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Difference between revisions of "The Sims 3"

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
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Revision as of 19:09, 9 January 2020

The Sims 3
The Sims 3 cover
Developers
The Sims Studio
Expansions EA Salt Lake
macOS (OS X) TransGaming Inc.
Publishers
Electronic Arts
Engines
The Sims 3 Engine
Release dates
Windows June 2, 2009
macOS (OS X) (Cider) June 2, 2009
The Sims 3 guide on StrategyWiki
The Sims 3 on MobyGames
The Sims 3 on Wikipedia
The Sims
Subseries of Sim
The Sims 2000
The Sims Online 2002
The Sims 2 2004
The Sims Stories (series)
MySims 2008
The Sims 3 2009
The Sims Medieval 2011
The Sims 4 2014

Key points

Strong modding community
Lacks native vsync functionality. It is advised to force vertical sync via the graphics control panel to lessen the strain on your GPU.

General information

The Sims 3 Official Forums
Answer HQ for The Sims 3 at EA.com
Answer HQ for The Sims series at EA.com (OS X)
The Sims Wiki
Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
CD key
Can only be used x times
Requires online activation
Origin
SecuROM 7 and SecuROM PA DRM, unknown machine limit. A De-Authorization Tool is available.
Dropped starting with patch 1.2.7.
Later expansions add Origin DRM.
Icon overlay.png
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Origin
Origin
Included with EA Play.
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Steam
Icon overlay.png
Icon overlay.png
Windows

Version differences

List of all different versions and regions can be found on Wikipedia.

DLC and expansion packs

Name Notes
70s, 80s, & 90s Stuff
Windows
Ambitions
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Diesel Stuff
Windows
Fast Lane Stuff
Windows
Generations
Windows
macOS (OS X)
High-End Loft Stuff Also known as Design and Hi-Tech Stuff in Europe
Included with EA Play.
Windows
Into the Future
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Island Paradise
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Katy Perry's Sweet Treats
Windows
Late Night Included with EA Play.
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Master Suite Stuff
Windows
Movie Stuff
Windows
Outdoor Living Stuff
Windows
Pets
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Seasons
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Showtime
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Supernatural
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Town Life Stuff
Windows
University Life
Windows
macOS (OS X)
World Adventures
Windows
macOS (OS X)

Essential improvements

Patches

Patch 1.67.2 are the latest patch available.
The patch notes can be found here here.

Skip intro videos

Skip intro videos[1]

Download and install this mod.

SMAA injector

Universal fix for most D3D9 and later games. Should provide better anti-aliasing especially with objects that use alpha effects e.g. hair and foliage; the default FSAA implementation unfortunately does not cover such effects.

Bypassing the launcher

Rename the executable[2]
  1. Go to <path-to-game>\The Sims3\Game\Bin.
  2. Delete or rename Sims3Launcher.exe.
  3. Rename TS3.exe to Sims3Launcher.exe.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/47890/pfx/[Note 1]

Save game data location

System Location
Windows %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\Saves
macOS (OS X) ~/Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3/Saves
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/47890/pfx/[Note 1]

Save game cloud syncing

System Native Notes
Origin
OneDrive
Requires enabling backup of the Documents folder in OneDrive on all computers.
Steam Cloud

Video settings

Template:Video settings

Input settings

Template:Input settings

Audio settings

Template:Audio settings

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
Czech
Traditional Chinese
Danish
Dutch
Finnish
French
German
Greek
Hebrew
Hungarian
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Norwegian
Polish
Portuguese
Brazilian Portuguese
Russian
Spanish
Swedish
Thai

Issues fixed

You can find various fixes in this Steam Community Guide .
Many performanc issues can be fixed with mods. These include Overwatch, ErrorTrap, Traveler, Mastercontroller and DebugEnabler

Poor performance

Turn off online functionality
  1. Open the ingame settings
  2. Go to general settings
  3. Turn off shop mode, lessons, usage sharing, memories and interactive loading screens
  4. Go to online settings
  5. Turn off online notifications

World Adventures Region Error

Incorrect Region Codes can be fixed with a simple registry tweak.
World Adventures Region Error[citation needed]
  1. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\The Sims\The Sims 3
  2. In the right hand pane, double-click on SKU
  3. Change the value to either 1 or 2 or 3 or 5 or 7 (depending on your version of expansion pack*.)
  4. Try to install the expansion pack again.

Region Codes

  • North America (languages: en-US, fr-FR, es-MX)
  • Europe (languages: en-US, fr-FR, es-ES, de-DE, it-IT, nl-NL, sv-SE, da-DK, no-NO, fi-FI, pl-PL, pt-PT, hu-HU, cs-CZ, pt-BR, el-GR, ru-RU)
  • East Asia (languages: en-US, ko-KR, zh-TW)
  • Japan (languages: en-US, ja-JP)
  • Worldwide (languages: en-US, fr-FR, es-ES, es-MX, de-DE, it-IT, nl-NL, sv-SE, da-DK, no-NO, fi-FI, pl-PL, pt-PT, hu-HU, cs-CZ, pt-BR, el-GR, ru-RU, ko-KR, zh-TW, ja-JP, th-TH)

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
Direct3D 9
Shader Model support 2.0
Executable 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Not compatible with macOS Catalina

Mods

The Sims 3 attracts a large modding community, allowing further customization features. Unfortunately, even properly designed mods could increase the chances of crashes and errors in the game. Mods have a major impact on loading time and stability, and should be used with discretion if you are having issues with the game.
AwesomeMod - A large compilation of mods and small tweaks. More information can be found at The Sims Wikia and Matywikka (archived)

Mod resources

The Sims 3 Exchange - The official website for sharing user-made content (sims, households, clothing and etc.). The website uses the Sims 3 launcher to download and install custom content. Both the exchange and Sims 3 launcher require the same account.
Mod The Sims - Also hosts mods for The Sims 2 and The Sims 4.

Tools

Official

These tools were created by EA and are hosted on the games official website.
Create a World (Beta)

Unofficial

More tools can be found here

Better performance

SaveCleaner

System requirements

Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) XP SP2
Processor (CPU) Intel Pentium 4 2.0 GHz P4
Pentium D 2.6 GHz, Intel Core 2 Duo 1.8 GHz
System memory (RAM) 1 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 7.1 GB
Video card (GPU) ATI Radeon 9600 series
GMA 3 series
128 MB of VRAM
Shader model 2.0 support
VRAM requirements do not apply to integrated GPUs.
macOS (OS X)
Minimum
Operating system (OS) 10.5.7 (Leopard)
Processor (CPU) Intel Core 2 Duo
System memory (RAM) 2 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 7.1 GB
Video card (GPU) ATI Radeon X1600
Nvidia GeForce 7300 GT
Intel Integrated GMA X3100
128 MB of VRAM
VRAM requirements do not apply to integrated GPUs.

Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data (use Wine regedit to access Windows registry paths). Games with Steam Cloud support may store data in ~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/47890/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (47890) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

References