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Scholar
Original Poster
#1 Old 4th Feb 2015 at 11:34 PM Last edited by Tleilaxu3 : 5th Feb 2015 at 10:29 PM.

This user has the following games installed:

Sims 2, University, Nightlife, Open for Business, Pets, Seasons, Bon Voyage, Free Time, Apartment Life
Default Solved, thanks !Part of a second of black screen right after loading screen is done ?
Just before going into a lot, residential or commercial. And also when exiting from the lot to neighborhood view ?
Getting a little worried. It's not long, like less than a second. But shouldn't the game go from the lot to neighborhood view without any black screen ?
I'm playing Tarlia's clean hoods ; all of my games are patched, and am using the most important mods from Pescado and a few others to prevent unnecessary spawning of strays, npc's, professors and the like.

This is a youtube vid. of what I WANT my game to do. At least I thought my game was doing this and now it's not.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NROJyuWH8sQ

Pause at the 2:38 mark as the Capp family is loading, then watch how smoothly it transitions to the lot--- no black screen at all. Just a slight fade as the Capp's lot comes into view.


SOOOO... I took out ALL of the CC, Hacks, and everything . The only thing I didn't change was that I'm still using Tarlia's clean hoods--- because I like them and they fit my style of gameplay.
Then I loaded a new, (Tarlia-cleaned) hood.
And the black screen still persists. Very short, like a fraction of a second---then the lot loads ok and the game plays ok.

Is there something that's causing the black screen partial second pause ?

Any advice is appreciated.

" Inama Nushif "
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Née whiterider
retired moderator
#2 Old 4th Feb 2015 at 11:46 PM
That happens all the time to me, I've never seen anything to suggest it's a problem.

What I lack in decorum, I make up for with an absence of tact.
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#3 Old 4th Feb 2015 at 11:48 PM
Your computer working? I've always had a bit of a black screen, and more so with all my cc, it just means your computer is working a bit hard I guess. Nothing to worry over.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Scholar
Original Poster
#4 Old 5th Feb 2015 at 12:04 AM
OK, thanks everyone. If the game is running fine otherwise...it's probably not a big deal.

I had one more question and it's a dumb one : At the moment i have my CC in two main groups, one for the apocalypse hood and one for the medieval hood. Whichever hood I'm currently playing, the Cc folder for it goes into my downloads folder. I just switch the cc folders around from a Sims file I keep on my desktop and also a spare cc folder in a memory stick.
I was wondering how I find out how much cc I have exactly, both folders combined ? I sort of know how many files, but not how many MB's or Gigs ? We have photos and some home movies of the kids on the pc that I play my sims on--- but where do you go to find out how much sims cc you have ?
When people say they have 2 gigs -- how did they add their cc together ?
Sorry, seems like the more i try to ask this, the sillier it gets.

I know how much space and memory are left on my pc (older style vista), and there's quite a bit left.

A different thread said that 2 or 3 gigs of cc is about the max to keep running your game on. (?)
thanks again for any help.

" Inama Nushif "
Field Researcher
#5 Old 5th Feb 2015 at 12:48 AM
right click on your downloads folder and hit properties and it will tell you the size of it. and the only limit to how much cc you can have is relative, some people have computers that can only handle 2gb and others have ones that will work fine with 20gb. so it's really based on your computer and how long your willing to wait for your game to load. :P
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#6 Old 5th Feb 2015 at 1:00 AM
How much cc your game can handle is to do with your computer specs and how patient you are at waiting for it to load.

Instead of removing your cc folder each time you play-that can possibly cause corruption of a file doing that, is to make yourself a second Sims 2 folder. Inside my EA Games folder I have 3 Sims 2 folders. The Sims 2 medieval, The Sims 2 Old and The Sims 2 New. Before loading I decide which one I want to play and rename it. So right now I am playing my New folder with my beach hood so I change 'The Sims New' into 'The Sims 2' because the game only reads the folder called 'The Sims 2'. It won't read the one called 'The Sims medieval' or 'The Sims Old'. They just stay in there not being read. This allows me to use different defaults, which seeing you play a medieval game you might like. It's also easier than removing and switching Download folders and safer for your files.

My old game has 20GB and takes an hour to load, which is why I made my new one. The new one has about 5GB and loads in about 7 minutes. 2-3 Gigs is a fairly small Download folder but best probably if you are on an old computer.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Mad Poster
#7 Old 5th Feb 2015 at 2:00 AM
What that vid shows is just the base game and being just the base game it is much faster to load, it shows like you have all EP's and that is the reason why you have a longer black screen/loading screen.

"Sims 2, University, Nightlife, Open for Business, Pets, Seasons, Bon Voyage, Free Time, Apartment Life"

All my Beginning Hoods here at MTS. http://www.modthesims.info/member.php?u=7749491
All my Beginning Hoods as Shopping Districts plus Old Town. http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=523417
MooVille, a tribute to Mootilda and her fabulous lots http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=534158
Scholar
Original Poster
#8 Old 5th Feb 2015 at 2:20 AM
Game loads in about 30 seconds.

Briefly, the specs are : Win. vista Home Premium (6.0, Build 6002)
System manufacturer : HP-Pavilion
System model : KQ497AA-ABA m9340f
BIOS: Bios Date : 04/21/08 11:00:40 Ver: 5.23
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 Quad CPU Q6700 @ 2.66GHz (4CPU's), ~2.7GHz
Memory: 6142 MB RAM
Page File: 2427MB used, 9972MB available
DirectX 11

So I'm running my sims on a dinosaur pc---but it works fairly smoothly. I also installed sims 2 on my hubby's win 7 laptop...... that's a topic i do not wish to discuss at this time until I've played it a bit more on it (Lenovo)---it's a 'vanilla' game with no CC at all, and it likes to crash when creating sims in 'caf'. bleh.

Checked my downloads folder on this HP desktop , and it says(Size) 0.98GB , (Size on disk) 0.99 GB (Contains) 2,549 Files, 321 folders.

Thought I had more than that. Maybe that's a good thing, though.

I think I might make a second Sims 2 folder. Especially since my NPC's are now medieval-specific.

Thanks again for the advice,everyone !
Well at least now I know.

" Inama Nushif "
Scholar
Original Poster
#9 Old 5th Feb 2015 at 2:26 AM
Quote: Originally posted by marka93
What that vid shows is just the base game and being just the base game it is much faster to load, it shows like you have all EP's and that is the reason why you have a longer black screen/loading screen.

"Sims 2, University, Nightlife, Open for Business, Pets, Seasons, Bon Voyage, Free Time, Apartment Life"


Ohhh... Yes, my sims are fully up-to-date with all exp. packs and stuff packs except Holidays. Lest they feel needy or a lack of fulfillment in their lives.

I didn't notice that in the vid., and it's been many years since I played with just the base game. Still remember the first time playing...our older pc couldn't handle much except the lowest quality graphics. And still I stayed up for 6 hours , making a family and a house. :p

" Inama Nushif "
Scholar
Original Poster
#10 Old 5th Feb 2015 at 3:40 PM
Quote: Originally posted by joandsarah77
How much cc your game can handle is to do with your computer specs and how patient you are at waiting for it to load.

Instead of removing your cc folder each time you play-that can possibly cause corruption of a file doing that, is to make yourself a second Sims 2 folder. Inside my EA Games folder I have 3 Sims 2 folders. The Sims 2 medieval, The Sims 2 Old and The Sims 2 New. Before loading I decide which one I want to play and rename it. So right now I am playing my New folder with my beach hood so I change 'The Sims New' into 'The Sims 2' because the game only reads the folder called 'The Sims 2'. It won't read the one called 'The Sims medieval' or 'The Sims Old'. They just stay in there not being read. This allows me to use different defaults, which seeing you play a medieval game you might like. It's also easier than removing and switching Download folders and safer for your files.

My old game has 20GB and takes an hour to load, which is why I made my new one. The new one has about 5GB and loads in about 7 minutes. 2-3 Gigs is a fairly small Download folder but best probably if you are on an old computer.


( Emphasis mine ) JoeandSarah ; So, do you make separate folders for each of your hoods, correct ? Like a separate downloads folder, separate logs folder, etc.? Thus, the game is only reading the folders that are under the title, "The Sims 2".
I'm being specific so that I don't mess anything up.
Also found out that switching CC folders out can corrupt the CC --long story and not going to post it right now.
I like your suggestion and it might make for cleaner gameplay , instead of digging through countless files in my CC backup for the right stuff for a specific neighborhood.

" Inama Nushif "
Née whiterider
retired moderator
#11 Old 5th Feb 2015 at 4:36 PM
Quote: Originally posted by joandsarah77
Instead of removing your cc folder each time you play-that can possibly cause corruption of a file doing that, is to make yourself a second Sims 2 folder.
Assuming you cut and paste instead of copying and pasting, corruption is fairly unlikely, though you're right that it can happen - but more pertinently, cutting and pasting is the same thing, in terms of what your hard drive and file table are doing, as renaming a folder, so there won't be any difference in risk between the two.

What I lack in decorum, I make up for with an absence of tact.
Scholar
Original Poster
#12 Old 5th Feb 2015 at 5:51 PM
Thus far the only wonky thing to happen lately; involved trying to use NPC's with defaulted clothing. I blame my computer reading it wrong and not the creator. Sometimes NPC's showed up correctly and sometimes... not. And I did download and install all folders from the download---and made sure --at the time--- there were no defaults or anything to conflict. As far as I know.After removing the cc for default npc's--many thumbnails were showing incorrectly with flesh-colored meshes and when clicked on (in CAF) the sim would be wearing the flesh-colored mesh. Started up a new hood and removed all cc except hacks and Affinity Sims' chickens. The 'fleshy meshes' were finally gone.

For moving folders of cc from one folder to another... what I'm doing is to select "move to folder..." and copy it over to a folder where all of the cc for a certain neighborhood is. Atm it's in a folder on my desktop.
Joeandsarah's idea might be better and make for easier gameplay.

" Inama Nushif "
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#13 Old 5th Feb 2015 at 9:32 PM
It only takes me a few seconds to rename the folder, but given my amount of cc it would take 10-30 minutes for my Download folder to cut and paste to my desk top. Also one time I found some Strawberry Patch Toddler clothes were not being read in the moving as I had apparently buried them. That Download folder is rather a mess.

Nysha I didn't realize it was the same thing, but that still takes ages and renaming does not.

Tleilaxu3 When you rename your The Sims 2 folder to anything and load the game, your game makes you a new one.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Scholar
Original Poster
#14 Old 5th Feb 2015 at 9:46 PM
Alright, so then I just name the folder containing the hood I wish to use at the moment ,under EA Games "The Sims 2" . Any other folders will remain unread, but stay put ?
And for your CC, you just have your downloads folder put into the correct hood -- only the one you're using ?
It seems like a simplified way to run the game when you have more than one theme going.
Saves some time !

" Inama Nushif "
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#15 Old 5th Feb 2015 at 9:56 PM
No, right now you only have one 'The Sims 2 folder', don't you? You need to rename it to anything like 'The Sims 2 Old'' run your game so it can make you a new 'The Sims 2 folder'. Once it's made the folder exit your game and set it up how you want it to be. Then put the correct Download folder into the correct Sims 2 folder. This might also include a hood, paintings, a cheat file, anything else you have saved that you want to bring over.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Scholar
Original Poster
#16 Old 5th Feb 2015 at 10:28 PM
Yes, just the one folder.
OK thanks for clearing that up !
Just that I've got a tendency to run and try something without paying attention to the instructions. This should keep the defaults and other cc from creating weird errors !!!

" Inama Nushif "
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#17 Old 5th Feb 2015 at 11:08 PM
I have so many medieval defaults from Sunni and Almightyhat now, including the roads, it really made my medieval hood look realistic. Plus no worry about those defaults doing anything to my modern game.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
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