Dealing With Simulation Lag

Hey friends,

Someone on reddit was dealing with Simulation Lag and I ended up info dumping a bit on what it is and how to deal with, and then I figured it'll probably be helpful for you all too! I'll add some extra info at the end as Sim Lag relates to my mods and how we can help each other get to the bottom of it.

This is called Simulation Lag. There's some behind the scenes action or interaction that a sim somewhere on the lot is trying to run that the game is getting stuck on. The good news is though time may appear to be ticking, the game is actually technically frozen/moving very slowly. Resetting sims may work if you can pinpoint the exact sim/interaction that's slowing things down, but usually it's a background action such as spawning sims into the lot. Here's some solutions from least to most disruptive (but also least to most effective to solving the problem)

1. Leave the game paused for a little bit- this gives the simulation time to clear it's throat as it were, complete the actions that is causing the lag and catch up to to the actual time displayed on the clock.)

2. Go to the map screen or build/build buy mode. Sometime's that seems to wake the simulation up, push through the thing causing the lag, and push closer, if not catch up to the actual time displayed on the clock. You may have to do this a couple times, if there's multiple things stacked up. (I.e. Go in and out of the map screen or build/buy). Other actions that force pause the game such as opening the main menu can also do this, i just find map the easiest since you just need to tap the m key.)

3. Travel to a different lot, spend at least an sim hour there, having your sim actually do interactions to ensure the simulation is moving again, and then traveling back. If the lag follows you, it may be an issue with your sim specifically.

4. If all else fails, back out into manage worlds (DO NOT SAVE) and switch to an "unplayed" household in a different neighborhood then the currently loaded lot, preferably without sims that may be currently loaded into the frozen lot. It might be overkill but I usually go to a household in a different world entirely. The unplayed household part is important because I noticed the game seems to retain more data when switching between two played households, as opposed to going from a played household to an unplayed household. Once again, spend at least a sim hour in the new household, having them do interactions (even if it's just having them go somewhere and sit.) After a sim hour or two, go back to manage worlds, remove that second household from your played households in the manage households list, and then swap back to your original households. If everything works, you sim should be on the same lot you left them, either at the entrance or with some other action queued up usually determined by autonmomy (not the action you left them on). This should mean that you successfully reset the simulation and should be good to go resuming to play the game, with the caveat that unfortunately simulation lag tends to haunt save files, so you may have to do this again. Be careful to avoid saving when you notice simulation lag is occurring to prevent that save from getting recurring simulation lag.

Some factors that contribute to simulation lag: script mods that mess with autonomy or add additional autonomous actions (just as an example I find wicked whims causes a lot of simulation lag when sims are feeling randy.) If you have a lot of autonomy turned on for Basemental that could be contributing to it. MCCommand, as much as it is life saver, I find can also contribute to a lot of simulation lag- particularly when loading into a lot as well as during it's prescheduled check ins. Try to turn off some of MCCC's default cleaning or population rules, or even uninstalling some mc command modules you don't use. Also Certain neighborhoods or lots that tend to have a lot going on in the background tend to attract more lag just by the nature of spawning more sims and add more autnomous interactions to go into the simulation queue. These tend to be neighborhoods with frequent Festivals like San Myshuno or Occult themed lots and neigbhorhoods like the Magic Realm, Mourningvale, and Everdew.

When it comes to my mods, I know that my mods contribute to simulation lag. The issue is there's not many diagnostic tools availabe ot help with Simulation Lag specifically. it rarely generates LE's and the state of your computer can signficantly impact it. I can tell you that I know Lag seems to occur on lots with my custom lot traits, usually ones where I have special sims spawn in - the game seems to have trouble generating these sims, especially when combined with certain MCCC population settings. If you notice lag occurring early after loading a lot, take note of any of my lot traits you may have added. As mentioned previously, when a lot of sims have a high desire commodity (a hidden motive that Turbo uses for sex autonomy). This has caused me to scale back signficantly how much my mods touch the desire commodity. Check to see if you one of your sims has high desire (usually indicated with a buff) or has the ask for sex interaction caught in their interaction queue. Try also toning down the sex autonomy settings, and then trying step 4 mentioned above to see if that helps cools thigns off. Also for you sanity, as fun as the feature is, turn off peeping sims spawning. I almost always get a huge lag spike whenever WW tries to spawn those guys.

In general, the more info you can collect when dealing with simulation lag, the more likely i'll be able to address it (or at least confirm if my mods are the ones at fault.)