TOOL: 3Booter, the Incooperative Game Kicker

[J. M. Pescado]

Is your game refusing to cooperate and crashes immediately after looking like this a lot?

We don't know what causes it, and this won't solve that, but at least you won't have to relaunch the game. Just plop it in your root install directory next to resource.cfg and Mods directory, and point your shortcut at 3booter.exe instead. If the game crashes within 30 seconds of an attempted start, 3booter will kick it in the taco.

3booter-win.zip

[J. M. Pescado]

NEW UPDATE
Directions above have been revised: 3booter should be moved from game/bin to just the root install directory (although because you meatheads never listen, I spent an hour making sure it will actually function anyway even if you do it wrong and keep doing things the old way).

A discovery has also been made regarding "WHY TS3 WILL KILL YOUR COMPUTER". The short gist of this is that even though the game itself only runs internally at 30 FPS, the game has NO VSYNC and therefore, absolutely NO LIMITATIONS on how fast it will try to render. It will therefore happily run your expensive new video card at unnecessary speeds (I saw mine rendering at like 90-100+), causing it to rapidly overheat and die.

This program, stripped down for TS3's purposes, will prevent this in combination with 3booter:
fpslimit.zip
Unzip into the same place you put 3booter, regardless of whether you actually follow directions properly.

FAILURE TO DO THIS CAN RESULT IN YOUR VERY EXPENSIVE NEW VIDEO CARD BECOMING A VERY EXPENSIVE LUMP OF FUSED HARDWARE!
On the other hand, if your computer is a piece of shit, you have nothing to worry about, you probably can't render 30 fps, anyway.

[leofwen]

NEW UPDATE
Directions above have been revised: 3booter should be moved from game/bin to just the root install directory

This program, stripped down for TS3's purposes, will prevent this in combination with 3booter:
fpslimit.zip
Unzip into the same place you put 3booter, regardless of whether you actually follow directions properly.

I took 3booter out of the game/bin and placed it in the root install directory...  works fine.  I unzipped the fpslimit to the same place as 3booter.. root install directory.  But with fpslimit installed the game will not boot up.  I see a dos window flash open for a second but no game start up.  If I take out the fpslimit files and start the game with 3booter it starts up with no problem.

I tried seeing if the game would boot up if I took 3booter and fpslimit files out of the root install directory and placed them in the Game/Bin folder... same thing happens I see a dos window flash for a second then nothing but when I take out the fpslimit files and the game starts up fine by way of 3booter. 

Not sure what I am doing wrong.

[J. M. Pescado]

What directory did you install the game in? Because I can't reproduce this issue at all.

[leofwen]

All my programs are installed on Local Disk (H:)(due to some things this computer case has added to it)  so the game is installed at H:Program Files/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3.   I had a feeling mine being H: not C: could be the problem but not sure how to go about making changes... lol

[J. M. Pescado]

Try the new version. I wonder if it's stupid space-name related. SPACE NAMES ARE EVIL.

[J. M. Pescado]

Something is wrong with your game if it is being jerky: Don't use a framelimiter if your computer sucks. Besides, it can't be jerky, the game itself has an internal tickrate of 30 fps, meaning even if we rendered faster, the game would only be drawing identical frames of unchangingness. Besides, humans cannot even see faster than ~30 fps. If you're getting jerkiness, you probably shouldn't be framelimiting.

[shivafang]

I tried seeing if the game would boot up if I took 3booter and fpslimit files out of the root install directory and placed them in the Game/Bin folder... same thing happens I see a dos window flash for a second then nothing but when I take out the fpslimit files and the game starts up fine by way of 3booter.  

Not sure what I am doing wrong.

From your description, it sounds like you are trying to start the game by double clicking on the fpslimit file, is this correct?  I believe you are still supposed to start with the 3booter, which I believe would check for the fpslimit file and execute it.

I suspect 3booter won't work if you aren't using a nointro pack, since you have to sit through the ea games logo and hit a key to skip the movie, that will probably take longer than 30 seconds.  (I was going nuts before my no intro mod!!)

[chaos]

I tried to install FPS_Limiter, and Windoze wouldn't let me. It gave me a warning about needing something called Hookhelper and then refused to install the program. I have no idea what Hookhelper even is. I'm new to Vista, and the learning curve has been very steep compared to XP. I've been running the game from the TS3.exe file, but would prefer to use 3booter. Both 3booter and FPS_limiter are installed to the root The Sims 3 directory under Program Files, not the bin. Plz halp, kthxbai.

[Mootilda]

I tried to install FPS_Limiter, and Windoze wouldn't let me. It gave me a warning about needing something called Hookhelper and then refused to install the program. I have no idea what Hookhelper even is. I'm new to Vista, and the learning curve has been very steep compared to XP. I've been running the game from the TS3.exe file, but would prefer to use 3booter. Both 3booter and FPS_limiter are installed to the root The Sims 3 directory under Program Files, not the bin. Plz halp, kthxbai.

The fpslimit.zip contains the necessary DLLs, including Hookhelper.  Just extract everything from the zip file and place it in the same location as 3booter.exe.  Then, run 3booter.

[chaos]

Ah, that makes sense. I had DLed to a different directory by mistake, and only moved the FPS_Limiter.exe file to the correct directory. Why, no, I'm *not* always the sharpest pencil in the box. Why do you ask?

[Mootilda]

All my programs are installed on Local Disk (H:)(due to some things this computer case has added to it)  so the game is installed at H:Program Files/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3.   I had a feeling mine being H: not C: could be the problem but not sure how to go about making changes... lol

No, that can't be the problem.  I'm running with TS3 installed on a drive which isn't C: and I'm not having this problem.

[J. M. Pescado]

It's not drivenames. The only thing I can think of and tried fixing in the new version is people who install to VILE SPACE NAME directories.

[NyxSixtyOne]

I've installed it and all seems to be fine. No problems to report, that is. Of course, my game wasn't crashing to begin with and I have no clue how to check the FPS. Since I have a pretty new system and video card, I'm not taking any chances. Thanks for the head's up and the fix.

[leofwen]

I have no problems with 3Booter, in fact, I love having it for those times when Sims3 refuses to boot up properly.   It's the fpslimiter I have a problem with but no biggy. 

[minonda]

NEW UPDATE
Directions above have been revised: 3booter should be moved from game/bin to just the root install directory (although because you meatheads never listen, I spent an hour making sure it will actually function anyway even if you do it wrong and keep doing things the old way).

Can you please tell me where the root install directory is? I would like to install this but I have no idea where to find the root install directory.

I downloaded the Awesome fix and then had to install the enablescripterror because my game kept crashing. Things were fine for a few days, but then today the crashing started again, and also I went back to a family I had made Sacred and they had done things on their own, including the husband getting a job, the wife going to the cemetary, and the two of them had hired a babysitter. Somehow they had become Unsacred.

Should I uninstall everything and then reinstall, along with the 3Booter?

[Emma]

Can you please tell me where the root install directory is? I would like to install this but I have no idea where to find the root install directory.

C:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3

[rorsdors]

HI pescado when I moved the booster out of the game bin and into the root directory it would launched but hung on the opening screen and I had to crash it to close it, when I moved it back to the bin it worked fine, the fpslimit I thought I'd try out but the game wont load at all with it in . Thanks so much fir all your game help, we'd be lost without you.

[chaos]

My 3booter isn't even working, now that I've installed the FPS_Limiter. I moved all the needed files to the root directory, installed FPS_Limiter, and created a new shortcut for 3booter that points to the new location, but nothing works. I give up.

[J. M. Pescado]

Try the new version that just went up a few hours ago. I eliminated a race condition that could make it not function on possibly slower computers...although if your computer is that slow, you probably don't need a limiter anyway.

[Lum]

I've had a ATI Radeon 3850 installed last week. Is my video card good enough to be in the danger zone?

(Man, crap like this is why I'm sticking to Sims 2 til the bitter end.)

[J. M. Pescado]

Well, a 3850 is probably better than my old 1950, so yeah, you're probably well into the danger zone.

(Man, crap like this is why I'm sticking to Sims 2 til the bitter end.)

I think this probably happens in TS2, too, except that TS2 is CPU-bounded and therefore will crap your CPU out before it can crap your graphics card out. CPUs, however, are generally given better heat dissipation than graphics cards.

[chaos]

Try the new version that just went up a few hours ago. I eliminated a race condition that could make it not function on possibly slower computers...although if your computer is that slow, you probably don't need a limiter anyway.

My PC is high end, with a very powerful (and expensive) graphics card. The case is practically a giant fan, plus the graphics card has its own fan and heat sink, so I'm probably not in any danger of burning out my graphics card but, I figured, why take any chances? I've been loading the game from the TS3.exe. I think I'll just stick with that.

[stephyd]

This is wonderful. Couldn't get awesome mod to work before - game kept crashing. Saw this and thought I'd try yet again because only you can fix this game and was determined to get it up and running. So I now use the 3booter.
And lo - it loaded
Oh most gracious high lord of All Sims  I bow down to your greatness.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

[Insanity Prelude]

So does fpslimit require 3Booter or what? I haven't had overheating problems so far, but I don't want to risk it, and I'm not having crashing problems.