More Awesome Than You!

I hadn't even looked at it until today.  I tried to open it Build Mode, the whole game crashed.  Then tried to moving a CAS sim into it.  Crashed my game again.

Pity because it's such a neat-looking house from the outside.  Any suggestions on how I might salvage it?

Allen

Does it crash in every neighborhood or just one? You could try entering another neighborhood's downtown and putting the house into the bin and try replacing the one causing you trouble. If that doesn't work, I'm sure someone would be willing to try and send you a clean copy from his/her game.

Didn't think of that.  I'll give it a shot!

You might want to get rid of the tombstones on the lot before transferring it to another neighborhood, but to be honest I have no idea what effect transporting tombstones between neighborhoods has. I had all kinds of issues entering and packaging Gothier Green Lawns, presumably because of the tombstones on it. Even in a freshly deleteallcharactered neighborhood and after removing the tombstones I still errored in the packaging process and my friends did too when they tried to send a copy of their lot to me. I ended up recreating the lot as best I could because I really liked it.

Dang!  The house appears corrupted in all my neigborhoods.

I wonder if I have something in my Downloads folder that's causing problems with something in the house?  I'd hate to have to find out what since I have so many downloads.

I've only had trouble with one other lot in my game.  After I upgraded to NL, the Goth House crashed the game whenever I tried to load it.  Fortunately the solution was to simply move the Goths out and then back in again.  Problem fixed.  But I was thinking the reason why it probably worked is it wiped out all the objects in the house and thus could have removed the error.  Of course I had to completely redecorate when I moved them back in.   :-\

I'm wondering if there isn't a similar problem with an object in the Fallen Leaves house.  Only now I don't have a way to empty it because there isn't a family living in it.  And it won't let me move one in.

Try turning on boolprop testingcheatsenabled true and loading the lot.  See if you get an error message when trying to load it.  You might be able to delete whatever the object is if you get an error message, but see what the message says and make a note of the error log generated.

Well I checked my error logs first and found three objects that were causing conflicts with objects in the game system folders. They were:

k8-atlantamedievalmirror-041905.package
vssofamod.package
SolfalCountryWindowDiagonal.package

And when I restarted the game I enabled boolprop.

And lo and behold, the house loaded just fine!   :D

I'm guessing it was removing those three packages? Because if the error had still been there all boolprop would have done was throw a message, correct?

I know everyone points the finger at hacks first, but it's quite possible that custom objects can cause crashes and problems. Also, the object or objects in question don't even have to be in use in that particular lot either. I had a problem a while back where one of my larger lots would always crash on me and after A LOT of trial and error (I didn't think to use testingcheatsenabled and check the debug logs) I found the problem to be a custom sofa mesh I had in my downloads. That mesh turned out to be crazy high in the polygon count at over 50k. I'm not sure if that was what caused the problems or just something with the package file or the way it was made, but I didn't even have that sofa on the lot that was crashing.

Needless to say, I yanked it out and have been a lot more selective about custom objects since then. :p

Oh man I was gonna be mad.  I just took this house for my custom hood and spent a long time fixing it up.  No problems so far but I am still making my hood and only have 2 test characters to make sure houses work.

Wow, was I barking up the wrong tree!  :-[ I'm glad you got it resolved! The testingcheats always occur to me after I've done something stupid, like saved after the problem happened or bulldozed the lot.

Just shows, really, that it's a good idea to run a new EP without your Downloads folder, then move everything back in slowly.  As long as you run a new neighbourhood and don't put your old ones back until you're sure everything is working ok, you won't lose anything from your original game.

Is moving a lot with tombstones on it between neighborhoods safe or are the ghosts' character files added to each neighborhood (and does that matter)? I tried numerous times to package Gothier Green Lawns and now this house to peek at what gets moved with the lot file but they error every time. Should the tombstones be removed before shuffling between neighborhoods or am I just being paranoid/stupid?

Nothing constructive, but I'm glad to hear you got it working. I love that house :) It's well laid out for a Maxis house and fun to decorate, although all my sims always want to sleep in the coffins and I'm not trekking anyone all the way down those stairs. The ghosts are interesting, there when a knowledge sim needs them and they've never come in the house at all - they stay out in the yard and make noise, which I also like. Nobody gets scared by accident. I dropped in 8 adult sims (some of them couples), played awhile, moved a few out and a few have had kids so there's still 8 (one made permaplat elder) and so far <knock wood> it's run beautifully, even on my poor machine with the bad graphics card. I would think the ghost's memories would be a problem, just as for living sims, when moving neighborhoods but I dunno.

I'd get rid of the tombstones if you are moving that house to another neighborhood, otherwise it will add those character files. You can always kill some ugly townies once you move it to get new tombstones lol

I have never seen "the house of the fallen trees"   in my game, is it downtown?    ???

I apologize for being so dumb, I admit I am not the sharpest knife in the drawer.   ;D

It's in the Maxis default downtown neighborhood, yes.

I love this house, too. It's perfect if you play with an overstuffed lot, like I do. I converted the basement into a really nice living area for my extra sims. I got rid of the coffins, though. Not ready to delve into that aspect of the game, yet. The only thing I wish I could do to that basement is add a bathroom. I had one down there, but it was useless because the sims would try to shoo the sleeping sims out of the basement, even though the bathroom was walled in as best as I could do it. They always ended up peeing on the floor.

Doesn't it take your sims forever to go up and down all the stairs? For a vampire, they can at least fly and it seems faster (not sure if it is really, but it seems it and for awhile I thought maybe they'd be protected from the daylight way down there, even not in a coffin, but they aren't) but for a sim I need to leave for work or whatever, that's waaayy too deep - I like to keep them doing something until the very last second possible and then run :)

No, they're all active sims, so they run. Takes longer than flying, though.

I was going to suggest meditation, but then, running is free. (That probably made no sense, but I know what I mean)

When I moved (an empty version of) The House of Fallen Trees to Pleasantview (which has since been burninated - or something) the basement was half underwater. Is this normal?

Ah - well maybe I was worrying unnecessarily - I'll have to try with the running. How much time do you leave them before the car pool? Or meditation and teleport would actually probably be better - I always forget that :)

No water in the basement in my game. Better call BeeDry ;) At the very bottom of the very "haunted atmosphere" stairs are 2 coffins and 2 brazier lights (I think, at least). It's rather cool to pretend you're walking the stairs and turn and turn and turn until you find the coffins... very Indiana Jones-ish or something.

I'm not sure, but I guess its fine so far.  One of the first things I did when I got Nightlife was move Gothier Green Lawns out of downtown and into Pleasantview proper. I didn't even think about possible effects on the tombstones.  I can report, however, that this move did not result in duplicating the Tricou character files as I still have only one for each family member listed in SimPe.

What I'm not sure about is what would have happened if I'd copied GGL several times into the neighborhood.  I simply moved the lot and then deleted the permanent copy left in the Housing Bin.

elevators are the best solution. 1 tile and you are done. (uses teleport functions I think, havent really looked at the package) Of course I make my elevators 4 tiles square and decorate like an elevator complete with double doors. Its nice because you can have several elevators on a lot and everyone can get where they need to go, and no time wasted.

This house will not load in my game either.  Cause as soon as I read this post I went to check....and sure enough it crashed.  I disabled my custom content and tried again and it did actually load....unfortuantly when I went back and enabled my cc it crashed again....Please bare with me and if you need to send me to retardo land do so preferably after you guys offer some advice on how to find out what custom content is actually causing the issue without me having to disable everything one thing at a time and adding it back in then testing it to see if it is causing the crash.....so far none of my other lots in downtown have given me any trouble....knock on wood....not that I've been to every place yet....but I've been redoing the houses to get them ready for sims to move into and it just irks me that I have one that I can't use for some reason....what is it about this particular house that has an issue with the stuff in my game while the rest do not? I'll probably won't actually use this house very much....was thinking mostly for my knowlegde sims....but I would still like that option.   So any suggestions would be great and sincerely appreciated.....Tgdry6

The only hack I have is the nightlife version of insimenator...other than that it's clothing,makeup, hair....etc....none have given me problems with other places...thanks agian.

Tgdry6,

Here's what I did. 

Immediately after your game crashes, go to your saved game log folders. Usually its something like... C:\My Documents\EA GAMES\The Sims 2\Logs

Open the file in the log folder called AppErrors.Log

Scan through the list.  If its the same problem I encountered you'll see a number of error messages specifying the name and location of a custom object(s) that is causing an error/conflict with another game object.

Find the actual custom object files in your Downloads folder and either disable or delete them.

Restart the game and try to enter the house.  When I'd done this, it loaded up just fine.

Okay this is some of what I've found in the errors log....

ERROR TSAudio: Duplicate resource instance id found ffed5453 with existing 2026960b:2c3e53d9:ffed5453
.\source\TSAudioResourceManager.cpp(1073)
ERROR TSAudio: Duplicate resource instance id found ffe1cda5 with existing 2026960b:2c3e53d9:ffe1cda5
.\source\TSAudioResourceManager.cpp(1073)
ERROR TSAudio: Duplicate resource instance id found fff8fe49 with existing 2026960b:2c3e53d9:fff8fe49
This goes on and on  and then I get this:

ERROR TSAudioMusic     : Music category (Buy) listed twice in category property set.
.\source\TSAudioMusicManager.cpp(1649)
ERROR TSAudioMusic     : Music category (Build) listed twice in category property set.
.\source\TSAudioMusicManager.cpp(1649)
ERROR TSAudioMusic     : Music category (CAS) listed twice in category property set.
.\source\TSAudioMusicManager.cpp(1649)
ERROR TSAudioMusic     : Music category (NHood) listed twice in category property set.
.\source\TSAudioMusicManager.cpp(1649)
ERROR TSAudioMusic     : Music category (CAS) listed twice in category property set.

And then this:

ERROR TSObjectFolder: Duplicate Selector GUID 0c400ddf.  First registered: Stair Modular - Deck - Portal - A (def id: 16814 = C:/Documents and Settings/Terry Guidry/My Documents/EA Games/The Sims 2/Downloads/objects/Numenor_DeckStairs_main.package).  New: Stair Modular - Deck - Portal - A (def id: 16814 = C:/Program Files/EA Games/The Sims 2 Nightlife/TSData/Res/Objects/objects.package)
.\source\TSObjectFolder.cpp(1436)
ERROR TSObjectFolder: Duplicate Selector GUID 0c400de0.  First registered: Stair Modular - Deck - Bridge (def id: 16810 = C:/Documents and Settings/Terry Guidry/My Documents/EA Games/The Sims 2/Downloads/objects/Numenor_DeckStairs_main.package).  New: Stair Modular - Deck - Bridge (def id: 16810 = C:/Program Files/EA Games/The Sims 2 Nightlife/TSData/Res/Objects/objects.package)
.\source\TSObjectFolder.cpp(1436)
ERROR TSObjectFolder: Duplicate Selector GUID 8c7ef57c.  First registered: Sofa - Loveseat - Quaint (def id: 16858 = C:/Documents and Settings/Terry Guidry/My Documents/EA Games/The Sims 2/Downloads/objects/vssofamod.package).  New: Sofa - Loveseat - Quaint (def id: 16858 = C:/Program Files/EA Games/The Sims 2 Nightlife/TSData/Res/Objects/objects.package)
.\source\TSObjectFolder.cpp(1436)

I was able to find the stairs and disable them but it also showed a sofa loveseat which I couldn't find (I'm using clean pak installer to go thru my downloads) but that other stuff above I have no clue what it means....it just makes my eyes glaze over .  Any ideas? And thanks for the help....Tgdry6

What about object errors? Do you have anything that is formatted like this:   (this is a piece of an old object error log from my game when a downtown lot failed to load, just used for example)

Object id: 185
name: Controller - CLP - Community Lot - Populator
Stack size: 5
Error: Invalid constant.
Iterations: 1007
  Frame 4:
    Stack Object id: 0
    Node: 1
    Tree: id 4145 name 'Visitor Age Check' version -32757
    from ControllerTownieGenerator
    Prim state: 0
    Params: 1    Locals:

No nothing that looks like that.....maybe I'm looking in the wrong place?  Or not doing something correctly? Tgdry6

In your logs folder, do you have any called (and this is an example, substitute your own neighborhood and object error numbers):
ObjectError_N001_t19117.txt

No I didn't have anything listed like that but I was able to find that sofa loveseat object and disable it and actually got the lot to load....yeah.....I just don't understand why this particular house had issues with the stairs and sofa when the other lots/houses didn't?  This is one crazy game....I guess that's what keeps me playing....thanks again for your suggestions and help....now I can go to sleep and dream about who I want to live there....Tgdry6

Hey Tgdry6...

"vssofamod.package" was one that caused my lot to crash too.  I have other modular stairs packages installed, but not the one listed in your error log.

I'm not exactly certain how to read the error message, but I'm fairly certain it has something to do with the ID of the custom object conflicting with the instance of the object it was originally based on.  I don't know all the object GUID stuff.  Maybe some modders could shed some light on it.

As for the other messages about the audio stuff, I get a ton of those messages as well.  I wouldn't be surprised if others did too.

OMG I had a crash because of a sofa too! That sofa is EVIL!! Took me AGES to figure it out too. I didn't have enough sense to check the logs and went through EVERYTHING one by one! :P

What site did you guys get that sofa from? I wonder if it was the same one that caused me problems.

It was something I downloaded recently, so I was able to go back and find the site.  The sofa is here, part of the red set:

http://www.vitasims2.com/sims2objects_5.htm

I've just sent email to the site owner.

I actually had downloaded that sofa a long time ago....but never used it in any of my houses....and it took me awhile to find it because the error name and the name that came up on the cleanpak were different....I just happen to look in the logs file with my custom content and saw "vssofamod.package" which had the name I was able to locate the sofa with....bam it's gone now!!! I'm going to be alot more careful with the objects I download from now on....Tgdry6

I actually had never used the darned thing in any of my houses either. It was just sitting in my downloads folder. And it was only one of my lots, the largest and most jam packed of my lots, that would crash because of it. It was quite weird.

Now that I look at that page, I don't think it was that particular sofa. It's been a while so I'm not certain on this, but I think the one in question I had the problem with was from Elis and had a much higher polygon count.

I haven't used the sofa either myself, obviously since I had just downloaded it the same day when Fallen Leaves crashed.  I'm not certain but is it a new mesh and not just a recolor?  We know it had problems with one of Maxis' sofas -- presumably the one it was changing.  Even if its just a recolor, I'm thinking that because houses tend to nab every recolor of any object they contain regardless of whether or not its used (witness how it explodes the size of a packaged lot) that that is part of the reason.

Anyway for me at least two other objects also contributed to the problem, and Tgdrysix had an error on Numenor's modular stairs.

Not certain what we can do to prevent this stuff.  We can say "we'll be more careful" about the objects we download but honestly in a case like this how are you supposed to be careful when you don't even know the object will cause problems until it crashes your game and you've never even used it?

 ???

Yes that sofa from vita sims was most certainly a new mesh because I checked it in SimPE. I'm not sure what the issue with Numenor's stairs are. I know some items may give warnings or errors with debug mode on for whatever reason, but manage to reset or fix themselves on their own with debug off and otherwise don't cause problems.

I agree it's hard to be careful when you are downloading a lot of custom content.  :( I've just tried to be pickier about what I download and only download if I really feel I need it and intend to use it. That doesn't prevent any problems of course, but having less stuff lessens the chance and means there's that many less things to narrow down the cause to. Other than that and checking logs from debug mode when there is a problem, I don't think there are any real solutions.

The house doesn't crash for me but what is up with the weird lighting.  It is like it is coded differently than other houses.  No matter how many lights there are it still looks spooky.  I put sim detail and obect detail etc. on full quality and there is definitely something different in the graphics of that house.  I resurrected the Tricous and put all of them in that house minus the elders and I want to use it as their family home but I'm concerned about what I'm seeing.  When Kiernan and Nylissit woohooed in bed for the first time, during the cinematic,his face was distorted but after it was finished he looked fine.  I removed Rainelle to the the cemetary and plan to move Jon and Jenicor's graves to the house.  I don't want to do this if there is a possible way that I might lose their graves due to the house becoming corrupt because of some weird coding.  Anyone notice odd graphics in the house or is it just me?

No, I can't say I've noticed anything weird. That house is the main one I play. Of course, I've done some major redecorating inside, though.

I do believe that both Ellis.ru and Vita sims are loaded with stuff that have extremely high polygon counts.  I never download from either site no matter how attractive the objects look.

Slap me if I'm wrong. :'(

I've noticed the lighting is odd in this house as well and I've also redecorated completely. Mostly in pale colours to try and lighten it up.  Even putting windows all round doesn't seem to brighten it up. I also find that often objects are not correctly illuminated at night especially custom ones. The upstairs bathrooms are especially dark. I've not noticed any other kind of graphical corruption though.

I haven't noticed the lighting (but I have to keep the lighting levels down anyway) but as NL came with a lot lighting levels cheat, I wonder if that's what they did to that lot. And maybe the same cheat would fix it up for you?

I've not heard of the lot lighting cheat.  What is it??  It would be worth a try.  It's weird cause I had the InSIMenators relationship adjuster in the house at night ( it looks like a floating pink balloon).  It is shaded to look 3D and in that house it looks like a flat pink heart--no shading and it barely looks 3D

This is from MissDoh's post of Nightlife cheats on the AgeSimsCheat thread:


I haven't tried it myself, nor do I know how it works. I just remembered it when you said the lighting's weird in that house. I have to keep the lighting low anyway as my graphics card is terrible... but then maybe that would help my split level lot where the lower windows don't light up the bottom level enough to suit me. If you figure it out, let me know  ;D

Thank you Sagana for pointing out that lighting cheat. I'd moved some of the resurrected Tricou family members into that house in my custom hood and was frustrated over the dim lights. Perhaps Maxis thought they were adding some "atmosphere", but I want to be able to see my sims and take good pics of them.

I looked up the lighting cheat in my Prima guide for Nightlife and this is what it says about it (on page 135)-

"setLotLightingFile [filename]: Change lighting by choosing an alternative lighting file. The original can be found in C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 Nightlife\TSData\Res\Lights. Place your new lighting file in this folder and use the cheat to specify the file name for the open lot. To restore the lot back to the original lighting settings, input *setLotLightingFile clear*."

I'm going to give that a try as soon as I'm off the 'net. I'm tired of dim lighting.

I just buy a lot of lamps, and I keep them on all the time, except the bedrooms - in which I change them to Auto Lights at night.

I noticed that the sims like it very much (turned-on lights), and when the lights are turned-off (in the morning), I lose one or two points of environment; the minute I turn the lights on - the environment rate jumps back to full green.

I just leave lights turned on once they're on, and never have them turn off!  Doesn't seem to affect their bills, and it means that sleeping sims still have a good environment score.

I just tried the setLotLightingFile cheat and it does work. I figured maxis must have put some special dim light file for that lot so I typed "setLotLightingFile clear" in the cheat box and the lot is much brighter than it was before. A major improvement over before. I'd even tried putting in extra lights but it still seemed too dark in that house. Much better now, I'm happy to say.  :)

I'm glad it worked :) I sympathize with those that like a lot of light. Even tho I can't really run it on my computer, I do as well. I've been known to break an outside wall as I'd rather have the inside of the house sunlit that much. I'm that way in rl as well - I buy all very high-watt bulb things and take the shades off all the lights in the house. I want it bright :)

I wonder if I can set a file for that cheat that makes the inside of the house lit as much as sunlight without breaking a wall. I'll have to try it :)

Well, that probably explains why I didn't have this issue. I already use a modified lighting file...

Thanks guys. The dim lighting was driving me crazy :) Now i can take pictures that don't look as if I forgot to use the flash. I'm off to use the cheat on my lot.


Edited to add. YAY!! Works perfectly and the lot seems much less laggy. I have 10 sims on this one and the edge scrolling is actually smooth for a change. You guys are awesome.

Have you tried the full wall windows?  Windkeeper has some at TSR2, and there's a nice set at 4ESF2 in one of the outdoor sets.

I have those windows tryed them but it doesn't make that much difference.  Especially at night that is why I knew that something was different about that house.  Spooky maybe--annoying definately!!  Thanks for the lighting info--I'll try that.

Well, there is a theory that the Tricous were all vampires (check out the sub-basement) which would explain an awful lot - except where all that money came from in such a short time!

Lighting seems to work now.  Thanx.  I think my graphics prob is something else.  Some conflict.  I know it isn't my card.  I can run pretty big lots without probs.  My B&B is 15 mb.  It is recent so I have to think, think, think.

I know this is rather off topic but how can you check if an object is high polygon in SimsPE?

Here. I wrote this especially for you (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php?topic=2216.msg62256#msg62256) ;).

Enjoy!

baratron - thank you so much for writing that, I was just taking a look at it.  I was wondering exactly how to do this myself, and it came along just when I needed it!  ;D

Fantastic tutorial!  Thank you so much.  Sometimes tutorial give me headaches, they are so complicated, so I put them aside for later.  But yours was awesome, simple but not simplistic (to me anyway), yet very informative.

I suggest you name your tutorial Understanding Polygon counts for peasants

Okay now, I want more How-to for peasants: Re-categorizing hair, Fixing DNA after a Sim Surgery, Creating skin replacement... .. after supper of course

 just kidding ;D

rushes off to download Datgen

edit : Interesting, I discovered that CBOY err "enhancement package" was flagged moderate being over budget by 8.5.  I'm not quite sure what the budget is in this case considering Maxis 's males lack of hmm features but anyway.

I checked with SimsPE to get a clearer picture, and discovered with your easy-to-follow instructions that the polygon count for each state was actually quite low.  The higest I saw was around 500.    So I guess you have to use DatGen as a guideline only.

Sorry for being waaaaaay off topic