Recognising Newer Graphics Cards for Sims2

No worries at all.

The Graphic Rules card is the one with the relevant change in it.

The change is:

# Kiri - manually setting texture memory
seti textureMemory 1744

where the # Kiri is a comment just to document what I did.
seti textureMemory 1744 is the important line as it sets the texture memory up so that it exceeds the texture memory requirements for high graphic resolution. 1744 is the texture memory that my card had - I have a Radeon 7800.

The Video Cards.sgr doesn't have your card defined in it, but that's ok. Because the manufacturing company id hasn't changed with the later cards, the Graphic Rules can find the right area to go. The Video Cards.sgr only needs to be set up when the Card company can't be found.

If you wanted to set up your Video Cards.sgr to be found properly - you'd need the following line for yours:

card 0x6837 "AMD Radeon HD8730"

And you need to put it in the Radeon section.

Thanks for going into so much detail.

So what I'm understanding is that if I list my card, it will be recognized? I was trying that for two days, but it wouldn't recognize it for anything.

Would it be because the texture memory would match?
And on that note, how do you find your texture memory?

Sorry for the deluge of questions. Looking forward to finding out more!

It already recognises your card, you don't need to change anything.

Recognising the card doesn't fix the texture memory problem, just manually setting the texture memory does.

The texture memory is a system field that moved with a windows update in about April I think?
I got mine simply by having a config-log that occurred prior to the windows update.

I don't know how to find it out apart from that. I've looked through the device manager properties for the graphics card but nothing jumps out at me.

Thanks for the quick response.

So from what I gather, the settings effectively rely on the memory settings, which the card provides. But the card is too new for Sims 2 to understand, so it knows that it's there, but can't figure out the specs, so it reverts to its most basic setting (32 MB of texture memory). So to fix it, you manually set the texture memory.

I hope I'm right (and that I've learned something), but I still have a couple additional questions if you're willing.

1. How do you determine texture memory?
I haven't been able to find directions online, but I'm pretty sure it's higher than the 1774 number that's in place.
(From hoiw it sounds, there really isn't a need for more memory, but regardless, I prefer for the configuration reflect my actual specs).

2. Do you happen to know the settings for the Sims 3? It's basically the same situation -- the texture memory is set at 32 MB but with the text followed by the text <<OVERRIDE>>

Again, your help is much appreciated

The settings do rely on the memory settings which the card VIA the operating system provides. The Operating system did a windows update that moved where it read the texture memory for a change in Internet Explorer. The game can no longer find any texture memory for Radeon cards old or new.

When the Graphic Rules.sgr can't find the texture memory - it sets it to a default of 32MB.

I don't know how to determine what the texture memory is.

I was lucky enough with my card, that I had a game prior to the windows update, so was able to look at the texture memory in the config-log.txt file from that. (I save whole "The Sims 2" folders as back-ups). If you have a backup of your game from before April or May, you can find the texture memory in the config log.

All the information that the game can find, can be found in the config-log.txt.

For Sims 3, it would be the same sort of thing - manually setting the texture memory to the correct amount - I've just had a look at the graphic-rules.sgr for Sims3
(Found in The Sims 3\Game\Bin\)

#############################################################################
#
# Logging settings
#
# see argScript.html for information on the syntax

log "Parsing configuration script"

set ConfigGroup Config

#############################################################################
#
# Identify gfx device
#

# set some config variables based on a card table and vendor specific rules
# sets isCardFound, cardVendor, and cardName
include "GraphicsCards.sgr"

# Fallback on the card name text supplied by the card itself.
# Assumes that at least the cardVendor has been matched, since
# vendor name is not contained in some vendor card names.
# Note that specific vendors are overridden to a default card.
# For ATI -> Radeon 9800 Pro
# For NVIDIA -> NVIDIA 4800 TI SE
if (not $isCardFound)
set cardName $cardNameText
endif


#############################################################################
#
# Determine if gfx device is supported. This should be done on code side before running script.
# Then the script just handles special case property overrides.

# failed to obtain device texture memory size, force to 32MB
setb textureMemorySizeOK true
#Kiri manually reset the texture memory
seti textureMemory 1744
if ($textureMemory == 0)
seti textureMemory 32
setb textureMemorySizeOK false
endif

Hey Kiri! Sorry for the delay! And thanks for your fast message! This is the file you asked me for, my Config-Log I hope this helps you to find out what's wrong!

Attached File(s)

  NITRO-PC-config-log.txt (Size: 10.15 KB / Downloads: 462)

Hi Alex. Yours is the same problem as Dunblains - so you can use the same fix.

Download Graphic Rules

You are using a Collection, so you need to put it in the most recent expansion pack, I'm not sure which one that is at the moment for you. I think it's labelled 99?
Mansion and Gardens is the most recent if you have it.

You will need to put it in the following folders:

\<most recent expansion pack>\TSData\Res\Config\
\<most recent expansion pack>\TSData\Res\CSConfig\

(Save your originals first, just in case).

You will need to put it in the following folders:



(Save your originals first, just in case).

Hey Kiri thanks, I did what you told me: I put the fil you uploaded here in my last expansion pack folder (Which is Store Edition or Mansion and Garden I have the both so i put the file in the both of them) and ran the game but it is still failing. Despite being in Spanish, I give you 2 screenshots of my configuration where you can see how textures becomes lower despite having them "High". Did I do something wrong?

Here texture is "Medium"



Here texture is "High"

The easiest way to check if it takes or not, is actually to have a look at the waterline and grass in the neighbourhood.



If it has taken, the default in texture remains high. (For some reason you can't change it to lower) so you could very well have both of these as high texture (even though you specify medium).

I need to see the new version of your config-log.txt to see what's going on. There could be another problem related to your card number.

Ok, thanks. This is how I see the water and the terrain, Sometimes it looks High but after moving the mouse it changes to a lower level...I don't know if in this screenshot is high maybe it hasn't changed yet...

A screenshot:



EDIT: This is how it looked for a moment, this is the resolution I got when I used my old PC.



and when I move, it turned to this:





I upload my Config-Log too I don't know if it has been changed tell me if this is what you need!

Attached File(s)

  NITRO-PC-config-log.txt (Size: 10.19 KB / Downloads: 456)