Technical info:



Hey all!

I've followed the Game Problem FAQ down to the letter and kinda at the end of my rope with this one. So after hours and hours of testing, I finally came to the root of my problem: whenever I enable the console cheat "boolprop dontmergenhflora false", ALL trees in my neighbourhood (deco trees, not ones in the lots themselves) suddenly start flashing blue and/or disappearing. It's worth noting that this was not a problem before, I used to be able to use this cheat normally.

I'm 98% this cheat is the cause of my problems because disabling the cheat by typing "boolprop dontmergenhflora true" causes my trees to reappear magically. I already tested with NO CC, deleted caches, freshly generated user files.... and the problem is still there. And as if that weren't already weird enough, if I activate the cheat and go to the neighborhood deco menu, the trees magically appear again. But switching to Build or Live mode in the neighborhood menu causes them to disappear again. I've never heard of this happening and apparently neither has google because it hasn't been much help for me.

How this happened:

it all started when I was forced to reinstall the game after something went wrong. I nuked all my files after backing up, reinstalled the game, then reinstalled my CCs and custom neighbourhoods.

Ever since then, I have the problem mentioned above, Unfortunately, it is NOT a problem I can just ignore because the mergenhflora cheat is my favourite and I use it all the time

I have one suspicion: before I was forced to reinstall the game, I was running an older 32-bit version. After reinstalling, I was forced to update to a 64 -bit version of the app. That's literally the only thing that changed between having this problem and not, so I've got a hunch that's got something to do with it but can't be sure...

Photos:

try
uintProp dontMergeNHFlora false

possibly also combined with
boolProp displayNeighborhoodFlora true

And for best result they may need to be in the userStartup file.

I think they're more meant for lot view, though. They shouldn't make anything flash blue (unless you're using CC NH deco that isn't updated for Seasons, as those can sometimes flash blue during seasons they're not working for).

Thanks for the reply. I do not believe it's CC related because 1) the neighbourhood deco that flashes blue is vanilla, and 2) my mods haven't changed t all and they used to work perfectly together before.

I'll try those commands! I'm a little afraid of tinkering with the userstartup file though... this whole mess started because I messed with the user startup file and for some weird reason that caused my game to launch with a blank error message. Which forced me to reinstall, bringing me to the problem I'm now having :p

EDIT: Sidenote - is it possible something messed up with Seasons? I noticed that some of my trees are "dead" even if they should be blooming. In other words, the summer and winter trees are mixed together in the same neighbourhood view for some reason

In my game this cheat always "write protects" the hood deco trees so I can't move them in neighborhood view unless I exit the game and disable the cheat. I'll try changing from "boolprop" to "uintprop" and see if that fixes it.

It's odd that this cheat affects the CC from neighborhood view. I thought it was only supposed to make more trees show up from lot view, but between my problem and Morrowindnostalgia's issue, it sounds as if the cheat is altering the trees themselves somehow.

Are you entirely sure those trees haven't been modified by some kind of hack, like a texture change or anything like that? It's not always easy to see, but can you maybe post a screenshot up close?

Reinstalling is rarely (if ever) needed. If you'd just wiped the userstartup file and deleted caches, it's possible the game would've gone back to normal. Reinstalls are for when you're installing on a new computer (or on a wiped computer), and when there are problems caused by a faulty install (usually apparent shortly after installing), or when it's not possible to copy over for instance Object.package files from the CDs to fix messing with core NPCs like Crumplebottom. Nearly all other problems are hanging out in the saved game in Documents, often in the cache files (tend to be from error messages and game not wanting to start), downloads or other edited files. And if you edit files in the Install location, do a backup of the files you intend to modify first. Same goes for backuping your game before SimPE edits and the like.

Also, not entirely sure about your graphic card, but it looks to be an integrated chip and those may not always be the best to play games with. Could be some of the graphical errors are due to the card not quite figuring out what to do. Some of them can't handle things like shaders or long distance rendering, and may throw errors of various kinds. Could be an idea to keep some settings on a moderate level.

I get your point about the graphics card, its not the best, BUT it used to work literally perfectly before I updated/reinstalled Sims 2, so I don't think that's it....

As for trees being hacked: 1) It can't be a hack/CC, because I tested on normal game without mods installed and still had this problem. Either way, I'm absolutely sure I've got no hacks that do that. The only neighbourhood deco hacks I have ADD deco, not modify existing ones.

Here's a few more screenshots anyway:

As you can see, the trees show up normally in the menu, with no asterisk indicating they are CC. The "forest" group of trees disappears completely, the other trees turn blue and flash (both in neighborhood and in lot view) after using the mergenhflora cheat

Try removing ALL of your neighborhood deco hacks. Just because something is supposed to add something completely new does not mean it can't affect something else. I once added a new crib and after doing that my Maxis cribs starting flashing blue. It took a while to figure out but that "new" crib was using the same GUID of the basegame crib. So the basegame cribs could no longer successfully find their GUID they needed and thus started flashing.

The zoomed-out view of the neighborhood also looks like it has some issues rendering the ground. Unless it's a default replacement terrain, it shouldn't look like a tiled repeated pattern like in the second picture, and the edges near the water shouldn't be swuare like that. If this is what happens when you turn on the cheat, then it could be your game or graphic card for some reason doesn't render the neighborhood properly with the cheat active.

The ground in the other pictures look more normal.

(By the way, I'm not entirely sure if the dontMergeNHFlora cheat is boolprop or uintProp, because I've seen both in use - maybe someone can elaborate on that?)

It is rather strange that this happens. The cheat is only meant to make the NH deco visible from a longer distance in the lot view.

The user start up cheat file is a simple txt file you add to The Sims 2 folder under Documents, not something in the install files. You are talking about something else.

Maybe you're confusing the "UserStartup.cheat" file with the "GraphicRules" file?

@simmer22 @joandsarah77: No no, we are talking about the same thing. I'm very aware the userstartup.cheat file is a separate file you create on your own. It's a long story, but basically I had troubles getting it to work. There are like 4 different Sims 2 Documents files in the Mac OSX version and no guides today are up-to-date. so I experimented on which folder to place it in.

It's still a mystery to me but after doing that, my game wouldn't start. It kept launching with a blank error code and I had to force quit. I got frustrated trying to fix it and this is why I did a complete reinstall.

This is what I meant when I said I was "tinkering with the user startup file" and why I'm afraid to do it again.

@HobbesED: I did that already though... By removing my entire Downloads folder I removed ALL my CC. I tested it on vanilla, and proved it wasn't a mod doing this. It can't be - I removed every single CC and hack and the problem still happened.

UNLESS it's a hack that can't be found in my downloads folder, but AFAIK that only affects camera mods. And I tested it by uninstalling those too, without luck

@simmer22: At this point I think your theory is most accurate - it could be a graphic card issue.

My personal theory (I'm just taking a wild guess): before reinstalling I was running an older, 32-bit version of the app. Since my computer is old anyway, there were no problems. The reinstall forced me to update to a 64-bit version. The new version is (obviously) updated to run on newer systems. Since my computer is old, it's suddenly running into problems it didn't have before - like rendering longer view distances in lot view.

Might need a Mac expert. @lordtyger9 can you help with this?

I just read about a possible mac issue with the UserStartup - if you use Aliases, make sure the " are the correct ones (should be the ones native to a Windows notepad document, as there are a few variations. I'm not sure what those are for Macs, but you'll probably figure it out), otherwise you'll have issues with the cheats.

The UserStartup file should be in the same main folder as the Downloads folder, so whatever would be the same as "Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Config" on a PC. Basically find your Downloads folder, then go one step back, and see if there's a Config folder with a "userStartup.cheat" file in it, and that's the correct one. You're better off editing that file (editing in Notepad is recommended for Windows, but I have no clue if Macs have something similar to it - some of the characters could be different from the ones native to Notepad, and they may not read the same).

You may have to do some edits in the GraphicRules and VideoCards files for the game to properly recognize your graphic card and perhaps run better with it (these can be found in the Bon Voyage install folder, assuming the folder setup is at least somewhat similar to the PC version they would be in the Bon Boyage "\TSData\Res\Config" folder. Sometimes it's needed, and sometimes not. Depends on the graphic card.

Couple of Points I am pretty good with the game on Macs as I play on a Mac, but I am running the 32 bit older version, because I am using an older iMac from 2011 and I have some older Apps that cost some serious money to upgrade if an upgrade is even available.

Also I have never used the Cheats mentioned, so I can't really comment about the cheats. Putting them into your userStartup.cheat file is likely a good idea. If you want to edit or create a userStartup.cheat file just use TextEdit and make sure that it is plain text. Me I use an older version of BBEdit, but there is a newer version of BBEdit that does have a Free version that doesn't nag you https://www.barebones.com/products/bbedit/

I can tell you where the userStartup.cheat file should be located, you put it into the Config folder which is inside The Sims folder. So path is <User>/Library/Containers/com.aspyr.sims2.appstore/Data/Library/Application Support/Aspyr/The Sims 2/Config

You can type "~/Library/Containers/com.aspyr.sims2.appstore/Data/Library/Application Support/Aspyr/The Sims 2/Config" with out quotes in the Goto Folder dialog box in the Go Menu of the Finder and you will be inside the Config folder if that is easier. Me I keep the Aspyr folder in my Dock for the Finder so I can go there easily when ever I want.

If you do need to find the Graphics Rules.sgr file because you want to modify it, I can help. The file you want is in this path Contents/Assets/Expansion Packs/Bon Voyage/TSData/Res/Config You first need to right click {or Control click} on the The Sims™ 2: Super Collection.app and then choose Show Package Contents, then you navigate to the Config folder using the path I gave you. Do back up your Graphics Rules.sgr file before you touch it! I have never had to modify my Graphic Rules.sgr file so I am not able to of much help with that part.

You all Take Care and try to stay healthy.

The proper phrasing of the cheat in question is boolProp dontMergeNHoodFlora false. It's preceded by boolProp because this specific cheat, dontMergeNHoodFlora, is a boolean prompt, meaning it takes one argument which ought to be a boolean data type. A boolean data type has one of two possible values, which in TS2 Cheat System is denoted as true and false.

uintProp is an unsigned 32-bit integer prompt, accepting integers between 0 and 4,294,967,295. It is easy to figure why you got confused between the two phrases. Usually, the dontMergeNHoodFlora cheat is used together with uintProp lotSkirtSizeIncrease 120. Entering both cheats will cause the game to render the entire neighborhood terrain from lot view, essentially eliminating the "blue fog," aka the draw distance line.

The game considers false = 0, and true = any non-zero. However, in my testing, it's important to precede a cheat code with the appropriate maxis-assigned data type identifier (if a cheat is originally a boolprop, always precede it with boolprop, if a uintprop, always a uintprop), though it is not important to provide an argument of that exact data type. For example:

boolProp useShaders false = boolProp useShaders 0 = turns off shaders
boolProp useShaders true = boolProp useShaders <any negative number> = boolProp useShaders <any positive number> = turns on shaders

uintProp useShaders <true/false/number>, however, doesn't do anything.
useShaders <true/false/number> results in a cheat system "unknown command" error.

There are several other prompts in the cheat system, such as stringProp, floatProp, sintProp and intProp, and not every choice for a certain cheat is the most logical one. For example: intProp is a signed 32-bit integer prompt, accepting integers between -2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647. Why is the maxNumOfVisitingSims an intProp then, and not a uintProp?

The second picture in question was taken from lot view - notice the UI.

It is strange to find objects flashing blue if they look normal otherwise. Maybe the dontMergeNHoodFlora cheat changes object models to higher or lower quality ones. If that's the case, it could be that the game did not install properly, because blue flashing means the game is missing a texture file for an object (whereas pink flashing would mean the game ran out of allocated graphics memory). OP, can you copy the contents of the userstartup.cheat file, and the yourpc-config-log.txt file from Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Logs?

^ Thanks for the clarification. I didn't notice the UI because it's zoomed way out so I misread it as a hood picture. Still, there are a few strange things going on in that picture.



This doesn't mean they aren't touched by CC items. Default replacements, texture mods, something that messes with the mesh (or LOD - not sure if hood deco has both) - those sort of things are still CC. Unless you've made sure your game is completely free of any CC items, there could be an item that overrides the trees, making them show up differently in these particular circumstances. The asterisk only shows when the game recognizes an item as CC - but texture or mesh replacements aren't always seen as such. If you've ever put any CC in the install folders (like recategorizers) that counts as CC too, but they usually don't show with asterisks (usually they're placed there spesifically to get rid of it), and they're very easy to forget.

When that's said, it could easily be a bug in the 64-bit Super Collection, and not in the 32-bit version. Maybe someone who also has the 64-bit verison can test this in their game?

Another potential problem could be a small bug happening when you reinstalled, like a missing file containing certain textures or some such. A bit less likely, though.

@lordtyger9 @topp @simmer22 thank you all for your help. I've been quite busy with work lately but I will definitely try these solutions out as soon as I can!

I don't have a userstartupcheat file in my folders currently, but I've uploaded my config-log.txt file down below (there were two that I found, but on first glance they both seem to be the same file)

It actually isn't that farfetched that maybe the game didn't install properly- my wifi has been quite shitty the last month and it's entirely possible it messed up something when I downloaded the game from the app store. Likewise, it could also be a bug in the recent 64-bit update.

I'll reinstall and find out!

@Morrowindnostalgia It's definitely a bug in the 64-bit version released in January (1.2.4). I've been troubleshooting the exact same issue - I even restored the 32-bit version 1.2.3 from a Time Machine backup and it went away again. I've tested with both a completely clean game (removing the ~/Library/Containers/com.apsyr.sims2.appstore folder and letting the game regenerate it at first run) and with swapping versions over with my normal game files in place.

The new version looks like it's been more than a straightforward recompile. The base game and expansion packs are now found in Contents --> Assets rather than Contents --> Home for one thing, and there's also a new AspyrAssets folder that wasn't in the old version either. I've not poked around for long enough to see what other changes have happened, but it seems clear that the rewrite has missed something along the way.

The only fix I've found at the moment is to comment out "boolProp dontMergeNHFlora false" from my userStartup.cheat file, but it makes me sad to do it. :-(

ETA: though it now occurs to me that I could create aliases to turn it on and off, since the problem only occurs in hood view, and I only need the effect it creates when I've loaded a lot. :-)

@muridae hmm that's really unfortunate! I wonder if they are aware and would be open to fixing it because this is my favourite console command and I really can't give it up

I tried to revert to an old 32-bit version as well but it seems I don't have an old copy on my backups :/

As muridae suggests, you don't have to give it up completely. Instead, only enter it when you're in lot view.

@topp: but in order for the command to take effect I have to reload the lot by exiting and reentering. At least in my game...

This will be a nuisance, but it's the only thing I can suggest right now. You can try reloading the lot you've visited. CTRL+SHIFT+L will trigger a reload from the last save point of that lot, see if this makes any difference.

Have you tried entering the cheat from the main menu? Right after The Sims 2 loading screen, and before selecting a neighborhood.

Doesn’t seem to work anyway. When you enter the cheat, exit and re-enter, I get the same flashing blue blobs in lot view as well. Darn.

I also have an older iMac on Sierra that I’ve been resisting the daily nag to update. As that can’t ever upgrade to Catalina it could quite happily continue to run the 32-bit version. It’s very tempting to give it an SSD disk upgrade and make it my Sims machine.

I did report the problem to Aspyr. I think all we can do is all do that and hope that now they’ve got the game up to 64-bit and can submit updates to Apple again, they might do a few bug fix updates as well.

How did you revert to the 32 bit if I may ask? I tried taking the file straight from my Time Machine backup, but that doesn't do anything - the game never launches (though the menu to launch the game still pops up)...

I suspect it has to do with folders being renamed etc...? I can't revert to an old Time Machine backup because that was much too long ago