The Sims Medieval Graphic Issues (2021)
Hi everybody. I decided to reinstall The Sims Medieval, but I'm experiencing some frustrating graphic glitches that never occurred before. Basically, I start the tutorial and everything is fine, but ...
Forum Discussion
@SuperDrivin The Sims Medieval is not 100% compatible with newer systems out of the box, and it requires a bit of tweaking to make sure everything goes smoothly.
Before doing anything, please make sure that your Nvidia graphics drivers are up to date; you can do so using Nvidia's GeForce Experience app. I can confirm that my game works perfectly fine with the newest Windows 11 and driver updates for GTX 1050.
I'd like to know if you have done any edits to the game's GraphicsRules and GraphicsCards files; original versions contain no information about newer graphics cards, so the game starts in low settings, which might have been the cause for some of your issues.
Repair the game using Origin (assuming you play using a digital download, and not the disk), then go to Documents\Electronic Arts\ and move your Sims Medieval folder to the desktop. The game will start in a fresh, clean environment and you can tweak the game options to see if anything changes.
Additionaly, The Sims Medieval does not have a frame rate cap, which might cause it to reach high frame rates that might impact performance negatively. It is possible to set a cap using Nvidia Control Panel.
If you need help with updating the graphics files to include your Nvidia card, or setting a frame rate cap I can post the instructions for that.
Let me know if anything happens.
@mate54, thank you for your quick answer.
My NVIDIA is up-to-date (as every other component of my PC, that because I'm a "little maniacal" with those things). I haven't done anything to the GraphicRules and GraphicCards files, and the only change that I've made to any of the original files was adding the Console Command in the Command.ini file.
As you said, the first time that I start The Sims Medieval a message pops that says "Warning: Unrecognized Video Card - Your video card was not found in our database. Your settings have been set as high as possible, but you may wish to reduce them if you are experiencing poor performance", but in reality the settings are still low (like 1024x768 resolution, and some graphical options are turned off or low) and I have to manually pump them to "high settings".
I haven't tried the frame rate options (I think I saw a "Frame" options in the Graphic Settings menu which, by default, is set on "Default") but I will give it a try later (both in game and through the NVIDIA Control Panel).
Another thing (which, I don't know if it is relevant or not), when I play The Sims Medieval I never use the "Fast-Forward Button" (except when sleeping of course) because, while my Hero is doing is business, I use the Watcher Eye to look out for Sims with clothes and hairstyle that I wish to change with the Edit in CAS and the Grim's Mod's Plan Outfit option.
@mate54, I don't want to impose on you, but could you do me a favor if you can spare the time? If you could start a new fresh game and, while playing, start editing the Sims (like changing some minor features like the color of the hair, or some clothes. The important thing is to do that to A LOT of them) with both the Edit in CAS and the Grim's Mod Debug Option just to see if it's those mods that cause the glitches, that will be awesome. I'll leave a link to Sync.com where I've uploaded the mods, and the instructions to install them, that I'm using cause I can't find the Edit in CAS webpage anymore (it's not the DeeDwag version, of that I'm sure). Again, do it only if you can (and want) to spare the time and if you feel comfortable to download the files that I've sent you... No hard feelings. 🙂
Thank you again for your time.
- @SuperDrivin I have downloaded the mods and I'll take a look later when I have some more time. However, please edit your post and remove the link to them as this forum doesn't allow linking mods/CC.
In the meantime, are you comfortable with editing GraphicsRules files and tweaking Nvidia Control Panel to cap the frame rate, to see if that does anything in a vanilla game?Ops, didn't know about the link. 🙂
Anyway, I'm willing to do whatever it takes to fix the game, so shoot away any editing that would come to your mind. Right now I'm trying to finish that stupid unskippable tutorial quest, and as soon as I can save the game I'll try your solutions.
In the meantime, I've looked deeper into that "Frame Rate - Refresh Rate" thing that you said and I've found out that it is a problem that many people have with The Sims 3 and new graphic cards - PC (the Frame Rate is way higher than the Refresh, and that cause some graphic glitches), and since The Sims Medieval it's The Sims 3 but in a medieval setting, I thought to look for a solution there. Turned out that one of the guy in that post linked a mod for Skyrim which sets a cap on the frame rate, and it says that it works for the Sims 3 too. After downloading it, things have become slightly better since before (set the frame rate cap to 60 and the refresh rate in the game option to 120). The only glitch that I've experienced so far in the tutorial is the "mountain graphic glitch". Also, I've noticed that this glitch happens after I've finished using the Edit in CAS to change the appearance of a Sim (like once every tenth or more Editing in CAS), and sometimes the glitch disappears after said editing.
So, as you said @mate54, I think that the problem lies in the Frame Rate - Refresh Rate, and that the Edit in CAS, since it changes "location" from the Kingdom Map to the Wardrobe Area, sometimes messes up the frame/refresh rate of the textures.
EDIT: I had to ALT + TAB the game in order to write the answer here, and when I went back to the game the "mountain glitch" disappeared. I think that the Edit in CAS is not the problem, but it's 100% the frame/refresh rate fault.
Thanks for your help, I'll await your instructions for the GraphicRules files and the NVIDIA Control Panel. 🙂
@SuperDrivin For GraphicsRules, I will need some info from the game's DeviceConfig.log, located in Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims Medieval\.
More specifically, it's Graphics Device Info that I'm interested in; the only line I need is Chipset, with Vendor and Device IDs, but you can post the entire section if you'd like.
As for the frame rate cap, using Nvidia Control Panel instead of the Skyrim mod might be a more desirable option, because I can confirm that it works for my game, and I haven't used that mod in a long time. If you want, I can post those instructions along with GraphicsRules.
