Slimming The Game Down

[Simsbaby]

I am trying to clear some space off on my computer and want to know what files are safe to remove from the game. Files that are useless such as the movies and old CAS!.package files. I have deleted the movies and old load music so far.

[BlueSoup]

You could remove pictures from the storytelling folders if you don't need them anymore (I *think* it's an all-or-nothing kinda deal though), and if you have the three default neighbourhoods and don't play them, you could delete those too.  Lots of other things regen though when you start to play.

[ZiggyDoodle]

Can you also delete a Uni campus?  I stupidly made two, one of which I've never played and would love to get it out of the menu.

[JenW]

Yep, you can delete a campus once you have two...annoyingly if you only have one and want to delete it, you have to create a second one in order to delete the first (from in-game anyway).

I thought the three default hoods regenerated when the game restarted? And the movies you deleted, are those the TV shows? what happens when you watch TV then?

You can also delete houses from the bin, that should save some space...either delete them in-game or outside of the game using the Clean Installer. I've deleted lots of screenshots and AFAIK as long as you delete the corresponding thumbnails as well it's not a problem (at least I remember hearing that a long time ago). Someone also recently said you can delete the pictures from the Thumbnails folder.

CC is the bulk of my problem, I scan my downloads with Clean Installer and delete stuff I don't want or don't use. I've also banned myself from downloading new object meshes unless it's something really fabulous that I know I'll use and I try to limit the clothing meshes I download as well. That's a little frustrating as sometimes a few different people have made very similar meshes, so I have to choose which of that style of mesh I'm going to use.

[eaglezero]

That's a little frustrating as sometimes a few different people have made very similar meshes, so I have to choose which of that style of mesh I'm going to use.

This really frustrates me as well. I think a large part of the problem is that I think TSR and MTS2 don't let you upload meshes if you haven't made them, thus causing the crazy thing where the creator mentions whose mesh it is (often without providing a link) and you sit there going, "well, I WAS going to download this, but no-way no-how am I going to search across the internet for this mesh they didn't bother to name." I don't know. On the one hand, I understand why people may not want their mesh uploaded by other people, but on the other hand I think people need to just chill and not make downloading stuff more difficult for others. With downloads for Sims1 I think they often included meshes that other people made, they just included the other person's readme as well. I dunno, I think that may be part of the reason we get so many mesh multiples. And it's annoying me at this particular moment also, so I felt like ranting a bit.

[Ruann]

The default neighborhoods only regenerate if you remove your entire Sims 2 folder in My Documents or rename it.  That causes the entire directory to regenerate.  I deleted all three of them on my PC since I'm only playing my custom neighborhood right now and haven't had any problems.

[Simsbaby]

And the movies you deleted, are those the TV shows? what happens when you watch TV then?

No, the ones that I deleted were the intro movies.

[ZiggyDoodle]

Yep, you can delete a campus once you have two

Thanks for that info, Jenwarren.  Sims State will go up in flames tonight.

[MissDoh]

Yep, you can delete a campus once you have two

Thanks for that info, Jenwarren.  Sims State will go up in flames tonight.

Just a little note, all the extra Sims created in the University section you will delete won't be deleted, only the extra University section will.

[jrd]

The default neighborhoods only regenerate if you remove your entire Sims 2 folder in My Documents or rename it.  That causes the entire directory to regenerate.  I deleted all three of them on my PC since I'm only playing my custom neighborhood right now and haven't had any problems.

Removing or renaming the neighborhoods folder is enough. If this is empty or does not exist, the game will copy the three standard 'hoods.

[ZiggyDoodle]

all the extra Sims created in the University section you will delete won't be deleted, only the extra University section will.

Well, if they somehow can transfer their credits to Academie Le Tour, a few fresh faces would be a nice touch. 

[Emma]

Any playable sims you have in the deleted university will be in the sim bin for your uni you want to keep.

[jsalemi]

And all the townies/dormies from the deleted universities will stay in the townie/dormie pool, and will pop up as walk-bys or actual residents. Before I knew better (i.e., found boards like this one ) I had all three unis installed. I've since deleted La Fiesta Tech (I still like the other two) and turned almost all the YA bin and pre-installed sims into townies/dormies (a few were fun to play).  Gives me a nice big pool of dormies to torture (nouniprotect), with the occasional rare gem worth making playable through moving in or marriage.

[Ellatrue]

So, in which files would we find these expendable movies and load music? What sorts of movies did you delete? The one that plays when you load the game? I deleted Veronaville... is there anything else that can go?

[Simsbaby]

You can delete
Duplicate CAS! and YACAS! screens. Make sure that you leave at lest one set, I keep the ones that come with the latest expansion pack. Find them in..  TSData/Res/GlobalLots.
Movie files. Make sure that you only delete the files that are not in folders such as(ealogo_audio.movie.) delete them in... TSData/Res/Movies
Localization files. As long as you got all the games in the area that you live in you can just toss the whole folder in the trash. TSData/Res/Locale
Thumbnails, you can just let the game make them if you ever make another user name.  TSData/Res/UserData/Thumbnails