Game crashes in 1 save file and not another
My sims 3 game works perfectly for most of my save files, but for 1 specific file, it crashes every few minutes. The save file that crashes is an old save file. I've been playing it for about a year,...
Forum Discussion
@tlobliviate What it sounds like is that your save is in fact going over the RAM limit of the game, maybe almost as soon as you start playing. Some of this is fixable, for example when there's corrupt data or a glitch the game engine is trying to resolve, it can take extra resources, so addressing the underlying problem directly will remove those extra demands. Some of it may only be manageable, to the point where you can keep playing this save, but maybe for only an hour or two instead of six.
The travel transition is fragile and breaks easily even in saves that are otherwise running well. I'm not surprised it isn't working in yours. Among other things, the new world needs to be loaded into RAM, and some of the data from the previously played world isn't always released first, or even at all. Still, if you don't want to travel in this save, it would be understandable.
I don't think the large family tree is necessarily an issue, although it can be related to factors that do cause problems. One common issue is when a sim has an overloaded relationship panel—it's difficult for the game to keep track of all that, and more so when several sims know all those people. Another issue is if you play with memories enabled, because memories take up far more in the way of resources than they should. It's a good idea to disable memories, but that doesn't really help with the ones that already exist.
So, after all that, I would suggest installing NRaas ErrorTrap, Overwatch, MasterController, Traveler (if you ever want to try traveling again), Relationship Panel, Register, and Traffic. ET and OW clean up errors in general, MC will be used for a town reset, RP in case the relationship panels are an issue, Register manages service and role sims, and Traffic prevents the overspawning of vehicles. While I would only consider the first three or four (depending on travel) absolutely necessary, at this point, your save needs all the help it can get. ErrorTrap is a core mod, so be sure to download the version that corresponds to your type of install; there are separate versions for patch 1.67/disc, 1.67/Steam, and 1.69/Origin. The others all work equally well on both 1.67 and 1.69.
Load your save, let the game clock run a few sim-minutes, and you'll probably see a pile of error notifications in the upper right corner. That will mostly be ET and OW doing an initial cleanup. To be thorough, pause the game after about five sim-minutes, let it run another five, then use "save as" to rename the save, so you have the original as a backup, and quit. Delete the five cache files in your Sims 3 folder in Documents\Electronic Arts. For reference:
- CASPartCache.package
- compositorCache.package
- scriptCache.package
- simCompositorCache.package
- socialCache.package
Load the save (under its new name), and again let it run for a couple of sim-minutes. Click on City Hall and select NRaas > MasterController > Town Options > Reset Everything. This can take a few minutes to run, depending on how overloaded the game is and the speed of your hard drive. When it's done, run the game a few more sim-minutes, save as, quit, and delete the five cache files again.
Reload, let the game run for a couple of sim-minutes, then put it in windowed mode. Bring up the Task Manager and see how much memory Sims 3 is using. If it's listed in percentages, right-click on the header to switch to absolute values. Please also let me know how much memory you have installed overall.
Hi! Thanks for all of those instructions. I did everything you said, and now I see that the Sims is taking up 2.3 GB of memory. My Mac has 12 GB of memory in total. I did notice that the loading screen was much shorter than it normally is. So it seems like your instructions are working. Also, it only took about 3 minutes to save, which is much better than the usual 6-10 minutes. I have done much playing yet, so I'm not sure if it will still crash or not.
PLUS, the 'chat' option for toddlers is back! I haven't been able to chat with toddlers for years because the option disappeared for some reason. It's back now. yay!
How does error trap work and what do I do with the overwatch mod? I have them installed now.
Thanks for your help. I REALLY appreciate it. <3
@tlobliviate ErrorTrap and Overwatch run on their own, without any need for user input. You can of course mess with the settings if you want, at least for Overwatch, but the default settings have always worked fine for me.
ErrorTrap finds stray data that's corrupt or not tied to anything or otherwise doesn't belong, and cleans it up. So you might get notifications about piles of laundry and plates from cooking being deleted, sim data recovered, that kind of thing. These reports are not indicative of a problem, just ET doing its job. If your game starts crashing, or you get repeated errors about a particular sim though, you can take the related scripterrors (in Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3) to NRaas and ask for help. People there can interpret the scripterrors and make suggestions for troubleshooting whatever the specific problem happens to be.
Overwatch cleans up other kinds of data, for example abandoned cars and stuck sims. It runs when you initially load a save, then every night at 3 am by default. The deleted cars and stereos that get turned off are nothing to worry about, unless the cars number in the thousands, in which case installing Traffic would be the best approach. If you get repeated notifications about a sim being stuck or not aging, that should be investigated, but an occasional error here and there can be ignored.
By the way, are you really playing in macOS, or have you Bootcamped or installed Parallels or something?
Ah ok. Yeah, I got a bunch of aging errors. But after a few sims minutes, they all aged up anyways. Thanks for the info about the errortrap and overwatch mods, and thanks for telling me about the option of asking NRaas directly about my problems.
And yes, I'm pretty sure I'm playing on macOS. I didn't do anything fancy with my game. Just put in the disc and started playing.
The game did crash after I went around and used NRaas on a bunch of sims. That usually happens -- when I use NRaas so much at once, the game can't handle it. Idk if that's fixable.
@tlobliviate Okay, now I'm curious. When you open a folder, does it look like this:
or one of these?
And when you say you "used NRaas on a bunch of sims," what exactly did you do? Please list the categories you pick, so I know what specific mod you're using, and what function of that mod is involved.
