♥ 𝕸𝖆𝖘𝖘𝖔 ♥

Tweaked Education

UPDATE!

Do you ever feel like children and teens start school a little too late in the day (9am)? Simmers like us pay attention to details and want change, but can't find a mod for it anywhere. So… I whipped this up and I am pretty satisfied. :)

I call this part 2 of the DXVK tutorial I followed by Nornities. If you're like me and have problems with anisotropic filtering being enabled in your custom graphics card settings panel and it used to work in your game to now having blurry textures after installing DXVK I figured out the solution. I tried getting help and I have searched everywhere. Nobody had answers which got frustrating. I didn't want to remove DXVK because I could tell it was helping, but I also didn't want ugly, low resolution graphics.

Follow these steps: 1. Open file explorer and go to where your game is installed. Mine is (C:\Program Files (x86)\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\Game\Bin).

2. Once you are in the bin folder keep scrolling down until you see the dxvk.conf file. Right click and open in notepad to edit.

3. Enable anisotropic filtering by typing in d3d9.samplerAnisotropy = 16. Mine is set to 16, but you can choose what intensity you want. This is what my file looks like.

Sneak peak of my world Crestmont 🏫🎓

I have been back and forth. Like I said in my last update post it’s always a cycle with ts3. However, now I can finally, permanently say that I’m back with ts3. My issues have been fixed thanks to the moderators at NRaas. I just hate that it took so many years of trial and error.

Too many mods can cause error code 12!

Some of you probably already know this, but it took years for me to learn my lesson and have it actually sink in. My mom and aunt who also play ts3 kept telling me I had too many mods. However, since I know a lot about the sims and taught them plenty, I believed they didn't really know what they were talking about. Especially because whenever I went online many people in the community kept saying the number of mods doesn't matter. They would go on to share their years of experience with ts3, "As long as you have a computer with great specs/powerful gaming pc you can do whatever you want" or "All of my settings are maxed, and I have a lot of mods. My game has never crashed".

If I tell them I have a custom built gaming pc with way more than enough specs for ts3 they would say, "Maybe you have conflicts or corrupted mods/cc". I always read descriptions before I download anything and I keep track of my mods, so I know that can't be the problem (I thought). I even share my script error logs to the forums at NRaas for the moderators to check. I have been dealing with a constant error code 12 issue ever since 2019 (I had a laptop back then, but it had pretty good specs). I have been everywhere on the internet, testing my game, testing mods, doing the 50/50 method, and I get the same result.

A few months ago, I took out a mod I thought was the cause since it seemed like the cause before, nope. Then, I took more mods out, put them back in, cleared cache, rinse and repeat. I swear, no matter what mods I took out or put back in the game it still gave me error code 12. Earlier this month, I made a post on the NRaas website on my last straw. If nobody was able to help me find the solution I probably would not be playing ts3 anymore because it was unplayable at this point and has been for so long.

I was willing to give them every bit of information about my game. They definitely came through for me this time. Low and behold! I realized there is so much misinformation in the sims community and to only listen to a select few. You think what you're doing isn't causing harm to your game, but it is.

I was told if you have too many mods it can be a big factor, and it doesn't have to be a particular mod causing problems. No matter how powerful your computer is ts3 still has its limits. It was a more lengthy and detailed discussion, but I don't want to overwhelm you guys with too much reading. THANK GOD! I am so relieved knowing that I can go back to playing like I did back in my early sims 3 days.

Those days gave me no problems. I love mods, but I will have to compromise. Get rid of the ones I can live without and enjoy the rest. Don't overdo it guys! I know it's tempting. Mods come out and the community gets really excited which, same. Since the possibility of conflicts or performance issues aren't always communicated by the creator you think everything is fine until some times passes by and you start seeing posts of people complaining.

If you have read this far into my post, here’s a treat. I’ve decided to create my own world again! If you have been following me for a while then you know I was working on a previous world, but I deleted the project because of issues I was having with the game. Though, this time the world won’t be so huge, it will be medium sized. It’s still going to be packed with a lot of things to do, explore, and detail, so I hope you’re excited.

The Sims 3 has been giving me issues. Late last year, I uninstalled everything and got rid of all the files, so I had to start all over. Yes, all of my sims are gone. It got to the point where I was so fed up that I made up my mind I was never going back, but I kept giving it a chance since I love TS3 so much. Detaching myself from the thought of losing my sims, saves, etc wasn’t a fast and easy process.

I have been having the same issues with TS3 since 2019. I have been slowly building my game back up, but I keep running into the same issues. I have taken lots of advice, made many changes, have been testing, and I’ve been more patient with installing cc/mods. However, it seems like no matter what I do it becomes an issue. I’m back at square one of constant error code 12s which follows crashing, other glitches that happen too often, and I have nowhere near as much cc or mods that I had in the past.

I don’t even play in large worlds anymore, but the game still hates me. Again, when I say I have done everything, I have done everything. It has been years of this and EA will never fix these issues. I’m tired. I can’t play how I want for as long as I want without the game protesting against me.

Because of this, it’s hard for me to get invested again, so when I do play I’m mostly just messing around with townies. I haven’t created any new sims of my own or started any saves where I’m playing the way I actually prefer. I truly wonder if TS3 just isn’t compatible with more recent technology. In 2019, I had a new laptop with windows 10 then all of these issues started. I never had to worry in the past.

When I had a windows 8.1 laptop back in 2015 I could play how I wanted for as long as I wanted. The most it ever did was lag. I don’t remember playing the game that much different from how I do now and I currently have a custom built gaming pc. I specifically built this pc just to be able to play TS3 without much lag and to use more power that my laptops couldn’t. On and off, I have been on the roller coaster of am I going to stick with TS3 and just deal with its issues or find another alternative life simulation game to move onto.

I tried getting into TS4 multiple times (🏴‍☠️). I liked it at first because the DLC made it more fun than only having the base game, but that interest soon faded. I went back to TS2 a few times since I was obsessed with it before my S3 days. The Sims 2 will always have a special place in my heart, but I outgrew it. It just feels outdated now.

I end up feeling restricted compared to TS3. I was interested in Life By You, but it got cancelled. I was skeptical about Inzoi because I felt like aesthetics were prioritized over gameplay. But, it grew on me eventually because I want to see how gameplay progresses over time. I purchased early access as soon as it was available.

I did some play testing and got bored since it was still so early on there wasn’t much to do. I took a break from it for months and became doubtful. Now, I see it was my fault that I became impatient because I was barely if not even paying attention to Discord or Inzoi YouTube channel for updates and announcements. I literally just recently started paying attention again and let me say, my motivation has came back. So much has been added and fixed since the last time I played.

I updated an old mod and created a few new ones I haven’t uploaded yet. So far, I know how to create tuning, xml, and default replacement mods. Scripting is just way beyond my understanding, I tried. I’m sure there are people who are picky like me, who come across little things in the game and go “I wish it was more like this instead”. I want to give a brief introduction of what these mods are and what they do.

1. 17masso_educationhours:

Changes the schedule as to when elementary and high school students attend and dismiss school, along with the education career employees to match and simulate more realistic school hours.

2. 17masso_hospitalprices:

Changes the amount of simoleons certain visits cost and the length of time to simulate a more realistic hospital.

3. 17masso_rabbitholeevents:

Increases likelihood of events to happen such as sing happy birthday in bistros, plays and symphonies in theaters, and concerts and sports games in stadiums.

4. 17masso_communityevents: