New graphical glitches

[Lorelei]

New issue, at least for me.

I tried to post about this earlier, but apparently botched posting.

I'm not getting the panoramic flyover hood views, or the static hood lot views, any more. It's just a black screen, and I get artifacts when scrolling over things. Yey, not.

Is this a graphics card glitch, a hack conflict, a RAM issue, or borked Sims files?

Any theories / fixes?

[SaraMK]

Possibly a driver issue. What's your card and have you done anything to the drivers lately, or installed a new EP/stuff pack?

Also, are you using GunMod's Lighting? Using the wrong version can cause exactly this glitch (the whole neighborhood screen completely black).

Any other lights-related hacks?

Your pic is too small. Can't see anything.

[Lorelei]

Possibly a driver issue. What's your card and have you done anything to the drivers lately, or installed a new EP/stuff pack?

Also, are you using GunMod's Lighting? Using the wrong version can cause exactly this glitch (the whole neighborhood screen completely black).

Any other lights-related hacks?

Your pic is too small. Can't see anything.

NVidia GeForce Go 7600 GT running driver 84.57.

I had Gunmod's lights but removed them.
I had Gunmod's cameras but removed them. (Testing now.)

commlightson

No other light hacks that I am aware of.

Alas, nothing to see. The Sim is repeated over the screen, and a lot price is displayed. UI artifacts are popping up. Was trying to enter a lot downtown. Switching hoods didn't fix the issue. I do sometimes get a temporary black screen when loading a residential/comm lot, but rarely in hood view.

The aggravating thing is that I haven't done anything to this stupid card, or installed a new driver. I was preparing to install one, and DL'ed it, but am getting conflicting advice about how to handle the old driver. I can't find it anywhere online, and if the new driver doesn't work, I don't know if setting a restore point will restore the old driver or not. I have DriverCleaner, and the smart thing to do is to remove old driver, run DC, install new driver, pray it works.

Apparently my driver requires specific driver tweaks for laptops. Latest driver found was 84.63. Can't find any reviews of it, or any info on whether it helps address Sims problems. No response from NVidia. No response from EA. Sony (VAIO laptop) doesn't have my model number anywhere on its site. Ugh.

[SaraMK]

You're sure you removed all the GunMod Lighting files? And that you put the right version of the original files back?

[Lorelei]

99% sure. *sigh* I have been fussing with this issue for a month now.

ETA: If it wasn't done before, it's been done now. I had backups.

Here's what I think I'd like to do.

Save my Sims, save my created lots, but otherwise start fresh. Can this be done?

Then I can load the game vanilla, let it install its defaults, and just place my Sims and lots back into hoods again.

I don't think this can be done without trauma, alas.

If it can be done, what files, other than DLs and Music, should I set aside?

ETA: I HAVE NOT DONE THIS, just asking. Does the neighborhoodmanager file regenerate if deleted, or is it a no-touch-ee file?


My card offers settings for games like Doom, Medal Of Honor, Halo, Splinter Cell, Luna, LEGO Star Wars (!), etc. Are any of these game settings compatible with The Sims 2? If so, maybe I can solve the glitching by using pre-tweaked settings for a similar game.

[Lorelei]

Sara, I am so grateful that you are trying to help me. I am at my wit's end.

DAMMIT, I just want to kick and throw things, or cry. I am so tired of this stupid game NOT WORKING.

I don't care if Veronaville, Strangetown, Riverblossom get burninated, but I have several families in P'view I'd like to keep, plus some YAs and dorms in the P'ville uni, not to mention painstakingly constructed hoods like Dtown and Bluewater. I'd rather not lose my customized subhoods.

I never know if my NVidia card is going to cooperate or not. I never know if my hood or lot or CAS/CAP is going to freeze.

I spend literally DAYS trying to find out why the game is farked THIS TIME, and then get to play for about forty minutes if I am lucky, then it freezes or hangs or crashes or blue screens. I'm weary of fighting with it.

I download approved fixes, like the DNA fixes for S'town and V'ville. I use awesome hacks. I scan with clean install and hack conflict detect.

I run nothing in the background so the spoilt rotten game has all my attention 100%, no sharing.

I just want to be able to play the goddamned game. This is getting ridiculous. *rips hair out*

I'm not technical. I can't throw lots of money at the problem. I follow instructions given to me, and usually they work. But nothing is working. I can't get any company-side answers to my graphics card problem, be it NVidia, EA, Sony, etc. No one gives a shit that the damn card and game loathe each other.

I'm so tired. Every time I have a day off to play, I end up trying to fix the game instead, not playing. Augh.

[Diala]

I have no advice to share with you, since I am sure you've done everything possible that I can think of. I just wanted to say that I feel your pain, if only on a minor scale.

The only thing I can suggest is to: a) buy a new card, or b) wait for nVidia to do something about it.

[Hecubus]

To save your sims, try packaging the lots...then when you reinstall them, only choose the lot and the family. BE CERTAIN you don't load in any of the extra people who might be along for the ride, though. (I borked a favorite lot because my Sim had invisibile friends.)

[Cons]

Well I don't have graphical glitches, however as you can tell from my thread, I have plenty of other glitches.

And I agree with this statement:
I just want to be able to play the goddamned game. This is getting ridiculous. *rips hair out*


Don't know what to tell you to do either....Nvidia card or not, it should play at least after toning down the settings. I tried that today, even though my card can handle all the bells and whistles...well I did have more ram available, but the SOB sound went to stammering and boom it crashed. About after a couple hours of play.

Personally I think the game code is buggy as hell. But that's just me.

Hope you solve it....

[Lorelei]

To save your sims, try packaging the lots...then when you reinstall them, only choose the lot and the family. BE CERTAIN you don't load in any of the extra people who might be along for the ride, though. (I borked a favorite lot because my Sim had invisibile friends.)

How do I pack the lots if I can't see them?

[SaraMK]

Lorelei, have you made sure that this problem is happening in all neighborhoods, not just that particular one?

NeighborhoodManager appears to be safe to delete, and will regenerate itself, but I don't think that file does very much, so I doubt it would help the problem. I assume you already tried purging the usual suspects, like groups.cache?

As far as keeping the families, I would clone the sims rather than attempt to extract them. Even if you extracted them, you would have to sever ties with other sims they know, wipe their memories, probably wipe out their family tree... so you might as well just extract them and rebuild them from scratch.

As for the houses, I don't know.  How big is the neighborhood? Maybe you could zip it up, upload it, and ask someone to package up the houses for you. What happens when you randomly click around your black screen -- do any houses become highlighted or pop up a description of the house?

[Lorelei]

Lorelei, have you made sure that this problem is happening in all neighborhoods, not just that particular one?

Yep! A custom lot showed (with no flyover panoramic) but was slooooow to update and then froze and went black screen. Other lots were black from the get-go. Some of the custom lots did black screen while loading prior to this glitch, but resolved themselves within a few seconds.

NeighborhoodManager appears to be safe to delete, and will regenerate itself, but I don't think that file does very much, so I doubt it would help the problem. I assume you already tried purging the usual suspects, like groups.cache?

Yep. And just uninstalled / reinstalled and replaced 0002 and 0003 dna fix files.

As far as keeping the families, I would clone the sims rather than attempt to extract them. Even if you extracted them, you would have to sever ties with other sims they know, wipe their memories, probably wipe out their family tree... so you might as well just extract them and rebuild them from scratch.

I'd be okay with that, but I can't package what I can't see. Hoping reinstall will fix glitches, though.

As for the houses, I don't know.  How big is the neighborhood? Maybe you could zip it up, upload it, and ask someone to package up the houses for you. What happens when you randomly click around your black screen -- do any houses become highlighted or pop up a description of the house?

Pretty big, actually. Yep, a description pops up, but then an graphical artifact sticks on the screen. Couldn't enter lot.

[cwykes]

To save your sims, try packaging the lots...then when you reinstall them, only choose the lot and the family. BE CERTAIN you don't load in any of the extra people who might be along for the ride, though. (I borked a favorite lot because my Sim had invisibile friends.)

Just to say - that's bad advice KGDeBus - you need to clean up in SimPE after that.   Just deleting the character files for the friends with cleaninstaller, just means your sims have relations with unknowns instead and unlinked memories - taking those into the new hood is a VBT. 

Lorelei - I really feel for you and I think you need awesome advice, rather than anything I can contribute.  But here goes anyway - treat with caution!

Don't start deleting your neighborhoods etc before you're sure the problem is actually in there!  If you move your whole Sims2 folder to desktop and start the game, the game will generate a whole new set of files.  If the black screen is still happening after that, you can conclude that the problem is not your neighborhoods.   If you are sure the black screen is NOT happening then, the problem is somewhere in your Sims 2 folder.  Put the sub-folders back bit by bit and see when the problem comes back.