Really bad camera stutter when panning around

JeanVW​  I think I remember you have at least a reasonably-powerful gaming computer, right?  If so, please try a custom GraphicsRules.sgr file, as described in this post:

Camera movements very choppy since BH patch | EA Forums - 12185589

You don't need to edit everything, just the distances at which the game changes what LOD it's using.  The problem, in this case at least, is not switching to a a different LOD per se; it's the need to recalculate, for every sim and item, when the threshold to switch is passed in either direction.

Thanks for that suggestion... but I am a bit flustered with stuff like that, what would I need to do haha. Please explain it to me like I'm a toddler.

JeanVW​  Open [install location]\The Sims 4\Game\Bin.  Right-click the GraphicsRules.sgr file and select Copy.  Open Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 4 > ConfigOverride, right-click the blank space inside, and select Paste.  This is your extra copy of GraphicsRules, one that won't get overwritten the next time you update or repair the game.  Do the same for TS4CommonRules.sgr, also in Bin.

Open this copy of GraphicsRules and search for SimQuality.  Under the settingVeryHigh header, change the values in this line:

prop $ConfigGroup RenderSimLODDistances "25, 50, 100, 1000"

to "2997, 2998, 2999, 3000" , which will mean that the game keeps sims at the highest-level level of detail (LOD) until they're very far away.

Next. search for 0.56 , for which there should only be one entry:

setProp $ConfigGroup ObjectLODInterestBias 0.56

Change the value to 0.78 .

Just above that, you'll see two entries for ObjectLODBias , both with values of 0.6666.  Change the first one, under if (not $isLiveEdit), to "0" (keep the quotes that are already there).

These are the edits listed in the post I linked, minus one that shouldn't come into play if you do the first edit listed above.  Feel free to edit one line at a time to see what results you get.

The above edits assume you're playing with Sims on Very High and Objects on High, the maximum settings.  It shouldn't matter what other settings you're using, but if you do have a proper gaming system, you'd likely be playing on Ultra anyway, or perhaps Custom with Post processing unchecked.

———

If, in the future, you patch the game and it doesn't open, remove the files from ConfigOverride.  If that helps, it means the game has likely updated GraphicsRules and possibly TS4CommonRules, so just grab new copies of these files from Bin and reapply the edits, that is if you still want or need them.

I tried out those tweaks, sadly they didn't do much for me. It's still just as bad as before.

JeanVW​  That's a shame.  I'd like to take a look at a (fresh) dxdiag before suggesting anything else.  Click Windows key-R, enter dxdiag in the run box, wait for the scan to finish, click "Save all information," and save the file to your desktop.  From there, you can attach it to a reply using the paper clip (Attachment) icon included with the other formatting buttons.

puzzlezaddict​ Thank you. This is my current Dxdiag.txt file. 

JeanVW​  Sorry for the late reply.  Your dxdiag is saying that your graphics driver isn't digitally signed, which of course it should be since it's from Nvidia.  That suggests that there might be something wrong with the driver, and that would also explain the stutter.  So please do a clean uninstall and reinstall of the driver, as described here:

https://crinrict.com/blog/2019/02/clean-re-install-of-graphics-drivers-with-display-driver-uninstaller-ddu.html

Please test without the modified .sgr file first, and if that doesn't help, with the file.

If you still get stutter, please look for new errors in the Reliability Monitor.  Click Windows key-R and enter "perfmon /rel" without quotes, and you'll see a chart of errors and updates with a column for each day.  Today is on the right.

Look for an error that happened during this most recent play session, specifically after reinstalling the graphics driver.  If you find one, double-click it to see more details, then copy that info and paste it into a reply here.  If you don't see a new error, check back in an hour or so—the Reliability Monitor doesn't always update right away.

Your dxdiag lists no Windows errors at all, which is abnormal—even a clean install of Windows will typically have one or two right away.  That suggests that either the dxdiag couldn't read the info, or some kind of cleaner app is removing the error logs.  If you're using such an app, please disable it while we're troubleshooting here, as this information may be highly relevant.

Hello puzzlezaddict​ and no problem. Provided in the attachment is my latest DxDiag txt file, it doesn't seem to show the ''unsigned'' driver thing anymore, since I reinstalled my driver through the DDU method you provided. I still don't see any errors though. I disabled Malwarebytes, since I thought maybe that interfered. What else could I try? Reliability monitor doesn't really show any abnormalities either. I did try, after the new graphics driver with and without the SGR file, but it's just not working. It's still stuttering with camera movements. Thanks again. 

JeanVW​  Does the camera stutter no matter how you move it?  For example, you could use the arrows on your keyboard, or edge scrolling, or you could right-click to recenter the camera (maybe Sims 3 camera mode only, not sure since that's all I use).

It's also worth trying to play in a clean boot, just to make sure no other background process is interfering.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows-da2f9573-6eec-00ad-2f8a-a97a1807f3dd

The one service to leave enabled is the EABackgroundService, which the EA App needs in order to run.  Disable the rest as described.

When you reboot your computer, go through the Task Manager's background processes list shutting down any service that doesn't absolutely need to be running, for example anything from MSI Afterburner to RGB software might still be enabled.  If you accidentally kill a critical process and it doesn't restart on its own, just reboot your computer again.

Don't open anything other than Sims 4 and the EA App while testing, not even a browser window.

If this helps, you can selectively reenable services until you find the culprit, then either leave that disabled or (if it belongs to an app you want to keep using) let me know what it is so we can try to fix the underlying issue.

Your new dxdiag doesn't list any Windows errors either, which is not a surprise considering the Reliability Monitor shows nothing.  Malwarebytes wouldn't delete this data, so it has to be something else.  But we can put that aside for now if you prefer—there's a reasonable chance that this issue wouldn't be producing an error anyway even if the more generic errors were showing up properly.

Sadly clean boot doesn't help either. It's still the same issue. The camera stutter is prtty ''random'' I would say. It would go smooth for a little while but really no longer than 1 minute or so before I get a random hitch or stutter when panning.