Holy Simoly is being run by a MONKEY!

[JFederated]

Start>EAGAmes>Your Latest TS2 Expansion>EasyInfo.

This is a great site for searching for answers (not for posting blindly - seek in silence and ye shall likely find your questions already addressed):

http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php

More CC you have, slower your game will run.  Fact of life.  I'm no expert, but 'Integrated' is a red flag for a vid card for this game.  It may not be able to handle certain CC files very well or at all.

[slickchick]

jf - seeking in silence would have taken longer since i really don't have a clue about the machinations of the game beyond playing it. u helped me instantaneously. my display device/driver and sound driver resulted in unknown capatibility. thanks for your help. at least now i know where to start. didn't mean to aggravate u.

[Quinctia]

It's most definitely the integrated graphics card.  The reason why the increase of downloads increases what I like to call "texture crapping," is because when you get a new download, you generally use it right away, right?  So you're adding more objects to your game, things that are potentially much higher poly or texture quality, which takes more memory.

The problem with an integrated graphics card is that it doesn't have its own memory.  It's borrowing from the rest of the computer, and therefore you don't really have any RAM devoted to graphics.  The borrowing works enough so that your game works, but it's not very pretty.

Adding RAM straight up won't help, either.  On my old laptop, I added another gig of RAM (not just for sims, I needed it anyway) which basically gave me 5x the RAM I started with, but it didn't improve my graphics.  Improved load times and lag immensely, but not the quality of my graphics.

If you've got a laptop, you're also not going to be able to change out the video card in most cases.  Since yours is integrated, if you've got a laptop, I'd say you can't.  So you can toss more RAM in if you're having speed and load issues, but the graphics aren't really going to be getting any better.

[slickchick]

i have a pc - so does that mean there's hope for me? i didn't know an "integrated" graphic card was a bad. i'm truly ignorant to all of this. can u suggest an appropriate graphic card?

*nm* i just reread your post. i guess it's safe to assume i need a graphic card that has it's own memory. and it shouldn't be integrated. i'll figure it out. thank you guys SO MUCH.

[Witchboy]

can u suggest an appropriate graphic card?

I'd go with a nVidia card. I had a intergrated card and switched to a nVidia 6800, brought it home only to have it not work properly. The 6800 card required a power supply of 350 watts or higher to run properly. The power supply that is in my computer is only 300.

So i took the card back and got a nVidia 5500 series with 256 mb ram made by evga (I purchased a AGP card) and it worked perfectly. So when you do go for a new video card make sure you bring your computer specs with you and the watt power of your power supply and ask the sales person which card would be best for your computer.

Also the specs for the video card you are purchasing will be listed on the outside of the box somewhere.

Heres a link on how to buy the right video card for you. There are 3 types of slots available in todays PC's. They are PCI, AGP, and PCI Express.

http://www.diamondmm.com/howtobuyvideocard.php

Hope this helps

[Quinctia]

Isn't nVidia the brand which has tons of issues with The Sims 2 specifically?  There's several that won't run BV, period at the moment, if I remember correctly.

I'm a fangirl for ATI, honestly.  I had a suck-ass Radeon Xpress in my old laptop and, for the card it was, it ran admirably.

Right now, I've got an ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 and it works awesomely.  But the main concern when going for a new graphics card is making sure it's got plenty of what's called onboard memory.  I don't know how much graphics cards run for the PC (since I've been on laptops and am therefore not shopping for them individually, and all other laptop components cost more than a desktop version), but if you want something that will last you for quite some time, I might go with something with 512MB of RAM.  That would be a decent compromise between price and technology.

That said, I haven't had any problems running through Seasons with 2gigs of custom content on my card, which has 256MB of RAM.  I do have 2gigs of RAM and a newer processor, which helps out performance wise, I'm sure.

Aside from making sure your power supply can handle it (HP desktops, I know, are notorious for itsy bitsy power supplies), make sure also that you'll have enough cooling.  If things already run really hot for your computer, you might want to talk to someone knowledgeable about installing a card for the best way to make sure the tower doesn't overheat on you.

[deelink]

Man I really can't remember if I said this before. But The Sims 2 is programmed to make CC file sharing an easy process. The whole spirit of the game was to make stuff take stuff and share it, amongst everyone! First of all the Sims 2 is not really meant to be real life, where your sims's furniture reflects YOUR income. That is just absurd.
In the Sims 2 your fantasies can come true within the reason of the game engine. Your download folder is only limited to your HD. All of these things point that EA WANT us to have everything we want.
It's a SIMULATION game, why the hell are you going to pay for VIRTUAL stuff you are only going to look at? For the elitist purpose that you have money and therefore can have it?

As for tech specs.. I believe having over 2 GB of RAM and a good video card will solve most Sim related lagging.

 

[AW]

Some of the older nVidia cards did have problems.  I have the 8500 and have had no issues, but I also have 4 g rambus, and core 2.  No slickchik, you just need to get the specs for your motherboard to find out what cards are compatible with your system.  Ex.  PCI, PCI Exp, etc.  You can also go to newegg.com and find usually the best prices.

[Witchboy]

I have the nVidia 5500 fx card & i am running all the Sims 2 EP's & SP's with no problem. I'm also using the latest set of nVidia drivers.

I haven't had any problems with BV not running. *crossses fingers* :lol:

[JFederated]

jf - seeking in silence would have taken longer since i really don't have a clue about the machinations of the game beyond playing it. u helped me instantaneously. my display device/driver and sound driver resulted in unknown capatibility. thanks for your help. at least now i know where to start. didn't mean to aggravate u.

Ack!  Not aggravated - just letting you know what's what over at MATY.  Seriously, searching usually does the job over there.  Sorry if you took my post the wrong way.  

[HawkGirl]

So treat them the same. There is no idea here that TSR, Peggy or Rose is somehow "worse"

This stuck out to me because I agree with it 100%. I know some people love Holy Smoly or Numero or ATS but I think all paysites should be treated the same.  :evil: I hate 'em all!  :lol:

Many of us have said we love HS, ATS2, and Num...doesn't mean we don't think their stuff should be in the booty. I even wrote to Numenor and told him, I'm sorry, but I agree with all the reason's his tanning bed has to remain in the booty. Surprise he agreed with all the reasons too. He just doesn't agree with the reason's themselves. lol Just because they're a paysite doesn't mean they don't have quality merchandise, or that the owners aren't nice people.

i have a pc - so does that mean there's hope for me? i didn't know an "integrated" graphic card was a bad. i'm truly ignorant to all of this. can u suggest an appropriate graphic card?

*nm* i just reread your post. i guess it's safe to assume i need a graphic card that has it's own memory. and it shouldn't be integrated. i'll figure it out. thank you guys SO MUCH.

I have an HP, I ran it clear up and into Season's with a built in Intel Graphics card. Never had a problem. Only thing I had to do was add  pixel shader true into my cheat. Intel's built in graphic card can handle pixel shader 2/bump maps with no problem. In fact the guys at Best Buy thought I was nuts for wanting to change it out/add a graphic card. They said are you having problems with your games? I said no, it runs all my games great. No crashing, nothing. They said you know you already 512 onboard? I said yes. He said then if your not having problems you have over 2 gigs your adding into the game, why are you purposely looking to give yourself problems? I said I don't know. lol Oh and I had over 200 Sims in just one neighborhood, with over 2,000 character files also and never ran slow, hung, nothing.

[deelink]

I wanted to reply Hawkgirl.. but your use of the word "merchandise" really baffled me....

I was thinking that a lot of people have paid for stuff from HS and they inturn have adopted the whole "business" philosophy. That doesn't make them any less nice as people. They are just capitalists.

Is it right to profit from people who just want more options to their gameplay? An already limited array of choices due to the nature of the Sims2 engine?

I am just pointing out a few things that need to be ironed. Personally I think it's just NOT NICE AT ALL.  :evil:

[HawkGirl]

I wanted to reply Hawkgirl.. but your use of the word "merchandise" really baffled me....

I was thinking that a lot of people have paid for stuff from HS and they inturn have adopted the whole "business" philosophy. That doesn't make them any less nice as people. They are just capitalists.

Is it right to profit from people who just want more options to their gameplay? An already limited array of choices due to the nature of the Sims2 engine?

I am just pointing out a few things that need to be ironed. Personally I think it's just NOT NICE AT ALL.  :evil:

I called it merchandise because we have to pay for it. Is not merchandise goods that are bought and sold? And no I don't think it's right to have to pay for it. I don't think anyone should pay for it. However, I am one of the people that has paid for CC before. I probably would have continued as well, but several things happened. Not going into that big long story again, but has nothing to do with me. I have no bad luck story, no paysite owner has ever treated me badly. I've never been banned, etc. I think we need to refer to their stuff as merchandise which is the correct term. Not donation pack. Maybe they'd realize they are indeed business owners, and as business owners they must follow the same laws other business owners must follow. They can't have their cake and eat it too. With, I'll just make CC and sell it, call it a donation pack and then I don't have to worry about the consumer protection laws. I think not. They want to treat people as customers, that makes them business owners. Which means we need to find out if they are paying business taxes. Have business licenses. Have licensing agreements for what they are selling, give refunds, fix broken merchandise, etc...etc.

[redisenchanted]

I wanted to reply Hawkgirl.. but your use of the word "merchandise" really baffled me....

I was thinking that a lot of people have paid for stuff from HS and they inturn have adopted the whole "business" philosophy. That doesn't make them any less nice as people. They are just capitalists.

Is it right to profit from people who just want more options to their gameplay? An already limited array of choices due to the nature of the Sims2 engine?

I am just pointing out a few things that need to be ironed. Personally I think it's just NOT NICE AT ALL.  :evil:

I'm not sure I understand what you're trying to say here, but if someone exchanges something, even pixels for money, it's merchandise, a sale. It's not a donation.

[neriana]

I was thinking that a lot of people have paid for stuff from HS and they inturn have adopted the whole "business" philosophy. That doesn't make them any less nice as people. They are just capitalists.

No, they're thieves. Which does make them less nice as people.