Blurry Neighboring Houses (BIG) problem!

[Mado]

I was wondering if someone could help me with this.
When I chose the game option to turn neighbors "on" so I can see other houses and buildings from my sim's house, these lots are all very blurry. The houses and buildings looks pixelized and I can barely see them. It is really annoying becuase I want my sims to have neighbors so they don't feel so isolated. I have seen Sims 2 viedos where the neighboring houses are perfectly clear and you can see them just fine. I am just wondering what went wrong with my game and if I could fix it? I have installed some custom content (clothes, hair, skintones, and a few houses) and used the "boolprop testingcheatsenabled true" cheat a few times, and I was wondering if this could have something to do with it?
Please help me with this!:smt120
Also, my email is distantskies93@hotmail.com.
Thank you for any help!
-Mado

[ancienthighway]

Chances are you need to adjust your display settings to show more detail.  You should expect lagging because of the additional load on the video card, and if you've got a video card with less than 256kb of video RAM, performance will get real bad if you've got the latest couple of EPs.

[Mado]

[COLOR=DarkSlateBlue]Thank you so much, ancienthighway!
My game is very slow and it takes forever to load anything.
Is there any way I can fix the game proformance/show more detail without buying a new video card? I don't think I can afford one of those...
The game proformance on my friend's computer is much better since she has only installed one or two expansion packs. But since I've installed all of them, that is probably why it is so slow.[/COLOR]

[caffeinated.joy]

I don't think so. The ability for your game to show high detail relies heavily on your computer capabilities, and each ep creates further demand on your computer.

[Mado]

My computer is pretty new and it has a good amount of memory. Would updating the video card cost a lot of money? It should have a pretty good & new video card. I got my computer 2 Decembers ago (less than 2 years ago).

Also, the detail for the household I am playing and for the Sims characters is great. The only problems I have is with the neighboring houses being blurry, the game being slower than it should be, and on the startup screen where you're in a neighborhood and you choose a house to play it is jerky and sometimes the screen turns black and blue and wont stop rotating for a while.
Some of the custom things I downloaded too like the "Hula & more" thing for video making where the sims do all these different poses, and where sims can sleep on the floor really made the game go crazy and everything was blurry and black so I had to disable custom content. I really wanted to start sims 2 video making but I'm afraid I cant if my game is this messed up
My computer has 480MB of RAM currently. Is that a lot or no? I'm not really good a computer things...

[Mado]

[COLOR=DarkSlateBlue]Sorry, this is probably a really dumb question...but how do you change your Avatar image that appears below your username?[/COLOR]

[caffeinated.joy]

Regarding the double posts, just click "edit" on one of them and you can delete one of the doubles, and you can also use the edit button to change/add to a post rather than doing a separate post right after.

To change your avatar, just click on the user cp button up at the top and choose "Change Profile". On the left side menu you'll see an option to change your avatar.

Now, regarding your computer and the vid card. A brand new, top of the line vid card two years ago isn't necessarily top of the line now. What do you have? If you're not sure and need to check, go to your Start menu, click on run and type "dxdiag" (without the quotations) to get the Direct X Diagnostic tool. Click on the Display tab, and you'll see all of the information on your card. What we need is the name and amount of memory.

480mb of ram isn't bad, but I find having at least 1gb to be optimal. I have 2gb (recently upgraded from 768mb) and it's awesome. Fortunately, ram isn't too expensive these days, and a good video card of at least 256kb of memory can be purchased for a relatively inexpensive cost.

[Sleepycat]

sounds like you need more RAM

My computer is 2 years old now and I haven't upgraded anything in it yet, it plays the game great, it has 2 gigs of RAM.

My other computer which is 2 1/2 years old (not upgraded at all either) and isn't as good, plays the game ok with 1 gig of RAM (my daughter uses that one and has more custom content then I do)

[Mado]

Oh wow. I think I found the problem...

It says "Approx. Total Memory: 64.0 MB" The name is: Intel(R) 82852/82855 GM/GME Graphics Controller by the Intel Corporation. It's current display mode is: 1024 x 768 (32 bit) (60 Hz)
That is WAY less than even 1 GB. That's not good...
How much would a new video card cost, and how do you install them? You don't have to take apart the computer or anything do you?

I really appreciate all of your help that you've given me. I think I am getting a better idea of what I have to do to make my game work properly.

Would uninstalling other programs, files, and computer games make more room on my video card?

[Mado]

*faints*
The cheapeast video card (which is 512 MB) is $70.00.
Some others are over $300!
My computer was already way over priced when I bought it and it's a piece of junk. I paid $750.00 for it and it barely has any memory, it always freezes, and it takes forever to load anything. Then I saw the exact same computer later for less than $400 a few months later =( Things really get overpriced near Christmas when I bought mine and now I'll probably have to spend $100 more just to replace the video card that should be excellent for the price that I had to pay.
I don't know what Im going to do.

[ancienthighway]

I think you've confused video RAM with the system RAM.  The 64mb is your video RAM.  The 1GB RAM caffeinated_joy is referring to would be the system RAM.

When looking at buying a new card, make sure you get one that will work with your computer.  At one time there was just one type of slot for any add on cards, now there's three types of slots. You can tell the difference by the color of the slot on the motherboard (where everything connects).  Make note of the color, then when you go to buy it, make sure you tell the salesperson so you buy the correct video card.

I'm running all EPs except Pets with a video card that has 256mb RAM.  If you can afford the 512mb card, get it, but you should be okay with a 256mb card.

[Mado]

Really? That's great news Thank you, ancienthighway. I thought the video card RAM seemed a little low.
 I think 256MB would be a lot cheaper than 512MB. How do I find out my Video Card RAM that I currently have?

[ancienthighway]

You've already said you have 64 MB (post 9).  Take a look at the requirements for Seasons and make sure you get one of the cards listed.

[caffeinated.joy]

Requirements for Seasons