EA drops support for OpenGL and goes with Metal for the Sims 4

Published on by BluebellFlora

EA Mai announced today that from June 2019 EA will no longer support OpenGL for the Sims 4, instead they will be upgrading the game to support Metal on compatible Macs. For those using a Mac that doesn’t support Metal, you will still be able to play the base game and all packs up to and including StrangerVille (all releases to February 2019) but will need to download and install a new legacy edition of the game which will be made available in June. Some important things to note about the Sims 4: Legacy Edition:

  • It will not receive any bug fixes
  • It will not receive any new content
  • The Gallery and social integrations within the game will no longer function
  • It will not be possible to add any further Expansion/Game/Stuff Packs to the game released after February 2019
  • Your installed game will not be automatically upgraded to the legacy edition if you are using a Mac without Metal support
  • Your saved games can be transferred to the legacy edition, EA will provide further instructions on how to do this nearer the time

Apple have a page on their website explaining Metal and listing supported Macs. They also have a page on their Developer site explaining it in more depth.

The following Macs all support Metal:

To find out which exact model Mac you have click on the Apple in the menu bar then About This Mac. If you’re unsure about your Mac, leave a comment below 🙂

This is great news from EA and should improve game performance for all those with supported Macs. Metal enables the CPU (processor) and GPU (graphics processing unit) to work together more efficiently to improve overall performance when playing games.

One last thing, you can ignore the other announcement made about EA dropping support for 32-bit for PC. The Sims 4 has only ever been 64-bit for macOS.

15 thoughts on “EA drops support for OpenGL and goes with Metal for the Sims 4”

  2. My iMac is listed as Late 2013 but I still got a message when trying to open my game that said something about it not being supported but I accidentally exited out of it and didn’t get to read the whole thing. Does that mean I’m screwed or did everyone get that? The game opened the second time.

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    2. All Mac users are getting it after patching. It’s either to do with the activation process of the game which is still 32-bit related or it’s the warning about OpenGL. Nothing to get concerned with 🙂

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    1. Unfortunately it probably won’t but could you give exact specs? Click on the Apple in the menu bar then About This Mac and reply with the model, processor, graphics and OS

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  4. I have a mid-2012 mac, no upgrades or anything. I don’t understand if it is supported. Above it says 2012 and later, but also specifically something special about mid-2012? Can you help?

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  5. I think i qualify but i got a notification about it not being supported?

    MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2018)
    Processor: 2.9 GHz Intel Core i9
    memory:32 GB 2400 MHz DDR4
    Graphics Radeon Pro Vega 20 4080 MB
    Intel UHD Graphics 630 1536 MB

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  6. Pingback: Upcoming June 2019 Game Update Overview – Maple Simmer
  7. Pingback: Sims 4 Legacy Edition is finally here for non-Metal Macs and Lion users – BluebellFlora

  8. Hi I’m late in the game and I’m using an old macOS High Sierra version 10.13.6
    Processor 3.06 GHZ intel core 2 duo
    Memory 8GB

    Can I play discover university?

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