Hi there! You are currently browsing as a guest. Why not create an account? Then you get less ads, can thank creators, post feedback, keep a list of your favourites, and more!
Field Researcher
Original Poster
#1 Old 10th Nov 2016 at 10:50 PM
Default "Sims 3 has stopped responding" while saving in EIG + custom texture question.
This is going to be a two question thread just so I don't clog up the forum.

First, I am at my wits end. I am in the final stages of completing my custom world and have been doing some polishing on neighborhoods that had lot tearing or just weren't sitting in a way that was aesthetically pleasing. I have done this mostly by deleting the lot, smoothing the ground underneath, and redrawing the lots in the CAW program and then importing the saved lots into their new leveled spot using edit in game (using the set import height cheat). During this phase I also went through my store content and decided to set locations up for the lots that had a lot of this stuff in them (mind you they are still not placed at this time). The reason I am bringing all of this up is because logically, there should be considerably less data for the world to save with these intensive lots not being there (by intensive I mean they are decorated for each season).

The problem I am having is I can only save one lot before the game will start crashing after I place them. They place just fine, but when I go to save it'll give me the error "The sims 3 has stopped responding". Sometimes it happens really quickly and other times it will happen after it's been saving for awhile. I still have several lots to replace and few lots I need to build as well.

I really and honestly do NOT want to save without the my build/buy mode CC as my world uses CC holiday decorations for the seasonal lot changes and saving without this content will obliterate weeks of effort.

I also don't think it's likely to be a world size issue, as my world is very small size wise at just around 50 MBs.
I have tried clearing my caches multiples times, and have done a complete folder reset of sims 3. I have all of my mods pulled out aside from a few build mode package files.
I have read vague references to upping the max amount of store content that can be used by editing something? If someone knows what this means could you please expand on it?

So, more or less I'm asking what on Earth I can do to fix this issue?

I am a Windows 7 user 64 bit,
Nvidia GeForce GT 610,
AMD FX 8100 eight core processor 2.80 GHz
8GB of RAM

The second question is I'd like to make a couple custom textures for some areas of my world (preferably not overrides) and I'm wondering what compression type the DDS files need to be for CAW to register them and if I need to edit anything else to get them to work properly.

Thank you very much for your time, have a lovely day!
Advertisement
e3 d3 Ne2 Nd2 Nb3 Ng3
retired moderator
#2 Old 11th Nov 2016 at 9:26 AM
I always had this problem when creating worlds, I usually resorted to adding one lot at a time. You could try this batch file to load EIG without CAW, to see if that helps you:
http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=453161

For textures, this is from my notes:
Quote:
Groundcover seem best as DXT5 Interpolated Alpha, as this has a better alpha than DXT3.

Road textures-DXT5, but keep original mip-maps if using game-extracted textures. Open the original with 'load Mip Maps' checked.

Normal Maps- Delete Alpha, save as DXT1 4bpp, no alpha. Adjust DDS normal map settings to 'convert to tangent space normal map', 4 sample, average RGB, height. Then save as 24bit TGA.

Any transparent textures- the alpha should be black. If this is lost during extraction of in-game textures, delete existing white aplha and create new alpha layer to correct. The new alpha will be black. Save as DXT1 4bpp 1 bit Alpha.

Opacity maps- save as DXT1 no alpha.


NB: If you use a format other than DDS, CAW will convert these to DDS upon saving. Not recommended to use JPG or other compressed format though as these are lossy (to be converted into lossy DDS, so better to just convert straight to DDS!).


I hope that helps!
Field Researcher
Original Poster
#3 Old 11th Nov 2016 at 2:47 PM
@simsample Thank you for the informative post! I have most of my lots replaced now (took the better part of today). Is there any particular reason CAW starts acting up like that? I hadn't had this issue over the last couple of months that I'd been using it.

And thank you very much for the compression info, I'll get right to making a few textures.
e3 d3 Ne2 Nd2 Nb3 Ng3
retired moderator
#4 Old 11th Nov 2016 at 3:19 PM
I think it's most likely a memory problem- CAW is only a 32 bit program, so can't utilise all of your RAM. It doesn't take a very large world to exceed that limit, so that the program fails when saving.
Field Researcher
Original Poster
#5 Old 14th Nov 2016 at 12:40 AM
Ah. That makes since. Thank you for the response.
Test Subject
#6 Old 26th Dec 2016 at 2:20 PM
I have a similar probem - the only difference is that I am using the batch file to go directly to EIG. It worked for a while, then I probably loaded more lots than it could handle (?) I am creating a vast world with probably 200 lots. I know I probably won't be able to get to that number but it starts crashing with 50-60 or so. I have removed all unnecessary mods. I have the lots premade in my library and place & save. I go directly to EIG. I have made all the lots in CAW before I load the game (maybe I should place them 5 at a time and then load EIG and then place & save and once 5 lots are placed do the thing all over again?) Is there any way to make it through all the lots and actually create the world or do I have to make peace with the fact that it probably be unfinished and I will have to "finish" it in a game? :/

Hoard - Collect - File - Index
Catalog-Preserve-Amass-Index
e3 d3 Ne2 Nd2 Nb3 Ng3
retired moderator
#7 Old 27th Dec 2016 at 11:19 AM
@Portokalia
It's going to be trial and error, I think- when i was creating a large world, i ran into the same problem and ended up having to add one lot at a time in EIG, before saving and rebooting the PC. That was the only way I could get it to work on my rather ancient computer! So you may be in for a rather time-consuming experience.
Test Subject
#8 Old 29th Dec 2016 at 12:03 AM
Quote: Originally posted by simsample
@Portokalia
It's going to be trial and error, I think- when i was creating a large world, i ran into the same problem and ended up having to add one lot at a time in EIG, before saving and rebooting the PC. That was the only way I could get it to work on my rather ancient computer! So you may be in for a rather time-consuming experience.


Aaaaah! Well... As long as I know that I'm not alone in this I think I will find the courage Thank you for the response!

Hoard - Collect - File - Index
Catalog-Preserve-Amass-Index
Back to top