Hello,I have played Sims 3 on my Mac with no problems up until now (I play on the 64 bit metal version via origin) I launched it today and the UI size is far too small- as shown in the attachments. It happens on the loading screens too.I tried reducing the resolution, but instead of many options of resolution in options I am only given 2- of which neither of them help (this is both in fullscreen and windowed). I have tried the following with no success:Reducing the resolution, but as said, I am only given 2 resolution options.Tried both fullscreen and windowed options.Turned down some of the graphic details to low and restarted the game.Deleted the options.ini from the documents Sims 3 folder in finder. I have no idea how to solve this and it is very annoying as it happened very suddenly with no problems previously. Any help would be appreciated.Thank you.

Hello everyone! Faced the same problem on my MacBook Pro M1. However, I also have an iMac 5K (2020), mac OS 12.4 is installed there as well as on the Macbook, but there are many screen resolutions in the list. I think the problem is Rosetta, not the OS itself.

@Jangobunny Thanks, and no worries about the delay. I asked someone else with an M1 Mac to test, and he saw the same thing, so it does look like this is a problem with the OS and not with user settings. I'm not sure what to do about it other than to hope Apple addresses the issue. @sophiemonz for reference.

Guys, I found a solution! You will need a Better Display (a 14-day trial version is enough).1. Install Better Display2. Go to Settings - Displays - Turn on "Edit and manage the system configuration of this display" and (optional) "Allow smooth resolution scale"3. Restart your Mac.There will be a bunch of permissions for every taste both in the OS and in games. They can be controlled using the Retina Display Menu (RDM).In my case, I did not mark "Allow smooth resolution scale", but manually added the resolution I needed.

@puzzlezaddictNo. The problem was that there were only two of the proposed screen resolutions (about 2k). Now the drop-down list in the game is the same as in the second screenshot. It's just that after the fix, there was no resolution of 1440x900 that was most convenient for me. So I added it manually using the appropriate function in the program.Without this method, there was no way to choose something below 2K resolution in the game. Consequently, the interface was small.P.S. after that, Better Display will no longer be needed, everything works without it. The missing screen resolution options will appear in the game, and in the OS you can choose either in the appropriate settings or using RDM (which is more convenient)

I don’t know if this is true for @SpaceTurKadet, but I’ve tried changing the screen resolution in system preferences to all of the different options (particularly scaled) and it didn’t transfer over to the game. As soon as I start the game it goes back to the tiny UI. I’m definitely going to give Better Display a try because my eyes can’t take much more of the tiny screen!

Sims 3 64 Bit Mac - UI/Resolution too small

60 Replies

puzzlezaddict
Hero+
3 years ago
@sophiemonz The size of the UI is dependent only on the in-game resolution, not any other factors. What options do you see for fullscreen and windowed modes? Please check both modes. Please also let me know the specs of your Mac: everything under About This Mac except for the serial number.
sophiemonz
3 years ago
Thank you for the reply.
So for resolution options both for fullscreen and windowed are the two following:
2048 x 1280
2560 x 1600
The first 2048 x 1280 is the one it is currently set to, while the other just makes it even smaller. These are the only two options given.
My specs are as follows:
MacBook Pro, 13 inch, M1 chip, 2020
macOS Monterey, version 12.4
8 GB memory
puzzlezaddict
Hero+
3 years ago
@sophiemonz That's strange. I have a 16" MacBook Pro and ten options for resolution in both fullscreen and windowed modes. Do you use any system accessiibility settings, for example making the images on-screen larger? Have you set a scaled resolution? You can check in About This Mac > Displays > Displays Preferences; either the "Default for Display" or the "Scaled" option will be active.

If this isn't relevant, or you don't want to mess with your system settings, you can test in a new admin user account. When you create it, just use the default settings for everything rather than adjusting them or importing your current account's settings. All I'd want to know is whether you had more in-game resolution options than just the two you've listed.
sophiemonz
3 years ago
@puzzlezaddict It is strange indeed. As I say, I've played this for a while with no problems and all of a sudden this happens.
My display makes no difference unfortunately. I also tried with a new user account and the same occurred.

I'm wondering if it's something to do with the recent software update I did on my Mac? But surely this wouldn't change the settings on a game. Running out of options here. I also just tried uninstalling the game completely and installing it again, but the same results again, which is incredibly annoying.
puzzlezaddict
Hero+
3 years ago
@sophiemonz It's certainly possible that the OS update you installed is causing this issue, but I'd expect to see more reports than just this one. I haven't updated in a while (and I should probably do that), so I can't compare either.

The only thing I can suggest is choosing the lower resolution available, then quitting and restarting the game. Sometimes this forces a resizing of the game window that works out a lot better than what you see immediately after changing the settings.
sophiemonz
3 years ago
@puzzlezaddict Unfortunately still no luck when trying with the lower resolution.

I can carry on for now, but just means it's not as comfortable playing and I have to do a lot of squinting to see features in the game! I hope EA pick up on this if it is to do with the software update. If anything changes, I'll be sure to update this thread.

Thank you for your help though, you have provided more suggestions than EA live chat did.
Jangobunny
3 years ago
I've only had this issue since updating my Mac software too :/
puzzlezaddict
Hero+
3 years ago
@Jangobunny Interesting. I'll ask around to see whether other people are having the same issue. And to be clear, this happened after you installed Monterey 12.4? What OS were you running before? If you're not sure the exact version, just let me know whether it was Monterey or an older OS.
Jangobunny
3 years ago
@puzzlezaddict Hi, sorry for the delay! Yes this was after updating to Monterey 12.4 from the previous Monterey (I think it was 12.3.1)
puzzlezaddict
Hero+
3 years ago
@Jangobunny Thanks, and no worries about the delay. I asked someone else with an M1 Mac to test, and he saw the same thing, so it does look like this is a problem with the OS and not with user settings. I'm not sure what to do about it other than to hope Apple addresses the issue.

@sophiemonz for reference.

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Sims 3 64 Bit Mac - UI/Resolution too small

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