Before I divulge the details of this discovery, I need to lay out some background, so that I can better explain why my discovery is "disturbing".
I didn't know anything about "routing" relevant to TS3 until I began building my own world. And before I began building TS3 worlds, I did everything I knew to do to try and customize the game to my liking. That involved utilizing "Edit Town" quite often . . . deleting lots, adding lots, rezoning lots, etc.
As I progressed in the game, I began to notice "game freezing". I would soon learn that many others were having this same problem. Basically, all actions, except for animations (like the z's over the Sims heads while they sleep, or the water spilling when unclogging a toilet) would stop. During this freeze it was also impossible to click anything. The freeze would last from a few seconds to half a minute, and the frequency of the freezing continued to increase in time. Simply speaking, time (in the game) would literally stop. The problem got so bad that, instead of freezing, the game would crash to desktop.
My first research of this problem led me to the idea that the freezes were caused by new Sims being generated. Then it was suggested that the UAC that came with the newer operating systems was causing a conflict with TS3. Some extremely kind modders offered us a fix with downloads, and some offered us detailed walk-throughs on how to add our .exe files to the DEP. But now it is being suggested that the freezing is caused by a corrupted registry and cleaning the registry will fix this problem.
Now that we have the background information, I'll proceed with my revelation.
In my last post I had discussed the issues I was having while testing Laural Falls. I have been resolving those issues with much success. However, last night when I installed Laural Falls back onto my system to test the changes I made, I was once again experiencing that dreaded freezing. So, I cleaned the registry, and that did not help. I made sure that all my .exe files had been added to DEP. That didn't work.
So, today I thought about one comment I read, suggesting that the problem is a "routing" issue, and that headed me into CAW to have a look at the routing in Laural Falls. Sure enough, I found some routing issues. As careful as I have been to pay close attention to my routing, I still found some issues. My experience with all this is telling me that the routing in TS3 is extremely volatile. What I mean by this is that the slightest change . . . like, for example, moving a street light half a square to the left may and can cause a shift in the routing grid.
I will discuss, in detail, the aspects of routing in the tutorial, but for this post, just know that routing is a crucial aspect of the game's programming, and it most definitely impacts performance.
So, I fixed all the issues I could find today, and I exported Laural Falls, installed it, and played it. Not one single freeze. So, at the moment, I am extremely pleased. But, now for the disturbing part . . .
I spent all day today, going through the map and the routing grid. I made deliberate changes, testing the results, and I noticed that changes can affect the grid in a negative way. Having done all this, I am 100% convinced that the freezing so many are having in TS3 is directly caused by routing issues. So, if, while playing TS3 we choose to edit our cities, we are inadvertently shifting the routing grid, which in turn, will create issues that cause the game to freeze. The problem is, if we did not create the city we are playing, we don't have access to the files, and therefore cannot fix the problem.
Now that we have the background information, I'll proceed with my revelation.
In my last post I had discussed the issues I was having while testing Laural Falls. I have been resolving those issues with much success. However, last night when I installed Laural Falls back onto my system to test the changes I made, I was once again experiencing that dreaded freezing. So, I cleaned the registry, and that did not help. I made sure that all my .exe files had been added to DEP. That didn't work.
So, today I thought about one comment I read, suggesting that the problem is a "routing" issue, and that headed me into CAW to have a look at the routing in Laural Falls. Sure enough, I found some routing issues. As careful as I have been to pay close attention to my routing, I still found some issues. My experience with all this is telling me that the routing in TS3 is extremely volatile. What I mean by this is that the slightest change . . . like, for example, moving a street light half a square to the left may and can cause a shift in the routing grid.
I will discuss, in detail, the aspects of routing in the tutorial, but for this post, just know that routing is a crucial aspect of the game's programming, and it most definitely impacts performance.
So, I fixed all the issues I could find today, and I exported Laural Falls, installed it, and played it. Not one single freeze. So, at the moment, I am extremely pleased. But, now for the disturbing part . . .
I spent all day today, going through the map and the routing grid. I made deliberate changes, testing the results, and I noticed that changes can affect the grid in a negative way. Having done all this, I am 100% convinced that the freezing so many are having in TS3 is directly caused by routing issues. So, if, while playing TS3 we choose to edit our cities, we are inadvertently shifting the routing grid, which in turn, will create issues that cause the game to freeze. The problem is, if we did not create the city we are playing, we don't have access to the files, and therefore cannot fix the problem.
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