Re: [WORKAROUND] game/Mac freezes on Apple silicon Macs

I'm sure EA will release a universal (x86+ARM) version of Sims eventually, but I'm guessing it's not a top priority considering how well the game actually runs on M1. A bugfix for whatever causes the freezing with vertical sync off will probably do fine for a good while.

@rubisbanner I had the same issue. But I turned on Vertical Sync in Game Options and I haven’t had crashing since then. I recommend trying it out. 

@MaxisJoe One more question, The Sims 4 is working perfectly now thanks to your help! But I’m having the same issue with The Sims 3 64-bit. Is there an option in Sims 3 like in Sims 4 that I should enable to prevent the crashing?

@simplyluke__ Unfortunately TS3 is not optimized for the M1/ARM chip yet and is entirely dependent on Apple's Rosetta 2 compatibility technology to work. TS4 contains the Vertical Sync setting that, fortunately, works around a problem between TS4 and Rosetta 2. TS3 does not have such a preference currently.

I don't know if trying to force Vertical Sync to be enabled will work (long story), but I know manually setting it to "on" seems to not cause problems for me on a non-M1 system. If you're open to experimenting, try this:

Open the Options.ini file from Documents/Electronic\ Arts/The\ Sims\ 3/ . Add this to the bottom of the file: verticalsync = 1 (this file is a simple text file - it's important that you NOT edit it with a word processor, but rather that you use something like TextEdit). Now try starting TS3. Let us know what happens. I don't hold high hopes for this but it's very much worth an experiment.

For anyone struggling getting origin on their M1 Mac. The only way I’m able to get it right now is copying origin but putting origin on a flash drive and then plug the flash into your M1 Mac and then drag Origin to your Applications folder. That’s how I got it to work. And anyone playing The Sims 4 on an M1, PLEASE Enable Vertical Sync, otherwise your game will freeze your computer. 

@MaxisJoe so far ts3 hasn't experienced crashing after playing for 10 or so minutes! thanks for your help!

No more crashing, vertical sync has solved it!! Woohooo

@MaxisJoe The trick worked! Both Sims 3 and Sims 4 are working!!!

Hi everyone. 

I've seen a lot of reports of how The Sims 4 is running on the M1 MacBooks but I just thought I'd give you some insight on how the game is on an M1 Mac mini!

A few observations: 

- I instantly went into the graphics settings to find they're set to 'High' by default. I instantly turned on v-sync, being aware of the issues many M1 users were having with it switched off. 

- The music is extremely choppy when loading into the game. I turned the music off in the end, but all of the in-game sound effects sound as they should. 

- I set the graphics up to 'Ultra' and put a sim family into James Turner's (The Sim Supply's) starter home on Mt. Komorebi (not sure if I spelled that right). I was very impressed with the frame rates, which are silky smooth. Turning edge smoothing from high to medium improved this even further. It's the first time I've ever been able to play Sims 4 on top settings on a Mac, so it's quite exciting!

- It's worth mentioning that I have all expansion packs and game packs (with the exception of Dine Out and Batuu). I have a few stuff packs too. 

I'm going to be putting a few mods and custom content in shortly, so I'll let you know how that goes. Overall though, to say the game isn't even running natively, I'm impressed! 

EDIT: Put my save files and mods in. I decided to go into San Myshuno as that's been the world that's given my previous Macs a bit of trouble. I loaded into my sim family (5 sims) who live in one of the high-rise apartments. With all settings on 'Ultra' (with exception of Edge Smoothing which I dropped to Medium) I was able to get frame rates between 35 / 40 FPS - and that's when zoomed out / panning the camera, and a major thunder storm was going on. Again, to say this is being emulated under Rosetta, it's so impressive. Let's hope Maxis look to create an M1 native version soon, and we'll probably see even more performance gains!!  

@Vibama Sims 3 actually runs really good. I play on ultra graphics with all the expansion packs except for Into the future and two stuff packs. Just be sure to do what Joe recommend by typing “verticalsync = 1” in options otherwise your game will freeze.

@Vibama So go to you "documents" then click on your sims 3 folder then click on options, then type in "verticalsync = 1" then close options. Doing this will prevent crashing.

I have a new Macbook pro 13" with m1 chip. This laptop does not have any previously saved data that I transferred over. I was able to successfully download and run Origin on a fresh install.  I was also able to successfully download 24 of the expansion packs. At first the game crashed on startup. I followed the directions and changed the Vertical Sync to 1. That worked and the game runs. I was able to create a character and choose a location to live, but have not extensively tested it past that point. I haven't noticed anything wrong with the sound yet. I'll let you know if I run into anything odd.

Update: I am able to max out the graphics to Ultra without it lagging.

First- I cannot figure out how to simply post to this thread, that’s why I am posting a “reply” (face palm). 
secondly- I spent nearly six hours with apple support overnight and this morning to try to fix the following issues:

wiped my MBA 2020 with M1 due to TS4 freezing as the majority of you have experienced

after doing so, I was longer able to even reinstall macOS BigSur, I finally accomplished that about an hour ago

my next task was to reinstall origin and TS4 (I have all packs except Batuu)

successfully installed both origin and TS4 (very quickly)

checked ‘vertical sync’ in options

i quickly created a sim and moved him in to see if the game would run. It has successfully been running for about an hour now (though I haven’t been playing, just letting my son do as he pleases) without freezing/locking up

all this to say- I’ve experienced the same issues as all of you and the vertical sync trick seems to have worked. I wanted to ensure that the appropriate people were made aware of yet another MBA 2020 M1 Simmer has had the same issue.  I will update if I come into any other issues throughout the day.

Thanks for reading 🙂

I'm thinking they will do that if and when they come out with the Sims 5.