As you have probably noticed, there are many complaints in this Mac forum about graphics; we realize that it is probably because on older Macs, our graphic cards are GMA 950s. Its great that you have taken the time to make The Sims 3 available for both Macs and PCs but, unfortunately, the only Macbooks that have the required graphics cards are the latest models. Obviously a large part of the Mac community does not have these computers, and you have left a lot of us in the dust.
My question for you is: is there ANY chance at all of there being a patch or something that would allow people playing on a Macbook with a GMA 950 video card to play TS3? I was REALLY looking forward to getting this game, and it would be a real shame to have to return it and watch as everyone else gets to play, as I am not willing to shell out hundreds and hundreds of dollars JUST to buy a computer that will support TS3 (because of the way our computers are built, we can not just buy and install new graphic cards either).. I am sure a lot of Macbookers on this community would agree.
If you could please tell us if there is any possible way for us to play, or if there is anything in development that may allow us to play, i'm sure everyone here would appreciate it.
Thank-you.
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For the time being, I use Windows from Boot Camp.
Although the new features like personality traits, create a sim, the open town, and create a style are AMAZING, I was very disappointed in the game's actual performance.
My Macbook is approaching 1 year old now, and it has an ATI Radeon X1600 graphics card, and with all the graphics put on high the graphics STILL look like crap. I have about 36 GB with it installed, and at least 2GB of RAM. The game is laggy, the graphics ****, and there's so many bugs and glitches it's just not enjoyable, much less worth playing.
So until they make a patch to fix all this, i'm sticking to playing the Sims2.
The simple truth is that the Mac version of the Sims 3 is the PC version wrapped in a program called Cider from TransGaming. Cider is a Windows virtualisation environment, similar to VMware Fusion or Parallels. It's based in part on code from the WINE project.
Where it differs from full-blown virtualisation is that is doesn't need a full version of Windows to run - Cider uses custom libraries to catch Windows programming API's and passes them through to the Mac hardware and software. If you open the Sims 3 program with the "Show Package Contents" command and explore the folders inside, you'll find the full PC executable file and all the Cider programming libraries.
To run the Sims 3, your Mac is actually pretending to be a PC!! That Sims 3 icon you click on actually launches a custom configured Windows PC environment, then launches the Sims 3 in that. It's an extremely clever way to port games, since it's generally faster to do and doesn't need a full team of Mac programmers on every game. The same process was used by EA for Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3.
The downside is speed - the Cider environment delivers about 80% of the performance of a "real" PC running the same hardware as your Mac. If you want maximum speed and best graphics, I'm afraid that running Boot Camp and a full version of Windows on your Mac is your best bet.
Sly
I think they should make a general, Mac-related statement in this forum.
If someone wants help, then try asking me, because I have been enjoying this game very much on my Mac with no graphics complaints. May I add that it's on all the highest-quality settings and moves seamlessly?
Sims 3 MyPage: https://mypage.thesims3.com/mypage/sketches
#FixThePersonalities
Of course, it would be the one thing that I can't replace on my computer that's not compatible with the game. Of course.
Wow that makes a lot of sense. Pretty smart actually but I would agree that it would require a lot of performance from the cpu. So you are suggesting playing it in Boot Camp instead for the speed? The only thing is that I run XP on Bootcamp and XP only recognizes up to 3gb of memory. My MBP has 4gb and I want to use all of it. Would you still suggest running BootCamp instead or stay with the Mac side to get the use of all the memory?
Even if you are running a 32-bit version (64-bit will recognize all installed RAM) you should see an increase in performance as mentioned.
MacBook Airs are designed to be ultra-portable and are not recognized for their raw performance by any means.
But isn't that what they did? That's the point of having system requirements in the first place (which you can find on the back of your dvd case). It also says in the readme, "Please note that attempting to play the game using video hardware that isn’t listed above may result in reduced performance, graphical issues, or cause the game to not run at all." I don't understand why you expect EA to make a game with even lower graphics reqs. just because you don't have a computer that can run it. It's requirements are already really low compared to most games that are coming out right now and honestly, it runs very well on my two year old MacBook Pro - not exactly a new computer.
I fully realize that the economy is in a very bad place right now and that most people can't just drop a bunch of money on a new computer, but it was your responsibility to check to see if your computer would run the game based on the system requirements. Clearly your computer doesn't meet those and it's not EA's to make it all better for you by manipulating the game in such a way that it would allow your video card to run it.
The Reason the WINDOWS version works on a MAC with the GMA 950 is because WINDOWS is accessing the Graphics Card in a different way then the MAC version so it can get away with a little more!
I STILL WISH THE MAC GMA 950 would WORK! THOUSANDS OF Macbooks have these Graphics CARDS! This VERSION of Macbook with the GMA 950 was the HIGHEST SELLING MACBOOK Sales at the time! Those shows you that THOUSANDS have this and are now SCREWED!
I was worried about the Cider issue, but I've had no problems on my iMac -- graphics look fine to me (I can even see the fish shadows in the water which I couldn't see in Sims 2), and I'm on I think an X1300 video card (the lowest level one in the specs). And no crashes, just an occasional lag which is why I'm going to keep my families small (that and it gets unwieldy trying to keep track of an entire household if you've got more than 3 or 4 Sims).