An ongoing problem, that just got worse with AL. Enabling content was a pain in the hindparts in the first place. Removing and readding custon content a bunch of times until the game finally could be arsed to show it. Now, most of the stuff is shown, but today I wanted to add some new clothes and Sims, but no luck. They're a no show. And there's no rule behind it, since I also added some cars and they show just fine.

Some custom content is still interfering. I spent the better part of a day to clean up my downloads folder. Get yourself "see them" and activate the testing cheats option. That overrides any error, loads the lots and the error message can point you in the right direction of what causes the trouble. Since it happens with maxis stuff it has to be something global.

Right now I'm desperately trying to activate my new Sims and clothing for that darn game. It just doesn't work. They're neatly packed into a folder, I move them around, but nope - they don't show up. It's as if the game would throw me the finger, telling me, I have enough downloads already and don't need anymore. Frustrating, really. I also downloaded a few new cars and they show up all right.

Actually, it seems to be more complicated than that. Start the game without downloads, quit. Restart with your downloads active/enabled, quit again, since AL seems to need a little shoving to accept them. Remove your downloads from your folder, put them back in and third time lucky. At least that's how it works in my case. Once doesn't seem to be enough for AL.

I found it already. But it's not necesarily rogue downloads. It's also clothing and the likes. When I created an item in the body shop, it also looks that way, and since I'm no modder they're only photoshopped texture works.

But there's another error:

Object id: 42
name: Wants - Controller
Stack size: 4
Error: Missing neighbor for data access.
Iterations: 0
  Frame 3:
    Stack Object id: 1106
    Stack Object name: N004_User00421 - Nike
    Node: 15
    Tree: id 4767 name 'CT - Test - Lifetime Want - Music' version -32758
    from Wants_CheckTrees
    Prim state: 0
    Params: 448 -3793 -28084 0 -29940 -19902    Locals:
  Frame 2:
    Stack Object id: 0
    Node: 0
    Tree: id -1 name 'No behavior' version 0
    from
    Prim state: 1
    Params:    Locals:
  Frame 1:
    Stack Object id: 42
    Stack Object name: Wants - Controller
    Node: 0
    Tree: id 280 name 'Idle' version 2
    from global
    Prim state: 0
    Params: 19    Locals:
  Frame 0:
    Stack Object id: 42
    Stack Object name: Wants - Controller
    Node: 5
    Tree: id 4097 name 'Function - Main' version -32756
    from Wants_Controller
    Prim state: 0
    Params:    Locals: 0

Curious, since I never installed anything influencing wants. Also it happens with different Sims, different skins. And it only happens with female sims. Insimenator is the last version, compatible with AL.

Oh, nice one!

That explains why I always get the message "invalid lot" when I want to rezone. Takes a whole lot of fun out of custom apartments, since I wanted them to be on the beach.



Another goody I didn't know of. Guess I save my time then, since it seems rather pointless to create apartments.

Sometimes I wonder about the thought process of the developers. Beach Condo? Who needs that.´And, four Sims are more than enough. Yeah, right. Everyone needs an apartment when they are able to control less Sims than in a single house.

That's not the problem. A backup of that folder isn't of any use other than to keep your goodies safe. This expansion seems to have altered a whole lot more than previous addons. And it's like searching for the needle in a haystack to look for conflicts.

Also scrap what I said about "see them". Activating the cheat codes in "see them" is recommendable nonetheless since it gives you the opportunity to look for errors instead of simply being confronted with non loading lots.

Interesting. I wasn't aware, that I had that. Thanks. Turns out I didn't consciously install the mod. Some object must have it attached. I was able to narrow it down to about 40 files, but since so many packages feature names that would make Billy Gates' error code producers proud, it's looking for the needle in the haystack.

Build: 1.16.0.179
at Jul 26 2008,05:37:11

Object id: 767
name: Phone - Line Controller
Stack size: 3
Error: Attribute number out of range.
Iterations: 1
  Frame 2:
    Stack Object id: 0
    Node: 2
    Tree: id 4096 name 'Function - Init' version -32757
    from Phone_Line
    Prim state: 0
    Params:    Locals:
  Frame 1:
    Stack Object id: 0
    Node: 0
    Tree: id -1 name 'No behavior' version 0
    from
    Prim state: 1
    Params:    Locals:
  Frame 0:
    Stack Object id: 0
    Node: 0
    Tree: id 4097 name 'Function - Main' version -32746
    from Phone_Line
    Prim state: 0
    Params:    Locals: 0


Happens with each and every phone to the extent that every sim trying to use one is immediately lost. So I'm not sure if the Sim in itself is the error or some other object.

On the bright side it seems to work, when I create a new lot. On the dark side I seem to have lost the reflective walls and floors I was so fond of. Well, not really lost, since they're stored in a different location. They just don't show up in the selection screens.

Edit: Seems that "see them" is the major problem. In my case, lots don't load when I don't activate the cheat option in "see them".

Exactly the same here. Houses furnished or built with custom content don't load. The loading screen keeps turning for hours on end, but to no avail.

Dont get fooled by activating custom content. As soon as you install a new expansion, remove your downloads folder, start the game, quit and put your download folder back where it belongs. That should sort things. Of course, you have to activate custom content in the loading screen.

Thanks all. I figured it out. I was indeed missing the shader file.

Hi!

I have downloaded quite a few houses, that show reflective floor/wall elements like in this picture: http://www.insimenator.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=116243&d=1207318029

Problem is, that in my game they either look dull or they show a blue surface as if the particular element wasn't there, which isn't the case. I have these floor/wall elements.

Is there some special trick to create these effects or do I have some particular setting? I have switched my special effects and my textures to high and reflections are of course turned on.

Edit: Just saw, that I probably need something called "reflection wall" to get that effect, but all the links for that kind of wall seem to be dead by now. Can anyone help?

Oh, actually I'm a big fan of Microsoft's flight Simulators and nvidia isn't able to provide working AA and VS for these apps for quite some time now, although they know about that problem.

My solution will probably be to run the ATI card on my stronger machine and the nvidia one on my second as a Sims only rig.