FrameWork doesn't work anymore on a specific machine

[Azureale]

Hello everybody.

Two days ago I decided to reinstall the game on my computer (windows 7 64 bits) in order to make my own .dbc files with a 1.7.9 patched game. Until then the game was running allright and my custom content (package files) showed up as usual. I am used to manually install things and never had any problems with framework before (I uninstall/reinstalled the game several times).

For a reason I really can't figure out, my game now completly ignores any package file I drop in the The Sims 3\Mods\Packages folder.
I checked everything I could think of a dozen of times, I reinstalled in a new path, I tried installing FrameWork with Delphy's tool (framework installer) with no success. I also created folders in different partitions, put some package files in them and added the paths to Resource.cfg (DOS names and / instead of \) with no more luck. It is like if the game doesn't even bother reading the resource.cfg.

One hour ago I requisitionned my husband computer (windows 7 too but 32 bits) to install TS3 on it and got the whole thing working perfectly, so I am slightly relieved concerning my mental health.

But I have to find out why I can't get it to work on my own machine anymore because it drives me nuts. Any help would really be appreciated, thanks.

Actual framework installation :
- The Sims 3\Game\Bin\d3dx9_31.dll => ok
- The Sims 3\Mods\Packages => ok
- The Sims 3\Resource.cfg => ok

Priority 500
DirectoryFiles Mods/Packages/... autoupdate
PackedFile Mods/Packages/*.package
PackedFile Mods/Packages/*/*.package
PackedFile Mods/Packages/*/*/*.package
PackedFile Mods/Packages/*/*/*/*.package
PackedFile Mods/Packages/*/*/*/*/*.package

[Simsample]

If you installed into a different location (for example, C:\ Games) then this would have ruled out UAC on the gamedata. So the next thing I'd suspect is security software/ firewall preventing the game from accessing certain locations.  

To test this, you could try installing your package files to your userdata location. So you'd need to add a line to your resource.cfg similar to:
PackedFile ../../../DOCUME~1/NAME/MYDOCU~1/ELECTR~1/THESIM~1/MODS/*.package
Amend to your path. This would eliminate that cause, anyway.

Edit: I wrote dbc instead of package, sorry!

[riggs]

You make no reference to WA or HELS folders, so I'm guessing you don't have those add-ins installed. (If you do, they will need their own frameworks.)

One obvious problem I see is that there's no reference to .dbc files in your Resource.cfg. If you've copied your .dbc files over to your Mods directory, you've gotta point to 'em.

[Azureale]

Thank you for your replies Simsample and Riggs.

I did'nt bother installing WA nor HELS for now, I want to solve this first.
I don't have any .dbc files in my mods folder yet, for the same reason.

My game used to be installed in the default path (C:\Program Files (x86)\Electronic Arts\). I tried changing the location because I had to test different things to figure out how to solve the problem and wanted to see if it could be du to UAC (in Program Files authorization is needed to add/remove/moddify anything but is not in other locations). Now the game is back in the default place because it didn't change anything anyway.

I also considered the possibility of a new update of my firewall/antivirus software being responsible of this mess but I installed the same software on my husband's computer (I deal with kids and husband computers at home, soft and hardware because I like it ) and he has the sames updates as I do so why should it work on his and not on mine ?


I tried a lot of different resouce.cfg, including this one which doesn't work either (my game is in french, so "The Sims" is "Les Sims") :

Priority 500
PackedFile Mods/DCCache/*.dbc
PackedFile Mods/Packages/*.package
PackedFile Mods/Packages/*/*.package
PackedFile Mods/Packages/*/*/*.package
PackedFile Mods/Packages/*/*/*/*.package
PackedFile Mods/Packages/*/*/*/*/*.package
PackedFile ../../../Users/Topaze/DOCUME~1/ELECTR~1/LESSIM~1/DCCache/*.dbc
PackedFile ../../../Users/Topaze/DOCUME~1/ELECTR~1/LESSIM~1/Mods/*.package

It looks like, for some obscure reason (to me) the resource.cfg file isn't read. I don't understand why it did before and stopped all of a sudden. I could try uninstalling a game I tried recently (but can't even remember if it was before or after framework stopped working) but I would really be surprised if it had anything to with it.

Delphy's Dashboard tool doesn't either find any file located in the mods directory as it used to.

[riggs]

Any chance you accidentally saved Resource.cfg as Resource.txt?

[Azureale]

The extension is fine. Someone on MTS2 suggested I copy the whole "The Sims 3" directory from my husband's computer to mine. Still no custom content showing up ... (in fact I installed the game on my son's computer too because his machine is very similar too mine and runs windows 7 64 bits too, so I copied his game -which runs fine with custom contents showing up- to my computer).

I unistalled some recent software too. *.cfg files are associated to notepad but I always did/do that. There are other resource.cfg files in the game, I guess they work fine because my game is running without obvious problem (I didn't actually play, just launched, checked for cc and quit).

I am running out of ideas now.

[riggs]

Didn't you say that you had add-ons installed previously (WA/HELS)? If so, I'm wondering if there aren't remnants in the registry that keep the basic framework installation from working properly. In other words, maybe the game needs WA and/or HELS frameworks, even though those packages aren't currently installed.

If that seems possible, I'd try one of the following:

1. Create empty WA and/or HELS folders in Program Files (x86) and add the frameworks.
2. Run a registry cleaner.
3. Go ahead and install WA and/or HELS and install the frameworks. (Of course, you'd need the new HELS-ready awesome mod.)

[Azureale]

Yes I had WA and HELS installed, so thanks for your suggestion, I am giving a go at it very soon.


edit : You were right Riggs. I had to reinstall both WA and HELS to get my cc to show up again (creating just the directories with framework in it didn't work). This was such a stupid waste of time. I now have to fiigure out which registry keys prevent the framework to work if I want to uninstall the addons because I don't want a computer to win against me  .

It is very strange that nobody else encountered this problem.

Thank you very much Riggs, at least I know why now even if I don't don't know how.