Pets are all black?

TheDarkRose

Last night, I was playing and I realised something weird is up with my pets when I play on this computer. They're all black. Just black pet shapes. I tried going into CAS with one and it wouldn't change when I changed the coat. I've installed a couple of human sims from the exchange which came with custom content. My laptop is an acer aspire ES 14. Intel celeron processor N3050, 2GB DDR3 L memory, 500 GB HDD. Aside from this pet thing, it runs the game pretty well.

dorcsyful

I remember a few years ago on my old laptop I once got a full black unicorn. That laptop was way below the minimum requirements so I wasn't very suprised but I found it funny. I don't think anything was damaged since we still use it.

igazor

Yikes. I would strongly recommend not playing TS3 on a laptop with such a weak processor and only 2 GB of RAM total. The Pets EP in particular will put you in danger of overheating the device, animals with no fur will be only the beginning of your problems. Seasons and some of the others would do the same. Is that the best computer you have available to play on? It may be able to manage TS2, but is way underpowered for TS3 and TS4.

Just running Windows alone (unless you are still on XP) will take up to around 1.5 GB of memory (RAM). That doesn't leave much over to do other things with, a web browser or office program maybe but not an intensive graphics oriented game. I assume it has no dedicated graphics card which will only make the draw on RAM and processor power that you don't have available even worse. You have actually been very fortunate to have been able to run the game at all thus far, to be honest.

TheDarkRose

I thought it was that kind of problem. Usually is when its a cheap one.

igazor

I have seen some good deals on laptops, especially this time of year, that although do not officially meet the recommended requirements for all EPs they come awfully close and could still make fairly decent gameplay possible. The Pets EP, not the animals themselves, will always be the potential gotcha point even on those; Seasons could get dicey but in that case one could improve performance by disallowing snow and maybe for some worlds rain. These bargains come and go and can run in the $500s-600s range (US Dollars).

But generally one should expect to pay $950 and up for a laptop that has sufficient processor, RAM, graphics card, and hard drive for all of TS3, with graphics options on High. More if one demands an SSD or higher specs for other reasons. Desktops always run cheaper for stronger components.

Laptops on the far lower end are really meant for surfing the web, email, and light office type tasks. When the advertising touts the benefits of beautiful images on their screens, they mean for things like viewing photos and maybe streamed videos. Not graphics processor intensive tasks like games.

TheDarkRose

I don't have that kind of money so got to make do. Although I don't need to run all EPs with high graphics. I don't have any stuff packs, I only have World Adventures, Ambitions, Generations, Night Life, Pets, and Supernatural. I haven't installed Ambitions yet so it's only five right now. I don't bother having the graphics on high.

igazor

Stuff Packs do not add any measurable overhead to the game. Maybe a few seconds on startup, but I doubt even that.

Again, you have 2 GB of RAM on that device and I assume no graphics card. With Windows alone running, typically that takes up to 1.5 GB, thus leaving 500 MB for anything else. That's not enough to run TS3 unless you are on Windows XP. There are geeky ways to scale back the RAM that Windows uses, but you are only going to get so far on that with Win 7, 8, or 10 and let's say 750 MB for TS3 isn't enough of an improvement I'm afraid.

I do understand not being able to afford a new computer. But overworking and ruining the one you have so that it doesn't work at all probably isn't part of the plan either; sorry to say I would be more protective of it if I needed it to function for other purposes. Hence the TS2 suggestion above.

king_of_simcity7

I have seen the odd dear completely 'blacked out' before which might just be a harmless bug.

Also in the families bin, sometimes pets are completely blacked out but when I move them into a household and play them they turn out to be in their usual colours so I just shook it off as a harmless, yet slightly unnerving bug

igazor

Okay, it is the OP's device to do with what they like. But there is no path to fix Pets on that laptop. Adding more RAM, if they even can (some of these models don't allow for that) might help overall performance a little but not by very much given the weak processor.

dorcsyful

igazor wrote: »

Okay, it is the OP's device to do with what they like. But there is no path to fix Pets on that laptop. Adding more RAM, if they even can (some of these models don't allow for that) might help overall performance a little but not by very much given the weak processor.

Well, this might sound stupid and I didn't really look up that processor but maybe OP has Turbo Boost? I mean, I tried TS3 on a 1.7 GHz and it was completely unplayable.
Anyway, that's just something I was wondering about.

phoebebebe13

dorcsyful wrote: »

igazor wrote: »

Okay, it is the OP's device to do with what they like. But there is no path to fix Pets on that laptop. Adding more RAM, if they even can (some of these models don't allow for that) might help overall performance a little but not by very much given the weak processor.

Well, this might sound plum and I didn't really look up that processor but maybe OP has Turbo Boost? I mean, I tried TS3 on a 1.7 GHz and it was completely unplayable.
Anyway, that's just something I was wondering about.

Op's laptop does not have turbo boost unless its the model I found with 2.16 ghz but over all the laptop is way under requirements. Pretty soon they will get error code 12 for not having enough memory. The game needs 4gb to run

dorcsyful

phoebebebe13 wrote: »

dorcsyful wrote: »

igazor wrote: »

Okay, it is the OP's device to do with what they like. But there is no path to fix Pets on that laptop. Adding more RAM, if they even can (some of these models don't allow for that) might help overall performance a little but not by very much given the weak processor.

Well, this might sound plum and I didn't really look up that processor but maybe OP has Turbo Boost? I mean, I tried TS3 on a 1.7 GHz and it was completely unplayable.
Anyway, that's just something I was wondering about.

Op's laptop does not have turbo boost and is way under requirements.

In that case, I wonder what "runs pretty well" means. My 2.0 crashed every half hour with Pets enabled.

Karritz

king_of_simcity7 wrote: »

I have seen the odd dear completely 'blacked out' before which might just be a harmless bug.

Also in the families bin, sometimes pets are completely blacked out but when I move them into a household and play them they turn out to be in their usual colours so I just shook it off as a harmless, yet slightly unnerving bug

I also see the occasional black deer and black raccoon. When I see that I use Debug Enabler to recover invisible sims and I always get a message about the raccoon or deer having its outfit recovered (or something similar) and from then on it has it's proper skin. My problem is mostly with the raccoon and only once or twice have I seen it with a deer.

TheDarkRose

I think it's safe to say, no one in their right mind would count crashing every half an hour as "runs pretty well". Mine hasn't crashed at all. Running pretty well to me means it doesn't crash and doesn't have any major glitches that make it hard or impossible to play.

dorcsyful

TheDarkRose wrote: »

I think it's safe to say, no one in their right mind would count crashing every half an hour as "runs pretty well". Mine hasn't crashed at all. Running pretty well to me means it doesn't crash and doesn't have any major glitches that make it hard or impossible to play.

I never said I liked the crashes. Pets taught me to never overestimate what your computer/laptop can handle. I didn't run it at all until I got my current laptop last Christmas (which means a rough 3 years leap) which ran it pretty good for the two weeks while I dared to enable it.

Karritz

There is an interesting article that explains why it is a really bad idea to play Sims 3 on a computer that is not sufficiently strong to handle it. Basically it is like using your small car as if it were a truck carrying heavy loads of bricks. At first it seems to handle the job but if you keep carrying heavy loads of bricks the car will eventually break. Same thing happens with the computer. At first it seems to be doing the job but after a while it struggles more until it eventually stops working. Ant that means it can't do the other jobs it was designed to do and could have done for a long time if it hadn't been used to play a game it couldn't handle.

nickibitsward

My 12 year old niece and 8 year old nephew love the Sims 3 (they've never seen 1 or 2) and played it at my house on my PC all the time so I finally got them a laptop and the game with Pets for their birthdays this year. I got them gaming laptops (I came on the forum and asked for help on finding one before I bought). They have no problem playing the game, I've added on more SP's and am thinking of getting them Seasons for Christmas. The point is if you want to play it, you have to be able to run it. If you don't have the proper laptop or PC to run the game properly then it's pure luck that makes it run until it doesn't. I think, OP, you're at that point. There are specs on the game boxes for a reason and you probably should have 2x that if not better. I play on a PC, a gaming rig built for me with specs taken from the t op gaming rig I could find on the internet.

JerichoGirl

Ouch. I can't even imagine trying to run TS3 on a computer with only 2GB of memory, and second the suggestion against doing so - for the sake of the computer's lifespan. I accidentally trashed my old laptop with a game it couldn't properly handle, in fact. Not a Sims game, but still the same concept applies. Run a system ragged and it will almost always get the last laugh by quitting on you forever.

My current laptop has 8GB memory, and the game eats up a huge chunk of that (granted, I run with Pets, Generations, Supernatural, Ambitions, and World Adventures all installed and active). It's not very kind on my 2.1GHz processor, either; at times, usually when loading a World Adventures location or an excessively furnished home, it spikes to 80 or 90 percent usage for a minute or two and gives my GPU fan an intense workout. I run with most settings on high (a couple on medium), so I'm not exactly surprised, but I'm providing this as an example of how much power this game can require. It's old, but it can still be taxing on newer computers - especially with expansion packs.

As for the pets going black, I had that issue with the NPC puppy, Patch Miller, after I installed the expansion. Using 'Save As' then closing the game and opening that new file fixed his coat in game for me, but in my sims' relationships section his avatar remains a totally blacked out silhouette. I haven't had the issue with any other animals, and when I first ran Pets I had my memory nearly maxed out because I forgot to close some other memory-heavy things first. Makes me think this is a resources-on-computer issue.

Silvermoonwolf

Feel ya! I've got an acer aswell, I'm so sad about it! I really don't know what to do D: :'(

igazor

Silvermoonwolf wrote: »

Feel ya! I've got an acer aswell, I'm so sad about it! I really don't know what to do

Hi there. The OP on this thread from last year has since acquired a new laptop.

Acer is a brand name. Like most major computer manufacturers, they make a wide variety of high-end, mid-range, and low-end computers all intended for different purposes. We can't really predict how well a computer will handle TS3 or any other program unless we know the specs of the device in question -- processor, RAM, graphics card, hard drive.

Or at the very least a complete model name and number.

eric6a01

Were you install some skin package mods? Maybe you can clear the caches!

igazor

eric6a01 wrote: »

Were you install some skin package mods? Maybe you can clear the caches!

That's not what causes the all-black skinned pets and other forms of severe distortion on systems that cannot handle the EP (2 GB of RAM total, processors less than 2.4 GHz, no suitable graphics card, etc.). It's a very resource intensive one.