Combining Packages - best results?

[Ennis]

Greetings, I just got back into Sims 3 after quitting because of massive slowdowns. I knew it was probably my CC but it didn't punch me in the face till I combined packages, and holy shit, to anyone whose game runs slow as hell, COMBINE YOUR PACKAGES because now instead of taking 45 minutes to load, my game takes less than 5 minutes. Jesus Christ.

Anyway, main point - is there a specific size that a package has to be or else it breaks? I have all the store stuff packed away neatly in each package for each month, so far 35 packages. I was thinking of combining each year's packages (09 to 011) to further reduce the number of packages, but considering the large file size of each package, the big ones would be something like 300-500mb each. I recall something about packages not being able to be read over 200mb (?), not sure if that's true but I'd just like to optimize my folder a little further, so I'd like to know if having such huuuuge sizes is a valid idea. Thanks in advance.

(And also, separate question - last time I was here, Pets expansion was borked to hell and back. Wondering now if it's still borked.)

[Painkiller]

IIRC it depends of your specs. I have to limit my packages to 250Mo, above that S3PE will throw an error. (I can combine 2 packages of 250mo together to get a big one of 500mo but cannot create any pack above 250mo.) I combined my store months packages until I got compilations of 200~250mo, went at that time from 28 files to 6! I also combine my mods together in their own pack, so it's easy and fast to re-do it. (When you have over a hundred mods installed, you do see the difference). For your non store CC I advise you use the CC magic tool available at MTS, it made me pass from 5 minutes and a half of loading to 2 and a half. It's odd to use in the beginning but you get used to it.

[Insanity Prelude]

CC Magic cuts packages off at a gigabyte, so I'm guessing the game can handle pretty big packages. (I don't actually use CC Magic since I'm used to MultiInstaller/S3PE, so this is guesswork on my part.) I'm guessing the "can't read over 200MB" figure comes from that being the point where the Launcher starts a new .dbc.

[Anach]

As long as they are under 4Gb you shouldn't encounter any problems. However, for sanity and speed, I would suggest keeping them under the 200Mb mark, as anything over that will make it painful whenever you wish to re-merge to remove something. As Painkiller pointed out, the best package size will be limited by your system specifications, so everyone shouldn't expect the same success at merging larger packages. Just remember to use autosave, and if you encounter any packages that wont merge, then throw them away, as they are most likely bad.

[ShortyBoo]

I also combine my mods together in their own pack, so it's easy and fast to re-do it. (When you have over a hundred mods installed, you do see the difference).

I didn't know it was ok to merge mods together. I merge all my other cc, but I for some reason always thought it would be a bad thing to merge any mods. Are there any I shouldn't combine? I mostly have smaller mods that do things like disable sounds or certain animations as well as no mosaic and a few of Twallan's mods.

[bitterquill]

I also combine my mods together in their own pack, so it's easy and fast to re-do it. (When you have over a hundred mods installed, you do see the difference).

I didn't know it was ok to merge mods together. I merge all my other cc, but I for some reason always thought it would be a bad thing to merge any mods. Are there any I shouldn't combine? I mostly have smaller mods that do things like disable sounds or certain animations as well as no mosaic and a few of Twallan's mods.

I have a ridiculous number of mods combined into two packages, one in Overrides and the other in Packages. Around half of those are basic things like texture replacements, and the other half is made up of small-scale XML tuning mods, scripting mods, and a few large-scale mods like AM and much of the NRaas suite. So far I haven't had any trouble with combining them but I keep unmerged copies of everything on a flash drive, just in case, and I always scan them with the Dashboard before merging them.

The sort of mods you're describing would most likely be fine merged, but you can always keep an unmerged backup.

[Anach]

I also combine my mods together in their own pack, so it's easy and fast to re-do it. (When you have over a hundred mods installed, you do see the difference).

I didn't know it was ok to merge mods together. I merge all my other cc, but I for some reason always thought it would be a bad thing to merge any mods. Are there any I shouldn't combine? I mostly have smaller mods that do things like disable sounds or certain animations as well as no mosaic and a few of Twallan's mods.

I have a ridiculous number of mods combined into two packages, one in Overrides and the other in Packages. Around half of those are basic things like texture replacements, and the other half is made up of small-scale XML tuning mods, scripting mods, and a few large-scale mods like AM and much of the NRaas suite. So far I haven't had any trouble with combining them but I keep unmerged copies of everything on a flash drive, just in case, and I always scan them with the Dashboard before merging them.

The sort of mods you're describing would most likely be fine merged, but you can always keep an unmerged backup.

It's not necessary to merge everything, it depends how compulsive you are. So far everything I've tried to merge has worked, but remember, most NRaas mods need to be higher priority than core mods like Awesome, or you may get problems.

[jezzer]

I can't get a lot of cc hair to merge.  It works fine in the game and doesn't show any conflict in Dashboard, but throws up a ton of errors when I try to merge it.  I just leave my cc hair alone.

[Anach]

I can't get a lot of cc hair to merge.  It works fine in the game and doesn't show any conflict in Dashboard, but throws up a ton of errors when I try to merge it.  I just leave my cc hair alone.

If you can find an example of which hairs wont merge, post the links to the files on my merging support thread in the s3pe forum at simlogical. Is it an error you get, or simply that they don't work in game? Personally if a file is even slightly suspect, I tend to throw it away, but if there is a problem with the merge process, it would be good to track it down.

[jezzer]

It's been a while since I've tried.  I don't play Peggy Hair Pokemon like a lot of people do, so I don't have that many cc hairs in my game.  I'll give it a whirl again and let you know my findings.

[ShortyBoo]

I do have all my cc hair merged into like 6 packages. I usually don't go above 250mb in any combined packages. Of all those hair files, I've only come across 2 custom hair files that would not combine without getting errors. Both were by HystericalParoxysm at MTS. I know one is the totally bald hairstyle and the other I don't remember since I don't have it anymore but it was definitely one of her early men's hairstyles.

I'm going to go ahead and try merging most of the mods I have. I have backups anyway, so if it doesn't work, I can always go ahead and put them back as they were. I'll probably just leave Twallan's mods out of the merged package, though. I have Master Controller along with the cheats and the tattoo expansion files and Overwatch.

[Painkiller]

most NRaas mods need to be higher priority than core mods like Awesome, or you may get problems.

That's why Awesomod is left alone, with its config it's the only non-merged files I have. I've put the merged mods package in the override folder and everything works. Keeping a folder with the unmerged files is the key, use that folder to manage the files by removing the obsolete mods and putting the updates. Merge that folder with S3PE and replace your merged package.

[Anach]

most NRaas mods need to be higher priority than core mods like Awesome, or you may get problems.

That's why Awesomod is left alone, with its config it's the only non-merged files I have. I've put the merged mods package in the override folder and everything works. Keeping a folder with the unmerged files is the key, use that folder to manage the files by removing the obsolete mods and putting the updates. Merge that folder with S3PE and replace your merged package.

Your filing system sounds similar to mine. My non-merged files are sorted into folders based on what file I merge them into, so I always know which file I have to re-merge if I want to change something.

[jezzer]

Mine are in about six or seven subcategory folders, and I have a separate unmerged backup.  Now that you mention it, ShortyBoo, I remember now that it was early HP hairs that were throwing the error.  I only have a handful of custom hairs, so it's not really that big of a deal to me to not be able to merge them.  I think the majority of hairs I've downloaded were for ethnicity purposes, as EA seems to think everyone has straight, shiny hair, except that one guy with a close-cropped 'fro.

[Anach]

Something to do with the way the early hairs were made before tools were updated. I don't recall exactly what the problem was though, or if it caused problems in-game.

[jezzer]

Finally got off my lazy ass.  This is the specific error:

Could not import all resources - aborting.

== START ==
Source: mscorlib
Assembly: mscorlib, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089
Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation.
   at System.RuntimeMethodHandle._InvokeConstructor(IRuntimeMethodInfo method, Object[] args, SignatureStruct& signature, RuntimeType declaringType)

   at System.Reflection.RuntimeConstructorInfo.Invoke(BindingFlags invokeAttr, Binder binder, Object[] parameters, CultureInfo culture)

   at s3pi.WrapperDealer.WrapperDealer.WrapperForType(String type, Int32 APIversion, Stream s)

   at S3PIDemoFE.MainForm.importPackagesCommon(String[] packageList, Boolean useNames, Boolean compress, DuplicateHandling dups, List`1 dupsList, String title, AutoSaveState autoSaveState)
-----
Source: mscorlib
Assembly: mscorlib, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089
An item with the same key has already been added.
   at System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary`2.Insert(TKey key, TValue value, Boolean add)

   at NameMapResource.NameMapResource.Parse(Stream s)
-----
== END ==