Hi there, I reinstalled my Sims 3 after seeing the 64bit now available. I'm using a MacBook Pro 16 inch, running mac OS Big Sur ver 11.1. The hardware should support Metal. What I've done after installing the game:1. I've deleted the version.tag file, which resulted in an error message stating "base game and expansion packs are incompatible". 2. I've also gone to the Origin launcher to disable "Origin in-game". The problem now is that the game does not start. I'm able to enter the welcome screen and log into my Sims 3 account, but once I click on the Play/Start button, the screen will adjust resolution then be stuck on a white window. Does anyone see the same issue and know how to resolve? Thanks!

@puzzlezaddict Lowered a lot of the rendering/detail settings and played at Sunset Valley instead, could play until now before crashing. Thanks a lot, now it's actually playable!

@tammytandy I don't think you need to delete anything. A factory reset means moving or renaming the Sims 3 folder in Documents > Electronic Arts, letting the game spawn a new folder, and not adding anything to it. That's a useful and simple troubleshooting step you can try. If you want to uninstall and reinstall the entire game, move the Sims 3 folder elsewhere, and your user content won't get deleted during the uninstall process, That way you can go back to your saves if you want, that is if the game starts working again.

@tammytandy Try editing options.ini to force the game to open in windowed mode. The file is in Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 3; you can cmd-F to search for "fullscreen" and set it to 0. If that doesn't help, please try playing while your computer is offline. You can sign into Origin and put it in offline mode, then disable wifi before pressing Play.

@puzzlezaddict Thanks for the input! I unfortunately wasn't able to locate a file with the keyword "fullscreen" in The Sims 3 folder. Without being able to make the adjustment, I launched the game again in offline mode, and it still failed..

@tammytandy The word "fullscreen" is in the file labeled options.ini, which in turn is in Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 3. You have to open the options file to edit the settings.

Sims 3 64 bit won't launch on macOS Big Sur

13 Replies

puzzlezaddict
Hero+
3 years ago
@wilmahagstrom Unfortunately, your particular model of laptop does have some trouble running Sims 3. One thing that can help is turning down the lighting and trees graphics settings to the minimum. Do so at the Main Menu and quit to desktop before loading a save. If that doesn't make a difference, try disabling Advanced Rendering (it'll make some things look pretty bad, but this is just a test) and enabling object hiding, if it's not enabled already.

Please test in Sunset Valley; Bridgeport has some issues related to how it's built, and that can complicate testing, especially when pets are involved. I'm not saying you can't play in Bridgeport, only that it's best to get the game to a stable point in SV first so you can distinguish between different types of issues.

If turning down the graphics settings doesn't help, try uninstalling Pets. You can do that by simply removing the folder for it, which is labeled EP05 and is in the same place as the Sims 3.app, either in Applications > The Sims 3 Packs or Users > your username > Applications > The Sims 3 Packs. You'll need to start a new save to test this, as your existing saves would either not open at all or be corrupted by the missing data.
wilmahagstrom
3 years ago
@puzzlezaddict Ah thank you!! Will def try these!
wilmahagstrom
3 years ago
@puzzlezaddict Lowered a lot of the rendering/detail settings and played at Sunset Valley instead, could play until now before crashing. Thanks a lot, now it's actually playable!

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Sims 3 64 bit won't launch on macOS Big Sur

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