Extra Wicked Whims Folder under "Saves"

[Alex vonAuen]

Hi all !
As my Sims 4 game is constantly either freezing in the Loading Page (after leaving CAS) or simply crashing (leaving CAS or when travelling), I've spent the day making backup files of game, saves, Mods, etc.
I've just noticed that there is an (additional) "Wicked Whims" subfolder located in the Sims "Saves" folder (see enclosure). No idea how it got there !?!?
When downloading WW, each up-dated version has been placed correctly under "MODs" in its own "WW" folder (see enclosure).

Is this additional "WW" subfolder supposed to be there (i.e., under "Saves").....or could that be the cause of my game either freezing or crashing?

Many thanks for any info, advice, tips......

Alex

[Guest]

this also depends if legitimate or real.

[Guest]

1 minute ago, theru said:

this also depends if legitimate or real.

real aint cutting it it seems. bc most game do cof when improper adjustement are in place

Edited February 23 by theru

[Crashdown117]

47 minutes ago, Alex vonAuen said:

Is this additional "WW" subfolder supposed to be there (i.e., under "Saves").....or could that be the cause of my game either freezing or crashing?

That folder is supposed to be there and, as you can no doubt tell from the modification dates on some of those files, WW actively uses the stuff in there to keep track of various things.

 

Your troubles with the game freezing and/or crashing are more likely to be caused by outdated mods (especially stuff like UI Cheats), file corruption during a game update (can happen with spotty internet connection), or (if you're playing on a low-end machine) performance issues. I'd suggest a 50/50 run through your entire Mods folder, starting with either an empty folder or an absolutely minimal setup of only MCCC and WW, in order to rule out game file corruption and general performance problems.

If you need a little primer on how the good old 50/50 method works, here's one that even has a nice flow chart: https://www.patreon.com/posts/finding-broken-4-23751034

[Alex vonAuen]

Hey Crashdown,

Thanks for the info.
At least I now know that those folders are supposed to be there........although the thought of a 50/50 fills me with dread (...my MOD folder is currently at 12 GB...). Am hoping that a game repair via Steam may help.

Just out of curiosity:  am currently playing on a laptop with a "AMD Ryzen 7 3700U and Radeon Vega Mobile Gfx" (iGPU: AMD Radeon RX Vega 10).
Looking at comparisons, the RX Vega 10 should outperform both the ATI Radeon X1300 (min.) and AMD Radeon HD 7750 (recommended) as listed by EA.
And, according to 'NotebookCheck', it should be perfectly capable of "...handling smooth gameplay in simple titles...".
My hard drive still has 270 GB of free space and RAM has been increased to 12 GB (9.95 GB usable). 
However, I only play one rather extensive Sims 4 game (approx. 13 months now) which has 16 houses, each elaborately furnished with loads of CC (..almost nothing from the base game..) and some 90+ Sims and NPCs running around (each with CC hair & outfits).

Is that, perhaps, simply too much for my present system?
Am currently looking for a new mini-PC or laptop with higher specs. Have my eye on the new Asus Rog Nuc (Intel Core Ultra 9 185H / Nvidia Geforce RTX 4070)... but it hasn't come on sale yet. Or, alternatively, a new Lenovo Legion Pro 5 laptop (AMD Ryzen 7 7745HX / RTX 4070).

Thanks again!

Alex

[Crashdown117]

Hey Alex!

 

4 hours ago, Alex vonAuen said:

although the thought of a 50/50 fills me with dread (...my MOD folder is currently at 12 GB...)

Well, mine is at about 6 GB currently, personal record is 10 point something and I managed to 50/50 through that in about an hour tops.

The secret to success is to run 50/50 on the subfolders you luckily have already (after all, this is why "veterans" like me always insist on having them). No need to go through 3 GB of clothing CC file by file, just treat the entire folder as one item (same for large mods like MCCC or WW).

 

5 hours ago, Alex vonAuen said:

However, I only play one rather extensive Sims 4 game (approx. 13 months now) which has 16 houses, each elaborately furnished with loads of CC (..almost nothing from the base game..) and some 90+ Sims and NPCs running around (each with CC hair & outfits).

That will only be a problem if each of those houses is a 1:1 scale reproduction of some Manhattan skyscraper and you have all of those 90+ Sims run around there at the same time.

I have a few clubs and mansions that are also a bit on the larger and more elaborate side, with a good mix of game and CC stuff, and I used MCCC to crank up the max number of Sims present on the current lot at the same time to 50 (default is 20, IIRC). Most of my played Sims have multiple outfits in many categories, some of them entirely consisting of CC, and at least half of them have some CC trait and/or a bunch of WW attributes, making them a good bit more "complex" than the average vanilla Sim.

Everything runs smoothly and my system specs are laughable compared to yours - Pentium G4600, GTX 1080Ti, 16 GB RAM, non-SSD hard drive. I used to have only 8GB of RAM, but the only difference was that loading times when launching the game were slightly longer than they are now, so I'd say that you should be fine in terms of system performance.

 

Say, you're not running the game in laptop mode, are you? I vaguely remember reading about how that wouldn't play nice with some of the higher graphics settings quite some time ago. I'm not sure if this has been addressed by any game patches in the meantime, though.

 

Cheers!

Crash

[Alex vonAuen]

Hey Crash,

Subfolders: Tja,.....seems being a bit of a (minor) control freak can sometimes have its advantages. 😉 

Houses: Not exactly Manhattan skyscraper.....a bit more along the lines of a triplex-penthouse (four floors, if ones counts the fully furnished cellars with pools, spas, fitness and play areas).
Just looked and my last save has some 6 KB.....no idea if that's either average, an awful lot or too much.

I did briefly consider running on laptop mode....since I am using a laptop,... but all of the comments I could find concerning that seemed to be negative, so I ditched that idea.

PC: Am still going to try upgrading to the Asus Rog Nuc.....assuming it finally comes out sometime in the next 18 months.....🙄...or something similar.
My little bro has an OTT Acer Nitro gaming laptop (w/ RTX 3080) and his time on the loading page when starting or switching from house to house is approx. 0,03 seconds......mine is about 2+ minutes....assuming it doesn't freeze/crash. Not to mention it's Ray Tracing....which makes the Sims looks absolutely fab.
And your Pentium G4600 and GTX 1080 Ti would both seem to greatly outperform my Ryzen 7 with its iGPU.....or I'm looking at the wrong comparison websites.

Thanks again for the input.
Cheers,
Alex

[Crashdown117]

Hey Alex,

 

being a minor control freak is definitely helpful with modding TS4. Then again, I'm a German bloke studying Computer Science, so I might not be exactly impartial 😃

 

46 minutes ago, Alex vonAuen said:

Just looked and my last save has some 6 KB.....no idea if that's either average, an awful lot or too much.

Just to make sure: We're talking about 6 KILObytes here, right? My saves are all about 20 or 22 MEGAbytes, so 6 KB seems awfully small by comparison. Then again, my saves are ancient and probably bloated with leftover data from Sims long gone and other stuff that gathers over time.

 

49 minutes ago, Alex vonAuen said:

And your Pentium G4600 and GTX 1080 Ti would both seem to greatly outperform my Ryzen 7 with its iGPU.....or I'm looking at the wrong comparison websites.

Nah, that was my bad. I failed to notice we're talking about integrated graphics alongside your CPU. My Pentium is only dual-core, while your Ryzen 7 is a quad-core, but a dedicated graphics card will always be superior to an integrated one, as long as that one isn't significantly newer, And on a laptop, there's always the possibility for curbed clock rates due to a risk of overheating, what with how compact everything has to be (including vents and/or heat dissipation plates).

 

Still, 2+ minutes of loading time seems excessive, especially for switching households or lots. That's something I'd expect to see on my old laptop, which has an E1 from back when Windows 8 was new.
If you don't want to dive into 50/50 straight away, maybe try running the game once without any mods present (remember to delete "localthumbcache.package" and don't save the game or you'll lose all data related to your mods). Also feel free to play around with the graphics settings, including laptop mode. Since your game already freezes or crashes all the time, it can only get better and if it doesn't, you'll know that TS4 isn't a simple enough title to run smoothly on your system.

 

By the way, looking at the ROG NUC made me cry...🤣

 

Have a good one!

Crash

[Alex vonAuen]

Servus Crash,
"..German bloke studying Computer Science...", also könnten wir eigentlich Deutsch verwenden 😉.....but then most others wouldn't be able to follow the conversation (i.e., info and tips).

With regard to KB, MB, GB, et al......... former Lit. & History major here, so....pretty much no idea what-so-ever. When I look at the last Save File it simply says "Size: 5,767 KB".
So I may have misread that and should perhaps have said '6 thousand' KB ? (..switching back and forth between German and English "," and "." when dealing with decimal points is a bit of a pain......).
However, just found a thread at EA from Crinrict, stating that 7,000 - 13,000 KB is about normal for an extensive and long-played game....once it hits 50 MB, then its big. 

Yes,.....2+ minutes loading time. I do really like my laptop...but it was definitely made for e-mails, word and surfing,.. not gaming. Am assuming that all my CC and extras are just a bit much for its capabilities (..worked much better before I discovered CC..). Hence, my current search for something better / stronger.

Soooo,......since you're a Computer Science major....might I bother you for your honest opinion? For example: "Lenovo Legion 5 Pro 16ARH7H" (Ryzen 7 - 6800H / RTX 3070 Ti) vs "Asus Rog Nuc" (Intel Core Ultra 9 - 185H / RTX 4070).
The Lenovo (currently on sale at my MediaMarkt for EUR 2127,-) sounds / looks nice, ...and has all of the main ports in the back and out of the way (!!)....plus, Lenovo generally has good reviews. However, this model only has 16 GB RAM (..that, however, I could easily fix - have done it before..) and I just read two reviews stating that the fan on this model is rather loud and annoying. On the other hand, who knows just when the Asus Rog Nuc may finally appear???   Curious......why exactly were you crying...?

Was also looking at some of the 'bigger & better' Asus laptops (I do like Asus): e.g., Asus Rog Strix G17 G713PI-LL005W (Ryzen 9 - 7945HX / RTX 4070), but I just don't like the way they look (not really into all the gaming RGB lights, bling, etc.)....plus, it weighs a ton - I'd need a crane to move it from my desk to the sofa.  And, at EUR 2497,-- .....its really pushing the limit of my intended budget (...my little bro, though, would simply say: "..go for it.."   🙄...).

Any other ideas certainly welcome. 
Oh, and thanks again for the assist !

Ciao,
Alex

 

[Guest]

jag oftast brukar kolla fläkt och skärm på bärbara, sen givetvis om padden brukar sluta i samma veva.

[Crashdown117]

Servus Alex,

 

wir könnten alles Weitere auch gern per PN regeln, wenn du magst - dann natürlich auf Deutsch 😉

 

I mean, it's pretty clear at this point that this whole issue probably comes down to your laptop not being able to handle a seriously modded TS4 install.

I'm running the game on my rig, save files are at 20.000+ KB each, mod folder is about 6 GB and intial loading times have never been longer than a minute, even with Windows deciding to perform system updates and some maintenance tasks at the same time (seriously, what's wrong with this OS some days?).

 

4 hours ago, Alex vonAuen said:

Soooo,......since you're a Computer Science major....might I bother you for your honest opinion?

Hang on there for a second, mate. That doesn't qualify me in any way. I can tell you how a CPU works and what a graphics pipeline is, but when it comes to comparing and judging different hardware configurations, I also have to go by my gut and personal experience.

That being said, all three of these will be able to run the game smoothly and their specs are well above what is recommended, so get whichever you fancy. Personally, I think that all this bling is pretty much useless - I do, however, appreciate an illuminated keyboard (one constant and not too bright color) - and that one should be able to lift a laptop comfortably with one hand. If you don't plan to do anything requiring a serious amount of processing power or absolute top-notch graphics, there's no real need to wait for the Rog Nuc (or spend a few hundred bucks extra to get a fancy half-ton machine).

And regarding the fan noise on the Lenovo, here's a test video with almost exactly the config you're looking at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gp6qQe0ccts

Doesn't seem to be that loud to me, and not very noticeable unless it's completely silent otherwise.

But that's just my two cents worth.

 

And I cried (not really, of course) because that little thing makes my rig look like a total potato in comparison.

 

So, yeah, that's basically the only idea I can offer at this point: Get anything with a dedicated graphics card and four CPU cores (or two, with hyper-threading and similar stuff).

Guess they brought the game to a level of performance beyond that of older laptops, back when they ditched 32-bit support.

 

Cheerio!

Crash

[Guest]

17 minutes ago, Crashdown117 said:

Servus Alex,

 

wir könnten alles Weitere auch gern per PN regeln, wenn du magst - dann natürlich auf Deutsch 😉

 

I mean, it's pretty clear at this point that this whole issue probably comes down to your laptop not being able to handle a seriously modded TS4 install.

I'm running the game on my rig, save files are at 20.000+ KB each, mod folder is about 6 GB and intial loading times have never been longer than a minute, even with Windows deciding to perform system updates and some maintenance tasks at the same time (seriously, what's wrong with this OS some days?).

 

Hang on there for a second, mate. That doesn't qualify me in any way. I can tell you how a CPU works and what a graphics pipeline is, but when it comes to comparing and judging different hardware configurations, I also have to go by my gut and personal experience.

That being said, all three of these will be able to run the game smoothly and their specs are well above what is recommended, so get whichever you fancy. Personally, I think that all this bling is pretty much useless - I do, however, appreciate an illuminated keyboard (one constant and not too bright color) - and that one should be able to lift a laptop comfortably with one hand. If you don't plan to do anything requiring a serious amount of processing power or absolute top-notch graphics, there's no real need to wait for the Rog Nuc (or spend a few hundred bucks extra to get a fancy half-ton machine).

And regarding the fan noise on the Lenovo, here's a test video with almost exactly the config you're looking at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gp6qQe0ccts

Doesn't seem to be that loud to me, and not very noticeable unless it's completely silent otherwise.

But that's just my two cents worth.

 

And I cried (not really, of course) because that little thing makes my rig look like a total potato in comparison.

 

So, yeah, that's basically the only idea I can offer at this point: Get anything with a dedicated graphics card and four CPU cores (or two, with hyper-threading and similar stuff).

Guess they brought the game to a level of performance beyond that of older laptops, back when they ditched 32-bit support.

 

Cheerio!

Crash

windows love akward times,, now i do sense a feeling of space issue here, maybe orginal @Alex vonAuen wnat to be so kind to rely the rest of the information. like error log and what he whas doing else it be wrong predict of error. and not right result.

Edited February 25 by theru

[Guest]

i supose this thread is done ^^ annars han kan återkomma till mig. ingen ide vi göra detta publikt.