Sims 3 white lines

=== Application info ===
Name: Sims3
Version:
Build: Release
=== Rating info ===
GPU: 5 GPU Memory: 4 CPU: 3 RAM: 4 CPU Speed: 2496 Threading: 3
Adjusted CPU: 2928 RAM: 7985 Adjusted RAM: 7473 Cores: 4
=== Machine info ===
OS version: Windows 8 6.2.9200
OS prod type: 0
OS major ver: 6
OS minor ver: 2
OS SP major ver: 0
OS SP minor ver: 0
OS is 64Bit: 1
CPU: GenuineIntel
Brand: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-10300H CPU @ 2.50GHz
Family: 6
Model: 5
Cores: 4
HT: 1
x64: 0
Memory: 7985MB
Free memory: 4167MB
User: emily
Computer: DESKTOP-6RTOVMR
=== Graphics device info ===
Number: 0
Name (driver): NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650
Name (database): NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 [Found: 0, Matched: 1]
Vendor: NVIDIA
Chipset: Vendor: 10de, Device: 1f99, Board: 09e11028, Chipset: 00a1
Driver: nvldumd.dll, Version: 27.21.14.5206, GUID: D7B71E3E-5CD9-11CF-CE67-EF291BC2D635
Driver version: 5206
Monitor: \\.\DISPLAY1
Texture memory: 2048MB
Vertex program: 3.0
Pixel program: 3.0
Hardware TnL: 1

@Bts152  The game is using your Nvidia card, and rating it correctly (despite the fact that it's unrecognized), so that's not the issue.  I understand that the screen filckers in fullscreen mode, but please try it and see whether you specifically get the same white lines or not.  Even if fullscreen mode isn't a solution, it's still useful information.

Please also try playing in windowed mode at a resolution smaller than your screen, as in, something smaller along both dimensions than 1920x1080.  Again, even if this isn't ideal, it's worth checking to see whether the lines are still there.

The reason I'm asking about fullscreen mode is that the flickering you've described can often be fixed by enabling vertical sync.  While the v-sync option in the Nvidia Control Panel doesn't work anymore on laptops with dual cards, at least as far as I can tell, there is a tool that works for games that use DirectX 9, like Sims 3 does.  Since it's a third-party download, I can't link it here, but if you're interested, let me know.  Another player tested it a few weeks ago and reported that it worked well with Sims 3.

I’ve gave the full screen mode a try but it didn’t work. I’m really interested in the tool you mentioned! I would love to give that try please 

@Bts152  The outside tool isn't necessarily going to fix the white lines; the point was that if the white lines were gone in fullscreen mode, the tool might help with the flickering.  Still, if you want to try, there's no harm in doing so.  The tool is called D3DOverrider and is built on RivaTuner Statistics Server, which is reliable and widely used.

Did windowed mode on a reduced resolution help?  I'm just wondering whether that makes a difference, even if you don't want to play that way permanently.

I’m fine with using windowed mode- it’s just that I need to get rid of those white lines that shows up on basically everything like skin, clothes and furniture 

@Bts152  I understand the issue you're having and that you want to get rid of it.  My questions are these:

• If you play in fullscreen mode, do you see the white lines?  (I know there are other issues in fullscreen; I'm specifically asking about the lines.)
• If you play in fullscreen and use the tool I mentioned, does the screen flickering go away?
• If you play in windowed mode on a reduced resolution, do you see the white lines?

Please let me know the answer to each of these three questions, and we can go from there.

Yes there’s still white lines on full screen mode 

the screen still flickers when I used the tool you mentioned 

I still see the white lines on windowed mode 

In all this, did you upgrade your driver via GeForce Experience?

Yes i have and it still not helped with my problem 

@Bts152  Could you post a few screenshots of what you see?  Hit Windows key-shift-S, drag your cursor over the section of screen you want to capture, and then open Paint and crtl-V to paste the image.  (This only works in windowed mode.)  Please also let me know whether the screenshots look like what you see or not; if not, you can take a picture with your cell phone camera and attach it too.

Hi, sorry to interfere but the ‘white lines’ on furniture & clothes that they are talking about is NOT screen tearing. I have the exact same problem they’re talking about and I don’t have screen tearing. You keep trying to get them to do things that fix screen tearing, like enabling vsync and all that but that is not their problem. I haven’t been able to find a fix for this problem anywhere and to be honest it’s so annoying in game. It’s little white lines that look like cracks on objects and sims, when you move the camera they flicker on the object or sim/clothes. It’s very noticeable and I saw once that someone said it was to do with the latest update & thats all they said. However, I have watched many youtubers playing the sims 3 who don’t seem to have this problem. I have a pretty good computer and can run all settings on high very well. However, no matter what setting I do it wont get rid of these white lines. It can’t be to do with edge smoothing because I’ve tried it with and without and nothing fixes it. I could attach a video or image of what the white lines and flickering look like if you want to see. It’s completely unrelated to screen tearing caused by fps. 

Unfortunately, I have this issue as well on my desktop.

I actually returned the computer 2-3 times thinking it was faulty graphics card.

I have walked through tutorials and talked to nvidia and skytech and we can't find anything wrong.

We've literally uninstalled the drivers and reinstalled them via safe mode.

We also tried different settings via the game.

And different settings through nvidia control panel.

I actually gave a tech guy remote control to my desktop and he fiddled around.And said

there is nothing that he can see actually wrong with my system.But is completely baffled.

Now that I see multiple have it, it makes me think its more of a windows 10/nvidia thing than my computer.

They're annoying for sure.

@graceymanors  I was hoping the SweetFX utility (see post 43) might make a difference for the other player, since disabling edge smoothing fixes the issue for the other recent poster here.  Does it do the same for you?  I know that disabling it makes the game look bad in other ways, but I'm curious whether the lines disappear.

I'm still baffled by this problem too, especially since relatively few players are seeing it.  I wish I had something more useful to offer.

I will try that when I get home from work.It is baffling because it seems like a problem that just recently started happening, or at least for me.

Are all these people desktop players? On my laptop, I don't have any of the issues I have on my desktop.But both the tech guy from the store I got this from, and the manufacturer

tech guy are baffled.Neither suspect a corrupted graphics card.They are blaming the game.

Edge smoothing gets rid of it for me as well.:o

@graceymanors  The original poster of this thread has a laptop with an Nvidia 1650, and the second person to post has a desktop with a 1650 Super, so... maybe it's the 16-series architecture?  The thing is, I'd expect more reports than these if all of the cards in that family were affected.  So maybe it's something about a particular subset of cards, or their memory.

The first poster has a 1650 made by Dell, or I guess a third-party supplier of laptop parts that contracts with Dell, so that might be impossible to chase down.  It looks like the second poster currently has this one:

https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/218030/pny-gtx1650super-4096-191126

They said their older GTX 9-series card had the same issue though.

I think you have this one, although correct me if I'm wrong:

https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/215605/zotac-gtx1650super-4096-191021

I don't see anything in common between them that would explain why these cards are affected and others not, but that doesn't mean much.  It would be interesting though to make lists of cards that do and don't produce this issue.

By the way, could you list a couple of base game objects where you see the white lines?  It would be helpful as a reference for any future players with the same issue.

My old laptop that doesn't have this issue has a 1050 ti, so maybe its something to do with the card?

I see it on all sorts of things, even on some of the sim's clothing.Turning edge scrolling off fixes it, but the blurriness is worse than dealing with the lines.

Wanna know what's even weirder? it doesn't happen in every save, out of 5 of my saves only 3 of them show it, one of them being a new save.

Some items:

Bedtastic Bed

Beautiful Budoir Bed

It also seems to effect items with darker colored patterns(blues, reds)

Bedtastic bed - edge smoothing on - might have to click on the picture to see it.

Edge smoothing off

Edge smoothing low.

Another thing I noticed is, it doesn't happen right away, it starts appearing over the course of playing.And some saves don't have while others do.

@graceymanors  That is quite strange, especially that it doesn't happen right away but shows up later.  That suggests that the issue is not simply your graphics card or its driver but also something in-game, although I guess if you didn't introduce objects that showed the problem until later, that would account for the difference.

Another possible factor is the different lighting in various worlds, and perhaps another is the season.  Have you noticed a pattern there, e.g. Sunset Valley saves are fine but ones in custom world X have the issue, or the problem shows up once the season changes to fall?  I'm just trying to figure out if there's anything at all that might explain the difference.

I play mostly in custom worlds.But I have a save in Appaloosa plains and it happens there as well.I do have a lighting mod installed so I will remove it and take a look and see if still happens.I usually don’t edit homes with new stuff so no items usually get added and sometimes I don’t notice the issue until I exit my

game and relaunch it.

@graceymanors  I know you've spent a lot of time messing with the Nvidia Control Panel settings, but someone I've asked about this problem before still thinks this looks like an antialiasing issue that might be correctable with the right CP profile.  So please try the following and let me know whether it helps:

• Disable edge smoothing in-game
• In the CP profile for TS3.exe (I think you have an Origin install?), set "Antialiasing - Mode" to "Override any application setting"
• Set "Antialiasing - Setting" to 2x
• Enable "Antialiasing - FXAA"
• Take a screenshot of how the game looks
• If you're not satisfied, you can set "Antialiasing - Setting" to 4x or 8x and experiment; please let me know whether it makes a difference

Even if you've tried this particular combo before, it's worth seeing how it changes the look of the game: even if it's not a perfect solution, the info is useful.

Will try that.

I actually already had the antialiasing set to 2x from when nvidia helped.I will change the others and post back.

Edit: In fact I had all of these already set.Except for application controlled.

Lines gone, but game is terrible looking, looks like I have it on low graphics.

@graceymanors  That's too bad; I was hoping there would be at least some improvement.  Thanks for testing though.

And nice house, even on low settings.

Thanks 🙂 I have my settings on high except for water and detailed lots.Aside from the lines the computer runs great.I regret not going to a desktop sooner😇 I ended just ignoring the lines, tech guy didn’t think it would cause any harm to my system.

I thought I would post an update here.I saw a thread where someone was having trouble getting their card recognized and you had mentioned windows 10 sometimes overrides the application on what it uses for CPU, even the nvidia control panel.

so I followed the instructions and set it so the sims 3 runs on high processing.

I loaded my game(after restarting my PC) and the lines are gone....as well as the flickering issues I was having.

I don't know if it will help with everyone, but it did for me.

https://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5035

This is what I followed.