More Awesome Than You!

Well, I saw on another forum that the 2nd patch was finally announced (it's not out yet, but there's a post by a Maxoid that tells which bugs will be fixed) so I went over there to check out if the bugs I've been having since BV were on there. Since they're not, I'm starting to wonder if they're really bugs or am I just the only one having these problems.

My first problem is the biggest since it's stopped me from sending sims on vacation at all. Basically, what happens is this: I have a family and send them on vacation. Once the vacation timer says it's time to go home, I'll have the family check out of the hotel and click on the phone to have the shuttle take them home. They get home with no problem, but then a few seconds later, the shuttle shows up again and the family gets back in the shuttle and they're taken back to their hotel. Once the hotel lot loads, it's in build mode, live mode is grayed out and my family isn't there. If I leave and load the family's home lot, the same thing happens. The shuttle takes them to the hotel again in build mode. I've tried canceling out the "go somewhere" thing from all my sims and I've even tried deleting the shuttle, but it still loads the hotel lot. This happens after about 25% of all my vacations. If it's not a bug, then what is it?

My second problem has to do with beach lots. When I play a family that lives on a beach lot, after about 10-20 minutes, the game starts lagging and I get these freezes that last a minute or longer and the sound of the waves gets all choppy like a skipping CD. If I exit the game, restart my computer, then restart the game, it's fine for another 20 minutes or so then it starts happening again. I never had any problems with lag or choppy sound (it happens with music too, so I disabled all music) until I installed BV, so I don't think it's my computer. And my brother thinks its bad programming on EAxis's part. Is he right?

Here are my computer specs:
Windows XP Home
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 3800+
ATI Radeon x1900 512mb
2 GB RAM

Can't speak for the lag, except to say that the tiny bit of lag I had on lots (not just beach) with BV cleared up when I doubled RAM to 4 GB.

As for vacations, I also have the issue that sims will often have the shuttle try to pick them up again right after they get home. This always happens for me when I end the vacation early (1st or 2nd day) but still has happened a few times when ended on the last day. I've found that after cancelling out the action for all sims, the van goes away. But you have to catch it as soon as that van appears, otherwise you're doomed. Never had it stuck in build mode, but I did once have a teen I didn't cancel for quickly enough and he was transported to the lot and unable to call a shuttle back or check in.

Honestly, I'd say both are bugs. You and I are not the only ones who have reported these problems.

About your second problem, it looks a lot like what happened on my old system. Regular lots would play normally, with just a little lag sometimes (I didn't try playing for hours though); but beach lots were playable for about 10-20 minutes, then lag, then freeze and stuck sound. In my case though, the blue screen followed and the whole system locked up. The task manager (than I had to start before the problem occured or it wouldn't even launch) indicated a CPU usage of 100 %.
That seemed a clear case of Nvidia card compatibility (geforce 6600) and insufficient RAM (1 GB), and disabling the shaders fixed the issue until I got a new computer.
...And no, I didn't buy a new computer just for the shaders!

I used to have a GeForce 6600 GT before I got my Radeon x1900 card. Back when I had my NVidia card, I was getting those blue screen of death crashes after an hour or less of play and this was back before other people were having the problems with this and well before it was known it was because of a driver conflict. I used to be really loyal to NVidia but I was really glad once I switched to a Radeon card because it stopped the bsod crashes.

I don't get though why I would have lag when I have a dual core processor. It seems like it would be overkill for TS2, but if I check ctrl alt del when running my game, it shows like 50% usage sometimes. Does that mean it's using one whole core by itself? And, no, I don't have any other programs running when I play the game since I know it's a CPU hog. It seems like it should be using less of a percentage of my total CPU than it was back when I had a Pentium IV 3.00 processor.

Oops, I didn't intend to save my first post, I realised while typing that I didn't play long enough to be sure - sorry for that.

So I sent 2 sims to the huge beach hotel in Twikki Island, and let the game play for about half an hour: the regular CPU usage is between 43 and 51 %. I'd say it's not just you, except that I seem to get lag only when the sims start playing kickball and the CPU usage climbs to 54 %; I guess other events on the lot will easily trigger that though.
I also tried disabling the shaders, it makes no significant difference.

My specs:
Windows XP home
Intel Core Duo E6750 2.66 Gzh
Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS
2 GB RAM

I just got a PM from someone at TSR that said the reason I'm getting lag in the beach lots is because I have a dual core processor. Apparently, the way the game's programmed, it only reads off of one core unless you change something. I saw someone else mention this one other time, so there might be some truth to it, but I haven't seen yet how to do this. Does anyone know if there's any truth to this and if so, how I could do this?

There was a discussion in the Podium about 6 months or so back about the dual core issue. It's not that the game can use both cores (it can't) -- it's that having it try to run of both of them causes issues.

If memory serves, one way to temporarily fix it is to load the game, load the Task Manager, find the application in the process list, right-click on it, and then 'Set Affinity...' for it to use only one CPU.

If you do a search on 'Affinity' in the Podium, the original thread may turn up.

I didn't catch any of the 'Affinity' thread, but someone moved the forcecore thread to the War Room, http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,7748.0.html (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,7748.0.html)

It made no discernible difference from my experience, so I quit using it.  If the game can only use one core, then the game only uses one core, it is not going to try to use two.  The vast majority of programs on the market are this way, so it is not really a TS2 issue.  The single core the game runs on in your dual core AMD 3800+ would probably clock at roughly 2.4Ghz under normal conditions, which is above BV minimum system requirements of 1.3Ghz and should not really be an problem.

Converting a system from nVidia graphics to ATI or the reverse can be tricky business that has been known to result in issues if not done very carefully. 

Also, heat buildup in one or more hardware components could be causing failure, as well as simple fatigue of age and wear could be usual portents of imminent or eventual hardware failure.

I actually switched my video card out a few years ago. I think three years ago, I'm not positive, but it was back when the x1900 was the brand new, top of the line card. Back then, I had a pre-built Sony Vaio PC, but since then, I've switched out the case, motherboard and processor, hard drive and DVD burner (because it stopped burning right after installing BV. Coincidence?). 


I don't think I have any issues with overheating or anything since I have a custom case with three fans (rear, side and front) as well as a heatsink/fan combo over my processor. And I regularly open up my PC and use that canned air to clean out all the dust that collects inside there, especially around my fans and vents. I can feel cold air coming out of all the vents in my case, so I doubt it's overheating.

Seriously, I hope TS3 works with dual cores because I bought mine hoping TS2 would run better on it and also hoping that I wouldn't have to do a major upgrade before TS3 comes out. But I guess if I need to upgrade when the time comes, I will. The only thing I refuse to upgrade to is Vista. I won't touch it until it's more stable and more of the bugs have been worked out.