here's how I made it work
Pardon me if this has already been posted somewhere. I've searched and googled, binged and alta vista'd for days and ended up working out most of it by trial and error
Do this under Windows
1st you have to find the right file to edit. Depending on how many packs you have you'll have a bunch of files called "Graphics Rules.sgr". The one to use is under the folder corresponding to the CD/DVD you use to run Sims2 (Apartment Life perhaps?) Under C:\Program Files\EA Games\.... I think. It could be under C:\Program Files (x86)\EA Games\... if you're running 64 bit Windows.
Copy the Graphics Rules.sgr (save it in case you break it)
just click on the file and Control-C Control-V to create Copy of Graphics Rules.sgr
Edit Graphics Rules.sgr using Notepad
find this section
Code:
#############################################################################
#
# Determine if gfx device is supported, force software rendering if not
#
scroll down past all the if (match and elseif (match statements looking at various card vendors
look for
Code:
else
# unsupported/unknown vendor
setb useSoftwareRasterizer true
replace it with
Code:
[COLOR="Blue"]elseif (not match("${cardName}", "Parallels *"))[/COLOR]
# unsupported/unknown vendor
setb useSoftwareRasterizer true
Almost there ... this kinda works but I found Sims/Parallels was a bit of a memory pig (to the point of freezing my macbook). Turns out Parallels is reporting some 900mb+ of textureMemory. More than we need. More than is healthy. Certainly with only 4GB of RAM
So search for
Code:
#############################################################################
#
# Apply gfx device specific workarounds
scroll down to here
Code:
endif
intProp deviceLocalVideoMemorySizeDefault ($textureMemory * 1024 * 1024)
and change it to
Code:
[COLOR="Blue"] elseif (match("${cardName}", "Parallels *"))
if ($textureMemory > 128)
seti textureMemory 128
endif
[/COLOR]
endif
intProp deviceLocalVideoMemorySizeDefault ($textureMemory * 1024 * 1024)
almost done
now to get sims to use the full screen width
find
Code:
#############################################################################
#
# UI Options
scroll down to
Code:
option ScreenModeResolution
and change the medium and high settings to something like
Code:
setting $Medium
uintProp maxResWidth 1280
uintProp maxResHeight 800
uintProp defaultResWidth 1152
uintProp defaultResHeight 720
setting $High
uintProp maxResWidth 1280
uintProp maxResHeight 800
uintProp defaultResWidth 1152
uintProp defaultResHeight 720
good luck to you and all who sail in you
