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Difference between revisions of "The Sims 3"

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(x64 version is macOS only.)
(→‎Availability: Managed to run on VM without Steam installed)
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{{Availability/row| Retail | | key, actlimit, activation, Origin | {{removed DRM|SecuROM|7|SecuROM PA}}, unknown machine limit. A [http://activate.ea.com/deauthorize/ De-Authorization Tool] is available. <br /> Dropped starting with patch 1.2.7. <br /> Later expansions add {{DRM|Origin}}. | Origin | Windows, OS X }}
 
{{Availability/row| Retail | | key, actlimit, activation, Origin | {{removed DRM|SecuROM|7|SecuROM PA}}, unknown machine limit. A [http://activate.ea.com/deauthorize/ De-Authorization Tool] is available. <br /> Dropped starting with patch 1.2.7. <br /> Later expansions add {{DRM|Origin}}. | Origin | Windows, OS X }}
 
{{Availability/row| Origin | the-sims/the-sims-3 | Origin | Included with {{Store feature|Origin Access Basic}}. | | Windows, OS X }}
 
{{Availability/row| Origin | the-sims/the-sims-3 | Origin | Included with {{Store feature|Origin Access Basic}}. | | Windows, OS X }}
{{Availability/row| Steam | 47890 | Steam | Included with {{store feature|EA Play}}. | Origin | Windows }}
+
{{Availability/row| Steam | 47890 | DRM-free | Included with {{store feature|EA Play}}. | Origin | Windows }}
 
}}
 
}}
 
===Version differences===
 
===Version differences===

Revision as of 11:28, 18 August 2021

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
Reception
Metacritic 86
IGDB 83
Taxonomy
Monetization Sponsored, DLC, Expansion pack
Genres Life sim
Series The Sims
The Sims 3 on HowLongToBeat
The Sims 3 on IGDB
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
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)
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
DRM-free after installation through Steam client (notes may include more details)
Included with EA Play (Steam).
Icon overlay.png
Windows

Version differences

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

DLC and expansion packs

Name Notes
World Adventures Expansion 1
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Ambitions Expansion 2
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Late Night Expansion 3. Included with EA Play.
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Generations Expansion4
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Pets Expansion 5
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Showtime Expansion 6
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Supernatural Expansion 7
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Seasons Expansion 8
Windows
macOS (OS X)
University Life Expansion 9
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Island Paradise Expansion 10
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Into the Future Expansion 11
Windows
macOS (OS X)
High-End Loft Stuff Stuff pack 1. Also known as Design and Hi-Tech Stuff in Europe
Included with EA Play.
Windows
Fast Lane Stuff Stuff pack 2
Windows
Outdoor Living Stuff Stuff pack 3
Windows
Town Life Stuff Stuff pack 4
Windows
Master Suite Stuff Stuff pack 5
Windows
Katy Perry's Sweet Treats Stuff pack 6
Windows
Diesel Stuff Stuff pack 7
Windows
70s, 80s, & 90s Stuff Stuff pack 8
Windows
Movie Stuff Stuff pack 9
Windows

Microtransactions

Type Notes
Cosmetic SimPoints are spent on additional clothing and furniture.
Currency Real money is exchanged for SimPoints which are spent in the Sims 3 Store. SimPoints are not available to be earned in-game.
Unlock Stuff Packs are sold which consist of additional clothing and furniture. Additionally, other maps and gameplay elements are sold piecemeal on the Sims 3 store.

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

Graphics feature State WSGF Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor
Use The Sims 3 FOV tool. HUD Position Affects Gameplay.
Ultra-widescreen
Vert- scaling.[3]
4K Ultra HD
UI does not scale with resolution and is extremely small in 4K.
Field of view (FOV)
Use The Sims 3 FOV tool.
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anti-aliasing (AA)
Vertical sync (Vsync)
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
60 FPS and 120+ FPS
High dynamic range display (HDR)
See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

Input

Keyboard and mouse State Notes
Remapping
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Mouse acceleration
No mouse acceleration.
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
Controller types

Audio

Audio feature State Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound
Up to 5.1 when zoomed in.
Subtitles
No intelligible dialog. All in-game dialog uses the fictional Simlish language.
Closed captions
Sound effects accompanied by visual effects.
Mute on focus lost
Can be turned off

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 performance 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
Metal support
Requires macOS 10.13 (High Sierra).
Shader Model support 2.0
Executable 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows
macOS (OS X)

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) 7
Processor (CPU) Intel Pentium 4 2.4 GHz
AMD Athlon XP 2400+
System memory (RAM) 1.5 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 7.1 GB
Video card (GPU) Nvidia GeForce FX 5900 series
ATI Radeon 9500 series
Intel GMA 3000 series
128 MB of VRAM
DirectX 9.0c compatible
Shader model 2.0 support
For computers using built-in graphics the game requires an Intel Pentium D 805 2.66 GHz or a Core 2 Duo 1.8 GHz CPU, and 2 GB RAM.
VRAM requirements do not apply to integrated GPUs.
GeForce 6100 and 7100 cards are not supported.
macOS (OS X)
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) 10.5.7 (Leopard)
Processor (CPU) Intel Core Duo
System memory (RAM) 2 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 7.1 GB
Video card (GPU) Nvidia GeForce 7300 GT
ATI Radeon X1600 Pro
Intel 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