deconstructing the 1am freeze

[narutothealc]

You did try playing in a lower resolution, or with reduced graphical settings?
Especially a setting like high detail lots can be disastrous to your gameplay. Leave it at 1.

my game actually doesn't "lag", it just freezes (but the ZzzZZ coming from my sim sleeping is still going if u know wat i mean) like how it feezes at 1 after 3-4 in game minutes. i always have to save quit or main menu and save but sometimes when i go back in a few seconds later i get crash out onto desktop

[Sinthia]

You did try playing in a lower resolution, or with reduced graphical settings?
Especially a setting like high detail lots can be disastrous to your gameplay. Leave it at 1.

my game actually doesn't "lag", it just freezes (but the ZzzZZ coming from my sim sleeping is still going if u know wat i mean) like how it feezes at 1 after 3-4 in game minutes. i always have to save quit or main menu and save but sometimes when i go back in a few seconds later i get crash out onto desktop

Yep. I'm having the same problem. Except going to main menu doesn't seem to fix anything and I don't experience any crashes.

[narutothealc]

You did try playing in a lower resolution, or with reduced graphical settings?
Especially a setting like high detail lots can be disastrous to your gameplay. Leave it at 1.

my game actually doesn't "lag", it just freezes (but the ZzzZZ coming from my sim sleeping is still going if u know wat i mean) like how it feezes at 1 after 3-4 in game minutes. i always have to save quit or main menu and save but sometimes when i go back in a few seconds later i get crash out onto desktop

Yep. I'm having the same problem. Except going to main menu doesn't seem to fix anything and I don't experience any crashes.

hmm going to the main menu then going back fixes for me (main menu here i'm referring to the menu where u choose ur game save lot not the town menu)

[jello]

I am having that same problem as well (minus the crashes).

I just upgraded Awesomemod after not playing the game for a month or so. I never had this problem prior to this last Awesomemod update.

I do not use Awesome story, but I do use ISM.

[J. M. Pescado]

I cannot reproduce any freezing or lag. If you have an afflicted save game, send it and I will take a look.

[narutothealc]

the freeze only start after the 1am freeze and as he said, i didn't have this problem b4, now i updated the mod coz i stopped playing for like 2 months and its happening. how do i get the gamesave?

[Mental Hobbit]

As this thread has shifted from the 1 am lag to freezes, I can contribute something:

I hadn't plaved TS3 for about a month. After updating AM a few days ago, I found out that my custom, destroyallhuman'ed neighborhood that I had always used to start new games didn't work anymore, it would freeze within seconds. Later I realized that destroyallhumans or destroyallnpcs always leads to an infinite freeze now. Eventually "exterminate 100" gave me a working neighborhood without too many fuglies. I guess there's a problem with creating some particular NPC causing this. It doesn't matter which story mode driver I use btw, I tried Indie, AM's and EA's.

I still have freezes once in a while now. In most cases, I can just terminate the process and restart. Once I had to take out AM and run a sim day without it though in order to get the game working again. (I have a save right before that reproducable freeze if it's of any interest.)

Another reproducable freeze I had whenever I switched to "suck up to boss" at the restaurant career. There was no boss on my Sim's relationship tab, maybe that's why.

[Morphar]

Hurray!!!

Sorry, but you have the exact same problem as I and I have posted it in The New Bug Thread but Pescado can't reproduce it.
So it was working in an earlier release then? Was it before you patched the game to 1.4?

I have tested with the corresponding commands in Super Computer by Twallan and I get the same results. I can use his Force kill->NPC's though. I have also traced the freeze to somewere in EAxis code (I think).
I have also this spontanous freezes that you have. I can play for hours but suddenly it freezes. I use the Framelimiter to avoid overheating of my computer but the temperature is in control.
What about your hardware:

Processor?
Processor clock frequence?
RAM memory?
Graphic board?
 

[Aqua]

I am also having this freeze problem. But for me, it is most times close to midnight. 0:07 or 0:08 is the favorite time for my crash. For me, it never happens when just one person of the household is still awake. Just when all sims are sleeping, then it might freeze. Freeze means that the zzzzz-icon is still moving, the same with the radio. Music is on. But even if i wait 20 minutes, nothing more happens. The clock is not running. So i have to close the game with task manager.
My QuadCore is just on 60-63 percent. So i dont think its something with the hardware.
So i save a lot before i send my sims to bed. When i reload the savegame, there is no problem for the next night, but there might be a freeze again the next night. And its always just a few minutes after midnight.

I played with EA-story mode, then i changed to Awesomemod Story Driver, but it is still the same.

[NormaJean]

Same thing here
It isn't Awesome, its EA I believe
Haven't you ever noticed the phone ringing around 00:06-00:008?

You get the messages that 'put a name here' is getting old and maybe you need pay to visit
and when you answer/click ignore the phone, same message with another name appears
That what happens if the game keeps working

otherwise on the first ring from the phone the game freezes
Phone sound is still playing, radio is playing ect ect
Turning the phone off, removing it from the house had the same effect

I have the latest patch en AM, removed cache files ect
Aging on, AM story on, EA story on. indo enabled but not installed (in showconfig its shows as false however, prob. because not installed)
Freq saving and praying, cause when I save at 23:59 and de game freezes and thus I kill it...
when I load the 23:59 save, there is aprox 60% change it won't happen again for that night
turning the phone off doesn't do the trick, same story
Only thing different from you Aqua is that it doesn't matter if anyone is still up
Also tested with Sims week period in a 1 person small house and with a 8 person household: same thing, when phone rings game freezes frequently

[Aqua]

Since i play in window mode instead of fullscreen, i didnt get this freeze after midnight.

[sheep_plushi]

Well I noticed this thread has strayed randomly to freezing and crashing, but just for anyone with the 1am freeze problem (just the problem where after 1am the game slows to a crawl then goes back to normal, no crashing or anything) I use awesomestory now and I don't have that issue. In my case at 1am my cpu useage was going to 100% at that time, but now it runs smooth all the time.

[Mental Hobbit]

My update on freezing:

Took out AM two weeks ago, cause the random freezes every couple sim days had become unbearable. Hadn't had a single freeze ever since.

Today I decided to give it another try.
Completely reinstalled TS3 (razor) and the framework. Patched it up to 1.4.6 in one go without errors.
Put in latest AM and Indie, no other mods.
Started a new neighborhood, destroyallhumaned it and threw one of the EA fuglies into it.
Freeze after 14 sim minutes, no way out other than killing it from task manager.

*Sigh*

PC is an Intel Quad, XP, 3 Gigs usable RAM, Nvidia GTX 275. Definitely no overheating or any other hardware related issues.

[wizard_merlin]

My update on freezing:

Took out AM two weeks ago, cause the random freezes every couple sim days had become unbearable. Hadn't had a single freeze ever since.

Today I decided to give it another try.
Completely reinstalled TS3 (razor) and the framework. Patched it up to 1.4.6 in one go without errors.
Put in latest AM and Indie, no other mods.
Started a new neighborhood, destroyallhumaned it and threw one of the EA fuglies into it.
Freeze after 14 sim minutes, no way out other than killing it from task manager.

*Sigh*

PC is an Intel Quad, XP, 3 Gigs usable RAM, Nvidia GTX 275. Definitely no overheating or any other hardware related issues.

Did you try a game without the mods?  I would try removing the mods, clearing the caches, and play a fresh game.  If it still freezes, it's either an installation problem, or a system problem.

If that works, try with AM only, clearing the caches again, leave out IS, don't do anything like destroyallhumans, and see if it works right.

If it works right, then add the IS in if you want.  You are just using the XML (or whatever) part of IS? using the core mod will conflict with AM, because the highlander rule kicks in.

For whatever reason these freezes appear to be limited to a few players, and doesn't apply to everyone, suggesting it is more likely a local problem, with either installation, mod conflicts, or system issues, rather than an AM bug.

[Morphar]

As this thread has shifted from the 1 am lag to freezes, I can contribute something:

I hadn't plaved TS3 for about a month. After updating AM a few days ago, I found out that my custom, destroyallhuman'ed neighborhood that I had always used to start new games didn't work anymore, it would freeze within seconds. Later I realized that destroyallhumans or destroyallnpcs always leads to an infinite freeze now. Eventually "exterminate 100" gave me a working neighborhood without too many fuglies. I guess there's a problem with creating some particular NPC causing this. It doesn't matter which story mode driver I use btw, I tried Indie, AM's and EA's.

FYI:
I have made some more testing and found a solution.

Mods involved:

NRaas Super Computer v22
Awesomemod 2009-09-26
also
NRaas NoCD
nomosaic

SC command "Fire all Service Sims" freezes the game if awesomemod is installed.
SC command "Fire all Service Sims" works if awesomemod is NOT installed.

Bye awesomemod?

[xatiali]

This is probably a dumb question but I have looked everywhere.. Is Awesome story mode available somewhere? and where?


You see.. I like others I have the O so wonderful 1 am freeze.. and I was hoping I could download that (like suggested) to fix the painful slowness.
I did even try googling it but all I found was people talking about how wonderful it is but no links. ugh.

Ooooooor is it as I fear and it's limited to being only available to those testing it?

[keirra]

This is probably a dumb question but I have looked everywhere.. Is Awesome story mode available somewhere? and where?


You see.. I like others I have the O so wonderful 1 am freeze.. and I was hoping I could download that (like suggested) to fix the painful slowness.
I did even try googling it but all I found was people talking about how wonderful it is but no links. ugh.

Awesome Story progression is part of the Awesomemod, which is available here. You have to download the configuration tool (on the same page as awesomemod) and click awesome story progression. Put both of those files in your game.

[xatiali]

Ah ok. ... I already had Awesome mod but not the tool.  hopefully will be freeze free soon. Thank you!


edit: sorry for more potentially dumb questions but when you say configuration tool .. you don't mean Delphy's framework ? I only ask because one Awesome mods thread thats the only other thing I see there and I've had that installed a while now.  

if you do then I just need to make it so Awesome story is on..I assume?

edit #2: Never mind.. I'm an idiot. I see it now.

[wizard_merlin]

it crashes when i try to restat i think the vbutton is broke

What?

[Darksmurf]

it crashes when i try to restat i think the vbutton is broke

How do you re-stat something?
VButton? DIE!

[egon_weber]

My game startet to frozen up now, after using derelict of a car on public road, ad 2 babymilkbottles on my ground. Now will nobody move, it seems like the start in TS2, restart again, god dammit ea-games, they will survive on TS3, why do they so again send out in worldtrade a product, with so many falure??
Regards from Denmark! 

[Greyform]

I am also having this freeze problem. But for me, it is most times close to midnight. 0:07 or 0:08 is the favorite time for my crash. For me, it never happens when just one person of the household is still awake. Just when all sims are sleeping, then it might freeze. Freeze means that the zzzzz-icon is still moving, the same with the radio. Music is on. But even if i wait 20 minutes, nothing more happens. The clock is not running. So i have to close the game with task manager.
My QuadCore is just on 60-63 percent. So i dont think its something with the hardware.
So i save a lot before i send my sims to bed. When i reload the savegame, there is no problem for the next night, but there might be a freeze again the next night. And its always just a few minutes after midnight.

I played with EA-story mode, then i changed to Awesomemod Story Driver, but it is still the same.

I frequently get freezes around midnight too, and it's been happening since before Awesomemod Story Driver even existed. I posted about it several times. Anyway, it stops whenever I turn off aging, so I'm pretty confident that's the cause. I still get other random freezes, but none at midnight (with aging off).

As an FYI, I tried uninstalling/reinstalling and using only Awesomemod. The freezes are still there. My computer is also a quad core, if that matters.

[J. M. Pescado]

A mysterious, aging-related freeze, is believed to be the symptom of a corrupted neighborhood. AwesomeMod performs an extra preservatory step in aging to keep a sim's inventory from being lost, by creating a loop that waits until the sim respawns to return his items. In the event of a corrupted sim, the sim never respawns, and as a result, the clock will visibly freeze, while the game itself continues on. If this is happening to you, your neighborhood may have a corrupted sim on it. To verify this, shortly before the event may occur, do "setconfig debug on", and see if the last thing it says is "Waiting for X to respawn". That is your corrupted sim.

[Greyform]

A mysterious, aging-related freeze, is believed to be the symptom of a corrupted neighborhood. AwesomeMod performs an extra preservatory step in aging to keep a sim's inventory from being lost, by creating a loop that waits until the sim respawns to return his items. In the event of a corrupted sim, the sim never respawns, and as a result, the clock will visibly freeze, while the game itself continues on. If this is happening to you, your neighborhood may have a corrupted sim on it. To verify this, shortly before the event may occur, do "setconfig debug on", and see if the last thing it says is "Waiting for X to respawn". That is your corrupted sim.

I'll try this.

The only issue I have with it is that this happens on every neighborhood I've ever made, no matter what I do (besides turning aging off). I suppose it's possible my Sims 3 installation itself is corrupted, but I'd like to believe it's something else.

[Immortelle]

I've just started getting the 2am game freeze myself.  Ever since I installed the Awesomemod, so I can only conclude that this is an Awesomemod associated prob.  Its been doing this with all my neighbourhoods, and it is really quite annoying.  But still I'd rather endure this than the alternative, which is sadly, no game at all.  Although if there is a fix for this . . . .