#<- the third to last ts3 expansion!!)

[hsslilly-blog]

heh.. i guess you could say im a GAMER

[justmiha97]

TS3, boderderless, new machines and FPS limit!!!

UPDATE 2.0 Except borderless gaming app and initial explanations, this guide is now OUTDATED!!! Read new guide HERE: https://justmiha97.tumblr.com/post/633811982604222464/another-way-to-limit-ts3-fps IMPOTANT!!! UPDATE FOR 1.69 GAME VERSION INSTALLATION!!!

Check down in step 4.a. for changes on how to do this properly. For people who renamed their files to:

Rename them back to: TS3.exe  to  3booter.exe TS3W.exe  to  TS3.exe TS3W.exe.backup  to  TS3W.exe

Original post:

I never knew I would be making this post till few hours back, but until now it wasn’t really much known that sims 3 in windowed mode could be run with FPS limit, which forced a lot of people to run the game in full screen. Recently a friend (find him here) and I discovered how to limit FPS for both 1.67 and 1.69 game versions in windowed mode.

Why is this important?

Well, on newer PC’s, ones with a GPU processing power that can easily render recent games, Sims 3 is expected to run exceedingly well... but because Sims 3 is so poorly designed/optimized on a technical level, there is a problem with that. Sims 3 has no FPS limitation, so on newer cards, FPS can get up to even 1k FPS which is INSANE. Personally I had from 500-700 FPS on loading screens myself. This means that: 1. Your card is being overworked and overheated and will be damaged 2. The in-game micro stutter that happens frequently is because the game constantly has short but extreme peaks in frame rate (from 60 - 600 FPS) This is why it’s desired to FPS limit TS3.exe or TS3W.exe!!!

What does windowed mode have to do with all of this?

It’s possible to limit your game FPS in full screen mode trough your graphic control panel application. Though for me it did not work, a lot of people report it working for them. Until now it wasn’t known that the same could be done for windowed mode, meaning users with high end PC running the game windowed were doomed to experience GPU crashes or even worse component death. Now however, a fix has been discovered.

But why would I want to run windowed then?

In full screen mode, game is rendered way darker, which is why EA just lazily slapped on a brightness filter, which makes the whole game brighter than it actually should be. This also means that screenshots of the game taken in full screen (unless they are taken with in-game screenshot feature, which is lower quality) are practically unusable since they are too dark.

When in full screen, the game goes out of memory faster, especially if you are alt tabbing (switching windows) a lot.

Ok, ok but how do I get rid of borders now?

That’s why this guide is here. For that you will need a third party borderless games application. You can find it here, but this will be detailed later in this step by step guide.

THE GUIDE

Before we start, if you want to have your games set up to run well, read trough and apply fixes from these guides:

-https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1131162350

-https://answers.ea.com/t5/Technical-Issues-PC/The-Sims-3-How-to-Minimize-Lag-and-Stabilize-the-Game/m-p/9647783

-https://twitter.com/crosimmer/status/1291882081191170048?s=21

They are all similar in nature but have their own additions to making the game run better. They are extremely helpful and effective. They even include guides on how to FPS limit the game in full screen if you want to keep playing the game that way. Also, be sure to read the last ( 7.) point in this guide as it is important and will determine if you even want to do this or not.

Now that that’s out of the way...

1. First thing to do is run the game and make sure that full screen is off. This is luckily easy to do. If it’s not off, turn it off in options:

2. Next, if you’ve applied FPS limit trough your graphic control application as advised by guides, make sure it’s disabled because it will interfere with this fix. 3. Once you are sure that it is disabled, get 3booter and FPSlimiter from this page: http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php?topic=15585.0 (files in first two posts) 4. Open both .zip archives and extract all their contents to: - C:/Program Files (x86)/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3/Game/Bin or -C:/Program Files x(86)/Origin Games/The Sims 3/Game/Bin or whatever your install location of the game is.

4.a. If your game version is 1.69 there is one more step here. Once the files are extracted, you will need to rename launcher like this: Sims3Launcher.exe  to  Launcher.exe And then download and extract this new launcher exe in the bin:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/18lMmkXBF_5sknVo0UvxbNp6h_JZu9z7E/view?usp=sharing

Rename it to Sims3Launcher.exe 5. Now that you have the fixes set up properly, you can run the game: - Trough 3booter.exe if you are on version 1.67 (feel free to make a shortcut) or - Trough new launcher, Sims3Launcher.exe, if you are on 1.69. Note that your shortcuts to game launcher will now point to this new launcher due to filename. If you want to use the old launcher, make a shortcut for Launcher.exe

6. BUT WAIT!!! What about that borderless thingy m’ bob? Well here comes that part of setting up windowed mode to look like it’s full screen. First you want to go to the link of the program, I’ll post it again for convenience: https://github.com/Codeusa/Borderless-Gaming/releases Then scroll down a bit and download this:

Once that’s downloaded, install it and run it, after you’ve ran the game in windowed mode. You will be greeted with this:

To have your game in borderless mode, add it to the list on the left by selecting your game name from the list. It will be the name of the last expansion you are running, with [TS3W] next to it ([TS3] if you haven’t installed FPS limiter on 1.69). After the game is selected, click the arrow

And your game will automatically turn into a full screen-like application. IMPORTANT!: DO NOT CLOSE borderless gaming app, only minimize it. It has to run at all times while your game is running or the game will stop being borderless. Make sure to set borderless gaming app to run on windows launch if you don’t want to bother reopening it every time you start your PC.

7. Final notes. (Still IMPORTANT) If you’ve gotten this far, congratulations, you are one patient simmer willing to put in effort to perfect your sims 3 game experience. Not everything can be perfect however, and there are some additional notes to take care of. - First, the FPS limiter program only limits the game to 30FPS. People who have had the game run at 60FPS might be disappointed by this. However the game already runs it’s animations at only 30FPS so there is no need for additional frames. However it’s still you choice. If you do see a difference with 60FPS and don’t want to change it, you can still run the game full screen with 60FPS graphics control limiter. -Second, if you are NOT experiencing FPS higher than 60 in any part of the game (even load screens and main menu), there is no need to install this fix. However be vary that whenever you change hardware, especially GPU, you might need to take care of this. -Third and final, as a side note, there is a program that lets you unpark your CPU cores for that final addition of sims 3 smooth experience. This is completely OPTIONAL. Here is the program’s page (scroll all the way down for download): https://coderbag.com/product/quickcpu To set it up to unpark all cores you just have to do this

And click Apply.

FINALLY DONE?

Yes, yes. Finally done. That’s it Folks. Have fun with your games and good luck simming! And thanks to crosims for helping me out get this working on 1.69.

[ice-creamforbreakfast]

I literally play every expansion + stuff in ts3 with 12gb of CC... absolutely no issues. lmao.

Ikr? So do I :) It get that some of the gurus may not have worked on TS3, but if they’re going to talk about it, especially if they’re going to diss it, they really need to know what they’re talking about! Being able to pick and choose which expansions to run without uninstalling each time (without third party programs) wasn’t even an option until the last couple of years, so most of us have been playing all packs quite happily!

[antagonistchanremade]

Okay, so, I keep forgetting that the existence of Sims Canon isn’t common knowledge, so I’ll explain a little about what the post was saying, since it does actually bring up some interesting points and it makes me sad that most people can only respond to it with, “Wait, Sims has a canon?”

If you’ve played the Sims even remotely more than casually, the fact that there is a canon becomes immediately obvious, but not too obvious, and it’s pretty easy to ignore once you notice it exists. I’ve seen people compare it to the Dark Souls lore that way, since so many people don’t know much about it (ironically, I’ve never played the games but know quite a bit about the lore thanks to @aqours​ ). The canon mostly exists in the pre-existing Sims who already populate the world before you start playing, and mostly exists as a setup to whatever you do with them. You can play as them, or you can make your own Sims, but even if you do that your Sims are still gonna interact with the premade Sims. The canon takes the form of the existing homes, relationships, memories, and biographies of the pre-existing Sims. In Sims 2 onwards, there’s a function to take screenshots and view them, and in Sims 2 (but not onwards, unless I just haven’t found it), the premade Sims actually already have a few screenshots built in to show their histories.

And, of course, the timeline. TS2 takes place 25 years after TS1, and TS3 takes place 25 years before TS1. If you’re intimately familiar with all three games, the timeline becomes immediately obvious, primarily due to the Goth family, the closest thing the Sims has to main characters. In TS1, the Goth family consists of the adult Mortimer, his adult wife Bella, and their child daughter Cassandra (an expansion pack adds Mortimer’s elderly parents Gunther and Cornelia). In TS2, it consists of an elderly Mortimer, an adult Cassandra, and Mortimer and Bella’s second child, Alexander. Bella went missing, more on that in a bit. And then in TS3, it consists of the child Mortimer and the adults Gunther and Cornelia; and also, there’s Mortimer’s best friend, Bella Bachelor. TS4, meanwhile, is an AU, I think because Maxis finally realized that the “continuity” aspect was silly since, well, while you’re playing TS3 you can have your Sim seduce Cornelia away after Mortimer dies in a house fire, but then in TS1 Cornelia is happily married to Gunther and Mortimer’s just fine, so..... yeah. So, in TS4, they tried to get the best possible version of the Goth family: adult Mortimer and Bella, teenage Cassandra, and child Alexander.

Now, onto the Supernaturals/Occults/Life States. In the various Sims games, there are various supernatural creatures that your Sims can become. In TS1, that was limited to just ghosts, zombies, and magic users. TS2 and onwards, however, have had several, one of the more notable ones being aliens. It’s also worth noting, and this plays into what the post was saying, that Ghosts are a lot more complex in TS3 and TS4 than TS1 or TS2- Ghosts in TS1/2 are non-controllable and even non-interactable shadows of their past selves that do little but float around causing occasional trouble. In TS3 and TS4, they’re full Sims. Considering the timeline, you could make the argument, much as this post does with the aliens, that Ghost Rights got severely restricted between TS3 and TS1.

Anyways. Back to the main point.

The Sims 2 was probably the most interesting of the Sims games in the lore department, possibly because it starts out with three towns, one of which is based on soap operas (Pleasantview), another of which is based on alien stuff like Roswell/Area 51 legends and shows like the X-Files (Strangetown), and the third of which is based on god damn Shakespeare (Veronaville). Those are all setups ripe for narrative possibilities. And the Goths... involve both Pleasantview and Strangetown.

As I said, Bella went missing sometime between TS1 and TS2. The Goth family biography says that Bella was last seen “scaling the deck of Don Lothario’s house”. It’s worth noting that Don Lothario is also Cassandra’s fiance, and he’s cheating on her with the local sexy maid and the Caliente sisters, one of whom is also dating Mortimer for his money. They live in Pleasantview, the town based on soap operas, if it wasn’t obvious.

Now, the obvious implication is that Bella was abducted by aliens, since they’re a part of the base game (most supernatural beings are only added in expansion packs), and they generally only abduct people who are looking through telescopes, and he does have a telescope on his deck. Also, Don has a memory of being rejected for a makeout by Bella.

There’s a Missing Person ad on every milk carton in the game for Bella, and a couple other easter eggs about her disappearance, and also, if you play around in Strangetown long enough... you’ll encounter Bella as an NPC with amnesia. Nothing much actually comes of this since TS2 was the last entry chronologically, and there’s no in-game story, the “canon” is all setup for everything that’s happened until now, but she’s there if you look hard enough.

And also, there are playable aliens. In Strangetown, there’s the Smith family, whose patriarch is obviously an alien. He’s got green skin and big black eyes... and his name is Pollination Technician Smith. Not “he’s Smith, the Pollination Technician”; rather, Pollination Technician is his first name. He used to be one of those aliens who abducts people, but he’s retired and “settled down on his favorite planet” with his human wife Jenny and their half-human-half-alien children. And PT Smith has a rivalry with General Buzz Grunt, the local, well, general. Buzz’s problem with PT is clearly the fact that he’s just a straight-up alien and not even hiding it.

And also, the question of “What does Pollination Technician even mean?”

Well, when a female Sim gets abducted by aliens, nothing much happens; a few in-game hours later, the Sim gets returned unchanged. MALE Sims, however, come back a few hours later... pregnant. With an alien-human hybrid child.

The Caliente sisters, Nina and Dina, were born the normal way... but their dad, Flamenco, was born from one of these abductions, making them 1/4 alien. You can’t actually tell physically, they look completely human (as did Flamenco, despite being half-alien, since alien genetics aren’t that different from human genetics so all the alien-y traits are just genes that can be dominant or recessive), but it’s in their family tree, and one can assume that people around town know about it.

And finally, let’s get into the Aspirations. Aspirations are a mechanic in both TS2 and TS4, but they’re very different and honestly kinda inconsequential in TS4 so let’s ignore them. They’re actually pretty fascinating in TS2, but mostly for how the fandom interpreted them. In TS2, there are 8 Aspirations that dictate the general desires your Sim has- Grow Up (exclusively for children and toddlers), Family (Sims who want to have lots of kids and be close to their relatives), Popularity (Sims who want to have ALL the friends), Fortune (Capitalists), Romance (Thots), Pleasure (Sims just wanna have fun), Grilled Cheese (only happens if a Sim seriously fucks up trying to mind control themself, obsessed with Grilled Cheese), and Knowledge (NERDS). Knowledge Sims tend to be the most open-minded about trying new things, always eager to have a new experience. Most Sims fear seeing ghosts, but Knowledge Sims crave those encounters. Knowledge Sims even have a deep-seated desire to die and get resurrected, just so that they’ll know what happens after they die. And Knowledge Sims are also the only ones who want to get abducted by aliens.

So, the military hates aliens, and Bella’s disappearance was most likely caused by aliens, and Nina and Dina are part-alien and romantically involved with the last person Bella was last seen with and only arrived in town on the eve of her disappearance... yeah, there’s a big part of what this post is getting at. OP is saying that the reason people don’t trust Nina and Dina is because of their anti-alien prejudice and the situation at hand (as well as the fact that the government is probably playing up the alien situation).

What she says: I’m fine.

What she means: it’s been stated several times in sims canon that supernaturals and non-sim creatures are a known part of sims society. If that’s the case there are some troubling implications to the sims universe. In the sims 3 which is a prequel to the first two games, we see several types of supernaturals freely living among the general population. It seems that there are some discimatory laws in place that won’t allow werewolves to travel internationally it seems like a fairly supernatural positive society. Why is it then that the sims 1 (which canonically happens 25 years after the events of ts3) relegates all supernaturals to Magic Town and has strict laws governing magic usage outside of ones own home or outside of Magic town? Additionally only witches are allowed to live outside of this area. Are other supernaturals being made to live outside of city limits? It’s not because they’re being made to keep their magic usage secret since upon entering the neighborhood each family is given a magic kit, so why? We’re told in The Sims 3 that the sim nation military has recently become aware if alien existance in a news paper story and are planning some sort of action. Could it be that this developed into a full blown conflict in 25 years and simnations populace became xenophobic and suspicious of all non-sim creatures? Is that why everyone finds Dina and Nina so suspicious after Bella’s disapperance? Is it that bias rearing it’s ugly head? We know that there’s still a culture of discrimination and distrust due to PT and General Buzz’s relationship. And why is Bella’s disappearance being so focused on? She’s on EVERY milk carton. Might it be that Bella’s disappearance is only being so widely publicized in an attempt further manipulate public opinion against the supernaturals? Every sim fears supernaturals in ts2 besides knowledge sims.... What aren’t we being told?