EA: Please fix the white outline around pets. «12...Next Go

sam123

In CAS and in live mode all pets have this irritating white outline around them. Anyone else have this issue? Turning off edge smoothing fixes this but the outline of everything in game is horrible and not worth it. EA, could you please see into this issue..

sam123

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chesterbigbird

Hi,
I have the same issue.. i think alot of people do.
I have tried on 2 different computers both have this issue and both have high end nvidia graphics cards.
Might just have to put up with it I'm afraid. Dont ever see EA fixing it.

sam123

I think they should, I'm pretty sure it's annoying a lot of people.

sam123

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sam123

Anyone bothered by this issue, or should I post this is the 'Pets' forum?

sam123

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sam123

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sam123

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pam4402003

I use to have this problem also with a GTX 295 graphics card. Just recently I had to get a new card as this one was running way to hot,I could not afford one that was comparable to this so I had to settle for a less cheaper card which is the EVGA Geforce GT 640 2GB supperclocked It runs the game great (with all settings on high) So by going with this card I really did not loose any quality of the game and I now no longer have this problem. So I am wondering if it may have something to do with the more powerful Graphics card? in any case I still think EA should look into this problem.

MinDtriKz

You don't need to excessively bump your thread here.

It doesn't matter how "high end" your graphics card is, if it isn't compatible, you will get display errors such as a white halo around pets. Having an outdated graphics card driver- I updated mine at least four times since Sims WA- will also kill your ability to play the game well.

Post a dxdiag, and screenshots of the error. The dxdiag will have your driver data in it, I'd like to take a look.

Shadow2Soul

The thin white outline is a result of anti-aliasing. This is mostly only noticeable on white, beige, light tan, and light gray pet coats. Some more than others, depending on the texture of the fur (curly vs straight) and the size and shape of the animal. It will also be more prominent the higher you set the fur density, and may be more or less noticeable depending on the pattern/color of the background behind the pet and how zoomed in you are. If you turn off edge smoothing the white outline will go away, but the graphics will be poor as the edges of all objects will be jagged. Hopefully in the future after EA fixes the fluff issue for all supported cards, they can work on refining this small issue. After I finish writing an update summary for all the graphics cards on the no fluff list, I will take a closer look at this issue to see if anything can be done via the catalyst control center. It's not just limited to the AMD/ATI cards though, I've seen this outline on the Nvidia cards too.

This is the best explanation I've seen for the issue and it seems to be only people with higher end graphics cards are having this issue.

My last pc didn't have this issue, but it had an integrated chipset. I'm now using a GTX 560 and experience this issue. Although it doesn't bother me at all.

edit: If I turn edge smoothing off and make sure the Nvidia control panel is set to use application settings when it comes to anti-aliasing, it does go away.

MinDtriKz

pam4402003 wrote:

in any case I still think EA should look into this problem.

EA cannot come into your house and fix your computer spec issues. I am glad you found a card that works- took me a while to be able to play Pets until ATI updated the drivers for my card.

Shadow2Soul

MinDtriKz wrote:

pam4402003 wrote:

in any case I still think EA should look into this problem.

EA cannot come into your house and fix your computer spec issues. I am glad you found a card that works- took me a while to be able to play Pets until ATI updated the drivers for my card.

MinDtriKz from your post, your pretty much saying anything stronger then the GTX 640 isn't compatible with the game or high end. pam4402003's previous card was much stronger than the GT 640. Just look at the link below:

http://www.hwcompare.com/12878/geforce-gt-640-ddr3-vs-geforce-gtx-295/

and the white line they are talking about shows up only when edge smoothing (or anti-aliasing is turned on in the graphics control panel) is on. It is literally a line, not a halo or anything else. If your graphics card didn't show fluff, this line would be where the blocky fur would stop. It also isn't that noticeable unless you zoom in really close.(at least for me its not) My graphic card (GTX 560) default sims 3 setting has edge smoothing turned off, but for stronger cards than mine it is defaulted to on.

For me though it isn't that bothersome and I'm sure not going to get a weaker graphics card just for TS3. Since TS3 isn't the only pc game I play, if anything I'll get a stronger one.

MinDtriKz

Shadow2Soul wrote:

MinDtriKz wrote:

pam4402003 wrote:

in any case I still think EA should look into this problem.

EA cannot come into your house and fix your computer spec issues. I am glad you found a card that works- took me a while to be able to play Pets until ATI updated the drivers for my card.

MinDtriKz from your post, your pretty much saying anything stronger then the GTX 640 isn't compatible with the game or high end. pam4402003's previous card was much stronger than the GT 640. Just look at the link below:

http://www.hwcompare.com/12878/geforce-gt-640-ddr3-vs-geforce-gtx-295/

and the white line they are talking about shows up only when edge smoothing (or anti-aliasing is turned on in the graphics control panel) is on. It is literally a line, not a halo or anything else. If your graphics card didn't show fluff, this line would be where the blocky fur would stop. It also isn't that noticeable unless you zoom in really close.(at least for me its not) My graphic card (GTX 560) default sims 3 setting has edge smoothing turned off, but for stronger cards than mine it is defaulted to on.

For me though it isn't that bothersome and I'm sure not going to get a weaker graphics card just for TS3. Since TS3 isn't the only pc game I play, if anything I'll get a stronger one.

You need to take a look at this:
Supported Graphics Card List
http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/400739.page

Have a great day.

Shadow2Soul

MinDtriKz wrote:

Shadow2Soul wrote:

MinDtriKz wrote:

pam4402003 wrote:

in any case I still think EA should look into this problem.

EA cannot come into your house and fix your computer spec issues. I am glad you found a card that works- took me a while to be able to play Pets until ATI updated the drivers for my card.

MinDtriKz from your post, your pretty much saying anything stronger then the GTX 640 isn't compatible with the game or high end. pam4402003's previous card was much stronger than the GT 640. Just look at the link below:

http://www.hwcompare.com/12878/geforce-gt-640-ddr3-vs-geforce-gtx-295/

and the white line they are talking about shows up only when edge smoothing (or anti-aliasing is turned on in the graphics control panel) is on. It is literally a line, not a halo or anything else. If your graphics card didn't show fluff, this line would be where the blocky fur would stop. It also isn't that noticeable unless you zoom in really close.(at least for me its not) My graphic card (GTX 560) default sims 3 setting has edge smoothing turned off, but for stronger cards than mine it is defaulted to on.

For me though it isn't that bothersome and I'm sure not going to get a weaker graphics card just for TS3. Since TS3 isn't the only pc game I play, if anything I'll get a stronger one.

You need to take a look at this:
Supported Graphics Card List
http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/400739.page

Have a great day.

Already did, guess what, both cards are on the supported list.

The GTX 295 is in black for EA supported.
The GTX 560 is in RED for

Cards that definitely support ALL of the Sims 3 (Base Game + EPs + SPs)

You didn't read it before telling someone their card was unsupported it looks like or before referring me to it. It's either you haven't looked or you've decided I don't know what I'm talking about. I don't seen any reason for you to show me this list unless you wanted to prove me wrong. :?

Cards that people have reported seeing this white line:

ATI Radeon HD 5770: on the supported list in blue
GTX 460: on the supported list in red
Radeon HD 5670: on the supported list in red
Radeon HD 4600 series - didn't say exact card so I can't check
GeForce 9800 GT: on the supported list in red
Ati Radeon HD 4870: on the supported list in black
GeForce 9600: on the supported list in black
GeForce 8600: on the supported list in black (user didn't post about it, but I noticed it in the screenshots they have posted)
GTX 570: on the supported list in red
GTX550-Ti: on the supported list in blue
Radeon HD 3650: on the supported list in black
ati radeon HD 4850: on the supported list in black
GeForce GT 540M: on the supported list in blue

I'm sure more people have it, but either have edge smoothing turned off or just don't notice. As I said, I don't see it unless I zoom in really close.

This is the white line the op is talking about. Almost un-noticeable for me, but it is there. (red arrows point to the line, click on image to get see the full size picture)



Here I zoomed out and you can't even tell its there. At least I can't.


I'm going to keep editing this post as I discover more cards with this issue. (So far I'm getting this information from this thread: http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/900/451611.page)

Shadow2Soul

I found that another simmer did a really good job showing the issue that is being discussed here.

I found it in this thread, 4th post down.
http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/459616.page

if it isn't compatible, you will get display errors such as a white halo around pets

I honestly don't believe this issue stems from unsupported cards. If you look at my previous post you will see that all cards that I can find (so far) with this issue are on the supported graphics list that you posted. I think most people don't seem to care about this, because it is nothing compared to not having fluff.

Also, I'm not trying to be rude here, but the supported graphics card list you pointed out did not prove your point of the cards being unsupported.

pam4402003

MinDtriKz wrote:

pam4402003 wrote:

in any case I still think EA should look into this problem.

EA cannot come into your house and fix your computer spec issues. I am glad you found a card that works- took me a while to be able to play Pets until ATI updated the drivers for my card.

Why would I need EA to come into my house to fix my pc spec's??? This issue has nothing to do with the spec's of my pc.... this is what I run (Alienware
Intel Core i7 960 (3.2GHz, 8MB Cache)
6GB 1333Mhz DDR3
1.8GB Navidia GeForce GT x295
1.2TB Raid 0(2x640GB SATA-11 7,200RPM,16MB Cache)
875w
Liquid C.) and I know it is more than what I need for this game!! I do plan on going back to my GTX 295 but just not when I use the sims3 as this game will destroy that card for sure. This is why I went with something else and it works great! You won't find the GT 640 on the supported list because they just came out with that card this year,(to new to be on the list) and as far as the drivers go I get every update there is when they come out! So not a problem there.

MinDtriKz

Of course some cards on that list will not display pets correctly. Blue cards only support the BASE game with no EPs. What is your point?

Shadow2Soul

MinDtriKz wrote:

Of course some cards on that list will not display pets correctly. Blue cards only support the BASE game with no EPs. What is your point?

Then explain to me why my graphics card, the GTX 560, is in red and has this issue. According to you its only unsupported cards that have this issue. I listed cards of varying degrees of compatibility that all have this issue.

Oh and your wrong about the blue cards

BLUE = Cards that definitely support the Sims 3 base game

No where does that sentence say "ONLY". The cards in red on that list are your top of the line cards, that shouldn't have any issues what so ever. The cards in blue are ones that some have reported issues and some have not, but no one has reported issues just playing the base game. The GTX 550ti is in blue and it happens to be one of the most recommended cards to use with all expansions and stuff packs. Cards in Black are the ones that EA states will play the game. None of the cards on that list are unsupported, so again referring me to that list proved nothing.

BTW have you looked at the back of a game box.

all NVidia G, GT, GTS, and GTX video cards. ATI Radeon™ series card 9500 series or better, and all ATI X, X1, and HD video cards

-from supernatural requirements (which are higher then the base game and about the equivalent of pets)

Notice the underlined parts, even EA states that these cards should be supported. But then again according to you this only affects "unsupported" cards.

Your telling people that they have to buy $200 + cards for them to be supported and that's just not true. (Most of the cards listed in red on that list you refer to are around $200 or more)

Supported = cards that are tested by EA and found to be playing the game on at least minimum graphics with little to no graphic issues

Unsupported = cards that either weren't tested by EA or have major graphic issues with the game

This is a more detailed list of how certain graphics cards handle the game:

http://modthesims.info/wiki.php?title=Game_Help:TS3_System_Requirements

MinDtriKz

Shadow2Soul wrote:

Your telling people that they have to buy $200 + cards for them to be supported and that's just not true. (Most of the cards listed in red on that list you refer to are around $200 or more)

I am?

Okay, whatever, you're the expert.

Shadow2Soul

MinDtriKz wrote:

Shadow2Soul wrote:

Your telling people that they have to buy $200 + cards for them to be supported and that's just not true. (Most of the cards listed in red on that list you refer to are around $200 or more)

I am?

Okay, whatever, you're the expert.

You just stated that all the cards in blue on that list are only supported for the base game.

MinDtriKz wrote:

Blue cards only support the BASE game with no EPs

So that leaves only the cards in red to play all expansions, which the majority of the cards in RED are close to $200 and more depending on where you buy the card from.

I'm just trying to help. It doesn't look good when you tell people that their card is unsupported then turn around and give them a link that states their card is supported. It looks like you didn't bother to check and people aren't going to take you seriously.

Now if you had referred the poster with the GTX 295 to say the modthesims chart, it wouldn't seem so odd and we wouldn't be having this conversation. Since the modthesims chart shows that the card can play it, but the performance isn't going to be ideal.

You also immediately jumped the gun in this thread by stating that the problem only existed for unsupported cards. I mean, you only knew what one persons card was. You didn't bother to ask what cards everybody had. This can come off as ignorant and like you think you know everything.
_________________________________________________

Back to the issue this thread was about:

Anyway I posted pictures of the problem they are talking about for you. My driver for my card is dated 9/13/2012 and is version number 306.23. So I'm fully updated. The rest of my specs: 16GB of ram, i7-3770 @ 3.4GHz, 800w psu.



This issue though, has been around since the release of pets. When people updated their cards to try and get fluffy pets, some of the people who ended up correcting the problem with updated drivers got this white line along with the fluff. There are quite a few posts about the issue, but most of them didn't provide their graphics card information. It seems to be a wide spread issue. I'm going to continue to try and find out what cards have this issue, since from what I've gathered so far it seems to be spread out across cards of varying strength.

Goldmoldar

I use the 680 and have the 560 SC 2 GB and the 560 Ti 1 GB as well and I do not have the white outlines, so that makes me think it may be something other than a high end card. Being we all may have rigs that run Windows and such, but in the end we all may have different issues that someone else such as myself have yet to encountered. You can run a high end card in a computer that may still be underpowered and not get a level of bells and whistles that a computer that is maxed out on the CPU, memory etc. We all run Windows with different configurations and also different programs that can have an effect on how other programs run.

Shadow2Soul

Goldmoldar wrote:

I use the 680 and have the 560 SC 2 GB and the 560 Ti 1 GB as well and I do not have the white outlines, so that makes me think it may be something other than a high end card.

Odd, I'll admit I have the GTX 550ti is in a lower end system, but I'm not sure if it has this issue. I tested TS3 on it for another issue but didn't pay any attention to the pets. Saddly I uninstalled TS3 and gave the computer to my husband. I also have the GTX 560 2GB superclocked and for me its there but not very noticeable. I've seen pictures of where its really bad, but all the cards are different so its hard to say where the issue lies exactly.

edit: Fixing errors. I need to work on not leaving words out and using the correct words apparently. :oops:

MinDtriKz

Most of the Pets graphics card issues have been resolved in that subforum anyway, I recommend looking there for solutions. People even worked out the fluff issues

Shadow2Soul

MinDtriKz wrote:

Most of the Pets graphics card issues have been resolved in that subforum anyway, I recommend looking there for solutions. People even worked out the fluff issues

The only solution given, I quoted earlier in the forum and that's to turn off edge smoothing.