ReShade: General Troubleshooting Checklist
If you are experiencing problems with ReShade, please make sure you do the following before reporting issues:
Ensure you have this DirectX runtime: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=8109 (some on Windows 10 may not have it automatically) and that your system is otherwise up to date
Run TS4 as admin – this may be of particular importance for those using Windows 10 who install their games in Program Files, but is worth doing for everyone anyway; you will also need to run Origin as admin
Unzip all files using 7zip, not Winrar
Ensure all previous ReShade and/or SweetFX files are fully deleted from your Bin folder before you install new ones
If your game doesn’t open with ReShade installed, try renaming d3d9.dll to d3d11.dll or dxgi.dll – if neither of those work change it back to d3d9.dll for the remainder of your troubleshooting because that’s the one most likely to work (because TS4 is a directx9 game)
Try installing a different version of ReShade
If you experience mouse sensitivity options (e.g. spinning fast in CAS or in-game) turn off Origin In-Game: in Origin click on Origin in the top corner, and then on Application Settings. From there navigate to Origin In-Game and turn it off
Turn off Edge Smoothing in the TS4 graphics options if you want to use depth effects like MXAO and DoF
If using ReShade 3.1.1 and above make sure RESHADE_DEPTH_INPUT_IS_REVERSED is set to 0 in the Preprocessor Definitions box
Look through this troubleshooting thread on the ReShade forum, where almost all common technical issues are covered.
ReShade will not work on Mac or Linux unless you have a separate Windows partition for the game (this is because of how the dll works)
The majority of problems people have with ReShade are to do with faulty installation. Your first objective should be to ensure you have installed everything correctly, and some of the troubleshooting tips above should help with that. Don’t just assume you’ve installed it correctly; check, double check, and then check again. Uninstall it (delete the files you pasted into Bin), and then install it again from a fresh download. Always back up your files. The only person responsible for lost data is you.
After that, problems usually arise because the wrong dll is used, or is named incorrectly.
After that point, we start to get into murky waters, where problems can be traced back to individual issues with hardware set-ups, permissions, and so on. These can often be hard to trace because everybody’s PC configuration is utterly unique to them, even if they’ve bought it off the peg. On occasion a game’s own settings can be responsible, but they are usually well documented and other than edge smoothing disabling the depth buffer I know of none that impede the use of ReShade in TS4. That’s not to say they don’t exist, just that I don’t know of them.
I will always try to help as best I can, but without access to your computer there is going to be a limit to what I can do beyond going over the steps above. For further assistance you can go to the ReShade forums and read what issues other people have had in the past (likely not related to TS4) and see if it sheds any light on your specific problems. If you find no solution, consider making an account there and posting in the troubleshooting forum, but please be courteous and aware the forums are frequented by people who generally don’t play The Sims so they may not have insight into your particular issue and will likely assume at least a basic level of understanding about how ReShade works to begin with.
Edit: 2016-08-14 – added information about DirectX runtime
Edit: 2019-07-13 – added new information relating to newer versions of ReShade, and a link to a troubleshooting thread on the ReShade forum.