Forum Discussion
We have different game folders, however, she has to use my Origin account to play the Sims. I've also tried the clean sweep of spawning a new folder by taking out the old one, but that hasn't worked either. I'm wondering if maybe there is something I'm missing?
@ManeEvent4U2 Just to be completely thorough, could you list your and your sister's graphics settings, or take a couple of screenshots and upload them here? Please also list the worlds in which you and she play, and with which packs. Also, do either of you happen to run any other software alongside the game? Anything—video capture, browsers, music, etc.
In the meantime, try spawning another clean folder, and don't add anything to it. Start a new game in Sunset Valley, and test CAS, Edit Town, and anything that's been giving you trouble lately. As I mentioned, some worlds are better made than others.
- ApprovedAnonymous7 years ago
My sister and I both play with all 11 expansion packs plus High End Loft Stuff. Neither of us run any programs in the background while playing the Sims 3 and we play on all worlds that come with each expansion.
My graphic settings:
Full Screen Mode: Enabled
Screen Size: 1152 x 864 (4:3)
Screen Refresh Rate: Default
Object Hiding: Enabled
Animation Smoothing: Enabled
Advanced Rendering: Enabled
Reflection Quality: Mirrors Only
Edge Smoothing: Off
Visual Effects: Medium
Lighting and Shadows: Medium
Tree Detail: Medium
Draw Distance: Medium
High Detail Lots: 1
Texture Detail: Medium
Sim Detail: High
My sister's graphics settings:
Full Screen Mode: Enabled
Screen Size: 1024 x 768 (4:3)
Screen Refresh Rate: 60
Object Hiding: Enabled
Animation Smoothing: Enabled
Advanced Rendering: Enabled
Reflection Quality: Mirrors Only
Edge Smoothing: Off
Visual Effects: Medium
Lighting and Shadows: Medium
Tree Detail: Medium
Draw Distance: Medium
High Detail Lots: 2
Texture Detail: Medium
Sim Detail: Medium
Also, I've attempted to create a new folder, however, for some reason, it says there is an error and that Origin needs to be installed.
As I was playing, for some reason, the loading times are much longer, and then my game froze at one point.
- puzzlezaddict7 years agoHero+
@ManeEvent4U2 There is one setting that stands out—your screen size. Your monitor's native resolution is 1280 x 1024, which is a 5:4 ratio, but you're using a 4:3 ratio instead. Having an aspect ratio that's not supported by your display can indeed cause the lagging you've described, although why your sister isn't seeing the same problems is an open question. Anyway, using a supported resolution should help.
Are you saying that if you pull your existing TS3 folder out of Documents and try to launch the game, you're getting an error message that you need to have Origin installed? (You'd be doing me a huge favor if you described exactly what you see in as much detail as possible; it might matter to a completely different TS3 issue that we've been trying to troubleshoot all weekend.) That's not normal and not the way these things are supposed to work—the game folders were designed to be swapped and refreshed just like this.
In any event, the following files can and should be deleted from your game folder often, or even after every play session if you remember. Most of them will regenerate each time you launch the game.
- The five cache files directly inside the game folder (CASPartCache, compositorCache, scriptCache, simCompositorCache, socialCache; if you see extensions in File explorer, they'll all end with .package)
- Everything in FeaturedItems—this is the game trying to sell you store stuff while you play
- Everything in DCBackup except ccmerged.package. Don't delete ccmerged, as it's critical for your premium store content
- Any files in CurrentGame—this should always be empty when you're not playing
You can help your game by moving Screenshots and Recorded Videos, if you use them, elsewhere on your hard drive. You should also store the files in Downloads elsewhere after you've installed them, but it's a good idea to keep these as a backup, in case you need to reinstall later. Crinrict wrote a guide to your user files, if you're curious:
- ApprovedAnonymous7 years ago
Sorry I have not responded for quite a while, I have been super busy this week. ☹️
I managed to fix my issue with Origin "not being installed", and I've also attempted clearing out practically every file you've mentioned, as well as done the clean folder. However, nothing seems to work.
Also, I'd like to point out that every resolution in my sims game is in a 4:3 ratio - except for the highest resolution...
- puzzlezaddict7 years agoHero+
@ManeEvent4U2 Strange, I could have sworn that there were more resolution options than that. I just checked on the mac side, and there are a bunch of 16:10 ratios, but no 5:4. Still, you should be able to change the resolution manually. Again, it's best to use a clean game folder, in case this makes things worse.
Inside the folder, there's an options.ini file. Open it with a text editor; whichever option Windows offers is probably fine. Find the line that lists the screen resolution, and change it to 1280 x 1024, the resolution of your monitor.
If this doesn't help, or makes things worse, delete that options.ini file, load the game again to the Main Menu screen, and put it in windowed mode. Then quit and try the same edit.
- ApprovedAnonymous7 years ago
I changed the resolution to the amount that you suggested, and I also changed the Refresh Rate to 60, and oddly enough, these changes seemed to help.
However, it didn't stay that way for long.
- ApprovedAnonymous7 years ago
I'm guessing by this point that there is probably no fix for my issue, and that I'm just gonna have to deal with it.
- puzzlezaddict7 years agoHero+
@ManeEvent4U2 Unfortunately, you're probably right. As I said in the beginning, your system is under the recommended specs to play TS3 and most of its packs. Different players can get different results from the same hardware, but there's only so much you can expect from an integrated card.
If I didn't mention it before, you could always try Windowed Borderless Gaming to see whether that makes a difference. It might not, but the program itself is easy enough to use, and popular among TS3 players.
https://westechsolutions.net/sites/WindowedBorderlessGaming/
- ApprovedAnonymous7 years ago
I tested it out just like you suggested, unfortunately, it didn't do anything to help. It really sucks that I can't seem to find a fix for this :/ Oh well, hopefully we get a new graphics card soon.
Thank you so much for all your help, I really appreciate it! 🙂