Faces don't exist.... when I go to create a sim they don't give me faces in the blue squares. In fact, whenever the original sims would age their faces would disappear. Random icons don't work either. So I have a bunch of blue squares. When I go into a lot instead of showing me who lives there it's blank. I'm blaming it on a bug because otherwise my game works fine. Here's what I tried doing: Wait...I thought that it would fix itself. Exit the lot and go back into it Change appearance in the mirror Create a whole new family Move into a different house uninstall and reinstall the game I'm currently updating my video driver in hopes that it may fix the problem. Otherwise has anybody else ever heard of this problem at all or know how to fix it?
I've never seen such a problem, and I have no idea why it would suddenly occur. I doubt your actual saved files are damaged, however, so moving and unmoving probably won't help. You may have to just resort to voodoo debugging: Uninstall and reinstall stuff starting from Windoze down to DirectX in hopes that it goes away. I have no other ideas here.
Sounds to me like the Sim-poser-renderer isn't working as it should. Absolutely no idea why it would fail to work though. Do lots moved into the lot bin have a picture?
Well, the mini-renderer is known to produce some really weird glitches: You can see a "sinkhole" effect for basements drilled at certain points around the lot, where the ground in the neighborhood view will be recessed as if it were a pit, only when actually playing the game, the lot will appear normal, level, and smooth, except for the pit of the basement, which is not visible from the outside, unlike in the neighborhood view, where it looks like the house is being sucked into a sinkhole. Other visual artifacts visible in the neighborhood view include the fact that gabled roofs appear to actually hover a few pixels above their supports, allowing you to peek into the house through the gap, objects such as toilet stalls placed so that their sides touch the wall, but do not poke through when viewed on the lot will produce patches as if they WERE poking through the walls in the neighborhood map, intersecting walls will often poke through the outer walls they intersect, resulting in a small "stub" poking out in the neighborhood map, and diagonal floor tiles which are normally fully contained within their walls will poke through them in the neighborhood view as well. The neighborhood view renderer appears to be rather buggy. This may extend to other "mini-view" renderers as well.
thanks, at least I have some idea about what is going wrong. Now what I really want to know is: How do I fix it? I'm not very computer savvy or anything, all I need/want is a quick fix...no voodoo fixes.
You don't. The problem, as far anyone can tell, would seem to lie with bugs in the program. You can update your drivers, but there's no guarantee that'll make the problem better, and could very well make it worse. It wouldn't be the first time that the classically recommended panacea of driver updates has not only failed to solve a problem, but has made it worse, or created problems where none existed.
so no patch to download or no files to go in and make sure are there? Nothing but learning to love and accept my blank squares?
I am highly skeptical that emailing or reporting anything will help, since Maxis has already demonstrated that, so far, all of the things people have been reporting have been ignored. JMP, unfounded allegations concerning the committment of EA Games/Maxis to its products are not helpful. (added by Moderator Mirelly)
(Mirelly, using your moderator privileges to add your opinions in other's posts are not helpful. If you have an opinion or response, try pressing reply like the rest of us. If no one has responded to JMP's bug reports, then, to him, it is a very founded statment.) In response to the original thread: I had the same problem. All portraits were blue. It happened in the wants and fears as well. I would have to mousover the fear to see who the sims wanted to kiss/make friends with/flirt with/become best friends with. All of the roofs in the neighborhood were black as well and some of the houses were clear. When I updated my video drivers, some things changed. All new portraits stopped being blue squares and became people. Houses that I edited changed their appearance to normal in the neighborhood mode. It happened to my roommate as well. I'd recommend updating your drivers. If that doesn't help, though, I'm sorry Good luck! peace
It is commitment, not lack of commitment, which must be proven. EA's track record, the most egregious offense so far being the Ultima IX debacle, which to this day remains bugged and now abandoned, has demonstrated that LACK of commitment is the default state. As for TS2, it has been nearly a month and a half. Not a shred of evidence points at even the EXISTENCE of a patch. The only thing that even MENTIONS a patch is a single post on the official BBS, and this doesn't actually even indicate that a proto-patch is existant. So my allegations are hardly "unfounded": They are backed solidly by past and present experience. Bottom line: There is no concrete evidence that a patch is actually in the works. I see plenty of smoke and mirrors, and no patch. Given this, that a patch is forthcoming is currently the unfounded allegation. Even if they ever bother to come out with one in an attempt to pacify the masses, there's no evidence to show that they've actually seriously acknowledged most of the problems, or actually fixed them. I am not a person who cares for corporate hearsay and propaganda. I demand results, and until I see them, all claims to the contrary are simply lies and propaganda.
I have had exactly the same problem. When my sims had thoughts about a sim that I created it, it was blank. Same with the wants and fears boxes. I had to put my mouse pointer on it to see who it was that my sim wanted to kiss etc. Plus my houses have black rooves in the neighbourhood view and clear underneath except stairs could be seen. I will try to update my drivers tonight for my video card.
Another weird visual artifact I've seen is a Sim gossiping or thinking about what appears to be a some kind of mutilated barcode, static cloud, or jagged lines, that, when viewed EXTREMELY closely, as in, zoomed all the way in, actually appears to be a horizontally compressed "interests" line, that looks like several of the normal conversational topics, each of which has been compacted horizontally to be no more than 2 or 3 pixels wide and arranged side by side with several other symbols that have received similar treatment. Has anyone else seen this?
I've seen it... I've seen this too, but it only started happening yesterday, after playing the game for about two weeks now. I havn't looked at it zoomed right in but it looks like a bunch of vertical lines when one sim is gossiping to another.
