Hi, i have noticed some weird flickering shadows on my sims when outside, the most prominent space is under the eyes and neck. I was wondering if anyone had the same graphics card as me without these problems, of if they know if it has these problems.
It is not a cc problem as i did an reinstall of sims 3 and late night only, missing out world adventures because it was glitchy.
I am even beginning to suspect that it may be the base game disc that i have because my friend has an Ati Radeon 4600 series graphics card and she hasn't got the problem,
i have a- Windows 7 32 bit professional
4gb ram
and the rest exceeds the sims requirements.

My Graphics card is an ATI radeon 5700 series

here is what is happening>





These shadows constantly flicker about, and i have tried the supposed Ati shadow fix download but it made no difference.

bump

What are your graphics settings in game? Do you have Advanced Rendering turned on?

Hi, thanks for replying,
here are my settings
On = ticked box

Advanced rendering - on
Animation smoothing - on
Reflections- Mirrors and water
object hiding - on
Draw distance - high
Sim detail - high
texture detail - high
tree detail high -
shadows and lighting - high
high detail lots - 2
Full screen , 1080x whatever it is
visual effects - high
Edge smoothing - low , this makes no difference whatever the setting above low

if anyone can help with changing the settings to stop these shadows please .
Do you think it could be the expasion late night? as i only noticed it mainly after installing late night.

Do you see this seeming to only happen in larger towns? If so, it could be that your graphics card is struggling to run the game on the settings you have right now. First, check to see if dust in blocking up your vents. If there is dust, it can cause your computer to start to overheat, which will also keep your graphics card from running at it's best, and could also potentially damage it. You should bring your computer to a specialist for this. The next step would be to turn down your settings. Do this by taking down each one of your setting (about 2 at a time) to medium and restart the game each time until the shadows aren't there anymore. Make sure to test your game after every settings change to see if the shadows are still there or not. Let me know if this helps you

i don't think that its the dust, because it has a big blue fan in it and has ventilation holes all over the side and at the back, there is nothing blocking the air, and the machine doesn't get hot really.
Ill try lowering the settings to see if that helps, but i have tried with shadows on medium but it was still there. I think it has something to do with late night disc and version as it only seems to be noticeable after i installed it. But im getting showtime so perhaps the update may fix it ,

thanks anyway for your help

edit: ok ive tried changing the settings to lower, but that had no effect, i got the same shadows on medium and sim detail made no difference. the computers only 2 months old

this was what my shadows were like before late night,



This is after





The whole shadow is just deformed, any known solutions

i uninstalled all the expansions and it still does it, it never happened until i added late night

Are your graphics drivers up-to-date?

Try lowering your shadow settings only. I think they look like shadows from hair, eyelashes, etc.

Do you have the same shadow problem at night outdoors? How about daytime indoors?

I did update my graphics drivers via the ati website, but it made no difference to the settings. It is still as bad at night outside aswell, but inside is fine.

Can you send me a pic of a sim outside facing the sun so i can see what it should be like normally please

Would it be caused by a wireless kodak printer maybe, because thats the only thing i added, and i can't remember noticing these shadows before?

wickedchris247 wrote:I did update my graphics drivers via the ati website, but it made no difference to the settings. It is still as bad at night outside aswell, but inside is fine.

Can you send me a pic of a sim outside facing the sun so i can see what it should be like normally please

Would it be caused by a wireless kodak printer maybe, because thats the only thing i added, and i can't remember noticing these shadows before?

I'm not sure if this will help, but have you considered disconnecting the printer while you're playing games? Maybe your computer is having trouble running so many things at once.

k i uninstalled the printer, still no luck,

Does anyone know how to do a clean reinstall but with something to do with registry cleaners?

here is my Direct x stuff so can you tell if anything it out of date or not please?

------------------
System Information
------------------
Time of this report: 4/30/2012, 20:13:57
Machine name: W7P32
Operating System: Windows 7 Professional 32-bit (6.1, Build 7601) Service Pack 1 (7601.win7sp1_gdr.120305-1505)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
System Model: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
BIOS: BIOS Date: 06/16/11 18:15:07 Ver: 08.00.15
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i3 CPU 530 @ 2.93GHz (4 CPUs), ~2.9GHz
Memory: 4096MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 3064MB RAM
Page File: 1638MB used, 4486MB available
Windows Dir: C:\Windows
DirectX Version: DirectX 11
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
User DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
System DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
DWM DPI Scaling: Disabled
DxDiag Version: 6.01.7601.17514 32bit Unicode

------------
DxDiag Notes
------------
Display Tab 1: No problems found.
Sound Tab 1: No problems found.
Sound Tab 2: No problems found.
Input Tab: No problems found.

--------------------
DirectX Debug Levels
--------------------
Direct3D: 0/4 (retail)
DirectDraw: 0/4 (retail)
DirectInput: 0/5 (retail)
DirectMusic: 0/5 (retail)
DirectPlay: 0/9 (retail)
DirectSound: 0/5 (retail)
DirectShow: 0/6 (retail)

---------------
Display Devices
---------------
Card name: ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series
Manufacturer: ATI Technologies Inc.
Chip type: ATI display adapter (0x68B
DAC type: Internal DAC(400MHz)
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_68B8&SUBSYS_21401462&REV_00
Display Memory: 2290 MB
Dedicated Memory: 1015 MB
Shared Memory: 1275 MB
Current Mode: 1920 x 1080 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Monitor Name: Generic PnP Monitor
Monitor Model: BenQ G2220HD
Monitor Id: BNQ7820
Native Mode: 1920 x 1080(p) (60.000Hz)
Output Type: HD15
Driver Name: aticfx32.dll,aticfx32.dll,aticfx32.dll,atiumdag.dll,atidxx32.d
ll,atiumdva.cap
Driver File Version: 8.17.0010.1077 (English)
Driver Version: 8.850.0.0
DDI Version: 11
Driver Model: WDDM 1.1
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
Driver Date/Size: 4/20/2011 03:09:06, 676864 bytes
WHQL Logo'd: n/a
WHQL Date Stamp: n/a
Device Identifier: {D7B71EE2-2BF8-11CF-E773-4A01BEC2C535}
Vendor ID: 0x1002
Device ID: 0x68B8
SubSys ID: 0x21401462
Revision ID: 0x0000
Driver Strong Name: oem2.inf:ATI.Mfg.NTx86.6.0:ati2mtag_Evergreen:8.850.0.0:pci\ve
n_1002&dev_68b8
Rank Of Driver: 00E62001
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D3D9 Overlay: Not Supported
DXVA-HD: Not Supported
DDraw Status: Enabled
D3D Status: Enabled
AGP Status: Enabled