@1345annie Please post the specs of your Mac, as described here:
@icecold0913 Could you post a screenshot of what happens when you try to place a lot?
@puzzlezaddict It only happens when placing a bin lot from expansion packs - base game lots seem to be fine. It causes severe graphical glitching that doesn't go away until I quit the game. If I restart the game and delete the lot in question and then restart the game again, the graphics go back to normal.
@icecold0913 Great, thanks for letting me know. And that's quite an interesting find.
Edit: I tried to replicate this and couldn't. I wonder whether it's due to your having an integrated graphics chip; my computer has a dedicated card.
can i actually ask what graphics my Mac should be set on? i have not played the Sims 3 in like 10 years and I'm planning on getting a PC next year for gaming but here are my specs...I did upgrade my Mac's processor/graphics when I bought it to the highest available but I don't want to put TS3 on a setting that isn't viable...or maybe the tearing/graphic issues are still being sorted out
@fififoofoo3123 You should, in theory, be able to play on ultra settings. I have the same Mac as you (although not with the upgraded CPU) and play mostly on ultra in Windows. In practice however, water and high-detail lots have always been hard on the game engine, and it's best to turn those down to "mirrors only" and 2, respectively, unless you're taking screenshots. The framerates were also a lot worse in macOS than in Windows, although that should have improved somewhat with the new version.
I haven't had much of a chance to test this particular aspect of performance, but I remember in the previous version of Sims 3, putting tree detail on the highest setting had a startlingly large effect on fps. Perhaps it's something about how the trees wave in the wind, I don't know. Point is, try turning that down a notch and see how your framerates look. That's a good metric for performance, that is if your Mac can cool itself properly and isn't throttling performance.
What settngs you should use will also depend on the packs you have installed, and (if you have Seasons) what the weather is like. Rain, snow, and hail are more demanding than a sunny day; pets are stressful, and long-haired pets and horses especially so. You may need to turn down the graphics to adjust, but you'll need to experiment a bit to find out.
To see your in-game framerates, bring up the cheats console (now cmd-shift-C) and enter "fps on" without quotes. A number will appear in the upper right corner of your screen, and you can use it as a rough comparison.
The screen tearing is real, and difficult to deal with. Try different resolutions in both fullscreen and windowed modes; in fullscreen, be sure to use only resolutions with a 16:10 aspect ratio, the same as your screen. Unlike most of the other settings, you can change these with a save already loaded and not worry about restarting.
If you do settle on your preferred settings, I'd love to know what they are, along with the packs you have installed.
