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UPDATE 9-2-20 Has your Sims 3 game been affected by the recent pixilation issues?

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  • Emily4331Emily4331 Posts: 10,850 Member
    My game has been affected and I'm upset
    @SPARKY1922 The weird hand thing you're talking about is just what sims look like when they aren't fully rendered. Especially when zooming in and out you might see that. The game uses different LOD models for how far you're zoomed in and out.

    Assuming you have all of the options set high (and have advanced rendering on) and the game still looks like that. Let's try these.

    Plan A
    So, I'm sure you have but since you didn't mention it: have you tried uninstalling/reinstalling the game? If you haven't, I'd try that. Before you do that, though, I'd first try using the Origin repair tool. If it happened after a patch, maybe one of the game files got borked or something. So, log into your Origin application, go to your game library, right click The Sims 3 and select "repair." Let it run the repair and see if that does anything. If not, go forward with the reinstallation. See if either of those improve it at all, if not, move on to plan b.

    Plan B
    Your issues being so heavily related to graphics (texture bleeding and bizarre shadows) makes me think it might have something to do with your GPU. Do you know the last time you updated your drivers? Open Device Manager. If you right click the Start button, it should be one of the programs in the topmost section. If not, you can always just search for it. You'll see in that list "Display Adapters," click the > next to it to expand it and you should see your NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070. Right click it and select "properties." Switch to the Driver tab and you'll see "Driver Date." If the date is old (we'll say if it's from a year or more ago), click "Update Driver," and see if that helps at all. Or if your GPU updates at all. If Windows can't find the newest Driver version, here's the most recent 1070 driver: https://www.nvidia.com/Download/driverResults.aspx/162105/en-us download that and run the exe. Then check in your Device Manager again to make sure it actually succeeded (just make sure the dates match up, this most recent driver is from 7/6/2020). If they match, go in game and see if there's a difference. Before you check, though, make sure your options weren't reset. Updating Nvidia drivers tends to reset my settings for The Sims 3. Depending on what it changed, you might have to restart your game to apply the new settings. Do that, then check.

    The weird thing to me is that none of this seems glitchy, it's just acting like you're playing your game on super low settings. The line on the face is just weird shadows, the texture quality is similar to if your texture quality was set very low, and the weird looking sim is the game just using one of the lower LODs. I don't think it's the game's patch or anything, so beyond what I've suggested, I'm not really sure what would cause such a dramatic change in quality. :/
  • SPARKY1922SPARKY1922 Posts: 5,965 Member
    Other. Please explain in comments.
    Hi @Emily4331

    I have done everything you mention before and my drivers are always up to date plus i have done a full uninstall/reinstall of my drivers. I went ahead and repaired the game but of course after that I had to get my graphics card found/matched again plus owning the Nvidia 1070 I set the texture override in the Texture memory to 4096MB which shows on my device config however I am not sure if I did that correctly for my card as I practically guessed to get rid of the 32MB (I think it was) override that was shown originally which a lot of players appear to favor changing as it appears to help sometimes?

    I did notice though on the device config that after those changes the GPU is rated as 1 and I am wondering if that can possibly be correct or causing any further issues as shouldw not my card be rated higher on the scale towards 5?

    Rating info ===
    GPU: 1 GPU Memory: 4 CPU: 4 RAM: 4 CPU Speed: 3600 Threading: 3
    Adjusted CPU: 4400 RAM: 16338 Adjusted RAM: 15826 Cores: 6

    I also found these pics on mod the sims by another player and while they are a lot worse than what I am experiencing there are some similarities to mine as this is almost exactly how my sims look when scrolling away from them in game.

    QNGDUIR.jpg

    Notice the hands on this one as this is also how my sims look in game a lot.

    weuv9b6.jpg

    I wonder if you would mind taking a look at the advice players gave this OP as one player talked about core parking a lot and I even downloaded a small program to tweak mine but sadly it did not help at all but I maybe wondered if you could see anything in the info i may not understand I could try?

    https://modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=644302

    https://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=571180

    My last point of call is going to be asking Nvidia why I can play Sims 2&4 with no graphical issues at all plus other players on this forum are using 1070's and they have no issues whatsoever..

  • ZeeGeeZeeGee Posts: 5,355 Member
    My game has been affected and I'm upset
    @SPARKY1922 I will just say that these issues you are having are all things I noticed in my game too, after that horrific update to Windows in December. The shadows across the face in CAS, the fact that it started taking ages for sims to render properly, going from one lot to another caused them to have to render again. I remember the frustration and the upset. What I did, and I know this is drastic but at the time I was determined, was did a complete reinstall of Windows, and then did a clean reinstall of my graphics card to a much older version. Of course I had to completely reinstall Sims 3 after that and, while I still noticed the graphics issues on the sims' faces, it did help the face shadows and the nonrendering of the sims.
  • SPARKY1922SPARKY1922 Posts: 5,965 Member
    edited July 2020
    Other. Please explain in comments.
    Hi @ZeeGee

    Thanks for that info but I just don't think I can go through the pain of another windows 10 install especially as I would have to pay for the next version as the version I currently installed is an upgrade from windows 7 and who can realistically say it would actually resolve the S3 issues in the end? I do have the S3 disc version of the game on a win 7 hard drive which does not exhibit the same kind of issues however as I dont allow that hard drive to touch the internet it makes playing problematic with constant restarts between win 7&10 if I have forgotten something and need to be online. Then a couple of days ago I realized the win 7 hard drive was filling up too fast with tons of S3 worlds/mods/CC I had saved I tried to put everything on external hard drives to save/backup to release some space on the hard drive (1TB SSD drive) and as I was trying to save there were 100 files or more that would not save as they were considered too long a file path and I just thought I cannot do this anymore as I am not prepared to sit and go through 100's of package files renaming them to fit and as I already asked the sims community before about this it appears there is no such program that can efficiently reduce file names/paths so has to be done manually and the mere thought made me want to cry (I kid you not-)

    I know some players will simply say play vanilla but that's not what sims is/was to me it was a game where I had many choices so I am not sure I could be satisfied with vanilla play when I am so used to being able to play anyway I felt like it.

    Today I tried to ask Nvidia customer support to help me and they informed me they cannot help because I can play S2&S4 so it's not the fault of the graphics card itself. I then tried to get in touch with EA and apparently I have to wait until they let me know when they have time for me so I am stuck. I have gone back to 2 for the time being (S4 eco living destroyed my 4 game) which was the only series I played when I had a couple hours to spare and did not need much depth to my game (or fixing) so now that version of the game is gone too I only have 2 until maybe that borks as well.

    I apologize for sounding incredibly down regards this game right now (all versions) but I don't think I have a thread of hope to hold onto anymore...
  • Emily4331Emily4331 Posts: 10,850 Member
    My game has been affected and I'm upset
    @SPARKY1922 Your GPU being rated 1 by the game might very well be the issue. If I'm correct, doesn't this mean the game is perceiving your card as weak?

    When you do the steps to manually get your card recognized, are you making sure in your GraphicsRule that you're telling the game that your card is capable of running uber graphics?

    In your GraphicsRules, the section on graphics cards is there to tell the game "if you see this card, use this level of graphics" (if I understand correctly, which I think I do. But I'm not super computer savvy either. :lol: ), so make sure that under the Nvidia section that you have your card in the uber section. Look for this section:
    elseif (match("${cardName}", "*8800*") or match(insertabunchofnvidiacardshere))
            seti cardLevel $cardLevelUber
            seti isCardMatched true
    

    I had a 1060 once upon a time, so my old card is still in that list as:
    or match("${cardName}", "*GTX 10??*")
    
  • SPARKY1922SPARKY1922 Posts: 5,965 Member
    Other. Please explain in comments.
    Hi @Emily4331

    Thanks for that info because I thought it was strange it stated GPU rated 1 after my card has been found and matched. I have doubly checked and done everything right and it's still showing GPU 1 in the device log so I will make one final check with our resident techie to see if he can shed any light on it.

    I really appreciate you taking your time to trey and help me despite my issue not being exactly the same as other players are suffering :)
  • Emily4331Emily4331 Posts: 10,850 Member
    My game has been affected and I'm upset
    @SPARKY1922 Can you upload your GraphicsRules and GraphicsCards somewhere for me? It'll help to have multiple sets of eyes double checking it.
  • SPARKY1922SPARKY1922 Posts: 5,965 Member
    Other. Please explain in comments.
    Hi @Emily4331

    I have no real idea how to do that I might have suggested one drive but I deleted that program completely when another player stated it was causing issues with her 3 game-) would copy and paste do instead somewhere?
  • Emily4331Emily4331 Posts: 10,850 Member
    My game has been affected and I'm upset
    @SPARKY1922 Yeah, just message me here with the contents of each. :smile:
  • SPARKY1922SPARKY1922 Posts: 5,965 Member
    Other. Please explain in comments.
    Hi @Emily4331

    shall I just cut and paste the lot in a message then? will that suffice? :)
  • Emily4331Emily4331 Posts: 10,850 Member
    My game has been affected and I'm upset
    @SPARKY1922 Yep. :smile:
  • CravenLestatCravenLestat Posts: 13,735 Member
    Wait a sec @ZeeGee am I seeing this right did you get the eyeliner issue fixed :p YAY!!!

    I Play Sims 3 On A Potato

    DfydFiZ.gif
  • ZeeGeeZeeGee Posts: 5,355 Member
    My game has been affected and I'm upset
    @SPARKY1922 Just want to say I'm so sorry you're having those particular problems. Those absolutely ruined the game for me. If you don't want to do a complete Windows reinstall, which I understand, maybe download an older version of your driver and do a 'clean' reiinstall. Just choose 'custom' when you're installing it and then choose clean reinstall. It will wipe out all traces of your older driver and put the older one in place. That may have been what solved my issue. I can't remember where I learned this, either in my chat with Nvdiia or igazor. :tongue:
  • ZeeGeeZeeGee Posts: 5,355 Member
    My game has been affected and I'm upset
    @CravenLestat I'm embarrassed even to say...classic rookie mistake. The offensive package file was in my overrides folder. :neutral:
  • SPARKY1922SPARKY1922 Posts: 5,965 Member
    Other. Please explain in comments.
    @ZeeGee

    Thank you for thinking about me it is much appreciated and right now to stop me going mad with it all I am playing the S2 series while I try and sort it out -) Your comment regards reinstalling the OS made me go cold because of how many times I have had to go that route in the last several years when I have upgraded my desktop but leave it a few days and the idea will stew and eventually I might come around to it lol I also have a word document with everything listed that I need to reinstall with key codes so it's not as if it would be really difficult however I just cannot get my head around the sheer amount of time and effort it will take right now despite the game being one of the loves of my life-) so I am currently hiding right now in one of @Rflong7's S2 worlds instead-) Also @Emily4331 is also trying to help me at the moment as well so when that comes to an end if nothing has changed for the better then I will need to make a decision concerning reinstall of my OS. Why oh why can't I love Xbox games instead it would make my life so much easier :)
  • KevinL5275KevinL5275 Posts: 2,489 Member
    My game has not been affected
    Emily4331 wrote: »
    Downloading the update now, so we'll see how that goes. On 1909, my game looks like this:
    XlpBgTD.png

    Everything looks so crisp in CAS that the pixel vomit in live mode is even more awful to me. Unfortunately, the debanding filter comes with a price. That is, it smooths everything out so while some aspects look better, others look so much worse. Like wood floors, for example.

    Anyway, fingers crossed that it fixes these graphical issues and doesn't kill my computer. :lol:

    Wow. She's incredible! I wish I had your custom settings. :D
    I'm a 48 year old married man, with a beautiful wife, a cat, and a simverted personality.My Sims 3 Pictures
  • Emily4331Emily4331 Posts: 10,850 Member
    My game has been affected and I'm upset
    @KevinL5275 Lol! Thank you. :tongue: And heck, that screenshots is from when I thought my game looked poopy! You can always message me here and I can give you a rundown of my tweaks when I take my super perty screenshots. :tongue: Like this:
    WXMe7NZ.png
  • Nikkei_SimmerNikkei_Simmer Posts: 9,404 Member
    edited August 2020
    Other. Please explain in comments.
    Evidently my schtupid computer hadn't updated to 2004 yet...so...yes. I started the update at Noon...and it is now 5:44 (Pacific Standard Time) and am just loading up my game to see if there is a visible improvement. Will let you know once I load everything up... Now just remember this is at mid-resolution. Will "Update" to THIS post so as not to take up more space than necessary... :smirk: even though another post will drive up my post-count. ~evil chuckle~

    OK... I decide to crank all the settings to the right (full on high - I feel sorry for my integrated R5 chipset - it probably hates my guts right now) and took a look at Maple Island to take some pictures.

    Screenshot-78.jpg
    The horse doesn't seem to show much improvement (still looks kind of plasticy - and his eyes look like something out of a nightmare)

    In comparison, horse at my usual gameplay settings.
    Screenshot-77.jpg
    If you see any noticeable improvement, tell me.

    Screenshot-79.jpg
    Wood-settings (floors) seem to be just fine at high.

    Screenshot-80.jpg
    Tile seems to be just fine too.

    Screenshot-81.jpg
    Bebe is her usual pretty self and well...her clothes still seem a bit "plasticy"

    Screenshot-82.jpg
    Bookshelf (wood=textures) appear to be somewhat better than they were...the grains are more noticeable.

    Screenshot-83.jpg
    The water...I can't tell because it's raining.
    Post edited by Nikkei_Simmer on
    GYZ6Ak9.png
    Always "River McIrish" ...and maybe some Bebe Hart. ~innocent expression~
  • KevinL5275KevinL5275 Posts: 2,489 Member
    My game has not been affected
    Emily4331 wrote: »
    @KevinL5275 Lol! Thank you. :tongue: And heck, that screenshots is from when I thought my game looked poopy! You can always message me here and I can give you a rundown of my tweaks when I take my super perty screenshots. :tongue: Like this:

    I don't turn up my settings when I take pictures, only because I forget to turn them back down and end up with error 12's. So what you see is what I play with. This is a shot I did just now, after I upgraded to Win10 2004:

    50175794617_0f298ff88f_c.jpg
    I'm a 48 year old married man, with a beautiful wife, a cat, and a simverted personality.My Sims 3 Pictures
  • Emily4331Emily4331 Posts: 10,850 Member
    My game has been affected and I'm upset
    @KevinL5275 Completely understandable. To be honest, I forget sometimes too. :grimace: Aww your sim looks great!
  • emorrillemorrill Posts: 8,110 Member
    My game has been affected but it doesn't bother me
    KevinL5275 wrote: »

    I don't turn up my settings when I take pictures, only because I forget to turn them back down and end up with error 12's. So what you see is what I play with. This is a shot I did just now, after I upgraded to Win10 2004:

    50175794617_0f298ff88f_c.jpg

    ^She looks pretty good @KevinL5275 :star:

    And I imagine that's CC skin right, not a custom one?
    52607642900_bbbac3a314_c.jpg
  • MareahMareah Posts: 792 Member
    My game has been affected and I'm upset
    I feel like my game got affected by this the worst! lol
    So sad.
  • KevinL5275KevinL5275 Posts: 2,489 Member
    My game has not been affected
    emorrill wrote: »
    KevinL5275 wrote: »

    I don't turn up my settings when I take pictures, only because I forget to turn them back down and end up with error 12's. So what you see is what I play with. This is a shot I did just now, after I upgraded to Win10 2004:

    ^She looks pretty good @KevinL5275 :star:

    And I imagine that's CC skin right, not a custom one?

    thank you. :) That's the daughter of my created sim Tiffani Strong. Yes I believe I have e-skin fresh as the default skin.
    I'm a 48 year old married man, with a beautiful wife, a cat, and a simverted personality.My Sims 3 Pictures
  • puzzlezaddictpuzzlezaddict Posts: 1,877 Member
    My game has been affected but it doesn't bother me
    Sorry for coming back to this so long after the fact. I've been busy playing [not Sims] for a few weeks and am only just now catching up, but I'm curious about this.

    @ZeeGee , @Emily4331 , and anyone else who noticed an improvement a few weeks ago, do you know exactly what updated when the game started looking good again? I ask because I remembered getting a .NET Framework update around the same time as @ZeeGee mentioned her game suddenly looked good again. So I looked it up, and I actually had two of them: the "2020-07 Cumulative Update for .NET" etc. on July 16, and for some reason, a "Cumulative Update Preview" on the 22nd. I also remember a .NET update right around when this problem showed up in the first place, although I can't look up the exact date, since even the Event Viewer doesn't go that far back.

    If you'd like to look it up, the Reliability Monitor lists updates by day. Hit Windows key-R and enter "perfmon /rel" without quotes; you'll see a chart of updates and errors with a column for each day. You should be able to go back 30 days, so right before the improvement happened, although a Windows feature update usually resets the data.

    I'm still on 1909, and I'm not really sure what to look for in-game, so I honestly don't know whether mine is fixed. The cheap fridge still looks terrible, but beyond that... no idea. My .NET update entries specify they're for 1909, but that doesn't mean my version of .NET 3.5 (which Sims 3 uses) is necessarily markedly different than the one for 2004.
  • ZeeGeeZeeGee Posts: 5,355 Member
    My game has been affected and I'm upset
    @puzzlezaddict We did eventually figure out that the horrible fridge is a problem with the game and not with Windows, because even players on Linux had that issue. Wood textures and horses have improved. However the 'pixel vomit' as Emily calls it, is still there for me with the latest update to 2004. It is worse on sims with dark skins. If you light it up it does look better. I'll have more time this evening and will post results of the report you mentioned and some pictures from my game. Thank you. :)

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