Unplayable performance + stability issues (frame rate, tex memory) - WIN 10
#1 06-04-2020 
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Hi!

So I have a really common set of problems but I'm absolutely at my wits' end trying to fix them. I've been playing TS2 UC on Windows 10 for a long time now and while I've always had mixed success getting it to seamlessly for extended periods of time this has to be the worst I've had it in years.

I'll try to be as concise as possible but as I mentioned, I'm so frazzled now that this might come out wordier than I would like and I want to be sure I've given the whole context. Also I should start by saying I'm not very computer savvy.

I recently swapped up my Aurora R5 to an Aurora R8 (dxgiag enclosed) and about a month ago I installed TS2 and immediately ran into a failed launch issue where an error would tell me that a Directx 9 compatible device couldn't be detected etc (well words to that effect anyway, apologies is that's not quite accurate or clear). After some basic tweaking with Graphics Rule Maker and kiri's guides I was able to get the game to launch with no issue. At the time I was playing the game on a 4k display and was able to run it in the full resolution. So far, so good. A few failed launchers here or there but I quickly learned that deleted the cache files was enough to fix this.

Next I was using ReShade. No issues there, barely a hit to my performance and the only problem was something I was already aware of - ReShade doesn't seem to work for TS2 unless I use an injector tool for the dll. And that meant it didn't work in windowed mode but whatever. The game was running smoothly and not a pink flash or crash in sight. Even when I started to introduce my my 9GB Downloads folder and camera mods. At least for a few days, it was fine.

I started to get pink flashes. No surprise really, I was pushing my luck. For unrelated reasons I swapped my display to a 1080p monitor. The problem went away for another few days and the performance was great. But then one day I launched it and realised something was wrong when the game was hovering at around 10fps at the main menu. It crashed when I tried to load Belladonna Cove.

Ever since then it's rapidly got better or worse and I can't even tell if what I'm doing is having an impact or if the changes in performance are because of things out of my hands. Texture memory bugs (pink flashes, crashes), cripplingly low frame rate, weird behaviour - all of this even in cleanly installed game with refreshed game files and no CC or ReShade tool.

It feels like I can only get it working for like minutes at a time before the whole cycle starts up again. Sometimes it's half an hour of real time before it becomes an issue, sometimes the pink flashing happens on the very first Maxis neighbourhood I open. Sometimes plays incredibly smoothly with intensive graphics mods and a huge amount of high poly custom content, other times it buckles trying to load when the game is completely custom content free.

Here are the main things I've tried that haven't as yet, in isolation or in conjunction with each other, solved this problem.

Graphics Rules Maker > This successully added my card to the Video Cards list and allows me to launch the game, but not much else.

CFF Explorer 4GB patch > Worked as intended

Kiri's various tips and advice on these forums > Seemed to work really well initially but then the problem either slowly creeps back or suddenly comes back on launch.

'Tweaks to Graphic Rules file that helped me with The Sims 2 crashing and flashing (Win7 + Nvidia card)' found here by episims > I have tested this and I can confirm that when I add the boolProp disableTexMemEstimateAdjustment true line I get the aforementioned DirectX 9 error when I try to launch the game. When I remove it, the game launches fine. I have asked epi today and they said they're not familar with this exact issue and I'm the first person to report it.

DXVK method (guided by this crazysim doc) > followed the instructions meticulously but kept getting a DirectX error when trying to launch the game, something about 'OUTOFVIDEOMEMORY'.

Here's the super frustrating part. Today I've totally uninstalled and reinstalled TS2 UC three times trying to fix different parts that had gone wrong (backups weren't helping me). The first time I thought that I'd finally found the answer as it was running better than ever - but then the next time I quit and launched again the framerate chugged on the main menu, the loading screen for Pleasantview was long, the screen went black for a long pause before the town loaded in and the whole thing was pink. No mods in my Downloads folder, no custom content of any kind.

Where I am now: the game won't launch at all and is throwing out a DirectX 9 error. I don't know where it's gone wrong on a clean installation with Graphics Rules Maker taking care of the configuration, but that's what's happening.

Really sorry that this was such an essay. I'd really appreciate any help or advice, because I'm close to throwing in the towel altogether. All I want to understand is how an idiot like me can get TS2 UC to play nice with my hardware, even if it's going to take a lot of work. Like, I know that other people have managed better than I have so I just want to know if it's possible.

Attached File(s)
.txt  AmyDxDiag 2020 04 06.txt (Size: 116.13 KB / Downloads: 455)
.txt  DESKTOP-LEMURPHS-config-log.txt (Size: 10.28 KB / Downloads: 347)
(This post was last modified: 06-04-2020 06:34 PM by LeMurphs.)

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#2 11-04-2020 
I know you said that you've tried crazysim's doc already, but I recommend making a post in their thread on modthesims, they seem very helpful and have managed to get a lot of people's game working with the latest hardware so they can probably give you specific advice for your setup.

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