Sims 2 Legacy : 'Application has crashed, application will now terminate.'

Hey, this worked for me, thank you!  One alteration, I should have closed out of The Sims 2 after applying the no shadow setting to the community lot.  That way, if some other cause were to end up kicking me out of the game, the shadow setting would have stayed.  In my case, I had not done that, so I needed to re-apply your fix and then close out of the Sims 2.  Now, this specific problem doesn't occur anymore.  But I do have other crashes... still, it was nice to start my Sims on a data for once.  Now, if I could only eliminate all these stray pets that wander by... one crashed my game, I think.

Cheers!

I have to admit, I applied the work around suggested by SpicySpaghett posted a new reply on 2025-02-12 07:58 AM for this very issue... basically turning off the shadows, and that worked!  Well, it was a little more involved than that...  I was in a community lot, made the change to remove the shadows, then I saved the lot and exited, but then I made the mistake of playing an occupied lot, which worked at first, but then I got a different error and crashed, so when I went back in, the original crash issue reemerged.  What I figured out is that after following SpicySpaghett's steps, you need to close out of The Sims, which saves that setting universally.  Now, when I go back in, I can play my sims in a lot without this same issue occurring.

Now, the game still crashes later on, but that is a completely different issue, and a different post.  As for this specific error message, I would say SpicySpaghett fixed it.  Thanks!

did you manage to fix this mine is doing the same 

same here. play for 2 hours and suddenly crashed.

For those specifically getting the  "Application has crashed, application will now terminate" error when trying to load a family, in addition to trying the above, here's a workaround that got the game working for me:

1. Open the game and go to any world.
2. Open the "Lots & Houses" mode (you can click on the button or press the F2 button).
3. Click on any unoccupied, empty lot and then click "Enter Lot."
4. Once you've loaded into the lot, click on the Options button (F5 button), then click "Graphics/Performance Options."
5. For the "Shadows" options (top left corner), click the "Off" setting.
6. Click "Apply Changes" at the bottom of this menu.
7. Click the button that returns you to the neighborhood view, then click "Yes" when you're asked if you want to save.
8. Try to play a household. At this point, I was able to load a family without crashing.
9. If you're able to load in to the family and everything appears to be working OK, save your game.
10. If you close and re-open the game, you shouldn't have to repeat these steps anymore.

(See attached images. The last one shows me playing a family, and I was able to keep all other graphics settings high as well as 2K resolution.)

In short, the issue seems to be something involving shadows. This is a bandaid solution rather than a proper fix, but at least it allows you to play the game! (Not the end of the world to be missing shadows 😁) I highly recommend saving very often as you play, just in case.

(Fix was originally found here.)

You can see below how I'm playing a family, and with the other graphics settings being on high.

I am getting Error report in the music files

Same thing is happening to me - was working fine and now the game will boot up no issues until I load into a family then I will get the crashed message. :(

so i get this message too. but it is only when i am playing the 'open for business' part. it never does this on any other part of the game. i had this same issue on Sims 2 ultimate collection and now Sims 2 Legacy

Same exact issues happening for me as well. When legacy edition first came out/ was released I had no problems. Now with the EA updates I’ve had issues and can’t play the sims 2 at all. 

I get that when entering a sims lot