Please improve Mac version

razberria

I am very disappointed in Sims 3!

The game interface is frustrating – moving around, zooming in and out, setting speeds, etc.

I miss the custom neighborhoods, the body shop, and I don’t like everything being created for the game in grayscale for colorization. Bring back Bodyshop – mostly because the create a sim tools are lacking.

My imac is the top of the line (I bought it only a few months ago) and the graphics in the game are pixelated and black shadows.

Please improve MAC version.

Talon

It's not your computer's fault, trust me. ANY brand new iMac is way above the minimum requirements for The Sims 3.

The reason that everything is gray when it loads at the very beginning is so that you can customize everything with Create a Style.

The problem is, the engine that EA is using to make TS3 work on Macs is very iffy when it comes to shadows and smoothing things. They'll improve it, just sit tight until then. I'm playing on a Mac myself; I'm just using Boot Camp until it runs a bit better on the Mac side.

Mombirdsong

I really hope they can fix the shadow issues with the game.

I almost have a feeling it won't happen for a very long time if ever.

World of Warcraft doesn't have shadows on Mac because theres something on apples side that stopped them from being able to put them in. And thats from the richest and most powerful game company.

No idea if it has any similarity with Sims3, but it's not a good sign

Konny

I am running The Sims 3 on a late 2008 MacBook Pro. First I installed on Max OSX and the game ran ok, a bit slow and laggy (even on medium settings). I then installed on bootcamp running Windows XP and the game runs as fast as The Sims 2, it's amazingly different.

I'll explain it simply. It's costly to create a full native mac version of the game, so an windows file emulator is installed on your mac so they can use the same windows version of the game. This program will consume about 20% of your processing and graphic power (hence why it's running slower on mac).

Just bootcamp it, it will bring you happyness!

x Konny

CRS77

Konny wrote:

I am running The Sims 3 on a late 2008 MacBook Pro. First I installed on Max OSX and the game ran ok, a bit slow and laggy (even on medium settings). I then installed on bootcamp running Windows XP and the game runs as fast as The Sims 2, it's amazingly different.

I'll explain it simply. It's costly to create a full native mac version of the game, so an windows file emulator is installed on your mac so they can use the same windows version of the game. This program will consume about 20% of your processing and graphic power (hence why it's running slower on mac).

Just bootcamp it, it will bring you happyness!

x Konny

Which explains the truly miserable state of Mac gaming - particularly with respect to Windows ports.

I've learned not to trust Transgaming and those who use their services.

Bootcamp it is, then. Luckily I have a copy of XP SP2 lying around . . .

razberria

I don't want to tarnish my MAC with windows (bootCamp) in order to play the game.

Waiting for EA to fix the graphics...also waiting for Making Magic

ScraverX

I haven't bootCamped with XP is I don't want to pay to download all the fifty-billion-and-one updates /again/.

Aside from the fact I wouldn't let an unpatched copy of XP anywhere near my Mac. You run the risk of having 5 kinds of virus before you're halfway done.

Grobanite113

razberria wrote:

I don't want to tarnish my MAC with windows (bootCamp) in order to play the game.

Waiting for EA to fix the graphics...also waiting for Making Magic

Agreed. :thumbup:

Tassels

I really don't see why everybody else is having so many issues. I'm running on a late 2007 Macbook Pro, and Sims 2 runs like crap, but Sims 3 looks and feels great (yeah yeah, shadows and antialiasing, but everything else is fine)...

scyiuleung

Tassels wrote:

I really don't see why everybody else is having so many issues. I'm running on a late 2007 Macbook Pro, and Sims 2 runs like crap, but Sims 3 looks and feels great (yeah yeah, shadows and antialiasing, but everything else is fine)...

if you ever try it with bootcamp, you will know that it runs a few times faster in windows, and it is really a few times faster!!!

Tassels

I don't and won't use windows.

_Nyx_

Well, it runs fine with my late 2007 iMac. But I would have to try it in bootcamp to see if it runs faster.

kenotic

Why cant the Sims 3 devs learn from Blizz. Blizz gets it right on both platforms at the same time. Very rarely will you see issues on one that do not happen in the others. The especially goes for speed.

natalieshenk

My 2008 mac is running sims very slow ._____________. REALLY slow

and my mac is usually very fast at anything like starting up ect.

Tassels

kenotic wrote:

Why cant the Sims 3 devs learn from Blizz. Blizz gets it right on both platforms at the same time. Very rarely will you see issues on one that do not happen in the others. The especially goes for speed.

EA seems to be in love with directx while Blizz usually uses both OpenGL and DirectX. Macs don't support DirectX since it's a stupid microsoft proprietary thing, while OpenGL will work on any platform. It'd be a huge undertaking if EA tried to port The Sims 3 to Mac like they did with The Sims 2, and we'll be getting it possibly a year late. So instead, using a technology called Cider (which is pretty experimental), they let the Windows version run on Mac with very little slowdown, though it could be better.

ScraverX

Tassels wrote:

kenotic wrote:

Why cant the Sims 3 devs learn from Blizz. Blizz gets it right on both platforms at the same time. Very rarely will you see issues on one that do not happen in the others. The especially goes for speed.

EA seems to be in love with directx while Blizz usually uses both OpenGL and DirectX. Macs don't support DirectX since it's a stupid microsoft proprietary thing, while OpenGL will work on any platform. It'd be a huge undertaking if EA tried to port The Sims 3 to Mac like they did with The Sims 2, and we'll be getting it possibly a year late. So instead, using a technology called Cider (which is pretty experimental), they let the Windows version run on Mac with very little slowdown, though it could be better.

Which is why the Mac version doesn't have the levels of shadow and AA that you have under Windows. OpenGL and DirectX handle them differently and due to the experimental nature of Cider there may be issues that haven't been figured out yet, which is why they're deactivated currently under OS X.

I imagine Cider might also be connected to why the GMA 950 isn't supported, but I could be wrong.

hvhhails

I'm debating taking my Sims 3 game back. I have a Macbook Pro and my Sims 2 game never had any issues and ran like lightning but Sims 3 is way too slow, and no matter what speed I have it on, it acts like speed one. VERY disappointed in the Sims 3. I think they should have waited a few more months to release it.

Evets

hvhhails wrote:

I'm debating taking my Sims 3 game back. I have a Macbook Pro and my Sims 2 game never had any issues and ran like lightning but Sims 3 is way too slow, and no matter what speed I have it on, it acts like speed one. VERY disappointed in the Sims 3. I think they should have waited a few more months to release it.

It runs great on my MBP. What model MBP & what graphics? Have you tried turning down the sliders?

thatbandchick47

hvhhails wrote:

I'm debating taking my Sims 3 game back. I have a Macbook Pro and my Sims 2 game never had any issues and ran like lightning but Sims 3 is way too slow, and no matter what speed I have it on, it acts like speed one. VERY disappointed in the Sims 3. I think they should have waited a few more months to release it.

i only have a white macbook, but my sims 3 is so slow. acts like it's on speed one no matter what speed it's actually on.
i check the system requirements several times and my mac meets them. i don't understand why it's like this or what to do.
reluctantly i've change the screen size and that has helped a bit with the speed, although i give up the graphics (mine are great, idk about anyone elses).

Moosiie

When i try to download that free Neighborhood it just fails and wont let me download it.

Why does it do this to me every time i try to download it?

BostonPeter

razberria wrote:

I don't want to tarnish my MAC with windows (bootCamp) in order to play the game.

Waiting for EA to fix the graphics...also waiting for Making Magic

And trust me, windows feels humiliated to run on a mac, its beneath it. Running on a over glorified linux box which is all OS X is.

Evets

BostonPeter wrote:

a over glorified linux box which is all OS X is.

Actually, OS X has nothing to do with Linux. The OS X kernal is based on the BSD variant of Unix, but the similarity ends pretty quickly once you move past the subsystem. Mach 2.5 also served as the basis for some of NEXSTEP 0.8, which was the precursor to OS X, but there's very little of that in OS X these days.

Coriander

Mombirdsong wrote:

World of Warcraft doesn't have shadows on Mac because theres something on apples side that stopped them from being able to put them in. And thats from the richest and most powerful game company.

I've had shadows on my WoW installation the entire four years I've played it. And yes, the fancy high-definition shadows work fine, and have since they were patched into the game. The statement that WoW doesn't have shadows on the Mac is flat-out wrong.

Mdoyle2

It's sad that all the Sims website has put up is how much they have sold and how good the game is doing. If the 1.4 million people who bought the game had the chance to return it even though it's been opened, then they would. No patches are yet available nor are there any signs of them. And Technical support has made me so angry. EA I understand you are only mortal but you can't answer any questions as to when or how problems will be fixed. Pathetic.

Xorg7917

yeah same porblem with me when i first got it it was the fastest game in the world but now is the slowest why i put every svideo graphics on llow or off but still slow as heck why!!!!!!!!!!!???????????????

AnsjJ2

When my boyfriend had the iMac from 2008, the sims 3 was running well.. Untill you where further in your game, then it was loading all the time and it was not running well. Now he has a MacBook from 2007, and now sims is running really well !
But the sims 3 in the installation asked OS 10.5 or higher, so first i needed to install Snow Leopard :roll: But what ever.