Forum Discussion

5 years ago

Solved

Open Staircase Not Displaying Properly

Product: The Sims 4
Platform:PC
Which language are you playing the game in? English
How often does the bug occur? Every time (100%)
What is your current game version number? 1.71.86.1020
What expansions, game packs, and stuff packs do you have installed? Snowy Escape, Eco Lifestyle, Island Living, Seasons, City Living, Get to Work, Parenthood, Dine Out, Spa Day, Movie Hangout
Steps: How can we find the bug ourselves? Build staircase and delete floors around it on upper level
What happens when the bug occurs? The grey floor tiles disappear as they should, and the walls disappear too, but left behind are grey lines which outline the staircase.
What do you expect to see? There should be nothing left behind when the floor and wall is deleted
Have you installed any customization with the game, e.g. Custom Content or Mods? Not now. I've removed them.
Did this issue appear after a specific patch or change you made to your system? Yes
Please describe the patch or change you made. The last patch was causing my stairs to glitch out and become unusable. Most recent patch, the stairs are usable but the weird grey lines have shown up

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I am playing in a house with an open staircase. I first had the bug where my sims would not use the stairs at all. Then I deleted the fence at the top of the stairs and the sims could use the stairs but the stairs were visually glitching out and becoming invisible depending on the camera angle.

If i complete the room upstairs, delete the grey floor tiles, then add stairs, the stairs keep becoming invisible.

After playing around with my build for literally hours and trying everything from https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/WORKAROUND-Open-staircase-cause-routing-failures/td-p/9716427, now the stairs do not disappear but instead grey lines are left on the outline of the stairs. I have attached screenshots as I know I am not explaining this well.

I am extremely disappointed that this stairs bug was not addressed in the latest patch. I have wasted literal hours of my life just trying to get stairs in one build to not glitch.

gameplay issue

CGrant56
5 years ago
@sreed12
Well, this one turned out easier than I expected. The platform underneath the stairs was the cause of the invisible stairs. But I was able to make it stop doing that.
So, what I did was this.
1 - Delete the platform. As soon as the platform disappeared, the stairs became solid again from the 2nd floor. This left a hole in the foundation that I could see the ground through. The stairs and fences stayed put.
2 - Close the hole by moving the foundation together back to front so it is a continuous floor underneath the stairs. Back is the side with the top of the stairs. This wipes out the fences on 3 sides.
3 - Put another platform under the stairs. Raise it another click or two until the bottom of the stair ends on the platform then 1 click down so the stairs go to the floor.
4 - Add the fences, floor tile and platform trim back and put in the light you had between the stairs.
And you should have what you want without the stairs becoming invisible from the 2nd floor.
Btw, really nice build. I might just load it into my main save. 🙂
Hope this helps.

8 Replies

sreed12
5 years ago
Just some additional pictures.
CGrant56
Hero+
5 years ago
@sreed12
What you show in your pics is a bit strange. It looks like the tile edges aren't going away. Given the shapes of them, I have a suggestion for you that you may not have tried. A bit hard to explain.
Check the shape of area where there are no tiles to see if it matches the opening. From the pics, it looks like there are more than one room in that space. You might have restore the floor to do that. If there are multiple adjacent spaces, see if you can make it one space that matches the opening using the wall tool. That should move any tile edges to the perimeter. Then delete the floor again. You might have to delete the ceiling below too.
If that doesn't work, would you be willing to upload the lot to the gallery? I or another helper will take a look at it and see if we can help you fix it.
Hope this helps.
sreed12
5 years ago
Thank you so much for your response, I really appreciate the help.
You're right, the open area above the staircase was technically many different rooms. I had done it like that on purpose, because before when I had it all as one room, the stairs were either deleted or became invisible.
This time, I resized all the rooms back into one big room the size of the opening, and only 2 steps on one staircase become invisible (see attached pic). I have no idea what I've done differently, but I can ignore the 2 invisible steps and my game is playable once more!
The only other thing I can think of, is that I have been trying to put trees in the opening. Don't trees disappear depending on camera angle, so they're not blocking your sims? Maybe that's what's causing the stairs to glitch? I have tried removing the trees and putting them in different spots but I'm thinking it's related.
Anyway thanks again! The glitch is not fixed but it's toned down to the point where I can ignore it
sreed12
5 years ago
@CGrant56
Sadly I spoke too soon in my first reply ☹️ I exited and reloaded the game and the stairs are back to being so glitchy they are unplayable. I've deleted all the trees and reloaded the lot and the stairs are still invisible depending on camera angle (see attached pics).
My last thought is that there is a platform below the stairs, and I know platforms were really glitchy when they first came out. Also the stairs always look completely fine on the ground floor, they only glitch when viewing them from the 2nd floor.
I've uploaded the lot to the gallery: https://www.ea.com/games/the-sims/the-sims-4/pc/gallery/3004F0FA794811EB8B423CBA924B87DD?category=all&searchtype=ea_origin_id&sortby=downloads&time=all&searchquery=sreed12&max=50&maxis=false
Thanks again!
CGrant56
Hero+
5 years ago
@sreed12
Ok. When you said there was a platform involved, my 1st thought was the platform is the cause. Platforms and stairs have been giving all kinds of unusual issues for people. I will download the lot and see what I can find. And get back to you in a bit.
CGrant56
Hero+
5 years ago
@sreed12
Well, this one turned out easier than I expected. The platform underneath the stairs was the cause of the invisible stairs. But I was able to make it stop doing that.
So, what I did was this.
1 - Delete the platform. As soon as the platform disappeared, the stairs became solid again from the 2nd floor. This left a hole in the foundation that I could see the ground through. The stairs and fences stayed put.
2 - Close the hole by moving the foundation together back to front so it is a continuous floor underneath the stairs. Back is the side with the top of the stairs. This wipes out the fences on 3 sides.
3 - Put another platform under the stairs. Raise it another click or two until the bottom of the stair ends on the platform then 1 click down so the stairs go to the floor.
4 - Add the fences, floor tile and platform trim back and put in the light you had between the stairs.
And you should have what you want without the stairs becoming invisible from the 2nd floor.
Btw, really nice build. I might just load it into my main save. 🙂
Hope this helps.
sreed12
5 years ago
@CGrant56 Omg THANK YOU! You are a true hero lol. The build is fixed and I am way too happy. I can't believe I didn't think to mess around with the platforms even though I knewwww they were glitchy!
And I'm glad you like the build! I can't wait to finally play with it 🙂
CGrant56
Hero+
5 years ago
@sreed12
Glad I could help.
Yes, platforms seem to be the cause of many issues in build and with a lot of them like your invisible stairs, it's not always evident as to what is causing a certain problem. But yours is fixed so both of us learned a little something along the way.
Have fun playing your lot! 🙂