Category: Cider

Apple dropping support for 32-bit apps. Sims 2, Sims 3 and SimCity will no longer work in macOS

Published on by BluebellFlora9 Comments

Apple announced last year that macOS 10.13 High Sierra will be the last version of the OS to support 32-bit apps. You can read this article which explains why they are doing this and what it means. Most apps produced in the last few years are 64-bit so there is no cause for concern but for most of our beloved Sims games this most likely means that it will be the end. This does not affect Sims 4 as it is already 64-bit.

If you have updated to macOS 10.13.4 you should have started receiving this notification when launching 32-bit apps:

Until we can download the beta of the next macOS we’re not going to know when 32-bit apps will be rendered completely obsolete. I hoped to wait until we had the beta before posting this but I’ve received so many messages asking about it I thought a post now may help.

The following Sims games are currently 32-bit:

The Sims 2 Super Collection (Aspyr)
The Sims 3 (EA/Maxis)
SimCity 4 (Aspyr)
SimCity 2013 (EA – Origin; Aspyr – Mac App Store)
Sims Medieval (EA/Maxis)

If you would like to carry on playing these titles after 32-bit support is withdrawn there is a workaround. You can install High Sierra on a bootable external drive and install your 32-bit games on this drive. You would then simply boot up your Mac from that drive when you want to play. For those who haven’t done this before, it really is a very simple process – don’t be scared! I will upload a tutorial soon showing easy step by step instructions on how to do this.

Aspyr have announced that they hope to update their 32-bit games to 64-bit so they are still playable on future releases of macOS. You can read their support statement here, together with a full list of affected titles.

EA have yet to confirm or deny whether they will update their titles.

If you would like to see whether your apps are 32-bit or 64-bit read Apple’s article for instructions on finding the info in System Report. You can also check when the app is running by opening Activity Monitor:

It’s native!

Published on by BluebellFlora5 Comments

Since my earlier post about EA using Cider for The Sims 4 I’ve been harassing various Sim Gurus and Transgaming for an answer on the forum and Twitter. After repeatedly asking, SimGuruModSquad replied stating that the game is absolutely native in OS X and EA did not use Cider. The information in the manual was printed in error…..

SimGuruModSquad

A few minutes later, SimGuruSteve (one and the same?) replied on Twitter, also confirming the same thing:

Thank god!

And about the printing error (shame I don’t have a bigger picture, sorry) – exasperated

 

 

 

The Sims 4 uses Cider. Well done EA, well done.

Published on by BluebellFlora2 Comments

– EA have since clarified that the game IS native in OS X 🙂 –

Yes, it seems that once again EA have decided to use Transgaming’s Cider wrapper to make The Sims 4 Mac compatible. This picture is from the manual for the physical copy of Get To Work: IMG_0783 I’m astonished, given all the problems with The Sims 3, that EA would even think to use it again. A few years ago a Guru came on the Mac forum and stated that The Sims 3 Cider port was outsourced to a 3rd party to produce. Given that the game was so unstable on Macs they clearly didn’t do a very good job, not to mention never upping the RAM limit from 2Gb to 4Gb like Windows users received in a subsequent patch.

The interesting thing is that there don’t appear to be any Cider related files in the game data, just Python. Is it possible that that they are using Cider to wrap the Windows Python files? I’m clueless when it comes to coding. Could it be that the base game is natively written for OS X, as confirmed in this Tweet:

but all subsequent EPs and GPs are somehow wrapped using Cider? Is that possible? EA have announced that all subsequent EPs and GPs will be released simultaneously on both platforms, something which did get me worried when I read it. Is this why the game has suddenly started slowing down for Mac users since the March patch and/or after installing Get To Work?

There’s no doubt that the game is far more stable in OS X than The Sims 3 ever was, so EA at least appear to be doing something right. It’s such a shame that they couldn’t  write it all natively for OS X though. I so wish Aspyr were still involved. The Sims and The Sims 2 ran like a dream in OS X.

If any techy people read this and can shed any light on how exactly Python and Cider can work together,and how EA may have made this game Mac compatible, please leave a comment 😀

Thank you to jimbbq on the official forums for clarifying this for me, and not getting cross when I was basically accusing them of being  a liar! 🙂