Sims UC crashing, here's what I tried so far

Thread Summary 2/11/2018 - updated
========================

noCD exe works for me, Origin does not

The George noCD exe from Kiri is the only one that has ever worked well enough for me, if you can deal with flashing pink soup.
There's workarounds for flashing pink soup below.

I have been testing at 800x600 resolution, although I can do higher, and with no cc whatsoever.

* Windows 10 Pro update 1709, the awful terrible bad one that breaks things
* i7-7700 dual core 3 something GHz
* NVidia GeForce 1060 GTX 6mb
* nvidia driver 390.65, cleanly installed by me using guru3d DDU (windows driver auto updates turned off) NECESSARY

* graphics rules sgr - allow driver to manage it own memory NECESSARY (for me)
* graphics rules sgr - set texture memory size to the value from dx diag NECESSARY fix for 32mb issue
* edited video cards sgr to add my nvidia card

* desktop shortcut to noCD exe, not using Origin at all, it's a glitchy mess
* I used the 4gb patch on the noCD exe, may not be needed
* compatiblity mode Win XP sp2 - compatibility mode does not appear necessary
* running as admin
* full screen optimizations turned off, just in case
* playing in windowed mode -w
* trying to only use one core, -CPUCount:1 - CPU throttling does not appear necessary unless you have graphics lag

* Nvidia panel, spinny logo screen, set to medium, between performance and quality (not sure this helps)

* update 2/11/2018 - limit your CC
I know, I hate limiting CC too, I want ALL THE CC!
However, with Win 10, I can't have as much CC as I had with older versions of Windows.
The game somehow thinks it has less memory or something. I currently have 5gb of cc.
9gb was too much for my system. Trying to find ways around this.

How to deal with flashing pink soup

* graphics settings, change texture from high to medium, then back to high
this forces the game to reload textures

* lessen demands on the gpu and texture memory
lighting - medium
graphics effects - medium
reflections - off (I leave mine on but Kiri recommends off)
You could also turn off shaders/bump mapping but I can't live without bump maps.
I think you need a boolprop to disable shaders or edit your graphics rules sgr.

* don't render so many neighbor lots
view distance - small
fade distance - small
neighborhood decorations - off
or just turn neighbor lots off altogether

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OLD POST BELOW THIS LINE

My Sims Ultimate Collection keeps crashing, usually when I go to a community lot and spend some time there, but occasionally even on home lots and once in neighborhood view. Here are my system specs and what I did so far.

* Windows 10 Pro 64 bit update version 1709
* CPU: Intel i7-7700 dual core 3.6 GHz
* I have dll's for directx 12, 11, 10, and 9 in System Wow64
* NVidia GTX GeForce 1060 6mb
--- dxdiag says the card has 6052 mb dedicated video memory
--- NVidia panel says the card has 6144 mb dedicated video memory
--- device manager says I have this NVidia driver 23.21.13.9065, that should be the latest, right?
--- control panel lists the software I have, here is the NVidia stuff, do I need a clean install of drivers???
----------- NVIDIA Graphics Driver 390.65 (matches what I see in device driver and NVidia panel)
----------- NVIDIA 3D Vision Driver 390.65, not used for sims, right? is this for stereoscopic stuff???
----------- NVIDIA 3D Vision Controller Driver 390.41, is this an old graphics driver or something for stereoscopic stuff? remove this???
----------- NVIDIA HD Audio Driver 1.3.36.6, again, nor related, right? and sims can't find an audio device in config log, is that bad???
----------- NVIDIA PhysX system software 9.17.0524, not a thing that matters for sims, right?
----------- NVIDIA GeForce Experience, that's the app that optimizes modern game video settings, updates drivers, not a driver, right?

* I am using modified graphics rules and video cards sgr files. Got the nvidia texture fix ones from here, then tweaked them myself.
I changed texture memory to 6052 and set sim shadows in the high setting to true. Added some log messages.

* In NVidia Control Panel, I went to program settings and for Sims UC, I told it to not do threading optimization, that didn't help,
but UC only knows about one core so I probably don't want nvidia spawning threads on other cores???
* In NVidia Contol Panel, program settings for Sims UC, told it to select the NVidia card as the OpenGL rendering GPU but I don't have any other video cards, don't have a built in Intel graphics card, my options were auto select and NVidia, so I picked NVidia in case it wasn't being auto selected but that didn't fix anything. :/
* In NVidia Control Panel, I changed my screen resolution to one that matches the aspect ratio of my monitor. Don't think that was the problem but now my game looks prettier and seems to run a bit smoother before always crashing on community lots. :/

* Ultimate Collection, installed last week, and I updated from Origin :/ That may have been a bad idea?
--- using a shortcut to the exe that Origin installed
--- I am not using a noCD version right now
--- I have NOT done the 4gb fix thingie, is it needed? does the noCD exe have the 4gb thing done already?
* I am playing in windowed mode -w
* I have added CPU throttling to the shortcut -CPUCount:1
* playing in compatibility mode for XP service pack 2
* running as admin

* I ran the SecoROM remover, although I don't think I had SecuROM, also check the registry just in case, should be all gone,
but updated UC doesn't use SecuROM. Just writing this to let folks know all I did.

* I am using fresh, unplayed neighborhoods. I removed the entire Neighborhoods folder, the game regenerated it. Thought I might have neighborhood corruption (more that what EA shipped), so I did this. Didn't help all the times I did it.

* I do not currently have any CC in the game, not CEP, not Nopke's shadow fix, not Community Time, nothing in the Downloads folder at all

* I always remove cache files before playing

* I removed the TM from the Documents folder, not that it has anything to do with the crash (or does it???), but adding this for completeness. Went to the registry, did find/data for all the entries that had The SimsTM 2 Ultimate Collection (where TM was the weird symbol) and removed the symbol. Also removed that symbol from the folder name. Game seems to find all its folders all right. Does not create a new folder with the TM in it. BodyShop finds stuff in there just fine too.

---------------------------------

Stuff I have not done yet.

* Have not done a clean install of nvidia drivers, do I need to? I have the latest one, updated it a day or two ago from Nvidia Experience, did Windows bork it somehow?
Do I have to remove all NVidia drivers per clean install instructions, reboot, then reinstall them?

* have not tried the noCD exe recently (tried it earlier, didn't help, but that was days ago, before I did lots of other things)
[edit] tried the noCD exe, it crashed on neighborhood load, that's worse than the UC exe which crashes on community lots

* have not tried the 4gb thing, do I need it? Does the noCD exe already have it?


Whew! Wall of text but I hope it's useful info. Thanks in advance for any help. Oh ye gods, I hate having to reinstall Sims so much. If not for the nice folks in the community, I would get far too frustrated and give up.

Attached File(s)

  sgr_and_config_log_Cat_20180120.zip (Size: 14.15 KB / Downloads: 595)
  DxDiag.txt (Size: 69.57 KB / Downloads: 657)
  Sims2Exception 2018.01.20 11.35.41.txt (Size: 13.24 KB / Downloads: 625)

I added my dxdiag.txt and latest sims2exception.txt to the first post.

Ok, I tried the noCD exe that kiri linked to again, this one. Crashed on neighborhood load, that's worse than what was happening with the UC updated exe. That at least got me in a neighborhood and crashed on community lots. Adding the crash log from this latest crash to this post.

[edit] Do I need to remove my Neighborhoods folder and regen all the hoods? Are hoods made by the UC exe not compatible with ones made by the noCD exe???

[edit2] Ran the noCD exe again. This time, neighborhood loaded, got into a sim lot, tried to walk to a community lot, game crashed while trying to walk to the lot. *bangs head on desk*

Attached File(s)

  Sims2Exception 2018.01.20 14.24.35.txt (Size: 12.72 KB / Downloads: 592)

Ok, trying clean install of drivers, rather nerve wracking for me. Here's what I did.

Went to control panel, device manager, video thingies, selected NVidia, the only video card I have, and right clicked.
Selected uninstall, check the box that said remove or delete drivers, then ok. The machine did not auto reboot.
I rebooted it manually, it went and found itself an old NVidia driver from 2017, version 13.21.13.8813
NVidia panel was missing from my desktop right click menu which freaked me out, but I rebooted again and it came back.

Should I use the old nvidia drivers from 2017? Should I use geforce experience to get new drivers? If I do get new drivers,
should I uninstall the old drivers in control panel? So confused! Help much appreciated. Haven't tried Sims yet, will report...

Geforce experience wants me to use driver ... 3.9065 from 1/3/2018 or 1/8/2018. That is the one I had before I tried the driver clean install.

[edit] Crash, again. Using the older 2017 nvidia driver I got after rebooting after removing drivers. Using the noCD version of Fun With Pets.
Crashed on neighborhood load. Again. I am so out of ideas at this point.

[edit2] And for some reason, dxdiag now reports I have 6061mb of dedicated memory. It was 6052 with the newer driver. What the hell? I have no idea if this is bad or not.

Used geforce experience to install newer drivers. Selected custom install, then clean install.
Then stupid geforce experience crashed right after hopefully installing my drivers. Nvidia panel says I now have the 3.9065 driver again.
Control panel shows that driver too, and not the older driver so geforce removed it as I intended. But I'm freaked out because it crashed after installing the drivers
so are the damn drivers corrupted now or what? *head desk, head desk, head desk* Do I need to clean install the drivers again. Sorry about the frustrated ranting.

[edit] Ran the noCD exe again, now with the current nvidia drivers that I just clean installed. Guess what it did? If you said crash, you win the Gold Llama of Frustration!

Going to try the 4gb patch now, only thing I still haven't tried that I know of. Is the noCD exe already patched to use 4gb or not?

[edit]
4gb patch here - http://simswiki.info/wiki.php?title=Sims_3:CFF_Explorer

data execution prevention - what is this and do I need it? I know computers should execute instructions, never data, ok.
But does this thing work on Windows 10 and will it muck up other stuff?
DEP - http://simswiki.info/wiki.php?title=Game...ntion/TS3W

So here's the noCD exe after using CFF explorer to patch it to use 4gb. Awful as this is, still an improvement over crashing while trying to load the neighborhood. Yay, progress? Is this known as pink soup? Will try UC exe patched to use 4gb next. I have four versions of the exe now, at least three are crashy in various ways. *cries*

I have four version of the exe now, all have -w -CPUCount:1, run as admin, compatibility for XP service pack 2 in their respective shortcuts

1) Origin version, crashy
2) noCD version, crashy, even more than Origin version
3) noCD version patched to use 4gb by CFF, loads neighborhood that flashes pink, what the...
4) Origin version patched to use 4gb, haven't tested this one yet, scared to. Also hungry, need dinner. Will be out of options once I test that. It will probably crash.

[edit] The Origin executable, when patched to use 4gb, will not even start up. Origin starts, the Sims game does not.

[edit2] reminder, only the noCD flashes pink, the Origin exe does not
Origin exe crashes after spending time on a community lot

I did a CORRECT clean install of my nvidia graphics drivers today, following the instructions Kiri linked to here. This helped somewhat, now the game takes longer to crash. Still crashes.

Am currently testing with the following:

* vanilla Origin executable
* fresh Documents folder, I nuked the old one, game regenerated it
* did not remove the TM from the folder name, so no messing with the game's registry entries
* no CC whatsoever, not even CEP

* using Kiri's nvidia fix big screen sgr files with some tweaks by me (6052 mb texture memory, that's what my dxdiag reports, and sim shadows set to true for High shadows)
I am playing with shadows off right now
* windowed mode, 800x600 resolution although with these sgr files, I can do higher and I can do smooth edges and shadows would work fine if I put Nopke's fix in (but no CC)
* added -CPUCount:1 to the shortcut although I haven't had lag, just crashes
* XP service pack 2 compatibility mode
* running as admin

NVidia GeForce 1060 GTX 6mb card (there is no built in graphic card, no dual cards, just the NVidia)
cleanly installed nvidia driver 390.65
Windows 10 Pro 64 bit update version 1709

According to the config log file, the game finds my card in the database, thinks it has 6052 mb texture memory, is using high settings (prints Kiri's high settings log message), the HW programmable thing is 3. All the stuff that should look good in the config file looks good.

Game crashes on community lots after spending several in game sim hours there. This is better than before the driver clean install when it would crash after less time on the lot or not even let me go to the lot at all.

The noCD exe and the noCD 4gb patched exe both perform worse than the Origin exe. They crash sooner. Sometimes they get pink flashy stuff. The Origin exe has never shown pink flashies.

I'm going to try the following tomorrow or when time permits:
--- DDU and manual install of earlier driver version
--- change NVidia settings in NVidia panel, maybe turn off vsync or shaders or set settings to a balance between quality and performance? They're at quality right now.
Some gamers on youtube said something about turning off vsync and/or shaders but who knows if that's correct or whether it's for stability or better fps or what.
--- Try the game with Pescado's fixes. That will take hours of combing through them and picking out the ones I want and not the ones I don't. I can't find a recent backup
of a downloads folder with all my mods. Ugh. Thank goodness for cloud backup so this will not be an issue five years from now.

Two questions for folks:

1) Which nvidia driver version do you recommend for stability for the GeForce 1060? I have googled this and answers range from "use the latest because I've never had problems" to "these are the ones that worked for me, your mileage may vary". I am not looking forward to testing eleventy driver versions but might have to. For science.

2) Could the crashes at this point just be the 'normal' behavior of a buggy EA game? I remember the Sims being quite glitchy and I never played it without Pescado's fixes. I'm testing with no CC so is this just the game breaking because EA can't be bothered with quality assurance? I can't remember if this is normal because it's been at least four years since I played.

(Kiri, if you're reading this, many thanks for all the great advice about sgr files and drivers. It really has helped reduce the number of problems with my game.)

(22-01-2018 03:06 AM)CatOfEvilGeniu Wrote:  Game crashes on community lots after spending several in game sim hours there. This is better than before the driver clean install when it would crash after less time on the lot or not even let me go to the lot at all.

Several in-game sim hours is still just as many minutes in real time
It occurs to me that this wave of crashing games is a very recent development. It started maybe a month ago, and now it just won't stop...And it very obviously seems limited to only the UC games. If we were to figure out what happened then, and could roll back to before that point, this would be over. I'm so glad I never converted to Origin/UC. I might now have been in the same predicament if I had.

Quote:It occurs to me that this wave of crashing games is a very recent development. It started maybe a month ago, and now it just won't stop...And it very obviously seems limited to only the UC games. If we were to figure out what happened then, and could roll back to before that point, this would be over. I'm so glad I never converted to Origin/UC. I might now have been in the same predicament if I had.

When I get time, I'm going to try installing UC on an older version of Windows (before the latest 'big' patch).

If it really is a significant problem with some combo of (Patched Origin UC, Windows 1709 (or some recent security fix), NVIDIA?) maybe Origin will push another patch as more new installs start to exhibit crashing.

Also keep in mind that because of the Meltdown/Spectre vulnerabilities, MS has been putting out a lot of patches that may not play nice:

https://www.computerworld.com/article/32...tlook.html