The Sims Medieval Graphic Issues (2021)

[SuperDrivin]

Hi everybody. I decided to reinstall The Sims Medieval, but I'm experiencing some frustrating graphic glitches that never occurred before. Basically, I start the tutorial and everything is fine, but after 10-15-20 minutes the game starts to mess up the textures in some locations, and then it spreads to the objects and character too. First of all the mountains near the Village Shop become low-resolution and almost "white" (switching randomly back and forth between "low-resolution" and "high-resolution"), then some objects in the Castle doesn't load the proper texture (like a chair, or a vase, that are completely "plastic-gray") and even deleting them and putting them back doesn't fix it. Last, but not least, the texture of the characters start to downgrade visibly (at first it's something they wear, like a cloak or a hat, that become "low-resolution" but then the characters became a messy mix of shapes similar to the graphic of the first Alone In The Dark). Also, 50% of the time that I try to zoom inside the Castle the camera get stuck (with the loading mouse cursor) and I have to get back to the "Watcher Eye View" and try again until the camera goes inside.

I've never experienced anything like this before (and I'm talking about the last couple of years) and I already checked if the game was using the integrated graphic card or the NVIDIA (it's using the NVIDIA, of course). I've also tried to start the game in compatibility mode with Windows 7, but nothing worked, and I've tried to uninstall and reinstall. I'm using these three mods at the moment (which, as I've said before, never gave me any trouble so, in my opinion, are not the problem):

1) No Intro Video Mod. Which disables the intro EA Logo video and the game intro.

2) Command Console Mod. Which enables the Command Console that I use exclusively for the Edit CAS in order to change the haircut, hair color, etc. of the random-generated Sims. 

3) Grim's Mod. Which I use only for the Debug Menu options that allows me to enable the "Plan the Outfit" option when I click on a random-generated Sims in order to change the silly pre-generated clothes.

--- MY PC SPECS ---

Device Name: MSI

Processor: Intel® Core™ i7-9750H CPU @ 2.60GHz 2.59 GHz

Installed RAM: 16.0 GB (15.8 GB usable)

System Type: 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor

Windows Edition: Windows 11 Home

Version: 21H2

Graphic Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti

DAC Type: Integrated RAMDAC

Approx. Total Memory: 14105 MB

Display Memory (VRAM): 5991 MB

Shared Memory: 8114 MB

Thank you for your time!

[mate54]

@SuperDrivin The Sims Medieval is not 100% compatible with newer systems out of the box, and it requires a bit of tweaking to make sure everything goes smoothly.

Before doing anything, please make sure that your Nvidia graphics drivers are up to date; you can do so using Nvidia's GeForce Experience app. I can confirm that my game works perfectly fine with the newest Windows 11 and driver updates for GTX 1050.

I'd like to know if you have done any edits to the game's GraphicsRules and GraphicsCards files; original versions contain no information about newer graphics cards, so the game starts in low settings, which might have been the cause for some of your issues.

Repair the game using Origin (assuming you play using a digital download, and not the disk), then go to Documents\Electronic Arts\ and move your Sims Medieval folder to the desktop. The game will start in a fresh, clean environment and you can tweak the game options to see if anything changes. 

Additionaly, The Sims Medieval does not have a frame rate cap, which might cause it to reach high frame rates that might impact performance negatively. It is possible to set a cap using Nvidia Control Panel.

If you need help with updating the graphics files to include your Nvidia card, or setting a frame rate cap I can post the instructions for that.

Let me know if anything happens.

[SuperDrivin]

@mate54, thank you for your quick answer.

My NVIDIA is up-to-date (as every other component of my PC, that because I'm a "little maniacal" with those things). I haven't done anything to the GraphicRules and GraphicCards files, and the only change that I've made to any of the original files was adding the Console Command in the Command.ini file.

As you said, the first time that I start The Sims Medieval a message pops that says "Warning: Unrecognized Video Card - Your video card was not found in our database. Your settings have been set as high as possible, but you may wish to reduce them if you are experiencing poor performance", but in reality the settings are still low (like 1024x768 resolution, and some graphical options are turned off or low) and I have to manually pump them to "high settings".

I haven't tried the frame rate options (I think I saw a "Frame" options in the Graphic Settings menu which, by default, is set on "Default") but I will give it a try later (both in game and through the NVIDIA Control Panel).

Another thing (which, I don't know if it is relevant or not), when I play The Sims Medieval I never use the "Fast-Forward Button" (except when sleeping of course) because, while my Hero is doing is business, I use the Watcher Eye to look out for Sims with clothes and hairstyle that I wish to change with the Edit in CAS and the Grim's Mod's Plan Outfit option.

@mate54, I don't want to impose on you, but could you do me a favor if you can spare the time? If you could start a new fresh game and, while playing, start editing the Sims (like changing some minor features like the color of the hair, or some clothes. The important thing is to do that to A LOT of them) with both the Edit in CAS and the Grim's Mod Debug Option just to see if it's those mods that cause the glitches, that will be awesome. I'll leave a link to Sync.com where I've uploaded the mods, and the instructions to install them, that I'm using cause I can't find the Edit in CAS webpage anymore (it's not the DeeDwag version, of that I'm sure). Again, do it only if you can (and want) to spare the time and if you feel comfortable to download the files that I've sent you... No hard feelings.

Thank you again for your time.

[mate54]

@SuperDrivin I have downloaded the mods and I'll take a look later when I have some more time. However, please edit your post and remove the link to them as this forum doesn't allow linking mods/CC.

In the meantime, are you comfortable with editing GraphicsRules files and tweaking Nvidia Control Panel to cap the frame rate, to see if that does anything in a vanilla game?

[SuperDrivin]

Ops, didn't know about the link.

Anyway, I'm willing to do whatever it takes to fix the game, so shoot away any editing that would come to your mind. Right now I'm trying to finish that stupid unskippable tutorial quest, and as soon as I can save the game I'll try your solutions.

In the meantime, I've looked deeper into that "Frame Rate - Refresh Rate" thing that you said and I've found out that it is a problem that many people have with The Sims 3 and new graphic cards - PC (the Frame Rate is way higher than the Refresh, and that cause some graphic glitches), and since The Sims Medieval it's The Sims 3 but in a medieval setting, I thought to look for a solution there. Turned out that one of the guy in that post linked a mod for Skyrim which sets a cap on the frame rate, and it says that it works for the Sims 3 too. After downloading it, things have become slightly better since before (set the frame rate cap to 60 and the refresh rate in the game option to 120). The only glitch that I've experienced so far in the tutorial is the "mountain graphic glitch". Also, I've noticed that this glitch happens after I've finished using the Edit in CAS to change the appearance of a Sim (like once every tenth or more Editing in CAS), and sometimes the glitch disappears after said editing.

So, as you said @mate54, I think that the problem lies in the Frame Rate - Refresh Rate, and that the Edit in CAS, since it changes "location" from the Kingdom Map to the Wardrobe Area, sometimes messes up the frame/refresh rate of the textures.

EDIT: I had to ALT + TAB the game in order to write the answer here, and when I went back to the game the "mountain glitch" disappeared. I think that the Edit in CAS is not the problem, but it's 100% the frame/refresh rate fault. 

Thanks for your help, I'll await your instructions for the GraphicRules files and the NVIDIA Control Panel.

[mate54]

@SuperDrivin For GraphicsRules, I will need some info from the game's DeviceConfig.log, located in Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims Medieval\.

More specifically, it's Graphics Device Info that I'm interested in; the only line I need is Chipset, with Vendor and Device IDs, but you can post the entire section if you'd like.

As for the frame rate cap, using Nvidia Control Panel instead of the Skyrim mod might be a more desirable option, because I can confirm that it works for my game, and I haven't used that mod in a long time. If you want, I can post those instructions along with GraphicsRules.

[SuperDrivin]

I thought I had the solution in hand, but that's not the case. -_-

As you said I went to the NVIDIA Control Panel and set the Max Frame Rate for The Sims Medieval to 60 and I've also reverted the optimization made by NVIDIA Experience, just in case. For a good chunk of the tutorial I haven't experienced a single glitch, but now (the part of the tutorial where you need to go back to the Castle after sending to the stock the bully) I can't see inside the Castle (the camera get stuck with the loading mouse cursor). The game works just fine (no crash nor anything), it's just the camera that get stuck (I can go back to Watcher Eye).

EDIT: Ok, the game crashed during the tutorial and a I'm starting to freak out! XD As for the camera stuck, I managed to find a temporary solution for a little while: instead of going from the Watcher Eye to inside the Castle, I had to click on the Docks, Judgement Zone, etc. and then click on my Monarch (which was inside the Castle) to see inside. After a while even this solution worked 50% of the time (and once the textures of the Castle floors were gone). After a couple of minutes after that the game crashed. -_-

Here's the information that you requested: Chipset: Vendor: 10de, Device: 2191, Board: 129b1462, Chipset: 00a1

[mate54]

@SuperDrivin Alright, so the files you will need to update, GraphicsRules.sgr and GraphicsCards.sgr, are located in C:\Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\The Sims Medieval\Game\Bin\ if you have the Origin version of the game installed in the default location. I recommend making a backup and also moving them to desktop for editing in case it doesn't let you save changes in the installation folder. You can use Notepad to edit them.

Once you open GraphicsCards.sgr, look for the line vendor "NVIDIA" 0x10b4 0x12d2 0x10de.

Under it, add this: card 0x2191 "NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti" so it matches other entries, then save the changes. Move the file back to the Bin folder.

Open GraphicsRules.sgr and, near the top, find the line seti textureMemory 32. Change 32 to 1024. Under it, add # before setb textureMemorySizeOK false so it looks like  # setb textureMemorySizeOK false. 

Then, search for GTS 4??, there should only be one entry for the Uber section under NVIDIA. Replace it with GTX 16?? and make sure that quotation marks, asterisks and brackets remain untouched. The line should then look like or match("${cardName}", "*GTX 16??*")) once you've made the changes. Save and move it back to the Bin folder.

Once you've done that, launch the game, wait until the main menu loads, and close it. Check your DeviceConfig.log, and the Name (database) should list your card's name and say Found: 1, Matched: 1.

To cap the frame rate and enable vertical sync, open NVIDIA Control Panel > Manage 3D Settings > Program Settings, and find The Sims Medieval (tsm.exe) on the list. For settings, look for:

• Max Frame Rate: set it to 60 or whatever your screen refresh rate it.
• Triple buffering and Vertical sync: turn them both on.

Save the changes, and remove the frame rate mod that you mentioned before as it's not needed. Launch the game and see if anything has changed. I would recommend testing a clean user folder without mods just to check if there's anything else that might be causing it.

[SuperDrivin]

@mate54 I did as you said and the graphic glitches are still there (I've attached to this answer a picture). I doubled checked your instructions just to be sure that I hadn't skipped anything (which I haven't) and the only problem that I've encountered was the fact that in DeviceConfig.log the graphic card that I've added was found but not matched (I've also deleted the Electronic Arts folder in Documents in order to create a brand new one, but nothing changed).

One thing that changed was in the options of the game. I get the message about my video card not being recognized, but in the graphic options some setting were higher than normal from default (like the Shadows and the Sim Quality). But other than that I've noticed from the start some other minor glitches (for example: if I followed my Hero the camera started to shake a little bit everytime it moved to follow it, also the screen became brighter all of a sudden). I've also changed the setting in the NVIDIA Control Pannel as you said and I've removed the Mods.

I think I'm just cursed with EA Games (cause I'm also experiencing some crashes with The Sims 4, but I don't have the patience right now to deal with them). I just wish I could get a refund and get over with this crap. -_-