Is anyone interested in running a thread about improving graphic performance in their game? I'm talking about the kind of stuff discussed here (at least initially):

Graphic Rules
http://www.leefish.nl/mybb/showthread.php?tid=5446
http://www.simsnetwork.com/simpedia...patibility-with
Eswen at Leefish Further Advice
http://www.leefish.nl/mybb/showthread.php?tid=6391

Rationale: I built myself a new rig last year and recently (like a month ago) added both a new graphics card and monitor (the monitor is kind of irrelevent except that I realise having got it that my old monitor must have been underperforming for some time - everything is so bright, colourful and shiney). The graphics cards is this one, a good mid-range card. I had to use the graphic rules maker to get the game to use the card but that's all fine. The game looks pretty nice but all my other games look AMAZING. When I loaded up other games, all graphics settings got reset to Ultra. I thought, I know there are issues with how the graphics are rendered in TS2 but I wonder if tweaking things will make that much difference to graphics performance?

So I'm going to work through some of those suggestions for improving graphics performance anyway but thought it might be informative to record the process in a thread here with before and after pictures. What might be really useful is if others want to do the same thing but with different types of card - for instance, it would be good to see the difference made with an integrated chip, lower end card and maybe a higher end card. (If you want to get involved testing an integrated chip, please be careful you don't overdo it). I suspect what would happen is that we'd see the biggest difference on lower end cards with perhaps not too much improvement on higher end cards (though here's hoping I'm wrong about that).

What I thought would be useful would be to look at

• the appearance of sims in CAS and in game
• neighbourhood view
• lot view looking at in-lot objects and textures
• lot view looking at lot imposters and neighbourhood objects

Any other suggestions welcome.

What do you think?

I think it's tempting but I'm not a gamer, I'm a simmer.

I'm not sure I can improve graphic performance in my game more.
I rebuilt my desktop last year and change everything but the box. I played with an integrated chip which was pretty good (all settings at high) but I got a mid-range graphic card in september: http://www.amazon.fr/gp/product/B00...arch_detailpage
I notice less lag but still have the black squares issue.
I especially like the pictures in the last thread you linked to. :lovestruc

It's not so much Performance but Appeal, right? At least that's what the last thread seems like.

And I think I'm the only one that wants less realistic sky boxes. :/

I'll try some of the suggestions, like the terrain line in my graphics rules and report back.

Yes, I want it to look pretty. If you do stuff, post pictures?

I haven't tried these yet, but they look wonderful. I'm going to use the Maxis Match road replacements curiousb has here, along with the other replacements.

curiousb's terrain and road default replacements

Edit: I'll post screens about my endeavors. :3

Edit 2: Behold the image dump of Before and After pics. These are before curiousb's replacements and after.





Edit3: Is there such a thing as default replacement trees for lots / hoods? I'm having a terrible time finding any.

I think one of the problems you'll encounter with graphics improvement is that there are many things in the game that can be improved by replacing textures of objects with higher resolution ones. But others, such as the clothing worn by the Sims, cannot because of restrictions in the way the game processes the texture.

Like if you have a 1024x1024 image and create a beautiful looking one that's 2048x2048, the game will process it to look blurry rather than sharp because the game only processes clothing at 1024x1024 max. The first step would be for someone to identify all the coding in the game to see how textures are processes. Clothing being important because we use our Sims more often than the objects. Lighting is also another limitation. If objects are not displayed in proper lighting, then it doesn't matter how detailed the object may be, it will look unappealing.

The point being that you may have the best graphics card ever, but the game's graphics are showing its age. You can see the blurriness 'clearer'...and that makes it somewhat unappealing for newcomers to the game to see too.

NOW if on the other hand you mean just improving the quickness of processing graphic textures...then that may just involve speeding the transfer between data. Such as getting an SSD to transfer data from the files to the RAM and GPU. SSDs are much quicker than traditional hard-drives.

It might be because I'm from Australia but to me Maxis grass looks spot on, the only time I see grass as dark as the defualt is on a golf green, not even on the course just where the hole is and sometimes not even there. I live in a dry country. That dark grass reminds me of England.

Funny enough, I like all of the new textures except the default grass ones (the dark ones posted here). I might remove it (if I can figure out which one it is) and keep the rest.

It's not that green here either.

I also prefer Maxi grass; but there are, of course, different grass species, and so my richer Sims may get some greener grass (if they like gardening, of course) - and so, for some Sims, the grass is only greener on the other side

What does resetting simpleterrain true to false accomplish? What's it supposed to do?

That cheat toggles between low and high quality textures for neighbourhood view.

I was unable to modify the default grass texture from curiousb's set (can't even see the textures in simPE. might be doing something wrong there). Initially I was going to de-greenify it so it wasn't so deeply green. But I fell back onto just removing the three basic grass texture files and leaving the others in.

I used the defaults except for the grass. My graphics resolution is already set to 1920 x 1080, which is correct. My graphics card is nvidia geforce gtx 960 - I think that's a mid range card. I took before and after shots but I forgot which sky object color I used on the lots (and didn't save with the object there), so the sky colors are not the same. Maybe somebody else can see it, but I can't tell the difference. The biggest problem is still the blurry textures from the next door lots. I have examples but I don't know how to hide them behind a spoiler.

@Essa


Put this in your user start up file and you will no longer have the black box under your sims feet. boolProp simshadows false

You can also type it in if you want to at the start of game play and it will work to.

I'd love to use a sky mod but the one time I did it didn't show properly and things lagged when I put view distance to the max. My computer needs an upgrade but I am scared to change my card and find nothing works.

That's a really interesting topic. I did so much research about improving the graphics that I could help you a bit:

The landscape
- Replace the terrain texture (I think the default one is rather ugly and boring. As you can see in my screenshots, I'm using the Sims 3 terrain)
- Replace the road texture (same as above, I also used the Sims 3 one, even though it was hard work and doesn't look perfectly)
- Install GunMods Light Mod

in your userStartup.cheat (Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Config) type in:
boolprop dontMergeNHFlora false

With that, you can see all trees and flora that is more far away from your house.
Another important "cheat":

uintProp lotSkirtSizeIncrease 120

With that one, you increase your lot view so far that you can see the ends of the neighborhoods! 120 is a fitting number. No more blue fog around your house!

Of course, you should search for neighborhood objects. Some of the objects used by Maxis are just effects that you can't see when you are on your lot. Search for Sims 3 to Sims 3 conversations. (Tumblr or Pinterest are very good search enignes for Sims 2 hood objects). I can't find it right now, but there are many Sims 3 buildings converted for the Sims 2 neighborhood. Also, somewhere in the wild there are Sims 3 buildings that can be placed on the lot. They look really nice and you can see them everywhere.
One important "object" is a water overlay. There are several made by Gwenke that can be placed in the hood (they have to be minimal above the water!) and you have a nice view when you are on a lot (or in the 'hood!)

>> water overlay: http://sims2artists.com/index.php?topic=4431.0

Another important mod is the one right here: http://modthesims.info/d/265020
With that, you can place the base objects on your lot! It looks more realistic if your hood objects can also be placed on your lot!

Also you can download a placable sky for your lot. However, you have to do that with every lot. There are also neighborhood skies, but they are too big and even with increased draw distance (lotSkirtSizeIncrease) you can only see certain parts. I'm working on a square sky with Sims 3 textures that is as big as a neighborhood. I will release it someday if I'm more happier with the results.

Here are some pics of my hardly modifies neighborhood:


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Lot
Regarding the lot, you can download high poly trees that look more realistic and that can be seen in the neighborhood. (However, high poly! Don't use too much!)
Another important mod is the water mod. If you have water on the lot, with that mod you have to place a pool tile and suddenly your water has a reflection! :lovestruc

>> http://vimpse.tumblr.com/watermod

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Sim appearence
You can download default skins, hairs, lipsticks and so on that will replace the original. The same applies to clothing. Search a bit für "3t2" or "4t2" and you will quickly find some conversations!


Hope I could help! :p

Are the trees you're using in your screenshots also conversions? Are they default replacements?

I might go looking for the sims 3 grass textures in a moment. At least for the default grass.

The trees are as far as I know completely new trees. You can find some neighborhood trees here:
https://curiousb.dreamwidth.org/tag/neighbourhood+deco

There are also other hood decorations, for example some Sims 3t2 buildings! I don't actually remember where I got the lot trees

I've made the grass texture for myself and I haven't seen this replacement on any Sims 2 page. I would like to upload it, but there are still textures that are not made by me (cliff textures...). But I could try creating new textures in Sims 3 style!

Thanks for the input but Google is my friend. ;-) I edited my GraphicRules files when I wanted to take care of this issue.

Bob Newbie, I added this cheat in my userstartup.cheat file. I didn't know that one.
The water overlays look great. May give a try later. Thanks for the tips.

@Bob Newbie Can you link to those defaults that you are using. Your game looks really nice, pretty sure my computer could not handle half of those suggestions though. :/

Sadly I can't link to the grass terrain, the roads, signs and the sky yet. They need more work and/or permission from the original creator. But I can try to link to other hood objects if you like!

- a different road replacement, very good! https://curiousb.dreamwidth.org/28103.html
- Maxis trees (better) replacement textures http://silent-dragon21.livejournal.com/1522.html
- small farm fields... that can be seen from lot view! https://genlisae.dreamwidth.org/260467.html
- road pieces: http://jodeliejodelie.tumblr.com/po...-hello-everyone
- more buildings (including the dinosaur): http://322cdb.livejournal.com/?skip...hborhood%20deco
- buildungs you have to place on the lot! They look really good in neighborhood view, but they are also big: http://misty-fluff.livejournal.com/19917.html :lovestruc
- Castaway bushes and palms: http://s22cdb.livejournal.com/tag/--neighborhood%20deco
- Castaway pine trees (because the Maxis ones are not that nice): http://freezerbunny-sims.tumblr.com...-hood-deco-pine
- smaller rocks: http://modthesims.info/d/169082 Since you sadly can't see the cliff textures in lot view
- even more rocks: http://verounique.livejournal.com/24343.html
- different grounds: http://slig.dreamwidth.org/22305.html#cutid1

i really hope that it is okay if I link to that sites which most of them are not from modthesims It's quite hard to find neighborhood decoration like this

Edit: Sadly one huge downside of almost every hood object (including the maxis ones) is that those objects are floating a bit in the air, even if everything looks okay in the neighorhood view. You either have to change the ground height in a lot to reduce floating (if that hood object is on your lot) or you hace to place fences, bushes, rocks round it.

My Graphic for My Sims 2 is great, well it better be because I spent an arm and a leg on having my Computer desktop "custom made".
When I told the tech guy what I wanted, he said "oh you want a gamer ready computer", I said yes you are right.
Then he ask me what game I was playing I told him the Sims 2 now here is the "funny" part he said "oh for the Sims 2 you don't need all of that inside your computer" I then said I don't care that what I want.

A couple of pics showing before and after. I didn't use the default lush terrain so the greener terrain doesn't show. I included sky objects on both the neighborhood and the lot views. I think there may be a little bit of difference but not much, maybe because my computer isn't powerful enough.

The only problem I can really see is the road doesn't line up properly for this lot. I moved it though so maybe that's the reason.



Before:



After:

@ Bob Newbie I like your neighborhood,
@ eliset I like your after pictures

Have anyone try this neighborhood road here? http://modthesims.info/download.php?t=545239