I've asked in the past about what to void of build elements to limit lag on larger lots, so that's not what I'm asking now. I just would like to know how big mansions/castles you actually play without much lagging. Okay, if you have a good suggestion regarding limiting lag, go ahead ad include it if you like :)In my game there is a castle, and it is a nightmare to load and play. Once loaded, and if played for a while it normally gets better, but I realize it is too big and too packed for my low-end computer. I mostly run it to take some pictures of the royals. Lately I moved a copy of the castle to a different save, deleting all private sections, keeping only the public areas like offices, entrance hall, throne room etc for quicker pictures. The built is packed with cc, and it covers 3 rather full floors on a 64x64 lot. So, it IS too much.I know many simmers build spectacular castles (they are probably on the gallery), but I never understood how they can be played - unless you decorate just a small part of it and leave most of the building empty. Or you have only the king and queen living there, sending all kinds away to be raised with relatives, too limit the household size.If you play a huge castle, can you actually equip the entire building AND include servants and perhaps a snooty dog, too? Or do you manage thanks to your imagination? Or do you split up the residence so that very private sections are at one lot, while party or official stuff are on other lots - same building just different parts of it equipped on each lot? In this game there is a lot of compromises anyway - RL royals would have several hundred servants, while we must deal with perhaps 2 or 3 depending on whether the queen wants top have a dog or not... A gala dinner that in RL would have 240 seated guests, will in game perhaps have 10... And his is fine, we can still enjoy it and pretend everything is bigger and that the 8 household members limit never existed.Curious to see how you handle those castles! :)

My Sim family, that is the husband, inherited his castle, so there is no staff to be concerned with. I also don't add drapery in most of my builds. Sims 3 trained me to be more austere. I don't know what the technical word is for what was happening in that game, but my lot would load, and the interior would be devoid of color. The color of items would drop down in place after a bit. It was just weird. (For a very short time after I got my new gaming rig, that stopped, but sadly, it was only for a short time, then it was back to it.)I'm also not really certain I understand what lag is, per se. Do you mean how a Sim will stand there for a moment and not see to their queued-up tasks right away? I do have that, but I'm thinking it has more to do with the number of mods/cc I have. I could be entirely wrong in this, however. Wouldn't be the first time.I prefer large houses on large lots, though. I have tried to play smaller abodes, but I get frustrated at how squishy it seems, and how hard it is to get the best angle to take a screenshot it is. I would show a picture of my castle, but that's stuck in a different tray that's still on the hard drive of my now defunct gaming rig. :open_mouth: I do have a picture of the current house my Sims are living in. This is in Crescent Ridge (the park lot that's 64 X 64.) This is a seven bedroom, five bath house, to put things in perspective. I built it from a set of plans I have in a very old magazine. I added two bedrooms to it, so that my Sims' six children could each have their own space. Basically, I made it my own.ETA: This was before I fixed the roof. The room to screen left is now a hipped roof like it should be, same for the roof on screen right. https://i.imgur.com/wZLQBnH.jpgThe roof fix is in!https://i.imgur.com/0GhA4g4.jpg

I don't have castles, but I had a similar problem with a big farm. I opted for the splitting solution, with one lot for the cows, one for the chickens, one for the crops, each with simple shelters for the farmhands (played sims). The farmer family had their own lot, residential only, no lifestock or fields. In the end the whole neighborhood was a single farm.Splitting a large castle may lead to a strange look in map view, but if the camera is inside all the time guring gameplay, then it maybe won't matter that much.

I have a large castle on my gallery, it's meant to be a rental and at most I've had 4 sims and some ghosts living there. It runs smoothly in my game, without issues. You could try it out in your game and see if it runs as smoothly for you. I play vanilla though, and it could also be that some of the CC you use is too high poly. Then there is another issue I've noticed with some downloaded houses, even though they are CC free, the builders have crammed too much stuff on the lot with MOO and TOOL. It looks nice in pictures but it's unplayable due to lag and routing issues. With sims, I think if you want to build large mansions and castles inspired from real life, it's necessary to scale them down and focus on a few essential elements. You also need to scale down on decorations and don't layer objects on top of another, it might look nice in pictures but it adds unnecessary polys to the lot.

I have not played much in big builds but I think its important to use as few of everything as possible when it comes to b/b like limit decorations limit moving stuff limit items with mirror effect try to use same floor and wallpaper in as many rooms as possible try to not use too many lights etc.I always try to remember to save before adding any lights cause thats like 99% of the time when it crashes

I play on a 64x64 lot with a full household (6 Sims, 2 horses) with NPC help (butler, ranch hand...), a large house, and a ton of CC. I think my graphic settings are all set to the highest settings and I have no lag, but with so many packs and CC and other things my loading time has increased to what feels like almost a minute. I'm not sure how long exactly, but it used to be almost instant. I try to limit unnecessary objects such as having 100s of plants, extremely full inventories, and 100s of random objects for decor (like sizing down and placing 100 stones along a path). But I really don't hold back much. The biggest factor is probably that I have a high-endish computer. I think some of your ideas about splitting the residence and not putting too many objects in each version may be worth trying. Also, look out for high-poly objects and don't have dozens of chickens or other animals or harvestable plants on your lot.Maybe we can try to provide better suggestions if you include some images. Sometimes it's hard to picture exactly how big a build is.

How do you make your big houses playable?

32 Replies

GalacticGal
Legend
2 years ago
My Sim family, that is the husband, inherited his castle, so there is no staff to be concerned with. I also don't add drapery in most of my builds. Sims 3 trained me to be more austere. I don't know what the technical word is for what was happening in that game, but my lot would load, and the interior would be devoid of color. The color of items would drop down in place after a bit. It was just weird. (For a very short time after I got my new gaming rig, that stopped, but sadly, it was only for a short time, then it was back to it.)

I'm also not really certain I understand what lag is, per se. Do you mean how a Sim will stand there for a moment and not see to their queued-up tasks right away? I do have that, but I'm thinking it has more to do with the number of mods/cc I have. I could be entirely wrong in this, however. Wouldn't be the first time.

I prefer large houses on large lots, though. I have tried to play smaller abodes, but I get frustrated at how squishy it seems, and how hard it is to get the best angle to take a screenshot it is. I would show a picture of my castle, but that's stuck in a different tray that's still on the hard drive of my now defunct gaming rig. :open_mouth:

I do have a picture of the current house my Sims are living in. This is in Crescent Ridge (the park lot that's 64 X 64.) This is a seven bedroom, five bath house, to put things in perspective. I built it from a set of plans I have in a very old magazine. I added two bedrooms to it, so that my Sims' six children could each have their own space. Basically, I made it my own.

ETA: This was before I fixed the roof. The room to screen left is now a hipped roof like it should be, same for the roof on screen right.

https://i.imgur.com/wZLQBnH.jpg

The roof fix is in!
https://i.imgur.com/0GhA4g4.jpg
EnkiSchmidt
Hero
2 years ago
I don't have castles, but I had a similar problem with a big farm. I opted for the splitting solution, with one lot for the cows, one for the chickens, one for the crops, each with simple shelters for the farmhands (played sims). The farmer family had their own lot, residential only, no lifestock or fields. In the end the whole neighborhood was a single farm.

Splitting a large castle may lead to a strange look in map view, but if the camera is inside all the time guring gameplay, then it maybe won't matter that much.
crocobaura
Legend
2 years ago
I have a large castle on my gallery, it's meant to be a rental and at most I've had 4 sims and some ghosts living there. It runs smoothly in my game, without issues. You could try it out in your game and see if it runs as smoothly for you. I play vanilla though, and it could also be that some of the CC you use is too high poly. Then there is another issue I've noticed with some downloaded houses, even though they are CC free, the builders have crammed too much stuff on the lot with MOO and TOOL. It looks nice in pictures but it's unplayable due to lag and routing issues.
With sims, I think if you want to build large mansions and castles inspired from real life, it's necessary to scale them down and focus on a few essential elements. You also need to scale down on decorations and don't layer objects on top of another, it might look nice in pictures but it adds unnecessary polys to the lot.
Simmingal
Hero
2 years ago
I have not played much in big builds but I think its important to use as few of everything as possible when it comes to b/b like limit decorations limit moving stuff limit items with mirror effect try to use same floor and wallpaper in as many rooms as possible try to not use too many lights etc.

I always try to remember to save before adding any lights cause thats like 99% of the time when it crashes
HaneulFier
Seasoned Ace
2 years ago
I play on a 64x64 lot with a full household (6 Sims, 2 horses) with NPC help (butler, ranch hand...), a large house, and a ton of CC. I think my graphic settings are all set to the highest settings and I have no lag, but with so many packs and CC and other things my loading time has increased to what feels like almost a minute. I'm not sure how long exactly, but it used to be almost instant.

I try to limit unnecessary objects such as having 100s of plants, extremely full inventories, and 100s of random objects for decor (like sizing down and placing 100 stones along a path). But I really don't hold back much. The biggest factor is probably that I have a high-endish computer.

I think some of your ideas about splitting the residence and not putting too many objects in each version may be worth trying. Also, look out for high-poly objects and don't have dozens of chickens or other animals or harvestable plants on your lot.

Maybe we can try to provide better suggestions if you include some images. Sometimes it's hard to picture exactly how big a build is.
Simburian
Seasoned Ace
2 years ago
I remember when playing the early Sims games someone was advised to roll the view all over the lot to add all the items. Not sure if that works now.
SweetieWright_84
Seasoned Ace
2 years ago
I've always had issues with fountains on any lot. One or two is fine but more than that is a nightmare. Also CC can be a big factor as well. I removed all of my CC recently and my game mostly runs fine.

I don't play on big lots often. I usually don't play big families and have never had any royals. Well, I play big families but when their young adults, I move them out on their own.

Maybe using the service sims instead of having live-in service sims may help? Also maybe little to no clutter.
Simmerville
Legend
2 years ago
"haneul;c-18321130" wrote:
Maybe we can try to provide better suggestions if you include some images. Sometimes it's hard to picture exactly how big a build is.

Here is link to a picture giving the size, but not all details.
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg8jc22YfHBc0fXIaHWaI1z4ivJVdA7Dl3HbPSv_Ljkiy_V2PR5NFOhMLKLbm_lIrXcT008IspUEdMJCg5OL9MfsLd4NWBtUWTQDEGqwZfSouxXkfrtb3jRwJht49L0ZP4cU4yxfohsND2h9uiRVBB4EYU1WPlAQXhOkWoMNdGVnpRW9KUrzMa4CIoY=s700

There are several posts from the building of the estate on my blog. Guess this one provides enough images to include details. Stuff most likely were adjusted though, but basics are the same.
Simmerville
Legend
2 years ago
Thanks all for your contributions!

Meanwhile, I experienced something that made me suspicious that my problem might be that my save is big and old. I play 650 sims and all lots in all worlds (except Copperdale). Many trees go back to RL 2014, meaning my save probably has quite a handful to keep attention to. Technically, CC will probably mainly affect the lot or hood where it is used, but when any of my non-active sims walk by in the street, maybe their entire family tree with memories and relations is loaded, too?

I saved the big estate in question to my library, then started a fresh new game and installed the lot including all its cc and other content. The lot loaded in no time!!! After adding a few sims it took a bit longer to save it (longer than "no time"), but still much quicker than in my main save. So, my guess is that playing a full and old save adds to the lag, more than I want to think of...
Simmerville
Legend
2 years ago
"Simburian;c-18321445" wrote:
I remember when playing the early Sims games someone was advised to roll the view all over the lot to add all the items. Not sure if that works now.

I keep doing that, and it feels like lagging gets reduced as soon as most items are loaded. So it is still a very good advise. I also think it helps playing with the camera angled more down to the ground than horizontally. Looking down might limit the radius where the game needs to consider items.

In a past sims series, I think we could choose to load only the floor we were currently at. In TS4 I think we load the entire lot, and I find it a bit wasted if the game loads everything stored in the cellar while my sim is in the attic... never found this addressed in settings, though, maybe it was a TS3 thing.