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    Create A World FAQ by Regina @ CS3

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    Posts : 220
    Join date : 2010-12-04

    Create A World FAQ by Regina @ CS3 Empty Create A World FAQ by Regina @ CS3

    Post  Archivist Wed Aug 29, 2012 9:05 pm

    Create A World FAQ by Regina @ CS3


    Regina on 11-20-2011 wrote:
    This is something that should have been done long ago but better late than never, right?

    I'm hoping we can collect here some of the most commonly asked questions about world building. I hope everyone who reads around on various forums will feel like contributing as well. Just post a reply and as time allows I'll add it to the main post here. Smile

    Remember, there are MANY topics, tutorials and resources linked in AuntieLynd's CAW Tutorial & Resource Links thread. That thread should be the first one anyone heads to when they want to know ANYTHING about using CAW.

    Probably the #1 question:

    Q: I just finished my world and am play-testing it but it's lagging and freezing. What can cause that?

    A: Several things can cause lags and freezes.

    Things to check on the building level in Create A World:


    • If the lag comes on gradually as Sims move into your town then you probably have a routing issue. If, for example, a lot is built on an island connected to the mainland via a dive well that lot needs to be set to "No Visitors Allowed" because otherwise the Sims you aren't playing try to reach it and fail causing freezing. Another example would be if a lot is accidentally cut off from the rest of the town with routing paint. I won't go into all the details of how this kind of thing happens, but make sure to re-check all the routing paint in CAW. Even one tiny pixel not covered can cause this. Make sure to rebuild routing data by clicking View>Rebuild Routing Data before reexporting your town.

    • Make sure all roads are connected properly and that each road that ends within your town has an intersection at the end of it (do not put intersections on the ends of roads that go off into areas with no-routing paint). If you are using bridges make sure the roads are connected to those. Roads need to be pulled quite a way underneath the bridge before they'll attach.

    • Don't over-load your map with spawners. The over-use of fish spawners will cause more trouble than seed/mineral/bug spawners. Many people recommend having no more than one spawner of each type in your world. Try this and see if it helps. If you're building your world with Pets installed you won't find spawners in CAW and you don't need to add any to lots either to get the collectible animals--they WILL spawn from seed/mineral/bug spawners in sync with the same grade of other things that spawn from that spawner (ie: common animals from common spawners, etc.


    Things to check in-game:


    • You may have a small amount of freezing as soon as you move in your Sim because the game is generating NPCs.

    • If your town has several cash registers or if you're using a story progression mod to force Sims to move in quickly you will likely experiencing intermittent freezing each time a family moves into town.

    • Check all fences and gates on lots to make sure Sims can get in and out of those areas.
    • Look for areas around rabbit holes where Sims might be entering one way and exiting another and not be able to get out of where they exited into. For example, if a fence is built around a lot with a rabbit hole and is close to the building and the Sim happens to exit out of the back of the building they'll be stuck and their failed attempts at going somewhere can cause a freeze.
    • Check long, wide staircases, the likes of which I've seen used for some library buildings. In testing worlds I've had to replace 100% of those staircases for the Sims in those worlds to be able to use them without me guiding them almost each step of the way.
    • Be sure it isn't caused by countless cars being abandoned all over your town by using Twallan's Overwatch. Don't think of this as a mod, think of it as a severe bug fix. No one should not be using this in their game because those cars mean serious trouble for any town without it.
    • Spiral stairs are also being reported as causing lag. One way to prevent it is to make sure there is no railing or half walls around the staircase. You may also need to move the stairs a tile away from any wall.
    • Move Objects On is also causing problems, mainly when used to place objects Sims will interact with. It can also cause routing issues if it's used for placing doors and other build mode objects.
    • Twallan has a feature in his Story Progression mod (found here) that will give you the ability to choose an option by which you can find any routing issues quickly and easily. Find an article with instructions here.


    Q: My .world save is corrupted. Do I have to start over on my world?

    The first thing I want to do is stress the importance of saving your creation every twenty or thirty minutes AND make regular back-ups of your world by copying and pasting THE SINGLE FOLDER AND TWO FILES to another location like an external drive just in case something goes wrong and you end up losing the files on your hard-drive.

    A good rule of thumb for intervals between saving is to ask yourself "How much of my work am I willing to lose in the event of a corrupted save file?" Then "How much am I willing to redo in the event I lost all my saves? I can guarantee you those two questions will have you saving and backing up on a regular basis.


    A: No. Each time you save your work a back-up of the last save is created, automatically up to five saves. You're prompted whether or not you want to delete old saves and even if you choose "Yes" you still have the last four back-ups.

    Here's how to restore from the back-up.

    1. Navigate to My Documents (or Documents depending on your Windows version)>Electronic Arts>The Sims 3 Create A World Tool>UserToolData/Worlds.
    2. Create a new folder and name it corrupted or some such (you're just sticking the corrupt save into this temporarily, you can delete it later).
    3. Move the one folder (yourworldname) plus two files (yourworldname.settings and yourworldname.world) for your world into the folder you just created.
    4. Click the sort button for date or date modified. The latest back-up save if your world will now be either on the top or bottom of the list of folders. Its name will be something like yourworldnamehere_Bkp_10-29-2011_13-26-06.
    5. Open the folder with the latest back-up and you will find one folder (yourworldname) and one file (yourworldname.world) and select both (hold down the shift key and click one and then the other) then right-click and choose Cut. Navigate back to the Worlds folder, set your mouse and click Paste.
    6. Start Create A World and open the .world file just as you normally would and you should be good to go!


    Q: How do I align a Distant Terrain?
    A: Tricky things they are, go here for a tutorial with all the settings numbers.


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