Lag, lag, lag after a while. Game "freezes" every 10 in game minutes.

[Rockerduck]

Don't sue me! I know this isn't technically for "OMG I NEEDZ HELP!" issues, but ... I do. Or more specificially, I want to know if you're experiencing the same issue.

I'm running the game with custom content but no scripting mods at the present.

The issue: Everything runs smoothly for a while of playing and then suddenly everything starts to lag horribly. And I mean horribly. The game freezes for several seconds which also affects the user interface (play/pause, etc) which happens about every 10 in game minutes which means it's almost permanent after a while.
I used to play with NRAAS/twallan's Traveler Mod installed and experienced that I did not have these lags when I sent my Sims (and their pets!) away on vacation. Everything ran smoothly in the vacation worlds, even when the game created strays and Pets related content. The "Homeworlds" are almost unplayable whatsoever. I started a game in Appaloosa Plains and thought the issue to be world related so I started playing a fresh Riverview... which became also horribly lagged after a while of playing. Note that at this time I no longer had any scripting mods installed.

Does any of you experience the same lagginess in your "Homeworlds"? I have this nagging suspicion the evil ice cream truck might be the culprit. Simply because it's annoying and doesn't exist in travel destinations. *glares at ice cream truck*

[GigaRevival]

It's also most likely the game attempting to generate animal spawns. I get the lag (without the crashing) mostly when the game starts producing strays and wild animals around my sims house or location. Kinda annoying.

In another thread, Twallan (I believe) stated that some of the wild animal spawns have hopelessly borked skins (or something to that effect) that can mess a game up and produce some considerable lag. I've been playing in a custom world that is marked as a city, so I haven't had as many issues. However, any time I play in a world that is flagged as a town... forget about it. It's nigh unplayable.

Sorry I can't provide any useful advice/help though. I'm in the hopelessly tech-illiterate camp. :|

[twallan]

In another thread, Twallan (I believe) stated that some of the wild animal spawns have hopelessly borked skins (or something to that effect) that can mess a game up and produce some considerable lag.

Wow, that was an impressive misquote. :)

Don't recall stating anything about lag, however the outfits worn by elder Raccoon and Deer sims were persistently crashing my game.

The other species of service animals however should be fine, at least on my setup. I have yet to encounter a cat, dog, or horse that crashed my game.

:)

[GigaRevival]

^Ha... whoops. Statement rescinded then. I believe I'm quoting someone else who quoted you as saying that. :faceslap: My bad.

[Rockerduck]

Heh, that's what I thought, though ... so thank you very much for your input! It confirms my suspicions that there's little I can do about this super annoying lag that completely destroys any fun whatsoever. Guess I'll just have to re-install "Traveler" and play in a vacation world until someone provides a "BURN THOSE BUGGY ANIMALS!!" fix. And the ice cream truck, too. Seriously, I hate that thing.

[GigaRevival]

Considering the ice-cream truck has been camped out in front of my sims house for at least two days now... I'm with ya'.

[secretsim]

What neighborhood are you playing? I only have lag in Bridgeport. Is that what you're playing, too? Appoloosa Plains runs pretty flawlessly for me.

[Velve]

Install Master Controller and do a reset everything. My appoloosa save was doing exactly what you described and doing the reset made the every 10 sim-minutes pulsing lag stop.

[Eshal]

I've had this problem too (not just with this expansion; particularly it often happens to me when my Sims are in Al Simhara) but "resetsim *" (without the quotes) in the cheats panel works wonders for me. I figure it must be some NPC doing something that glitches out and borks the game.

[Srikandi]

This sounds like the problem caused by routing problems in the world. Basically, NPC sims spawn in spots surrounded by unroutable terrain, and the game hangs while they try to find a (non-existent) path. ResetSim fixes it because it puts those sims back where they belong. Possibly this problem, which pre-dates pets, is made worse by wild critter spawns, dunno.

EllaCharm3D has a collection of fixes for this problem in various worlds: http://www.modthesims.info/member.php?u=1515002

[tangie0906]

I've mainly been playing Appaloosa Plains and for the most part it's played very well. I have had a few tiny pauses but only only after a few sim weeks of play. The worst of it came after my sim was fishing at the waterfall lot and a unicorn and then 3 wild horses showed up. They were all backing up like crazy because they were having trouble with routing. The pauses continued for a short while after I sent her home but stopped after a few minutes.

Othere than that, no, so far I have not had any major issues. Did you add any lots to the world? Some players have reported problems with store items on user made lots that aren't behaving nicely. Other than that, I don't have any ideas other than to agree with the reset everything using MC. If it's route fail that should fix it.

[simbalena]

In Appaloosa Plains my game has been completely freezing every now and then (sometimes up to approx 30 seconds) but it's not the same type of continuous choppy lag I had in Bridgeport. Other than the freezing my game has been running more smoothly than ever before.

[Pai]

I'm playing Appaloosa Plains, too. It started off perfectly fine. I managed to play for a few hours before turning the game off. When I loaded it up again, it was unplayable. The game now lags like crazy, and all of the solutions I used to fix the Bridgeport lag (reset town, combine packages, delete world caches, etc) seems to not work here. I needs the helps.

[ellacharmed]

There are some routing fixes needed for Appaloosa Plains, too. The usual blank spots on hillsides, among other things. In WIP mode. :)

[Rockerduck]

Oi, I just ran the ErrorTrap and it turns out my "main" horse produces a cartload of errors for no apparent reason. Lovely. On the plus side, game's running smoothly right now after a reload. That is, it ran smoothly until CAS decided to crash on me when editing a cat, but that's fairly normal behaviour. ;-)

I'll impose the power of the Master Controller upon the game once it starts acting up again and see if that fixes anything. Gonna try to fix my horsey first. I think her family tree is borked.

[Redbottom]

i have to agree with previous speakers. this problem is most likely caused by npc routing failiure. resetSim * should fi it. alltho its not a permanent solution it is easy enough to just do it again if/when the problem comes back.

[BGatot]

I've attest that my sims and NPCs (maids/butler) sometimes found themselves on the outside wall of a second floor house, hanging in the air, with the resulting pathfinding failure. I'm usually alerted by its wailing and gnashing of teeth. I wonder if it happens to NPC not under my control as well. With enough sims doing the same, it could probably bring the game to a halt. Also, Twallan's Overwatch mods clean up many cars each nights, usually over 30 vehicles. You can guess what would happen to the game if they're allowed to continue to pile up.

Even with all these tweaks, though, Pets runs slower and with more pauses than ever before, even though I'm using less CC this time around, and have a better computer to boot.

[emino]

There are some routing fixes needed for Appaloosa Plains, too. The usual blank spots on hillsides, among other things. In WIP mode. :)

And this is why we love you. :)

[Rockerduck]

I'm happy to say that my game runs somewhat smoother now. For what reason I don't know. Probably simply because I have to restart it so many times with Pets crashing on me every half-hour or so. ;-)

I agree on the routing front, definitely. There also seems to be a weird bug that renders a porch/door unroutable if you "invite in" a stray cat. I've had this happen two times before I realised what was going on and avoided the interaction. My Sims were no longer able to use the front door where they had greeted the stray and instead would throw a tantrum and show a "pet sleeping spot" image (you know, the little blue pillow thing that looks like a puddle at first ;P ) when they tried to leave the house. I couldn't even bulldoze the faulty foundation part because it was blocked by an invisible object, presumably the sleeping spot. *rolls eyes*

[Tomatsoppa]

I did just encounter the same problems with the pets expansion playing in that new town. The game was running fine for several hours until suddenly it could freeze every 10 seconds. The animation just stopped except for the green gem above the sim's head and the water pouring from the water can.

I'm not so good when it comes to understand The Sims 3 game engine performance issues (which has been alot through the years) and I didn't know what to do about this particular animation freeze until I read in this forum thread to try the resetSim * command. I tried that and now everything works smooth again! It must have been a sim or something that was located somewhere it should not be.

I'm happy! :)

[himawara106]

Anyone with the lags: you could also try "resetsim wild horses".

[vgbookworm]

hmm, if it is a routing lag, and we're playing user created worlds, how would we go about determining if that's the case?

[Srikandi]

Open the world in CAW... not the easiest thing to do, but it can be done. There's a thread about it on the CAW forum.

Or contact the creator and ask ;)

Or, you can just look for sims who seem to be stuck in someplace you wouldn't expect to see a sim :p

Or, if MC's Reset All SIms command clears it up for you (temporarily), you can be pretty sure that was the problem.

[applefeather2]

Wow, that was an impressive misquote. :)

Don't recall stating anything about lag, however the outfits worn by elder Raccoon and Deer sims were persistently crashing my game.

The other species of service animals however should be fine, at least on my setup. I have yet to encounter a cat, dog, or horse that crashed my game.

:)
The fact that Twallan's game crashes and mine doesn't is doing terrible things to my mind!

[Armypuppy2]

I get it too. It's annoying but it doesn't mess up my gameplay. Little animations and music still run even when the entire screen freezes. I'm thankful it doesn't crash my game.

[krisn18]

Did anyone figure out a way to fix the sleeping spot blocking path issue?

[mithrak_nl]

My Sims is very sluggish now too since I installed Pets. I was very thorough with the process of updating mods and clearing caches before installing and I also started a new neighbourhood (Appaloosa Plains). But now I have this slowing down all the bloody time. Short stalls comparable to when a sim is going to change outfit and the pc needs some time to load the next. But then every minute or so and sometimes more. My pc has no problem running Skyrim on the highest settings and I cant believe that The Sims would demand more. I havent tried one of the older neighbourhoods yet, maybe they work better.
I just dont know anymore where to look. All I can imagine is that all other sims and animals have the same routing issues as my sim on my horse has :/ Maybe this has something to do with this. I also see a lot of stuck errors coming along (msg from one of the Twallan mods) The bad routing is my other petpeeve with Pet. I wish they took some time to fix that.

[Zokugai]

For the record, Mithrak, my computer breezes through Skyrim and freaks the hell out at Pets. And no, I don't know why.

Are you using Ellacharm3d's routing-fixed worlds? http://modthesims.info/member.php?u=1515002 She patched a bunch of the big holes sims get stuck in.

[minimogut]

I think it's Appaloosa plains doing it, because Sunset Valley, Riverview and Barnacle Bay still work pretty good. Hidden Springs is fine, too and, come to think of it, so is TwinBrook. It makes sense that it would be Appaloosa Plains freaking the game out. Appaloosa plains has all the regular spawners, and then there are the huge amounts of deer, wild horses and other, minor pet spawners. The other towns don't have as many, if any at all.

EDIT: I do admit that the game still lags in the other towns, but it's because I run my game on full settings, and I have a lot of mods. I'm just glad it doesn't crash often.

[Zokugai]

The other neighborhoods have deer, wild horses, and minor pet spawners, too.

[mithrak_nl]

For the record, Mithrak, my computer breezes through Skyrim and freaks the hell out at Pets. And no, I don't know why.

Are you using Ellacharm3d's routing-fixed worlds? http://modthesims.info/member.php?u=1515002 She patched a bunch of the big holes sims get stuck in.
Thanks for the tip :up:
And it is great that the players come to the rescue of another bad new neighbourhood released by EA :| Im just getting tired of having to dread everything new that is coming from EA. How will they mess up my game this time?

Ive tried playing in Sunset Valley. It went fine for a while, but became choppy again after a few sim weeks. It is definately not my graphics card, because the fps stays high with many sims/animals on the screen. It just the tiny freezing all the time that gets to me. Also the stupid routing issues are annoying the hell out of me. Any time my sim drops actions from the queue because of a routing issue I lose over a sim hour. It is becoming ridiculous.
I dont understand why horses need that much space to turn in the first place. There is clearly room enough and still they start to move backwards in that stupid way. Same for when your sim wants to play with a pet using a toy. It is just like with toddlers. You see there is enough room, but still the action gets cancelled because according to the game there is a lack of room.
Imo EA really dropped the ball with Sims 3. Im completely done with this. Im tired of seeing every expansion pack adding more issues to the already existing pile glitches/bugs/retarded mechanics. They even do what they can to destroy any mod that makes the game actually fun.

Raaaahhh! Hm, sry for the rant. Have a :beer:

EDIT : Ellacharm3d's fixed Appaloosa worked for me. :) Thanks again for the tip and thanks Ellacharm3d for the fix! :up:

[Zokugai]

Honestly, I think the game is "leaky" somehow. It always seems to be drawing on resources it shouldn't need. Because no, there is zero reason Skyrim on max graphics should run better on the same computer than Sims 3 Pets on low graphics. And yet it does.

[Howabominable]

Honestly, I think the game is "leaky" somehow. It always seems to be drawing on resources it shouldn't need. Because no, there is zero reason Skyrim on max graphics should run better on the same computer than Sims 3 Pets on low graphics. And yet it does.

I have a pretty old computer, and am saving up to replace it, but Skyrim runs beautifully on my computer. The sims? I feel like it's a bomb constantly ready to go off. If it isn't constantly lagging, it's crashing randomly. If I make a family in any neighborhood but Riverview I get the error 12 save error every two times I try to save. It's a nightmare. And the trouble started with Pets.

[DigitalSympathies]

For me, I can run Skyrim, Metro 2033 and BF3 all on max settings. My computer is of moderate age, six years old, but has the latest and greatest of everything so it doesn't matter. TS2, some lag but then again I have more CC than 99% of other people who play it (around 150 GB or 110,000 packages). Sims 3? My computer starts to groan like when I try to render a seriously huge file in Vegas. 113 package files, and I take them out, and still it lagggggssssssss. Custom worlds? After a while, yes. I was playing Bridgeport and it ran just fine until my second time booting it up. It took around two hours to actually load it to the playable screen and just walking was so laggy that it didn't even *bother* to move the screen. It just stayed frozen and played the sounds and to go to map view where I could see everything rendered perfectly took around 20 minutes. So I boot up a fresh Sunset Valley, and not only does the problem follow me there, it gets WORSE. Sigh.

[mithrak_nl]

My game is slowing down again. The weird minifreeze every 30 sim minutes has popped up again. I thought it was fixed after installing Ellacharm3d Appaloosa routing fix and it worked as smoothly as before Pets for a while. Untill now. I havent changed anything since applying that fix. I'm still running the game on 1.31 and only use Twallan's mods. I'm also very thorough when updating the game, a reset town, saving, remove mods , delete caches, update and then put back updated mods etc. I also don't get any Errortrap errors.
I'm fairly experienced with tweaking games for performance and rarely have problems with games unless its a known bug. I'm at a loss now. To me it feels as if Pets broke my game. I can't pin down the thing that slows my game down in this weird way. It is definately not a fps issue, but something is stalling my game every few seconds.
I'm tired of jumping through hoops to make this game enjoyable.

[calisims]

I'm in the same boat as you, mithrak. I've used the routing fixes for worlds, but I get freezes every Sim hour in any neighborhood after I've played it for less than a full generation. Like you, I'm not getting error messages from Error trap, I reset the town when things get laggy, but nothing helps. This problem started with Pets. I never had this issue before in any town, and now I have it in every town since installing Pets.

[Ive]

Got the same issues as you, except for in the new world that came with Showtime.

I run no scripts/mods/cc/whatever. Just vanilla. Goddamn annoying.

[Redhead Creations]

I think that's a pretty good sign that it's coming from the EA side if things, Ive...

I'm joining the lag monster club as well. I can't even start a new world without it. Usually a fresh new world will at least run smoothly for a little while. Not any more.

Do we actually have to uninstall pets just to get our games back?

[Ive]

I forgot to mention tho, I had this issue before pets. Got it after Generations.

[sroro]

Same problem here Ive, been lagging bad since Gen. However, I get extra bad lag in neighborhoods/families with horses for whatever reason. Whenever I try to play a family with a horse the game stutters so bad it becomes unplayable on big, complicated hoods like Los Aniegos. As soon as I purge the horses it plays fine.

[Redhead Creations]

Well, horses have notorious routing issues, always getting stuck in places, backing up, etc. I imagine if that's going on all around the city, that could be an issue!!

Perhaps I'll try a neighborhood with no horses, see how that works.

[calisims]

I've tried using Nraas Register mod to disallow all the wild animals, horses, deer, strays, and it hasn't helped me at all, sad to say. I still get the freezing after about halfway through the first generation.

[Willow's Tara]

Yeah I have actually gotten this myself, doesn't always happen but it's usually some hours within the game. Although right now my graphics card is apparently going to stop working soon, I don't know when but I can't play games really on it, however I don't think that's what caused Sims 3 Pets to do it since it seems like a common occurrence for everyone. I don't even run mods (They started to annoy me with the non working and such).

Difference is Skyrim hates me, like Fallout did on my old computer aleast once a day, maybe twice after some hours of playing Skyrim it would crash to the desktop with no warning at all. Because I experienced this crap with Fallout on my old computer, and my NEW as in TWO years! shouldn't be doing this so Skyrim remains untouched since like November-December.. Yeah pretty much after I bought it because I could not be bothered. Although I heard Skyrim players have all had the same problem though so might have not been just me..

But now both games and all I can't play >.> Until I get a stupid new graphics card. So yeah Sims 3 Pets does the same, not all of the time and mostly in the hoods I have been playing for a while.

[Ive]

I found a quick fix for mine. Reset sim works in the other neighbourhoods (don't have problems in Starlight Shores) so I guess it's some stuck sim somewhere.

[Redhead Creations]

I wonder if using "resetsim *" will mess up story progression? If you're lagging a lot and enter it in, does that mean that all sims, including those at work/school get sent home? Will it mess up job/school performance across your entire town?

But, I guess if it helps the lag... Anything is better than the lag!

[Ive]

Hehe, luckily I don't play with story progression :)

[calisims]

Yeah, if you reset sim, it's best to do it when everyone isn't at school/work. I like to do it around 6am. But it's only a temporary solution at best. If your town has routing issues and Sims are stuck in places, reseting them unsticks them, but the lags will start again eventually as the routing issues trap more Sims.
In my case, resetting didn't even temporarily help. The freezes I've been getting since Pets don't seem to be from routing issues/stuck Sims. Twallan's Overwatch also now checks for stuck Sims and resets them. I get a few messages about stuck Sims, but not enough to be causing lag. And the freezes every Sim hour keep happening no matter what I do, sad to say.

[Redhead Creations]

Ugh, that sucks, Cali...

I've tried the overwatch thing, too, and it just seems to add even more lag.

Evidently this game is just not designed to play for long periods of time in the same town. Which one would think is the POINT of the game.

[simsample]

Evidently this game is just not designed to play for long periods of time in the same town. Which one would think is the POINT of the game.
That's not the case at all, I've been playing a custom world I made for 22 sim weeks/ 5 Generations with no problems. My daughter has been playing a custom world I made for several generations, too.

If I get lag it's usually due to a single sim or horse being stuck somewhere silly (like in a hedge) so resetting that sim will fix it. This happens very seldom though.

I have Twallan's register mod and I used that to reduce the number of Wild horses to 2, as I found that 4 horses (the default amount) just congregated and got stuck in everything. Two seems more manageable- you can see the horses galloping around and drinking from lakes, but there aren't enough of them to routefail in silly places!

From my experience, I have found that having an under powered computer can cause lag in a world. What will happen is that sims will fail in their tasks and become unroutable. I noticed this a lot on my old computer, although I found that careful use of mods can help. For example, with Story Progression make the progression intervals longer, restrict the sim population, limit the number of immigrants, babies and 'push' actions.

Which worlds are you all using? It could be that some lagging is caused by bad routing, so that's worth looking in to.

[Redhead Creations]

It could very well be my computer. I'm playing on a two year old laptop, though at the time it was purchased it was top of the line!

I've been playing in Harmony, which I believe is a medium sized world. I do notice that i get the popup for people who are late/missing work somewhat frequently. I'm only in the middle of a 3rd generation...

I like your idea about lowering the number of wild horses, I'm going to do that right now for the next world I'm in. I also didn't think about making intervals longer. Which "segments" do you recommend the most as far as the ones that contribute most to lag?

[simsample]

Well, when I was playing on my old PC I would make ALL intervals longer; so perhaps set them to fire a couple of times a day instead of each sim hour. You really don't want to have sims running around skilling if you don't have a great computer, so perhaps make the skilling and career settings longest, and turn off collecting and things like the consignment push. Really to have a realistic world you want sims to meet and form relationships and have a few kids, but it isn't so critical to have all sims in your world reach level 10 of their career and have a million skill points.

I've never played 'Harmony' so I can't comment on its playability but I will say that from experience it is very difficult to make a world route well, as even a mistake on a single lot can cause problems.

[mithrak_nl]

Which worlds are you all using? It could be that some lagging is caused by bad routing, so that's worth looking in to.

I had this problem since I installed Pets not long ago. First in Appaloosa Plains and then I also tried default Sunset Valley and a downloaded Sunset Valley with extra lots. Then I found EllaCharm3d fixed Appalooosa Plains and that seemed to work for a while, but at some point the lag started again (minifreeze about every simhour).

I'm on patch 1.31 with updated mods :
- Overwatch
- Mastercontroller (+cheats, integration)
- Story Progression
- Woohooer
- Careers (+selfemployed)
- Shooless
- Register
- Consigner
- Errortrap

I barely get errors (just some agestuck error sometimes), which makes the lag even more annoying because I have nothing to point out. With patching I also first do a resettown before saving my neighbourhood. Then temp. move mods, clear caches, update, download updated mods, then put mods back and start game.
I am at a loss here. Pets actually sounds fun and I wanted to try training horses, but at some point the lag starts again. (also in one game with a family without adopted pets btw)
This mainly annoys me so because I'm used to resolve issues with my games. This is why I get the strong impression that there is something wrong with Pets or the game as a whole.

EDIT : My game doesn't crash or refuse to load saved games. There is nothing dodgy happening except that unexplainable lag. I also never had this before I installed Pets.

[bbbbethhhh]

I had this problem since I installed Pets not long ago. First in Appaloosa Plains and then I also tried default Sunset Valley and a downloaded Sunset Valley with extra lots. Then I found EllaCharm3d fixed Appalooosa Plains and that seemed to work for a while, but at some point the lag started again (minifreeze about every simhour).

I'm on patch 1.31 with updated mods :
- Overwatch
- Mastercontroller (+cheats, integration)
- Story Progression
- Woohooer
- Careers (+selfemployed)
- Shooless
- Register
- Consigner
- Errortrap

I barely get errors (just some agestuck error sometimes), which makes the lag even more annoying because I have nothing to point out. With patching I also first do a resettown before saving my neighbourhood. Then temp. move mods, clear caches, update, download updated mods, then put mods back and start game.
I am at a loss here. Pets actually sounds fun and I wanted to try training horses, but at some point the lag starts again. (also in one game with a family without adopted pets btw)
This mainly annoys me so because I'm used to resolve issues with my games. This is why I get the strong impression that there is something wrong with Pets or the game as a whole.

EDIT : My game doesn't crash or refuse to load saved games. There is nothing dodgy happening except that unexplainable lag. I also never had this before I installed Pets.

I don't know if this will help you, but I had to uninstall story progression a while back because it was lagging my game so badly, even without any other CC. It's obviously quite a large mod and I found that my computer couldn't handle it for some reason. I have a lot of Twallan's other mods though and they don't lag my game at all, like error trap and master controller. I guess because the SP mod forces interactions and makes the neighbourhood more lively, and also with the notifications it can just be too heavy for some computers. It's probably just my computer being crappy, but it might be worth a try ? :p

[Redhead Creations]

That would be SO sad to lose story progression, especially in a game where I'm playing a legacy. It keeps everything moving... I'd already taken out the "personalities" module of it and that seemed to help a bit for awhile. I just have a hard time thinking about going back to EA story progression, which feels soulless.

[simsample]

I am at a loss here. Pets actually sounds fun and I wanted to try training horses, but at some point the lag starts again.
Did you try reducing the number of strays and horses?

[Ive]

Just installed Twallan for the first time ever and the problem is now fixed. Got mastercontroller, story progression and overwatch.

(Don't know how I was ever able to play without it :()

[calisims]

I had this problem since I installed Pets not long ago. First in Appaloosa Plains and then I also tried default Sunset Valley and a downloaded Sunset Valley with extra lots. Then I found EllaCharm3d fixed Appalooosa Plains and that seemed to work for a while, but at some point the lag started again (minifreeze about every simhour).

I'm on patch 1.31 with updated mods :
- Overwatch
- Mastercontroller (+cheats, integration)
- Story Progression
- Woohooer
- Careers (+selfemployed)
- Shooless
- Register
- Consigner
- Errortrap

I barely get errors (just some agestuck error sometimes), which makes the lag even more annoying because I have nothing to point out. With patching I also first do a resettown before saving my neighbourhood. Then temp. move mods, clear caches, update, download updated mods, then put mods back and start game.
I am at a loss here. Pets actually sounds fun and I wanted to try training horses, but at some point the lag starts again. (also in one game with a family without adopted pets btw)
This mainly annoys me so because I'm used to resolve issues with my games. This is why I get the strong impression that there is something wrong with Pets or the game as a whole.

EDIT : My game doesn't crash or refuse to load saved games. There is nothing dodgy happening except that unexplainable lag. I also never had this before I installed Pets.

Your experience sounds identical to mine. Everything was fine before Pets. After Pets, every neighborhood I play gets freezes every Sim hour. That's custom towns and EA towns with Ellacharm3d's routing fixes.
And that's even in towns with no wild animals allowed at all, and no inactive households owning horses. So, it can't be horse routing issues if there are 0 horses.
and like you, I don't get a lot of stuck Sim error messages, so there doesn't seem to be a routing problem.

[simsample]

calisims, is your hardware supported? Pets put up the system requirements quite significantly; if you have an under powered computer then that could cause lag.

These may help:
Game Help:Intermittent Freezes

http://sims3.crinrict.com/en/2011/04/bug-lags-intermittent-freezes.html

[calisims]

calisims, is your hardware supported? Pets put up the system requirements quite significantly; if you have an under powered computer then that could cause lag.

These may help:
Game Help:Intermittent Freezes

http://sims3.crinrict.com/en/2011/04/bug-lags-intermittent-freezes.html

I have a 3.07 GHz processor. Pets requires 2.4. I have 12GB RAM, which I know exceeds requirements.

[Redhead Creations]

12?? Sheesh, that should exceed the requirements for getting into space!

[simsample]

I have a 3.07 GHz processor. Pets requires 2.4. I have 12GB RAM, which I know exceeds requirements.
Well without knowing your full specs and which OS you are using it's hard to make a call on that; make sure you compare your specs with the MTS recommended and not the EA recommendations.
Game Help:TS3 System Requirements

Also remember that the amount of CC and store stuff you have can impact on game performance, as can the state of your system (what other tasks you have running, when resolution you run your game on etc.)

If you can't solve your freexing and lagging by using the information in the links I gave, then your best bet is to post your full system specs in the Sims 3 Help forum so that we can assist you further.

[calisims]

Thanks, simsample. My computer still meets or exceeds MTS recommendations for Pets. I do use CC and Store stuff, but not nearly as much as some. (one make up CC, maybe 2 or 3 CC hairs). I do run at a high resolution.
At some point I'll try tweaking my SP settings as you suggested earlier in the thread. I haven't actually even loaded the game in awhile, the constant freezing has kind of put me off even trying to play. But the next time I get the urge, I'll fiddle with SP and see if it helps.

[zigersimmer]

I'm going to try ellacharm3d's Appaloosa Plains fix. If that does not resolve my issues then I will just uninstall Pets. EA's screw-ups simply are not worth my time.

[Redhead Creations]

I have extended all the different "modules" (?) in the Story Progressions settings and disabled some of the things you'd said (Collecting and some skilling pushes). Hopefully that will make things run a bit smoother. I'll be able to check it out in more depth this weekend as I plan to get a lot of play time in. =)

[mimi250]

Your experience sounds identical to mine. Everything was fine before Pets. After Pets, every neighborhood I play gets freezes every Sim hour. That's custom towns and EA towns with Ellacharm3d's routing fixes.
And that's even in towns with no wild animals allowed at all, and no inactive households owning horses. So, it can't be horse routing issues if there are 0 horses.
and like you, I don't get a lot of stuck Sim error messages, so there doesn't seem to be a routing problem.

Hello Calisims

I fell on this topic while I'm trying to find a solution on the web for my game too.. I'm serioulsy thinking about uninstalling Pets in my game because everything was fine before Pets and now I've lags and freezes in my game whatever neigborood I play.. I'm in generation 3 of my random legacy and I'm trying painfully to close this legacy with my heir (who is a singer).. but it's difficult.. My computer is above all the requirements too. I've destroyed too all the wild, errands animals, and pets too using Twallan's mods.. but nothing seems to work

In the same time, I've a lot of bugs (sims resetting or disapearring when they try to sing for tips, or watch a karaoke performance, and so on..).. And Twallan's error trap give me a lot of error files every time I play.. So I think the best thing would be to uninstall pets. This EP behaves like a virus in a lot of games.. And unfortunately in our games (It seems to me that you've Vista 64-bits like me, maybe Vista 64 computers cannot manage this EP...)..

[bongart]

I too just started experiencing this "pause" bug where the game appears to lock up for a few seconds... while the animations continue (plumb-bob spinning, group indicators rotating, etc.).

What I can contribute to the discussion are two unique elements.

1. I can remember the action that started the effect.
2. While most people have a large number of add-ons, I do not.

A little background.

I installed the Sims 3 a bit over a year ago and have been playing on and off ever since.
I ONLY have Sims 3 installed. No Expansions.
I upgraded almost all of my hardware in December.
I chose hardware that would allow me to avoid having to reinstall my OS.
I have had no issues before yesterday, with either set of hardware.
I have no Mods installed.
The only CC I have installed are some free pieces from the Sims store, Riverview, and the Prius download.
I'm fully patched up via the launcher.


I can give you any and all of the details regarding my system, but suffice it to say that I definitely exceed the requirements. It's not a monster system by any means, but I'm not pushing minimums anywhere.

As for when the pausing issue started for me... Yesterday I was playing a family in Riverview. Male teen guest was visiting at the home of a female teen. He had been "invited over" by her, and they are boyfriend/girlfriend. The visit was considered to be (automatically turned into) a date, but they never left the front step of the home. When it was time to ask him to leave, the only option given was "Ask to leave date". I chose this. The game appeared to pause, but all the animations continued (the spinning hearts over their heads, the girl's plumb-bob, etc.) After the pause stopped, he ran home (across the street) and she went in to eat before bed.

Ever since then, the game has been freezing like that every few minutes. Saved it, shut down, came back to it today, it is still doing it. Changed families in Riverview, and still had the same issue. Started new family in Sunset Valley, and no pauses.

Now, I only have three custom families in Riverview. Everything else is stock. So, I guess I could install the Mod that gives me access to the tool that resets all the sims, or I could manually reset each sim and see if that clears the issue with that saved game?

[Tiinii]

I've been playing in my own custom WIP for a while now, and I also experience "mini freezes" from time to time there, just as in other worlds before. There are no spawners in this world yet, very few lots, no trees, no premade Sims. To me, it looks like the freezes occur when the game is generating Bartender NPCs and such, and wild animals, because usually, there is the mini freeze, and then right after, NRAAS register pops up and tells me Soandso has been assigned as suchandsuch, for instance. My other suspect is the icecream truck as well, like others said.

[grimunicorn5001]

Hi I'm new and I have the same problem. Pets was my first expansion pack and it was great, but the disk made odd sounds in my disk drive and it started lagging and freezing after a few real days. Today, I was starting my biggest building and the game froze when I was placing flooring. Because of the freezing, I have been playing the game sparingly because of the freezing in the middle of building something or after a minute plus after saving. I have a feeling the problem is the Ice Cream Truck or the disk. The game tends to freeze when the ICT is near my house or my screen or my sims. The order is like this: Doing stuff in the house-ICTjingle-laglaglag_FREEZE-CRASH-Me: ARRRGH! Edit: l :lol: l I was attracted to this thread by frustration from the crashing and freezing.

[grimunicorn5001]

As for when the pausing issue started for me... Yesterday I was playing a family in Riverview. Male teen guest was visiting at the home of a female teen. He had been "invited over" by her, and they are boyfriend/girlfriend. The visit was considered to be (automatically turned into) a date, but they never left the front step of the home. When it was time to ask him to leave, the only option given was "Ask to leave date". I chose this. The game appeared to pause, but all the animations continued (the spinning hearts over their heads, the girl's plumb-bob, etc.) After the pause stopped, he ran home (across the street) and she went in to eat before bed.

Ever since then, the game has been freezing like that every few minutes. Saved it, shut down, came back to it today, it is still doing it. Changed families in Riverview, and still had the same issue. Started new family in Sunset Valley, and no pauses.

Now, I only have three custom families in Riverview. Everything else is stock. So, I guess I could install the Mod that gives me access to the tool that resets all the sims, or I could manually reset each sim and see if that clears the issue with that saved game?

I find that happens to me too, when people visit. Then the game is okay when I start a new town and then the freezing and lag starts after a few real days. :faceslap: Edit: I think it is time to get Windows 7 or something else and I would be able to transfer all my data (Slowly) by flashdrive, SD card, or disc.

[grimunicorn5001]

It's also most likely the game attempting to generate animal spawns. I get the lag (without the crashing) mostly when the game starts producing strays and wild animals around my sims house or location. Kinda annoying.

In another thread, Twallan (I believe) stated that some of the wild animal spawns have hopelessly borked skins (or something to that effect) that can mess a game up and produce some considerable lag. I've been playing in a custom world that is marked as a city, so I haven't had as many issues. However, any time I play in a world that is flagged as a town... forget about it. It's nigh unplayable.

Sorry I can't provide any useful advice/help though. I'm in the hopelessly tech-illiterate camp. :|

:!: Ah, I see... that does seem possible because, often, the game has minifreeze, then I see a stray cat/dog or a deer/raccoon/wild horse. I think it could possibly be the deer or raccoon because, if you take them into CAS with testingcheatsenabled true, they will be un-editable and look like a demented figure, though my pets do that sometimes when I'm not looking at them for long, there could be a possibility the game is put under strain to make the shapes of the animals! :!:

[grimunicorn5001]

This sounds like the problem caused by routing problems in the world. Basically, NPC sims spawn in spots surrounded by unroutable terrain, and the game hangs while they try to find a (non-existent) path. ResetSim fixes it because it puts those sims back where they belong. Possibly this problem, which pre-dates pets, is made worse by wild critter spawns, dunno.


I believe this is the cause, because the wild animals will rapidly spawn in un-routable terrain, creating lag! I'm not good at modding, but we will need a mod that stops raccoons and deer from spawning, the other animals spawn in community lots. :!: The animals and NPCs could be spawning in water! One time an Eye of Horus sent my sim into the ocean instead of the other eye, and I teleported them back with the cell phone, but the game was lagging when they were in the water, I then deleted the eyes. The sims are spawning in water or hills/mountains instead of their desired location!

[Kark1988]

After a while I realised, that your friend level is updated in real time. So when you know alot of other sims, any major change in your friendship creates lag.
Try to keep your friend tab closed. Should help alittle.

[Howabominable]

You can keep storyprogression, but disable some of the interactions that cause lag. For instance, I disabled "push hunt skill" for dogs and cats, and that cleared up the lag a lot. I also used the register mod to reduce the number of wild horses and the like. If you go through and tweak all of these settings, it does make it a big difference.

I've also started to avoid putting down lots that require a lot of NPCs (like bouncers/mixoogists/musicians). Don't download lots that require 3 bouncers, 2 magicians, and 6 mixologists and you'll be fine. Also, I occasionally use MasterController to kill off all of the NPCs I'm not using that the game generates. For example, eventually your game might have like 10 maids and 4 butlers, when you really only need one.

[cheeky monkey]

I have a pretty old computer, and am saving up to replace it, but Skyrim runs beautifully on my computer. The sims? I feel like it's a bomb constantly ready to go off. If it isn't constantly lagging, it's crashing randomly.

Thank you, "a bomb ready to go off" is exactly the perfect descriptor for this game.

Incidentally, I'm back after a long hiatus of glorious bomb-free existence, haven't bought anything past Generations and no cc installed yet, and still the game is freezing. Guess I had used Twallons's Master Controller before, and forgot I need to install it.

[Dark_Sim24]

Hmm, there are some interesting stories here, but none that fit quite with mine.

I have a horrible start up time. 388 sim3packs & 272 mod files. The whole "merging" thing is not an option for me since im on a mac, an i5 to be exact.
Ive deleted a handful of items from both folders (downloads) & (mods) but to no avail.

There was a link for "monorunner" that was supposed to be a merger for mac but the link given was broken. :(

[Fancy]

Well, when I was playing on my old PC I would make ALL intervals longer; so perhaps set them to fire a couple of times a day instead of each sim hour. You really don't want to have sims running around skilling if you don't have a great computer, so perhaps make the skilling and career settings longest, and turn off collecting and things like the consignment push. Really to have a realistic world you want sims to meet and form relationships and have a few kids, but it isn't so critical to have all sims in your world reach level 10 of their career and have a million skill points.

I've never played 'Harmony' so I can't comment on its playability but I will say that from experience it is very difficult to make a world route well, as even a mistake on a single lot can cause problems.


This is going to sound like a bit much to ask, but would you mind listing the exact settings you have on your story progression mod? There are just so many options it's a little overwhelming. And if you've figured out the perfect setting I would REALLY like to copy it exactly so I don't mess something up. I am ready to beg, if I need to. :help:

[pirate_wolf_12]

So was a fix for this ever found?

Just started playing and I had this exact problem, the small freezes for a few seconds every minute. (But the plumbob keeps moving.) It started happening to me when my private investigator sim went home and found a raccoon in the garage with the thought bubble above its head saying how it couldn't move. It then teleported away and the lag began.

[ziba]

hey you guys,

I've also recently had this issue. I ONLY have Sims 3 installed, and everything was working fine (I'm not fond of expansion packs and always ended up un-installing them).

After installing Sims 3 Pets, everything was running smooth for about 3-5days, after which lagging started to occur every so often. At the beginning, it was lagging only for 45 real-life-seconds every 2 real-life-minutes. After 10 real-life-minutes, the game froze for 2-real-life minutes every 30 sims-seconds. And from then on, the situation's gotten worse and worse. The freezing is so often and for such a long period of time that I haven't played Sims for 2 months already! :O

I'm not sure if it would freeze with other household since I have NOT yet even played with another household! It doesn't occur when I am building or purchasing items for the house, nor does it occur when I'm viewing the town (or is it because I am there for such a brief period of time that the freezing/lagging doesn't have the time to kick in yet?)

The freezing involves everything not moving (including unable to navigate or click anything). The only thing moving are the green spheres on top of the Sims' heads, and the sounds coming from the game (i.e.: you can hear the TV, music from stereo, computer, etc.).

When Sims 3 Seasons came out, I figured it would be the perfect opportunity to "fix" this glitch as EA would obviously offer a more "advanced" patch that would override the glitch. But I was wrong. The patch was updated, the game was successfully installed, but the freezing remains :( :(

Has anyone found a solution? :help:

My game is free of mods, customs, hacking, etc. No downloaded items. No legacy (I've already been through that terrible phase of losing all my customs). No saved games. No new Worlds. NO NOTHING! haha :(
My computer is BEYOND requirement. My Sims 3 is the "cleanest" game ever.

My life isn't complete without Sims 3 :( lol ! HELP! :cry:

[ellacharmed]

@pirate_wolf_12 & @ziba,
you didn't read the whole thread from the start? There's been some suggestions in the earlier pages.
And, if you have used them and the lags still persists, then it is a different issue.
But you mentioned your game being "the "cleanest" game ever", @ziba. Which tells me that at the very least you should install Overwatch & ErrorTrap, STAT! :)

Now, for everyone who have my routing fixes for Appaloosa Plains, and still gets lag, then we need to investigate further, especially if it gets worse after Seasons. If you'd post on the AP download thread, with spots that lag for you, then we could start collecting data and comparing if this lag occurs for everyone at the same spots, and if it is triggered by the same action. Because if not, then it is a Hardware specs issue due to StoryProgression. And so, the same suggestion of tweaking Twallan's StoryProgression applies. And one person's tweaks may not work for another because we all have different specs - CPU + RAM - which plays a part in StoryProgression actions.

If you're going to post, don't just say "I've got lags even with this download installed!". I need more info than that to do anything about it.
- what games
- what base game version
- have the .world version or imported the fixes.
- have other mods, or not, and what they are
- the spots where the lags most frequently occur -> use Overwatch to check for stuck Sims
- and other questions that I've compiled in the Freeze wiki article.

And, last but not least, since Seasons EP and patch 1.42, world routing fixes seems to be applied only on NEW games, not on pre-existing Saves that were started before patching to 1.42. Which is also noted and explained in the .world download thread.

[Sims_Lover]

I removed Pets and my game runs smoothly. I am likely not going to install it back.

[pirate_wolf_12]

@pirate_wolf_12 & @ziba,
you didn't read the whole thread from the start? There's been some suggestions in the earlier pages.
And, if you have used them and the lags still persists, then it is a different issue.
But you mentioned your game being "the "cleanest" game ever", @ziba. Which tells me that at the very least you should install Overwatch & ErrorTrap, STAT! :)
I did. I was just hoping there would have been an official fix via a patch. (When I posted that, I don't think I had patched the game yet.) I figured if this was a more universal problem with the games than a glitch that only affects an unlucky few there would be a bigger uproar over it, so I wasn't sure if I was just unlucky or if a permanent solution had been found.

I've used resetsim * several times and it does fix it, if only temporarily. Today I downloaded Overwatch (Seriously, where do all these random cars come from!?) and when the lag was getting quite bad it brought up several messages on sims who had gotten stuck. I'm not sure if the mod only tells you about stuck sims or if it fixes it for you though, as I got messages regarding the same sims being stuck a few times. The lagging didn't stop until I used the resetsim *.

Oh, I also tried 'resetsim wild horse' but that didn't help. And these problems have happened in Sunset Valley, Riverview, Twinbrook and Moonlight Falls. I haven't played Appaloosa Plains and don't have Starlight Shores. My computer is made for gaming and is brand new.

I'll try Register next and reduce the wild animals to 1 or 0. I don't know if they're part of the problem or all of it (I installed the expansion packs together so I can't say which expansion pack this problem started with.) or if it's just from sims being stuck. Judging by how many others are saying it happened with Pets (And how their glitches are exactly like mine - noise plays and the plumbobs still spin but everything else freezes for a few seconds continuously) I'll assume it's animal related.

If Register doesn't improve it I'm not sure what the next Twallan mod to use for the problem is.

[Rui Nee]

It does lag... The whole screen freezes except for the mouse. :cry: