Snow on Ground flickering

@BoilingOil Well, I guess if you can get away without upgrading to Windows 10, don't!
Although be careful you don't end up like Cat and have it installed without your consent...

@CatOfEvilGeniu
You are my favorite person right now for trying to help me with this!
1) Doesn't seem to matter what graphics settings I use.
2) Let us know if you find anything about the Game Bar. (I think that's what I've been using to take my screenshots though, I couldn't find any other good alternative...)

3) We are thinking along the same lines! I also had written down the line "boolProp raiseLightSnowFF" from the Graphics Rules as something to try.
(I googled "boolProp raiseLightSnowFF" and the only results were other people's uploaded GraphicsRules files...)

Your logic makes a lot of sense.
You can't entirely tell from my picture, but it's as if there is a snowy road and clear road there at the same time, and the game can't decide between the two, so it's flickering between both whenever you move the camera.
I don't know what "z fighting" is, but I can see the logic in calling it that, and how "raising the light snow" would be a solution to it.

So I went in and tried both "boolProp raiseLightSnowFF true" and "boolProp raiseLightSnowFF false"

It does...something. It's a valid command, and the game actually hangs for about 5 seconds upon entering it.
But...I didn't see any noticable change in the graphics afterwards.
Long story short, it didn't fix my problem.
(I even tried re-entering the household, in case it needs to load to take effect.)

So we're not quite there yet. However, I still feel like that logic made sense.
I wonder if something else is over-riding or preventing that change from taking effect...
I just don't have the programming knowledge to even know what to look for.

Also, I added this line of code to the end of my GraphicsRules.
logSystemInfo "leefish - raiseLightSnowFF ${raiseLightSnowFF}"

What was the purpose in that?
Was it supposed to add something about raiselightsnow to my config-log , because it didn't.
I think I misunderstood your instructions on that. You said add it to the very end?
(I might be getting tired.)

I'll check in tomorrow night for any more suggestions, and then hopefully Tues/Wed I should have a chance to actually playtest.
Thanks for your help, I really appreciate that someone is trying to help me with my poor game. Cheers!

It was supposed to add a line to config log, yes. Did you make sure to copy your graphics rule sgr to both folders? If the logSystemInfo is the last line, not in an if else block, it should add to config log. Unless the graphics rules script exits early somewhere.

Added it to the end of both GraphicsRules.sgr in both Config and CSConfig folders.
The only mentions of snow in the config log are:

boolProp showSnowOnGround true
uintProp optionSnowOnGround 1
uintProp SnowOnGround 1 #default: 1

If you have time and it's no trouble, would you be able to try "boolProp raiseLightSnowFF true/false" in your game?
It seems like it should do something, but for me it isn't...

Also, do you know what this line at the top of my log means?
"Kiri: Force Low settings because Intel removed"
What are the Kiri settings?

(Thanks! I'll try to check in on a reply but I won't have much time until at least tomorrow...)

"Kiri: " refers to the Leefish.nl user named @celebkiriedhel, who, in short, goes by the name "Kiri". When she's well, she's usually the one helping all the people here with their graphics-related TS2 issues.
Many of the Graphics Rules and Video Card .sgr files available from here have been written/edited by Kiri. In some places, she's added instructions that add special notes to the config-log.txt, so she knows why certain settings were generated. All such notes start with "Kiri: ", because that's how she knows why the program used those settings, and that it was her own idea.

It makes it possible for her to help people faster.

@rocketcopter23 - I will try to remember to test that boolprop myself but don't currently have any lots with light snow in them. Maybe in that snowy neighborhood I haven't played yet? I do wonder if maybe those settings only affect newly fallen snow and not snow that's already on the ground? So maybe change the setting, then find a lot without snow, have some snow fall in it, and see if that's working? I haven't tried it yet so just guessing.

Were you asking about screen capture earlier or was that someone in another thread? If you're not using Game DVR because it broke stuff, you can use Fraps for screen capture. That might have been in a different thread. So many threads!

And what BoilingOil said about Kiri. I am immensely grateful to her for all the work she's put into researching and writing the sgr files.
Off topic, but since I'm thanking folks, @BoilingOil, thank you so much for all the helpful game mods you wrote over the years.

@CatOfEvilGeniu Assuming that you're the same Cat that has 242 creations to her name (with an 's' at the end) on MTS, (and how could you NOT be that same person?), why are you thanking me? Isn't that the world up-side-down? Thank YOU, prrrrrrrrr...

Aw, you're welcome, and yes, same person. For some reason, I couldn't get an s here. I think it said the account exists? Maybe I made an old one and forgot the password?

Haven't tried any experiments with snow yet. Trying to undo all the registry changes I made today (done) and reinstall xboxapp per Microsoft's instructions (not sure that worked at all).
If I get it working again, I'll try the stuff with snow maybe tomorrow.

Nope, I did a search for a member with the full name, but there doesn't seem to be any.

May I inquire who came up with the idea of an XBox app on a Windows PC? Seems rather stupid to me! Why would one want to use a Windows PC to run an XBox version of a game that's already available for PCs as well? Really, someone f***ed up hard here.

@BoilingOil Ok thanks, I thought Kiri was a user but I don't remember how her settings got in my game.
(Of course, I've messed with those sgr files so much by now I don't even know what's all in there...)

Is "Kiri: Force Low settings because Intel removed" a good thing?
(Maybe @celebkiriedhel knows?)

@CatOfEvilGeniu
(I was also curious about your missing S haha)

As for testing various snow levels, if I said "batbox" I assume you would know what I mean yes?

Of course, I'm such a nerd that I have many lots in winter because I like to synchronize my hood with the current season.
It's very wintery where I live right now and I like my sims to play in the snow (Part of why this glitch is making me sad )

Cat, I did mention earlier that I use the Xbox app to take my screenshots (set to Alt+Space for maximum laziness)

Nothing else would work... my old Screenhunter program came up all black (and of course the in-game screenshots just won't do!)

I might try FRAPS if I decide to uninstall Game DVR. I don't think it's glitching my game...but I suppose I don't know that it isn't, either!
If you get good results from removing it, do let us know!

BoilingOil just another wondrous thing about Windows 10 you're missing out on

@BoilingOil and @CatOfEvilGeniu
Since you guys are already geeking out, I might as well say I'm honored to be talking to both of you...since you are both responsible for making my game much more wonderful!

BO, you have definitely made some must-have fixes that my game can't live without!
Cat, I typed your name into my search bar, and...let's just say my Downloads folder wouldn't be the same without you!

I will hopefully get a chance to play tomorrow, I will report back. I won't give up hope!

I know of batbox, good idea! And thank you for the kind words. BO's mods are on my 'must have' list too.

I'm thinking 'force low levels' is not a good thing, you want high settings, not low. I'd have to go look at the sgr file to see where that Kiri log message is. She left log messages around there to show why the game was using low settings so we could figure out how to make it use the high ones. Too sleepy to think right now, maybe tomorrow after work or later this week.