Wow! Weird graphical artifacts

[witch]

Oh no I bloody won't, I live in New Zealand. I think it's all the extra water they have to cross. 

Google tells me I'll be paying around $350 for a Radeon X800GTO.

Looks like it benchmarks round the Nvidia GeForce 6600 GT
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2656&p=6

Now I don't know if I have a PCI Express slot. I thinks mine's AGP. Well enough research for now, it's bedtime.
And all I want to do is play the damn game. 

[DrBeast]

Yah, 210 Euros is a bit steep. Bugger! Lots of water to cross, heh!
Oh, You have an AGP slot. Your 5700 is an AGP card.
OK, scrap the X800 (pity...), get a Radeon 9600XT 256 MB. It's slightly better than my graphics card, and I have no complains graphics-wise (but the game lags down when there are lots of sims around, especially when I'm not on ground level). Now, go to bed! 

Edit: actually, it's around 190 Euros. I checked AUD at first. Hmm...well, it's your wallet...

[jsalemi]

Suddenly my screen went a pretty blue complete with spinning hourglass. Tha game recovered after I pressed F5 - amongst a few other keys. I saved. It happened again about 10 minutes later. I saved, exited and re-booted PC and game. Loaded a tiny Maxis made lot, not my ginormous vampire castle. 30 minutes later it blue screened, then crashed my PC.

It said: the nv4_disp file had caused the problem. Nvidia display perhaps?!? Ya reckon? Then it told me the device driver had got stuck in an infinite loop. Then it dumped it's physical memory. GRRRR.

I had that problem with my nVidia 6600 until I followed a suggestion I found on the BBS and got the 78.01 drivers from the archives on the nVidia site. I haven't had this problem since I removed the latest drivers and backed down to the 78.01 (Sept 5, 05) version.  Give that a try before you spend the money on a new card.

Also, I've heard nVidia has newer drivers coming out that fix this problem.

[blubug]

Suddenly my screen went a pretty blue complete with spinning hourglass. Tha game recovered after I pressed F5 - amongst a few other keys. I saved. It happened again about 10 minutes later. I saved, exited and re-booted PC and game. Loaded a tiny Maxis made lot, not my ginormous vampire castle. 30 minutes later it blue screened, then crashed my PC.

It said: the nv4_disp file had caused the problem. Nvidia display perhaps?!? Ya reckon? Then it told me the device driver had got stuck in an infinite loop. Then it dumped it's physical memory. GRRRR.

I had that problem with my nVidia 6600 until I followed a suggestion I found on the BBS and got the 78.01 drivers from the archives on the nVidia site. I haven't had this problem since I removed the latest drivers and backed down to the 78.01 (Sept 5, 05) version.  Give that a try before you spend the money on a new card.

Also, I've heard nVidia has newer drivers coming out that fix this problem.

I have this exact problem over and over again (6600GT), I tried like 4 drivers to fix it, the latest one causes more problems, believe me. Now I'm using the oldest drivers that came with the card's installer. The problems have decreased by a great number. I'm still going to try the 78.01 and the one on the page simlover linked to, maybe I'll get rid of this problem once and for all. I hate nvidia. (I also heard there was a compatibility issue with nvidia-geforce graphics cards and asus mainboards, could be wrong though) I hate computer problems too, and strangely, my old pc was messed up when I had thesims1, now it's getting more messed up as new expansions are added, hmmmm...

[witch]

Code:

# since we don't do bumpmapping on less ps2.0-capable hardware, eliminate tangents
# from the vertex data
# also, the presence of per-vertex tangents in the vertex data stream causes
# "exploded" polygons on the Radeon 9000, even if the data is ignored by the shader
if ($maxPixelProgramVersionMajor < 2)
   boolProp skipTangentsInVertexData true
endif

...You can check the settings in you "Graphics Rules.sgr" to see what your setting are.

Thanks for that, I found two files named Graphics Rules.sgr - one in ...\the sims 2\tsdata\res\csconfig and one in ...\the sims 2\tsdata\res\config
Both files had the true value set for the boolean property displayed in your code.
Thanks though.

Next I'll try rolling back my video drivers to the one recommended by someone on the bbs, Goddess help me!
I've also followed this method before, I got it off the net and it gives a very clean driver install. Fingers crossed.

d/l the latest nvidia driver from
www.nvidia.com
then in the device manager uninstall the video card
when windows finishes uninstalling the card, reboot, tapping f8 and choose vga mode
disable a/virus
install your drivers
reboot the computer

I'll also do some google homework on the new card you recommend Dr Beast, cheers for your advice, it's much appreciated.

[witch]

Yah, 210 Euros is a bit steep. Bugger! Lots of water to cross, heh!
Oh, You have an AGP slot. Your 5700 is an AGP card.
OK, scrap the X800 (pity...), get a Radeon 9600XT 256 MB.

Oh, do I have to worry about DDR's or GDDR3's or any other arcane combo of letters and numbers? 

[vilia]

I was just thinking how much money we all fork out so we can play the sims 2. 

Game: AUS$40
Prima Guide: AUS$30
Graphics card: AUS$350
Finding out it still won't work: priceless 

[witch]

Oh mate!

Do you have those priceless ads too?

[blubug]

Hee hee! (I really love those commercials too)
Story of my life: Your computer is fairly new (but bought before sims2 came out), you get nothing out of the game, decide to buy a new graphics card, realise you need more ram too, discover you don't have a good power supply, look for a new one, secretly know you'd be better off with a new cpu, but the motherboard has been replaced by a stupid repair company recently, so can't afford a new one yet, so go with a little ram, a card which fixes a lot of stuff, but causes more problems than before, and a supposedly good power supply which breaks down every 2 months, a generator.... Heck, what I do to play a computer game!

[vilia]

Oh mate!

Do you have those priceless ads too?

Maaaaaaaate (can you tell I'm from Queensland?).  Some of those ads are clever but after seeing them so many times they get very irritating.

[witch]

Aussieone - unsurprisingly from Aussie - is from Queensland too, I think. I know she was very hot this summer.

With you both on the computer front - I upgraded about 15 months ago, to something quite grunty at the time, thought I'd be OK for a couple of years.

BTW - on the weird graphic front, check this out. Child did the spin, then left her body behind when she got into bed. 

[DrBeast]

Yah, 210 Euros is a bit steep. Bugger! Lots of water to cross, heh!
Oh, You have an AGP slot. Your 5700 is an AGP card.
OK, scrap the X800 (pity...), get a Radeon 9600XT 256 MB.

Oh, do I have to worry about DDR's or GDDR3's or any other arcane combo of letters and numbers? 

Hehe, no! It's a PITA, ain't it? No no, no worries about different versions with newer and flashier memory or connection interface! This is a good old-fashioned AGP card that works wonders with The Sims 2! Only problem is finding one, actually. They've been discontinued for some time now. It's actually of the same caliber as your 5700 but performs much better, it's from the generation of ATi cards that kicked nVidia cards in the butt and asked no quarter!

[witch]

Cool, my card needs a kick in the ass!

For all those who have offered advice - I installed 78.01 nvidia driver as suggested - going great so far, played several hours, no blue screens, no misbehaviour except for the girl who left her body behind - and I think that may have something to do wih the lower refresh rate I have currently. Thanks - I'm open for business. 

PS I found a Gecube Radeon 9600 XT 256MB 8XAGP for sale for $NZ190.97. Looking good so far.

PPS Dr Beast, is a 9600 XT the same as a 9600 Pro?

[DrBeast]

Cool, my card needs a kick in the ass!

For all those who have offered advice - I installed 78.01 nvidia driver as suggested - going great so far, played several hours, no blue screens, no misbehaviour except for the girl who left her body behind - and I think that may have something to do wih the lower refresh rate I have currently. Thanks - I'm open for business. 

PS I found a Gecube Radeon 9600 XT 256MB 8XAGP for sale for $NZ190.97. Looking good so far.

Nice price. I got my 9600 Pro (reminder: the XT is better than the Pro) for 100 Euros four months ago, that is roughly $NZ200. Told ya, you WOULD get it cheaper over there! If you've got the cash, go for it. Then get ATi Tuner and overclock the sucker!

[idtaminger]

PPS Dr Beast, is a 9600 XT the same as a 9600 Pro?

I think the order they go with it is Regular < Pro < XT < XT Platinum Edition.

[earthmagick]

Witch, this is the same issue that I was having with my graphics. It seemed to be affecting just the lots with home businesses. All the Sims were sliding or floating around with their arms out just like the pic above. The lots were not playable. After reading this post yesterday, I updated my drivers to the newer 81.98. I had 78.01 installed. Oh, and my graphics card is a Geforce FX 5700LE. It worked so far. I played one of the affected lots and all is working well. Keeping fingers crossed!

[witch]

I wonder if simmers could sue EA for the arthritis in all the crossed fingers! 

[jsalemi]

My Radeon X700 Pro arrived back from warranty repair today (they actually just replaced it), so I'm thinking I'm going to put it back in the machine over the weekend and put the nVidia back on the shelf as a spare -- the ATI card was just better with the game.

[witch]

Yep, I'm going to get me a new card - by hook or by crook. I'm even going to the extent of paying as many bills as possible this pay - so maybe I can swing it next payday.

[DrBeast]

Yep, I'm going to get me a new card - by hook or by crook. I'm even going to the extent of paying as many bills as possible this pay - so maybe I can swing it next payday.

Good. Which one are you getting then?

[jsalemi]

FYI, nvidia released their 84.21 drivers yesterday -- these supposedly fix the problems with the 81.98 version.  I'm going to download them and give them a try before swapping video cards to see if they help.

[DrBeast]

Good, should d/l them too for my work computer (not that the crappy MX440 would benefit from them, heh!). BTW, do you have the plain 6600 or the GT version?

[jsalemi]

Actually, I tried the 84.21 drivers, and the blue screen problem still occurs.  Took longer than it did with the 81.98 drivers, but it's still there.  So the 78.01 drivers are still the last stable ones for TS2.   

I just have the plain 6600 (PNY version) -- I used it in my since replaced computer, and kept it around as a 'backup'.  I'm about to pull it out and put the ATI X700   Pro back in -- I had a lot less problems with that one.

[idtaminger]

Where do you go to roll back the drivers? Control Panel? Somewhere else? My new drivers that I d/led have been acting up, and I need to roll back. I have an ATI card, btw.

[jsalemi]

Yes; you uninstall the current drivers through Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel, and then reboot the system.  It'll usually come up in default VGA mode (and maybe complain it can't find drivers, but that's not a problem).  Then install the older version, and reboot.