Sims Medieval won't launch via EA App on Windows 10
GOT IT! The game has launched and I have full control! Had to lose all my saves, but whatever, I can rebuild my kingdoms thanks to your help, Termayne! Thank you for being so patient with me!
Details on the issue:
Ultimately, the game running as a "background process" was a red haring caused by corrupt files. EA's launcher's REPAIR tool fixed it up at the end, but I was actually able to use it to my advantage for the real fix, as per below.
So, I tried the Powershell script, and similar to how others reported in this thread, it didn't work for me, even after redirecting it to point to Medieval instead of 3. Looking closely at the code, I realized it was trying to set CPU Affinity to 1 for the process - in other words, to disable multi-core on the game and set it to single core only.
The issue with Medieval compared to 3 is that it doesn't seem to like Multi-Core CPUs AT ALL. The instant it tries to start a multi-core process, it dies. The Powershell script can't react fast enough to change it because core count seems to literally be set to "T=0" for Medieval, whereas 3 probably gives some leeway that the script can take advantage of.
So the solution to my issue was to very quickly alter the permanent affinity for the process directly and permanently. I did this using Project Lasso, a free-to-use tool for messing with CPU settings in Windows (I use it for my Minecraft stuff, among other things).
Before messing with Project Lasso, or anything else involving CPU Affinity, I should warn everyone to BE VERY VERY CAREFUL WITH THIS, as this can not only corrupt your game if done wrong, but if you accidentally flip the wrong switch on a Windows process, you can corrupt your entire system and have to reinstall Windows completely. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
So what I ended up doing was having Lasso opened when I booted up TSM. Then, while TSM was open and showing in processes, I quickly right clicked on it and selected it in Lasso. I was able to do it easily at first due to the corruption issue from before, but afterwards, tested and found that if you're quick, Lasso will still change the Affinity for you even if the process isn't running anymore - you just have to be FAST to get it.
Once the menu is open, you simply hover over "CPU Affinity" -> "Always", then select "Select CPU Affinity". From there, deselect ALL CPUs that show up on the list save for either CPU0 or CPU1, your choice. After that, have EA repair the game again, and start it up, and it should work.
The bad news is that this DOES disable multi-core in TSM, so your performance might stutter somewhat, even with modern hardware. We'd need a patch to get multi-core support for TSM (2- and/or 4-core), but EA would have to release that. More important for them is that they need to release a patch that sets TSM to CPU Affinity=1 on install, to prevent this problem in the first place.
Step by Step instructions, assuming you use Lasso like I did (WARNING: PROCEED WITH CAUTION!):
1) Install Game as normal (I used original CD, but should work with EA App, too)
2) Open Project Lasso
3) Run TSM
4) VERY QUICKLY right click on TSM process in Lasso (must be done while TSM is actively running, so you will have to be FAST since it'll crash quickly!)
5) Hover over "CPU Affinity"
6) Hover over "Always"
7) Select "Select CPU Affinity"8) Deselect all CPUs in the list (there's a button "Clear" for this)
9) Select either CPU0 OR CPU1 (NOT BOTH, just the one!)
10) Select "OK".
11) Close TSM if it's still running
12) (optional) Run EA App's "Repair" utility on TSM
13) Launch the game
Hope this helps people! Now let's all give those Dire Chinchillas what for!!
