Sims 3 – Page 2 – Bluebellflora

Sims 3 for Mac to get a major update in early 2020

Published on October 2, 2019October 2, 2019 by BluebellFlora45 Comments

These really are exciting times for Mac Simmers! After EA_David’s announcement that Sims 4 is dropping support for Lion this week, he’s just announced that the Sims 3 is getting a big update. In a nutshell:

Sims 3 for Mac will be updated to support 64-bit (finally!)
It will also be updated to support Metal (yay!)
The update will be through Origin and will require existing users to uninstall their current game and install the new version
The update will be free to all users with a currently registered copy of Sims 3 and add on packs in Origin
The update is expected to be available in early 2020 although no exact date has been announced yet.
Requirements will be a Mac running macOS 10.9 Mavericks or later and be Metal supported.

64-bit information
The upgrade to 64-bit means that Sims 3 will run in macOS Catalina, the first macOS to completely drop support for 32-bit apps, which Sims 3 is. It will hopefully also mean the game should run much better than it ever has. This is because there is virtually no limit to the amount of RAM a 64-bit app can use whilst 32-bit apps can only access up to 4Gb RAM. The current version of the Sims 3 for Mac has only ever been able to use 2Gb RAM and is part of the reason for the frequent crashes and inability to run the game

Metal information
Metal is the graphics API introduced by Apple to replace OpenGL. For more in-depth information have a look at this Apple article. However not all Macs support Metal. The following Macs will be able to run the upcoming version of Sims 3:

MacBook models introduced in 2015 or later
MacBook Air models introduced in 2012 or later
MacBook Pro models introduced in 2012 or later
Mac mini models introduced in 2012 or later
iMac models introduced in 2012 or later
iMac Pro (all models)
Mac Pro models introduced in late 2013, plus mid-2010 or mid-2012 models with a recommended Metal-capable graphics card.

If your Mac is not listed above you will not be able to update to the new version of the Sims 3 but will still be able to play the current version.

I’ll keep this site updated with more information as it is released but this is really FANTASTIC news 😀

Sims 2, Sims 3, Sims Medieval and SimCity are no more in macOS Catalina

Published on June 4, 2019October 2, 2019 by BluebellFlora8 Comments

Update 02/10/19 – EA announced today that they will be releasing a 64-bit version of Sims 3 in early 2020!

We knew it was coming and now it’s real:

32-bit apps are dead in 10.15. If you’re thinking about upgrading when the public beta is released in July, or when it is released in the Autumn, you may want to install Mojave or an earlier version of macOS on an external drive beforehand if you want to continue to play the legacy sims games.

Sims 3 issue connecting to server – Workaround

Published on October 13, 2018April 11, 2020 by BluebellFlora31 Comments

Update 17/10/18
Puzzlezaddict has discovered that a working dll file is already hidden away in the base game files, see her post here at Answers HQ.

Update 16/10/18
We have an unofficial workaround for this issue now. The problem is caused by a Windows file, paul.dll, buried inside the Cider installation of the base game. I copied over the dll file from an install on an old Mac into the new installation and the game successfully loaded without any server connection issues. It’s with BIG thanks to a fellow Hero at AHQ, Henalexandre, for this workaround as he posted of another user on the French forums who was experiencing the same issue and figured out what was causing it. That user was beerxced79000 and you can find his thread here (go give him some XP, he’s amazing).

If you would like to do the workaround you need to download my paul.dll file from here or here and replace your existing one with it. To get to the file:

Go into Applications > The Sims 3, right click on the Sims 3 base game icon and select Show Package Contents from the menu that appears.
Navigate to Contents > Resources > transgaming > c_drive > Program Files > Electronic Arts > The Sims 3 > Game > Bin > Packs > TS3 where you should see four files.
Trash the paul.dll file in that TS3 folder and drag my file into there from your Downloads folder.

PLEASE bear in mind that this fix is unofficial. Hopefully EA are working on an official fix 🙂 BIG thanks to puzzlezaddict who, thousands of miles away, spent last night testing this issue with me 💚

A new issue that’s arisen in the last few days with Sims 3 on macOS. The game will not load as it cannot connect to a server. This only affects new installs of the game. If you already have the game installed then you will not run into this specific issue.