Sims2 Ultimate Collection Windows 10 Crashing in Create A Family Mode!

Hi guys... I've finally made the effort and opened an account on here because over the years reading through other people's threads and not finding solutions can wear you down! I'm not terribly teccy either which doesn't help so please bear with me haha.

I've recently tried running my beloved Sims 2 Ultimate Collection I downloaded a few years back, before Windows 10 came on the scene. I was having problems with it crashing after downloading Windows 10 and it seems those problems are still there.

So I seem to be okay in neighbourhood view but it crashes every time I go into Create A Family mode, haven't tried building anything yet (the game has mysteriously wiped itself since the last I played but oh well).

I've tried running it as administrator and in combination with trying different compatibility modes (Windows 8, 7 and XP (Service Pack 3)) but to no avail, however Windows XP lasted longer before it crashed if that sheds any light haha. I get so far (normally just clicking the create sim button) and then it crashes - the pop up message saying nothing particularly helpful, just "the application has crashed, the application will now terminate".

I've attached my config log, hope it's right!

Thank you so much for helping I think what you do is so lovely!!!

Attached File(s)

  CHRIS-HP-config-log.txt (Size: 10.25 KB / Downloads: 452)

If it worked before you got Win 10, then there is your answer, @isabel. With every update that M$ rolls out, Win 10 is becoming more and more TS2-unfriendly. You should've stayed on Win 7 or Win 8.1, or whatever it was that you were using before you got into Win 10.

But there are maybe some things that you can try. First of all, your graphics card is not in the Database. You could go to the thread New Video Cards.sgr!, and download the file "VideoCards-NEWER.rar".
If you unpack that file, remove the -NEWER from the filename of the .sgr file, and put that file in the folders "Fun with Pets/EP9/TSData/Res/Config" AND "Fun with Pets/EP9/TSData/Res/CSConfig", your card will be recognized. That might fix some of your problems, but most likely not all.

Download this file: https://git.froggi.es/joshua/d9vk/-/jobs.../download, extract it and in x32 folder, copy d3d9.dll file and put it in the same folder as Sims 2 EXE. Make sure you have latest and greatest nvidia driver (at least 430.xx) and then try running it. Also it's HIGHLY suggested you use 4GB patch on the game EXE otherwise it might crash after a while.
This is does not work flawlessly yet but the bugs are just so minor you can ignore them.
What this file essentially does is it re-implements whole DirectX 9 with Vulkan API. So even if Microsoft or Nvidia breaks DX9 entirely (which is what Sims 2 uses), Sims 2 will still work with it.
The name of this thing is D9VK (https://github.com/Joshua-Ashton/d9vk) and it's sponsored by Valve as they use it in their Linux compatibility project, so it's not shady or anything.

Hi @BoilingOil, thanks for your reply - if I'd had known Windows 10 was going to break my game then I would never have got it

I tried downloading VideoCards-NEWER.rar but I had a pop up saying "This file does not have an app associated with it for performing this action. Please install an app...." Any ideas what app I might need to install first?


Thanks @citrusalex - unfortunately I think I only have an Intel Graphics card, otherwise I would've given that a shot.

(10-08-2019 09:47 PM)isabel Wrote:  I tried downloading VideoCards-NEWER.rar but I had a pop up saying "This file does not have an app associated with it for performing this action. Please install an app...." Any ideas what app I might need to install first?

It is a .rar file, so you may need WinRar to unpack the file. Or any program/app that is willing and able to unpack .rar files, actually.

Thanks - I've downloaded WinRar and got as far as extracting it (that's the same as "unpacking" right? haha) but now my problem is that I cannot locate the folders "Fun with Pets/EP9/TSData/Res/Config" or "Fun with Pets/EP9/TSData/Res/CSConfig" ... I've attached a screen shot of my Ultimate Collection file..
   

(10-08-2019 11:13 PM)isabel Wrote:  my problem is that I cannot locate the folders "Fun with Pets/EP9/TSData/Res/Config" or "Fun with Pets/EP9/TSData/Res/CSConfig" ... I've attached a screen shot of my Ultimate Collection file..

Ah, but you're looking in the WRONG folder... You shouldn't be in the "Documents" folder, but in "Program Files", or something similar.

(10-08-2019 09:47 PM)isabel Wrote:  Thanks @citrusalex - unfortunately I think I only have an Intel Graphics card, otherwise I would've given that a shot.

If it's new enough and supports Vulkan, D9VK should work with it.