More Awesome Than You!

New patch is released. I don't have the full numbers since I have to patch manually due to a messed up Launcher.

Base Game Updates

    * Players can now suppress Opportunities by selecting the Opportunities Suppression check box in the Game Options menu. This means players can still get opportunities through interactions, but no opportunities will be automatically directed towards the player.
    * The game can now detect downloaded content and use these objects in Sims' dreams, opportunities, etc.
    * Live Mode
    * Create a Sim
    * Build/Buy Mode
    * Edit Town
    * Additional bug fixes to existing features


World Adventures

    * Additional bug fixes and polish to existing features


Ambitions

    * Additional bug fixes and polish to existing features


I don't quite understand what they mean by suppressing Opportunities.

Curious if it will allow to sculpt downloaded content, too (yes, I'm thinking ice stuff again:D).

Great, someone who has the expansion could post the numbers, it's probably hosted on EA already.

The feature list is obviously incomplete.

Live Mode:
Sims can now form groups, so that they stay together when they're going out.
Players can set bought lights as 'black light'.

CAS:
Players can adjust a Sim's muscularity and breast size.
Sims can now have astrological signs.

Build/Buy:
Players can use the platform tools to create stages and other raised areas.
Players can create half walls.
Players can build urinals.
Pools can have rounded corners.
Pools don't necessarily have to be built on the ground floor.
Players can create fountains anywhere, with the new fountain tools.

Edit town:
Players can build a public sound set on public lots, so that you can hear music anywhere on that lot.

Wow there's a lot of features in that patch. Impressive for EA.

If I remember correctly, that Ford guy released an update to his Patch Downloader a while ago, and with that update the Patch Downloader doesn't have to be updated with every patch. So you can just download the latest version, I think.

As soon as someone fetches me the exact patch numbers, the fun can begin.

Here you go...all for region 1.

Base game
http://akamai.cdn.ea.com/eadownloads/u/f/sims/sims3/patches/Sims3_1.17.60.009001_from_1.15.34.008001.exe OR http://akamai.cdn.ea.com/eadownloads/u/f/sims/sims3/patches/TS3_1.17.60.009001_Update.exe

EP01 WA
http://akamai.cdn.ea.com/eadownloads/u/f/sims/sims3/patches/Sims3_2.12.8.009001_from_2.10.5.008001.exe OR http://akamai.cdn.ea.com/eadownloads/u/f/sims/sims3/patches/TS3EP01_2.12.8.009001_Update.exe

SP01 HELS
http://akamai.cdn.ea.com/eadownloads/u/f/sims/sims3/patches/Sims3_3.8.6.009001_from_3.6.6.008001.exe OR http://akamai.cdn.ea.com/eadownloads/u/f/sims/sims3/patches/TS3SP01_3.8.6.009001_Update.exe

EP02 AMB
http://akamai.cdn.ea.com/eadownloads/u/f/sims/sims3/patches/Sims3_4.5.6.009001_from_4.3.4.008001.exe

SP02 FLS
http://akamai.cdn.ea.com/eadownloads/u/f/sims/sims3/patches/Sims3_5.2.4.009001_from_5.0.44.008001.exe

Now I just need the region 2 WA patch.

If you need other regions: Patch Table Generator (http://awtmk.blogspot.com/2010/09/patch-table-generator.html) or Patch Link Generator (http://awtmk.blogspot.com/2010/07/patch-link-generator.html).  ;)

Does anyone have the base number of Late Night expansion?

I just installed LN and game updated to 6.0.81.009001

I fixed it, MATY adds the protocol automatically, did not knew that.
// I need to fix some thing on the script, will be allowing it soon. Done.
// Beware, one comma can ruin everything.


Thanks, mistyk.

I must say, the new water reflections are really nice; same with the breast and muscle sliders.

So what, no "crash & burn" stories yet? Can it actually be working?

It will, however, be interesting to patch this if your base game/EPs/SPs are of different region numbers. Oh boy, I can hardly wait!


Not.

I did that. My Base and WA are region 2, the rest region 1. Had to reinstall a few elements once or twice but in the end it claimed to have successfully patched everything. Am afraid to open the game, though.

Patch day is always such a joyous event.

Well, even with the new patches lighting behaviour remains the same, but then I've largely given up hope of EA actually fixing it. Light given off by outdoor lights still do not cross lot boundaries and light cast on walls is still restricted to the level the light is on.

It is actually annoying how they don't fixed the lightning yet.
Pretty sure they are aware of this, this problem is present since the launch of WA.

(http://i54.tinypic.com/34e3skz.jpg)

Can it be that hard to fix this? Or are they just lazy?

Plus, the muscle tone is pretty lame, it's just an overlay of a texture and the slider control it's opacity.
I thought they were going to make it inflict directly into the body mesh, but I guess they want it to be reliable to every user.
Doing the other way would increase the polygons to load much more and is something unnecessary since we won't be looking at every detail of a Sim. I know I would not.

Yes, smartass, we know how it works, but EA are so clever that even with a vanilla installl, I personally had to reinstall Ambitions twice before the last patch would take without throwing an error. Had to reinstall WA once. The rest worked first time, which was quite frankly surprising, even though I reinstalled everything only a couple of days ago. It may or may not have anything to do with regions, I've never had mismatched regions with other games and that may pure assumption on my part, but it's still a PITA. I certainly couldn't be arsed to reinstall all the parts for every error as I'd still be trying to patch a month from now if I did that. Sims is the only game I own which is so filled with dumbfuckery that there's a fifty-fifty chance a patch won't work.

Don't quite understand what you mean, are you referring to specular reflection or the halo?
I did not noticed anything on that...
But this is a good idea for a mod. Are halo part of acessories/clothing too?

Oh and the water effects are amazing, it ddn't caused much impact on the game, well that depends on the machine too.
I am really liking the new features, the game is going for the better lately.
And the performance seems to be better too in some aspects, not overall though.

Ah, you mean "normal mapping". From what little I've seen of the muscle slider when I played with it earlier, it appears to be a normal map that reflects light pretty well in CAS, but I haven't seen it in-game though, so it could possibly look like shit.


What annoys me about the lighting situation is that off-lot lightsources, i.e. lamp posts work perfectly fine, with the light reflecting off entire walls of houses. If you want to see an example of this, load up Twinbrook and switch off all the lights in the laundromat. When night falls, the adjacent lamp post does a pretty good job of illuminating the side of the laundromat - all four floors of it.

I think you are referring to DX11 feature, Tesselation.
Though this wasn't present in Oblivion. lol

Only thing there was there was High Dynamic Range (HDR), might be it?

Oblivion used Parallax Mapping (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallax_mapping) AFAIK or some modification of that technique: http://www.katsbits.com/tutorials/textures/understanding-oblivions-parallax-maps.php

HDR, at least in photography, is the light range that can be captured in a single image.  Normally when an image contains both dark and light scenes, either the dark is underexposed while the light areas are perfect, or the dark and shadow areas are perfect and the light is over exposed.  Not sure how this would apply to a video game as the images would not suffer over and underexposed areas, unless they were deliberately written that way, excluding obvious EAxis glitches through poor programing.

In game I did not saw any kind of reflection, but it's definitely the normal, which causes this depth look into it.


Yes, that must be it was she was referring to.
I doubt the engine uses this technique.

I got an error after trying to install http://akamai.cdn.ea.com/eadownloads/u/f/sims/sims3/patches/Sims3_1.17.60.009002_from_1.15.34.008002.exe:

Is it because I'm using Windows 7? Never seen this before.

Never mind. Patches are not patched in order.

Did you check your mods folder before you complained here?  Take your no censor mod out of your game.  Seriously if you searched MOAR you would find that was the answer. 

Well, this is not the forum for you, clearly.


I can't install the patch to HELS, though I'm pretty sure I'm using the right version. Sorry for being a retard now - is it confirmed anywhere that updating every expansion instead of just latest + basegame is necessary? I mean, since the automatic update system doesn't patch everything and the game works and looks stable anyway.

They aren't very specific about Ambitions and WA fixes are they? Oh yeah, and i still can't fucking fix 0.0.0.0 launcher error. But i only use that for installing Sims3Packs anyway.

A lot of people have issues with the HELS patch.  Just use the full patch and it works fine.  http://akamai.cdn.ea.com/eadownloads/u/f/sims/sims3/patches/TS3SP01_3.8.6.009001_Update.exe

The HELS incremental patch failed to update S3Launcher.exe on both of my comps, and I know I didn't mess with that file.  I figured I'd try the full update before reinstalling, and it worked perfectly.

So I was not paranoid about the HELS patch after all. The one linked by Rothchild worked.

If you can't get the game itself to launch it's basegame + latest expansion version mismatch. If not - do you by any chance have CAW installed? Outdated CAW caused Launcher bugs in my game before. You might need to remove it and wait for new release.

Nope. CAW ain't my thing so I never installed it.

I can get the game to load normally, it just bugs me how they all are normal except for the basegame

Same here. Incremental failed on the Launcher Exe (which actually was not in the directory for whatever reason). Restoring it didn't do it ("Invalid File"), so full patch it was. Worked like a charm.

Then, GO.  Jesus, enough with the passive aggression already, Aggie.

All patches installed, game works but launcher got more borked. Now it crashes when you load the game or just close it. You know, 'Sims3Launcher has encountered an error'.

The game still loads through the launcher or bypassin it so its just futher launcher fuck-upery.

Test version is out.

First impressions on the test version - no critical crashes upon loading my save (with no LN just yet). Changing boobiness and astrological sign worked through editsim. No need for new special commands, it seems. I'll play for a bit and see if anything horrible happens.

Dude, you keep saying you'll give us delishus butthurt soup yet you're STILL around. STOP POSTING and fuck off, or stop posting and lurk moar. Both of these journeys start with the same step.

No shit.  Dude, you're flouncing off of a forum because you're far too sensitive and butthurt, not dying from cancer on a soap opera.  You don't really need a big, dramatic, drawn-out exit.

Back to the patch update for a sec. A quick peek in the options panel reveals a few changes:

Water and mirror reflections now has its own slider with four settings.
Number of high detail lots is now restricted to 8 for some reason.
Tree detail now has a "very high" setting.

Upping the reflections and tree detail settings to very high doesn't appear to do much except batter FPS, so they may as well be left on high. Why EA decided to drop the maximum number of high detail lots from 12 to 8 is anyone's guess.

(http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/crapola/toofuckingstupid.jpg)

There's a rule which applies in everywhere. When you go somewhere you act according to the rules of the place. On this forum stupidity is punished. People don't put up with your crap. They won't be nice if you fail to do some basic searching and reading. Don't use sarcasm, because that is making you look annoying smart-ass - people don't like that. If you want politeness, accept the fact that you were being a noob and don't ever do that again.

Now topic-related: my ghost hunter sim keeps getting "lost friend" moodlet while performing jobs. No idea if this is the new patch's fault, since I joined the profession after patching.

About the "full" patch - I was afraid it would come to that - different EPs - different region numbers. Which region number full patch to use?

How about the one for which you have the game for? It's not rocket science. Full patches are also only applied to one game (ie base or one of the EPs), so get the correct version for the one you want to patch.

Ok, presumption #1 - My BG and AMB are region 2, HELS and WA region 1.
Presumption #2 - a "full patch" (the one that`s about 500 MB in size) patches EVERYTHING (base game, EPs and SPs).

Conclusion - there could be some issues with patching, b/c there is a region 1 full patch to d/l, as there is region 2 full patch to d/l. Now you tell me - which one would you pick?
Btw, I`m getting my patches from  http://www.simswiki.info/wiki.php?title=Game_Help:TS3_Patching:Patch_Note_1.17 (http://www.simswiki.info/wiki.php?title=Game_Help:TS3_Patching:Patch_Note_1.17)

Conclusion: Don't use a "full patch" but patch each part individually?

Seriously. Is the logic of that not obvious?

Read what he wrote;
Presumption #2 is wrong.  You need a different full patch for base and each EP/SP.

So, a "full patch" is actually NOT a full patch, b/c it only updates either BG or EPs/SPs. Why are we calling it full patch then?

you know what, never mind, I really don`t give a fuck ATM. I`ll figure it out. THAT stupid I am not.


shut up :P

I was wondering about this mythical "full patch" but couldn't remember any patch being as big as 500 MB. Oh, well. I have to LURK MOAR and learn not to take noobs' words at face value. Got it.

The full patch for base game is about 424 MB.  They're nice for when you reinstall, so you don't have to install dozens of incremental patches.

Because it updates from any version of the game to the newest one, as opposed to normal patches which update from specific version to specific version (eg. from x.0 to x.2).

The EP DVDs contain full patches up to the patch level at release. When I reinstalled last week or so, I just went throught that and then used the Patch Downloader to get only around 200MB of incremental patches. Works better than downloading a gigabyte or so of full patches.

I seem to be having the same problem updating Ambitions as I did with HELS. Can't seem to fathom the link for the full patch update for Ambitions though, I've tried http://akamai.cdn.ea.com/eadownloads/u/f/sims/sims3/patches/EP02_4.5.6.009001_Update.exe but it shows as file not found. Does anyone have the correct link?

What file is it failing on?  There is no full update for Ambitions.

For my game, it's the freaking TS3EP02.exe file, which I have not fucked with at all. WTF EA?

It fails at 97% but the patchlog is showing no errors.

Did you turn on LAA?

Are you using the patch log viewer program?  That often shows the wrong patch log.  Go to C:\Users\[UserName]\AppData\Local\Temp, delete everything, then try and patch again.  The patch log should be in the folders created there.

Bingo. Thanks Rothchild, I am a tard and forgot that.

Edit: Resetting LAA allows the goddamn patch to install without fucking reinstalling every goddamn thing. However if you updated the Patch program from MTS, you now have to download the separate LAA program in order to reset the fucker.

I did a quick uninstall/reinstall and patched using  Sims3_4.5.6.009001_from_4.0.87.006001.exe and it went through. I'd started before you posted but thanks anyway.

I did have to uninstall/install Ambitions to get that part of the patch to successfully go through, and I did use LAA. Forgot to reset the LAA. Doh!

FordGT90Concept said at MTS, the LAA (http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=410418) was obsolete cause with the latest patch, EA added that feature to the start up execute. I don't know how true it is, but will have to test it later tonight. I depended on the LAA to play my game without crashes.

My old save games work fine, but I get a CTD every time I try to start a game in Bridgeport.  The neighborhood loads, I can create a sim, move in a sim, what have you.  But when I go to play the family, it crashes.

I loaded a saved game in Bridgeport and it played fine (only tested it for like 2 minutes mind you). Did you update AM to test or remove it?

I don't have AM.  I'm fully patched, and had no problems or errors when patching.  I only have this issue in Bridgeport.

I also don't have AM, and successfully patched the base game up to 1.17 after a complete reinstall.  With most of what little CC I have back in the root folder like I prefer it (except for AD85's modular core mod, which will be at least a few more days still), the game does work, except that I have to use the CD of course.  This is using one of my famblies from before the patch -- I haven't tried a new game and/or making a new Sim yet.  I have the new EP and will install it eventually, once the rest of my CC is updated for it.  I always like to try the most up-to-date base game before trying out a new EP.

The only issue was on installing FAS's no-CD crack.  With either the original TSLHost.dll file in the Game/Bin folder, or the altered one I got a few patches ago, the game wouldn't start at all.  It was like an immediate CTD.  What I believe to be the relevant part of the error log is:
A Google search made it seem like the file DasmX86Dll.dll sometimes goes missing for other software and games, especially Spore, and the collective response on the issue seemed something like a shrug:  "Sorry dude, your game's broke."

Since I lost my old TSLHost.dll file in the reinstall (and it wasn't working anyway), and none came with the no-CD crack, it looks like my choices are to use AM, to install "Late Night" and hope the Reloaded no-CD crack works with the new TSLHost.dll file that they provide, or to wait for someone else to crack the 1.17 patch and hope they provide a TSLHost.dll file that works.  This is assuming that this file actually matters anymore, which I can't say I know.

Use Nraas no cd mod, it works with any patch, no need to update.

I read elsewhere that a buggy fire station lot was causing Bridgeport to crash for some people.  I went into Edit Town, combed through the entire map and couldn't find an actual fire station lot, but I did find an odd, flat, gray lot set to "No Visitors Allowed."  I deleted it, replaced it with a fire station, and suddenly Bridgeport was working for me.

This shit is terribly annoying, and its nothing new They just haven't bothered to fix it. It appears if your sim has any instantly Likable or relationship boost reward then you will get the lost friend moodlet I presume, either way that bug is really retarded and its expected from the lazy greed pigs who make the game that others need to fix.

After my first few minutes of playing NL, I ended up quitting because I needed to remove a mod that wasn't working anymore. When I went back to play the game, as soon as it finished loading my save, the game crashed to the desktop. I restarted and this time it loaded and I was able to play for a few sim days when the game got glitchy. I was playing a couple and I had the guy go visit a friend's apartment while his wife stayed home. After a few minutes, I noticed the roommates of his friend were both showing in low res mode. I switched back to the wife, and found she was completely invisible, just a floating plumbob. I went to save and quit since I figured maybe restarting would fix it, except it sat on the saving screen for like 30 minutes without doing anything. I ended up having to kill the process in task manager, which I'm sure has corrupted my save.

I noticed this patch fixes the T-shirt meshes to work with the breast slider (works with Delphy's too).  Some store shirts were fixed as well, I assume the replacement meshes were put into the base game.  However, many other store shirts seem not to have been fixed.  Is this because EA missed them, or is it because some of these new meshes only work with legit crapified content and not decrapified?  I'm thinking it has to be the former, because some decrapified shirts seem to be using the new meshes.

I think this is where I say BAAAAAAAA.  Lately it seems I mess everything up when I touch anything in my root folder, so this should do the trick.  Base game 1.17 works fine now, so will install LN (is this the officially sanctioned abbreviation?) once AD85's mods are updated.

About that... I actually did find my fire station on "4th Ave" near the Stadium, however I did find a random grey lot also marked as "No Visitors Allowed" and when I deleted that, there was no lot there; meaning it was completely empty whatever it was. This also fixed my Bridgeport game. I'm not sure if you just didn't see the fire station, or your fire station actually was corrupt, but for reference I just had a random grey lot that generated on a corner street which was preventing me from beginning a game in Bridgeport. Why EA would program such behavior is well beyond me.

Annoying feature of this new patch (base game): The lights. No, not that problem, a new one.

Isn't it great when a sim leaves the house that all the lights switch off when they go, regardless of them having the Frugal trait or not? Yes? Well, how about when your sim, or any sim for that matter who is the last to leave any lot regardless of it being residential or community switches off the lights after themselves? In the park, the gym, the bloody scrapyard? Worse still, how about the huge park in Twinbrook when no sim visits it? All nice and dark until a sim pops by momentarily at 3am, and then all nice and dark again five minutes later.

You enabled this "feature" for community lots, EA? Good going.

On the other hand, at least the "Hangout" community lot setting actually does something now. Bar's packed in Twinbrook.

I was reading a thread on MTS where people are saying that the patch broke several custom windows. Apparently, the wall cut-outs aren't working for them and some are apparently causing crashes. Has anyone here had that problem? I have around 50 custom windows and I would try them all, but I'm in the process of weeding out most of my cc and re-merging the packages to see if it helps with my game problems.

Game is now crashing to desktop in live mode without a message or anything after a few seconds now. Any possible cause? Nothing except been in life mode seems to trigger it. CAS? Fine. Buy/Build? Fine. Townview? Fine. Live Mode? Crash. WTF?

Well, what I've noticed is that some of the game lighting seems to be site-specific rather than object-specific (I hope this makes sense... my computer parlance is nil). For instance, the Knack lot (Pheasant Hollow, 26 Puddlewick Drive) has two street lamps on their lot where the drive intersects the street. You can bulldoze the entire lot and the lighting effects remain even though there are no longer ANY street lamps in the area -- on the lot or off it.

It may be you need to make an exception for The Sims Late Night on the Data Execution Prevention list (DEP) if you haven't already.
This was actually discussed in an Ambitions thread somewhere, though I understand there are lots of CTD threads, so I thought mentioning it once more wouldn't hurt.

For Vista, this is how you add an exception:
http://club.myce.com/f116/adding-dvdfab-dep-exception-list-vista-220277/

This helped with my live-mode problems for the past two EP's. You'll have to make an exception for every SimsEP## application that you install in order to prevent the CTD in live mode (from my experience.) If that does not help, I'm not sure what else will.

Perhaps someone should add this in a "What you'll probably need to do when you install new EP's and SP's" thread or something.

I read at MTS that the error is caused when EA method of placing the Ambitions lots in Bridgeport, but it was not successful because the game tried placing those Ambitions lots on spaces that is too small for them. So for you, jeromycraig, it's the fire station that was not successful, and for me it was the salon and junkyard. Others had problems with any one or combination of Ambitions lots. EA should have allowed the player to place their own Ambitions lots.

Patch 2.12 killed CAW for me. Whenever I try to open it, it displays the "game data was not found" window.

Anyone else have this problem?

Download new CAW.

Can someone upload "S3Launcher.exe" file (only a couple KB in RAR) from the latest HELS patch 3.8.6 please? I would want to try this first with the HELS incremental patch, before I download the HELS fulll patch. Thank you.

Do you NEED to have LN for the muscle and breast sliders to show up? I reinstalled and patched my games (Base and AMB), and the fucking brest and muscle sliders still don't show up. What could be the issue? The test version of AM?

I hear rumors about a fullpatch for AMB. Is there such a thing? I am trying to patch my half-patched AMB on a mac, but the only patches around are 4.0->4.5, and my game is 4.2. Suck, EA.

I would guess that it is LN specific then, unless you have another fucking conflict.  I patched and loaded LN and the sliders are there, so by reasoning, they are either LN specific or you have a conflict causing the fucking problem.

The muscle and breast sliders are not LN exclusive. I have basegame and WA/HELS/AMB/FLS, and updated to the latest patches (except HELS, I haven't downloaded the full patch yet) and when I loaded the game, both sliders are there.

Ah, but I'll bet Bottle-o-cunt's using some sort of UI mod for non-default skins.

This is near-necromancy, but I didn't think it really warranted a thread of its own.

I've suddenly found that my game is restricting me to four high-detail lots. Not twelve, as pre-1.7x. Not eight, as 1.17x was supposed to set. FOUR. Now, I do love the number four and it is most pleasing to the Oversoul that it wasn't set to something especially evil like three. However, my newly-made CAW 'hood with over 100 lots that I spent weeks finishing looks like crap on a cracker.

This, for example:
(http://img844.imageshack.us/img844/5448/screenshotahy.th.jpg) (http://img844.imageshack.us/i/screenshotahy.jpg/)    (http://img508.imageshack.us/img508/9950/screenshot2zz.th.jpg) (http://img508.imageshack.us/i/screenshot2zz.jpg/)
It's cutting out the view of one of the river walls, making my perfectly encircled city center open to the masses. Next thing you know, the casteless and mixed caste sims restricted to the city center will think they are allowed to mingle with the four castes. This cannot be allowed. Plus, I can see all the messy uneven earth the walls were serving to hide.

Now, I've tried checking DeviceConfig. Initially, it said:
I tried changing NumMaxActiveLotOptions to twelve, but of course the game ignored it while in play and reset it upon reinitialization. I then tried changing the file to read-only in a last ditch effort. My changes are completely ignored. The game will still only present the option to show up to four lots.

Has anyone else had this problem? If so, how did you fix it?

First, delete your caches and also DeviceConfig.log from Documents\ Electronic Arts\ The Sims 3. In Electronic Arts\The Sims 3 [Latest EP/SP] \Game\Bin find graphicsrules.sgr and MAKE A BACKUP.

Open graphicsrules.sgr with notepad.

find:
option NumMaxActiveLotOptions
   setting 4
      prop $ConfigGroup NumMaxActiveLotOptions 4
      prop $ConfigGroup PlatformMaxActiveLots 4
   setting 6
      prop $ConfigGroup NumMaxActiveLotOptions 6
      prop $ConfigGroup PlatformMaxActiveLots 8
end
if ($os64Bit == 1)
   setOption NumMaxActiveLotOptions 6
else
   setOption NumMaxActiveLotOptions 4

Change it to:
option NumMaxActiveLotOptions
   setting 4
      prop $ConfigGroup NumMaxActiveLotOptions 8
      prop $ConfigGroup PlatformMaxActiveLots 8
   setting 6
      prop $ConfigGroup NumMaxActiveLotOptions 8
      prop $ConfigGroup PlatformMaxActiveLots 8
end
if ($os64Bit == 1)
   setOption NumMaxActiveLotOptions 6
else
   setOption NumMaxActiveLotOptions 6


This will force the game to allow the option of up to 8 lots visible whatever your specifications. What it defaults to will still depend upon your specs, and of course lower end systems may not actually render 8 lots simultaneously in high LOD.

You may have to replace this edited file with the original copy when patching, and if you add any more EPs/ SPs you will have to edit the graphicsrules for those instead.

Thanks, Simsample.

One change. Do not delete DeviceConfig. If you do, the game crashes before even getting the opening animation. With 3booter, this caused and endless loop. Instead, delete your caches and rename the Documens\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3 folder to something else temporarily. Start the game. Quit when you get to the menu. Copy the DeviceConfig (I also copied Options for good measure) from the newly generated folder to your renamed folder. Delete the newly generated folder and rename your original to "The Sims 3". Everything should run well from there.

'Hood is looking a hell of a lot better, as now my entire block is being fully rendered. The block has seven lots so was a blurry mess before. Some of the walls are still not showing, but such is life. They probably would be at 12 lots. Have you ever tried setting it back to 12 and seeing how it does? My system is middling, but had absolutely no problems prepatch running all options to max with a fairly large amount of cc all in merged packages.

Are high-detail lots high-detail just visually or both visually and functionally? Are the sims inside the high-detail lots active and moving around instead of standing there in low-detail mode? I've never, ever seen next-door neighbors doing anything on their lot, so I have to wonder.

If they're only visually high-detail, and not "active", then limiting them seems a bit dumb. Why wouldn't anyone want to have all the lots around the currently active lot looking great?

Oh lordy, Vole.

Displaying textures in higher resolution is taxing on a system. That's part of why they are limited. I believe, but do not know, that only lots shown in high detail maintain a significant amount of activity for inactive sims.

As for your never seeing neighbors doing anything on their lot, I don't know what to tell you. My inactive sims eat meals, have conversations, care for their spawn. Try building a neighborhood with 1-tile separation between small lots. You'll hear and observe plenty of action.

How about changing the "nummaxactivelotoptions" in the options.ini file in your my documents folder vs fiddling with the graphicsrules.sgr? Works for me.