WINDOWS graphic issues. Shadows/colours in general low quality and pixelated.
Hello. My apologies if I do something wrong. This is my first time making a thread. I was previously a mac player, got the 64 bit update, but it doesn't work, so I decided to go back to my windows. I...
@kaat31 That's interesting that windowed mode is so much brighter. There's still something strange about your Nvidia options or maybe some other settings on your computer. But if you don't want to deal with that, try using Windowed Borderless Gaming. It's a free download that works well with Sims 3. It should make the game window take up the whole screen but still technically run in windowed mode.
@kaat31 I can't read that. Please attach an entire dxdiag, in .txt form, to a post. To attach the file, click the Browse button and navigate to your dxdiag.
@kaat31 The dxdiag worked fine, thanks. Please do a clean uninstall of your Nvidia driver, and reinstall the newest driver available from Dell for your laptop. Download Display Driver Uninstaller from here:
Next, take your computer completely offline—disable wifi and/or pull the ethernet cord—and double-click the DDU.exe. Take note of where the file will land, and click Extract. If it's easier, you can copy the path and then paste it into the address bar in a File Explorer window. Open the folder and then launch Display Driver Uninstaller.exe, and you'll get a message that you're not in Safe Mode. Click OK, then go to Options and enable Safe Mode dialog. Here's a screenshot of what your options should look like; make sure the box in red is checked:
Close options, and the DDU, and then open the DDU.exe again. For launch options, choose "Safe Mode (Recommended)," and then click Reboot to Safe Mode (you'll need your password, so find it before rebooting). Once you login, you'll see this:
In the blue box, choose GPU, then Nvidia if it's not already showing. Then click Clean and Restart (red box).
Once your computer has rebooted, now back in normal mode, run the driver install .exe as an admin: right-click on the download and select "Run as administrator."
Reboot again, go back online, and see whether the game looks normal again. Having it on full brightness may cause some distortion, so you might want to turn it down a bit.
By the way, do you have access to a separate monitor that you could hook up to your laptop at some point? If uninstalling and reinstalling the graphics driver doesn't help, it would be useful to test on a separate monitor, to distinguish between an issue with screen settings and one with some other element of your system.
1) I wasn't able to keep my computer offline because it needed wifi for the driver install .exe
2)In the DDU file, under Nvidia specific options, out of the 4 check marks, it also had the first one checked AND there was a fifth check mark. I left them checked because I didn't know if I should or not.
3) I didn't quite understand what you meant "go back in normal mode"
4) I assumed you meant the Nvidia graphic driver from May 7 with driver install . exe
5) When you said to reboot, I assumed you meant to restart.
The colours still look the same. I attached another screen shot to show what it looks like now.
The point of going offline is to make sure Windows doesn't download a driver for you before you have the chance to install the one you want.
I don't know what that fifth option was, but the default options that the program chooses are usually fine.
I meant normal mode as opposed to safe mode.
I meant the driver I suggested you download, yes.
Rebooting does mean restarting.
Do you have access to an external monitor on which you could test? Please let me know either way, but might save you a lot of time and effort if you found out that the issue was also present on another monitor.
Otherwise, please test the laptop's screen using BOTH methods in this article under "Run hardware diagnostics on the LCD screen":
If nothing comes up, try adjusting the color depth of your screen. This guide is for Dell desktops, but I think you should have most if not all of the same options.
I hooked it up to a monitor and the issue is present in both computer and monitor. (the monitor is rather pink compared to the computer but it has always been like that)
I did the tests you suggested. the colours are extremely vibrant. very different from my macbook. I have tried toning down the vibrance before, but it ended up in those pixelated shadows/highlighted shadows that look odd.
I tried to adjust the color depth of my screen, but the options were different. I tried looking up other ways to do it, but those just changed my screen setting (size/proportions eg: 1200x680)
@kaat31 Please take a couple of screenshots of the options you see when you're trying to change the screen settings. I'd like to know what options are available.
@kaat31 Try adjusting the color settings in the Nvidia Control Panel. Right-click on your desktop, open the CP, click "Adjust video color settings" in the left panel, and play with the Nvidia settings to see if you can get something that looks better.
@kaat31 You should definitely have more options than that. Please launch Sims 3 or another application that uses the Nvidia card, put it in windowed mode (don't minimize it), and see what options you have in the Control Panel.
New revelation! Tho I can't call it good nor bad news. So I tried what you suggested. Still only had the 3D option. But! I noticed that in windowed, the graphic issue is (or at least seems) fixed! I would have been okay with just playing in windowed version... however, it is way too small. I can barely read anything. I will attach a screenshot to compare with what my size settings usually are like. Also, I can't be sure it is fixed because the size is really small, hence I literally can't see if it's fixed (tho it seems like it is). Most screenshots seem to exceed the max size of an image... This means I have limited amount of screen shots to work w. Just compare the size of the 2 images I attach to see what size difference I was talking about. You will just have to believe me when I say I only have the 3D option. Would there be a way to make the fonts/sizing bigger of the game? I tried going into options in the sims and select a smaller size, but then it would be too small, as in, The game doesn't take up the whole screen, but only a small portion. I can't extend/drag corners of a windowed sims 3 game.
@kaat31 That's interesting that windowed mode is so much brighter. There's still something strange about your Nvidia options or maybe some other settings on your computer. But if you don't want to deal with that, try using Windowed Borderless Gaming. It's a free download that works well with Sims 3. It should make the game window take up the whole screen but still technically run in windowed mode.
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