🌱

Backup your files, even the entire folder (EA Games\The Sims 3\Game\Bin or steamapps\common\The Sims 3\Game\Bin) if you want to be extra safe; you will thank yourself later. If you do not wish to backup the entire folder, at the very least backup the following:

reshade-presets

reshade-shaders

Reshade.ini

Options.ini (Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3)

Keep them somewhere secure, for your peace of mind (and sanity).

Firstly, to fully uninstall DXVK, you should remove the following files:

d3d9.dll (if you hover your cursor over the file, it will read: Company: DXVK)

dxvk.conf

TS3.dxvk-cache (or TS3W.dxvk-cache)

Secondly, remove remnant files of previously installed ReShade (you did create a backup, right?):

d3d9.dll (located at the Bin folder, if you hover your cursor over the file, it will read: Company: crosire)

ReShade.ini

ReShade.log

⚠️There are a couple more steps. Please follow the instructions here.

Get the latest version here on GitHub:

Click on the version that has the 'Latest' tag next to it (2.7.1 as of now), scroll down to 'Assets', and click on dxvk-x.x.x.tar.gz to download DXVK.

Open dxvk-x.x.x.tar.gz, click on x32, and locate d3d9.dll from within.

Download a copy of dxvk.conf from this page by clicking on the tiny icon on the right.

Drag both d3d9.dll AND dxvk.conf to the Bin folder (EA Games\The Sims 3\Game\Bin or steamapps\common\The Sims 3\Game\Bin); that is where TS3.exe and TS3W.exe are located.

Open dxvk.conf with Notepad or Notepad++, 'Ctrl + A' to select all, and hit delete. Yes, delete everything inside. Once you've emptied the file, enter the following:

d3d9.textureMemory = 100 d3d9.presentInterval = 1 d3d9.maxFrameRate = 60 d3d9.samplerAnisotropy = 16 dxvk.hud = devinfo d3d9.customVendorId = 10de d3d9.customDeviceId = 1080

Hit 'Ctrl + S' to save. That is DXVK installed!

Copy your Options.ini from your backup folder (you did make a backup, right?) into your Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3 folder.

Because we have 'tricked' the game into recognising our modern GPU as a GTX 580, we must edit one single line within the Options.ini to keep our preferred in-game settings intact.

Hit 'Ctrl + G', type in '150' to go to that line, and replace it with:

lastdevice = 0;10de;1080;65535

'Ctrl + S' to save.

⚠️Thanks to DXVK, from now on whenever there's a GPU driver update, we no longer need to keep the 'lastdevice' line up-to-date to prevent your in-game settings from being reset. You can leave it alone forever, once and for all. The last digit of '65535' is a placeholder value for driver versions and remains constant as long as you are using DXVK.

Launch the game to confirm that DXVK is working. By default, the debug HUD should show up in the top left corner of your screen. What's more, your graphics settings should not have reset.

If you're still not convinced that DXVK is working, go to your Bin folder and look for a file called: TS3_d3d9.log or TS3W_d3d9.log and inspect its content:

If you see these correctly documented in your log file, DXVK is working as intended.

⚠️ NB: This newer version of DXVK no longer generates a cache file by default, meaning that there will not be a TS3.dxvk-cache or TS3W.dxvk-cache any more.

Get the latest version here on GitHub:

Click on the version that has the 'Latest' tag next to it (1.5.0 as of now), scroll down to 'Assets', and click on Sims3SettingsSetter.asi to download S3SS.

An ASI Loader is required for S3SS to function properly, and now so we need to install it.

However, if you use any of the listed LazyDuchess mods:

Mono Patcher Library;

Pixel Shader Modding Framework;

Shadow Extender (TS3);

or Split Level Light Fix,

you should already have an ASI loader (in the form of wininet.dll) located inside your Bin folder, and you can use that instead.

As you can see in the screenshot below, LD's Shader Framework came shipped with an ASI loader, as the other 3 mods do.

If you do not use any of the mods listed above, or that you wish to get a newer version of ASI loader for the game, you can get it from here (Ultimate ASI Loader by ThirteenAG):

To install, drag Sims3SettingsSetter.asi AND wininet.dll to your Bin folder.

And that is S3SS and its prerequisite successfully installed, now we should launch the game (again) and check if it's working.

Once the game has launched, hit 'Insert' key to toggle on S3SS interface.

⚠️ If nothing happens after pressing ' Insert', remove a folder called 'S3SS' (located at: Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3) and reinstall from Step 2 again.

From S3SS interface, select 'Patches' on the top.

Here I recommend enabling all performances patches, but choose only one flavour for the Smooth Patch: Original or Precise.

Next, click on 'Other/QoL' tab, tick the box next to 'Enable Memory Warning', and increase the warning threshold to 3.8 GB.

Navigate downwards to 'Borderless Window' and choose 'Fullscreen' in the drop-down menu. This will allow you to play in borderless windowed mode.

⚠️ Please note that I do not play TS3 in exclusive fullscreen mode, nor do I recommend doing so; therefore, I cannot provide support for that.

Lastly, don't forget to click on 'File' on the top left corner to save any changes you've made.

Exit the game, it's time to install ReShade.

Download the latest version (with full add-on support) from the official site; it is 6.7.3 at the time of writing.

If you do not download the version with full add-on support, DoF (depth of field) shaders will not work properly upon internet detection.

Select TS3.exe (EA App) or TS3W.exe (disc, Steam), and then choose Vulkan as rendering API, click 'Next'.

If you would prefer not to install any shaders/effects (i.e, you want to keep using your existing ones), click 'Skip'.

On the following page, you'll get to choose to install add-ons. Hit 'Skip', unless you know what you are doing.

Click 'Finish' to complete installation.

At this stage, a new, vanilla ReShade.ini file will be placed in the Bin folder; you may now replace it with the one from your backup folder to recover all preferred settings (such as hotkeys for taking screenshots, directory for shaders etc.). Same thing goes for your reshade-presets and reshade-shaders folder.

Launch the game (for the final time) to check that ReShade has been properly installed.

To toggle S3SS interface, press 'Insert' (or whatever hotkey you've set it to).

⚠️ NB: under ReShade's 'Settings' tab you may need to change 'Input processing' to either 'Pass on all input' or 'Block input when cursor is on overlay' to tweak S3SS settings whilst ReShade's GUI is visible. Otherwise, you'll need to toggle ReShade's menu off first.

That is the end of this tutorial.

Congratulations, you have successfully installed DXVK, S3SS, and ReShade! You may now open dxvk.conf and remove line dxvk.HUD from it.

Whew, what a long tutorial. If you've made it this far, great job. 🎉

Hope you've found this helpful; comment down below, or send me an ask/DM if you've any questions. I'll try my best to troubleshoot with you. Happy simming! ⭐

Credits:

doitsujin for DXVK

ThirteenAG for Ultimate-ASI-Loader

@sims3fiend, just-harry, @lazyduchess, and swiffyjk for Sims3SettingsSetter

crosire for ReShade

Step 1: install your game through your respected platform.

Just follow the regular steps and install the game without adding any other stuff yet whatsoever.

(I personally have a legit copy of the Sims 3 on Steam. If you use another app and have any questions, I'll probably not be able to help you.)

Step 2: run the game once through the official launcher. Once you get to the main menu, you can quit again.

It is very important you run your game through the original launcher at least once after installing it. Not doing so can cause problems with programs like CC magic. You only need to do it the first time. After that, we'll be skipping the launcher entirely.

Step 3: Create a short cut of TS3W.exe on your desktop.

You'll be skipping the launcher from now on. This helps with performance and it starts up your game much faster. It is also important to do this because of DXVK.

You can find TS3W.exe in your bin folder. For me (Steam version) it's in this location:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\The Sims 3\Game\Bin

Right click TS3W.exe, click 'show more options' and choose 'create a shortcut'. Place this shortcut on your desktop and Run Sims 3 from there from now on.

Step 4: Run the GPU Add-on Support patcher

You can find this patcher here. It is essential to run this because Sims will otherwise not recognize your graphics card unless it's over 10 years old. This patcher helps to get your GPU recognized.

The patcher will create a new Graphicsrules.sgr and new Graphicscards.sgr for you in your bin folder. After installing this, you can move the ones that have _old behind them somewhere else (or delete them).

Step 5: Install DXVK

Make sure you follow this guide by Nornities and do every single step. Don't skip anything! Make sure you install the version in this guide (DXVK 2.3.1)

I'd say DXVK is pretty essential nowadays, especially if you have a modern graphics card with 6GB of VRAM or higher. It'll greatly help to keep your game stable and can prevent a lot of crashes. The way Dxvk works, is that it loads textures through your VRAM instead of your RAM. Especially when you use a lot of CC or HD textures, this will make a huge difference for your RAM usage. Sims 3 can only use 4GB of RAM at once and will start crashing once you hit the 3GB mark in your task manager. With DXVK, you will use a lot less RAM and it'll take much longer for your game to reach this hard cap.

When not to install DXVK: if you have a shitty GPU (like an integrated graphics card on a laptop, or one with 4GB of VRAM or less).

Step 6: Start up the game

Use your new desktop shortcut that also has 'run as administrator' permissions now if you followed the DXVK guide properly.

Step 7: set up all your settings through the ingame options menu

The best graphics settings for you will highly depend on what computer you're using. But there are some things you should always turn off because they negatively affect performance. I will share my (relevant) settings with you (I use a custom UI so your screen style will look a little different from mine). Click on the images to enlarge them so you can read them:

Things of note about these settings:

I recommend you play in windowed mode, especially if you plan to use ReShade. Playing fullscreen is possible, but it does make Reshade presets behave differently in your game. I will include a step in this guide that you can follow to play windowed borderless. So, when you plan to do this: make sure you set the resolution to your display resolution.

Enable object hiding helps with performance. Advanced rendering is essential because otherwise your game looks like absolute shit.

Set your High Detail Lots to any value between 2 and 4. Don't go lower or higher, because you'll get rendering issues that lag out your game.

All other graphics settings can be set to your heart's desire. I'd say start with the highest settings and only go down if you notice your frames per second are bad.

Disable shop mode and lessons and fully disable memories or use this mod to severly limit them. Disable interactive loading screens as well. These are all performance eaters. Interactive loading screen also causes crashes. Memories also don't do anything for your sim, it's just a scrap book with no in-game effects.

Disable any online mode feature. This also lags out your game. Unless you really want to use these features it's best to just play fully offline.

Save your settings, close the game again.

Step 8: Install Sims 3 Settings Setter

This is the most recent magic genie that Sims 3 was blessed with. Especially combined with DXVK it is a life changer. Installing it is simple. You download the most recent version here and drop the .asi file in your bin. Also grab 'wininet.dll' from here (the 32 bit one) and drop that one in your bin too.

Start up your game and load up a save. Once you're inside your save, you press 'insert' to open up the menu for Sims 3 Settings Setter. Go to the 'patches' tab and enable what you like. These are my enabled patches and they all work really well for me, but feel free to experiment with them to find your own performance sweet spot:

Only enable uncompressed textures if you have a GPU with at least 8gb of VRAM. My game will use over 6gb of VRAM easily with this enabled, so you've been warned.

Once you have everything you desire enabled, press 'file' in the top left corner and click 'save settings'.

Step 8.5: if you're playing windowed mode: go into the Other/QoL tab and enable 'Borderless Window'. Set it to 'Full Screen'.

Save your settings and close your game again. No need to save the game you entered for this unless you want to.

Step 9: Install Nraas Errortrap, MasterController and Overwatch

These 3 mods by Nraas are pretty much essential to keep your game from breaking down in the long run. You can download the mods here. Have you never installed a mod for Sims 3 before? Here's a guide (skip the part about Sims3pack and go straight to the part where it explains how to install .package mods).

That's it! You can now play The Sims 3 and it'll be as smooth and stable as it'll ever be. From here on, you can stock your game with more mods and CC (check out my mods masterlist!), or you can install Reshade (here's a guide).

Some important things to keep in mind while playing:

Clean up your game regularly. You can easily do this by using Regul Save Cleaner.

When you install a new mod or update/change Sims 3 Settings Setter, always restart and clear your caches.

Use CC Magic for installing CC, because it merges your files and this really helps with performance. Here's a handy guide on how to use it. Don't put your script mods in here, just your CC.

If you plan to travel to vacation destinations in the EP World Adventures, Nraas Traveler is a must to prevent most of the bugs and crashes that happen in this expansion.

Always keep in mind: mods and corrupt CC can still break your game, make it laggy or unplayable. Always be mindful of the mods you add, so you can always trace any issues you're having back to the mod causing it. I highly recommend not downloading a ton of mods in one session, but adding them step by step and see what they do to your games performance.

Use 'Reset the entire town' from Nraas MasterController at least every other sim week. It'll help clear up any lag that happens because of NPC sims getting themselves stuck routing or annoying stuff like that.

Got a slow CAS? Use Nraas MasterController Compact mode! (Make sure you have the Nraas MasterController Integration module installed).

Navigate to NRaas > MasterController > Settings > CAS.

Set the following to True:

Show in Compact Form: Accessories

Show in Compact Form: Clothing

this is the third lookbook on my page (it's kind of more of a haul tbh) and the one that I've probably spent the most time on so I hope everyone enjoys the hairssss!!

*removed the 8th hair because the dl link was taken down :(*

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27

baby hairs for look 15 *here*

sim download can be found *here*

tysm to these cc creators for the amazing content: @pandelabs @shimydim @rollo-rolls @gruesim @wingssims @criisolate @daerilia @agnelid @faerielandsims

Step 1: install your game through your respected platform.

Just follow the regular steps and install the game without adding any other stuff yet whatsoever.

(I personally have a legit copy of the Sims 3 on Steam. If you use another app and have any questions, I'll probably not be able to help you.)

Step 2: run the game once through the official launcher. Once you get to the main menu, you can quit again.

It is very important you run your game through the original launcher at least once after installing it. Not doing so can cause problems with programs like CC magic. You only need to do it the first time. After that, we'll be skipping the launcher entirely.

Step 3: Create a short cut of TS3W.exe on your desktop.

You'll be skipping the launcher from now on. This helps with performance and it starts up your game much faster. It is also important to do this because of DXVK.

You can find TS3W.exe in your bin folder. For me (Steam version) it's in this location: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\The Sims 3\Game\Bin

Right click TS3W.exe, click 'show more options' and choose 'create a shortcut'. Place this shortcut on your desktop and Run Sims 3 from there from now on.

Step 4: Run the GPU Add-on Support patcher

You can find this patcher here. It is essential to run this because Sims will otherwise not recognize your graphics card unless it's over 10 years old. This patcher helps to get your GPU recognized.

The patcher will create a new Graphicsrules.sgr and new Graphicscards.sgr for you in your bin folder. After installing this, you can move the ones that have _old behind them somewhere else (or delete them).

P.S.: if you pirate your game you'll have to do this manually, there's guides online for it but since I have a legit copy I can't help you here.

Step 5: Install DXVK

Make sure you follow this guide by Nornite and do every single step. Don't skip anything!

I'd say DXVK is pretty essential nowadays, especially if you have a modern graphics card with 6GB of VRAM or higher. It'll greatly help to keep your game stable and can prevent a lot of crashes. The way Dxvk works, is that it loads textures through your VRAM instead of your RAM. Especially when you use a lot of CC or HD textures, this will make a huge difference for your RAM usage. Sims 3 can only use 4GB of RAM at once and will start crashing once you hit the 3GB mark in your task manager. With DXVK, you will use a lot less RAM and it'll take much longer for your game to reach this hard cap.

When not to install DXVK: if you have a shitty GPU (like an integrated graphics card on a laptop, or one with 4GB of VRAM or less).

Step 5: Start up the game

Use your new desktop shortcut that also has 'run as administrator' permissions now if you followed the DXVK guide properly.

Step 6: set up all your settings through the ingame options menu

The best graphics settings for you will highly depend on what computer you're using. But there are some things you should always turn off because they negatively affect performance. I will share my (relevant) settings with you (I use a custom UI so your screen style will look a little different from mine). Click on the images to enlarge them so you can read them:

Things of note about these settings:

I recommend you play in windowed mode, especially if you plan to use ReShade. Playing fullscreen is possible, but it does make Reshade presets behave differently in your game. I will include a step in this guide that you can follow to play windowed borderless. So, when you plan to do this: make sure you set the resolution to your display resolution.

Enable object hiding helps with performance. Advanced rendering is essential because otherwise your game looks like absolute shit.

Set your High Detail Lots to any value between 2 and 4. Don't go lower or higher, because you'll get rendering issues that lag out your game.

All other graphics settings can be set to your heart's desire. I'd say start with the highest settings and only go down if you notice your frames per second are bad.

Disable shop mode and lessons and fully disable memories or use this mod to severly limit them. Disable interactive loading screens as well. These are all performance eaters. Interactive loading screen also causes crashes. Memories also don't do anything for your sim, it's just a scrap book with no in-game effects.

Disable any online mode feature. This also lags out your game. Unless you really want to use these features it's best to just play fully offline.

Save your settings, close the game again.

Step 7: Install Sims 3 Settings Setter

This is the most recent magic genie that Sims 3 was blessed with. Especially combined with DXVK it is a life changer. Installing it is simple. You download the most recent version here and drop the .asi file in your bin. Also grab 'wininet.dll' from here (the 32 bit one) and drop that one in your bin too.

Start up your game and load up a save. Once you're inside your save, you press 'insert' to open up the menu for Sims 3 Settings Setter. Go to the 'patches' tab and enable what you like. These are my enabled patches and they all work really well for me, but feel free to experiment with them to find your own performance sweet spot:

Only enable uncompressed textures if you have a GPU with at least 8gb of VRAM. My game will use over 6gb of VRAM easily with this enabled, so you've been warned.

Once you have everything you desire enabled, press 'file' in the top left corner and click 'save settings'.

Step 7.5: if you're playing windowed mode: go into the Other/QoL tab and enable 'Borderless Window'. Set it to 'Full Screen'.

Save your settings and close your game again. No need to save the game you entered for this unless you want to.

Step 8: Install Nraas Errortrap, MasterController and Overwatch

These 3 mods by Nraas are pretty much essential to keep your game from breaking down in the long run. You can download the mods here. Have you never installed a mod for Sims 3 before? Here's a guide (skip the part about Sims3pack and go straight to the part where it explains how to install .package mods).

That's it! You can now play The Sims 3 and it'll be as smooth and stable as it'll ever be. From here on, you can stock your game with more mods and CC (check out my mods masterlist!), or you can install Reshade (here's a guide).

Some important things to keep in mind while playing:

Clean up your game regularly. You can easily do this by using Regul Save Cleaner.

When you install a new mod or update/change Sims 3 Settings Setter, always restart and clear your caches.

Use CC Magic for installing CC, because it merges your files and this really helps with performance. Here's a handy guide on how to use it. Don't put your script mods in here, just your CC.

If you plan to travel to vacation destinations in the EP World Adventures, Nraas Traveler is a must to prevent most of the bugs and crashes that happen in this expansion.

Always keep in mind: mods and corrupt CC can still break your game, make it laggy or unplayable. Always be mindful of the mods you add, so you can always trace any issues you're having back to the mod causing it. I highly recommend not downloading a ton of mods in one session, but adding them step by step and see what they do to your games performance.

Use 'Reset the entire town' from Nraas MasterController at least every other sim week. It'll help clear up any lag that happens because of NPC sims getting themselves stuck routing or annoying stuff like that.