This is the entire report? There are huge sections of it missing. It's also unable to determine your processor and graphics card under System Information, this could be indicative of a bigger problem.
The graphics chip it does report on being present, even if System Information is not finding it, is a weak integrated Intel chip that cannot be expected to carry much more than the base game and maybe one or two of the earliest EPs. If you do have an Nvidia or AMD dedicated card as well, it's not showing up. Can't tell if that's a real problem or if we just got an incomplete report.
Glad you're closer to getting your game launched, though.
Okay so don't know if this discussion can apply with sims 3 but i thought i would give it a try. i recently bought the sims 3 along with some expansion packs, i downloaded and installed everything onto my computer but, it won't open. every time i try to get it to open, the sims 3 university life symbol comes up and says "unknown error occurred" any thoughts on what i can do?
@ErinTurtle You're fine here, although there's also a mac section of the help center. I'm guessing you're on a mac because the unknown error is almost unavoidable in mac OS, and there are several causes. Normally, the best thing to do is to try to get the base game launched and then fix the pack problems as they appear. But since you've already installed some packs, you can go through the fixes backwards, if you like.
Please post your macs specs here, along with a list of all expansion and stuff packs you have installed (and, I guess, any you'd like to install but haven't yet). Depending on this information, you may or may not be able to skip one of the troubleshooting steps.
I uninstalled the expansion packs and got the base game running. Created the household I wanted and got all that together. I currently own the late night expansion, pets expansion, seasons expansion and the university life expansion. After I got the base game running I installed late night to see if it would work with late night and it didn't. I'm going to assume it's because of how new the version of the game is but there are no updates for the packs.
@ErinTurtle Late Night is one of four packs that will throw an unknown error in mac OS. There are two problems: the install doesn't create an alias for the pack in Applications, alongside the alias for the base game; and, if you install any later packs, certain files do not get copied over from Late Night into your newest pack by release date (University Life, in your case). Both are easily fixable, although you don't need to apply the second workaround until you reinstall Pets, Seasons, or UL:
While you're at it, you should run the Super Patch (digital download version), if you haven't already. Even if the game thinks it's patched, it might not be, and the Super Patch won't hurt.
By the way, the fact that you can launch the base game means you likely don't have to edit your sgr files to force recognition of your graphics card. But if you can't get the base game and Late Night to run, please post your mac's specs (as listed above) so that we can rule out an incompatible processor/graphics card combination as an additional issue.
It worked perfectly with Late Night but when I tried it with the other three I got the same message of unknown error... I also tried the other ways to get it to work and nothing happened except for getting the same message...
@ErinTurtle If you're fine running the base game and Late Night, you should also be able to load the other packs. The fix in the embedded video is the only other step you should need. But just to be clear, the files from Late Night need to go into the newest pack you currently have installed. You listed (in order of release) Pets, Seasons, and University Life, so UL is the newest, but if you have any other EPs, or any stuff packs, one of those might be newer.
It is possible that your computer is struggling with running Pets and Seasons, as those are the two most demanding packs, although that issue is less likely to throw a straight unknown error. If you could please list your mac's specs, we can see whether playing with those packs might be putting too much strain on your system.
Hello, I'm running into sudden problem. A family I have played for a good while (over 15 hours) is suddenly crashing. I'm relatively new to Sims 3 but I had no prior problems with the game - it just crashed yesterday for once and thats when the cycle of constant ctd started. I had been playing this session at least 5 hours. Nothing special was happening in game during the time, it was late at night and most sims were sleeping. (I tried monitoring the lot and nothing was spawning in the near vicinity). After that the game would crash while loading the save, immediately after loading my game, or shortly after. The game freezes for a small moment then shuts down without error message. Useless logs state access violation, which in other cases could point to memory problem, which definitely isn't the case here - at least not on hardware/management side. I have tried quite a few tricks already, and have included them down. I'm an advanced user so I'm ready to try pretty much any kind of solution.
Technical things and details: - At first my current household was completely inaccessible as the game would crash in loading phase. After that I used the backup save file, and was able to load my house again (this is what confuses me). It would however crash shortly after (after 5+ minutes) and continue crashing like before, sometimes even during the load. - My house is on the biggest/near biggest lot, with 5 adults, 1 child and 2 pets, but running smoothly. - I can load my other (almost new) save without stuttering, however I have not yet tested if it will crash after few minutes. - I have all EP's and all stuff/whatever packs available for TS3. - My device config (just add .ᴄᴏᴍ after textuploader): textuploader/d7yv8 (graphics card is in use, just doesn't show up here as usual. I also noticed that for some reason my OS is showing as Windows 8 instead of 10, any reason for this?) - My PC technical details link is included in textuploader page. - I checked for GPU update, Windows update, restarted my PC, monitored for conflicting programs and CPU usage (no threats) - Monitored my CPU and disc usage, they were at normal levels. - My save size is over 100k kb. - Deleted all cache-> no effect. - I reduced graphical settings although I never had problems with TS3 performance before. - I did the explorer program thing to check TS3 exe for handling up to 2GB at once. - I did Nvidia settings checkup, everything was just like before. I tried running game through launcher, in administrative mode, through Geforce Experience etc. all with same results. (And I don't even believe issue solvable with this can happen during gameplay like flicking a light switch off) - I dont use a lot of CC. For gameplay changes I only use Master Controller, nointro, nobuildsparkles and NRaas decensor and Wohooer. I have small collection of hairstyles and other cas stuff, and clothes, but I was already playing with them for so long without a problem. For this save I only added new content (9 different clothes) once after starting the family, and I tried removing said content. This did not help. Only custom objects I have came with the house I downloaded, including maybe 20 different objects. So yeah, not a lot of CC. - I have not compressed my CC.
I'm wondering if I could have a corrupted save, even though I have not done anything to increase chances for corruption. I only remember 2 occasions where I had to reset my 2 sims with master controller because they became frozen/bugged and unable to do anything. This was days before crashing started. -> I don't think I have a bad piece of CC appearing on some sim trying to come to my lot that game cannot generate, due to the random nature of the crashing. There was no exact in-game time when my game would crash. NPC's were able to come to my house to pick up my sims to work, and kid was able to go to school without any problems etc. Any kind of help is welcome!
@mynamejen - Hi there. As you probably already know, your system exceeds all requirements to run the entire game. But it's going to need some help, if you haven't already covered the following things. Just to get this out of the way, the DeviceConfig always identifies Win 10 as Win 8.6, so do the crash logs I think. The game is older than the current operating system and cannot call that one correctly, it's of no concern.
1 - This is more for your understanding than anything else, but the game is 32-bit only and therefore can only make use of ~3.7 GB of RAM before it runs out of usable resources. There is no need to make it Large Address Aware (LAA) so it can get over the 2 GB hurdle, Patch 1.17 took care of that many years ago. But if it does try to reach for more resources than it can really use due to the 32-bit limit, there will be crashes and/or Error12s upon trying to save, which are just as bad.
2 - Have you arranged for vsync using the Nvidia Control Panel on your graphics card (note that vsync on the NCP only works, when it does, in full screen mode) and have you verified that your actual frame rates in-game are staying under the refresh rate of your monitor? In-game if you can get it to launch without crashing, start a new test game if you need to, ctrl+shift+C to bring up the cheats console, then fps on (enter). As you play and move the game camera around, the displayed fps rate should never exceed the refresh rate. For most that's 60 Hz, so 60 fps, some monitors can run higher. To make the displayed rate go away, cheats console again and fps off (enter). Your card is capable of throwing wildly high fps rates, which if left uncapped can lead to graphics glitches, screen tears, lag, crashes, and can ultimately burn out your graphics card by making it constantly work far too hard for no reason. Unlike more modern games, TS3 has no functional built-in fps limiter.
If the control panel does not lock things in, or if windowed mode is required, then we move on to Nvidia Inspector.
3 - Your graphics card is not being formally recognized by the game and you are getting the 32 MB texture memory override, which is unnecessary. We can help you fix that, the difference doing so makes is not always significant, but the fps capping above is much more important to address first.
4 - On the NRaas mods, I would strongly suggest adding the ones that are specifically designed to improve performance and prevent ongoing games from corrupting. Those that you do not list would be Overwatch, ErrorTrap, Register, and Traffic (to deny the overwpawnage of career performance limos). MC, which you already have, is useful to run a Reset Everything from the Town menu on City Hall every few sim weeks or so, it catches things that Overwatch and ErrorTrap do not or have not yet noticed and reacted to.
@igazor Firstly, thank you for quickly coming to my help. Reading this topic made me notice how dedicated you are to help out people from day to day.
I made a small test family in new save. At first I checked my FPS through launcher, which I normally don't do. This sends game into fullscreen and the FPS was constantly 59-60. But then I read into your message again and it highlighted in my head how you said that vsync only works in fullscreen, so I launched the game as I usually play, in fullscreen window (so I have easy access on stuff on my other screen) and holy cow, my FPS was showing as 230+. For pointing this out to me I am so thankful, because my rig is only a year old and deserves to be saved.
Sadly, about 10 minutes into trying out my "problematic" household my game crashed again.
Hi! I don't know if I'm in the right place to post about this but let's try anyways. I encounter a problem when i'm in building mode and buy mode. I don't know why but everytime I do something, the visual effects like the sparkles when you build a wall, the little ''+'' sign when you add an item, the kind of light effect when you delete something with the bulldozer, etc. Well, they kind of just stay there. Usually, they would just normally fade out when i'm done with the action, but in my case, they don't. It's annoying to constantly have these effects in my way when I build. The only way I found to make them disappear is to go in life mode and then it all fades away. But it's annoying, because then I'd always have to put an active household on the lot I build and go into life mode everytime I want to get rid of the little visual effects.
I didn't have this problem before so I don't know how it came to be. Maybe it's a mod that I installed? But I don't have many mods and I don't know why they would interfere with that anyways...
Has anyone ever had this problem before? Is it possible to fix?
@loganpettyfer - There is a simple way to toggle between Build/Buy Mode and Live Mode without needing to have a household live on the lot, or not have them be your active household. But first, can we confirm there that we are talking about TS3 and not TS4?
Hi there! I am having a lot of issues with my Sims 3 game that almost make it unplayable.
I was playing Sims 3 on Version 1.67, which worked semi-alright. Some issues, but it was playable. I bought some new expansions today (Ambitions, Island Paradise and World Adventures to be exact) and installed them into my 1.67 game, which updated to 1.69. Since the update, I have the following issues with 1.69:
- CC and Store Content randomly disappears out of the game, uninstalls by itself, has to be re-added - The game has horrible frame drops even with settings set to low and V-sync turned on in my Radeon Settings - The game itself is very glitchy and stuttery - Whenever I save my game, the game crashes - Whenever I want to go on vacation, the game crashes - Whenever I want to move into a different world, the game crashes
I had these issues with 1.67 AND 1.69:
- The camera performance is awful - Awful performance in Create A Style - Random Game crashes
Those issues occur on every save file, on every new game, always.
Here's what I have done to try fix them:
- Uninstall game, clear files and registry, reinstall game - Uninstall and reinstall CC, Exchange and Store Content - Install Overwatch - Install ErrorTrap - Limit Framerate of the game - still runs horrible - Enable OpenGL Triple Puffering - still runs horrible
What should I do to fix all these issues? I want to travel to the vacation spots again, or move between worlds, or even SAVE MY GAME. The game runs so unstable and crashes on every 🐸🐸🐸🐸 occasion.
I didn't have as many issues with 1.67 as I am having now. There's also no real way to roll back to 1.67 since my laptop has no DVD drive and I have no Sims 3 Install Disc. SuperPatcher claims The Sims 3 isn't installed, repairing the game through Origin ain't doing anything, nothing seems to work. And it all worked fine before I downloaded these 🐸🐸🐸🐸 expansions.
I have the base game and these DLC installed: World Adventures, High-End Loft Stuff, Ambitions, Late Night, Outdoor Living Stuff, Master Suite Stuff, Island Paradise
It is so depressing that this game is so crashy and poorly running on modern hardware. This game ran better on my old AMD Athlon PC with a 🐸🐸🐸🐸 Radeon HD card that I had over 7 years ago than my shiny new laptop that came out in December 2017.
If it is any helpful - My PC specs: Model: HP Envy x360 Convertible CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2500U GPU: AMD Vega 8 Mobile Graphics RAM: 8GB DDR4 SDRAM OS: Windows 10
I would appreciate any help with these issues, as I just want to feel the nostalgia and play my childhood favorite. Thank you all a lot in advance!
@Silverdroid It looks like you've already taken many of the steps that would be recommended to try to help your game run more smoothly. (Just fyi: The Super Patch doesn't work for 1.69 installs.) But there are a few more you can try:
I'm not sure whether you've done this, but starting with a clean TS3 game folder (the one in Documents) and installing your store and custom content into that might help. It's possible that some element in your game folder is corrupted and messing with your added content. If you have a duplicate game folder somewhere, that would explain the missing store and custom content—the folder often ends up in OneDrive if it's not disabled—but of course your saves and mods would also go missing at the same time.
ErrorTrap and Overwatch are great, even essential for most of us, but if you want your sims to travel, Traveler is a must. MasterController is quite useful as well, for many reasons, but one is that it allows you to reset any object, lot, or sim, or the whole world at once. Other helpful mods are Register and Traffic, used to control role and service sims and vehicle spawning, respectively. With such poor performance, it sounds like you could use all the mod help you can get.
If you're getting crashes, you might be over the game's RAM limit. TS3 is 32-bit, meaning it can only use ~3.5 GB RAM before it gets unstable and is at risk of crashing. Since you have so few EPs installed, this is less likely to be an issue, but it's worth monitoring RAM use in the Task Manager to make sure.
Create a Style, Create a Sim, and Edit Town will drive up your RAM use much faster than regular gameplay, and stress your system in general, so it's best to keep these sessions as short as possible. Many of us build in a new world, which will take fewer resources to load, and then save our work to the bin so that we can place it in our existing saves without much tinkering.
There are a number of other ways to help performance, such as playing entirely offline (take Origin offline after you sign in), disabling memories, turning off the hidden object startup game, and keeping your sims' personal inventories relatively empty. NRaas has a list of best practices to keep your game running smoothly: http://nraas.wikispaces.com/TIPS+FOR+BETTER+GAME+PERFORMANCE
If you're playing in Isla Paradiso, the world that came with Island Paradise, it's totally unsurprising that you'd have such bad performance. The world is so poorly made as to be almost completely unplayable without intervention. But ciane, another player here, has fixed it up and provided her work for download. If you'd rather fix the world yourself, she's also listed the edits necessary to make the world playable: https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/811253/removing-ip-lag/p1
Bridgeport is also problematic, but not as much as IP. Still, given your computer's performance, you'd probably need to fix that world too before playing in it.
It should also be said that your computer is not really sufficient to run TS3 with all its packs. With an integrated graphics card, it would have a lot of trouble with Pets and Seasons, the most demanding EPs. IP is not as bad but still demands more than some integrated cards can deliver. (WA and Ambitions are fine, as are all stuff packs. Late Night is fine aside from the Bridgeport issues.) Every computer performs slightly differently, but it might be that you can't really get the performance you're looking for out of this one.
I'm guessing someone else will come by with more thoughts, but in the meantime, it would be useful to know if any of the above helps, as well as which world you're currently playing.
Edit to add: Are you having any overheating issues with this laptop while playing? That would also explain the crashing.
@Silverdroid - I would take what @puzzlezaddict said a bit further. Your laptop is designed to be extra lightweight and versatile for office productivity and web related tasks both staying put and on the go. I am sure it's great for those things, it actually looks like a fun machine to have for routine use. But it is not meant for processor and graphics intensive games, even one developed in 2009 like TS3 was. Its U-series processor is ultra low powered and thus weaker than other processors in its generation and it has no dedicated graphics card. I would say that the base game alone plus maybe one or two of the earliest EPs should play okay on medium to low graphics options, but any more than that would likely be pushing things too far on it. And I can't say if it has an adequate cooling system for game sessions of any substantial length. Other users may have varying experiences, but honestly I wouldn't be pushing TS3 on it heavily as this range of laptops can be too easily overworked and become damaged over time.
It so happens that the computer I play on is seven years old (soon) and has a Radeon card. But while not exactly a super powerhouse and the envy of all the gamers in my neighborhood (ha, I wouldn't care anyway), it is not "plum," it was mid-range and sufficient to run the entire game meaning with all EPs at the time I bought it and still is. Depends where in the range your older card fell. But the Vega 8 Mobile setup, again great for what it is designed for, is still integrated and not dedicated and that's part of where the game becomes very unhappy.
@puzzlezaddict Thank you for the tips! I'll try that out right now. Actually I was only playing in Sunset Valley and Twinbrook most of the time, as those are my favorite maps :smile:
@igazor That Laptop is actually an office laptop, yeah. But it has a really powerful processor and also a very powerful iGPU. The Ryzen 5, while being a U-Processor, really crushes Intel's latest and greatest CPUs and regularly outpowers them. The mobile graphics are also very powerful, they are actually as powerful as some dedicated options (it can keep up with NVIDIA's MX150), it's only drawback is the meager VRAM (256 MB). Since my laptop has SDRAM, though, it can use up to 4GB of my RAM as VRAM for more graphic intense applications and games. Of course Sims 3 is too old to support SDRAM, but games like GTA V that do run on solid 60fps with zero frame drops and high settings on this machine. Other titles like Cities:Skylines, Fortnite (which I never play tho, haha) or Outlast (and most of my steam library) run fine as wine on this thing. It's just all the older games that perform like trash. I actually picked this machine because it was a nice compromise: I had a light and portable laptop that I can take to work, but it runs the Adobe programs very well (that I use at work a lot) and also can be used to play modern titles, although maybe not on Ultra settings. I just wish I could play older games, though.
Hey guys. I just ran into another error with The Sims 3 :/
Since 1.69 bothered me so much, I just did a major cleanup of The Sims and wanted to install The Sims 3 1.67
I did the following: - Uninstalled The Sims 3 - Deleted all remaining files - Made a backup of my saves and CC, deleted all CC that wasnt neccesarry - Cleaned my registry - Installed Version 1.0 from ISO file (the OG retail version) - Updated to 1.67 with SuperPatcher
Now I have a working Sims 3 with no expansions.
I wanted to install my expansions from Origin, but when I install them, I get an error that they can't be installed. When I update the game, it goes to the stupid 1.69 version that I hate so much
Now I have the following choices: - Buy all the games on Steam - Buy all retail games and an external DVD drive - [activities that EA won't be fond of] (which I won't do) - Play on 1.67 without Expansion Packs - Play on 1.69 - Buy a Mac
Is there any way to install the expansions through Origin while remaining on 1.67? Or is there a way to make 1.69 bearable? Someone help me out please :cold_sweat:
I just want to play my childhood favorite again :disappointed:
@igazor That Laptop is actually an office laptop, yeah. But it has a really powerful processor and also a very powerful iGPU. The Ryzen 5, while being a U-Processor, really crushes Intel's latest and greatest CPUs and regularly outpowers them. The mobile graphics are also very powerful, they are actually as powerful as some dedicated options (it can keep up with NVIDIA's MX150), it's only drawback is the meager VRAM (256 MB). Since my laptop has SDRAM, though, it can use up to 4GB of my RAM as VRAM for more graphic intense applications and games. Of course Sims 3 is too old to support SDRAM, but games like GTA V that do run on solid 60fps with zero frame drops and high settings on this machine. Other titles like Cities:Skylines, Fortnite (which I never play tho, haha) or Outlast (and most of my steam library) run fine as wine on this thing. It's just all the older games that perform like trash. I actually picked this machine because it was a nice compromise: I had a light and portable laptop that I can take to work, but it runs the Adobe programs very well (that I use at work a lot) and also can be used to play modern titles, although maybe not on Ultra settings. I just wish I could play older games, though.
I'm very sorry, but while your analysis seems to flow logically, I'm afraid it's taking some missteps along the way. Your processor is low-powered in the sense of the actual power, the electricity, that it is designed to consume. Sorry that I didn't clarify what I meant by that. I didn't mean that it runs at speeds too low to keep up with the games' demands or doesn't have enough cores.
The GPU is not powerful when compared to those that do carry the game well. You are comparing it to an MX 150. While dedicated, that card and its siblings can't keep up with TS3 beyond the base game and maybe one or two of the earliest EPs either. This is the low-end range of dedicated cards (roughly equivalent to the GT 940M and 940MX), they do not have the required throughput to carry this game. Yes, it's much better than more typical Intel integrated chips and AMD R5s and lower for example, but these are all the wrong benchmarks to be using for TS3. With all or most EPs, we have always said that on a laptop the GTX 960M or now 1050 mobile and higher, or their mid-range equivalents on the older and AMD series, are required. The newer MX series cannot cut it.
This game has always required more CPU and GPU force to get it to run properly than might otherwise seem reasonable to any sane person, I will readily admit that. Big part of that isn't its age, it's how poorly the whole thing was optimized during the evolution of the EPs and the patches over the years. We can't really compare it to other games, this one that we do love so much is unique and a mess under the hood no matter how nice it looks to the player and has needs that for many are difficult to justify.
The game cannot use up to 4 GB of RAM as a substitute for VRAM. TS3 is 32-bit only, it cannot possibly use more than 4 GB (actually the real limit is ~3.7 GB due to some overhead) in total. The scenario where integrated video chips put more stress on RAM usage is NOT what the player should be seeking. As ongoing games progress, if one can get them running that is, they will call for more and more RAM usage and eventually be unable to load without crashing or the player will have constant Error12s on trying to save, which is just as bad (who wants to play a game that they cannot save or have game sessions last for only ten minutes at a time?).
That's not to say that it's totally impossible to get the game running with the EPs you want and in the way that you want on your hardware set. I am sure that some players have. But such successes are, I'm afraid, not to be expected and not expected to be sustainable over time.
Now I have the following choices:
- Buy all the games on Steam
- Buy all retail games and an external DVD drive
- [activities that EA won't be fond of] (which I won't do)
- Play on 1.67 without Expansion Packs
- Play on 1.69
- Buy a Mac
Is there any way to install the expansions through Origin while remaining on 1.67? Or is there a way to make 1.69 bearable? Someone help me out please
As annoying as 1.69 can be, I really don't think this is the underlying problem here. But no, you cannot install the EP/SPs by way of Origin without accepting 1.69. There is no way around that.
Your choices are a bit more limited than the above. You can only negotiate a 1.67 install if you have a retail base game disc that pre-dates Sept. 2012. The newer ones insist on the Origin tie-in. Sounds like you have already worked through that restriction. The vintage of the EP/SPs don't matter in this case, so going all disc is indeed an option.
You can take "Buy a Mac" off the list. The Mac version of the game is even more limited, it can only utilize 2 GB of RAM in total thanks to the goofy way in which EA managed its port into the Mac OS. That leaves many players on Macs (like me and @puzzlezaddict as it so happens) with the choice of a severely crippled game or bootcamping Windows onto our Macs and playing that way. But Bootcamping brings 1.69 right back into the picture as it's the same as any other Windows install. We both play the Steam version on Windows instead. The fact that our hardware is Apple branded in this case doesn't make too much difference. We have Macs for other reasons and only use the Bootcamp side for TS3 play. As much as I do love Macs and have no plans to part with them, if TS3 is the real goal here you could purchase a whole new PC with a higher end hardware set for far less.
I'm glad the base game only is working well for you on 1.67. But if you force the EPs back in one way or another, I'm afraid my prediction is that the performance issues will return just or almost the same as before.
Is there any way to install the expansions through Origin while remaining on 1.67? Or is there a way to make 1.69 bearable?
Unfortunately to the first question, there is no longer a way to stay on 1.67 if you use Origin to freshly install games at this point in time.
I don't use version 1.69, but some simmers I know that have no choice, will log into the game, then once the game is running -- put Origin offline and continue playing TS3. Don't know if it will help your issues since using an ultra low power machine and having what can be described as 'bearable' game play is rather a subjective opinion.
I've owned the TS3 Store since Feb 2015-thanks to the help of many other simmers ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ☆★☆My Page☆★☆ ᴼ -♞- ᴼ Ⅰ ❤ TS3❣
@igazor I know that my CPU is a 15 watt ship and that is indeed pretty underpowered, but the fact that it runs modern AAA titles so well while crippling with Sims 3 is indeed confusing me.
I actually started playing Sims 3 on 1.00 on a Pentium 4 with no GPU in 2009 (Base Game only.) The loading times were horrible and the game was always running in the slowest time even if I was speeding up the game, but it actually run semi-bearable. On a 3 GHz Single Core Processor. AND NO GPU.
Because the slow progression by only being able to play in real time, I upgraded to an AMD Athlon Dual-Core with a dedicated GPU, which run the game so smooth and fluent, it was a dream. This rig ran the Base Game, World Adventures, Ambitions and Loft Stuff, as well as a lot of CC
I also had a rig with a Intel Core i5-750 and a Radeon HD 5670 Noiseless Edition that run the game with adequate performance. This rig ran WA, Ambitions, Late Night and 4 SPs, And also a ton of CC
Sadly I scrapped the i5 rig and sold all parts, and my mum killed the Athlon rig back in 2010.
I still have an Early 2011 15" MacBook Pro (Intel Core i7 Quad Core 2GHz, 8GB RAM, Radeon HD Graphics) Sadly, the GPU was fried due to overheating. Screw Apple and their bad airflow design.
I also had The Sims 3, the first 3 EPs, 4 SPs and a ton of CC installed, and it actually ran like a charm, too. I remember playing in a large detailed mansion in Bridgeport for extensive periods of time (of course with Master Controller, Overwatch and ErrorTrap) and the performance was always adequate.
Now my new laptop absolutely out-performs all three of these systems. Yet the game runs like poo.
I tried to reinstall the game once more. Install pre-2011 retail version from ripped ISO file, SuperPatch to 1.67. I then updated to 1.69 in Origin, added all expansions I own, and used SuperPatcher again. This time - surprisingly - SuperPatcher worked and downgraded my game. However, all my Expansion Packs have disappeared from the launcher's bottom bar, so they don't seem to be installed.
Is there any way to "enable" the expansions? Or am I forever stuck on 1.69 with poor performance and lag?
I would really like to play The Sims 3, but it just has such a bad performance that I can't fully enjoy it. I had Sims 2 on my old Origin Account, but sadly I forgot both account name and password. The Sims 4 would also be an option, but I don't want to shill out 500 bucks for a half-🐸🐸🐸🐸 game.
If there is any way to set up the expansions for 1.67, I would appreciate a tip on how to do so. If there ain't, I just guess I'll stick with a crappy performance on 1.69 :/
Thanks a lot for the tips and help you already provided :)
> @SemaviLady said: > Silverdroid wrote: » > > Is there any way to install the expansions through Origin while remaining on 1.67? Or is there a way to make 1.69 bearable? > > > > Unfortunately to the first question, there is no longer a way to stay on 1.67 if you use Origin to freshly install games at this point in time. > > I don't use version 1.69, but some simmers I know that have no choice, will log into the game, then once the game is running -- put Origin offline and continue playing TS3. Don't know if it will help your issues since using an ultra low power machine and having what can be described as 'bearable' game play is rather a subjective opinion. :disappointed:
Yeah. I guess I'll just have to suffer with meager performance :(
Comments
This is the entire report? There are huge sections of it missing. It's also unable to determine your processor and graphics card under System Information, this could be indicative of a bigger problem.
The graphics chip it does report on being present, even if System Information is not finding it, is a weak integrated Intel chip that cannot be expected to carry much more than the base game and maybe one or two of the earliest EPs. If you do have an Nvidia or AMD dedicated card as well, it's not showing up. Can't tell if that's a real problem or if we just got an incomplete report.
Glad you're closer to getting your game launched, though.
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Please post your macs specs here, along with a list of all expansion and stuff packs you have installed (and, I guess, any you'd like to install but haven't yet). Depending on this information, you may or may not be able to skip one of the troubleshooting steps.
relevant mac specs: https://answers.ea.com/t5/The-Sims-Mac/READ-FIRST-Sims-3-Mac-Help-Guides-and-Troubleshooting/m-p/4756624#M4
https://bluebellflora.com/sims-3-packs-not-showing-as-installed/
https://bluebellflora.com/2017/01/02/sims-3-unknown-error-fix-el-capitan-sierra-late-night-ambitions-related/
(Follow the instructions in the embedded video if you're not familiar with the process of diving into package contents.)
While you're at it, you should run the Super Patch (digital download version), if you haven't already. Even if the game thinks it's patched, it might not be, and the Super Patch won't hurt.
https://bluebellflora.com/sims-3-manual-super-patch-for-mac-1-67/
By the way, the fact that you can launch the base game means you likely don't have to edit your sgr files to force recognition of your graphics card. But if you can't get the base game and Late Night to run, please post your mac's specs (as listed above) so that we can rule out an incompatible processor/graphics card combination as an additional issue.
It is possible that your computer is struggling with running Pets and Seasons, as those are the two most demanding packs, although that issue is less likely to throw a straight unknown error. If you could please list your mac's specs, we can see whether playing with those packs might be putting too much strain on your system.
relevant mac specs: https://answers.ea.com/t5/The-Sims-Mac/READ-FIRST-Sims-3-Mac-Help-Guides-and-Troubleshooting/m-p/4756624#M4
A family I have played for a good while (over 15 hours) is suddenly crashing. I'm relatively new to Sims 3 but I had no prior problems with the game - it just crashed yesterday for once and thats when the cycle of constant ctd started. I had been playing this session at least 5 hours.
Nothing special was happening in game during the time, it was late at night and most sims were sleeping. (I tried monitoring the lot and nothing was spawning in the near vicinity).
After that the game would crash while loading the save, immediately after loading my game, or shortly after. The game freezes for a small moment then shuts down without error message. Useless logs state access violation, which in other cases could point to memory problem, which definitely isn't the case here - at least not on hardware/management side.
I have tried quite a few tricks already, and have included them down. I'm an advanced user so I'm ready to try pretty much any kind of solution.
Technical things and details:
- At first my current household was completely inaccessible as the game would crash in loading phase. After that I used the backup save file, and was able to load my house again (this is what confuses me). It would however crash shortly after (after 5+ minutes) and continue crashing like before, sometimes even during the load.
- My house is on the biggest/near biggest lot, with 5 adults, 1 child and 2 pets, but running smoothly.
- I can load my other (almost new) save without stuttering, however I have not yet tested if it will crash after few minutes.
- I have all EP's and all stuff/whatever packs available for TS3.
- My device config (just add .ᴄᴏᴍ after textuploader): textuploader/d7yv8 (graphics card is in use, just doesn't show up here as usual. I also noticed that for some reason my OS is showing as Windows 8 instead of 10, any reason for this?)
- My PC technical details link is included in textuploader page.
- I checked for GPU update, Windows update, restarted my PC, monitored for conflicting programs and CPU usage (no threats)
- Monitored my CPU and disc usage, they were at normal levels.
- My save size is over 100k kb.
- Deleted all cache-> no effect.
- I reduced graphical settings although I never had problems with TS3 performance before.
- I did the explorer program thing to check TS3 exe for handling up to 2GB at once.
- I did Nvidia settings checkup, everything was just like before. I tried running game through launcher, in administrative mode, through Geforce Experience etc. all with same results. (And I don't even believe issue solvable with this can happen during gameplay like flicking a light switch off)
- I dont use a lot of CC. For gameplay changes I only use Master Controller, nointro, nobuildsparkles and NRaas decensor and Wohooer. I have small collection of hairstyles and other cas stuff, and clothes, but I was already playing with them for so long without a problem. For this save I only added new content (9 different clothes) once after starting the family, and I tried removing said content. This did not help. Only custom objects I have came with the house I downloaded, including maybe 20 different objects. So yeah, not a lot of CC.
- I have not compressed my CC.
I'm wondering if I could have a corrupted save, even though I have not done anything to increase chances for corruption. I only remember 2 occasions where I had to reset my 2 sims with master controller because they became frozen/bugged and unable to do anything. This was days before crashing started.
-> I don't think I have a bad piece of CC appearing on some sim trying to come to my lot that game cannot generate, due to the random nature of the crashing. There was no exact in-game time when my game would crash. NPC's were able to come to my house to pick up my sims to work, and kid was able to go to school without any problems etc.
Any kind of help is welcome!
1 - This is more for your understanding than anything else, but the game is 32-bit only and therefore can only make use of ~3.7 GB of RAM before it runs out of usable resources. There is no need to make it Large Address Aware (LAA) so it can get over the 2 GB hurdle, Patch 1.17 took care of that many years ago. But if it does try to reach for more resources than it can really use due to the 32-bit limit, there will be crashes and/or Error12s upon trying to save, which are just as bad.
2 - Have you arranged for vsync using the Nvidia Control Panel on your graphics card (note that vsync on the NCP only works, when it does, in full screen mode) and have you verified that your actual frame rates in-game are staying under the refresh rate of your monitor? In-game if you can get it to launch without crashing, start a new test game if you need to, ctrl+shift+C to bring up the cheats console, then fps on (enter). As you play and move the game camera around, the displayed fps rate should never exceed the refresh rate. For most that's 60 Hz, so 60 fps, some monitors can run higher. To make the displayed rate go away, cheats console again and fps off (enter). Your card is capable of throwing wildly high fps rates, which if left uncapped can lead to graphics glitches, screen tears, lag, crashes, and can ultimately burn out your graphics card by making it constantly work far too hard for no reason. Unlike more modern games, TS3 has no functional built-in fps limiter.
For a visual: https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/comment/14991412#Comment_14991412
If the control panel does not lock things in, or if windowed mode is required, then we move on to Nvidia Inspector.
3 - Your graphics card is not being formally recognized by the game and you are getting the 32 MB texture memory override, which is unnecessary. We can help you fix that, the difference doing so makes is not always significant, but the fps capping above is much more important to address first.
4 - On the NRaas mods, I would strongly suggest adding the ones that are specifically designed to improve performance and prevent ongoing games from corrupting. Those that you do not list would be Overwatch, ErrorTrap, Register, and Traffic (to deny the overwpawnage of career performance limos). MC, which you already have, is useful to run a Reset Everything from the Town menu on City Hall every few sim weeks or so, it catches things that Overwatch and ErrorTrap do not or have not yet noticed and reacted to.
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I made a small test family in new save.
At first I checked my FPS through launcher, which I normally don't do. This sends game into fullscreen and the FPS was constantly 59-60. But then I read into your message again and it highlighted in my head how you said that vsync only works in fullscreen, so I launched the game as I usually play, in fullscreen window (so I have easy access on stuff on my other screen) and holy cow, my FPS was showing as 230+.
For pointing this out to me I am so thankful, because my rig is only a year old and deserves to be saved.
Sadly, about 10 minutes into trying out my "problematic" household my game crashed again.
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I encounter a problem when i'm in building mode and buy mode.
I don't know why but everytime I do something, the visual effects like the sparkles when you build a wall, the little ''+'' sign when you add an item, the kind of light effect when you delete something with the bulldozer, etc. Well, they kind of just stay there. Usually, they would just normally fade out when i'm done with the action, but in my case, they don't. It's annoying to constantly have these effects in my way when I build.
The only way I found to make them disappear is to go in life mode and then it all fades away. But it's annoying, because then I'd always have to put an active household on the lot I build and go into life mode everytime I want to get rid of the little visual effects.
I didn't have this problem before so I don't know how it came to be. Maybe it's a mod that I installed? But I don't have many mods and I don't know why they would interfere with that anyways...
Has anyone ever had this problem before? Is it possible to fix?
Thank you!
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I was playing Sims 3 on Version 1.67, which worked semi-alright. Some issues, but it was playable.
I bought some new expansions today (Ambitions, Island Paradise and World Adventures to be exact) and installed them into my 1.67 game, which updated to 1.69. Since the update, I have the following issues with 1.69:
- CC and Store Content randomly disappears out of the game, uninstalls by itself, has to be re-added
- The game has horrible frame drops even with settings set to low and V-sync turned on in my Radeon Settings
- The game itself is very glitchy and stuttery
- Whenever I save my game, the game crashes
- Whenever I want to go on vacation, the game crashes
- Whenever I want to move into a different world, the game crashes
I had these issues with 1.67 AND 1.69:
- The camera performance is awful
- Awful performance in Create A Style
- Random Game crashes
Those issues occur on every save file, on every new game, always.
Here's what I have done to try fix them:
- Uninstall game, clear files and registry, reinstall game
- Uninstall and reinstall CC, Exchange and Store Content
- Install Overwatch
- Install ErrorTrap
- Limit Framerate of the game - still runs horrible
- Enable OpenGL Triple Puffering - still runs horrible
What should I do to fix all these issues? I want to travel to the vacation spots again, or move between worlds, or even SAVE MY GAME. The game runs so unstable and crashes on every 🐸🐸🐸🐸 occasion.
I didn't have as many issues with 1.67 as I am having now. There's also no real way to roll back to 1.67 since my laptop has no DVD drive and I have no Sims 3 Install Disc. SuperPatcher claims The Sims 3 isn't installed, repairing the game through Origin ain't doing anything, nothing seems to work. And it all worked fine before I downloaded these 🐸🐸🐸🐸 expansions.
I have the base game and these DLC installed:
World Adventures, High-End Loft Stuff, Ambitions, Late Night, Outdoor Living Stuff, Master Suite Stuff, Island Paradise
It is so depressing that this game is so crashy and poorly running on modern hardware. This game ran better on my old AMD Athlon PC with a 🐸🐸🐸🐸 Radeon HD card that I had over 7 years ago than my shiny new laptop that came out in December 2017.
If it is any helpful - My PC specs:
Model: HP Envy x360 Convertible
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2500U
GPU: AMD Vega 8 Mobile Graphics
RAM: 8GB DDR4 SDRAM
OS: Windows 10
I would appreciate any help with these issues, as I just want to feel the nostalgia and play my childhood favorite.
Thank you all a lot in advance!
- I'm not sure whether you've done this, but starting with a clean TS3 game folder (the one in Documents) and installing your store and custom content into that might help. It's possible that some element in your game folder is corrupted and messing with your added content. If you have a duplicate game folder somewhere, that would explain the missing store and custom content—the folder often ends up in OneDrive if it's not disabled—but of course your saves and mods would also go missing at the same time.
- ErrorTrap and Overwatch are great, even essential for most of us, but if you want your sims to travel, Traveler is a must. MasterController is quite useful as well, for many reasons, but one is that it allows you to reset any object, lot, or sim, or the whole world at once. Other helpful mods are Register and Traffic, used to control role and service sims and vehicle spawning, respectively. With such poor performance, it sounds like you could use all the mod help you can get.
- If you're getting crashes, you might be over the game's RAM limit. TS3 is 32-bit, meaning it can only use ~3.5 GB RAM before it gets unstable and is at risk of crashing. Since you have so few EPs installed, this is less likely to be an issue, but it's worth monitoring RAM use in the Task Manager to make sure.
- Create a Style, Create a Sim, and Edit Town will drive up your RAM use much faster than regular gameplay, and stress your system in general, so it's best to keep these sessions as short as possible. Many of us build in a new world, which will take fewer resources to load, and then save our work to the bin so that we can place it in our existing saves without much tinkering.
- There are a number of other ways to help performance, such as playing entirely offline (take Origin offline after you sign in), disabling memories, turning off the hidden object startup game, and keeping your sims' personal inventories relatively empty. NRaas has a list of best practices to keep your game running smoothly: http://nraas.wikispaces.com/TIPS+FOR+BETTER+GAME+PERFORMANCE
- If you're playing in Isla Paradiso, the world that came with Island Paradise, it's totally unsurprising that you'd have such bad performance. The world is so poorly made as to be almost completely unplayable without intervention. But ciane, another player here, has fixed it up and provided her work for download. If you'd rather fix the world yourself, she's also listed the edits necessary to make the world playable: https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/811253/removing-ip-lag/p1
- Bridgeport is also problematic, but not as much as IP. Still, given your computer's performance, you'd probably need to fix that world too before playing in it.
It should also be said that your computer is not really sufficient to run TS3 with all its packs. With an integrated graphics card, it would have a lot of trouble with Pets and Seasons, the most demanding EPs. IP is not as bad but still demands more than some integrated cards can deliver. (WA and Ambitions are fine, as are all stuff packs. Late Night is fine aside from the Bridgeport issues.) Every computer performs slightly differently, but it might be that you can't really get the performance you're looking for out of this one.I'm guessing someone else will come by with more thoughts, but in the meantime, it would be useful to know if any of the above helps, as well as which world you're currently playing.
Edit to add: Are you having any overheating issues with this laptop while playing? That would also explain the crashing.
It so happens that the computer I play on is seven years old (soon) and has a Radeon card. But while not exactly a super powerhouse and the envy of all the gamers in my neighborhood (ha, I wouldn't care anyway), it is not "plum," it was mid-range and sufficient to run the entire game meaning with all EPs at the time I bought it and still is. Depends where in the range your older card fell. But the Vega 8 Mobile setup, again great for what it is designed for, is still integrated and not dedicated and that's part of where the game becomes very unhappy.
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@igazor That Laptop is actually an office laptop, yeah. But it has a really powerful processor and also a very powerful iGPU. The Ryzen 5, while being a U-Processor, really crushes Intel's latest and greatest CPUs and regularly outpowers them. The mobile graphics are also very powerful, they are actually as powerful as some dedicated options (it can keep up with NVIDIA's MX150), it's only drawback is the meager VRAM (256 MB). Since my laptop has SDRAM, though, it can use up to 4GB of my RAM as VRAM for more graphic intense applications and games. Of course Sims 3 is too old to support SDRAM, but games like GTA V that do run on solid 60fps with zero frame drops and high settings on this machine. Other titles like Cities:Skylines, Fortnite (which I never play tho, haha) or Outlast (and most of my steam library) run fine as wine on this thing. It's just all the older games that perform like trash. I actually picked this machine because it was a nice compromise: I had a light and portable laptop that I can take to work, but it runs the Adobe programs very well (that I use at work a lot) and also can be used to play modern titles, although maybe not on Ultra settings. I just wish I could play older games, though.
Since 1.69 bothered me so much, I just did a major cleanup of The Sims and wanted to install The Sims 3 1.67
I did the following:
- Uninstalled The Sims 3
- Deleted all remaining files
- Made a backup of my saves and CC, deleted all CC that wasnt neccesarry
- Cleaned my registry
- Installed Version 1.0 from ISO file (the OG retail version)
- Updated to 1.67 with SuperPatcher
Now I have a working Sims 3 with no expansions.
I wanted to install my expansions from Origin, but when I install them, I get an error that they can't be installed.
When I update the game, it goes to the stupid 1.69 version that I hate so much
Now I have the following choices:
- Buy all the games on Steam
- Buy all retail games and an external DVD drive
- [activities that EA won't be fond of] (which I won't do)
- Play on 1.67 without Expansion Packs
- Play on 1.69
- Buy a Mac
Is there any way to install the expansions through Origin while remaining on 1.67? Or is there a way to make 1.69 bearable? Someone help me out please :cold_sweat:
I just want to play my childhood favorite again :disappointed:
The GPU is not powerful when compared to those that do carry the game well. You are comparing it to an MX 150. While dedicated, that card and its siblings can't keep up with TS3 beyond the base game and maybe one or two of the earliest EPs either. This is the low-end range of dedicated cards (roughly equivalent to the GT 940M and 940MX), they do not have the required throughput to carry this game. Yes, it's much better than more typical Intel integrated chips and AMD R5s and lower for example, but these are all the wrong benchmarks to be using for TS3. With all or most EPs, we have always said that on a laptop the GTX 960M or now 1050 mobile and higher, or their mid-range equivalents on the older and AMD series, are required. The newer MX series cannot cut it.
This game has always required more CPU and GPU force to get it to run properly than might otherwise seem reasonable to any sane person, I will readily admit that. Big part of that isn't its age, it's how poorly the whole thing was optimized during the evolution of the EPs and the patches over the years. We can't really compare it to other games, this one that we do love so much is unique and a mess under the hood no matter how nice it looks to the player and has needs that for many are difficult to justify.
The game cannot use up to 4 GB of RAM as a substitute for VRAM. TS3 is 32-bit only, it cannot possibly use more than 4 GB (actually the real limit is ~3.7 GB due to some overhead) in total. The scenario where integrated video chips put more stress on RAM usage is NOT what the player should be seeking. As ongoing games progress, if one can get them running that is, they will call for more and more RAM usage and eventually be unable to load without crashing or the player will have constant Error12s on trying to save, which is just as bad (who wants to play a game that they cannot save or have game sessions last for only ten minutes at a time?).
That's not to say that it's totally impossible to get the game running with the EPs you want and in the way that you want on your hardware set. I am sure that some players have. But such successes are, I'm afraid, not to be expected and not expected to be sustainable over time.
As annoying as 1.69 can be, I really don't think this is the underlying problem here. But no, you cannot install the EP/SPs by way of Origin without accepting 1.69. There is no way around that.
Your choices are a bit more limited than the above. You can only negotiate a 1.67 install if you have a retail base game disc that pre-dates Sept. 2012. The newer ones insist on the Origin tie-in. Sounds like you have already worked through that restriction. The vintage of the EP/SPs don't matter in this case, so going all disc is indeed an option.
You can take "Buy a Mac" off the list. The Mac version of the game is even more limited, it can only utilize 2 GB of RAM in total thanks to the goofy way in which EA managed its port into the Mac OS. That leaves many players on Macs (like me and @puzzlezaddict as it so happens) with the choice of a severely crippled game or bootcamping Windows onto our Macs and playing that way. But Bootcamping brings 1.69 right back into the picture as it's the same as any other Windows install. We both play the Steam version on Windows instead. The fact that our hardware is Apple branded in this case doesn't make too much difference. We have Macs for other reasons and only use the Bootcamp side for TS3 play. As much as I do love Macs and have no plans to part with them, if TS3 is the real goal here you could purchase a whole new PC with a higher end hardware set for far less.
I'm glad the base game only is working well for you on 1.67. But if you force the EPs back in one way or another, I'm afraid my prediction is that the performance issues will return just or almost the same as before.
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I don't use version 1.69, but some simmers I know that have no choice, will log into the game, then once the game is running -- put Origin offline and continue playing TS3. Don't know if it will help your issues since using an ultra low power machine and having what can be described as 'bearable' game play is rather a subjective opinion.
ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ ☆★☆ My Page ☆★☆ ᴼ -♞- ᴼ Ⅰ ❤ TS3❣
I actually started playing Sims 3 on 1.00 on a Pentium 4 with no GPU in 2009 (Base Game only.) The loading times were horrible and the game was always running in the slowest time even if I was speeding up the game, but it actually run semi-bearable. On a 3 GHz Single Core Processor. AND NO GPU.
Because the slow progression by only being able to play in real time, I upgraded to an AMD Athlon Dual-Core with a dedicated GPU, which run the game so smooth and fluent, it was a dream. This rig ran the Base Game, World Adventures, Ambitions and Loft Stuff, as well as a lot of CC
I also had a rig with a Intel Core i5-750 and a Radeon HD 5670 Noiseless Edition that run the game with adequate performance.
This rig ran WA, Ambitions, Late Night and 4 SPs, And also a ton of CC
Sadly I scrapped the i5 rig and sold all parts, and my mum killed the Athlon rig back in 2010.
I still have an Early 2011 15" MacBook Pro (Intel Core i7 Quad Core 2GHz, 8GB RAM, Radeon HD Graphics)
Sadly, the GPU was fried due to overheating. Screw Apple and their bad airflow design.
I also had The Sims 3, the first 3 EPs, 4 SPs and a ton of CC installed, and it actually ran like a charm, too. I remember playing in a large detailed mansion in Bridgeport for extensive periods of time (of course with Master Controller, Overwatch and ErrorTrap) and the performance was always adequate.
Now my new laptop absolutely out-performs all three of these systems. Yet the game runs like poo.
I tried to reinstall the game once more. Install pre-2011 retail version from ripped ISO file, SuperPatch to 1.67. I then updated to 1.69 in Origin, added all expansions I own, and used SuperPatcher again. This time - surprisingly - SuperPatcher worked and downgraded my game. However, all my Expansion Packs have disappeared from the launcher's bottom bar, so they don't seem to be installed.
Is there any way to "enable" the expansions? Or am I forever stuck on 1.69 with poor performance and lag?
I would really like to play The Sims 3, but it just has such a bad performance that I can't fully enjoy it.
I had Sims 2 on my old Origin Account, but sadly I forgot both account name and password.
The Sims 4 would also be an option, but I don't want to shill out 500 bucks for a half-🐸🐸🐸🐸 game.
If there is any way to set up the expansions for 1.67, I would appreciate a tip on how to do so.
If there ain't, I just guess I'll stick with a crappy performance on 1.69 :/
Thanks a lot for the tips and help you already provided :)
> Silverdroid wrote: »
>
> Is there any way to install the expansions through Origin while remaining on 1.67? Or is there a way to make 1.69 bearable?
>
>
>
> Unfortunately to the first question, there is no longer a way to stay on 1.67 if you use Origin to freshly install games at this point in time.
>
> I don't use version 1.69, but some simmers I know that have no choice, will log into the game, then once the game is running -- put Origin offline and continue playing TS3. Don't know if it will help your issues since using an ultra low power machine and having what can be described as 'bearable' game play is rather a subjective opinion. :disappointed:
Yeah. I guess I'll just have to suffer with meager performance :(