the sims 3 How Do I Change the Size of the UI?

[Shiori栞]

This can be easily done in TS4, but I can't figure out which file to make this change to in TS3. Playing in 4k requires a telescope to see all dialogue and options.

[landess]

I tried to play the Sims 3 in VR using VorpX and an Oculus and realized it's not like most games (didn't work BTW). Besides not actually being 3D like so many games, I don't remember there being any options to change the UI in the VorpX menus to resize or move.

 

Now that you've brought up the Sims 4 and this particular situation, while I swore I'd NEVER play the Sims 4 and use Origin, I'm wondering if it runs in VR.......

[spaceman1]

14 hours ago, Shiori栞 said:

This can be easily done in TS4, but I can't figure out which file to make this change to in TS3. Playing in 4k requires a telescope to see all dialogue and options.

There is no way to change the UI the Sims 3 was never meant to be played beyond 1080p or in other words 2k.

4 hours ago, landess said:

I tried to play the Sims 3 in VR using VorpX and an Oculus and realized it's not like most games (didn't work BTW). Besides not actually being 3D like so many games, I don't remember there being any options to change the UI in the VorpX menus to resize or move.

 

Now that you've brought up the Sims 4 and this particular situation, while I swore I'd NEVER play the Sims 4 and use Origin, I'm wondering if it runs in VR.......

Actually the Sims 3 is a full 3D game it's just old and VR was still in very early development not available to the public when it was released. I don't think Sims 4 plays in VR either as it doesn't utilize a first person view.

[JoshQ]

24 minutes ago, spaceman1 said:

it doesn't utilize a first person view

It does, EA added it at the end of 2018, now does that works well with VR? I don't know.

 

Also want to confirm that is not possible to scale S3's UI.

[spaceman1]

37 minutes ago, JoshQ said:

It does, EA added it at the end of 2018, now does that works well with VR? I don't know.

 

Also want to confirm that is not possible to scale S3's UI.

I haven't bothered TS4 since 2017 didn't know they did that. But I doubt it will work with VR. If they do make TS4 for VR it'll probably be a separate game.

[landess]

52 minutes ago, spaceman1 said:

Actually the Sims 3 is a full 3D game it's just old and VR was still in very early development not available to the public when it was released. I don't think Sims 4 plays in VR either as it doesn't utilize a first person view.

Been looking into this:

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

27 minutes ago, JoshQ said:

Also want to confirm that is not possible to scale S3's UI.

Been looking into: Program Files - Electronic Arts - Sims 3 - Game - Bin.  Specifically the UI folder with UI.package. I opened it in S3PE and began browsing the file and noticed anything with a size entry used 768x480 and the file uint32 was referenced in about every entry. This leads me to believe the UI, like most everything else besides the actual game play is 'hardcoded' and changing it would require an incredible amount of changes to multiple files and entries...

 

 

>>>> I also have the 1st person mod from MTS for the Sims 3, but it does clash with a 'better' camera mod so the view isn't precisely where it should be. As for VR - I can get the Sims 3 to 'work' in VR, but without 3D, so it's like a wrap around screen that feels about 8-10 inches from your face. There is a reference to a Sims 3 cloud profile in the video comments for VorpX, but I haven't found anything yet myself.

[Shiori栞]

7 hours ago, landess said:

I tried to play the Sims 3 in VR using VorpX and an Oculus

You tried to play TS3 in VR? ?

 

2 hours ago, spaceman1 said:

There is no way to change the UI the Sims 3 was never meant to be played beyond 1080p or in other words 2k.

That certainly makes me wonder why there are 2 4k options in the graphics settings......

 

If only I had a 75" screen.

[landess]

22 minutes ago, Shiori栞 said:

You tried to play TS3 in VR? ?

Glad I amused you

 

 

If you had done a search, you would've found many posts concerning the lack of UI adjustment. Smarter minds than the ones here have looked into it......

[spaceman1]

8 hours ago, Shiori栞 said:

That certainly makes me wonder why there are 2 4k options in the graphics settings.

Like most games after 2009 it has open end detection to detect the maximum resolution that the monitor or TV has available which is probably a mistake as the Sims 3 is a 32bit game not to mention resource intensive running it in 4k would eat up the 4GB memory limit it has faster than normal as well as stress the already fragile game engine.

 

10 hours ago, landess said:

Been looking into: Program Files - Electronic Arts - Sims 3 - Game - Bin.  Specifically the UI folder with UI.package. I opened it in S3PE and began browsing the file and noticed anything with a size entry used 768x480 and the file uint32 was referenced in about every entry. This leads me to believe the UI, like most everything else besides the actual game play is 'hardcoded' and changing it would require an incredible amount of changes to multiple files and entries

You would need to rewrite the entire UI as well as the game engine. The limitations the game engine has would need a 64bit wrapper to run effectively in 4k the game will run but even shittier than it usually does.

[Shiori栞]

11 hours ago, spaceman1 said:

Like most games after 2009 it has open end detection to detect the maximum resolution that the monitor or TV has available which is probably a mistake as the Sims 3 is a 32bit game not to mention resource intensive running it in 4k would eat up the 4GB memory limit it has faster than normal as well as stress the already fragile game engine.

tbh The resolutions it was showing me go well beyond what my monitor can possibly display. It went all the way to 8k with tons of strange resolutions in between. I can only assume it got totally confused by my 4k+ DSR options (which I can't even use) like 4487 x 2366 (1.2x), 5016 x 2645 (1.5x), 5461 x 2880 (1.78x), etc. This is the only time I ever saw a game show all those resolutions.

[spaceman1]

1 hour ago, Shiori栞 said:

tbh The resolutions it was showing me go well beyond what my monitor can possibly display. It went all the way to 8k with tons of strange resolutions in between. I can only assume it got totally confused by my 4k+ DSR options (which I can't even use) like 4487 x 2366 (1.2x), 5016 x 2645 (1.5x), 5461 x 2880 (1.78x), etc. This is the only time I ever saw a game show all those resolutions.

If you got the game from Origin that wouldn't surprise me, I believe EA had updated the resolution detection code the 4k detection on your TV must've trigger the game to show those. Although I have disc installation and my old 2k TV had DSR options would show up to 4k.

[jdw6]

On 4/7/2020 at 9:21 PM, Shiori栞 said:

This can be easily done in TS4, but I can't figure out which file to make this change to in TS3. Playing in 4k requires a telescope to see all dialogue and options.

Sorry for the month-old resurrection of a thread (but the tech support topic doesn't get much action anyway).  Just curious how big your monitor is.  I've got a 34" 5K monitor, and I found that I had to run TS3 a "step down" from full-screen in order to see anything (3840 x 2160, not 5120 x 2160) which sucks.  Unfortunately my LG 34BK95U-W has an issue (kinda like my LG phone  ) with long lasting temporary burn-in, so the edges of where TS3 was is visible for a few hours afterward.

 

As for the resolution stuff, I had to edit the GraphicsCards.sgr, GraphicsRules.sgr, and Sims3.ini files to get TS3 running at peak resolution for my card, which it didn't detect correctly as my card is "too new".  (Those instructions were on, I think, a Steam forum, but I also found similar steps on a few other sites since then.)

 

I've not tried (yet) but I recalled some discussions around "retina" type screens and older programs having size/readability issues that were "solved" (or lessened) by creating a manifest file.  I might give that a try, if I can figure out how that was done again.  I played around with those settings on one of my ultrabooks, but it probably was the one I "factory reset". ?   Just another thought that I didn't see mentioned.

 

I spent some time looking at the decompiled DLLs to see how much was caused by hard-coded assumptions, but there's more there than I have time for.