Game play issues

[ange1face20]

Ok, I'm not really sure to put this question in this area, and when I looked in the "General Sims 2" section I really didn't see a place to ask this question there either, so I'm just going to ask it here, and please don't yell at me.  But I had a question about "game play".  Awhile back I learned that the "polycount" of objects in a game can affect  how fast it runs, so I've been trying to watch what I put into my game, but now I noticed that when I adjust the "graphics", before I play to try and make the game show up better and objects more clearer, it STILL runs very slow, and I was wondering if it could be me needing a better graphics card and if so..does anyone know which is the BEST brand to get... or if that even has anything to do with it, or  me just needing a  faster computer or something? And if so, HOW MUCH mb should I use to play the sims effeciently?  ANY sort of positive input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

[DecoraChroi]

Angelface, any future questions similar to your post, should be posted in the help section.

[veash]

Check out this article on Gamespot about Sims2, graphic cards and performance.  http://www.gamespot.com/features/6133243/index.html?type=tech&page=1
Basically what they're saying is the bigger the CPU, the better the performance.  Adding RAM and having lots of free disk space helps alot.  Also defrag your hard drive often.   Hope that helps.

[ange1face20]

It helps alot, Veash, thankyou VERY much for your "positive" input. I normally defrag and try to free up space, and do disk clean ups as well, but I'm going to be reading over that link you posted.

[BeosBoxBoy]

angelface - when you are trying to decide on what is the best thing to do to improve your game performance, I would first ask you to make sure you did all of the things you mention doing.  So you are already more than 1/2 through the process.

Custom content is both a blessing and a curse.  Because different creators have different degrees of concern for the end user's system resources, you will see a wide range of poly-count for similar items.  A four-poster bed is a great example here.  I won't name sites or creators, but i will speak of their foibles by my understanding of such things.  I have recently downloaded one attractive four-poster bed with a poly-count in excess of 86000 faces, another that is practically indistinguishable from the first with a poly count of 3200 faces.  The difference is quite alarming when you consider that Maxis recommends something like no more than 800 faces per build mode grid.

And consider a 5x5 lot - that equeals 25x25 build mode grids, or 625 squares.  The game uses about 1 megabyte of video ram per grid to rend those 800 faces; when you push the face count higher it uses more.  So a 5x5 lot with an average of 800 faces per build mode square would require 625 MB of video RAM - not something most people have and the game's rendering engine was frankly not designed to handle much more than that.  SO you will star seeing a fall off in game performance on the biggest lots no matter what you do.

You have to be the policeman that determines what you can and cannot live without in your downloads folder, how much you cram on a lot, and how many polygons you have to have for an item to look convincingly real.  If you can find a reasonable balance in these things, you will start seeing a improvement in game performance without resorting to an upgrade.

But, then we have to look at the EPs.  The EPs have ever increasing video demands and each one adds to the weight that you CPU and system RAM have to carry to play the game.  Just the base game with no EPs and no downloads masses somewhat more than 2 GB, if you have 3 or 4 EPs installed, plus a lot of custom content downloaded from the web, it can rapidly pass 10 GB of data your computer has to wrestle while you play the game.  This too will impact performance.

Even without Downloads, you still have all the added weirdness that takes places unseen, like attractions, needs, and the "advertising" of objects (basically the way a Sim knows there is a commode on the lot when he has to pee)  Each EP adds a little more to the spiderweb of unseen things. Every time you play the game you also add to this with memories, DNA, wardrobe adjustments, etc.  So it can get hairy after a few weeks of serious hard core play with nothing but the base game.

Knowing this, you now have to consider how to best make your system "kick" when you play.

A faster CPU is always a plus, more & faster system RAM also a plus, a bigger, better video card - well - there is where we start having to consult star charts and old women in caravans with crystal balls.  The thing about the latest greatest video cards is that we don't know if they suck until about 3-9 months after they come onto the market.  It takes that long for people to go through all the motions of trying to get the buggy ones to work, then belly ache about how they were robbed so us poor slobs who want to know can know that the new ATI xpoop is a POS.

So generally I recommend going with a known good performer rather than some bloody cutting edge thing that still smells of the paint in the factory.  Over the past 6 months ATI cards have begun to get worse and worse customer feedback.  So it looks like an nVidia card is the way to go.  The VIA/S3 Unichrome series is complete crap, so don't even bother with that; I still remember all too well that VIA is just Cyrix by a new name and they were responsible for selling tonnes of overclocked 386 CPUs as 486s - and they ran so hot that they melted laptops.  I never forget or forgive a 3rd degree burn that close to my junk.

ANyway - that aside - you need to decide on a budget, and then I can give you sound advice on how best to spend that money to benefit your game.  Just tell me where you are in this world of ours and what you can spend, and I will do my best to make a recommendation that meets your needs.

[ange1face20]

WOW..okay after reading your reply Beosboxboy I feel stupid. I had NO idea that so much went into just playing the sims. I mean I recently found out as far as poly-count, but everything else that you mentioned above I'd never even considered.   I do however have ALOT of things in my Downloads folder, because I'm a girl, and I LOVE pretty things, and I like for my sims houses to be decorated just as if you were to decorate a REAL home, but I didn't know that having lots of stuff in your Downloads folder can effect game play also.

Ugh and yes I also have several EPs, but after Pets, I've decided to not purchase anymore that come out.  I did have a chance to look over the link that Veash supplied, in which that was very helpful, because I learned several other things there too, and when I looked up "video cards", I didnt' know they could be so expensive.  I did however try some of the other steps off the link, as far as "moving" some of my sims families and not having all of them living so closely together.  And as much as I don't want to, I guess I'm going to have to go over my Downloads folder and maybe clean it out.  And as far as "memory", I have a brand new, but still seems to me to be crappy, Gateway comp, that I think only offers 256 MB of memory, I don't know alot about computers.

And I'm down in Texas, but thankyou Beosboxboy for ALL of your info..lol still trying to understand it, but thanks just the same.

[BeosBoxBoy]

Angelface: you aren't stupid, you are uninformed, which is considerably different.  To the uninformed a computer is very much like having a god in a box that grants our wishes, as computers are made more and more user-friendly through games and user-friendly operating systems and programmes, it becomes less and less obvious that there are more moving parts.  Much like sitting at the steering wheel of an automobile can hide from us the very busy bits of the engine and transmission.  All we see are some few bits we interact with and the countryside go by; and, just like a car, we often discover and begin to consider all these hidden moving parts only when something goes wrong.

Computer sales people and game hucksters feed us a steady stream of disinformation and dazzle us with meaningless jargon and numbers.  It is no wonder why so many people regard the interior portions of their computers with grave distrust when you consider the fact that the people involved in sales make the purchasing experience as much like buying a worthless insurance policy or used car as is humanly possible.

Game hucksters don't inform us of the moving parts because they full well understand most people would not listen and the few that did would ask questions they don't want to answer... like, did you thoroughly beta test that feature?  They most assuredly do not thoroughly beta test anything these days, they run it all out to market so we will up-end our wallets and credit cards over their money bags and fill them with ever-so-lovely 10s, 20s, 50s, and 100s.  Then they wait for us to scream "it's broken!" then they drag their feet and release a bug patch roughly parallel with the next EP and misdirect our attention through a time-proved method of bait and switch so we end up getting a bigger system or new video card or higher amounts of system RAM and they poopoo us for using incompatible hardware.

It's all pretty vile.

[ange1face20]

"then they drag their feet and release a bug patch roughly parallel with the next EP and misdirect our attention through a time-proven method of bait and switch so we end up getting a bigger system or new video card or higher amounts of system RAM and they poopoo us for using incompatible hardware." <<<< Exactly!! Ok Beosboxboy I'm convinced, you're some sort of HIGHLY INTELLIGENT god or something, lol.  Thankyou SO much for all your help:)