We know that The Sims 4 uses a game engine that was originally built for online gameplay but was modified to support the single player game we have today. However I don't recall the developers ever really explaining what are the specific limitations and capabilities of the engine. I would like to know why we can't have bigger worlds, open neighborhoods, complex emotions or traits, and better story progression. All of these issues are blamed on the game engine but never really explained in depth. I would also like to know if it's possible for TS4 game engine to be further upgraded.

Recently, the developers have nerfed the in game textures of objects in the game to make the game easier to run and it is highly suspected that it is because the game is starting to struggle. Lindsay talks about the engine somewhat in her Q&A with James Turner, however, It's important to keep in mind the background with how the game was created when it was "Project Olympus" and when there's mention of "what they could have done differently" and "adding flexibility" there was only so much they could do because of the limitations of the engine.(source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKzjiiox0Fk)Edit: Another great video in reference to "Project Olympus"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epxTbdLxc7o

They are also limited by their system requirements, I don't think they have ever said specifically the limitations they have to work with but gamechangers that have worked with them have mentioned things that they can't build lots that have too many objects and I can imagine this is also restricting them in how they are designing their worlds.I'm not sure the engine can be upgraded or improved, the thing is that people that are running really good graphics cards are experiencing lag or performance issues, this hints that the engine can't use better hardware very effectively. One thing that I have suspected recently is that the game is also very CPU heavy, if you don't have a good enough CPU you are going to experience simulation lag and even then, there are so many things that are running in the background now with so much DLC added to it.

The limitations seem to change, depending on the convenience it makes for EA... for example, in the beginning, the developers literally said pools would be "impossible" to add in the game due to the engine's incapability of processing it correctly, but after the huge inevitable backlash, they came to the conclusion of having no other choice but to actually start giving players what they want. In my opinion, it was just an excuse for their laziness and unwillingness to actually work on the game.They also said the game engine was purposely designed to have the capability of running on lower end machines, but many people have been experiencing issues (even on high end machines)... what gives? It's just funny how Sims 3's lag and bugs were constantly blamed on open world and create a style, which seemed like a reasonable excuse at the time, but since Sims 4 doesn't have either of those features, how do we explain the bugs and lag it has? lol It's just comical at this point. I think EA should just come out and be completely honest... they're just too incompetent to create a game that runs properly because they don't wanna put in the extra effort to optimize it correctly.Though, to be fair, Sims 4 was originally intended to be a game made for tablets, but EA turned it into a PC game at last minute for bigger profit.

I think the engine has its limitations but most of the limitations come from their desire for the game to work on any computer. Sadly they've cut back on so many things so that the game works for players with potato computers from like 2011 that take 30 minutes to boot up and overheat the second anything happens. From what I understand their decision to do that is responsible for a lot more of the issues than the engine.

"Lustianicia;c-17826277" wrote:It's just funny how Sims 3's lag and bugs were constantly blamed on open world and create a style, which seemed like a reasonable excuse at the time, but since Sims 4 doesn't have either of those features, how do we explain the bugs and lag it has? l@Lustianicia The lag in the Sims 3 was not caused by open-world and Create a style. Sure these two features contributed to the lag but a big part was also because of poor coding, which if fixed makes the game a lot more playable hence why mods like Overwatch work so well.The game just has a lot of routing errors and culling issues but has no in-built way to fix them once they keep happening over time. The open world and create a style excuse was just used as damage control to defend the Sims 4 after the backlash and give a good reason why these features were left out, when in reality Maxis just didn't have enough time to make them (similarly to pools and toddlers) because they had to build a single-player game in an engine that was not meant for a single-player game. But ever since they started spreading that excuse simmers keep spreading it without realizing that the developers never had to completely cut out these features to make the game work better, they simply had to optimize them (like what happened with the Sims 4 Cats and Dogs which came with a color wheel) but they were simply too lazy to optimize them so they decided to not even bother.

What are the exact limitations of TS4 game engine?

27 Replies

Sigzy_29
Legend
5 years ago
"@Loanet;c-17826679" wrote:
Sims 5 will probably use a different, newer engine, and different engines run games differently, even when they're almost the same game.

TS5 job openings mentioned the Unreal Engine. Which is a much more robust engine to use and probably easier to modify. Also...it's used in a lot of online games.... While EA has an in-house engine, the Frostbite, I'm not sure how good it is...it definitely has amazing graphics but I'm not sure how complicated it would be to use it and modify it. The studio that made Mass Effect Andromeda had tons of problems with it allegedly.
drake_mccarty
5 years ago
"Sigzy05;c-17848465" wrote:
"@Loanet;c-17826679" wrote:
Sims 5 will probably use a different, newer engine, and different engines run games differently, even when they're almost the same game.

TS5 job openings mentioned the Unreal Engine. Which is a much more robust engine to use and probably easier to modify. Also...it's used in a lot of online games.... While EA has an in-house engine, the Frostbite, I'm not sure how good it is...it definitely has amazing graphics but I'm not sure how complicated it would be to use it and modify it.

Frostbite is a good game engine the issue is EA mandated all their games use it which has been problematic to say the least. Wasn’t designed to be widely used like Unreal Engine.
SEREFRAS
Legend
5 years ago
That looks like Sims 3 Bridgeport.
SEREFRAS
Legend
5 years ago
As for the engine, they said that they couldn't fix the CAS. Yet 6 1/2 years later they did. Personally, I think it's just the Big Wigs that have been dictating to the Devs what they wanted, because we somehow are getting what we were told would be impossible. Maybe, there were some Big Wigs that were fired & new better Big Wigs came in. Just a guess.
fjb792
5 years ago
"drake_mccarty;c-17848259" wrote:
We don’t really know since the producers arbitrarily assign blame to technology even when the technology supports features they just didn’t want to make. Apartments are a great example since a producer said it was a aesthetic choice to make them bad not necessitated by technology.

I'm still annoyed about apartments. There's no reason we can't make them in game. All the technology is there. We got the roommate system in Discover University- how is that any different from living in an apartment building? And it wouldn't even require a loading screen. Then they just need to unlock elevators, trash chutes and wall mailboxes.
I think they were afraid of players building apartment buildings that were too big and would break the game, but why do they just cancel the feature completely? I don't understand why they could not have just put a restriction on the number of residents in the apartment building. It's like they think we can't handle our own games, like what Chicklet453681said earlier.
Sigzy_29
Legend
5 years ago
"bixters;c-17848594" wrote:
"drake_mccarty;c-17848259" wrote:
We don’t really know since the producers arbitrarily assign blame to technology even when the technology supports features they just didn’t want to make. Apartments are a great example since a producer said it was a aesthetic choice to make them bad not necessitated by technology.

I'm still annoyed about apartments. There's no reason we can't make them in game. All the technology is there. We got the roommate system in Discover University- how is that any different from living in an apartment building? And it wouldn't even require a loading screen. Then they just need to unlock elevators, trash chutes and wall mailboxes.
I think they were afraid of players building apartment buildings that were too big and would break the game, but why do they just cancel the feature completely? I don't understand why they could not have just put a restriction on the number of residents in the apartment building. It's like they think we can't handle our own games, like what Chicklet453681said earlier.

Well...first and foremost lots in TS4 cannot have more than 1 household. When you get a roomate I believe they are part of the household, just not selectable/controlable, that's why there's a cap of 9 roomates per lot if you have one controllable sim there. Which tbh brings up the question as to why it's not a max of 10 sims with pets too. A bit bizarre. In TS3 you could have 8 sims and then 2 pets same in TS2 if I'm not mistaken. Honestly I hate Cats and Dogs...it's so half ass.

But yeah in reality the tech isn't there. It was there in TS2 though...a game from 2004 lol You can pretend that you live in apartment by putting roommates in a separate building in the same lot but you still have to be mindful of that gap.

The apartments and penthouses in TS4 are tbh even worse than in TS3....the elevators aren't even animated, it's just set dressing for a teleporter and you can't put more wherever.
Lonewolf1044
Seasoned Ace
5 years ago
For me every feature like Apts tend to be gimped and with that creativity suffers.

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What are the exact limitations of TS4 game engine?

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