No Speech Bubbles or Huge Empty Ones

[kiatyn]

I just installed LN yesterday, and on starting the game (with all cc removed) I had huge speech bubbles that were empty about 50 percent of the time. I know this can be caused from the no mosaic mod, but I don't have that installed.

I read through the help here and on the official board, and tried to turn off the AA for my video card, which is an ATI Radeon HD 5800. There is no way turn it off, just down or up :/ neither of those options helped.

I then turned off the Catalyst AI and that made the speech bubbles go away entirely.

Anyone have any ideas? I have updated to the latest drivers for this card.

I really don't know what else to do. I am not a tech person, unfortunately.

Thank you for your time.

[crinrict]

Uninstall your nomosaic and get the new one.

[whiterider]

General - Post System Specs
We need more information before we can help with your issue. Please post your system specs - instructions on finding them are here: Game Help:System Specs.

If it is not specifically asked, please provide the Quick summary only.


Do also test this with all CC removed - it's not just no mosaic mods which can cause this.

[kiatyn]

General - Post System Specs
We need more information before we can help with your issue. Please post your system specs - instructions on finding them are here: Game Help:System Specs.

If it is not specifically asked, please provide the Quick summary only.


Do also test this with all CC removed - it's not just no mosaic mods which can cause this.

I did install without any CC-- do you mean I should so so again?

Regardless, here's my info:

•Operating System: Windows 7 Professional 64-bit (6.1, Build 7600) (7600.win7_gdr.100618-1621) Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
•System Manufacturer custom
•System Model custom
•Processor: : Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 975 @ 3.33GHz (8 CPUs), ~3.3GHz
•Memory: 6144MB RAM•Page File:

•DirectX Version: DirectX 11
==Display==

•Name: ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series
•Manufacturer: ATI Technologies Inc.
•Chip Type: ATI display adapter (0x6899)
•Approx. Total Memory: Display Memory: 3823 MB
Dedicated Memory: 1012 MB
Shared Memory: 2811 MB

•Main Driver: (no clue about which is the main driver) aticfx64.dll,aticfx64.dll,aticfx64.dll,aticfx32,aticfx32,aticfx32,atiumd64.dll,atidxx64.dll,atidxx64.dll,atiumdag,atidxx32,atidxx32,atiumdva,atiumd6a.cap,atitmm64.dll
•Version: 8.782.0.0
•Driver Date: 9/28/2010

==Sound==

•Description: Speakers (High Definition Audio Device)
•Driver Name: HdAudio.sys
•Driver Version: 6.01.7600.16385 (English)
•Date: : 7/13/2009

==Disk & DVD/CD-ROM Drives==

•Drive: Optiarc DVD RW AD-7240S ATA Device
•Free Space: 802.9 GB
•Total Space: 953.8 GB
•File System: NTFS
•Model: ST31000528AS ATA Device

Thanks again! (I feel almost hopeful)

[ellacharmed]

"Installing LN with no CC" is different from "playing LN with no CC".

You have restored your CC and saves after install is completed?
Have you tested playing a new town/game with no CC?

[kiatyn]

"Installing LN with no CC" is different from "playing LN with no CC".

You have restored your CC and saves after install is completed?
Have you tested playing a new town/game with no CC?

Yes, that's why I posted here. I installed LN the first time w/o CC and had the same issue (Huge speech bubbles with very occasional icons inside.)

I did some research, saw that most people had this issue with the no mosaic mod. I knew I didn't have this mod, so I decided that since I was not attached to the families I had in the game so far, I would uninstall, defrag and reinstall all the eps and stuff packs.

The same thing happened again: Huge speech bubbles, etc.

Poking about some more, I found that other people had had issues with ATI cards and shadows being hugely pixelated up close. I thought this might be a clue, so I decided to try the suggestion they offered, which was to turn off AA.

Unfortunately in the version of Catalyst that came with my computer (and in the latest update that I tried after) there is no "off". Just a lower setting and higher. Changing these to the other setting had no effect. I still had the huge mostly blank speech bubbles.

The other thing to try was to turn off the Catalyst AI. This had the effect of removing speech bubbles entirely, which I suppose would be really great if I wanted to make vids and such, but I'd really just like to play the game.

I can take screen shots or make a small video of the effect, if needed?

Please let me know. I'd really like to make this work, if I can.

Thank you!

(In an aside, the only mods I have are hair, makeup, HP's skin and Twallan's story-telling mod. These have not been put back into the game.) (Edited for typo.)

[crinrict]

It really is the NoMosaic Hack. Many have confirmed that.

Are you sure you have never installed one ? Maybe the old place ?

[ellacharmed]

Did you remove leftover files and cleanup registry entries when you uninstalled? Or when removing CC?
In Programs and VirtualStore paths, as shown in the guide?

[kiatyn]

Did you remove leftover files and cleanup registry entries when you uninstalled? Or when removing CC?
In Programs and VirtualStore paths, as shown in the guide?

yes. :/

It really is the NoMosaic Hack. Many have confirmed that.

Are you sure you have never installed one ? Maybe the old place ?

Never installed it. I really haven't. And the old place? You mean the original destination for mods? No, I uninstalled the lot and deleted the directories and all that before reinstalling. I wanted to be sure there was nothing there. :/

I have decided I am going to try reinstalling again. Maybe I missed something. If anyone has any other ideas please please let me know.

Thank you!


--

Have just completed reinstall - The only oddity I found was that I had apparently forgotten to remove the create-a-pattern program from the documents/electronic arts/the sims 3 directory. I removed it, (well I just deleted the whole directory to start fresh) and it seems to work after installing. I have my regular sized-speech bubbles!


Thanks for all the pointers!

[ellacharmed]

Weird that CAP had anything to do with this.
But, maybe you just got to a forgotten item, this time round.

In any case, glad you managed to solve it. :up:

Happy Simming! :)