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

I didn't post any logs before, but will now. The config log is from my last "vanilla" session. The graphic rules file came from here but I changed the texture memory myself. I've tried tweaking the file and updating more of the memory references, but it's never changed the 1024MB the config log always returns. The attached graphics file is the version I consider the most "stable" since I didn't do much to it and have at times had several good days without too many problems while using it. I'm also throwing in my video card file because I added the card myself, so maybe I didn't do something correctly even though the game returns the correct name.



Yesterday, after updating the driver, the game wouldn't launch at all. I'd get the permissions popup twice but it never even loaded as a background process. I delete cache files every time I quit/crash so they are not the issue. Origin was pulled up and running in the background as usual. I even tried loading the game through the launcher with the same results.

I thought more about the noCD exe not working right and remembered having some weird behavior with a different version years ago. So I stalked Kiri's tumblr and found a link to download the exe she calls George. I applied the 4GB patch to that, and it worked. I'd have to say the initial noCD patch I tried was bad because this new one loaded at a normal speed, recognized all my stuff, etc. It played so well, I swapped my folder back to my "real" game. I played about 45 minutes each on two of the lots that crashed on loading the previous day, and I didn't have any trouble at all. I quit the game to get rid of some CC hair (I didn't like it so hadn't used it on any sims yet), loaded it back up, loaded a house and the pink flashing started and then it crashed.

I spent a good bit of my free time yesterday trying various tweaks, but nothing very successful. I did try tweaking the driver memory setting in the graphics rule file, but I didn't get any improvement from that.

But, I did find something interesting with the pink flashing. It intrigued me that an item with duplicates on a lot might have only some of the duplicates appearing to have lost their textures while others displayed fine. Then, when a sim loses their textures, they can have it temporarily return as they travel around the lot. If you go into buy mode and grab an item with a missing texture and move it around, you may find places where it regains its texture, though returning it to the original spot will make it pink again. So, I thought it seemed linked to shadows and lighting. I tried lowering my shadow and lighting settings to medium, and all the textures returned. I didn't even have to keep medium settings - on reverting back to high, the textures were still present. It isn't a permanent fix - after playing for some time, pink flashing creeps back in, but changing the settings again can return them again. Sometimes I have to change the settings a few times to "fix" all the pink, and when it's really stubborn exiting and reentering the lot can help too. But, I actually played for a good several hours without crashing.

This obviously isn't really a "success", but I will take semi-playable at this point! Also, it should be noted that a lot of the tweaks and fixes I've applied have APPEARED to fix things and I get a good session or two before the problems creep back worse than before. I'm going to try to get some play time today to see if it's less stable or the same before I try any more tweaks.



By the way, I also have no integrated graphics so I am also wary of disabling the card.

Attached File(s)

  LAPTOP-OBLHD6PI-config-log.txt (Size: 10.38 KB / Downloads: 455)
  DxDiag.txt (Size: 64.72 KB / Downloads: 481)
  sgrFiles.rar (Size: 10.93 KB / Downloads: 518)

@SomeRandoChick - Thank you for mentioning lighting settings. I think mine got set back to high and I forgot to change them back to medium. Could be why I got so many pink flashies today while testing.
[edit3] Yup, changed lighting back to medium, noCD works okay again, just keep getting some pink flashies a bit like before.

Could you please point me to that noCD exe known as George? I don't know if that's the one I have or not. I haven't been to Kiri's tumblr, may need to take a look. I'm using a noCD from a link in one of Kiri's posts on leefish. Unless it was a different Kiri post on leefish, but definitely not from a tumblr.
http://www.leefish.nl/mybb/showthread.ph...0#pid41860
[edit] Were you referring to this tumblr post about George? Sounds like what I got, similar description. I'll check if I have the same...
[edit2] I appear to have been using the George version of the noCD. Same file sizes, same modification dates, got both from Kiri.

Yes, that link to Kiri's tumblr was where I got George. I actually tried two noCD exes prior to this one - the first was from here and gave repeated Directx errors, and the "bad" one was one I'd copied over from my old machine (which I'd used before), so at least I'm comfortable that it was probably not dangerous. Not really sure why one would work and not another, but I'm happy to be able to bypass Origin now!

Today's a bit better than yesterday - still some minor pink things now and then, but not nearly as extensive as I've seen before and I haven't had to tweak settings at all. Best of all, no crashes so far.

Using sysinternals from Microsoft to see what my computer's doing before I go changing stuff. ( Thanks @RoxEllen1965 ) I have a 64 bit system so using the 64 bit versions of all the tools and trying to remember to run them as admin.

I'm looking for XBox stuff and XBox game monitoring (xbgm) because that's where the code for Game DVR is and that's what monitors games even when Game Bar and Game DVR are disabled, if I understand correctly. See this article. xbgm or xbox game monitoring is something in the registry but I did wonder if it might also be the name of a process maybe.

Autoruns64 did not show me xbox anything nor xbgm anything in the list of things that start up when the computer boots.
XBox game monitoring is a service that I thought would auto start up but maybe it's under another name.

Next, I checked process explorer 64 to see what all's running. Again, I searched for stuff with xbox or xbgm. No xbgm but a bunch of stuff with xbox in it did turn up. Here's what's running on my machine even though I have Game Bar and Game DVR disabled.



(Always make a system restore point before messing with the registry!)

Next step, edit the registry to stop xbox game monitoring from starting. If that doesn't help, use powershell to remove the xboxapp. Haven't tried this yet.

There's also turning off Game Mode in Win 10 version 1709 by editing the registry since Microsoft removed our ability to turn off Game Mode in settings. Haven't tried this yet.

Quote:So, I thought it seemed linked to shadows and lighting. I tried lowering my shadow and lighting settings to medium, and all the textures returned. I didn't even have to keep medium settings - on reverting back to high, the textures were still present. It isn't a permanent fix - after playing for some time, pink flashing creeps back in, but changing the settings again can return them again. Sometimes I have to change the settings a few times to "fix" all the pink, and when it's really stubborn exiting and reentering the lot can help too. But, I actually played for a good several hours without crashing.

This obviously isn't really a "success", but I will take semi-playable at this point! Also, it should be noted that a lot of the tweaks and fixes I've applied have APPEARED to fix things and I get a good session or two before the problems creep back worse than before. I'm going to try to get some play time today to see if it's less stable or the same before I try any more tweaks.

Thanks @SomeRandoChick, this at least gets me able to play now and then.

(My thread is over here: http://www.leefish.nl/mybb/showthread.php?tid=8257)

Thanks for still working on it, @CatOfEvilGenius. I don't have as much time to bang my head against it this week, but I can test stuff on different platforms when there's new stuff to try.

@gwynne - No worries, I understand about real life responsibilities. I'm glad for anything you can do and don't feel you owe us any tests.

-------------------------

All that xbox stuff two posts up is running even though my settings say I don't want to use Game Bar nor Game DVR. Clicky below to see pic of my settings.
[edit] Seems that the infobutton thing that works on MTS does not work on leefish. Must read about leefish tags...

[infobutton="how to disable Game Bar and Game DVR"]Go to Windows search, type Settings.
In the Settings dialog, scroll down and select Gaming. Then find Game Bar and Game DVR.


[/infobutton]

===================================================

How do I record game clips or take screenshots without Game DVR?
You can use OBS Studio and/or Fraps. Don't need Game DVR nor GeForce Experience ShadowPlay.

OBS Studio - https://obsproject.com/

Fraps - http://www.fraps.com/

==============================================

Disable Xbox Game Monitoring in the registry

Followed instructions here

* made a system restore point first

* opened regedit
* double click all these in order: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> System -> CurrentControlSet -> Services -> xbgm
* now look for the Start registry entry, it is a REG_DWORD, right click that Start
* select Modify and change the 3 value to a 4
* click OK

* reboot the machine (not sure this is needed but seems like it should be after a registry change for what stuff is enabled)
* double check in regedit that your change is still there
* see if there's a difference in Sims 2

RESULTS

* regedit shows my change to xbgm Start from 3 to 4 is still there

* I ran Microsoft sysinternals process explorer 64 as admin again (see previous results of this earlier/above)
This time, instead of 10 things with xbox in them, I found 9. All the 'explorer' stuff was still there, but significantly, the dynamic link library (DLL) was NOT there.
So changing the registry did have that effect, it seems.

* Tried Sims 2 Origin UC exe, from desktop shortcut, not from the Origin launcher
Same behavior as before, game crashes on community lot after just a couple in game sim hours, no apparent change

* Just to be sure, ran process explorer 64 after the UC crash, while Origin was still running, to see if the xbox DLL may have been loaded when Origin started up.
It had not, no xbox DLL in processes. Still just the nine things in explorer but no xbox DLL.

Next, let's try disabling Game Mode in the registry and check the registry keys for Steam, and more importantly, Origin.
That will be in my next post. If that doesn't work, the next step after that is using powershell to remove the xboxapp. Can't start if it ain't there!

---

More Trying to Disable Game DVR in the Registry...

Look, more instructions for disabling Game DVR in the registry, from Steam support here (and also see more discussion on Reddit here, I have not done all the stuff they try there)
I think these registry keys are already set to disabled because of what I did in Windows Settings -> Gaming, but let's double check... Steps 1-3 were done by Windows Settings, but I had to do steps 4-7 manually
And I know I read another article somewhere about Steam specific setting, I bet there are ones for Origin too, in the registry for Game Mode and Game DVR. Must find that article...

1 Open Registry Editor (Run > regedit)
2 Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\System\GameConfigStore
3 Set the value of DWORD "GameDVR_Enabled" to 0
4 Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\
5 Create key "GameDVR".
6 Create DWORD 32bit called "AllowGameDVR" and set to 0
7 Restart your computer.



RESULT - Origin UC exe, started from the desktop, not from the Origin launcher, crashes as before, after a few hours in game at Downtown Commandgo
no apparent change

Next, let's try messing with Game Mode registry settings...

How to check if Game DVR is sneakily running in the background when you didn't tell it to (Microsoft engineer's advice)

John, a Microsoft engineer, has this to say on reddit

John Wrote:GameDVR is enabled by default. It shouldn't be running unless actively in use or you have enabled background recording (can be verified by opening Task manager and looking for Broadcast DVR Server background process - if this isn't running, then GameDVR isn't running). Background recording, the feature which allows you to save the last 30+ seconds of gameplay to a video, is disabled by default because it is a constant tax on your system performance

Ok, let's see what Task Manager tells me...

* Task Manager, Services tab, xbgm (xbox game monitoring) is there but marked Stopped, so yay?
* I can't see Broadcast DVR Server in this sea of stuff but who knows. There is NO search nor find feature!

Ok, let's try sysinternals process explorer 64 and look for Broadcast DVR Server in there since it DOES have a find feature

* Process Explorer 64 does not find 'Broadcast DVR Server' but it DOES find a bunch of stuff that is probably related when I search for DVR, see two circled things, bcastdvrstartup and bcastdvr. I have no idea if this means that server is running or not but it looks fishy to me.
* Looked for xbox again, just to see if anything there changed. Still 9 explorer things but no DLL.

Disable Game Mode in the registry

Microsoft took away the off switch for Game Mode. I have feelings about this. Here's how to disable Game Mode in the registry.

* HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\GameBar
* Look for a key called AllowAutoGameMode. If it’s not there, create it.
* Right-click inside the right panel and select New>DWORD (32-bit) Value. Rename the new value AllowAutoGameMode.
* By default, this key will have the value 0. It will disable Game Mode.
If you want to enable Game Mode, change its value back to 1.

I assume I should REBOOT after changing the registry.





I had more data in that key than the images above show. Here's what my key looks like right now.



RESULT - Tested UC Origin exe, from desktop shortcut, not Origin launcher, after rebooting.
Again, crash after several in game hours at Downtown Commandgo, no apparent change. *sigh*

---------------------------------

Out of curiosity, I'm searching the registry for 'GameMode' and found this value in a key that has to do with game mode user configuration.
Maybe I should check process explorer later to see if this dll is getting loaded?

C:\Windows\SysWOW64\Windows.Gaming.Preview.dll

Did a search in process explorer for 'Gaming', did not find that dll.

Did a search in process explorer for 'dvr' and found that same broadcast dvr server stuff as before. An event, file(s), and a key or something.
Not sure that means the server is actually running, it shouldn't be, but I'm not sure. This search was done after Sims 2 crashed and I closed Origin.



A search of process explorer for 'xbox' finds the same 9 items as before.

I should try looking for dvr and/or xbox processes while Sims 2 is actually running...

* searching process explorer for 'xbox' while Sims 2 Origin exe is running - same 9 items as when it's not running and Origin is not running
* searching process explorer for 'dvr' while Sims 2 Origin exe is running - same 5 items as when it's not running and Origin is not running

What to try next? All I have left on the list for today is nuke the xbox app from orbit by uninstalling it in powershell. It's the only way to be sure, as the space marine from Aliens said. I want Ripley to fix my Sims game.

Remove the xbox app using powershell

Instructions here, scroll down to the section titled How to completely remove the Xbox app

How to uninstall xbox app

1. Right-click the Start button.
2. Click Windows PowerShell (Admin).
3. Type Get-AppxPackage *xboxapp* | Remove-AppxPackage and hit Enter on your keyboard.

You should see a notification that it was uninstalled. I saw something flash by ridiculously fast, couldn't read it.

- - - - - - - -

How to reinstall xbox app without having to reinstall Windows 10.

1. Right-click the Start button.
2. Click Windows PowerShell (Admin).
3. Type Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers| Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"} and hit Enter on your keyboard.

- - - - - - - -

Ok, I uninstalled the xbox app. Now let's reboot, hopefully Windows boots fine, and let's see what process manager 64 tells me...
And then let's try running the game. *sigh*

Well, I rebooted with no trouble so far. (Did do an iDrive backup of my documents beforehand in case something I did might brick my computer...)
Let's see what process explorer tells us, shall we? There are still those 5 things when I search for dvr but the number of xbox things is down from 9 to 8.
Is this good? Maybe? I have no idea. I would have hoped for no xbox stuff at this point. This is what's running when the game and Origin are NOT running.
Previous post tests showed I had the 5 dvr and 9 xbox things running when the game was running and when it wasn't. Does that mean Windows is being
good and not starting stuff it shouldn't when the game is running? Or does it mean Windows is being bad and starting stuff it shouldn't even when the game is not running? I don't know.



Does the game work any better? Let's find out... after dinner... *sigh*
No, still crashes, but this time without an error message even. Just poof, Sims window gone.
Disappointing.

Not sure what else to try at this point. Something in 1709 broke Origin UC but what? And can I even find or fix it?
*shakes fist at Microsoft*