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Hero+

Re: Corrupted files

@jeanmarie618 Your computer can actually handle running all Sims 3 packs together on ultra graphics settings, although water and high-detail lots should be turned down to lower the stress on the game engine. (I play with those on "mirrors only" and 2, respectively.) Your processor wouldn't be under any undue stress unless it's overheating while you play, and your hard drive should be completely fine too. You also have enough RAM to support Sims 3, which can only use 4 GB, although it's a good idea to not run too much else while you're playing. The warning about not running with all packs is a bit overboard and totally generic—everyone playing through Origin sees it—and doesn't apply to your system.

The only component in danger, so to speak, is the graphics card, and that would be from running Sims 3 at excessively high framerates. It's not that the card can't handle the load of the game, it's that generating extremely high fps isn't good for GPUs in general. And turning down the graphics settings or disabling certain expansions will actually raise framerates: since the game becomes easier to render, the graphics card is now capable of rendering more frames per second than it could before. This is why it's critical to manually cap fps; if you haven't done so and want help with the process, please ask, and let me know whether you ever play in windowed mode.

By the way, World Adventures is one of the lowest-impact expansions, so adding it wouldn't have much of an effect on how your or almost any system handles the game. Pets is the most demanding EP, but like I said, you should be able to run it.

I'm not sure whether you've done this, but don't ever disable an expansion and then load a save that has been played with that pack active. That will definitely corrupt your save even if you do everything else right.

NRaas mods help Sims 3 run better, but most of their impact has to do with keeping saves from getting corrupted. The effects can include lowering the amount of RAM a save uses in that errors get handled before the game engine falls all over itself trying to resolve the problem, but the mods don't do a whole lot to help borderline systems. However, since your system is far from borderline, the issues you're seeing are almost certainly about your saves and not your hardware.

3 Replies

jeanmarie618
4 years ago
Glad to hear my PC has enough stuff for Sims 3🙂

>>>>>This is why it's critical to manually cap fps; if you haven't done so and want help with the process, please ask, and let me know whether you ever play in windowed mode.

I don't know how to manually cap fps. I'd like to try.
I only play in full screen. In other games over the years I used full screen because I liked it so much more, but now that I'm getting older (63) my eyesight isn't great.

>>>>>By the way, World Adventures is one of the lowest-impact expansions...

Good to know.

>>>>>....don't ever disable an expansion and then load a save that has been played with that pack active.

Not sure if I've ever done that. If so, it was an accident.

A couple weeks ago I got a message saying items were missing. It wasn't from a missing expansion pack. They were the store bought items. I was tired and not thinking and hit save. What a mess. The game substituted stuff everywhere. I knew to always check which expansions are checked off to load, but didn't look to see that store bought items were showing. Now I don't know what caused that, but I always wait until I see the store bought items in the downloads window. They don't appear immediately like they used to.
>>>>>NRaas mods help Sims 3 run better, but most of their impact has to do with keeping saves from getting corrupted.

I'll read up at your mod links tomorrow & get back with you about that.. Grandkids woke me up early today & were here all day.

Thanks much for your patience. Very kind of you🙂
puzzlezaddict
Hero+
4 years ago
@jeanmarie618 Capping fps is easy enough. Right-click on your desktop, select the Nvidia Control Panel, choose Manage 3D Settings > Program settings, and pick TS3.exe from the list. (You want TS3.exe, which is for Origin installs, as opposed to TS3W.exe, which is for disc or Steam installs.) Scroll down to "Vertical sync" and set it to Adaptive. Enable triple buffering too, just above vertical sync. These settings only apply in fullscreen mode.

In case you ever want to play in windowed mode, in the same list of options there's a Max Frame Rate setting, which you can set to 60. This works in fullscreen and windowed modes, but it's best to use vertical sync and triple buffering in fullscreen mode because they also help prevent graphical issues like screen tearing.

As for the store items, they simply don't load sometimes for no apparent reason. If you see it happen again and accidentally save, you can always load the backup save instead. It's also a good idea to get into the habit of saving first, then quitting without saving as a separate step. In addition to making easier to avoid clicking "save and quit" when you don't intend to, the advantage is if the save process fails, you see it happen and can do something about it rather than the game going straight to "quit."
jeanmarie618
4 years ago
Thanks so much. I'll work on the FPS tomorrow.

>>> if the save process fails, you see it happen and can do something about it rather than the game going straight to "quit."

Ok. I'll try your way🙂 Thx. (trying to think of ways a save has failed for me ... other than Error 12)