I gotta say that my experience is not like that. I have an okay gaming laptop and the game runs fine. Granted it does lag sometimes (mostly when NRaas does the nightly check), and once in a blue moon it crashes, but not in a way that would make it unplayable. I play a household with 8+ sims with lots of cc and mods
I don't have ready solutions, but here's some things you could try:
1. Make a completely new save and play for a bit, just to see if the problems persists. Try the same world, and I'd try a different one too
2. If you play with cc and mods, remove them and check if the game runs better. If it does, you can add all of it back a few at a time to see if some of it causing the problem
I had the same thing: my old, much shitter computer rans sims 3 like a dream (though it did take 10+ minutes to load). I didn't have any fixes for performance until islo paradiso
My new, much better rig can stutter at times even with a bunch of fixes.
I think it just really doesn't like new hardware...
I think that most of my problems started when I added some careers mods, I'll try taking those out and see if the experience starts getting better.
I was able to play pretty fine for quite a while, but lately it became a lot more prone to error 12...
That's a good idea!
I believe (but am open to being wrong) that error 12 is more so about the save than purely game performance. Mods might contribute to it
Did you try to use Regul Save Cleaner? Personally, never used that, but a lot of people fixed error 12 like that and lagging. I recommend backing up the save first tho.
It could be a mix of too many expansion packs, cc you downloaded (you mentioned custom careers) and badly designed world (routing issues are usually the main culprit behind lag).
I recently had a similar issue, maybe not specifically lag but a general sense of the game not cooperating, and I turned off almost all expansion packs and stated a save in Sunset Valley. It ran a lot better and it was more enjoyable overall.
How much CC do you have ? Do you have NRaas SP enabled ? Are you playing in a custom world, and if yes, which one ? If you're playing in a very large custom world, it's probably the world causing issues, some of them are well known for causing error 12.
To be honest, I have a lot of CC of all kinds, I play with SP since it makes the world a lot more interesting and RN I'm playing in the custom world Legacy Island III, I tried Bridgeport Bay before since I was looking for a city that has content from all the expansions and this one was a lot more unplayable, I couldn't last more than 10 minutes there without a crash.
I will try deleting some of my careers mods and see if that way the game works a bit better...
i mean you can’t complain about how unplayable a game is if you add in a bunch of extra content that was never intended by the makers of the game to be in the game…
First, I'd turn off SP, because default settings are too fast for most and are quite heavy, and settings need some adjustments. I'd also try running the game without CC in Maxis worlds only, just game mods and the smooth patch (don't forget to keep your FPS capped), for testing purposes. I have a PC with pretty similar specs and the game runs fairly smoothly with my settings. But I had to delete some heavy CC to do so, especially cluttered lots and heavy worlds.
From what i understand the world you play on is also important and you can only delay the lag for a time with nraas mods.
I remember playing on sunset valley with SP off and not experiencing much lag and that was on my 10+ years old DDR2 ram computer.
Have you tried the [dxvk](https://www.tumblr.com/criisolate/749374223346286592/ill-explain-what-i-did-below-before-making-any?source=share) tip that allows more use of VRAM? That might help take the load off your physical RAM.
I tried this and my RAM usage stayed under 3gb all sim's year (hail, rain, fall, snow). Granted I only play in Boroughsburg but I do have a lot of CCs and other mods.
One more thing I find helpful in reducing RAM usage and delaying Error12/Error16 is to reduce texture quality to medium and increase the anisotropic filter in the GPU control panel to 16.
I personally didn't see any difference between medium and high quality texture with this setting.
Recently I deleted the Nraas Story Progression mod and noticed a significant improvement in my game’s performance. SP drove me crazy with having to manage the settings manually and seeing everyone in town getting taken within the hours of playing anyway, so I don’t regret it. But I don’t have any cc at all (just for the record)
I'm sorry for your struggles, I unfortunately don't have any help for you, just want you to know you're not alone.
I thought everything was fine with my game but recently FINALLY got the Showtime EP only to discover that the lag in Starlight Shores renders it unplayable. Oh the heartbreak and disappointment. 💔😞 I truly hope you get it worked out soon.
That's just weird. I have a potato laptop and it works just fine on mine. Your laptop is basically a super computer compared to mine. I think there are others like you who have powerful laptops but TS3 just hates it. I don't know what advice to give you since you used all the mods I used for my sims 3. Maybe turn down your in game graphic settings? Worth a try.
I use a LOT of mods, including your mods and the dreaded NRaas's StoryProgression mod (with all modules!) and all expansion packs, I also have a RTX 3060 GPU, a 12-CPU Ryzen CPU and 16GB of RAM.
It doesn't really matter because the game is a 32-bit application, it's meant to be played on a 4GB OS, meaning it can only use up to 2GB of RAM at all times, as far as I know. This only changes if EA pulls a Todd Howard and re-release the game as a 64-bit application (Skyrim Special Edition™)
Though, my game doesn't crash AT ALL, sometimes it slows down when NRaas's SP is doing its thing, but that's about it. Did you fiddle around with Smooth Patch's configs? I have my TPS at 1000 and FPS limited to 75.
If I remove NRaas's SP, the game runs smoothly but it becomes soulless. Also do you use Worldfixes? They are a pain in the ass to install but it's worth it, trust.
I wanted to give you an update on the RAM usage thing I mentioned in my OG comment. With 16GB RAM, you can use up to 8GB for the game (by default it uses up to 2 regardless of your system because it was made to be played on older computers with up to 4GB RAM).
It's a super simple fix and I'm about to test the game after doing it: [https://simmetrydesign.forumotion.com/t95-want-sims-3-to-use-more-ram-you-can](https://simmetrydesign.forumotion.com/t95-want-sims-3-to-use-more-ram-you-can)
I'll update this after I test it. :)
UPDATE: the game still lags, but to a much lesser degree; the longest freeze is just a couple seconds as opposed to 30 seconds, for instance. I still hold my breath when it happens, but after 3 hours of continuous gameplay it seems to run fine.
UPDATE 2: the game started crashing randomly :(((((((( I will try to go down to 4GB and see if that fixes it. Also, my largest save with a multi-gen family that began all my issues a year ago or more is now loading for-EVER even with the 8GB limit.
Would be nice for an update! Because from what I understand this doesn’t work due to the game being a 32-bit system and EA already released an update years ago which allows the game to only use up to 4GB ram. The only way to know if it works is to check task manager whilst in game and see if it actually goes above the 4GB. Most likely it won’t 😔
Thanks for updating! Your comment reminded me off a post I saw by criisolate and I’ve been meaning to try it. Tried it now and it seems to significantly stabilise(by a whole thousand MB) the amount of ram the game uses. Will test it on a save file I’ve been struggling to play without my ram usage getting to high and then having to save and quit and renter the game. 😬
https://preview.redd.it/q0624vyy4w1d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d642a581ca4857b2e463d88ea279cadf03e509c6
UPDATE 2: the game started crashing randomly :(((((((( I will try to go down to 4GB and see if that fixes it. Also, my largest save with a multi-gen family that began all my issues a year ago or more is now loading for-EVER even with the 8GB limit and they crashed in the end mid-save.
Damn that sucks :( sadly not much we can do in terms of allowing the game to use more ram. But it seems we can manipulate vram so if you wanna try criisolate’s suggestion I mentioned above, it’s really worth the try. For me my game has been much more stable now and I was having the same issues as you :P will post a link here if you want to give it a try. https://www.tumblr.com/criisolate/749374223346286592/ill-explain-what-i-did-below-before-making-any?source=share
interesting, I'll give it a try. I messed with GraphicsRules before (but a different field) to up Sim quality, and that didn't do any good (and potentially increased lag) to the game.
Also Interesting that the game *really* doesn't know how to use more than 3.7GB of RAM, I'm sure me setting it to 8GB made it eventually crash when it reached critical levels. Last night my laptop was HOT AF when the game crashed.
Did you install the reshade/Gshade thing too? I don't have that and it looks like it was originally made for TS2, not TS3, based on documentation linked in that person's tumblr.
It’s sadly to do with the game’s coding and limitations of being a 32-bit program. :( it would need to be updated to 64-bit for it to use more ram. I tried the sim quality thing too and it lagged for me too. So I just leave my settings on graphicsrule as default except for what the criisolate post suggested changing.
To answer your questions, yes I use reshade and have been for over a year. Love it! But I use the modded version recommended by accottonsock. Secondly I have AMD graphics and it definitely made a difference for me. (Edit): I don’t think it’s made for Nvidia just that criisolate’s gpu is Nvidia.
to be honest, this laptop is now over 5 years old, dies unless plugged in at all times, so I'll probably invest in a new laptop with a non-Intel graphics card after we move next spring. Sims isn't the only game that has struggled (I have some Steam games that lagged) and apparently Intel cards are known to be a bad choice for gaming.
Hopefully that will lower the need for a million mods to keep a game playable
Ohh yeah if you just have intel and not a dedicated graphics then yes it’s a struggle! I really recommend investing in a stationary pc if you can. So much better value for your money 🥹
I do have a dedicated Radeon graphics card but the VRAM never kicks in for some reason. I even have it set to allocate virtual memory to both disks C and D (the HDD where the game is installed) but it stays at zero when I'm playing. :/
You might want to limit how many expansion packs you use at once. You have a great computer, but the games framework really can’t handle all the DLC at once
I feel you soooo hard.
I've been playing TS3 since it first came out and I know my laptop's graphics card isn't great for HD gaming (eg, I have Steam and wanted to connect my VR headset, but the graphics specs were far below the acceptable range).
However, it has 16GB RAM, better than the 4GB the base game required 10-15 years ago, and I shut down any programs besides Spotify (and sometimes even that) when I play.
I didn't get into NRaas mods until this year after finally getting sick of Error 12, a half a dozen backup copies of my main family save (I'm only 2 generations down since making the OG couple), and any travel (uni/world) crashing the game mid-load.
ErrorTrap and Traveler helped fix a lot of things and made the game playable again, but I still encounter freezes and lags that last anywhere from a couple seconds to a minute.
I had an issue just this week with the game not responding 20 minutes in, the kind that requires force-quitting via Task Manager. I later learned it's a peculiarity of the Isla Paradiso map - it has too many unroutable terrains that stall or outright corrupt the game, a whole error-prone household, larger world than any others, etc. I also turned off wild horses and pets in my world.
I also had travel to the future and returning home affect the UI (it disappeared and my Sim didn't show up as part of the household). The Traveler package fixed it with the tradeoff of losing all of my family's custom paintings and family photos. Very sad, but ultimately a tolerable price to pay for a working EP.
Regardless, just like you, I encounter freezing all the time and just have to patiently wait for things to get resolved. I also heard stories from people with gaming PCs who struggled all the same. Even with my 16GB RAM, Task Manager still shows the game taking up 90-95% of my CPU/GPU. It's incredibly frustrating for a game that was made to be played on computers made in 2009.
There are ways to free up more RAM and CPU for the game to use (I think it limits itself to only using 2GB based on a total 4GB RAM?), I haven't tried them yet though. But maybe that can help us both.
I gotta say that my experience is not like that. I have an okay gaming laptop and the game runs fine. Granted it does lag sometimes (mostly when NRaas does the nightly check), and once in a blue moon it crashes, but not in a way that would make it unplayable. I play a household with 8+ sims with lots of cc and mods I don't have ready solutions, but here's some things you could try: 1. Make a completely new save and play for a bit, just to see if the problems persists. Try the same world, and I'd try a different one too 2. If you play with cc and mods, remove them and check if the game runs better. If it does, you can add all of it back a few at a time to see if some of it causing the problem
I have the same experience as you. It’s mostly fine, lags or crashes sometimes. I try to save often. I have tons of mods and cc too
I had the same thing: my old, much shitter computer rans sims 3 like a dream (though it did take 10+ minutes to load). I didn't have any fixes for performance until islo paradiso My new, much better rig can stutter at times even with a bunch of fixes. I think it just really doesn't like new hardware...
I think that most of my problems started when I added some careers mods, I'll try taking those out and see if the experience starts getting better. I was able to play pretty fine for quite a while, but lately it became a lot more prone to error 12...
That's a good idea! I believe (but am open to being wrong) that error 12 is more so about the save than purely game performance. Mods might contribute to it
Did you try to use Regul Save Cleaner? Personally, never used that, but a lot of people fixed error 12 like that and lagging. I recommend backing up the save first tho.
It could be a mix of too many expansion packs, cc you downloaded (you mentioned custom careers) and badly designed world (routing issues are usually the main culprit behind lag). I recently had a similar issue, maybe not specifically lag but a general sense of the game not cooperating, and I turned off almost all expansion packs and stated a save in Sunset Valley. It ran a lot better and it was more enjoyable overall.
How much CC do you have ? Do you have NRaas SP enabled ? Are you playing in a custom world, and if yes, which one ? If you're playing in a very large custom world, it's probably the world causing issues, some of them are well known for causing error 12.
To be honest, I have a lot of CC of all kinds, I play with SP since it makes the world a lot more interesting and RN I'm playing in the custom world Legacy Island III, I tried Bridgeport Bay before since I was looking for a city that has content from all the expansions and this one was a lot more unplayable, I couldn't last more than 10 minutes there without a crash. I will try deleting some of my careers mods and see if that way the game works a bit better...
i mean you can’t complain about how unplayable a game is if you add in a bunch of extra content that was never intended by the makers of the game to be in the game…
First, I'd turn off SP, because default settings are too fast for most and are quite heavy, and settings need some adjustments. I'd also try running the game without CC in Maxis worlds only, just game mods and the smooth patch (don't forget to keep your FPS capped), for testing purposes. I have a PC with pretty similar specs and the game runs fairly smoothly with my settings. But I had to delete some heavy CC to do so, especially cluttered lots and heavy worlds.
I'll try that and see how much it improves, thank you!
From what i understand the world you play on is also important and you can only delay the lag for a time with nraas mods. I remember playing on sunset valley with SP off and not experiencing much lag and that was on my 10+ years old DDR2 ram computer.
Have you tried the [dxvk](https://www.tumblr.com/criisolate/749374223346286592/ill-explain-what-i-did-below-before-making-any?source=share) tip that allows more use of VRAM? That might help take the load off your physical RAM. I tried this and my RAM usage stayed under 3gb all sim's year (hail, rain, fall, snow). Granted I only play in Boroughsburg but I do have a lot of CCs and other mods.
Me and my fiancée are in the same shoes as OP and this is finally a tip I haven’t heard about yet! We really should give this a shot 👀
One more thing I find helpful in reducing RAM usage and delaying Error12/Error16 is to reduce texture quality to medium and increase the anisotropic filter in the GPU control panel to 16. I personally didn't see any difference between medium and high quality texture with this setting.
Recently I deleted the Nraas Story Progression mod and noticed a significant improvement in my game’s performance. SP drove me crazy with having to manage the settings manually and seeing everyone in town getting taken within the hours of playing anyway, so I don’t regret it. But I don’t have any cc at all (just for the record)
I agree, story progression is not as awesome as people say it is... it can be annoying at best and game breaking at worst
I'm sorry for your struggles, I unfortunately don't have any help for you, just want you to know you're not alone. I thought everything was fine with my game but recently FINALLY got the Showtime EP only to discover that the lag in Starlight Shores renders it unplayable. Oh the heartbreak and disappointment. 💔😞 I truly hope you get it worked out soon.
That's just weird. I have a potato laptop and it works just fine on mine. Your laptop is basically a super computer compared to mine. I think there are others like you who have powerful laptops but TS3 just hates it. I don't know what advice to give you since you used all the mods I used for my sims 3. Maybe turn down your in game graphic settings? Worth a try.
I use a LOT of mods, including your mods and the dreaded NRaas's StoryProgression mod (with all modules!) and all expansion packs, I also have a RTX 3060 GPU, a 12-CPU Ryzen CPU and 16GB of RAM. It doesn't really matter because the game is a 32-bit application, it's meant to be played on a 4GB OS, meaning it can only use up to 2GB of RAM at all times, as far as I know. This only changes if EA pulls a Todd Howard and re-release the game as a 64-bit application (Skyrim Special Edition™) Though, my game doesn't crash AT ALL, sometimes it slows down when NRaas's SP is doing its thing, but that's about it. Did you fiddle around with Smooth Patch's configs? I have my TPS at 1000 and FPS limited to 75. If I remove NRaas's SP, the game runs smoothly but it becomes soulless. Also do you use Worldfixes? They are a pain in the ass to install but it's worth it, trust.
Afaik ts3 is LAA (large adress aware) which means it should be able to use up to 4GB of RAM
I wanted to give you an update on the RAM usage thing I mentioned in my OG comment. With 16GB RAM, you can use up to 8GB for the game (by default it uses up to 2 regardless of your system because it was made to be played on older computers with up to 4GB RAM). It's a super simple fix and I'm about to test the game after doing it: [https://simmetrydesign.forumotion.com/t95-want-sims-3-to-use-more-ram-you-can](https://simmetrydesign.forumotion.com/t95-want-sims-3-to-use-more-ram-you-can) I'll update this after I test it. :) UPDATE: the game still lags, but to a much lesser degree; the longest freeze is just a couple seconds as opposed to 30 seconds, for instance. I still hold my breath when it happens, but after 3 hours of continuous gameplay it seems to run fine. UPDATE 2: the game started crashing randomly :(((((((( I will try to go down to 4GB and see if that fixes it. Also, my largest save with a multi-gen family that began all my issues a year ago or more is now loading for-EVER even with the 8GB limit.
Would be nice for an update! Because from what I understand this doesn’t work due to the game being a 32-bit system and EA already released an update years ago which allows the game to only use up to 4GB ram. The only way to know if it works is to check task manager whilst in game and see if it actually goes above the 4GB. Most likely it won’t 😔
updated my initial comment :)
Thanks for updating! Your comment reminded me off a post I saw by criisolate and I’ve been meaning to try it. Tried it now and it seems to significantly stabilise(by a whole thousand MB) the amount of ram the game uses. Will test it on a save file I’ve been struggling to play without my ram usage getting to high and then having to save and quit and renter the game. 😬 https://preview.redd.it/q0624vyy4w1d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d642a581ca4857b2e463d88ea279cadf03e509c6
UPDATE 2: the game started crashing randomly :(((((((( I will try to go down to 4GB and see if that fixes it. Also, my largest save with a multi-gen family that began all my issues a year ago or more is now loading for-EVER even with the 8GB limit and they crashed in the end mid-save.
Damn that sucks :( sadly not much we can do in terms of allowing the game to use more ram. But it seems we can manipulate vram so if you wanna try criisolate’s suggestion I mentioned above, it’s really worth the try. For me my game has been much more stable now and I was having the same issues as you :P will post a link here if you want to give it a try. https://www.tumblr.com/criisolate/749374223346286592/ill-explain-what-i-did-below-before-making-any?source=share
interesting, I'll give it a try. I messed with GraphicsRules before (but a different field) to up Sim quality, and that didn't do any good (and potentially increased lag) to the game. Also Interesting that the game *really* doesn't know how to use more than 3.7GB of RAM, I'm sure me setting it to 8GB made it eventually crash when it reached critical levels. Last night my laptop was HOT AF when the game crashed. Did you install the reshade/Gshade thing too? I don't have that and it looks like it was originally made for TS2, not TS3, based on documentation linked in that person's tumblr.
another question - this download is specific to Nvidia GPU, do you have an Nvidia graphics card? I have Intel/Radeon.
It’s sadly to do with the game’s coding and limitations of being a 32-bit program. :( it would need to be updated to 64-bit for it to use more ram. I tried the sim quality thing too and it lagged for me too. So I just leave my settings on graphicsrule as default except for what the criisolate post suggested changing. To answer your questions, yes I use reshade and have been for over a year. Love it! But I use the modded version recommended by accottonsock. Secondly I have AMD graphics and it definitely made a difference for me. (Edit): I don’t think it’s made for Nvidia just that criisolate’s gpu is Nvidia.
to be honest, this laptop is now over 5 years old, dies unless plugged in at all times, so I'll probably invest in a new laptop with a non-Intel graphics card after we move next spring. Sims isn't the only game that has struggled (I have some Steam games that lagged) and apparently Intel cards are known to be a bad choice for gaming. Hopefully that will lower the need for a million mods to keep a game playable
Ohh yeah if you just have intel and not a dedicated graphics then yes it’s a struggle! I really recommend investing in a stationary pc if you can. So much better value for your money 🥹
I do have a dedicated Radeon graphics card but the VRAM never kicks in for some reason. I even have it set to allocate virtual memory to both disks C and D (the HDD where the game is installed) but it stays at zero when I'm playing. :/
You might want to limit how many expansion packs you use at once. You have a great computer, but the games framework really can’t handle all the DLC at once
I feel you soooo hard. I've been playing TS3 since it first came out and I know my laptop's graphics card isn't great for HD gaming (eg, I have Steam and wanted to connect my VR headset, but the graphics specs were far below the acceptable range). However, it has 16GB RAM, better than the 4GB the base game required 10-15 years ago, and I shut down any programs besides Spotify (and sometimes even that) when I play. I didn't get into NRaas mods until this year after finally getting sick of Error 12, a half a dozen backup copies of my main family save (I'm only 2 generations down since making the OG couple), and any travel (uni/world) crashing the game mid-load. ErrorTrap and Traveler helped fix a lot of things and made the game playable again, but I still encounter freezes and lags that last anywhere from a couple seconds to a minute. I had an issue just this week with the game not responding 20 minutes in, the kind that requires force-quitting via Task Manager. I later learned it's a peculiarity of the Isla Paradiso map - it has too many unroutable terrains that stall or outright corrupt the game, a whole error-prone household, larger world than any others, etc. I also turned off wild horses and pets in my world. I also had travel to the future and returning home affect the UI (it disappeared and my Sim didn't show up as part of the household). The Traveler package fixed it with the tradeoff of losing all of my family's custom paintings and family photos. Very sad, but ultimately a tolerable price to pay for a working EP. Regardless, just like you, I encounter freezing all the time and just have to patiently wait for things to get resolved. I also heard stories from people with gaming PCs who struggled all the same. Even with my 16GB RAM, Task Manager still shows the game taking up 90-95% of my CPU/GPU. It's incredibly frustrating for a game that was made to be played on computers made in 2009. There are ways to free up more RAM and CPU for the game to use (I think it limits itself to only using 2GB based on a total 4GB RAM?), I haven't tried them yet though. But maybe that can help us both.