#graphicsrules

[confusedsheriff]

Yet Another Graphicsrules.sgr Edit

Throughout the years, I saw many edits to this file, but I was never satisfied because it was never to my liking: like GPU-Addon, no-glow version, or high quality shadows, Phantom99 version; had to choose either one or another. Another reason I am making this because in a Discord server, different blogs and social medias, there were many simmers who had problems making their game recognise GPU and GPU memory, game not opening etc. One day, I got hold of the file from MacOS version 1.70, which had "improvements" in comparison to the version Steam/Discs/EA app had, then I also checked TS4 version of the file and made this ultimate one. This replaces every other mod that edits this file and can't be used with them. Gonna stop rambling and actually give you changelog of what I did:

MacOS base changes:

Updates CPU checks (INTEL ONLY) and adds a new CPU check.

Adds a check for Radeon cards with "555X" in the name (used in 2018 MacBook Pro 15" models).

Added a check for Intel Iris and removed RenderShadow mode 4 (probably outdated?).

Adds a new GPU check above GPU Uber. GPU memory check added for Uber Level cards.

If the GPU is not matched and found, it will default as found, matched, and supported.

Added RAM uber level.

Updates detection for High General Reflections.

Updates to AntiAliasing or Edge Smoothing, with new check logic.

Updates the detection check for the Tree Quality option on the Very High setting.

Updates the map view clip plane distance and replaces it with lower quality.

Disables Post-Processing completely. (in community known as no-glow mod)

Additional improvements:

Post-Processing can be enabled in Options.ini (recommended if you use, or plan to use, LazyDuchess shader tweaks, or if you use lighting mods that fix the in-game bloom effect). postprocessing = 0 for disabled and postprocessing = 1 for enabled

Changed so that the maximum number of active slots is 4 on Windows, since the game is not 64-bit on Windows, and the default setting of 8 was left on the MacOS platform (the logic check on that was 'broken').

Telemetry, Store ads, interactive loading screens, tutorials, intro tutorials, and online notifications (aka constant notification pop-up), and pop-up asking to enable edge scrolling and to log in to an account are disabled by default, which can be enabled again in Options if you want it back.

Witches, horses, fairies, werewolves, vampires are turned off by default to help with performance, but can be checked again in Settings at any time.

I tweaked the map view clip plane, because the changes from macOS made it worse; I kept the better version on Medium and High.

Changed the OS overhead penalty from -400 MHz (dual-core HT only) to -200 MHz (all CPUs) on Windows Vista and later. Removed the outdated Pentium 4 HT bias.

Fixed the Animation Smoothing option (it never worked originally, as it was always forced to be true).

Texture memory fallback now scales with RAM level (256/512/768/896/1024 MB) instead of the fixed 32MB.

Made changes to draw distance so that they scale correctly at low, medium and high, hopefully improving performance. Each setting now properly adjusts exponent, zoom and culling values (low culls more aggressively and high renders more).

AMD GPUs now have better graphics (EA gave AMD users worse graphics), and fixing this also resolves issues that shader tweaks did to AMD users.

Disabled full-screen mode by default. Users with hiDPI monitors experienced a problem when they first ran the game, which caused it to be minimised and not open, this fixes it.

Shadow quality can now be adjusted in options.ini file (up to 8192).

Future plans: integrate PseudoResolution logic like TS4 does (it's available, but not used in GraphicsRules), think back on new texture memory fallback logic, add option for users to enable HQMod in Options.ini instead of manually editing GraphicsRules.sgr, give optional tuning that tweaks aging and seasons, making them in correlation to sim-pregnancy, which is basically 4 sim days – 1 year). – Yes, aging and season settings are also mentioned in this file, additional optional tweaks that one doesn't have to edit in Settings every time they update GPU drivers and Settings reset to default.

Download: SFS

To make this work correctly you have to delete Options.ini from your Documents/The Sims 3 folder. Make sure to back up your aging/seasons settings either by taking in-game settings screenshots of those or by copying values from Options.ini. Works with all game versions, possibly The Sims Medieval too.

Your feedback is appreciated. Any changes that I should make? Any problems you encountered? Let me know in comments.

[pixelpfote]

I hope to be back for a while at least. 😊

I was thinking where to start after my short break. 😅 I think I’ll create the two sliders on my wip list first. This time I’ve also motivation for some story telling and adding/removing some sims and maybe also skipping some time in game.

First of all I saw by chance that some people have adjusted their GraphicsRules.sgr file and added their graphic card to GraphicsCards.sgr while I was looking for a lighting mode.

I found this article on reddit. Now, Sims is able to recognise my graphic card and is able to use the RAM of it too - yippii. With the tips from Equus Sims I noticed a huge impact in the quality of my human sims (though most tips were already added in the file from the first article). The face and foremost eye textures look much sharper than before - that’s amazing. 🥳 I’m exciting to see if the dogs will also look a little better with these settings. I’m also excited for the general changes for taking pics (and maybe also trying some gameplay after years) because I started using nvidia instead of reshade. Finally, I decided myself to add Nilxis lighting mode to my game. I’m super excited for all those environment improvements in all those worlds. The things I saw look preeeetty good! 😍

Btw. I think everything started with this article. I haven’t known that but it makes a lot of sense...!

[confusedsheriff]

I have updated my edit of GraphicsRules.sgr to version 2.0, and the following things are changed:

Removed leftover post-processing code.

TextureMemory now falls back more gracefully, based on RAM. High-end GPUs receive a maximum of 1GB texture memory—allocating more is pointless, since the game can't use it. (Source - PuzzleAddict has been a memorable member of the TS3 community and helped a lot of players, and I trust him more than I trust myself. If someone can prove otherwise, I am willing to change this setting). Older systems (pre-2010) used 32MB or less, but all modern iGPUs (Intel UHD, AMD Vega/RDNA) default to 128MB minimum.

The login pop-up before entering a save is now properly disabled.

Celebrities are now unticked by default. This won't affect existing saves or new saves that already contain celebrities, it only prevents random celebrity status from being assigned to Sims who didn't have it. Worlds with built-in celebrities (Bridgeport, Barnacle Bay, Hidden Springs, etc.) are unaffected. - Iqbal Alvi, no more 5 star celebrity for you!

Added new settings in Options.ini: PauseOnLoad and BetterDynamicAvoidance. See ConfigurableOptions.txt for configuration details.

Attempted fix for the animation smoothing bug caused the bug where the game ran at high FPS while paused, but dropped frames during gameplay. EA forced this setting to always be enabled, even when unticked in game - as a workaround instead of fixing the underlying issue. In a previous versions, I made off actually off and on actually on without knowing about the bug, so this release reverts to EA's default behaviour. If anyone has an idea for a useful feature that could repurpose the in-game animation smoothing toggle, let me know.

Restored Max Active Lots to its original values - you can now select up to 8 active lots again. (I recommend playing with lower values, max at 4, or use S3SS with Optimized Lot Streaming Setting). The download link can be found on the original mod page.

[confusedsheriff]

I released a small update to my edited version of GraphicsRules.sgr today and you can download it from the original Tumblr post --- It didn't recognise GPUs properly in some cases and the logic condition wasn't accounting for users who had already added their GPUs to GraphicsCards.sgr

[confusedsheriff]

Hey again! I’ve been trying out your GraphicsRules edit and I’m really curious about the behavior you had in mind for it. I noticed something pretty odd on my end: the game didn’t recognize my card (RX 6650 XT) at all or its dedicated VRAM, so the game defaulted to texture memory scaling based on RAM

It did load smoothly, but the fallback thing makes me wonder if I’m missing something or if this is just TS3 being TS3 with modern hardware 😅

Also, I was reading posts from another simmer who’s been experimenting with your edit, she mentioned smoother movement and zooming but a noticeably shorter draw distance, and that pulling back too far makes objects fully disappear. She tweaked the draw distance in options.ini afterward, so I’m guessing some setups need extra manual tuning?

So I wanted to ask:

– Is this VRAM detection issue expected on certain cards, or is it something that might change in a future version? – Do you think there could be a “v2” with options for users whose systems have more resources, like allowing more than 4 active lots again, or presets with longer draw distance out of the box? – And for people whose GPUs don’t get detected automatically, is there something specific we should tweak to avoid the RAM fallback or improve VRAM recognition?

I’m super interested in how all this works under the hood, especially now that so many of us play on hardware that TS3 was never designed for! Thanks again for sharing such a technical improvement, it’s wild that this file still has so much hidden potential!

Hey, sorry for the late response. I didn't notice it at first.

I made an update after you wrote to me which should fix the issue you had with GPU recognition.

Basically, if you had a custom GraphicsCards.sgr that added your GPU to that file, it would cause my file to not trigger the response to automatically set the GPU as recognized.

How I had it set initially: if your GPU was in GraphicsCards.sgr, a variable called isCardFound in the rules file would fail the check I added (which was: if GPU not in GraphicsCards.sgr AND not matched in GraphicsRules.sgr, return values). I've changed it to OR instead of AND, so if either condition triggers, it returns the values as matched, found, supported, and sets cardlevelUber (5).

I didn't encounter any issues with Draw Distance changes. I'd need more info about that.

I'm returning max active lots to 8 after someone messaged me, since it's better to give options for those who want it. But I wouldn't recommend it above 4 at all. It causes too much lag at higher levels.

I think we could technically push it beyond 8, but why? I play with the setting at 2-3, and even at Sunset Valley park while panning the view, I had completely loaded bookstore/cinema, pool, school, and maybe art gallery. It seemed pointless to render those lots fully loaded when my sims aren't even on them. Just causes more strain on the already broken game.

I'm changing it so it defaults to 1, but users can set it higher if they want, up to 8.

My method checks GPU VRAM first, then falls back to my defaults if detection fails (which it usually does). This avoids forcing high values on lower-end systems. You're not missing anything; it will function the same.

I recommend reading the reply from puzzleaddict on the Nraas website for more info on that.

[ahinana]

Jak skonfigurować ustawienia graficzne w The Sims 2 dla nowszych komputerów

Z racji, że gra The Sims 2 jest dosyć starą grą użytkownicy komputerów z nowszym systemem operacyjnym mają problem z poprawnym wyświetlaniem gry. Przedstawiam mini poradnik konfiguracji ustawień graficznych

The Sims 2 nie posiada w swojej bazie danych informacji o nowych kartach graficznych, zatem trzeba ‘powiedzieć’ grze jakie możliwości ma nasz komputer.

Zwykle po zainstalowaniu gry mamy do dyspozycji bardzo ograniczone ustawienia graficzne jeżeli chodzi o rozdzielczość ekranu, ekran dziwnie miga przy poruszaniu, brzegi są zdeformowane, a pod simami pojawia się czarny prostokąt. 

LINK DO PROGRAMU GRAPHIC RULES MAKER, KTÓRY WYKONA KONFIGURACJE PLIKU GRAPHIC RULES 

! W zależności od posiadanej karty graficznej trzeba zmodyfikować, lub podmienić w plikach gry plik GraphicsRules. Plik znajduje się w lokalizacji na dysku

dla wersji płytowej \EA\The Sims 2 - \TSData\Res\Config\ \EA\The Sims 2 - \TSData\Res\CSConfig\

Dla wersji Ultimate z Origin: \Origin Games\Fun with Pets\SP9\TSData\Res\Config\ \Origin Games\Fun with Pets\SP9\TSData\Res\CsConfig\ 

Dla karty graficznej: Nvidia - link  radeon - link intel - link

W przypadku laptopów z dwiema kartami graficznymi trzeba wybrać na jakiej ma gra chodzić. Do otworzenia pliku wystarczy kliknąć na nim prawym przyciskiem myszy i otworzyć za pomocą programu tekstowego (notatnik, wordpad). Wszystkie pliki po edycji należy zapisać!!! z zachowaniem ich dotychczasowego rozszerzenia, Na początku pliku ustawić domyślne ustawienia graficzne - niskie, średnie i wysokie - by w każdym ustawieniu brało maksymalne. W zaznaczonym miejscu zmienić 1 i 2 przy Low i Medium na 3.

Domyślnie rozdzielczość maksymalna ustawiona jest 1600x1200, dla uzyskania innej trzeba edytować dokument w zaznaczonym miejscu,

przykładowo dla rozdzielczości 1920x1080: setting $High            uintProp maxResWidth      1920      uintProp maxResHeight     1080          uintProp defaultResWidth      1920      uintProp defaultResHeight     1080

Do usunięcia efektu czarnego “dywanu” w tym samym pliku należy upewnić się, że cienie są ustawione na minimum/wyłączone

Dodatkowo polecam wrzucić do gry mod Shadow Fix 

Jeżeli brzegi wyglądają tak:

 należy udać się do lokalizacji

\Documents\EA Games\The Sims™ 2 Ultimate Collection\Logs

gdzie znajduje się plik o nazwie nazwa robocza komputera-config-log.txt, otworzyć w edytorze tekstu, zjechać na sam dół i w zaznaczonym miejscu zmienić true na false

Efekt końcowy

[boolmcpants]

GAHABLLAAAH

So I really miss my HQ mod from #aWT, I can't use it though, I deleted all of my mods when Seasons was corrupt and once I had gotten everything working I went to go and download the HQ mod. It says to unzip and run the program. So I tried doing that and I got "Somehow the application cold not find "GraphicsRules" in your game directory. Application is now terminated". Someone in the comments said to run the program as admin so I did and it still didn't work. My GraphicsRules is where it's supposed to be so I'm not sure what's wrong with it. Does anyone else have this issue?