Sims 2 crashing when loading neighborhoods

@leefish I actually do have an old PC I just cannibalized that has a drive with Windows 7, but it seems like there's something wrong with both the Windows system files and the installation CD so I've been struggling trying to get it to work.

@Kunder After looking further in to rolling back the Windows 10 build, it seems like a pretty drastic move - basically reinstalling Windows. I'm not sure I want to go that far after all, but thanks for the info; maybe I can get a cheap laptop that can play it.

@BoilingOil Yeah, I noticed it seems to default to 4k resolution no matter what; I tried changing the default resolution to 1024x768 with the Graphics Rules Maker but the config log still shows 3840x2160 as the default. At the same time, the game always starts up in what looks like 800x600. As far as the last time the game worked, it was on Windows 10 with the GTX 1080 but the monitor (TV, really) I was using had a max resolution of 1920x1080, and this was back in November 2017.

@Session10 Yeah, I see your problem now: Graphics Rules Maker! That program does not care about our preferences, it just finds the maximum settings that it knows of, and alters your Graphics Rules.sgr accordingly. That's why I prefer to change that file manually. It gives much better control.

November 2017, you say... Ah, that was a few Windows updates ago... I believe it's since the October 2018 update that the Win10/NVidia 10x0 incompatibility exists.

@BoilingOil What specifically do you edit to change the resolution? Nothing I change in the Graphics Rules.sgr file (in either Config or CSConfig) seems to actually change the resolution. I've tried changing all the resolutions under "option ScreenModeResolution" as well as changing the "Constants" all to the high setting. It just always loads in 800x600. Maybe something to do with incompatibility with my graphics card? (On a tangent: the GTX 1080 is in the Video Cards.sgr file. Graphics Rules Maker at least did that.)

@Session10 Changing all the settings to be the same as the High setting is most certainly NOT the way to do it. The low setting is the default setting that needs to always be there. If this setting is NOT 800x600, at the time when the game tries to initialize the screen, the entires Screen Resolution seection gets rewritten with the default values. ONLY change the High setting to read -- for example --

Code:

setting $High
      uintProp maxResWidth      1920
      uintProp maxResHeight     1080

and do NOT change any of the other lines. The game should still start in 800x600 the first time, but once it's running, you should be able to change the resolution. Only THEN will the game make the appropriate changes that cause it to start in that resolution NEXT time.

Make this change to the Graphics Rules.sgr in the Config folder of the M&G Expansion Pack. And when done, COPY that file to the CSConfig folder as well. The Config folder is for the game itself, and the CSConfig folder is meant for CAS and BodyShop, but everything works best if you try to keep these two files the same in both folders.

The GTX1080 being in Video Cards.sgr is hardly important anymore when we have arrived at this point, but I had already seen in your cofig-log.txt that the game recognized the card. And that told me that it was already added to the Video Cards.sgr, which actually IS the Database. Usually, I teach people how to add that line themselves, if it isn't there yet. In this case, there was no need.

@BoilingOil I'm just saying that I've tried changing those, in the process of trying to get it to work. It didn't make any difference one way or the other, and they're back to default now. I can't get in to the game to a point where I can access a menu to change the resolution, though; it loads in 800x600, though the config log says its using 3840x2160, and nothing I do seems to change either of those.

I did also try plugging in an old monitor that's 1920x1080 max, and that didn't make a difference, either.

@Session10 I understand that. But you changed TOO MUCH. As you yourself said:

(19-04-2019 02:38 PM)Session10 Wrote:  I've tried changing all the resolutions under "option ScreenModeResolution" as well as changing the "Constants" all to the high setting.

you changed ALL the settings to these values. I'm telling you to ONLY change the HIGH setting this way, and NOT touch anything else. Because changing ALL of them will only result in the game changing them back! Really, please just TRY it my way, and you'll see the difference.

@BoilingOil I did change them all, but I changed them back to default after. I've even tried just changing the "High" setting to 1920x1080 like you said. The Graphics Rule.sgr files in both Config and CSConfig currently look like this:

Code:

seti Low    1
seti Medium 2
seti High   3

and

Code:

option ScreenModeResolution
   setting $Low
      uintProp maxResWidth      800
      uintProp maxResHeight     600
      uintProp defaultResWidth  800
      uintProp defaultResHeight 600

   setting $Medium
      uintProp maxResWidth      1280
      uintProp maxResHeight     1024
      uintProp defaultResWidth  1024
      uintProp defaultResHeight 768

   setting $High
      uintProp maxResWidth      1920
      uintProp maxResHeight     1080
      uintProp defaultResWidth  1024
      uintProp defaultResHeight 768
end

The problem is I can't get to a menu in-game to let me change the resolution or any other settings; I have to actually get a neighborhood to load first.

I swear I'm not trying to be difficult, I'm just trying anything that could potentially have an effect - and unfortunately, literally nothing I've tried so far has had any affect, good or bad. It always crashes at the exact same place.

Hi @Session10,

I'm sorry I misunderstood. But from what you said earlier it was quite unclear that you changed it back yourself. Anyway, the way it looks now is the way it SHOULD look.
I agree that not being able to open any neighborhood is indeed a considerable throwback, in that this effectively prevents you from opening the settings menus. It's clear that your game is suffering from the NVidia 10x0/Win10 incompatibility issue.

If you could play it in Win7, there would probably be no problem at all.