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Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#1 Old 30th Jan 2016 at 5:18 AM Last edited by alicey : 31st Jan 2016 at 10:15 PM.
Default Graphics glitch; 'hidden' lots; general gameplay questions
Okay, please be patient with me here I was a huge Sims 2 fan and knew my way around the game very well, until my laptop and I were separated and I lost the game. Now I finally have Sims 3, and it's totally alien to me. I'm having a lot of issues.

Specs are as follows:

Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4210U CPU @ 1.70GHz (4 CPUs), ~2.4GHz
Memory: 6144MB RAM
Microsoft Graphics Hybrid: Not Supported
Card name: Intel(R) HD Graphics Family
Chip type: Intel(R) HD Graphics Family
DAC type: Internal
Device Type: Full Device
Display Memory: 3136 MB

- This is definitely not a custom content issue, as I don't have any CC yet.
- Running base game, showtime, and ambitions.
- If this makes any difference, my laptop doesn't have a built-in CD drive. I'm using an external CD drive.
- Operating system is Windows 10
- I'm just playing two lots at the moment, which I'll refer to as lot A and lot B.

Map graphics glitch

The map view in all my neighborhoods/worlds/towns (what are they called in Sims 3?) is just a huge blank white expanse. There are markers for locations, but that's it; you can't see any buildings, landscape, or anything else at all. This is a problem when it comes to navigating, as you can't even tell if you're scrolling around.

Are some lots supposed to be 'hidden'?

I've made two sims and set them up in their own little homes. I want them to meet. But when I'm playing in lot A, lot B doesn't appear on the map as a marker. Because of the graphics glitch, I can't navigate by what the area looks like, or anything. I know that this lot B is near the spa, so I had the sim from lot A walk to the spa and walk around looking for lot B. It's not there. What is this madness? Is it because the two sims don't know each other yet? If so, why do other sim lots appear, when my sim doesn't know those sims? (I've yet to spend too much time trying to find lot A from lot B, but just giving it a brief attempt, I couldn't find it).

Lot-specific gameplay issues

Lot B takes up to 45 minutes to save. I don't know if that's normal. Lot A doesn't take long. In lot B, my sim's needs also seem to deplete very fast. Time seems all out of whack, too: it once took her three sim hours to make pancakes, and it took firefighters over two sim hours to arrive when she set fire to her kitchen. The combination of time being out of whack and her needs depleting so fast means that playing lot B is, frankly, dull. It's just eat, sleep, repeat.

General gameplay issues
There doesn't seem to be any automatic social interaction like there was in Sims 2: no neighbors visiting when you first move in, no bringing friends home from work, etc. Does this just not happen in TS3? Is it an issue with my game?

Any advice very welcome. Thank you.

UPDATE 1/31/16:

It may be that the two lots - lot A and lot B - are in different towns. Because I can't see anything but a blank white expanse, I can't tell by sight whether I'm in the correct town. Because the main menu invites you to choose a family rather than a neighborhood, I never know which town I'm in. Several weeks passed between me creating lot A and lot B, so I could have gone into the wrong town. I don't know for sure.

Regardless, I've run into another problem. I created a new sim, and made sure they were in the same town as the sim in lot B. Not being able to see anything on the map, I just moved them in to an available home in their budget, and noted that the street name was the same as lot B. Cool, I thought; they'll be neighbors. It turns out that I've moved this new sim into lot B and the sim that was there is gone. He's still available to play, but I had hoped that they would be near each other. Instead, the game is treating them as if they don't exist in each other's universes.
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#2 Old 30th Jan 2016 at 5:42 AM
I'm not gonna get into the graphics problem since I'm not too good with that, but it probably is your graphics hardware that's the problem. As for the gameplay stuff.... I've never seen neighbors welcome me like they do in 2, though I only have the base game and Supernatural so maybe later expansions added that. I don't remember ever seeing friends coming home from work, but your kids in school will bring home friends, and friends your kids have at school will sometimes invite them over after school. All your other problems are most likely hardware related, though I'm not too tech savvy so I won't be much help there.
Department of Post-Mortem Communications
#4 Old 30th Jan 2016 at 9:24 AM
It is maybe a bit early to suggest NRaas mods for all of alicey's problems, no? They definitely won't help with any of the gameplay questions.

Quote:
General gameplay issues
There doesn't seem to be any automatic social interaction like there was in Sims 2: no neighbors visiting when you first move in, no bringing friends home from work, etc. Does this just not happen in TS3? Is it an issue with my game?
Yes, this is normal. Visits from other Sims in town are rare and bringing friends home only happens with schoolmates from time to time.

Quote:
Lot-specific gameplay issues
Lot B takes up to 45 minutes to save. I don't know if that's normal. Lot A doesn't take long. In lot B, my sim's needs also seem to deplete very fast. Time seems all out of whack, too: it once took her three sim hours to make pancakes, and it took firefighters over two sim hours to arrive when she set fire to her kitchen. The combination of time being out of whack and her needs depleting so fast means that playing lot B is, frankly, dull. It's just eat, sleep, repeat.
If you had custom content or mods I'd say that there's something in your game that's clogging up the processor, but as you don't then this may well be another performance issue.
45 minutes to save is not normal, maybe the house or the Sims in that house are broken.

Quote:
Are some lots supposed to be 'hidden'?
I've made two sims and set them up in their own little homes. I want them to meet. But when I'm playing in lot A, lot B doesn't appear on the map as a marker. Because of the graphics glitch, I can't navigate by what the area looks like, or anything. I know that this lot B is near the spa, so I had the sim from lot A walk to the spa and walk around looking for lot B. It's not there. What is this madness? Is it because the two sims don't know each other yet? If so, why do other sim lots appear, when my sim doesn't know those sims? (I've yet to spend too much time trying to find lot A from lot B, but just giving it a brief attempt, I couldn't find it).
Houses of Sims will only appear in Map View with an orange bubble as soon as you have met these Sims and they appear in your relationship panel. But it seems that your lot B is causing problems anyway.

Apart from you deviceconfig file's contents that nitromon asked for, could you also post screenshots of your white neighbourhood and the invisible lot B?
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#5 Old 30th Jan 2016 at 2:54 PM
Can someone remind me how I take screenshots? Sorry, as I said, it's been a long time since I've played. I remember from TS2 that you can't just hit printscreen, there is special software that you need.
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#7 Old 31st Jan 2016 at 10:16 PM
Quote: Originally posted by nitromon
It's never too early to use NRAAS mods.



press 'c'


I thought that didn't work in town view? I'll try it.
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