Artifacting on Macs with AMD GPUs or M1 chips [ Edited ]

[Hephaestion02]

Product: The Sims 4
Platform:Mac
Which language are you playing the game in? English
How often does the bug occur? Every time (100%)
What is your current game version number? 1.60.54.1220
What expansions, game packs, and stuff packs do you have installed? All EPs, all GPs (except Realm of Magic), Bowling night stuff, Laundry Day Stuff, Perfect Patio Stuff and Vintage Glamour Stuff
Steps: How can we find the bug ourselves? Seems be affect Macs with dedicated AMD graphics card running Catalina with lighting quality set to medium, high or extra high.
What happens when the bug occurs? Rows of shadow lines appear on floor tiles, foundations and various objects in full sunlight both indoors and outside. The lines are dynamic and move, grow larger as the camera is moved and zoomed in and out. In some instances the lines only appear when zoomed out. Shadows have jagged edges. I have been told this graphical glitch is possibly artifacting after speaking to another Mac user (with a radeon graphics card) with the same issue.
What do you expect to see? No lines
Have you installed any customization with the game, e.g. Custom Content or Mods? Not now. I've removed them.
Did this issue appear after a specific patch or change you made to your system? Yes
Please describe the patch or change you made. The issue appeared after the pre university patch 1.58.63.1210 11th November 2019

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My specs:

 iMac (Retina 4K, 21.5-inch, 2019)

3 GHz 6-Core Intel Core i5

16 GB 2667 MHz DDR4

Radeon Pro 560X 4 GB

macOS Catalina v. 10.15.2

Edit - updated title for clarity, Bluebellflora

[Bluebellflora · Accepted solution]

This has now been fixed in the July 2022 patch 1.90.358.1230, marking this as solved.

If anyone starts experiencing this again please start a new thread with screenshots and Mac specs.

[Sid1701d9]

@Hephaestion02 I believe you might get a better answer in technical section. So when the mods see it please move to the correct place

It is so hard to determine if graphics glitchs are the result of game code, graphic card or monitor or driver issue, plus all computers are not the same which makes it even harder.

[ElionGimoni]

See those dark lines running through the leaves of the bush (first image) and upper half of the floor texture (second image)? This happens on every lot in every world in all my saves. It appears on certain objects, foundations, floors, etc. It also happens with certain CAS items (clothing items with reflective textures specifically). I should also note this issue has persisted for several months through at least 3 patches.

I've tried the following:

- deleting options.ini

- running my game without mods

- turning off v-sync

- turning off post processing effects

- changing resolution

- playing in windowed mode

I'm playing with Ultra graphics settings

and my computer specs are as follows

2019 iMac

3 GHz 6-Core Intel Core i5

32 GB 2667 MHz DDR4

Radeon Pro 570X 4 GB

Retina 5K Display

MacOS Catalina 10.15.4

Any suggestions would be helpful

[Bluebellflora]

@ElionGimoni

Yep, it's been around for months. I've merged your post into this thread on the issue. It happens in full sunlight and mainly with AMD GPUs. Changing the RenderShadowsEnabled to false in the GraphicsRules.sgr fixes it but I like my lighting and shadows to look great so I just put up with it.

It could be that Apple need to update their AMD drivers, they are notoriously lazy about doing so, or maybe EA need to update the Metal compatibility for the game.

There is also an issue with some CC screens and textures that happened around the same time - https://answers.ea.com/t5/Technical-Issues-Mac/graphics-issue-with-any-reflective-shiny-surface/td-p...

[ElionGimoni]

Ah that sucks. Thanks for your help!

[xoxDahlia]

Hi All.  Just thought I'd bump this thread by pointing out that I have this issue too and have had it at least since late 2019 (this is the first time I could find anyone reporting the issue, so pardon my tardiness!) I too have the little lines appearing in direct sunlight, which is visible in my stop motion build videos (on Youtube under username xoxDahlia) and experienced them even when I didn't have any CC in my game.  Here are my specs—looks like the issue isn't isolated to AMD graphics cards.

Macbook Pro (13-inch, 2016)

2 GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i5

8 GB 1867 MHz LPDDR3

Intel Iris Graphics 540 1536 MB

I've tried all the repairs, redownloads, etc. to no avail, and I'm running the latest OS Catalina 10.15.6 so my drivers are (in theory) fully updated. I've also set SSAO to false in GraphicsRules.ini so I know it's not related to that.  If I had to guess, I'd say it has something to do with the interaction between Sims 4 and Mac-specific graphics drivers, possibly Metal-related, but good to know I'm not the only one with this issue.

It would be really awesome if EA could patch this the way they did with the box shadow effect under sims.   

Cheers

Dahlia

[Bluebellflora]

@xoxDahlia

It's not the SSAO you change, it's the RenderShadowsEnabled setting. Make sure you change the value for the setting you have your game on.

Could you post a screenshot before you edit the setting? Be good to compare the issue on a Mac with Intel versus AMD. A screenshot showing the lines on foundation and on a plant would be great

[xoxDahlia]

Hi @Bluebellflora 

Thanks for that.  I've attached some screenshots of the little lines on a plant and foundation in afternoon sunlight.  I'll also attach photos of the same plant and foundation after turning off RenderShadowsEnabled, just for interest's sake.  It solved the line glitch, but as you mentioned before in this thread, I'd rather deal with some lines than lose all shadows.  (Sad we have to choose, right?)

Hope this is helpful!

Cheers

Dahlia

[xoxDahlia]

As per above, after shots attached.

[Bluebellflora]

@xoxDahlia

Yeah, it's been like this since the Metal update to the game last November