Mod The Sims - Sims 3 lag issues

Base Game - Sims 3 lag issues

Replies: 19 (Who?), Viewed: 27881 times.

7th Jun 2010, 12:26 AM	Sims 3 lag issues #1
dirtysouth_boy Original Poster Test Subject Join Date: Jun 2010 Posts: 8	My wife has been having problems playing sims 3 a lot. The biggest problem has been lag/jitter issues. When moving the camera around frame rates drop down to 30 FPS or less and you get a lot of jitter/lag around the screen when the camera moves. When it's not FPS is about 90. Usually I think it's more outside parts of Sims 3 that it happens. I've tweaked with the settings and I don't get any preformance increase unless I drop all of the graphics settings to the lowest setting which shouldn't be because I have a HIS ATI 4850 HD OCed to 700 MHZ CPU/1100 MHZ Mem. I've also noticed that the HDD likes to spin up when ever you move around in Sims 3. No programs are open when running it either The rest of the specs are Athlon II 3.0 GHZ OCed to 3.2 GHZ, 3 GB DDR2 1066, 7200 RPM 160 GB HDD, Windows Vista 32 bit. I would appreciate any help.

7th Jun 2010, 07:31 AM	MTS2 Staff Reply #2
werismyki Moderator Join Date: Jul 2009 Posts: 2,782 Thanks: 20038 in 44 Posts 18 Achievements View My Journal	In order to better solve your problem, please go through the following as listed below: Sims 3 - Game lags or fails to load or is glitchy Issues Have you just updated to a newer patch or installed a new Expansion Pack and/or Stuff Pack? Do you suddenly find your game is failing to load past the loading bar or after selecting your save game? Or does it take hours to load when previously it only took minutes? Do you experience glitches like missing books, traits, cannot carry out skill-related activities, etc have long strings name with paths instead of the objects' names missing previously installed content and many more Causes Then, you have custom content that is not compatible with this new game version or is broken/corrupted by the patching/installing. If you have a core mod that is not compatible, the game would simply crash back to Desktop. Solution For patch 1.12 / 2.7 / 3.3 onwards: Move all your custom content from \Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\Mods\Packages, to the Desktop temporarily. For patch 1.11 / 2.6 / 3.2 and below: Move all your custom content from \Program Files\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\Mods\Packages, or whichever game folder you maintained your Custom Content in, to the Desktop temporarily. To determine if it is content-related, follow this FAQ on how to GameHelp:Remove_TS3_Custom_Content^wiki; don't forget the caches and test using a New game. If the New game* can load and has no issues, the problem is caused by your .packages CC. If you're still experiencing issues, rename \...Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3 to something else, so the game will re-generate a new set of user's folders when you next load a New game to test. If the New game can load and has no issues, the problem is caused by your .Sims3Packs CC or some other files in your previous User folders. Fixing your game If the problem is with .packages CC If the new game can load, then read this FAQ on how to rectify the Lag issue and to find the problem content: Game_Help:Package_File_Lag^wiki. If you have glitches, remove the hacks folder or the folder where you placed all the hacks or mods - tuning mods, object mods, script mods. If your custom content does not show up, verify framework is still intact using MonkeyBars or Dashboard. Also verify on creators' downloads pages if the CC item needs to be updated for the patch/pack. If none of the above helps in identifying the problem content, do the 50% method: split your CC into halves. Place one half at a time to test. If one batch is fine, then that goes in the good CC category, so you concentrate on the other half. When you have a batch that causes the same glitch, half that again, and so on...you might need to refresh caches each time you load the game Game_Help:Sims_3_Delete_Cache_Files^wiki. The full FAQ guide is available in Game Help:TS3 Finding Problem Custom Content. If the problem is with .Sims3Packs CC Try running Dashboard on the DCBackup folder to see if it can detect anything wrong with those .packages Or if you want to test Sims3Packs one-by-one, you can use CUSTARD (Alpha testing, Windows only) by Delphy in the Modding forum Otherwise, you'd need to revisit the site where you get the Sims3Packs from to see if if there's a new update or they need fixing, etc. *Remember: during all the above testing, always load a new game to test (you can however load the same new game if you saved that). Never load a pre-patched or pre-EP/SP saved game as removing custom content and caches will reset all the custom content in that world to base-game items and it won't load them back if you happen to Save before you Quit. On occasion you might be asked to do a long FAQ - please make sure you do all the steps and don't just skip over them. You'll often find that these long FAQs have all the details you need. If nothing in the above FAQs fixes your problem you may post again detailing exactly* which you have done and which steps failed.

7th Jun 2010, 10:47 AM	#3
kletus4pres Lab Assistant Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 124	Hey werismyki, my Issue isn't in your list, but it's also a lag/freeze. The problem I have is that my lag doesnt' show up right away. It only ever occurs when I've been playing a household lot for a few days. So I can start a new game, and I guarantee it will run smoothly, but after a day or two, the lag will come back. It's a weird kind of lag/freeze, because certain animations still work, like you can see the Plumbob still animated and video on the tv. But everything else is frozen. It'll just be for a sec, and work fine again for a few minutes. Then lag/freeze again. But it becomes more and more frequent until it becomes unplayable Dumb question, but should I go ahead and test it out on a new game even though it will take a few days?
kletus4pres Lab Assistant Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 124	----->Sleep is for people that have never played Sims 3<-----

7th Jun 2010, 10:51 AM	#4
HystericalParoxysm Administrator Join Date: Tommorow Posts: 21,337 Thanks: 332077 in 215 Posts 46 Achievements View My Journal	kletus4pres - It's worth making a new game to test, just to be sure that it's not an issue with your existing saves causing it. Also, please make your own new thread, so we can keep your issues separate from the original poster's. Thanks.

7th Jun 2010, 11:32 AM

kletus4pres

Lab Assistant

Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 124

Quote:

Originally Posted by HystericalParoxysm

kletus4pres - It's worth making a new game to test, just to be sure that it's not an issue with your existing saves causing it. Also, please make your own new thread, so we can keep your issues separate from the original poster's. Thanks.

Well i didn't want to start another thread about the same basic problem, but okay then

----->Sleep is for people that have never played Sims 3<-----

7th Jun 2010, 02:18 PM	#6
HsK.DaMiAnz Lab Assistant Join Date: May 2009 Posts: 191	Happens to me to, I have an XFX Radeon HD 5770 and I'm going for a 5870x2
HsK.DaMiAnz Lab Assistant Join Date: May 2009 Posts: 191	You love me, I love you to :) http://www.youtube.com/user/hssdamian <3

7th Jun 2010, 02:30 PM	#7
HystericalParoxysm Administrator Join Date: Tommorow Posts: 21,337 Thanks: 332077 in 215 Posts 46 Achievements View My Journal	Guys, please make your own thread if you're having issues. There are a lot of different reasons this can be happening (system related, custom content related, user files related, heat, etc.) and it's a lot easier to figure out what YOUR lag problems are caused by if we have everyone post their own thread where we can help you one-on-one.

7th Jun 2010, 02:38 PM	#8
dirtysouth_boy Original Poster Test Subject Join Date: Jun 2010 Posts: 8	I know that heat isn't an issue my cpu only runs at about 40c and the graphics card is only at 60c. It's been updated to the most recent patch and there isn't any custom content at all.

14th Jun 2010, 09:44 AM	#9
ellacharmed Disenchanted Join Date: Nov 2007 Posts: 7,095 Thanks: 5731 in 26 Posts 17 Achievements View My Journal	Totally vanilla, no CC in .package or .Sims3Pack format at all? Not even Riverview? Do you have Ambitions? Do you experience this lag in a new SunsetValley or Twinbrook or a pre-patch saved games? And does it occur for every game? Do you notice any similarities when the lag would be triggered?
	Sims 2 Game Help: SysReq ~ Game Problem ~ Delete Caches ~ DFFI ~ Patching ~ Uninstall HowTos: How to Post System Specs \| How to Search \| How to post in Help \| Basic How to mesh in TS3 \| How to fix World Routing Lags Sims 3 Game Help: SysReq ~ Game Problem ~ Delete Caches ~ DFDD ~ Remove CC ~ Patch Table ~ Uninstall ~ Crashing Checklist For status of the world fixes and other news, visit my blog http://ellacharmed.wordpress.com/.

18th Jun 2010, 07:15 AM	#10
dirtysouth_boy Original Poster Test Subject Join Date: Jun 2010 Posts: 8	None at all I did a clean install of the game so no there is no custom content at all. Ambitions is installed right now. I have gone through and tried to run the base game by itself to see if there is still camera jitter. Right now ambitions is installed and world adventures The lag/camera jitter occurs in Sunset park and twinbrooks and it occurs 99% of the time even moving the camera just a little bit. I up'ed my graphics card CPU OC to 725 MHZ but I'm still not getting any type of performance change. I might do a volt mod to the card and up the OC even more if I can't get it too run any better without a volt mod.

18th Jun 2010, 07:59 AM	#11
ellacharmed Disenchanted Join Date: Nov 2007 Posts: 7,095 Thanks: 5731 in 26 Posts 17 Achievements View My Journal	Could you post the gameversions of each skuversion.txt in \Game\Bin\ for all the games you have installed?
	Sims 2 Game Help: SysReq ~ Game Problem ~ Delete Caches ~ DFFI ~ Patching ~ Uninstall HowTos: How to Post System Specs \| How to Search \| How to post in Help \| Basic How to mesh in TS3 \| How to fix World Routing Lags Sims 3 Game Help: SysReq ~ Game Problem ~ Delete Caches ~ DFDD ~ Remove CC ~ Patch Table ~ Uninstall ~ Crashing Checklist For status of the world fixes and other news, visit my blog http://ellacharmed.wordpress.com/.

18th Jun 2010, 08:22 PM	#12
dirtysouth_boy Original Poster Test Subject Join Date: Jun 2010 Posts: 8	World Adventures - GameVersion = 2.0.86.002001 Ambitions - GameVersion = 4.0.87.006001 Sims 3 base game - GameVersion = 1.12.70.006001

20th Jun 2010, 08:08 PM	#13
ellacharmed Disenchanted Join Date: Nov 2007 Posts: 7,095 Thanks: 5731 in 26 Posts 17 Achievements View My Journal	patch WA manually using the direct download Game_Help:TS3_Patching^wiki. I'm not sure if it is related or a possible cause, but it can't hurt to try. I don't think any overclocking is of any use for Sims 3, as the coding has inherent issues. And every new EP seems to undo patch fixes released in previous patches, so I'm thinking this may be the derelict vehicles and overcrowding town issue we've had before or a variation of such, or with the introduction of Professions in Ambitions - vehicles and Sims/co-workers are spawned with new code that wreaks havoc. (Just my hypothesis - I haven't dug into the game code or anything )
	Sims 2 Game Help: SysReq ~ Game Problem ~ Delete Caches ~ DFFI ~ Patching ~ Uninstall HowTos: How to Post System Specs \| How to Search \| How to post in Help \| Basic How to mesh in TS3 \| How to fix World Routing Lags Sims 3 Game Help: SysReq ~ Game Problem ~ Delete Caches ~ DFDD ~ Remove CC ~ Patch Table ~ Uninstall ~ Crashing Checklist For status of the world fixes and other news, visit my blog http://ellacharmed.wordpress.com/.

22nd Jun 2010, 08:00 AM	#14
dirtysouth_boy Original Poster Test Subject Join Date: Jun 2010 Posts: 8	I don't do a lot of crazy OCing. Most of the OCing I do is for my own games and other stuff. Has anyone had problems on here when the OC their CPU with the FSB. I'm wondering if that might be causing the problem of lag. I don't experience any problems with my games the the overclocks. I'll test it out and report back to what happened.

22nd Jun 2010, 01:44 PM

#15

callistra

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Quote:

Originally Posted by dirtysouth_boy

I know that heat isn't an issue my cpu only runs at about 40c and the graphics card is only at 60c. It's been updated to the most recent patch and there isn't any custom content at all.

Did you record those temps right in the middle of game play or after you closed the game? I use Hwmonitor and leave it running while playing because it will actually record peak temps while gaming. It will record very different temps as opposed to a program you use even just right after playing.

I would suggest restoring your motherboard settings to defaults and see if that makes a difference.

Game Help | Computer Help | TS2/TS3 System Requirements

23rd Jun 2010, 07:23 AM	#16
ellacharmed Disenchanted Join Date: Nov 2007 Posts: 7,095 Thanks: 5731 in 26 Posts 17 Achievements View My Journal	Too lazy to quote even myself ...so, OP, could you read post#10 in this thread.
	Sims 2 Game Help: SysReq ~ Game Problem ~ Delete Caches ~ DFFI ~ Patching ~ Uninstall HowTos: How to Post System Specs \| How to Search \| How to post in Help \| Basic How to mesh in TS3 \| How to fix World Routing Lags Sims 3 Game Help: SysReq ~ Game Problem ~ Delete Caches ~ DFDD ~ Remove CC ~ Patch Table ~ Uninstall ~ Crashing Checklist For status of the world fixes and other news, visit my blog http://ellacharmed.wordpress.com/.

24th Jun 2010, 06:18 AM

#17

dirtysouth_boy

Original Poster

Test Subject

Join Date: Jun 2010
Posts: 8

Quote:

Originally Posted by callistra

I dialed back my OC and still no increase in performance. Even with AA turned completely off. Running the game it's about 42c and 30 idle for CPU. Added another fan to cool it down. The GPU is running at about 60c. The fan speed is up to 75% though.

30th Jun 2010, 05:06 AM	#18
dirtysouth_boy Original Poster Test Subject Join Date: Jun 2010 Posts: 8	Just as a follow up I've fixed the problem. I turned my overclock up even higher to 3.5 GHZ and camera jitter has significantly dropped and rarely happens. I don't know if this game is optimized for Intel's only. Which I'm assuming is the problem with having a AMD and all of the graphic settings being put up high.

30th Jun 2010, 05:41 AM	#19
callistra shiny! Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 6,039 Thanks: 5185 in 13 Posts 10 Achievements	The game works fine on AMD CPUs. Personal experience. I don't know why overclocking fixed your problem. If you run into any more problems, I would still suggest loading optimized defaults on the mobo and seeing how that goes. It probably had more to do with the exact settings of your overclock vs. not being clocked high enough.
	Game Help \| Computer Help \| TS2/TS3 System Requirements

30th Jun 2010, 10:57 AM	#20
dirtysouth_boy Original Poster Test Subject Join Date: Jun 2010 Posts: 8	I'm running a 3.0 GHZ stock AMD Athlon II so I'm not sure why the camera would jitter so much. It's way above the minimum requirements of a P4. The mobo did have the optimized settings being used too when I was trying to figure the problem out. I had just pushed it up to 3.5 tonight and the jitter practically went away.

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