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Silver3970's avatar
Silver3970
6 years ago
Solved

Sims 3 64-bit keeps crashing

SIms 3 64-bit keeps crashing. I'll be in game, playing with no problems then all of a sudden the game suddenly closes and the Apple report pops up. Nothing freezes or anything, it just closes. This ...
mac
technical issues
  • puzzlezaddict's avatar
    puzzlezaddict
    6 years ago

    @Silver3970  The relevant mods for overall game stability are ErrorTrap, Overwatch, and MasterController; Traffic is also helpful in Bridgeport.  They're all from NRaas, and while I can't link mod download pages directly, google should know exactly what you're looking for.

    ErrorTrap will do its job without any player interference and doesn't really have any player options.  Overwatch and Traffic will both work on default settings as well, although you can tweak them to your liking.  MasterController doesn't do anything unless you run a command, but it's quite useful for reseting stuck sims or broken objects.  For NRaas mod commands, you can always click City Hall or an in-game computer and select NRaas > mod name > etc.

    The elevator issues are addressed to some extent by Overwatch, which will reset elevators during its nightly cleanup.  This happens by default at 5 am in urban worlds, including Bridgeport, but feel free to change the time if you want.  (NRaas > Overwatch > Settings > Set Alarm Hour)  The cleanup covers everything from vehicles and stereos to various kinds of sim data that can get corrupted.

    At least in the beginning, you may want to disable its auto reset of stuck sims (NRaas > OW > Settings > Stuck Check Auto-Reset > False; but leave Stuck Check itself set to True), so you can instead find them and figure out why they're stuck.  When Overwatch finds a stuck sim, it will give you a notification, and you can click on the portrait in the notification to center on the affected sim.  If sims keep getting stuck in the same location, you'll know where you need to do some editing.

    For NPC areas in apartments, the main issue is that resident sims appear behind the NPC-only doors and then can't use those doors to get out and become stuck.  There are a few different approaches, one of which is to put the NPC areas on an upper floor, so residents won't ever appear within those rooms.  There are lots of tutorials available that explain how to build or edit apartments in Sims 3 much better than I could, but the basic premise is that you remove the NPC room markers and doors and make the area public or part of the lobby.

    It's also a good idea to run a MasterController Town Reset (NRaas > MC > Town Options > Reset Everything) every few sim-weeks, or if you notice the game slowing down.  This does literally reset everything in the world, so it can take a few minutes to run.  You can exempt the active household from a reset (NRaas > MC > Settings > Include Active Lot in Reset Everything > False) if you don't want your own sims affected.

    It may take some time to find all the problem locations and edit them to your liking, but it can also be kind of a fun project to remodel the world as you see fit.

    If you have questions about any of this, please feel free to ask.  Or you could ask on the NRaas site, where there are still a number of active players who know a lot about the mods and also a lot about Bridgeport.  So if you're not sure what to do about a particular location, someone may have useful insight to offer.

puzzlezaddict's avatar
puzzlezaddict
Hero+
6 years ago

@Silver3970  Please let me know what world you're playing in, which packs you have installed, and, if you have the Pets EP, whether the active household has any pets in it.

Please also attach your deviceconfig.log to a post; it's in Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 3.  (You'll need to manually open the folders; the file won't show up in a search.)  You can delete your user and computer names, about 25 lines down, but there's nothing else in that file that can identify you.

Silver3970's avatar
Silver3970
6 years ago

I'm in Bridgeport. I have Nightlife & the high-end loft pack, University, & Seasons. I have Riverview installed. I have some other stuff I bought on the exchange as well such as the Diva and Divo pack.

  • puzzlezaddict's avatar
    puzzlezaddict
    Hero+
    6 years ago

    @Silver3970  Your Mac is actually below the minimum requirements for the 64-bit version of Sims 3: specifically, the graphics chip is weaker than the minimum.  That doesn't mean you can't play, just that the game might not always be stable.  Seasons can add significantly to the demands on the graphics chip as well, particularly during inclement weather.

    However, the issue here may be Bridgeport.  While it's not as broken as Isla Paradiso or some custom worlds, it does have routing issues, and sims can also get stuck in elevators or in the NPC rooms on the first floor of apartment buildings.  Stuck sims can cause crashing when the game engine tries and fails to reroute them, over and over, and eventually can't keep up with other demands.

    I'm not saying this is the cause of the crashing, only that it could be, and it can cause crashes on more powerful systems than yours.  It's also something you can mostly fix, and without getting a new computer.  If you're interested in trying to address these issues, let me know how much work you'd like to do to try to edit the world, and whether you'd want to use mods.

    • Silver3970's avatar
      Silver3970
      6 years ago
      @puzzlezaddict You're amazing! Yes, I'd do anything to fix my game. Thank you so much for your help and yes, I'll install mods to help fix it.
      • puzzlezaddict's avatar
        puzzlezaddict
        Hero+
        6 years ago

        @Silver3970  The relevant mods for overall game stability are ErrorTrap, Overwatch, and MasterController; Traffic is also helpful in Bridgeport.  They're all from NRaas, and while I can't link mod download pages directly, google should know exactly what you're looking for.

        ErrorTrap will do its job without any player interference and doesn't really have any player options.  Overwatch and Traffic will both work on default settings as well, although you can tweak them to your liking.  MasterController doesn't do anything unless you run a command, but it's quite useful for reseting stuck sims or broken objects.  For NRaas mod commands, you can always click City Hall or an in-game computer and select NRaas > mod name > etc.

        The elevator issues are addressed to some extent by Overwatch, which will reset elevators during its nightly cleanup.  This happens by default at 5 am in urban worlds, including Bridgeport, but feel free to change the time if you want.  (NRaas > Overwatch > Settings > Set Alarm Hour)  The cleanup covers everything from vehicles and stereos to various kinds of sim data that can get corrupted.

        At least in the beginning, you may want to disable its auto reset of stuck sims (NRaas > OW > Settings > Stuck Check Auto-Reset > False; but leave Stuck Check itself set to True), so you can instead find them and figure out why they're stuck.  When Overwatch finds a stuck sim, it will give you a notification, and you can click on the portrait in the notification to center on the affected sim.  If sims keep getting stuck in the same location, you'll know where you need to do some editing.

        For NPC areas in apartments, the main issue is that resident sims appear behind the NPC-only doors and then can't use those doors to get out and become stuck.  There are a few different approaches, one of which is to put the NPC areas on an upper floor, so residents won't ever appear within those rooms.  There are lots of tutorials available that explain how to build or edit apartments in Sims 3 much better than I could, but the basic premise is that you remove the NPC room markers and doors and make the area public or part of the lobby.

        It's also a good idea to run a MasterController Town Reset (NRaas > MC > Town Options > Reset Everything) every few sim-weeks, or if you notice the game slowing down.  This does literally reset everything in the world, so it can take a few minutes to run.  You can exempt the active household from a reset (NRaas > MC > Settings > Include Active Lot in Reset Everything > False) if you don't want your own sims affected.

        It may take some time to find all the problem locations and edit them to your liking, but it can also be kind of a fun project to remodel the world as you see fit.

        If you have questions about any of this, please feel free to ask.  Or you could ask on the NRaas site, where there are still a number of active players who know a lot about the mods and also a lot about Bridgeport.  So if you're not sure what to do about a particular location, someone may have useful insight to offer.

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