Hi Simmers!

So recently I downloaded The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection and during my gameplay the snow on the lot will be flickering! I read some threads and someone recommended to download the Graphics Rules Maker.. but the snow still flickers! Also without the Graphics Rules Maker the lighting in Create a Sim is very bright and also weird during the gameplay I don't know what to do!

Could you kindly help me with these 2 problems:
1. Snow Flickering
2. Very bright lighting in Create a Sim.

Thanks for the Help! :D

How is the snow flickering? In a particular color, like red or pink/purple/magenta, or in some other way? Do you have pictures?

Same for the very bright lights in CAS - do you have pictures? I've seen it happen for some people, but if I remember correctly they had Macs and the SuperCollection (and Macs + the SC are a bit moody, it seems).

Can you also post your computer specs?

Hi!! Thanks for replying

My computer is operated by Windows 10 here are the specs:

Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-7200U CPU @2.50GHz 2.70 GHz
RAM: 8GB (7.87 GB Usable)
System: 64-bit Operating System, x64-based processor

I attached the photos of the problems below

I really appreciate your help :D

The light in CAS may be a problem with the shaders. Try turning them on or off with the cheat "boolprop useshaders false" (or true to turn them on). Not sure about the snow, but probably it's the same problem.
If that cheat fixes it, then you can put it in the Userstartup.cheat file.

I already tried that but the lighting as well as the snow looks weird when I use that cheat

I appreciate your suggestion! :lovestruc

Do you know which graphic card/chip you have, and if so, which one(s)? If you don't, you can find that info by right-clicking the task bar (bottom line where the windows logo is), clicking "task manager", then the Performance tab, and checking the GPU 0 for the main one (and GPU 1 if it's there). Name of the card/chip will be under where it says GPU 0 or 1, and in the top right corner.

The name of the card is GPU 0: Intel (R) HD Graphics 620.

I don't have any GPU 1 just this one.

What do you suggest that I do?
Thank you!!

Try the GraphicsRuleMaker first, and make sure the changes actually stuck (Windows 10 is notorious for going back to old settings/files if you edit directly in ProgramFiles). It should (in theory) fix whatever is wrong. Make sure you're using the newest version, 2.0.

If the GraphicsRuleMaker doesn't help, it could be the graphic chip is under-powered to handle the game. The Intel chips aren't really powered to handle games. They are capable of handling day-to-day tasks on the computer, but gaming could be a bit too much. Some can (for a while, anyway) handle a bit of gaming if you turn down the graphics a bit, others can't handle it at all.

I used to play it on the same laptop without problems though! Then I installed it again and these problems occurred.

Thats why I’m desperate as I know the game can work without any problems but it seems there’s nothing I can do to solve these problems.

The GraphicRulesMaker doesn’t help either. Do you maybe know how I can make the game recognise the graphics card?

I don’t know what to do

How old is the laptop? If it's 1-3 years, it's probably fine, but if it's 4++ years, it could be getting old, and you could be looking at parts slowly getting fried (power unit/battery, graphic chip, fan/cooling system, etc.) and possibly needing replacing. Can depend on how much you've used the laptop, what you've used it for, and how well you've taken care of it.

If you're having problems getting the GRM changes to stick:
Copy the files to the Desktop, do the changes there, and then move the files over to the folder and let them replace the originals, clicking "yes" to the admin prompt you get. That way you override Windows' file protection.

Previously when you had the game on the same laptop, did you have everything, or just a selection of EPs/SPs?

Do you have any light mods installed (like a version of the Radiance system)?

What are your ingame Graphic settings?

Have you tried the 4GB patch? (It can help with memory handling, for graphic/flickering issues, crashing, and other annoying bugs, especially in Win10. Link in the first post, plus video shows how to apply, roughly 2:00 to 7:10 - https://modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=610641)

The laptop is pretty new so I'm sure that its not the problem since I already played this game and worked perfectly.

I always install the Sims 2 Ultimate Collection - so I guess all the EPs and SPs and never had any problems. BTW I never installed any CC or lighting mods.

I tried the 4GB patch you suggested but still the snow still flickers

I'm going to reinstall it and run it without the GraphicsRulesMaker.

Thanks for your help! but nothing seems to work maybe I need to tweak the graphics file but I don't know how to.

Before you give up the try entirely, which files did you replace? The ones in the SP9 folder, or somewhere else? In some cases you have to change the GraphicRules files for all the EP and SP folders (I didn't have to, it seemed to work okay just with the SP9 folder for the UC, but there are differing opinions).

----

Before you reinstall - how many times have you reinstalled the game lately?

The thing is, when you reinstall (and do it multiple times to try and fix a problem), the game can leave pieces in the registry, which can eventually end up causing problems. Sometimes, reinstalling multiple times can end up makng the problem a lot worse than it originally was.

If you did backups of the GraphicRules and VideoCards files (like you're supposed to before running the GRM or editing the files manually - and if you didn't, the GRM usually makes backup files for you), you should be able to replace these without reinstalling the game.

If you're playing via Origin, you can try "Fix game"

This is my 4th time reinstalling the game. I tried to check that every file was deleted.

Right now it seems that the snow flicker problem is gone but the bright light in CAS is still a problem.

I'm not playing it via Origin so the fix game is not an option for me

If it's not the original Origin version, chances are there could be some kind of (unidentifiable?) bug in the install files.

I use a laptop with an Intel integrated graphics chip as well. While I do not have the lighting problem in CAS (though some hair I recently downloaded actually shows up with that weird lighting in CAS, not sure why), I have been having the snow flickering issue for years with no solution in sight. It is definitely an issue with the older shaders that the game uses. I tried using the useshaders false cheat, but it makes my game lag profusely everytime. I also tried a virtual graphics card but same issue with lag. I think the integrated graphics on Intel just can't handle that.

I'm planning to get another laptop or PC with an AMD or NVIDIA card to be able to play with snow again, but until then I've turned off winter in my game. Another thing you can do is turning off snow, which looks weird but you'll at least get the benefits of the winter season. I know it might not be the answer you're looking for, and I'm still hoping someone will find a way to fix it (maybe there IS a way to somehow not have light snow overlays use certain shaders?), but once you've made peace with it, the Sims 2 is still a great game to play.

^ I've played without snow (and weather) for quite some time, only turning it on if I absolutely needed it for photoshoots, mostly for story control, but also because my game was more likely to do pink-flashing with deep snow, or if it did frequent weather changes, and because skintone overlays, or anything else caused by weather caused a bit of a lag (more of a several minute wait, really) while applying. The game is fully playable without weather, and if you're having problems with the graphics, it's probably better to turn it off to save on resources. Haven't done weather testing yet with my new laptop, but the pink-flashing seems to be a potential problem, so I'm not getting rid of these quite yet.

These are a few mods I use to control weather, which could come in handy:
SW-Seasons-And-Weather-Controller (green vase with weather and season controls)
Moo_NoWeatherOnAnyLot (mod I keep in to turn off weather, and take out to turn it back on)
Moo_ConstantSimTemperature (to stop temperature problems like frozen or sunburned sims - annoying with lag, but even more annoying when I'm trying to do storytelling and don't want a sudden frozen sim or one spontaneously combusting in the hot tub, 'cause I've had that happen... ).

The bright CAS issue has surfaced recently, probably with a Windows 10 or a graphics driver update. Using DXVK can fix it, just avoid version 1.7.1. Alternatively, the cheat boolprop lightingenabled false tones it down, and you can change it to true once you're done in CAS.