Slow Game after WA or Patch? Read This

[phoebe91]

[align=center]There's so much stuff going on with slowed games (and after experiencing one myself), I am finally going to make a thread with all of my knowledge.

Do you have CC installed?

If you do, this is the cause for the slow down. If it isn't, there's something else wrong with it. You'll have to do a little bit more research for that.

So this thread will focus on how to figure out what CC is causing the slow down.

Did you install WA and/or the Patch with your Mods folder in?

If you did, that's a possible reason why your game may be screwed up.

Unlike TS2, where everything was just "added" to your game, ANYTHING under your program files actually MODIFIES your game files every time you run it. Therefore ANYTHING can be a cause for a slow down or crash. The not-so-bad looking hair could be seriously slowing down your game because of the way the creator made it. The object mod could possibly not be the reason why your game could be crashing, it could be a pattern. With TS3, every file is a suspect.

So if you installed WA or any patch with CC installed, you basically tried to patch over your CC, which is a cause for corruption. My recommending solution would be a complete re-installation of the game. Just make sure you save everything you don't want to get deleted.

So, you took out your CC when you installed WA or Patch, but now that you've put it back, it takes forever to load. And when it does, the game is seriously laggy.

This means that some file (possibly ANY file) can be causing this. And there's different file things too.

Corrupted Files: Anything you download can be possibly corrupted. If its corrupted, the game probably tries to run a check and sees it, but doesn't know what to do.

The Sims 2 Packages: If you want to admit it or not, its possible that you've mixed up TS2/TS3 files. I did it, you can do it too even if you don't have TS2. Some sites aren't clear if their content is TS2 or TS3 or it isn't organized very clearly. The one way to distinguish it is if you have a MESH file. Then chances are that its TS2.

Cloned Objects: Not ALL objects that were cloned will cause problems. However, a plant in TS3 base game got changed in the Patch/WA, and there's possibly a few others that EA changed between the base game and WA/Patch. So it's possible that when downloading an object, it could have been cloned from the base game object and when you put it into a WA/Patch game, then it can't load correctly because the make up of the cloned object has changed.

So, how do you fix it?

This part is a bit tricky, and I've learned everything from the research that I've done. Most of the stuff that I'll be telling you came from this MTS thread. But since I know that it can be a bit confusing, I'll try to make it as simple as possible. I'm going to list different ways of finding the bad CC files, from easiest to advanced.

Split your CC -

This is the easiest to understand, but probably very time consuming. It's what I call splitting, just from TS2. First, you take half of your CC, and place somewhere else, so you are only running half of your CC. Load the game.

1. Is your game still slow?
    - Then split your CC again

2. Is your game no longer slow?
    - Then the problem is in your other half of your CC

Keep going through it until you find the problem. It is also possible that both halves could have problem files, so you'll want to check all of it.

ALSO: If you organize your files by the date modified (or date created) and find one that has been modified before the game was even out, that is definitely NOT a sims 3 package file.

Run it through S3PE -

S3PE is a program that is found at MTS. It's almost like SimPE from TS2. If you open up files through this program, it should hopefully pick out the bad files, TS2 files, or anything else that could cause problems. You'll know what files are bad or TS2 when the program CAN'T open them.

Use a Program Monitor -

This is definitely the most advanced, but yet the most helpful. I will try my best to explain it, but the MTS thread I linked up at the top also has the instructions.

For Windows:

1. Download this Process Monitor and open it with your choice of unzipping program (If you download CC, you'll be able to open this file)
2. Run the .EXE file and agree to the license and just get to the program. (You'll most likely need to get an Admin's approval if on Vista or 7).
3. Press Ctrl + L (Or Filter in the Toolbar, then Filter > Filter)
4. A window will pop up. On the top where it says "Display Entries matching these conditions:..." you need to have it say (by selecting the options): "Process Name is" and then for the third choice you need to put "TS3.exe" if you run the base game or "TS3EP01.exe" if you have the base game. Press Add. Then OK. Now you'll have everything set up correctly.
5. Run the game. You need to run the game for at least 2 minutes once you get to your house. Make sure it runs UNPAUSED.
6. Quit the game and look at the process monitor. Look for anything under your mods folder. Is there package files that are CONSTANTLY reloaded? Guess what, those are your problems. Delete the files or remove it from the folder.
7. Keep doing that until you get a non-laggy game

MEMORY WARNING: When I did this, there were 5 makeup files that were reloaded soooo many times, that it took up the entire 20 million instances captured (yes, 20 million and that was just LOADING the game). Because it was SO much, the program couldn't monitor anymore, and I got low memory warnings, and my screen resolution changed. IF THIS HAPPENS - DO NOT PANIC. Just close TS3, close any programs that you can. Take a quick glimpse through the process monitor and see what's constantly reloaded, restart your computer to get your memory restored, delete those files, and start again. Your computer WILL NOT DIE.

For Mac
*I do not own a Mac, but these instructions are from that MTS thread that I linked to*

dateline= Wrote:- Start the game
- Cmd-tab out and open /Applications/Utilities/Activity Monitor.app
- Select "The Sims 3", click the "Inspect" button at the top of the window, select "Open Files and Ports" in the panel that opens.

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Whoa, that's a lot of information. Just to tell you, all of this is preliminary, there's definitely no right/wrong way to go about this.

If you have any questions or concerns, be sure to post below. I just ask you to PLEASE read through the entire post before posting. There's a lot of stuff here and by reading it through, you might be able to answer your own question

Also, if you have your own way to find out what's bad concerning CC, please mention it!

From what I've read, these problems are from a small percentage of package files. So if your lucky, you haven't had any problems with it.

[PollySim]

Hi,
Thanks so much for posting this!  I got WA for my Christmas and eagerly installed it on Christmas day.  The game was dreadfully slow and laggy. I checked the system requirements and found that my processor was not fast enough - but this had never caused a problem before.

I ran the process checker and found 6 pieces of cc that were being loaded over and over again - a Sims 2 Christmas tree and lights that I had installed just the night before being prime suspect.  I removed them and now my game is back to normal  {clap}

Thanks again,

Px

[PollySim]

{unsure} ?