What is causing my lots to corrupt?

[Myrddin]

Any help on this subject is greatly appreciated as I have no clue where to begin figuring this out.


I just finished building a community lot (I have Nightlife and Uni) and when I followed the steps to package it to my simpage, I received the Windows message that the application has crashed and will be terminated.  This has happened with three other lots over the past month or so.  All attempts to then enter these lots or package them result in the same message.  At that point I bulldoze them.  This is quite frustrating after spending hours working on the building.

The lots have both used custom walls/terrains and not had any custom content whatsoever.  It has happened with community and residential lots.  I have no hacks currently in my game however one lot did corrupt while I had a no-cheering hack (which I removed before I installed Nightlife as it was no longer necessary). 

I have used building cheats in the creation of these lots (moveobjects, snapobjectstogrid, allow45degreeangleofrotation, constrainfloorelevation) but have made a specific point to turn them off before exiting the lot after I discovered this corruption continues to make an occasional appearance.

I have a craptastic computer that barely plays the game yet 99% of my lots work just fine.

Even if the problem can't be fixed, any insight as to why it is happening would be appreciated.  Let me know if you need more info or clarity.

Thanks!

[simposiast]

It sounds like terrains.  If there's a terrain in the lot that you've deleted, you can edit the lot but you won't be able to package it. If you try the application will crash, and the lot might even vanish into thin air. There's another thread round here somewhere where people are discussing terrain issues.

If you can work out which terrain is missing, and put it back, that should fix it. It should be a terrain that shows up in the lot but not in the content manager.

[Myrddin]

Hmm...I know about the terrain issue however, I know for certain that the one terrain I used in this most recent lot is still in the catalogue.  I haven't deleted anything since building it last night and trying to upload it today.

I'm also fairly certain it wasn't the case in the other lots either.  I only use a very few specific terrains (mainly water because my graphics card changes the water tool in the game to flashing red) that I keep around and use repeatedly.

Thanks for the input though!

[gali]

The file is too big - I've got it several times, when the file was above 6 MB.

[Myrddin]

Is it possible that a single story, 2x2, community lot can be too big?

My most recent lot uploaded is also on a 2x2 but it has a basement as well as a first story, and has similar furniture as the lot that is corrupted.  It is less than 2 Mb (1.96 to be exact). It also has one more NPC that would be generated than the corrupted lot.

I appreciate the suggestion though.

[Motoki]

The file is too big - I've got it several times, when the file was above 6 MB.

I've definitely seen some lots on the exchange at 50 MB or more so it's possible to upload one that size, however I could imagine that someone with a less than top of the line system could run out of RAM or otherwise just cause the game to explode when handling such a big file.

For what it's worth, I have one lot like this too that will not package and whenever I try it causes a crash. Kind of sucks because it's my favorite house, but at least I can duplicate it now with NL.

[Myrddin]

I tried duplicating it but the duplicate crashes as well.  Ah well; I'm off to rebuild it.  At least I have screenshots lol!

[HRH Posie]

Can you package them to a file at all?  I'm wondering if it is just an upload problem.  However I have to say, most cases of this nature come about from terrain paint problems.  I remember BlueSoup had the same problem but we couldn't find a way to fix it   Also other problems can occur if you place floor tiles on uneven terrain.

PS Gali I've seen a couple of lots on the exchange that are over 80 Mb!

[Myrddin]

Nope, packaging to file results in the same message.

Terrain is a possibility in the first two or three but I am still doubtful that it was.  And in this last case, I know for a fact that I didn't delete the one terrain I used.  The other terrain I used was a Maxis file.  Of course, it may be a problem with the terrain beyond just deleting a file that one has used.

This particular lot is entirely flat so it isn't your second suggestion.

Thanks though!  I'll chalk it up to some sort of terrain issue (though not deleting the terrain) and just rebuild it. 

[Process Denied]

I had a lot that packaged ok but crashed when you tryed to enter.  I entered with boolprop on and I had a bad object in it. 

[baratron]

Here is a stupid question for you. Are you running any other programs at the same time as TS2?

It's just that i'm thinking if the problem is that TS2 is running out of memory while trying to package the lot, then the problem might be solvable by making sure you aren't running other programs at the same time. I know on my own PC (a fairly-good Vaio, supposedly 4x over the recommended spec for base TS2 and 2x over it for TS2+U) that running a web browser and TS2 together causes visible lag in community and dorm lots. If this happens on a "good" PC, it could be fatal on a "bad" one. Also it's known that many antivirus programs are terrible memory hogs - the stuff that comes with the game even suggests you may need to turn them off while playing.

[Myrddin]

Nope, I have to shut everything down in order to even open the game (yes, it is that craptastic!).  Thanks for the thought though.

To update, I ended up rebuilding the lot; a 99% accurate replica.  I can only say 99% as I added one extra light and four extra shrubs.  And...it uploaded perfectly. So I'm stumped.  It did go a lot faster the second time of course lol!

Just for reference, it is about 1.79 Mb so it wasn't the size of the lot.  I used the same terrain I used before as well.

I will just have to chalk it up to a hit and run on the part of my game I guess.

Thanks for your time though folks!

[Motoki]

Wait, are you saying you uploaded a lot that's 179 MB? If so you really need to clean that thing out or anyone who downloads it is going to get A LOT of stuff they didn't ask for, probably half your downloads folder. Also I know it's EA's bandwidth, but that's still a horrendous waste of bandwidth and rather discouraging for anyone on dial up to download.

Get Sims2pack Clean Installer and uncheck anything but the lot itself and any custom content the lot actually uses that you may want to include and then resave it. I guarantee the file size will be MUCH smaller.

[Myrddin]

Whoa, settle down lol!  It was just a typo!  The lot was only 1.79 Mb.  I'm not a complete idiot!

I'll update the post above.

[Motoki]

lmao, okay. But like I said, I've actually seen some really crazy large lot sizes so it wouldn't have been the first time.