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Test Subject
Original Poster
#1 Old 24th Apr 2018 at 10:18 PM
Default Screen too dark while playing
Hey! So, I've played for a while and everything was fine, but I had to buy a new monitor and then the game became very dark and impossible to see things, and it gets worse at night and when it's full moon. When I'm not playing the screen brightness is ok, I think it's an issue with the game. Any thoughts of what this could be?
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Mad Poster
#2 Old 25th Apr 2018 at 12:38 AM
Yeah, it's related to your game window. It's not maximizing properly. At least, that's one likely explanation. Is your game, besides, dark, also tinted in some way? Would you say it's an ugly yellowish-salmon tint?
If so, that's a common issue. Consider running the game in a fullscreen windowed mode.

insert signature here
( Join my dumb Discord server if you're into the whole procrastination thing. But like, maybe tomorrow. )
Test Subject
Original Poster
#4 Old 25th Apr 2018 at 7:27 AM
Quote: Originally posted by GrijzePilion
Yeah, it's related to your game window. It's not maximizing properly. At least, that's one likely explanation. Is your game, besides, dark, also tinted in some way? Would you say it's an ugly yellowish-salmon tint?
If so, that's a common issue. Consider running the game in a fullscreen windowed mode.


Yes, it's kinda dark and yellow / orange, and I can not see furniture when it's night. I tried to, but the game gets really laggy and slow when in windowed mode. ):
Also, this happened with other games, but I solved the problem with the gamma settings.
Test Subject
Original Poster
#5 Old 25th Apr 2018 at 7:28 AM
Quote: Originally posted by nitromon
usually these issues are driver/gpu related, not monitors.

im not in the game right now, but it doesn't have a gamma correction? try going through your gpu driver setting for the game, it will definitely have a gamma correction.


Can you show me how to do this?
Test Subject
Original Poster
#7 Old 25th Apr 2018 at 8:12 AM
Quote: Originally posted by nitromon
uh sure, which GPU do you have?

btw, if it is too dark for all your games but fine during desktop, it is probably better to change the gamma correction on the monitor itself and then darken your desktop.


AMD Radeon HD 8400 / R3 Series

Actually, when I conected the new monitor on my computer, the screen seemed very bright, so I adjusted it to factory settings. Now it seems ok, but as I said, my games are all very dim. It's frustrating.
Test Subject
Original Poster
#10 Old 25th Apr 2018 at 8:13 PM
Quote: Originally posted by nitromon
You adjusted the monitor setting to be darker?

Ok, don't do that. Restore it back to when you plugged it in, very bright. Then go to desktop adjustment and adjust the "desktop" setting to be darker, that is easier to do. Just go to "power configuration" by clicking the battery then adjust brightness.


I adjusted it to factory settings because it was very bright and blurry, but now is fine. I'll do what you said, and I've updated the GPU driver, but nothing happened. I'll see if I can solve this...
Mad Poster
#11 Old 25th Apr 2018 at 8:17 PM
Quote: Originally posted by nomi
Yes, it's kinda dark and yellow / orange, and I can not see furniture when it's night. I tried to, but the game gets really laggy and slow when in windowed mode. ):
Also, this happened with other games, but I solved the problem with the gamma settings.

That's definitely an issue with the game. I don't know why TS3 does this, I don't know exactly when it does it, but I've seen it myself and I hope you get to solve it without some other solution (like gamma correction) that only hides the problem instead of fixing it.

insert signature here
( Join my dumb Discord server if you're into the whole procrastination thing. But like, maybe tomorrow. )
Test Subject
Original Poster
#12 Old 25th Apr 2018 at 8:35 PM
Quote: Originally posted by GrijzePilion
That's definitely an issue with the game. I don't know why TS3 does this, I don't know exactly when it does it, but I've seen it myself and I hope you get to solve it without some other solution (like gamma correction) that only hides the problem instead of fixing it.


Well, I did what you told me and kinda solved the issue, but not really fixed it. Thanks for the tips! I really think it's a problem with the game not recognizing the new screen resolution and not maximizing properly.
Test Subject
#13 Old 22nd Jun 2019 at 3:50 PM
Default The Town Is So Dark
Heyy so i have been playing the sims 3 for ages and i never have encountered this issue till now.I played the sims 3 on a crappy laptop without a proper gpu it lagged a lot but the brightness was awesome.Now i got a pc with amd 580 rx 8gb and it has never been smoother but this darkness issue has arrived.At night around 7-8 especially on full moon like 80% of the town is pitch black with minor lights here or there.Even my backyard is dark it has good lightning within the a small radius around the outdoor lights.The center is well lit but around it not very much.Idk is this a rare thing or something but i searched the whole net for hours and nothing.Hope i find some kind of a solution in here.
Screenshots
Top Secret Researcher
#14 Old 22nd Jun 2019 at 8:41 PM
I use the "balanced" version of this mod - http://modthesims.info/d/367164/out...weaks-v2-2.html - and it really helps.
Test Subject
#15 Old 10th Jul 2019 at 12:08 AM
Quote: Originally posted by KatyFernlily
I use the "balanced" version of this mod - http://modthesims.info/d/367164/out...weaks-v2-2.html - and it really helps.

Thank you I will try to install it.
Test Subject
#16 Old 21st Aug 2019 at 1:19 AM
Hey it's me again.I tried this mod but sadly it didn't work.I literally have no idea what to do.Do you have any other possible solutions or anything else?I have tried to play the game like this for a month or so but i can't.It's such an annoying issue and so dissapointing... I'm also using quite a large monitor and it's also an older one.I have a smaller and kinda newer than the current one.Could that be an issue should i try switching them?
Forum Resident
#17 Old 21st Aug 2019 at 4:36 PM
I don't know much of anything about AMD but you might want to check to see if your graphics card driver is up-to-date. If it is an issue that AMD fixed with a driver update that should fix the issue. But be warned when updating the GPU driver it will reset your TS3 options/settings to default. So you may want to copy and paste the Options document here: Start/This PC > Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 3 > Options (Copy and Paste to designated location, for example the desktop)

Then after a successful driver update before starting up TS3, go back to the Options document and open it up with Notepad or a similar program that makes it easy to read. Open up the copied Options document too and then you would have to manually put in all of the settings and save the document to overwrite the default settings. So when you start up the game, your save(s) should continue with the settings you had before the driver update.

But if that is not important to you, you can set up your options during the main menu screen while the game is running before picking a save to play. The reason for copying and pasting the Options document, I suppose, is more so for those who have custom settings (beyond the game's default limitation) that their save files use to continue the continuity without messing up anything such as custom ages, custom seasons length, etc.

You might also want to check AMD's official website/forum to see if anyone with the same exact graphic card has or has had the same issue as you and maybe there might be a solution there if you cannot find one here.

Another thing, if you are using a lighting mod that may be the effect of that particular mod.
Test Subject
#18 Old 23rd Aug 2019 at 12:58 AM
Town too dark
Quote: Originally posted by Deshong
I don't know much of anything about AMD but you might want to check to see if your graphics card driver is up-to-date. If it is an issue that AMD fixed with a driver update that should fix the issue. But be warned when updating the GPU driver it will reset your TS3 options/settings to default. So you may want to copy and paste the Options document here: Start/This PC > Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 3 > Options (Copy and Paste to designated location, for example the desktop)

Then after a successful driver update before starting up TS3, go back to the Options document and open it up with Notepad or a similar program that makes it easy to read. Open up the copied Options document too and then you would have to manually put in all of the settings and save the document to overwrite the default settings. So when you start up the game, your save(s) should continue with the settings you had before the driver update.

But if that is not important to you, you can set up your options during the main menu screen while the game is running before picking a save to play. The reason for copying and pasting the Options document, I suppose, is more so for those who have custom settings (beyond the game's default limitation) that their save files use to continue the continuity without messing up anything such as custom ages, custom seasons length, etc.

You might also want to check AMD's official website/forum to see if anyone with the same exact graphic card has or has had the same issue as you and maybe there might be a solution there if you cannot find one here.

Another thing, if you are using a lighting mod that may be the effect of that particular mod.

Well I believe that all my drivers are up to date i update them frequently via driver booster and it seems fine.And for the mods i used them as a solution to this problem but sadly they dont work for me.I'll contiune to browse the internet for solutions and as you said the AMD website or formus,like anything that can help me to solve this problem.This is so frustrating im trying to solve this for few months,nothing so far.But thanks for the tips.
Test Subject
#19 Old 23rd Aug 2019 at 2:11 AM
Quote: Originally posted by Deshong
I don't know much of anything about AMD but you might want to check to see if your graphics card driver is up-to-date. If it is an issue that AMD fixed with a driver update that should fix the issue. But be warned when updating the GPU driver it will reset your TS3 options/settings to default. So you may want to copy and paste the Options document here: Start/This PC > Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 3 > Options (Copy and Paste to designated location, for example the desktop)

Then after a successful driver update before starting up TS3, go back to the Options document and open it up with Notepad or a similar program that makes it easy to read. Open up the copied Options document too and then you would have to manually put in all of the settings and save the document to overwrite the default settings. So when you start up the game, your save(s) should continue with the settings you had before the driver update.

But if that is not important to you, you can set up your options during the main menu screen while the game is running before picking a save to play. The reason for copying and pasting the Options document, I suppose, is more so for those who have custom settings (beyond the game's default limitation) that their save files use to continue the continuity without messing up anything such as custom ages, custom seasons length, etc.

You might also want to check AMD's official website/forum to see if anyone with the same exact graphic card has or has had the same issue as you and maybe there might be a solution there if you cannot find one here.

Another thing, if you are using a lighting mod that may be the effect of that particular mod.

Hey i wanted to say thank you because i think i solved my problem.As you said i searched forums for the GPU that i own and fro this particular issue and i found something and i hope i longterm solved it.I'm going to write in in a seperate post here.But thanks again.
Test Subject
#20 Old 23rd Aug 2019 at 3:04 AM
Town is too dark few possible solutions
I found something that kinda worked to solve this problem aka the town is pitch black at night.Soo I'm not an expert it took me literally 2-3 months to try this but still.I found out that the first solution is to end the process "igfxpers" so basicallly while ingame you open task manager(Ctr+Alt+Delete) and under processes you should find "igfxpers" and end the process.I personally couldn't finds this process in neither task manager nor System32 file I DON'T KNOW WHAT THIS DOES OR ANYTHING SO BEFORE YOU TRY IT SEARCH IT A BIT Here's the link where i found it it seems like it's a similar problem.https://answers.ea.com/t5/Technical...en/td-p/1273290
Somewhere i saw to set your refresh rate at 60Hz.I also tried reinstalling the whole game with all expansions and i don't recomment first try the easier available solutions.I also stared to suspect my monitor because of it's age maybe on a newer one the graphics would be even better.At the end i wanted to try to run the game without CC and i also took out my Mods folder in Documents.I started a new game in Sunset Valley and it worked.So in my case its probably a faulty CC file so I'm gonna test my game multiple times and try to find out the ones that cause the problem.And I have a lot of CC idk how i will sort it out but i wil ahahah.Here are some before and after screenshots and there is a big difference.Also even though these arent Custom World's because i had problems even with those ones here are screenshots from Midnight Hollow, Appalooosa Plains and Sunset Valley.Its kinda lika a before and after.Hope i helped somehow.
Test Subject
#21 Old 27th Dec 2020 at 2:00 PM
Default Dark shadow squares around lots
Hello does anyone know can I get rid of these dark square-like shadows around my lots? It's kind of annoying and I have tried to use lightning mods but it doesn't work. Please can someone help me! (The squares might not be noticeable in the zoomed out screen shot but in-game they are)
Screenshots
Test Subject
#23 Old 28th Dec 2020 at 1:20 PM
Quote: Originally posted by nitromon
you can't get rid of them b/c it is the lighting difference between lot and the real world. Only lights which can cross the boundary of the lot and real world can resolve this issue, only one that I can think of is the outdoor light that looks like a trident.

Thank you! I'm going to replace the lights then
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