[WORK IN PROGRESS] Autonomy and Simulation Lag

[ArchXDiablo]

@zirize

I understand that, but the mod for simulation lag does nothing to dumb down the processes in the game. All it does is modifies the clock simulation and the instances where seems look for breaks related to multitasking. It's surprisingly a rather simple mod. I recommend if you haven't already to download it and check how it's written both the script and the tuning.

Yes python is awful at multi-threading but the issue as is right now can be improved vastly.

[zirize]

@ArchXDiablo 

It's fine tuning I memtioned. Nature of fine tuning, it does not guarantee all players improved situations especially in current ts4(ts4 has literally exponentially many many variables no other games have.) some players experience better, some don't or some worse. For me, I can't notice any change. So I don't use it.

I think Devs know that, so they don't consider a viable solution and I agree them

The real issue multi-threading in TS4 is python can not execute threads simulatenously. Python can only execute one thread at a time unless giving up threadsafe. It means literally all the sims in a lot can act one by one. To bring to players an illusion that all the sims act simulatenously, devs need hacks and tricks which make codes complex and unmanageable.

There are many near-game-breaking bugs from several months to almost a year old which devs didn't release fixes until today. I think some point, devs realized they can not handle situations no more. To overcome this, devs had to upgrade python 2 to 3 which has better multithreading implementation. However still python.

Honestly I don't have a big hope here. specially simulation lag. I'm just waiting for those near-game-breaking bugs fixes.

[MagTheMercenary]

After several months of not playing, I finally returned to TS4 recently only to discover that despite all the updates and patches that have been downloaded this simulation lag problem is still a severe issue. I don't know what all those updates and patches fix but it definitely isn't the main issue that's the whole point of this thread.

But at least the one thing I have discovered is that the main problem seems to be the Seasons expansion and just that alone. It's not the custom content or any other expansion and game packs either - because as soon as I remove and disable Seasons the game plays just like it should with every other expansion packs working fine.

I seriously hope and implore you guys look further into what's making Seasons the absolute cause of this frustrating simulation lag problem. It's going to be a whole year without a proper fix soon and it's a damn shame because a lot of us have spent nearly hundreds if not more on this game alone over time.

Stop making expansions and game packs, just give us a permanent fix. I get it, you guys are doing your best and all but how is it that some of us have identified that the main cause of this issue is Seasons yet none of you can confirm this? For anyone else who has this issue try uninstalling Seasons and disabling it while you play, see if it works - because it definitely did for me.

[nick098xx]

hi ! can you guys fix the bugs that occur in sims 4 console... its almost a year and you guys seems not care much about the bugs.. everytime when my sims went to another lots ( not residential ), the gameplay become buggy and the fps totally dropped. Please guys, its very not enjoyable at the moment

[nick098xx]

you guys need to test the game before even sell it, maybe ps4 does not support sims 4... or maybe you guys need to decrease the graphics for sims 4 console.. Im not gonna buy any other pack untill you guys remove the bugs

[Zombnom]

Product: The Sims 4
Platform:PC
Which language are you playing the game in? English
How often does the bug occur? Every time (100%)
What is your current game version number? 1.50.67.1020
What expansions, game packs, and stuff packs do you have installed? All as of April 2019.
Steps: How can we find the bug ourselves? Have the whole household at work at the same time or have the whole household sleeping at the same time. Use ultra speed (speed 3 + sleeping household) while they are all asleep or away.
What happens when the bug occurs? The ultra speed when the entire household is asleep or at work "stalls"/moves slowly, and freezes the clock with the spinning minute digit without the time increasing (4:1# AM stalls for multiple RL seconds). This results in time not progressing during these stalls, and therefore the animations move slower and their needs do not increase at the pace they should.
What do you expect to see? Time should progress at the fastest rate without stalling or slowing down.
Have you installed any customization with the game, e.g. Custom Content or Mods? Yes
Did this issue appear after a specific patch or change you made to your system? No

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I have tested this with my mods + CC installed AND without any mods or CC installed with no change. Tested after a cache clear and a repair game with no success.

It makes these moments drag on, and especially takes a long time when using poorer quality objects that don't increase a Sims energy levels quickly.

This is a longstanding issue in TS4 I have found with each hardware change or reformat on my PC. I have attached a DxDiag regardless, if perhaps there's some consistency between my hardware changes/reformats that I might not be seeing.

NOTE: this is unrelated to the apartment issue, this is on regular lots, and occurred before and after I installed City Living. It is exclusively related to when the household is asleep/away.

VIDEO (w/ mods + CC): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VM0YwN-O4Z4

VIDEO 2 (no mods or CC): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtwejTIRrmM

[crinrict]

HI @Zombnom 

I've merged your post with the collection thread on the issue.

Thanks for your report.

[tyrianprince]

Throwing a possible solution out there from personal experience for players who may be experiencing this issue due to PC performance limits.
So I'm actually playing to purposely push my PC in this particular save file. Ridiculous amount of Mods & CC, MCCC pushing household limit to 25 and just been playing this family 16 & Counting-style, noting game performance as I go along (granted a lot of my mods are simple fixes I deemed necessary for overstuffed household gameplay). The PC I'm using is pretty decent, but nothing super high end. Just a newer HP Pavillion with a few minor upgrades and I keep it well maintained. Playing normally I managed to get to around 11-13 sims in the household before experiencing lag issues. My solution was to download Razer Cortex (I've used it previously on a lower quality PC) and run it with the standard recommended game boost settings. It's a free program, pretty straightforward, and even with some 900ish MB in my mods folder and 18 sims in a household ran pretty smoothly (I'm coming up on 25 now and experiencing a little lag again, as is to be expected, but not nearly as much as before). 
Long story short: if all else fails, try a program like Razer Cortex to free up processing power. For a standard game (don't know too many people pushing 25 sims in a household so this is an extreme example) it should solve most lag issues and if not, you can eliminate PC performance as the cause.

[Bearpal64]

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

I am really amazed at how much of a difference I noticed in the game speed. It seems much more fluid and less choppy. I miss the mood music but hey if it helps. (PS4)

[Sid1701d9]

I wonder about some quick thoughts, could there be a issue with SSD causing lag because they read and write faster than the game and graphics cards can process and even CPU? Some of the lower end processor may not be able to keep up with the read write speed?

Also my game was experiencing a little bit of lag with a lot of people on the lot, but when I updated my graphics card from a GTX 660 to 1060 6GB Vram the lag went way down, I also added 2 more sticks of 8 GB of ram and the lag is non existent. I doubt all the lag can be solved that easily, but I suggest the high graphics settings that to run all game packs need to put graphics cards of GTX 1050 or higher to properly process the game, if you have 1,2,3 generation CPU for Intel I recommend you stay withing the 100 series which is the 1000 for Nvidia and for the 4th gen and up any card 1000 and above would work either in the 100 series or the 200 serries, because there is no worry about bottlenecking the cpu with the higher gen cpus. Also the game really needs to add 6 core to 8 core support if they haven't already for the newer computers that are coming with quads in the 6 or 8 core configuration.