Does the Game Continue Even After You Have Quit the Game?

"MrSimmis;14261984" wrote:
I used to think that is a kid that when I turn the computer off the sims are still walking around doing stuff!

Yes, when I first heard about The Sims years ago I thought that would happen. And never knew games can do that, like Virtual Villagers are 'real time' so if I leave that game and turn off the PC they will have done all their work when I go back to them. I actually thought that would be how TS4 would work when they first announced it.

One of the gurus explained that behind the loading screen a few moments of game time takes place during which your sims will be placed in a suitable activity. This was to create the feeling of living sims or something like that. If I can find the link to his explanation I'll edit this post to include it. It was in one of the old tech threads.

*edited:
Quote from simgurumax: "Very quickly, I'll say that our persistence (save) model works very differently than TS3. On TS3, we saved the exact game state right down to the contents of memory of the entire simulation. This was cool, because it meant when you loaded the game was exactly as you had left it. Unfortunately, this lead to many problems such as long load times and, worse, save games that would crash or get corrupted and be unrecoverable.

On TS4, we do a softer save, which saves all the interesting data about your game like where all the Sims are and all their stats. When we load a game, we put the Sims back where they were and restore their state. Then we run autonomy to find them an interaction and process a little bit of time to let them get to the point where they are running that interaction. During this small processing time, we put the game into a mode where all routes happen instantaneously to make it so we don't have to let too much time pass to get Sims into position.

All of this happens behind the loading screen.

The end result is you lose a little bit of time when you save and load - somewhere on the order of 5 sim minutes. Saving and loading can also fix some issues now because it does sort of "reset" the whole simulation and any weird cruft that may have built up."

link to the post: forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/782859/simulation-tech-talk/p9

"NZsimm3r;14264671" wrote:
One of the gurus explained that behind the loading screen a few moments of game time takes place during which your sims will be placed in a suitable activity. This was to create the feeling of living sims or something like that. If I can find the link to his explanation I'll edit this post to include it. It was in one of the old tech threads.

*edited:
Quote from simgurumax: "Very quickly, I'll say that our persistence (save) model works very differently than TS3. On TS3, we saved the exact game state right down to the contents of memory of the entire simulation. This was cool, because it meant when you loaded the game was exactly as you had left it. Unfortunately, this lead to many problems such as long load times and, worse, save games that would crash or get corrupted and be unrecoverable.

On TS4, we do a softer save, which saves all the interesting data about your game like where all the Sims are and all their stats. When we load a game, we put the Sims back where they were and restore their state. Then we run autonomy to find them an interaction and process a little bit of time to let them get to the point where they are running that interaction. During this small processing time, we put the game into a mode where all routes happen instantaneously to make it so we don't have to let too much time pass to get Sims into position.

All of this happens behind the loading screen.

The end result is you lose a little bit of time when you save and load - somewhere on the order of 5 sim minutes. Saving and loading can also fix some issues now because it does sort of "reset" the whole simulation and any weird cruft that may have built up."

link to the post: forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/782859/simulation-tech-talk/p9

Well, they need to go back to the old way. If I leave a Sim in a save building a horse figure he/she should be doing that when I reload the game not out in the street or in the public space. This game is so corrupted in so many ways. And this proves it's their doing. lol

I must say that it would be more convincing if when I loaded the game at 3am sims time, they were actually in bed. No idea what's meant to be so difficult about that.

And it's so annoying to load a household only to be ask which one do you want to play. Why? then it loads you to a lot where they may have been out on their own. I would much prefer they all be indoors in their houses when I load their house. Not out somewhere as if they have a life without me. And the game was off, but they are out somewhere?

Yeah, I find it kinda weird that my sims don't 'freeze' and aren't doing exactly the same thing I left them doing when I reload my game up to play the next day. At first I thought I was having PC issues and something wasn't working correctly. lol

That's a neat piece of coding, thanks for looking it up, @"NZ Simmer" It sounds as if they built this in to save on load times. I never knew why until now.

I can literally go to the kitchen and make a sandwich, eat it, and take the dog for a walk while TS3 is loading. Sure, it's a pain to come in to the household in the middle of the night and they're standing outside. But I think I'd rather have that than The Endless Load. TS3 runs pretty OK other than that for me, so my machine can handle it with nraas. In TS4 I've just gotten so I mostly go to Manage Worlds or exit either when they're going to bed or getting up, or at work/school.

As far as the thing about the shop, I find it very whimsical and fun to imagine that the owners have been there and changed some things while my active Sims are away. I just love that about a functional bakery to which I send my Sims. It's as if it's functioning while they're not there as a shop IRL would. In my game as well there are different items set out to sample on the premises or take home. It's quite immersive for me. :) But then, I'm easily amused. :D It's rather fun, especially if I can't sleep, and think, "I wonder what my Sims are up to? Let's take a peek..." Perhaps I should give my self Sim a certain trait, the one I would prefer if it were called Childlike. ;)

"Cinebar;14265427" wrote:
And it's so annoying to load a household only to be ask which one do you want to play. Why? then it loads you to a lot where they may have been out on their own. I would much prefer they all be indoors in their houses when I load their house. Not out somewhere as if they have a life without me. And the game was off, but they are out somewhere?

I suppose you play rotationally? Because the sims are where they appeared when you played with another family. For example you could be playing one sim in the park when another sim comes there. You can switch to playing that other sim and continue in the park from the same situation.

I've noticed few occasions where my sims are not on the sidewalk. One is if I go back play the same household, they'll be where I left them. Another more interesting case is when I take one sim to visit the neighbours and then switch back to playing the ones at home... they'll be in different place where I left them.

The system is weird. There are probably some cool things you could do with it, I just haven't gotten around to play with it much. My load screens are currently several minutes, so I don't want to switch lots unless it's really necessary. I still don't get why reseting on the sidewalk seems to be the default.

@"Livin in Sim" you're welcome. I thought it was pretty interesting coding for sure. Anything that makes loading times short is brilliant in my book.

Omg guys tysm 4 ur ans!! <3 ya!! :kissing_smiling_eyes: :kissing_smiling_eyes: