Snow is very heavy on any computer. maybe this is why.

For pink flashing, you can try the quick and dirty methods. I am NOT an expert, so take that into consideration, please.

--Check thumbnail files. I delete them after they hit 10,000. Sometimes, those sonofaguns can get quite large. I've seen them in the 30,000s. (Source: http://www.leefish.nl/mybb/showthread.php?tid=7705)

--Take eyeball breaks after a certain amount of time and get off the game. Do some weight toning (I do that!), go get a drink, etc. I take breaks after an hour, though once in a very, very long while the pink flashing comes anyway. That is really rare, though.

--If you are playing what I call a really busy lot (large, lots of high-poly stuff, etc.) ... get out of the game right before you go into the lot. Check those thumbnails, go get a drink, clean the group.cache if you don't have the mod that sets it at zero. Then fire up the game and go into the lot. I find if I enter the lot after I've built a lot, gone to a bunch of busy lots, etc., had a party with 30 Sims, etc., the game is not happy with me.

--Watch out what else is running. Unless you're the type who NEEDS MP4 music to listen to when you play, you don't need iTunes. (If you feel you do, you might want to use another device to listen.) You probably don't need the anti-virus unless you're the sort who flips between the Internet and the game. (Since I use disks, I turn the AV off. Origin users can better tell you if you should keep your AV on.)

--You can turn down a few settings and not even notice it very much. This video, which also covers some of the above points, can tell you which ones to look at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLkmxAg7r3Y I don't do ALL of the suggestions for now (I turn down a couple of settings and the shadows stay off unless I need them for pictures), but if I need to do that in the future, then I need to do that.

--You might have to pick and choose just what CC you want. My overall hood view looks OK (not great), and I use still use an older water mod. I don't have a lighting mod. Needless to say, I would never enter a pretty hood or lot lighting contest! I have no idea whether that does a thing ... please remember, I am not one of the Great Experts here! But the less I stress out the game, even using minor measures, the better. My machine is older and my graphics card is not one of the spiffy new ones out there. I need to be a little gentle with them.

Others may opt to watch hair and clothes poly counts. It's really up to you to decide what you want.

I cannot use Graphics Rules Maker. There is a manual way to fix video card settings, if needed. I can see if I can pull up the post about it, but it may take a little searching.

Yeah, you generally shouldn't keep your computer outside in the snow.

I am never allowed anything!(pout)

The 30,000s are about the size of my smallest thumbnails (see my screenshot). Yes I do need to set aside some time to get rid of some CC... (fortunately, it doesn't seem to bother my game yet)


I would think that this depends on how powerful your computer is. If you have a lot of RAM, you may not need to worry so much about what else is running alongside your Sims game. I have an 8Gb tower running Windows 7 and in addition to my Sims game, I usually have a couple of browser windows open, sometimes with a Youtube video running in one of them, in addition to Irfanview (for screenshots) and Avast antivirus.


I did not know about the Graphics Rules Maker when I set up my system. I manually edited my settings using some page I found at the leefish.nl site (I think). If I could remember exactly what I did, I could probably find a link, but this was a couple of years ago and my memory is a bit foggy.

I found this super helpful doing it myself.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gmg298sZMo