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 attached). Last night I was downloading new custom content and after I tried opening a new save file my whole screen would flash and the lots would glitch with random colours and create a sim was glitched out. I repaired my game, took the downloads and mods folder out but still no luck after the launcher.Does anyone know anything that may help me fix this issue? I really don't want to lose all my save files.

I dragged all the graphics to the lowest they could go, deleted the options.ini and turned the advanced rendering off. It worked perfectly fine and I also tried with advanced rendering on which also worked like normal. I have created a youtube video (here), however it is unlisted, so let me know if you need it to be public instead. I am going to update my laptop overnight but the issue seems to be with the graphics, however, I have always played Sims 3 on this specific Macbook after the 64bit version came out, so I am unsure as to whats changed.

@kawaiisizzie You don't need to ditch your saves, but it's a good idea to put them aside for now. Move your entire Sims 3 folder out of Documents\Electronic Arts and onto your desktop, and the game will create a new one the next time you open the launcher. Don't add any files to it, at least not yet; just see whether the game works. Let me know either way. If you still get a white screen, please let me know whether you use a third-party antivirus, and if so, which one. Please also attach your deviceconfig.log to a post; it's in Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 3. (You'll need to manually open the folders; the file won't show up in a search.) You can delete your user and computer names, about 25 lines down, but there's nothing else in that file that can identify you.

I removed the Sims 3 folder and it worked after pressing play on the launcher, however, the glitch has started again. I screen recorded it this time and I have sent you a private message with the video. I don't use any third-party antivirus programs so I'm not sure what could be causing this issue. Apologies that the deviceconfig.log isn't in its original format, it would let me get rid of my name or laptop name so I had to convert it to pages and then a pdf, let me know if there are any issues with previewing it. *Edit: I just realised I used the new folders deviceconfig.log file, I can also upload my old folders file if needed.

@kawaiisizzie The video didn't attach to the PM, but I saw it in your uploaded videos, and... wow. Could you try lowering the graphics settings to the minimum let me know whether that makes a difference? Try it with Advanced Rendering on and off. Please change the graphics settings at the Main Menu, then quit to desktop before loading a save; otherwise, you could see some strange graphics glitches, although not worse than what you're looking at now. By the way, if you did change the settings while a save was loaded, or you loaded a save afterwards without quitting to desktop first, please delete options.ini from the Sims 3 user folder and start from scratch. The thing is, your particular graphics chip seems to be struggling more than most with running Sims 3, at least in Big Sur. There may be an issue with the driver for that chip, and since drivers are part of the operating system, there's not a lot you can do for a driver problem other than update the OS and hope it comes with a new driver. As it happens, there's a new update available now: you're on 11.1 from the version number in your deviceconfig, and 11.2 was released last week. So you could try updating and see whether it makes a difference. If you do update, another clean folder would be in order as well, just to be thorough. The deviceconfig is fine as is, and I'd prefer the newest one anyway. You can also open it in TextEdit if you want to edit it, but as long as the info is intact, the format doesn't matter to me. By the way, if you could upload the video to YouTube or a different filesharing site and link it, that would be helpful. There's kind of a trick to getting videos to play properly on this site, so while it's doable, it's not as convenient for people who aren't used to it. And I'd like to share this video with some EA people if possible.

@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.

sims 3 opens blank screen mac | EA Forums

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puzzlezaddict
Hero+
5 years ago
@kawaiisizzie That's why the clean folder is so helpful—it addresses all the issues with the current folder at once. I thought when you said the glitch had started again that you were still using the new folder, not the old one, but I guess I should have asked for clarification.

Most of the files in your Sims 3 user folder are extraneous and will be recreated as necessary, so you don't really have to worry about moving over the files from your old folder. Unless you're missing some content you want, for example a saved build or household (in the Library folder) or a sim saved in CAS (in the SavedSims folder), you can just ignore the contents of the old folder entirely.

The custom content issues are likely due to the cc itself, not your settings. Some content doesn't work properly at all, and other items don't have a low-res version. So when you're looking at your sims from far away and the game switches to using the low level-of-detail (LOD) images, the cc doesn't show up at all. You could in theory fix this by editing graphicsrules.sgr to lengthen the distance it takes before the game switches to using low LOD images, but that would bring with it a massive performance hit. I'd instead use different custom content.

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sims 3 opens blank screen mac

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