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EsperAngel's avatar
EsperAngel
Seasoned Vanguard
4 years ago
Solved

slowdowns/lagging : please check my dxdiag

I've noticed some annoying slowdowns in my games and I'm currently checking what I can do to alleviate that. Would someone kind please check my dxdiag for errors and the like? thanks in advance ...
pc
  • puzzlezaddict's avatar
    puzzlezaddict
    4 years ago

    @EsperAngel  It definitely sounds like at least a large part of the issue is the complexity of some of your houses.  (No need to test a new save if you've confirmed that a simpler house runs better.)  This shouldn't cause delays in loading CAS though.  If you remove all your mods and custom content, just as a test, does CAS load in a normal amount of time?  You don't need to save your progress.  Those kinds of long load times suggest that you might have bad cc or even a file made for a different Sims game.

    I do think there's only so much you can do here though.  As an example, I can start a new save and load the WC Spencer-Kim-Lewis household and see fps drops of 40% or more when simply viewing the center of the house with the game paused.  My CPU and GPU loads are relatively low, temperatures are fine, and yet performance is unimpressive.  I believe that this is a limitation of the game engine and can't be completely solved.

    One tweak that may help, although you'll need to test yourself, is a graphicsrules.sgr file made by Simp4Sims for higher-end machines.  The idea is that some of the stutter and fps drops players see can be due to the game switching between high and low level-of-detail images, so forcing one LOD all the time means less work for the game engine.  The file contains other adjustments too.  It's not a mod exactly, just a different group of graphics settings than the game would normally use, and it can be added or removed with no other work necessary whenever you want.

    If you're interested, Simp4Sims has it up on their Patreon, but it's free.  You don't need the performance version, just the regular one.  And like I said, I don't know that it will help, but it's easy to try.

EsperAngel's avatar
EsperAngel
Seasoned Vanguard
4 years ago
@puzzlezaddict I'm glad to tell you fixing these errors already improved my games! thank you so much!
While the lagging is still present, it's definitively improved.
The lag is especially strong when first loading the lot, and the first loading screen really takes a lot of time.
Usually this only happened at the start of a playthrough and then I'm free to play, but after filling the house with dream home decorator single slot cubical shelves, the next games in that lot were basically unplayable, with drops of 40-50 fps and 15 minutes long loading screens to access CAS from a mirror (I also filled many of these shelves with collectibles and the mansion is basically 5 floors total).
After your instructions it's almost as playable as it usually was before those changes with the shelves, which I'm gonna test.
One of my other households of 2 sims, living in a smaller lot in a small house (tiny living), has basically little to no issues, as after a sloggy loading period, the game runs perfectly.
I also have a separate game that uses about 500-600 megabytes of CC - clothing and hairstyles mostly with a couple gameplay tweaks but without any script mods - and removing them made no difference on performance, which is set through nvidia geforce to max quality.
A completely new game in a willow creek starter lot runs ok - I haven't tested thoroughly tbh but I will if you'd like me to
puzzlezaddict's avatar
puzzlezaddict
Hero+
4 years ago

@EsperAngel  It definitely sounds like at least a large part of the issue is the complexity of some of your houses.  (No need to test a new save if you've confirmed that a simpler house runs better.)  This shouldn't cause delays in loading CAS though.  If you remove all your mods and custom content, just as a test, does CAS load in a normal amount of time?  You don't need to save your progress.  Those kinds of long load times suggest that you might have bad cc or even a file made for a different Sims game.

I do think there's only so much you can do here though.  As an example, I can start a new save and load the WC Spencer-Kim-Lewis household and see fps drops of 40% or more when simply viewing the center of the house with the game paused.  My CPU and GPU loads are relatively low, temperatures are fine, and yet performance is unimpressive.  I believe that this is a limitation of the game engine and can't be completely solved.

One tweak that may help, although you'll need to test yourself, is a graphicsrules.sgr file made by Simp4Sims for higher-end machines.  The idea is that some of the stutter and fps drops players see can be due to the game switching between high and low level-of-detail images, so forcing one LOD all the time means less work for the game engine.  The file contains other adjustments too.  It's not a mod exactly, just a different group of graphics settings than the game would normally use, and it can be added or removed with no other work necessary whenever you want.

If you're interested, Simp4Sims has it up on their Patreon, but it's free.  You don't need the performance version, just the regular one.  And like I said, I don't know that it will help, but it's easy to try.

  • EsperAngel's avatar
    EsperAngel
    Seasoned Vanguard
    4 years ago
    @puzzlezaddict you're AMAZING my game is basically reborn!
    I loaded my modded playthrough and checked if CAS was faster without any cc - there was no difference between loading times, and with or without mods, the biggest loading time was always when I'd get back to the lot, so while there may be some more complex haircuts in there or possibly bad clothing, their impact is likely negligible overall.
    When I tried the Simps4Sims cfg file however - it got so smooth! I decided to go for the performance version and also scaled light/shadows from very high to high, and it's sooo much better!
    the loading times are still longish, but the game plays fine and it's bearable now! I also plan to scale down on displayed objects - at least until some patch improves performance - since it would really sadden me to undo parts of the house, but less is more after all so I can at least play now.
    You've been so helpful and kind helping me through this - you're a gem!
    Thank you so much!
    Should you know of other game enhancing tweaks like the above, do not hesitate to tell me, I love setting games for optimal performance but I had no idea there was more to do than just using the official apps
    • puzzlezaddict's avatar
      puzzlezaddict
      Hero+
      4 years ago

      @EsperAngel  I'm so glad to hear you're seeing such an improvement.  You could try swapping to the regular (non-performance) file if you want: fps would be a bit lower, but the improvements in graphics might be worth it.  Or maybe you won't notice a difference.  There's no harm in swapping back and forth.

      The person who provides this file tested all the available settings and thought that these were the best combinations for performance or graphics.  From what I understand, they did extensive testing and solicited feedback from other sources too.  You could tweak the files yourself if you wanted, but I'm guessing that there aren't any better options than what's already provided, unless you wanted to create your own hybrid of the performance and regular settings.

      Since this file governs all of the game's reachable graphics settings, there isn't really anywhere else to look.  Any further improvements would be reaching into the game engine, and I haven't heard of any mods or utilities that go that far.  Maybe someone will be inspired to make one though; it would be great to see.

      • EsperAngel's avatar
        EsperAngel
        Seasoned Vanguard
        4 years ago
        @puzzlezaddict I'm gonna switch the presets between games before committing to either, I saw the shadows were really bumped up in the standard set and I don't care a lot for extra sharp shadows, but if the fps difference is negligible I'll use that one.
        Thank you again for this, you really helped me a lot, allowed me to play again and were patient and thorough <3

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