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

Here are my test results so far:

Test 1: I used the empty Groups.cache but I didn't mark it as read-only for this run. I removed thumbnails and Accessory.cache before opening the game.

I wasn't able to play for long, but I loaded and exited several lots and some of them were the bigger ones. This usually always causes crashing without the Groups.cache and also forces pink flashing even with it.

Results: My game didn't crash or flash.

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Test 2: I used the empty Groups.cache and this time marked it as read-only. I removed thumbnails and Accessory.cache.

I played one of my bigger lots. Since I started my current neighborhood I haven't been able to play this lot for over than about four in-game days without the flashing. This time I played for seven in-game days without any signs of the pink flashing.

Results: No crashes, no flashing.

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Test 3: Empty Groups.cache marked as read-only (still the same one than the last time), removed thumbnails and Accessory.cache.

I played on couple of my smaller lots for about ten in-game days and also focused on visiting community lots. The game didn't crash and nothing flashed.

Results: No crashes and no flashing.

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All the tests were done with about 8GB of CC and GTX 780. So... I'm a bit confused at the moment. Like for real; where have all the flashing gone? my game has flashed for almost a year and I'm not going to believe this without A LOT more testing.

I'm also sorry that using the empty Groups.cache didn't work for you guys like it did with my game. Makes me wonder... You all have graphics driver from NVidia 10 series, right? @gwynne - could you test the empty Groups.cache I linked earlier with 970 and 860? I would really like to know if it only fixes my game, or if this is true with other older cards too.

It took me a while to backtrack and figure out where 'the empty groups.cache file' originates, and it seems to be here:

http://sugahsplace.forumotion.net/t1229-...cache-file

(Note that you're potentially getting adfly here.)

... and then discovered that, for no reason I can recall, I uninstalled UC on the one machine I have left with a 1070. (Too lazy to swap my 970 out again.) So it's re-downloading now. I'll try a staged install/config and see if it behaves the way I expect, which is crashing until 4GB patch, then pink soup after that. Then I'll try the groups.cache trick.

Edit: Sorry, I misread the request. Yes, I can also try it on the other GPUs I have, but I'm really curious to see if it 'fixes' 1070s. (Or am I misunderstanding the troubleshooting logic, and do we not expect it to affect 10 series?)

@gwynne - I think the empty Groups.cache is definitely worth trying with your 1070 (more data, yay), but if I got it right SomeRandoChick uses 1070 and Cat uses 1060 and it really didn't work for them. Which is curious because my game (very unexpectedly) virtually was repaired just by using the empty cache. So that's why I'm wondering how it affects to other builds with older cards.

//Oh, I almost forgot. Someone with 10 series card should really try DxWnd. I know that it didn't help my game with the flashing (still no data about the crashing), but I personally have no doubt that it does something to the compatibility. It makes my game run so much smoother. When I have time I was planning to take couple pictures showing how it affects to FPS, 'cause with my game the change is pretty incredible.

Played a couple of households and created a family with the empty groups.cache (NO read-only flag) on my 970 machine, it was fine.

This person could probably use help from someone who is a little more in-touch with the big picture than me right now:

http://www.leefish.nl/mybb/showthread.php?tid=8297

(You can see I've sort of been trying, but still failed to tell them that they should try the empty groups.cache file.)

EDITED TO ADD: Mostly confirmed that empty / non-read-only groups.cache file does not solve 'flashing pink' on series 10. However, this was a somewhat half-arsed attempt because I kept forgetting which steps are necessary to defeat the CRASHING problem of 1709/series 10 (before you can even begin the joys of flashing pink). I think at minimum you must set:

# never trust the driver to manage its own memory
boolProp enableDriverMemoryManager true

in Graphics Rules.sgr.

... but I'm not sure I've ever tried things in the right order to know if '4GB patch' is ALSO *necessary* to defeat the 'application has crashed' problems. I did it earlier in the process.

@gwynne - thank you for trying with 970. I know that in your tests the game didn't flash at the first place with that card, but it's still good to know that the empty cache did not change that.

If I remember it correctly the necessary steps for 1709/series 10 are noCD exe, 4GB patch and enableDriverMemoryManager true? But I'm not sure as I have only followed what others have done with their builds. I only used 1080 myself when I tested with the VirtualBox, and I didn't try to actually play the game at that point.

Question, posting it here since this is basically the 'main' thread at this point:

Does anyone have the ability to post new threads here?

http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/categori...discussion

I have an old account with a few posts, but apparently I can't create new threads (or I can't find the button to do so).

I'd be interested in seeing if we can find anyone with the following conditions:

1) Windows 10 v 1709
2) NVIDIA series 10 GPU
3) Sims 2 (ANY install method, I guess, although preferably UC)
4) ... but is having NO problems with the game?

If there are people with 1709/series 10 cards NOT having this problem, and no flashing pink, I'd love to see their configurations.

(It seems like there's a decent amount of evidence to suggest that series 7 cards are also affected, but NOT 8 or 9!?)

(I'd post the same question over at MTS, but I have a feeling I'd get a lot of responses like: "I'm not having any problems, but I use Windows 7." "I'm not having any problems, but I use AMD." "I'm not having any problems, but I have a GTX 660." "I'm not having any problems, but I never let my Windows install updates." "I do have the problem but I just tweak the graphics settings whenever it happens and it goes away again." And then I'll have an aneurysm.)

(I need a vacation.)

@gwynne - I don't have an account for the official forums, but I can check If I get the game flashing or crashing with the other two PCs I have and share the results. The other one is the mentioned desktop with 1080 and I also have a laptop with 1050. Though it's not going to happen before the weekend at least, I have a lot in my hands right now.

(I know what you're saying about the MTS. Made me laugh. I know that people are genuinely trying to help, but yeah, the technical aspects are often passed a bit too lightly over there.)

I'm on a 1080 as a reminder (since we're on the 10 series is more broken than 9 series hypothesis).

I got some more crashes over the last couple of days, the first after returning to a paused game that had otherwise been running with no issues. The second occurred after restarting, loading a lot to find massive pink soup, and then trying to load back to neighborhood (crash). The groups.cache time stamp hadn't been updated since my last successful close, so I deleted the accessory.cache and then got back into the game and am able to play again. The usual occasional pink flashing is still occurring. I'm scared to EVER delete the thumbnail packages again since that rendered the game completely unplayable last time.

On my next shutdown, I'm going to try removing compatibility mode and -cpu count. I actually didn't need those in the very beginning, but added them along the way since I was trying everything I could. I think I will also try deleting unplayed hoods - can't hurt if this all caused by the game thinking it's running out of memory. The Maxis hoods can always be restored from program files anyway.

I haven't tried dxwind yet since I was running pretty stable for a bit. If the game continues to randomly crash now I will give it a shot.

Thought I'd throw this screenshot in for posterity - this is what I got on a totally vanilla game, on the second lot I loaded. The first lot loaded fine and I ran the game at triple speed for a good while, then I exited that lot and loaded a second lot into this - ran it on triple speed for a bit and it crashed. So, while CC definitely makes things touchier, a totally vanilla game can still be affected. I have NOT tried a totally vanilla game with the empty groups.cache installed, mostly because I'm not really interested in playing a game without CC, and I'm satisfied that CC is not the actual cause of the problem (though it does seem to exacerbate it). I've seen the pink soup worse, but this is pretty significant compared to the more minor pink flashing I'm mostly seeing now.
   

@SomeRandoChick, most of the early testing in my thread was with a clean install of both Windows and UC (so no CC, hacks, anything). IIRC, it goes like this:

Vanilla install with a series 10 card, original .exe = crashes, usually before you can select a neighborhood (or even earlier). Game unplayable.
Tweak the line in Graphics Rules about managing texture memory (crucial), and probably grab a noCD.exe and apply 4GB patch = crashes cease, but now you have different variants of flashing pink. (Sometimes in hood view, sometimes in lot view, sometimes hood and lot will be fine, then a few minutes into playing the lot, pink, including the sims themselves, who are pink and float around in the 'milkshape' pose.)