Forum Discussion

Rising Traveler

25 days ago

Solved

dcdbt.ebc file

I've been playing my save for awhile, recently a file is showing up in Dccache called "dcdbt.ebc". If I delete it the game will play for awhile until it shows up again. I've deleted it four times. ...

gameplay issue

puzzlezaddict
7 days ago
Terlynsky For the custom content, if the only problem is how the items appear in CAS, you can ignore that. Sometimes cc items are built from existing in-game items and might still have tags from those, but that doesn't affect how they're used.

However, if you do see issues with the cc, or with the game overall, it might be time to reinstall everything, and slowly this time. Aside from only handling a few items at a time, it's important to make sure the .dbc and .ebc files don't get much over 200 MB (204,800 KB) in size. The game is supposed to create a new one above that line, but it won't do that until the next time you install something. So when you're close to the limit, install smaller sets or single items until you go over, and only then add something large like a world. It's fine to be a little over, like 210,000 KB, just not a lot.

The temp file might keep coming back, but here again, if you don't see other problems, you can keep ignoring it. I get these temp files when I open the launcher in a folder where I have more than about a gigabyte of launcher-installed content, but I bypass the launcher 99% of the time so it doesn't matter (and I delete the files after I do use the launcher). This has never affected how my Store content works.

Separately, do you want to try to recover your most recent save? If so, I can make some suggestions, but that's up to you.

puzzlezaddict

Hero+

19 days ago

Terlynsky There seem to be a few things going on here. First, Sims 3 doesn't respond well to an alt-tab in fullscreen mode. Many games this age don't. If you want to switch between programs, use windowed mode. If you want to switch while having the fullscreen effect, there are third-party tools that can make the game run in borderless mode. Let me know if you're interested.

It also sounds like you might have some bad custom content. Store content is fine in that it wouldn't cause this kind of issue with the launcher by itself, but bad cc can break the launcher and the game. Installing too much of anything at once can also break the installed content but shouldn't cause any in-game issues beyond the content not loading.

If you'd like further help with this, I'll be around; I just took a couple days off for the weekend.

Terlynsky

Rising Traveler

7 days ago

I decided to take a little more time to see what's wrong. My bad, I didn't alt+tab out of the game. I windowed out, not good with PC terms. I've included a picture of what the launcher was doing when I had the red X. It seemed like when I closed the launcher and restarted things seemed to be OK in that area. I tried all my C.C. Pkg. files in fresh folder with new SLI save. I don't have a lot and everything ran fine for over an hour with no freezing. I one by one put everything else back, patterns, etc. All went well until I reinstalled the few C.C sims 3 packs from a creator I had been using for a long time. They seem to be working in the game alright but, the way they're showing is another story. In the launcher they look as they should, in game they show as "store content" with Icons from WA! I've never seen this before. Picture enclosed. Should I leave them be or uninstall and give it another try? My last save is no good, as soon as the game loads within five minutes or less it freezes. When I check the DCCache file that "dcdbt.ebc" file is back. The save before it is also unplayable. But, I can play some before that for awhile before they freeze. I copied all my sims and lots I made to the Library. I'm going to add them one at a time to the Fresh new game to see what happens. I'm still thoroughly perplexed by the blank thumbnails with prices in "buy" mode. They're still there in new save. I'm wondering if they might have something to do with the "dcdbt.ebc" file? Anyway at this point i'm going to continue putting sims and lots into the Fresh game and see what happens. I may have to just "suck it up buttercup" and re-download all the store content. If you have any thoughts please let me know. Thanks again for what you do!

ump1vintti
Rising Scout
7 days ago
It's most likely a so-called soft lock, which is usually caused by a corrupted object or a stuck labor. You can try to fix it by resetting the entire town with Master Controller, and if that doesn’t help, try to locate the issue using the Debug Enabler mod: City Hall → Dump Alarms → the report will appear in your game folder. Look in the report for lines that are close to the time of the freeze. The culprit should be found among them. You can also upload the relevant lines or the full report here (please mention the exact time when your game freezes), and I’ll try to help identify the guilty party. Once the culprit is found, it needs to be either reset or removed from your game save, after which you can continue playing normally again.
- Terlynsky
  Rising Traveler
  5 days ago
  Ok, I followed your directions to create that report. When I closed the game there wasn't any report in my game folder. Although it did produce two very extensive "Script Error" files in case that's what you meant. But, I had some other interesting things happen that I posted above to Puzzleaddict in case you want to look at it.
  - ump1vintti
    Rising Scout
    5 days ago
    Debug Enabler report is also named "Script Error", so that's the one.