My memory boost mode tests with some happy surprises:
Today I tried out the memory boost mode, because yesterday my save file corrupted, reverting all lots to default, which I documented here and already sent my save file to EA_Solaire for: Neighboring Houses show as Default/Empty | EA Forums - 11903590
I was curious if the memory boost would have any impact, and wanted to share my experiences with the boost so far. I only played 2 hours with it, mostly testing out a range of usual activities, like building, placing lots from gallery, live mode, first person cam, travelling, small businesses, general camera panning and other movements, etc.:
- Surprisingly when opening my corrupted save file that previously showed all surounding lots as default lots -> I suddenly could see the actual lots I've built, recovered from the reverted default view!! This is an incredible improvement and I'm surprised the dev team did not mention anything about this in the instructions / info pages about memory boost? I was able to travel to those previously reverted lots and iteract with them in build mode, that's crazy!! Could this be the fix we were waiting for since years?
- To test this even more, I started placing more heavy builds into the worlds, replacing smaller / lighter ones with castles and all that stuff that usually breaks your save. I did not reach a point where lots were reverting to default again, but I have to admit that my game just ended up in an endless loading screen after trying to exit one of the bigger builds again. So while it did not "crash" I had to force quit it anyway => This issue of random gallery lots endlessly loading is unfortunately not solved yet
- I also tested another issue that is reported here, that is similar to the one above with the reverting lots to default lots, but with apartments: Loading into any apartment in San Myshuno will render all apartments that are in the same building as 0 simoleons worth of furnishings, and create bugs in gameplay. Unfortunately this memory boost is not fixing this problem, all apartments around my current one are still losing their furnishings: [CL] Apartments lose furniture when loading into adjacent apartment | EA Forums - 11849597
- In live mode i experienced something strange as well: I have a strong gaming PC with fps usually around 90 - 140, but panning with the mouse through the neighbourhood (Sims 3 cam, using middle and right mouse button) or following my Sim with rightclick on their portrait, often had heavy stutters and camera jumps, as if the main thread was blocked with some loading of textures or game mechanics blocking camera movements. The performance felt really bad for some seconds, then went good again, then bad again, and so on, and the stutter made me feel sea sick. Something feels not well optimised during live mode when the camera moves.
I experienced such an issue also after Businesses and Hobbies patch and got support on the forum here, that recommended me to override my GraphicsRules in the ConfigOverride, and learned how to remove LOD switching. I did that and since then it was working like a dream again (like pre-BH patch and earlier), everything was fluent finally again! (I forced Sim quality and Object quality to always use the highest quality LOD and not do LOD switching - which fixed that heavy stuttering that got introduced by BH patch) - but unfortunately even with the GraphicsRule override in my folder when testing now it went back to being stuttering again, even though I can confirm the LODs are not changing. This time it also happens rather when live mode is playing, while there is no stuttering when the game is paused. Even while stuttering my fps is still above 100 but the camera movements jump to a sickening degree :( - In general I felt like my fps went down a whole lot when i was visiting big lots, like a 50x50 or 64x64, no matter if in live or build mode. It went unusually down to 30 fps, which i rarely every had before. I haven't tested yet if this is only in boost mode or if this is an issue with the latest AA patch though, will need to compare the same lot later without the boost.
- A few more things I tested, which all had no issues:
- First person cam worked well and without fps drops (but the EA eye lashes are still hanging in front of the camera and not hiding in that view, which is a bug since love struck)
- Traveling of Sims, loading into lots of lots of all types, using small businesses and retails, interacting with other Sims.. all this had no issues
- I used CAS and the gallery without isses
- Placed lots without issues (except the already mentioned bug about endless loading, that are still happening)
Platform: Windows 11, AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12 Core, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080, 32GB Ram, 2TB SSD
Which language are you playing the game in? English
How often does the bug occur? Read above
What is your current game version number? latest to date, 1.118.257.1020 DX11
What expansions, game packs, and stuff packs do you have installed? ALL possible
Steps: How can we find the bug ourselves? Read above
What happens when the bug occurs? Read above
What do you expect to see? Read above
Have you installed any customization with the game, e.g. Custom Content or Mods? Usually yes, and tested with and without
Hope this info helps the dev team, and hope we can improve on the camera performance during live mode as well, as it creates nausea to play like that. But incredibly excited that the reverted lots issue seems to get fixed in this mode, that gives me hope that I can still play my game when the next EP comes out and more lots will be added to my save.
Thank you so much for creating this Sims dev team!! ❤️
Community Manager
