This is probably the mod you are thinking of, Ambitions Community Lots Auto Placement Fix (Updated to Patch 1.31/1.32/1.33/SHT) http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=424222

If you are referring to the cracked exe version, I don't like cracked exe's and avoid them whenever possible.  I prefer to use a mod in the case of Sims 3 or mini images for other games. To many times games have issues because of cracked exe files.  There is a mini image available for Sims Medivial now. So i'll switch to that.

This Nraas NoCd is starting to tick me off.  It's edited properly with s3pe and framework is exactly where it should be but I still get the "Enter Registration Code" box. The No Mosaic mod is working so it's not framework fail. I can't figure out why it's not working.

That was one of my first thoughts, but I took a look at the Cook family and they have some friend/enemy relations set up and I wasn't sure what would happen to them from exporting/importing.  I'll probably give that a try though and see what happens.

I'm guessing it's most likely some game object that Claeric had in his game when doing the hood, that I don't have.  I took a quick peek at the other house in Bridgeport and they seem fine.

Found a problem at the Cook house in your copy of Bridgeport.....



That is with another family active and just viewing the house from outside.  If the Cook family is active, it's only visible when the 2nd floor and above is showing. It's not visible when on the main floor view.

It extends straight up past the camera view angle. and is only visible when looking at the house from the from.  It disappears when viewing from behind.

Thats the problem though. And the information I've been trying to figure out.  The edge smoothing slider in the game has no markings to say "this is 2x, this is 4x etc". All it is is 9 notches/settings and no info on what each notch is.  I know the very first setting is none.  After that would be 2x and then 4x.  Thats when it gets into the unknown.  Nvidia also has 8x, 8xQ, 16x, 16xQ and possibly 4xQ.  I realize I can just leave it off, and force whatever AA I want in the Nvidia control panel. And I also realize, at the resolution I play (1440x900), anything past 4x tends gets into the realm of unnecessary/overkill.  My original interest is more just out of curiosity.

I've taken a look at how it was done in Sims 2 and it's actually just a script/resource file that defined a new wall ID/type.  There was a package file that had a text list with the description you would see in the catalog.  A txt file was placed in The Sims 2\TSData\Res\Catalog\Scripts\Scriptorium_Walls-Fences-Arches\ 

This is the text that was in the txt file for the "No-CutAway" walls.

# *Custom* No-CutAway walls

catalogTextResource 95_NoCutAwayWall 129

wall 95
defaultPattern "blank"
wallThickness standard
mayChangeSurface true
mayAttachObjects true
mayCutAway false
requiresFlatBottom true
requiresFlatTop true
submersible false
deleteTool partition
thumbnailResource 0 0x499db772 0xC9090520
thumbnailResource 1 0x499db772 0xe9261347
thumbnailResource 2 0x499db772 0xfeed5515
thumbnailResource 3 0x499db772 0xfeed5510
catalogTextIndices 0 1 2 3

If I understand this correctly, it actually wasn't a new "Wall/Object". It was simply creating a new wall id (#95) and then changing the properties on that id #.  It is still a normal wall so would block weather, light etc. That all seems to be defined in the properties of the wall for Sims 3.

And even if it doesn't block weather in the future there really would be no reason to use it externally. As was mentioned, the cutaway view already shows external walls.  Its the internal walls that I would like to see more of.

Non-default meaning it doesn't replace the existing wall section already in game. It would appear in the build catalog as a new second wall piece option.  As Claeric says,  with the walls always up, 90% of the time you can't really see what's happening unless the rooms are very big, or you tilt the camera alot.  In Sims 2 I used it all the time on small wall sections that were out of the way and wouldn't block the view.  For me it makes the house look more like a house if you can have more walls showing but at the same time not completely block the view.

This was already done for Sims 2. http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=59793  ID #95: NUMENOR - "No - Cut Away" wall (attached to this post)

I'm hoping something like this can also be done for Sims 3.

I was wondering if someone would be kind enough to create a non-default custom wall that doesn't cut-away. I would be forever grateful.

I looked at the information here... http://linna.modthesims.info/wiki.php?title=Sims_3:0x9151E6BC#Partition_Types and there is a flag for enable/disable "MayCutAway" and I'm hoping that its as simple as cloning the wall piece and changing that flag. I know nothing about modding in Sims 3, so I don't know if this is possible or even simple to do.

Sorry, a bit of misunderstanding. It's not a problem of not knowing how to set AA, or what to set it at with the Nvidia or Sims 2.   With most 3d games, when you go to adjust AA in game, you are given full text of what your setting the AA at.   I'll use Left 4 Dead 2 as an example.  In the AA settings in the game, with my Nvidia it shows I have access to - None, 2x MSAA, 4x MSAA,  8x CSAA, 16x CSAA, 8x MSAA, 16xQ CSAA  In that specific order.

With Sims 2 all you are given in game is a slider with no labels or information as to what each position is.  With my Nvidia card and Sims 2, I have no way to know what each of the positions on the slider are.  Is it 2x, 8x, 16x.  Is it CSAA, MSAA.

The number of AA settings available varies from game to game as well. Left 4 Dead 2 has 7 settings, Sims 2 has 9 settings.  What are the extra AA settings Sims 2 has access too, that Left 4 Dead 2 doesn't.

Thats the information I'm hoping another Nvidia user might be able to supply.

Until recently I've always owned ATI video cards and with Sims 2 the AA settings were straight forward.  The Smooth Edges slider had 4 possible positions going from Low to High: Off, 2x, 4x, 8x. 

I've now switched to Nvidia and have 9 positions.  I can play at max AA perfectly fine, but I'm still curious what each of the 9 positions equates to for Nvidia AA settings.

I know there is Off, 2x, 4x, 8x, 16x. I also assume the remaining 4 positions will have to do with one or more of the C,M,S,Q AA settings. I don't know what order they are in the Smooth Edges slider and that is what I'm mainly curious about.

Not sure if this is a bug or new feature. Do sims no longer gain cooking and gardening skill while watching TV with AM?  Or is the skill bar above their heads just hidden now?  I see the skill bar when they cook meals but not while watching the cooking channel.

Sadly this is very real.  If you go to the EA store http://eastore.ea.com/ on the right side you should see a graphic advertising it.  "Get the Create A Sim download for FREE with any purchase at the EA Store! $10 value. Sale ends 2/9"

Most likely EA will continue to sell it after the 9th for the mentioned $10 value.  Just another grab for more sim player money.

I've had the option to woohoo this way several times.  I can't remember if they do a bit of kissing first, but they should then head to the bedroom and get into bed with each other.

This is very strange. I just tried the nVidia DDS Thumbnail Viewer with both Vista and Windows 7 and it does work.  I can only assume that either Microsoft has made some sort of change starting with vista sp1/sp2 or nvidia updated the viewer and made no mention of it.  It was quite awhile ago that I had tried this with Vista and I know I couldn't get it to work. This would have been pre sp1.  There are even several threads at the nvidia forums with complaints that the viewer doesn't work with Vista.

MysticThumbs is still an alternative though, as it will also add thumbnail display to several other picture formats that Windows XP/Vista/7 won't do by default and the nvidia viewer will only do DDS.

The DDS Thumbnail Viewer from Nvidia that is linked to in the tutorial will not work with Windows Vista or Windows 7 but I have found another viewer that will.

This is another viewer that can be used instead of the nvidia viewer. It will add thumbnail view to several other formats as well as DDS.

http://mysticcoder.net/mysticthumbs/

You need to have DirectX 9c runtime installed for Vista or Win 7. Yes you can and should install Directx 9 with Vista and Win 7.

You can install either 1.7 or 1.5 of the viewer. I've tried each one and they both seem to work fine. This will give you the same thumbnail view functionality as the Nvidia viewer for XP.

It looks like Sims 3 applies no Anisotropic Filtering (AF) at all.  I'm posting 4 screenshots that probably do the best job of showing AF at work.  Starting with Application Managed (ATI)/Application Controlled (Nvidia), then 2x AF, 4x AF and 8x AF.  What your looking at is the 2 yellow lines down the center of the road.  There is a borderline where the textures on the side closest to you are sharp and the textures on the far side of the borderline become blurry.  You can see the 2 yellow lines blur into 1 line on the far side.  As you increase AF, the borderline gets "pushed" further away.  With no AF the border is just past the curve in the road. At 2x the border is across the first driveways on the left and right. At 4x its at about the Yield sign on the right. At 8x its way off in the distance. I can't really see needing to go 16x AF.

The first "Leaked" copy of the game was version 1.0.615.00107 (I'm pretty sure it was the 00107 Digital Download version).  That was the Reloaded version. The next leaked copy was the Razor version which was 1.0.631.00002. That version is a retail copy.  The huge "patch" you refer to (700+meg?) I believe might be the file made to convert the 1.0.615 Reloaded version to the 1.0.631 Razor/Retail version.  Whatever version # is showing in the launcher IS the version # of the game your running. It won't show the retail version # if your not running that version.  If the game has been patched to 1.0.632 it will still show 1.0.631, but it would still be the retail version since the 632 patch won't run on anything else but version 631.

It seems the confusion over version #'s needs to be addressed again.

Version # 1.0.631.xxxxx is the Final Retail version.  The last 5 digits will be different depend on the region/type of the DVD   00001 is North America release, 00002 is a Multi Lanquage/Multi Region release.  You will also find a 00003 and a 00005 which are Asian releases.  There is also a 00107 which is the Digital Download release.   1.0.631 is the final retail version #.

When checking for version # the Sims 3 Launcher will show the 1.0.631.xxxxx.  When right-clicking on the TS3.exe and getting properties then details,  you will see the version # as 0.0.0.11195

There was a patch discovered at one point sitting on the EA servers. This patch was 1.0.632.xxxxx.  It was pulled not long after it was discovered. In my opinion it's probably not a good idea to use this patch. It was most likely a work in progress that was accidentally left accessible to the public. I don't think it was meant to be used at that time.

The MAC version of the game has had an official patch released. There is currently no official patch yet for the Windows version.


Edit:  I should mention, when updating your game with the 1.0.632 patch, it does not update the skuversion.txt file to reflect the new version # so the launcher will still show your game version # as 1.0.631.xxxxx

I originally started to post this to report that my game was crashing no matter what I did. But I decided to try one more thing, and this may be a solution.   I removed the mod setup completely. Deleted the mods folder, resource.cfg, and the d3dx9_31.dll. I then loaded my game up, saved it, quit, then put the mod setup all back in again.  If a new build of awesomemod hasn't been posted in the last hour then this worked for me with the current build available.

I do have a question though. Will this have any detrimental effect with an ongoing game to remove the mod completely, save, then put the mod back in?

Edit:  No crashing first time I loaded after putting awesomemod back in. But the game is still crashing. It seems to be random now though.  Sometimes it will load without crashing whether I delete the cache files or not. Other times it won't load until I delete the cache files.

Removing aweconf.package fixed the crash problem for me. This was a newly generated copy when newest awesomemod was installed.  This is the only time I've had the game crash with awesomemod in.

Edit:  I should also mention that I can leave aweconf.package in, but I need to delete the cache files before starting the game each time.

This is what I see in game with edge smoothing set to medium, which is equivalent to 4x Anti-aliasing....



I've seen screenshots from a friend who is using an Nvidia card and he is seeing the same thing and he is actually running at High/8xAA. That also seems to be an issue. I'm seeing no difference between Medium and High edge smoothing. Both settings look identical.

What I'm trying to figure out is why some edges seem to show proper smoothing and others don't.  If you look at the fireplace, couch, end table staircase and kitchen table, they seem to be showing proper smoothing. If you look at the stove and fridge you will see rough edges that are not smoothed to 4xAA.

It can't really be seen very well in this picture, but the speakers on the stereo, the chair backs in the kitchen, the sink and toilet in the bathroom and the walls also have very rough edges. I'm seeing this all over the game. Some edges are smooth, while other edges are very rough.

Could other players with edge smoothing set to medium or high, also post a screenshot showing what their game looks like?  I don't have this problem with any other games. The Sims 2, Oblivion, Fallout 3. All these games I play at 4xAA and I know how smooth the edges should be.

Edit:  Changed to thumbnail and increased size of the picture to better show the rough edges. When you view the picture use the full size option to see it more clearly.

That's the part that is irritating me actually,  It does appear to be smoothing to 4x AA, but some objects will have nice smooth edges, while others right beside them will have rough edges. The other thing I've noticed is that when I first load the game it will sometimes look perfect, then after awhile the edges will start to get rough again.   In the end I've got used to the edges being a bit rough.

Is anyone else having issues with edge smoothing not working fully?  I have it set to medium which would be 4x AA but it's not smoothing as much as it should be. Edges should be smoother then they are. It is working, if i turn it off or switch down to low/2xAA the edges are very rough.  I've tried forcing through Catalyst Control Panel and just get the same results.  I've seen 4x AA with TS2 and the edges are almost completely smooth.

Video card is an AGP  ATI 3850 with 512meg memory.

1.0.631 is the game version #

Last 5 digits are as Zazazu mentioned, the region/type codes.  00107 is the code for the Digital Download version.   00001 is US/North America, 00002 is a Multi lanquage release, 00003 and 00005 I believe are both Asian releases.