Error codes 12 and 13 along with crashing.

[Simsample]

I decided to try to get those 2 other cache files to load since I was only spawning the objects and through some deleting I got both files to spawn, and removed any cache in the main directory (The sunsetvalley.objectcache thing).

Out of curiosity, what did you delete to get the sim cache spawned?

[Slymenstra]

Well I had at first created a blank Sunset Valley.objectCache.  This spawned just the Sunset Valley_objects.package not the sims.  So I deleted the blank objectcache and the objects package and just loaded the game that way.  After I loaded the game I now have Sunset Valley_objects.package and Sunset Valley_sims.package in the World Caches folder.  I found I had less error 12s (I do not get error 13s currently)

Then out of curiosity I added back the original Sunset Valley.objectCache that came with the game.  I error 12ed left and right.  So I redeleted it and I am back to just a few.  And by a few I mean I had the Sims on for 4 hours and error 12 came only twice, while the other way it was almost every save.

[Steele]

Now, it's now clear to me that the problem is somehow resident within the cache files. With the object.package and sim.package caches has bloated to 208Mb and 216Mb, I may try some more experimentations on it. Namely, delete the files while the game is loaded and see what havoc happens.

Result: not possible. The game locks all the cache files to prevent outside access or deletion. The game accesses all riverview and sunset valley caches at the same time.

Another thing to try before that is to replace the objectcache file and see if all these 3 cache files will stack.

[Resources]
CacheBudget=209715200

[Config]
DBCacheSubdirName   = DCCache
DBCacheMaxSizeMB   = 200
CrashDumpLocation = \\nido\crashdumps\Sims3
ExportBinSubdirName = Library
InstalledWorldsSubdirName = InstalledWorlds
InstallationRequired = 0

Can't really determine if it stacks since performance is the same.

Changing DBCacheMaxSizeMB from 200 to 2000 does not seem to have any impact.

Will be testing CacheBudget=524288000 and see what happens

[diana]

Please disregard my previous post since code 12 is back in full force, regardless of all the low graphic settings. 

[diana]

Well I had at first created a blank Sunset Valley.objectCache.  This spawned just the Sunset Valley_objects.package not the sims.  So I deleted the blank objectcache and the objects package and just loaded the game that way.  After I loaded the game I now have Sunset Valley_objects.package and Sunset Valley_sims.package in the World Caches folder.

How do you create a blank objectCache? I'd like to try that too because i'm really starting to hate this game and hope there is something that works to make these errors right before I just walk away from the whole thing, which I'm on the verge of doing.

It's so mind boggling that a big compary like EA would release the world's supposedly most poplular game with such deep flaws, like not being able to save a game like the sims 3. Its so senseless, and to add insult to injury they hold back all the crappy objects they should have added to the game at its release but opted to sell them at EA online store for things that add up to a small fortune in the end for their customers. And then they have the nerve to be silent about these error's. How do they sleep at night?

[Slymenstra]

Diana, I just out right deleted the file Sunset Valley.objectCache in the main folder.  This spawned the other 2 cache files in the World Cache folder.  Back this file up first since we might need it if there is a patch.

I still get error 12s but it seems way better than with the other file.  I'm not a coder so I have no idea what is really happening, just going by how things work.  These cache files are being updated because the time stamp and sizes change...not sure what it all means.

[Simsample]

It would certainly make sense to have a dynamic cache rather than a static cache. I can't figure out exactly where the sim information was being cached before the dynamic caches are generated though- perhaps in the compositor caches?

[notyourbusiness]

The only way to resolve error code 13 once you get it is to save your sims and homes to the bin and create an new sunset valley.

Wrong! I did that. Copied the household with the house to the bin, started a new EA default Sunset Valley, put the lot in, tried to save: Error 13.

[diana]

Slymenstra, I deleted the objectcache and no new cache has been generated in the folder it was deleted from. Also it hasn't helped lessen the save errors, i'm still getting them on every save. No matter what I've done so far the game won't save anymore.

[Slymenstra]

Oh I should have been more clear.  The 2 new files will generate, well for me they did, in Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3/WorldCaches.  I run Vista.

Nothing generates in the folder where you deleted the first file.

Hmm that sucks it does not help you.  Maybe it doesn't help at all anyway and I was just lucky.  I don't know what else to say to help.


Added:
You know my SimCompositorCache is the same size, and time stamp as the newly generated Sunset Valley_sims package.  So maybe it does get saved in there too.

And yes I still get error 12s.  But for some reason I get very few compared to the other file.  Maybe it is corrupt sims and they just happen to have behaved while I played.  I'm not much help.  I was going to start a new neighborhood and see what happens.

[Simsample]

Slymenstra- I managed to get the Sim cache to generate as well as the object cache- thanks for the instructions. I've played for a while with the two, but haven't noticed any improvement in render speed, it seems just the same to me. I'll play a while longer to see whether I notice improvements with time. What I'm trying to figure out really is if it is worth doing this if you aren't seeing the error 12&13 in the game. I'm glad you are seeing an improvement- but you're still getting the errors from time to time?

[diana]

Slymenstra, I just checked the Documents world cache folder and yes, thats where the new caches generated. I noticed you said your new cache file sizes were at 0 kb which isn't the case with mine. The newly generated objects cache is currently 447,993 kb and the sims cache is 510261 kb. Not sure what that means though.

Simsample, just wanted to let you know I'm the same person you've been helping with this problem over at n99, thought i'd mention that. 

[Simsample]

Slymenstra, I just checked the Documents world cache folder and yes, thats where the new caches generated. I noticed you said your new cache file sizes were at 0 kb which isn't the case with mine. The newly generated objects cache is currently 447,993 kb and the sims cache is 510261 kb. Not sure what that means though.

Simsample, just wanted to let you know I'm the same person you've been helping with this problem over at n99, thought i'd mention that. 

Ah, didn't recognise you! I wondered how it was going.
For the cache sizes, it's the newly created Sunset Valley.objectCache which is zero bytes; the two in your World Cache folder are dynamic and so will change size as you play.

[Steele]

Just for update. Every adjustment I make with the Default.ini file seems to make the errors worse.

It seems the caches does not purge or refresh while the game is running. It can be that whatever is being loaded into the cache is more than what your physical memory can handle and the cache does not have enough resources to bloat up to the requirement.

or

We may be looking at a bad install. Since there are many claims that the Objectcache files are damaged during installation, it could be possible some other files are also damaged.

or the game is really just half baked, the additional months delayed on the release date might not be enough for them to fix all the problems.

If someone knows of a cache purging debug command in-game, the information would be helpful to try out this theory.

Edit: Changing the values of Default.ini definitely increases the occurance of error 12. It probably has acceptable increments for it to work.

Another thing, when the TS3 launcher is launched, all the cache package files are accessed but not modified. When the game is launched without the launcher, only Riverview's cache package files are accessed. Sunset Valley's cache package files are not accessed until you load a Sunset Valley save file.

the sim cache package file is modified whenever some sim actions occur even just walking 2-3 steps. the object cache package is modified when you change something (changing pattern and color will modify the file) on the object or an object is created like books. Using an object for example sitting on a dining room chair does not modify the object cache package file.

[tizerist]

Well the two dynamic caches are now bigger than the static one when combined.
It's now 997mb compared to 979mb. Wonder how big it will get.

[Steele]

Since I'm not getting into more progress with the packaged cache files, I decided to re-install the game and run it vanilla with the exception of the store items.

The game runs more smoothly and less errors appearing. My errors are back to error 12, I don't get error 13s so far.

Now there's a catch. Once you run the game you'll get lots of weird glitches and problems. I think the problems are already there before re-installing the game.

These are what I found:
1. Some save games will not load.
2. Any save game which is recent that also loads, the buy mode is blank, meaning the UI is missing. And only your saved household is missing that UI, the other townie household has their UI. One solution so far is to ignore the problem, save the game and reload the game. A number of tries will restore the UI. Mine restored on the 2nd reload.
3. Some townies may appear to exist in map mode, as well as edit town mode. However, the sims are no longer available. Whenever you access the lot, the game just hangs in infinite loading loop. Reloading the game after the hang seems to correct the issue.
4. Upon re-activating Awesomemod, some sims may cause a flagrant system error saying that there is a food item that reports null when accessed. The error ceased when the sim moved on to the afterlife.
5. I still get messages of dead sims aging up to old age and tells you to visit them before they expire.
6. I have a carpool that has no driver waiting for days for a townie to go to work. Towderelicts does not clean it because it has a npc driver with no thumbnail waiting in the car. Also the nuke option of the awesomemod is missing (using the 9/19 awesomemod)
7. I also have townies with no traits and no favorites and a physical clone (they look exactly the same from hair to clothes, even age only the name is different and they have no family) to another in-born townie. They bug the game when invited to join the household. Error 12.

Some other not mentioned incidents may happen since we all don't play the same style and what's loaded are not the same.

So far my theory for error 13 is a failure in the game to refresh the cache, either the file that clears the cache got damaged, or it's because of a bad installation of the game or the game is really bugged that it really does not purge old data.

Error 12 could be some bad data that was bypassed during the previous save or gameplay.

Overall, the recovered saved game still has some more bugs. I'll probably do another rapture and wait until all the current generation are dead and buried and move the household to another lot and see what happens. Since not every one is having error 12 and 13 there must be a common trend to all these.

These are the trends that I'm trying to isolate:
1. Conflicting mods, that appear to be working fine but in the background, it's causing lots of havoc.
2. Custom Content: Converted hairs, Store stuff, Custom stuff... etc.
3. Downloaded contents from other players. (this was my problem is TS2 that made my game unplayable, Never had the pleasure of playing the game past university. This may also be my same problem now, am in the process of removing other stuff in my neighborhood.) Not to scare anybody, in my case in TS2, some has some nasty hacks inside them that really ruined the game. Now in TS3, I'm getting TSR items along with the downloaded sims and houses, they seemed okay except for clipping issues. I'm not really sure if they are causing me problems, but it's better to be safe and determine later.
4. Bugged missing sims. Before I was using the NRaas supercomputer to recover lost and missing sims/toddlers along with the Awesomemod. It did not help in error 13s but it might be helpful against some error 12. I will put it back tomorrow and observe the difference.
5. The lot could also be bugged, where the reset lot function of the NRaas supercomputer appear to be helpful. It's useless against error 13s but may try it out again against error 12s.

Edit: to reduce assumptions, the newly installed game is patched at c 1.4.6.00001

Edit #2: This is so far what I found based on scouring the neighborhood for the source of the error 12.

1. Homeless Townies are disappearing and appearing at different days and they have not aged. Basically they will disappear today without moving in to any houses. Then they will appear again as homeless townies. With the awesomemod, when listing listhomeless only the service npcs will appear on the list then townies will appear some other days then disappear again.

2. Sims dead for 14 generations are also appearing as homeless townies but they are ghostly and reflects their state of death. Funny though, their tombs were deleted a month ago.

I think that these problems are already encoded within the save file, it will may depend on when the game cannot tolerate the problem that the error messages will pop up.

If someone can prove me wrong on this, it would be a most welcome news.

[AnnaFrancesca]

My friend has been having this problem a lot recently, but she never did before she installed the patch.

I can't remember when the patch was out, and if it was after this thread was made, then I'll be looking pretty stupid, but has everyone who experienced this error got the patch installed?

[Simsample]

Steele, I'm having a hard time with your post working out what you tried before you put custom content back in, and whether the game was patched or not. Did the 'Store Stuff' you installed include anything custom (like hair converted for use by toddlers)? From what I can make out, most of your issues (and in Sims 2) seem to occur when you add custom content/ mods.

[Steele]

My friend has been having this problem a lot recently, but she never did before she installed the patch.

I can't remember when the patch was out, and if it was after this thread was made, then I'll be looking pretty stupid, but has everyone who experienced this error got the patch installed?

My problem started a few weeks after the first patch was installed. It was when I removed a mod that I wasn't even using.

Steele, I'm having a hard time with your post working out what you tried before you put custom content back in, and whether the game was patched or not. Did the 'Store Stuff' you installed include anything custom (like hair converted for use by toddlers)? From what I can make out, most of your issues (and in Sims 2) seem to occur when you add custom content/ mods.

Sorry for any confusion, After re-installing the game. I immediately patched it and installed everything that the store offered (only store items, hair, sets, clothes ...) Most of my issues started when I added custom contents and mods, I figured since some of the other players are saying that they have this error issues even without mods or custom content, I'd start from there.

One of my first test was to re-use my old save game and see if there was an installation failure since my last install, or a mod may have inadvertently damaged some files in the game.

The other test I plan to do is set create a new town and set the aging to the shortest possible time and try to bulk up the town to the same level I have and compare the difference.

The second test was sort of postponed when I was welcomed with a bulk of bugs and errors that was not noticeable prior to the re-installation. So I'm right now trying to recover any salvageable part of the old game and slowly isolate the bugs and remove them. (I figured that posting my progress might help in case someone encounters the same problem, or get someone's experience in this problem for possible solutions)

For the mods I downloaded, yes I get random of custom contents buried into the files. There was even a mod that really emptied all the information of 2 of my sim's skills window. The tab and the skills are active but when you check the skill details the whole page is blank. (in TS2 there are some houses that contained lots of custom careers without any residents in them, that really screwed up my loading time to an hour per load.) as you can tell I haven't learned from that lesson.

I also failed to mention, in this new installation I haven't activated Riverview, so basically, the Worldcache folder has not been generated. My observation is that the Riverview cache is being accessed when you run the game, regardless if you are playing only Sunset Valley. It may be a memory hog that may contribute to error 13. Until the save errors in my previous save is corrected, I cannot yet determine if having the Riverview cache removed will help or not.

And Sorry if I may be rambling or not making some sense. Just tired and frustrated.

[Simsample]

What would be a good test would be to drag your Documents\ Electronic Arts\ The Sims 3 folder to the desktop, remove your mods folder and then fire up the game to see if you get the errors when totally vanilla, with no store items, mods or custom content. I would start a new savegame too as opposed to putting an old one back in- this will tell us straight away whether you are going to be able to play with no errors, or if this is purely influenced by either computer software or hardware.

[Steele]

What would be a good test would be to drag your Documents\ Electronic Arts\ The Sims 3 folder to the desktop, remove your mods folder and then fire up the game to see if you get the errors when totally vanilla, with no store items, mods or custom content. I would start a new savegame too as opposed to putting an old one back in- this will tell us straight away whether you are going to be able to play with no errors, or if this is purely influenced by either computer software or hardware.

Yes that's a good suggestion.

My main priority was to recover first my legacy save game. Cleaning almost all the major buggy sims, hence eliminating everybody in town leaving only 2 sims left (my legacy family), moved them to another lot and played the game (turning off Awesome Story Driver and the Unified Billing to repopulate the neighborhood and reduce homeless bums.) So far been testing it for a day, no error 12 or 13 on normal playing. I only got error 12 when I introduced sims from Riverview into the hood that are on my household bin. So far Riverview is still off and no caches from Riverview is generated.

So far my goal is complete for my legacy family (19 generations in all), Tomorrow I'll set up the configuration as to your suggestion and compare results.

[tizerist]

My new SV cache files seem to have hit a ceiling of  511,946 kb (objects) and 510,130 (sims).
It doesn't fluctuate any more, since about a day ago I think, and I had my first error 12 today in the newer hood, with about 30% of the lots still to go in there, and about 60% of the population still to go back in.

[Simsample]

My new SV cache files seem to have hit a ceiling of  511,946 kb (objects) and 510,130 (sims).

Mine too, tizerist- the same size as the Riverview caches.

[tizerist]

Have you been deleting yours?

[Simsample]

No; that's over 3 or 4 play sessions I suppose, they just got larger until they topped out. Everything is working fine, I've not noticed any change in render speed as it was pretty quick before, and I've never had any save errors either. Are there any reasons to delete them?