Slow lot/neighborhood

[AnastasiaRenai]

I'm not even sure how to explain this.  But I've noticed that my game has slowed down alot.  At first I thought it was the hacks I had in my folder, but I removed them all and the problem didn't improve.  So I thought it was my computer, worked hard to make it work faster.  Didn't help.  Then yesterday I did a eureka, I created a new family, in a new neighborhood, on a new lot.  Wow, the game moved fast.  Unfortunately, just now while I was playing it, it got slow all of a sudden.  The first time I did it, I used JM's lot debugger, and it removed two stuck visitors, I deleted all characters so I think it was the mailman and the newspaper boy.  But after a little while later, the game again got really slow, and by really slow I mean the game barely moves at all no matter what the speed.  This time there were no JM options to fix the lot.  I even put the game in boolprop testingcheatsenabled true to see if I could find any errors.  Nothing happened, just really slow.  So my question is, has this happened to others before, if so, what causes it, and how can it be fixed.  I didn't save my game because I think something went wrong, and if I go back in it will probably still keep moving fast.  But that's not a good solution to keep closing the game without saving to prevent the error from saving, but that is what I have to do for now.  It never happened before I got nightlife.  I have also used the nightlife patch. 

[Motoki]

Try running SimPE's ScanFolders tool and uncheck everything but the health scanner. Scan all your downloads and subdirectories (could take a while) and sort by health and look for items with a high geometry (polygon) count.

It may or may not be causing it but it's another place to look.

You could also try turning on debug mode and see if any errors pop up.

It could also be one of the portal bugs but then again I thought they were supposed to have fixed it with the NL patch.

[AnastasiaRenai]

Motoki, I hope you are still here.  I just ran the scan, and sure enough I got some high geometry files.  They are maxis objects.  But there is no name of the objects, just letters and numbers, so I don't know what they are.  What should I do with them?

Also I did try to run the game in debug mode, and no errors popped up, which is why the problem was so perplexing me.

[cwykes]

Have you put sims in houses into the lot bin or moved sims between 'hoods either in a package or via the lot bin?  If so, you will have lots of duplicate sim files in your game just like I did.  Motoki and ZZ explained this to me a couple of days ago.  See if you have far more sims in your character than you think there should be and/or you have lots of small files.  If so that's the problem (or at least A problem).  You need to delete them, but you also need to clean up the memories.     Ghosts also have small file sizes and you "need" them, so be careful!  Here's the link.
http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php?topic=158.0

[Motoki]

The names being scrambled up just means you installed something via the Maxis installer. And it's known that some of those Maxis object downloads are higher in count than their own guidelines. (DOH Maxis!) but if it's just MaxoidMonkey's objects from the exchange, none of those should be too insanely high as to cause serious problems like you are having as far as I can tell. If they're definitely Maxis stuff I wouldn't worry too much, but if there's some custom stuff getting flagged might want to look into it further.

[AnastasiaRenai]

I deactivated the high files.  I don't know if it fixed it yet.  but I could use the simpe fix to fix them, so I just unselected them.  Thanks for the advice, I'll let you know if it worked out.

[eaglezero]

When I had a really bad slowdown problem that was similar to what you are describing, I used crammyboy's portal fix. I went to check the link for the portal fix, but it's claiming that portal issues should have been resolved with the patch. *shrug* Still, one symptom of the portal issue is if you call the gardener/maid/delivery guys and they don't come. The portal fix is here.

It doesn't say, however, that if you have the portal issue before installing the patch, it will be corrected. If it turns out that the portals are really your issue, there is a second topic that tells you how to replace them. That can be found here. If you download it, instructions are in the readme as to how to determine which portal is missing.

I hope you get your game's issues sorted out, I know that the slowdown bugs aren't fun at all!

[miramis]

If it is the slowdown/npc bug (god I really hope it's not because that bug has caused me no end of grief) then there is a mirror you can use to select invisible npc's on the lot.  I think it's called Merola's mind control mirror or something like that.  With the slowdown/npc bug there would be masses of npc's (invisible) generating continuously on the lot which slows it down very badly, the mirror will allow you to select anyone on the lot so if there are a lot of npc's their names will show.  Obviously there should only be your sims and visiting sims available for selection.  I can't remember where you can download it from though - sorry.

[AnastasiaRenai]

All this time, and I never knew there was a slow down bug.  I just thought I had a really crappy laptop, because it happened right after I got Nightlife.  As a result, I just bought a new one.  Shhh don't tell hubby that the problem is not with the current laptop I have b/c he would kill me.  In any case the new one I'm getting is so awesome. 

In any case.  Thanks for the great advice, I'm off to look into it some more.  Btw the mirror is here:  http://www.simchaotics.com/.

[cwykes]

Maxis definitely put Crammyboys' portal fix in the Uni & NL patches - Crammyboy says uninstall his fix before you patch.
From reading Crammyboys MTS2 thread I believe that:

1. the patch stops new portal bug happening
2. the patch EDIT does not fix missing portals on existing lots
3. the patch doesn't clean up the 999 NPCs stuck on an existing lot.

No personal guarantee on this info.  If you think this is wrong, please post on MTS2  at http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=83684. 

Inges teleporter plus shrub from http://www.simlogical.com/  is good for spotting and evicting NPCs stuck on the lot. 
Crammyboy has a download to detect a missing portal on the thread above.  If there is a missing portal he links you here for the fix http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=79045

[AnastasiaRenai]

I did as everyone said.  result there are no stuck npcs on my lot, either using merolas mirror or inge shrub.  I also used the portal fixes, and the problem is still there, also, I had used the Maxis patch almost as soon as it came out.  My new lot is doing fine, but I can't fix my old one.  It's a shame really.

[cwykes]

   OK, so it's not stuck NPCs.  NB - I'll be editing my last post as I got an update on the portal info.. 

I mentioned grey sims in post 3 - did you check for them?   Mind you, unless that new 'hood has imported sims it doesn't sound likely that's the problem.

Have you tried running without any custom content in the game?  I've never tried that health scanner so I don't know what it picks up.  But if there is a problem in the downloads like a conflict with something in NL, taking them all out will solve the problem.   IF the problem is there without any custom content it points firmly at "not a download problem".

I know it sounds stupid, but I did find my game did strange things when I had downloads in the wrong folders or named wrong  especially clothing etc.  I move them around a lot to speed up things and don't always put them back quite right.  Worth a good hard look at folder names and content.  I also found my sims lost all free will because I had somehow enabled a hack filename nme.off  Interesting side effect that had me puzzled for days.  I nailed that by moving the custom content.

One simmer told me her game slowed right down when she put a fence on the lot... go figure...
Closing everything running in the background and making sure scheduled tasks don't kick in is another "must check".

[miramis]

Is the slowdown happening at certain times of day? Have you tried turning on boolProp testingcheatsenabled true to see if any error boxes pop up at the time of slowdown?  Testingcheats would be my next port of call if it were me.  Exactly how slow is slow - for example does it take several sim minutes for a sim to take only a couple of steps? 

[AnastasiaRenai]

I mentioned grey sims in post 3 - did you check for them?   Mind you, unless that new 'hood has imported sims it doesn't sound likely that's the problem.
Closing everything running in the background and making sure scheduled tasks don't kick in is another "must check".

I can't find the info you said about grey sims.  I scrolled up but I didn't find anything.  Also I run my computer in msconfig with only a few programs loaded, so there is very little running in the background.   

Is the slowdown happening at certain times of day? Have you tried turning on boolProp testingcheatsenabled true to see if any error boxes pop up at the time of slowdown?  Testingcheats would be my next port of call if it were me.  Exactly how slow is slow - for example does it take several sim minutes for a sim to take only a couple of steps? 

The slowdown is continuous.  I have tried the testingcheats to find any errors and nothing came up.  When I say slow, it takes a few minutes, *human time* for the sim clock to move one minute, and the sims themselves barely move at all. 

Thanks everyone for all your advice, I will keep working at this.  I like this family alot and I hope I'm able to bring them back to normal.

[cwykes]

Have you put sims in houses into the lot bin or moved sims between 'hoods either in a package or via the lot bin?  If so, you will have lots of duplicate sim files in your game just like I did.  Motoki and ZZ explained this to me a couple of days ago.  See if you have far more sims in your character than you think there should be and/or you have lots of small files.  If so that's the problem (or at least A problem).  You need to delete them, but you also need to clean up the memories.     Ghosts also have small file sizes and you "need" them, so be careful!  Here's the link.
http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php?topic=158.0

This is the post I was trying to refer back to  - sorry I wasn't clear...  the whole thread is interesting, but the bit where they talked me through "grey" sims starts is about post 60 -76