broken install: empty, gray splash screen, blank menus, crashes loading new hood

[Ellatrue]

This weekend I built a shiny, shiny new computer, and after taking a break from the sims for a few years I thought I'd try installing TS3 again. I installed the base game, patched with the super-patch (to 1.38), then installed all of the expansions in order up through Supernatural (all Pirate Cat version, of course). I did not install Origin and blocked the game with my firewall. Everything seemed to go well, but when I loaded up the game, the splash screens seemed to be missing and most of the menus were borked. The game crashes when I try to create and load a new neighborhood.

Here is what I saw.

Empty splash screen:


Messed up "select a town" menu with blank button:


I believe this is the menu to rename the new town?


Game Options:


Another borked menu:


Graphics menu:


I think the graphics menu might be a clue, because it looks like the game is setting itself for all the minimum settings. However, I have a Radeon 7870, which is more than enough for TS3, and I just updated the drivers.

I'm not sure what exactly I did wrong, perhaps some sort of pirate failure? I initially thought the problem could have been the crack I was using, so I restored the original files, installed the framework (using the guide from MTS2, which seemed to be the most current), and installed Pescado's latest Awesomemod for his no-cd feature, but it didn't help. It's been a long time since I did anything with the sims, so maybe I forgot an important step.

I admit I'm hesitant to reinstall the entire game and all the EPs without knowing if that will even do any good. I have searched for similar problems without any luck, and I'm at a loss, so any help would be much appreciated.

[HomeschooledByTards]

Perhaps the superpatch installation before installing the EPs fucked something up? I would try (assuming no one else has any suggestions, because frankly I'm pulling shit out of my ass here) reinstalling all the EPs/SPs first, and then using the MTS Patch Downloader (which you NEED regardless) to let it patch up all the EPs to their latest version.

Don't use cracks. Use Twallans No-CD package. This way when new EPs/patches come out you can remove AM and still play the game (in a different save file of course so the lack of AM doesn't screw anything up).

[wizard_merlin]

Did you try adjusting the video settings?  Some of the patches from EAxis tend to reset all the settings back to their default.  It might simply be that your card and monitor don't like that video setting.  After one patch, I had a completely black screen until I changed the display in the options.ini file to set the display to the normal one I used, then everything was fine.

[Ellatrue]

In the options.ini file, did you mean the line for the display resolution?

I tried following the tutorial here (http://modthesims.info/wiki.php?title=Game_Help:Getting_new_graphics_cards_recognized_by_the_game) to get the game to recognize my shiny new graphics card, which fixed the default display settings, but didn't solve the other problems.

Perhaps the superpatch installation before installing the EPs fucked something up? I would try (assuming no one else has any suggestions, because frankly I'm pulling shit out of my ass here) reinstalling all the EPs/SPs first, and then using the MTS Patch Downloader (which you NEED regardless) to let it patch up all the EPs to their latest version.

Maybe, I'm not sure? I couldn't get the EPs to install properly before I patched with the superpatch, because I kept getting weird errors (I think the versions weren't matching properly or something) when they tried to update the game. Maybe that's because of the first patch I applied, which came with the torrent for the base game? After installing the superpatch it all seemed to work fine because they weren't updating anything, so I installed all the EPs normally, then ran the patch again because I wasn't sure if I needed to install it before or after installing the EPs.

I've downloaded the NRaas nocd now, so hopefully that will help in the future. As for the patch downloader, I could never quite figure out how frequently we had to update the program itself? I seem to remember being unsure whether it was working before... However, I checked MTS, and it looks like they've updated it since Supernatural, so I've gone ahead and downloaded it again.

[Starler]

Have you verified that all of your EPs are updated using the patcher? I didn't see if you have already done that, and super-patches/the Launcher don't update EPs/SPs.

Assuming you are fully patched, this looks like graphics phail. Are you able to run other games without graphics issues?

[Ellatrue]

Yes, other games run fine - I was playing Sleeping Dogs with no problems. I will try using the patch downloader to update the EPs and report back, since I thought the super-patch did that.

ETA: the patcher found updates for the first 3 EPs and patched them, but everything looks the same and the game still crashes when I try to load a new neighborhood.

[kissing_toast]

I would also try just reinstalling the base game.

[HomeschooledByTards]

I downloaded the patch downloader EPs ago. Ambitions, maybe? Or the one before it? Anyway, I've only updated the downloader once since then. It didn't work for me one time, when I *knew* there was a new patch available, so I downloaded the new version and there you go. kissing_toast's idea about installing just the base game is a good idea (jezzer your AIDE needs a raise), see if it works before waiting all that time to install everything.

Perhaps install base, run, update through the downloader, run again, then repeat until all EPs are installed?

[witch]

Personally I just load all the EPs/SPs, then run the latest super patch. Never had any problems. I suspect running the patch first was the issue, as each successive EP/SP would apply their own patching over the top of the latest super patch. I don't use some extra patcher, no need, I just download from here. http://simswiki.info/wiki.php?title=Game_Help:TS3_Patching:Patch_Download

If you're on Windoze 7 you might want to make your own directory for installed stuff, that OS has funny rules about what you can and can't do in its default folders.

I have an ATI 7850 and it's running the game just fine.

[Ellatrue]

Okay, it seems I borked the original install somehow, although I'm not sure exactly what I did. I tried uninstalling the base game (but not any of the EPs), reinstalled it, and patched with the super patch to get the TSW.exe files, etc. set up since there's a new structure to the game now. I also ran the patch downloader to check everything again just in case, but it seems I didn't need anything after originally patching the EPs and using the super-patch for the new base game install. Then I ran the game to get it to generate all the folders in the user documents, then reinstalled the framework, Awesomemod, and the NRaas noCD. That fixed the problem, although maybe my registry is a mess now because I left all the EPs in place?

Thank you all for your help!

Now to see if I can figure out how to reinstall all the store content again without making a total mess.  I know that's been covered everywhere, so hopefully I can manage it on my own. I do have one stupid question, though, since I can't remember the answer at all from however many years ago--is it safe to use the TS3 launcher to install the (decrapified) sims3packs if I don't allow it to connect to the internet? From my search on here it looks like it's probably okay, and maybe only the TS2 launcher is made of absolute evil, but it would be great if someone could confirm that for me.

[kissing_toast]

Now to see if I can figure out how to reinstall all the store content again without making a total mess.  I know that's been covered everywhere, so hopefully I can manage it on my own. I do have one stupid question, though, since I can't remember the answer at all from however many years ago--is it safe to use the TS3 launcher to install the (decrapified) sims3packs if I don't allow it to connect to the internet? From my search on here it looks like it's probably okay, and maybe only the TS2 launcher is made of absolute evil, but it would be great if someone could confirm that for me.

That'll work, that's how I do it, although I don't go to the extreme of blocking the internet.

[HomeschooledByTards]

I use the launcher to install sims3packs all the time. Sometimes I even launch the game through it. I don't block it from the internet and I even have Origin installed. I'm radical! I break all the rules! You can't take the sky from me!

[moar boobs]

I disconnect my Ethernet cable anytime I use the launcher for installs. But I'm a wuss.

[jezzer]

kissing_toast's idea about installing just the base game is a good idea (jezzer your AIDE needs a raise)

He's helping Ellatrout.  If anything, I need to up the printer cable beatings.

[Starler]

As I'm required to have Origin installed in order to play a couple of non-Awesome games, I too disconnect the internet before opening the Sims, even outside of the launcher. Failure to do so screws with my Origin password, forcing me to reset it.