@player893tiffany If you want to play Sims 3, do not update to Catalina. Sims 3 is a 32-bit app, and Catalina is 64-bit only, as in, it doesn't run anything 32-bit. You can update to Mojave if you want, but it doesn't make any difference to Sims 3 most of the time.
What you need to do is add your graphics card to the game's database. To do so, you'll need to edit two files, graphicscards.sgr and graphicsrules.sgr, located within the game's package contents. To get there, right-click (or hold down crtl and click) on the Sims 3 icon, and select Show Package Contents. From there, the file path is:
Contets\Resources\transgaming\c_drive\Program Files\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\Game\Bin
Open graphicscards.sgr (TextEdit works fine), and cmd-F to search for 8086. This will take you to these lines:
vendor "Intel" 0x8086
card 0x0042 "Havendale"
card 0x0046 "Havendale"
Under the line that says Intel, create a new line and copy and paste this:
card 0x591e "Intel HD Graphics 615"
(Don't write it out yourself, or TextEdit will change the formatting slightly and mess things up.) Save, quit, and open graphicsrules.sgr. Search for Havendale, which will take you here:
if (match("${cardName}", "*Havendale*"))
seti cardLevel $cardLevelMedium
seti isCardMatched true
elseif (match("${cardName}", "*4?00*"))
Create a new line after true and before elseif, and copy and paste this:
if (match("${cardName}", "*HD Graphics 615*"))
seti cardLevel $cardLevelMedium
seti isCardMatched true
Save, quit, and try to launch the game. Let me know whether it works. Either way, please go into Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3, open the file called deviceconfig.log (if you have one), copy the 15 or so lines between "Graphics device info" and "Options," and paste them into a reply.
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I don't work for EA. I'm just trying to help fellow players with their games.
