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Hello!

I've been trying most the day to get The Sims 3 to run and have been getting the same problem no matter the solution I try. The game launches and the music/sound plays, but I have no video. Just a black screen.

The stdout is flooded with lines like:
fixme:d3d_shader:shader_glsl_select... etc.

More specifics:
Kubuntu Jaunty
Wine version it's using: 1.1.23-TheSims3
KDE Desktop

I'm using a Dell laptop with a built in Intel vid. 965G I believe... Which is GMA X3000 chipset, supposedly supported by Sims 3. Pixel Shader 3.0 support. So I think I'm all good with the hardware reqs?

The game plays through the intros (based on the sounds) then I appear to get to a menu I can't see, but I do have a sims-themed mouse cursor. I end up hitting esc a couple times and it then exits cleanly. So the main problem seems to be just no video at all.

Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks-
Ryan

Edit - forgot to mention that I followed the solutions for frequent problems with no luck at fixing this issue:
"direct rendering: Yes" is found
3d Test: 760 fps (Intel chipset)
-"OffscreenRenderingMode" to "fbo"
-"VideoMemorySize" to "128"

Edited by thepet

I'm using a Dell laptop with a built in Intel vid. 965G

Intel has bad graphic drivers for playing games.

Pixel Shader 3.0 support. So I think I'm all good with the hardware reqs?

Yes, if the drivers support it and i doubt in that.

fixme:d3d_shader:shader_glsl_select... etc.

As an happy NVIDIA customer i never have to set this option but you may want to try.

1) select The Sims 3 in POL
2) press Configure this application and press Forward
3) select Registry editor and press Forward
4) go to "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\Software\\Wine\\Direct3D"
5) create new string value there and name it UseGLSL
6) set the value to disabled
7) close and check if there is better

Edited by NSLW

Hmm... Perhaps you're right. Maybe it's the driver for my intel card. This wikipedia page makes me think that the driver should be fully functional: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_GMA#Linux

I'll have to do more googling to see what the status of pixel shader 2.0 support is indeed supported in it.

Setting UseGLSL to disabled causes the game to not start, stating that I need a graphics card that supports pixel shading 2.0.

Thanks for the suggestions though!

"OffscreenRenderingMode" to "fbo"

You can try to set this value to "backbuffer" (eventually pbuffer) It's an older ORM but it may work for when drivers aren't good