cardLevelUber
seti isCardMatched false

I also edit my graphicscards file. It actually had a vendor "Parallels" at the bottom, but not my GPU name. I did this:

vendor "Parallels" 0x5250
card 0x3030 "Parallels Display Adapter"  < this was already there
card 353030 "Parallels Display Adapter (WDDM)" < this was not so added my GPU name 
end

Not sure if its going to the right direction? 

Edit:

Omg okay i got shadows but they looks very pixelated. I have no idea. I added this and the shadows came:

 setProp $ConfigGroup RenderShadowMode 2
setProp $ConfigGroup ShadowMapAllowNullColor 1

See screenshots for my GraphicsRule file and the shadows. Also note that antilaliasing looks horrible, even though it's on highest.

@costalovesit  The reason your card is Matched but not Found is that it's still not listed in graphicscards.sgr in a way that the game can read it.  The edit you made to graphicsrules.sgr tells the game to match any card with "Parallels Display Adapter (WDDM)" in the name, whether it's listed in graphicscards.sgr or not.

For the graphicscards.sgr entry, try this:

vendor "Parallels" 0x344c5250

The shadows are alwasy going to be very pixelated.  The effect is a little worse in macOS than in Windows, but it's mostly a limitation of Sims 3 itself.  Here are a couple screenshots from my Intel Mac, for comparison:

A fix would probably require either a reworking of textures within the game or some kind of (very large) texture override mod, which I don't believe exists at this time.

Thanks for providing the edits that restored the shadows.  I've never been able to test myself because I don't have one of the newer affected AMD GPUs, or Parallels for that matter.

I downloaded lazy duchess's shadow extender and a 8k shadows mod, I think it helped. At least my game looks good now! Some screenshots for example. Thanks for your help!

a moment ago

Hello! 

I'm amazed you got something to work! 

I'm having the same issue but was having difficulty working it out and was wondering if you wouldn't mind helping me out if you don't mind?! 

Thank you so much in advance! 

hey and thank you in advance for any help 

so, I’m playing the sims 3 via parallels (I’m using a mac, so running ts3 via windows 10) as it runs surprisingly much better than the 64-bit ‘metal’ mac version of the game, however - It doesn’t recognise the graphics card which is causing a couple issues ie. no shadows.

I’m trying to add the graphics card to the graphicscards.sgr but it’s technically called something like ‘Parallels Display Adapter’ or something and I’m a little confused - so wondering if someone was able to help me!

Again, thank you SO much for any help!

@EnricoFrancis  Please go into Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 3, open deviceconfig.log, copy the first 40 or so lines (stop when you get to Options), and paste them here.  You can delete your user and computer names, about 20 lines down; the file doesn't contain any other personal information.

Thank you so much for your response, here's the info: