Graphics Settings

[simsfreq]

Having finally upgraded my computer and being able to play for longer periods of time without my graphics card melting and causing my sims to also appear as though they are melting, I was wondering:

Who here plays with "smooth edges" turned on? What kind of specs do you need for this option to become available?

What graphics setting could you not live without and why?

Will playing at 1024x768 really cause as much of a problem as my phobia of it tells me it will? Is it worth it for the less-noticeable squariness of edges or do the sims just look about as tall as a sim matchstick? (Screen resolution within Windows goes up to 1600x1200, though this renders internet text unreadable without squinting.)

How do I tell if my graphics card is even capable of displaying bump maps, and how do I turn them on, if so?

Should I be wary about re-installing Seasons due to its graphical hugeness? Currently running OFB only, planning to put Uni on when I can steal borrow it back from my sister. Umming and Ahhing about getting NL.

[jolrei]

What sort of graphics card did you get?  I play with an onboard ATI Radeon X300 card (old and obsolete now, I'm told).  I always play at 1024x768 with edge smoothing on.  I reduce shadows to medium, because I don't care about shadows and it appears to make no difference to the look of the game onscreen anyway.  Considering this, your resolution phobia may be just that - try 1024x768 and see what happens.  The worst case is that you'll have to switch back to some other resolution.  As this is a standard resolution, it does not distort the look of sims (i.e. they don't look like tall thin matchstick people).

If your old unupgraded rig could play Seasons, why should your upgraded compy not do it?  If you upgrade to a system that won't even do what your old one did, ur doin it wrong (kitteh macro anyone?).

[simsfreq]

Well when I say upgraded, I really mean installed some RAM, as the system was fine apart from it's measly 256mb. (It now has 1gb and has been formatted as the whole computer was secondhand and had been swiss-cheesed because I couldn't be arsed to format it from the beginning, meaning that putting more than 256mb RAM in it caused the computer to restart after 10 minutes.) I could just about run seasons on that, but after a while (ie, about 2 hours of playing, time varied though) it would get glitchy, making the neighbourhood screen flash when I was loading a house, making sims disappear to look like floating hair/teeth. I don't want to have to go back to low graphics settings to get it to run at all.

I've just realised how much I fail with the resolution question too, since it is possible to change the in-game resolution from the shortcut without even loading the game, so if it makes everything die I can just do that. Oh, and pre-format/RAM upgrade I only had seasons with no other EPs and no custom content, which I miss. (My previous system (even ancienter and worse graphics-wise) belongs to my mother and since I moved out I lost Uni to my sister as she needs that disc to play.) I didn't really mean stretched sims by the way when I said matchstick, I was trying to mean small - I like to get up close and personal for photos etc. But the stretched look REALLY bugs me, so I'd have spent ages fiddling with my monitor settings if that had been the case. Bleargh! I talk too much!

Currently I have an NVidia Geforce 4 440 and have been told that it's not ideal, BUT it is in the supported graphics cards list, which my mum's computer's graphics card wasn't, so it's a start for skint me. Oh and edge smoothing has never appeared, ever. It's always greyed out. It has the latest drivers, which again I'm told are quite old. I considered using third-party drivers for it but my OH seemed wary about me doing that and he's a compy technician so I decided to trust him rather than the internet.

[swampcandy]

I have a GeForce 8600 and I don't have my smooth edges slider. My old GeForce FX 5200 did, though. For my 8600, I just went into the Nvidia tools and set the antialiasing to 4x. Huge difference.

[nil]

...
Currently I have an NVidia Geforce 4 440 and have been told that it's not ideal, BUT it is in the supported graphics cards list, which my mum's computer's graphics card wasn't, so it's a start for skint me. Oh and edge smoothing has never appeared, ever. It's always greyed out. It has the latest drivers, which again I'm told are quite old. I considered using third-party drivers for it but my OH seemed wary about me doing that and he's a compy technician so I decided to trust him rather than the internet.

Yeah, it might have been supported by running some courses badly tuned fallback functions.

[eevilcat]

What sort of graphics card did you get?  I play with an onboard ATI Radeon X300 card (old and obsolete now, I'm told).  I always play at 1024x768 with edge smoothing on.  I reduce shadows to medium, because I don't care about shadows and it appears to make no difference to the look of the game onscreen anyway.  Considering this, your resolution phobia may be just that - try 1024x768 and see what happens.  The worst case is that you'll have to switch back to some other resolution.  As this is a standard resolution, it does not distort the look of sims (i.e. they don't look like tall thin matchstick people).

Looks like we're running with the same graphics card - is it in an old Dell Inspiron by any chance? I also run at 1024x768 and with effects, object/texture detail on high and snow enabled. Reflections are off (unless needed for a story-line), I don't bother displaying neighbouring lots and objects are drawn on all floors. I run with way too much custom content but check that it isn't to resource hungry (poly/texture-wise) and usually stick to a max 3x3 lot size. I've never tried running with edge smoothing on, so I'm curious as to what your others graphics settings are for comparison purposes.

[simsfreq]

...
Currently I have an NVidia Geforce 4 440 and have been told that it's not ideal, BUT it is in the supported graphics cards list, which my mum's computer's graphics card wasn't, so it's a start for skint me. Oh and edge smoothing has never appeared, ever. It's always greyed out. It has the latest drivers, which again I'm told are quite old. I considered using third-party drivers for it but my OH seemed wary about me doing that and he's a compy technician so I decided to trust him rather than the internet.

Yeah, it might have been supported by running some courses badly tuned fallback functions.

Er... what?

[jolrei]

Looks like we're running with the same graphics card - is it in an old Dell Inspiron by any chance? I also run at 1024x768 and with effects, object/texture detail on high and snow enabled. Reflections are off (unless needed for a story-line), I don't bother displaying neighbouring lots and objects are drawn on all floors. I run with way too much custom content but check that it isn't to resource hungry (poly/texture-wise) and usually stick to a max 3x3 lot size. I've never tried running with edge smoothing on, so I'm curious as to what your others graphics settings are for comparison purposes.

I built my own Intel P4 rig, after I fried a P3 (not playing Sims), and bought an ASUS motherboard with the X300 onboard.  I believe (too lazy to go dig out my manuals and spec sheets) that it has at least 512 meg of its own memory on a PCI bus, but will share memory with RAM if necessary.  I'm actually rather surprised my system does anything much with Sims at all since I only have 1Gig RAM loaded at present (must do upgrade soon).  I don't run Seasons, so I don't have to worry about fish and leaves.  The only setting that isn't at max is shadows, which I have turned down to medium.  Doing that solved my lag problem, and I have not bothered to change any settings since.  The game does lag if I use the really big lots (5x5 and bigger and load them down with flowers, shrubs, trees and fencing.  Consequently, my sims tend to live in non-landscaped deserts.

[Lyra]

I've never understood the whole "you need more than xGB RAM". I've used to run Seasons on 640MB RAM and it ran fine. The only lag I had was when I had 12+ Sims on a 5x5 lot.

Now I'm running Bon Voyage on 640MB RAM and it takes a bit longer to load, but still bugger all in the way of lag.

It might be because I only have 400MB of CC, but... meh, I'm not complaining.

[Ness]

I think that's the key to it all - understand the limitations of your system, stick within them and you can enjoy your game so much more.

[Draak]

Currently I have an NVidia Geforce 4 440 and have been told that it's not ideal, BUT it is in the supported graphics cards list, which my mum's computer's graphics card wasn't, so it's a start for skint me. Oh and edge smoothing has never appeared, ever. It's always greyed out. It has the latest drivers, which again I'm told are quite old. I considered using third-party drivers for it but my OH seemed wary about me doing that and he's a compy technician so I decided to trust him rather than the internet.

If I am not mistaken, the latest drivers do not suport the MX series. Try the 84.21 drivers.

[J. M. Pescado]

Also, don't SMOOTH edges. Edges are EDGES. They should not be SMOOTH. A SMOOTH edge is not an EDGED edge anymore! Smooth edges merely cause blurriness, the bane of copypasta.

[doren]

Also, don't SMOOTH edges. Edges are EDGES. They should not be SMOOTH. A SMOOTH edge is not an EDGED edge anymore! Smooth edges merely cause blurriness, the bane of copypasta.

I agree that smooth edges are a contradiction in terms, but what this feature is supposed to do is to remove edges where no edges should be. A round circular shape is meant to be smooth, in computer graphics it has more edges than anything else.

That said, I am not sure if I would see much difference if I had smooth edges turned off.

[J. M. Pescado]

Round circular shapes cannot truly exist when drawn in square pixels. Everyone knows that! The only thing "smooth edges" gives you, is, instead of a sharp pixelled edge like you would expect to see, a blurry mass of poo with no defined edge.

[Quinctia]

I had weird graphical glitches like pools cutting through entire buildings and junk until I clicked smooth edges up one notch from none.

I don't CARE about smooth edges, but something about it makes my graphics not go wacko.