TOOL: 3Booter, the Incooperative Game Kicker

[LilimVipera]

Hey, I'm using 3booter and the limiter, too, also with Medieval, but now I checked these days and saw, it's not working...
I mean, I start the game with 3booter, but the framerate still meets the 100s, on main menu it's even around 3000! O.O" Same thing with Sims3...
So what to do? Somewhere they said to hit F12, but nothing changes.
At TS3, the 3booter is in the newest addon-folder, but the medieval addon pirates and nobles has only launcher-startups, so it doesn't work there.
Please, has anyone an idea?
Thank you forward!

[wizard_merlin]

Hey, I'm using 3booter and the limiter, too, also with Medieval, but now I checked these days and saw, it's not working...
I mean, I start the game with 3booter, but the framerate still meets the 100s, on main menu it's even around 3000! O.O" Same thing with Sims3...
So what to do? Somewhere they said to hit F12, but nothing changes.
At TS3, the 3booter is in the newest addon-folder, but the medieval addon pirates and nobles has only launcher-startups, so it doesn't work there.
Please, has anyone an idea?
Thank you forward!

I can't say about TSM as I don't have it, but if you look back a page you might find the reason it isn't working with TS3.  I had a similar issue with TS3 and found the solution, which worked for me.

[sunkitten]

I have been getting issues with the frame rate going above 100 after installing World Adventures, Ambitions and Generations on top of the base game.

Was running the base game just fine with 3booter until a few days ago when AwesomeMod was updated again, I got the latest version, tried to patch my game and got errors related to the game not finding QtCore4.dll. This led to installing the above exp packs in the hope that I'd be able to play again.

I really don't want my video card frying, so to that interest I have a few questions. The Sims 3 and exp packs are installed to my G:\Program Files directory. No stuff packs currently and no Medieval. I'm using Windows XP.

1. Which directory should 3booter be in? G:\Program Files\The Sims 3 Generations, or G:\Program Files\The Sims 3 Generations\Game\Bin? Or somewhere different altogether?

2. My 3booter.exe file has a file date of 2/3/2010; is there a newer one I should be using?

3. I downloaded FPS Limiter 0.2 but even after reading this thread am a bit confused over where to a) extract it, and b) install it.

Thanks, all.

[wizard_merlin]

1. Which directory should 3booter be in? G:\Program Files\The Sims 3 Generations, or G:\Program Files\The Sims 3 Generations\Game\Bin? Or somewhere different altogether?

It needs to go into a different directory for the FPS Limiter to properly kick in, in my experience and experimentation.  Try reading a page or two back and you will find the answer.

3. I downloaded FPS Limiter 0.2 but even after reading this thread am a bit confused over where to a) extract it, and b) install it.

Same thing, read a page or two back and all should be revealed.

[sunkitten]

So the 3booter files should be extracted to (and run from) the G:\Program Files\The Sims 3 directory? That's what I'm getting from the posts on this thread. (I have G:\ as a secondary partition of my HD) Sorry if I'm being obtuse, I just want to clarify that I'm doing the right thing here.

Should the FPS limiter also be in the above directory?

Yes, I'm a n00b with computer stuff, but really don't want my video card burnt up. I had to replace it last year and can't afford another one. No matter where I've been putting the above files I haven't been seeing the green numbers show up and the frame rates are climbing above 100 (and pressing F12 doesn't seem to do anything to bring them down).

Thanks again.

EDIT: It seems to be working now, in the base game directory, for both the 3booter and the FPS limiter.

[Midori]

I'm getting a strange error when trying to use 3booter and FPS limiter to start TS3 on my laptop. The dos prompt will show up as usual, then I get the error message "The application was unable to start correctly (0xc0000005). Click OK to end the application." I have a desktop that runs FPS limiter just fine, so what's going on with my lappy?

Laptop specs:
ASUS U31SD-XA1
Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit
Core i3 2.1ghz
4GB RAM
nvidia geforce gt520M 1GB + Intel integrated (optimus)

Desktop specs:
Windows 7 Professional 64 bit
AMD Phenom II x4 Black 3.2ghz
4GB RAM
nvidia geforce 8600gt

[IAmTheRad]

I'm getting a strange error when trying to use 3booter and FPS limiter to start TS3 on my laptop. The dos prompt will show up as usual, then I get the error message "The application was unable to start correctly (0xc0000005). Click OK to end the application."

nvidia geforce gt520M 1GB + Intel integrated (optimus)

It's Optimus. You can't disable it, so you can't use 3booter with fpslimiter.

However, since you do have an nVidia card, you can make TS3W.exe use your nVidia card (it defaults to integrated) and then in the settings change the Vertical Sync setting to force on. That'll force it to keep 60fps, which is a hell of a lot better than letting the game run as fast as it wants to. Sure it's double what the game uses, but I'd rather run it at 60fps over 100fps. I'd prefer 30, but Optimus gets in the way of that.

[Midori]

Thank you, IAmTheRad. I had a sneaking suspicion it was optimus. I had been doing exactly what you said and I'll continue to do so. The nvidia card only runs TS3 at a maximum of about 70 fps anyway but I didn't want to take any chances.

[floopyboo]

FPS limiter does not appear to resolve overheating problems for me with Pets, no matter where I put it. (old instructions or new - to be clearer). Lot view is at between 45 - 70FPS, hood view isn between 100 - 130FPS.

Is anyone else having this issue?

[PA]

If you press F10 after it loads, do the green numbers flicker in the corner?

I've not noticed any issue with it; it's in the same place I had it for Generations.

[floopyboo]

No green numbers. Interesting.

[Roux]

FPS limiter stopped working for me once. Have you already tried deleting 3Booter, FPS limiter and your desktop shortcut, then redownloading them, reinstalling and creating a new shortcut? Sounds like voodoo, but it did the trick for me.

Also, the F10 thing doesn't always work with my game, even when FPS limiter is working. I use the 'fps on' cheat at the menu screen if I feel the urge to check fps, and sure enough, it'll be capped at 30.

[floopyboo]

will give redownloading them a try. Always download a fresh batch once I install a new ep/sp anyway just to be on the safe side, but you never know with downloads.

[RenegadeSims]

FPS Limiter isn't working for my game, for some reason. I'm working on a new hard drive so I just installed Base, WA, Ambitions, LN, and Pets. Everything is patched up to 1.29 (Dec 14, 2011 patch).

I downloaded a fresh copy of FPS Limiter & 3booter, and all files are in the root directory (C:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3) and the Pets shortcut links to 3booter. I downloaded FPS limiter & 3booter 3 times, deleting the previous set before adding in the re-downloaded ones.

I'm not sure what else to check. I used the FPS cheat and was getting 98+ in just the neighbourhood screen, with the camera not even moving. Any thoughts as to what I've done wrong? I'm assuming I've overlooked something because that seems more likely. Thanks

[Crash]

For anyone having trouble with the booter not working - check the graphics settings and set vertical sync to 'force on'. It should lower the vertical sync to your current screen fps setting. Mine went down to 60fps. I haven't tried without the booter though, as I'm keeping it in for now.

[Matildarose]

Thanks for that bit of advice, Crash. 3Booter currently is allergic to CC Magic, and the Awesomemod updater, which allowed me to use it, isn't updated to the new patch (quite understandably, due to holidays and sudden patch release).

I'll update in this thread if I notice anything on my end for those of us using this method.

[notouching]

There's been some talk on a German Sims 3 forum recently that using FPS Limiter with a DirectX 11 graphics card can lead to the card burning out. The thread is here: http://www.simforum.de/showthread.php?t=184232 but it's obviously in German. In short, it seems like the program is forcing backward compatibility with with DirectX8 which can lead to card burn out. I admit, I don't understand all of it. Perhaps someone smarter than I will find that it's just a bunch of hullabaloo over nothing, or maybe it's useful information for people with DirectX 11 cards.

[J. M. Pescado]

I find this line of reasoning implausible, since what this would mean is that those new graphics cards would burst into flames upon encountering older DX8/9 games. What is PROBABLY happening is that FPSlimiter simply isn't working as it relies upon old hooks that may or may not still exist in new 64bit OSen, and the game is thus doing the natural thing of causing your card to burst into flames through overwork like it usually does. However, I wouldn't entirely rule out the possibility that new shit really is simply that badly made.

However, we can't really do anything about this: FPSlimiter itself is a third-party utility and not made by us. You are not required to use it with 3booter. In fact, you may not need to use it at all, as the original purpose of this program has sort of faded and I only really use it to launch with FPSlimiter now anyway. It's up to you.

[Capitaine Marie]

So are 3Booter and FPSLimiter still being supported?  I tried running my game from just the TS3W.exe, and my FPS jumped into the 90s.

[J. M. Pescado]

3booter is still supported and works in all setups. fpslimiter, however, is a third-party tool and cannot be supported from there, although I'm still using it and it still works for me. Reports are that it doesn't work for people in Windoze 7 and shit, though. I wouldn't know, because I haven't seen any good reason to switch. Even Microsoft isn't a big fan of their own OS, because they're reportedly already dumping it.

[keirra]

Everything the FOJ said... I'm still using it with Windoze 7 all works well.

[Capitaine Marie]

Well, I ask this because my game keeps crashing.  The exception info in crash logs seem to indicate a problem with the TS3W.exe, so I tried launching the game without 3Booter.  I recently upgraded to Windoze 7 64-bit (yes, the FPSLimiter still works) and have 6 GB of RAM.  Before upgrading, I was running on 4 GB of RAM; and the crash logs at that time indicated available system memory was around 300 MB.

Now when the game crashes, the log indicates I still have over 3 GB of RAM available.  I'm really confused -- and getting ready to chuck this worthless pile of plastic and metal out the window!

ETA:  I'm also testing my Mods folder for bad CC, a little bit at a time.

[notouching]

I've never experienced crashes due to 3booter/FPS Limiter with Windows 7 64-bit (nor with XP, nor that matter). In fact, every time I had random crashes, it was a bad piece of CC.

[J. M. Pescado]

The amount of memory remaining under x64 is not really relevant to the game, as the game remains a 32bit program and is still subject to its limitations even under a 64bit OS. It will therefore still run out of memory and crash at the 32-bit limits as before, because it is not natively compiled for x64.

[Capitaine Marie]

So I'm STILL running out of RAM???  (Insert your choice of curse word here.)  Is there something I can do about that?  Besides shutting down things in Task Manager, which I already do.