Fix for AMD R7 240 card recognition only (Link to guide 4 other cards)

MiSFiT203

So frustrated right now. So i got so sick of sims 4 going farther and farther away from what i want so i bought a few DLC for Sims 3 and decided to re-install it.

I found this guide to recognize my Graphics card, but when it gets to graphics rules sgr, it only explains nvidia, i'm using AMD. now im totally lost.

heres the link: https://carls-sims-4-guide.com/forum/index.php?topic=26753.0

MiSFiT203

Here is where im Stuck:

First, we’ll do the harder part. For the GTX 960M, we know it’s an Uber level card, based on this list near the top of the file:

Quote

seti cardLevelUber 5
seti cardLevelHigh 4
seti cardLevelMedium 3
seti cardLevelLowmedium 2
seti cardLevelLow 1


For Nvidia cards, the section we want to edit is a few lines below the cardLevel list:

Quote

if (match("${cardVendor}", "NVIDIA"))
if(match("${cardName}", "* 1?0M*") or match("${cardName}", "* 2?0M*") or match("${cardName}", "* G1?0M*") or match("${cardName}", "* G2?0M*"))
seti cardLevel $cardLevelMedium
seti isCardMatched true
elseif (match("${cardName}", "*8800*") or match("${cardName}", "*9500*") or match("${cardName}", "*9600 GSO*") or match("${cardName}", "*9600 GT*") or match("${cardName}", "*9800 *") or match("${cardName}", "*GTX 2??*") or match("${cardName}", "*2?00M*") or match("${cardName}", "*3?00M*") or match("${cardName}", "*Quadro*FX 5??0*") or match("${cardName}", "*GT 1?0*") or match("${cardName}", "*GTS 150*") or match("${cardName}", "*GTS 250*") or match("${cardName}", "*GT 2??*") or match("${cardName}", "*GTS 2??*") or match("${cardName}", "*GTX 2??*") or match("${cardName}", "*GeForce G2??*") or match("${cardName}", "*GT 3??*") or match("${cardName}", "*GTS 3??*") or match("${cardName}", "*GTX 3??*") or match("${cardName}", "*GeForce 3??*") or match("${cardName}", "*GT 4??*") or match("${cardName}", "*GTS 4??*") or match("${cardName}", "*GTX 4??*") or match("${cardName}", "*GT 5??*") or match("${cardName}", "*GTS 5??*") or match("${cardName}", "*GTX 5??*") or match("${cardName}", "*GT 6??*") or match("${cardName}", "*GTX 6??*"))
seti cardLevel $cardLevelUber


This jumble of text checks each card in the list of Uber level cards and looks for a match. Since there’s no line in here that would match the GTX 960M, we’re going to add in a line that will allow Sims 3 to detect our card:

Quote

or match("${cardName}", "*GTX 9??*")


We’re going to insert this line in between the two parenthesis at the end of the text like so:

Quote

("${cardName}", "*GTX 6??*") or match("${cardName}", "*GTX 9??*"))


Once completed, our text above will now look like this (added text in bold):

Quote

if (match("${cardVendor}", "NVIDIA"))
if(match("${cardName}", "* 1?0M*") or match("${cardName}", "* 2?0M*") or match("${cardName}", "* G1?0M*") or match("${cardName}", "* G2?0M*"))
seti cardLevel $cardLevelMedium
seti isCardMatched true
elseif (match("${cardName}", "*8800*") or match("${cardName}", "*9500*") or match("${cardName}", "*9600 GSO*") or match("${cardName}", "*9600 GT*") or match("${cardName}", "*9800 *") or match("${cardName}", "*GTX 2??*") or match("${cardName}", "*2?00M*") or match("${cardName}", "*3?00M*") or match("${cardName}", "*Quadro*FX 5??0*") or match("${cardName}", "*GT 1?0*") or match("${cardName}", "*GTS 150*") or match("${cardName}", "*GTS 250*") or match("${cardName}", "*GT 2??*") or match("${cardName}", "*GTS 2??*") or match("${cardName}", "*GTX 2??*") or match("${cardName}", "*GeForce G2??*") or match("${cardName}", "*GT 3??*") or match("${cardName}", "*GTS 3??*") or match("${cardName}", "*GTX 3??*") or match("${cardName}", "*GeForce 3??*") or match("${cardName}", "*GT 4??*") or match("${cardName}", "*GTS 4??*") or match("${cardName}", "*GTX 4??*") or match("${cardName}", "*GT 5??*") or match("${cardName}", "*GTS 5??*") or match("${cardName}", "*GTX 5??*") or match("${cardName}", "*GT 6??*") or match("${cardName}", "*GTX 6??*") or match("${cardName}", "*GTX 9??*"))
seti cardLevel $cardLevelUber


Save this file, then go back to the top of the file. If you’re DeviceConfig.log file in part one only listed 32MB of texture memory, we’re going to alter one more part of the file to allow more memory to be used. The GTX 960M has two variations - a 2 GB model and a 4 GB model. In either case, reserving 1 GB of memory for textures is a nice way to get a modest gain in performance when displaying lots and working in Build and Create-a-Style modes.

Look for these lines:

Quote

if ($textureMemory == 0)
seti textureMemory 32
setb textureMemorySizeOK false
endif


We want to change the middle two lines to look like this:

Quote

seti textureMemory 1024
# setb textureMemorySizeOK false


The first change alters the amount of texture memory from 32 MB to 1024 MB (which is 1 GB). The \# at the beginning of the second line tells Sims 3 to ignore the line completely.

Save the file and close Notepad. The last thing we want to do now is copy the files from your desktop to your Sims 3 base game folder (see the beginning of this post to easily find your install location) and let it overwrite the existing files. If your game is installed in Program Files or Program Files (x86), you may be prompted by UAC to allow the file replacement.

MiSFiT203

I did a AMD search in graphics rules.SGR and im not finding an AMD section

#EDIT# ok so i found it, its not an AMD section, It's under ATI, but i still dont get how to change it to my card.
I have an AMD Radeon R7 240 4GB

According to the beginning of the guide (Not shown above, link in 1st post) the information i need is this:

GPU: 5
Name: AMD Radeon R7 200 Series
Device: 6613
Texture memory: 32MB

puzzlezaddict

Disclaimer: For anyone with a different graphics card, don't follow these directions; they're specific to the card being discussed. Post your own device ID and ask for help.

Okay, I'm not sure exactly where you are in the process, so here are instructions for both .sgr files.

Right at the top of graphicscards.sgr is the list of AMD cards. The very first two lines read:

vendor "ATI" 0x1002
card 0x6798 "AMD Radeon HD 7900 Series"

(This forum messes up the indent on line two, but of course you'll see it's there.) The parts you'll change are in bold. You want it to read:

card 0x6613 "AMD Radeon R7 200 Series"

The edits for graphicsrules are a bit more complicated. I wouldn't necessarily rate your card as uber; it might be better to list it as high. The AMD (ATI) cards are after the Nvidia entries, with the first paragraph containing uber cards and the second high. Either way, you'll change an entry that looks like this (this one is the first entry in the second paragraph of AMD cards):

seti isCardMatched true
elseif (match("${cardName}", "*x18??*")

(again, change in bold) to this:

seti isCardMatched true
elseif (match("${cardName}", "*R7 200*")

Be sure not to delete or alter any of the rest of the punctuation, not even the asterisks.

Finally, eight to ten lines down in graphicsrules, you'll see this:

if ($textureMemory == 0)
seti textureMemory 32
setb textureMemorySizeOK false

Change it to this:

if ($textureMemory == 0)
seti textureMemory 1024
# setb textureMemorySizeOK false

So you're changing the 32 to a 1024, and adding a # and a space in front of setb.

MiSFiT203

Thanks so much @puzzlezaddict , made the changes, gonna run the test now.

MiSFiT203

ok im dumb, i made the changes and ran the test, but never moved the files from my desktop to back where they belong. gotta do this again. lol

MiSFiT203

Thanks again for the help @puzzlezaddict everythings good now.

puzzlezaddict

Glad to hear it.

And you're definitely not the first person to edit the desktop copies without putting them back. I'm just glad you noticed right away, or we both might have found ourselves tearing our hair out over it.

MiSFiT203

haha ikr

MiSFiT203

well here i am, back again. the sims 3 ate my video card settings, back to the old drawing board. lol

JR24NYC

AMD Radeon R9 M290X 2 GB graphics - please help if can-having sims look like brown blobs and most tree's are black blocks. everything else looks decent,

puzzlezaddict

@JR24NYC Have you already tried to get your graphics card recognized? An edit with a typo in it is one cause of glitched or excessively blurry graphics. If you haven't edited the .sgr files yet, a more simple intervention would be to remove options.ini from your game folder (the full path is Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3). When you launch the game again, a new options file will spawn, with all of your graphics settings returned to defaults. Start a new save and see if the sims and trees look any better.

If this doesn't fix the issue, or you want or need help getting your card recognized, please post the first 40 lines (up to where the list of game options starts) of your deviceconfig file, also inside your TS3 game folder. You can paste it directly into a reply.