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Test Subject
Original Poster
#1 Old 8th Apr 2018 at 1:33 AM

This user has the following games installed:

Sims 3, World Adventures, Ambitions, Late Night, Generations, Pets, Showtime, Supernatural, Seasons, University Life, Island Paradise, Into the Future
Default Sims Interaction Pie Menu Lag
Hi guys.

My name is Tori, and I'm having a heck of a time trying to figure this issue out. I use a lot of cc; always have, always will, but I've noticed problems with my Sims 3 game that after some serious testing phases; seriously concerns me.

Some preface;

- I have followed Nitromon's tutorial for fixing my graphics card; graphics are fantastic, actually.
- I check all my custom content with delphy's dashboard and delete anything corrupt as well as conflicted.
- I rigfix all my objects to work with the Pet's patch.
- I use CC Magic to combine my files and organize.
- I've loaded in the thumbnails for all my custom objects and CAS mods
- I delete my caches everytime I play and my FeaturedItems folder is disabled.
- I have V-sync and Triple buffering on- as well as limited my FPS to 60 through Nvidia Inspector.
- Clean installed everything after nuking my old game archive.

I have tested this stupid game up down and all around. I have looked through all the posts here that have similar problems; but my circumstances are a bit more complex.

Every time I click on a sim [it's worse when it's an active sim] I get lag. Clicking on other sims is laggy too. I have lag in other places in the game that don't concern me; normal things- CAS lag, etc.
Depending on how much cc [the original thought behind this issue] I have [only 4GB right now] it gets worse. I have most of Nraas's mods, and have tested without my mods folder and just cc. Still laggy. The more stuff I add [only seems to be buildbuy content] the worse it gets.

HOWEVER! Somehow my game turned off my expansions [due to some cache clearing] and I ended up loading up JUST the base game. There's NO lag. I have all my custom content in game- and it's super fast. I'm thinking it might be something to do with an expansion. Which one I don't know [yet], and how to fix it? I don't know that either.

I'm at my wit's end, to be honest. I want to play, but this problem makes it impossible. If anyone could help, it would be very appreciated.

Also - I've also noticed that the screen blanks out when I exit game, and I have to task manager out of it. Not sure if this is related, but hey- thought it should be mentioned.
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Test Subject
Original Poster
#3 Old 8th Apr 2018 at 2:46 AM
Hey Nitromon! I hope you're well! Glad to see you again! :D

I did not know that about the caches- unless the game is crashing, I won't touch them. Or whatever you would suggest.

Alright, that does make total sense- I don't have any 'buildbuy' mods that add custom interactions. I'm glad you said that- so I can avoid downloading more of them in the future.

Can I ask your personal opinion about the Nraas Mods? Which ones are absolutely necessary in your taste? I have at least 5+ and I can imagine since they have SOOO many options that's what's cluttering my game. I am happy that it's not too many custom objects or cas content. I don't think I could live without that!

I did a bit of testing in the meantime- I thought maybe it was one borked expansion- but it didn't just 'drop off' in performance, it got worse with every pack I added. So everything has been pieced together now! It really started to lag when I enabled University, and got progressively worse with Island Paradise and Into the Future. Which is exactly what you said- each expansion adds options, and my game has been bombarded.

Quote: Originally posted by nitromon
Hi,

I can only add a couple of things.

- You don't need to clear your cache before you play each time. If anything, that actually creates lag as the cache needs to be refilled every time you play. You only need to clear the cache if you were having problems.

- The "click sim lag" is very specific, which is good for diagnosing. It is related to mods which injects "new" interactions. That's the good news. The bad news is, it can be a number of things.

1) Generally speaking, even if every mod is working properly, you will have this lag and it will increase in length of time for every new mod you add that injects more custom/new interaction. For this reason, I limit those type of mods and only choose the ones which are necessary. This is why I don't have all the NRAAS mods and their extra modules. You will also notice that of of course, with every new expansion, there is an increase in this lag since every new expansion adds more interactions. But without mods, they should be relatively unnoticeable.

2) There could be a broken interaction mod OR two mods which conflict, which is what is causing a longer delay lag when clicking a sim.

3) The reason the lag is not present when you only run base game indicates either:

a) yes an expansion is borked
b) expansions are fine, but in conflict with one of the interaction mods
c) expansions are fine, an interaction mod that is busted or in conflict with other mods is turned off b/c it needs an expansion. Basically if the expansion is turned off, all mods related to that expansion is also disabled. (I think)
d) expansions are fine, mods are fine, you simply disabled a lot of interactions by disabling the expansions, leaving the lag from custom interactions relatively unnoticed.
Test Subject
Original Poster
#5 Old 8th Apr 2018 at 3:03 AM
Quote: Originally posted by nitromon
It is a matter of taste and also depending on what other mods other than NRAAS mod you may have.

Generally I use mods which fix or improves the games such as clean u mods:
- MC
- Overwatch
- error trap
- Traffic mod (for that pesky infinite ice cream truck bug and to delete fake taxi
- dresser (but on manual only)

Then there are the mods which I adds to the enjoyment:
- story progression
- traveler
- relativity
- Register
- decensor

Generally I don't add any of the addons b/c they just add more stuff. I wanted some functions from GoHere and Tempest, but I noticed lag when I add them. It isn't b/c those two lags the game, but it is more about adding "more" on top of what I already have, the population and age of my game, and what other mods I have.

So interaction mods are not necessarily "big" or heavy." They could be smaller mods which simply adds small new functions. I know a couple that adds hidden auto functions to the menu. They could also be ones which "removes" certain functions. For every one of them you add, they just stack up. So you can be overwhelmed by having too many of those. But to be completely honest, they've always been within reason until I added another huge mod.

This is why if I don't recommend people running say NRAAS with awesome mod. I know they offer some similar functions and also various different functions. But pick one, having both really slow down the game.



So that could be simply the expansions themselves are broken or just heavy or you have some interaction mods which require those expansions and are in conflict.


Okay, good to know. I've never used Awesome-mod, so that's not a problem. :>

And expansions can be broken? Is there any way to fix them, or is it just better to not have them enabled?
Test Subject
Original Poster
#7 Old 8th Apr 2018 at 3:17 AM
Quote: Originally posted by nitromon
I'm pretty sure you can just re-install them. However, the chance of them being broken is extremely rare. It is more likely you have a mod conflict or a broken mod instead.

So, whenever you click a sim, the game loads base interaction, then expansion interaction, then custom (add or subtract). So in your NRAAS mods, if they have sim menu option, turn them off.

But still, I do run several heavy mods and I have a quite a noticeable lag when I click a sim, but it is not unplayable. So I'm more inclined to believe there's some conflict or broken mod in your game.

----

Try testing a clean run (no mods/cc), but with all your expansions on. Just for test. If the game runs fine, you know your expansions are fine.


Okay! Good to know it's rare. I just reinstalled everything yesterday so I don't think anything 'legitimate' so to speak- is broken.

Ohhh! I did not know that you could do that with Nraas, I will mess around with that right away.

And yes, I already did this with no mods/cc and the game is perfect. I believe my expansions are fine- and in the meantime I did some checking, and after removing a lot of 'object' mods that could be deemed incompatible, the lag has pretty much gone away.

The only problem is- I'm not entirely sure how to check if the content would be incompatible with certain expansions. I can get rid of 'bad' files with dashboard, but that's about as far as my knowledge goes with that.

I know a lot of modders put the compatibility in the description of their download, but there's still a lot of old archived stuff that the source is no longer working [such as repulsive desire conversions- they're hosted at the graveyard, and the original site [I believe it was BPS? is long gone.] Do you know of any sort of program that could do that? Or is it just something one has to sift-through?
Test Subject
Original Poster
#9 Old 8th Apr 2018 at 4:26 AM
Quote: Originally posted by nitromon
Haha, I don't even trust the dashboard all that much. Not saying it is not a good program, but just that it is not perfect.

I organize my mods very carefully, after a hard lesson with TS2 where I just put in a lot of mods unsorted and the game is very much borked.

So that would be my recommendation. General sorting into folders - objects, clothing, hack mods, etc... and of course, I use TWO new folders - newest and new.

All new mods go into "newest folder" for test run, typically a couple of months. Then they move to the "new" folder for more months. Only then I am satisfied nothing is wrong, I put them into the specific mod folders of their type.


Okay! Good to know! I'll definitely do that. Right now I'm re-adding cc slowly and testing it. I seem to have figured out something though - objects that aren't compatible [or require a stuff-pack I don't have] don't show thumbnails in the buildbuy menu. they also have the 'color aura' of the stuff-pack they require [that I don't have] and never load in. I noticed that in the beginning, but wasn't entirely sure what it meant! Now I know. From now on, it's adding bits and bobs slowly and testing!

Thanks again Nitromon; you always come to the rescue! Seriously, I've been trying to figure this out for the past three days and I got so frustrated. Thank you! :>
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