I have a late 2012 iMac and I've been experiencing the same thing. It always happens right before fall or at the very beginning of fall. I've deleted my Sim about two times and deleted my game and reinstalled it. Just about every time I master my athletic skill my graphics would start getting all trippy.
Heres my specs.
Processor 3.2 GHz Intel Core i5
Memory 8 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Graphics NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675MX 1024 MB
Software OS X 10.8.2 (12C2037)
Ugh. When will this be fixed?! I don't even think EA is aware of this issue. Are they? I tweeted simGuruGraham a while ago and he seemed clueless that this even happens. -____-
Anyway, I'm wondering, does this also happen in Windows computers? Or even via Bootcamp? Or is just specific to macs? :?
Even though I am sad to read that there hasn't been a fix to this problem, I am so glad to see that there are other people out there who are experiencing this same problem with the glitch.
Thank you all for being here! I thought I was alone. I got this amazing Mac as a gift and not properly being able to play sims has made me regret it! That is the only thing besides pics and movies that I use on it besides surfing the Internet.
I have No mods, expansions supernatural, late night, seasons, town stuff pack. I played a while and one day the colors and dagger shapes appeared. It is hard to play around them. I ended my game because the issue was happening on le at my house!
Removing foliage, changing settings do not help, nor does restarting, etc.
Specs
I have a new MacBook Pro with Retina screen,
2012 15" Retina display
2.6GHz Intel Core i7
8GB RAM
I've turned off Graphics switching between which many people recommended.
Intel HD Graphics 4000 and
NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M OSX10.8.2 Mountain Lion
Question 1) many mention season as problematic.... is this caused by seasons?
Can I remove that one EP to eliminate the issue? If so will this effect my current game
2) does this happen in all worlds?
3) my game was great for 2 weeks any reason it would just happen? My new game so far is ok....
UGH! Thank you for reviving this thread I thought I was going crazy!
I just quit Autumn altogether.
... But no one seems to have the same card as mine. :?
Macbook pro late 2009 15"
OSX 10.6.8
2.53 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
NVIDIA GeForce 9400M
Wow! I didn't know so many people were experiencing this issue. I'll capture images from my game when I get home. I especially have issues in Sunlit Tides, and I experienced it during the winter at The Point in the University Life town.
My Specs:
15-inch with Retina display
2.4GHz quad-core Intel Core i7
Turbo Boost up to 3.4GHz
8GB 1600MHz memory
256GB flash storage
Intel HD Graphics 4000
NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M with 1GB of GDDR5 memory
If anyone knows if removing seasons all together or turning off the "seasons" in options solves the issue let me know?
My current new game hasn't experience this like my old game which I deleted assuming wrongly that it was a corrupt file!
I have disabled the seasons to try to keep this from happening and will report back if this makes it not appear... Thx again
If anyone knows if removing seasons all together or turning off the "seasons" in options solves the issue let me know?
My current new game hasn't experience this like my old game which I deleted assuming wrongly that it was a corrupt file!
I have disabled the seasons to try to keep this from happening and will report back if this makes it not appear... Thx again
I was so adamant to keep seasons installed but the crashes and graphics issues just got to much so finally after 3 months I gave up, Uninstalled all of my games and reinstalled then without Seasons, now my game runs perfect it's crashed maybe once in CAS but I was in there for a while so I'm not complaining, I even got University and it works great on my iMac.
Pop_electric-
That is a great help. I have never uninstalled will this ruin a save game? Do I need to uninstall and reinstall or can I remove the one EP for seasons. Sorry if this Is basic, still learning!
I have the exact same problem! But it starts when the season turns to fall and continues through winter. It is impossible to play my game and I've done 3 live chats with EA to try to fix it and the freakin' crashing, but nothing.
My Specs:
15 in with Retina
2.3 GHz Intel Core i7
16 GB 1600MHz DDR3
It is not our graphic cards, it is not our RAM, it is not our processor...Mac users, we have to stop looking for the boogeyman in our computers. There is no gremlin residing within. Sure, some of use of trying to use Macs that are not up to par, but in general, that is not the issue. Even before Seasons I endured a 'crash' of some kind every 2-4 hours. That was workable, I saved all the time, reinstalled every so often, avoided CAS and so on.
Then I installed Boot Camp and Windows and...everything works!!! I have played for many, many hours for over a month and holy smoke I can play all aspects of the game, my Sims can throw parties, go to public places (both things I also avoided due to crashes) the graphics are turned up, I can use CAS and change every outfit, hairstyle!!!!!!
I have all expansion packs and stuff packs...I own all of the extra towns. Like many of you, I have played since the original Sims...it is my way to relax after a long day at work. I have also only used Macs at home and did not want to install Bootcamp, but it was worth it.
If you can install Bootcamp and Windows, I think you may experience a whole new game.
p.s. None of this excuses EAs treatment of Mac players. I was lucky to have all of my games on Mac/Win DVDs so I didn't have to buy anything new. Got a legit copy of Windows for about $80 bucks...that sucks, but it was better than not using hundreds of dollars of games that I bought thinking Sims 3 would work as well as the previous versions.
Someone mention they still had the color block and daggers of color even in windows w a nvidia card. Do you also play w a nvidia card?
I would be willing to invest in windows if it would fix this graphic issue but was hesitant based on a couple of previous posts saying this still had issues.
Also when you play in windows I'm assuming this means starting a new game right?
I had issues after previous update (newly married sims didn't move in together & of course crashing), however, the Seasons seemed to have resolved the issues. I had reasonable playtime w/the Seasons, yet, I like to travel most but couldn't b/c it was still acting wonky so I avoided it. Now, I'm reluctant to do this new update. I've order new RAM so not playing 'til it arrives, but still wondering if I should do the update prior to RAM arrival or wait out a new update for this latest update? :roll:
I've got that 'camera gets wonky in fall' issue too. It's really annoying. Doesn't screw up game play other than I can only see my Sim when i zoom in close...and it only happens on her home lot, which is a preexisting house that I tweaked. I've only played seasons with Aurora Skies so dropping fall and having more winter kinda does go with the Scandinavian theme (it snows a whole lot!). I'm going to try another world. I'd really like to experience the whole game - heaven forbid!
Here are my specs:
Late 2009 21.5"
OS: 10.6.8
Processor: 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Memory: 4 GB 1067 MHz DDR3
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 9400
I've got CC, mods, store stuff, expansion packs. Doesn't seem to matter much though - I've played vanilla and played with all the jazz - the graphics glitch in fall is still there. Knock on wood it seems to play fine otherwise (really hope I didn't jinx myself there - I don't have Supernatural so jinxing shouldn't happen, right?).
How is seasons working for you in the first place? Did you install it after the latest update? I heard its working for about 50% and not for the other 50. I was too afraid to add seasons again.
The video card may be some peoples issues...really not sure, but I was told it was so many different things and tried many suggestions..re-installed so many times.
Anyway, it worked for me and I hope it works for others.
Also, since I had saves of all my games, I was able to save my files on a Windows formatted external hard drive and then move the files to the Windows side. I am able to play all of my old families and towns.
I think I may have found a fix. What has been working for me so far, I disabled fall and then enabled it and it seems to have fixed the problem. I don't know if it will stay fixed, but maybe it'll give some temporary relief of weird pointy creepy screen. Hope this helps!
well, i guess i should join the thread as i have had a constant save error and crashing. although i have just reinstalled seasons (i'm a glutton for punishment and once you play seasons you can't go back) i haven't had any graphic issues ,but i'm sure they will come just as soon as i make it to fall or winter.
Here are my specs:
Late 2012 27" imac
OS: i can't remember, it's ML and the one before all all the updates to ML that comes standard
Processor: 3.4GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7,
Memory: 32 gb of crucial
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680MX 2GB GDDR5
larrikg3- That is great news. I only wish I saw this forum before I had stopped my game w the graphics issues so I could try it out. I a in a new game w the seasons disabled. I am going to try this for a while to see if the graphics behave.
I am finding the latest patch to stop a lot of the crashes. I have found a new crash issue that you all may want to check out. Do not use save and quit. only save often and then quit without saving. Otherwise I crash and sends some alert to apple.
Anyone else seeing this since the update?
thanks everyone this is a great thread and so helpful.
Please note this thread is about graphics glitches related to NVIDIA GeForce graphics cards. The crashes that others with Macs are experiencing are being tracked in a different thread.
I'm having the exact same issue. For me it was so bad that I couldn't see my Sims at all when they're at home, unless I zoom all the way out. The problem seems to only be affecting their home lot. I had to un-install seasons just to play. It's worked fine since uninstalling seasons, but frankly I want my money back. The game is unplayable with seasons installed.
I tried what larrikg3 suggested, and disabled then re-enabled fall, but it didn't work. My house is still all glitched up even after the season changes to winter. Removing trees from the lot didn't help either.
Mac OS X 10.8.2
NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M
All latest updates for Sims via EA
Unfortunately this particular problem doesn't yet have a solution. But whenever EA figures out a workaround, hopefully that'll be the page that gets updated...
I may have found a workaround that will enable people who are seeing this problem to play their games with Seasons enabled. The trade-off, if you do this, is slower overall graphics performance.
Most of us (I think) are running on the new Retina Macs, which actually have two graphics cards. There's the integrated Intel card (mine is Intel HD Graphics 4000), and the NVIDIA card (mine is NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M). With default settings, your computer will automatically switch between these cards for better battery life. There is a box you can UN-check under Energy Saver Preferences, which forces the higher-performance graphics card at all times.
Unfortunately, there is no built-in way to force using the integrated Intel HD (lower-performance) card, but there is a free app you can download at http://gfx.io/. This adds an icon to your menu bar that allows you to manually switch between the two cards, so you can "force" the system to use the Intel card while playing with your Sims, rather than the NVIDIA card which is known to cause the issue.
Unfortunately, part of the price/high-endness of this Mac in the first place is to have this fancy graphics card switching, specifically for faster performance when rendering 3D games JUST LIKE THIS ONE (grr EA), so you're basically throwing that benefit away by doing this.
I haven't actually tried this myself, since I went ahead and un-installed Seasons already, and I'm not sure what the graphics performance will be like. But if anyone is still trying to get this to work with Seasons enabled, you might try this (and let us know how it goes).
I might try it myself a little later when I have more time to do the uninstall/reinstall tango.
Fountaingoats -
I have the same thing you do the dual graphic cards I had turned off the graphic switching to force it to use the NVIDIA card (of course then the seasons graphic issue happened. Great idea though on trying to force the other card to be used, I would agree though it is disappointing to go use the lesser quality card. However it would prove once and for all that this is the NVIDIA Card.
When you do the uninstall of the Seasons EP can you still play your save game or do you have to start from scratch. Also can I just uninstall that one EP?
thx
I'm really hoping 10.8.3 is going to fix this. Hurry up Apple!
And it's not just Retina 15", all 15" MBPs have integrated and dedicated cards. My other 15" is the 2011 with the AMD Radeon with 1Gb VRAM, no sign of these screwy graphics on that one.
Comments
Heres my specs.
Processor 3.2 GHz Intel Core i5
Memory 8 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Graphics NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675MX 1024 MB
Software OS X 10.8.2 (12C2037)
Anyway, I'm wondering, does this also happen in Windows computers? Or even via Bootcamp? Or is just specific to macs? :?
MacBook Pro Retina, Mid 2012
Processor 2.6 GHz Intel Core i7
Memory 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Graphics NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M 1024 MB
Software OS X 10.8.2 (12C3006)
I also get exactly the same problem when I run it on this machine in Windows 7 via VMware Fusion, so I expect it would happen in Bootcamp too.
My specs:
iMac 27" late 2012
2.9 GHz Intel Core i5
8GB 1600 MHz DDr3 RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660M 512 MB
OSX 10.8.2
I have No mods, expansions supernatural, late night, seasons, town stuff pack. I played a while and one day the colors and dagger shapes appeared. It is hard to play around them. I ended my game because the issue was happening on le at my house!
Removing foliage, changing settings do not help, nor does restarting, etc.
Specs
I have a new MacBook Pro with Retina screen,
2012 15" Retina display
2.6GHz Intel Core i7
8GB RAM
I've turned off Graphics switching between which many people recommended.
Intel HD Graphics 4000 and
NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M OSX10.8.2 Mountain Lion
Question 1) many mention season as problematic.... is this caused by seasons?
Can I remove that one EP to eliminate the issue? If so will this effect my current game
2) does this happen in all worlds?
3) my game was great for 2 weeks any reason it would just happen? My new game so far is ok....
Thanks again for the commiserating!
I just quit Autumn altogether.
... But no one seems to have the same card as mine. :?
Macbook pro late 2009 15"
OSX 10.6.8
2.53 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
NVIDIA GeForce 9400M
My Specs:
15-inch with Retina display
2.4GHz quad-core Intel Core i7
Turbo Boost up to 3.4GHz
8GB 1600MHz memory
256GB flash storage
Intel HD Graphics 4000
NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M with 1GB of GDDR5 memory
My current new game hasn't experience this like my old game which I deleted assuming wrongly that it was a corrupt file!
I have disabled the seasons to try to keep this from happening and will report back if this makes it not appear... Thx again
I was so adamant to keep seasons installed but the crashes and graphics issues just got to much so finally after 3 months I gave up, Uninstalled all of my games and reinstalled then without Seasons, now my game runs perfect it's crashed maybe once in CAS but I was in there for a while so I'm not complaining, I even got University and it works great on my iMac.
Hope this helps!
That is a great help. I have never uninstalled will this ruin a save game? Do I need to uninstall and reinstall or can I remove the one EP for seasons. Sorry if this Is basic, still learning!
My Specs:
15 in with Retina
2.3 GHz Intel Core i7
16 GB 1600MHz DDR3
Then I installed Boot Camp and Windows and...everything works!!! I have played for many, many hours for over a month and holy smoke I can play all aspects of the game, my Sims can throw parties, go to public places (both things I also avoided due to crashes) the graphics are turned up, I can use CAS and change every outfit, hairstyle!!!!!!
I have all expansion packs and stuff packs...I own all of the extra towns. Like many of you, I have played since the original Sims...it is my way to relax after a long day at work. I have also only used Macs at home and did not want to install Bootcamp, but it was worth it.
If you can install Bootcamp and Windows, I think you may experience a whole new game.
p.s. None of this excuses EAs treatment of Mac players. I was lucky to have all of my games on Mac/Win DVDs so I didn't have to buy anything new. Got a legit copy of Windows for about $80 bucks...that sucks, but it was better than not using hundreds of dollars of games that I bought thinking Sims 3 would work as well as the previous versions.
Someone mention they still had the color block and daggers of color even in windows w a nvidia card. Do you also play w a nvidia card?
I would be willing to invest in windows if it would fix this graphic issue but was hesitant based on a couple of previous posts saying this still had issues.
Also when you play in windows I'm assuming this means starting a new game right?
Here are my specs:
Late 2009 21.5"
OS: 10.6.8
Processor: 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Memory: 4 GB 1067 MHz DDR3
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 9400
I've got CC, mods, store stuff, expansion packs. Doesn't seem to matter much though - I've played vanilla and played with all the jazz - the graphics glitch in fall is still there. Knock on wood it seems to play fine otherwise (really hope I didn't jinx myself there - I don't have Supernatural so jinxing shouldn't happen, right?).
Anyway, it worked for me and I hope it works for others.
Also, since I had saves of all my games, I was able to save my files on a Windows formatted external hard drive and then move the files to the Windows side. I am able to play all of my old families and towns.
Hope others get to play their games soon.
Here are my specs:
Late 2012 27" imac
OS: i can't remember, it's ML and the one before all all the updates to ML that comes standard
Processor: 3.4GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7,
Memory: 32 gb of crucial
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680MX 2GB GDDR5
I am finding the latest patch to stop a lot of the crashes. I have found a new crash issue that you all may want to check out. Do not use save and quit. only save often and then quit without saving. Otherwise I crash and sends some alert to apple.
Anyone else seeing this since the update?
thanks everyone this is a great thread and so helpful.
I'm having the exact same issue. For me it was so bad that I couldn't see my Sims at all when they're at home, unless I zoom all the way out. The problem seems to only be affecting their home lot. I had to un-install seasons just to play. It's worked fine since uninstalling seasons, but frankly I want my money back. The game is unplayable with seasons installed.
I tried what larrikg3 suggested, and disabled then re-enabled fall, but it didn't work. My house is still all glitched up even after the season changes to winter. Removing trees from the lot didn't help either.
Mac OS X 10.8.2
NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M
All latest updates for Sims via EA
Everyone who got here having similar issues but who DON'T have NVIDIA GeForce graphics cards, you may find a solution here: https://help.ea.com/article/the-sims-3-seasons-known-hardware-issues
Unfortunately this particular problem doesn't yet have a solution. But whenever EA figures out a workaround, hopefully that'll be the page that gets updated...
Most of us (I think) are running on the new Retina Macs, which actually have two graphics cards. There's the integrated Intel card (mine is Intel HD Graphics 4000), and the NVIDIA card (mine is NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M). With default settings, your computer will automatically switch between these cards for better battery life. There is a box you can UN-check under Energy Saver Preferences, which forces the higher-performance graphics card at all times.
Unfortunately, there is no built-in way to force using the integrated Intel HD (lower-performance) card, but there is a free app you can download at http://gfx.io/. This adds an icon to your menu bar that allows you to manually switch between the two cards, so you can "force" the system to use the Intel card while playing with your Sims, rather than the NVIDIA card which is known to cause the issue.
Unfortunately, part of the price/high-endness of this Mac in the first place is to have this fancy graphics card switching, specifically for faster performance when rendering 3D games JUST LIKE THIS ONE (grr EA), so you're basically throwing that benefit away by doing this.
I haven't actually tried this myself, since I went ahead and un-installed Seasons already, and I'm not sure what the graphics performance will be like. But if anyone is still trying to get this to work with Seasons enabled, you might try this (and let us know how it goes).
I might try it myself a little later when I have more time to do the uninstall/reinstall tango.
I have the same thing you do the dual graphic cards I had turned off the graphic switching to force it to use the NVIDIA card (of course then the seasons graphic issue happened. Great idea though on trying to force the other card to be used, I would agree though it is disappointing to go use the lesser quality card. However it would prove once and for all that this is the NVIDIA Card.
When you do the uninstall of the Seasons EP can you still play your save game or do you have to start from scratch. Also can I just uninstall that one EP?
thx
And it's not just Retina 15", all 15" MBPs have integrated and dedicated cards. My other 15" is the 2011 with the AMD Radeon with 1Gb VRAM, no sign of these screwy graphics on that one.
Retina MBP
OS: 10.8.3
Processor: 2.3 GHz Intel Core i7,
Memory: 8GB
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M and Intel HD Graphics 4000
I would play Sims 3 with Intel HD Graphics (gfxCardStatus) if Intel HD Graphics were compatible with Sims 3.
EA, please help us :!: