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Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#26 Old 16th Oct 2012 at 5:58 PM
Rofl, actually, I did in fact rollback to 12.3 instead of 12.4 for some reason. And the bug remained.

So, right know my question is, if I were to say rollback to 11.x, how would that affect my game? if at all?
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In the Arena
retired moderator
#27 Old 16th Oct 2012 at 6:15 PM
So it appears rolling back drivers is simpler than rolling back Sims 3 installation?

No one has tested older Sims patches on each Catalyst version either? Or yet?
And I better remind that if rolling back to 1.36 for example, that means the Supernatural pack cannot be installed.

As to the impact of using older drivers, it depends on what changes each newer version has for that model in the Release Notes, in addition to the general graphical improvements.
Forum Resident
#28 Old 16th Oct 2012 at 6:23 PM
I did test on unpatched base game with 12.4, same horrible distortions.

I want my Space Pony title back.. why was it there such a short time..
In the Arena
retired moderator
#29 Old 16th Oct 2012 at 6:31 PM
@Belzader,
this issue occur on HD 3650 model, too? Not just the 4800s?

I wonder if it affects all AMD's "Legacy" models since they marked them as such. A big coincidence, eh?
Forum Resident
#30 Old 16th Oct 2012 at 6:48 PM
Yes, i have a 3650 and i wouldn't be supriced if all "Legacy" cards is affected in some way.
Anyway as a side note i did contact a local EA support center on my issue and they said they would forward it to EA.

I want my Space Pony title back.. why was it there such a short time..
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#31 Old 16th Oct 2012 at 9:01 PM
Well, the bad news is, that the issue is really really annoying, the good news is, that it does not appear to actually affect the gameplay itself, so people, for now at least, will simply have to wait until the issue resolves on its own (by that, i mean via a patch).
Instructor
#32 Old 18th Oct 2012 at 10:10 PM Last edited by Floraflora2 : 18th Oct 2012 at 10:25 PM.
Okay, so HERE IS THE SOLUTION:

You must go back to a previous ATI driver/Catalyst version. I have chosen 12.1, quite by chance. I completely uninstalled 12.6 version, then completely installed the 12.1 version, then I deleted my cache files from the My Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3 folder. I started to run the game and checked the thumbnails: almost all of them were back to normal (wallpapers, metals, gems, insects) - except the fish and plants thumbnails in the Collection Book /Inventory (Showtime feature). Then I quit the game, went to the MyDocuments/ Electronic Arts / The Sims 3/Thumbnails folder, cut the 3 files from there (pasted them to desktop), to let the game regenerate the thumbnail files. Running the game again, ALL thumbnails are BACK TO NORMAL.
Nothing else has changed around my game environment, same op system, same video card, RAM, etc., and same 1.39 patch version, same EPs ( my latest EP is Showtime) so definitely a driver issue.
Thank you guys, for leading me to find solution.
Here is the link to previous ATI drivers (for Win XP and I have a Radeon HD 4800s series): http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownlo...deonaiw_xp.aspx
In the Arena
retired moderator
#33 Old 19th Oct 2012 at 2:42 PM
"Previous"! Why didn't I think to use that keyword?

Thanks for sharing that!

Can the others confirm the same thing works on their systems?
Forum Resident
#34 Old 19th Oct 2012 at 4:08 PM Last edited by Belzader : 19th Oct 2012 at 7:21 PM.
I tested with Catalyst 11.2 (i already had that saved) and that worked, then i tried Catalyst 12.3 and it worked for me (and don't feel like messing with it more atm, since it was hard to find the 12.3 version for AGP)

Also i found out that i could update to Catalyst 12.4 & 12.6 if i didn't update the driver, just catalyst control center & catalyst installer, so it's defently something with the driver in 12.4 like Floraflora2 wrote.
Though i use Vista on that computer not XP and my card is AGP, so that might make a diffrence and the others haven't stated if there card is AGP or PCI-E, though i suspect the later.

I want my Space Pony title back.. why was it there such a short time..
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#35 Old 19th Oct 2012 at 6:39 PM Last edited by JohnBigOz : 19th Oct 2012 at 8:18 PM.
And I gotta admit I don't think I bothered to delete the game cache either.

UPDATE :

IT WORKED, Rolling back to 12.3 WORKS, as long as you delete all thumbnail caches it will re-generate them correctly! No more corrupted thumbnails! YIPPEE

Free *ErrorObject for everybody!
Forum Resident
#36 Old 22nd Oct 2012 at 2:35 AM
This confirm what i suspected any of the previous 12 version work (well. we haven't tried 12.2 but since 12.1 & 12.3 works so), so it's the 12.4 that is the "faulty" one.

I want my Space Pony title back.. why was it there such a short time..
In the Arena
retired moderator
#37 Old 22nd Oct 2012 at 4:43 PM
Oh, , people! This is what I like in a colloboration - results!

In summary:
Issue
  • Messed up thumbnails

Cause
  • A graphics card with models AMD deemed "legacy" like a HD 48xx or HD 36xx
  • Catalyst version 12.6 and newer


Solution
I'll just leave this unlock for a couple weeks more so you guys can come back if the solution does not "stick".
And perhaps revisit when Seasons and its accompanying patch is released?
Forum Resident
#38 Old 25th Nov 2012 at 9:08 AM Last edited by Belzader : 25th Nov 2012 at 9:19 AM.
A little update.

I installed Seasons on that computer and no issues for me.
So this still works, atleast for me.

I want my Space Pony title back.. why was it there such a short time..
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