Post-Patch + Seasons Installation Crashes (due to uncompressed sim textures?)

littlemissgogo

Up until the patch + Seasons, my game ran perfectly fine. I didn't patch my game until Seasons released and installed Seasons right after. At first it seemed fine. I loaded a save, household, made some adjustments in CAS, and played as I normally do. Then my screen changed and behaved as if it was not connected to my computer at all, claiming "invalid input/format" something like that. I couldn't close the game or get my screen back until I forced the entire thing to shut down and restarted it. Since then, the game loads to main menu and map screen seemingly fine but as soon as you load into a household it immediately affects my screen as mentioned above and I have no choice but to force the whole computer to shut off. It's difficult for me to test because every time it breaks I have to force a shut down and I don't particularly like doing that on top of it being tedious and time consuming.

I've repaired the game, removed my mods/saves/tray to test, and reset the Sims 4 folder to no avail. But across the testing I've managed, I'm beginning to suspect it may be the uncompressed sim textures causing issues. I've played with them enabled for quite a while but while resetting my folder completely, I ran a test save with them disabled by default that appeared to work just fine. When I tweaked my options and enabled them again, neither my test save nor my original saves would allow me to play. I lowered all settings down completely (so uncompressed textures disabled) and played another test save seemingly fine. I went through CAS, moving into a lot, even travelling and my screen remained fine. I have to say it's pretty bizarre for me that uncompressed sim textures are suddenly breaking the connection between my monitor and desktop.

I could be wrong and they could not be the source of these issues but so far I'm beginning to think they are. However, I don't understand why. Is it possible the patch/expansion pack did something that caused them to break my game? My computer is fairly average but more than enough for TS4 as far as I know. I've also tested other games out and they work as intended so this issue is specific to TS4.

littlemissgogo

I've also updated my video drivers for what that's worth. I tested the game again with my usual ultra settings but uncompressed textures off and it disconnected the screen again. The game I don't believe is actually crashing. . . I'm under the impression is still runs, I just can't see or do anything about it without completely shutting down. So really I don't know what to do because as of now the game is essentially unplayable. I might try reinstalling the entire game though I'm not sure that will even help.

rosemow

littlemissgogo wrote: »

I've also updated my video drivers for what that's worth. I tested the game again with my usual ultra settings but uncompressed textures off and it disconnected the screen again. The game I don't believe is actually crashing. . . I'm under the impression is still runs, I just can't see or do anything about it without completely shutting down. So really I don't know what to do because as of now the game is essentially unplayable. I might try reinstalling the entire game though I'm not sure that will even help.

Does the game run okay if you disable uncompressed sim textures and lower your graphics settings?

littlemissgogo

rosemow wrote: »

littlemissgogo wrote: »

I've also updated my video drivers for what that's worth. I tested the game again with my usual ultra settings but uncompressed textures off and it disconnected the screen again. The game I don't believe is actually crashing. . . I'm under the impression is still runs, I just can't see or do anything about it without completely shutting down. So really I don't know what to do because as of now the game is essentially unplayable. I might try reinstalling the entire game though I'm not sure that will even help.

Does the game run okay if you disable uncompressed sim textures and lower your graphics settings?

It doesn't appear to have issues if I play on the absolute lowest settings. But I don't know why that is since I didn't have this issue before the patch and EP. And I run several other "heavier" games on high settings without problems.

rosemow

Perhaps post your DxDiag info here and simmers may be able to see if they can help you.
To gather a DXDIAG on your computer, do this :
Press and hold the Windows key and the letter R on your keyboard
You will see a Run box in the lower-left corner of your screen
Type dxdiag in the text field
Click OK
Click the Save All Information button, found on the bottom of the DXDIAG report

After you have saved your dxdiag info on your computer, go to the pastebin site https://pastebin.com
and copy/paste the dxdiag info into the white box there. Press the button to create the new paste/pastebin text file.
Then post here in this thread the web address of your dxdiag info that is on the pastebin site.

littlemissgogo

Here it is: https://pastebin.com/JAg1GWgn

rosemow

Hello
Try altering the in game and the normal screen computer resolution and see if that may help.
With the refresh rate, try changing that to 60 rather than 59,and it may perhaps help.

littlemissgogo

rosemow wrote: »

Hello
Try altering the in game and the normal screen computer resolution and see if that may help.
With the refresh rate, try changing that to 60 rather than 59,and it may perhaps help.

Will do! I'll give it a try once my game reinstalls and let you know if it works.

Nichaedemus

Hi,

Then my screen changed and behaved as if it was not connected to my computer at all, claiming "invalid input/format" something like that.

The game I don't believe is actually crashing. . . I'm under the impression is still runs, I just can't see or do anything about it without completely shutting down.

It sounds like your display monitor is not receiving a video signal from your graphics card for some reason.

According to the DXDiag report you appear to be using a VGA adapter with your NVidia GeForce GTX 970, is that correct? What I would suggest is using a DVI or HDMI or DisplayPort cable without the VGA adapter for a cleaner, all-digital video signal. If this is not possible, you can try running the game in window mode or fullscreen borderless window mode.

littlemissgogo

Nichaedemus wrote: »

Hi,

Then my screen changed and behaved as if it was not connected to my computer at all, claiming "invalid input/format" something like that.

The game I don't believe is actually crashing. . . I'm under the impression is still runs, I just can't see or do anything about it without completely shutting down.

It sounds like your display monitor is not receiving a video signal from your graphics card for some reason.

According to the DXDiag report you appear to be using a VGA adapter with your NVidia GeForce GTX 970, is that correct? What I would suggest is using a DVI or HDMI or DisplayPort cable without the VGA adapter for a cleaner, all-digital video signal. If this is not possible, you can try running the game in window mode or fullscreen borderless window mode.

I suppose my screen setup is actually a bit weird. It's technically a TV (vizio flatscreen) 5+ years old and the cord I use is old enough I have to use a converter to plug it into my computer. It's just never been a problem til now. I got it to use an HDMI cord however my desktop resolution is only clear at a pretty small size for some weird reason. Once the game finishes reinstalling I'll test it again with this current setup. Whether it works or not, I'm going to replace the monitor & cords on Tuesday with something a lot less dated and hope that fixes the problem for good. I don't think it's my video card dying. . . But you never know I guess. That'll be a whole 'nother can of worms.

I also always run the game in borderless windowed mode and ran it in windowed mode for my testing but unless the graphics settings were at the lowest possible, it still blanked the screen as before. Hopefully this gets sorted out by Tuesday! I appreciate everyone's assistance in helping me.

littlemissgogo

So far so good! I finished reinstalling everything and did a couple of test runs and it hasn't blanked out on me. It may have been the cord suddenly causing problems though I doubt the monitor itself has been helpful with the problem. Right now I've got it on the HDMI cord which forces me at a smaller resolution to see everything clearly so I've got the game set it to that same one + my usual ultra graphics settings. My test saves went pretty smoothly so I think the problem has been mostly solved. I've got a new monitor setup arriving Tuesday so the small resolution shouldn't be a problem for too long either. Anyway, thank you again to @rosemow and @Nichaedemus for your help with this! Hopefully this solution will stick.

rosemow

Hello
I am glad that it is going well now That is great!