Invisible Sims -- anyone know how to beat with a hammer?

[Granny]

I started a new game in Riverview -- legacy style -- that has only one household that has ever been active.  I've played this family up to where the founder is an elder and should go at any time.  The youngest of the 5 children is ready to turn to a teenager at the point that I have the game saved.

Here is the problem:  At some point between 2:30 pm and midnight sim time on the day that this child is set to age to teen, two or more of the sims on the lot become invisible.  If they've been sleeping I can see the hump in the bed, but no head, or hands, or zzzzzz's.  If they are moving about they continue to interact with things -- I can see the refrigerator door open, or the TV come on, but I can't see the sim at all.  Also, there have been a couple of times that one of the sims from the household (which sim seems random) will be teleported from where they might be in the house to the backyard -- about the middle of the lot.  When given other orders they begin to carry them out, but then teleport again back to the backyard.

The game has not crashed.

I've tried resetting the birthday boy, resetting the other invisible sims, changing active households, and restarting the game, without avail.  At some point during the course of the afternoon/evening the invisibility returns.  I've tried aging up the child as soon as he arrives home, and also waiting for him to age on his own -- no difference.  Because of this I've wondered if there might be a problem with Grimmie instead of with the birthday boy.  No evidence either way, really, those things just seem to be the only things out of the ordinary with the day.  I hate to kill off Dad if it isn't a Grim Reaper problem.

This is the first trouble I've had with this family. 

If anyone has any ideas about how I can fix this I would appreciate hearing them.

[chaos]

Did you recently install any default replacements, such as skins or eyes? That's the only think I can think of that might cause a problem like this, but I have no idea how to fix it.

[MidnightAgenda]

I had this same issue a couple days ago!!!

I tried resetting the sims and everything, I ended up saving and restarting the game. He appeared and then at the same time he disappeared again!

So I checked my Mods folder, reinstallled awesomemod and the configuration tool and restarted the game again and everything was fine.

Unrelated::: I reinstalled the game and awesomemod because I was having to many issues with the game crashing at the load screen and I deleted my old save games and started a new game. Havent had any problems yet and will prob wait until they update awesomemod before I install today's patch.

So good luck.

[Motoki]

Unrelated::: I reinstalled the game and awesomemod because I was having to many issues with the game crashing at the load screen and I deleted my old save games and started a new game. Havent had any problems yet and will prob wait until they update awesomemod before I install today's patch.

So good luck.

Err, the crashing on startup is a known issue when using mods. Reinstalling will not solve it.

See here and here.

[Zucabr]

Have people found a cause / fix for this issue yet? Outdated hacks incompatible with the patch, perhaps?

I've started to get this one one of my neighbourhoods....

Upon loading the game, I entered edit town mode, then spit the current fambly, which was an overstuffed house, to remove one Sim, who I then placed into a house. Then I clicked the Change Active Household button, selected the guy I just moved in, and zoomed in. I bought an easel, then Ctrl+Clicked him to SupCom him, selecting the Painting task. In the middle of painting maybe the second one, he jumps, a message comes up on the top-right corner that he had to reset, and he is now invisible. I closed the game and haven't tried it since.

[Cathy]

Iv'e had invisible ghosts and I confess that was creepy...

[lmind]

I have everything updated (game, awesomemod) and have never had this problem until today.  Now I have 2 completely bugged sims who don't move and have no available interactions, and I have 3 invisible sims who seem to be interacting with everything (except the bugged sims) normally without problem.  It all started after one of my elder sims died (no one has died on this lot before).  This is complete crap!! Starting to hate this game... I have my whole legacy on the line here (with a freakin awesome lot!).

Help?? please...

[tryguy]

I think I had this when I installed the last patch. Disappearing sims, and whats more, the unresponsive sims that I couldn't get to do anything. I don't know how I corrected it, other than what I've already said a couple of times: Delete cache files. Take your mods out. Run game in vanilla, create a new neighborhood, save it, and then exit. Delete cache files again. Put mods back in. Run the game with awesomeness.

Seriously, that's all I did. And, believe me, I did have this problem (I made a big deal about it in the bug thread). But, I did this, and the very next time I ran Sims 3, everything was perfect. So, in my mind, it's a fix. Now, I don't have any such troubles.

Edit: Oh, I guess I should also mention that I deleted all my previous neighborhoods, and I'm just playing with that new one I created. It was no loss to me, since I wanted to start afresh...

[lmind]

Yeah, I definitely should've read your whole post before trying your solution.  I did everything you did - three times, then installed the brand new awesomemod and tried the same procedures again... Nothing. Unfortunately, I'm not willing to start from scratch, so I might have to scrap 2 hours of play (like, 2 human hours!) and go back to a previously saved version of my lot and pray this sh*# doesn't happen again.

I would be fine with invisible sims (I assume eventually they would fix themselves), but it's the unplayable ones whose Needs just keep deteriorating that I worry about :\

[lostinshalott]

I had this problem with one of my sims, she was stuck as well, I don't know if this will work for you as it seems you've tried everything, but I moved her out to another lot and then just moved her back in, she became visible again and it hasn't happened since. I doubt though it will be as easy for you guys as it was for me though, sorry I can't be of more help.

[aspinL]

I don't who it was above (possibly Granny) that said this happens when the sims goes to age up? Did you try turning on testingCheats and manually ageing the sim up? What if you moved the people who had to age up onto another lot, and if they're too young; move a random townie in. Then let them age up in that house, and later move them back into their real home.
The most likely reason they turn invisible is when the game is getting ready to adjust the thumbnail, such as when changing clothes, makeup, hair, or age, then the thumbnail has to adjust and sometimes if it lags long enough the sim won't change either and will go invisible like the thumbnail. I know cause I have times where my game sort of freezes for a second and and my thumbnails turn invisible. My sims also momentarily turn invisible when reentering a lot.