Live Mode Keeps Freezing!

[Narmster]

  Recently my game keeps on freezing for about 30 seconds and then returns to normal. It never crashes  or exits the game, it just stops the camera and the action of any of the sims. Any animations (sprinkler water, snoring, shower water, musical notes, ect) will animate while the game is momentarily frozen. But live mode seems to be the only issue, buy/build mode and CAS work flawlessly, however, live mode and edit town mode are both extremely laggy with the freezes. They occur in about 20 second intervals of each other and can last 10 to about 45 seconds, which makes game play very frustrating to the point where I cannot play live mode anymore. I do have mods on my game, but the freezes started to occur a full 2 days after I've downloaded any new mods. And I know that it is definitely not a memory issue, because I just deleted more than 200 mb of memory from deleting my backups, screen-shots and unneeded mods. I also updated my video card driver, turned off McAfee, and update my version of the Sims.
   I've been surfing all suggestions on the forums here and so far everything I've done has not fixed the problem. Like I said, this is a very recent occurrence, one that has not happened in the year and half I've been playing the game. I don't know what else to do, and I just really want to play the game. I just got World Adventures and Ambitions for Chanukkah, and I really want to play them! Any suggestions would be amazing!

[Naga]

You could always check if the game runs fine without those mods you didn't delete, or without custom content.

I understood that your game freezes started after you installed WA and AMB? If that's so, make sure you've got everything patched, blablabla (which is something you probably did already). Have you tried lowering your graphics yet?

Also, how much RAM do you have?

[Narmster]

I already lowered the graphics to be as low as possible on everything, and that didnt do anything. Ill try to run it without custom content, though I doubt that will work seeing how it worked fine a few days ago with the content. I have 2.0GB of ram

[Naga]

Welcome to my world. Your game will keep freezing, each time harder, and then you'll figure that if you move to another lot, it may be fixed. After moving, it will stop freezing, you'll play for a little while and then realize that you're stuck with CTDs. Maybe it takes you 2.5 months (my case) and a try at every possible solution to fix it, of which none will work,  or you can just listen to my wise advice: get more ram.

At least 4 Gb ram should do it... If you want to be fine for the next 3-5 years, get 16Gb.

PS: Just to make sure, download that The Sims 3 Crash Log Analyzer thing (I got mine somewhere from sims.wikia). It will probably be ram, but this game has so many crash reasons, no one can ever be sure.

[Jancy]

Same problem here- I have a new 2 month old iMac 4 gigs of ram-Everything runs great when a new game is started then after a while it starts to run choppy and pausing.  It started with the last 2 patches and the installation of Latenight for me. Ran great prior to these.
Do you happen to have any Sims stuck on a lot anywhere.  I have had them stuck on different lots in different games and once that starts for me the games runs horrible. I have right now, in one of my games, about 40 Sims stuck around one of the lounges outside and they do not leave. I really think the only way this pausing stuff is going to stop is with a patch from EA.

I have been emailing EA for quite sometime now and they seem to say it could be my video card but even folks that have window PC's with recommended video cards are having the same problem. Someone I know that has an older iMac with recommended video card is having the same problem with Sims Stuck on lot and choppy/pausing game play.

I honestly do not think it's the video card since I didn't have this problem before the last 2 patches and LN.
I do think it's a problem with their programming/coding.

Have you checked to see if you have a recommended video card?  Video card specs on the EA boxes LN mention certain cards that are supported and it just so happens that none of these cards that they say are supported/recommended are actually installed in any of the current iMacs they are selling in the Apple store today.

Hoping the next patch will fix this problem.

[Pam]

@Naga:

I edited your post for profanity.  Please do not use foul language of any kind on this Forum.

[Naga]

Sorry about it, didn't realize if I was typing anything wrong because I was too involved in this EA raging.

Anyways, I do have sims stuck outside lots too... the only place I bother to notice it was outside the hospital, though. There's always one sim stuck just 2 squares away from the door. If I command my Sim to do anything with the stuck sim, like Chat, the Sim gets back to working normally.

[Pam]

Sorry about it, didn't realize if I was typing anything wrong because I was too involved in this EA raging.

Be sure to calm that down, please.  We don't allow EA bashing on the Forum, either.  You haven't yet...  just letting you know. 

[Saltypaws]

I have the same issue, although not as bad in some games as others.  I do find what helps, if you notice alot of cars in parking lots all over town, that is suppose to be one of the problems.  What I have done is gone into edit town and have deleted all of those lemons and junkers from parking lots and then deleted the parking spaces.  Of course, I leave any car that is not a junker, because it is probably a sims car.  That seems to help tremendously in my game.  Not quite sure why, but the game spawns cars all over town.  I had put a screenshot of a club I had built and when I looked, there was a car in every single parking place and no one in the club.  I had ten parking spaces, so, I got rid of those and the game runs alot better.  I also turn off all processes and that helps too and just to keep the computer clean also helps.  

[project_s2]

Narmster,

About a week ago, I experienced the exact same thing you explained in this thread. I read your post twice to make sure if it is what I experienced. In my opinion, I am really sure, it is not my computer, it is not my graphic card, it is not my RAM, because what? because before the problem started, it was all normal, I played it without any lag, any problem or any issue. My game itself have no significant changes within 2 weeks so I am also sure that it is not about Legacy family decay or whatsoever.
However my problem started after this event, one of my sim got a Hero ceremony at City Hall (SV) a lot of sims on that lot, after the ceremony, my sim went back to the house and, the problem started, it lagged a little bit, and it "paused", the plumbob, the fountain water, all animations moving, but sims all freezed about 15-20 seconds and back to normal, a minute later it happen again, and again. I quit, restart, it's all the same, clear cache and all, still not working.

But this problem fixed 24 hours later. now I can play it just like normal. no lag or stutter at all. What I did was 1 step,

[ resetSim * ]

type exactly that like you typed a cheat, without bracket, and don't change that asterisk.
Well at least in my case, it worked right away. I really hope this helps you.



[other opinion if I may add, I think this game doesn't really need Mega-monstrous RAM, yes it need RAM but 2 Gigs is enough, 16 Gigs is just ... well.. expensive? . Windows default itself only allow maximum 2 gigs of memory usage per application (task). you have to manually alter the default to make it work over 2 gigs, with my 3 gigs RAM installed, mine now at 2,5 gigs per application and it fixed the famous choppy of different kind problem that has a thread in this forum. My opinion, if you want the game to load faster, use SSD as your system disk, and even better SSD also for your sims 3 installation. Well i'm not a computer genius, I just happen to be a geek with some opinion, Thankyou =) ]

[Pam]

But this problem fixed 24 hours later. now I can play it just like normal. no lag or stutter at all. What i did was 1 step,

[ resetSim * ]

type exactly that like you typed a cheat, without bracket, and don't change that asterisk.
Well at least in my case, it worked right away. i really hope this helps you.

Is that a global reset command that resets all Sims in the game or something?

[project_s2]

Pam,

Yes it is a global reset, try that, I do believe it reset all the sims in the world. 

[Naga]

That command is incredibly interesting... I got some testing to do.

[project_s2]

I feel somekind of pressure here, hahaha, i do really really hope that this command worked like a charm for you people. Because when it worked for me, i feel so happy, i sent my sim party all night till they drop.  finger crossed..

[Pam]

Let us know what you find, Naga. 

[Naga]

Well, my first thought is to see if that command could bring all those ghosts back to their graves in the graveyard. You know, since installing ambitions, the ghosts tend to just walk out of the GY and grab a cab or something. Gotta see if that command is capable of turning the graveyard into a ghost-park again.

Some other stuff that I wanna test too include unfreezing massive amounts of sims that simultaneously go to a random community lot and just stand there until they die (tried to find the link to the topic about it, no luck), saving Sims from meteor-death (once a single meteor killed 7 Sims in my game, it ruined the entire neighborhood), some creepy stuff involving "resetting the grim reaper when the sim dies so that his corpse is still be there for making stories",  and about 4 other stuff I was thinking of but forgot as I typed this post.

I may edit this later to add testing results or other ideas.

[Jagid]

Thank you for this answer! It worked great to use the "ResetSim *" command.
 
I just want to add a theory as to why this happens:
 
One or more Sims are trying to calculate a path to a location the game cannot resolve.
 
Let me explain...

• Sim A wants to go from Shang Simla Simla Market to Hot Springs in China to go fishing.
• The game plots the path and the Sim goes there.
• The Sim gets hungry and wants to return to Shang Simla Market.
• The game attempts to plot the return path.
• The game freezes for a moment as the game puts all its effort into calculating a path.
• The game fails to calculate a path and unfreezes for a short time.
• The Sim is still hungry so retries to return after a few more seconds or some other amount of time.
• The game re-attempts to plot the return path and fails.
• Etc, etc.

 
If you want to see a demonstration just send one of your Sims to Hot Springs, you'll find he can get there just fine. Then send him to the market. You'll find he gets mad, stamps his foot, and gives up. On my PC, the action of my Sim trying to calculate a path and failing always results in a pause.
 
Thank you again for showing us a global Sim reset command!

[MoMoll]

Welcome Project!
I'll keep your global ResetSim in mind, since I have had moments at the school where the kids are all stuck.

[meghan80]

This has started happening to me on a new game. resetSim * only fixed it for about 20 minutes. I've got 6GB of RAM so I don't think that's it. Any other ideas what I can do to fix it?

[loveSims]

If you play in Bridgeport there can be a broken elevator somewhere

[Figwit]

meghan, as far as I know the delays and freezing are caused by routing failures.  Some worlds are worse than others. Resetsim* works because it rescues all the sims that are trapped and sends them back to where they came from but they eventually get stuck again.  It is not your graphics card or your RAM.  It is just bad design.  There are also other causes for slowdowns and Saltypaws is on the money with the build up of cars.  Sims also collect them in their inventories too.

[meghan80]

Thanks for all the help. It's working well enough. I'll play for a bit, then it'll freeze a couple of times, and then get back on track. I wonder if it's tied to time of day in-game, like a rush-hour or something. I just don't like having to resetsim * when my sims are in the middle of something, like work. It can be a real pain.

[loveSims]

Sometimes it's best to save your family to the bin and put them in a new town.

[jbasjoc]

the same thing is happening to me. i deleted the cache even uninstalled and reinstalled. my sims are stuck as soon as i move them in and when they get stuck i cant even open the cheat bar or move my screen. i can tab in and out but thats all i can do.

[Kaydda]

I had that happen to me before. it hasnt happend since for me because i installed the overwatch mod. it takes out stray people and unowned vehicles every sim night. the reason its freezing is becuase your game has to load all of those items. get overwatch. its the best solution and its free.

[Miokittyxx]

My game had kept freezing aswell, I have mods downloaded along with custom content but I did that code and it worked like a charm! <3 I am so happy that I can play my game again!