Graphical Weirdness in both neighborhood Screen and on lots... Part II
flowerchile:
Murphy's Law SUCKS! >:(
Playing at the res of 1024x768 was working fine.. was. Tonight, it started again. But this time, I had the added bonus of the residential lot going wonky after visiting a community lot - which was wonky. So I did some thinking.. (yes, it hurt :P). I lost everything in my game after installing the H&M pack. Anyway, I started over, but in the previous game I hadn't added a shopping district or downtown. This time I did. Thank you all very much for the advice... but is it at all possible that it isn't the resolution at all causing the graphics trouble, but the added districts? And if it is a possibility, how would I remove these districts? If this is a possibility? So many possibilities, so little brainz :-[
Hegelian:
I having trouble keeping track of who is doing what with the game on their laptops, so bear with me. ;D
TS2 is not designed for laptops, therefore, compromises are to be expected. This not to say it can't be run on a laptop, or that all laptop users will experience problems (please read that again); but if you run into problems it should not come as a surprise.
First off, be aware of the minimum specifications for the game, which can vary from EP to EP. These are in the readme.txt file installed with every EP (found in EA GAMES\The Sims 2 [your latest expansion here]\Support\en-us (if you are in North America). For Pets, the relevant section reads as follows:
Supported video cards:
NVIDIA GeForce series (GeForce2 GTS and better)
GeForce 2, 2 GTS
GeForce 3, 3 Ti
GeForce 4, 4 Ti, 4200, 4600, 4800, MX 420, 440, 460
GeForce FX 5200, 5500, 5600, 5700, 5800, 5900, 5950
GeForce PCX 5300, 5900
GeForce 6200, 6600, 6800
GeForce 7300, 7600, 7800, 7900, 7950
Note there is no mention of the GO series, just as in the ATi section there is no mention of the Xpress line of laptop video controllers. The GO 7000 series was released in January 2006, while the readme for Pets is dated September 2006, so it is unlikely that its omission from this list is a mere oversight. I believe EA has made clear that TS2 is not intended for laptops, hence the Sims Stories series.
Note also that the GO 7400 shares system RAM with the CPU, and has only a 64-bit memory interface (compared to the 256-bit interface--the "highway" for transferring data in and out of video memory--in any decent desktop graphics controller) which could significantly affect game performance, perhaps even texture rendering. To be honest, this was a low-mid part, so you can't expect a lot from it (although it is certainly more capable than the Intel 915 Extreme Graphics in my business laptop, which, with a 1.6 GHz Centrino CPU, will only run the base game and Uni, and without much graphics pizazz).
Running the game at a non-native resolution could also lead to unintended graphical anomalies; I frankly don't know if it places additional strain on the graphics controller, partly because I don't know whether the re-rendering of the display image to the non-native resolution is done by the video controller or the circuitry of the display itself (which I think is what happens in my desktop LCD). I also don't know, but strongly suspect, that running in Windowed mode also adds some strain to the overall system, and might also contribute to graphics anomalies.
For most games most of the time, running full-screen at native or recommended resolutions is the way to go.
eevilcat:
One thing I did notice looking at your screengrab is that it is only alpha that appears to be screwed. You can see it on the hair, taxi windows and the plumbbob. It could be that you have a corrupt object (mesh) on the community lot and it's screwing with how the alpha is being drawn as it appears to be rendering alternate lines of pixels correctly. If an object is sufficiently broken then it could continue to affect the game if EAxis set it up to re-use resources rather than completely free/reallocate them when switching between lots.
Is it only the one community lot that is causing the problems? Does it happen after you visit any community lot? You could always test by adding a small, empty community lot. If it is just the one lot then have a look at it in build mode, there might be some dodgy custom content in which case remove it. If it is only original content then perhaps an original game file has got corrupted so replace it.
I also remember that Pescado passed an interesting comment elsewhere on what version of the game engine H&M uses (OFB?) so it might be, depending on what other EPs/SPs you have installed, that you might have to regress some hacks.
On a similar note, if you have Seasons installed make sure that shaders are enabled - this could also affect how alpha is being drawn as a lot of the pretty weather effects use shaders so if you went to a lot that was snowing/raining/hailing it might also screw something up.
flowerchile:
I appreciate your help Hegelian. Thank you for all the research and surfing you have done. I know lappies are not designed for gaming.. well, specifically the Sims, but I did research and get advice before I went out and bought this unit. I had a few hiccups in the beginning, blue screen and the same graphics problems I have now, so the answer to that was to uninstall everything, reinstall and to be on the safe side, and to dismiss any and all possibilities, I deleted my downloads folder and started afresh. Best thing I could have done.
Over to eevilcat. I think you may have something there. It isn't specific to one community lot, rather all of them and I have added more CC in the last couple of weeks. I have every EP and stuff pack and the only hacks and mods I have are Hire more employees, More Employees for Hire, and No Friends needed for Careers, the Lot Debugger, college adjuster and Teleporter Shrub.
So my next step will be to go through the dreaded download folders and delete whatever I have added since this problem began.
Thank you everyone for your advice. :)
ZephyrZodiac:
Quote
It's a refurb Vaio, so no owner's manual, just manuals about media center tools and Bluray. This is not the first time I've been annoyed by this, so I should bug Sony to send me one.
Did the sellers make back up reinstall copies and hand them on to you? I don't know about all Vaios, but mine came without cds, the system restore stuff was all on the machine and I had to make my own copies. If you weren't given the cds, I'd check to see if the info is still there, or whether they erased it, if it's still there make copies before you need them, and it it isn't, see if you can get copies from the Vaio website, again before you need them.
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