Seemingly Random Lag Issues

[fortheloveofcake]

I've been experiencing a lot of lag in my game lately, but only some of the time so it is difficult to pinpoint when it started or what is causing it.
About half the time, it runs really smoothly, with about a minute-long freeze each night at 3:00am.
The rest of the time, it will play smoothly for 10-20 game minutes, then freeze for anywhere from 30 seconds up to several minutes.
It doesn't appear to be related to clearing out my caches, as it has done this both before and after I cleared them. I have nearly all expansions and stuff packs installed as well as a LOT of store content, but a computer that is more than capable of running the game. I keep most graphics settings on low or medium, with only Sim Detail on high.

If anyone has any suggestions they would be most appreciated.

[Louise56]

I've been experiencing a lot of lag in my game lately, but only some of the time so it is difficult to pinpoint when it started or what is causing it.
About half the time, it runs really smoothly, with about a minute-long freeze each night at 3:00am.
The rest of the time, it will play smoothly for 10-20 game minutes, then freeze for anywhere from 30 seconds up to several minutes.
It doesn't appear to be related to clearing out my caches, as it has done this both before and after I cleared them. I have nearly all expansions and stuff packs installed as well as a LOT of store content, but a computer that is more than capable of running the game. I keep most graphics settings on low or medium, with only Sim Detail on high.

If anyone has any suggestions they would be most appreciated.

I also get the freeze every night at 3.00am. Only for a few seconds. I don't get any other freezes or lag.

[Silviak]

3AM is when everything 'resets' in the game, generally speaking. If you have something like Overwatch running, it's also the time it grabs all the stuck sims and resets them, too.

I have a really good gaming computer, and even it seizes up for a few moments at 3AM.

[fortheloveofcake]

The 3am freeze is not really what's bothering me, its only for a minute or so with long stretches of time in between with normal gameplay. Its more the constant lag for up to several minutes with only a couple of minutes of play time in between.

[Silviak]

Could it be possible you're having a stuck sims issue?

If you're comfortable with mods, I'd try out overwatch from NRAAS and see if that helps at all. I used to have huge laggy 'pauses' which was actually everything in the world starting to bug out, essentially. I found some info relating the problem to this, and Overwatch fixed it. I can probably dig up the info if you like.

[fortheloveofcake]

I've never used mods in my game, and even though I know Twallan's mods are very good and used by a lot of forum members, I'd prefer to exhaust all other possibilities first. Thanks for the tip though and I will keep that in mind if I ever do want to try them 

[Silviak]

I've had another thought, fortheloveofcake. And if this is a duh one, I apologize, but I figured I'd ask. Does it happen only in games that you've been playing through for awhile? AKA how legacy challenges are going? Also, have you tried looking at a computer monitoring software that allows you to see how hot your core is getting? It could possibly be a heat/fan issue, especially if it's after you've had the computer running processes all day, etc.

Either of those two things are culprits for me. I fixed my cooling issue by pulling my tower out from under my desk, and when it's hot out I run a fan over it and me.

I'm not trying to drag out a solution, but I'd like to help you find a non-mod answer, too. If there's anything at all that you notice going on at the same time or whatever, even if it's something like listening to youtube in the background, let me know and I'll start digging. I've got quite a little list of all these weird lag issues I had with sims when I first started, so I've got (probably too) many help resources for the issue.

And there's nothing more frustrating than just wanting to let your sims run so you can relax and play, only to have the game itself bugger up.

[fortheloveofcake]

It could be a heat issue, I play on a laptop with a cooling fan under it, but I also will leave it on for long stretches sometimes.
In the last couple saves that I gave up on, I was around week 4 or 5. The save I just started, it is not doing it at all, but then I am only halfway through week 2.
But then in another file, I'm at week 10 or 11 and it doesn't lag at all, with the exception of the 3am pause.
The two really bad files were both in sunlit tides, so I'm wondering if maybe all the water is too much for my game to handle. I'm playing in Monte Vista now. Hopefully it stays ok.
I will usually have Google Chrome and Microsoft word running in the background, so that I have easy forum access, and also in challenge games I like to take notes while playing.

[MoMoll]

I've had NRaas overwatch and other mods installed for a long time. My lag started with Seasons and patch 1.47. Especially when it rains, so I turned off the rain and hail.

[Silviak]

It could be a heat issue, I play on a laptop with a cooling fan under it, but I also will leave it on for long stretches sometimes.
In the last couple saves that I gave up on, I was around week 4 or 5. The save I just started, it is not doing it at all, but then I am only halfway through week 2.
But then in another file, I'm at week 10 or 11 and it doesn't lag at all, with the exception of the 3am pause.
The two really bad files were both in sunlit tides, so I'm wondering if maybe all the water is too much for my game to handle. I'm playing in Monte Vista now. Hopefully it stays ok.
I will usually have Google Chrome and Microsoft word running in the background, so that I have easy forum access, and also in challenge games I like to take notes while playing.

I'm betting the combination of laptop cooling + water being a bit much is the culprit. Try one of the many processing monitors, there are plenty of them, good and free, and see what that tells you when you do it.

And that sucks, so I hope that it won't take away from too many of your games, being in Sunlit Tides.

[wolvie19]

I had a similar problem with the water on my old laptop.  Adjusting my screen resolution seemed to help, although I'm not exactly sure why.  I think I changed it to one or two settings smaller than the default one.