Windows and Doors Becoming Transparent (and other problems)

ARRensch

So I'm trying to build a haunted house attraction using the tomb mechanics from WA, but I've run into a problem. For some reason, when I go back into edit town to save, the doors and windows of the building become slightly transparent.


For the record, I haven't marked anything as a tomb (I've only just finished the building).

If I select a door or window, it shows up normal, but at soon as I place it, it goes back to being transparent. At first, I just replaced all the doors and windows because placing any new doors/windows doesn't carry the glitch. Yet when I saved and came back, they were all transparent again. They show up normal in live mode, but I'd like for them to look normal in build mode too.

I'm building in a town that I've been playing for a long time, so maybe it's just screwed up? Another weird thing I noticed when testing the door/window thing in live mode is that my sims' house doesn't show up properly on the map. Basically, I bulldozed a lot and built a new house on top of it. Yet in the map view, it appears as the house that had been bulldozed. When I zoom in, the house I built loads.

I might be apt to just call it corrupted and move my sims into the bin to start a fresh game with them if not for the fact that I have yet another problem. Basically, when I create a new world, the camera moves at a snail's pace (the game doesn't lag, the camera itself is slow). Also, the mood meter turns black (still works at least). When I started a new world in Moonlight Falls, I noticed all the townies were just standing in their yards (the vampires were burning to death) and wouldn't do anything.

I reinstalled the whole game when that happened and started a new world in Sunset Valley. The townies moved in that one, but the camera was still slow and the mood meter was still black. This only happens in new saves; my old saves are fine.

Okay, that's everything. I could really use some help.

nickibitsward

I don't know about the invisible doors and windows, never had that happen. The problem with your new house not immediately showing up on the old lot until you zoom in is a rendering issue, I believe, and an old, old problem that still happens to me sometimes. Very common but a bit of a pain. I usually go into the lot, delete a bit of fence, add it back and go out. The "new" house will then stay a while. But it hasn't happened to me in a long time.

starguru

There is at least one hidden tomb door which functions as you’ve described, and is intended to be transparent in build/buy mode. I’m not sure what tomb-building mechanics you’re using—if you’ve already begun linking triggers to other objects, if you’ve placed hidden room markers, what the lot is zoned as, etc.—which may be affecting things? Perhaps someone more experienced in tomb-building would know if this is normal behavior. Does the door/window transparency problem occur when building anything else, or only with this particular lot?

Another thing you might try is deleting your cache files.
http://simswiki.info/wiki.php?title=Game_Help:Sims_3_Delete_Cache_Files

The bulldozed house being visible in map view instead of your new house is a relatively common visual glitch. It can be solved by going into build or buy mode and altering the lot in some way. (You can build and delete a single section of new wall or fence, place/replace an object, change/change back the roof color, etc.) Making a change like this will force the game to refresh the image. After you leave build/buy, your house should appear correctly in map view. I have this issue from time to time, and the solution has always worked for me.

Do you use CC/mods? My first thought with the discolored mood meter is that it sounds like something that might be caused by mod incompatibility. I’d try a factory reset and test a new save to see if the error is resolved, and then go from there. https://sims3.crinrict.com/en/2011/06/tutorial-resetting-the-game-to-factory-settings-without-reinstalling.html

ARRensch

@nickibitsward and @starguru , thanks for your help about the bulldozed building thing. The tip worked.

As for the transparent doors/windows, I found that it was only that specific lot that had the problem. It's marked as a festival lot atm, could that have anything to do with it?

Anyway, deleting my caches didn't change anything. As for the tomb part, I had not done any tomb building yet. No links or triggers or even tomb objects were on the lot when the problem occurred. Basically, there was no association with a tomb.

The mod part: Rather than do a total factory reset, I decided to try just taking out my folder with mods first, and sure enough, the game is normal with the mods gone. Seems I'll have to do some purging and find out which one went wrong. The game works with CC, so it's definitely a mod problem. Thanks for your help with that issue.

Now all that's left is the weird transparent door thing.

Karritz

Festival lots are set to show only objects that belong to the lot for all seasons and objects that are set to be visible for the current season. So if something is set to be visible for a different season it will be hidden until the game enters the season for which it is supposed to be visible.

starguru

Yup, that’s it! Building on festival lots and/or with seasonal lot markers on the lot will cause some objects to become transparent as you manually switch between different modes (construction/summer/fall/winter/spring) or go back and forth from edit town. It's been awhile since I've built with those that I had forgotten. So yes, definitely nothing to do with tomb-building techniques, not a glitch, and the game is functioning properly with these.

If you don’t want any objects to change with the seasons (or for anything to be transparent while you’re building), change your lot assignment to something else and remove the seasonal lot marker.

Glad your other issues have been figured out also.

ARRensch

@Karritz and @starguru Got it, thanks for the help!