The Sims 4 fails to launch, game window created but never renders
Issue:
The game will not launch. When starting via EA App or directly via the executable, the process starts, the dock icon shows the loading spinner, and system logs confirm the app creates windows and registers normally with macOS — but no game window ever actually renders on screen. After roughly 10-15 seconds the process silently quits with no crash report generated in Diagnostic Reports, and no error logged by the game itself.
Steps already tried (no change in behavior each time):
- Full clean uninstall and reinstall of the game
- Removed all custom content/mods (tested with zero mods — same result)
- Reset in-game graphics settings (deleted options.ini)
- Ran the app under Rosetta
- Repaired the game via EA App
- Confirmed no crash logs are generated in ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports
- Confirmed via log show that the process creates windows and registers with the system, but stops producing activity shortly after with zero logged errors or faults
Suspected cause: Based on other reports from players on macOS Tahoe 26.x, this appears to match a known Metal graphics driver rendering incompatibility between the current Sims 4 build and the newest macOS version — the game creates its window but never successfully renders to it.
