Bugs

Invisible Sims

April 6, 2011 /

Problem

  1. My sim returned from vacation and now all other Sims are invisible. I only see their thought bubbles and I can’t interact with them
  2. Some Sims are invisible. I see their plumbob when they are active but I can’t click on them.
  3. My Sim is invisible and it looks like the are underground. Their though bubbles and microphones are hovering above ground
  4. My baby is invisible

Cause

  • There are a few cloth that can be the reason for that. Babies usually turn invisible if you remove a bad download that has made them look like a pole. Teens and men can have invisible bodies when they are pregnant and you forgot to download meshes for that.
  • Corruption of your savegame
  • The Sims have invalid outfits. This is the most common cause and has nothing to do with one particular download but the information of the outfit got corrupted. Why they do this is unclear. It’s the absence of a outfit what makes them invisible.
  • Slower computer take a moment to fully load everything. This can cause temporary invisible Sims and gray textures on your objects. Once the game has fully loaded, the Sims become visible again.
  • Concerning 3): This issue is happening since Supernatural and is concerns mostly career outfits. They are not corrupt as such but the game forgets to display them. Since the Sims don’t actually have a size, the appear as they were underground.
  • Concerning 4):  Removal of (bad) CC

Unfortunately this problem is happening more and more. Traveling seems to corrupt Sims making them or other Sims invisible and since LN it’s quite a common problem. If you have to reset Sims a lot because they are stuck in bed, that also seems to make them invisible in the long run.

This problem has nothing specifically to do  with Late Night. You don’t need that Add-On to have the problem. It’s Patch 1.18 that made it worse for everyone although the problem was there from the beginning.

Solution

Restore a backup and try deleting your cache files may temporarily help. It does not seem to be a permanent solution. Resetting your sim helps in very rare cases.

Things you can try

Make a backup of your game before trying those.

  • Move all your Sims to a different town by putting them in the library and starting a new game. They will loose all their relationships unless you use Twallan’s Porter for that
  • Make a copy of your savegame and try loading that.
  • Take them to the dresser and dress them in a different outfit.
  • Concerning 4): Change their outfit to everyday or reset the Sim.
  • Concerning 5): Age the baby and it will be visible again.

Mods that can help with the problem

  1. Use ErrorTrap to see if that can save anything. This is true if all your sims are invisible
  2. DebugEnabler has an option to make them visible again. You’ll find it on the City Hall  NRaas – DebugEnabler – Options – Fix invisible Sims. You might end up with Sims that look different than they did before because this also reset their genetics.
  3. Overwatch, StoryProgression & MasterController may help prevent the problem.
  4. Awesome Mod (fixall)
  5. Concerning 3) Invisible Sim Fixer Mod by Consort
Credits
Picture: jacqpinks

Further Reading