thesimfaq.iwarp.com

Welcome! General For the latest up to date information on The Sims visit http://www.TheSims.com. You can visit fan sites and find message boards, FAQ's (Frequently Asked Questions), walk-throughs and hints on the site. Visit the chat area of our site to chat with other players. Performance Tips -In general, the system is at full capacity when running the simulation at full speed, all graphics enabled, and sounds and music playing. To improve performance, turn graphics options down or off, turn sounds and/or music off and use lower screen resolution settings. These settings are found by clicking the "Options" button in the Control Panel. You can change the graphics options by clicking the "Graphics Options" button that looks like a monitor. You can change the sound options by clicking the "Sound Options" button that looks like a speaker. You can use the shortcut in the start menu to run at 800x600 rather than 1024x768. -Running the game with the "Roof" option on can affect system performance. We recommend players use the "Walls Cutaway" option located in the Control Panel above the time indicator. -Saving the game can be sped up by disabling the "Export HTML" function in the "Play Options" menu. We recommend this for players who will not be using the web page features of The Sims. -We recommend that you don't Alt+Tab in and out of the game, especially when the game is saving or loading.

System Requirements Windows® 95, 98 or higher 233 Mhz or faster Intel® Pentium® processor 32MB RAM 2MB Graphics Card, 16-bit Color Capable - DirectX 7 Certified 4x CD-ROM drive Sound Card - Directx 7 Certified 300 MB free hard disk space (additional space required for DirectX 7 installation and Windows swap file) A keyboard, mouse, monitor and some form of power :-) Extra Links

Video Problems
-The REAL 3D Starfighter video card did not pass our compatibility tests.
-Although 3D acceleration won't improve game performance, newer 2D/3D video cards tend to have better 2D support than older 2D cards.
-If the game detects a low end system, it will automatically turn down detail in the game to optimize
performance for you. Turning these options back up may affect game speed.
-If The Sims screen appears fuzzy after switching between applications by pressing Alt+Tab, this is likely a result of outdated video drivers.
Please contact your video card manufacturer for a new an updated driver.
-If you are still experiencing problems, try updating your video card drivers. Links to video card manufacturer
support pages may be found at the Electronic Arts Customer Support page here:
http://www.ea.com/tech_support/

*Diagnostic tools- If you are still having problems with video try running the game from a shortcut with
some of these command line options:
-nodx6 (It disables DirectX 6-and-later support, falling back to DX3. Some graphics, like roofs, won't work, but it fixes problems on laptops and certain European machines in 800x600 mode.)
-w (forces game into windowed mode)
-r1024x768 (forces 1024-768 screen size)
-skip_intro (skips the intro movie)
-skip_verify (use this if the game will not start at all. Possible solution for some laptop and audio/video workstation problems. Make sure you run 800x600 mode and use 16 bit color or higher with this setting.) This skips verification for OS, DirectX version, a compatible graphics card, the game already running, not enough memory/hard disk, a Pentium processor or better, and it will try to set 16-bit color in windowed mode if not 16 bit color.
To create a shortcut, right click on TheSims.exe and choose "Create Shortcut". To edit the shortcut, right
click on the shortcut and select "Properties." At the end of the line called "Target", add a space after the
existing text and enter your command line option (such as -skip_intro).

Sound Problems
*Diagnostic tools- If you are having problems with sound try running the game from a shortcut with some of these command line options:
-nosound (This will run the game with no sound or music. Try this only if you need to determine if your sound card is causing problems with the game.)
Turning the sound effects, voice and music all the way down in the game will effectively turn all the sound off. These options are located in the Control Panel under "Options" and then "Sound Options".
Music only works from mapped drives (e.g., g:\), not "universal naming convention (UNC)"
devices (e.g.,\\myserver).