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Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#1 Old 19th Dec 2009 at 11:48 AM
Default Has anyone heard anything about a CAW for Macs?
Has anyone read anywhere about a CAW being eventually released for Macs? Or have EA already said that there will only be a PC version of it?

I'm a mac user, and while I'm not here to weep about it, I'd like to know if anyone has heard news/rumors on the topic so I can decide whether to transfer my game NOW to my old PC notebook (and download CAW) or if I can just stay cool for a few months waiting for a CAW for mac.

PS: If you're wondering why I don't install it on the PC since mac support doesn't exist in EA's dictionary (and I'm NO mac-techy-independent-mind), I'll clarify it: my PC is an old Dell Inspiron 1525 and its graphic cards sucks. It's a Intel one (Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X4500HD), for God's sake. I've read over Tom's Hardware Forum that it does run TS3, on low specs IF you have at least 2 GB Ram.

EDIT: Another mac-question about CAW. Has anyone created a world in CAW in a PC and successfully and safely exported it to a TS3 game/install on a Mac?
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Eminence Grise
#2 Old 19th Dec 2009 at 1:29 PM
I am sure CAW worlds created on PC should work fine in the Mac game... every other kind of mod does, right?

My concern with your PC is that even if it runs the Sims 3 acceptably, it might have trouble with CAW. Even on a very fast gaming computer, CAW is slow and unresponsive.

There's no need to "transfer" the game, though, right? It's perfectly legal to install it on two different computers, so long as it's only one person playing it on both of em.

Your other alternative, of course, is using one of the various windows-in-mac solutions -- Plasticbox has a lot of helpful information about using various modding tools on a mac that way.
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#3 Old 20th Dec 2009 at 1:20 PM
Thanks for your answer Srikandi.

Well, plasticbox has for sure great tutorials about how to make a mac behave like a PC: I've been experimenting with Mono, in an attempt to create clothes for TS3. But I'm not so certain of it yet.

And because of that, I'm afraid of installing something so... new, beta and huge. I didn't check the CAW specs: are they much higher than the ones TS3 require?

And the transfer part is because I'm a neat freak... *g I wouldn't like to be going btw one computer and another all the time: one to create, other to play. I could, but I would prefer to have every sim activity organized in one computer (and one user account). (Yes, yes, I'm a bit crazy.)

Mad Poster
#4 Old 20th Dec 2009 at 1:41 PM
I've found that using Boot Camp to make a small Windows XP partition on my MacBook to make it a dual-boot system with OS X and Windows, and installing the Windows version of TS3 on that partition, made my TS3 game go from running like total garbage to running like a dream. You could try that for all of your PC-only TS3 tools, if not also for TS3 itself. (The Mac version of TS3 is not a true Mac port but is simply the PC version wrapped up in a Windows emulator, hence why it runs like crud.)

Alternatively, plasticbox has said that quite a few Mac simmers have found VirtualBox, a Windows emulator that runs within Mac OS, to be a good alternative to dual-booting with Windows - I haven't yet tried this for myself, but it could be worth a try for your dilemma.
Eminence Grise
#5 Old 20th Dec 2009 at 11:53 PM
Quote: Originally posted by jurocha
I'm afraid of installing something so... new, beta and huge. I didn't check the CAW specs: are they much higher than the ones TS3 require?


CAW isn't huge. It's a much smaller program than the Sims is. And it's not unstable, at least not in my experience. It's not gonna do anything bad to your computer, heh.

As for system specs, though, it's slow even on a fast computer. I don't know exactly what components would make it run faster, but my guess would be that it's more CPU-dependent and can use fewer of your graphics card's functions than the game would. In any case, it wouldn't hurt to install it and try it.
Pettifogging Legalist!
retired moderator
#6 Old 28th Dec 2009 at 2:01 AM
Quote: Originally posted by EsmeraldaF
Alternatively, plasticbox has said that quite a few Mac simmers have found VirtualBox, a Windows emulator that runs within Mac OS, to be a good alternative to dual-booting with Windows

No, I didn't say that – I don't even know of anyone who runs TS3 inside VirtualBox *specifically*. All I know is that some people seem to be happy running the game inside a virtual machine on a Mac (but I don't know which one).

That said, I agree with srikandi that it can't hurt to try – particularly seeing as VirtualBox is free and very easy to set up, and it doesn't take up a lot of space. If you don't use it for CAW or the game, maybe it comes in handy for something else (and if it doesn't, you can always delete it again).

But as a long-term solution, I guess BootCamp may be the better option for jurocha: running both OSes plus the VM plus the game or CAW all at once is pretty demanding, so performance will definitely suffer if you do that – and if you want all your game stuff to be neatly organised, dual booting may actually be helpful for that: everything would be nicely separated into TS3 + modding on the Windows side, and everything else on the Mac side.

Stuff for TS2 · TS3 · TS4 | Please do not PM me with technical questions – we have Create forums for that.

In the kingdom of the blind, do as the Romans do.
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#7 Old 20th Jan 2010 at 6:01 PM
Quote: Originally posted by plasticbox
But as a long-term solution, I guess BootCamp may be the better option for jurocha: running both OSes plus the VM plus the game or CAW all at once is pretty demanding, so performance will definitely suffer if you do that – and if you want all your game stuff to be neatly organised, dual booting may actually be helpful for that: everything would be nicely separated into TS3 + modding on the Windows side, and everything else on the Mac side.


For now, I'm back to my windows box-old-notebook for CAW and other TS3-related programs (while having the game itself running on the Mac). Pretty stupid, I know... I agree with plasticbox that for me the best solution would be a dual boot. The only problem is my original OS CD is lost somewhere in the storage room and I need to find it first.

At least I already found the Windows one.
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