sims 3 opens blank screen mac
I recently wanted to get back into playing the Sims 3 after a short break but I can't play anymore. After I press play on the launcher a black and white screen shows up (as shown in the screenshot at...
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@kawaiisizzie The video works fine; thanks for uploading it. I've already passed it along. I'm not sure what happened either, unless you first played the 64-bit Sims 3 in Catalina and only later updated to Big Sur. The newer OS probably has a new graphics driver, and there might be other relevant differences as well.
When you deleted options.ini, did you do so before or after you changed the graphics settings? That file stores the settings, so removing it would reset everything to defaults. I'm just curious whether the game worked fine with the default graphics profile or with everything on low settings. It could be that options.ini itself was corrupted in some way, in which case deleting it would have fixed the issue.
I removed the options.ini before I changed all the settings to the lowest. I also updated my laptop to the latest update (big sur 11.2) and I tried to load up my saves with my original Sims 3 folder and I got the white loading screen again. I hope I don't have to start from scratch or play without custom content. What should I do now?
@kawaiisizzie Try loading the game in a clean user folder. This doesn't mean deleting your saves and custom content, just setting them aside for the moment. Move your entire Sims 3 folder out of Documents > Electronic Arts and onto your desktop, and the game will create a new one with no content the next time you open the launcher. Don't add anything to it yet; just see whether you can start a new save.
If the game has the same graphics glitches as before, change the settings again. If you get another blank screen, make sure iCloud isn't trying to automatically sync the contents of Documents: you can disable iCloud or just stop the auto syncing function. This guide is for another issue, but the relevant settings are the same.
https://bluebellflora.com/2017/02/06/sims-3-and-sims-4-not-loading-save-games/
If that doesn't help either, try playing while your computer is completely offline. You can sign into Origin and put it in offline mode, then disable wifi before opening the launcher.
I played a day and a bit in game to see how it would run and it was fine with wifi turned off. The only issue I had with a the new Sims 3 folder was when I loaded and exited the game, a glitches screen appeared, but it didn't cause any other issues.
@kawaiisizzie I can't see your screenshot because this site's virus scanner is on the fritz (again...), but if the game is otherwise working normally, you may not need to worry about it. I'll take a look at the screenshot when it's showing properly, unless you want mte to look now, in which case, embed it within your post instead. (There's a button for that along with the other formatting buttons.)
When the game works only with no internet connection, that usually means either iCloud is trying to upload the contents of Documents as the game is trying to load, or that an antivirus is blocking some connection the game makes to EA servers. The latter has traditionally only been an issue when a third-party antivirus program is installed, but it's possible that Big Sur's security settings are more stringent. Anyway, the place to start is with iCloud, and if that's not the problem, let me know whether you use a separate antivirus.
