Count me amongst the Sims 2 crowd. I prefer Sims 2 over Sims 3 without a doubt.  It is good to know I am not alone 

SimPe claims that cs_drums has a duplicate GUID to something in objects.package (I have all expansions and stuff packs).  Is this supposed to be the case, or is something that shouldn't be overwritten (or am I the only one who gets this report)?

You may wish to specifically check your ati catalyst control center to see if adaptive anti-aliasing is enabled.  I had a problem just like this, and disabling it made stuff solid again.  I didn't have to change the regular anti-aliasing settings.

These mistakes are always driving me crazy.  I spend lots of time fixing custom shadows on user objects, but I didn't know how to fix the maxis ones.

Does this fix go in downloads or somewhere else game fileish?

O.k... I've been following the deleted 2 tutorial, but something doesn't match up.  I have located the sim, destructed him with the lot debugger, all exactly like the picture.  When I look up his instance in SimPe though, he still has a SWAF, as well as DNA and DESC.  The debugger did say that he was destroyed, and I am certain I have the right number (checked it twice).  In fact I already restored from backup and repeated the first part of the procedure with the same result.  Do I delete this SWAF as well, or is there something terribly wrong?

Should I be concerned that the one Unsavory Charalatan listed in my neighbourhood in SimPe is unlinked and has no character data?
He has never showed up on any of the lots that I can recall, could this be why he is listed like this (or maybe he is supposed to be...)?

I've been having some crash to desktop events (no error log, just a termination), so I am concerned this may have something to do with that.  Also, I'd like him to show up and harrass my sims now and then.

I do have the lastest visitor controller, and most of the directors cut, up to date as of this morning, as well as a few other annoyance bashers, but no serious conflicts are showing up in HCDU.

Have you tried windowed mode?  I get this if I run in full screen, although it is only on certain meshes for me usually (like some of the hm pack dresses for instance).   Does it happen on all your sims?

I don't know about unique, it sounds the same sort of problems I had...

Does this look like your problem?  Also you might have "holes" in your meshes, only certain ones, like the hood of the parka from seasons, or some of the dresses from the HM pack viewed from a certain angle and things like that?

http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii188/lintan_saver/snapshot_53b4d7c8_73cf5537.jpg

I do know frustrated you are...that picture is from just shortly after I had gotten my expensive brand new computer.  Everything except the sims 2 seemed to run fantastic.  I managed to reduce my problem to almost nil (knocking on wood, it was terribly upsetting and I always worry it will return) by updating everything I could find to do with my main board, and my sound, and using windowed mode forever more.  I hope this can help you.  I don't know why windowed mode helps, I was just relieved that it did.

This sounds a bit familiar to me with troubles I had with my ati 2900.  Have you tried running the game in windowed mode?  I still have to run mine like this to prevent wierd flashing of polygons.  I also found that having updated sound and motherboard drivers was a help, due to vista being rough at the start.

I had exactly this problem myself.  It has largely cleared up after I did the following:  updated my motherboard/chipset drivers (although I have an intel board, but it could help), updated my sound drivers, which often have trouble in vista, and lastly, I run the sims 2 in a window.  This has cleared up my issues to near none (knocking on wood...I don't want the problem back....). 

I hope this helps you, I know how annoying it is.

Does anyone else have no tooltips in cas for clothing anymore?  Skintones and eyes still have them for me, but not outfits....

Chances are good that none of your files are read-only if you set them to be writable.  Vista will leave the little box on read-only filled with blue on folders, but that doesn't mean read-only.  They are read-only only if the box has a check mark in it.  I had the same problem recently, I didn't notice that there was even a checkmark possible, although I am sure I had seen it.

I guess that won't help with your disappearing sims, but possibly will stop you from screaming at your folders

I can create movies just fine, just the ones that would displayed in game don't show up.  I tried taking the config file out, and it regenerated, but it didn't change the situation.  I also installed the codec, but that doesn't seem to help either.  If the codec was working should my computer recognize .movie files as video?

I have vista and a radeon 2900XT as well.

This is such a wierd problem 

I should have been more clear in my original post I think

I do have plenty of empty folders inside both broadcast and games (in my documents folder), all the ones that would be expected.  The same file structure is in place in the installed files (on C: drive), with the .movie files present, which would seem to rule out any install errors. 

Are the .movie files supposed to be playable outside of the game?

Yes, I've ruled out any normal codec being corrupt, I can play avi files with no problem.  I have tried without custom content, with no luck.  All tv's base game or custom and all computers don't display any moving pictures, just a black square.  I too have vista, but I did have tv's working fine under vista when I first installed (90% sure about that anyway). 

I still have found no solution to this problem.  Is there supposed to be any files in the documents/EAgames/TheSims2/Movies folders anywhere?  I assume you only have files in there if you have custom movies, but I just thought I would ask.

I have checked, and my settings are maxed.  Looks very nice too, except for the wierd lack of tv shows

I have problems with the television and computer sequences not displaying.  I just get a black screen when they are on.  It does make the sounds of the tv programs, but no picture.  Has anyone had the same problem?  I know for sure that they haven't worked at all since BonVoyage, but I am not sure about before, I wasn't letting many of my sims have tv for awhile.

I have all the expansions and stuff packs, and none of the custom tv channels.

My current drivers were released a couple of days ago, and are 158.18 (I am running 64-bit vista).  The ones that actually display everything properly were the original vista ones, 97.46. 

I have tried messing with the shaders.  With shaders off, the shiny items look shinier, but I lose bumpmapping and pool reflections.  They were on by default.
With the previous drivers I had both shiny items and bumpmapping, so it is all very odd.
Thanks for the info though.

I actually found a previous topic about this, but it was old, and the necromancy picture pushed me to make a new topic. 

There was talk about people losing their shiny specular effects on various sims objects.  This problem has been bad for me for ages, which is to say many of the common objects looked really crummy, but when I upgraded to vista and the really useless (performance wise anyway) vista nvidia driver, all shinyness was back, and really pretty.  When they finally enabled sli in a later driver (including the current one), all the shiny is gone again.  I was wondering if anyone has noticed this.  I have 2 geforce 7800 GT cards, so I am hoping there is either a solution (i.e. it is just me doing something wrong), or maybe nvidia can fix it (yeah, that is probably a joke...). 

If you use Paladin's object categorizer, and you select the fridge it will tell you the name of the mesh file.  That might help with the tracking problem

I've been having the same problem, but only since I installed pets.  I have never used a no-cd crack. 

I searched and didn't find anything about this.  I was wondering if anyone has been brave and tried delete all characters in a new custom hood since Pets has come out.  Did they fix it at all since OFB?  Is townie regeneration still broken? Do the strays get properly deleted?  I should check this out myself I guess, but I thought I'd ask first, in case there is anything to be careful of.

I've gone into community lots and had npc types there during nightlife.  This was with all characters deleted, and even in my base neighbourhood.    The lots tended to be slow loading, so I figured there must be something wrong with them.  I did find that taking the npc related object out and then saving and reentering the lot made them vanish, but there was still character files added.  I'm not sure if it is quite the same problem, but the characters were in build mode.  I had this happen with the chef, dj, bartender etc.

I've had the same problem with the lighting (plumbing and other shiny stuff looking clay-like).  I too have a 9800 pro, which was an upgrade for me.  How sad I was that after the upgrade my graphics looked worse.  We spent many hours changing graphics settings and drivers to try get the pretty shiny effect back.  In the end only one thing worked, rolling back the motherboard drivers to a much earlier version.  This makes my computer run less smoothly, but it did fix the lighting.