More Awesome Than You!

Just thought I would let others know what I experienced...

Microsoft has recently posted a new update to DirectX 9c (February 2006).  Since I've been having problems with video card crashes after updating my NVidia drivers for a new game, I through maybe the DirectX update might help correct the problem.

The jury is still out, but I noticed some odd behavior in the Sims 2 after the update.

At the Neighborhood Selection screen right after startup, the little window where the flyby movie normally plays for Pleasantview no longer had the flyby movie but the static picture instead (with Mortimer in it).

Upon entering my first Pleasantview lot, the game dialogue pop-up said "Looks like you've installed a new expansion pack! Would you like to active Game Tips?" (I've not installed a new EP nor have I applied the latest NL patch.)  Fortunately, my sims' motive levels were all where they were supposed to be instead of set to max green which usually happens after patching or installing a new EP.

I had to call the repairman, and when he arrived the "Picture in a Picture" window that showed his truck pulling up was black.  I managed to resolve this issue by going into Options and changing that setting from Enabled to Disabled and then back again.  When I quit the lot and replayed it calling the repairman again, the PiP worked fine.

However as I exited the game, I thought I'd check the Neighborhood selector again and it still showed the static picture.

I'll keep an eye on it and report any more changes that seem odd.  I'm using a GeForce FX 5600 AGP 8x card with 256 MB.

P.S. -- This isn't a driver problem.  I installed the NVidia drivers several weeks ago, and have played the game without these problems until I did the DirectX update this afternoon.

Sounds familiar. Any time the game detects a change to the environment (for lack of a better word for OS/directX/drivers/hardware) it will reset some setings, but not all of them. I'd advise to delete My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Config\userProps.xml after any such change to make sure TS2 properly reevalutes everything.

That's definitely a useful piece of advice!  I for one would never have thought to do that!  Thanks!