Map View in Poor Quality - Lenovo Legion 5

[iyoung91]

I might simply be very nitpicky here, but I recently switched to a Lenovo Legion 5 gaming laptop with and Nvidia RTX 3050 graphics card, only to find that the roads while in map view are in extremely poor quality. (See screenshot) I know this is a 10-year-old game, but I never had this issue in map view when I played the game years ago. I run the game at a cap of 60 FPS and see great graphics all around aside from the map view. Graphics card is matched (Confirmed). Only area I could possibly tweak is the seti texturememory, which I have set at 1024. I never was able to figure out my true amount of VRAM, but I figure it's decent enough considering this is a newer gaming laptop. I'll attach DevoceConfig Log as a point of reference. 

=== Application info ===
Name: Sims3
Version:
Build: Release
=== Rating info ===
GPU: 5 GPU Memory: 4 CPU: 4 RAM: 4 CPU Speed: 3194 Threading: 3
Adjusted CPU: 3859 RAM: 14188 Adjusted RAM: 13676 Cores: 16
=== Machine info ===
OS version: Windows 8 6.2.9200
OS prod type: 0
OS major ver: 6
OS minor ver: 2
OS SP major ver: 0
OS SP minor ver: 0
OS is 64Bit: 1
CPU: AuthenticAMD
Brand: AMD Ryzen 7 5800H with Radeon Graphics
Family: 15
Model: 0
Cores: 16
HT: 0
x64: 0
Memory: 14188MB
Free memory: 7660MB
User: ****
Computer: ****
=== Graphics device info ===
Number: 0
Name (driver): NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Laptop GPU
Name (database): GeForce RTX 3050 [Found: 1, Matched: 1]
Vendor: NVIDIA
Chipset: Vendor: 10de, Device: ****, Board: 3aac17aa, Chipset: 00a1
Driver: nvldumd.dll, Version: 30.0.15.1233, GUID: D7B71E3E-66A0-11CF-CB70-A31A0EC2D335
Driver version: 1233
Monitor: \\.\DISPLAY1
Texture memory: 1024MB
Vertex program: 3.0
Pixel program: 3.0
Hardware TnL: 1

[roberta591]

@iyoung91  This game needs to know what graphics chip you have and the game database has not been updated for newer chips. If the game can't identify your graphics system it probably defaults to low resolution. Getting the game to id your graphics chip should fix the problem. There are several how tos online.

[iyoung91]

@roberta591 It knows it. I did all of that already as I indicated and attached above in the chat. My device config log indicates my card is matched.

[puzzlezaddict]

@iyoung91  Map View has always been low-resolution, and the difference may be appear to be greater now because of how much better the graphics are in street view on your new computer.  However, it's also possible that this is due to Windows and/or the graphics driver (it's not clear which is at fault here) no longer supporting the kinds of techniques that used to smooth out poor graphics on older systems.  I can dig up other examples for you, but the takeaway is there isn't anything to be done on the user end.

However, it's also possible that your in-game graphics options are contributing.  While your graphics card is properly recognized and rated at the max, that wouldn't change the options after they'd already been set.  So try maxing out everything except water and high-detail lots (these are particularly demanding on the game engine) to see whether it helps.  Make sure to change the options at the Main Menu and then quit to desktop before loading a save to get the full effect.

Does this happen in both fullscreen and windowed modes, and if it happens in fullscreen, are you playing at your laptop screen's native resolution?  If not, please switch to that resolution and then quit and restart the game.

If you'd like, I can grab a couple of similar screenshots for comparison as well.  This one was taken in Lucky Palms, right?  If you have Seasons installed, let me know what season this is, in case it matters, and take a screenshot of Sunset Valley in Map View as well.

By the way, your graphics card has 4 GB of VRAM.  But since Sims 3 can only use 800 MB, setting the texture memory value to 1024 is fine.

[roberta591]

@iyoung91 What it doesn't say is what you set the card to. This determines how the game sets the graphics. It also doesn't say what resolution you have the game set to. The game may have found 1 and matched 1 but it still can set itself wrong if you get the syntax wrong.

[puzzlezaddict]

@roberta591  The graphics card's rating is in the original post:

=== Rating info ===
GPU: 5 GPU Memory: 4 CPU: 4 RAM: 4 CPU Speed: 3194 Threading: 3
Adjusted CPU: 3859 RAM: 14188 Adjusted RAM: 13676 Cores: 16

The ratings for the card and the VRAM are both at the maximum.

[roberta591]

@puzzlezaddict   I normally don't look at the application info because that COULD change every time the game is started where as the dxdiag will remain constant. It is a tool and that's all it is. From experience I know that the syntax has to be right or it doesn't work right. 

[iyoung91]

@puzzlezaddict , I play in Fullscreen mode only at my native resolution of 1920x1080. I do not have Seasons installed, and correct, the world is Lucky Palms. I am attaching Sunset Valley in Map View on this feed. This was interesting, in Sunset Valley for a split second, map view was in great quality. Then defaulted to low res. I do have all settings on high, including water. 

[iyoung91]

@roberta591 Attaching a .txt file of my DxDiag in case helpful 

[puzzlezaddict]

@iyoung91  Do you have any installed software meant to optimize your in-game settings or performance?  GeForce Experience would qualify if you've checked the box to let it optimize settings, but there are plenty of other third-party tools as well.  If you're not sure, open the Task Manager (while in-game; put the game in windowed mode first) and look through the background processes list for anything that doesn't have a Windows/AMD/Nvidia logo.

It's also possible, though this would be a bit unusual, that your computer is switching to integrated graphics in Map View because of how much less demanding that mode is.  You should be able to see the difference in the Task Manager's Performance tab: one minute you're in street view and the Nvidia card is taking the graphics load, then the next you're in Map View and the AMD graphics chip is working and the Nvidia card's load has dropped way down.  This is just a theory, but it's easy to test.

Even if this isn't the underlying problem, it's still worth telling Windows to run Sims 3 in high-performance mode.  Hit Windows key-i, open System > Display > Graphics settings, click Browse, choose TS3.exe (without the W) from the list, click Options, select the high-performance option, and save.  And of course always play with the laptop plugged in, since running on battery can make Windows override any other performance options you've set.