Tag: Sims 4

Sims 3 and Sims 4 – testing in Big Sur and on an M1 Mac

Published on by BluebellFlora22 Comments

My entry level MacBook Air has finally arrived so I can start playing around with Sims 3 and Sims 4. This is my Mac:

2020 13″ MacBook Air
Apple M1 chip with 8‑core CPU, 7‑core GPU and 16‑core Neural Engine
8GB unified memory
256GB SSD storage

I have all packs up to and including Snowy Escape installed. Settings are maxed out in each game.

Origin

No problems downloading Origin from https://www.origin.com/gbr/en-us/store/download. I am aware that there were reports of Origin not downloading in Big Sur. This appears to have affected those using Chrome. If you’re still having an issue use Safari or Firefox and you will be able to download it.

When you launch Origin you will get a pop-up asking you to install Rosetta, go ahead and install it. Rosetta is the software developed by Apple to translate Intel x86 apps into a language the M1 ARM chips can understand:

Origin should now run and you can start downloading your games (at the time of writing there is a bug in the Origin beta/technical preview which prevents packs from being downloaded. Opt out of the beta in the Application Settings then restart Origin and you should be good to go).

The Sims 3

After installing all the packs the game was still showing as Finalising in Origin. I launched the game by double clicking the app in my Applications folder instead and the Launcher immediately came up (repairing will also fix this). After clicking play in the Launcher a couple of times the game finally started to load. Managed to load a household fine and get into the game and play. One thing I did notice is awful pink lines around some of the screen and sim icon edges. It doesn’t affect gameplay but doesn’t look great.

Overall performance was ok and stable. Having the 64-bit version now is fantastic but it’s no doubt still pretty buggy overall.

The Sims 4

With all the packs downloaded I could press play and start a brand new game. CAS loaded fine and I managed to move a sim into their Lot. There are a lot of reports of users having crashing issues in CAS or when leaving CAS to move their household into a lot. If this is happening you need to enable Vertical Sync in the in-game options (I have no idea why). As well as testing a brand new folder I also copied over my existing Sims 4 folder from my MacBook Pro. This folder is around 5GB in total with a ton of high poly CC. Still loaded and ran beautifully. Really smooth gameplay.

If you’re having issues please leave me a comment or report over in the Mac forum at Answers HQ: https://answers.ea.com/t5/Technical-Issues-Mac/bd-p/The-Sims-Mac

Loving the new Sims 4 platform tool!

Published on by BluebellFlora2 Comments

So many possibilities with this new tool, it’s amazing. My favourite part is creating stairs with it and yes, it IS possible to this. They are a little buggy and the routing can look a bit odd though. My Sim walked through a wall a couple of times but managed to get to the top without any help from me.

There are, of course, some annoying glitches with them:

  • building a platform in a room demolishes the wall if the platform is built against a wall. The wall can be rebuilt but it is very annoying.
  • some objects cannot be placed up against a platform, for example kitchen counters. This is easily rectified by making sure MOO is enabled.
  • if you demolish a platform you may not be able to place objects where the platform was. Enable MOO and you should be good to go again.
  • rounded platforms don’t play well against straight edged platforms and foundations.

I made a video showing a really quick small build with platform stairs and platforms on the upper level. If you use platforms like this remember that you do need to place a one step stair from the top of the tallest platform to the floor of the higher level otherwise your sim will not be able to access the upper floor.

Sims 4 not loading CC or Mods – storage issues

Published on by BluebellFloraLeave a comment

If your CC/Mods aren’t loading in-game, and you have checked that the CC/Mods are properly installed, it is most likely the same reason as saves not loading, your iCloud Drive settings are pushing data to iCloud because your internal storage is full and you have Optimise Mac Storage enabled in System Preferences > Apple ID/iCloud.

Older documents will be stored only in iCloud when space is needed. If your internal storage is getting full it doesn’t matter how many files you keep adding to the Mods/Saves folder, the older files will be stored only in iCloud where the game cannot access them. If you keep adding files it will in fact push more files to the cloud.

To get round this you need to either disable the Optimise Mac Storage setting or, if you are feeling brave, use a symlink to redirect your Sims 4 folder to an external drive.

Remember CC/Mods must also:

  • be enabled in the in-game options
  • Be unzipped (unless the creator dictates otherwise) in .package or .ts4script format
  • be placed directly in the Mods folder