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Off-lot Terrain Glitching

Posted: March 1st, 2015, 4:32 pm
by Taube
So, I've never had this problem before but in some of my neighborhoods the view of off-lot terrain in college and vacation neighborhoods is a flat light blue, but not always. The only thing that's changed before this glitch is that I changed to a new computer running Windows 8 and downloaded the UC then added in my old files. I had all kinds of graphics problems initially but found info on Windows 8 stuff, so those got solved. However, this has cropped up a few months after that and I haven't been able to find anything about this so I'm hoping someone can help. :)

Within college and occasional vacation lots with college student vacationing on them (so when I'm playing a lot) the objects outside the lot (such as houses, neighborhood decorations) show up, including some things that are underground like stairs, but the terrain is a flat light blue.
Spoiler:
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Sometimes it will be fine when I'm moving the camera, but revert to blue when the camera is stationary. Even on the same lots, it doesn't happen every time I play. It has occasionally happened on vacation lots when I sent college students on vacation, but it mostly happens on college lots, and occasionally the terrain in the college neighborhood view is blue. It doesn't happen at all in the main neighborhood, and I've had this happen in two completely different neighborhood saves with different college templates. I've tried changing view distance and neighborhood object settings, but the only thing that affects it is setting view distance to none, which is really just covering up the problem instead of fixing it.

I can't figure out what the common denominator is and I'm kind of pulling my hair out because it makes my pictures look terrible when it happens and I'm afraid it's a sign of corruption. I have no recent CC or mod downloads (going back to before I switched computers), though I do have plenty of both. Any ideas?

Re: Off-lot Terrain Glitching

Posted: March 2nd, 2015, 12:25 pm
by Ani-Mei
Mootilda's Hood Checker could root out the issue. I get stuff like that when I try to use cameraman mode on that NL lot one of the club things FM I think. I don't know why it does that, I've only noticed small things like how busted the Desiderata Valley template gets if you put lots on the road closest to the lake it screws up the terrain elsewhere in the hood.

Re: Off-lot Terrain Glitching

Posted: March 2nd, 2015, 1:54 pm
by Taube
Thanks! I will check that out. These games are so high-maintenance sometimes. :roll: :lol: Thanks again for the response!

Re: Off-lot Terrain Glitching

Posted: March 10th, 2015, 9:51 pm
by Simsimity
Could be an odd graphic card glitch too - I get flashing purple thingies now that I have the UC that I never got before. There seems to be some "quirks" with the UC. :lol:

Re: Off-lot Terrain Glitching

Posted: March 11th, 2015, 4:00 pm
by Taube
Thanks for the extra information, Simsimity. It seems that sometimes the UC doesn't "play nice" with newer graphics cards and Windows 8, since the game wasn't really built for them. The things I had to do to get the game installed and showing right at first! :roll: However, it is still better than installing my bazillion discs.

I haven't run into anyone else with exactly my problem, but it is nice to know I'm not the only one the UC causes problems for. I just wish they were less photo-ruining. :(

Re: Off-lot Terrain Glitching

Posted: March 14th, 2015, 8:02 am
by Sam
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You are not the only one with this problem! :)

I don't know what's causing it, and it only occurred in that one 'hood, but pretty scary all the same.

Re: Off-lot Terrain Glitching

Posted: March 15th, 2015, 10:31 pm
by Taube
Ha ha, okay, now that is some impressive glitching! :applause: I'm becoming more relieved that my game probably won't blow up and didn't invent a new, unique glitch all on its own.

Re: Off-lot Terrain Glitching

Posted: March 16th, 2015, 1:12 am
by Ani-Mei
That's awesome Sam!! Considering I just watched Futurama that phrase makes me laugh. Also the newest Night at the Museum movie, the MC Escher painting with the weird staircases and things too. It takes place at the British Museum in London too. :D

Re: Off-lot Terrain Glitching

Posted: March 16th, 2015, 5:57 am
by Sam
Still, no idea what's causing it or how to fix it. :) But it makes for amusing pictures

And lol, I had to use the futurama quote, it popped into my head when I saw this madness happening - I got it wrong though, it's "I can see sideways in time!". I haven't seen the newest Night at the Museum, but now I think I need to!

Re: Off-lot Terrain Glitching

Posted: March 16th, 2015, 12:19 pm
by Ani-Mei
It might be the Windows 8.1 OS the graphics are simply not understanding how to show an old game like Sims 2 properly. You'd think it would but sometimes upgrades don't always make things better.

Re: Off-lot Terrain Glitching

Posted: March 16th, 2015, 3:34 pm
by Sam
I'm still using Windows 7, so that can't explain my glitches. :) Though I don't think Windows 7 is completely compatible with it, anyway

Re: Off-lot Terrain Glitching

Posted: March 19th, 2015, 1:13 am
by Taube
I can't really explain this, but I discovered by accident that when I have the issues, if I alt+tab out of the game and then go back in, they're fixed. I have *no* idea what that means, but it's worked every time I've tested it in the past few days. :dunce:

Re: Off-lot Terrain Glitching

Posted: March 19th, 2015, 8:09 am
by Sam
I'll have to try it! :)

Re: Off-lot Terrain Glitching

Posted: March 19th, 2015, 11:30 am
by Ani-Mei
ALT+TAB makes the computer think it's playing in windowed mode, meaning that if you have multiple windows on your screen it forces the computer to devote more resources to the windowed things. There is a way to change the Sims games so they play in windowed mode rather than full screen but I forget how to do it. Like so:
Spoiler:
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Also you can see my lovely ORAS Delta Episode Pokemon wallpaper. :tongue:

Re: Off-lot Terrain Glitching

Posted: March 19th, 2015, 12:41 pm
by Taube
To play in windowed mode, you add -w to the command line. :)

I don't want to play in windowed mode because I like fullscreen and edge scrolling, but I'm happy with this bizarro "fix" for the moment. I can afford another minute or two of switching applications so my pictures don't look horrible!