Recognising Newer Graphics Cards for Sims2

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OK. I'm moving forward with this - but I'd like a tiny weeny bit of help.

Can someone who has a game with great graphics ability, send me or post up here, their -config-log.log that you can find in your My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Logs file.

So far, I have managed to convince the game, to use hardware rasterization, and that the AMD Radeon HD 7800 Series is a recognised card.

However, it looks like there are a number of variables that make it revert back to Low Settings, possibly because the variables themselves don't cope with such large numbers.

So far what I've discovered:
The graphics.sgr and video cards.sgr need to be from the most recent expansion/stuff pack in the folder:

\TSData\Res\Config

There's ones in CSConfig as well, but they don't get used to load the game. I"m assuming they're either bodyshop or something similiar.

To define the card you need to work out 2 things - the Hex id, and the Internal Name.

The easiest way to do this is (in Windows 7):

1. Right click on your normal screen to bring up the change resolution window,
2. Click on Advanced Settings
3. The Adapter Tab has both:
   At the end of Chip Type there's a hex number (0x6819) - that's the ID.
   Adapter String: That's the name of the graphics card.
   

Then open up Video Cards.sgr, at the end of the appropriate vendor group,

include your hex id and card name, in the same format as the ones above.

Quote:card 0x4158 "Mach 32"

card 0x6819 "AMD Radeon HD 7800 Series"
end

So that's that side of it.

The other side of the works is in Graphics.sgr

I've included this bit of code in where it displays the system details - it's what I used to prove which graphics.sgr it was using.

if (not $useSoftwareRasterizer)
logSystemInfo "Kiri: Hardware rendering is enabled"
else
logSystemInfo "Kiri: Software rendering is enabled"
endif

I'm using the config-log to work out what settings are reverting back to low - so far I know I need to ensure boolProp enumerateMultisampleLevels true

But I'd like to check what else I need to insist on for the card, based on what a good working version has. Rather than work my way through the variables one by one.

I hope I haven't lost you? The bit in Red and Bold is the important bit from your side of help

This is mine

Attached File(s)

  ROCKET-config-log.txt (Size: 10.21 KB / Downloads: 3385)

Is this what you want Kiri: it was a notepad file so I zipped it.

Attached File(s)

  -config-log.txt (Size: 10.29 KB / Downloads: 2107)
  config-log.zip (Size: 3.11 KB / Downloads: 1301)

Thanks Lee! Will report back here with details

Thanks Michelle!

Well - I'm further on - it crashes with the Directx 9.0c error - a known one for graphics cards with Directx 11, so that is promising. Just loading up the Dirextx9.0c upgrades, and will give it another go.

So it turned out that the Directx9.0c was coding error on my part.

Fixed that - Michelle and Lee - your logs were invaluable!! I was able to work out what was happening and get around it.

Basically - I did the following things -

1. Made the changes as per the first post, to recognise the video card.
2. if ( match("${osVersion}","*NT 6.0*") or match("${osVersion}", "*NT 5.1*"))the OS version for my Windows 7 was NT 5.1, instead of NT 6.0 (which I believe is Vista according to the code). That made it set up the CPU settings the same as Vista - ie what was considered high, medium, low. I don't actually know if that helped at all, but I suspect it did.
3. if (match("${cardName}", "*Radeon?VE*") or match("${cardName}", "*7?00*") or match("${cardName}", "*R100*") or match("${cardName}", "*IGP 3?0*") or match("${cardName}", "*9100 IGP*"))
   logSystemInfo "Kiri: force Low Settings because of card name"
   
   This was the important change - basically it was going back to low settings because it was a 7?00 series.
   

And THAT'S ALL!!!

Honeywell - I have attached the Video Cards.sgr and Graphics.sgr for you.
Note. It's only set up for our Video card - Radeon HD 7800 - If you get a different card, you'll probably need to go back to the original sgr files, so keep a copy of them, before copying these ones in.

The folder to copy it into is Your latest Sims pack\TSData\Res\Config

To be honest, I think this process would work with any newer card - the code in the graphics.sgr is suprisingly flexible, it caters for both known and unknown cards, and makes exceptions on just the known cards, so we can at least get a base high setting for the newer cards.

Attached File(s)

  Config.rar (Size: 10.72 KB / Downloads: 8233)

Kiri, you are absolutely brilliant! It works perfectly on the old machine so I can't wait to put the new card back in this computer. Thanks so much for sharing!

I'm really glad to hear that my dear! I wait impatiently to see pictures of your new graphics card in your new machine.(You're going to love it!)

Hi, I'm a little unclear as to the fix for the DirectX 9 error. Were the modifications to Graphics Rules.sgr that you suggest in this message the ones that corrected the error? Or, was there another step involved? Did you first upgrade to DirectX 9c or am I missing something?

I've managed to get TS2 to the point where it gets the "No compatible DirectX 9 adapter found" (or words to that effect) error. Do you have any suggestions that I might try in order to correct this one?

Sorry to be so dense, but this problem is really driving me up the wall - I'm trying to fix this for my wife! LOL.

Hi Xitan. The DirectX9 error generally means that there is a coding error in your card. If you return to your original card it would go away. That doesn't help fix the problem for your wife, but it does get rid of the DirectX9 error.

What's happening in your config.log.txt file? That can generally show what the problem is.

Look for "Texture Memory". if it equals 32Mb, then you've got the windows update problem.

It can be fixed with either
(a) manually setting the texture memory to 1744Mb (which is my pre-update graphics memory, but if you have your own memory number use that).
or
(b) uninstalling the windows update. The update is KB2670838 (thanks to GP9000 for letting me know the ID).

If your texture memory is greater than 32Mb then that's not the problem. So I'll need to know what is being listed in the log file.
Post it up here, and I'll let you know.