[COLLECTION THREAD] Autonomy and Simulation Lag (Seasons Patch Edition)

[sleekoduck87]

@crinrict
You said: " I don't know what you mean by setting performance to 100% but with your computer, you should actually set your graphics settings to mid-low."

Why are you doling out advice if you don't know what I meant when I said I set my performance settings to 100%?

1. It means I set my computer's performance settings to 100%. I would hope you actually understand what that means. It's not rocket science.
2. I gave a specific setting I had in my game. You suggest changing it, but you don't name anything specific. I don't like guesswork when this was not an issue prior to the update in June.

Your answer was full of speculation on why you imagine my computer might be the issue. None of it, in fact is true. I am not running CC or mods. I am not playing large households. "Tons of items" is a very vague term.

The fact is that my game worked prior to the update. The fact is that 80% of the other Simmers who responded to that poll had working software prior to that update. None of us do, now. The fact is that my computer met the specs of the game that I purchased. If it doesn't now, it is because of a mistake the developers created with their update.

Quit making up stories about why you think your paying customers are at fault and actually do something to repair your glitched update.

[BlueDaisy62]

@sleekoduck87

ive only read the last page or so of your issue and i didnt see your dialog but i wanted to say that the update before seasons would still have possibly added a higher performance need than your computer can handle. again not saying that is 100% the issue but @crinrict isnt there in person with you looking at your computer, he also doesnt work at EA or as a Guru hes just trying to help and thats why he says possibly and assumes you could have mods even if you say you dont. i just dont like seeing people in this community being harsh to one another when we all just want help/ want to help. But again thats just my two cents. I would also put it that if your game is borderline anything else running in the background, be it chrome or notepad or music etc, will put too much strain on your computer. it is also advised that you try playing with the lowest possible graphics setting to see if that helps your lag issue and then maybe you could try slowly turning up your settings if the lowest ones work, to see what your limit is. Also check through Task Manager to make sure nothing is running in the background and that all of your drivers are up to date. hope you get to sim again soon!!

[BlueDaisy62]

@sleekoduck87

After looking at your dialog yes you are definitely at the minimum requirements if not overdoing it with all the expansions you have. 

i went ahead and tried to check and i firmly believe (as a computer engineer major) seasons is too much for your system. the requirements for seasons alone Minimum are:

• CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 or AMD Athlon 64 X2 4000+ (2.0 GHz Dual Core required if using integrated graphics)
• CPU SPEED: Info
• RAM: 2 GB
• OS: Windows XP
• VIDEO CARD: NVIDIA GeForce 6600 or ATI Radeon X1300 or Intel GMA X4500
• SOUND CARD: Yes
• FREE DISK SPACE: 10 GB

that graphics requirement is much more than what your graphics can handle. if you didn't have two processors the processor would be too strong as well. 

If you haven't already you can try Laptop mode (listed below) as well as what i recommended with the setting your game graphics to as low as possible.  

Good luck and i hope this helps!! 

  LAPTOP MODE

If your PC or Mac is at or near the minimum requirements, or if you’re playing on a laptop, you might want to run your game in Laptop Mode to improve your frame rate (for smoother graphics) and make the game run more efficiently (for longer battery life).

Setting it up works the same way whether you’re on PC or Mac:

1.  Click the " … " icon in-game.
2. Click Game Options.
3. Check the option for Laptop Mode to turn it on.
   • If you want to turn Laptop Mode off, uncheck that box instead.

[crinrict]

Wasn't around yesterday so couldn't answer earlier

You gave me your graphics resolution and I tried to tell you to lower your graphics setting. Seems I used the wrong term and it's Graphics Quality in the game (see picture for visual). So I was giving you concrete instructions but used the wrong term as I didn't check the game itself.

It's a fact that your graphics chip never fulfilled the necessary specs for the game as it was alway 128 MB of dedicated memory which you do not have (see your DxDiag). On top of that, the Celeron CPU that you have is a weak processor and in combination with you graphics chip will have issues with more graphic/cpu intensive games. Yes, Seasons will add extra stain to your graphics. Each game has to draw the line somewhere with specs and Sims minimum specs are already really minimum.

It's true that I don't know what houses/apartments/lots you play and how many items you have in your inventory and was speculating but that was a general statement on people can do to reduce lags. 'm not making up stories. I looked at your specs and compared them to the minimum requirements and then told you, you don't fulfill them which isn't nice to hear, especially if you don't have the budge for something new but it is what it is.

When you read the first post, you will see that I don't blame peoples computers. There are several different kinds of lags which are all a bit different that's why I generally don't answer this thread cause this is for collecting data for the devs to fix what they can. For me, there's not much to say then what wasn't already said in the first post.

When I do see someone that potentially has a different issue and/or spec issues, I do try to give tips what one can be done. 

About my cc remark: that was also more general but after 6 years of AHQ, I'm not always inclined to be believe that people really don't have cc when they say they don't. Without accusing you, sometimes people do have stuff they have forgotten about or they simply don't wanna say cause they feel it puts them in a bad light. It doesn't. I used to use lots of cc during Sims 3 and 4 both and that's ok. It's what it's there for. In this case it was more about the amount of stuff you add to the game (which also includes packs which you have a lot of).

Please also read @BlueDaisy62 posts if you don't believe me. Season and C&D have actually also upped the minimum requirements and you need 4 GB of RAM now, which you do have but again, it's the minimum required.

You can try disable some packs to see if it runs better without them and if it does, try ask Customer Support for a refund on them.

[Rosola_A]

How do you create a new file? When I pressed file and then new, it gave me a blank page.

[crinrict]

Hi @Rosola_A

Just run DxDiag again and then safe that file. That should create a new one.

[Canuckfan86]

Time has started skipping backwards again in my game since Seasons. When in ultra speed (at night or when all Sims are at work) time continuously skips backwards. I do not play with CC or Mods and have created a brand new save file. I still continue to have this issue.

[Here4Snacks]

Issue:

Sims stand around idle while waiting to do the command they were given & they never ever action the command.

This only happens to me when:

1) in a group, anywhere, even at home if in a group.

2) visiting other plots outside of home (not including walking around towns, fishing, digging, harvesting (as long as I'm by myself), outside markets). For example when I get asked out to dinner the sounds are there but everyone on the whole lot just stands there. Also when I go to a place by myself, say a bar, I can walk around but as soon as I try to do something my sim remains idle, unlike the example given when in a date scenario all the npcs are automated (not idle like I experience in a group.)

This issue started after 1.44.88.1020 ,  the idle issue did start after 1.44.83.1020 BUT I was able to reset it by going in & out of CAS mode or turn my sim into a plant sim, after 1.44.88.1020 these ghetto fixes don't work and there is nothing I can do.

What I tried  without success:

◆ Empty out your Sims inventories (all households you have ever played)

◆ Reduce the amount of objects in your house 

◆ Play in a smaller house with less art pieces and stuff lying around (super happy this wasn't the fix since this would have ruined the game since my storyline was a rags to riches and have spent so long, so long, slowly working and saving to move up to the house I am in now, if I had to downgrade I think I would have walked away from the game TBH.)

◆ Once the freezing occurs, try saving your game (save as), go to your options and back or press M or to go to the world map and back

◆ Lower Graphics settings

◆ If you play with higher resolution than 1920x1080, try lowing to 1920x1080

◆ Go to the Audio settings and remove the check next to Enable Mood Sting

◆ Make sure you fulfill the minimum requirements of the game 

◆ Reduce the amount of mods and cc you use (removed 3gb of working, season compatible mods and no improvements)

◆ Start a new game (completely shut down the game, then restart it and start a new save game) I did this twice, first time lasted 7 hours (RL time) and then I started to interact with seasons stuff like flower arrange, buy a scarecrow etc without thinking and the idle bug happened so I started a new game, didn't touch anything season related and it lasted much longer but ultimately happened again.

◆ Move your Sims to a new game (see above.)

❉❉ The only solution for me was to uninstall seasons, I'm not techy enough to figure out how to move the game back to 1.44.83.1020 ❉❉

After uninstalling seasons I didn't get this issue at all.

Some info for you, working from memory because my game computer is at home and I'm out but the basics are:

◆ I know my save is close to 90MB, I looked at it when I created a 64x64 zoo a few weeks back and before the zoo it was around 86ishMB and the zoo had a lot more cc then I had prior to the zoo.

◆ Yes I was able to recreate this problem on new saves HOWEVER once seasons was removed it never happened on the new saves.

◆  No idea about specs but I play sims 4 on our GL703GM (strix) which has had some upgrades (2tb sshd instead of the 1tb for example but tech clueless so don't know what that actually means) and it can handle some pretty graphic intensive games, like FFXV on ultra, so I figure it can handle sims 4 with only 3gb of mods??? forgive me I haven't compared the requirements from the other games we play because I figure if I can play those with no problems I can play S4 without issue. 

So what I'm going to do is, as much as I love seasons, is not play that expansion until a patch is applied because I wasn't experiencing this idle issue prior to 1.44.83.1020 so figure the problem lies in one of those later patches so I'll wait (though for the record I'm not a fan of paying for something I can't play.)

no need to reply just adding to this for your records.

[crinrict]

Hi @Here4Snacks

could you also attach your DxDiag to your post ? Instructions should be on the first post.

[vikixc]

I have attatched my DxDiag
Mine has been lagging since Seasons. I no longer have CC/Mods, I removed them because I thought that may have been the cause, it isn't. New saves, repairing in Origin, clearing cache, emptying inventories, disabling online features, I disabled the mood change sound and even lowered settings makes no difference. I bought and built my current PC just over a week ago, I had this issue on my old PC and it is still the same on the current one.

Examples:
Clicking on Sims, it takes about 2 seconds for the interaction menu to show.
When  interactions are being added to my Sims' queue, the icon movement when it joins the queue is really sluggish and slow.
My Sims will stand around for a while when I ask them to do something.
When I ask my Sim to do something then switch to another Sim they go off and do something else
My Sims move when the game is paused,

Time also gets stuck when unpausing/coming out of build mode.
My game locks up alot when I am moving the camera, resulting in stuttering.
Cafes and Restaraunts are out of the question, they are completely unplayable. It locks up, I can barely move the camera and my Sims are frozen solid, it's so bad I couldn't even get my Sim to leave, they were stuck there, I had to retstart the game.