SIMS 3 ULTIMATE RESHADE GUIDE ☁ (2023)

ReShade can be a bit tricky to install upon your first try, especially if you want to make sure your Sims 3 can use the depth of field effect. I often get asked how I installed ReShade so, without further ado, here is that tutorial!
↳ Mentioned links ;
ReShade Modded Ver.: github.com/Not-Smelly-Garbage...
ErasableDinosaur's Tumblr: / erasabledinosaur
Daydream Preset: erasabledinosaur.tumblr.com/p...
Sims 3 Reshade Omnibus Preset: erasabledinosaur.tumblr.com/p...
↳ Timestamps ;
0:00 Intro
0:50 What Exactly is ReShade?
1:26 How Do we Install ReShade?
10:04 Installing Presets
12:03 Adjusting Presets
16:09 Will it Add Lag?
16:50 Adding Other Presets
18:18 Uninstalling ReShade
18:50 Thanks for watching!
↳ Socials ;
twitch: / acottonsockk
twitter: / acottonsock
instagram: / acottonsockk
CC finds: / acottonsock
discord: / discord

[@acottonsock]

i stream on Twitch every Saturday 💘 www.twitch.tv/acottonsockk

[@crispus.corvus]

Babe wake up new acottonsock tutorial has dropped!

[@delwrge]

your sims tutorials are always so in depth and helpful. it's sweet how you make sure you can help everyone to understand all the steps :)

[@acottonsock]

Thank you so much! ❤

[@emmacait16]

The timing is uncanny. I JUST got back into Sims 3 maybe 2 weeks ago, and started looking at reshade stuff 2 days ago. Thanks for the guide!

[@serendipityx]

Your tutorials are always so easy to understand so as a visual leaner I can't thank you enough ❤❤

[@eizthetics2693]

Thanks for this tutorial Madi. Your videos helped me a lot to enhance my Sims gaming experience ❤

[@soffox3489]

omg its actually crazy you just uploaded this, i was looking for a guide half an hour ago on reshade! thank youuu

[@acottonsock]

No problem!! ❤

[@marsha_love]

I’ve been trying to get my game to look as good as yours for a while now. Thank you so much!

[@acottonsock]

Glad I could help! ❤

[@lavishrar1ty706]

your tutorials are the best 🩷🙏🏻

[@jxo9874]

I've been struggling so much with TS3 and reshade but you helped soooo much!! thanks again girlie

[@angelmavy]

THANK YOUUUUU!! Saved my life, couldnt understand to do this for the life of meeeee

[@luisalima1155]

You’re incredible. I loved this tutorial

[@QueenKaganootz]

THANK YOU for this video! So easy to follow along literally step by step with the game open. In case this helps other ppl following along: - The presets hot keys: You can change them! I changed them all to be shift+F#: Just right click on the option you want to change (or add a hot key), the field is at the top of the menu. - If you use anything to stretch your window to be full screen like Borderless Gaming you will have two cursors floating around lmao. It didn't harm anything but I did try to use the "dead" cursor to try and select things and took a moment to realize what was happened lol! I use the stock UI and it looks a little warped but I think thats more on the BG than the reshader - reshader just makes it more obvious lol. Might have to give Clean UI a try!

[@patrickchang9135]

Thank you, your tutorials are so good! Btw, in case you don't know yet, you can change the icon of your Sims 3 shortcut by right-clicking it, clicking Properties, and you can change the icon in the Customize tab if I'm not mistaken. You can then select the original .exe of The Sims 3 Or, you can literally choose any icon you want! All you need to do is choose any image and convert it to a .ico file online (lots of free converters online!). The image has to be a square resolution (same height×width resolution). Once you've downloaded the .ico file, you can then select it using the same method as before

[@WikkiSims]

Thank you so much for this guide! I used it to install Reshade🥰 and now my Sims 3 is beautiful ❤

[@acottonsock]

You're welcome 😊

[@_amburgerrrr_]

I will be following this step by step on monday lol thank you so much!! 😍😍

[@KawaiiMuski]

you are so cool and awesome i love twitch streamer and youtuber acottonsock but honestly, your video formats are super helpful, especially for someone with adhd. sure your explanations are longer, but they arent painful to watch. quite the opposite, it's explained well and interestingly! ur awesome madi >:)

[@willnaib]

i already have reshade installed in every sims game i play but i’m gonna give u this watchtime bc ily ❤️

[@minaya01]

Thanks for this tutorial, reshade on sims3 is awesome

[@meowdaypurrade]

I always love your tutorials!!!!

[@acottonsock]

Thank you so much!!

[@voicemxil]

CMAA2 + NFAA is my favorite combo for the jaggies 😍😻

[@cinnamonroll96]

It’s so wild how old this game and we are. Started playing with the sims 2 in like third/fourth grade and then the sims 3 dropped around fifth grade so I was like 10 when this magical game changed our lives. It was so fun bc my friends played it as well (was introduced to sims 2 bc of two of my friends). And it was so fun when I found drawings of the chaos that my friends did with the goths and the altos in my bike basket, when their French class was cancelled and I still had to sit in my Latin class 😂 good memories! So excited to bring reshades etc into the sims 3!

[@LonelyLoo281]

This is a very very overwhelming video but a great one ,thanks! Might have to think about installing it

[@acottonsock]

You can do it!

[@hanane1720]

My game stopped launching when installing reshade, and its defeinitely reshade cuz i uninstalled and reinstalled the game, without reshade, and it worked again, then i also installed reshade to see if it was the cause and it started crashing at launch again. :( any idea how i can fix this?

[@charlotte3600]

did you ever find a fix for this? i’m having the same problem :(

[@professionalbummer3274]

same

[@hanane1720]

@@charlotte3600 nope its probably to do with new processors not being compatible with sims 3 anymore. i always have to re-set the affinity when launching my game and i think adding reshade just blocks this little trick to make it work.

[@s1n0xy20]

I used the newest version of reshade instead of the modded one and my game worked normally with it (I had the same problem as you do decided to install a newer version)

[@s1n0xy20]

​@@charlotte3600try installing a newer version, my games crashed with this version of reshade so I got the normal one

[@juh1648]

YOU ARE A QUEEN!

[@lyric998]

First, thank you for this tutorial, I always wanted to use reshade for sims 3 in the past, but could NEVER get it to work and this is the only thing that has gotten it to work for me, so I highly appreciate this! But, I wanted to share a tip in case this will make things easier for anyone in the future: If you copy the path you wanna use for the screenshot folder ( example for clarity: C:\Users\(name)\Pictures\Reshade\sims 3 ) when you go to change the location the screenshots save to in the reshade settings, you can just highlight/select the text listing what the current screenshot directory is, and then paste the path you want it to save to. That way you don't have to navigate through all the folders just to get the folder you want. (sorry if this doesn't make sense, it's 2am and I'm installing reshade instead of sleeping as one does)

[@furna_equi]

Your game looks sooo beautiful 😢 I already installed and downloaded everything from your ‘beautifying TS3’ game tho 😂

[@jorjeezealien]

So i havent watched the video and am saving it for when i get to my computer but THANK YOU SO MUCH cause ive been trying to use reshade for the sims 3 and its been a STRUGGLE. I just want pretty screenshots maaan.

[@Plumcutie3]

thank you so so SO much!

[@Coochieeater3000]

Soooo helpful! It made my game laggy but it worked tho 😭 thank youuu!❤️

[@haizeaa.7064]

Thank you sooooo much

[@catradora.]

i wish i had a good pc for reshade 😭thanks for your tutorial anyway!

[@leonv1472]

tysm for this tutorial, i installed the normal version of reshade on my own before this was posted and just had to remove it from my game bc it spontaneously broke my tab camera after working fine for months. i had no idea about the online game locking. i was wondering why depth of field effects were borked.

[@ellie.starsky]

have you considered making closed captions for your tutorials? that would definitely help accessibility, both for deaf and hard of hearing people and folks like me whose brain is just kind of bad at processing sounds! thank you for your vids, they are always very informative😌

[@acottonsock]

I'm totally up for adding subtitles to my videos but here's the thing - it's just me doing all the writing, recording, and editing. But I'm determined to figure out how to make my content even better and more accessible down the road!

[@angeliukas19]

OMG!!! i was just installing reshade and i saw this video!

[@acottonsock]

@@angeliukas19As mentioned at 16:09, Reshade definitely isn’t for everyone and it will depend on your PC specs if it can run well!

[@angeliukas19]

I did guide fixes don't really think it's going to do much but i'm also going to change the graphics lower

[@Sisss777]

Can you do a cc video? I’m looking for skin details to make my sim’s unique and can never find links that work or look good in game

[@Ravena88300]

Thank you for this great tutorial, I have an issue though, on the top of my screen reshade says "inable to save configuration..make sure file permissions are set up..." snd I can't find "reshade.ini" file. 😢 any suggestions?

[@appaloosawhims]

i may already know how to do this but you know damn well im gonna watch a acottonsock tutorial 🙏

[@Holly-qd4hn]

Where can I find that cute animated desktop background you have? :) great video, thank you Madi! I can’t wait to install it

[@acottonsock]

It’s a Stardew Valley Wallpaper from Wallpaper Engine on Steam!

[@furna_equi]

Can you make a video tutorial or an updated video on how to beautify your Sims 3? I've followed your previous one, hihi. But now I see you have a whole new UI and I would like to have it too

[@acottonsock]

I've been thinking about making a new one for awhile now!

[@furna_equi]

@@acottonsock please please please 🥹 i will beg hahaha! I just love how your game looks so mich!!

[@malqubaisi6]

Can you do the Boring Bones Reshade Please 😢 I tried to do it with the translation on but did not get it at all ! Can we get an English tutorial from you ? Thank you so much for this beautiful thoughtful video ❤

[@kacegotmace4326]

I unfortunately have not been able to use reshade with my game! For some reason it keeps crashing, and I have the smooth patch, and a custom built pc.. I'm not sure what to do. It crashes right when I launch it.

[@braddd08]

Can I ask you a sims 2 question? When I don’t have reshade installed my game doesn’t match my pc monitor it’s not 1920x1080 like it should be. But when I install reshade/gshade dxvk then it fixes the resolution. Do you know why it does that? No worries if not ❤

[@RoyalGhostx]

Hello! I have a question. I recently started playing The Sims 3 again and wanted to try reshade. When i go into TAB camera mode, the camera keeps spinning on its own and is sensitive in LIVE mode when turning the camera with the mouse wheel. I dont touch my mouse in TAB mode and it just spins and spins. Is there a way to fix this? I have tried looking for solutions but everything says for The Sims 4 and not a lot of The Sims 3. And most say its ReShade that is causing it. Any help is appreciated ^__^

[@MrVidification]

for the files that don't compile upon initial installation, I had to hunt down the exact versions that were compatible

[@Zoreo333]

Is anyone else having the problem where if they go in to tab mode the cursor goes crazy? Is there any fix to that or way to slow it down? If anyone could answer it would be greatly appreciated.

[@ElSimsUA]

Let’s be real, the only game that need a reshade is Sims 4. it looks so bad

[@tsukitanuki101]

The sims 4 is perfectly fine with 0 reshade. The sims 3 is incredibly ugly and most simmers need it just to play, it’s incredibly dark and dingy. Take off the rose tinted glasses

[@ElSimsUA]

@@tsukitanuki101 sims 4 looks like a cheap toy without a soul. But if you like it, go for it. By the way not everyone reshades their game and it looks perfectly fine

[@blanky8718]

Спасибо 🙏💕. Я долго мучилась

[@deni4277]

ah thank you so much for making this tutorial!! it made everything so easy!! :) i had a question though, when you take a screenshot how do you get the action UI to not show up? i know tab exists and that works for me when i clikc "C" for the normal sims 3 screenshot but when i use the key to take a reshade screenshot i can still see some of the UI (not all of it just any actions queued up/ nrass tagger/any notifications) i keep having to crop my images LOL just wanted to see if there was a way around that. thank you!!!

[@AbigailSignoraRose]

On Windows you can do window key + f10 if i remember correctly, hope this helps

[@NoobAlchemist]

I have two monitors, the monitor I play on is on the left and the second is on the right. I noticed after installing reshade that edge scrolling no longer works for the right side of the screen, my cursor now just leaves the game and goes onto the other monitor as if I were playing borderless windowed. Any way to fix this?

[@ylvaseason]

Could you sometime do a video about cc magic ? :)

[@simulationislife1502]

So when I do screenshots outside in tab mode I don't see any lines field of view when I use the left click and when not in tab mode the sim head pops up and it's blurred . How do I fix it?

[@CliveAshtonClements]

i have an error for aspect ratio grid? does anyone know how to fix that? i think im missing all the things that my preset needs

[@waretaSL]

5:19 Why do we select directx 9 and not directx 10/11/12? Sorry i was just curious about that part haha like is there any significance there? Or is it just bc the game is old/32x?

[@Lb_2407]

Can I have 2 reshades and just go back and forth or can I only have one? Also thank you so much for this tutorial ❤

[@nani-hi8de]

is anyone else’s reshade crashing? i just got it and tweaked it like in the video but the game crashes after toggling it on

[@Loucira]

What mod for the sim portraits did you use?

[@leahhgericke4471]

Does the sims 3 reshade make the game laggy for laptop users?

[@pj437]

How do I make my game look so bright and nice in the intro with the rainbow pls?

[@lauraxoh]

Hi, if I'm using the original reshade for sims 4, if I install this modded launcher for reshade, it won't mess with my sims 4 reshade or sum??

[@sinbiscuits8258]

Hey! I followed your guide and I’m still having issues with effects failing to compile even after reinstalling them one by one. Any suggestions?

[@fairyofdaisies]

9:02 do you manually rename your screenshots to have dates instead of "screenshot-[number]" or is there a way you automatically have that set up? i really hate the default way screenshots save 😭

[@acottonsock]

That’s the default way Reshade names them! You are referring to the way The Sims 3 itself saves them with the in game screenshot system in your Documents/The Sims 3/Screenshots. If you use the in game screenshot option, the Reshade filters won’t show up on your pictures.

[@fairyofdaisies]

@@acottonsock oh, interesting! thank you for the info ^^

[@LeeSeolHyun]

thank you 💗 i have a question. i noticed that you don't have red frame when u pause the game, is it a mod? i would really appreciate if u ley us know where is it from ❣

[@acottonsock]

I believe it’s from Clean UI!

[@iqrafatwa2933]

Hi! I didn't successfully follow your tutorial because I installed my Sims 3 through EA App. So, the file TS3.exe isn't found anywhere. What should I do?

[@ohthatchick7544]

It should be. Have you launched the game at least once? If you can run it, it exists somewhere. The ".exe" may be missing if you have file extensions hidden. Then it would just be TS3. But I assure you, it should exist. I'm also using the EA app and I definitely have it

[@alexfinch1118]

thanks for the tutorial, but i have a problem. with any reshade preset my screenshots look different than in game. they mostly look dark.. i cant fix it ( i use reshade screenshots)

[@FlorHuang]

Same issue Did you fix it?

[@sairaauad1020]

Hey, i dont have the home in my keyboard, i press 7 and nothing. What should i do?

[@NeptuneWander]

I’m having some issues with my ADOF.quint! So I turn it on to take pictures and I have edge smoothing off as I know that can stop it from working but it seems to flicker on and off. I hold the camera still thinking it’s because I’m moving around but it still flickers on and off. Too fast for me to take any nice pictures with the blur background on! Do you know how to fix this? It did used to work and I haven’t messed with any settings but now it seems to do this. Please help

[@acottonsock]

Did you adjust the preprocessor definitions? 9:27

[@torixoxo8549]

Is reshade compatible with brntwaffles lighting mod? Or is it one or the other? I have that currently installed but don’t want to mess anything up! Thank you

[@acottonsock]

They are compatible!

[@Jacksonsimmer]

Yesss

[@realswagmaster]

i know this is an old tutorial and you might not respond but i REALLY need help, i've never been able to use reshade on the sims 3 and ive followed ur tutorial and others exactly. it tells me that some effects failed to compile and i have no idea how im meant to fix it, any help?

[@mrsdramaqueen3]

I use Gshade, hopefully this will work the same 😭

[@astrace9124]

when i installed reshade it made my game crash

[@Wigglywiggler]

I’m so confused rn it’s not workin when I put the 0 it says it’s not aloud what do i do

[@Lara-ne8ec]

Ik this video is old but for me theres alot of stuff that does not compile and it changes my reshade completely i installed all stuff before like shown in the tutorial i dont get it 😢

[@joyjoven7705]

Would this also work for 1.67?

[@Idk34227]

Can I see a reshade and lighting mod with the same file

[@effingbread4812]

I've downloaded everything and selected ts3.exe, but nothing shows up when I start the game, it launches normally without any reshade options or installation thingies, anybody knows what's going on? Edit: okay, it's wroking now, issue was I extracted it into the ts3.xexe from the documents sims 3 folder, not on the disc

[@dr.p170]

I can't go in to reshade settings with "Home."

[@HartnellDev]

For some reason, my Sims 3 now crashes after opening it since I installed reshade! Trying to see what is the issue with it but have no clue

[@justjoshin6378]

I know it's been a while since this post, but I just recently installed reshade and it crashes on the loading screen every time. Not sure what the issue is. Hopefully someone can find a fix.

[@putriyasminan.9189]

How's to focusing? I'm sorry didn't get it

[@thesweetsimmer1710]

Hey there! I'm having the issue where the mouse sensitivity while scrolling is really fast, and I have disabled "Enable Background Services" in the EA app but it doesn't help. My mouse is also able to go off to my other monitor instead of staying in the game too. Do you know anything else that could help solve this? 🤔

[@acottonsock]

Try also turning off "Enable in-game overlay"

[@thesweetsimmer1710]

@@acottonsock That worked! Thank you so much 🥰

[@jorgeking14]

hi, i record with this reshade mod, it was a little dificult because my game get a little slow, but i record the videos and in those videos the effects of reshade didnt appear, i record with the game camera pressing V, so i dont know what to do

[@ihyfxntazy]

Hey i dont know if you fixed this, the reason is that reshade doesn't actually change what the game window looks like and instead creates an overlay, to have the effects displayed you need to record your entire display rather than the game window.

[@jorgeking14]

@@ihyfxntazy and how can i do that?

[@ihyfxntazy]

@@jorgeking14 depends what software youre using, if youre using obs add a display capture element which you can crop to your game window

[@WinYT165]

I need help my game just keeps crashing when i installed it

[@missbugle]

I really hope I get a reply to this because I'm so confused: I followed this tutorial properly and it all worked, but reshade itself is making me unable to install any ".sims3pack" files through the launcher, as in any store content that was recognised before installing reshade is now not showing up in my game. And when I try to reinstall it through either the normal game launcher or the smooth patch installer, it says "critical system failure" and doesn't complete the download. Please help!

[@acottonsock]

So I just downloaded a .sims3pack to test if my launcher works, and while ReShade does pop up when I click “Download” on the CC in the launcher in the little menu, the .sims3pack downloads completely fine. I’m sorry I can’t help you more. I would recommend if you’re on EA App/Origin to use Lazy Duchess’ launcher because that’s what I have and it works completely fine.

[@missbugle]

@@acottonsockthank you for the reply! I'm using Lazy Duchess' patch launcher but I think it's something to do with my own computer rather than the game itself. Weird! I managed to convert the ".sims3pack" files to package files instead and now my game detects my store content. Thank you for the reshade tutorial! It's the only one I've been able to follow without getting confused 😊 x

[@serendipitygaming2517]

What reshade preset did you used in the timestamp 18:59 ?

[@acottonsock]

That’s the same one I showed in this video, Daydream!

[@2GalyGirl]

I have been struggling to add it to sims 2. Are you planning to kake one for sims 2?

[@acottonsock]

I already have. 😊 kzbin.info/www/bejne/j2S3i4lue9Wfmbs

[@judahjames5585]

this is not related to the video but my smoothness patch is not working anymore. it says that its working but my game is still running slow anytime at least 5 sims are on the lot. can anyone help?

[@elvibuu8151]

How long have you been playing your sims?

[@judahjames5585]

@@elvibuu8151 about 2 months now

[@caterpillarpanda4208]

Hey! Hopefully you’ll be able to respond to this maybe. I can’t seem to get MXAO to work for me. It shows up for a little bit and then it disappears and for some reason I can’t get it back. Do you perhaps know anything about this and could you help??

[@acottonsock]

Did you download ReShade modded ver.?

[@andya.c5585]

It ain't work where is the home bottom

[@moonlight-mh5om]

for some reason my ui is greatly affected by the reshade and yours isnt, how do i make the ui not be so warped by the "filters" i'm putting over them?

[@moonlight-mh5om]

i mean the menus

[@acottonsock]

12:20 I show how to adjust it

[@moonlight-mh5om]

@@acottonsock thank you, so sorry to bother you!

[@misiaag]

Hi! I have a problem after instaling the reshade. My game runs smoothly, but when i try to move my camera with mouse scroll it's veeeeery fast so i can't use it. Does anyone know how to fix that weird issue? In my game i have nraas mods and smooth patch. When i uninstalled reshade, everything went back to normal. Please help if you can :)

[@acottonsock]

Go into EA App Settings -> Application -> Turn OFF "Enable Background Services"

[@misiaag]

@@acottonsock thank you!! 🥰

[@acottonsock]

Also trying turning off "In-game Overlay"

[@TalianaEnthusiast]

Sorry if I'm bothering you lol, but I have a Windows 11 laptop and I don't have a home key, so I'm stuck trying to start the tutorial 😅

[@user-vx3vt7nj5n]

i heard in the comments that fn + left arrow works

[@aprilherrera8800]

Question: Will Reshade be compatible with my HP Omen gaming laptop?

[@acottonsock]

Yes!

[@rayannesoueissi8407]

Pleaseee make a tutorial on how to get the sims 3 working on the EA app 😭 I’m in a loop of opening the launcher and then the app

[@acottonsock]

Are you on Intel? If so, you need may need the Alder Lake patch.

[@Larkrain24]

Hello, I successfully downloaded Reshade. However, I am unable to take screenshots. An internal error occurs saying that the format may not be supported or the drive may be full. Does anyone know a fix for this?

[@acottonsock]

Is the drive you're saving the pictures to full?

[@Larkrain24]

@@acottonsock No there is a ton of space on it

[@kayleepierce5345]

My game seems to crash after I've installed it and loaded it up. Any ideas?

[@Melaniemariexxoo]

same for me

[@kaylastarr7863]

Is Reshader how you get your game so bright? My game is ALWAYS raining and nighttime, so it's just so dark all the dang time!

[@acottonsock]

yep 😊

[@kaylastarr7863]

thank you

[@kerrion968]

my home button takes me back t desktop

[@BauhausBarbie]

For some reason I can’t find TS3.exe anywhere on my computer dbhdvdhdbs

[@shrimpcurls9835]

How did you get your custom load screen?

[@acottonsock]

It’s apart of the mod ‘Clean UI’ 😊

[@shrimpcurls9835]

@@acottonsock Is it supposed to be semi transparent? - the in game UI