Hello Mac simmers
After all the trouble with NVIDIA graphics cards before patch 1.63 thankfully fixed that issue, it would appear that some players with Macbooks may now encounter problems with Intel Iris Pro graphics cards.
A few people with Macbooks containing those cards have already found that they can only play the game with their graphics on the lowest settings, which means their game looks rubbish. (Some are also experiencing gameplay problems, but these may not necessarily be connected to the graphics cards.)
If you have a Macbook with Intel Iris Pro, please post your specs here and tell us if you are having any problems with graphics in your game.
Unfortunately the Intel Iris Pro card is not on the list of those supported by EA for The Sims 3, so help is unlikely to be forthcoming in that regard. However let's see if we can gather some information amongst ourselves.
13-inch Macbook Pro
BluebellFlora has advised that those with 13" Macbook Pro may have graphics issues if they have the Iris card. Please post here if that includes you so that we can confirm this. If you are being affected, try turning down all the graphics settings in-game to the lowest. Your game will look horrible but you should be able to play. Now you can try to edge some of the graphics settings up a bit to make it look nicer - you may need to make decisions on which things matter most to you. For example I would sacrifice mirror reflections to get the grass looking nicer, but that's just me. It would be great if you post your findings here for the benefit of other simmers trying to do the same. Share the knowledge!
15-inch Macbook Pro
If you have 15" Macbook Pro, you may not encounter this issue if you have bought the Macbook with the option of a dedicated graphics card. However it would be great if you could post too, for confirmation that this is the case and that you can use higher settings in your game.
Unfortunately, if you have the 15" entry-level Macbook, you may be in the same position as those with the 13" and may only have the option of the Iris card.
Thanks all!
Caspin
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This is just from my lurking sprees from when I still lurked these boards (so so creepy, I know... ), but from what I've seen, a lot of people still play on 2010-2012 models, and most have the unsupported graphics cards.
Like I said, totally unrelated. Just thought I'd share my thoughts on it... basically because I had no idea what an iris card is o.O
Yeah I hadn't heard of an Iris card either until I read about this. Also I keep mistyping it as Irish card! :?
If EA ever bring out a patch to fix this I feel sorry for those who use Twallan's mods............. what a choice - patch for graphics and no mods or don't patch, risk problem graphics but have working mods
TS3 really is a mess.
Game ran fine. Graphics looked fine for what they were at (not great but not an eyesore). I'll probably check keep changing around the resolution and settings tomorrow when I have more time.
Don't think this is much help but it is feedback of some sort.
Edit for smiley typo.
Edit 2: I have the 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD model.
I have a macbook pro 15'' (2014) with Intel Iris Pro (but not NVIDIA GeForce GT), and unfortunately Sims 3 doesn't recognize my graphic card.
I tried following this guide http://simswiki.info/wiki.php?title=Game_Help:Getting_new_graphics_cards_recognized_by_the_game , however it doesn't work with mac, as I can't find a file called GraphicsCards.sgr .
I can run Sims 3, but only on lowest graphics settings (it doesn't look good!), and if I try changing any settings, I get a black screen..
If anyone knows how to get Sims to recognize a graphic card on mac, I hope you will share :-)
Ruby
yes, it is MBP 15'' Retina. It guess it is the 2013 model, bought 2014. You can buy either with Intel Iris Pro or Intel Iris Pro/NVIDIA
http://store.apple.com/us/buy-mac/macbook-pro
I guess you're stuck until EA bring out a patch which they should do given the crap issues with the Iris cards - has the 1.66 patch fixed it at all?
You can get to the graphicscard.sgr file by opening up the game files in the Applications folder. Right click/2 finger click on the game icon and select Show Package Contents. It's in there somewhere but I can't remember the file path.
Let me add some more shocked eyes: :shock: :shock: :shock:
I guess that's a bit of a pickle then for those who have chosen this Macbook and hoped to play Sims. At least the game seems to work but who wants to play on the lowest possible settings on a beautiful new Mac with a flipping retina screen!
I'll update the first post (which I needed to do anyway after noticing a shocking spelling error that caused me to actually look like the shocked eyes due to my shame :shock: )
It's look terrible on my rMBP 15' with iris pro T-T and furthermore the graphic become worse when i try to use a higher setting for sims3
rMBP 15' late 2013 // i7 2.0// 16GB // iris pro card
and
SIMS 3
IN SHORT: Does the graphics card have any effect on the graphics with an imac (since the original posts are just in reference to macbooks).
Oh no
Either way, I run in bootcamp most of the time (even though it drive me insane and I absolutely hate it)...
I'll probably end up getting the next model up at this point... hopefully with the better specs it will end up lasting longer anyway
I feel like I just wasted so much money on these games now since I can barely play them... you'd think, since it's one of the more popular models of laptop/computer, there would be support for this card. I know Sims 4 is coming out soon and all but this seems like rather poor customer support on EA's end. It's a retina display, but it can't handle showing terrain paints? What's with that?
I even tried uninstalling everything except the base game to try and free up some space... computer ran less hot, but the graphics performance was exactly the same. So sad. I loved these games but I pretty much have to say goodbye to them until I can save up for another computer, which is not likely.
Hi there! I have been playing The Sims for many years, but this is my first time experiencing The Sims 3 on a Mac. Specifically a Macbook Pro. When I played for the first time, I noticed a major difference in the graphics of the game. The sims and their environment were at much lower settings than I am used to. The game however was running smoothly. I attempted to slightly raise the settings, but the screen went all wonky and everything was bright red, yellow, and white. The graphics on lower settings aren't terrible but It's kind of a bummer.
Any suggestions on how to set up my game/computer so that it runs nicely with nicer graphics? from what I understand my computer exceeds the requirements.. But I could be wrong. I don't know very much about working this game on a Mac. I would appreciate any helpful suggestions.
Thanks!
Computer Info:
Retina, 13-inch, Late 2013
Processor: 2.4 GHz Intel Core i5
Memory: 8GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Software: OS X 10.9.3
Graphics: Intel Iris
So, guys, if you need my help here and you own a MacBook Pro Retina with Iris, I'd be happy to help!
That would be a great addition to this thread and help a lot of people. Are you running Yosemite? Have the updated graphics drivers in Yosemite maybe solved the issue?
No, the problem hasn't been resolved due to the Yosemite update, what I've done is all about changing the game files manually. I'm glad that has raised some attention, so I'll try to find some time in the nearest day or so and will definitely post the detailed instructions of what to do to get the game running on medium->high setting. I'll head here as soon I have free time, hope that won't take me long!!
What I want to do is to give you the idea of how to do that on a retina MacBook sporting the Iris Pro graphics card and running OS X (Yosemite, in my case)
1. Go to /Applications/The Sims 3/The Sims 3
2. Right click on folder name and select Show Package Contents
3. There, go to Contents/Resources/transgaming/c_drive/Program Files/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3/Game/Bin
4. Look for the following two files: GraphicsCards.sgr
GraphicsRules.sgr
5. Back them up in case you do smth wrong, so it's better to copy them and paste in some other directory. I just made copies if them in the same folder, renamed them as it was advised in the link above. We'll edit them later.
6. Click the apple logo in top left corner of your status bar. Open the About this Mac dialog. Click on Graphics/Displays under Hardware. You'll find the Vendor and Device ID information clearly labelled. For me, the figures are: Vendor: Intel (0x8086); Device ID: 0x0d26
7. Open GraphicsCards.sgr with TextEdit
8. Search for the following lines:
card 0x0152 "Desktop IvyBridge GT1"
card 0x0156 "Mobile IvyBridge GT1"
card 0x015A "Server IvyBridge GT1"
card 0x015E "Reserved - IvyBridge GT1"
card 0x0162 "Desktop IvyBridge GT2"
card 0x0166 "Mobile IvyBridge GT2"
card 0x016A "Server IvyBridge GT2"
9. Replace them with these lines:
card 0x0d26 "IntelIrisPro"
card 0x0d26 "IntelIrisPro"
card 0x0d26 "IntelIrisPro"
card 0x0d26 "IntelIrisPro"
card 0x0d26 "IntelIrisPro"
card 0x0d26 "IntelIrisPro"
card 0x0d26 "IntelIrisPro"
10. Save the file and if prompted to overwrite, answer Yes.
11. Open GraphicsRules.sgr with TextEdit
12. Search for the following line:
elseif (match("${cardName}", "*IvyBridge*"))
13. Replace it with this line:
elseif (match("${cardName}", "*IntelIrisPro*"))
14. Save the file and if prompted to overwrite, answer Yes.
15. That's almost it! Now load up the game and set the resolution to one of the native ones (the best in terms of support is 1440 by 900 px)
16. If you can't (you may be hearing the sound but not seeing the picture, not 100% sure), go to <user name>/Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3/
16. Find Options.ini, open with TextEdit
17. Look for the line:
resolution = ***
In my case, that's:
resolution = 1440 900 0
I recommend you to set the same resolution as mine, and you'll be able to play with the display settings later yourself. Personally, I've set everything to medium, and the Sims details and Texture details are on high, and I really like what I see: smooth, fast performance and crisp graphics.
If you ever have the problem of hearing the sound but not seeing the picture, that must be the problem with the unsupported resolution. So, go to step 16 and follow the next few steps.
Guys, I would like to get some feedback here, so, please, if the manual is of any help, write your impression here!
I'll add a link to your post on the help thread we have going on the first page. Hopefully it will help a lot of people
- After you tried this and it did not work for you, did you put your original GraphicsCards.sgr and GraphicsRules.sgr files back in?
I certainly would appreciate any help. If more details are needed, I will gladly provide them. Thank you :)