Club Crimsyn
The 'Y' Makes It Hip
Tutorial - Combining Packages to Ease Lag and Load Time 
14th-May-2010 12:21 pm
TS3 - Tristan - Wicked
I originally put this tutorial together for [personal profile] century_eyes, but I thought I'd go ahead and repost it here in case anyone else could get some use out of it.

If you primarily use package files for your custom content and have noticed increased load times and/or lag in your game, follow this tutorial to combine your CC into fewer, larger packages to fix the problem.



Open S3PE and choose 'New.'


Right-click in the big empty white area and select '(EXPERIMENTAL) As dbc...'


Select the files you want to combine and let S3PE do its thing. This may take a loooooong time; don't panic and just let it keep working.


You'll probably get this popup. Hit 'OK.'


Arrange the innards by instance number, select all the XML files with an instance number of 0000000000000, and delete them. (Note: There's a checkbox at the bottom of the SimPE window that says "Sort" - you have to check that box before you can arrange by instance.)

Repeat steps 2 through 5 as needed, then save your file. This may also take ages to finish, so just let it run. This new package is the only thing you'll need in your downloads folder for all your CC to show up, so remove the uncombined packages. I keep my uncombined files separate in case there are things I want to get rid of later on.


You can combine combined packages, and it's ok to add more things to your combined packages at a later date.

I'd suggest instead of making one huge package of all your CC to have four or five, only because when I tried to make a single package things started to blow up. I've got Objects, CAS (hair, clothes, makeup), Patterns, and my own crap as their own packages.

I've not combined Default Replacements (never sure if I'll switch those out or something), my hacks, and AM/story progression.

Very easy, and holy shit it makes a huge difference. My game now loads as quickly as it did before I had any CC in it, and no longer lags at all.

This is the original thread on MATY. Anach has offered up this additional information, which is very useful:

1. If you have a merged a mod and wish to update it with a newer version, you will need to re-merge the entire package, or you will usually experience game breakages.

2. The game imposes a limit of 200MB on its own merged packages (dbc), however a package can be anysize, and the only limitation is processing time (larger takes longer) and filesystem limits.

3. Try to keep your total number of mod packages under 100.

4. You can also remove ICON type files (junk files used by sims3pack) and "THUM" (thumbnails) if you wish the game to generate its own thumbnails rather than use the ones provided in the package.

(Originally figured out by someone Anach on MATY.)
Comments 
14th-May-2010 08:11 pm (UTC)
Dark Angel
I just learned about this too and merged everything recently. Seriously, it works! I combine it with Delphy's multipack extractor to turn everything into .package files.

I've noticed recently that the file size doesn't change if you install something through the launcher and then uninstall it. Talk about bloating the game!

It also amazes me what we go through to play a game sometimes. lol
14th-May-2010 11:31 pm (UTC)
TS3 - Tristan - Purple Profile
Isn't it crazy what a huge difference it makes?! I was getting close to TS2 load times before I did this, and now it loads in 2-3 minutes total.

"It also amazes me what we go through to play a game sometimes. lol"

I was seriously thinking that when I was making this tutorial! Ha!
14th-May-2010 08:53 pm (UTC)
AK 1
Awesome! I will have to give this a go, the load time is a pain in the ass. Thank you so much for this :D.
14th-May-2010 11:31 pm (UTC)
TS3 - Aikea & Jacob - Vampires 1
You're very welcome! Let me know if you have any questions. :)
15th-May-2010 02:01 am (UTC)
no sound but the wind
This is a really cool idea! :D
15th-May-2010 08:43 pm (UTC)
TS3- Unicorn
It seems crazy that it works, but it does!
15th-May-2010 10:51 am (UTC)
barrage balloons
Oooh, good tutorial.

I started doing this a while back but got lazy and fell out of the habit, and then my game went tits up, and searching for all the individual package files was a bloody nonsense.

ETA: You managed to get hair working with this? I always got very patchy results when I tried that, with some hairs just refusing to show up.

Edited 2010-05-15 11:56 am (UTC)
15th-May-2010 08:46 pm (UTC)
TS3 - Bunny Slipper
What I've been doing is downloading and putting the file in the game to see if I like it/if it fucks things up before adding it to the combined package.

I've had this work for getting other things to show up that hadn't previously (furniture and clothes), but I sort of snapped a bit ago and deleted all my hairs and started from scratch. Not sure if it would work or not, truthfully.
16th-May-2010 09:18 pm (UTC) - thx,but..
Does this also work to fix the times clothing and such are loading in my mirror/dresser?
16th-May-2010 09:20 pm (UTC) - Re: thx,but..
Tattoo - My Wings
Absolutely!
17th-May-2010 01:16 pm (UTC) - Re: thx,but..
Ahh, that's awesome!! Gonna try out soon. Thx Aikea!
17th-May-2010 11:27 am (UTC)
Prowl...Srsly WTF?
Thank you very much for this! I combined everything and it really makes difference.

I have one question - if apart from XMLs I have KEY files with 0000000000000 instance is it safe to delete them?
17th-May-2010 03:22 pm (UTC)
Tattoo - My Wings
I honestly don't know; I don't think I've ever come across it, personally. I suppose you could make a backup of your combined file, delete the KEYs, and see if anything seems broken.
17th-May-2010 03:43 pm (UTC)
Prowl...Srsly WTF?
I'll do that, thank you. :-)
21st-May-2010 01:51 am (UTC) - Someone
Additional details by "Someone (Anach) on MATY" - Original discussion:
http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,17746.0.html

1. If you have a merged a mod and wish to update it with a newer version, you will need to re-merge the entire package, or you will usually experience game breakages.

2. The game imposes a limit of 200MB on its own merged packages (dbc), however a package can be anysize, and the only limitation is processing time (larger takes longer) and filesystem limits.

3. Try to keep your total number of mod packages under 100.

- Anach
21st-May-2010 01:57 am (UTC) - Re: Someone
oops, forgot another handy tip.

4. You can also remove ICON type files (junk files used by sims3pack) and "THUM" (thumbnails) if you wish the game to generate its own thumbnails rather than use the ones provided in the package.
21st-May-2010 03:14 am (UTC) - Re: Someone
Tattoo - My Wings
Thank you!!!

I'm going to add all this information to the tutorial, and give for-real credit. XD
21st-May-2010 03:27 am (UTC)
Photo of an orange tabby curled up and half asleep
Thank you for this! It's good to have a second set of instructions for that extra bit of helpful clarity, and seeing this posted was the final reminder I needed to combine packages of my own. It does make a significant difference.
21st-May-2010 05:10 am (UTC)
Certainly very handy to have a nice clear tutorial with pictures. I'm surprised it took so long for someone to do it :)
25th-May-2010 02:24 pm (UTC)
I have linked this post in the original MATY thread.
29th-May-2010 02:02 am (UTC)
Aquarius - Blue Zodiac Chart
How do you get it to arrange by instance? I click on the top line, the way you do to sort files in Windows, but nothing happens. :(
29th-May-2010 01:24 pm (UTC)
Random - Secondhand Icon
Never mind - I worked it out for myself. And it works perfectly!

For anyone having the same problem as me: There's a checkbox at the bottom of the SimPE window that says "Sort" - you have to check that box before you can arrange by instance.
30th-May-2010 07:55 pm (UTC)
Tattoo - My Wings
Thanks for letting me know what the issue was; I'll add this to the tutorial in case someone else runs into the same thing!
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