What does it mean if the neighborhood's terrain turns black or changes color?

[jthm_nny]

First off, I know for a fact this is a glitch. I just don't know how serious it is. Every so often the neighborhood's terrain turns black, but everything else is not changed. If I am on a lot occasionally the terrain changes too, but it does NOT turn black. It either is covered in triangular black smudge-like things all pointed towards the street of the lot repeated in a pattern, but shows the terrain underneath it, or it is covered with different colored squares, mostly greens and purples. I have never seen the sims or objects glitching in the game so far. Just the terrain. It doesn't last forever and switches back to normal. Every time I tried to take a screenshot it would turn back to normal. I haven't checked if it actually appeared in the screenshot. Once I do, I would need to know where to post the image for it to appear on this thread. I've noticed both Photobucket and Imgur have not shown images properly on this site.

Here's the thing that may or may not be important. I don't know if it is my computer that is doing this or the game itself. I believe it is my computer, which is an Acer Aspire, but I could be wrong. All I know is that I do not think it is caused by the custom content. If I remember right it happened before I downloaded any, but I still could be wrong. I want to know if this glitch is serious, or if it'll just stay there and just be annoying. I never had this problem with my old game, but it was installed on an entirely different computer.

[shoo_flee]

Are you playing on a laptop? Cos i do and the same thing happens to be occasionally, and thats because laptop grapic cards are not good enough to handle the games graphics. I believe this may be your problem, update your graphic card to solve it :)

[julmoo]

Is Pets your latest expansion? Did you get the patch for pets?

Pets is just a horrible expansion. It caused all sorts of problems in my hoods including the things you describe.

[iCad]

Stuff like this is graphics issues. Specifically, it's a cry of pain from graphics that are inadequate for handling the game's graphics, at the very least inadequate for the settings as you have them set up. If you continue to play, the graphics chip in your laptop could be damaged. Keep playing after that and your computer's motherboard may be permanently and irreparably damaged, thus hosing your computer. See this: http://modthesims.info/wiki.php?title=Game_Help:Onboard_Graphics

[a_az13_a]

At least this makes a little bit more sense than a similar problem I used to have. When I had TS2 installed on my old laptop the terrain would constantly be replaced with random hair and skin textures for a few seconds. That was really weird. o.O

[ileeeen]

I have an Acer Aspire and have no problems with The Sims... however, I have more recent expansion packs. I have seen weird color problems when playing an old game, like Diablo 2. The solution in that case was to play in compatibility mode (in that game, it required Windows 98 IIRC). Older versions of Sims 2 may not be well supported by Windows 7, which is pretty different from XP. Have you tried playing in compatibility mode for Windows XP, found under "properties" if you right click the exe?

ETA: Someone mentioned Pets. If this is the latest expansion you have, it came out just before Windows Vista was released, so it was likely only developed for Windows 98-XP.

[Lezuli]

I'd say it's your graphic card. If it's a laptop, it's probably since laptops are known to have a few troubles with 2.
I saw someone mention Pets as well. Pets has been known around here to cause.. bugs. Plain and simple bugs.

[Phoeberg]

Like everybody else says, sounds like your graphics card. This happened to me way back after I first installed Seasons and my computer was too crappy to handle it. The game had been fine up until that point but obviously Seasons was just too much for it to take! Luckily the computer was pretty old and it was kind of time to get a new one anyway.

[Mew1210]

The same thing happens to me. D: My laptop's integrated graphics aren't good enough to support the game. I didn't know it could damage the graphics chip, though...

[ella_in_wonderland]

This happened to me. The water in my neighborhood was completely black. It's a graphics issue. I got a guy in to help me and he suggested I get a graphics card (yeah, I didn't have one!!). Well..I got one and the problem is fixed.

[vertigoinyellow]

It's your graphics. I had a similar problem until I got a cooling pad. It's rare now, but if it ever does happen I immediately shut down the game and give my computer some time.

ETA: Also consider sims 3. It runs very smoothly on my laptop although my sims don't look as pretty as I'd like.

[BeckyBoo8]

I have this issue too, but I don't mind. It doesn't affect gameplay and goes away when I film/take snapshots.

[vertigoinyellow]

Okay, I lied(not on purpose, of course). I wanted to come back to give a warning. Even though I was careful and it stopped happening, my laptop still died. I can't say for sure that my simming was the reason but I do think it's pretty likely. I played maybe 2 or 3 times a week(so not much compared to some other simmers here) and my laptop is less than a year old.

I would suggest ceasing to play on any computer that does this, even if you are being careful about it. Not worth it. I'm buying an Ipad(w/ a bluetooth keyboard for schoolwork) next so I'm not tempted to play. Unfortunately(or perhaps it is fortunate), at the moment, I can't afford anything that would allow me to play.