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Slamyy
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#1 Old 12th Jul 2022 at 2:35 AM Last edited by Slamyy : 12th Jul 2022 at 2:48 AM.

This user has the following games installed:

Sims 3, World Adventures, Ambitions, Late Night, Generations, Pets, Showtime, Supernatural, Seasons, University Life, Island Paradise, Into the Future
Default Need Help With Graphics Issues (Win 11 + Alder Lake + AMD)
I have finally installed TS3 on my new desktop and having some graphics issues: screen tearing, bad reflections and pixelated shadows.
Screen tearing is the usual horizontal cut that appears when moving the camera.
Screenshots showing the bad reflections on the water and mirrors:

Screenshots showing the pixelated shadows:


My system specs summary:


What have I done so far?
- Installed the base game, updated it to 1.67 using SuperPatcher then installed the packs (all except Katy Perry, Diesel and Movie SPs). (Everything is from disc copies.)
- Applied LazyDuchess' Alder Lake Patch on TS3W.exe in the base game folder since the game doesn't start without it.
- Edited the GraphicsCards and GraphicsRules files to add my video card and increase texture memory.
- Set the TS3W.exe to run as admin.
- From Windows Graphics settings, set the TS3W.exe to "High performance".
- In the AMD software, enabled Frame Rate Target Control to set max FPS to 60. (Global Settings)
- In the AMD software, for TS3W.exe, enabled Vsync, Triple Buffering and AMD FreeSync.
- Tried deleting The Sims 3 folder in the Documents.
- Currently only got the basic mod framework with the NoBuildSparkles and nointro, didn't put any other mods in there yet.
- Only loaded the vanilla Sunset Valley and screenshots are from there.
- In the AMD software, tried turning on/off Super Resolution, Anti-Lag, Enhanced Sync, Vsync, Triple Buffering and FreeSync. Here are my settings:


More info:
- In-game graphics settings are all maxed except for High Detailed Lots. Screen Refresh Rate set to 60 Hz. Resolution is set to 2560x1440 while my monitor is 4k. Animation Smoothing and Advanced Rendering is enabled.
- AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition 22.5.1 Driver Version 21.50.21.11 (Latest recommended for RX 6600 XT)
- In my monitor's OSD menu, AMD FreeSync is enabled.
- On my Win 10 laptop with AMD R9 M265X, I also had the tearing and shadow problems. I managed to fix the shadows by editing the RenderShadowMode and ShadowMapForce lines as instructed here. However, this time on my desktop it didn't fix the issue.
Also on my laptop, I fixed the tearing by disabling fullscreen optimizations from TS3W.exe>Properties>Compatibility. Again, it didn't help this time.
Reflections were working fine on my laptop.
- The system doesn't seem to be straining while running the game; nothing's overheating, utilization is normal and graphics card fans doesn't even need to run. Both Afterburner and in-game FPS display show a steady 60.
- I know the usual advice for screen tearing is running the game in windowed mode but that seems to strain the system a little bit and there is an extremely visible FPS drop, even though the meters still show 60.

Thanks in advance to anyone who's willing to help
Feel free to necro if it's still not solved!
Screenshots
Slamyy
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#3 Old 12th Jul 2022 at 10:22 PM
Quote: Originally posted by nitromon
Similar to this? https://modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=659635

you can try following the info here to get your GPU recognized:

https://modthesims.info/showthread....d=1#post4782510

If that doesn't work, you're out of luck.

And yes, even if you got it recognized through other tutorial and methods, please redo it using the one I provided above.


That didn't make a difference unfortunately.
I'll try WineD3D for Windows.
(And yeah that's the exact same reflection problem. Turns out a common problem that even TS4 players experience.)
Slamyy
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#4 Old 13th Jul 2022 at 11:57 AM
I tried WineD3D for Windows. (Suggested by WolvesCreek here. )
It fixed the reflections and tearing!!!
HOWEVER:
Game is now kinda laggy. Especially while moving the camera, there appears to be visible FPS drops. Curiously during this the FPS value doesn't seem to drop much, mostly shows 59-60. Also CPU and GPU usage is normal.
Again I tried to turn on/off various settings in the AMD software but didn't help.
Even tried lowering the game resolution and turning down the in-game graphics settings, still no good.

Also the shadows are still pixelated. Any shadow cast on a sim looks smooth while shadows on other surfaces are jagged.
Slamyy
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#6 Old 15th Jul 2022 at 10:44 AM
I tried with the Smooth Patch and it's so much better now! Also somehow it made the FPS drops visible on the indicators! It's still not perfect, especially when moving the cam near a lot FPS drops a lot but in general it's near 50-60.

Quote: Originally posted by nitromon
What do you mean visible FPS drop but FPS value doesn't drop? Seems to contradict. Unless you are saying you "feel" the FPS drop but the indicator doesn't show it? If that is the case, what you're looking at is intermitten pulse lag, which is being missed by the FPS indicator.


Yeah, I was trying to tell how it feels. Because there was no lag in terms of gameplay actions like sims performing a task or menus appearing. While the game was paused and I was moving the camera across the world, a lot or even just a room, the camera was stuttering. Those FPS drops were so severe that I was getting headaches so it was definitely unplayable.

Quote: Originally posted by nitromon
Have you made the changes suggested above? The reason is, if you are using AMD/ATI GPU, there are a lot of triggers in the configuration. Most tutorials out there do not fully trigger them. The tutorial I provided will trigger them properly. One of which is for shadow mode.

Btw, I'm not entirely sure? But I looked through a lot of my screenshots. Some screenshots the outdoor shadow is smooth, while others are not. I think it is also affected by the temperature in the game. Like summer seasons, you get that summer heat wave, which distorts the shadows. It's just a guess.


Yes, like you wrote, I changed the device code in the GraphicsCards.sgr so that it would get detected as HD 7900. It didn't help. After that I got WineD3D and I think now because of that the DeviceConfig.log shows HD 5600. I don't think that's a problem though cuz in the GraphicsRules, just like HD 7900, it is listed in the "RenderShadowMode 2" condition. Also in "DisallowL16RTT 1" condition (dunno if it's related tho).
Differently, HD 5600 is accepted for "DontUsePerlinNoise 1". Probably not related to shadows but should I set it to 0?
As en extra, I changed "ShadowMapForceDF16Available 1" with "ShadowMapAllowNullColor 1".

As for the heat wave thing, that's not the cause. I tried setting the season to winter and let it snow and shadows were same.
Slamyy
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#7 Old 14th Oct 2022 at 7:17 AM
UPDATE: Latest optional AMD driver solved the reflection issues! (Using 22.10.1 now.) So I got rid of WineD3D, which brought back screen tearing but enabling Radeon Enhanced Sync and running the game in Windows 7 compatibility mode seems to have fixed that too.
Camera stuttering/FPS drops seem to have been reduced as well. The game is mostly smooth on QHD res right now.
Only remaining issue is the pixelated shadows but the game is definitely playable for me now, thanks for your help @nitromon !
KiraNettt
Field Researcher
#9 Old 20th Oct 2022 at 1:16 PM
I heard that's an issue which AMD itself... I have pixaleted shadows too and couldnt fix it... and Read other people with AMD have that too
Slamyy
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#10 Old 21st Oct 2022 at 2:15 AM
Quote: Originally posted by nitromon
Wow... this is from July. They took that long to update the driver? Well I'm glad at least they did fix it.

Btw the shadows not being smooth... the screenshot you provided above is on asphalt road. Is it still unsmooth on smooth surfaces? Again, I think it is normal. I never really paid that much attention to shadows. I also use a shadow mod which makes it move and track with the sun.

Seems like it got fixed a lot earlier but I just recently noticed it: https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Repor...ht/true#M222871

The second screenshot that's in nighttime shows the jagged shadows on wooden floor.

I'm not sure how smooth the shadows should be normally though. Here's a mod that increases the resolution of shadows: https://www.tumblr.com/sims3-mods/1...s-in-the-sims-3 I haven't used this mod but I'm adding this here as a possible reference on how the original shadows should look. It seems like the shadows are pixelated by default. I don't know if this is the case for everyone though, can anyone confirm that they have better looking outdoor shadows than mine?
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