How much does turning off your internet really help the game?

MemoriiValentine · September 2018

I have heard that turning off the internet while playing helps the game .but i have never tested this and was wondering what benifits have you seen if you have tried this ?

Does it have a bigger impact on large worlds ?

Or have you seen no changes when trying this ?

mw1525 · September 2018

Hmmm...well, I can't be of much comparison help because I always play offline. I can tell you that when you are online there is communication between the game and EA servers. If you use their in-game products such as the store or to send friends requests or gifts to those on your friends list. Now, exactly how much resources this takes up, I really can't say. Someone who does use these features can be of more help than I am.

When it comes to large sized maps, there are a lot of things to take into considerations which may impact the game (or the way it plays). Computer capabilities, does the world have known issues, population sizes, number and types of lots (residential and commercial), amount of installed content, amount and types of mods and so on. You haven't stated you were having an issue with a larger world, but if you are and are trying to make it run a little better take a look at all of these things and see where there may be room to trim things back a bit.

MemoriiValentine · September 2018

@mw1525 i have trouble in worlds like alpine county. . I have a nvidia 750 ti. I7 processor and 8 gb of ram . Im wondering if i do go offline if the applications that require internet might stop using ram . Letting the game run smoother ?

mw1525 · September 2018

@MemoriiValentine - I do not have Alpine County but, I can tell you that you are not alone with having issues with that world. I have mostly found Simmers complaining of the world lagging (possibly due to its size + lots) as there is a lot of content which makes up the world. The PC has to render all of the huge map block by block. Not to mention the AI has to do its thing with the population, spawners, animals and vegetation. That's a lot!

PC-wise an i7 has quick enough processing power, 8GBs of RAM is more than the game can actually use (3.7GB max), your card is good for all games with a 'maybe' rating for IP and ITF (basically a go). Your issue may lay in the world itself. Have you tried offline play? Was there a difference? Going offline would definitely quite a few services, but would it be enough to impact on the game positively? I can't begin to say.

MemoriiValentine · September 2018

@mw1525 i have not yet tried and wanted to know others experience with it before trying it

mw1525 · September 2018

@MemoriiValentine - One more thing. I know some simmers like to do other things while their game is running such as downloading, recording, chatting and so on. Are you only running the game and the internet at the time you are playing? Or, do you have other programs running which may slow the Sims down?

MemoriiValentine · September 2018

mw1525 wrote: »

@MemoriiValentine - One more thing. I know some simmers like to do other things while their game is running such as downloading, recording, chatting and so on. Are you only running the game and the internet at the time you are playing? Or, do you have other programs running which may slow the Sims down?

I have many things running and i think turning the internet off after the game is up and running will keep me from the temptation of using anything else

Bettyboop55 · September 2018

Hello I don't use the internet at all when I am playing. I can't remember the last time I was on line. To be honest I don't miss it. The only thing it might do to improve your game experience is not having those notifications popping up every few minutes to distract you.

igazor · September 2018

Yeah there are two, or really three, totally separate issues at hand here.

Using the online features of the game, which of course require an active Internet connection, does put a lot of stress on the game and increases RAM usage. It doesn't help that EA's servers can be flaky, so we never know when something requiring a better connection to them can be at fault for poor game performance. This is why we always recommend playing offline, meaning not logged in at the Launcher or in-game levels, and not using the in-game TS3 store shopping option, when these are not totally necessary.

The second issue is what else you are having your computer do while the game is running. While there is no direct impact on the game there, robbing it of the RAM and processor power that it needs is not going to help performance at all. If breaking the Internet connection removes some temptation to do these things, then that's a pretty good idea. Many players use a different device to stay connected and do their online stuff while their computer is busy running the game for reasons kind of like this.

The third issue, already mentioned, is that Alpine is a HUGE custom world that really pushes the limits of what the game engine can handle and the game can be expected to struggle with it on just about any system.

MemoriiValentine · September 2018

@igazor thank you . So i should avoid alpine county or strip it down to the bare minimum if i do play there

Karritz · September 2018

I tried playing in Alpine County and loved it for a few weeks. I was using an unpopulated version of the world my problems started when it became winter. I soon had to move my game to another world.

Pary · September 2018

I don't turn my internet off while I'm playing, but I have set up a firewall rule whereas anything TS3 is not allowed through to access the internet. Not the launcher, the game exe, nothing, it's all blocked.

I started all that back when EA began logging ( spying on ) people's gameplay for their telemetry nonsense, and unticking the box in the game to disallow it didn't work correctly and it apparently re-enabled itself mysteriously all the time, so turning it off in the ini was the only way to really stop it, but I took it further, because I take exception to that kind of thing.
It can make downloading store content a real pain because I have to disable and the re-enable the rules when I'm done, but it's worth it to keep EA's grubby fingers away from my game.

Not that they're interested in TS3 telemetry anymore anyway I suppose.

MemoriiValentine · September 2018

Karritz wrote: »

I tried playing in Alpine County and loved it for a few weeks. I was using an unpopulated version of the world my problems started when it became winter. I soon had to move my game to another world.

Was it all the snow? Did you populate the world yourself?

Karritz · September 2018

MemoriiValentine wrote: »

Karritz wrote: »

I tried playing in Alpine County and loved it for a few weeks. I was using an unpopulated version of the world my problems started when it became winter. I soon had to move my game to another world.

Was it all the snow? Did you populate the world yourself?

Well - it was snowing.

I did populate the world, but I only had 2 households with sims in them. A pair in one house and another house with a few - forget how many but it was probably 10 or maybe a few more. I was able to play that same household with lots of extra sims in it when I moved them to Dragon Valley. I haven't used Alpine Country since but still have it installed.

MemoriiValentine · September 2018

Karritz wrote: »

MemoriiValentine wrote: »

Karritz wrote: »

I tried playing in Alpine County and loved it for a few weeks. I was using an unpopulated version of the world my problems started when it became winter. I soon had to move my game to another world.

Was it all the snow? Did you populate the world yourself?

Well - it was snowing.

I did populate the world, but I only had 2 households with sims in them. A pair in one house and another house with a few - forget how many but it was probably 10 or maybe a few more. I was able to play that same household with lots of extra sims in it when I moved them to Dragon Valley. I haven't used Alpine Country since but still have it installed.

Yeah sounds like a handfull. Rflong7 legacy island III would probably be more worth it . Alpine county is a beautiful world but i dont think sims 3 can handle it .

soulofadragon1 · September 2018

ive never really thought of it. i dot urnof updates from my profile.

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How much does turning off your internet really help the game?

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