Re: [CURRENT ISSUE 64-bit] red flashing game window

@spencertenesen14  That's interesting.  I actually have the same Mac as you, running Monterey 12.1 still (for reasons), and I haven't seen any issues with the Landgraab house.  I do use it a lot for testing, so I'd have expected to see some red flashing by now; all my settings are maxed out except for water and high-detail lots.  Is there a particular angle or zoom distance that causes the problem?  Have you added anything to the house?  I personally delete the time portal right away, and in my tests I mostly didn't add any objects.

@puzzlezaddict The Landgraab house certainly was the odd one out of all the 4. It was the hardest to get to flash. I think I only saw two flashes on that lot. One was triggered by moving the camera around, then going up a floor to the blue bedroom then zooming in on the bed there and the other was triggered by simply zooming onto Geoffrey while he was standing outside the house when starting the game. Unfortunately I was unable to get that lot to flash again outside of these two instances. I also didn't do anything special to the lot nor did I add anything to it (I didn't bother to remove the time portal and mascot kit but they weren't present when the two aforementioned flashes happened.)

The other three lots flashed for a variety of reasons and were a bit more consistent (as consistent as bugs can get because this bug seems to be a bit finicky.)

From what I noticed, the triggers for the flashes in my game include moving the camera, panning it, zooming in or out, going up and down floors (like the ground floor won't flash but the 2nd or 1st might and going back down doesn't fix it.) Sometimes even entering the lot using build mode via edit town can cause flashes.

I should also note that the flashes seemed to disappear the farther I get from the lot and come right back when I get closer (This behavior seems to apply in both build mode and live mode) So far the most consistent way I've noticed to get rid of the flashes when they show up is reloading the game.

@spencertenesen14  Thanks for the info.  I'll need to install the store venue and see for myself.  If you want to tell me where to get the custom lots, I can try those too, just for comparison.  Naming downloads and websites is fine here; the only thing not allowed is a link to the download itself.  For example, you could say you tried House Name from Creator at Website.  The exception is content that raises the game's rating, but that's really about adult mods and certain custom skins.

@puzzlezaddict 

These are the 2 lots I used:

Celebirty Mansion (No CC) by pancake101 from Mod The Sims. (I want to correct something I previously said. Turns out this lot doesn’t have much terrain manipulation. I thought it had because I placed it in the ocean and doing that messed up the lot’s edges, leading to the mistake. Not a big deal honestly and I don’t think it would change anything but I thought I should mention it)

15 Summer Hill Court by CarlDillynson from Mod The Sims. (This is the landgraab mimic I talked about before.)

Now just for laughs and giggles, I decided to launch the game and try to test it again; Just to have more recent data and possibly a few video recordings.

I’ve set the Texture detail to high and loaded up a fresh new save in Sunset Valley and went to the Landgraabs again. This time their house flashed pretty consistently when zooming away from it. Same thing happened with the Altos and the store venue as well as 15 Summer Hill Court. I decided to change the setting back to low and try a new save and there wasn’t any flashing.

Quite a bizarre bug. I hope the silence from EA means that they are working on patching this bug along with other ones like the missing water interactions in one big patch. A naive hope I'm aware but one can dream.

Edit: I've tried to upload the videos I've captured of my tests using the in-game video recording tool but was unable to upload them here. I could upload them to Google Drive and post a link here but I'm unsure if that's allowed. 

I've also gone back and tested a few other lots. The gym, library, museum, fire station, and rabbit holes were fine and flash-less. The Goth house though flashed when I tried to go to the attic and zoom away from the lot; other floors were fine though. I also decided to retest the Landgraab house while I was at it since that house had proven to be odd for me and it still flashed just like last time.

@spencertenesen14  Uploading videos to a third-party hosting service and linking them is fine.  But it's not really necessary—the issue was reported at the time, and it's pretty easily reproduced if anyone from EA is still looking into it.  So if you want to, go ahead, but it's not worth going too much out of your way.

I'll take a look at those lots when I have time, which was not last night and won't be tonight, unfortunately.  I'm guessing I won't have any further insight to offer either; you've tested pretty thoroughly already.

Hello there,

        I need some help. I keep getting that red screen on my MacBook Pro as the others do, but it only happens during the build mode in The Sims 3. My MacBook Pro is a brand new computer with the M2 chip, so I am fairly certain it isn't that. This happens almost every time I build something and zoom out to look at it. At first I thought it was the size of the house I was building because it never happened on the smaller ones, however this time it happened on one that wasn't so big although not right away, it started after I finished adding furniture and stuff, but when the house was empty with just the kitchen and three bathrooms done, it did do that. only after adding the furniture and a car. and when I bulldoze the lot, the red screen goes away too. I normally have a lot of patience, but this is getting very irritating. I really like this game, and it's frustrating that I can't enjoy it because of this. Please is there a way to stop this from happening? I've asked in some Facebook groups and they just rag on me for having a Mac and are of absolutely no help at all. I've sent EA at least three error reports on this, and I've yet to see it resolved. although they did help me fix the freezing and crashing issues I was having. You seem to know what you're talking about, so I figured I would ask you if you have any suggestions on how I can fix this issue, or if there's something I can do on my end. I'm not a tech savvy guy lol :D so a detailed list would be good :P it's 2023, this kind of thing really shouldn't be happening in my opinion, but I guess maybe its because the game is old. Anyway thanks for taking the time reading this.

Sincerely David...

@ba0ef18cb8c3b02d  Try enabling object hiding, which is an option on the game page as the other graphics settings.  Change the setting at the Main Menu, then quit to desktop before loading the save.

In terms of why this happens, I believe it has to do with certain objects being two floors down from where the camera is currently focused.  So having a single-story house would get around the problem, as would happening to not have any of those objects present.  But it's been more than two years since I last tested, and I was never able to completely explain the issue, only describe the context where it would happen.

@puzzlezaddict  Hay, thanks for the reply. I have other houses that are two floors, such as the one my character lives in, and some other public ones that I have built that have a lot of stuff in them. so I'm curious how it can be ones with more than one floor. but I will try the thing you suggested. I will let you know whether or no it works.

@ba0ef18cb8c3b02d  I was a bit vague in my earlier reply because I'm not entirely sure about the trigger for this issue.  In my experience at least, it seemed to only happen when a build had at least three floors, but two might be enough, or two plus a foundation.  The problem isn't the multiple levels so much as having a certain item two levels (or perhaps only one level) down from the floor you're viewing, so whether a given build had the issue would depend on the objects used.  It also seemed to depend on where the camera was centered and how zoomed out I was.

Anyway, checking the box to Enable Object Hiding was a reliable fix for me, and I hope it fixes the issue for you.