UPDATE 9-2-20 Has your Sims 3 game been affected by the recent pixilation issues?

"ZeeGee;c-17405406" wrote:
@archivist Oh yes, please. I would appreciate that very much. Thank you.

Sure, pasting them below. :) Let me know if any of the steps need clarification.


INSTALLATION:

1) Visit www.reshade.me and download ReShade 4.5.4 from the top or bottom of the page

2) Run the file and click "Click here to select a game and manage its ReShade installation"

3) On the "Select a game or application" screen, select "Sims 3 (TS3.exe)" from the list. If it doesn't appear on the list, you can Browse to where your TS3.exe file is located and click it. (Note that this will install files directly into your Sims 3 folder. I'll include uninstallation instructions at the bottom in case you decide to remove it.)

4) When it asks "Which rendering API does Sims 3 use?" select "Direct3D 9"

5) On the "Select effects to install" screen, you can either select everything if you want a lot of different graphic options to experiment with (the complete download size is only 10 MB) or just select Deband for the color debanding effect and SMAA for antialiasing. When ready, press "OK" to install.

6) The title bar will read "ReShade installation was successful!" ReShade is now installed in your The Sims 3 folder. You can now close the installer.


HOW TO SET UP RESHADE FOR DEBANDING AND ANTIALIASING:

1) Run The Sims 3. When the game opens, you'll see a brief notification that ReShade is running at the top of the screen.

2) Press the Home key on your keyboard to open or close your ReShade options screen any time while in-game. (You can change the key to another key later in the Settings tab, where it says "Overlay key". I use my Home key a lot in-game, so I changed my ReShade options key to F4.)

3) ReShade will ask if you want to see a tutorial. You can choose to go through the tutorial or skip it.

4) At any time, click the "Home" tab at the top of the screen. Now you can start selecting the different graphic effects you want to use or experiment with, and unselect anything you decide you don't like. You can basically treat this like another graphics settings screen for the game.

5) FOR COLOR DEBANDING: Select "Deband " from the list. At the bottom of the window, you'll see the heading "Edit global preprocessor definitions". Under it will be a bunch of different sliders. Set "Debanding strength" to High.

6) FOR ANTIALIASING: Select "SMAA " from the list. You shouldn't need to mess around with the settings for that one, but you can experiment if you want. Any settings you change can be reset by clicking "Reset all to default" for that particular effect.

7) Press the Home key (or whichever key you've set as your ReShade key) to close the ReShade settings window, and you should see any changes immediately.


HOW TO TAKE SCREENSHOTS OR RECORD VIDEO WITH RESHADE EFFECTS:

Be aware that screenshots and videos taken by pressing C and V won't include any of the changes made by ReShade. You'll have to instead use ReShade's screenshot key to take pictures and use separate video capture software to record video (Windows 10 has its own built-in capture tool so no need to download anything).

Taking screenshots with ReShade:
1) Open ReShade in-game and click the Settings tab
2) Under the "Screenshots" heading, you can set the key you want to use for taking ReShade screenshots (PrintScreen by default)
3) You can also set the folder where you want screenshots to appear. I set mine to the same folder as my other screenshots: C:\Users\(your Windows username)\Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\Screenshots
4) When taking a picture, you'll probably want the user interface to not appear in your screenshots, so press F10 to toggle the UI off or on. I set my ReShade screenshot key to F11 so that they're just next to each other.

Recording video with Windows 10's Game Bar:
1) While in-game, hold down your Windows key and press G
2) The first time you do this, Windows will ask "Do you want to open game bar?" Click the box that says "Yes, this is a game."
3) Press the record button to start/stop recording a video. The video will appear in your Videos folder under a subfolder called Captures.


HOW TO UNINSTALL RESHADE IF YOU CHANGE YOUR MIND:

* To uninstall using the exe file: Run ReShade_Setup_4.5.4.exe, select "Sims 3 (TS3.exe)" and select Direct3D 9. When the installer asks if you would like to Update or Uninstall, click Uninstall.

* To uninstall without the exe file: Navigate to your Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\The Sims 3\Game\Bin folder or wherever your game file is located. Then, delete the folder "reshade-shaders" and also delete the following files: ReShade.ini, d3d9.dll, d3d9.log, DefaultPreset.ini. If you created a preset, there will also be an INI file with the name of your preset. That file is also safe to delete.