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Bluebellflora's avatar
Bluebellflora
Hero+
5 years ago
Solved

[CURRENT ISSUE 64-bit] red flashing game window

Users have reported that the game screen can sometimes flash red for a second or until they interact with the game window again. Reports so far state that it can happen: going up/down floor leve...
mac
technical issues
  • ashbymcdonald's avatar
    ashbymcdonald
    5 years ago

    I am pretty sure the red flashing screen issue has to do with the number of objects that need to be displayed at one time.  This is why on large lots with a lot of objects, the problem only occurs when you zoom out or increase the number of viewable floors on the buildings (go up a few floors), which causes more objects to have to be rendered. 

    So the solution I have found is to go to options>graphics and check the "enable object hiding" box.   This should fix the problem even if you have maxed out graphics settings.    

puzzlezaddict's avatar
puzzlezaddict
Hero+
4 years ago

@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.

spencertenesen1's avatar
spencertenesen1
4 years ago

@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.

  • puzzlezaddict's avatar
    puzzlezaddict
    Hero+
    4 years ago

    @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.

    • ba0ef18cb8c3b02's avatar
      ba0ef18cb8c3b02
      2 years ago

      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...

      • puzzlezaddict's avatar
        puzzlezaddict
        Hero+
        2 years ago

        @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.

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