#the sims 2 pink flashing

[dystopianam]

Tips on how to avoid and reduce the Pink Flashing - "Masterpost"

Look here for other masterposts!

⚠️ THIS IS NOT A COMPLETE ""GUIDE"". I won't be updating this post and I've explained why here. In this post I only wrote some advice, so you won't find an entire research on Pink Flashing. Please read other REAL guides if you are interested in that. Unfortunately, deleting the post wouldn't make sense since the reblogs would remain.

What is the Pink Flashing?

The Pink flashing, also called Pink Soup, is a graphical error that occurs when the game thinks it has reached the limit of its memory capacity to read the game's textures even if your PC is much more powerful and the configurations made to the game itself are very high and can hold much much more.

When this arrives, gradually an object or sim will start flashing pink and purple or even EVERYTHING will start flashing pink.

This type of error can occur both in game and on Bodyshop, and as many people mistakenly think, it is NOT a symptom of corruption. And it's not even a hardware problem of your PC. It's not your PC's fault, it's not dying, it's simply the game that's unstable.

What should I do when this occurs?

First of all, DON'T PANIC, it's nothing serious. The only thing you need to do is save the game before it crashes (because yes, it usually crashes after the pink flashing occurs), close the game and reopen it. When you reboot it, the pink flashing will be gone.

AND don't worry if some previews of your sims remain pink. They will update as you play (the fastest way to update them is to have your sim change clothes or change their appearance in the mirror)

@2fingerswhiskeysims added that another method is to minimize the game, leave the PC to rest for a few hours and then reopen the game. The pink flashing should then go away on its own (I would just recommend saving before doing so, because it's not a method that works for everyone. For example it often crashes immediately after the pink flashing appears or even just minimizing it makes it crash if it's like my game that even if you look to it by mistake it crashes)

Is there a way to increase the graphics capabilities of my game?

Yes, there is, and you should do it regardless of the pink flashing, to make your game more stable. This will NOT eliminate the risk of pink flashing, but will reduce it and make the game crash after hours and hours of play rather than after a few minutes or half an hour as happens to some.

What you need to do is make your own graphic rules that adapt the game to your video card and install the 4GB patch. This guide from Pleasantsim explains how to install both (as well as providing other tips for stability and improving graphics)

Another tip that many give is to use the Sims2RPC Launcher by LazyDuchess, as many say it has made their game more stable, while others say it has increased their Pink Flashing, so I think it's very subjective whether using this launcher is better or worse.

Is there a way to eliminate it or avoid it?

There is no fix for this problem and there is no way to eliminate it, although LazyDuchess is doing some research to see if it can be done. BUT I can give you some advice on how to avoid it for as long as possible (it will still appear after a few hours, but I can tell you what to do to be able to play safely for as long as possible)

From my personal experience, I understand that pink flashing occurs when the game needs to read a lot of thumbnails (of hairs and clothes expecially) and when you visit too many lots in the same game session or you visit a single huge lot full of objects. So, what you need to do is:

Save before changing your sims appearance (whether it's a change of hair or clothes) because the game almost always tends to crash after a long or sometimes even short makeover session. (It depens on how many ccs you have)

Avoid changing your sims hair if you don't have to. One of the causes of pink flashing is reading all the thumbnails of the hair in the game, especially if you have a lot of cc hair and getting to the last page or halfway through is very tiring for you and for your game that have to read all the thumbnails. It doesn't matter if the game already has them cached, pink flashing doesn't care.

Avoid changing your sims clothes if you don't have to change them (so avoid needlessly looking at all the clothes you have, in your wardrobe or in shop mode as if it were your closet at home). Just like with hair, pink flashing is triggered by reading too many thumbnails, especially if you have a lot of cc clothes. As with hair, it doesn't matter if the game has already cached thumbnails of all the clothes you have. Pink Flashing doesn't care. BUT unlike hair, for clothes I found a solution (which I hope is not a coincidence that only works for me). Unfortunately this took away the pleasure of going to the shops to buy clothes, but it avoided crashes and Pink Flashing. Basically, I discovered (and I don't know why) that if I use Pescado Clothing Tool, for some mystical reason the game doesn't crash and doesn't trigger pink flashing (I can even spend hours scrolling through all my many ccs and it doesn't annoys my game at all)

Last but not least, pink flashing can also be caused by reading too many thumbnails in buy mode or visiting too many lots during the same gaming session. Unfortunately there isn't much to do here, my only advice is to save very often when you edit lots, and to avoid visiting different lots too much if you don't need to (don't worry, your sims don't suffer from claustrophobia and can stay in their homes very well). If you have to edit a lot of lots, use a game session ONLY for that, because changing lots and scrolling through the buy mode there will be a lot of pink flashing very soon, at some point. At least you will have the knowledge that it will arrive any moment and you won't have to stress while you are in live mode.

To summarize, pink flashing is triggered by:

Scroll too much hair pages in "edit appearance" mode.

Scroll too much clothes pages in "change clothing" mode.

Scroll too much furnitures in "buy/build mode"

Open/go in many different lots in the same game session.

Use very big lots with a lots of objects.

Apartment lots (these ones are a hell for PF)

AND the snow. Yes, when the terrain change in "snowy" mode, this trigger the PF a lot. You can disable the snow with mods if you want or simply save the game before the terrain changes and hope that it will not happen.

@brandinotbroke added that the shaders trigger Pink Soup. But when it comes to shaders this time it also depends a lot on the hardware capacity of your PC, and it's not just a game problem. Both the game's shaders themselves, additional shaders and default replacement shaders downloaded from the internet could cause problems. If you think this is the problem, the solution is to use the "userShader off" cheat. BUT this doesn't always mean that your computer can't handle that particular shader. Often some shaders need to be downloaded in their version to be compatible with other shaders. So try to differentiate the difference between an unsupported shader and a shader that is not compatible with another, always read the description of the creator's post carefully. (For example: the "Better Night Life" shader conflicts with Voielle's water shaders and for this reason there is a BNL shader compatible with Voielle's water. IF you used the normal shader instead of the compatible one, any object that works with BNL shaders will be affected by Pink Soup.)

@goingsimcrazy added that many hood deco, high quality setting, high DOF and lot impostors can trigger pink flashing. However, this is a mix between "your PC's hardware capabilities" and basically...player luck. Sometimes players with latest generation gaming PCs cannot handle the hood decos and players who play with toasters play surrounded by hood decos, so here isn't very clear how The Sims 2... decides its capacity and compatibility criteria. But anyway, if you think that your hood deco, lot impostors, high graphics qualities and DOF (distance of field) are TOO MUCH and that your PC cannot support them, simply deactivate and lower the graphics settings from the settings!

BUT @goingsimcrazy also pointed out a detail that I wanted to add too but forgot. Basically, deleting the thumbnails cache is of no use, it doesn't solve the pink flashing problem, in fact it makes it worse. I won't give you a computer lesson but in simple terms I'll explain it to you like this: caches are used to store information so that when you open a software, the software takes information from the cache file and speeds up its reading capacity. If you delete the thumbnails cache every two days what you are doing is practically punching yourself, because not only are you slowing down the game, but by doing so you force it to regenerate the thumbnails every single time, thus causing crashes and pink flashing. Delete the thumbnails ONLY if you have changed a huge number of default replacements and need to update the previews OR press CTRL + right click of the mouse on the individual preview you want to refresh.

@fireflowersims also added this, that it's very important, please read!

Small clarification to finish:

Sometimes pink flashing is also caused by very long gaming sessions (so even if you don't do any of the things listed, at some point it will still happen, but I'm talking about more than 4/5 hours of gaming).

Many of the things listed may be stupid and already known, many of you will be reading and thinking "the genius has arrived", but I have seen many people suffer from pink flashing, not understanding what trigghed it and doing A LOT of the things that trigghed it the most. (I watched a lot of gameplay on YouTube where this happened).

So...I hope I helped someone and if someone know other things that trigger PF let me know, I'll add it to this post!

[yeoldecorprusarium]

How many pretentious screenshots can I take of a single lot? A ton.

Makeover of the park between the two mansions in Sunset Valley that I plopped in Pleasantview.

I never want to see the terrain paint tool again. Jk, until the next build.

[keoni-chan]

I have these Sunday morning shower thoughts about a possible workaround fix for pink flashing, but I'm not sure if it actually works 😅

As you may know, I downgraded my graphics card a while ago, because my RX 7800 XT kept flashing pink and crashing. I got out my old 1070, and all my problems disappeared.

But last Friday night, a friend gave me his old 3090. I have been playing Angler's Bay on the 3090, view and fade distance to maximum, neighborhood flora, deco, and neighbors visible. I've build, decorated, and visited community lots, all in the same session. No crashing, no pink flashing, nothing.

But I didn't update my Graphic Rules. I forgot, lol. My game still thinks it's the same old 1070.

So I was thinking, what is it in my old Graphic Rules that makes the game behave and not crash/flash? And could a possible solution to The Pink Flashing be as simple as using the graphic rules for an old graphics card from the same manufacturer? 🤔

[hazelpuff]

[lilakartoffelbrei]

Pink soup car

[anachronisims]

Pink Flashing Experience Research Survey!

Hi TS2 community, I am very interested in learning more about the way pink flashing happens or doesn't happen in different people's games. I have put together this kinda fairly detailed survey as a Google Form that hopefully can shed more light on the issue.

If you are familiar with your computer and graphics settings, you can easily finish the survey in about 5 minutes. If you need to look a few things up, it could take 10-15.

If you had flashing with some settings and resolved it, please consider filling out the form twice - once describing your experience before you fixed it and again for after. If not, please just use your post-fix experience.

Please, please reblog as data is only as good as the breadth of its sample. A summary of the results are viewable to all upon completion of the survey and I am happy to share more detailed findings with the modding community, just let me know.

[lasudio]

all aboard the party bus!

[fireflowersims]

So for clarification on pink flashing stuff

I've seen a masterpost by @dystopianam about pink flashing go around, and I feel it may need some clarification.

The conclusion drawn was largely "it's thumbnails" but well... It is not. Looking at a lot of thumbnails can be a factor, sure, but it is not the root cause.

So, allow me to illustrate:

Imagine you have a bucket. That's the texture memory. How big it is depends on both the game and your pc. Fact is: you have a bucket.

Now you start putting water in: it could be a tiny amount, it could be an entire pitcher. At some point, that bucket is gonna get full and if after that you add more water, it will overflow. This is your pink flashing.

Just as how adding large amounts of water, will make your bucket flood faster, so does loading in a large amount of (big) textures increase your game's chances of flashing pink.

A smaller texture takes up less space in your bucket, a large one will take up a lot of your space. This is why texture optimization can help quite a bit with pink flashing. It has nothing to do with hardware, it's just shrinking things down so your bucket fills up slower.

So, how does this relate to thumbnails? Well, thumbnails are indeed textures. Looking at a large amount of thumbnails, does fill up your bucket. But, here's the thing: thumbnails are generated. Generating a thumbnail of something with a large texture takes the game (and your pc) more effort than generating one for a lower resolution thing. Regenerating thumbnails can indeed cause crashing. The thumbnails themselves are tiny lil images. In the end, it still comes down to texture memory and how quickly you fill it up.

All the actions listed in the original post are ones that involve loading more textures into memory.

Tldr: thumbnails are not the issue. The issue is the amount and size of textures you're loading. Your texture memory can and will eventually get full and the game is not good at dealing with it.

If you'd like to know more about pink flashing, @anachronisims has been doing a lot of research on the topic and is working on a big report. Fascinating stuff, go check it out!

[thisgingerhasnosoul]

All I want. All I fucking want. Is for The Sims 2 to work. And yet.

[celestialspritz]

i die just a little inside every time someone blames windows 10 and not the insane polycounts/texture sizes that seem to just get even worse year by year

[deedee-sims]

what are the best qol mods or modernization mods for sims 2 that bring useful ui or general gameplay improvements from s3 and s4 to sims 2 in your opinion?

Hi! I don't use any ui mods (og blue ui, my beloved), and I really only use the traits mod that's kinda like other sims games, but you can play without it just fine because sims 2 sims already have a lot of personality 🤷‍♀️

[belladovah]

Force Texture Memory & Available VRAM...this can change over time?!

So I've recently gotten Sims 2 up and running on my new PC, and of course the Graphics Rules Maker was an essential part. I made a video tutorial on my set up process, and have been working on a written tutorial too.

I have an NVIDIA RTX 4070 Graphics Card which has 12GB VRAM. During my initial setup and time of recording, when I checked my Display Memory (VRAM) in the DirectX Diagnostic tool and used the Graphics Rules Maker's Auto-detect feature to determine what I should set my 'force texture memory' to, they both said 12026MB.

However, when I came to re-tracing my steps a couple weeks later to grab some screenshots for my written guide, I was shocked to find that this number had actually decreased to 12012Mb! I had no idea that this could decrease over time.

This got me thinking, perhaps a cause of some of the stability and graphical issues we run into (pink soup) could potentially be partly because our available memory has actually decreased since we last set it in our Graphics Rules so it needs to be updated!

So please, check how much VRAM/Display Memory/Texture Memory you have now and see if that number is actually lower than what its set to in your Graphics Rules meaning it's decreased since you last set it! Try updating it and see if it makes things any better!

On the off chance I'm onto something here, I'd recommend making a habit of checking how much display memory you have every once in a while and update your Graphics Rules force texture memory setting accordingly. I'm aiming to check it at least every time I get a graphics driver update.

[yeoldecorprusarium]

Is Sims 2 really more stable on win 7?

Pink flashing-wise. I remember it being so, but it's been years for me. I'm afraid of creating a brand new partition just for it to do nothing, but things are bad to the point of getting the soup constantly on a measly 5gb cc folder.

I've seen a few posts claiming it helps greatly, but half of the stuff related to pink flashing is speculation or whatever, so I'm looking for more feedback.

[lilleputtu]

The Glade sure is coming along

[virtualpeople]

HE HAS NO STYLE

HE HAS NO GRACE

THIS MAN

IS ENTIRELY FACE

[lindasims2]

Free doesn't mean quality part3 "game of trust" / Бесплатно не значит качественно ч3 "игра на доверии"

Look at these photos, what do you see? An ordinary body, clothes, shoes, everything is fine. At first glance, these things inspire confidence. But the usual standard body that many creators are used to using is not a guarantee of quality. Behind the beautiful photoshop pictures are hidden heavy and low-quality things that clog up the game.

Посмотрите на эти фотографии, что вы видите? Обычное тело, одежда, обувь, все прекрасно. С первого взгляда эти вещи внушают доверие. Но обычное стандартное тело которые многие креаторы привыкли использовать - это не гарантии качества. За красивыми фотошоп картинками скрываются тяжелые и не качественные вещи которые засоряют игру.

The problem with such things is that they play on trust and many people download these things without thinking. What's wrong with them? Let me show you. Let's look at a few things from free authors using an example. (The post was not made to offend anyone, people who are far from this should know what they are dealing with when they download content, you yourself published them for downloading).

Проблема таких вещей в том, что они "играют на доверии" и многие скачивают эти вещи не задумываясь. Что с ними не так? Давайте покажу. Разберем на примере несколько вещей бесплатных авторов. (Пост сделан не ради того, что бы кого либо оскорбить, люди которые далеки от этого должны знать с чем имеют дело когда качают контент, вы сами опубликовали их на скачивание).

The original picture is beautiful and has no flaws, the standard game body is used, the clothes seem low-poly and light. What's wrong with this? The enormous weight of clothing is a problem. Many authors convert clothes and do not think about the feasibility of these works. These pajamas weigh 57 thousand polygons. Behind this weight, the whole meaning of this body is lost and misleading. If desired, this thing can be reduced in size, made light and beautiful. As a result, everything in the game is much worse, legs fall out from under clothes, numerous holes and terrible animation. And most importantly, the clothes are not divided into groups/subsets, all the weight is in one group!

Оригинальная картинка красивая и не имеет изъянов, используется стандартное игровое тело, одежда кажется мало-полигональной и легкой. Что тут не так? Огромный вес одежды - это проблема. Многие авторы конвертируют одежду и не задумаются в целесообразности этих работ. Эта пижама весит 57 тысяч полигонов. За этим весом теряется весь смысл этого тела, вводит в заблуждение. Эту вещь при желании можно уменьшить, сделать легкой и красивой. В итоге в игре все на много хуже, ноги вываливаются из под одежды, многочисленные дыры и ужасная анимация. И самое главное одежда не поделена по группам/сабсетам, весь вес находится в одной группе!

This loads the game a lot. When your thing weighs so many polygons, it needs to be divided into groups/subsets, then it will be easier for the game to handle it. Besides everything, there is also a “wrong side” that doubles the load on your game! If you can't reduce the weight of the mesh, just don't publish such work, even warning people about high polygons won't stop someone tempted by the pretty cover from downloading it, catching the pink shimmer. They won’t understand the problem, because seemingly beautiful, low-poly content does not arouse suspicion.

Это сильно нагружает игру. Когда ваша вещь весит так много полигонов, ее необходимо разделять на группы/сабсеты, тогда игра будет легче ее обрабатывать. В добавок ко всему тут есть "изнаночная сторона" которая вдвойне нагружает вашу игру! Если вы не можете уменьшить вес сетки - просто не публикуйте такие работы, даже предупреждая людей о высоких полигонах, это не остановит человека под соблазном красивой обложки, он скачает это, поймает розовое мигание и не будет понимать почему это произошло, ведь красивый, с виду мало-полигональный контент не вызывает подозрений.

At that time, "HD body CHANELLA" has much less weight and beautiful animation, but many are prejudiced against it, mistakenly assuming that it will load the game, but in fact it is not. Most things (actually there are a lot of them) have much more weight and load the game more than HD bodies and clothes. Look carefully, the clothes are divided into pieces, this will help the game process clothes faster and without problems. There is no extra reverse or duplicates, there is no hidden body under the clothes. As a result, “all that glitters is not gold.” Many people see a beautiful picture, a standard body and have no idea what is inside. For example, here is another work on which I worked for several hours to reduce the weight of the mesh. Dear authors who convert clothes into s2, IT IS POSSIBLE, you just need to devote more time to it.

В то время "HD body CHANELLA" имеет намного меньший вес и красивую анимацию, но многие предвзято относятся к нему, ошибочно предполагая что это нагрузит игру, но на самом деле это не так. Большинство вещей (на самом деле их очень много) имеют намного больше вес и нагружают игру сильнее чем HD тела и одежда. Посмотрите внимательно, одежда поделена на куски, это поможет игре обрабатывать одежду быстрее и без проблем. Нет лишней изнанки и дубликатов, под одеждой нет спрятанного тела. В итоге, "не все то золото что блестит". Многие видят красивую картинку, стандартное тело и не подозревают что находиться внутри. Вот к примеру еще одна работа над которой я работала несколько часов что бы уменьшить вес сетки. Дорогие авторы, которые конвертируют одежду в s2, ЭТО ВОЗМОЖНО, нужно лишь посвятить этому больше времени.

Next we have the “shoes” category. It looks beautiful and easy, again a “play on trust”. Let's open the file and see the huge weight of the shoes on the low-poly standard body:

Далее у нас идет категория "обувь". Выглядит красиво и легко, снова "игра на доверии". Откроем файл и видим огромный вес обуви на мало-полигональном стандартном теле:

Therefore, when downloading clothes, be careful, open MESH in simpe and look at its weight, whether it has separate groups, because the game will process the mesh better if it is divided into groups than when everyone is in one group. As an example, I will publish a few more photographs of this type.

По этому, скачивая одежду будьте бдительны, откройте MESH в simpe и посмотрите его вес, имеет ли он раздельные группы, ведь игра лучше обработает сетку если она разделена по группам, чем когда все находиться в одной группе. В качестве примера опубликую еще несколько фотографий подобного типа.

This is a big problem that many authors are silent about. Learn to reduce the weight of the mesh as much as possible, there are plenty of lessons on YouTube. If after reducing polygons you still have multi-polygon clothes, just DIVIDE them into groups (4~5k polys per group), this will make the game easier to work with. You will immediately feel the difference. There is no need to upload everything into one group/subset.

Это большая проблема о которой молчат многие авторы. Учитесь по максимуму уменьшать вес сетки, на youtube полно уроков. Если у вас после уменьшения полигонов осталась много-полигональная одежда, просто РАЗДЕЛИТЕ ее по группам (4~5к поли на группу), это упростит работу игре. Вы сразу почувствуете разницу. Не нужно загружать все в одну группу/сабсет.

And another hard job, 47k polygons. This dress could use a lot of work. Smooth out "corners", reduce polygons, fix the 3D mesh, texture and work on animation. THIS IS POSSIBLE! You just need to devote more time to it. My 13k poly version:

И еще одна тяжелая работа, 47к полигонов. Над этим платьем можно хорошо поработать. Сгладить "углы", уменьшить полигоны, поправить 3D сетку, текстуру и поработать над анимацией. ЭТО ВОЗМОЖНО! Нужно лишь посвятить этому больше времени. Моя версия на 13к поли:

You can download the original and my version of the dress to compare the result personally, in your game and draw conclusions: the original is here, my version is here.

Вы можете скачать оригинал и мою версию платья что бы сравнить результат лично, в своей игре и сделать выводы: оригинал тут, моя версия тут.

And another problem some creators have is that they depict unnecessary normal texture that were not used in the game:

И еще одна проблема некоторых создателей в том, что они создают кучу ненужных нормали текстуры которые не используются в игре:

textures 2,3 and 4 are not needed, they load the file and the game with their presence. let's count, 6 colors, 3 unnecessary textures, in total we have 6x3=18! 18 textures of 1024x1024 size that are in the file and clog up the game. Remove normal maps if you don't use them, or reduce their texture format to 64x64.

текстуры 2,3 и 4 не нужны, они нагружают файл и игру свои присутствием. давайте посчитаем, 6 цветов, 3 ненужные текстуры, итого мы имеем 6х3=18! 18 текстур размером 1024х1024 которые лежат в файле и засоряют игру. Удаляйте нормали карты если вы их не используете, либо уменьшайте их формат текстур до 64х64.

Let's summarize: most often people make conversions to photograph their characters beautifully, they are not aware of the problem faced by players who play the game. Due to inexperience, they load clothes with duplicates and extra polygons, load extra textures, subscribers who download all this encounter problems and are not aware of all this. If you are an author: reduce polygons, divide the mesh into parts, do not clutter the normals with textures in your work. I hope this post will help many people understand why their game may slow down and crash.

Подведем итоги: чаще всего люди делают конвертации что бы красиво сфотографировать своих персонажей, они не подозревают о проблеме с которой сталкиваются игроки которые играют в игру. По неопытности они нагружают дубликатами и лишними полигонами одежду, загружают лишние текстуры, подписчики которые качают все это сталкиваются с проблемами и не подозревают обо всем этом. Если вы автор: уменьшайте полигоны, делите сетку на части, не засоряйте нормали текстурами свои работы. Надеюсь этот пост поможет многим понять из за чего их игра может тормозить и вылетать.