The Sims 3: What should I DO???

[katsushima]

Hey everybody. Well I guess the sims 3 is great and all......but I need help with something. When I had the sims 2 all I did was add tons of custom content --- like 3,000 downloads. And I had alot of expansion packs which also slowed the game down. Well I figured I would just leave the sims 2 on my computer and put all the custom content downloads onto another file on my desktop to make lots of room for the sims 3. But now that I have installed the sims 3, its lagging a crap load -- and I haven't even downloaded any custom content. Yes I am using high texture details and stuff like that but still. So my main question is....should I uninstall all of my the sims 2 stuff including expansion packs and stufff packs and all in order for the sims 3 to work perfectly?? Please give me some professional advice. Thanks

[jellystar]

My advice for what its worth to ya is to put all you Sims 2 content on dvds, erase custom contents of Sim 2, see if that works   

[katsushima]

I'm talking about even uninstalling all of the sims 2 programs (expansion packs, stuff packs, everything)as well. SHould I?

[jellystar]

I would unistall everythin but the basic game..you can always reinstall laters

[katsushima]

Ok thanks. Any other suggestions anyone?

[Theraven]

Depends on whether or not you'll want to play the game again. We can't really decide for you.

But if you do uninstall, but want to save the game files, then back up everything in the "My documents/EAgames/Thesims2" folder. Also remember which order you installed the EP's/SP's (installing in the wrong order, or skipping some EP/SP's, and then putting in the backed-up files can mess up the game).

Put the back-up on CD/DVD's or an external harddrive, so you have them somewhere safe (and remember that two backups of something you don't want to loose is a lot better than only having one backup - CD/DVD's can be messed up, and harddrives could crash)

[Wednesday17]

Um... what are you talking about?! 
Do you intend to run both games simultaneously? This is a rhetorical question, since one of them would be idle anyway. You can't be awake and asleep at the same time.
As long as you don't run out of disk space, it doesn't matter how many games or other applications you have installed. It only matters what you run at any given time. Again, if there's space, you can let the stuff sit in the Sims 2 downloads folder. I have about a dozen games on my abacus and they are not jealous of each other.

But. Dumping gigabytes of custom content on your desktop is a baaad idea in any case. You can put shortcuts of folders on your desktop, but never the data itself. That may very well slow down an application or your whole system, depending on your hardware setup. But that is just a sidenote.

Much more important is what kind of hardware you use to play a game. Do you meet the official and the real requirements for the game? I assume you don't know that much about your computer, but right here in the forum is a link to a page where you can test your computer, try that. Wait... yes, here it is: http://www.insimenator.org/index.php/topic,103991.0.html

And you can try to defragment your harddisk(s), stuff like that, but it sounds more like your computer can't handle the game. And it'll get worse with cc and expansions - mine ran absolutely flawlessly at first, but after only a few downloads the fun began with slow texture loading and it randomly gives me a memory leak, which might be just me, but... I do think you really need a good computer... or stay with Sims 2 for a while yet.


Edit: Here's another useful thread, which might help if it's a tight fit for you according to the test: http://www.insimenator.org/index.php/topic,105558.0.html
It's in the help section of the forum, which might be the a better place to be asking questions because someone else might've had the same problems.

[katsushima]

Ok thanks everybody! I need to take in all of this useful information.

BTW lol nooooo I know not to run the programs at the same time...but some people might try. Thanks anyways
Also, I just ran the test and my computer exceeds minimum requirements by a longshot so its not my comp.

AND one more thing. To TheRaven: The only reason for reinstalling EP's/SP's in order is so that it doesn't mess up saved games right? If I don't care about saved game files then not only is there no reason to back everything up on cds or whatever but there is no need to worry about reinstalling things in order (if I ever even decide to)? Sorry, did I make that understandable?

[Theraven]

That's right. If you don't care - then there's not really a point in doing a backup.

[katsushima]

Okay. But according to Wednesday17, there isnt even a need to uninstall anything. The sims 3 will work fine with or without the sims 2 installed on the same drive? See, I have a plugin- a personal media drive for my computer in which I store MY things. Its memory isnt really shared with the computer itself. It has about 300 GB of space. And it currently still has about 240 GB of space meaning everything should be working fine right?

[LVishere]

I don't know why your Sims 3 is lagging. My Sims 2 game lag a bit at certain times since I've installed 3 but 3 is not good enough to uninstall 2.

[kamiccolo]

Okay. But according to Wednesday17, there isnt even a need to uninstall anything. The sims 3 will work fine with or without the sims 2 installed on the same drive? See, I have a plugin- a personal media drive for my computer in which I store MY things. Its memory isnt really shared with the computer itself. It has about 300 GB of space. And it currently still has about 240 GB of space meaning everything should be working fine right?

You have lots of space on your hard drive.  There's no need to delete / uninstall anything on your computer, and doing that wont make it work better.

I believe that EA lied about the minimum requirements to get more people to buy the game.  You might need to upgrade some things on your computer to make it work better.

[Wednesday17]

See, I have a plugin- a personal media drive for my computer in which I store MY things. Its memory isnt really shared with the computer itself. It has about 300 GB of space. And it currently still has about 240 GB of space meaning everything should be working fine right?

Mh... what do you mean by plugin drive? Is it a USB hd or eSATA or what kind of drive (I'm not aware what kinds of devices there are available in your part of the world)?
Because if you install a game on an external drive, it might be that the data transfer speed is too slow and hence the game lags.
Another thing: are all your drivers up to date? A dated graphics driver can make a world of difference.

[SimGirl20]

I am in 100% agreement with Wednesday17.  I updated my video card drivers the other night, and my game is running quite well (I mean I'm not going to get all over myself about it, because I am aware I need RAM but..) My game wouldn't even play, before I updated my VC drivers, my sim would just stand there for hours and not move, and the time would freeze and jitter, but after I updated my drivers, I can actually play the game now. What kind of graphics card do you have? NVIDIA, ATI, Radieon etc? A trip to the GC site and a driver update might be your best bet. It's not just you thats running slowly, with maxed requirements. You should see the firestorm over at the OS of users having problems, I just think EA are morons and borked the game with poor coding, hence why alot of peoples' computers dislike the game.

[Wednesday17]

I just think EA are morons and borked the game with poor coding...

Haha, excuse me for having to laugh out loud for you stating that fact in all earnesty as if it was a whole new concept.
You just made my day.
Sims code has always been poorly coded (why do we have so many hacks and fixes?) and every serious programmer cries out and does this: when confronted with Sims code, lol. Or at least every programmer I know personally.

But enough with the off topic, sorry. Going to repent now.