Game won't load

[seremela]

Hi there,
First of all, am I right in thinking that the AwesomeMod is now up to date with the recent patches? I thought I'd read that it was, but then I don't always understand all the technical lingo  If it isn't, then my question's irrelevant because I have the latest patch.
But if it is...:
I have WA and Ambitions as well as the latest patch. The only cc I have installed is hair, no mods or anything. I load the game and it goes as far as the first loading screen (the Ambitions one), but the bar doesn't fill at all and for some reason the sound cuts out too, though the sound works for everything up until that point. It works fine when I uninstall AwesomeMod.

Sorry if this has been covered before, I did try and find a similar post!
Thanks 

[scoob]

This has been asked several times. There are a few posts below yours asking the same. Judging by the number of times your thread has been viewed no one is going to help. My suggestion is to search moar.

[Chandria]

Re-download and install AM (Updates are done all the time which may not warrant a post to tell you it's new).
Personally, I'd re-do the configuration tool also.
Then pull out ALL your cc except AM.  ANY package can conflict with the game if it is badly made, and there's a LOT of badly made crap out there. 

If the game still won't load, THEN post here.

[Freezerburn]

Come on!! This had been already covered times already! Did you even use the search box?

[Chandria]

I think they're Google-phobic. 

[seremela]

Hey you guys are a bit unfair. I did a lot of searching, both on Google and in this forum and I'm sorry if I didn't find something that had been posted already. I assumed it would have been but nobody's problem seemed to be exactly the same as mine. I wish you'd play a bit nicer, you're quite often a bit aggressive towards us newbies. We are trying not to be idiots!
Anyway, thanks Chandria for the suggestions, unfortunately it didn't work. Although I don't know what the configuration tool is, so I'm about to go and look that up!
Ta.

[Alidai]

Patch Fail maybe?

[delrio]

Assuming you have the latest version of Awesomemod (really old versions would have expired on you anyway) and have the game updated with the latest patch released after Ambitions it's either files missing, in incorrect locations or some other content causing the issue.

EA changed the process for installing package files with Ambitions so read up on that here at mod the sims

If you have any other mods or custom content verify that they are updated and will work correctly with Ambitions.

I had the same problem and this solved it.

I don't tend to live on these sites - only checking them when I have a specific issue, and people call their issues the weirdest things which can make it hard to know what to Google for.

Credit of course to Motoki for the original reply to my issue

[seremela]

Thank you very much, I'll look into that. I wasn't aware it had changed, so I'm still using someone's installer... Delphy's? The monkey one. Yeah, I think it's largely down to people calling the same issue different things which makes it very hard to compare. Grrr semantics!
Thanks!

[Anach]

You could also be having the same problem I have. Soon after AMB came out, my game started taking longer to load. The last time I posted it was 10 minutes, it's now 40. It's slowly got worse as time has gone on. I've spent a couple days trying to work out why, without luck. All I can say is that starting a new game fixes it. So now I'm in the process of moving everything to a new town.

To describe my issue. Once I hit load for a save game, the bar will sit there not moving at all, the music will play, sometimes it will cut out for a while. In process monitor all I see is the game continuously accessing FullBuild1.package from the sims3 dir and Shaders_Win32.precomp from AMB dir. After 30-40 minutes the game will start loading and it will load quite fast and while in-game everything works fine and the game saves just fine. I've tried replacing those two files in case something corrupted them, but no luck. I've removed all custom content, but no luck, but as stated, new games seem to be fine.

So it seems something is halting the game at loadup, and it's got worse over time. Sure something might have happened during the AM upgrade process of existing pre-amb games, but I've saved my game with AM installed, so it is beyond reverting back to see if it's AM causing it and I'm out of ideas.

[Alidai]

Re-download and install AM (Updates are done all the time which may not warrant a post to tell you it's new).
Personally, I'd re-do the configuration tool also.
Then pull out ALL your cc except AM.  ANY package can conflict with the game if it is badly made, and there's a LOT of badly made crap out there. 

If the game still won't load, THEN post here.

I did that,and  when it comes to the loading screen,the music cuts out,and everything just stops,now when I take out AM,the game is fine again.
I only have WA,so AM is in Program files,can someone help me out of my stupidness?

[J. M. Pescado]

I believe Fullbuild1 is where a bunch of game resources are stored. If the game is seizing up accessing that for an extended period of time, it probably has something to do with it trying to rummage through the fullbuilds.

One thing you can try to accelerate loading times is to load that entire directory into RAMdisk in advance. This is only about 4 GBs of data, so you won't even need an exceptionally gargantuan RAMdisk. The other thing you can do is tear it apart into MULTIPLE fullbuild files that are pre-decompressed. You can't decompress the entire file as-is because it will exceed the 32-bit address offset, but you can tear it apart into multiple files and repack them. Obviously, this is an advanced measure that is for experts to attempt only, and will probably break patching, so if you have no idea how to do this, don't. But most of these issues are caused by NEEDING MOAR RAMZ.

[Chandria]

I did that,and  when it comes to the loading screen,the music cuts out,and everything just stops,now when I take out AM,the game is fine again.
I only have WA,so AM is in Program files,can someone help me out of my stupidness?

Is it fully patched up to date?  If so, try the configuring your cc in your My Documents folder and see if it works. 
I'm not sure if EAxis changed the setup for the older EP's in their latest patches or not, but from what I've read, I think they may have done so.
(They probably don't say anything specifically so that people will be motivated to buy the newer EP's to get their games working again.)
If it works, you're ahead of the game for when you get HELS and AMB, if it doesn't you're no further behind than you were.

[Alidai]

Jip,patched up and ready ,so I tried it,and still nothing.
Grrr,damn EA!!
Any other ideas?

[Chandria]

Jip,patched up and ready ,so I tried it,and still nothing.
Grrr,damn EA!!
Any other ideas?

This is a blind stab in the dark, but when you tried that did you also grab the NEW Resource.cfg file and put in the new MODS folder?
The new one is totally different from the old one, so it's not a move and dump thing to change it.  You can find the new one over on ModTheSims.

Also, did you pull out the d3dx9_31.dll files out of the Game/Bin directories? I don't know if it makes a difference if you do or not, it does for some.

Beyond these suggestions, I'm tapped out.

[Alidai]

So I did that,but it didn't work,then I decided to send EA to hell,and uninstall and re-install again,I downloaded a new version of AM again.Now the only new problem is that my game doesn't reconize AM....again
I tried the Program files  and Documents again,but still to no avail.(I have the new resource file)
Is there like a minimall chance that you can help me?

[J. M. Pescado]

Also, did you pull out the d3dx9_31.dll files out of the Game/Bin directories? I don't know if it makes a difference if you do or not, it does for some.

If you remove this file, your game no longer works. Put it back, making sure it is installed in your latest game version's game/bin directory, which normally means "all of them", since at one point each of them was probably your latest game version.

[Chandria]

Also, did you pull out the d3dx9_31.dll files out of the Game/Bin directories? I don't know if it makes a difference if you do or not, it does for some.

If you remove this file, your game no longer works. Put it back, making sure it is installed in your latest game version's game/bin directory, which normally means "all of them", since at one point each of them was probably your latest game version.

I totally agree! Many people told me to pull mine out, but then my game didn't load until I put them all back in.

So I did that,but it didn't work,then I decided to send EA to hell,and uninstall and re-install again,I downloaded a new version of AM again.Now the only new problem is that my game doesn't reconize AM....again
I tried the Program files  and Documents again,but still to no avail.(I have the new resource file)
Is there like a minimall chance that you can help me?

Okay, way back to basics and another stab in the dark.
Did you delete ALL the cache.package files (especially the Script.cache.package) in your My Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3/ folder?

Edited to not make the double post faux pas

[Motoki]

Also, did you pull out the d3dx9_31.dll files out of the Game/Bin directories? I don't know if it makes a difference if you do or not, it does for some.

If you remove this file, your game no longer works. Put it back, making sure it is installed in your latest game version's game/bin directory, which normally means "all of them", since at one point each of them was probably your latest game version.

Which is why I like the new way better. Don't tell people who are obviously already confused to do it the old way. It's one more thing for them to mess up and it just needless complicates things. Plus with the new way, they won't come back after the next expansion and complain it isn't working when the cause is they forgot to copy the dll over to the new directory.

[J. M. Pescado]

As far as I know, the DLL thing is still required, so it's not a question of new or old way.

[Tricit]

As far as I know, the DLL thing is still required, so it's not a question of new or old way.

I don't use the dll in the framework download package, and ever since I started playing your mod with it's defaults, it's been perfectly fine

I just use the mods folder, the resource.cfg, and then the package folder, all in the documents location.

To sum: you need to put encourage just using resource.cfg from the wiki modthesims use, make the mods folder, put it there, make a package folder. All your features work for me.

[Motoki]

As far as I know, the DLL thing is still required, so it's not a question of new or old way.

Actually it isn't. That was the whole point of the EA way.  If the package files are in My Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3/Mods or some subdirectory of it then the exe recognizes them without need for the dll.

According to EA's patch notes for 1.12/2.7/3.3:

Placing Mod packages into the Mod folder is an officially sanctioned way to bypass assembly signing verification. The Resource.cfg file must be placed in this folder in order for the modifications to work correctly.

Also Mod the Sims in their help section explaining the differences between the old and new way notes:

With patch 1.12, EA has added support in Sims 3 for .package file content, allowing us to place it in a specific folder in Documents rather than Program Files, and simplifying the process by no longer requiring the d3dx9_31.dll file for script/core mods.

Anyway, I don't have the d3dx9_31.dll in any of my Sims directories at all in either Program Files or My Documents and have been running all my package files just fine including Awesomemod since installing Ambitions.

[SJActress]

Anyway, I don't have the d3dx9_31.dll in any of my Sims directories at all in either Program Files or My Documents and have been running all my package files just fine including Awesomemod since installing Ambitions.

I don't have them either. I followed my own instructions to the letter and I've never had an issue.

[wizard_merlin]

As far as I know, the DLL thing is still required, so it's not a question of new or old way.

Just re-installed game on new HDD and didn't add the .dll files, just installed the new EAxis method, with the appropriate resource.cfg file, and everything works fine.

It would appear most people with problems using the new EAxis method either have a bad resource.cfg, have set up too many sub-folders compared to what their resource.cfg is written to allow, or have the resource file in the wrong location.

[shelzj]

Holy Hell I can't get this to work. I am a noob and an idiot who has used AwesomeMod since I started playing the base game. I am getting frustrated enough that I'm willing to risk a total lashing! I now have the base game, HEL , WA and Ambitions. I have followed the thread that SJActress has about how to download with the latest patch and EP's. I have looked at the pictures  posted by Simius and my folders matched the pictures posted. Originally when I downloaded the configure file to go with Awesome it just said "cannot find valid path to install" so I saved the file into my mods folder where AwesomeMod is manually. Now when I click on my desktop it just fails to play all together. It says there was an "error during startup".  I have tried reinstalling awesome etc. I have removed all CC and I've double checked to make sure the old files on my computer have been removed from the Program Files. I am brain hurt! What am I missing! I'd rather face that I am a complete idiot than continue to play vanilla!