For the longest time, my Sims 3 game ran smoothly, even with all expansion packs, a lot of the store content as well as custom content. But recently, whenever I play a game - in a brand new world or an old one - whenever I move the camera and look at the environment around me, the FPS drops really low and it lags like horrible. If I go back to my sims home lot, or a public lot, and just look from an aerial angle, the lag disappears. Any ideas?
@ManeEvent4U2 Maybe you've played for more hours, maybe you've used different graphics settings (now or before), maybe you've played in worlds that are more demanding, maybe you've downloaded cc that's harder to render, maybe you've played with more pets or harder winters or something else I'm not thinking of right now, maybe.... The point is, it's impossible to say for sure. (Maybe it's warmer in your room than hers, and your card had a harder time cooling itself down.)
Besides, two seemingly identical cards might perform slightly differently under identical conditions because of some factors no one would be able to identify, whether in the manufacturing of the cards or in the assembly of the computer. And there's also some randomness thrown in. Really, you can't expect to see precisely the same performance from your and your sister's computers, even if they appear to be identical in every meaningful way.
I'm sorry that I don't have anything better to offer. Like I mentioned, you could take your computer to a specialist to see how it's holding up overall. But if it's starting to wear out, there's not much you can do.
@ManeEvent4U2 I didn't realize you and your sister play on the same computer, rather than the same type of computer. (Is this in fact what you're saying?) Do you each have your own game folder? (This would necessarily be true if you each have your own user account.) Do you tend to play in the same worlds as your sister?
Even if I read your last post wrong and you're not sharing a computer, you could always try a clean folder. Pull your existing game folder out of Documents and onto your desktop, and a clean folder will spawn the next time you launch the game. Try playing a brand-new save in a well-made EA world like Sunset Valley or Twinbrook. If your graphics look better, the problem is either in your old game folder or in the worlds you're choosing. (Isla Paradiso is notorious for being so poorly made as to be almost unplayable even on the best systems; Bridgeport is better but will stress computers with weaker specs.)
If the clean folder does run better than the old one, you can move your existing saves and other content into it from your old folder, a few files at a time. Be sure to check the game after you add each batch of filesāif the game starts having trouble again, you'll know that one of the files you just moved was the problem.
I understand that you already tried removing custom content from your game, but you would also have needed to clear your cache files afterwards to see the full benefit. (The clean folder will take care of this.) Going forward, you'll need to avoid "high-poly count" items (especially hairs), as they'll be too much for your graphics card to handle. Many creators offer both high- and low-poly versions of their creations; their descriptions should tell you what you're getting. And you can always test out new cc in a clean folder before adding it to your existing game.
@ManeEvent4U2 Just to be completely thorough, could you list your and your sister's graphics settings, or take a couple of screenshots and upload them here? Please also list the worlds in which you and she play, and with which packs. Also, do either of you happen to run any other software alongside the game? Anythingāvideo capture, browsers, music, etc.
In the meantime, try spawning another clean folder, and don't add anything to it. Start a new game in Sunset Valley, and test CAS, Edit Town, and anything that's been giving you trouble lately. As I mentioned, some worlds are better made than others.
My sister and I both play with all 11 expansion packs plus High End Loft Stuff. Neither of us run any programs in the background while playing the Sims 3 and we play on all worlds that come with each expansion.
My graphic settings:
Full Screen Mode: Enabled
Screen Size: 1152 x 864 (4:3)
Screen Refresh Rate: Default
Object Hiding: Enabled
Animation Smoothing: Enabled
Advanced Rendering: Enabled
Reflection Quality: Mirrors Only
Edge Smoothing: Off
Visual Effects: Medium
Lighting and Shadows: Medium
Tree Detail: Medium
Draw Distance: Medium
High Detail Lots: 1
Texture Detail: Medium
Sim Detail: High
My sister's graphics settings:
Full Screen Mode: Enabled
Screen Size: 1024 x 768 (4:3)
Screen Refresh Rate: 60
Object Hiding: Enabled
Animation Smoothing: Enabled
Advanced Rendering: Enabled
Reflection Quality: Mirrors Only
Edge Smoothing: Off
Visual Effects: Medium
Lighting and Shadows: Medium
Tree Detail: Medium
Draw Distance: Medium
High Detail Lots: 2
Texture Detail: Medium
Sim Detail: Medium
Also, I've attempted to create a new folder, however, for some reason, it says there is an error and that Origin needs to be installed.
As I was playing, for some reason, the loading times are much longer, and then my game froze at one point.
@ManeEvent4U2 There is one setting that stands outāyour screen size. Your monitor's native resolution is 1280 x 1024, which is a 5:4 ratio, but you're using a 4:3 ratio instead. Having an aspect ratio that's not supported by your display can indeed cause the lagging you've described, although why your sister isn't seeing the same problems is an open question. Anyway, using a supported resolution should help.
Are you saying that if you pull your existing TS3 folder out of Documents and try to launch the game, you're getting an error message that you need to have Origin installed? (You'd be doing me a huge favor if you described exactly what you see in as much detail as possible; it might matter to a completely different TS3 issue that we've been trying to troubleshoot all weekend.) That's not normal and not the way these things are supposed to workāthe game folders were designed to be swapped and refreshed just like this.
In any event, the following files can and should be deleted from your game folder often, or even after every play session if you remember. Most of them will regenerate each time you launch the game.
You can help your game by moving Screenshots and Recorded Videos, if you use them, elsewhere on your hard drive. You should also store the files in Downloads elsewhere after you've installed them, but it's a good idea to keep these as a backup, in case you need to reinstall later. Crinrict wrote a guide to your user files, if you're curious:
Sorry I have not responded for quite a while, I have been super busy this week. ā¹ļø
I managed to fix my issue with Origin "not being installed", and I've also attempted clearing out practically every file you've mentioned, as well as done the clean folder. However, nothing seems to work.
Also, I'd like to point out that every resolution in my sims game is in a 4:3 ratio - except for the highest resolution...
@ManeEvent4U2 Strange, I could have sworn that there were more resolution options than that. I just checked on the mac side, and there are a bunch of 16:10 ratios, but no 5:4. Still, you should be able to change the resolution manually. Again, it's best to use a clean game folder, in case this makes things worse.
Inside the folder, there's an options.ini file. Open it with a text editor; whichever option Windows offers is probably fine. Find the line that lists the screen resolution, and change it to 1280 x 1024, the resolution of your monitor.
If this doesn't help, or makes things worse, delete that options.ini file, load the game again to the Main Menu screen, and put it in windowed mode. Then quit and try the same edit.
