Choppy/pausing problems of a different kind

[Sara]

Having similar problems as some people here, but with some small details being different, thus starting a fresh post as it might differ from others their problems. But it's not a matter of choppy frame rates, in fact the plumbob keeps moving smoothly as do details such as music notes and waves on the water with a full 60fps, but the game itself is temporarily pausing every few seconds, as if it's thinking on what to do.

Can't be my PC. It's a beast of a machine (2GB X5970 vid card, quad core i7 and 12GB of ddr3 RAM) and I keep it well cleaned. It's definately not the graphics card since the graphics aren't choppy, it's just as if someone pressed the ~ button to pause the game a few seconds (but without the red border).

I'm guessing this is a busted savegame or such? Hate to start anew.

note: I do NOT use CC or .package mods, the only content I use is straight from the Sims3 official store and from the retail game itself.

[Sara]

Seems so far to only happen in the Chinese vacation town. Maybe it just can't cope with all the dungeons/tombs having been opened.

[Lilygirl]

@ Sara: You mentioned China! A magic word. My husband recently took up Sims 3 on our PC - he wanted to play with Vampires - and his game does the same thing whenever his family goes to China. We've been trying to come up with reasons why and ways to fix it. My first thought was for him to stop playing in speed level 3 for the majority of their days, but even slowing down didn't help. (Also, he's used to more "hands on" adventure/shooting games and just watching his Sims do stuff makes him impatient - hence the fast speed.)

Anyway, we haven't been able to come up with anything new after having spent the past 4 months trying everything we came up with and this forum provided to be able to just play the game without it crashing. The game now works splendidly except for the pausing you described while in China.

Sorry, I can't actually be of help. 

[Jancy]

After the latest patch this started happening to me slowly - on Barnacle Bay and Late Night. The other games are still fine SV, Riverview and Twinbrooks.  I haven't been to China yet while playing Bridgeport but the choppiness/pausing in LN is getting unbearable. It happened in BB so I did start a new game-haven't played BB recently so I don't know how long it'll be before that choppiness/pausing starts or maybe it won't - but it did seem to become a bit hesitant last time I played with the moving around after playing it for a while. I'll get on that one again to see if it does the same.
  
I have a 2 month old iMac. Also a friend of mine that has a new iMac is having the same problem.  
Both specs on both computers are more than enough to run Sims.

I did notice, which I think could be causing the choppiness and pausing, is that I have about 40 Sims that are all on Eugis Watering Hole lot and in the garage next door to it.  
They are not going home or to their jobs, such as bar-tending, bouncers etc.  No one is in the Nightclubs because they are all here.
They are all out there screaming, throwing up, fainting, going to the bathroom. etc.
  
I bulldozed Eugi's and now it's an empty lot, set no visitors allowed, I reset all the sims one by one and within a couple of minutes they all come back.

I also deleted the 4 cache files, dcbackup. That did not help either. Every time I start playing it's getting worse. I feel as though if I start another game, which I'm sure I'll have to if I want to play, sooner rather than later it's going to start doing this all over again.
I also do not use any mods. Only purchased items from the Sims 3 site.

[TGBlank]

@Sara:
When the game 'pauses', but with leaves/music/sfx still playing, it is most likely stuck thinking/loading something. More likely than not, you have one or several stuck sims trying to go *somewhere*, and the part of the game that decides what path to take doesn't know what to do. If you manage to find these sims, resetsim them.
Note: some worlds/lots have a tendency for sims to get stuck in certain places, if it happens again, there's most likely a sim stuck in the same place as before.

@Jancy: *could* be a similar problem, or your save is corrupted, or both (corrupted save causing stuck sims, causing the dramatic wind pauses).

[Jancy]

TG Thank you - but if it was only my game then of course I would think the save could be corrupted and maybe it is,  but it is happening to quite a bit of folks also on the Sims forum. I reset every single Sim-about 40 of them and they all came back within minutes even to the bulldozed lot.
I also play only one Sim in my household.
I am at a loss-have no idea how to get all these Sims to go home/work/off the lot.
 
My friends game (2 different computers) is doing the same.  All these Sims are congregating on a lot has to be some kind of a bug/glitch.  According to what people are posting it's been happening on the Eugi's Lot and the Movie Studio Lot.
 
How could we all have corrupted saves, and slow choppy/pausing?  Something has to be corrupting our games and causing all these Sims to be congregating on a lot and not leaving.

If I have time tonight I will try to get on BB to see if that starts to get worse.

Sara did you happen to look around town to see if you have a bunch of Sims stuck on a lot?

[TGBlank]

How *exactly* are the sims stuck?, completely immobile?  mobile but otherwise don't leave the spot they are standing on?, floor-tapping a lot? crowded at the elevator?, crowded in front of the bouncer?, How do they get back to the lot? do they drive/walk there? do they just pop in?, does it only happen if you are not looking?.
What I find odd is that they come back even after bulldozing the lot, that shouldn't be happening at all, and it is very likely a corrupted save (even if said corruption was not what started the problem).

If it's happening only to people with a specific version of late night on a specific plataform (say, NA version for mac), then the problem lays with the pathfinding of the bridgeport file of that particular case. You could ask your friends and on the other forum what version/plataform they are using.

Otherwise, well, saves get corrupted somewhat commonly I'm afraid, the sims 3 is rather prone to it.

[Jancy]

Thanks TG-I will try to post a few photos-I hope they are not to big.

They are all walking around the lot-they run back to it when they are reset, take cabs back to it, stand around and scream, vomit pass out  Not in front of the bouncer, elevator or any thing in particular. The Sims on the lot that just do not leave are paparazzi, bouncers, mixologists, movie stars, (vampires even when it gets light out they are still there), and regular sims. My Sim can go to the lot and speak to them but it takes forever because of the choppy pausing but she is able to go home.

Very odd that they come back on the empty lot. The whole thing is very strange!

I'll see if I can find on any other sites what platform others are using, but I know right now my friend and I both have Mac's.

The top photo is the bulldozed lot - bottom photo with Eugis Lot in place. Last photo inside Eugis.

I looked at other sites and there are lots of folks with the lagging/choppy/pausing games, who are using both Windows and Mac's. Lots of other players with these problems have very high end spec computers. So I tend to think these problems exist in both platforms.
Thanks

[Sara]

SOLUTION (maybe..)

Press [CTRL] + [ALT] + [C] to open the console. Then type resetsim * which seems to not just reset your sim, but ALL the sims in the world you are in. This unstuck any sim who might have been stuck and seems to have solved the chunkyness!

Thanks to Jancy's idea of stuck sims!

Update: seems to work temporarily, I'm guessing some sims just run into the market tombs and get stuck there.

[Jancy]

Sara I got real excited also because as I was resetting all 40 Sims, my game was getting less and less choppy then all of a sudden, within minutes -  they all came running back and so did the choppiness.

[Sara]

Yes I noticed. Probably something to do with the game itself. Do you have a quad core? It seems a lot of internet solutions say Sims 3 does not work well with quad cores and that using a program to deactive 2 or 3 cores helps for the Sims.

[Jancy]

I haven't a clue. iMac 21.5 inch 3.06 intel Core i3 4 GB memory.  I do know one thing-this game is starting to drive me crazy.
It's becoming a chore instead of fun!

[TGBlank]

It wouldn't surprise me if the sims doesn't like quad cores, given it's age, but this bug is just too plain weird to be caused by that.
If you, say, start an entirely new bridgeport game and happens again, particularly if it happens immediately, it is very likely a problem of Bridgeport itself, at least, for your version (NA/worldwide/etc) and plataform.

[Jancy]

I tried starting a new game in BP-after choosing my Sim, chose property, the game shut down to the desktop.  I had this problem a few weeks back. I did what I did before-documents, EA, changed the name of the sims3 to "the sims 3 backup. Reinstalled all store content and put back my saved games.  I started a new game but only played for a few minutes.
 
I went back to the choppy game, still choppy but a few minutes here and there it moved a bit faster, not great.  Sims are still stuck on lot, still no bartenders showing up for work (because their stuck) Invite some over, comes to high rise rings buzzer then leaves.  I get invited to parties, go to their place but they are out (because they are stuck on the lot also)I am going to go back and play the new game I started to see if and when this happens again.

When I went in to redownload my store content last night I got a patch box pop up about installing a patch for ambitions, this morning in my account area when getting ready to install another piece of furniture another window popped up to install a patch for fast lane.  Normally when there is a patch available it would tell me right as soon as I clicked on the launcher.  These 2 patches occurred when I went into my account, Installed content.

I do think it's a Problem with the latest big patch and Bridgeport and I'm also thinking that's something EA needs to address in their next fix.  People on other sites with the same problems here have done a complete reinstall and install and their same problems come back.   I wouldn't mind so much if I new for sure that it's something in the latest patch or BP causing these problems, and if EA acknowledges all these bug/glitches and posts that there is a patch on the way.  It would save a lot of time and headaches. I would be happy to wait for a patch instead of all these uninstalls/reinstalls people are doing and the end results end up being the same.
I appreciate the help - I'll try my newest BP game and post back on how it's running.
I tend to think it's not my computer, but their software/patches-now If I only new for sure!

[TGBlank]

Just out of curiosity, what is the exact size of your Bridgeport.world file?
It should be in
(wherever your installed programs are)\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3 Late Night\GameData\Shared\NonPackaged\Worlds\

Mine is 85,169,132 bytes in size.