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Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#1 Old 9th Jul 2019 at 3:59 PM

This user has the following games installed:

Sims 2, University, Nightlife, Open for Business, Pets, Seasons, Bon Voyage, Free Time, Apartment Life
Default I found out what causes the flashing Pink glitch in neighbourhoods.
I recently upgraded my PC to a Nvidia 1070 GTX, which had no problems running the sims so long as the 4GB patch was installed.
I also looked into the memory allocation video which i found very useful. The operating system I'm using is Windows 10. I have been testing between Origins UC and my own personal collection of sims 2, however both give out the same results.

Both have given me the same results when it relates to the flashing pink glitch keep in mind this occurs even without CC. Which makes no sense to me. Running with no CC, should make the application light as a feather.
I tested out Pleasant vile, which had no flashing pink on any objects. the pattern for me, was that the flashing pink effected only the decorated parts of neighborhood, the lots from what i had checked were not affected.

The cause of the flashing pink glitch became apparent when i added a sub neighbor hood, in this test i added a new shopping district. as soon that was added to Pleasant vile the flashing pink glitch would appear.
Deleting the shopping district sub neighborhood, gets rid of the glitch but you have to refresh the neighborhood.

There's something that sub neighborhood adds which changes the Shading/visual properties of the objects.
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Mad Poster
#2 Old 9th Jul 2019 at 4:24 PM Last edited by simmer22 : 9th Jul 2019 at 5:04 PM.
I also have the 1070 GTX, and my game has flashed pink even without subhoods. The more subhoods you add, the worse the performance will be, so there's that - but subhoods aren't the main cause of pink-flashing.

The main culprit is having shaders turned on, and anything that uses shaders. The problem with turning shaders off is that a lot of things disappear from the game (fishes in aquariums and ponds, some 3/4t2 hairs, the pretty reflections in pools, and various other things. Bump mapping also doesn't work with shaders turned off). Using neighborhoods without surrounding water may help, too. If you can manage without these things, then turning shaders off will take a huge load off the texture memory, and may even entirely prevent the pink-flashing from happening.
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#3 Old 9th Jul 2019 at 6:26 PM
Quote: Originally posted by simmer22
I also have the 1070 GTX, and my game has flashed pink even without subhoods. The more subhoods you add, the worse the performance will be, so there's that - but subhoods aren't the main cause of pink-flashing.

The main culprit is having shaders turned on, and anything that uses shaders. The problem with turning shaders off is that a lot of things disappear from the game (fishes in aquariums and ponds, some 3/4t2 hairs, the pretty reflections in pools, and various other things. Bump mapping also doesn't work with shaders turned off). Using neighborhoods without surrounding water may help, too. If you can manage without these things, then turning shaders off will take a huge load off the texture memory, and may even entirely prevent the pink-flashing from happening.


I am fully aware of the boolprop useshaders false, and yes, i'm trying to avoid using it. I had no idea that the side effects of the relate to alpha based shaders, i thought it was simply diffuse textures. Thinking about it, it makes sense that bump-maps are affected.
After doing some more test, it has come to my attention the pink flashing is random, and has no clear pattern in what triggers it. since you're on the same page with GPU's, did you experiment with the shaders settings in the display settings under Nvidias control panel?
It's times like this, i feel like just buying an old 64bit mother board and putting all my old components on that. I've been reading on other articles that it's an Nvidia and windows 10 issue. The last stable OS was Win 7.

There has to be a way to pin point the shader settings. something within the control panel affects it graphically, i don't think this is a memory issue.
Mad Poster
#4 Old 9th Jul 2019 at 6:52 PM Last edited by simmer22 : 9th Jul 2019 at 7:04 PM.
I haven't tried mesing around with the Nvidia panel yet, as I'm testing out a couple of other things first (haven't actually gotten around to opening my game the past week because life kept happening, but I'll let you know if any of it works - I have a topic over in the help section with the things I've tried and the ones I'm still trying). Would be nice to find a "once and for all" fix for the Win10/UC/Nvidia 1000+ issue that didn't involve turning off shaders, though.

Shaders take up a big chunk of texture memory, as do large textures and high-poly meshes.

Windows 10 has some issues in regards to an update that caused most of the pink-flashing issues in the first place, and it also seems to not handle texure memory very well (particularly if that update was done), so it's a matter of circumventing these issues.

I've had "high-demand only" pink-flashing on one computer (that couldn't even hold a candle to my current laptop, but handled the game much better), and never saw any pink issues on my old laptop (Win7), even without the 4GB fix or tinkering with the GraphicRules files, so I think it depends on the individual system and Windows version. Newer and better isn't always the best option when it comes to old games.

It's a many-sided memory issue. The game can only use 4 GB with the fix, and on Win10 doesn't seem to handle the switch to virtual memory properly (like my WinXP laptop did - it had only 512 mb RAM), and then there's also texture memory, which seems to clog up way too fast (I won't pretend to fully understand the exact mechanics of RAM, V-ram and whatever else is involved, because I don't). My system has 32 GB of RAM, and the video card has either 6 or 8, so if there wasn't something wrong with how the game or Win10 handles memory with 32-bit games, then RAM should not at all be a problem with my system, because there's plenty of memory and then some on top of that. In addition, my game is installed on a SSD (1 TB, and I have a 1 TB HDD for files, so I'm not planning to have much else than programs and games on the SSD), and runs perfectly except for the pink-flashing, so something weird is obviously going on .
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#5 Old 9th Jul 2019 at 7:27 PM
No kidding. I too have a 1TB SSD and 32gb of ram i also have a 2TB hard drive as secondary.
So if anything you have the exact same spec PC as mine. This would probably make it alot easier to test your graphics rules with no changes.
You want to know whats funny, my old 1GB GPU from 2010 handled Sims 2 on windows 10 with no issues what so ever.
I still have it, but think about it, this is crazy. Using that old GPU will solve my issue. It was also an AMD 6000 series, this was back when ATI was still around.
Mad Poster
#6 Old 9th Jul 2019 at 10:01 PM
^ My old stationary (Vista, 4 GB RAM, Nvidia card, put together in 2009) ran the game very well except for long loading times and pink-flashing under heavy loads (35+ GB of CC, had to limit weather and limit time on heavy-CC lots, though). The game also ran great on my old laptop with not a hint of pink-flashing, though I did have some issues with dual cards (Win7, Nvidia 635m, 8 GB RAM, about 16GB of CC at the most - but no game fixing required other than adding the video card and tinkering with Nvidia settings to make the game recognize the card). There was quite a bit of lag and extremely long loading times on my first laptop (integrated card I think, 512 MB memory, WinXP, and only up to FT installed because the lag got worse after installing it, and more often swiched to virtual memory) - but the game somehow ran, and I kind of got used to the lag.

I guess the newer the computer, GPU and OP is, the worse it handles older games. Computers around 2004-2010 paired with the older Windows versions were much better equipped to handle 32-bit games.
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#7 Old 9th Jul 2019 at 10:11 PM
Out of curiosity, was your Texture memory: 8192MB? in your config log?
Could this be too excessive? This was constructed under the graphics rule maker.
However the Memory and free memory shows 4096mb, which sounds about right.
Mad Poster
#8 Old 9th Jul 2019 at 10:25 PM
I can't remember what the texture memory line says (I tried to set it higher, but it changed nothing - atm I'm on the wrong computer). The one that's supposed to say 4096 after the 4 GB fix is correctly applied still says so.
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#9 Old 9th Jul 2019 at 11:26 PM
There is no easy answer of 'this' causes pink flashing or 'this' will fix it. It's an individual thing caused by the whole interplay of things. I did everything known under the sun and so did simmer22 but hers was worse than mine. My pink flashing seems to have stopped since moving default hairs with large textures down to Saved Sims and removing an ocean overlay but I never say never since who knows, but its been good for over a couple of months now.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Mad Poster
#10 Old 10th Jul 2019 at 12:57 AM
I wonder if Origin may be hogging some of the memory in the background (pretty sure I made a new shortcut, but I probably have the updated version of UC which didn't seem to be as no-Origin friendly as the first version, so my game opens Origin every time, though I always choose the "disconnected" option when logging in). Is there another way of going past Origin with the updated version they released a while back?

Maybe the updated version (the one without Securom) could be part of the problem, or at least explain why some people get pink-flashing and others don't, on very similar setups with Win10. This new version was meant to be more Win10 friendly, but knowing EA/Origin, they could have done some blunders in the background.
Undead Molten Llama
#11 Old 10th Jul 2019 at 1:47 AM
Origin (and its associated QtWebEngineProcess) can and does hog system RAM. I don't use it for TS2 because I don't have the UC, but when I play TS3, where I have to have Origin running concurrently, those two processes will eat ~300MB of system RAM. Which is far less than a web browser, but still. BUT! that's not going to contribute to pink flashing. Pink flashing is just about texture memory, which unless you are playing on integrated graphics rather than a dedicated card, has to do with the RAM that's sitting on your video card, not the RAM that's plugged into the motherboard. Eating your system RAM is going to affect, for instance, whether or not you can run a web browser while playing the game without it eating into the 4GB of system RAM the game can use, assuming that you've made it Large Address Aware (i.e., via the "4GB patch"). (And assuming that your web browser doesn't go "Oh hey, you've got 16GB of RAM! Guess what? I'MMA USE ALL OF IT!" Which they will, unfortunately, do depending on what tabs you have open.) Sure, Origin will use a small amount of video memory because it DOES display graphics. EVERY program does unless you're talking about some kind of text-only interface. But it's not going to be gobbling up a huge chunk.

That being said, given the anecdotal evidence I've seen, my speculation is that Win10 screws around with texture memory somehow, maybe reserving a bigger chunk of it than necessary for itself. Pink flashing did not seem to be a really prevalent issue until Win10 became the more common OS that TS2 players were using. Most people who use older OSs don't seem to have as much trouble with it, unless they're playing gigantic neighborhoods full of high-res stuff. And sometimes, older OS users don't have much of a problem even if they are playing more high-res. I'm on Win7, a couple of my neighborhoods are hugely and deliberately high-res, but I can play them for a 6-hour stretch, complete with shifting between lots often, before I start to see any pink. (Yes, Jo, I know you're on 7, but honestly? I think you're an outlier with this issue. Most of the people who are reporting major pink problems are Win10 users.) Unfortunately, if my speculation is true, then this means that going forward, TS2 is going to be an increasingly less-viable game, unless you "downgrade" to an older OS or find an older system to use, if only just for TS2.

But to the OP: Jo's right. There is no magic bullet with this issue. Different things will work for different people. And, what might have once worked to quell your pink might also STOP working, suddenly. It's all a matter of what your computer's doing, which is a pretty individual thing and will vary from play session to play session, AND will depend on your hardware, various settings, whether or not you run anything else graphics-intensive while playing, etc. in addition to what you're actually doing in the game. Do you use high-res CC (most "modern" stuff is)? Do you move between lots often? Do you switch between subhoods or entire neighborhoods in a single play session? All of those (and more) eat texture memory, which the game does not process in a way that accommodates high-res graphics because it was never meant to be a high-res game. In fact, it was specifically designed to be low-res (and low-poly, but that's mostly a separate issue). So the more you do those things, the faster you will see pink. Which means, save, exit the game, reboot your computer, reload the game, play until pink, save, exit...blah blah.

Really, the pink is analogous to Save Error 12 in TS3 -- a limitation because of game design -- although at least with the pink it doesn't mean that you have to start your game all over again.

I'm mostly found on (and mostly upload to) Tumblr these days because, alas, there are only 24 hours in a day.
Muh Simblr! | An index of my downloads on Tumblr.
Mad Poster
#12 Old 10th Jul 2019 at 2:05 AM Last edited by simmer22 : 10th Jul 2019 at 2:17 AM.
Well, I don't know what's the root of my issues, but it's not CC related or high-demand the same way it was on my stationary (heavy snow on the ground for a prolonged period, CC-heavy houses on large lots, or play for 2-3 days straight were the usual triggers, but could often get through a play session with either one of these and not see pink). Now I've had the pink-flashing with no CC, or only my absolutely basic CC (roughly 600 MB in all - my now ancient, dead laptop would probably just point and laugh at how poorly that went), and mostly just one lot because going to neighborhood and trying another makes it flashes pink . It's basically opening game and there is pink-flashing, or at best play for less than half an hour before pink-flashing starts appearing. I'm almost wondering if there is no texture memory access at all on this thing...

The funny thing is, the game doesn't lag, loads in a flash, and basically works like a dream except the pink-flashing (which makes it almost unplayable), so in theory there "should" be a way to fix it. Eh, one can dream, at least...

It's probably a newer hardware/software issue combined with the Windows 10 update that made it go from merely having a dislike for running 32-bit games to "let's point a sh*tload of bazookas at that thing and watch it blow up!"
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#13 Old 10th Jul 2019 at 2:06 AM
An outlier? lol. I tell you what, if you want strange and odd problems, knock on my door, cause I have em.

I agree going forward is going to be tough and I have plans to make my online pc a small laptop separate from my sims 2 pc.

I do use comm lots a lot and often the pink flashing would start on arriving home or going to another lot. So definitely some kind of connection there. I even had Maxis puddles flashing one time.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#14 Old 10th Jul 2019 at 2:14 AM
I thought about this, UC running under origin was recently patched to reduce the lag, it's also the most stable. I personally prefer my disc collection. EA's UC has strangely a messed up priority, which ends with pets, which doesn't make any sense. Your biggest concern is turning off the Nvidia overlay captures and any other screen captures.
Undead Molten Llama
#15 Old 10th Jul 2019 at 2:17 AM
Every group has to have at least one outlier, Jo. Tag, you're it! I think poor simmer22 is also an outlier, given that she pinks even with no CC at all. Very weird.

But yes, generally speaking switching between lots often, be it going to community lots or switching active households, contributes to texture memory usage because every time the game loads a lot, more stuff gets dumped in the memory cache and the old, no-longer-needed stuff doesn't get removed. The game does this to reduce loading screen time for when you return to the home lot -- which is a good thing! -- but of course 15 years ago the developers didn't count on all the high-res CC that a lot of "serious players" use nowadays.

It's interesting that moving stuff to SavedSims rather than Downloads helped things for you. I wonder if stuff that's in there is processed differently somehow...

I'm mostly found on (and mostly upload to) Tumblr these days because, alas, there are only 24 hours in a day.
Muh Simblr! | An index of my downloads on Tumblr.
Mad Poster
#16 Old 10th Jul 2019 at 2:26 AM
It took me quite a lot of fixing just to get to the point where I could open the game without it either crashing before I got to a neighborhood, or flashing pink in the neighborhood after loading it. The pink mess that greeted me when I first managed to load a lot - I've only seen that once or twice on my stationary, and that was after a heavy snowfall and probably at least a couple of days playing. It's not "flashing pink after a few hours of gameplay", it's "flashing pink immediately". It's also a bit random which version I get, but around 30 minutes without pink is the most so far, and I almost had gained a little bit of hope that it was working, but then I was greeted by that pink-headed wolf I posted in the Blooper pictures. So back to the drawing board...

I've tried most of the fixes and tips posted around (not turning shaders off, because I want to see if I can fix the problem and still have shaders - but if all else fails I'll try it), but so far it's only getting me a mouse-step closer.

I tried some optimizing steps for readying Win10 for gaming as my latest trick, but life has been busy the past week so I never got the chance to check if it worked. Hoping things calm down a bit now so I can try it out.
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#17 Old 10th Jul 2019 at 2:26 AM
Oh also, I am on original disks + 4gbpatch. I have never used the UC.

Gina suggested I move them since as she pointed out many default hairs use large textures. I guess maybe it loads at a different time or as you said gets processed differently. She may have said why she thought that would help but I have forgotten.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Mad Poster
#18 Old 10th Jul 2019 at 2:33 AM Last edited by simmer22 : 10th Jul 2019 at 2:45 AM.
I do have discs too, but my new laptop doesn't have a disc drive. I did buy an optical DVD burner/player when I bought the new laptop, but I didn't want to rely on CDs (even if I know there's a noCD thing you can do) and I didn't want to risk it with Securom (even if I've had no apparent issues with it earlier), so I kind of wanted to try out the UC.

Why is it so hard for Microsoft to understand that people actually have older programs they want to be able to run on their computers? According to the family computer geek, Microsoft is considering stopping 32-bit support for their future systems. Nvidia also looks like they're stopping 32-bit support (news from 2018), so sooner or later we're going to have to rely on older systems to play our favorite old games.

I wonder if some of the people who don't have pink-flashing at all are on 32-bit versions of Windows... That would explain a lot. I think Win10 has a 32-bit option, but most pre-builds seem to come with the 64-bit version.
Undead Molten Llama
#19 Old 10th Jul 2019 at 3:05 AM
Quote: Originally posted by simmer22
It's probably a newer hardware/software issue combined with the Windows 10 update that made it go from merely having a dislike for running 32-bit games to "let's point a sh*tload of bazookas at that thing and watch it blow up!"


This is probably pretty significant, actually. Going forward, OSs -- at least the "mainstream" ones -- are more and more going to assume that you're running 64-bit programs, not 32-bit ones, and if you're running something 32-bit, there's bound to be more "miscommunication" as time goes on. But really, many not-too-old games are 32-bit. TS3 is, too and that's only been out of production for...five years? Which, sure, is old in computer years, but it's not so old that it's not going to have a still-pretty-large pool of players. I'm guessing TS4 is 64-bit, though.

The thing that I don't get is the variation here. I'm going to assume that a lot people who are playing TS2 are on the same Win10 version or update or whatever that you are. Maybe that assumption is wrong, but I don't see why it would be given that Win10 forces updates that, as I understand it, can't be turned off like you could with previous releases. Are there different versions of Win10, like "Home," "Pro," "Enterprise," etc., like older Windows iterations? I don't even know, but if so, maybe that's part of the problem. But if not, if everyone's playing an automatically-updated Win10 where there are no different versions, then why isn't EVERY Win10 user playing the UC having the same level of problem that you are? (Don't feel you have to answer that; it's a rhetorical question for the most part. ) It's just really hard to diagnose an issue if there's no consistent patterns among players, and it's frustrating. I mean, yes, it's fairly obvious that Win10 players have more problems with this issue in general, but some Win10 players have no issues at all even using lots of high-res and doing things in-game that would force more texture memory usage, while others have more problems but not at a crippling level, while you on the other had problems getting an entirely- or mostly-vanilla game to run much less not pink out. I can't wrap my head around the variation here...although that's probably because I don't really understand the programming. I'm looking at it more like how one goes about diagnosing and fixing a mechanical problem with a car, and that's probably not the best approach with computer software.

Maybe it's a combination of the game not liking the OS and/or various hardware drivers? I'm assuming you've tried different/older GPU drivers because I know from reading your posts here and there that you've been pretty thorough.

I'm mostly found on (and mostly upload to) Tumblr these days because, alas, there are only 24 hours in a day.
Muh Simblr! | An index of my downloads on Tumblr.
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#20 Old 10th Jul 2019 at 3:24 AM
I believe Sims 4 has both a 32 and a 64-bit version.

I insisted on getting a pc with a disk drive as I can see that the new thing is to have none. I hate all this digital-cloud storage thing.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Mad Poster
#21 Old 10th Jul 2019 at 3:52 AM
There are home and pro versions, possibly an enterprise as well, and possibly a 32-bit version, though I'm not entirely sure. I have the 64-bit Pro version. No idea if the version matters, though. While I was doing the setup it did updates automatically, so I'd probably have to uninstall and reinstall Windows to remove that particular update (and I'm not sure if it's possible to not have it update while doing the setup).

Funny thing is, my 64-bit home version of Win7 had no pink-flash issues at all. Only discovered a few weeks back that according to the log file I hadn't even done the 4GB fix (still said 2048 for memory). I have no idea if the Vista version on my stationary was 32 or 64 bit, though (probably can't check either, because it barely turns on now - most likely an issue between the moherboard and the RAM slots/cards, accoding to our family computer geek, so i'd have to replace the entire motherboard and a bunch of other parts, probably also reinstall Windows to make it work properly, since it kept freezing around startup).
Undead Molten Llama
#22 Old 10th Jul 2019 at 4:14 AM
Yeah, now that you mention it, my Win7 is 64-bit, too (the Pro version, specifically), and so was the Vista (Business version) I had on this machine's immediate predecessor. The game never pinked under Vista and only does so on this machine if I deliberately push things and play in very long sessions without exiting. So, unless 7 and Vista are somehow "friendlier" to 32-bit programs than Win10's 64-bit-ness, that's probably not so much of an issue. Dang, I thought we were maybe onto something there.

My understanding is that you can't turn off automatic updates in Win10 and can't even set it so that it asks you if want it to update, so you're probably not going to be able to avoid that update unless maybe you install without the internet (if that would even work) and then never connect the machine to the internet, but that's kind of ridiculous and unrealistic. This kind of thing is a dealbreaker for me, personally, so going forward....Well, I've got a few copies of Win7 stockpiled, but if future programs aren't compatible, that's not going to be much help, except with older programs. So it's might be time for me to look into Linux, for newer stuff. Or Apple, I suppose, but I don't like their business practices and don't wish to support them, either, so...yeah.

I'm mostly found on (and mostly upload to) Tumblr these days because, alas, there are only 24 hours in a day.
Muh Simblr! | An index of my downloads on Tumblr.
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#23 Old 10th Jul 2019 at 10:13 AM
Quote: Originally posted by iCad
Well, I've got a few copies of Win7 stockpiled, but if future programs aren't compatible, that's not going to be much help, except with older programs. So it's might be time for me to look into Linux, for newer stuff. Or Apple, I suppose, but I don't like their business practices and don't wish to support them, either, so...yeah.



I agree, i'm thinking of building a custom gaming pc for Linux, use a the Radeon 6000 series and call it a day. I would be curious to know if The Sims 2 even works on Linux. I too had considered the idea of using Win 7, but it's hard to go back to it.
There's something about win 7 features that feels isolated and old. Near to the end of Win 7's transition to Win 10, i do remember windows 7 having the black rectangle shadow glitch. I would go back to windows 7 if i knew the 1070 GTX would run the game.
I'm pretty sure this is a Windows 10 update issue, i used to look up YouTube videos trying to find ways to stop these updates. It makes sense why EA decided to end the Ultimate collection back in October 2018, i just don't think they wanted to deal with the technical issues themselves.
Mad Poster
#24 Old 10th Jul 2019 at 11:20 AM
Quote: Originally posted by Jasmini
Near to the end of Win 7's transition to Win 10, i do remember windows 7 having the black rectangle shadow glitch.

I think the black rectangle shadow glitch was an issue with the Nvidia graphics cards or their drivers and nothing necessarily to do with Windows 7. The machine I'm currently running has 64-bit Windows 7 Professional with a Radeon HD 7700 series graphics card and that glitch has never appeared on this machine.
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#25 Old 10th Jul 2019 at 11:39 AM
Quote: Originally posted by RoxEllen1965
I think the black rectangle shadow glitch was an issue with the Nvidia graphics cards or their drivers and nothing necessarily to do with Windows 7. The machine I'm currently running has 64-bit Windows 7 Professional with a Radeon HD 7700 series graphics card and that glitch has never appeared on this machine.


On the contrary, the black rectangle box was just the beginning of the graphical decline for sims 2. I can confirm as an AMD user back when ATI was a thing, this also affected AMD GPU models.
I'm starting to think AMD GPUS are better for Sims 2 in general. Because you had to manually get the driver updates, which was the way i liked it back then. I mean what are the odds of EA remastering Sims 2 for PC?
Seriously i would pay good money, but the risk is the game being under new code, leading to incompatible legendary CC.

I would recommend AMD users to invest in the Radeon 6000/7000 series to play The Sims 2.
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