Still running the base game here (Ambitions still in the post somewhere), but since the new patch, sim pathfinding is vastly improved with less foot tapping and sims whinging about blocked routes, etc.

Lighting is hit and miss as you say. Roads do not light up, but adjacent land does when outdoor lights are placed. Wall lights will NOT cast light beyond lot limits, however and no lights will cast light on walls more than one floor high. Light cast from windows now works correctly, especially at night.

Shadows are less pixellated.

Game appears to run smoother, though takes three times as long to load. Presumably it's doing a better job pre-caching everything.

You know, when I saw those promotional videos over at Simprograms from the fan events where the autofollow kept on cutting out, I just assumed that this was down to whoever was in charge being an idiot and randomly clicking everywhere. This is actually a glitch? How the fuck did EA miss that?

I remember that the hard drive would carry on grinding long after the lot had loaded, causing anything that wasn't static to stutter like mad. Vacation was the worst with this, because the coding actually clashed with Windoze 98's keyboard drivers so I had a combination of constant HDD grinding, on-screen stuttering and random commands from the keyboard all at the same time.

According to PC Tools Firewall (cheers Starstryder), ts3.exe is trying to access 1.174.143.100, so I knew it was up to something. Now to find out what 1.174.143.100 is.

EDIT: This can't be right, right?

http://rank10.org/pr/?url=www.sonymusic.com

It links back to a Sony server. SecuROM?

I've just had a scan through DeviceConfig.log. It seems that EA's implementation of Boolean code is pretty much nonstandard: '0'=true and '1'=false. So, in theory, this means that in my options.ini, enabletelemetry is set to 'false'.

I'm talking arse. These were the "default" settings. My settings are all set to '0' which is 'false'. In options.ini, enabletelemetry stays stuck on '1' no matter what I do in the in-game options.

Still would like to know what my game's trying to make contact with, though.


Cheers, I'll check it out.

After running the game a few more times this morning, I have noticed that despite having the main executable blocked in Windoze Firewall (I don't use the launcher), something tries to connect to the internet a few seconds before the animated EA/TS3 logo pops up. I have Data Logging disabled as I've said before, but I'm wondering if the game's trying to access a non-existent ad server?

EDIT: Hmm... Just noticed that enabletelemetry is set to '1' in options.ini despite the in-game setting clearly showing that Data Logging is disabled. Is there any software I can use (free, preferably) to monitor what this bloody game's sending out over the internet?

Or just huge banners pointing out how much TSR sucks.

The thing is, this isn't actually new. I've just reinstalled the game for testing purposes, and during installation (pre-patch), I am asked if I want to share anonymous usage data with EA. Of course I clicked 'no', just as I've always done when I've reinstalled this game. The fact is, it's always been there. The difference now is, if you had inadvertently said yes, you now have a second chance on the option screen to opt out again. That option was never there before.

EDIT: I don't know if this option was ever there for the arred versions though. I've always used a legal copy.

I don't see the fuss. I've just applied the patch to my base game (no EPs yet), and Data Logging is disabled by default. You have to actually enable it yourself and the tooltip clearly states it sends anonymous data to EA.

I just gave it a try too (would've had to update tomorrow anyway). No mods or anything. The lights are still broken as blackcat says. Lights do not radiate beyond lot limits or up walls. EA are basically talking out of their arses.

Stop double posting. There's a 'modify' button there for a reason.

Now they just need to go one step further and add the ability to delete CC in-game.

Actually the code's always been there. I've stumbled across some XML references a few times when looking through the FullBuild packages. It looks like this patch merely updates it. Then again, if "there are no immediate plans to activate any content of this kind" as the patch notes state, then why update the code? I've paid for my game and I see no reason why I should be bombarded with ads in something I've paid for in full.

I get this issue too and I'm running Windows 7 64-bit with 4 gigs installed. I'm convinced that this is a limitation of the .net framework being 32-bit and only being able to address a maximum of 2GB as working RAM. If you're importing a load of packages, especially those that had been compressed in the first place, it's very easy to go over this limit and have s3pe crash as a result. Don't forget, s3pe has to have all those separate packages preloaded into RAM and still have space to spare for the merged file before dumping it to your hard drive.

Well, this is the thing. When EA released some promo screenshots for HELS, there was one shot in particular that clearly showed the lighting working as it should, with light sources casting light on multiple floors, and I thought at the time that they had fixed the issue and would be releasing it as part of an upcoming patch. The patch came, and the light fix didn't.

I'll see if I can find a link to that screenshot.

EDIT: Actually, there were three, courtesy of SimPrograms:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/simprograms/4310957403/in/set-72157622468798168/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/simprograms/4311693710/in/set-72157622468798168/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/simprograms/4270888095/in/set-72157622468798168/

LURK MOAR, moron.

This question has been asked and answered loads of times before, and we're sick to death of noobs coming in here and shitting on the floor with the same crap. Calling regulars "dicks" will not get you far either.

You'll be waiting a VERY long time. EA don't seem to give a shit, especially when there's substandard Store-crap to push. I mean, why bother fixing the very thing they boasted about (the lighting) in the original previews when they can churn out TVs that show incorrect broken graphics when they break (one-tiled noise on a two-tiled screen), or clothes and hair that clip like fuck?

This lighting problem was introduced in one of the earlier patches when EA thought that everything would look so much better if they took on a creepy radioactive glow. I tried looking around the different files to see if I could isolate the lighting issue because it's pissing me off too. I even tried replacing the shaders file with the original from the disc but it made no difference, not that I thought it would, but you never know. Incidentally, I'm running the base game only.

Where's Gunmod when you need him? He worked wonders with the crappy TS2 lighting.

It was never there in the first place. You're getting confused with Twallan's Super Computer mod.

I don't think the lighting issue will ever get fixed. I have vague memories of outdoor lights casting light on walls several stories high (rather than just the ground floor like we have now), and none of that glowing shit either. In fact, the borked lights came in at the same time EA introduced that shiny bloom-effect crap on light sources.

It will never get fixed. I've tried looking around different packages (especially those delta packages that the patches create), .ini files and whatever else I can look at in s3pe or notepad and I can't find a thing. I'll bet it's just a hard-coded parameter that's doing this but EA continue to demonstrate that they still don't know their arse from their elbow.

At least now I can put a name to the face. That magician used to creep me out just standing there in the park at 7am every morning.

It only does it when there's no path around. There is a way to force them to walk through each other all the time regardless of space, and it involved changing one of the other [config] settings to 0 in addition to DynamicAvoidance_FieldRadius, but this had a knock-on effect of trapping sims in doorways where they wouldn't move at all. Eventually, you'd end up with a load of sims getting trapped in the same door.

Yeah, I forgot to add, keep a backup of the original Sims3.ini and drop it back in before applying any new patches. The patcher will kick up a stink otherwise.

@jwaas, I use this .ini tweak and Pescado's mod without issues.

ETA: Don't forget to click the "thanks" button for added lulz!

Actually, it'll be better (and safer) for you to make changes to the file yourself. You'll need to navigate to /The Sims 3/Game/Bin/Sims3.ini and change the settings for [Config] to read:


It's actually an old tweak I'd seen on here before, except with DynamicAvoidance_FieldRadius set to 0.0. This forces those braindead sims to simply walk through each other without all the routefail crap that normally ensues. Unfortunately, I haven't found a way to get this to work properly for stairs, where they'll still do that foot-tapping crap, but even these settings help to reduce the congestion that normally happens near stairs.

I got really pissed off with the routing issues, so I messed around with the .ini file so that these morons simply walk through each other. I had my concerns the moment I saw some of the demo videos and developer walkthroughs where you saw loads of sims standing around, moaning about route failure and tapping their feet. Hell, EA even used that bloody animation to make it look like they were tapping in tune in one of their promo videos (the candy-stealing one)!

Necromancy FAIL.