Closed Sims 2 and Graphics Cards - the fixes.

The link is fixed. Sorry about that, I forgot to check.

@celebkiriedhel

The link works now thanks but it seems I can't get the Directx problem to be fixed. That may yake me some time... I'm a bit busy atm but I really want it to be done hah Do you have any more options?

I'm going to have to do a bit of research. I'm sure I came across a fix for this, but it's not coming to me at the moment. It's about time I go through the thread anyway because I'm sure the answer is locked in there somewhere.

Hi @celebkiriedhel

Hoping you can help?

My game has no problem with graphics etc, but it just keeps crashing whenever I try and play! I've played Pleasant View and Strange Town and neither have worked, both have frozen and then crashed either loading a household or mid play and I am haunted by the message "the application has crashed. Usually lasts about 1-10 minutes before crashing.The application will now terminate"... I've tried updating the graphics and putting in compatibility mode before, I've also tried changing the compatibility through CFF but cannot seem to get it to stop crashing! I've installed, changed, uninstalled and repeated with different potential solutions but all seem to have failed.

I'm on Windows 10 with 6 GB with 64 bit operating. If you could shed any light I would be extremely grateful!!

MT, FloralBlonde

Hello, so I actually created an account here in hopes of finding a fix. For the last two days I was trying to get my TS2UC game up and running nicely, but once I fix something, something else goes wrong.

The problems I'm facing are: screen resolution (though easily fixable, it generates more problems later), square water, smooth edges disabled and if I enable them manually, I get black square shadows.

After setting

Quote:seti Low 1
seti Medium 2
seti High 3

seti MediumButDefaultLow 4

I get more options for resolutions up to 1600xSomething, but not my native one which is 1920x1080.

STRANGE, but not problematic: Also, after loading up the neighborhood, I get the black screen thingie, where only the cursor is visible, clicks and in-game music can be heard. It's not a major problem, since after pressing Alt+Tab and then getting back to TS2 again, the game works just fine. Or it used to.
After editing Graphics Rules to get my native screen res, now I get the black screen after each mouse click (or just about any action in-game). Also fixable, but annoying.
Basically, I load up the neighborhood, Alt+Tab, click the "..." button in the game, Alt+Tab, click Screen options, Alt+Tab, Switch to any other screen resolution, Alt+Tab again and then apply the changes... and then it works! I can also switch to my regular screen res after that. The annoying part is that I have to do all that every time I start the game.

I installed TS2UC on my Dell Inspiron 15R 5537 (without touchscreen). See system specs (scanned with systemrequirementslab.com) below. In short - I have two video cards, plus Win8.1 64bit.
   

I tried the regular Intel fix, and it worked for the most part, but it was frying my PC on 1920x1080 res, and shadows were those damned black squares. Switching Shadows to Medium or Off didn't help.
I tried setting my Switchable Graphics to High Performance for Sims2EP9.exe and getting the Radeon fix, but to no avail.
Running in Compatibility modes of Vista SP2 or XP SP3 didn't help. I can't say anything about Win7 Compatibility mode, since for some reason I can't set the modes manually, only through Troubleshooting. Any ideas on this -not-exactly-Sims-related- matter?
Running as Administrator helped sometimes with shadows, though not always.

I'll add my full -config-log.txt of the freshly installed game (it's fresh, because I messed with Graphics Rules files so much, I gave up on fixing the game and decided to simply re-install it).

  IEVA-config-log.txt (Size: 20.61 KB / Downloads: 470)

I'll also add Matching Device IDs for my video cards. NOTE: After a recent update, my Radeon card switched its name. NOW it's Radeon R9 M265X though BEFORE that it was Radeon HD 8850M.
   

A big thanks in advance.

@floralblonde
Even though your graphics is not the problem - I need to see your config-log.txt because it gives me details about your setup. Please upload it - and I will endevour to help. I think I know what the problem is but I need to check first. You don't mention if you are doing this with a game full of CC or in a vanilla game?

Also - have you put it to Admin?

@iewa777
Please don't update your card manually unless you know how to read your config-log.txt - all your changes weren't fixing the problem it was just making it worse. Your game can run quite well in Intel - so I'll leave it on that. You had the texture memory problem. If you look at your most recent config-log.txt you'll see that your texture memory was set to 32mb. Also when Sims2 started Intel were crap cards so they were automatically set to low. The card I've pointed you to, will fix the texture memory problem, and tell the graphics card to check your CPU, etc rather than assuming that it is crap. This will fix most all your problems.

To fix most of your problems:

0. Check that your compatibility setting is ok AND that you are set to Admin (as per the first post).
1. Use Graphics Rules-INTEL-MedCPUMissingTexture.rar from the first post in this thread (the attachment is at the bottom).
2. Download this Video Cards.sgr - VideoCards-intel-0a16.rar
3. Install both files in both of these folders in your program files:
\EA\The Sims 2 - Mansion and Gardens\TSData\Res\Config\
\EA\The Sims 2 - Mansion and Gardens\TSData\Res\CSConfig\

That will resolve the following errors:
1. Anti-alias on - Square water, crap textures, smooth edges disabled, shadows on high no matter what you set it to.
2. It will *probably* fix your screen resolution too - but if it doesn't, you can go in and up it.
3. If you are still getting the black box problem, you'll be able to change your shadow settings to fix it.

@celebkiriedhel

Thank you!!! For some reason I thought that I don't have the 32MB problem even though I clearly saw the numbers. The 1920x1080 resolution still doesn't show up, but everything else works perfectly, including shadows and smooth edges. Black screen problem after neighborhood load up is still there, but, like I said before, it's easily fixable by minimizing the game and then getting back to it again.
Once again, thank you! If I meet you in real life, I'll get you a cup of coffee.

@iewa777
No worries at all iewa777 - I take mine skim cappucino no sugar.

@celebkiriedhel

Thanks for doing research for me. I'm also spitting the internet for a solution.