Some of you may have seen my several posts regarding my frustration with CASt lag. I've just done a factory reset and am still noticing heavy lag when using it even with my many store items not in game and 0 CC. I will likely be moving my Sims documents folder into my SSD, BUT if I could just ask you to test something for me and let me know what happens when you do?

It's simple really.
1. Just go into your game, choose any empty house on any world and into build/buy.
2. Now, go into Decor/Miscellaneous as if you were to pick something from there - let it load.
3. At this point, go into Create-a-Style and when it comes up, can you try choosing an item in the house that has at least 3 patterns in it and using the style option to place on other objects?

Please note, if you're seeing cursor lag at this point, you may wish to not proceed with moving the styles. I don't want to drive you mad with waiting.

I just need to know if this particular process is laggy in your games as well. I'm suspecting that my insanity may be for nothing and that this game is essentially broken when it comes to this feature.
If you get lag or not let me know. If you have lots of CC or not, let me know as well. Don't need to know system info at this point, but if you're experiencing little or no lag while using CASt in the decor/misc. directory I would definitely like to get your info and ESPECIALLY if you have a lot of store items/CC and can use CASt effortlessly.

Please save my sanity. Thank you to whomever tries this.

Appreciate the test Nitromon. Yes, my factory reset was a clean game and am only now re-installing all my store items. I haven't put any mods/etc into the game yet - even the no intro.
Is your entire game on an SSD perchance?

Still looking for more testers to complete feedback on this. It's real easy to test.

editing to add: Nitromon - may I ask your performance options as well? I've "optimized" my game currently through NVidia Experience and it's put things on really high settings due to my GTX980.

Perhaps me moving my User files to the SSD will make a difference. It's so strange as this is the same issue that's haunted me for years and on my previous computer. This is why I want a sample of testing to see if it's just me or many. So far, it's rather discouraging.

Oh, another possible factor. I use the .exe to launch rather than the launcher/Origin. That couldn't matter, could it?

I just tried it on a save where I am building a house, and I did experience some lag while I had the misc decor open. It wasn't extreme, but it was enough to be annoying. However, I had little to no lag when I switched to a different category (end tables I think).

I do have large amounts of mods, CC, and custom patterns. I'm running on a fairly new gaming laptop with a SSD. I'm also running with all of my settings on high.

Thank you Gnomequeen! I wanted people to try it in misc decor because that appears to be the worst offender of all the tabs. I do get it in others but much lesser which is why I was thinking, maybe it's not just me. That's really helpful!

I'm trying to decide now if I want to just deal with this or try a complete re-install. (ugh) I hate to go through all the trouble if it's something that is just how the game is anymore.

Having just completed a complete reinstall on a new computer, I would probably encourage you to avoid that. Perhaps you could just be mindful of not having that particular category open while CASting? I know I tend to save that category for last while I'm decorating because it is too large and can be laggy.

Wish I had a better solution!

To answer your question: I've always gotten obscene amounts of lag from Misc and CASt, but that is most likely due to the metric shitton of objects and patterns (game ones, I don't even have much CC in those categories).

But this all depends on several variables:
1) how much CC you have in-game (even if it's not on the lot, it may be in use somewhere else in the world);
2) how many EPs and store content you have installed;
3) re: CAS: how many patterns you have, and which category you're opening (Fabrics and Geometric take ages to load, while Misc loads immediately);
4) re: Misc: how many files are in there;
5) what you're doing with your mouse: clicking and rotating with the middle button is awfully laggy for me in build/buy at times, and dragging patterns around from one object to another is awfully slow;
6) your computer specs, and what other programs are running;
7) your game settings.

So the most reliable and correct result would be from people who have similar setups, similar settings, and similar user folders. You will have drastically different results simply because no two people here have even two of the variables in common; you can take out all your mods, but your PC specs will most likely be very different, for example.

I take it you're trying to place multiple objects (or instances of one object) from Misc, and want to recolor them? Place the objects, switch to a less busy category (Toilets are always a winner) and recolor them like that. Misc is NOT good because any time you exit CASt it will reload all the items in the category you have open, therefore take up more memory uselessly. EA loved dumping things in Misc, even those that would make more sense to be included in other categories (like Statues); you'd be better off avoiding it as much as possible.

If you're getting abnormal lag in build/buy, switch between categories (e.g. if you're in build, switch to buy). If that doesn't clear it, save your game and reload.

Yes I have this issue also.... I get ridiculous lag when I switch to miscellaneous too. But I do have a shit load of CC. I'm going to take it out and see what happens, and then let you know the results. My game doesn't hang per se, but I lose build/buy mode's interface and then have to shut the game down manually.

ahaha
hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

The lag I have for misc/decor is so bad. Just. So bad. It's slightly better in CAS as I only really have noticeable lag in the Fabrics, Themes, and Misc texture tabs. It also only tends to be much of an issue when I load those tabs in CAS the first time in that session, but misc/decor objects is always a nightmare. Also of note is that the Plants section also lags a bit. This is because while Western CC creators tend to put their clutter items in the Misc. Decor tab, Japanese CC creators will often clone the small-ish plants in the game (like the ivy pot) and make clutter objects out of those for...some reason. Not every Japanese creator does this, but enough do that it'll cause some lag if you spend a lot of time trawling for Japanese/anime themed CC. The main culprit, however, is that for most people clutter items tend to get the best of us.

I've got a little under 5 gigs of mods and CC in just the Packages folder alone, as well as a gig and a half of stuff in my DCCache and every EP except for ITF, so I proooobably brought this upon myself.

Thanks so much you guys for checking and responding! It's very relieving to know that this isn't an uncommon issue. I am re-thinking the re-installation. It's just that I could swear there wasn't an issue when I first installed it and that's nagging me. I think I'm definitely going to try moving the User folder to my SSD once I get all the store stuff re-installed from my factory reset.

VERY happy to hear from you folks that have the CC and stuff. It's good to know.

I don't have any lags at all in CASt, I have all EPs+SPs installed except (Supernatural and ITF), no CC but tons of mods (about 1.2gb, good mods with no corrupts no conflicts no duplicates), if you count store contents as CC then I have Riverview and Sunlit Tides Deluxe installed, I also have all my Fullbuild0 package files customized (reduced in size), custom TS3 installation, and I don't even using RAMDisk at the moment and so all my TS3 documents folders are in my HDD not my SSD, currently the only lags I have is my pets gets stuck or keep resetting because of bad routing or building design, but not CASt.

@Nitromon: I seem to get at least a small amount of lag even in the small directories. At first, it's no lag at all, but seems to build up quickly. Misc/Decor is like moving hair through wet cement and eventually it just halts. Again, this is only with some of my Store items so far. A re-install wouldn't take that long I suppose. It's doing it correctly is the thing. Still curious if not using Origin/launcher could be part of the problem, but I do so hate using Origin.

@PapEmy: Your post was very helpful - thank you!
I'm most curious about the part where you mention how your Fullbuild0 files are reduced through customization. I haven't seen anything about that in my many, many searches. Would like to know what your Video settings/video card and RAM/way you have the RAM setup is.

One thing I noticed is, the 3 direct dls I bought (Island Paradise, 70s,80s,90s and Movie Stuff-which is my loading screen) are located in the Origin Games file(still SSD) rather than my Electronic Arts file. I tried moving them into the EA file last night and that caused the game to not load at all. I would rather them all in the same file and am actually considering re-purchasing them in DVD form to do just that.

It hasn't been necessary to use Origin or a DVD to start up. I just use TS3W.Exe.

I will do that. However, if I re-install, I think I might be able to allocate them to the EA file to begin with.

Oh I did this with the help of S3PE and S3OC, I moved out things I don't want permanently like ugly hairs, fake cars etc, I didn't move the whole contents for hairs or other objects because some of them are shared in between contents, so I just deleted the CASP/OBJD or OBJK and/or VPXY to manipulate the programs index reading, to know which ones I'd like to delete, I have to cloned the things I want to move out first then search it by opening the Fullbuild0 with S3PE, the same goes for other Fullbuild files from EPs or SPs. And that's how I got my Fullbuild0 reduced in file size.

I even added mods hairs and realistic cars to SP's Fullbuild_pX (X is the number of your EPs or SPs) cause I'm running out of space running RAMDisk because my mods collections are getting bigger, is not merging like merging mods, it won't work that way, I have to add them manually so it won't conflicting the original contents and test them test them test them over and over again , so some of my EPs and SPs Fullbuild files are actually getting bigger, but this helps improving the performance in gameplay and especially in CAS when loading mods contents, only do this if you're an advance user in using S3PE and at least know how the basic programming works reading its database.

And then the two things I customized for the custom game installation is the "game\bin" folder especially for HE AM FL LN and OL I removed them to make them like the ones in GN onward, so i only have Gameplay Jazz UI folders and packages in my BG's folder only, the second one is by deleting the Deltapackage folders in "GameData\Shared" for HE AM FL LN and OL, because they are already covered by the patch 1.67 in the DeltaPackage folder in BG, so those EPs and SPs of mine are now exactly installed like EPs/SPs from GN onward up to ITF. So the ones I left in my mods folder are only core mods, tuning mods, skin replacements, and some new meshes from CMAR.


And the last thing I customized is moving out the troubled world maps to temporary folder outside the game installations directory, I only use 2 world map Sunset Valley and Starlight Shores fixed by EllaCharms, so it won't removed the option for sims to move to other town, and I also use vacation WA and UN worlds also fixed by Ellacharms, whenever I want to play in other world such Riverview or Sunlit Tides, I moved out Sunset Valley and/or Starlight Shores temporarily to my temp folder.

Even its routing has been fixed by Ellacharms those worlds still contributes lags/freeze because of bad buildings design such as too small hallway between rooms or kitchen or dining area etc, so basically an ideal house in TS3 would be a big big house with a lot of space or made them as simple as possible.. but that won't look realistic, alternative way for quick fix is to make the houses works like apartment buildings from LN, by using hidden room markers so the building houses are actually empty.. especially for small houses, I did this to my neighborhood and only left some of them and let the rest filled by NPC sims, this improves the gameplay a lot, but there's a lot of things to do before I can enjoy playing the game.., but it pays off.. at least for me


PS (Edited): as for my graphic setup, I followed Nitromon's instructions in GraphicCards.sgr and GraphicRules.sgr because my video cards (both in my PC and laptop) are newer than the game when it was launched, it's not there in GraphicCard.sgr so I actually downgraded my video card's performance by using the one close to mine in GraphicCard.sgr list, GTX680 >> GTX580 and GT610M >> GT310M for my laptop.

@PapaEmy: Wow! You're like a Professional Master of the Sims 3 Preparatory Dance! You're performing dance moves I haven't even seen before.
Very handy information here that I will be looking into! I'm currently awaiting until I have a good allotment of time for re-installment myself as my computer has been temporarily commandeered by a 13yr old who is staying with me. Very excited to try some of these things out. Any of them rank as vital-should be done by everyone- in your opinion?

Well, the vital ones are the bad cc/mods and world map files in my opinion, but if you mean by my custom fullbuild files, I'd like to be able to share and uploads my custom fullbuild files if some other would like to try them and if it's allowed, but I don't know if i could do that, because they are still big files to upload, my fullbuild0 now is only 776mb compares to its original 999mb, that's for BG only, let alone WA AM LN GN ST SU SE UN IP ITF, I might jammed the MTS server if I upload all of them

Just make sure all of your cc and mods are good, then you might want to edit your town before playing, make some changes necessary, the reason I moved some worlds I don't play was because I think up until TS3 have the option for the sims to move to another town, I think the world in the background is affecting my game, I've tested an empty custom world but the Errortrap reports errors with stuck horse or other pets, duh.. i'ts empty.. how come there's a horse in my empty world, I even only have 2 sims in my world like Adam and Eve.. lol, then I removed Appaloosa Plains world Errortrap no longer reporting the errors.

So the last one is about the patch and customizing the game main files and folders if you'd like to try, but it's very long one to explain how to, and consuming a lot of time to do them in S3PE, it's not just about moving out things I don't like and add some new in, I actually removed some others as well that already been covered by the superpatch 1.67 in S3PE, but I'll try to explain it as short as possible to answer your question.

I think TS3 is a great simulation open world game ahead of its time, that’s why we’re having some lags/freeze etc.. you name it we have that kind of issues. Even the newest i7 6th gen Intel processor with GTX980 and 16GB rams having trouble running TS3 but not with other heavy-weight class of games.. , that's because TS3 though it's simple in its concept but also complex at the same time for the hardware to handle all of them because there are so many of them to handle, I think playing TS3 is like playing God.., well we're not God and the computer has limitations just like we are..

I think based on what the others has contributes to TS3 with their mods, fixes and other creations, we can categorize these lags/freeze into 3 categories, because of bad cc/mods, bad routing or bad building designs in world maps or files, and because of the patch (yes EA's patch.. and no it’s not just you 1.69.. lol).

I’ve been doing these trial and error experiments since August last year in my free time, at the time.. I just don’t get it.., if you have TS3 BG original installation disc and you have downloaded Superpatch 1.67 you can try this; how come the BG only (no EPs no SPs) and without any patch, performs better in gameplay compares to BG only (no EPs no SPs) but patched with 1.67 (both tested with or without mods).

Fortunately I have all the installation disc for TS3 and its EPs and SPs (except for Supernatural) and I have 2 PCs and 1 laptop, 1 PC with my 12 yrs old daughter (say hi to your 13 old, I'm into this because of her ), and the last two are with me. So I have enough tools and equipments to do these trial and error experiments for comparisons.

So I try to understand how EA wants the patch really works affecting the game and what does it do to the game installation directories. Apparently EA made 3 different installation format/model, the 1st gen is BG and WA, the 2nd gen is HE AM FL LN and OL, and the 3rd and last one was the GN and onward up to ITF and Superpatch 1.67 ( I don’t know about 1.69 tho)

When you installed TS3 with WA, you’ll see that that is the original format/model, how the BG and its EP linked or integrated, then came HE, you’ll se the changes how they’re integrated to each other with HE’s patch, and this goes to up until OL, then they changed it again starting GN EP, and it stays the same until patch 1.67.

What does the patch really do actually? It’s not only integrating the BG and its EPs SPs but also added some updates that weren’t included in any EPs or SPs, but these updates (some of them) creates conflicts because the ones meant to be replaced weren’t removed by the patch, you can see them in HE AM FL LN and OL installation directories, they have Deltapackage folder as an addition in each of these 5 (EPs SPs) directories as well as in the BG, but then they’re gone starting GN, and from GN’s model they updated all of them comprehensively in 1.67, maybe this is why the 1.69 is even more causing problem to the game.. but I don't know, I don't have 1.69

So then I tried my 1st experiment with my TS3 BG installation only but patched with 1.67, I opened both DeltaBuild0 (from 1.67) and Fullbuild0 (from the original TS3 installation folder) with S3PE in separated windows. Then I selected some files for samples from Deltabuild0, copy them and paste them to Fullbuild0 in S3PE window. Then I found out that S3PE found so many duplicates and it replaced them, so I deleted the ones left that haven’t been saved, means I just left the ones that are not duplicates in Fullbuild0.

Then I started TS3 again with reduced Fullbuild0 as its database, and then the game performs as good as it wasn’t patched at all, and then I put all my 1.2gb mods and it still performs better than it was with the untouched Fullbuild0.

So from there, I continue my experiments, I did the same thing for the rest of the Fullbuild files with their Deltabuild files coming from their patch of each EPs and SPs before I synchronize them with the Deltabuild from patch 1.67, so all of my HE AM FL LN and OL EPs SPs are in the same format/model with the latest one starting from GN EP.

So far I haven’t have any crash, but still having some lags because of the bad routing or bad building designs or too crowded world from the world I played, so I tried customizing the world I played in edit town, it then performs better. The one thing that improves a lot, is moving CAS mods and Objects mods into the game main files, it loads almost immediately like original contents, just don't move/add core, tuning, skins and mesh mods into the game main file as it could conflicts the other. As for CC I leave it there where it belongs in DCCache and just delete the ones in DCBackup except for CCMerge.

So I hope those would answered your question why and how, I love this game very much just like my daughter, but I hate it how its torturing my computers and made them performs like an XT/AT or 286 computers in the old days..