Game Lagging

[ladytimpani]

Hello, everyone. I was looking for a solution for my problem, and I came across this site, which has been very helpful. 

My game keeps lagging. I've tried quite a bit: deleting caches, checking all my CC for corruptions (I found a few, and promptly deleted them), and I even factory reset my game. I've checked all the threads about dealing with lagging, but for some reason, nothing works.

I have no idea what is causing this. My game has been running fine until a few days ago, where it began to lag when I took my two Sims out on a date, and has been slow ever since.

Any help would be appreciated. I can't wait to meet everyone on this great forum. 

[wednesday21]

Hi ladytimpani,

I'm sorry to hear about your problems with the game. Is this a new game that is lagging no matter what you do? Also, do you play in a default EA town? A short description of your computer would be good (operating system, processor, ram, video card, etc.) too. Is your game patched up to the most recent patch (1.33)? Lagging seems to have increased with the 1.3x patches released recently. Sometimes it's the computer, sometimes it's the game itself.

One last question; do you play with internet connection on and do you use the new social features? Rumour has it that playing online seems to increase the lag rates. Don't quote me on that though.

[ladytimpani]

I actually got the game a couple weeks ago, and I've been playing a save that I created just a bit earlier in the week.

My game is fully patched, and, since I only have the base game, I spend most of my time in Sunset Valley. I don't use any of the social features, really.

My computer is a Dell Inspiron N4110 with Windows 7 (64bit) that I just received a couple months ago. It has a Intel Core i3-2350M CPU at 2.30 GHz. It has 6 GB of ram with an Intel® HD Graphics 3000 video card.

Thanks.

[wednesday21]

Your processor and ram look fine to me but not so sure about your graphics card. Any Intel graphics card is "entry level", meaning it's good for media use like watching movies, but never strong enough to run graphically intense video games such as Sims 3. I myself have Intel gma4 and I have to put all my settings on medium and play in a rather small neighborhood to experience a lag-less game. There still some choppiness here and there and the look of the game isn't too flattering but at least I can play.

I think it would be good to lower your graphics settings a bit and maybe remove families you don't need or don't interact with using Edit Town, to see if the problem persists. I also advise you to check out this thread in case you haven't seen it yet.

[xFezIsAFreakx]

I don't think it's the graphics card - I have an Intel HD card and my game is running fantastically. Ladytimpani, what graphics settings are you currently playing on?

[ladytimpani]

Thanks for the suggestion, M.

Fez, I've been playing with the current settings for a while now: Very High Sim detail (due to some of the extremely high-textured hair styles I use), Medium Texture, Lighting and Shadows, and Visual Effects detail, and Low Tree detail and Draw Distance. I have only mirrors reflecting, the edge smoothing is off, and the number of high detail lots is 1.

I also have enable object hiding, animation smoothing, and advanced rendering on.

I'd like to keep my Sim detail at very high, as it has been since I received the game, but at the moment I'm willing to try anything.

Thanks.

[xFezIsAFreakx]

I play with high sim detail (I don't see any difference between high and very high, maybe lower the sim detail to just high?), a few mediums and low on the textures and draw distance because those are the most graphically demanding, I also have lowest tree detail. My advanced rendering is on but nothing else is on.

Just for the sake of it, how about trying to reduce your settings all to low, then seeing if it makes any difference, just temporarily. That way, we'll know if it really is a graphics problem. If the problem still persists, we'll just need to tackle something else.

EDIT: Do you happen to have any mods installed?

[ladytimpani]

Hmm. I tried what you said, and, while the game seems to be running a bit faster, it will still pause at times. The good thing is that the pauses only last a couple seconds; before, they lasted much longer. The bad thing is that the pauses seem more frequent--or maybe it's just that they used to be longer before and I didn't notice...Any other ideas?

Thanks so much for helping, Fez. 

[wednesday21]

I, too, recommend to do what xFezIsAFreakx has suggested. I take it you've got some high poly-count CC hair so that's why you have to keep sim detail on very high? If that's the case, then you can keep that setting on high, it doesn't really play a big role. I'd suggest turning off animation smoothing; everything else is fine in my opinion.

[xFezIsAFreakx]

Hmm. I tried what you said, and, while the game seems to be running a bit faster, it will still pause at times. The good thing is that the pauses only last a couple seconds; before, they lasted much longer. The bad thing is that the pauses seem more frequent--or maybe it's just that they used to be longer before and I didn't notice...Any other ideas?

Thanks so much for helping, Fez. 

You're welcome.

I recommend, if you're not against mods and you haven't already, maybe installing Twallan's Overwatch? I'm really confused about why your system is acting like this with only the base game, but it's probably just the patch being silly. Overwatch should definitely help to eliminate your lag, but it's certainly a last resort. Do you have any CC installed?

[ladytimpani]

I have a few of Twallan's mods, but not that one. I'll go look into it.

I have quite a bit of CC, but I went through it all with a few programs to get rid of a few corrupted files.

Not sure if I should mention this, but I also used a program to combine all my .package files into one, so the number of CC files I have shouldn't matter...

EDIT: Well, Overview seems to help a bit, but it still pauses frequently. I'll set the Sim detail to high and see what that does. If this continues, should I try to put my family in a new game?

[ladytimpani]

Well, I started a new game, and everything seems to be going fine. Overview is helping a lot, and I'm able to reset my settings to what they were.

Thank you all for helping this newbie out.