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Game Crashes - Your Personal Experiences.

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AstroAstro Posts: 6,651 Member
Whenever my game crashes I use the Crash Log Analyzer to see what (most likely) the issue was, and 9/10 times it was a 'ran out of memory' issue. That answer can be caused by many things though, in my case (I play in borderless window) when I would switch the window to another program a few times and then tried to save the game, it would almost always crash. So now when I play, I just don't switch windows or tab to another program and haven't had any crashes. But for others the answer isn't so easy to find.

I asked this question on Twitter and Reddit - you can read the responses if you'd like, and I wanted to ask the same thing here just to see if game crashing is an issue for you and when it happens and if you know a specific reason why it's happening.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Sims3/comments/vnr9wd/how_often_does_your_game_crash/

Game Crashes - Your Personal Experiences. 73 votes

After playing for a few hours.
12%
Emily4331ZhakiraPGraceyManorSimplyJencocoHillyBethPleaseMisterPostmannightmare_fuelSimexpert123 9 votes
Once every few weeks.
21%
CororonMikezumiRsandahiddengnomesOnverserSorak4LatinaBunnySims4MagicalTalesBreazonatexanskyKevinL5275Nikkei_SimmerTurjanHolaheyeLamaaaayRobbyC 16 votes
Every couple of months.
15%
jaletu2005Paryfruitsbasket101alanmichael1kiara07TorieStephStebEgonVMAvataritBrandontaylorElisetom 11 votes
Hardly ever.
31%
carlystur03Seera1024airotciv54emorrillbobv2benson2006AstroMantleJackalEricasFreePlayTinySpaceFoxWaterdragonPlainevilpuzzlezaddictSeashoreLiviaSharoniaSimmingalVailsSimSpockfantuanssks0 23 votes
Can't remember the last time it crashed.
19%
EvalenLaBlue0314SikoahGraceMamaSimTeeDarkLady2788jillbgyoshi_dragur2012ZeeGeelunaoddityYuriTheCreatorpolrbearKynansunnycakessonicgamer 14 votes

Comments

  • Nikkei_SimmerNikkei_Simmer Posts: 9,404 Member
    edited June 2022
    Once every few weeks.
    Probably an interval of once every few weeks since it’s either a combination of running out of memory or something gimped up with the various mods affecting my game.

    Since I started using NRAAS solely for game framework affecting mods and utilizing workarounds within NRAAS for various necessary things I need done in Sims - pretty much 75% of all stuff that are accomplished by other mods can be done through NRAAS if you dig hard enough in the NRAAS menu.

    So I’ve cut out most other third party mods that affect gameplay controls and found an alternate way through NRAAS.

    Now the only other third party mods I use are stuff that cannot be replicated by NRAAS and add new gameplay options.
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  • texanskytexansky Posts: 1,346 Member
    Once every few weeks.
    Mine crashes occasionally. In my opinion, I think it's typically either because I have left my game on in pause mode for days while I am not actively playing it, or I have done too much customization in Nraas Stylist, or both. (I do play during that time, it's just left on when I am on the forums or eating or napping. I do close it sometimes when I go to bed, and almost always when I go out of the house.)
  • SimmingalSimmingal Posts: 8,886 Member
    Hardly ever.
    I don't really have crashes often so its always very strange when i do

    but there was few build and cas crashes in row before and after the pronouns update and my game has been running bit wild since mws

    think the crashes were all after using gallery tho so theres that
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  • ParyPary Posts: 6,871 Member
    Every couple of months.
    Mine crashes probably every couple of months, usually after spending a long time building / decorating & CaSTing. And it isn't so much a crash, it's that when it does choose to misbehave, it's the UI that disappears and I'm forced to task manager out of the game.
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  • AstroAstro Posts: 6,651 Member
    Hardly ever.
    Pary wrote: »
    Mine crashes probably every couple of months, usually after spending a long time building / decorating & CaSTing. And it isn't so much a crash, it's that when it does choose to misbehave, it's the UI that disappears and I'm forced to task manager out of the game.
    That's a new one, I've never heard of that happening before. :D
  • StephStebStephSteb Posts: 2,271 Member
    Every couple of months.
    Astro wrote: »
    Pary wrote: »
    Mine crashes probably every couple of months, usually after spending a long time building / decorating & CaSTing. And it isn't so much a crash, it's that when it does choose to misbehave, it's the UI that disappears and I'm forced to task manager out of the game.
    That's a new one, I've never heard of that happening before. :D

    Well, you're lucky because on the rare chance that my game crashes, it's because of this. To get it back, you can supposedly push F5 but that has never ever worked for me and I lose everything I did *cry*
  • ParyPary Posts: 6,871 Member
    Every couple of months.
    Astro wrote: »
    Pary wrote: »
    Mine crashes probably every couple of months, usually after spending a long time building / decorating & CaSTing. And it isn't so much a crash, it's that when it does choose to misbehave, it's the UI that disappears and I'm forced to task manager out of the game.
    That's a new one, I've never heard of that happening before. :D

    Yeah it's a pain in the bum, especially if you haven't saved. There is a fix for it outlined here - https://fleurdeprairie.tumblr.com/post/87089812065/i-have-always-cried-every-time-someone-told-me
    But it only works intermittently for me, so sometimes I lose everything I've done. There are odd occasions that even task manager wont fix it, because I can't even tab out of the game, I have to reset the PC. Thankfully those kinds of episodes are very far and few between 🤣
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  • TurjanTurjan Posts: 1,713 Member
    Once every few weeks.
    The UI crash seems to happen if you press buttons too quickly one after the other, while the last task you gave it is still loading stuff.

    I voted "once every few weeks", but it's rare. I always have the Resource Monitor running on a second screen, so I have an idea how much memory the game is using at every moment in time. This also means I know when to make my final save before I have to restart the game to get to a lower memory baseline again.

    That said, I have crashes once in a while. It may happen if I have a big household, especially if the household members are doing stuff on different lots, stuff I told them to do, and then I go and switch between them all the time to give them new orders. That way, the game is loading different lots all the time, and it certainly doesn't like that if done too often. A specifically crash-prone situation is when a sim finishes an instrument performance with lots of spectators. The instrument animation has to stop, the game then waits for any potential incoming tips from the crowd, and then the animation to put the instrument into the inventory has to play. It's better to keep my fingers off keyboard and mouse during that time.

    Another more common crash reason is turning the camera while all sims in a big household are busy doing stuff. Bonus points if the camera lands inside a wall and doesn't know what to show. Turning the camera on a tiny lot with lots of sims that have trouble routing is also an issue. Bonus points if that lot is next to a mountain or high building and the camera has to go up and down.

    That said, all of these instances are relatively easy to avoid. I know I have to give the game time to finish something it's computing, and crashes usually happen if I forget that for a moment. Which is, as mentioned, rare.
  • AstroAstro Posts: 6,651 Member
    Hardly ever.
    Turjan wrote: »
    The UI crash seems to happen if you press buttons too quickly one after the other, while the last task you gave it is still loading stuff.

    I voted "once every few weeks", but it's rare. I always have the Resource Monitor running on a second screen, so I have an idea how much memory the game is using at every moment in time. This also means I know when to make my final save before I have to restart the game to get to a lower memory baseline again.

    That said, I have crashes once in a while. It may happen if I have a big household, especially if the household members are doing stuff on different lots, stuff I told them to do, and then I go and switch between them all the time to give them new orders. That way, the game is loading different lots all the time, and it certainly doesn't like that if done too often. A specifically crash-prone situation is when a sim finishes an instrument performance with lots of spectators. The instrument animation has to stop, the game then waits for any potential incoming tips from the crowd, and then the animation to put the instrument into the inventory has to play. It's better to keep my fingers off keyboard and mouse during that time.

    Another more common crash reason is turning the camera while all sims in a big household are busy doing stuff. Bonus points if the camera lands inside a wall and doesn't know what to show. Turning the camera on a tiny lot with lots of sims that have trouble routing is also an issue. Bonus points if that lot is next to a mountain or high building and the camera has to go up and down.

    That said, all of these instances are relatively easy to avoid. I know I have to give the game time to finish something it's computing, and crashes usually happen if I forget that for a moment. Which is, as mentioned, rare.

    It's really a crime this game was made on a 32-bit engine... If more ram was able to be used 99% of issues people have would never happen.
  • puzzlezaddictpuzzlezaddict Posts: 1,877 Member
    Hardly ever.
    My game has crashed three times in three years, at least on my main gaming setup and when I'm not testing something. (There have been a LOT of crashes when I'm testing something.) The first crash was when I tried to save as a meteor was on its way—I was fine with some chaos but not a lot, so I wanted to hedge my bets.

    The second crash was when I'd built a new house and spent a lot of time recoloring floors and wallpapers as well as messing with the general layout. I probably should have quit when I was done, but I didn't feel like it; I did however save my build progress, so not much harm done.

    The third crash was when I switched rapidly between map and street views. I'd pressed the wrong UI button and tried to undo it, and the game was unhappy. But that's unusual too: I've done that before without any negative consequences.
    Pary wrote: »
    There are odd occasions that even task manager wont fix it, because I can't even tab out of the game, I have to reset the PC. Thankfully those kinds of episodes are very far and few between 🤣

    @Pary If you click crtl-alt-delete and select Sign Out, you should be booted to the Windows sign-in screen, no need to force-restart.
  • TinySpaceFoxTinySpaceFox Posts: 1,110 Member
    Hardly ever.
    I would’ve selected the last option, but then I remembered I had a crash just last week while playing in Bridgeport. I think the world I’m playing in does impact the frequency of crashes. I’m new to Bridgeport but can remember having many more problems with Isla Paradiso (as compared to most other worlds) back when I used to play in it.
  • KarritzKarritz Posts: 21,908 Member
    I didn't vote because none of your options describe my crashes. I either get none at all or my game crashes constantly. The reason for the crashes include overpopulation of worlds, too many sims in the household, large gardens using up too much memory. I know how to fix the issues and handle the crashes as they occur.
  • ParyPary Posts: 6,871 Member
    Every couple of months.
    @Pary If you click crtl-alt-delete and select Sign Out, you should be booted to the Windows sign-in screen, no need to force-restart.

    Ooh I honestly never even thought of that, I just mash the reset button :D Thanks, I will do that next time!

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  • HillyBethHillyBeth Posts: 3,505 Member
    After playing for a few hours.
    Astro wrote: »
    Whenever my game crashes I use the Crash Log Analyzer to see what (most likely) the issue was, and 9/10 times it was a 'ran out of memory' issue. That answer can be caused by many things though, in my case (I play in borderless window) when I would switch the window to another program a few times and then tried to save the game, it would almost always crash. So now when I play, I just don't switch windows or tab to another program and haven't had any crashes. But for others the answer isn't so easy to find.

    I asked this question on Twitter and Reddit - you can read the responses if you'd like, and I wanted to ask the same thing here just to see if game crashing is an issue for you and when it happens and if you know a specific reason why it's happening.

    https://www.reddit.com/r/Sims3/comments/vnr9wd/how_often_does_your_game_crash/

    The reason was because my old PC I played on had an outdated graphics card. I got a new PC last Christmas- 2021 but haven't played 3 much due to lack of ideas.
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  • CororonCororon Posts: 4,275 Member
    Once every few weeks.
    The disappearing UI:

    tkFvNkY.jpg

    Always annoying when I have spent an hour decorating...
    cUrfGkA.gif
  • HillyBethHillyBeth Posts: 3,505 Member
    After playing for a few hours.
    @Cororon ugh! I hate that too!
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  • GraceyManorGraceyManor Posts: 20,079 Member
    After playing for a few hours.
    Most of my crashes happen when I minimize the game.However, lately its been when my sim is performing showtime acts.
  • AstroAstro Posts: 6,651 Member
    Hardly ever.
    Most of my crashes happen when I minimize the game.However, lately its been when my sim is performing showtime acts.

    I've seen quite a few people this as their reason too, most of my crashes came from this as well. Does anyone have a reason why minimizing the game then bringing it back up causes such a jump in ram usage that it causes a crash?
  • AstroAstro Posts: 6,651 Member
    Hardly ever.
    Cororon wrote: »
    The disappearing UI:

    tkFvNkY.jpg

    Always annoying when I have spent an hour decorating...

    I've never had this happen. It's really odd that some people frequently have crashes due to the same issue while others don't.
  • jaletu2005jaletu2005 Posts: 688 Member
    edited July 2022
    Every couple of months.
    I had a crash so bad one time (around 2015) that I completely lost my sim and the world she lived in. Still don't understand what happened. Of course the world was still in the game - just not my version of it. I learned to "save as" instead of saving over a game - again and again. Very painful lesson. I had to start completely over and she had accomplished so much.

    And that UI disappearance is really a pain! Still can't seem to learn to save as often as I should when building.
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  • CororonCororon Posts: 4,275 Member
    Once every few weeks.
    Astro wrote: »
    Cororon wrote: »
    The disappearing UI:

    tkFvNkY.jpg

    Always annoying when I have spent an hour decorating...

    I've never had this happen. It's really odd that some people frequently have crashes due to the same issue while others don't.

    Yes, it's odd. I have another strange problem that others don't. I can't use cars by Fresh Prince, because they either corrupt or crash my game. I have no idea why.
    cUrfGkA.gif
  • RobbyCRobbyC Posts: 4 New Member
    Once every few weeks.
    With my playing style, it may happen every few weeks. I use quite a bit of custom content, and I travel frequently as well via NRaas Traveler.

    The last time it happened was several weeks back while playing Twinbrook, and I had someone dancing inside an upper floor room of a skyscraper. I used testingcheatsenabled true to go into Build/Buy to change a radio station on one of the Wall Speakers to a custom station I made using Broadcaster. Once I tried to go back to Live mode, the game crashed without an error message. It's happened before due to this, though.

    Nevertheless, unlike my first year of playing The Sims 3, it now rarely crashes due to suspect custom content. Most of the time, the crashes are due to "out of memory" errors while traveling if I have played for too long without restarting before beginning the travel process. More rarely, it may crash if I travel from a certain map if a memory leak occurs during the travel process, and RAM usage maxes out as a result.
  • MantleJackalMantleJackal Posts: 371 Member
    edited July 2022
    Hardly ever.
    The only times my game has crashed on me recently was because I reached the accessory "limit". For some reason the game can only handle a certain amount of accessories at once on a Sim. I think I read in a thread about the issue that the cap was nine accessories. So once I figured out that was my problem, it was a simple fix and it hasn't crashed since.

    If we're talking farther back than yeah it has randomly crashed before. I play Skyrim and that is a game notorious for it's random crashes so I kind of gotten used to it. This is why I have a ton of saves because you never know when the game decides for you that's it done and crashes.
  • fruitsbasket101fruitsbasket101 Posts: 1,530 Member
    edited July 2022
    Every couple of months.
    I feel like I get them once every few months. I get them a lot more often in the summer though as my computer overheats faster.
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  • OnverserOnverser Posts: 3,364 Member
    Once every few weeks.
    Just from my experience Sims 3 definitely crashes a lot more than any other game in the franchise... Once every few weeks is a bit generous as it's more than that for me, more like once every few days. I love this game but man I've lost so much progress from crashing :s My current save is literally titled "please work" as I tried to start this save 3 times and it just kept crashing every time I tried to save the game after I put my townies in and set the world up.
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