Help! Flashing Red in game.

[pim_artittaya]

Okay. Thank you! 🥺🥺

[puzzlezaddict]

@pim_artittaya  Sorry for the delay, but this issue is even more persistent and irritating than I thought.  I did manage to fix the Van Gould build (Midnight Hollow), sort of, but it required removing a lot of objects you might not want to disappear.  And it's clear that a number of objects are involved.  For example, removing these objects prevented any flashing on the second floor (with the bedrooms):

• all windows
• all fireplace items
• the four outdoor lights around the backyard pool
• the French doors and Mags' doors
• all wall mirrors and the Empress Vanity

The doors only caused problems on the second floor when in build mode, or if I put the walls up in live mode; cutaway was fine.

These additional items needed to be removed for the third floor to stop flashing in all scenarios:

• all doors
• the five pool fountains
• the standing mirror on the second floor
• Bathroom Junk Holder, Finders Keepers Hutch, Granddaddy Clock, and Immoderate Water Fountain

I'm not totally sure that all objects are implicated, in particular the last four; I just deleted anything that looked like it might have a reflection.  I'm sure that at least some of those objects cause flashing though, and I also needed to remove at least one item in every bullet point to get rid of the problem.  Similarly, I don't know for sure that all windows are a problem, but not removing them meant lots of flashing on the second and third floors.

It's also possible that some of these items only cause flashing when paired with other items, for example, perhaps the windows are fine unless the lot has a pool.  I haven't gotten that far, and to be honest, after 3.5 hours of testing, I was ready to take a break.  But you could experiment yourself if you wanted; it would help to know what you found.

Finally, I ran the game on minimum settings and saw zero flashing.  However, most of the lots were partly colored red in Map View, not something you'd want to see, and of course the game looked awful.  When I go back to testing, I'm going to try to find out if there's some combination of settings where neither problem is present.

In the interim, I'd just suggest playing different lots and/or keeping the camera zoomed in enough that you don't see any flashing.  The flashing isn't harmful to your computer, just extremely annoying.

Edit:  I forgot to add, I mostly used NRaas MasterController to flush the objects.  It shouldn't make a difference in general, but it's worth mentioning because I could never find the second water fountain looking on my own, but MC insisted it was there.

[ashbymcdonald · Accepted solution]

I am pretty sure the red flashing screen issue has to do with the number of objects that need to be displayed at one time.  This is why on large lots with a lot of objects, the problem only occurs when you zoom out or increase the number of viewable floors on the buildings (go up a few floors), which causes more objects to have to be rendered. 

So the solution I have found is to go to options>graphics and check the "enable object hiding" box.   This should fix the problem even if you have maxed out graphics settings.    

[ashbymcdonald]

@ew2013 When I adjusted the graphics settings to low texture detail, I got the same issue. Try adjusting your graphics settings to the following:

[puzzlezaddict]

@ashbymcdonald  Interesting.  I've managed to make the flashing go away by lowering the graphics settings too, but only to the point where the game looks terrible overall.  I don't think it's strictly about the number of objects though because in one test, I deleted a number of objects in various orders and always had to remove exactly the same ones; leaving a few of those and deleting many others didn't fix the problem.  In case you're wondering, the list included mirrors, doors with windows in them, fireplaces, pool fountains (but not the pools themselves), and one kind of outdoor light.

Anyway, the object hiding setting helping would explain at least some of the behavior I saw, for example that I'd get flashing on the third floor of this one house when I left a single mirror on the second floor, but the second floor was fine.  Thanks for mentioning it.

[ashbymcdonald]

@puzzlezaddict The above graphics settings work perfectly for me when I enable object hiding. Have not tried maxing out the settings yet.

I tried deleting a whole bunch of objects, but that did not work for me.

[ashbymcdonald]

@puzzlezaddictI maxed out my graphics settings and still no red screen.   So object hiding seems to be the magic bullet for me.  

[puzzlezaddict]

@ashbymcdonald  I tried enabling object hiding without changing any other settings—everything was already set to ultra except for ultra and high-detail lots—and didn't get any red flashing either on the four known flashy lots I checked.  I still want to test a bit more and get other input, but it does seem that this fixes the problem.

Deleting a long list of specific objects also helps, which fits with the theme: object hiding prevents the objects from being rendered in any way when they're not on-camera, so to speak, and the flashing only happens when the camera is aimed at a floor above them.  So whether the objects are removed entirely or just "hidden," it has the same effect.

Thanks so much for finding this: I'm sure a lot of players will be delighted to find the workaround.  Since you were the one to find it, I'd like to mark one of your posts as the solution, so everyone else sees it, but it would be best if you could post something along the lines of the red flashing is gone with this option checked even on ultra graphics settings, just so it's all in one post.  Feel free to edit one of your posts or just create a new one.

[billionaire531]

Helloo,

I ahve this problem too so as requested I'll attach the file hoping you'll solve thiiis.

Thank you very much

DeviceConfig.log

[puzzlezaddict]

@billionaire531  So you still get the red flashing even with object hiding enabled?  Are there any particular lots that cause this issue, and if so, which ones?  If they're EA lots in an EA world, just let me know which ones; if they're custom content, you can sent me a download link via private message.