Pink Flashing into crashing, after *all* solutions...
#1 26-03-2023 
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Think I might be one of the last people trying to play this game so it serves me right, but I really do love it and want it to work on my computer Confused Was doing fine but after installing some pretty high-poly cc, began seeing pink flashing and crashing throughout the game.

When I take the new-fangled cc out, I still get crashes. When I take ALL of my cc out, I do NOT get crashes. Have tried the 50/50 cc approach, and it seems I can get through about 80% of my files before crashes resume.

I have (somehow) solved the pink flashing issue after re-installing WITH the 4gb patch (its working, I've checked), DXVK, memory allocation fix, virtual memory adjustment, GRM... you name it. I have been working on this for almost 2 weeks now and might go insane trying to fix it!

That being said, maybe I have screwed something up along the way. The whole thing is a very tangled knot with many potential causes at this point. I get an "ACCESS_VIOLATION" related error each time I click around too many interfaces in my game (lots, deco, CAS, etc)

Please find my DxDiag and error log attached, happy to provide more. Any help, if anyone is out there, would be worshipped Slap

Attached File(s)
.txt  DxDiag.txt (Size: 90.74 KB / Downloads: 75)
.txt  Sims2Exception 2023.03.27 08.34.28.txt (Size: 15.04 KB / Downloads: 69)
(This post was last modified: 27-03-2023 02:13 AM by Dragon_Queen.)

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#2 29-03-2023 
If the game doesn't crash with zero cc, then the issue is the cc. If you get crashing when getting through 80%, then you need to keep going. Either it is one or two pieces of cc or just too much cc.

Pink flashing is caused by too much cc, high poly or large texture items.

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#3 29-03-2023 
To double check your 4Gb patch for you, we need to see your config-log.

And, what HL says is true ^
If the game runs without the CC, it's not the game that's the problem. Wink

I've got a brand new (last Christmas) top-of-the-line gaming PC - with 64Gb RAM... I can only manage to get around 4gb of CC to work. (It's all build cc, no cas stuff.) *sigh*
It is what it is. Enjoy playing with what you've got.

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#4 30-03-2023 
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(29-03-2023 11:52 AM)HugeLunatic Wrote:  If the game doesn't crash with zero cc, then the issue is the cc. If you get crashing when getting through 80%, then you need to keep going. Either it is one or two pieces of cc or just too much cc.

Pink flashing is caused by too much cc, high poly or large texture items.

First of all, omg HL! I've been downloading your creations and reading your contributions to the Sims 2 community for as long as I've been playing (almost 15 years now), so you're somewhat of a celebrity in my world. Thank you for all that you do Blush

After a few more days of playing around with it I think I've narrowed down that it is definitely the case my game just has too much CC at this point (around 16 GB!). It was running just fine before and I have a very high-performing gaming PC so this wasn't an issue until recently and thought it never would be, but I've clearly sent it over the edge.

Going to work on scaling things back, I definitely have far more than I need and have known for a while I need to do a good clean up. My follow-up question: is deleting things in-game a safe way to do this, so I know what I'm getting rid of?

(29-03-2023 02:43 PM)CatherineTCJD Wrote:  To double check your 4Gb patch for you, we need to see your config-log.

And, what HL says is true ^
If the game runs without the CC, it's not the game that's the problem. Wink

I've got a brand new (last Christmas) top-of-the-line gaming PC - with 64Gb RAM... I can only manage to get around 4gb of CC to work. (It's all build cc, no cas stuff.) *sigh*
It is what it is. Enjoy playing with what you've got.

This is actually very comforting to hear. I (foolishly) thought mine could do anything after seeing it run massive mmorpg's on "Ultra" graphics... leave it to Sims 2 to check me on that Rofl

I will post my config log as soon as I'm back to my other computer.

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#5 30-03-2023 
It is as HL and Cat say.

The problem with a game as old as TS2 is, that it wasn't built to handle as much as 16 GB of CC to begin with, regardless how much RAM your rig has. This game was created at a time when Windows XP sp1 was the most commonly used OS. And that OS couldn't handle more than 2GB of total RAM, if I remember correctly. And even that was an amount of memory that most people couldn't even imagine as having. So there was no good reason for the Maxis development crew to make the game capable of handling more than that.

Very few people get it to work with 22 or 23 GB of custom content, but they mostly avoid hi-poly and large texture items. And in the WinXP era, one also to have an enormous amount of virtual memory (page file), which would slow the system down to the point where it easily took half an hour or more, just to load the game.
Even now, however, most people should be happy if they get 12 GB of CC to work for them. So first, throw out those CC packages that contain the biggest files.

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#6 30-03-2023 
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(30-03-2023 09:20 AM)BoilingOil Wrote:  It is as HL and Cat say.

The problem with a game as old as TS2 is, that it wasn't built to handle as much as 16 GB of CC to begin with, regardless how much RAM your rig has. This game was created at a time when Windows XP sp1 was the most commonly used OS. And that OS couldn't handle more than 2GB of total RAM, if I remember correctly. And even that was an amount of memory that most people couldn't even imagine as having. So there was no good reason for the Maxis development crew to make the game capable of handling more than that.

Very few people get it to work with 22 or 23 GB of custom content, but they mostly avoid hi-poly and large texture items. And in the WinXP era, one also to have an enormous amount of virtual memory (page file), which would slow the system down to the point where it easily took half an hour or more, just to load the game.
Even now, however, most people should be happy if they get 12 GB of CC to work for them. So first, throw out those CC packages that contain the biggest files.

Massive thank you, I can tell you're verifiably in Australia (like me) from your response time! Smile

Doing a huge cull at the moment. Fortunately I can at least access the game in blank "test" neighborhoods, which will allow me to scale this down. Now to make a multitude of decisions about what I can part with, starting with the big guys...

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#7 30-03-2023 
(30-03-2023 10:33 AM)Dragon_Queen Wrote:  Massive thank you, I can tell you're verifiably in Australia (like me) from your response time! Smile

You're welcome. But you'll be surprised to learn that from your perspective, I'm all the way on the other side of the globe, in the Netherlands, not too far from where this board is located.

I know that it can be hard to part with some CC. But if showing off that beautiful dress or that elaborate hairdo means that I must part with some of my sims, then the choice is clear. I could never say goodbye to any of my sims. Good luck with your efforts. I hope that you'll soon be able to see your sims come back alive.

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#8 30-03-2023 
Don't forget to clean out your recolors too - they are little piddly file sizes, but they add up. And how many black terlits do you really need?
I recently went through and deleted all the blurry picture/painting recolors I had - that cleared out over a Gb of stuff! And now, all my paintings look like works of art. No more blurry pixelated textures. YAY!

Good luck! Have fun clearing the Castle! Big Grin

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#9 30-03-2023 
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Oh! Total opposite side of the globe from us. Appreciate the help. Happy to delete pretty much anything if it means I can keep my game... I'm a Sims 2 purist and believe the newer editions of the game only lost depth and character over time Heart

(30-03-2023 04:13 PM)CatherineTCJD Wrote:  Don't forget to clean out your recolors too - they are little piddly file sizes, but they add up. And how many black terlits do you really need?
I recently went through and deleted all the blurry picture/painting recolors I had - that cleared out over a Gb of stuff! And now, all my paintings look like works of art. No more blurry pixelated textures. YAY!

Good luck! Have fun clearing the Castle! Big Grin

Not as many as I have, that's for sure! There is some stuff in my game that I am blatantly uninterested in ever using. Time for all of that to go!

Thank you for your help Smile

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