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  • puzzlezaddictpuzzlezaddict Posts: 1,877 Member
    edited March 2019
    @AleksandraAleksia Generally speaking, prebuilt desktops that can run all TS3 packs on the highest settings start around $800, and laptops around $900, although there's usually a sale offered on a couple of models that brings down the price by $100 or so for each. (Of course, some models in that class will barely run the game at all; price isn't always a good metric, especially for laptops.) One other thing to consider is that TS3 runs much faster on a solid state drive, especially when you're talking about loading CAS or spending a lot of time in Build/Buy. But of course SSDs are more expensive than HDDs, even if the gap isn't as large as it used to be.

    The other recommendations are:
    Processor: Intel i5 or i7, 2.4 GHz or faster, or AMD equivalent; laptops do better with an i7. The newer i5-8300H and i7-8750H are also fine even in laptops, so anything that class and above will be great.
    Graphics card: Nvidia 950 or 1050 on a desktop, 960 or 1050 ti on a laptop, or AMD equivalent.
    Memory: 8 GB RAM is more than enough for the game and Windows, but you may want 16 for multitasking purposes.
    Storage: A 512 GB or larger drive on which to install TS3 and keep your saves, mods, cc, etc. A 256 GB drive is manageable if you're careful, but you'd need to move everything not TS3-related to a larger internal or external drive.

    A cursory glance says that recommended specs for Witcher 3 are higher, especially if you plan to play in a higher resolution than 1080p. An i5-8400 or i7-8750H is the lowest you should go, and you may want to bump that up for the purposes of futureproofing. The graphics card is much more critical—you'd probably want at least an Nvidia 2060. But that's where you can look at online benchmark tests and reports from players; the 2060 has been out for long enough to have plenty of information available.

    In the meantime, if you'd like to know why your current computer isn't running TS3 the way you want, you can run a dxdiag and provide the results. You'd need to post the text on a free filesharing site like pastebin.com, then leave the link here and break it up (use spaces or something).

    https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/pc/how-to-gather-dxdiag-information/

    And if you'd like to have a more in-depth conversation about building a custom PC, there are a couple of people here who can help.
    Post edited by puzzlezaddict on
  • AleksandraAleksiaAleksandraAleksia Posts: 20 Member
    @puzzlezaddict Thanks for the info!~
    I do plan on having an SSD, although just an OK one starting out. They're still pricey, so I'd rather start with low numbers for those and work my way up. Even a small one will help, I know.

    I plan for a desktop. I've played on laptops only for most of my life, but I feel like it's time to upgrade. Besides, desktops are cheaper. The less money I have to spend, the better.

    As for Witcher 3, or any other game for that matter, 1080p is the highest I'm going. I don't need any higher personally, especially when higher reses are still extremely pricey. I do plan on splurging a bit to make sure I can play all or nearly all of my games on high, though. I know I could go for something cheaper for medium settings, but this is my first desktop that's actually mine and not family owned, so I feel like I should treat myself to something of good quality.

    I've checked the dxdiag before, and compared to the Min Requirements for Sims 3... my laptop should easily be able to run it. But I've always known that min requirements for any game are wrong, so I wasn't too surprised when my laptop couldn't handle Sims 3 easily. I was just surprised that it barely ran it at all. I didn't expect it to be that bad, but it is. I'm sure if this laptop was brand new and didn't have 6 years of avid gaming on it, it'd be able to run it a lot better. Just disappointing that it can't handle even a few packs. But once I upgrade to desktop soon, I'll be happy.
  • puzzlezaddictpuzzlezaddict Posts: 1,877 Member
    @AleksandraAleksia If you're looking for advice about parts, it would be helpful to know your overall budget, as well as anything you would like to be able to do, or build into the computer, in the future. As far as SSDs go, the SATAs are slower than the NVMe models, whether the SATAs use the M.2 PCIe slot or not, but even AAA games don't generally run any slower on a good quality SATA. Windows may boot faster though. So you could do something along the lines of a small 256 GB NVMe boot drive for Windows and anything else critical, and then get a larger SATA for games and everything else. Then you could easily add other drives when you needed them.

    Personally, I find these very pretty, but maybe that's just me:
    https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147741&ignorebbr=1
    https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16820147673

    (They're usually the same price on Amazon, if it makes a difference.)

    Anyway, happy shopping, and feel free to ask for more advice later.
  • yoashmoyoashmo Posts: 528 Member
    @puzzlezaddict Okay i caved. I could not get my Ambitions disc to read, so i uninstalled everything, cleaned my registry, and reinstalled through Origin. I plan to reinstall in the future using the disc only. I dont like the 1.69 it keeps deselecting random EPs and SPs at startup.
    But anywho, here are the first 40 lines of my device config:
    === Application info ===
    Name: Sims3
    Version:
    Build: Release
    === Rating info ===
    GPU: 5 GPU Memory: 1 CPU: 2 RAM: 4 CPU Speed: 2208 Threading: 3
    Adjusted CPU: 2544 RAM: 16263 Adjusted RAM: 15751 Cores: 6
    === Machine info ===
    OS version: Windows 8 6.2.9200
    OS prod type: 0
    OS major ver: 6
    OS minor ver: 2
    OS SP major ver: 0
    OS SP minor ver: 0
    OS is 64Bit: 1
    CPU: GenuineIntel
    Brand: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-8750H CPU @ 2.20GHz
    Family: 6
    Model: 14
    Cores: 6
    HT: 1
    x64: 0
    Memory: 16263MB
    Free memory: 12683MB
    User: ashmo
    Computer: LAPTOP-J0U6SJUM
    === Graphics device info ===
    Number: 0
    Name (driver): NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070
    Name (database): NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 [Found: 0, Matched: 0]
    Vendor: NVIDIA
    Chipset: Vendor: 10de, Device: 1be1, Board: 846a103c, Chipset: 00a1
    Driver: nvldumd.dll, Version: 25.21.14.1616, GUID: D7B71E3E-58A1-11CF-DC75-64A41BC2D435
    Driver version: 1616
    Monitor: \\.\DISPLAY1
    Texture memory: 32MB <<OVERRIDE>>
    Vertex program: 3.0
    Pixel program: 3.0
    Hardware TnL: 1
  • puzzlezaddictpuzzlezaddict Posts: 1,877 Member
    edited March 2019
    @yoashmo Even if you install Into the Future via disc, you'll still be on patch 1.69. Just one digital install is enough to force the "update," and there's no way to downpatch to 1.67. So you might as well install ITF through Origin and avoid needing to use the disc. [Edit: Sorry, I read your comment wrong.]

    For the deselecting packs issue, I think @TreyNutz once wrote something about changing the permissions on one of the files in his game folder. It seemed to help for a while, at least. Maybe he can offer some advice.

    The process for fixing the texture memory is the same as before, except for the install path for TS3's program files.
    Find graphicsrules.sgr inside the game's program files. The path is something like this:

    Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\The Sims 3\Game\Bin

    Inside graphicsrules, find this, 8-10 lines down:

    if ($textureMemory == 0)
    seti textureMemory 32
    setb textureMemorySizeOK false

    and change it to this:

    if ($textureMemory == 0)
    seti textureMemory 1024
    # setb textureMemorySizeOK false

    So you're changing the 32 to a 1024, and adding a hashtag and a space on the third line, immediately before "setb." Your card has much more than 1024 MB VRAM, but TS3 can only use 800 MB anyway.

    If you still want to get your card recognized, let me know, and I'll PM you the instructions. And while you're messing with graphicsrules, you might want to adjust the processor ratings. Yours is not getting full credit for its strength, which might cause TS3 to throttle performance a bit in some situations. I can send you instructions for that too, if you want.
    Post edited by puzzlezaddict on
  • yoashmoyoashmo Posts: 528 Member
    @puzzlezaddict Thank you so much for all the help you have provided. I saw a post from @TreyNutz saying he uninstalled and reinstalled Origin and that stopped it for him. I will give that a try.
    I will accept your offer of pm-ing me instructions on how to get my card recognized and adjusting my processor ratings. In the meantime I will follow your instructions for fixing the texture memory.

    Thanks again.
  • puzzlezaddictpuzzlezaddict Posts: 1,877 Member
    @yoashmo PM sent.
  • Sim_momSim_mom Posts: 1 New Member
    I'm playing TS3 Island paradise, and I have one sim who is a self-employed diver, at career level 7. Obviously, the promotion function HAD been working. But I just reached the point where she SHOULD have been promoted to level 8, but it didn't happen! Promotion should have gone through after she earned $13,102, and she's currently showing as having earned $13,503, but she's still only level 7. How do I fix this? Preferably without resetting career progress...
  • puzzlezaddictpuzzlezaddict Posts: 1,877 Member
    @Sim_mom There's an easy way with mods, if you use them. Specifically, NRaas MasterController (with the MC cheats addon) allows you to set a sim's career level, so you could force a promotion. To reach the command, you'd click on the sim and select NRaas > MasterController > Intermediate > Career > Level.

    Otherwise, you might wait it out to see if she does get promoted in a day or two. If not, the sim may need a hard reset. Go to Edit Town, evict her, and move her back into her house. She'll keep her career, but her progress towards promotion will be reset. Maybe that will shake things loose. (The even more thorough reset involves evicting her, copying the house to the bin, bulldozing the lot, placing the copy, and moving her back in, but it doesn't sound like you need to do that here.)

    Whether you use mods or not, start by deleting the five cache files in your TS3 game folder in Documents. They should be cleared regularly, even in the absence of any game issues, but definitely when you're troubleshooting. For reference, these files are:
    • CASPartCache.package
    • compositorCache.package
    • scriptCache.package
    • simCompositorCache.package
    • socialCache.package
    When you try one of these interventions, it's best to use "save as" to rename the save (so you have a backup, in case the fix doesn't work), then quit, then clear your caches, before reloading to see the results.

    By the way, the world of Isla Paradiso is so poorly made that it causes all kinds of issues, especially lag, even on computers strong enough to run TS3 on the highest settings. The biggest issues are a few residential lots, and the way inactive sims fail to manage living on a houseboat. A player named ciane actually fixed the world though, and she's offered her work for download. You probably don't want to start over with her version of IP, but you could read over her description of the edits necessary to make the world playable, and copy them in your own save. It's easy enough to go into Edit Town and fix the problem houses, or remove them and relocate their residents.

    https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/811253/removing-ip-lag
  • Ker12Ker12 Posts: 4 New Member
    I bought Sims 3 pets 2 weeks ago and it worked fine, without any lags or problems. I used mods and cc from the beginning on. So after a few days I got the endless household loading screen. I've tried some things already but nothing worked. Yesterday, I was able to get into create a household after waiting forever, but the game was extremely laggy and froze whenever I clicked on something. Today, the game worked fine one time. It didn't lagged or anything. I closed the game for a while and as I started it again to play, the problems came back. It gets stuck at the beginning of the household loading. There is a mod that I thought that it maybe caused the problems. I deleted it a few times but it always came back into the mods folder. Today, I was able to delete it completely, but it isn't the problem. I use a windows 10 laptop.

    @igazor you wanted to her more about the mentioned mod that always came back, I didn't really deleted it, I just placed the file in another, not sims related folder, so maybe that's why it always came back. I deleted it completely today.
  • igazorigazor Posts: 19,330 Member
    Ker12 wrote: »
    I bought Sims 3 pets 2 weeks ago and it worked fine, without any lags or problems. I used mods and cc from the beginning on. So after a few days I got the endless household loading screen. I've tried some things already but nothing worked. Yesterday, I was able to get into create a household after waiting forever, but the game was extremely laggy and froze whenever I clicked on something. Today, the game worked fine one time. It didn't lagged or anything. I closed the game for a while and as I started it again to play, the problems came back. It gets stuck at the beginning of the household loading. There is a mod that I thought that it maybe caused the problems. I deleted it a few times but it always came back into the mods folder. Today, I was able to delete it completely, but it isn't the problem. I use a windows 10 laptop.

    @igazor you wanted to her more about the mentioned mod that always came back, I didn't really deleted it, I just placed the file in another, not sims related folder, so maybe that's why it always came back. I deleted it completely today.
    But that still doesn't normally happen. Files don't have the means to wander around our hard drives and reinsert themselves into a folder like Mods\Packages that is entirely controlled by the user. While the mod itself being there or not may not have been causing any issues, something controlling the TS3 user game folder and trying to back it up or restore it while the game is being played would most definitely get in the way of the game's operations. Is your TS3 user game folder in your regular user Documents (or My Documents) location or is it in OneDrive\Documents (it shouldn't be here) and is OneDrive activated on this laptop?

    If this is totally not the issue, I think we would then need to get some specs on this laptop you are playing on -- processor, RAM, graphics card, drive space. Or, for the total picture, a dxdiag report sent up to Pastebin.com and a link provided so we can read it. You cannot post a link as a New Member here, but it's okay to space it out or use "h.t.t.p.s" to break the link so we can still make sense out of it.
    o550pjoa47rpxo63g.jpg
    NRaas has moved!
    Our new site is at http://nraas.net
  • Ker12Ker12 Posts: 4 New Member
    @igazor It is in the normal Documents folder. I don't know if OneDrive is activated or not, but it's shown on the left side of the file explorer, I hope you get what I mean. The OneDrive folder is completely empty.

    h.t.t.p.s://pastebin.com/nrLDpmwf
  • igazorigazor Posts: 19,330 Member
    edited April 2019
    @Ker12 - Okay, setting aside the mod files moving around on you. I am afraid your laptop is far too underpowered to be running TS3 with any of the heavy EPs. Pets is the heaviest, but actually in this case it would struggle with most any of them released after Ambitions (Generations might run). Its processor does not meet requirements, it has only 4 GB of RAM with Win 10, which is going to claim much of that for itself, and it has no dedicated graphics card. I can't see what it has for hard drive size/space free because that dxdiag is not complete.

    I would approach the base game (only) on that one cautiously, but if you overwork the laptop by forcing the EPs to run I am afraid you have the risk of overheating and permanently damaging the device. Hopefully you have or can work up towards a stronger system on which to play. This one would be better suited for TS2 if that's any consolation, pending the hard drive(s) not being full.
    o550pjoa47rpxo63g.jpg
    NRaas has moved!
    Our new site is at http://nraas.net
  • Ker12Ker12 Posts: 4 New Member
    @igazor Oh..Now I get why I have those problems.
    The dxdiag isn't complete? This is actually the whole file.
  • MewthMewMewthMew Posts: 275 Member
    Hello. So if you delete the nausea moodlet from unknown causes (aka pregnancy) does it terminate the pregnancy? I did that and she hasn’t been nauseous since... I was trying to remove a different moodlet and clicked on that one instead.
  • igazorigazor Posts: 19,330 Member
    MewthMew wrote: »
    Hello. So if you delete the nausea moodlet from unknown causes (aka pregnancy) does it terminate the pregnancy? I did that and she hasn’t been nauseous since... I was trying to remove a different moodlet and clicked on that one instead.
    I don't see how deleting that moodlet could disturb a pregnancy. It should just come back again eventually. But there's at least a couple of ways to tell for sure. One is to see if your sims can Try for Baby, you can't try to impregnate a sim who is already pregnant. Another is to use a click on the ground and a Go Here type of command when they are the active sim. Not sure when in the pregnancy this kicks in exactly, but I don't think a pregnant sim can run someplace as a pull-down option on the command queue like others who are not pregnant can.
    o550pjoa47rpxo63g.jpg
    NRaas has moved!
    Our new site is at http://nraas.net
  • R3dhorsemanR3dhorseman Posts: 8 New Member
    In the Sins 3 World Adventures on the Tomb Tours challenge, it is not recognizing when my sim arrives at the tomb. I've tried reexploring the tomb, restarting the game, quiting the challenge and trying it when it came up again, but when I get to the great pyramid it still says go to the great pyramid. How can I fix this?
  • mariemdovermariemdover Posts: 4 New Member
    .
    .

    Hello everyone. I am at my wit’s end and I don’t know what else to do. I was wondering if you could give me fresh ideas.

    First of all, My PC:

    Motherboard: Asus P8H61-M LX
    BIOS: BIOS Date: 09/18/13 17:57:10 Ver: 46.01 (type: BIOS)
    Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2500 CPU @ 3.30GHz (4 CPUs), ~3.3GHz
    Memory: 12288MB RAM

    Card name: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3GB
    Manufacturer: NVIDIA
    Chip type: GeForce GTX 1060 3GB
    DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC
    Device Type: Full Device (POST)
    Current Mode: 1680 x 1050 (32 bit) (59Hz)
    Monitor Model: DellSP2008WFP
    Monitor Id: DEL4033
    Native Mode: 1680 x 1050(p) (59.954Hz)
    Output Type: DVI

    Drive: C: (Windows Install)
    Free Space: 69.4 GB
    Total Space: 204.8 GB
    File System: NTFS
    Model: KINGSTON SA400S37480G (SSD)

    Drive: D:
    Free Space: 2.0 GB
    Total Space: 2.0 GB
    File System: FAT32
    Model: KINGSTON SA400S37480G

    Drive: E: (My Documents)
    Free Space: 84.2 GB
    Total Space: 102.4 GB
    File System: NTFS
    Model: KINGSTON SA400S37480G

    Drive: F:
    Free Space: 53.8 GB
    Total Space: 148.6 GB
    File System: NTFS
    Model: KINGSTON SA400S37480G

    Drive: G:
    Free Space: 970.3 GB
    Total Space: 1331.2 GB
    File System: NTFS
    Model: ST2000DM001-1CH164

    Drive: H:
    Free Space: 190.3 GB
    Total Space: 192.0 GB
    File System: NTFS
    Model: ST2000DM001-1CH164

    Drive: K:
    Free Space: 334.2 GB
    Total Space: 358.4 GB
    File System: NTFS
    Model: WDC WD10EZEX-08WN4A0

    Drive: L:
    Free Space: 199.5 GB
    Total Space: 288.3 GB
    File System: NTFS
    Model: WDC WD10EZEX-08WN4A0

    Operating System: Windows 10 Pro 64-bit (10.0, Build 17134) (17134.rs4_release.180410-1804)
    Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
    Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS
    DirectX Version: DirectX 12

    I cannot post the full DXDiag link because of the rules, but I have uploaded it to Pastebin.

    I am in the process of updating my PC, little by little, watching my budget. A few months ago I got an SSD, where I installed Windows and, of course, The Sims 3. And a few weeks ago I got the best GPU I could afford, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3GB.
    I might be getting a new CPU+Motherboard+RAM in the near future, but before I go forward with that, I would like to know what’s my best option here, if you can help me.

    I am running The sims 3 (1.67.2.024002) with all DLCs, a lot of store content and ~4Gb of mods and CC. I am playing a family in Sunlit Tides, currently on its 5th generation.

    The problem I have is… LAG. My sims will do their thing, and every one or two minutes, they just freeze for 5-10 seconds, the clock freezes too, but everything keeps going: the water runs, the music plays, the plants move, etc.

    What I did to improve the experience:

    * I lowered the graphic settings to the following:

    AnimationSmoothing 0
    LightingQuality 1
    GeneralReflections 1
    TextureQuality 3
    VisualEffects 1
    TerrainQuality 3
    EdgeSmoothing 1
    ObjectHiding 0
    AspectRatio 0
    ForceSquarePixels 1
    SimQuality 4
    TreeQuality 2
    DrawDistance 1
    MaxActiveLots 3
    NumMaxActiveLotOptions 6
    AdvancedRendering 1


    * I am using Nraas’ mods
    Overwatch and errortrap, to take care of and notify me about stuck or missing sims and cleansing the dead. Also to delete cars and homeless people.
    Register to disable immigration, and limit wild animal population to one of each.
    I have also capped the human population to 120 and allowed emigration of residents when the number is exceeded.

    * I use the game windowed, with a resolution of 1600x900 (16:9), and I use Riva Tuner Statistics Server to limit FPS in 30.

    * I have “cleansed” my saves, deleting all SNAP files, which reduced my saves from ~800Mb to ~80Mb (Now it’s ~100Mb).

    * I don’t use Sims3Packs nor the launcher. All my CC is in package format. Packages are tested for a while, and then they are merged in 100Mb bundles.

    * I have done the proper thing to make the game recognize my GPU, so now it shows: Name (database): GeForce GTX 1060 [Found: 1, Matched: 1]

    * Even though I have WA and University, I don’t have my sims travelling anywhere, I just use the homeworld University. I have also disabled hail and snow. Since I am playing in a “beach” world, I set the weather to summer most of the time. I have also deleted all ports and houseboats, and I have left vacant all “island” spots, so townies don’t use boats.

    * I have my active family living in a 30x30 lot, because If I go larger, the lag gets much worse.

    * I close the game every ~2 hours and delete the cache files every time I want to launch it again. I also have saver set every 10 minutes, and I never overwrite the save file, I just give each save a different name, and just keep the most recent 4, deleting all the others. My entire saves folder is 950Mb.

    The lag problem has been there since day one, it hasn’t changed at all (neither for the better nor for the worse). It only got a bit better when I lowered my graphic settings to what they are now.
    I will not test the game without CC for a simple reason: If I go to my save without CC, all the sims will be modified and it will be hell to fix them (I only use CAS CC). And if I start a new game to test no CC, then it will not be a proper test, because a fresh new game always works better.

    So TL; DR:

    I am running TS3 with all DLCs and lots of CC in a desktop computer that has a 3.30Ghz CPU, an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3GB GPU, an SSD, more than plenty free space, I have capped FPS, population, I have taken control of routing issues, etc., and I am experiencing a lot of lag.

    Should I update the components? Will that make a difference? What else should I do?
  • igazorigazor Posts: 19,330 Member
    edited May 2019
    @mariemdover - Hi there. Wow, that's quite a system you have there and you have certainly taken a lot of steps to help the game perform as well as it can. Let's see if we can help pinpoint the current lag issues. A few questions come to mind from a first read here before we get more granular about systems and device settings.

    1 - Are you certain that your 1060 card has a sufficient power supply and cooling? I'm not an expert on these kinds of hardware configs, but as great as a 1060 should be, it's not going to do much good if it's not getting the power it needs to function properly. Is the interior clean and free of dust/hair and all fans are working as they should?

    2 - Are you certain that you are playing in Sunlit Tides? I know that sounds like an awfully silly question, but Sunlit Tides does not come with ports and houseboats unless you had placed some there yourself prior, those are from the IP expansion and the EA world that comes with them is Isla Paradiso. Sunlit Tides is generally a well-made world that plays better than most others, Isla Paradiso is not and needs some serious fixing up first to take care of its design flaws.

    3 - Your refusal to test without CC I am afraid isn't very logical. We know that "bad" or poorly made CC can cause errors and lag. A good test would be carried out on a copy of your TS3 user game folder, or even better, a new one with no added content except for let's say NRaas mods and the installed world in the case of Sunlit Tides. The point of the test would be to see how a copy of the game save in its 5th generation performs without all of the added content, not to make the sims and their surroundings look the way they should or even be fun to play. The original game folder with all of the content can be put back into place at any time with no harm done to it.

    4 - You mention NRaas mods, but not the entire list of those specifically designed to enhance performance. That would be Overwatch, ErrorTrap, Register, Traffic, GoHere (especially to disallow boat routing in worlds not really designed for it), MasterController (for an occasional Reset Everything run from City Hall).

    You have Register in play, but that's not the mod that controls immigration -- where Register mentions "immigration," it means the spawning of homeless NPCs to take up otherwise unstaffed Role Sim positions, not residents. The mod that controls resident immigration is StoryProgression.

    5 - If you run a MasterController report on population, how many Residents (I know you said this is capped, must be by way of StoryProgression), Homeless, and Service does it indicate?
    On City Hall or an in-game computer, NRaas > MC > Demographics > Population > "X" to dismiss the filter

    6 - Does anything change in terms of performance if you dial StoryProgression, which I have to assume you are using, down to one of its two slower speeds?
    NRaas > SP > General Options > Adjust Speed

    7 - Might you have any mods in play from sources other than NRaas that are possibly outdated, conflicting with each other, or just generally getting the way of the game's performance?
    o550pjoa47rpxo63g.jpg
    NRaas has moved!
    Our new site is at http://nraas.net
  • mariemdovermariemdover Posts: 4 New Member
    @igazor
    First of all, thank you for the fast and helpful reply.

    > 1 - Are you certain that your 1060 card has a sufficient power supply and cooling? I'm not an expert on these kinds of hardware configs, but as great as a 1060 should be, it's not going to do much good if it's not getting the power it needs to function properly. Is the interior clean and free of dust/hair and all fans are working as they should?

    I am using a 500w power supply, which was recommended when I installed my previous GPU (NVIDIA GT 740). The min. System power requirement for the GTX1060 is 400W. (according to what it says on the side of the box). It was installed in the computer about ten day ago, so it didn’t even have time to get dusty.
    I started the game with all mods, and had my sim go to a crowded nightclub (I used Nraas to invite over several random sims). Then, I opened the performance tab of Windows’ Task manager, and I saw the following:

    GPU Performance info:

    Utilization (ranged between) 5% - 37%
    Dedicated GPU Memory: 0.8 / 3.0 GB
    GPU Memory: 0.8 / 9.0 GB
    Shared GPU memory: 0.0 / 6.0 GB

    These three stayed like that all the time that I was running TS3, never moved.

    CPU Performance info:

    Utilization: ~30%
    Speed: ~3.48 GHz

    Memory Performance info:

    Memory Usage (in total, TS3 + Firefox + Chrome + others): 48%
    In use: 5.8 GB
    Available: 6.2 GB


    So TS3 seems to be using half (or less) of the resources available.


    > 2 - Are you certain that you are playing in Sunlit Tides?

    I apologize for the confusion I created. The ports and houseboats were placed by me. My first generation lived in a houseboat. Then, I realized that they were causing a lot of trouble, so I removed everything that required any sim to use boats.


    > You mention NRaas mods, but not the entire list of those specifically designed to enhance performance. That would be Overwatch, ErrorTrap, Register, Traffic, GoHere (especially to disallow boat routing in worlds not really designed for it), MasterController (for an occasional Reset Everything run from City Hall).

    > You have Register in play, but that's not the mod that controls immigration -- where Register mentions "immigration," it means the spawning of homeless NPCs to take up otherwise unstaffed Role Sim positions, not residents. The mod that controls resident immigration is StoryProgression.

    I reckon I left a lot of info out. But in my defense… there are too many options! (lucky for us). So, here are some of the options which could fill in some more info:

    Story progression --> Options --> sims

    Elder emigration: True
    Maximum residents: cat: 5, Dog big: 3, Dog little: 2, horse: 3, Human: 120.
    Options immigration / emigration: REplace NPC Roommates with immigrants: false; Replace service Sims with immigrants: false.
    Too crowded emigration threshold: 2

    Story progression --> Options --> Lots --> Immigration/emigration

    Check active relationship before emigration: True
    Emigration ratio: 5
    Immigration gauge: 0


    Traffic

    Food truck: all set to false, max food trucks: 1
    Ice cream truck: visit at night: false, visit active lot: true, visit residential: true, truck on vacation: false, max trucks: 1
    Routing: Allow limos: false, use cars during general routing: true, always use taxis for inactives lacking veehicles: true.
    Traffic delta: 0


    Go Here (I don't remember changing any of these options)

    Allow boat routing: true
    allow car routing: true
    allow go here stacking: true
    Allow Mermaid routing: true
    Allow push visit lot at night: true
    Allow vampire day push: true
    caregivers --> allow active daycare: true, allow babies home alone: false, hire babysitter for inactives: false, use daycare instead of babysitter: true
    disable active go home: false
    disable auto grouping: false
    Limit go home for inactives on active lots: true
    teleport for everyone / vampires: false


    Register

    Allow immigration: false
    allow resident assignment: true
    Animal control: all set to 1
    Disabled tourist worlds: 0
    Paparazzis disabled
    Tourists --> allow tourists: false, chance of leaving: 25, Maximum number: 10.

    I did several total resets, with no significant improvement.


    > If you run a MasterController report on population, how many Residents (I know you said this is capped, must be by way of StoryProgression), Homeless, and Service does it indicate?
    > On City Hall or an in-game computer, NRaas > MC > Demographics > Population > "X" to dismiss the filter

    This is the output of the Demographics query:

    Households: 30
    Residents: 88
    Service: 65
    Homeless: 0
    Tourists: 4

    Males: 45, Females: 43
    Pregnancies: 2, 2, 0
    Babies: 3, 3
    Toddlers: 1, 2
    Children: 6, 1
    Teens: 6, 12
    YAs: 18, 13
    Adults: 8, 10
    Elders: 1, 0

    Partnered: 24, 27
    Childless: 13, 7
    Child to parents ratio: 2.31

    Werewolf: 1, 0
    Vampire: 1, 0
    Imaginary Friend: 0, 1
    Mermaid: 0, 1
    Adult to Child ratio: 49/34= 1.44
    Flat Pop Growth ratio: 8.28/4= 2.06


    > 6 - Does anything change in terms of performance if you dial StoryProgression, which I have to assume you are using, down to one of its two slower speeds?
    NRaas > SP > General Options > Adjust Speed

    I loaded my save with all mods, and did that, with no significant change. The “pauses” where still there, just maybe some more seconds far apart from each other.


    > 7 - Might you have any mods in play from sources other than NRaas that are possibly outdated, conflicting with each other, or just generally getting the way of the game's performance?

    These are the other mods I have:

    24 hour bistro
    No drift camera mod
    subtle grid build/buy
    buyable everything (harvestables)
    club closing time
    queue interactions 16
    no auto pet walk
    sponge bath for everyone
    increase rich value
    sit on bath toilet
    get drunk
    writing mod (more money, faster)
    remove build/buy restrictions
    MOAR interactions
    several packages which add placement slots in EA furniture (I don't use buy/build CC)
    Cook with any ingredients
    Children "can..."
    No mutant hair / eyes
    butler fixes (hire / fire)
    no intro
    interact on sloped terrain
    Ultimate careers / homeworld university / Rabbit holes for residential lots

    91 (91!?) packages for custom sliders

    cmar_XCASfull tattoo locations (according to its download page, it is compatible with all NRaas mods)

    Default replacement for EA clothes, adding preg morph, for AF, AM, TF and TM (I don’t know if they are script, too).


    > 3 - Your refusal to test without CC I am afraid isn't very logical. We know that "bad" or poorly made CC can cause errors and lag. A good test would be carried out on a copy of your TS3 user game folder, or even better, a new one with no added content except for let's say NRaas mods and the installed world in the case of Sunlit Tides. The point of the test would be to see how a copy of the game save in its 5th generation performs without all of the added content, not to make the sims and their surroundings look the way they should or even be fun to play. The original game folder with all of the content can be put back into place at any time with no harm done to it.

    Oh boy…., right after I posted this comment I realized what a dummy I was! I told to myself: I can just make a copy of the save!! (insert facepalm here). So when I came back from work I did that, I tested my exact save, with nothing in the mods folder, first (included Nraas), and then with mods but no CAS CC. All of the tests were run with max FPS 30, and all cache files were cleared before launching the game each time.

    * First test: Nothing in the mods folder, mid-low graphic settings (the ones I originally posted)

    There was almost no lag. It ran smoothly and “light”. I had my sim go to a (now) very deserted nightclub, I followed him when he was driving, I moved around the camera, I had him go to a fishing spot. I must have been running the game for, like, 10 minutes and there were like 2 “pauses” in total, much shorter than what they usually are. Changed graphic settings, saved and quit the game.

    * Second test: Nothing in the mods folder, high graphic settings.

    It was almost the same as before, except that it felt slightly “heavier”, but it actually run a little better. There were no “pause” episodes. I had my teen go to a park, run around, and I had her watch a wild horse that was stuck; she had to boat and swim to get there, and she also got stuck (LOL). I didn't save.

    * Third test: Nraas in the mods folder, high graphic settings.

    I imported SP and MC setting.
    At first, it was laggy as hell, I imagine it was because Nraas had to do all its “first time” thing. It continued being laggy, although less and less often; I let it run for several minutes so Nraas wouldn’t interfere with the test. I let it run for over half an hour, and it was still as laggy as before (when all CC/mods were in place). I had my teen go to the park, the stuck horse was there again. She interacted (talked) with a random girl…. And the game crashed. I must say that it hardly never crashed before.
    I re-launched the game, and let it run for like an hour: still as laggy as before. I also noticed longer loading times for textures: with an empty mods folder, textures loaded immediately, and with Nraas loading took 2-3 seconds.
    I was saving&quitting the game (only this time, I promise), and there was a power outage (I was doing all this in the middle of a thunderstorm, tbh). The power came back a few minutes later.

    * Fourth test: CAS CC in the mods folder, no Nraas or other mods, high graphic settings.

    I had my sim jog in the open world, go to the park, run around following the (no longer stuck) wild horse, swim and boat in open water. There was little to no lag. It was almost the same as when I run it with an empty mods folder. It started raining heavily in-game, and I kept my sim going from one point of the town to the other, with little to no lag; there were no “pauses”, just some minor occasional stuttering. I didn’t save.

    * Fifth test: CAS CC and “other” mods in the mods folder, no Nraas, high graphic settings.

    I had my sim do almost the exact same things as in the previous test, and the results were almost exactly as before: little to no lag, although the little lag I experience (just once) was a bit more intense than before.


    So… Is it Nraas? Could it be? I cannot think The Sims 3 without Nraas, it’s just ridiculous. What else can I do?
  • igazorigazor Posts: 19,330 Member
    edited May 2019
    @mariemdover - I think we have to conclude from your tests that NRaas mods cause power outages. No wait...let me read that part over again, we may have to send this notion back to the lab for further testing. :/

    Okay, let's try that again. I think we have to conclude that there is some combination of your NRaas mods, their particular settings, and this particular probably well-evolved instance of Sunlit Tides that are just not playing well together. What you describe is certainly not the general user experience with them especially on suitable hardware, but we all have very different settings, play styles, and elements we have added to our worlds ourselves. My own game is over seven real time years old now and it does not behave this way unless I am playing in one of my own admittedly overpopulated worlds and I have to dial things back to get decent performance so that my gameplay there can continue. I don't play Sunlit Tides as a homeworld so it's not really all that progressed by comparison, but it is one of many custom vacation destinations my sims like to visit by way of the Traveler mod.

    I am suspicious of StoryProgression in particular, that one can be very heavy handed with game performance relative to what the 32-bit game engine can handle. Not that anyone with a system as strong as yours should avoid SP entirely, I mean that they way you have it deployed in this world might be the key factor. Can you repeat the third test with all NRaas mods but without SP, or perhaps with SP but with its progression shut down by way of SP > General Options? (either way switch off story progression in the built-in Game Options so that EA's version of progression does not take over)

    Some things that might be happening here that come to mind, pending the results of the above test:

    -- Register controls Role Sims. If any of them are due/overdue to age up but they are constantly pushed by Register to staff their cash register, bar, or whatever they are assigned to for really long shifts, then they can end up getting pushed to do that and go offscreen to age up at the same time. This can cause major performance issues, although one tends to notice that the Role Sims are not showing up or working as they should. Or we find them stuck on a sidewalk someplace unable to move in either direction. Can you pull up a list of all YA (then A) Role Sims in MC, sort by the age column, and check to see if any of them are stuck in the wrong age stage? There aren't any Teen or Elder Role Sims positions, so that really leaves only the two age stages to consider.

    This is, of course, assuming you have aging enabled for the Role Sims by way of SP. As you have them set to be residents where possible, this seems somewhat likely.

    -- Do you have many intricate, complicated Zerbu style open career lots in play? Perhaps one or more of them is overloading things as SP constantly pushes career progression, but without SP things are a bit more relaxed.

    -- If you have tourism disabled by way of Register, how is it that you have 4 tourists in your world? Have you sent for visitors, can you pull these 4 sims up in a MC filter (say, Family Tree or something then filter to Type of Sim > Tourist) to see who they are?


    A quick note on the loading times for textures, that's probably made to be longer by the caches being cleared. But it's worth checking your DeviceConfig log where you quoted the 1060 card as being recognized to see if you are getting the 32MB texture memory override condition or if you have addressed that as well. The Texture Memory line is near the end of the second section, just before the long lists of game options show up. That wouldn't explain the kind of lag that you are experiencing at all, but the override is far from necessary on your card.

    Also in passing, it's not generally required to cap the frame rate at 30 fps. If you are running on a 60 Hz monitor (or higher), then a cap of 60 or just at or under its refresh rate by way of RTSS should be sufficient. I would also suggest the Nvidia Control Panel for vertical sync if you don't already have that set (if you play in full screen mode) even though that by itself is often not enough to cap things.


    Not ready to conclude this yet, but it's possibly you may need to consider using NRaas Porter to gather up the sims you care about the most, living and the remains of the dead so as to preserve family bonds, and bring them to a new world to resume play properly. The new world can even be a fresh instance of Sunlit Tides with the original inhabitants removed by way of MC, if it doesn't feel creepy to play the stock version of that world all over again. Or it could be a totally new environment to them. I would hold this out as a last resort (no pun intended on island resorts) for now.
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  • mariemdovermariemdover Posts: 4 New Member
    Ok, here we go:

    * Sixth test: Only NRass in the mods folder, high graphic settings.

    When launching the game, at the home screen, I went to options and disabled Maxis’ SP.
    After the save loaded I went to Nraas → General options → Enable Progression → False.
    I had my sim do the same as in previous tests (go to the park, run, swim, etc.), and it was almost as laggy as in test #3. I quit without saving.

    * Seventh test: Only NRass in the mods folder, SP out of the mods folder, high graphic settings.

    I took out of the mods folder Story Progression and all the modules.
    The game ran with very little lag, just a bit more than test #2, but way way less than tests #3 and #6. I had the game running for about 15-20 minutes, and experienced just one “freeze” which lasted 2-3 seconds; in tests #3 and 6# the freezes lasted 10 seconds, and happened every 30-60 seconds. I quit without saving.

    Regarding those 4 tourists, I checked and they apparently came from University, and I didn’t invite them, I don’t know how they came here.

    I only use Zerbu’s mod for elementary / high school; the rest of the careers still hold their traditional rabbit holes. In fact, not all the kids attend my custom school; some of them are still enrolled at the military school, or the one in the theatre (?). As I mentioned, I also use the homeworld university, where my two YAs are studying, and I also created a caste (as advised in Nraas’ forum) to have certain townies to go to the university, too.

    > A quick note on the loading times for textures, that's probably made to be longer by the caches being cleared. But it's worth checking your DeviceConfig log where you quoted the 1060 card as being recognized to see if you are getting the 32MB texture memory override condition or if you have addressed that as well.

    I checked, and it shows:

    Texture memory: 32MB <<OVERRIDE>>

    I don’t know what that means. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯


    > Register controls Role Sims. If any of them are due/overdue to age up but they are constantly pushed by Register to staff their cash register, bar, or whatever they are assigned to for really long shifts, then they can end up getting pushed to do that and go offscreen to age up at the same time. This can cause major performance issues, although one tends to notice that the Role Sims are not showing up or working as they should. Or we find them stuck on a sidewalk someplace unable to move in either direction. Can you pull up a list of all YA (then A) Role Sims in MC, sort by the age column, and check to see if any of them are stuck in the wrong age stage? There aren't any Teen or Elder Role Sims positions, so that really leaves only the two age stages to consider.

    > This is, of course, assuming you have aging enabled for the Role Sims by way of SP. As you have them set to be residents where possible, this seems somewhat likely.

    I haven’t changed anything about aging, since I really like the default aging situation given by Maxis.

    I forgot to check with register about this, but I must say that I’ve been having some aging errors, both with my household members and with townies (I receive notifications).

    Anyways, with SP out the game runs normally. So… what does that mean? How different would my game be if I leave SP out? Will my townies no longer get married, have children, pay child support, get jobs, get divorced, etc.? Will they still do all that but a much slower (or less agressive) pace? Should I use Maxis’ SP instead? Will I have some wonky errors if I continue playing my save, now without Nraas' SP?
  • igazorigazor Posts: 19,330 Member
    edited May 2019
    @mariemdover - The SP mod is totally removable, as most of our mods are. But EA's progression in its place tends to break down after a few generations, not allow for new births and moves everyone not actively played away thus leading to "ghost town" syndrome where pretty much only your active household is left in town. Many players do not want this. With no progression at all, no the other residents in town will not be pushed to form relationships, have children, gain skills, progress in their jobs, or do much of anything to prepare for the next generation and they will still be subjected to overzealous emigration (culling) if the game "thinks" the town is overpopulated even when it is not.

    On the unasked for tourists, try changing Register's settings to Max Allowed = 0 and Chance of Returning = 100. If that doesn't help them out of town after a sim day or so, start issuing MC > Go Home and MC > Reset Sim commands on them by way of City Hall. They should get the idea eventually.

    On the texture memory override, open the GraphicsRules.sgr file that you probably at some point edited to allow your 1060 card to be recognized (note this is GraphicsRules and not GraphicsCards and it should be for the base game, not one of the EPs). Find the section that looks like this, it should be near the very beginning

    setb textureMemorySizeOK true
    if ($textureMemory == 0)
    seti textureMemory 32
    setb textureMemorySizeOK false
    endif

    and change it to this

    setb textureMemorySizeOK true
    if ($textureMemory == 0)
    seti textureMemory 1024
    # setb textureMemorySizeOK false
    endif

    (change the 32 to a 1024, add a hashtag and a space to the beginning of the second setb line)


    Back on the SP question, with the understanding that you still have the last resort option to Porter much of your town up and place them in a new (to them) world, there is still the issue with age-stuck sims. They really shouldn't be that difficult to find. From your age spans in Game Options, what is the oldest a YA should ever be in total and using MC to pull up lists of sims in town sorted by age, are any of them already older than that (not counting occults with longer lifespans)? Same with Adults...and then Teens, etc. but these are less likely to be such a problem here.

    I'm afraid I would have to direct any further guidance needed on SP in your particular world back to our site at NRaas. This forum is great, but it is EA's house/living room and we can only really extend support for the mods so far over here. :)
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  • mariemdovermariemdover Posts: 4 New Member
    Thank you so much for all the help!!. I'll go for your suggestions, and I'll ask further questions at Nraas' forum, if needed. :)
  • Zero2HeroZero2Hero Posts: 253 Member
    Hai!

    I have a question about .sim files. What possible format can you convert them to?

    Thanks in advance.
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