Sometimes after installing custom content for The Sims 3 you might witness some of the following issues:
- The game takes longer to load before installing the the CC.
- Lag
- Low framerate [fps]
- Slow response time after you click on anything.
- Surprisingly poor performance despite having a computer that well exceeds the game’s requirement.
& the like.
This issue usually happens after installing the version 1.7 patch [or later] for the base game, or after installing World Adventures. Something changed in the game’s coding with how it reads files. Certain files have contents which the game does not expect and due to that change in coding, it gets caught up reading those files over and over endlessly [thousands of times per minute], which is the root cause of the lag associated with those files.
Reasons for individual package files having this issue include:
- Sims 2 Package Files: If a creator mislabels an upload, uploads the wrong file, or if you don’t realize something you get is actually for Sims 2 rather than Sims 3, and end up with package files for Sims 2 in your Mods\Packages, you will likely have issues. Though both games use .package files, the actual file formats and contents are very different, so Sims 3 doesn’t know what to do with Sims 2 files.
- Corrupted or Broken Files: Any files that are simply broken may cause lagging issues. Files can get broken in a variety of ways – disk error, copying issues, or it simply didn’t transfer right when you downloaded it in the first place.
- Incorrect Data: S3OC, the tool used to make many custom content files for Sims 3, had an issue in its cloning process that would cause incorrect data to be written to the file. Before the patch/World Adventures, the game didn’t have problems reading the incorrect data. Any files made with S3OC versions released before 13 Dec 2009 may cause this issue with lag, or certain objects can also cause the Sims 3 Blue Lots Issue.
The best way to fix this issue and to retain the custom content that you want to use is to identify the particular offending files and either remove them or fix them.
Sims 3 Dashboard (Windows)
This tool (currently in Beta) can show you any Sims 2 files, or possibly “corrupt” files in your Mods\Packages folder for both the base game and The Sims 3. It also lets you clear your caches quickly and easily.
Download link is: http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=387006
Process Monitor (Windows)
If you are using Windows, Process Monitor is a quick, easy, and free way to identify problem files.
Process Monitor is a free program that will tell you which files your computer is accessing. This lets you easily see if it’s reading the same files over and over.
This looks much more complicated than it is – it shouldn’t take you more than 5-10 minutes to get Process Monitor up and running, and just another few to test in-game.
Download this file to your computer’s Desktop: ProcessMonitor.zip
Download this file to your computer’s Desktop too: Process Monitor Filter
Extract the contents of both zip files to your Desktop.
Double click on the Sims3WA_ProcMon_Filter.reg file. This will install the filter you need to see just problem files. Say Yes when it asks if you want to install it to the registry.
Double click on the ProcMon.exe file to run Process Monitor.
Agree to the license and, if you are on Vista or Windows 7, click through the User Account Control prompt to allow Process Monitor to run.
Click Cancel on the Filter window that comes up, and then click on the Filter menu > Load Filter > Sims 3/WA Filter
Run The Sims 3 and allow it to fully load. Note: If you get an error when running the game: “A required security module cannot be activated. This program cannot be executed (5025).” … then shut down Process Monitor, run the game, and ALT-TAB out of the game to run Process Monitor -after- the game is already loaded.
Open any existing lot with a family on it and play for several minutes in Live Mode. Just 2-3 minutes in Live Mode should be plenty to test.
Shut down The Sims 3. You don’t need to save.
In Process Monitor, go to the Tools menu > File Summary. It may take a few moments to do this. Maximize the “File Summary” window that comes up and click the By Extension tab. Click on the + sign by “package” to expand it, and expand the “Extension” column so you can see the file names. Then click on the “Total” column so it will sort by number of times accessed.
Identifying problem file(s):
Look at the top of the list for the files that were accessed most often. It’s normal for to see game files here such as DeltaBuild0.package or ‘simCompositorCache.package’ accessed quite often here. Ignore any of the game’s usual files, and just look at any files located in Mods\Packages
It’s normal for many custom files [especially things like default replacements or custom content being used on your Sims] to have numbers 100+, and that’s not a big deal. However, once you get into numbers in the multiple thousands or even millions, you’ve got a big problem! In the image to the right [click it for a full size version] you can see that one particular file has been accessed well over a million times!
In this case, it’s a file from The Sims 2, which can’t be read by The Sims 3 so it’s getting stuck reading it over and over again. In testing, this one file made the difference between a game that loaded in under a minute to one that took over 5 minutes to load – a big difference for just one file!
Now that you have the file names of any problem files, it’s easy to go into your Mods\Packages folder and remove those files. It’s best to cut and paste the files elsewhere (like to a folder on your Desktop) temporarily, delete your cache files, then try the game and Process Monitor again to see how your game’s performance has improved.
Dealing With Problem Files
What you do with the problem files after that is up to you, and what kind of problem they had in the first place. It may not be obvious which of these problems you have, when looking at a particular file – when in doubt, just delete it.
- If you can tell they were from Sims 2 by the name (you may have to Google the creator name/object name) then just delete them. They won’t work in Sims 3 so you don’t need them.
- These can be deleted or redownloaded from the creator. Make sure to test that the new copy of the file is not causing lag – use Process Monitor again.
Incorrect Data: For files that had bad data due to being cloned with an older version of S3OC, you can check back with the creator to see if they have an updated version that’s fixed.
