Hello everyone. I wrote about this problem on the NRaas forum and they told me that I could just leave a link to my post created there so you could see what we have already discussed and what conclusions we have reached. Here is the link: https://www.nraas.net/community/chatterbox/topic13527
By the way, igazor sends greetings to the volunteer Puzzlezaddict. 🙂
@bi0hzrd I read through the thread and don't see anything obvious that hasn't already been said. I did open Sunset Valley myself just to make sure I remembered correctly, and the simCompositorCache increased in size pretty much immediately, not that I doubted the info in the thread. (The file stayed 1 kb in size when I tested Midnight Hollow, as expected.)
What I would suggest here, as a test, is to try playing in a new admin Windows account. Make it local, as in, don't link it to your Microsoft account. You'll be able to launch Sims 3 without reinstalling anything, but your existing saves and other user data will of course not be available. This will distinguish between issues with your current account and with your system overall.
Additionally, in your main Windows account, please delete the WorldCaches folder, then load a Store world and let me know what appears in WorldCaches, both the files and their sizes. Then install a Store world in the new account and repeat the test.
For reference, please run a dxdiag and attach it to a post as well.
https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/pc/how-to-gather-dxdiag-information/
So, I created a new local administrator account without linking it to Microsoft. After launching the game, the problem still remains.
I loaded the Sunlit Tides town (as I understand, I could choose any town from the Store?), after which files named SunlitTides_objects and SunlitTides_sims appeared in the WorldCaches folder. The size of the first file is 44.2 MB, and the size of the second file is 1.21 MB, meaning their sizes increased during my even brief gameplay. The result is the same on both accounts.
Here is the dxdiag result:
@bi0hzrd Your dxdiag lists a few generic Windows errors, so I'd suggest running a couple of basic checks of your Windows system files:
Restart your computer, hit Windows key-i, select Update & Security, and click the box to check for updates. If any install, restart again afterwards.
As a separate matter, do you have any kind of cleaner app installed on your computer? If so, try disabling it. The app might be deleting the cache files for whatever reason. And I know you said you use only Windows Defender, which is disabled, but please look for any other antivirus under installed apps, just in case something is lurking on your system. It wouldn't be the first time someone was surprised to find a third-party antivirus installed.
If the above doesn't help, the AppHangB1 errors in your dxdiag could be related to the graphics driver, although this type of error is somewhat generic. But since the driver was mentioned as a possible issue in the NRaas thread, and your issue only appeared recently, it's worth trying a slightly older driver. You can find them here:
https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/drivers/
Try the game-ready driver from May 9 or 21. You'll need to clean-uninstall your current driver first, since it's newer than the one you'll install. Here's how:
Since some people ask, it's critical to use DDU rather than uninstalling the driver using one of the normal methods—that's the only way to be sure that the issue isn't the driver itself.
And yes, any Store world was fine, and the files appear to be the right sizes, although I don't have ST installed at the moment to compare. But it's unlikely the files would be large and the wrong size, so this is probably working as it should.
@puzzlezaddictso, I did everything that was needed: completely removed CCleaner from the computer, reverted to the old drivers from May 9th, checked for updates, and installed them. No other antivirus software was found. I tested the game and noticed something strange and unclear to me. Now the game works as it should, BUT only when I play in a lower resolution. This means that if I set my resolution to 1920 by 1080, this issue returns. If I play in a lower resolution (even on high settings), everything works fine. Icons don't disappear and appear where they should (relationship panel, top left corner during actions, notifications, and so on). I have no idea how this is even possible or what the logic behind it could be. Using GPU-Addon doesn't help. Maybe you have some ideas on how this works and how to fix it. Thank you very much in advance.
@bi0hzrd Does it make a difference whether you play in fullscreen or windowed mode? I tested in windowed because I was multi-tasking, and I wouldn't have expected that to make any difference, and the game was also running at a much lower resolution than what my laptop screen supports. That's higher than 1080p, so I could test that too, although I generally play in fullscreen mode at 2560x1440 and don't see this issue.
Did this problem happen before you used the GPU add-on tool, and does it still happen if you repair the game? Doing so would revert your .sgr files, including making your GPU unrecognized again, but that's not a major problem and shouldn't have anything to do with this specific issue.
The problem with reloading a town is a bit unclear to me. I think you're saying that loading times are longer if a few hours have passed, but is there anything else different, for example do the WorldCache files disappear again? That's one reason an initial loading time would be longer than subsequent ones; the other I can think of is that in a new save at least, the game needs to place expansion lots. But that wouldn't be an issue if you're loading an existing save, only a new one.
For the portraits, I see the winking face too sometimes, both with active and inactive sims. I've never really looked into it but have thought that it had to do with the sims' current moods, as the game is calculating them. Or maybe it has to do with some other status, like whether they're being simulated at the moment. But since this has followed me through several computers and hasn't seemed to be correlated to any other issues, I've never worried about it.
