With DXVK and S3SS living their high days, older Sims 3 installment guides are rapidly starting to become outdated. So here's a brand new and up-to-date step-by-step guide to go through when you do a fresh install of your game that will help you get the best performance you could possibly imagine for this old and laggy gem of a game.
Have Sims 3 installed, but is it performing abhorrently? I highly recommend a fresh install. You don't have to delete your saves or mods. Just get yourself a fresh bin to work with by uninstalling, going into your program files The Sims 3 folder and deleting any remnant files still in there. Then follow my guide!
All of the steps to follow are below the line ->
Step 1: install your game through your respected platform.
Just follow the regular steps and install the game without adding any other stuff yet whatsoever.
(I personally have a legit copy of the Sims 3 on Steam. If you use another app and have any questions, I'll probably not be able to help you.)
Step 2: run the game once through the official launcher. Once you get to the main menu, you can quit again.
It is very important you run your game through the original launcher at least once after installing it. Not doing so can cause problems with programs like CC magic. You only need to do it the first time. After that, we'll be skipping the launcher entirely.
Step 3: Create a short cut of TS3W.exe on your desktop.
You'll be skipping the launcher from now on. This helps with performance and it starts up your game much faster. It is also important to do this because of DXVK.
You can find TS3W.exe in your bin folder. For me (Steam version) it's in this location:
Right click TS3W.exe, click 'show more options' and choose 'create a shortcut'. Place this shortcut on your desktop and Run Sims 3 from there from now on.
Step 4: Run the GPU Add-on Support patcher
You can find this patcher here. It is essential to run this because Sims will otherwise not recognize your graphics card unless it's over 10 years old. This patcher helps to get your GPU recognized.
The patcher will create a new Graphicsrules.sgr and new Graphicscards.sgr for you in your bin folder. After installing this, you can move the ones that have _old behind them somewhere else (or delete them).
Step 5: Install DXVK
Make sure you follow this guide by Nornities and do every single step. Don't skip anything! Make sure you install the version in this guide (DXVK 2.3.1)
I'd say DXVK is pretty essential nowadays, especially if you have a modern graphics card with 6GB of VRAM or higher. It'll greatly help to keep your game stable and can prevent a lot of crashes. The way Dxvk works, is that it loads textures through your VRAM instead of your RAM. Especially when you use a lot of CC or HD textures, this will make a huge difference for your RAM usage. Sims 3 can only use 4GB of RAM at once and will start crashing once you hit the 3GB mark in your task manager. With DXVK, you will use a lot less RAM and it'll take much longer for your game to reach this hard cap.
When not to install DXVK: if you have a shitty GPU (like an integrated graphics card on a laptop, or one with 4GB of VRAM or less).
Step 6: Start up the game
Use your new desktop shortcut that also has 'run as administrator' permissions now if you followed the DXVK guide properly.
Step 7: set up all your settings through the ingame options menu
The best graphics settings for you will highly depend on what computer you're using. But there are some things you should always turn off because they negatively affect performance. I will share my (relevant) settings with you (I use a custom UI so your screen style will look a little different from mine). Click on the images to enlarge them so you can read them:
Things of note about these settings:
I recommend you play in windowed mode, especially if you plan to use ReShade. Playing fullscreen is possible, but it does make Reshade presets behave differently in your game. I will include a step in this guide that you can follow to play windowed borderless. So, when you plan to do this: make sure you set the resolution to your display resolution.
Enable object hiding helps with performance. Advanced rendering is essential because otherwise your game looks like absolute shit.
Set your High Detail Lots to any value between 2 and 4. Don't go lower or higher, because you'll get rendering issues that lag out your game.
All other graphics settings can be set to your heart's desire. I'd say start with the highest settings and only go down if you notice your frames per second are bad.
Disable shop mode and lessons and fully disable memories or use this mod to severly limit them. Disable interactive loading screens as well. These are all performance eaters. Interactive loading screen also causes crashes. Memories also don't do anything for your sim, it's just a scrap book with no in-game effects.
Disable any online mode feature. This also lags out your game. Unless you really want to use these features it's best to just play fully offline.
Save your settings, close the game again.
Step 8: Install Sims 3 Settings Setter
This is the most recent magic genie that Sims 3 was blessed with. Especially combined with DXVK it is a life changer. Installing it is simple. You download the most recent version here and drop the .asi file in your bin. Also grab 'wininet.dll' from here (the 32 bit one) and drop that one in your bin too.
Start up your game and load up a save. Once you're inside your save, you press 'insert' to open up the menu for Sims 3 Settings Setter. Go to the 'patches' tab and enable what you like. These are my enabled patches and they all work really well for me, but feel free to experiment with them to find your own performance sweet spot:
Only enable uncompressed textures if you have a GPU with at least 8gb of VRAM. My game will use over 6gb of VRAM easily with this enabled, so you've been warned.
Once you have everything you desire enabled, press 'file' in the top left corner and click 'save settings'.
Step 8.5: if you're playing windowed mode: go into the Other/QoL tab and enable 'Borderless Window'. Set it to 'Full Screen'.
Save your settings and close your game again. No need to save the game you entered for this unless you want to.
Step 9: Install Nraas Errortrap, MasterController and Overwatch
These 3 mods by Nraas are pretty much essential to keep your game from breaking down in the long run. You can download the mods here. Have you never installed a mod for Sims 3 before? Here's a guide (skip the part about Sims3pack and go straight to the part where it explains how to install .package mods).
That's it! You can now play The Sims 3 and it'll be as smooth and stable as it'll ever be. From here on, you can stock your game with more mods and CC (check out my mods masterlist!), or you can install Reshade (here's a guide).
Some important things to keep in mind while playing:
Clean up your game regularly. You can easily do this by using Regul Save Cleaner.
When you install a new mod or update/change Sims 3 Settings Setter, always restart and clear your caches.
Use CC Magic for installing CC, because it merges your files and this really helps with performance. Here's a handy guide on how to use it. Don't put your script mods in here, just your CC.
If you plan to travel to vacation destinations in the EP World Adventures, Nraas Traveler is a must to prevent most of the bugs and crashes that happen in this expansion.
Always keep in mind: mods and corrupt CC can still break your game, make it laggy or unplayable. Always be mindful of the mods you add, so you can always trace any issues you're having back to the mod causing it. I highly recommend not downloading a ton of mods in one session, but adding them step by step and see what they do to your games performance.
Use 'Reset the entire town' from Nraas MasterController at least every other sim week. It'll help clear up any lag that happens because of NPC sims getting themselves stuck routing or annoying stuff like that.
Got a slow CAS? Use Nraas MasterController Compact mode! (Make sure you have the Nraas MasterController Integration module installed).
Navigate to NRaas > MasterController > Settings > CAS.
If you’ve ever used the Sims 4 Tray Importer, you’re going to love this tool for The Sims 3!
It was created to make life easier for players who use custom content (CC) and want to keep everything organized or to share fully CC-included Sims in a quick and practical way!
(The first version was ready in October ffrom last year and I'm publishing it now lol)
🎮 What does this tool do?
✔ Automatically copies all .package custom content used by a Sim, Household or Lot into a specific folder.
✔ Includes an option to compress the folder for easier sharing or storage.
✔ Works with both individual Sims and full Households (or Lots).
✔ Can also help you identify which .package files you no longer want in your game.
🌟Features:
✔ It copies the folder structure from your Mods folder, including only the necessary files, keeping the CCs organized.
✔ Compatible with three languages: Portuguese, English, and Spanish.
(If your system language is not one of these, the tool will default to English.)
P.s.: If you’d like your language included, just send me all the tool’s text already translated, and I’ll add it.
⚠ Important – Please read before using!
🔹 Windows only, sorry. :(
🔹 You must use only .package files when creating your Sim or building your Lot.
🔹 You must convert the .sims3pack content exported from the game to .package format before scanning the custom content it uses.
🔹 If your converted .sims3pack files were separated into multiple packages, you need to merge those packages again to make it easier for the tool to correctly find and gather all custom content (or you select one by one to verify).
🔹 Right now, I'm also working on adding support for reading Sims3Pack files directly, which should make the process even easier in the future.
This ensures the tool can properly detect every file being used.
🙏 Credits and Thanks
Special thanks to Peter Jones for S3PI (package reading library), and to Kitilith for the idea and basis of their Find Merged CC tool used in this project (credits will be included with the readme file as requested on their GitHub).
I’d also like to thank Ash (@cowplantcartel) for testing this tool in every build. 😅
🚀 Download Info
Early access on Patreon: Download
Public release coming in 21 days (April 10th)
Can I mention just how much I love the Sims 3 community?! This game has been out for well over a decade, and so many awesome peeps are still developing new tools and resources, converting and creating new cc .... love this! <3
Hi guys! I made a post on Reddit comparing some of the most popular lighting mods for The Sims 3, and I thought I’d share it here on Tumblr for my first post.
I mainly did this for myself to see how each mod affects the Sims and the environment.
It’s not 100% accurate, since the position of your Sims can have a big effect on the lighting and many of these mods have unique colours/weather transitions over the course of each day.
All of my testing was done during Summer! Unfortunately, I was only able to add the EA lighting into my second comparison, which was strictly on Sims only.
The lighting mods I used to do my comparisons are linked below:
Uranesia by @nilxis
St. Claires by @brntwaffles
Pudding's Lighting by @pudding-parade
Perfect Day by @brntwaffles
Monte Vista by @dystopianam
Fresh Cut Day by @brntwaffles
Clear & Bright by @potato-ballad-sims
Blue Skies & Sunshine by @brntwaffles
Beta V1 by @boringbones
Hopefully this helps anyone trying to decide which lighting mod to use in their game. Also, a big thank you to these amazing creators who keep this game looking awesome! Have a great day. :-)
Have you seen this post about using DXVK by Criisolate? But felt intimidated by the sheer mass of facts and information?
@desiree-uk and I compiled a guide and the configuration file to make your life easier. It focuses on players not using the EA App, but it might work for those just the same. It’s definitely worth a try.
Adding this to your game installation will result in a better RAM usage. So your game is less likely to give you Error 12 or crash due to RAM issues. It does NOT give a huge performance boost, but more stability and allows for higher graphics settings in game.
The full guide behind the cut. Let me know if you also would like it as PDF.
Happy simming!
Disclaimer and Credits
Desiree and I are no tech experts and just wrote down how we did this. Our ability to help if you run into trouble is limited. So use at your own risk and back up your files!
We both are on Windows 10 and start the game via TS3W.exe, not the EA App. So your experience may differ.
This guide is based on our own experiments and of course criisolate’s post on tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/criisolate/749374223346286592/ill-explain-what-i-did-below-before-making-any
This guide is brought to you by Desiree-UK and Norn.
Compatibility
Note: This will conflict with other programs that “inject” functionality into your game so they may stop working. Notably
Reshade
GShade
Nvidia Experience/Nvidia Inspector/Nvidia Shaders
RivaTuner Statistics Server
It does work seamlessly with LazyDuchess’ Smooth Patch.
LazyDuchess’ Launcher: unknown
Alder Lake patch: does conflict. One user got it working by starting the game by launching TS3.exe (also with admin rights) instead of TS3W.exe. This seemed to create the cache file for DXVK. After that, the game could be started from TS3W.exe again. That might not work for everyone though.
A word on FPS and V-Sync
With such an old game it’s crucial to cap framerate (FPS). This is done in the DXVK.conf file. Same with V-Sync.
You need
a text editor (easiest to use is Windows Notepad)
to download DXVK, version 2.3.1 from here: https://github.com/doitsujin/DXVK/releases/tag/v2.3.1
Extract the archive, you are going to need the file d3d9.dll from the x32 folder
the configuration file DXVK.conf from here: https://github.com/doitsujin/DXVK/blob/master/DXVK.conf.
Optional: download the edited version with the required changes here.
administrator rights on your PC
to know your game’s installation path (bin folder) and where to find the user folder
a tiny bit of patience :)
First Step: Backup
Backup your original Bin folder in your Sims 3 installation path! The DXVK file may overwrite some files! The path should be something like this (for retail): \Program Files (x86)\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\Game\Bin (This is the folder where also GraphicsRule.sgr and the TS3W.exe and TS3.exe are located.)
Backup your options.ini in your game’s user folder! Making the game use the DXVK file will count as a change in GPU driver, so the options.ini will reset once you start your game after installation. The path should be something like this: \Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3 (This is the folder where your Mods folder is located).
Preparations
Make sure you run the game as administrator. You can check that by right-clicking on the icon that starts your game. Go to Properties > Advanced and check the box “Run as administrator”.
Note: This will result in a prompt each time you start your game, if you want to allow this application to make modifications to your system. Click “Yes” and the game will load.
2. Make sure you have the DEP settings from Windows applied to your game.
Open the Windows Control Panel.
Click System and Security > System > Advanced System Settings.
On the Advanced tab, next to the Performance heading, click Settings.
Click the Data Execution Prevention tab.
Select 'Turn on DEP for all programs and services except these”:
Click the Add button, a window to the file explorer opens. Navigate to your Sims 3 installation folder (the bin folder once again) and add TS3W.exe and TS3.exe.
Click OK. Then you can close all those dialog windows again.
Setting up the DXVK.conf file
Open the file with a text editor and delete everything in it. Then add these values:
d3d9.textureMemory = 1
d3d9.presentInterval = 1
d3d9.maxFrameRate = 60
d3d9.presentInterval enables V-Sync,d3d9.maxFrameRate sets the FrameRate. You can edit those values, but never change the first line (d3d9.textureMemory)!
The original DXVK.conf contains many more options in case you would like to add more settings.
A. no Reshade/GShade
Setting up DXVK
Copy the two files d3d9.dll and DXVK.conf into the Bin folder in your Sims 3 installation path. This is the folder where also GraphicsRule.sgr and the TS3W.exe and TS3.exe are located. If you are prompted to overwrite files, please choose yes (you DID backup your folder, right?)
And that’s basically all that is required to install.
Start your game now and let it run for a short while. Click around, open Buy mode or CAS, move the camera.
Now quit without saving. Once the game is closed fully, open your bin folder again and double check if a file “TS3W.DXVK-cache” was generated. If so – congrats! All done!
Things to note
Heads up, the game options will reset! So it will give you a “vanilla” start screen and options.
Don’t worry if the game seems to be frozen during loading. It may take a few minutes longer to load but it will load eventually.
The TS3W.DXVK-cache file is the actual cache DXVK is using. So don’t delete this! Just ignore it and leave it alone. When someone tells to clear cache files – this is not one of them!
Update Options.ini
Go to your user folder and open the options.ini file with a text editor like Notepad.
Find the line “lastdevice = “. It will have several values, separated by semicolons. Copy the last one, after the last semicolon, the digits only. Close the file.
Now go to your backup version of the Options.ini file, open it and find that line “lastdevice” again. Replace the last value with the one you just copied. Make sure to only replace those digits!
Save and close the file.
Copy this version of the file into your user folder, replacing the one that is there.
Things to note:
If your GPU driver is updated, you might have to do these steps again as it might reset your device ID again. Though it seems that the DXVK ID overrides the GPU ID, so it might not happen.
How do I know it’s working?
Open the task manager and look at RAM usage. Remember the game can only use 4 GB of RAM at maximum and starts crashing when usage goes up to somewhere between 3.2 – 3.8 GB (it’s a bit different for everybody).
So if you see values like 2.1456 for RAM usage in a large world and an ongoing save, it’s working. Generally the lower the value, the better for stability.
Also, DXVK will have generated its cache file called TS3W.DXVK-cache in the bin folder. The file size will grow with time as DXVK is adding stuff to it, e.g. from different worlds or savegames. Initially it might be something like 46 KB or 58 KB, so it’s really small.
Optional: changing MemCacheBudgetValue
MemCacheBudgetValue determines the size of the game's VRAM Cache. You can edit those values but the difference might not be noticeable in game. It also depends on your computer’s hardware how much you can allow here.
The two lines of seti MemCacheBudgetValue correspond to the high RAM level and low RAM level situations. Therefore, theoretically, the first line MemCacheBudgetValue should be set to a larger value, while the second line should be set to a value less than or equal to the first line.
The original values represent 200MB (209715200) and 160MB (167772160) respectively. They are calculated as 200x1024x1024=209175200 and 160x1024x1024=167772160.
Back up your GraphicsRules.sgr file! If you make a mistake here, your game won’t work anymore.
Go to your bin folder and open your GraphicsRules.sgr with a text editor.
Search and find two lines that set the variables for MemCacheBudgetValue.
Modify these two values to larger numbers. Make sure the value in the first line is higher or equals the value in the second line. Examples for values:
1073741824, which means 1GB
2147483648 which means 2 GB.
-1 (minus 1) means no limit (but is highly experimental, use at own risk)
Save and close the file. It might prompt you to save the file to a different place and not allow you to save in the Bin folder. Just save it someplace else in this case and copy/paste it to the Bin folder afterwards. If asked to overwrite the existing file, click yes.
Now start your game and see if it makes a difference in smoothness or texture loading. Make sure to check RAM and VRAM usage to see how it works.
You might need to change the values back and forth to find the “sweet spot” for your game. Mine seems to work best with setting the first value to 2147483648 and the second to 1073741824.
Uninstallation
Delete these files from your bin folder (installation path):
d3d9.dll
DXVK.conf
TS3W.DXVK-cache
And if you have it, also TS3W_d3d9.log
if you changed the values in your GraphicsRule.sgr file, too, don’t forget to change them back or to replace the file with your backed up version.
OR
delete the bin folder and add it from your backup again.
B. with Reshade/GShade
Follow the steps from part A. no Reshade/Gshade to set up DXVK.
If you are already using Reshade (RS) or GShade (GS), you will be prompted to overwrite files, so choose YES. RS and GS may stop working, so you will need to reinstall them.
Whatever version you are using, the interface shows similar options of which API you can choose from (these screenshots are from the latest versions of RS and GS).
Please note:
Each time you install and uninstall DXVK, switching the game between Vulkan and d3d9, is essentially changing the graphics card ID again, which results in the settings in your options.ini file being repeatedly reset.
ReShade interface
Choose – Vulcan
Click next and choose your preferred shaders.
Hopefully this install method works and it won't install its own d3d9.dll file.
If it doesn't work, then choose DirectX9 in RS, but you must make sure to replace the d3d9.dll file with DXVK's d3d9.dll (the one from its 32bit folder, checking its size is 3.86mb.)
GShade interface
Choose –
Executable Architecture: 32bit
Graphics API: DXVK
Hooking: Normal Mode
GShade is very problematic, it won't work straight out of the box and the overlay doesn't show up, which defeats the purpose of using it if you can't add or edit the shaders you want to use.
Check the game's bin folder, making sure the d3d9.dll is still there and its size is 3.86mb - that is DXVK's dll file.
If installing using the DXVK method doesn't work, you can choose the DirectX method, but there is no guarantee it works either.
The game will not run with these files in the folder:
d3d10core.dll
d3d11.dll
dxgi.dll
If you delete them, the game will start but you can't access GShade! It might be better to use ReShade.
Some Vulcan and DirectX information, if you’re interested:
Vulcan is for rather high end graphic cards but is backward compatible with some older cards. Try this method with ReShade or GShade first.
DirectX is more stable and works best with older cards and systems. Try this method if Vulcan doesn't work with ReShade/GShade in your game – remember to replace the d3d9.dll with DXVK's d3d9.dll.
For more information on the difference between Vulcan and DirectX, see this article:
I use a lot of mods to make my game look good, but also to improve my gameplay so that writing stories is even more fun. I thought some of you might enjoy knowing what's in my game. So I decided to make a Mods Masterlist.
This is not my CC collection, however I did include a lot of the default replacements I use. I have divided everything up into categories:
- How I improved my game's performance
- How I made my game look pretty
- How I made my game more fun
Using all of these mods and tweaks obviously comes at your own risk. They can work fine in my game, but make yours laggy or unplayable. That's always a possibility with mods. I won't be able to help you with that, as these obviously work well for me.
First of all, my specs:
Why am I sharing this? Because I think it's always good to know what a person is running with before you install their entire mods list. Just in case you're wondering if your pc would be able to handle the same amount of mod load.
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-10850K CPU @ 3.60GHz, 3501 Mhz, 10 Core(s), 20 Logical Processor(s).
RAM: 32 GB
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti 16GB VRAM
Storage disk my game is installed on: 1TB SSD SAMSUNG MZVLB1T0HBLR-000L7
Game version: Steam edition.
How I improved my game's performance:
DXVK: this has stopped *all* access violation crashes in my game since I installed it. I know I'm probably jinxing myself by typing this, but I for real haven't had my game crash to desktop since I followed these instructions.
Turbotravel (scroll down in the comments to find the files): I followed this pretty recently as I have a good SSD with plenty of space left. So far I haven't noticed a massive improvement in game performance aside from the fact that thumbnails now instantly load in build mode and CAS and my sims change their clothes faster, which was worth it for me. Only do this if you own Sims 3 on Steam and your game is installed on an SSD drive and you have plenty of space left.
Nraas Errortrap, Overwatch, Mastercontroller, Saver: Errortrap catches in-game bugs and glitches and fixes them by resetting the sim automatically for you. Overwatch cleans up the game overnight. Mastercontroller (+ cheats and integration modules) gives you compact mode in CAS and allows you to fully reset the town which is recommended to do once every sims week or after you had a big party event with many sims. Saver prompts you to save your game every 30 minutes as 'Save as...' and this will save your life from losing your game to a crash after hours of gameplay.
Smooth Patch: I use this *without* the .package files, because they're not compatible with Mastercontroller compact mode. But the bin files do a lot to make your game smoother on their own, and this mod allows you to play your game in windowed borderless mode (necessary for proper use of reshade) and it gives you an easy way to max your FPS (which is ESSENTIAL!!). My TPS is set to 500. Setting it to 1000 lags out my game a lot even though my PC is high end so I don't recommend it.
GPU Patch: I have a very new GPU and need this for my game to recognize my graphicscard. It is basically mandatory to do this unless your pc is over a decade old.
Intel Extreme Tuning Utility: I overclock my CPU with this program. I sincerely advice against you doing this unless you are 100% sure you know what overclocking is, whether your CPU is capable of overclocking, and what a healthy overclock speed is for your CPU. The tuning utility will help you with this. If you run the 'speed optimizer,' it'll pick a conservative setting that should still make your CPU faster. I really don't recommend you use this if you don't know what you're doing. But if you're a seasoned gamer and you know what overclocking is: yes, a CPU overclock definitely makes Sims 3 a LOT smoother. If you blow up your computer because you decided to do this while you didn't educate yourself on the consequences of overclocking a CPU, it's your own fault (that should be enough of a warning, right?).
Tweaking my GraphicsRules.sgr: I will be mentioning this one later as well as I also tweaked it to improve my visual graphics. I honestly only do this because other guides told me to. I have no clue if it actually does something. But change these settings to these numbers. They're at the top of the file:
seti cpuLevelUber 4
seti cpuLevelHigh 3
seti cpuLevelMedium 3
seti cpuLevelLow 3
CC Magic: USE THIS FOR YOUR CC. Like, for real, USE IT. It is a life saver! Especially if you own multiple gigabytes of CC, CC Magic will make your game so much smoother. It's worth the hassle of redoing your CC (I did it a while back, cost me half a day, got me a lifetime of less lag). I feel like an idiot for spending over a decade playing this game without CC Magic. Follow this video for easy instructions.
Regul Save Cleaner: I use this every other session. The downside is that using it will require the game to reload some stuff like portraits and if you include the cache cleaning (which is pretty much essential) it'll have to reload your sim textures, object textures, that sort of stuff. So the game is actually a bit slower right after you use Regul Save Cleaner. But it cleans up a lot of bloat that your game doesn't need anymore and is a life-saver if you play one save for multiple generations. If you have that issue where you game is just trying to save forever, make sure to use this. It's worth the minor inconvenience at the start of a game session.
Turn off memories, lessons, online features, interactive loading screen: yes, these all cause lag in your game. If you still want to keep some of the memories, use this mod instead.
Set the max amount of fully active/rendered lots to 2 or 4. This will reduce camera lag. I recommend setting it to the amount of houses in the direct vicinity of your sim's house. So if there's only 2 neighbors set it to 3, if there's 3, set it to 4. Don't go any higher than this and don't set it to 1.
Just a rule: don't use Sims3Packs. Don't install CC through the Sims launcher period. You can use Delphy's Sims 3 Pack Multi-extractor to turn Sims3packs into .package files. Installing through the launcher works alright, but uninstalling stuff through the launcher is not clean. It leaves behind a lot of bloat. Keep your CC organized and clean, otherwise you'll regret it when you're years into playing Sims 3 and everything is an unsolvable mess. The only thing I install through the launcher is custom worlds. Everything else is converted to .package. If you convert lots to .package, don't forget to put a copy of the .package file in your library folder.
How I make my game look pretty:
Some of these things work smoothly in my game because I have a very good graphics card. However, even I sometimes get render issues where my sims look like they come from a playstation 1 game for a minute before they render in properly. I live with it, because I like pretty screenshots. I recommend trying these things one by one and seeing how your game handles it. If something makes your game an unplayable mess, just uninstall and forget about it.
More GraphicsRules tweaks: I like HD textures. I have 2K screen, and the regular 'very high' sim detail setting just doesn't cut it for me. If you want your sims to look as 'HD' as mine, change the below settings to the following (use Crtl + F to find them):
setting $VeryHigh
prop $ConfigGroup RenderSimLODDistances "25, 50, 100, 1000"
prop $ConfigGroup RenderSimTextureSizes "3072, 2048, 512, 128"
prop $ConfigGroup RenderSimUseSpecular "1, 1, 1, 1"
Make sure your simdetail settings are set to 'very high' in your options menu to enable this. Also, I highly advice against randomly changing these numbers to other values, except if you wanna go even higher to 4096 instead of 3072. Sims will actually have *more* rendering issues if you change these to a random lower number. Don't ask me why, they just do. I have messed with this setting more times than you can count and this is my sweetspot that gives me as little PS1-looking sims as possible.
Reshade 6.4.1 (with add-on support): Why add-on support? Well, you don't need any add-ons (skip that bit when you install) but this version doesn't connect to the network. Other versions do, and then the anti-cheat system will disable MXAO and Depth of Field. Do not update to newer Reshade versions, they don't work with Sims 3. I have two of my presets up for download: Novelesque and Novelesque Gemstone Edition. They work well with 6.4.1. When you install reshade, make sure your 'edge smoothing' setting is turned off. You can enable anti alias through your Nvidia or AMD control panel instead. I've got instructions for that in the 'Novelesque' preset post (Nvidia, I don't have AMD so please look it up elsewhere if you do).
Here's a full guide on how to install Reshade 6.4.1.
S-club's 3D lashes: Gives your sims nice 3D eyelashes, available in the eye-liner make-up category and in accessories. Don't forget to download the sliders. And also, I recommend downloading the mod that removes EA's eyelashes. Apologies for the TSR link, they're not available elsewhere.
Mango-smoothie default skin replacement: Nice, smooth HD skin replacement. there is also a link for non-defaults if you prefer it. I also use a bunch of other non-default skins but these are the main ones.
Yumedust's Eye love set conversion by Brntwaffles: my default replacement for the eyes. I use V2.
Agnelid's default hair replacements: these are proper low-med poly and give me the least render issues out of all those default hair replacements out there, so I highly recommend them.
Angelsimoleon's make-up default replacements: These are really good, because now default make up doesn't look like your sim is trying to be a clown anymore. I also recommend the color presets default replacement.
Default replacement for eyebrows: ugly EA eyebrows begone.
Default beard replacements: ugly beards BE GONEE. Also, more beards here. Can't have enough beards.
Simstate's Blackout UI: I also love the Cloud UI hype going on, but I decided to go for this one because I love dark mode and this one has a bit more readable text in some areas.
Plants default replacement: Omedapixel made a lot of default replacements for plantable crops. They only work for newly planted crops. Please read their instructions carefully, it requires some set-up.
Sims 3 HD Textures terrain: I use the 1k version because I was too scared of overloading my game with HD textures. Still makes a nice difference though.
Sims 3 lighting mod: I use Rollo Roll's edited combo of BB's and BrntWaffles lighting mods.
Simsi45 Improved EA Lights: For better indoor lighting.
Sims 3 Medieval facial expressions override: I've been playing with these for so long I don't even remember what the normal facial expressions used to look like.
Pigtails glitch fix: Ugly pigtails on every random sim, begone.
LazyDuchess Random Sim fixes 2.0: Fixes the puddingface syndrome and the ugly green-blonde haircolor some sims were born with. Also comes with some other minor fixes. This also makes male sims gain body hair on age up, which is tuneable.
Sliders: for better sim creation.
How I make my game more fun:
Nraas Storyprogression: I also have the modules Career, Extra, Money, Population, Relationship and Skill. This mod is absolutely essential to me. I can't play this game without it. However, it is a heavy mod. It will cause some lag in your game. To me it's absolutely worth it. I highly recommend setting the speed to 'snail pace' to make the lag problem minimal (except maybe pregnancy, I have that one manually edited to speed 500, because I need people to make lots of babies, okay.) and to turn off notifications for anyone who's not related or romanced with your sim, it'll save you some hassle. Storyprogression also allows you to: edit the chances of gay or bi sims, tweak the amount of celebrities in your town or how fast you gain celebrity points to begin with, change the rules of who takes whose name at birth or marriage. It also does one very important thing: it makes sure service and role sims aren't part of the romance pool. Without Nraas SP, town residents might actually end up marrying the local mixologist or proprietor. Nraas SP prevents this and makes sure your town residents only get it on with other town residents. It also prevents sims from emigrating and disappearing.
Nraas Retuner: essential for more autonomy control. It requires a bit of practice to be able to use it properly. I highly recommend you go into the settings of this mod (City hall -> Nraas -> Retuner) and turn on the retuner menu for objects. That way you can, for example, click on the computer, go to the retuner menu, and turn off autonomy for playing computer games. Or click on the radio and turn off autonomy for sims to turn it on. I have personally also used it to turn off the imaginary friend doll (Retuner -> by tunable XML -> sims.actors or something like that -> Occult.ImaginaryDoll or something similar), set the chance of it being sent to your mailbox to 0.
All other Nraas mods I have: Consigner, DebugEnabler, Dreamer, Gohere, Hybrid, OnceRead, Porter, PortraitPanel, Register, RelationshipPanel, Tagger, Tempest, Traveler, Woohooer, WrittenWord. Just check out their respective pages to see what they do. They're all useful because they either help you control your game more (Register can turn off paparazzi!!), or they add other handy gameplay things. There's even more Nraas mods that I currently don't use (yet), feel free to check them all out.
Simler90's Gameplay core mod: This fixes a lot of annoying stuff in the game. However, if you want to use it alongside Nraas Overwatch and LazyDuchess Random Sim Fixes, it requires a small bit of tuning. To make it compatible with Overwatch: change the Overwatch clean up hour to 5AM (default is 3AM). You can do this in the game by clicking City Hall/any computer -> Nraas -> Overwatch -> Settings. To make sure Lazyduchess puddingface fix takes priority over the one in Simler's core mod (I did this because the one by LD is better), you need to open Simler90's tuning file in S3PE and set the puddingface fix to false. If you don't know how to do this, here you go. There's more things to tune in this mod, so learning this is a good idea regardless.
More interactions mods: There's a bunch of them. I highly recommend the following:
- Moar Interactions
- More Pregnancy Interactions
- More Baby Interactions
- More Toddler Interactions
- More Romantic Interactions
- Outdoor activities for Toddlers
- Toddlers Can Ride Rocking Rider
- Children Can
Neuroblazer's Random Genetics: This makes the genetics system a lot more complex and varied. While EA default will copy-paste certain areas of the face and body from the parent to the baby sim (like a sim will 100% have their mom's eyes and their dad's nose etc.), Neuroblazer's mod makes it so sims can be more of a mix between the two parents. It really helps with keeping your sims genetically varied, even after many generations. It takes a few seconds to start up each time you boot up your game just like Nraas SP, so don't get scared by the momentary lag.
No Mutant Hair or Eyes: No more mutations in haircolor or eyecolor, because these were way too common in the Sims 3. Your sims will now always inherit their eye and haircolor from a relative (parent or grandparent etc.).
Expanded Genealogy: adds a lot more family relations to your family tree, so your game will recognize more sims as family members. Like 2nd cousin and such.
Painting Replacements: Makes the painting skill a ton more fun because it adds so many painting variations to the game!
Routing fixes and less whiny sims: Sims 3 is a lot more fun when your sims aren't constantly suffering from routing errors or blocks. Here's a whole list of them:
- Ohrudi's routing fixes
- Twoftmama's routing fixes (need a free Sims Asylum account)
- No whining about motives
- No whining about route fails
- Better routing for game objects (need a free Sims Asylum account)
- No foot tapping
- More Entry Points: This one makes it so sims don't wait in line forever to go into the school building and such!
Human Lifespan for Supernatural Sims: If you're like me and you avoid occults like vampires or fairies because they tend to live forever, this mod makes it a lot more fun to play around with occults. It gives them a regular lifespan, like any other sim.
Traits enabled for all ages: Tired of your born sims all having the same traits because the choices are so limited at a young age? This mod enables all traits for all ages.
Autonomous toddler skilling: makes teaching toddlers their skills fun, so sims will do it autonomously. Requires a free Sims Asylum account to download.
Faster Gardening: I have picked the 50% option. Now my gardening sims can finally have a life again since weeding and harvesting doesn't take them all day.
No Social Groups (Uni only): Your sims won't instantly turn into nerds just because they like to play games or browse the web. I picked the one that does enable the groups in the university world.
CrossEye Fix: No more crossed eyes when Sims age up.
Be Productive: sims will clean up after themselves more often.
Opportunity Phone Call Fix: If you have into the future installed, this fixes the bug where you'd not get any opportunity phone calls anymore.
NoAutoAnswerPhone and NoAutoSmartPhoneTasks: prevent your sims from dropping everything just to answer their phone or browse the web.
New Lifetime Goals: Normally, when your sims complete their LTW, the Midlife Crisis LTR to pick a new one will disappear. Your sim can therefore only complete one LTW by EA's default settings. This mod prompts your sim to pick a new LTW once they have completed theirs, so they always have a new goal to strive for.
Famous Artists: changes the celebrity system so you earn celebrity points for skills and jobs that actually make sense.
School Delinquency: adds more gameplay for baddie sims in their school years.
No Autonomous Pranks: Because pranks suck unless you actually want them to happen and then you can just do it yourself. You can also just do this with Nraas Retuner of course, but it'll be a bit of a hassle.
Get to Know fix: Sims will learn other sims' traits more often when using the Get to Know interaction.
Scolding mod: will prompt you to ask you whether you actually want to scold your child instead of it becoming an interaction you can't cancel.
Baking mod: adds a baking skill to the game
Flower Arranging: adds a flower arrangement skill to the game.
Medical career reworked: adds all sorts of extra stuff for the medical career.
Merry Christmas to all those who celebrate! Can you believe it's been 2 years since I released the original S3DT ?! 😮
This version brings the long awaited SCALING, as well as hotkeys for changing presets and a few other little things. Please take time to read through all the instructions. See THIS post for information about the rest of this mod.
These new hotkeys will only work when in Decorator Mode (Shift + D), similar to the other hotkeys. For some reason, the "Create Scaler" hotkey only works when moveobjects on is enabled.
PRESET SWITCHING
To switch between presets, pick up an object and use either (;) or (') keys (see diagram above) to move forward/backward. This will work with custom objects like paintings with lots of images, and also different patterns, including user saved presets!
SCALING
This mod uses a custom object to scale objects. You can buy it in Surfaces, Misc or use the hotkey (/) (see diagram) to create one immediately. Place your object on the scaler, and then pick up the scaler, not the object. Use hotkey (-) to make the object smaller and (=) to make it larger. To move your object, make sure to always pick up the scaler and apply any other transformations (rotation, changing height) to the scaler. The object will still be usable, and the scaler will disappear in live mode.
Made the object so big you can't select the scaler anymore? Simply pick up the object in the slot, press 0 and it will switch the hand tool to the scaler so you can continue to move it.
NOTES & ISSUES WITH SCALING
When placing, sometimes it says "Location out of bounds", simply rotate or use MoveObjects on to get around this.
Sim animations will often look weird when using scaled objects.
Modular objects and certain large appliances will NOT scale.
Objects with slots and effects will also apply scaling to any objects placed in those slots, and the effects. So if you have a giant dining table, you'll get a giant chairs. Tiny fountain = tiny fountain effects.
Trees and bushes can technically be scaled, but its more of a compression of the leaves in and out, rather than proper scaling. You can do some cool stuff with this though!
If you have a scaler scaled to say, 200% and then clone that scaler, the new scaler will also be at 200%
EXTRA BUILD/BUY INTERACTIONS
These can be accessed by Shift + Clicking on any object in Build/Buy mode.
1. Remove Footprint - Removes the footprint from an object, allowing sims to walk through it or use other objects that would otherwise be blocked. This will remain even after you save and quit.
2. Disable Snow on Object - Disables snow on an object. Only for decorative objects, as functionality will be removed when you use this.
DOWNLOAD AND INSTALLATION
Delete the previous versions of S3DT and place this file in your Overrides folder.
DOWNLOAD HERE
Thanks to @simmingberryland @simsdeogloria YumiChi, Anton from the Creators' Cave Discord for testing!
I made a video, showing you all exactly how I made The Sims 4 feel realistic, cozy, and nostalgic — from the lighting mods I use, to my favorite Build/Buy must-haves, to essential gameplay and UI mods that completely transform my game!
Guys, this is a reminder that shifting is not supposed to feel like a chore. Shifting is effortless. You don't have to lay down for hours without moving. You can roll over and just go to sleep. You can do nothing and shift. You can do anything and shift.
(Most of my anons were along the lines of this same issue, I want to make a common post for them. I won't be telling you "you're already there" or "persist" I'm going to have a heart to heart conversation with your mental health in mind, this will be a long post)
First and foremost I have to say, this post is very heavily opinion-based. Alright, I'll divide it into topics, and two categories: before shifting and during shifting.
Before Shifting.
Determining the laws of your reality.
This is where you've got to do most of the work. (Don't worry, it won't be 7 hour subliminal listening sessions) now let's present a very important note: I don't know who you are. But most importantly I don't know what you believe in. Shifting isn't a known set of rules, Shifting doesn't have a single method, it does not have a wikihow page. Everything that exist is because of you. Therefore there are differences in my reality and yours. What you believe in is acting out in reality. LITERALLY.
So first you need to ask yourself some questions, with full honesty, oh and don't apply the thoughts you have by certain reprogramming affirmations, don't force yourself just because you have to persist.
"What am I?" What do you believe you are? Currently, are you a soul, a human? Or you something greater, seek within yourself to answer what you believe.
"What is reality?" How is everything working around you? Why are you here.
"Who is in control?" Who makes you shift. Who or what makes everything happen.
"How to shift?" Self explanatory. If you write with utmost truth on what you think shifting is like and when and how it happens; you'll basically have the code of how reality works for you.
Relax.
After you've gathered your research sheets. Take a breath, since you've got all the answers you need. Now, close your eyes, whenever you like. Imagine a serene atmosphere, for example, sharp sunlight falling on your skin, warming you up, or the rain droplets drowning your senses, as you run across a forest. Tell yourself, "this is what shifting is" , and "I've shifted." That's all it is. You feel some you get some.
Some important realizations,
• Time is not linear.
• Failure is a perception.
• You're not beneath anyone.
• You don't need to prove yourself to anyone.
• you'll survive, you'll be alright.
Don't. Kidnap. Yourself.
The title sounds weird, but it is regarding heavily applying the principle of assuming until you have it, to EVERYTHING. Idc if people come after me. I don't want anyone to suffer by stamping their foreheads with "persist!" Even if it works. I love loa, until it crosses over into toxic positively. Don't just put yourself in a coffin; don't become a prisoner to your thoughts! Don't make it feel like there's an angry witch in your mind, who will scream at you if something goes wrong, the problem is! Something might go wrong and you'd end up highlighting the idea that you are being forced to assume against something. Don't feel forced. Simple. (You can still use loa, if you like)
Declutter your mind.
I said it before. and @ilovecatfr explained this here, there's so much in your mind. I can tell. Each and everyone has their own unique spin on shifting. That's great and they put out advice to help people, similarly you... also have it within you. Afterall, these bloggers, big well written and decorated posts are the projection of your assumptions. I'd like to say, majority of the bloggers are kindhearted with the aim to help others. Although for some, you being desperate in their asks is an ego boost, nothing is wrong with feeling good about yourself for your knowledge, but you the person at the other end of this screen, are not a pawn, not just another anon, alright? you know how to shift, look back at what your answers were to the questions.
Control your emotions towards this reality.
I've always wanted to discuss this. Emotions are the puppeteers of this show. They're a grounding mechanism of any reality. If you feel something deeply, you're angry at circumstances you form an attachment to this reality, it keeps you here. Think about what happens to a person when they get disassociation. Similarly belief + emotional investment = reality. Its a code. I can confidently say anyone who has not shifted (... not targeting anyone, genuinely trying my best to help; ty ty back to the text) is because they're giving too much emotional importance to this reality. This can be in the form of stressing that you have not shifted, being worried that you're not in your dr, putting much focus on the "What ifs" of if you wake back in this reality.
But we can't just go BLANK. we're still humans who feel deeply (for now huehue) so what's the solution to this non-issue? Direct these feelings towards your destination, your intended reality! This would mean feeling like your dr self, if you're experiencing negative emotions you can last second convert them to any scenario related to your dr, emotional investment there pays well, here? It just wastes time.
Don't let feelings get the best of you and keep you here; you're their creator after all.
(Optional) Create a homey dr.
This comes from personal experiences. If I don't mention this I won't be completely open with each one of you. I shifted through intense love and reverence for my home. I knew that each and every second spent in this reality led up to me shifting to my home.
So for ease later on when you can't decide between drs, it'll be comforting to have a reality you can call home and choose over and over again.
Rewire.
This is where you come back to what you answered to the questions. Do you like your response? A human is living in a reality, and your answers are the universal law there. Will they have an easy time with shifting? If you think so, then choose to not do any "rewiring" and act upon the answers you wrote, shifting in accordance to them as they have become the pillars of your reality. If you think the person's reality's laws regarding shifting are complicated, then you can choose to rewire them. This can be a simple manifestation. As it has no basis in the 3D yet, you will manifest it within seconds. You can either write it down, listen to a subliminal, or simply think of the new beliefs in your head (eg "I shift in seconds") and let go. Stop.
(Severely optional) strive for spiritual awakenings
*shrugs* I thought I should mention based on personal experience.
During shifting.
Confuse your logical brain
You don't have to give it validation. Instead, just make it unable to predict the next move of it creator. Its built to look at everything with skepticism.. but it has nothing when you don't give it the chance. For example, the anti method by @hrrtshape is the best example. I like that you can do this, pre-method like a little warm up. (You can also manifest to not think logically)
Know your game
To act like you're in a battle field is not the way to shift. You don't have to give the actual practice of shifting much or any importance. You know how to shift, then why is there a need to have plan B's and checking your own environment? You are the commander in front, you're the one switching the reality, your reality is not the one switching.
Senses shift last
Explained by @stilljuststardust here.
Be blind and deaf to each and everything other than your intended reality
...and be so obsessed with your intended reality. Live out entire days, you're there, no, time is not passing by, the previous reality has disappeared by your hyperfixation on your intended reality. Ever done that exercise where you stare at a dot for so long, everything around it disappears? Well then, EXACTLY. Make it dissapear. Make it dissappear by not giving it any more of your energy. ....how I shifted. This is based upon being your dr self, that's snatches away the spotlight from this current reality.
Keep yourself comfortable
All of you are experienced enough to know, you don't need to lay in the starfish position. But remove the unnecessary thought that if you dare move your finger you might mess up the whole attempt (This is a subconsciousness belief) here's how to not worry about your 3D: again, senses shift last, Your current reality = intended reality.
It is about breaking free from human functions
Your software is set to being an earthly human. This is why acting like your current reality (the noises from the environment, physical annoyances) are from your intended reality, helps. This allows you to trick your human brain and move forward. The more you try to make sense of shifting, the more less it'll make sense. You don't have to know everything about shifting. The point is to be awfully natural about it. Just like how you wake up in this current reality without any requirement. You don't overthink it, then why overthink shifting.
Hope I cleared everything, I spent 5 hours on this post. If anything is not clear, please send in an ask, I am 100% avaliable to answer anything amiss.
Now let's see how much time I take to actually make this post aesthetically pleasing, so people don't have to bleach their eyes or ruin their blogs with this.
Dedicated to @lilyblairkinda who gave me this idea, once.
I genuinely don’t give a fuck whether shifting is real or not.
“what if it is fake and everything you’ve done is for nothing?”
“What if it actually is lucid dreaming?”
oh shit, what if? It’s real to me, so I don’t care. at least I’m out of whatever rathole I came from. this shit genuinely gave me a desire to live in a moment where I had none, and I wouldn’t stop myself from getting rid of myself. but that didn’t happen! and for that, I’m grateful because I experienced a lot of cool shit and met so many cool people. I grew to be someone I can tolerate, and I’ll continue to do so until i kick the bucket.
I’m glad my mind became more quiet when I stopped asking people if shifting is real and decided what it meant to me. Shifting became something I’m not ashamed of, just something that’s intimate. Not a secret but a hobby that is personally mine, something no one can ever take away from me. even if it wasn’t real, you can’t crush my dreams because they aren’t yours! And I think that’s beautiful.
