Hi guys!

I have a problem with my game I never really experienced in a long time. I'm a story teller, which means I do need most of the CC I downloaded, and from my experience as a CC creator and downloader of CC, I know that some stuff lately are pretty high polycount. Which could be the problem.

The actual problem is, is that the game takes forever to load, which it didn't a few months back. I switched from Bridgeport to St. Claire, hoping that the issue would be fixed. It did for a few weeks. Then, I thought the problem was because I hadn't cleaned my save, which was apparently not the case after I cleaned it.
Now, I found out that my game, even if I'm in game for 5 minutes, it reaches about 2.800.000 kb (which is almost 3 GB) to closer to 3GB of memory usage. I know that the sims has a limit of 2Gb of memory, since it's a 32x program. So i'm not sure why it goes over the 2GB so far.

I only have 3GB of CC (which is for me, almost nothing, considered that I had about 10GB of CC before I cleaned it out).
My specs aren't the problem for the game, but if you want to take a look at it, here are my specs:

I'm on Windows 7 64x (it's a bootcamped computer, so the specs are really familiar to that of a mac mini)
10 GB of memory installed
Graphics card: 4000 HD Graphics
Processor: Intel Core i5-3210m CPU @2.50GHz - 2.50GHz

Bridgeport took me about 30 min to almost an hour to load, which it usually took about 10-15 minutes in the past. When the loading time started to increase more and more each time I opened the save, I actually was so frustrated with Bridgeport being so buggy when it comes to saving and loading the save, I downloaded St. Claire instead because it had some great reviews. The loading became just like it was with Bridgeport, 15 min at least to load. But after a while (after a lot of game issues itself, like being unable to boost the game up, and the only fix was to delete the the sims 3 folder in the documents. It just seems that things get corrupted in there real quickly)
It took longer to load, and cleaning the save didn't work either.

Now the loading part is probably, because you add more lots, sims, etc. It will take longer for the game to catch up the data and load it. But I'm having this issue as well with the 'CAS' world where it just stops working at 2.8 GB. So i'm not sure if the 4/2 GB is what they tell us to be the limit but doesn't seem to be. Cas world, a new world, does take me 2-5 min to load.

(Cas world can be found here: http://fuzzylogicdishwasher.blogspo...d-clothing.html)

I actually did a small test yesterday when the game was freezing at 2.8 GB and I actually left it that way for a few hours to see if the game tried to lower the memory usage to something it can handle, but it was just completely frozen for all these hours.

Uninstalling the game didn't work, as Origin Customer service suggested me to do.

I'm a bit lost here what's wrong with the game >-<

Not sure if this helps, but it might: I ran into some Error 12 issues again recently, literally couldn't play because every session would end in an E12 or CTD, no matter the length. I also tried Kuree's save cleaner, which did its best with the SNAPs but that didn't fix much. Now, my game really, really hates going past 1.6 GB (don't laugh), it's pretty much guaranteed to CTD/E12 if it does. Interestingly enough, I get the least stutter and lag when it does go past 1.6 GB, meh...

In the end I resorted to Resetting Everything via Master Controller, deleting all the service sims (since I only used one bar, the other service sims were just filler) and strays, deleting any urns I didn't need, and purging every damn umbrella, cane and graduation reward from NPCs' inventories. I've been able to save in a short amount of time (< 3 minutes) for the past 4 sessions, fingers crossed it stays that way.
You may have some issues from strays or service sims, or a townie hoarding 90% of the town's gems in their ass backpack.

Edit: memory management in TS3 sucks big, BIG time if you switch between Build/Buy/Live mode a lot, or spend a lot of time in CAS. I recommend doing what you need to do in Build/Buy/CAS, then saving and restarting the game.

Edit2: have you tried clearing the world caches in the WorldCaches folder under My Documents? You may have some bork in there.

You've already received this lecture from those who are knowledgeable. But since there is still some very old information out there on the web, just to reiterate:
Originally, back in history, most 32-bit programs were limited to 2 GB of RAM.
Large Address Aware (LAA) 32-bit programs are limited to 4 GB of RAM.
TS3 has been LAA since Patch 1.17 (except for players on the Mac version, but that's a different and sad story that you probably know all too well as you are playing on a Mac Mini through Bootcamp).

One additional thing, among many, that will put extra stress on your game's resource usage is long sessions involving graphic intensive processes such as CAS and Edit Town, especially with Graphics Options on or above medium if you have integrated graphics. Your Mini has integrated graphics.

For reference, or in case you are curious, I play on a Bootcamped iMac with a mid-range dedicated graphics card. My legacy style world is pretty heavy and usually levels off at 2.8 GB of RAM usage, but it often does increase up to 3.3 GB, sometimes a little higher if I let it. And things are still fine. Anywhere above 3.5 GB and I'm going to get into trouble, especially on trying to negotiate a save.

I knew I forgot to add something when I added my specs to it I use Update 1.67, since update 1.69 gave me sims without textures, and red floors, the entire ground of my worlds disappeared, which is partly because of the unsupported CC to that update. So I uninstalled 3 times and tried to finally get back to 1.67 without origin updating it itself. (Apparently Origin has a automatic update button, which I turned off) I don't play my game through origins though, since I have a disc version of the game. I do use Razor Cortex for many of the games I play, so It could push the game to its limit (In a save way) and less crashes. It all happens with the boost option.

I actually tried this deleting the user folder a few times, and it had a small effect on the game, but quickly it went back to normal.

When it comes to mods, I noticed that my game stops at a certain time in-game everytime I open the save. Sometimes it freezes, sometimes it gives me the error trap message. So I think the freezing part is partly error traps fault.



I go in Build/buy/cas a lot because of story telling purpose, like grabbing the sim and placing it at the place where it should be, like couple poses, etc. so restarting it would be a real pain XD But If I reset everything NPC like in the city, my game just stops working/freezes and it will definitely mean I have more NPC's than actual sims. Now St. Claire is an empty world, so that might mean something. I could try starting a new save, placing the stuff I need in that save, and maybe stop NPC's for popping up if there is a NRAAS option for that >-<



Bootcamp means that I am actually playing on a different operating system instead of Mac, but I can switch back to mac with one button if I like to. So right now I play the sims 3 on a windows. But I have experienced the lagging and horrible game play on mac. And since I switched to Windows, my game runs so much better than it did on Mac.

The thing with the game is that it doesn't lag (like I have experienced with latest games, even though they suggest my graphics card as minimum specs to work out). The sims 3 for me only lags in living mode. Cas, build mode, buy mode, all perfectly smooth, until I play in living mode. I don't mind a bit of lagging, and I know that when it comes to sims that take a long time to render, it's the HQ mods problem, but I can live with that.

I'll take out error trap and see what my game does. Though the edit town loading screen takes forever to load as well lately, which it never did.

I know full well how Bootcamp works and how it lifts the limitations that TS3 for Mac puts in place. You made a good move to switch to playing the Windows version of the game. But I'm afraid you still have limited resources to work with -- that is, integrated graphics. This game is not going to behave the same way on a Mini even under Windows that it can with more suitable hardware. But I also understand that a new computer is not in everyone's plans at every given moment.
http://modthesims.info/wiki.php?tit...nboard_Graphics

Patch 1.69 does not affect how CC works. It uses up more resources than 1.67 did to get the game launched and that can for some players make all the difference in how well or poorly their game and that content functions. But once there, the game code for the two patch levels is exactly the same.

I also know how ErrorTrap works as I am from NRaas. It does not cause errors, it "traps" and reports on them. The errors would occur anyway if ErrorTrap were not present, you just wouldn't have any logs of them that we could, if you uploaded them to us at NRaas, help you analyze.

But, if your game performs the way you want it to without ErrorTrap in play, then as you wish.

I tested sunset valley with a clean document folder without any of my saves, mods, etc. And it ran and loaded like a train. But when I put my save in the game, it just got quicker in loading. Though the freezing at a certain time in game didn't solve the issue. At least this helped me having my game to load a bit quicker than it used to.



I keep getting confused with Errortrap and Overwatch! I meant overwatch >-< It seems to turn off things and delete cars (i think it deletes cars), etc. at that time when my game stops freezing. So I suppose to problem here could be Overwatch working really hard to help the game out.

Yeah, I think update 1.69 actually only effects the launcher and maybe a really small part of the game to make it function well. Though, the update does somehow break the ground of my city, and sims being all black, which is my main reason I switched 1.67 Maybe the reinstallation fixed those problems with update 1.69.

The solution seems to be nraas's overwatch. Since St claire is a very huge world with a lot of lots being open for NPC to live in, I suppose the game has a lot of sims to fix the routing, turn off tvs (if needed), cars that need to be put back in the inventory. So of course my game would at some point think 'let's just freeze'. so I guess the only option possible, which fixed a part big part of the problem, was deleting nraas's overwatch from my package folder.

So I suppose it got solved? ^-^ Thanks again anyone who replied!

I hope it stays solved for you. If Overwatch had a lot of work to do, and it isn't doing it anymore, you're eventually going to end up with a ton of memory being used on having every house in the game running all the stereos and tvs at the same time, since sims never seem to bother turning the things back off. (Which is nice if you want to listen or watch them, but not so nice otherwise.)

I actually cleaned up my CC folder a few days ago and the game seems to run a bit better. I actually tested if Overwatch was the case around that specific time in game where it would freeze, and it seemed not doing it anymore, but it seems to happen an hour later instead. Though I suppose I should switch save again, since the save is doing some weird things. Like saying that sims are sleeping which they don't, even if I reset them I still get the option to 'wake them up'. So I guess it's better I start a new fresh save and hope not experiencing anything like this again for a while.

It's been about half a year I made that save, so that could be the reason.