I tried getting Sims 2 to work months ago and while I eventually managed to get it to load, I was left with these weird TV static graphics and I tried EVERYTHING and could not fix it or really find much info at all. I ended up giving up after spending a full day on it with no success, but I'm having another go. I'm actually quite sad at the thought of never playing TS2 again, it was my first Sims game and I never got to experience the Ultimate Collection despite having had it for nearly 4 years now (never got to play Freetime either and I was really excited about that when I first got the Ultimate Collection).
The static is... well, static, while the screen is, but it starts moving about when anything moves (whether that be the plumbob, sim, or the entire screen as I move the angle).
Any help will be appreciated! I don't remember every single thing I tried as it was 6 months ago, but this time I followed the tutorial linked in UrbanSims's video and am having the exact same problem as earlier in the year. So I've done the 4GB patch, done the d3d9 file thing and done the graphics rules maker (though possible I have the wrong settings for that or something idk). There were definitely other things I did when I last tried it though. I spent hours on this ahaha.
Comments
I'm not an expert on this at all. I've had to fix my game settings a few times and not always right.
What does it look like before you do anything? At factory settings of the game?
What is you video card?
Did you do each step at a time to see how it makes your game or do you do them All?
@Rflong7 Before I do anything it doesn't load at all. I did the patch and the graphics rules maker, tried it, and when it still didn't load that's when I also did the d3d9 part (like I said I was partially using UrbanSims's video and I noticed she pinned a comment saying that that makes it worse for some people so I tried it without first). Video card is Radeon RX 570 Series (I think?).
@dorcsyful Yep, I play a lot of other games (including Sims 3 and 4) and it's only Sims 2 I'm having this issue with. Oh interesting about the graphics rules thing. What would I have to do by hand? Just because the part I'm not sure of is if I've ticked the right boxes and everything (every tutorial says something different and most just say to do what you want/need but I don't know what that is.)
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Also want to mention that when I took the screenshots earlier I'd forgotten to put smooth edges onto max, and that definitely helps now I've done that. Now the neighbourhood screen looks completely fine, and CAS and live mode look a bit better. Just wanted to mention that in case it helps at all figuring out what might be going on.
https://pleasantsims.com/sims-2-windows-10/
Some manual fixes to the Config file
https://simsvip.com/2014/07/20/the-sims-2-ultimate-collection-increase-resolution-guide/
https://simscommunity.info/2016/04/27/the-sims-2-setting-up-the-resolution-windowed-mode-smooth-edges-sim-shadows/
I updated my graphics card to use Reshade, now my shadows are crude. Even the mod doesn't work. :sadplayer:
I would make sure to start from fresh Config files with Origin repair.
I suspect it depends on other things besides drivers for video cards and or setting up Graphics Rule Maker correctly and or anything to do with the game in that respect. I'm only guessing because this only happens to me when I use the V to record my Sims like we always did before Windows 10. But have you checked to make sure the XBOX Game Bar isn't running when you try to play your game? I know it sounds crazy but though I had disabled that annoying feature in Windows 10 it can still start recording while you play games. It interferes in some games. I know it has in mine. I know you aren't recording within the game, but Xbox Game Bar can still cause issues even if you are not.
I also suspect some of the settings in the GRM just can't line up with what your video card can do and have to try to set things differently than they have set the memory for cards etc. I don't know if any of this would help. But I know this is very annoying as my game sometimes does crazy stuff, too and I have a feeling MS updates have a lot to do with it and or when the pc auto updates drivers, MS often installs older drivers instead of the newest one etc. You may have to run GRM several times when these things happen. (MS updates) or turn off letting MS update your drivers and or there may be some codec that is no longer compatible with TS2 (for video capturing within the game) and or the game still thinks your card is below the old, old Radeon cards back in 2001 which would mean you will have to figure out how to set GRM to have the correct info compared to a high end card and see if that all helps.
If anyone ever figures out why my game glitches out like that when I try to video my Sims within the game features I would like an answer to that one, too. One more thought, try changing the resolution to the game, you can always change it back to what you prefer.
@Cinebar Yeah I figured it was probably something to do with my graphics card. Also I've never in my life opened the Xbox Game Bar so never even knew it existed, but I'll look into making sure that's definitely off as well. I did also notice I get an AMD popup thing when I load the game so perhaps that's an issue too? Idk but I'll take a look at it all.
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Thank you everyone for your replies and for trying to help! I'll try the new suggestions when I get a moment and after that I think I'll just ask my family if anyone has an old laptop lying around and will try with that instead aha.
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Hope you figure it out eventually, it took me years (no one understood my problem, lol) to figure out how to fix my problems when using the video camara in the game...just putting this here since it seems to be a matter of MS updates that interfere with Visual C+. In my case I had to set the camera options to high uncompressed.