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SolitaryBeing's avatar
SolitaryBeing
Rising Hotshot
5 years ago

The Sims 3 stuttering a fair bit

So I've returned to playing The Sims 3 after an extensive break but I've experienced stuttering problems and I'm trying to figure out if it's just "the game being the game" (age and everything) or there's something I should be changing. I'll run off what expansions I have installed, NRaas/misc mods, things I've already tried, etc. I can post dxdiag on request and I have successfully managed to get the game to recognise my graphics card already.

It mostly consists of simulation stuttering from either moving the camera around a lot/map view at any simulation speed or just not moving around at all and watching the Sims animations freeze up and then fix themselves after about 5 seconds or so. Speed 1 seems to be the most stable but it still happens a lot and I can't wrap my head around it.

Primarily I use speed 3 and have done so in the past without any issues towards gameplay but seems like something changed and started causing problems? I bought a new PC around a year and a half ago and hadn't tried The Sims 3 properly up until recently so it could be just a modern system thing but I'm not sure.

Here's a list of the expansions and any mods I use:

Expansions

  • The Sims 3
  • The Sims 3 Ambitions
  • The Sims 3 Pets
  • The Sims 3 Seasons
  • The Sims 3 Generations
  • The Sims 3 Showtime
  • The Sims 3 Late Night
  • The Sims 3 World Adventures


    Stuff Packs

  • The Sims 3 Fast Lane Stuff
  • The Sims 3 High-End Loft Stuff
  • The Sims 3 Master Suite Stuff
  • The Sims 3 Outdoor Living Stuff


    Mods

  • No Intro
  • NRaas Overwatch
  • NRaas ErrorTrap
  • NRaas MasterController
  • NRaas MasterController Cheats
  • NRaas MasterController Progression
  • NRaas GoHere
  • NRaas Decensor
  • NRaas Mover
  • NRaas Traveller (WA fixes)
  • NRaas Dreamer
  • NRaas Dresser
  • NRaas OnceRead (surely you know the answer to "Where's Bella?" by reading it the first tme)
  • NRaas PortraitPanel
  • NRaas Register
  • NRaas Retuner (no, stop with the date calls, bad, she's married)
  • NRaas Saver
  • NRaas SecondImage
  • NRaas StoryProgression (marked bold as it's supposedly more of a hog)
  • NRaas StoryProgression Extra
  • NRaas StoryProgression Money
  • NRaas StoryProgression Population
  • NRaas StoryProgression Relationship
  • NRaas Tagger
  • NRaas Tempest
  • NRaas Traffic (tried turning down the amount of taxis)
  • NRaas WrittenWord
  • More Entry Points Version 1 EA (noticed a lot of kids/teens trying to enter school in the morning so needed to address them getting stuck)


    May just need to chill with the mods but I've found these useful for day to day tweaking and management of world stuff and had no issues before. Every time I've cleaned out the cache files and checked CurrentGame is empty before starting the game, always Save As, and quit and reload the game if I'm loading save files.

    Anyway thank you for reading.

    Edit 1: Should have mentioned that I have followed several guides on the internet already for ensuring best peformance
    Edit 2: I'm also using the "fixed" versions of the EA worlds and currently reside on Twinbrook

    • 16 Replies

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    • Satanu_Reeves's avatar
      Satanu_Reeves
      5 years ago
      @UnseenHorizon It's definitely not supposed to look like that. If that's fixable, I'm not sure how. That's why I uninstalled that particular fixed map. There's a broken lot on the Chine map also. Those are the two 'fixed' maps I don't use but I use all the others.
    • SolitaryBeing's avatar
      SolitaryBeing
      Rising Hotshot
      5 years ago
      @puzzlezaddict Good evening.

      I haven't installed a new motherboard since I got this build, it has always been a GIGABYTE GA-A320M-H with the only component changes being RAM but again both the old and new RAM had no issues when checked with memory diagnostics. So it signalling a completely different motherboard is new to me.

      I've checked system files through sfc and DISM before multiple and they've come up clean but I've zipped up the log files including the screenshot of the USB devices from Device Manager you asked for.

      Here's a list of the USB devices that I'm using:

      • Razer Blackwidow Elite keyboard (using two USB ports)
      • Razer Mamba Elite mouse (one USB port)
      • Blue Yeti Blackout microphone (one USB port)
      • Xbox One controller (one USB port)*
      • TP-Link Archer T9UH Wireless Dual Band USB WiFi Adapter (one USB port)


      I haven't noticed anything really out of the ordinary besides the volume wheel on the keyboard being a little janky with volume adjustments but that could just be the keyboard itself.

      (Apologies if this is kind of skewing off topic with the PC problems)



      On the topic of The Sims 3, I'll give that suggestion with SP Money a go and report if I see any improvements.

    • SolitaryBeing's avatar
      SolitaryBeing
      Rising Hotshot
      5 years ago
      @igazor Good evening, long time no see.

      This could just be it, the game was never very stable to begin with but I've never experienced problems this bad before. I can definitely relate to spying on the neighbours though, personally chose not to install HomeOpener because of performance concerns so I'll occasionally just use MC to open up any houses I'm curious about and see what's going on. (Think of a giant person sitting cross-legged beside a house and using their hand to tear off the roof and peer inside before getting bored and just slamming the roof back on)

      I may just need to remove any really non-essential mods, specifically ones that aren't around to fix something EA did (wait isn't that all of them?) and hope that there's some kind of improvement.
    • SolitaryBeing's avatar
      SolitaryBeing
      Rising Hotshot
      5 years ago
      @Satanu_Reeves Good evening.

      Yeah, I thought not. I may just return to using legacy worlds and rely on Overwatch and ErrorTrap to pick up anybody getting stuck and send them on their way. Seems like I'll have to move everybody out to a different legacy world in that case and figure out what to do from there.
    • SolitaryBeing's avatar
      SolitaryBeing
      Rising Hotshot
      5 years ago
      Seems like igazor may be closer to the answer as even without mods it is relatively the same (minus the simulation hiccups in speed 1).
      Not sure what else I can really do about this but I'll keep an eye on things.
    • nordling90's avatar
      nordling90
      5 years ago
      This game always stuttered for me, since 2009 on any of my top tier gaming rigs so k just resorted to lock my fps to 30 using nvidia inspector and now I have no stutter at any speed or loading lots and can scroll around with the camera all over too without hitching.
      You can also lock the fps with riva tuner.

      Imo, I haven't seen the game on any pc, mine or friends, youtubers, being able to lock at 60 without hitching so being that it runs so well at 30 I keep it at just that and forget about it.

      Give it a try and see for yourself and.... maybe save yourself the headache.

      Forgot to mention how to set it up LOL

      In nvidia inspector I set the sync to 1/2 refresh rate, set my ingame refresh to 60, then I set the fps to 30 in riva tuner.
      This together makes for a perfect frame time no matter how much I scroll around. Tried this at 60 too but stutter was still there.

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