Sims 3 white lines
I’ve been playing sims 3 on my new laptop! It’s nvidia GeForce gtx 1650 but in the game, my furniture has white lines that flicker and those lines can be seen on clothes as well. I don’t know what to...
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@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.
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.
@graceymanors Wait, what? That is so strange. I mean, your computer doesn't even have an integrated graphics chip for Windows to try to use instead of the Nvidia card. Although now that I think about it... maybe the setting is more about power saving or performance, and not the cards listed themselves? I don't know; this is something I'll end up asking the real expert.
It's wonderful that the setting fixed the white lines for you, regardless of the explanation. I wouldn't have thought to recommend that for a computer already using the correct card, but I'm really glad you decided to experiment. And yes, it's definitely helpful that you posted this, whether it helps everyone with the issue or only a few.
Tagging @SunflowerSimmies and @Bts152, so you both see the above post. Please let us know whether it makes a difference.
It is so weird isn't, it was the only thing I hadn't done nor did any tech support do, so I figured why not.
Hope it helps others.
What settings was engaged before you changed to "High Performance"?
It was on default settings, I don't ever mess with windows settings.Everything is default.
But I decided to give that a try and it got rid of the lines for me.
Hey again, I would love to give this a try as I still haven’t fixed the issue. But I do have more to add, I downloaded sims 4 on the computer as well and the lines show on sims 4 as well! So its not just a sims 3 issue. However, I usually play sims 4 on my laptop and the lines don’t show on there so it’s definitely to do with something being wrong with the computer. I’ll try and follow this tutorial and see what happens, thanks for remembering 🙂
This actually makes me beyond happy that someone with the EXACT same problem as me might have finally found a solution, fingers crossed it works for me too, can’t wait to try it 😭
@SunflowerSimmies Your laptop may have weaker hardware than your desktop, leading Windows to choose the high-performance profile by default on the laptop. The idea is, the desktop GPU should be able to run the game well enough in power-saving mode, but the laptop GPU might not, so what Windows judges to be the appropriate profile is different.
Please do let us know how this goes.
I tried this but unfortunately it didn’t work for me, on sims 3 or sims 4, I made sure to follow it step by step & restart the computer but it didnt work. However, I tried connecting my laptop to the monitor through HDMI cable with sims 4 and the problem isn’t there when the laptop is connected, only when I play sims 4 on the actual computer. My computer is connected to the monitor through display port. So is the issue display port related as the hdmi cable seems to not show the issue when connected to the laptop or is it a graphics card issue?
@SunflowerSimmies It's certainly possible that the issue is the cable, at least in your case. It could in theory be the type of connection, but since so many people use DisplayPort, it seems unlikely that something about DP itself is the cause. Regardless, your desktop graphics card has an HDMI port, so you could try using the HDMI cable with the desktop.
While you're experimenting, it's also worth setting your monitor to run at different refresh rates, e.g. not just the 165 Hz that you were using when you ran the dxdiag. It might be annoying to have to play at 60 or 72 Hz, but please at least see whether it makes a difference. I think I suggested this before, but it's worth testing again in combination with the max power setting and the HDMI cable.
I have an HDMI cable and the issue still occurs.
I just bought a new cable because my game was causing my monitor to go on an doff upon loading for some reason.
Bought a brand new cable and that issue is fixed, but the white lines are still there and are showing up in my screenshots.☹️
(they came back after awhile, so unfortunately that fix didn't work long)
