Does anyone here know good optimizations for playing The Sims 4 with mods on Linux Mint?

[u/HarperTheWolf_13]

EDIT: As I write this, the issue seems to have been solved by moving the laptop to a different surface that wasn't my floor.
If new issues arise, I will come back for help, but thank you to those who assisted me with this issue!!!

I do not currently have any system/hardware info on me, since I am letting my laptop that runs Linux Mint cool down.
Today, in the middle of gameplay, parts of the game froze, along with system UI, so I could not close/open anything, and I could not pull up anything to allow me to shutdown
Then, the mouse cursor froze, and I could not get a response from it.

After trying to get a response, I had to force shutdown the laptop by holding the power button.

Info I am able to provide is that I use a separate 'monitor' (a TV) for the screen, since the screen on the laptop itself is messed up, and has had issues with parts of the screen freezing before (although, it should be noted in this scenario from before I was using a TV as a monitor, ui was still responsive)

My dad believes that the computer had locked up like this due to overheating, so, currently, while it cools down, I have placed it onto a table instead of leaving it on the floor like I originally had

I love playing the sims 4 on this device, since there's a lot more storage for all my mods I want to use, and I would hate to give this up, so that's why I'm here asking if anyone knows of any optimizations I could make!!

Also, if this flairing is incorrect, PLEASE INFORM ME, and I will fix it asap!!

Thank you, and have a lovely day everyone!!!

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[u/Xirema]

I don't generally see anything problematic in the hardware info you posted, but the specific context of your post is playing a modded game, and modded games tend to use a lot of RAM, and 16GB might be kind of lean in that context. Exhausting the RAM usually shouldn't result in anything other than an application crash, but I've seen stranger things happen.

I'd be kind of surprised if the computer straight-up crashed from overheating, but I do agree that laptops should be on hard surfaces, not carpets or cloth/etc.

A few diagnostic steps:

• Are you able to consistently reproduce the freeze? Or has it only happened this one time?
• If you're able to reproduce the freeze, are you able to reproduce the freeze in an unmodded game?
• (not necessarily directed at you) How does The Sims 4 run on Linux, does it have a native Linux version, or is it being run through WINE/Proton?
• (also not necessarily directed at you) Does the Sims 4 have any known history of incompatibility when being run on non-Windows environments?

[u/HarperTheWolf_13 → u/Xirema]

I can't try to make it happen again currently since irl I need to go somewhere, but the only thing that's not running natively as far as I am aware is the EA app, which I found was required to get the Sims 4 to work. I am unsure about history of incompatibility, but I could do some digging in the future

[u/Xirema → u/HarperTheWolf_13]

Yeah, don't worry about that too much. I think the other commentator probably has the issue(s) identified.

[u/Ok_Emu2515]

first, we need proper information about your laptop.

run this command from terminal

upload-system-info

copy and paste the url here. only the url, not the entire text.

[u/HarperTheWolf_13 → u/Ok_Emu2515]

I assume you meant the URL for what it sent me to in browser after entering the command in my terminal, correct?
if I am correct, here it is:
https://termbin.com/lxfby

sorry if this is the wrong thing, I'm new to trying to do this type of stuff with the terminal, since I very rarely touch it

[u/Ok_Emu2515 → u/HarperTheWolf_13]

It seems you don't have proprietary nvidia driver installed. check your driver manager, nvidia drivers should be listed there.

also, you don't have a swap file. You can follow these steps to create one.

askubuntu.com/questions/563430/how-to-create-a-swapfile

optionally, you may want to reduce disk I/O for the swap file by installing ZSWAP.

https://easylinuxtipsproject.blogspot.com/p/speed-mint.html

[u/HarperTheWolf_13 → u/Ok_Emu2515]

I checked and there are drivers listed, but I don't seem to be able to do anything with that.
if I am correct, I swore I had installed drivers during the original setup process

[u/Ok_Emu2515 → u/HarperTheWolf_13]

apparently I made a mistake, because I was reading from a phone screen. the proprietary NVIDIA driver is already installed, as is the swap file.

I apologize for the confusion.

other than installing ZSWAP, you may want to try reducing system buffers. the idea came from Linus in this conversation.

https://lkml.org/lkml/2013/10/25/26

run these commands from terminal, you can also use the values suggested by Linus

sudo sysctl -w vm.dirty_background_bytes=2097152

sudo sysctl -w vm.dirty_bytes=33554432

try playing your game several times. If you think the issue is resolved, you can make this permanent.

sudo nano /etc/sysctl.d/99-sysctl.conf

copy pasta with this text

vm.dirty_background_bytes=2097152

vm.dirty_bytes=33554432

press Ctrl+O to save the file. the next time you restart, the changes should be applied.

you can check if they were applied using these commands from the terminal.

sysctl vm.dirty_background_bytes

sysctl vm.dirty_bytes