Re: Graphic settings are high but the gameplay does not match the graphic settings

@puzzlezaddict Thank you for replying🙂

I deleted options.ini and reloaded the game with my graphic options. I noticed that the Sims are not grainy or blurry in Fullscreen or Windowed Fullscreen mode but they are grainy and blurry in Windowed mode (the mode I use). 

When I took in-game screenshots of the Sim with each mode, the Sim was blurry and grainy in Windowed mode and the edges were not smooth, whereas, in Fullscreen and Windowed Fullscreen mode, the Sim was clear and the edges were smooth. I will attach the screenshots below to show you. 

Just to let you know, it is easier to notice the difference in the screenshots I have attached below when you open these files in a browser on a mobile phone rather than a PC, I noticed. 

@puzzlezaddict I have attached my dxdiag file to this post.

Here are the first lines before Options starts in the config.log file:

@KashmirG2002  There are a few errors in your dxdiag that are probably related to the driver for your graphics chip, and the chip itself isn't recognized by Sims 4.  The latter is easy enough to fix and isn't really an issue anyway.  The driver errors can be addressed too, but you already have the newest driver HP offers for your laptop, and that driver was made for an older build of Windows 10 than you have.  So rather than going right to installing a new driver, or clean uninstalling and reinstalling this one, I'd like to double-check with someone else.

It's also interesting that only windowed mode looks blurry.  It may be that your build of Windows changed something about graphics rendering in windows, and the driver doesn't take that into account.  But again, I'd like to ask about it before saying I know for sure how to address it.

In the meantime, to address other possible factors, try playing in windowed mode in a clean boot.  You don't need to take screenshots if you don't want to, but please let me know whether it looks the same as before.

https://www.windowscentral.com/how-clean-boot-windows-10

@puzzlezaddict Hi, I have clean booted my Windows 10 and played Sims in all 3 modes in a clean boot. It's still the same as before with Windowed mode being grainy and blurry with the edges not being smooth and the other 2 modes are perfectly clear. I have attached screenshots of how it looks in a clean boot.

@KashmirG2002  I did ask, but I don't have an answer for you yet.  We're all on different schedules and have other things we need to do as well.  I'm not going to drop this thread though; it might just take a little time.

@KashmirG2002  The person I asked thinks it's probably not about the driver so much as the graphics chip rendering the game at a different resolution in windowed mode.  This would be more about the chip itself and/or the screen struggling with the resolution you're using, not necessarily the driver.  Does the game look better if you use windowed but use your screen's native resolution?  What about windowed with a scaled resolution supported by the screen?

If that doesn't make a difference, or you can't get a screen size you like to also look good, then maybe using windowed fullscreen would be the better option.  If it's access to the Taskbar you need, alt-tabbing to a File Explorer window will make it show up.

@KashmirG2002  You could try manually editing options.ini to change the 705 to a 768, that is, if options.ini is storing the value rather than some other tool on your computer overriding it.  Open the file and crtl-F to search for resolutionheight, and change it to what you want.  Make a copy of options.ini first though, in case you need to restore it.

Another option would be to set the game to fullscreen mode, quit, and tell Origin to launch it in windowed mode.  Open your Origin game library, right-click on the Sims 4 icon, select Game Properties > Advanced Launch Options, and enter -w (with the hyphen) in the command line.  Save, and launch; your game should be in windowed mode despite the in-game options.

If neither of these helps though, windowed fullscreen is probably the best option.  You already know the game looks good, you'll get the functionality of windowed mode, and you won't have to keep fiddling with something that insists on not working the way you want.