The Sims 3
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| 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 | DLC, Expansion pack |
| Genres | Life sim |
| Series | The Sims |
 |
|
| ⤏ Go to series page | |
| Subseries of Sim | |
| The Sims | 2000 |
| The Sims Online | 2002 |
| The Sims 2 | 2004 |
| The Sims Stories (series) | |
| The Sims Carnival (series) | |
| MySims | 2008 |
| The Sims 3 | 2009 |
| The Sims Medieval | 2011 |
| The Sims 4 | 2014 |
| MySims Kingdom | 2025 |
| The Sims Legacy Collection | 2025 |
| The Sims 2 Legacy Collection | 2025 |
| ⤏ Go to series page | |
| Subseries of Sim | |
| The Sims | 2000 |
| The Sims Online | 2002 |
| The Sims 2 | 2004 |
| The Sims Stories (series) | |
| The Sims Carnival (series) | |
| MySims | 2008 |
| The Sims 3 | 2009 |
| The Sims Medieval | 2011 |
| The Sims 4 | 2014 |
| MySims Kingdom | 2025 |
| The Sims Legacy Collection | 2025 |
| The Sims 2 Legacy Collection | 2025 |
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 |  |
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 EA app DRM. |
|
|
| EA app | |
Included with EA Play. | |
|
| Steam | |
Included with EA Play (Steam). | |
|
Version differences
- List of all different versions and regions can be found on Wikipedia.
DLC and expansion packs
| Name | Notes | |
|---|---|---|
| World Adventures | Expansion 1 | |
| Ambitions | Expansion 2 | |
| Late Night | Expansion 3. Included with EA Play. | |
| Generations | Expansion4 | |
| Pets | Expansion 5 | |
| Showtime | Expansion 6 | |
| Supernatural | Expansion 7 | |
| Seasons | Expansion 8 | |
| University Life | Expansion 9 | |
| Island Paradise | Expansion 10 | |
| Into the Future | Expansion 11 | |
| High-End Loft Stuff | Stuff pack 1. Also known as Design and Hi-Tech Stuff in Europe Included with EA Play. |
|
| Fast Lane Stuff | Stuff pack 2 | |
| Outdoor Living Stuff | Stuff pack 3 | |
| Town Life Stuff | Stuff pack 4 | |
| Master Suite Stuff | Stuff pack 5 | |
| Katy Perry's Sweet Treats | Stuff pack 6 | |
| Diesel Stuff | Stuff pack 7 | |
| 70s, 80s, & 90s Stuff | Stuff pack 8 | |
| Movie Stuff | Stuff pack 9 | |
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] |
|---|
|
Game data
Configuration file(s) location
| System | Location |
|---|---|
| Windows | |
| macOS (OS X) | |
| Steam Play (Linux) | <SteamLibrary-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) | <SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/47890/pfx/[Note 1] |
Save game cloud syncing
| System | Native | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| EA app | ||
| 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. | ||
| Color blind mode | See the glossary page for potential workarounds. | ||
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 | ||
| Keyboard and mouse prompts | ||
| Mouse Y-axis inversion | ||
| Controller | ||
| Controller support |
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 |
|---|
|
World Adventures Region Error
- Incorrect Region Codes can be fixed with a simple registry tweak.
| World Adventures Region Error[citation needed] |
|---|
Region Codes
|
Other information
API
| Technical specs | Supported | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Direct3D | 9 | |
| Metal support | Requires macOS 10.13 (High Sierra). |
| 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
System requirements
| Windows | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum | Recommended | |||
| Operating system (OS) | 7 | 10 | ||
| Processor (CPU) | Intel Pentium 4 2.4 GHz AMD Athlon XP 2400+ | |||
| System memory (RAM) | 1.5 GB | |||
| Storage drive (HDD/SSD) | 7.1 GB | 32 GB (with all DLC) | ||
| 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) | 10.13 (High Sierra) | ||
| Processor (CPU) | Intel Core Duo | Intel Core i5 | ||
| System memory (RAM) | 2 GB | 8 GB | ||
| Storage drive (HDD/SSD) | 7.1 GB | 18 GB | ||
| Video card (GPU) | Nvidia GeForce 7300 GT ATI Radeon X1600 Pro Intel GMA X3100 128 MB of VRAM | Nvidia GeForce GTX 680 AMD Radeon RX 560 Intel Iris Plus Graphics 640 |
||
- VRAM requirements do not apply to integrated GPUs.
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Notes regarding Steam Play (Linux) data:
- File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data.
- Use Wine's registry editor to access any Windows registry paths.
- The app ID (47890) may differ in some cases.
- Treat backslashes as forward slashes.
- See the glossary page for details on Windows data paths.
References
- ↑ Verified by User:Aaronth07 on 2019-10-10
- ↑ https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1697342394
- ↑ Anyone here playing Sims 3 on 3440x1440 ? - last accessed on 2020-05-30