Merging mods to increase Performance!

[Zazazu]

i've read through this thing twice thus far and either i'm missing something or i dunno. i'm no programmer, but after i started getting the lag in my own game two weeks ago, i've been trying to fix it. i came across this .dbc idea which sounded great, but i'm seriously lost. don't really care what kinda crap i get, just looking for an answer i can use.

1)downloaded and installed s3pe from the link from before, even though it wasn't the one originally referred to by Anach (last post notwithstanding of course)
2)selected mostly slider hacks to serve as trials to see of viability of this method
3)ran S3pe New, Resource->Import-->From package, selected everything as DBPF packages
4)left "replace duplicates" checked and hit "import"
5)saved as Mod Packs, just to try
6)deleted all my packages from the package folder
7)ran the game and found everything gone
8)started over, reread thread, found the suggestion to put the Mod Packs file into the DCCCache, deleted old file, started new file with a few extra sliders so i could tell the difference between my packages and the new file, and left my packages in the package folder, ran the game, nothing again.

I finally got around to merging my cc and ran into this same issue, but with only certain cc. I had previously compressorized some, but not all, of my cc. After merging, I found that the only cc I had that actually showed were hairs and patterns, the two groups I had previously compressorized. Clothing, build, and buy objects did not show. After compressorizing them, I was able to see them in game.

No idea why it didn't work previously. I had started up the game three times before figuring out the issue and cleared caches each time. So if you are having issues with items not showing after merging, try running everything through the Compressorizer first, then creating merged files.

[Claeric]

It's import as DBC, not import from package.

[Zazazu]

Yes. Sorry, I should have specified that I did choose "<experimental> Import as DBC" each time. Dangerdude may not have, but our issue after merging was the same.

[zveki]

WOW WOW WOW, merging is the best, my game is now so fast that i can have 10 gigs of mods and plus new store items converted and merged in one file. So many thanks for this

[knightguy]

I know you can merge .package files but can you merge .dbc files?

[Freezerburn]

I know you can merge .package files but can you merge .dbc files?

Correct me if I'm wrong. IMO .package and .dbc are the same, only the file extensions are different. So you can rename merged .package to .dbc

[Claeric]

WOW WOW WOW, merging is the best, my game is now so fast that i can have 10 gigs of mods and plus new store items converted and merged in one file. So many thanks for this

Dear god, how can you even have that many? Do you download everything you see?

[zveki]

Ah, sorry, my mistake. I have 5.5 gigs of sims 3 packs and 4.5 gigs of packages(merged in 3 gigs). SO that was 10 gigs of stuff i meant 

[jezzer]

Dear god, how can you even have that many? Do you download everything you see?

"ZOMG!  This Peggy hair has the emo bangs swept to the right!"  *click*

[Inf]

Dear god, how can you even have that many? Do you download everything you see?

"ZOMG!  This Peggy hair has the emo bangs swept to the right!"  *click*

^^^
I'm sorry but I found this to be extremely hilarious!!! I'm just as bad....

Anyways...I just went and tried this complete setup by converging all my .package files and compressing them into .dbc files. Honestly on my machine I did see a performance increase. Considering I have a ton of mods *** Approx. 2.31 GBs worth in my packages folder *** I was starting to see some serious lag issues before compressing everything. Compared to my 3:20+ load time before from start to in game I'm now down to by my stopwatch around 2:25+ in game.

This was done by a comparison with each try 4x with & without the dbc files all on fresh reboots of the machine. Either I went with all the .package files in the respected folders and then tried it with just the .dbc files. .dbc was quicker on my machine. Whether or not this method actually works being true or not this is a debate I do not want to get involved in. You guys can debate it all you want. For me it worked.

I'll be sticking with the conversions from now on. Thanx for the Tut Anach.

Oh and Claeric, I wanted to say thanx to you for the Proc Monitor App. That helped me out a lot yesterday. I picked it up from your blog yesterday and followed the Tut for it as well. That really helped me out. Sped things up a bunch after I did what you said.

[zveki]

My game went up faster from about 7 mins to 30 seconds!!!! That was just with packages about 3 gigs and 5 gigs of sims 3 packs on sims 3 basegame. Comparing basegame with WA , it was little slower about 1 min loading time but still AWESOME TIME!!

[Inf]

There was one thing that got me with this method though and I only changed 1 thing. The Default & Peggys & Lady Frontbums Skins when they got compressed developed a mark on them. I'm not going to repeat the process and show a pic whereas I should, but the skin(s) texture developed that mark until I took them back out of the DBC file and just placed them back in the skins directory as separate packages instead. So whether or not this is a fluke instance I'll be leaving my skins outside the dbc compression method from here on out.

[Sigmund]

WHY do you feel you need such a huge fucking signature? Delete it.

[Freezerburn]

WHY do you feel you need such a huge fucking signature? Delete it.

MY EYES, it burns! It's too.......cute!

[Sigmund]

I'm to fucking lazy to make a new signature now fuck off!!!

Congratulations on advertising your complete fail. If you consider a grasp of the English language too high an expectation, MATY is not the place for you. This is probably the site you're looking for.

[Freezerburn]

I'm to fucking lazy to make a new signature now fuck off!!!

No no, not that! This should be the site (s)he's looking for.

[Boobzilla]

Just in case anyone cares...

You can do this on a mac. You will need the latest version of mono (2.6.13 i think) and the latest version of xquartz (2.5.0) - which will replace your apple x11. (that is a good thing...)
Get Mono http://www.mono-project.com/Main_Page (Get the Mac OS X version)
Get Xquartz http://xquartz.macosforge.org/trac/wiki
(I'm assuming you can figure out how to get the sims 3 package editor yourself)

It works best if you run it from the xquartz terminal by navigating to the directory you placed the windows s3pe .exe
for dummies: it's easy if you make a new file straight inside your Macintosh HD folder, that way you only have to type in

Code:

$ cd '/s3pe'

to get to the directory[/i]

Once you're in the directory that holds the downloaded s3pe{version numbers].exe, type in

Code:

$ mono 's3pe[version numbers].exe' 

for really really stupid people: that's where you type in the name of the executable file
The file you download is the installer, so make sure you remember where you tell it to install. It will probably come up with a 'c:\' directory just like windows. If you navigate up the file tree, you should be able to find the 'z:\' directory, which is your Macintosh HD directory. Then you can just install into the folder you already created.

Then, to run the program, you use xquartz terminal to navigate to the directory the installed editor program is, and use the mono command for idiots: $ mono 's3pe.exe'
It should work.

You have to go very very very slowly though. It is a VERY fragile program, and if you push it just that tiny bit too fast, it will crash. You also won't have apple key or control key functionality, so you will have to import every package manually. I broke up all of my mods into groups of about 7 or 8, then condensed those into smaller packages, so that if the program crashed I didn't lose too much work.

It will take time, and you have to treat it like an egg and spoon race or dismantling a bomb - be very very delicate and gentle. But it should work.
I am trying to create a mac (cocoa) app that does the same thing, but I'm only a learner at xcode, so it's taking a while.

[Inf]

I'm to fucking lazy to make a new signature now fuck off!!!

Congratulations on advertising your complete fail. If you consider a grasp of the English language too high an expectation, MATY is not the place for you. This is probably the site you're looking for.

I'm to fucking lazy to make a new signature now fuck off!!!

No no, not that! This should be the site (s)he's looking for.

Wow...And I get my chuckle for the day from 2 lamers that know what Disney & Sims 3.com is. I'm actually quite impressed that the 2 of you are intellectual enough to understand either of those sites let alone being able to comprehend MATY for that matter. Here...I'll give you a real link to check out that I'm pretty sure both of you are very familiar with. And although it astounds me with the English comment Sigmund...That you fail to grasp of what my signature stated. I clearly think both of you need complete instructions on the subject so I'll help you both out being the nice individual I am. Check it out -=={===> HERE Read It...Preach it...Understand it...Live it...Enjoy it...

[Sigmund]

Just how stupid are you? Ellipses and smileys are not replacements for periods. Knock it off, and lose the attitude. If you don't like being called on your shitty English skills, start posting like an adult.

[Freezerburn]

Wow...And I get my chuckle for the day from 2 lamers that know what Disney & Sims 3.com is. I'm actually quite impressed that the 2 of you are intellectual enough to understand either of those sites let alone being able to comprehend MATY for that matter. Here...I'll give you a real link to check out that I'm pretty sure both of you are very familiar with. And although it astounds me with the English comment Sigmund...That you fail to grasp of what my signature stated. I clearly think both of you need complete instructions on the subject so I'll help you both out being the nice individual I am. Check it out -=={===> HERE Read It...Preach it...Understand it...Live it...Enjoy it...

[FireDrake]

I know this is necromancy, but it seems if I were to start a new topic, I'd get yelled at for that too.

Anyway, I have been having the same problem that Zazazu had, however, even when I do the things that he mentioned and what previous posters said, my CC fails to show up in game after I merge it into a single package file. I have around 290 files that merged and compressed from 200 MB to 14.8 MB. It runs through s3pe just fine with no errors, I checked it with Delphy's Dashboard Tool and it comes up clean. I cleared all my caches, yet nothing seems to be showing up. Can someone help me?

[Anach]

I know this is necromancy, but it seems if I were to start a new topic, I'd get yelled at for that too.

Anyway, I have been having the same problem that Zazazu had, however, even when I do the things that he mentioned and what previous posters said, my CC fails to show up in game after I merge it into a single package file. I have around 290 files that merged and compressed from 200 MB to 14.8 MB. It runs through s3pe just fine with no errors, I checked it with Delphy's Dashboard Tool and it comes up clean. I cleared all my caches, yet nothing seems to be showing up. Can someone help me?

I posted a link to a visual guide at the bottom of the original post. This may help. As long as you are merging correctly and naming them .package, putting the merged packages in your mods directory and have the framework installed, they should work. If they don't, then you have missed something.

Might be handy if someone made the thread into a sticky, then the necro wont matter

[FireDrake]

Okay, I followed the visual guide exactly, but nothing shows up in game! Also, I noticed that when I'm in s3pe and I save my new merged file, it "stops responding" as Windows puts it. Should this be happening?

[Anach]

Okay, I followed the visual guide exactly, but nothing shows up in game! Also, I noticed that when I'm in s3pe and I save my new merged file, it "stops responding" as Windows puts it. Should this be happening?

Yes it's normal for it to do that, depending on processing time for the file.

Make sure when you are deleting those 0x000 xml files, you are not deleting any _key files. Go grab delphy's framework installer from MTS and run it. Run the Sims 3 Dashboard and make sure your new package is shown in the list.

[FireDrake]

I got it! It turns out I'm supposed to wait for s3pe to respond again, as that is the period of time where it's saving my merged files. I was just closing it because I thought it had actually stopped working lol. Woops...

Thanks for your help Anach, it was much appreciated.