Works with every version, I'd say. It's not a mod after all.

First of all, I'll start off saying that's good that there is hope for those who can't play TS3 well, for whatever reason(s), that a mod(s) or any helpful information can be used to get better or the best gaming experience.

However, the notion that TS3 is just so poorly coded that everyone must have the same exact issues and can only play with mods in order to even play the game is far from the truth. That POV is subjective not objective because every single person's personal experience with TS3 will differ and it will not all be based on bad/horrible game performance. The number one reason why every single person will have varying game experiences, not only with just TS3 but any PC game for that matter, is because of the many, many different computer configurations.

From the motherboard brand, capabilities and features, to memory (RAM) brand, size and speed, to graphic's card brand, VRAM amount, is it super clocked etc, its features, to processor type, base clock speed/turbo boost speed, is it overclocked and has ability to further overclock, and its features, to brand of HDD and/or SSD, size, RPM, M.2/M.2 NVME/Optane Memory, Hybrid SSD/HDD, to air cooling/liquid cooling brands and features, to brand of power supply, wattage, and its features, to brand of DVD drive and features, to features of the monitor that uses the graphics card features such as G-Sync/Freesync, refresh rate, etc.

There are literally thousands upon thousands, if not much more, of different computer configurations and everyone's performance will vary depending on all that hardware first and foremost. So, to me, the most obvious thing to do is to make sure the computer is not the issue. Ninety-Nine Problems But The Computer Not One. Therefore, that rules out anything computer related and the focus can be on how are you playing? Is your playstyle the cause of poor game performance? What can you do to improve performance? Which is why before mods/cc even enters the scene, if one cannot even play TS3 as intended without any 3rd party content...it is most likely the computer configuration, maybe with physical disc's one didn't install in the specific order recommended by the developers, etc.

Having a high-end graphics card and/or processor does not equate to TS3 should run flawlessly. Because the reality is: All computer hardware must seamlessly work together at the same or near the same performance level in order to achieve the best gaming experience with any PC game. Beware of bottlenecking your performance with a mediocre motherboard and/or RAM, etc. And yes, TS3 is special and one-of-a-kind because there is no other game this in-depth with real processing of each and every Sim/Character with their own intricate and human-like A.I. that also updates information for each Sim constantly in the life simulator genre that I am aware of.

The more Sims you have in your world, the more strain you put on the CPU and yes TS3 is majority a processing game according to the developers themselves. They should know, they created it.

Some complain about the game, yet, insist on using GB's and GB's of mods/cc and oftentimes with high poly counts but insists on blaming the game when using 3rd party content which adds more strain that is likely already near or at a threshold of limitations for all EP's, SP's, and whole store content installed and/or their computer hardware. HQ mods/Reshader's are not exactly computer friendly if you don't have the hardware and/or you overkill your game with more 3rd party content. Case in point. Nothing wrong with that...but there's no reason to complain about performance and you know why.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z312YZ1hJpU

By the way, someone on TS3 forum mentioned about NVidia's Freestyle shader filters and it's supported for TS3. I tried it and I'm amazed how it doesn't affect performance at all. But I'll probably use it for screenshots, not gameplay as I like how TS3 looks as is. Though, I would love to see TS3 using ray tracing and to see realistic casts of shadows indoors, etc.

Depending on the mods/cc, it can dramatically make the GPU and/or CPU work much harder than it should for a 2009-2013 game and definitely hamper game performance.

Of course, TS3 does have many leftover glitches/bugs and not everything was as highly optimized as needed, but, for me that does not mean TS3 is so poorly coded and buggy that I just can't play without mods. I have played without mods for years? during TS3 development at some point, and I still have games where I don't play using mods except noCD because I'm trying to protect my discs as much as possible. Still, I get about the same performance of minimal to no lag except when incorporating mods/cc into my game and then performance just kind of goes out the window a bit. But that's just my personal experience based on all my varying computers TS3 was played on including the non-gaming computers.

The thing I constantly started complaining about was how the developers were not addressing what they broke and it kept piling up and then swept under the rug until they moved on to their next project. Despite it all, TS3 still runs well enough with no mods at all in my case so I'm not overly disappointed with a game I can't even play because that's is not my issue but rather with a game I wish had the best quality control for an amazing game this ambitious and taking quite the worthwhile risks to achieve new heights for the franchise.

In the end, I hope everyone finds what they are looking for in their game performance. But just saying how biased it is to blame TS3 for everything when it may not even be the culprit for why it lags and is so slow for some players. And because there are people sharing their hardware and its performance with all EP's/SP's/Store Content/With or Without Mods/CC and they are still getting decent enough gameplay whether here, official forums, YouTube, etc...well that's impossible right? TS3 is just the worst optimized and poorly coded Sims game ever and everyone has these issues because it's all the games fault, it's all the developers fault. No, because some players are realistic with what their computer can and cannot handle and what the game can and cannot handle which would be OVERKILL. You will know it when you see a dramatic performance hit.

It is possible to play TS3 mod free with maxed out settings and all EP's/SP's/Store installed as flawless as possible with the appropriate gaming rig. But, whatever the case may be, many people play just fine because they know the limitations and are not greedy with trying to make everything work. This is what a trade-off is all about. Don't agree...don't have to but complaining about something that may be on your end isn't going to make TS3 run better. Put in the compromise or just suffer from poor game performance. Or count on mods to correct so called poor game performance mainly based on how one is playing the game and not the games fault itself.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rec...eature=youtu.be
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGZ...eature=youtu.be
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZf...eature=youtu.be

Quality vs Mid-Ground vs Performance...is everyone's choice and will determine how TS3 plays based on the computer hardware capabilities and how you choose to play. If one wants it all, then performance will usually take a hit and tank.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrIPxlFzDi0

And the in-game option High-Detail Lots seems to be a very huge factor, in my experience, whether performance is great, shy of or not so great at all when it comes to lagging when following Sims around by foot or vehicle. With no mods there is minimal lag with 8 lots however nothing major but with mods high detail lots literally is overkill and needs to remain either at 3 but mainly I leave it at 1 nowadays. Amazing how that one setting makes such a huge impact. Of course, one or two of those mods must also use the CPU and since TS3 is already using the CPU for the majority of its processing/simulating then well...no wonder why.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DW2m14vzFM8

This is one big assumption about people who complain about TS3 performance, while you admit yourself that TS3 has huge optimization problems.

You do know it is not this black and white. Apart from TS3 big optimization issues, it also matters a lot in how you play TS3. How many (and which) expansions you install , how many CC, mods and what mods you use to improve performance. This can be a difference of day and night in terms of performance. Just assuming that who ever complains about TS3 performance, is probably using a budget PC and runs many programs at the same time is way too dismissive imo. Just like any comment about TS3 is running fine from anyone, without saying what mods they use, which expansions they play and what hardware they have, is completely meaningless within this discussion. Not to mention that whatever you find acceptable as minimum performance can be quite subjective.

Anyway, we all know that EA is not going to optimize TS3 (or TS4 lol) . But there are still new ppl who buy TS3+expansions and have a gaming rig, only to discover that the performance is not good for such an old game. They might not even discover/assume that there are loads of mods to improve performance. Not everyone automatically searches for mods for a game (I suspect most don't). Then there are people who obviously cant be bothered to look for guides to optimize their game to make it run properly. They are all right to assume that the developers did their job. And they are right to get pissed after discovering that TS3 can run shit out of the box with everything installed.

Those are two different things :
- TS3 can be optimized so it runs decently thanks to the community's guides and mods.
- TS3 should be optimized by the developers so it runs decent enough with everything installed. Simply for the reason that it is still being sold.

You can be thankful for the one and be pissed about the other at the same time. TS3 is and will always be a badly optimized piece of software. Despite it being a lot of fun to play.

PS. I hate 'bad grammar' comments. Not everyone is used to write a lot in English. It is also besides the point when it is clear you understood the msg. If you are a native English speaker who never needed to properly learn a 2nd language, then that comment becomes quite ignorant.

@mithrak_nl Look mithrak, I know what you're saying and honestly I agree that TS3 is a badly optimized piece of software and always will be. I also know that with everything going in the background in TS3, that peoples' experiences do probably vary a lot. My point is not to dismiss the criticisms of TS3 altogether. It's that I have no patience for those that dismiss the game strictly because everyone else is doing it.

The point that I was trying to make with all of this is that there's people like you, who can objectively sit back and state TS3's faults and still enjoy the game itself, and then there are those who contribute nothing to the discussion by trying to make a quick joke, one that has grown increasingly stale over the years, and leave it at that. What does that do to solve the problem? TS3 has its share of problems and I'll be the first to admit it, even with better hardware it's never going to be running like it should. But I begin to lose respect for people who don't even try to understand why people persevere with this game in the first place. Many people have never even tried to play TS3 because they've heard such horror stories about it, and as I've said, this has been greatly blown out of proportion over the years. I guess I just find it baffling that people dismiss TS3 altogether where, for all its faults and problems, was a very ambitious game, and how TS4 gets away with so much more despite being mechanically inferior. That's the idea. It can't even claim better performance anymore. The simulation lag has gotten to be almost as bad as TS3's general lag. So I guess I just don't understand why TS3 still gets thrown under the rug when the likes of TS4 has problems just as bad, if not worse, that make me question the double standard going on.

Also it wasn't my intent for the grammar comment to be taken offensively in the context you gave, so I apologize. That was directed more at how grammar itself isn't taken seriously in the US, people tend to be quite lazy with it. In fact, many non-native speakers of English have a better grasp of it overall in my experience.

I completely agree about high detail lots. I recently changed it to "1" and my game is just running so much better. I had one world that was constantly giving me Error Code 12 and that stopped it.

I was recording a bit of gameplay to demonstrate the whole performance gain thing. Runs like a dream when you're not around any lots, but in town you have to put up with a lot of really ugly lot loading lag. In some worlds it might as well be easier to keep the whole thing loaded in at all times, I think, because the game's not using a lot of memory but it's bending over backwards to load in those lots every 10 seconds.

but not any more than usual, right? I would be loathe to lower that setting back down....

Certainly no more than usual. Maybe even a little bit less. But it's still a pain in the ass.

Wouldn't having world caches help? Usually so find that lots take the longest to load in the first time around.

Also could be a sign that a lot needs an diet- despite people usually freaking out about individual object poly count, complex lots with tons of walls segments and windows slow down a lot as well- the numbers do add up.

That's not an option in many cases. My lots have to be as cluttered as they can be, because their primary function is looking good. Loading in 3 of my lots is heavier than loading in 15 lots in an EA world, sure, but I have little choice.

I would be willing. I have an older system just waiting to try this out.

Here are my specs:
Processor : AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 965 Processor
Memory : 16gig
Mother Board : M4A87TD/USB3
Windows Version : Microsoft Windows 10 Pro
Video Adapter : NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti - 2gig

As you can see, hehe, a bit old but still good.

I've been playing in Northerney a bit. Good-looking world but christ, it runs like ass even with everything I've tried. I get a perfectly stable 60, but then it has to load in a bunch of lots, and it completely dies for 10 seconds.

I agree with you about the double standards. TS4 gurus played a big part in this unfortunately. Pretty sure this started when people wanted to compare TS3 with TS4. And after the guru's weak excuses for why TS4 should not be compared to TS3 didn't work, they simply threw TS3 under the bus completely , because of performance. Which is turning out to be quite ironic, now that TS4 shows it is badly optimized and is stacking bugs on bugs.



I can understand that. But when I see posts with bad grammar or structure, I simply assume their first language is not English. All I care about is whether the message is coming through clearly enough. At most I try to correct to help when their post creates confusion, but I never comment to dismiss their grammar. I don't see the point. It is not as if they are able to change that overnight.

I volunteer

I would like to try the beta if I can!

Same. I expressed my interest before. Just putting it out there again.

Oh man I feel so compelled right now to flex on you guys by not playing TS3.

I'd like restate my interest in trying out the tool too pls! I think simmy is a bit busy though, haven't seen him around lately T_T.

I'd like to volunteer too.

I will also volunteer to beta!

Does this also speed up using the Create a Pattern Tool in build mode? When you use it to copy patterns from one object to the next etc? This is the only thing I can't make work normally. The tool always starts to lag at some point until I switch back to live and then back to build.

Doesn't really lag for me, but I don't really remember it being a major PITA in the first place, so interpret that however you want.

Hi, pjsutton! How are you?

Oh a challenge
My interpretation is that it does not lag for you and it also doesn't answer my question. Which makes your comment pointless, unless it is some kind of passive aggressive comment. Which I can do without.

My question was genuine. I really would like to know if this mod would also help to prevent lag with the Create A Pattern tool. It is the only thing atm that causes sometimes serious lag in my current game, where I then have to wait for the pattern tool icon to arrive at the object in question. I use it a lot and I have some suspicions what makes it start lagging. I think it has to do with moving a pattern from outside the border of the lot you are on to the inside (when going from pattern window to lot). I have no lag in live mode, and even CAS loads quite fast atm.

Hey Simmy, I'm not sure if you're active on here, but I just wanna say that I'm still in full support of your project and I definitley urge you not to give up...Even if the loading times still need some work, the fact that the one beta tester said that it increased his performance is in of itself, a victory.