When Fun Turns Frustration: Simulation Lag in The Sims 4

Things slow down, Sims get stuck, and the flow isn't as smooth as you'd like it to be. That's simulation lag for you - the game's way of saying, "Hey, I need a moment!"
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[@naluzoniro]

TS4 team : don't place too many objects and decorations to reduce lag ! Also TS4 team : release several object kits of nothing but clutter

[@SimMattically]

LMAO 😂

[@ardosims]

The argument of having too many objects or too many Sims on a lot, or playing on a save for too long makes my jaw drop. I'm playing only one Sim in my household in a house made by EA or on an empty lot for a Rag to Riches, and my game has fewer frames per minute than a 6th grade powerpoint as soon as I begin. I can reduce graphics quality, delete notifications, save, but this doesn't drastically reduce lag every time. And suddenly, without me doing anything, the game will suddenly be fluid, even in a situation with many Sims or objects. I'm convinced that the problem goes very deep and is the result of how the game is coded at its core.

[@Kualinar]

Deleting save files is a very bad advice. The only time it can ever affect the speed is when you want to resume a specific save or save as. That is, when the game need to populate the load/save list. When actually playing, NO save file are ever accessed.

[@nathanlamaire]

The sudden frame drop is a well-known issue that nobody including EA knows what's going on with it. The fix is to spam pause menu and hope for the best.

[@Myne1001]

Not a programmer, but as someone who has been playing a bit of TS4 lately and has learnt how lag like this happens in other games, I think its because the game is constantly checking a billion things every time something happens. Infants and toddlers cause huge amounts of lag. I'm pretty sure it because these two types of Sim are dependant on Teens and Adults needing to look after them, the game is checking every single adult on the lot. Even when an adult is already caring for a child (e.g. feeding) these Sims are still being checked. Twice now I have almost had infants taken away by social services because the mother could not breastfeed the child. Both times I had to take both of them to a completely empty lot and do it there. Another thing: walking by pedestrains also cause lag. If your Sims are having a chat outside the front of their house or on a community lot, it seems every Sim walking past will try and butt into the conversation. I once had a date fail because both participants stopped as they were waiting for a completely random NPC neither of them have ever met was walking over from the far side of this huge neighbourhood to talk to them. This is the curse of the "smarter multitasking" Sims. They try to do everything at once and it lags the heck out of the game, even if you simplify gameplay. These issues have made some of their latest DLCs like Wedding Stories and High School virtually impossible to use. Maybe its time for Maxis to re-do the whole backend of interactions?

[@SimMattically]

These are great observations, especially with toddlers and infants. From my own experience playing them is a nightmare - it's the simulation lag AND the wack autonomy. Due to these things I'm too frustrated to play the game sometimes...

[@EroDhika]

for those who are using mod, limit the sims in a zone is the best thing to do, MCCC could make it happen. plus with Kuttoe's Keep Sims in Home Region, will limit walk-by sims, but Kuttoe's mod has a weakness, it will not spawn the npc for food stand and mail man/woman due the region lock limitation.

[@parallel2465]

This is 100% a great observation. I'm also beside myself how they haven't realized that headline effect overload causes the build/buy lag (the occasional lag spikes which are only resolved when you hit escape twice)

[@Myne1001]

@@parallel2465 yeah they do. I find the FPS drops when going to Build mode, travelling or those notifications pop up.

[@Kualinar]

Pause the game. With «testingcheats» enabled, shift click on those NPCs and sellect «reset object (debug)». Your Sim will no longer be waiting for them. Unpause.

[@isabelalima1866]

It's impressive that they went back to neighborhoods, TP travels, more rabbit roles, simpler artstyle just to optimize the game and it still not optimized enough. The sims 3 had a clear reason to lag and stutter, but it was acceptable because everything else actually worked. And of course, we used to have more gameplay and things to explore even on the base game.

[@SimMattically]

Exactly!

[@cloudsurfer73]

It’s funny because my Sims three game didn’t like it took a long time to load, but when I played, it was smooth. Sims 4 laaaags. I also play with mods though but even people who don’t complain about lag

[@genetret]

The game was created in just mere months after an online multiplayer game was cancelled after SimCity 2013's failure. And years after the release it's reaching the limit of possible further expansion. The Sims 4 was never intended to be as big as The Sims 3 (even considering 32-bit TS3's 4 GB RAM limit) and obviously can not expand forever.

[@Lysuko]

Honestly i much prefer how TS3 handled it, some stutters every now or then are better than losing in game time

[@disaster4550]

all the things I find fun in ts4 are also the things that cause lag :D there's no way I'll stop playing in big save files with many households and well furnished homes 😭

[@erdbar718]

this! I started my own sort of legacy challenge a while ago and the house now is worth like 200000 simoleons (plus like 50000 in the bank) and full of artwork from my first sim and many pics. The whole point is to give it the personality of a generational family home with pieces of many sims and lots of activities... to take that away.. well then I don't need to play anymore tbh

[@augusto7681]

​@@erdbar718I read you can rebalance this but deleting the other families and house you don't use. That way you decrease the file size of the whole save.

[@gracjanmedryga5276]

Here's my advice if you have problems with lag simulation in The Sims 4. Exit the game and play the Sims 3 or The Sims 2. You're welcome 😁

[@AndysPlaying]

😂😂😂😂😂

[@123456738038]

Sims 3 is even worse when it comes to lags

[@davemk9]

​​@@123456738038In my case it's not even that bad. I had more problems with The Sims 4 than I do now with The Sims 3. Had 0 simulation lag, only sometimes the frames might drop to load objects

[@EroDhika]

@@123456738038 it's your computer then, maybe? because in here, it never happen.

[@SUE.ROGERS]

​@@123456738038the only lag I've had is from a mod in ts3

[@ihavenodesiretocreateahandle]

I like how TS3 lags.. i mean, how it handles it. Though, if you're not paying attention to little details in the backroud that are still moving, like water or swaying trees, it does look like the game has frozen since everything suddenly comes to a halt. Still prefer that, how EVERYTHING takes a pause instead of the sims just standing there for 3 in-game hours looking stupid while their animations are lagging (honestly TS4.. why??)

[@Z3t487]

He says to get a faster CPU to brute force the simulation and avoid lag...the problem is i have the best gaming CPU on the market, ryzen 7 7800X3D with almost all packs and the lag still happens sometimes ( i just miss 2 kit packs and 1 expansion pack at the moment).

[@j.r.765]

@Z3t487 The game is too old and just unoptimized. This lag is just a feature at this point.

[@EroDhika]

another fix: how about stop making a new pack / content and focus fixing the bugs ? of course they don't want to do that

[@g.e131]

Exactly.. They also need to hire people that know how to code properly.

[@EroDhika]

@@g.e131 for me, it's like they clearly said something this: "facing lag issue? it's your fault, not us. we told you to limit any object, sims and items in sims inventory..." like, why they force their players to play the game like what they said? every players have their own way to play the game because they purchased the pack.

[@g.e131]

@@EroDhika What got me was when a SimGuru came out and said that they make perfect patches every time lol. I was like, whaaaaaaaaa?? Then why has the game been broken for the past 6+ years?! CAUSE THEY DON'T KNOW HOW TO CODE THEIR OWN GAME. Besides, they're too worried about getting another pack out instead of fixing the game. I've spent over $1,000 on this game and it doesn't even work.. 😡

[@Z3t487]

@@g.e131 Over $1,000 for a single game and it's not even a fun game... Fun Fact: if you bought everything at full price and nothing in bundle we are looking at $1200 to own every DLC... for NOW August 22th 2023.

[@capriccaa]

it's a big reason that, even though i love pets irl, playing with pets in the sims is the most frustrating thing, along with babies-toddlers, it takes forever to do anything, your entire sims' day is dedicated to looking after them because it's so slow, laggy and buggy :/

[@DarkeningDemise]

We need a fix for the random lag spikes during Live Mode. Also Build Mode lag and CAS lag (sometimes using ESC doesn't fix it). Also we need a fix for the random kicking out of Build Mode causing the Build Mode music to loop over Live Mode. Then there's the traveling to places causes the game to close that household you're tossed into Neighborhood Mode. You cannot travel to your businesses or anything and have to quit the game to fix it.

[@xEnjoyTheMoment]

The funniest thing is that SrslySims' mod can fix the simulation lag almost entirely. But EA can't.

[@juleb.7163]

I discovered: if you have the FPS Drops just open the cheatbox (ctrl+shift+c) and everything is normal again!

[@urkeka9534]

I just open and close the menu everytime I change location or entering/leaving build mode and when sims got stuck I just use debug shift click. Sometimes I restart the game, but for an 8 hour game I do it once or twice. The bug which annoys me the most is the gardening bug, I don't have idea how to fix it, even with cheat codes it's frustrating when plants back to the first stage even in the middle of season.

[@Kualinar]

Worst than plant reverting to just planted : Plants reverting to mature. NO visual clue. Plant get stuck there even when in season or sheltered. Plants no longer spawn fruits. Plants ready to evolve don't have the option to evolve. Mature plants don't progress to blooming. I also got a few plants revert to germinated, and stay in that state for a full season... Or even longer.

[@mxhardy]

RBF - Gardening Workaround Fix Mod by LittleMsSam

[@Kualinar]

@@mxhardy MANY thanks. Installed. Will test shortly.

[@daria-517]

For me simulation lag occurs mosty in older save files which is unfortunate because I like to play legacy style :( And moving sims to a new save file = destroying an in-game family tree

[@dummyynat]

when i was 14 i ran 100 different mods and the sims ran fine, they havent really updated the game in 5 years man

[@DiscoTimelordASD]

I'm amazed that Sims3 has always ran better for me😂

[@g.e131]

It's from all that spaghetti coding..

[@sharonia2095]

Sims standing around doing nothing. I can’t stand it and don’t get me started on the weird random teleporting they sometimes do for no reason when given commands. 😩

[@harasen_haras5]

When playing The Sims 4 and wanting to speed things up I tend to rapidly switch between speed 1, 3 and pause, using 1 and pause when the sim completes an action.

[@TheHenfordHen]

Thank you for making a video that is actually helpful and informative when it comes to Simulation Lag.

[@SimMattically]

Thank you for watching and leaving a comment, Hen! ❤️

[@garcemac]

Funny. In my heavily modded ESIV:Oblivion (released 8 years before this game) I had over 1,500 people. If I'm in one city, everyone in other cities would still be going about their day - working sleeping eating travelling, etc. No lag. Maxis just built the game wrong from the ground up.

[@canettiz]

I noticed that having too many harvestables makes it unplayable. But this video made my day. I worked so hard to be able to buy a good computer to play this game smoothly (I started playing on a potato notebook) and even then I faced lag and slow game issues, I was getting depressed thinking that my computer was not good enough yet. Thank you for the tips.

[@reeceyb505]

Easy 'fix' for those massive fps drops is to save the game, that always fixes it for me.

[@Kualinar]

Not always for me. Some times, I need to exit the game and restart. In some cases, that's not enough and the only solution is to restart the computer.

[@eli1ea]

my previous save file became so unplayable due to this. Its so annoying!

[@aribellex]

Stimulation lag is the true devil when you’re trying to use mod animation poses

[@eziowolfy]

This shit is maddening. For weeks I have this. Deleted tray folder, repaired game, deleted mods, pulled graphics lower - still my sims constantly stand there, gazing into nothing while time goes on.... Imma just about to abandon this game.

[@supertna9154]

Simulation lag is much worse in the sims 3 especially when sims change clothes, loading everything on lots and many more. The Sims 1 and 2 doesn’t have simulation lag that bad especially the Sims 1 which has little to no lag at all.

[@isabelalima1866]

Even tho it's true, in TS3 we almost didn't have loading screens, since it's open world. The game lags and stutter, but at least it works 90% of the time, and the neighbor's houses loads pretty fast too, but the CAS it's truly awful, that I'll have to admit. I played a little of TS3 this year and it was pretty smooth even with mods, and I play on a laptop (Acer Aspire 5).

[@ember9361]

i wouldn't say ts3 is worse tho? You can use speed 3 with no issue.

[@coollittleslugonarock]

dawg sims 4 is far worse just say you’ve never played sims 3

[@Bxredewil]

whats rly fun is that i havent had any simulation lag and wayyy less mode switching lag since i switched to mac which the game wasnt even really built for. part of it might be due to the sims getting native support for m series chips for apple's hardware

[@SimMattically]

I heard about that too! I think it might be because the Mac version uses newer programming interfaces. For example, The Sims 4 on PC still uses DirectX 9. While this may not be related to the simulation lag, it is still extremely outdated for a game to be using it these days.

[@FederSim]

Honestly, this is so absurd. I remember playing TS2 15 years ago on a crappy PC and it ran smooth as silk. TS4 is utterly unplayable, even on a top-tier gaming PC: when I play, the CPU and GPU are always below 50% usage and the game still lags, and this shows that the PC is not to blame. The game is frustrating because every action literally takes hours to complete: Sims just get stuck and don't move. Leveling up skills to get promoted, especially in higher job stages, is almost impossible, as sometimes Sims die of ageing before they can develop their skills to the top. The frame rate is another issue: on Life Mode, I'm playing at 16 FPS all the time; on Build mode, also less than 5 FPS. It is unbelievable that EA releases stuff packs every week with more and more junk to fill your house with, and then they tell you not to over-decorate your houses; also, don't make your game heavier with useless DLC's instead of addressing an issue that's making the game impossible to play.

[@dzudemlow]

I think you're misunderstanding GPU utilization. 50% seems kinda low, depending on some factors. Being close to 100% is not bad, it's quite the opposite. Aside from straining your GPU's lifetime slightly, you should be utilizing most of it while gaming. Low GPU utilization can be a problem and you're missing out on performance. I recommend reading about it if you're interested. I agree with you though, EA should really go f themselves, it is utterly ridiculous at this point.

[@FederSim]

@@dzudemlow I think we're on the same page, probably I wasn't clear. On other games my GPU is on 100% and it works properly; in TS4 both CPU and GPU are low, meaning that the game isn't actually making a heavy usage of resources; also, if the usage is low, it means that the lag is not CPU and/or GPU-related, since both are not being used consistently. I would expect a game to lag if all resources were under pressure and were not enough for the game to run properly.

[@dzudemlow]

@@FederSim Ah, sorry, I get it now lol. Yeah, I saw someone saying his lag was eliminated by upgrading from a 3080 to a 4090. His assumption was that 10GB VRAM wasn't enough. Uhm, no. Lol. Imagine Sims 4 utilizing more than 8GB VRAM, I strongly doubt that's even gonna be the case if you're playing in 8k. Wild takes on here but it's simply a coding and engine issue, not hardware. Unless your pc is really, really old. But even my old i7 3970X + R9 390X2 build can run the game just as bad as my new rig does. Frames are amazing unless the slideshow bug appears and Esc won't eliminate it every time :') but simulation lag is the same across all platforms and builds.

[@FederSim]

@@dzudemlow Yes, as far as I understand the simulation lag is due to some poor development of the game engine, which lags behind the thousands of events that are constantly happening: one should also mention that the game is full of continuous pop up messages, quick time events and other crap that may influence the fluency. I was wondering, though, if tinkering with the CPU affinity or with the OS compatibility settings may help: I remember that Assassin's Creed 2 is unplayable on a modern OS, unless you change some settings for the CPU affinity. However, without a guide, I wouldn't be able to figure it out myself.

[@MarkHasBranded]

I recomend to use the simulation lag fix mod and the simulation unclogger mod

[@ketugrahagraha3673]

If we can't play long on one save, or build big houses for our sims, I guess EA should have officially announced that: "The game can be played without lags on small lots, in tiny homes with max 2 paintings in a room, for 2 generations top". Just be honest!!!

[@annahasapotato]

It’s so frustrating that I have these constantly happening

[@PatchworkRose567]

I thought the sluggishness of the Sims 4 was just how it was. I didn’t know it was the result of lagging behind the scenes.

[@leandro_gass]

I have the rage of 300 Spartans when the game just decides to lag

[@puspitaanggrainikatili1391]

One thing I've noticed is that since upgrading my GPU from 3080 (with 10GB VRAM) to 4090 (with 24GB VRAM), I've had almost none freezes and lags. And the FPS tends to be at 200ish. It's unfortunate that you might need a 4090 GPU to play Sims 4 smoothly.

[@dzudemlow]

That has nothing to do with your GPU, did you understand the underlying issue?! If it's mostly fluent for you then you most definitely are playing a somewhat empty save with only a handful of packs and just a few mods, if anything.

[@puspitaanggrainikatili1391]

@@dzudemlow Actually, I have an old save file from years ago (using the same slot repeatedly) and heavy cc mods of about 2GB. I previously suffered from freezes and lags; the only thing that changed was the GPU switch. My point is that a 3080 has 10GB VRAM (1st gen) whilst a 3090/4090 has 24GB VRAM. I can only assume that this game uses quite a lot of VRAM.

[@dzudemlow]

@@puspitaanggrainikatili1391 Your assumption is wrong... bro, sims 4 doesn't utilize remotely close to even half of that unless you're playing in 8k and upwards lol. Brand new AAA games nowadays barely scratch the 16GB mark in 4k. Imagine all the NVIDIA fanboys on their dog water 8gb 4060 not being able to run Sims 4 well, that would be an absolute joke. I have an old i7 3970X + 16GB DDR3-1600Mhz + R9 390X2 (8GB) rig that handles the game just as well (or better yet, as bad) as a rig consisting of a 5800X3D, 32GB DDR4-3600 + 6950 XT (16GB) does. The issue is not hardware, it's their garbage engine and coding. Whatever did the trick for you, it wasn't your GPU switch unless your 3080 was broken.

[@puspitaanggrainikatili1391]

@@dzudemlow look bro I’m just telling from my own experience and that was the only significant change I can think of. I totally changed my PC yes from AMD to Intel but the specs were 11-12 and my 3080 is still running fine until now in another PC (running Matlab)

[@NerdyPanda-td1tz]

I use to have horrible lag with my 40gb of cc and mods… get the lag mod, set sims 4 as priority in windows game GPU settings, and for cc, merge all loose package files. I now can play on 64x64 with an ungodly amount of mods and cc, lots of animals and sims on a super detailed lot 😂

[@dzudemlow]

Of course you can, but is it running well? Press X to doubt.

[@StorytellerTina]

Informative! Well-paced! Nicely edited! Seriously, thanks for a great vid!

[@SimMattically]

Much appreciated! Thank you! ❤️

[@Onkelz-Freak1993]

I found out that you can combat the FPS drops (mentioned at the end of the video) by opening the console by pressing [CTRL] + [Shift] + [C] and closing it again. Helps me most of the time.

[@WackyAttack]

You honestly deserve more subs

[@thesimified]

Yesterday when playing, my Sims horse got stuck in a gate when attempting to interact with the horse. The game lagged until the horse reset. It was funny! But I was also like... Ohhh no 🙀

[@jxrr999]

the ps4 lag is insane

[@aretoadish]

I just learned today right now that you can turn off the musical stings 😮😅

[@hellohellokitty]

me, always playing on 3x speed:

[@p3rf3ctxzer0]

So let me see if I can break this down. Don't play the game. Don't have fun. Don't simulate large families and give EA money? Well PUCK with logic like this it seems like the best game ever.

[@kagome7650]

I use those simulation lag mods already in my game it does help out my game a bit but i still have problems with lag in live mode with my sims families it's like every update for the game just make it worse 😮‍💨

[@streakie655]

Maybe they should have a build limit per lot to help this bigger lot more stuff?

[@Sepa493]

For me opening the gallery most times fixes the low fps

[@AndrewKillerGamer1]

4:35 someone did actually find the most probable cause :p the game uses less the of gpu's capabilities between transitions, probably to help with loading things. the bug is likely the game forgetting to clock back up, requiring either opening the gallery or a game restart. dont quote me on all of this pls :/

[@Kualinar]

I tried Simulation Unclogger... For me, it just didn't work, at times, even making things worst. A thing that DO work for me : Use resetsim on each and every Sim in the area. Suspected cause of much of my lags seems to be some Sim waiting for some other Sim or Sims to complete some action/task or to come to them, when that Sim is also waiting for a third Sim to complete something that depends on an action from the first Sim... So, a deadlock situation. The recommended configuration have been made for the base game before most DLC even existed. For someone having all DLC, that recommended configuration MUST be increased by at least +50% or more. So, make it minimum 6Gb of RAM and the recommended memory amount 12Gb of RAM. Currently 4 Gb and 8 Gb.

[@vampire_kiril]

this is a 1000$ game

[@asszudemi3650]

I don't think they will ever address this issue at all because they simply don't care they are way too busy releasing dlc's which people are going to buy anyway no matter in what sorry state the game is in Even the Official Statement you've cited goes back to April 2021 between back then and today they released Cottage Living, High School Years, Growing Together, Horse Ranch and now For Rent and thats just the Expansion Packs that came with their own share of problems i wouldn't get my hopes up anytime soon

[@pspence9569]

But the Sims 4 was designed to run smoothly on low end computers. Remember, that's why it's shite and missing a huge amount of features to this day.

[@dzudemlow]

Right... which is funny because it's still mostly their broken engine, not really the hardware. I've tried this for myself a few months ago and the game was running just as shitty on an i7 3970X + 16GB DDR3-1600MHz ram + R9 390X2 (frickin 10 years old at this point) as it does on a (somewhat new and half-decent) 5800X3D, 32GB DDR4-3600MHz ram and a 6950 XT.

[@pspence9569]

@@dzudemlow Yes. I can run it, with all the packs (I think it was three months ago, the last time I used/updated it), on an ancient laptop. Dell Latitude E4300, running windows 7. With the graphics at their lowest. The laptop isn't having performance issues. Occasionally, very, with hard drive read times. It was still the same problems I was having on my actual desktop. The the Sims 3 runs better now.

[@petcu_455m]

Idk about yall,but when my game starts lagging, i simply pres esc let 2 3 seconds, and then i press esc again and the game it works as it should. But if somehow I get stuck in the loading screen, I press ctr alt delete and the game unfreeze. 😅

[@user-qe7lu5zf2y]

i play in window mode.When i open build mode the game slows to a crawl then all i do is Click on the top right option the 3 dots and click on the middle of the screen again. SAME THING when you go from build mode to live mode then you quickly just click on the 3dots option top right then click back to your game and it INSTANTLY GOES smooth again. What i also do is i play alot with SHIFT+CLICK by which i teleport around and i also SHIFT+CLICK on the option called RESET OBJECT on my sim or if i want to shorten a perticular action like eating. EG. once sim is eating and receives his EATING MOODLET BUFF i dont wait for him to stand up from chair take plate clean NOPE i just shift+click then select RESET OBJECT. 90% if the time i play with these 2 tools navigating quickly in my game then i only OCCASIONALLY let the sim do their animations if i just want to see them do it themselves but try using these tools is WAY MORE fun and you get to perform way more actions PER DAY.

[@josseju3950]

For me the problem with lag entering and exiting cas/build/buy mode is solved with opening the cheat bar, for some reason it solves it but it's very frustrating

[@CommissionerLawWonder86]

Somehow, I've upgraded to Xbox Series X five months ago. All the more reasons to upgrade to hardware with higher memory.

[@Putra-ft7sd]

And i thought, i'm the only one who caught this problem because of my potato hardware :(

[@dzudemlow]

In other words: at this point, just don't play at all. It's actually sad... "constantly working on it". - 10 years of "constant hard work" and still absolutely nothing to show for it lol

[@unknownuser1709]

thank you for the mods i hope ea fix sims 3 and sims 4

[@boltcore._.]

As a person with a bit of knowledge in programing i think i will never understand how in the hell this game was coded. It s really struggling recently. My laptop should be able to run the sims 4 perfectly fine yet it does not. I personally have noticed problems the day eco lifestyle released and to this day i believe the core of the problem is somewhere in that expansion pack and its patch and it had gotten worse when star wars game pack released as well so i also recomend maybe not playing with them in your game at all.

[@faris892003]

Simplify ur gameplay when playing sims? Thats real life....

[@marvalised]

hello, @Mattically I have a question Why I am blocked from your Twitter?