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Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#1 Old 9th Oct 2015 at 11:17 AM
Default Is there any way to increase UI size for Sims 3 ?
My monitor is 27" 2560x1440 , GPU is GTX 780 Ti @ 1203Mhz/1907Mhz. I can play any game with no problem.

But I really want to play Sims 3 with DSR (Dynamic Super Resolution). Basically it make my monitor become 5K (5120x2880) and of course SUPER SHARP image quality and almost no jaggies.
Learn more about it here. http://www.geforce.com/hardware/tec.../dsr/technology
Of course my 780 Ti cannot handle 5K gaming ultra setting in AAA games like GTA V or BF4.
But Sims 3 and Sims 4 is easy as you can see 5120x2880 resolution with every thing max setting but still 60FPS (I enabled V-Sync in Nvidia Control Panel).
Problem is UI size is so small (even 4K 3840x2160 is still too small for 27" monitor).

For Sims 4 increasing UI size is very easy by editing uiscale in options.ini file.
But for Sims 3 I try searching in Google but all says "reduce your in game resolution" (cause lame image quality) or "get bigger monitor" (lower PPI so worse image quality and what ? why new monitor ???).
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks !!



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Icy Spicy
#2 Old 9th Oct 2015 at 12:45 PM
I want to know the answer to this one too.I have a GTX 970 and would really love to have higher resolutions using DSR.
Theorist
#4 Old 9th Oct 2015 at 4:03 PM
Quote: Originally posted by nitromon
you can try enabling this via Nvidia Inspector.

1) Make sure your driver is updated.
2) Run Nvidia Inspector
3) In global, turn on "Nvidia Quality Upscaling." (It is at the bottom under "other.")


That's a different way to how I do it.
I just open up Nvidia Control Panel (right click on desktop) and go to manage 3D settings. Under the global tab, turn DSR factors on and checkbox all the new resolution options. Apply changes. They now appear in game under options.

Anyhow, the answer to the OP is that there is no way to do that currently. Someone could surely do it, a few people on this site could do it, but I personally only have a GTX460 and any attempt to upscale Ts3 only results in obvious FPS loss. OP, have you checked your FPS count in fraps? I doubt with your card it would run as smoothly in 4k as opposed to your default highest resolution. With such a glitchy, script heavy game, the vast majority of people right now will experience performance loss if raising the resolution.
My advice would be to experiment with things like FXAA and anisotropic filtering within Nvidia Control Panel to improve the look of the game, because having the UI that small will never ever work....

Oh... one game that really benefits from DSR is Pinball Arcade. Pin-sharp image.

#BlairWitchPetition
TS3 NEEDS: TENNIS COURTS > BUSES > PIGS/SHEEP
Can't find stuff in build and buy mode? http://www.nexusmods.com/thesims3/mods/1/?
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#6 Old 9th Oct 2015 at 5:24 PM
Quote: Originally posted by tizerist
That's a different way to how I do it.
I just open up Nvidia Control Panel (right click on desktop) and go to manage 3D settings. Under the global tab, turn DSR factors on and checkbox all the new resolution options. Apply changes. They now appear in game under options.

Anyhow, the answer to the OP is that there is no way to do that currently. Someone could surely do it, a few people on this site could do it, but I personally only have a GTX460 and any attempt to upscale Ts3 only results in obvious FPS loss. OP, have you checked your FPS count in fraps? I doubt with your card it would run as smoothly in 4k as opposed to your default highest resolution. With such a glitchy, script heavy game, the vast majority of people right now will experience performance loss if raising the resolution.
My advice would be to experiment with things like FXAA and anisotropic filtering within Nvidia Control Panel to improve the look of the game, because having the UI that small will never ever work....

Oh... one game that really benefits from DSR is Pinball Arcade. Pin-sharp image.


No matter what resolution I play Sims 3 (1440p , 4K , 5K) , performance is always the same.
I already set anisotropic filtering to 16x in Nvidia control panel.
But FXAA I think it's not working in Sims 3 because I still see some jagged that MSAA (I think MSAA is edge smoothing in game?) don't do anything. Actually some type of jagged cannot reduce by MSAA but FXAA can. So I assume FXAA is not working ?
Maybe Sims 3 engine is not support post processing effect like FXAA SMAA MLAA ?

Anyways thanks for reply
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#7 Old 9th Oct 2015 at 5:32 PM
Quote: Originally posted by nitromon
Hey this looks extremely interesting. I noticed that this technology extends all the way down to generation 400 cards, but it seems to be only for the GTX cards? Anyone able to get it working on a GT card?

EDIT:

Alright, I did some playing around and research so you don't have to. If you have a Nvidia that is within the range 400+ but not on the supported list for DSR, you can still partially take advantage of this technology.

From what I've researched, in order to increase performance, most games render at lower resolution than your HD quality and then blow it back up. The DSR does the opposite and renders it higher with choices of 2x, 2.5x, 3x, and 4x and then shrink it back down to your resolution. So essentially you can get 4k rendering resolution then shrunk back down to your resolution.

If your Nvidia GPU is not on the list, you can try enabling this via Nvidia Inspector.

1) Make sure your driver is updated.
2) Run Nvidia Inspector
3) In global, turn on "Nvidia Quality Upscaling." (It is at the bottom under "other.")

What this does is turn on the DSR. However, I cannot find the flag to tune the scaling. If someone finds it, please share. With this turned on, the rendering will be set at 1x. It means that it will not render at lower resolution and blow it back up. It will simply render at the resolution you set.

The result is actually quite visible. Everything is sharper, better image quality. There doesn't seem to be a performance tax, but then again this is only 1x. The reason your card is not on the supported list is probably because at 2x, there will be a performance hit for older cards.

Anyhow, try it at your own risk and report back if you like to add to the performance data.


I have laptop with GT 740M 2GB. DSR is not support on my laptop. Maybe like you said only GTX 400 and above is support.
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#9 Old 10th Oct 2015 at 6:13 AM
Quote: Originally posted by nitromon
Hey, give my suggestion a try. Rendering at 1X is still better than downscaling. I'm surprised that even at 1X the difference is quite noticeable. I can't imagine how smooth the graphics is at 2X or more, it must be fantastic. Thanks for sharing this info.


Oh, and to answer the original question concerning the UI. I also do not know of a way to change the UI. However, at 1X, the UI will remain the same.


Try Nvidia Quality Upscaling (I only have 0 or 1 for select I think 0 is off and 1 is on) but to be honest I don't see any difference...
So no way to increase UI size ? Never mind .Next I will try SGSSAA (Sparse Grid Super Sampling Anti Aliasing) via NV inspector. I hear it's the best possible type of AA for Nvidia card.
Theorist
#10 Old 10th Oct 2015 at 10:14 AM
Quote: Originally posted by nitromon
I'm surprised that even at 1X the difference is quite noticeable. However, at 1X, the UI will remain the same.

I'm a bit confused. If you're running it at x1 then surely this is your standard resolution without DSR?
Quote: Originally posted by nitromon
Do you think you can take a look in Nvidia Inspector to see what multiplier flags are turned on?

I don't have Nvidia Inspector but if you mean what resolution options I have it's x1.20, x1.50, x1.78, x2.00, x2.25, x3.00, x4.00

#BlairWitchPetition
TS3 NEEDS: TENNIS COURTS > BUSES > PIGS/SHEEP
Can't find stuff in build and buy mode? http://www.nexusmods.com/thesims3/mods/1/?
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#12 Old 9th Feb 2016 at 4:35 PM Last edited by enterprise24 : 9th Feb 2016 at 5:28 PM.
There is a better way to improve image quality in Sims 3 rather than DSR if anyone interest (for Nvidia owner's).

"SGSSAA or Sparse Grid Super Sampling Anti Aliasing" http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=357956

Download nvidia inspector here http://www.guru3d.com/files-details...r-download.html

Instruction
1.Open nvidia inspector and select Sims 3 profile.
2.Set anti aliasing compatibility bit to 0x000000C1
3.Set anti aliasing mode to override application setting.
4.Set anti aliasing setting to 8xQ (Multisampling).
5.Set anti aliasing transparency supersampling to 8xSparse Grid Super Sampling.
6.Set texture filtering LOD BIAS (DX) to -1.5
7.Click apply and done !!
8.For even better image quality set texture filtering to high quality and anisotropic filtering setting to 16x (16x will not cause any performance penalty even on very low end VGA). Don't forget to add ambient occlusion http://modthesims.info/t/489269



I recommend at least GTX 670 , 770 , 960 for 8xSGSSAA at 1080p. If your VGA card is below this try 4xSGSSAA or 2xSGSSAA with this simple rule.
1.MSAA should be equal to SGSSAA for example 2xMSAA should pair with 2xSGSSAA. This will have better image quality than 2xMSAA with 4xSGSSAA or 4xMSAA with 2xSGSSAA. For in depth reason see this http://naturalviolence.webs.com/sgssaa.htm
2.LOD BIAS for 2xSGSSAA is -0.5 and for 4xSGSSAA is -1.0

I ask in guru3d forum and got answer that compatibility bit for Sims 3 and perhaps Sims 4 is 0x000000C1 or 0x00000041.
Wrong compatibility bit can cause blurry image.

Please ignore my bad English
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#14 Old 12th Feb 2016 at 11:43 AM
Personally I hate blur. So AF x16 is a must for me. In picture 3 the grass on the right side is a lot sharper than picture 1 and 2.
I don't see effect of ambient occlusion in your pic. Probably have to look indoor ?
But 8xSGSSAA is quiet noticeable for me. In create a style Sims leg always look very annoying because of too much jaggies and in game "Edge Smoothing" can't do anything much. 8xSGSSAA made those jaggies almost gone.
For 650m I recommend only tweak high quality texture (It's nice improvement in GTA V) and 16xAF (or 2x 4x 8x or not at all up to your preference).
Mad Poster
#16 Old 13th Feb 2016 at 10:25 AM
Quote: Originally posted by nitromon
Someone in TS4 forum was asking how to disable the AO so they can try the Nvidia AO. The AO in TS4 is actually not that bad, it is just bad in the way they did the AO shadows. It really is too bad, if they remade TS3 with today's tech and at 64-bit, we'd get amazing quality, smooth performance, and no fps tax for AO etc...

That was me. Nvidia AO looks a million times better, actually. Here's a comparison between no AO and Nvidia's AO:




As you can see on the trees, there is a ton of shading going on. I vastly prefer this over the default AO, because it doesn't create huge blobs of darkness where they shouldn't be, like on sharp edges and the decorative tram in some of the Neighborhoods. Also, it makes Sims' faces look a lot better.

Anyway, as for OP's question, I don't think you're actually going to succeed in scaling up the UI. But as the others have said, enabling FXAA, SSAO and the like will help a great deal to make your game look nicer. Still, it'd be best to have both...

insert signature here
( Join my dumb Discord server if you're into the whole procrastination thing. But like, maybe tomorrow. )
Mad Poster
#18 Old 23rd Jun 2016 at 7:26 AM
I'm gonna be getting a GTX 1070 relatively soon, I'll post my experiences with it regarding TS3 here.

insert signature here
( Join my dumb Discord server if you're into the whole procrastination thing. But like, maybe tomorrow. )
Test Subject
#19 Old 28th Dec 2021 at 12:32 PM
Is there any new way in 2021 to make the UI bigger?
Lab Assistant
#20 Old 6th Apr 2022 at 5:01 AM
Quote: Originally posted by verdict0224
Is there any new way in 2021 to make the UI bigger?


I would like to know too, I am trying to find it but it seems no one has a answer for this
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