Difference between revisions of "Game Help:Graphics Cards"

Revision as of 17:21, 4 March 2007

• I'm getting a message about graphics drivers not responding, things look terrible, and I have to reboot.
• Textures become blurred after a while of play.
• Mirrors are blurry and thumbnails are crunchy.
• I'm experiencing other graphics glitches or weird/blurred textures.

Graphics cards and Graphics Drivers

Some information about Graphics cards and drivers.

The graphics card (or video card) is the part of your computer which handles the images that you see on the screen. The more expensive graphics cards are separate components that fit into the mainboard (motherboard) of the computer, and can be take out and replaced. The cheaper graphics cards are integral- part of the mainboard. They cannot be removed, but in most cases it is possible to fit a separate graphics card to use instead. For most PCs, buying and fitting a new graphics card is a straightforward task. For laptops and older PCs it is often more difficult to find the right card.

The Graphics driver is a piece of software (code/ program) which tells the computer how to use the graphics card. The Sims 2 is a very demanding 3D program, and sometimes certain drivers can cause errors which appear as glitches on the screen. The drivers which come with your computer or graphics card are most likely not the newest, and so the most logical thing to try is to upgrade the drivers for the newest. However, occasionally the newer ones may not work so well with the Sims 2, so then it’s time to try some older drivers.

Graphical Errors:
Some of the errors which are possible are as follows:

• Some/ all of the graphics options greyed out in game (Check in a lot, not in the neighbourhood screen!): If your graphics card doesn’t support some of the features, the only option is to buy a new card. Edge smoothing, reflections and shadows are features of the card’s capabilities. Red water and/ or blank patches on the screen: This is usually indicative of outdated drivers (although blue flashing objects are NOT caused by this).

• The screen goes black or freezes during the special event movies: This can sometimes be improved by new drivers, too.

• The game is slow or jeky, especially when the settings are on high: This can often be helped by newer drivers, and there are lots of thngs you can do to improve the overall performance of your computer, too. LINK

• There is a D3derr_invalidcall error when I try to run bodyshop: This is caused by some Intel graphics cards, and Intel claim it has been solved with later drivers. However, some people have still been reporting the error, and the only solution is to use the pre-release version of Bodyshop - download here. You can get the Starter pack from here. Please read this also: Pre-release Bodyshop skins*. Some people have reported that with Nightlife and Open For Business they do not get the error.

• I have an error saying there are no DirectX compatible graphics adapters in the system: DirectX is Microsoft’s graphics handling software. You may have an older version of DirectX, or installing new drivers may require re-installing DirectX. You can get the newest version here, free: Direct X

If the error persists, try reinstalling the graphics drivers.

If you're still getting errors, continue on to the next step.

Finding Out Which Graphics Card You Have

How do I find out which graphics card I have?

The easiest way is to click start> run and then type dxdiag in the little box. Click OK.

When the DirectX console opens, give it a few seconds until it has read your system components. From this screen you can tell your operating system (Windows XP Professional in this case).

Then click on the display tab (where the arrow is). You should now see a screen which tells you the manufacturer of your graphics card, and what the model number is (in this case, an Nvidia FX5200). There is also a section about driver version, it looks complicated but if I take the last four figures I can see that I have the 84.21 drivers.

You may like to write down your operating system, card name and driver version.

Downloading New Graphics Drivers

Getting the new drivers

What you should now do is to find out if there are newer drivers available for your card. If there are, you can download them to your hard drive for installation.

Nvidia: These use an all in one driver which covers all models. Get it here- just pick 'graphics driver', and the operating system which applies to you.
NVidia website

ATI/ Radeon: These are also all in one drivers, so to get the ATI (Catalyst) drivers you can go here. Just select 'Drivers and software' and choose your operating system, then click 'drivers and software' again:
ATI Website

There are a different set of drivers you could try also, called Omega drivers. You can get those from here: Omega Drivers

Intel: You need to get the correct driver for your chip.
Intel Website
Start by clicking on 'graphics', 'Desktop graphics controller'. Follow the on screen instructions, putting in your chip version and operating system.

S3: Go to the website:
S3 Website
Start by selecting your graphics chip and follow the on screen instructions.

SiS: Go to the website:
SiS Website
SiS have a little piece of software which diagnoses your system and downloads the correct drivers. You’ll need to use Internet Explorer to do this, and you may have to click on the security bar to tell Windows to allow or install an ActiveX.

Once you have downloaded the drivers to your computer, you can move on to the next step.

Installing The New Drivers

Installing graphics drivers

Some of the drivers may be compressed (Zipped), in which case you’ll need to unzip them. Then, just run the installer by double clicking on it, and follow the onscreen instructions.

Uninstall the old drivers:

Some people may like to uninstall the older drivers completely first by using either Windows Add/ Remove programs, or a third party program. This often gives better results and so is worth doing if you are having problems, especially if you have reverted to older drivers. One I have used is a free program called Driver Cleaner (archive download here) . There is a readme file included with Driver Cleaner which gives full instructions, and there is also detailed information on the website. There are also many other commercial programs available for cleanly removing drivers. Take care not to remove mainboard or other drivers inadvertently whilst doing this- especially if you have other devices of the same brand as your graphics chipset.

What do do if the newest drivers are causing graphical errors:

If you are still getting game errors with the newer drivers, there are some points you could try. If you have just installed a new graphics card, it is always worth reinstalling DirectX. Also, try deleting My documents/ EA Games/ The Sims2/ Config/ userprops.xml. This contains details about your previous graphics settings and will be refreshed by the game when you next run it. If you are still having problems, try backing up your game files and reinstalling the Sims 2.
If you have upgraded your drivers to the newest ones and are still getting graphical errors you could try using some older drivers. The newest ones aren’t always compatible with The Sims2 (this is especially true for Nvidia). You can get older drivers from the manufacturers websites:

NVidia Archive

ATI Catalyst Archive

Guru Of 3D Archived ATI/ Nvidia/ SiS Drivers

S3, SiS and Intel also have archives on their websites.

Also, if you haven’t already, try cleaning out the older drivers as mentioned previously.

If you have an NVidia card and are having the bluescreen/ hourglass show often:

Check out this thread where other people are having that issue. Also try the suggestions in this forum and here.

If you upgraded your drivers to give you better game quality, but it still hasn’t worked, check that all of your settings are on high. If you do not have the high settings or your game still looks poor quality when on high, then you’ll need a more powerful card.

Next: Buying a new card

Buying A New Graphics Card

Choosing a new Graphics card

I cannot really advise on a particular card to get, as it will depend upon your computer and also upon your finances and preferences! This is a list of cards supported by The Sims 2 Open for Business, which gives you a good starting point: System Requirements

To buy a new card, first you need to find out which kind of slots you have on your mainboard to fit the card into. To find out this information you’ll need to do one of three things:

• 1: Take your computer cover off to see,

• 2: Use a program such as System Specs or Everest Free to find out,

• 3: Ask a professional, or someone who knows about computers to help you.

Once you know what types of card you can buy, I’d recommend that you do some research. An easy way to find out what may work well is to ask on the Computer and Tech Gizmo forum and to read the Help Forum* so that you can see which cards people are having difficulty with. Murronrose's guide here is a great source of information, you can also post a question there. It is also a good idea to read reviews and compare prices, you can do this by googling any graphics cards you are interested in, or reading computer websites and magazines to find comparisons and recommendations. If you have a local computer store you could ask there, too- and advice from people you know who own computers is always useful. Ultimately, if you don’t know which card will work for you or you don’t know how to install a card, get the advice of a computer professional. As long as you have a clear idea of what you want your PC to do and how much you want to spend, you’ll be okay.