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 ...
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@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.
I thought I had the solution in hand, but that's not the case. -_-
As you said I went to the NVIDIA Control Panel and set the Max Frame Rate for The Sims Medieval to 60 and I've also reverted the optimization made by NVIDIA Experience, just in case. For a good chunk of the tutorial I haven't experienced a single glitch, but now (the part of the tutorial where you need to go back to the Castle after sending to the stock the bully) I can't see inside the Castle (the camera get stuck with the loading mouse cursor). The game works just fine (no crash nor anything), it's just the camera that get stuck (I can go back to Watcher Eye).
EDIT: Ok, the game crashed during the tutorial and a I'm starting to freak out! XD As for the camera stuck, I managed to find a temporary solution for a little while: instead of going from the Watcher Eye to inside the Castle, I had to click on the Docks, Judgement Zone, etc. and then click on my Monarch (which was inside the Castle) to see inside. After a while even this solution worked 50% of the time (and once the textures of the Castle floors were gone). After a couple of minutes after that the game crashed. -_-
Here's the information that you requested: Chipset: Vendor: 10de, Device: 2191, Board: 129b1462, Chipset: 00a1
@SuperDrivin Alright, so the files you will need to update, GraphicsRules.sgr and GraphicsCards.sgr, are located in C:\Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\The Sims Medieval\Game\Bin\ if you have the Origin version of the game installed in the default location. I recommend making a backup and also moving them to desktop for editing in case it doesn't let you save changes in the installation folder. You can use Notepad to edit them.
Once you open GraphicsCards.sgr, look for the line vendor "NVIDIA" 0x10b4 0x12d2 0x10de.
Under it, add this: card 0x2191 "NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti" so it matches other entries, then save the changes. Move the file back to the Bin folder.
Open GraphicsRules.sgr and, near the top, find the line seti textureMemory 32. Change 32 to 1024. Under it, add # before setb textureMemorySizeOK false so it looks like # setb textureMemorySizeOK false.
Then, search for GTS 4??, there should only be one entry for the Uber section under NVIDIA. Replace it with GTX 16?? and make sure that quotation marks, asterisks and brackets remain untouched. The line should then look like or match("${cardName}", "*GTX 16??*")) once you've made the changes. Save and move it back to the Bin folder.
Once you've done that, launch the game, wait until the main menu loads, and close it. Check your DeviceConfig.log, and the Name (database) should list your card's name and say Found: 1, Matched: 1.
To cap the frame rate and enable vertical sync, open NVIDIA Control Panel > Manage 3D Settings > Program Settings, and find The Sims Medieval (tsm.exe) on the list. For settings, look for:
- Max Frame Rate: set it to 60 or whatever your screen refresh rate it.
- Triple buffering and Vertical sync: turn them both on.
Save the changes, and remove the frame rate mod that you mentioned before as it's not needed. Launch the game and see if anything has changed. I would recommend testing a clean user folder without mods just to check if there's anything else that might be causing it.
@mate54 I did as you said and the graphic glitches are still there (I've attached to this answer a picture). I doubled checked your instructions just to be sure that I hadn't skipped anything (which I haven't) and the only problem that I've encountered was the fact that in DeviceConfig.log the graphic card that I've added was found but not matched (I've also deleted the Electronic Arts folder in Documents in order to create a brand new one, but nothing changed).
One thing that changed was in the options of the game. I get the message about my video card not being recognized, but in the graphic options some setting were higher than normal from default (like the Shadows and the Sim Quality). But other than that I've noticed from the start some other minor glitches (for example: if I followed my Hero the camera started to shake a little bit everytime it moved to follow it, also the screen became brighter all of a sudden). I've also changed the setting in the NVIDIA Control Pannel as you said and I've removed the Mods.
I think I'm just cursed with EA Games (cause I'm also experiencing some crashes with The Sims 4, but I don't have the patience right now to deal with them). I just wish I could get a refund and get over with this crap. -_-
