Fed up w/the fuglies. To 'hide' or 'replace' - that is the question...

[LurkingCat]

In the interest of keeping my game files tidy and small... Is it better to 'hide' the fugly Maxis walls/floors/terrains/clothes/hair(etc) or to overwrite/replace these files? 

I've organized/rearranged most every original game file there is and weeded down my CC to my bare-bones minimum, but it's STILL too much to run the game without crashing due to Access Violations (which, from what I've learned, means I've got too much CC)   

ARRRRGH!!! 

So, I want the fugly Maxis stuff I will never use to be gone. At the same time, I want to use the space created by said fugly stuff's removal for more of my CC pretties. Does this make sense?

Therefore, my solicitation of your advice: Do I just 'Hide' or should I replace?

Thanks for thinkin' with me! 

PS - I also posted/asked this over at MTS2 - but as yet there are no replies (awesome or not) So, please, somebody, hit the reply - even if it's only to poke me. Thanks... (I think!)


 

[Tarlia]

Neither hiding nor replacing does anything to reduce file size or loading time. Hiding does just that - hides stuff (I assume we talk about CAS items here, clothing, hair etc). It's still there, just not visible to you - unless you enter CAS in debug mode.

Replacing MIGHT save you some space if you get rid of some of your CC and use replacements that reuse meshes and textures, but the replacements will still take up room as well.

So as far as "too much CC" goes, your only real options are to either weed out more CC, or get a better computer. Sorry.

[LurkingCat]

Thanks for the reply. I've already got the "better computer": with 4 Gb RAM plus a graphics card with another 512. That should be enough to run a full component of the Sims 2 and my CC. Right?

And that --> "Replacing MIGHT save you some space if you get rid of some of your CC and use replacements that reuse meshes and textures" - IS exactly what I'm asking about. Before I go to all the work making/finding replacements though, I'd like to change that 'MIGHT' into a definative.

...any other thoughts?

[Gwenke]

Hiding stuff might speed up loading catalogues, but I do not think it will speed up loading the game, or gameplay.
Using replacements will only help you with CC. That is, if you replace one piece of CC with another WHICH USES AN IN-GAME TEXTURE. These are called texture referencing files, and I've only seen them for clothing. Default replacements are just more CC, they will not reduce load on your computer. Is that what you wanted clarified?

[LurkingCat]

*sigh* yeah... Thank you for the clarification.
Default Replacements. That's along the lines I was thinking... OK. I'll just use 'hiders' and try to reduce some more CC. 

What about with Walls and Floors? They are my next tackle-project. That's where I thought I could really gain some ground replacing the fugly Maxis ones with my own preferences instead of just 'hiding' them. What do you think?

Thanks for your help. 

[Tarlia]

Your RAM seems like it should be plenty... How much CC do you have, exactly (in GBs)? What's your processor speed? Which OS do you run?

For comparison, I have about 2GB of CC, give or take, 4GB RAM, 2.40GHz Quad Core (though I'm not sure processor really matters that much for the CC), running Windows Vista 64bit which eats about 1GB RAM on its own, I've got all EPs and SPs and the game runs and loads perfectly fine. Takes 3-4 minutes to start up the game.

Replacing the wallpapers/floors isn't going to help you any, I'm afraid, since it will still be new textures and take up as much space as a CC wallpaper/floor.

[LurkingCat]

I'm on Vista 64-bit... but it's a shiny new gaming rig:
500GB SATA II Single hard Drive
Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 3.0Ghz 1333FSB CPUs
Asus P5N-E 650i SLI Motherboard
Corsair XMS2 Xtreme DDR2/800 RAM - 4 Gb (2X2Gb sticks)
2 NVIDIA GeForce 8600GT 512MB Video Cards

I know dual core does me no good with the Sims - and I turn off one CPU after the game loads.  

I have 4.30Gb of CC in right now, but that's without any floors/walls and bodyshop stuff (yikes!) Maxis gave us a zillion floors and walls to choose from, I just don't like any of them. (I also haven't added back my Decorative stuff and Comfort stuff - please read below for more explanation...)

Everything is squeaky clean and in pristine shape - I had to do a complete re-install because somehow my Sims 2 registry keys got borked. I was crashing all the time. Now everything seems to work fine and I'm adding back my CC in bits and pieces. I'm just afraid that it's not all going to fit - and I don't want the crashes to start up again.

OK, I'm rambling now... Gonna load my game again and see if the Comfort stuff fits. (Incidentally load time is around 5 minutes.)


CORRECTION: It took 20 minutes to load, then promptly crashed. I forgot to turn off my other CPU - whether that caused the crash or not, I dunno...

[Tarlia]

That is... a lot of CC. Well, I'm stumped. The only advice I can offer is to consider whether you really do need that much stuff, and get rid of at least half of it - especially shiny high-poly furniture. Maybe someone else has something better to offer.

[rufio]

Have you ever had that much CC with the game installed on XP (and how did it perform then)?  That is a lot of CC, but running it in Vista probably isn't helping any.

[LurkingCat]

Back on XP is when I started having the crashes.... that's what prompted me to get a new shiny PC.
People just make too many pretties. Poop.

OK. I hear ya - I'll delete more stuff 

[nocomment]

- poke, poke.  (Hey, you asked for it.)

I'm also on 64 bit Vista, and have 8.74 GB of downloads.  I don't have any crashing problems.  I suspect you have a file that became corrupt.  This happens all the time.  I fear it's time for the "binary search" dance - split your downloads in half, see if the game crashes.  If no, test the remaining half.  Then split in half again and repeat.

It's a longshot, but you might also try dividing your downloads up into more folders.  I have 234 folders, and some of those have subfolders.  Vista seems to have trouble with folders containing lots of files.  However, since you had this problem with XP, that's probably not the issue.

An unrelated issue to be aware of when moving to Vista - some items in sub-sub-sub folders may not load.  Sometimes a file path that worked fine in XP is too long for Vista.  

[LurkingCat]

TeeHee - Thanks. 

I've already been to the 'dance' - and cleaned/examined all my files. I got the folders (around 220 of 'em - including subfolders, and I don't think any of the folder 'trees' go more than 4 levels; the longest ones being along these lines "Decorative/Sculpture/KitchenClutter/recolors".)

I was able to search & destroy (cull through the catolog while in game and delete more stuff) last night with no crashes - when I remembered to shut down my 2nd CPU immediately upon game load.

If you've got 8.74Gb of stuff, then I should be able to load all my stuff too. Before I started this austere clean up project I had around 12Gb of stuff (some of which I'd dearly like to add back in again.) How long does it take to load your game? Do you have dual CPUs? I want what you've got! Waaaah! 

[DrNerd]

Maybe it's an obvious question, but have you run your CC through jfade's Compressorizer?  It won't help if you have a corrupt file, but it will make the rest of the files smaller.

[nocomment]

It takes forever to load my game - at least 45 minutes just to get to the neighborhood chosing screen.  That's when I catch up on my soaps.

I do wonder why you're having problems.  I have a dual core processor, and never bother to turn one off.  I have a Gateway M6862 notebook, if you want to compare the specs. 

http://support.gateway.com/s/Mobile/2008/Tempest/1015594R/1015594Rsp2.shtml

One difference I spot between our computers is the graphics card - I have ATI. 

As a longshot you could try usinging a flash drive and ReadyBoost.  I find it helps my game run more smoothly, maybe it would help you out.

[LurkingCat]

Oh yes, definately compressorized!

OK. 45 minutes - I'm starting to feel a bit better. It appears to really help if I turn the other CPU off.

And, I guess I could have a corrupt file still - I mean with 94,204 files, I could've missed one I suppose. LOL!

  how would I go about using my flash drive? And what is ReadyBoost? (I will google the later, whilst I await your explanantion.)

Thanks!

[nocomment]

ReadyBoost is a Vista feature that uses a flash drive to supplement RAM.  This can be helpful, since Vista is such a memory hog.  You can set aside from 256 MB to 4 GB for this.

Using ReadyBoost hasn't made a dramatic difference in my game, but it does help.  Especially when scrolling around the neighborhod - I get a lot less lag.

I cheated and copied these instructions from the Windows help screen:

1.  Plug a flash drive or other removable media device into your computer. This should automatically open AutoPlay.

If AutoPlay does not open, it might have been disabled. For more information, see Troubleshoot AutoPlay problems.

2.  Under General Options, click Speed up my system.

This will display the Properties dialog box for your flash drive or other removable media device.

3.  Click the ReadyBoost tab, and then do one of the following:

To turn ReadyBoost off, click Do not use this device.

To turn ReadyBoost on, click Use this device, and then move the slider to choose how much of the available space on your flash drive you want to reserve for boosting your system speed.

4.  Click OK.

[LurkingCat]

Good to know - thanks! I'll try it. I did notice the last few times I've exited the game that my RAM is almost completely used up. Maybe that is part of the problem.

I'm still crashing when I try to load more than 4.5Gb worth of stuff - even with my 2nd CPU turned off... And it's taking around a half hour to load (to the 'choose a neighborhood' screen.)

I'd really like to have 8+ Gbs of stuff to play with 

[J. M. Pescado]

Your problem is simply that you have 4.5 GBs of crap. Vista chews up 75% of your RAMs, so in order to load 4.5 GBs of content without thrashing, you need 18 GBs of RAMs.

[seelindarun]

Hmmm, I don't think so.
I have about the same amount of crap, same herd of RAMz, same OS, and less shiny specs, but only 11,000-ish individual files.  All EPs/SPs load for me in 3-4 min, somewhat less if I load a new 'hood.

As an experiment, I'd suggest arbitrarily bundling as much of the walls/floors, Bodyshop crap as possible (but keep backups!) and see if the game will load faster.  If it does, then you have your answer.  You can then bundle in a more intelligent way, so you'll remember what's contained in them.

[J. M. Pescado]

If you want to see crazy fast loads, install the entire game and downloads to a RAMdisk. You'll need a damn big RAMdisk.

[simluvr]

Won't your game etc be lost once the computer is shut off?

[LurkingCat]

*sigh* Oh, my... now I'm really in for it - but I want to know, so I'm gonna ask:

What do you mean, seelindarun, by "bundling"?  

I haven't added back any of my W/T/F/BodyShop stuff yet. Nor my Decorative folders. I'm still weeding to the bare-bones in my surfaces and comfort folders. *sniff* I love HugeLunatic's repository sets - I've been making room with those as well.

Loading time is not really my issue. *pfft* It can take an hour to load - so long as it doesn't crash after it's loaded; and, I want to be able to PLAY.

I haven't tried ReadyBoost yet (I was gone yesterday) I will try it today. And this bundling of stuff - as soon as I know how to do it.

Thanks!



EDIT: Can't do the ReadyBoost yet - none of our flash cards or zip drives are fast enough. So, I went shopping at Amazon and bought a 16Gb card. I should have it in a few days... I hope it works.

OK - ReadyBoost works! But, I'm still consolidating - I've just got too much stuff.