For more guides, visit the ‘Guides’ category under ‘The Sims’.
To get to the screen you just have to look for the button in the corner that have 3 dots, (…). Push it and go to “Options.”
The first options page is entitled “Graphics”…
Screen Settings
Enable Full-screen mode: All of you out there will want to leave this box always checked. The Sims 3 run quite well without fullscreen mode on. You could theoretically play Sims 3 while browsing Facebook or chatting on MSN, but your Sims demand your complete attention so we recommend playing fullscreen.
Screen Size: I recommend you set this to the native resolution of your monitor. Basically, the higher the better looking the game will be, but each higher resolution will bring a substantial performance penalty.
The most common resolution for recent and popular 22″ LCD monitors is 1680×1050. If you have an older CRT monitor, your maximum may be 1280×1024. If you have 24″ LCD, then you may be able to play at 1920×1080, or 1920×1200. However if you don’t have a very fast video card, I recommend playing at 1680×1050, even if your monitor is capable of more. If the game is too slow for you at 1680×1050, The Sims 3 game stills looks pretty good at 1280×1024 , and will run faster at this setting. However I do not recommend playing on any resolution lower than 1280×1024.
Screen Refresh Rate: Just leave this on the default, “Default.” It’ll will not change your performance at all if you have lower-end hardware.
Object Hiding and Reflections
Enabling Object Hiding
Game’s description: Hides objects on inactive floors.
When it’s on, your FPS or Frames Per Second may be a bit low. When it’s off, your FPS will be higher.
Notes: This setting seemed more dependent on available system RAM than it did the video card being used. If you have less than 2 GB in Vista, it might default to being off. The setting is quite noticeable in larger houses, with multiple floors.
Enabling Reflections
Game’s description: Enables reflections in mirrors.
When its your FPS may be a bit low. When its off your FPS may be pretty high depending on the graphics card.
Notes: All in all if your computer can handle it, I suggest you leave it on because what’s a mirror without a reflection? If your FPS drop significantly when cut on its best to leave it off.
Animation Smoothing and Rendering [Advanced]
Enabling Animation Smoothing
Game’s description: Enable smoother animation playback on fast machines.
The FPS for this one may not be that much of a difference so you can leave this one on. If your GC can take it that is. You should always check and see the system requirements for the games you play because often times your graphics card may not be compatible.
Notes: If anything this feature relies more on the CPU [processor] more than the card. Check and make sure you have the required — well at least the minimum requirements as far as CPU is concerned.
Enabling Advance Rendering
Game’s description: Enable full use of 2.0+ shaders. It basically changes the way the game look and feel-textures and lighting wise.
Again, depending on your graphics card and CPU you may get different results, try testing each setting out and see how it varies.
Notes: When its on the FPS is greater than it is if it was off. So take that into consideration. If your graphics card is older though, you may not be able to use this feature.
Edge Smoothing
Enabling Edge Smoothing
Game’s Description: Higher degrees of anti-aliasing make edges appear softer.
When its off your FPS will be much much higher than it is if it was on. When its set to low your FPS may change slightly when its on medium it will change a significantly as well as on high. Again this is all based on your graphics cards capabilities.
Notes: The higher the setting, the more your graphics card have to work. If you don’t want jagged lines around edges, then cut on and set it to low at first see how it goes.
Visual Effects
Enabling quality
Game’s description: Controls the quality of particle effects on objects, Sims, and the town.
This feature basically makes your game look more realistic. When you’re tweaking these settings take a look at your surroundings [look at the ocean waves] and you’ll see a significant change from Low to High.
Notes: There won’t be too much of a change with this feature being set to low or to high. There really isn’t much change. You probably won’t even notice the change besides the size of the ocean waves. Just set it to medium.
Lighting, Tree Detail and Shadows
Controlling lighting and shadows
Game’s description: Control of lighting and shadows.
If you have a fairly decent graphics card the FPS won’t bother you none with this feature set to medium or to high. The FPS will only change but so little.
Notes: When set to low there are little to no shadows medium there are more and on high their are harder, sharper edges but not much a difference between that and medium. Medium is your best bet if you aren’t picky but there really isn’t much of a difference between setting on high or to medium.
Trees
Game’s description: Tweak the distance at which trees and shrubs become visible.
This is another feature in which the FPS won’t change much. It won’t hurt to check and see for yourself.
Notes: Don’t put this on low unless you really want horrible looking trees. When its set to high the trees of course look much much better than on medium. Medium will be a nice balance to keep your FPS above 40.
High Detailed Lots & Draw Distance
Enabling visuals and high quality lots
Game’s description: Controls how much of the town you can see.
Your FPS won’t change that much whether its on high or low. Depending on your graphics card.
Notes: This setting controls what extent the game will detail objects and rooms when zoomed out. On low, some objects, such as the windows will be taken out. On medium, all objects are always drawn in, even when zoomed out. On high, lighting effects are also always on, no matter how much you are zoomed out. Going with high doesn’t seem to make too much more of a demand from your video card, and the lighting effects look unnatural when they disappear and reappear when zooming if not set to high.
Detailed Lots Set to High
Game’s description: Adjust the number of nearby lots that render at high detail.
This setting is probably more dependent on your available system RAM. The amount of high detail lots you use mostly comes into play when you are in city mode, looking through the town.
Notes: There is a big difference between the appearance of the high detail outside model of a lot, then the low detail model. But the big catch is that for about 95%-99% of your time spent playing The Sims 3, you are going to be only focused on one lot at a time. Even if you have three Sims in three different locations [say, the gym, pool and home], you are able to switch between them fast enough that you won’t even have much time to notice the lots surrounding your Sim. That is why, for those of you on the playable performance threshold, we recommend going with 1.
Sim and Texture Detail
Tweaking Texture Detail
Game’s description: Adjust the level of ground and object texture detail.
Of course, depending on your graphics card and your processor FPS may vary, but not too much.
Notes: It’s been a tribute to EA that in order to make The Sims 3 accessible to a large audience they did two entire different texture models for the game: high detail, and low detail. The medium setting uses the high-end models, but only lacks some extra rendering that comes with High. The details are hard to notice on high.
For more guides, visit the ‘Guides’ category under ‘The Sims’.
A quick note on CPU requirements: if you have a dual-core system, or a single machine at around 3 GHz, you should be fine for The Sims 3. If you have less than this, or are only meeting the minimum memory requirements [1GB for XP, 1.5GB for Vista] then you can expect to suffer sub-par and choppy performance at times
E.A was smart to make the Sims 3 accessible to a extremely wide range of hardware. It seems almost an understated part of the The Sims series’ massive success: with such low hardware requirements, people who otherwise might not be PC gaming fans have the chance at playing one of the most inventive and fun titles of the year.
We hope this guide, and our recommended settings, will help you have a smooth — and good looking — The Sims 3 gaming session.
To get to the screen you just have to look for the button in the corner that have 3 dots, (…). Push it and go to “Options.”
The first options page is entitled “Graphics”…
Screen Settings
Enable Full-screen mode: All of you out there will want to leave this box always checked. The Sims 3 run quite well without full-screen mode on. You could theoretically play Sims 3 while browsing Facebook or chatting on MSN, but your Sims demand your complete attention so we recommend playing full-screen.
Screen Size: I recommend you set this to the native resolution of your monitor. Basically, the higher the better looking the game will be, but each higher resolution will bring a substantial performance penalty.
The most common resolution for recent and popular 22″ LCD monitors is 1680×1050. If you have an older CRT monitor, your maximum may be 1280×1024. If you have 24″ LCD, then you may be able to play at 1920×1080, or 1920×1200. However if you don’t have a very fast video card, I recommend playing at 1680×1050, even if your monitor is capable of more. If the game is too slow for you at 1680×1050, The Sims 3 game stills looks pretty good at 1280×1024 , and will run faster at this setting. However I do not recommend playing on any resolution lower than 1280×1024.
Screen Refresh Rate: Just leave this on the default, “Default.” It’ll will not change your performance at all if you have lower-end hardware.
Object Hiding and Reflections
Enabling Object Hiding
Game’s description: Hides objects on inactive floors.
When it’s on, your FPS or Frames Per Second may be a bit low. When it’s off, your FPS will be higher.
Notes: This setting seemed more dependent on available system RAM than it did the video card being used. If you have less than 2 GB in Vista, it might default to being off. The setting is quite noticeable in larger houses, with multiple floors.
Enabling Reflections
Game’s description: Enables reflections in mirrors.
When its your FPS may be a bit low. When its off your FPS may be pretty high depending on the graphics card.
Notes: All in all if your computer can handle it, I suggest you leave it on because what’s a mirror without a reflection? If your FPS drop significantly when cut on its best to leave it off.
Animation Smoothing and Rendering [Advanced]
Enabling Animation Smoothing
Game’s description: Enable smoother animation playback on fast machines.
The FPS for this one may not be that much of a difference so you can leave this one on. If your GC can take it that is. You should always check and see the system requirements for the games you play because often times your graphics card may not be compatible.
Notes: If anything this feature relies more on the CPU [processor] more than the card. Check and make sure you have the required — well at least the minimum requirements as far as CPU is concerned.
Enabling Advance Rendering
Game’s description: Enable full use of 2.0+ shaders. It basically changes the way the game look and feel-textures and lighting wise.
Again, depending on your graphics card and CPU you may get different results, try testing each setting out and see how it varies.
Notes: When its on the FPS is greater than it is if it was off. So take that into consideration. If your graphics card is older though, you may not be able to use this feature.
Edge Smoothing
Enabling Edge Smoothing
Game’s Description: Higher degrees of anti-aliasing make edges appear softer.
When its off your FPS will be much much higher than it is if it was on. When its set to low your FPS may change slightly when its on medium it will change a significantly as well as on high. Again this is all based on your graphics cards capabilities.
Notes: The higher the setting, the more your graphics card have to work. If you don’t want jagged lines around edges, then cut on and set it to low at first see how it goes.
Visual Effects
Enabling quality
Game’s description: Controls the quality of particle effects on objects, Sims, and the town.
This feature basically makes your game look more realistic. When you’re tweaking these settings take a look at your surroundings [look at the ocean waves] and you’ll see a significant change from Low to High.
Notes: There won’t be too much of a change with this feature being set to low or to high. There really isn’t much change. You probably won’t even notice the change besides the size of the ocean waves. Just set it to medium.
Lighting, Tree Detail and Shadows
Controlling lighting and shadows
Game’s description: Control of lighting and shadows.
If you have a fairly decent graphics card the FPS won’t bother you none with this feature set to medium or to high. The FPS will only change but so little.
Notes: When set to low there are little to no shadows medium there are more and on high their are harder, sharper edges but not much a difference between that and medium. Medium is your best bet if you aren’t picky but there really isn’t much of a difference between setting on high or to medium.
Trees
Game’s description: Tweak the distance at which trees and shrubs become visible.
This is another feature in which the FPS won’t change much. It won’t hurt to check and see for yourself.
Notes: Don’t put this on low unless you really want horrible looking trees. When its set to high the trees of course look much much better than on medium. Medium will be a nice balance to keep your FPS above 40.
High Detailed Lots & Draw Distance
Enabling visuals and high quality lots
Game’s description: Controls how much of the town you can see.
Your FPS won’t change that much whether its on high or low. Depending on your graphics card.
Notes: This setting controls what extent the game will detail objects and rooms when zoomed out. On low, some objects, such as the windows will be taken out. On medium, all objects are always drawn in, even when zoomed out. On high, lighting effects are also always on, no matter how much you are zoomed out. Going with high doesn’t seem to make too much more of a demand from your video card, and the lighting effects look unnatural when they disappear and reappear when zooming if not set to high.
Detailed Lots Set to High
Game’s description: Adjust the number of nearby lots that render at high detail.
This setting is probably more dependent on your available system RAM. The amount of high detail lots you use mostly comes into play when you are in city mode, looking through the town.
Notes: There is a big difference between the appearance of the high detail outside model of a lot, then the low detail model. But the big catch is that for about 95%-99% of your time spent playing The Sims 3, you are going to be only focused on one lot at a time. Even if you have three Sims in three different locations [say, the gym, pool and home], you are able to switch between them fast enough that you won’t even have much time to notice the lots surrounding your Sim. That is why, for those of you on the playable performance threshold, we recommend going with 1.
Sim and Texture Detail
Tweaking Texture Detail
Game’s description: Adjust the level of ground and object texture detail.
Of course, depending on your graphics card and your processor FPS may vary, but not too much.
Notes: It’s been a tribute to EA that in order to make The Sims 3 accessible to a large audience they did two entire different texture models for the game: high detail, and low detail. The medium setting uses the high-end models, but only lacks some extra rendering that comes with High. The details are hard to notice on high.
Sim Detail
Game’s description: Control the level of detail of Sims.
Notes: The difference between the level of detail for the Sims is slight, but it is there. If you look closely, the texture quality of the Sim’s clothing is the most noticeable difference. If you don’t spend much time zoomed in close to your Sims, you’ll probably not be able to notice the difference in this setting one way or the other. Also keep in mind that the very high is at times fairly taxing for your system, as the game will use the best models and also take more time to render light of off your Sims.
Recommended Settings
Enable Object Hiding: Off
Enable Reflections: On
Edge Smoothing: Low
Visual Effects: Medium
Lighting and shadows: Medium
Tree Detail: Medium
Enable Animation Smoothing: On
Enable Advanced Rendering: Off
Draw Distance: High
High Detail Lots: 1
Texture Detail: Medium
Sim Detail: Low
If these settings give you more a really smooth playing game, and you are wanting to sacrifice some frames-per-second for higher visual quality, the first thing we recommend trying is turning on Enable Advanced Rendering. After that, you might want to try raising the Sim Detail level.
Furthermore, if you have a slower than average process [a single core system, for example], you should turn off Animation Smoothing. If you have a low amount of available RAM [1GB in XP, or 1.5GB in Vista] and are suffering low performance, you’ll definitely want to keep the High Detail Lots at 1 and consider turning on Object Hiding.
If you’re having technical problems, errors, glitches, and bugs in your game click here
Posted on June 10, 2009 by Lee
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