Game is laggy after Showtime

[wednesday21]

Hi,

I tried playing "for real" for the first time since I installed Showtime. I thought I'd just continue my normal legacy game in Appaloosa Plains...no dice. The town wouldn't even finish loading. I just spent about three hours sitting there and it was still loading. Luckily I saved the family and their house to the bin just before Showtime's release; that is, about two weeks ago. I decided to try to place them in Starlight Shores. The world loaded, but it was too big for my computer to handle apparently and was very, very laggy.

Next thing I did was to attempt to place my family in one of the smaller custom worlds I have. Ok, fine, that worked. It's not as laggy anymore but nowhere near what it used to be like. I literally had no freezing before these patches and expansion pack. It's very frustrating. I'm going to start a new game with a new sim in the tiniest custom world I have.

I've removed all my unnecessary custom content and mods. If it is as laggy in the new save file too, I think I'm just going to go back to The Sims 2.

Question is, is this just me or are your games like this after Showtime too?

Totally not a happy camper here.

[kattiq]

Mine can get laggy too! Especially when i do fast speed. It'll stall for a couple seconds and the go. This barely ever happened before Showtime.

[wednesday21]

Ok, I just watched a few videos showing Sims 3 gameplay on other computers (better specs than my current one) and now I think it's just my computer. I think I'm just going to save up for a new PC. Serves me right for buying a notebook before checking its specs and going after cheapness.

[xFezIsAFreakx]

How laggy? What a silly question that sounds, but the thing is - my laptop is really horrendous, yet I don't get much lag, and I don't have Showtime, so I very much doubt it's much to do with your laptop unless you have a horrible old one, like mine. And I doubt that considering your beautiful screenshots on the Woman in Red thread. But yea, can you describe the lag? Does it freeze up and things? Crash at all? It could depend on your number of mods and things, and CC but you already mentioned getting rid of as much as you can.. Memory wise, are you okay? Mine lacks a lot in memory too, though, so the amount of memory you have left might not even matter. I'm really thinking this is to do with the new patch or Showtime.

[wednesday21]

Not a silly question at all. "Lagging" as in constantly freezing, jerky sim movements, frequent crashing, pie menus taking long to show up, items in town not loading. My laptop is not the newest one to be honest haha...three years already, has been running Sims since the first day. I think it will wear out soon, though.

My screenshots are beautiful, yes, that's because my settings are all on medium and I have advanced rendering on; it doesn't make a difference with all of them on low anyway so I keep it on that level. I have 956mb of ram and my video card is Intel gma4 series which barely matches the minimum requirements.

I've uninstalled a bunch of useless expansion and stuff packs today (amb, hels, fls, ols, mss) and I accidentally uninstalled wa too so I'll have to re-download that from Origin tomorrow. I'm reinstalling my store CC now and then will try to play the game, hopefully it doesn't lag as much. If it continues, I repeat, then TS2 for me all over again till there's enough finances for a new PC.

P.S. - No way I'm giving up Showtime...I'm in love with the simport.

[xFezIsAFreakx]

Yep, I have all that! My laptops six years old, nearly seven. And my card is just as bad as yours. Oh, did I say card? I meant chipset, haha. So yeah, I know exactly how you feel. I just have to put up with all this until August, so I hope it works for you and if not, welcome to the waiting train! Have you had a look at the lagging help thread? It can be found here. Even though you don't have too much memory, I don't think that's the problem. Hopefully the cleanup you're currently doing will work.

[wednesday21]

Yeah, mine's a chipset too. I read on the internet that my laptop is only good for moderate internet use and is the "business" type of computer. So I guess in the end the only option left is to buy a real gaming notebook computer. I refuse to buy a desktop because I love having all my info packed in the bag with me and not in one huge processor at home.

I read the lagging help thread, turns out my assumptions were correct. I thought the lag was connected to the number of sims and lots in the town and well there are lots in the towns I tried playing in (Starlight Shores, Appaloosa Plains, Lunar Lakes). I decided I'll try an unpopulated custom world on a medium map to see if that makes the lag less.

Thanks!

[wednesday21]

Ok, after uninstalling Ambitions and WA it seems that half of my custom worlds don't work. I have to download WA at least just to be able to play my favourite medium-sized unpopulated custom world...While I'm at it, I might as well download Riverview for all items in the world to show up correctly.

On the good side of the things, the game is much smoother now. Unfortunately not as smooth as in those videos I've seen, but with only 1gb of ram and 256mb chipset that's the best it can be. So, I'm pretty happy. Turns out removing all the unnecessary stuff really does help!

[Cas]

The only time I've experienced lag was when I had some CC installed.  I removed that after which it was fine.  I note you say you removed unnecessary CC.  I'm not sure what you consider as necessary, but I'd suggest removing all CC and see what it's like then.  I was surprised CC could have such a performance impact in my game, but I guess badly created CC can.

[wednesday21]

The only time I've experienced lag was when I had some CC installed.  I removed that after which it was fine.  I note you say you removed unnecessary CC.  I'm not sure what you consider as necessary, but I'd suggest removing all CC and see what it's like then.  I was surprised CC could have such a performance impact in my game, but I guess badly created CC can.

I only really use Sims 3 store custom content. There were a few custom makeups and eyes I had but I removed them. From the CC I've removed I can recall a loooong list of lots, sims and a few "big" store sets like the magic one (it was kind of a onetime wonder for me), the life of adventure thing I purchased but didn't use at all, plus the earlier sets like the Vegas one and a few compilations. Also some custom worlds that I can't play because of uninstalled expansion and stuff packs. Altogether a grand count of about 300 CC items weighing well over 2.5 gigs was removed from my game and the improvement is not that big.

I will hopefully be able to purchase a new high-end laptop by mid-April. I'm going for Asus g74sx this time and I'm sure it will run Sims 3 very smoothly, as opposed to my current Acer model which I bought mainly for school many years ago.

[Hosfac]

My laptop is not the newest one to be honest haha...three years already, has been running Sims since the first day.

Actually, computer technology moves extremely quickly so 3 years is quite old in computer terms.  It's not elderly, but it's still past it's prime.  This has nothing to do with the condition of your PC or laptop...it's got everything to do with what's inside.  If you buy a brand new computer today that contains all state of the art components, 3-6 months down the road there will be something better.  And software written 3-6 months from now will be written with the new specs in mind, not the old ones.  The old ones will probably still work, but they won't work quite as good.  You might not notice the performance hit you take, but it's there.

Plus, every expansion you add to the game will decrease your computer's performance because it gives it more to do in the background.  If you keep adding to a program, you'll eventually reach a "tipping point" where you surpass what your computer is capable of keeping up with...especially if you're not keeping it SOTA.

I'm not suggesting that this expansion is not the cause, but the age of your laptop cannot be ruled out either.

[wednesday21]

Actually, computer technology moves extremely quickly so 3 years is quite old in computer terms.  It's not elderly, but it's still past it's prime.  This has nothing to do with the condition of your PC or laptop...it's got everything to do with what's inside.  If you buy a brand new computer today that contains all state of the art components, 3-6 months down the road there will be something better.  And software written 3-6 months from now will be written with the new specs in mind, not the old ones.  The old ones will probably still work, but they won't work quite as good.  You might not notice the performance hit you take, but it's there.

Plus, every expansion you add to the game will decrease your computer's performance because it gives it more to do in the background.  If you keep adding to a program, you'll eventually reach a "tipping point" where you surpass what your computer is capable of keeping up with...especially if you're not keeping it SOTA.

I'm not suggesting that this expansion is not the cause, but the age of your laptop cannot be ruled out either.

Exactly. If you also take in account the fact that this notebook is meant to be used for business and office work (perhaps occasional internet browsing too), it's pretty obvious that it will barely be able to play Sims 3 with a few expansion packs, not more; and that, only when it's brand new. I guess Showtime just hit that tipping point and it's time to buy a new computer to be able to play this game further.

Also...what does SOTA mean? I've never heard that acronym before.

[Branr]

State of the Art

[Hosfac]

State of the Art

Yes, this. 

In fact, I believe that my grandpa PC started reaching that tipping point just after I installed Generations (I got it after Pets).  No real significant performance hit...but it just didn't seem to run quite the same.  After I installed Showtime, I didn't really get any significant game lag, but the game pauses for about 20-30 seconds every 10-15 minutes or so. 

I'm relatively sure I'm going to have to get a new PC before the next expansion comes out.  I could maybe get away with a graphics card upgrade, but I'm pretty sure my problems are caused by the processor, which is kinda slow for this game.  Plus, at almost 4 years old my hard drive is probably in it's twilight years, so a whole new PC would probably be a lot cheaper.

[lianka]

I have a new pc and I installed every EP from Sims 3 except Showtime. Because I had not any antivirus I didn´t play online. Everything was fast and OK. Then I installed antivirus, log in and now I playing online. But game started lag sometimes, so I think it could by caused by internet connection, couldn´t be?