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Inventor
#26 Old 29th Aug 2020 at 4:44 AM
Quote: Originally posted by HarVee
That's great and all Naus, but how does one clean their saves?


You open the .nhd file with S3PE and start deleting useless stuff, mostly the SNAP resources. The game will regenerate them next time you load the save, but only the ones you're currently using. ICON resources are pretty useless too.

It can happen after 2 or 3 generations that your save gets so bloated that even deleting those resources won't help. At that point, I use NRaas Porter to pack my household and their (dead) relatives/friends and I move them to a clean version of that world or a different world (more likely the latter). There probably is a way to debloat those older save files, but I don't know how. There's a ton of resources in our saves that are identified as UNKN, so who knows if some of those could be safely deleted (they also tend to be the largest resources if sorted by filesize).
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Mad Poster
#27 Old 29th Aug 2020 at 6:10 AM
I figured the ICON resources were useless. I always delete them from CC packages that have them. As far as I can tell they're not used anywhere in-game and don't affect the functionality of the CC.

I also delete thumbnails from CC packages too since I like the game's generated previews better. I never thought to delete them [SNAP thumbnails] from my saves though. It's a good thing to know.

Because the earth is standing still, and the truth becomes a lie
A choice profound is bittersweet, no one hears Cassandra Goth cry

Mad Poster
#28 Old 30th Aug 2020 at 4:07 AM
Always annoys me how much time the game needs to rerender textures and thumbnails. I still remember the days when TS3 was at its worst and would need 30+ seconds to load in all the textures on a lot. I clearly need to get this memory usage down though. It's 5AM and I'm in a mood. Creatively speaking, this is the absolute best time possible to be playing TS3.

insert signature here
( Join my dumb Discord server if you're into the whole procrastination thing. But like, maybe tomorrow. )
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#29 Old 2nd Sep 2020 at 2:07 PM
So 3 of the RTX 3000 series cards have been announced and set to be released to the public on September 17th, 24th, and sometime in October. The 3080 looks very promising to me but I know better than to pre-order it without seeing performance benchmarks first.

My question is how will these new cards affect the Sims 3. We all know that the Sims 3 don't really benefit really high-end modern cards due to it lacking a frame rate cap and at a certain point the high frame rate doesn't matter, but GDDR6X? RTX IO? Would they play a part? Can they even play a part?

Who knows if this new architecture is even compatible, is what I'm both thinking and saying.

Oh c'mon. There better be a point to all this stress I'm under.
Test Subject
#30 Old 18th Sep 2020 at 4:53 AM
I have an RTX 2070 Super, which isn't a 3000 series of course. But it runs fine for me. I still had to do the fixes for memory, and making it recognize the card, but I haven't had issues. I'm assuming the card will run the game the same as any card since the 900 series. I may be wrong, but I don't think TS3 even cares about anything above 2 gigs of VRAM. I personally would not upgrade my card or CPU at this point for TS3, it's so limited by being a 32-bit application that was badly optimized even during it's lifecycle. I can't imagine the game will be able to take advantage of any new features of those cards.
I have a Ryzen 7 2700x, and I've noticed a huge performance boost from unparking my CPU. Merging CC makes a big difference for me as well. And since I like generation-based gameplay I stick to smaller worlds.
Only thing I've had improve drastically is my load times between this beefier system and my old laptop. And I think that's credited mostly to the SSD. It really is such a shame that this game is stuck in 32-bit hell. If it were able to truly utilize current-gen tech, it would run so well.
Inventor
#31 Old 18th Sep 2020 at 5:21 AM
Quote: Originally posted by dockamorpher
I personally would not upgrade my card or CPU at this point for TS3, it's so limited by being a 32-bit application that was badly optimized even during it's lifecycle.


I can only speak from my own experience, but upgrading my CPU from a i5-4690K to a Ryzen 5 3600X made a huge difference. My loading times halved, Create-A-Style that used to lag occasionally doesn't lag at all anymroe, and the game runs considerably faster. Speed 4 goes faster than I ever thought possible in The Sims 3. So I can see how as CPUs get faster and faster (especially as their clock speed increases above 5Ghz), The Sims 3 will be able to reap the benefits of that extra performance.

As for the rest... I don't think The Sims 3 engine will be able to use the additional GPU power. But what I can see how you could use reshade or other post-processing injectors to add insane effects (I saw this the other day on reddit).

As for The Sims 3 being badly optimized... debatable. Could've been better optimized? Certainly. But there was only so much they could do without having to port the entire game to a 64-bit engine. The Sims 3 was just too ambitious for its own good.
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#32 Old 18th Sep 2020 at 7:49 PM
Quote: Originally posted by dockamorpher
I personally would not upgrade my card or CPU at this point for TS3, it's so limited by being a 32-bit application that was badly optimized even during it's lifecycle. I can't imagine the game will be able to take advantage of any new features of those cards.

Well obviously there's no need to have a top of the line high-end gaming computer just to run only TS3, that would truly be a waste of money. If you wanted a computer for the sole purpose of playing TS3 I'd tell you to pick up a Ryzen 5 3600X or an i5-9600K if you prefer Intel even though the R5 is better, and then I'd tell you to grab a 1050 Ti and build your system around that. But my curiosity about the topic of high-end hardware running TS3 was mostly directed towards people like me who will be using their very modern machines to play other games in addition to TS3, and these games more often than not are AAA games. I do wonder in the future if the Sims 3 will still be popular to the point where there will be those who have what the future considers a retro system in addition to what the future considers a modern system.

Which isn't to say that there aren't people who already have a modern/retro set up to play TS3, I merely wonder if we'll see it on a wider scale. I certainly don't think I'll have a retro/modern setup in the future as I prefer to have one single system that can do what I ask of it.

Oh c'mon. There better be a point to all this stress I'm under.
Test Subject
#33 Old 29th Sep 2020 at 11:59 PM
It has ran across my mind if the game would run better on a single/dual core CPU due to its limitations on running multiple cores. I feel like my game runs smoother than it used to when I first got it back on release. But computers and my perception of FPS and such has changed a lot since, and my PCs back then were pretty bad. When TS2 came out my PC couldn’t even come close to full settings, so you just know that was a lag factory. I’d imagine TS3 was the same, and I just didn’t know any better, haha! I bet my SSD is probably lifting a lot of the stress as well. I think that’d be the major difference between this PC and my old Alienware laptop. That thing had a 5400rpm drive and TS3 ran like an absolute nightmare!

I’m a bit salty that it never did get a 64-bit port. I remember ts4 launching as 32-bit was crazily dated in my mindset at the time, so I feel like them porting the game over in 2013 or whatever couldn’t have been out of the cards. But considering the 32-bit ts3 actually runs better than 64-bit ts4 AND ts2 for me currently (with many mods, CAS isn’t so bad if you run it in the simple mode from master controller), it’s probably about as good as it can get on 32-bit!
Inventor
#34 Old 30th Sep 2020 at 4:43 PM
Agreed on saltiness about a 64-bit port.

At this point, my game runs pretty smoothly other than pauses that I'm pretty sure are caused by NRaas StoryProgression. I'm far too interested in following inactive sims in their lives to give it up, but I'd jump at ways to run more smoothly with it.

Echo Weaver's Simblr: http://echoweaver.tumblr.com/
A portrait in stubbornness - Playing the same legacy since 2009
Sample a Brave Legacy: http://sims3sample.illation.net
Instructor
#35 Old 2nd Oct 2020 at 12:57 PM
Using SSD and merging all the package files in mods folder help a lot.

My TS3 runs quite well, on Core i3 7020u with an MX150 graphic card.

My mods folder size is 18 GB, and the game runs smoothly.

The only drawback is in CAS, it takes time to load all the clothes, unlike TS4.
Test Subject
#36 Old 4th Oct 2020 at 3:54 PM
I like to know how much fast ram improves the loading times like textures in cast. Everytime my single core speed increases or i change my ssd to a better one my loading times become alot faster! I can load sunset valley save under 30 seconds and much faster if I take out reshade and all my cc
Field Researcher
#37 Old 7th Oct 2020 at 2:53 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Naus Allien
These are a few ways people ruin their game's performance:
- Download a bunch of CAS CC that's valid for random. The problem with most CC not made by EA is that it's just too high poly for the game AND it doesn't have good LODs. It's all fine it there's just ONE Sim wearing such poorly made CC. Now, if there's a bunch of Sims with super high poly meshes, no LODs, the engine will struggle to draw so many polygons at once. I've seen some CC accesories with 10K polygons and that's absolutely insane. Some CC makers have no idea what they're doing.
- Add too many script mods. A few script mods are fine. The problem is when you start adding to many of them, especially if they're poorly coded. A telltale sign that you have way too many script mods is if the game is not responsive upon loading. That's when most mods are loaded (OnWorldLoad).
- I personally believe that any POST processing / forced anything you do has a very negative impact on performance since it's not supported by the game's engine. This applies to reShade, forced ambient occlusion, forced anisotropic filtering, etc. At some point, if you start adding all those layers on top of the game, you'll experience performance issues. As of right now, I only have anisotropic filtering forced. Nothing else.
- Being lazy when it comes to cleaning up your save games. This is actually really important. No save game should EVER exceed 80-100 MB per world. And even then, it can probably be shrunk by deleting those nasty THUMBs. The game generates a thumb for every Sim in the world, for every outfit they wear, for every MOOD they're in, for every SMALL change you make to them. And the game doesn't EVER delete unused THUMBs. I tested this many times. In one of my saves, there were still THUMBs of one my Sims when she was a teen and now she's an adult. I personally prefer to clean my saves manually. I got tired of those automatic tools deleting my family pics.


To be fair, there are times where the game just won't work at all, for no reason.. that's just our lovely TS3 <3
Scholar
#38 Old 7th Oct 2020 at 11:12 PM
CAS is never a problem for me anymore thanks to NRAAS option to show CAS in a compact way (no recolours shown in list until you use CASt). This together with the game installed on a SSD works wonders. I also combine most CC in bigger files. But since then I added a lot more single packages (until I am really really sure I want to keep them) and it still works fast thanks to that NRAAS Mastercontroller option.

When playing with CC, for me the best solutions are :
1. SSD.
2. NRAAS mods that help performance and catch errors.
3. World with fixed routing(or simply a decent player made world)
3. Combining CC into larger packages
4. Known graphics card in configuration file.

Then there are other things for maintenance. Like savegame cleaner and tools to find bad CC.

But as for hardware. Going from HD to SSD makes the largest difference imo. Any decent PC that can run recent 1080p games, is fast enough for TS3.

Still have 2 unresolved issues though. But they are randomly appearing.

1. Lagging CASt tool in build mode (but I doubt this can be fixed)
2. Sound volume when not playing on max sound volume. Town view , build mode doesn't care about sound volume it seems. And most stereos change back to max again too despite settings. (If you have sound settings on max in options, you wont encounter this problem probably).
Field Researcher
#39 Old 7th Oct 2020 at 11:37 PM
I have an Asus X560UD laptop with Intel Core i5-8250U, GTX 1050 Mobile (4GB), 8GB RAM and 480GB SSD. I did extensive optimization for my game (GPU recognition, fixed worlds, Nraas mods, 3booter/FPS Limiter, installing Store content in <200MB batches, disabling online features, getting rid of bloom effect, limiting threads when running the game, and I even gave Turbo Travel a shot). After that, the game runs all packs and Store content with no lag, except minor loading slowdown in CAS (which I fixed by hiding assets I don't use with Nraas). I used both 1.69 and 1.67 versions of the game, and they both ran with no issues. It seems that the game just needs optimization that it should've got from EA, and then it will run nicely on most machines.
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