Recognising Newer Graphics Cards for Sims2

Hello.

I am having the same problems as Bill and have tried the steps here as well...am glad you still seem to be following and helping us all out.

Thank you in advance!

Windows 7 x64 Home

here's some of my log:

Quote:=== Machine info ===
OS version: Windows NT 5.1
CPU: 5318.600097Mhz, Name:AuthenticAMD, FPU:1, MMX:1
Memory: 1024MB
Free memory: 1024MB

=== Sound device info ===
Name: Unknown
Driver: Unknown
=== Graphics device info ===
Number: 0
Name (driver): AMD Radeon HD 7660D
Name (database): AMD Radeon HD 7660D <<NOT FOUND IN DATABASE!>>
Vendor: ATI
Chipset: Vendor: 1002, Device: 9901, Board: 17081565, Chipset: 0000
Driver: aticfx32.dll, Version: 8.17.10.1191, GUID: D7B71EE2-DA41-11CF-7272-0237BEC2C535
Driver version: 1191
Monitor: \\.\DISPLAY1
Monitor aspect: 2.501384, <<UNRECOGNIZED>>
Screen mode: 2560x1024x32BPP,60Hz
Texture memory: 32MB
HW T&L: Fixed function:1 Programmable:3.0
Pixel program: 3.0
Texture stages: 8
AppControlledAA: 1

Global properties
-----------------
...

My Graphics Rules are exactly the same as Bill's with your added line and I added the portion in bold to the ATI section of the video cards file

Quote: card 0x5655 "Mach 64"
card 0x4158 "Mach 32"
card 0x9901 "AMD Radeon HD 7660D"


end

Am I doing something wrong?

Attached File(s)

  WINTERSCASTLE-config-log.txt (Size: 9.72 KB / Downloads: 714)

Hi Decon - My guess with yours is that
(a) Even though you have identified your card to the game, it still comes up as not found and
(b) Your Texture memory is coming up as 32Mb, so the change to the texture memory isn't being recognised

That is happening is that you've made the changes in the wrong folders.

Now, your config-log.txt says that the most recent game is EP5 - so that would be Pets I think?

So if you haven't put your changes in the Pets set of folders, then it won't turn up in your game.

Your card itself shouldn't be a problem, and the amount of RAM memory you have available (1024Mb = 1G) is a bit low - but shouldn't affect the resolution.
So yeah - it looks like it's in the wrong place.

Hi Bill,

I've had a look at your Config-log.txt and it looks like it's not picking up the texture change. So that would suggest that it needs to be in a more recent folder.

Now - your game in the config-log.txt says

Name: The Sims 2 SC

Which is a special collection, I think? I don't really know the folder structure for the collections, and the graphics rules.sgr seem to be different than for the original expansion packs.

You'll need to pick the most recent game folder to put the change in.

Also I'm not convinced that the texture only change will be enough. Anyway first steps first is to get the values into the right folder.

So, step 1.
The game folder order from most recent to oldest is

Mansion & Garden
Apartment Life
Free Time
Bon Voyage
Seasons
Pets
Open for Business
Night Life
University
Base Game.

The other stuff packs don't count. Pick the first game from the top that you have. My suspicion with the SC collection is that you might have to put the graphic rules.sgr in more than one set of games.
Also update your Video Cards.sgr file with the following line:

card 0x68f9 "ATI Radeon HD 5450"

at the bottom of the ATI section in the Video Cards.sgr. This will make it fairly easy and quick to see if your change has taken in your config-log.txt

To check that the change has been used - look in your config-log.txt if it says

=== Graphics device info ===
Number: 0
Name (driver): ATI Radeon HD 5450
Name (database): ATI Radeon HD 5450 <<NOT FOUND IN DATABASE!>>

Then it hasn't used the change.

If it says

=== Graphics device info ===
Number: 0
Name (driver): ATI Radeon HD 5450
Name (database): ATI Radeon HD 5450

Then whatever problem its still having is in the code of the graphics rules.sgr

I added that line to the Video cards.sgr file in both config and csconfig folders in the M&G directory and ran the game. And my config-log.txt still shows the NOT FOUND IN DATABASE message.
So, this means I've been working in the wrong directory? I take that to mean there's still hope of a simple fix. Just have to find the right directory.
The first package I bought was "Double Deluxe" which, I believe, included base game, night life, and one of the stuff packs. I think it may also be known as "Store Edition", which maybe somehow is where the "SC" designation is coming from.

Here are the relevant folders from my EA GAMES directory:
The Sims 2 Apartment Life
The Sims 2 Best of Business Collection (sub-folders EP3, SP5 and SP7)
The Sims 2 Double Deluxe (sub-folders Base, EP2, SP4)
The Sims 2 Glamour Life Stuff
The Sims 2 Mansion and Garden Stuff
The Sims 2 University Life Collection (sub-folders EP1, EP99, SP6, SP8)

Here's a question: What happens if the game doesn't find the graphic rules.sgr file it's looking for? Would it display an error message revealing where it's looking? And would it be safe to temporarily re-name ALL of the graphic rules.sgr files in order to force this error?

Hello again. I'm using Seasons. I put the changes in the seasons directory. Should I replace ALL the graphics and video card files in each folder just to be safe?

As for the RAM, I have 8 gigs, but I was thinking I only had 1gig available for the video "card" (it's actually just the on Chip APU, not using a physical card atm)

Also, the BASE version of the game is a digital double deluxe...but I run the seasons file to play.

dbl deluxe
university
open for business
seasons

Thank you

Aha! Success! The University Life Collection sub-folder "EP99" is where I needed to make the changes. I guess the game looks for the highest-numbered expansion pack, and for some reason they wanted it to always look there, so they called it EP99. Thank you so much, Kiri, I was about to give up (or try getting used to 600x800).

Good job Bill. Feel free to join in other discussions now you have a working game.

Well, I made changes to ALL of the video rules and graphics files. Still no success. The line:
Name (driver): AMD Radeon HD 7660D
Name (database): AMD Radeon HD 7660D <<NOT FOUND IN DATABASE!>>
in my log leads to to wonder if the
"card 0x9901 "AMD Radeon HD 7660D"
line is in the wrong section of the Video Cards file....that perhaps the ATI section isn't in the right spot seeing as how it's now AMD?

Also, according to the adapter properties tab, there's 4203MB of memory available.

Bill - so glad that you were able to work it out! Thanks for letting me know what is happening with the expansion pack naming - that resolves a problem that another friend was having, but ended up rolling back the windows update.

Decon - the change to your Video Cards.sgr is correct that's not the problem. There are 4 sections in the card - ATI (Radeon), NVidia, Intel and Other. Yours is in the correct section - because although ATI is renamed to AMD, it still is Radeon.

Decon, when you say you are changing all the video rules and graphics files - Can I assume that you are changing them in both the CSConfig folder and the Config folder of each game and expansion?

Please attach your graphics rules.sgr and video cards.sgr for me - I think I need to have a look at what you've actually done.

Don't worry - we WILL sort this out.

(16-06-2013 08:46 AM)celebkiriedhel Wrote:  Decon, when you say you are changing all the video rules and graphics files - Can I assume that you are changing them in both the CSConfig folder and the Config folder of each game and expansion?

I did not. Had only changed the files in the CSConfig. I changed them ALL now and now can see in 1600x600!!! Yay!!! Thank you very very much.

There's still some settings I can't change, like the shadows and the RAM still seems stuck at 1gig but, that's absolutely not a problem considering what was going on before. I was playing sims 3 just to get the feel but it's just doesn't feel the same to me.

I've included the log file and the graphics and video card files in case they can be of use to you Kiri, or someone else in the future. I had a problem uploading sgr files so they've been changed to txt.
~Decon

Attached File(s)

  WINTERSCASTLE-config-log.txt (Size: 9.35 KB / Downloads: 731)
  Video Cards.txt (Size: 21.7 KB / Downloads: 964)
  Graphics Rules.txt (Size: 29.92 KB / Downloads: 837)