More Awesome Than You!

Support for the mod merge feature of s3pe is now located here. http://dino.drealm.info/den/denforum/index.php?topic=478.msg3049#msg3049


I've been experimenting with importing .packages to single .package/.dbc files using s3pe. Overall, upon initial tests, by decreasing 691 custom content .package files into 8 merged .package files, I've doubled my frame rate and halved my loading time for game start-up and entering CAS/Build/Buy. It is also possible to add new store content this way, by first unpacking the .sims3pack and then repacking it into a custom merged .package,

The only drawbacks with this system that I have come across are are that merging large amounts of .package into a single .package can take some time to complete, the difficulty of correctly merging different types of mods (including broken mods) and there is no way to uninstall one specific mod from the archive, and one is forced to re-merge the mods if they wish to make any updates or changes. The benefits are better performance, less files to manage, and the ability to learn the way mods work and discover problems or conflicts with mods you were otherwise unaware of.


As pointed out below in several posts, large single .package archives will have the same effect as .dbc archives, as they are essentially the same type of file. The performance increase is simply from merging, not from file type.

The process is pretty simple really.

Quick Guide

---

1. Get latest test version of s3pe
(http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/8629/downloadu.png) (http://sourceforge.net/projects/sims3tools/files/s3pe)

2. I sorted the .package files into categories that suited my method of organisation, and this is what I used for basis of creating separate .package archives (for me it was 5 total - body, clothing, objects, patterns, world.)

3. opened up s3pe, selected File>New.

4. From the "resource" menu of s3pe and chose "import as .dbc" and chose one of the categories of .package files. If you don't have an "Import as .dbc" option, then you have the wrong version of s3pe.

5. Hit CTRL+A to select all the .package files in the import dialogue box.

6. After the import was complete, I deleted all the type "0x73E93EEB" _xml files with a instance of "0x0000000000000000" , as these manifest files appear to be leftovers from the sims3pack versions of the file and don't seem to be required by the game, but will be a main source of conflicts.

7. After making any changes, i chose "Save" and saved the file as a .package. At this stage there doesn't seem to be any benefit to .dbc over a large .package, as the files seem to be one in the same. However, If you are using .dbc, you need to make sure your resource.cfg is configured to read .dbc files.

8. I run every new merged package through delphy's Sims 3 Dashboard tool (http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=387006) to make sure the new package is readable and fix any possible mod issues at the same time.

Additional notes

• Before merging new untested mods into your package files, I would suggest first trying every new mod in-game via a probation folder within your mods folder. It's worthwhile testing every mod you install using process monitor (http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?p=2955475#post2955475) and available modding tools.
• If you are wanting to extract  .sims3pack into .package (official or otherwise), then you will need this Delphy's sims3pack multi-extractor (http://linna.modthesims.info/download.php?t=364038) :o
• You can also safely delete ICON file types as well as THUM file types from the merged package in s3pe. ICON are only used by the official launcher and THUM will be re-generated by the game. Deleting of THUM files is handy in cases where you don't like the custom Thumbnails provided by the mod author.
  
  
• If you are extracting official store items from .sims3pack, run the extracted .package through s3rc.exe before attempting to merge with s3pe, or you will get errors.
  
  

aikea_guinea was kind enough to make up this visual guide (http://club-crimsyn.dreamwidth.org/28336.html?#cutid1) with some handy screen-shots for those of you that find the text version difficult to follow.

Thanks to Inge and Peter Jones for the much appreciated updates to s3pe (http://sourceforge.net/projects/sims3tools/files/s3pe) which now makes merging mods into a single file much easier..

In the spirit of Learning By Doing, I'm willing to try this out. Unless you have a quick and handy tutorial somewhere, I now go to read that thread to figure out what I need to do. ^_^ Any other criteria for this experiment?

There is no "benefit" to a dbc over a package, as they are identical in format and the game is unable to distinguish them. You could make them into .crap files and they would still work.

Good to know. That means it's purely down to the sheer number of files which is causing the issue. My only worry was that possibly the game had some extra specific way of handling those files with a .dbc extension, as that is not the case, .crap files it will be from now on.

So with the above quickie guide, feel free to use .package in place of .dbc.

Just wanted to mention that I followed Anach's tutorial for creating .dbc archives and have also had extremely positive results.

My game, before doing what was suggested was slow and sluggish with horrendous load times. CAS/Build/Buy modes were almost unplayable. My game now loads quickly with no in-game lag and no negative side effects. All my cc is showing and working as it should.

I am a complete novice when it comes to using s3pe but by following the guide posted by Anach I found the process to be relatively painless. I now have a total of 9 categorized .dbc files which I merged 1,4009 .package files into . The only .package files I left untouched were hacks and careers and any default replacements as I noticed they didn't work when I merged them.

Thankyou to Anach for sharing his experiment as I now have my game back and am enjoying playing for the first time since I patched...actually I think it's even running better than it was pre-patch! :-)

The potential benefit of the .dbc is that is a way the .package content can be used from My Documents hierarchy instead of having to use the Framework in the game install folders.

It could also mean that CC gets included with shared lots etc.

Does anyone know if you can have more than one .dbc in the folder?

Good suggestion in regards to the My Documents folder. As long as the .dbc are named differently, they should all work. I believe the game sets a maximum .dbc size (set in one of the .ini files) when creating them via launcher, and they are named in series dcdb0.dbc, dcdb1.dbc, etc. It would be good to know if items are included with exported lots or not, or whether the launcher is required to add more specific information to the archive for that feature to work.  


I've merged a few default replacement textures without issue, such as roads, skins and other minor replacements. What is it you were trying to merge but couldnt? Dont forget to clear your caches. I also didnt bother merging hacks/tweaks/careers etc, as I'm always wanting to adjust them or update them.

Glad it worked out. Hopefully we can expand and improve upon this system and hopefully later some tools to make this type of mass merging easier in terms of adding and removing specific packages from a larger archive or better conflict detection.

I too tried this, though I don't have nearly as much CC as Ozrae, perhaps less than 100 files altogether, mostly hair and some clothes, which tend to be larger files. I was unsure of what Anach meant by Step #6, so I cautiously  skipped it.

Have about 8 .dbc files after organizing the CC. I left the hacks alonel: I'm running AM, NRaas Supercomputer, 2xbill, NoMosaicWA (updated at the same time as trying out the .dbc thing), and MoreFreqOpp.

Cleared cache and prefetch just to be safe, ensmallened the savefile, and 3booted up. Didn't notice a quicker overall neighborhood load but usually I don't sit around and time it. House and furniture loading seemed faster but this was the beginning of a play session rather than the tail end of four or five hours. House switching seemed faster, even though only two pieces of CC were Buy Mode things (both are cars).

Had a CTD around the time YA Sim #1 was ready to come home from work at the Science Lab (he got singed) while YA Sim#2 was in the shower, maybe 2:30pm. Three kids at school. 3booted up again, played through the same day (YA #1 did not get singed this time), got to midnight, saved and quit. Not sure what caused the CTD but just now I checked in my Mods/Packages and realized I left the skins .package files in the folder with the .dbc. Wondering if that may have been a contributing factor, or if skipping Step 6 is to blame.

In any case, I am still willing to keep trying this, as anything that cuts down the house-switching load times can't be bad. That was the primary reason for me keeping to The One Fambly, and neglecting my other chosen.

Step 6 is pretty much just about sorting conflicts (if there are any). If you import with the option to "Replace duplicates", it will mark any conflicts "deleted" in the s3pe window with a line through it. This is something that will only happen if there are conflicts, which in the perfect scenario there shouldnt be. Most the conflicts can be left as marked for deletion, but there were a few which werent really conflicts, such as the language strings and the 0x0000000000000000 files, which not all mods will have. So you were probably ok with skipping 6, if you didnt have any conflicts.

As for CTDs, every person's installed mods are going to be different so merging and conflicts are always going to be different, and that is really up to each person, but I do encourage every person to check their mods using process monitor before merging (http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=379085), as well as opening it in the appropriate editor to check for errors, as I found quite a lot of mods, even those from popular sites contain a multitude of errors, and this has been a major factor of errors while saving, CTDs, black textures and slow-downs. I'm now quite careful which mods I install.

Actually...taking another look, remerging my default replacements, clearing my caches and reloading my game they are now loading in .dbc files. I think I may have had some conflicts as I removed some files when I remerged.

Will doing this make it show up with the CC icon also?

And can you add to the .dbc file after you make one?

No they wont show with the CC icon, I believe they need to have a flag changed in the mod for that. There is a tool at MTS which may allow you to set that flag before importing mods.

Yes you can import as many new mods to an existing .dbc/.package as you wish.

The program i found only changes it for EP1 files to give them a Icon , non of the EP0 will get one.

thanks for the fasts reply

I could ask Peter to have a look at making a tool for this...

To flag CC as CC? Sign me up...one of the major reasons I haven't been sharing stuff from TS3 is because I can't tell what of the things I have is CC, with the exception of HugeLunatic's windows since she edited her icons to have her insignia.

I havent tried it, but looking at the packages, it seems Expansion packs are flagged 0x08 (EP1), Store content is flagged 0x01 (1), and normal content is flagged 0x00 (0). Maybe you can make a request of the author of the EP1 tool to do both?

As for tools, what we really need for the sake of game performance is a launcher capable of merging/removing .package files correctly from a single archive, and saving that either to my docs in .dbc or mods directory in .package, without the novice user having to worry about sorting conflicts.

[Flags]
public enum ContentCategory : uint
{
    kAllFlagsMask = 0xff000000,
    kCustomContent = 0x2000000,
    kEP1Content = 0x8000000,
    kEP2Content = 0x18000000,
    kLocalContent = 0x4000000,
    kNone = 0,
    kPaidContent = 0x1000000,
    kSP1Content = 0x10000000
}

Well I tried to make the .dpc files and could not get them to show up, I did all the clean-up stuff and such. I tried to change my config file but then nothing showed up.

So I know I'Am missing something just not sure what :(

I got a few to work as .package files but not all worked that I made. Which makes me think a few files must be messed up and  that's why the hole thing does not show up.

The link to the process monitor just send me to a big thread, been reading thou it thou and found the links need, so going to spend a fun day with it seeing how well it can help.
Side note to others looking for it, the post with the link is # 240 and 283


Anach - Ill go ask him to look in to it when he's back from winter break.

Anyway, Peter has made good progress with this today.  He's adding it as an import option to s3pe, to batch import packages.  With any luck there will be something to test later today or tomorrow.

Edit:  This is all very well but wtf is a .dbc and where does it go?  I only have .ebc's

Edited again:  I found one!

.dbc is the file made by the launcher for content installed from your downloads folder.
.ebc is content installed via the in-game store.

You dont need to use .dbc, you can simply use .package and put it in your mods directory. I've not tested using a .dbc in my docs, but I am interested to see if the content shows in game when doing it that way.

A dbc is a package. They appear to be functionally indistinguishable in every way.

http://sf.net/projects/sims3tools/files/s3pe/1001-03-1524/  start New file then use Resource/Import/as dbc.  Choose multiple packages.


Isn't the idea that you put the file into the DCCCache folder?

Anach, if you have the time and inclination, could you describe the types of errors you've found? Not in any great detail or necessarily naming the mods, just in point form, perhaps in a new thread.

This could serve as a handy "things to watch out for" checklist for new Sims modders such as myself. It seems every game develops some modding folklore concerning potential pitfalls to avoid.

Thanks!

I don't exactly have the patience for writing lengthy detailed and pretty looking tutorials, as you can probably tell from the above posts. The best advice I can give in that scenario, without having to document everything I install,  is this;

1. Install everything as a package first (even unpack custom sims3pack content), and put it in a probation folder within your mods/packages, so you can easily keep track of the latest content you install.
2. Run process monitor (check above posts for mts links of tutorials) and check the "count" of the file access. Often you will find a file that is well above everything else, and usually this is a troublesome file.
3. Open every package you download in s3pe or other relevent editor to see if it pops up for errors (s3pe, or delphy's CTU, etc). Many mods out there were made before tools were working correctly, while others simply havent been made correctly. If they error in the tools used to create them, then I tend not to trust them.

The better one is at knowing how mods are made (there are lots of tutorials available), the easier it is to work out what is dodgy. I certainly know a lot more than I did when I started playing Sims 3, but there is still a lot i'm unsure about when it comes to troubleshooting and merging mods (such as those 0x000000000000000 xml files), but there are a lot less mods installed now and I have far fewer issues. If I keep a clean game, Its often quite easy to tell when I've installed something dodgy, as suddenly I'll start seeing issues within game;

1. Sudden framerate drop.
2. Black (missing) textures on objects, sims or UI.
3. Crashes, freezing and very slow loading.

I do the same sort of troubleshooting for mods I use in Oblivion and Fallout3. Often you simply find stuff that is broken when opened in editors, or simply the modder doesn't know how to use the tools correctly, or is too lazy to bother. Similarly in those two games, mod merging is also very important for performance and reliability.

The good thing about this recent patch, with all it's issues, is it's forced me to have a good clean-out, and I must say, my game hasn't run this smooth and crash free since I first started playing. My Wife has also taken to reading tutorials to learn how to make mods, mainly so she can fix the broken stuff that she really likes.


That is certainly an option, which I didnt actually try. Be interesting to see how it works. The limiting factor is whether the DCCache folder supports sub-folders for easier management. It's unlikely there will be any further performance increase by having a large .dbc in your DCCache folder rather than a large .package in your mods folder, as from what I can tell its purely about minimizing the sheer amount of files, and not about location or file type.

It also seems that when importing as .dbc within the new s3pe, it now merges the _key files correctly. As for the 0x00000000000000 xml files, it's possible those arent even needed? so I'm going to see how it goes with them removed.

*edit*

Seems custom .dbc within the my documents aren't supported, or at least I couldn't get them to show in-game. So there doesnt seem to be any benefit to the .dbc format at all. Saving them as merged .package files should be enough.

Thanks for the quick response and info Anach.

Sorry, but I wasn't very clear in my post -- I wasn't looking for a description of how to tell when a mod is causing problems and isolating it, but the errors in the mods themselves that you happen to have come across. For example, if you've found a number of them with missing textures, or links to other components that don't exist, or whatever. Those examples are just guesses on my part, since I'm not too familar with Sims mods yet.
 
On the other hand, maybe it's too early to try to build up that Sims3 modding folklore, or things creators should keep in mind while building mods, since the tools may still be in a state of flux. As you mentioned:


I don't have any background in previous Sims games, but have dabbled in various areas of Sims3 modding, some retexturing, tweaking some meshes, some XML tuning, and some core modding, and I didn't want to accidentally repeat some typical noob errors you might have seen while examing other mods. If you happen to think of any common mod creation problems, great. If not, no worries, I'll continue to lurk & learn. ;-)

Back on topic, thanks for clearly describing how to combine packages into a .dbc file, I'm sure I'll find useful as I accumulate more mods.

At the moment I certainly don't see myself as experienced enough in s3 modding to give any more advice than I already have, in that people take a look themselves. Even those mods which are often broken or missing stuff, i'd find it very difficult to make myself. Like you, a lot of it is simply guesses and my own testing for obvious stuff , So other than my own personal quality limits, I wouldn't feel comfortable in stating any thing else. I'd kinda feel akin to some noob coming in and telling Pescado how to make core mods. :P

I prefer to simply advise people to be very fussy when it comes to installing mods, as not every mod creator has the same level of expertise or quality control and quite a lot of mods will break your game in one way or another.

However, I will say that Hair mods seem to be one of the most frequently broken mods I come across, and one to watch out for. I now have very few CC hair in my game simply because it was causing game issues or simply had ugly visual issues. I've set my own limit of acceptable quality on that, and even while I might use one or two hairs from a one particular modder, it doesnt mean every hair from them will be fine, and more often than not, its the hair I actually want to use, unfortunately.

The trouble with threads that list troublesome mods, is that everyone has a different level of acceptable quality, often modders will update and fix mods, and quite often they end up so full of nonsense that they end up being ignored anyway. As much of a pain as it is, there really is no way to tell without testing every single mod prior to adding it permanently to your game.

Updated the main post to simplify the process with the latest information.

What about opening the original .dbc in s3pe, and adding the packages into that?  (make a safe backup of the original first, obviously :D  )

A scary thought, as i'm sure it will break the launcher horribly, but worth an experiment. I like to keep mine as clean as possible, that's why i'm excited about merging possibilities, as I can keep my CC separate to my SC, and not have to scroll through that horrible launcher to find stuff, since I generally never uninstall store stuff.

*edit* Doesn't work either. Tried importing 200Mb of various object mods to my existing official .dbc. Nothing showed in-game, similar to when I tried a freshly created .dbc in my docs.

Grrr!  :(   Makes you wonder why it's there!  Maybe those xmls were more important than we thought.  And there was some "unknown" What happens if you remove them even for the bona fide stuff already in there?

I combined mine, and didn't seem to have any issues... when I was doing so however, I made sure none of the 'unknowns' or anything with a bunch of 0s (anywhere that I could see since I wasn't sure which column you were referring to) were deleted. It worked well. My game lags a lot less than it had even though I'd been running it with less CC than it has now. (I was only keeping what my sims were actively wearing in game.. anything else went to a folder on my desktop until I needed/wanted it).

I sorted mine into 4 files. 'Objects', 'CAS', 'Hair', and 'Patterns'.

Thanks for the guide though.

The 0x000-lots-of-zeros... xml files were only included with hair as far as I found. I also didn't find them in any official .dbc files, so I assumed they were probably added by DABOOBs or TSR Workshop and weren't actualy needed. The unknown files could very well be something to do with it. However, the merged content works perfectly fine in the mods directory, as either .dbc or .package, with no crashes or other issues without those zero xmls.

...but it's not proven that there is any advantage in making dbcs for the framework folders?

None as far as my own testing has shown. I initially did .dbc, then renamed (later remerged) as .package, and saw no difference performance wise. As JM stated, they appear to be identical files, except for whatever the official launcher does to allow the game to recognise the .dbc when in the docs folder.

However, it certainly seems that the fewer .package files in your mods folder, the better your game runs. I originally went from over 700 total, to 20 merged and 45 tweaks which I left as single files for ease of frequent modification and updates. I later cut that down to 5 merged and 39 tweaks and noticed that my larger household was running a few frames quicker average. I'm hoping to cut that down further to  6 main merged .package and a couple essential separate files (such as awesome and other tweaks that arent merge friendly) to see if it improves further. I would imagine that after a certain point there would be very little noticeable difference in performance.

*edit* as expected, it doesnt seem ill be gaining anymore performance by decreasing the amount of .packages further. I tried reducing my 45 total to 12 total, and didn't see a difference. Most of those were xml, ini, dll , ui type mods, so I didn't really expect much of a change, as they are fairly small and light compared to objects, clothing, or hair type mods. So as a recommendation, i'd suggest everyone leave those types of mods outside of the merged mods, due to it not making any difference performance wise, that they usually updated a lot more frequently than other types of mods and not all types will play nicely in a single file.

The only files I manually removed from any of my merged mods were _xml (in the tag column) with resource keys of 0x00000000000000 (instance column). These only seemed to show in a few mods, and were my only conflicts that required manually merge (as alerted by s3pe). I haven't seen any negative effect of removing these, and I didn't find them in the official .dbcs, so I assumed they were created by the modding tools as some form of identification for those particular tools, but I really don't know at this stage.

Assuming these xml files you refer to are the ones tagged 0x73E93EEB, I have also been removing them as according to http://www.simswiki.info/wiki.php?title=Sims_3:PackedFileTypes (http://www.simswiki.info/wiki.php?title=Sims_3:PackedFileTypes) they are just manifest files used by the launcher(at least as far as whoever posted that information can tell). I've been finding those resources in all manner of clothing packages, though I think they may all be ones that were created with TSR Workshop and later converted to a .package. In hair packages I've also been finding a lot of redundant resources which appear to reference bone structures for that hair which I have also been removing and havn't noticed any issues yet. Also, for those xml files it may be safer to, rather then deleting them completely, increment the instance value by one and keeping them as I did find some store packages which had multiple instances of those files with different data stored in them (Though again this may only be needed by the launcher).

I probably should have posted something on this ages ago since when the patch broke the launcher I extracted all my sims3packs with delphy's multi-installer and after finding the game suddenly unplayable with all those package files I had merged most of them together into a single storecontent.package file and had been using that for a while without problems. It's not really too surprising that Sims 3 isn't geared towards reading hundreds of small files efficiently since the best practice amongst game engines for some time now has been to create a virtual file system and read everything from a single file to reduce hard-drive access calls to the operating system (Which are very slow on windows).

Depending on your hardware Sims 3 should run without any noticable performance hit as long as you have no more then about 50-60 package files. If you've got a nice fast SCSI drive you may even be able to play without a performance hit without merging any packages and having a few hundred sitting on your drive, but it's always a good idea to reduce the amount of work the OS needs to do and have as few packages as possible. I can't really say what the limit is for Sims 3 as the performance hit may not even be related to the hardware limitations, but based on my own experience programming virtual file systems, trying to access more then 100 files (I definitely had more then 100 files after converting all the arr'd store content to .package) in a program is almost certainly going to produce a drop in performance, and while the hardware may be fast enough to access 45 or 50 files without a noticable hit you really want to try to get that number as close to 1 as possible as it also reduces fragmentation(depending on file size and hardware) and can make the entire game engine run smoother.

That COULD present a problem, though. I'll use programming practices as a metaphor. The more code you put in one class, the more likely you'll run into errors/the more difficult it will be to debug and maintain. If someone were to put EVERY piece of CC into one package, it's highly likely something will blow up. It'll take quite a bit of time to find the issue. I've tried both ways (with my CC packaged into hair/clothes/patterns/etc. packages or everything in one big package) and I haven't noticed a speed/performance difference with one package or ten.

I don't think one package, or ten packages, is going to make a noticeable difference. The difference comes in those people who have OVER 9000 packages.

Yeah, on most hardware the difference between the game loading one package versus 10 packages is immeasurable, but you really want to keep the number down to as few as you can. Since you can't guarantee that packages made by other people are going to be 100% stable all the time (especially after EA releases a patch) it may not necessarily be a good idea to create a single package with everything in it as it would be difficult to debug, but less files will usually mean an increase in stability. I've still got about 60 package files and it runs just fine (I'm still not yet sure how best to merge some of them), but as I said in my last post you really want to keep it well below 100 as you'll definitely start noticing problems around that point on most hardware. Ideally 1 package should be more stable then even 10, but then if you have a lot of packages (>1GB worth) you start getting into problems with NTFS causing file fragmentation which will also reduce performance.

When I was attempting to manually merge all of the packages extracted from the December Store files a few weeks ago, I gave up when I ran into about 50 instances of the 0x00000000000000 resource. They contained the description that is displayed when you mouse over the items in-game, so I assumed they were necessary.  ::)


It's good to know that they are completely superfluous, though.

If those files were tagged as type 0x73E93EEB(_XML.manifest) then they appear to be safe to delete since they are probably only used by the launcher. To be on the safe side all I did (For most of them, I did delete some and havn't noticed anything missing) was undelete them, go into "Details..." for that resource and edit it's instance number to be something like 0x0000000001, or 2, etc.(Just as long as the number is unique in that package). I've been slowly experimenting with the internals of the package file so I may eventually get around to writing a package merging app which checks for hash collisions and then tries to merge them or at least provide a difference file so the user can interactively merge them like with windiff or similar apps.

Are you sure you were importing them correctly? I merged all of the store .package files by going to File > New in s3pe and then Resource > Import > From .package... and selecting them all, hitting Open and letting it run. I remodeled my nursery with some store objects and everything worked fine. Maybe you selected import from file? Something like that happened to me when I wasn't paying attention and did it that way.

Oh, I did all of that, but I never got to the point of testing it in-game. When I saw all the "conflicts", I just assumed it was FUBAR.

You all have some very good points. I certainly suggest using a probation folder for testing individual packages before merging anything, and as I mentioned on the previous page of this thread, I like to test every single mod I install, simply to maintain a trouble free game. There is a lot of broken content out there, and it will do nasty things to the game if left in. My wife is currently going through her content 1 by 1, just as I did over a few days, as we both had some nasty game issues to track down. I removed a lot more than I would have expected to. Once each mod has been tested, It's certainly worth merging into fewer packages.

I just did the December store files, since I wasn't sure if I had included those, to make sure that it wasn't a December issue, and the screen closely resembles what I got when doing the whole thing. While I admit I haven't had time to thoroughly check each item, nothing exploded when I went in-game. I would be interested in seeing if the conflicts are indeed superfluous, or if there's a deeper issue.

I've been reading through this post since the beginning and thought of giving this a try. I don't have THAT many CC files (around 200), but if it can boost performance why not?
I just tried this out but it didn't work out. One thing I'm confused about is that you said that the 0x00000000000000 xml files can be deleted, but more than three quarters of the files I imported are made of 0x00000000000000 xml files.
I tried this out with some build mode objects and my buy mode objects. And got two files (packages) and put them with my other mods in the mods/packages folder (not in sub-folders). Supposedly they should work but they aren't. I went back into the game and found nothing. Am I doing something wrong? Should I have deleted all those tons of 0x00000000000000 xml files?
Also when I click to import the packages I get a window listing all the files inside (The location of the packages) and it shows me things I can check like deleting duplicates or not, to compress them, and other things that are grayed out (I can't check those). Any suggestions on why this didn't work?

EDIT: When you say "0x00000000000000 xml files" are you referring to the group they belong to or the type? Examples of other groups: 0x00000000000001 or 0x00000000000002

Get the latest s3pe, read the instructions on page 1, post 1. Keep in mind that this is all new, so even though I imported about 700 different types of mods, there are bound to be some troublesome mods or mod types that wont merge with other mod types. Also you can try import and choose "reject duplicates" as an alternative to import as .dbc. This process might require a bit of trial and error with certain files.

I need to point out the s3pe linked in this thread is *not* the latest public release you will find at MTS.  It is a special test release for the purposes of this experiment, so you need to get this one.

Thanks for the info. I updated the links on the first post to the one you provided.

I've also been doing some more testing by removing all custom content I had installed in sims3pack format via the launcher, extracting it and then merging it with the new import .dbc function. All worked very well. I didnt have any issues, except for the extraction using Delphy's tool. It seems that straight packages extracted from sims3pack dont like to work until they are merged into a fresh package, which I found very odd. The single packages on their own were not loading (20k+ in process moonitor) and the game was taking forever to load. As soon as I merged them to a fresh .package using the new import function they all worked without an issue, which makes me wonder if doing the same with other problematic .package files might fix the issue too.

Furthermore, I found that some packages will like to be merged in a specific order, which is entirely likely to be due to the way conflict resolution works. I was trying with a particular set of furniture (Cellar set) and found that I had to separate them into 3 files (paintings, furniture and clutter), then use the import feature and reject duplicates instead of the import .dbc function. So it will take a little toying with to get working right for each person.

As for the _xml manifest files, they seem to only be in certain files like clothing and hair, and I have deleted every single one without issue. Most likely it doesn't matter either way, and one could probably leave them all in a conflicted state and it wouldnt matter to the game. Though the _xml manifest files and icon files could also be excluded from the merge and save hassle of conflict resolution for those who might be inclined to panic :)

Compression is something I'm wondering about. I notice that while "Import from package" is all or nothing in terms of compression, the "import as .dbc" seems to be selective. Looking at the official .dbc, certain files seem to be almost always compressed, while others almost always not. Prior to the .dbc feature, I was compressing everything and didn't notice an issue?


PS. Wife forced me to correct spelling :P

I guess with import dbc he left the compression as he found it, whereas the user gets the choice (but *not* "leave as found" lol) with the normal import.

That's the trouble as things get bolted onto tools, they get out of step and inconsistent.   What would be the preferred action here?

I was actually thinking it would be nice to have a "leave is found" option when I was first playing around with the merging before the .dbc option, so that works well for me :)

As far as creating a trouble free merged file, with less worry for the end user, I would prefer to see only needed files merged. For single .package files it makes sense to leave in unofficial file types in case the user has need of them later when importing back into various tools, but if they are creating a merged .package for the purpose outlined in this thread, then there is really no need for files not used by the game, as the merged files can't be used by the tools that use those specific files. I'd imagine they could be filtered out of the merge or ignored when it comes to alerting about conflicts, so the user doesn't have to panic over 50 different  _xml manifest files with the same key.

Can someone post an example of a resource file that allows .dbc file in-game? I'm not that skilled in working with resource files, but am a fast leaner; So a tutorial is welcomed :)

You have absolutely no skills whatsoever from what I can see.  Use "search" you lazy fucking retard.

You can cool it. I don't get how you can call me a "lazy fucking retard" when you don't even know me? You don't see me name calling. Anyway I didn't have the time at that moment to search for an answer and was just seeing if anyone was decent enough to help me out. Not everyone is an expert in everything. You can't build a rocket, you can't make a computer (from scratch) and god knows, you might not even know how to read a watch! Just shut up for once. But then again, you might be another one of those "All Knowing MATY Gods" (or at least you most definitely think you are).

In the time it took you to post your stupidity, you could have found your answer, lazy fucking retard.

Snowbawl is positively divine compared to you.

The fact that you even NEED a tutorial for such a thing clearly indicates you are mentally deficient. Have you even LOOKED at it?

Tried it and it works lovely.
Are there any advantages to 'reject' rather than 'replace'?
And the 'compress' option: have you lot been using that?
Nice one.

Make sure you get the experimental version from the first post in this thread.

The reject and replace options only show on import from .package. There is no such option on "Import as .dbc", as the default option seems to be "replace". However, I found that some mods (so far only exported sims3packs) will break if imported as .dbc (game cant read them) and I need to switch over to import as .package instead, but the only problem with using import as .package is that it will not generate the merged _key (0x0166038C) which I assume is important when merging large amounts of certain mod types that rely on these manifests.

I still have no idea what causes it, and unsure if anyone else has this issue, but the majority of sims3packs i extract to .package files aren't able to be read by the game until I import them to another package, even if it worked fine as a sims3pack.To test to see if the mod is broken, I usually try to open the freshly merged .packages in the blue lot fixer, as usually if the merged .package it wont open in that, the game can't open it either (very slow loading and process monitor goes berserk), which is when I need to resort to importing as .package rather than importing as .dbc.

Keep in mind that I'm still bluffing my way through this, testing various options to see what works and what doesn't, but I have limited knowledge of why things do what they do.

*edit* A little experimenting with my above stated issue. I decided to extract the files on a Win2k3 32bit PC and the game read those extract files fine without any further modification, but tried multiple times to do the same thing on my main PC (Win7 x64) and the game would not read the packages until I merged them into a new .package. Now to re-extract and re-merge them into the main package to see if there is any difference performance wise (in proc mon.)

*edit 2* While the newly extracted files worked fine, there was still one set (cellar set) which wouldnt import correctly using the import as .dbc function, but worked fine with import from .package with either replace or reject. Once they were initially imported into a test package, i was then able to import them to my main package using import as .dbc. So I dont know what the odd thing was about that particular object set.  Currently all is working fine.

Thank you Witch for your very informative thread!! (Sorry about not searching)

I tried this out in-game, everything seems to be working perfectly fine. However, as far as performance goes, I don't see any improvement; It actually seems as though the game is slower :P. I'll have to look into that.

Yeah, I've had this issue with a few of HystericalParoxysm's hairs, but those are the only thing I've had a problem with so I just leave them as .package since there are only a few of them and I would rather not mess them. From what I can tell from the error message though, it's due to the fact that the packages are probably just slightly altered from each other and contain identical _KEY files. It may be safe to merge them anyways, but the difference in performance for the few files with that issue would be immeasurable.

EDIT: Since the experimental import to .dbc attempts to merge the _XML files (And fails every time I've tried it saying "manual merge of xml files required"), does that mean those files have been decided to be more then just necessary for the launcher?

Check back through the thread or the instructions on the first post where I mention _xml. If you have other types of conflicting _xml, then it's likely you have an actual conflict. Yes the .dbc import will merge the manifest _key files for you.

I quote from your original post:


The exact *opposite* is happening to me! Even the point on how fast the textures load when changing households. I'm not sure what went wrong. I have mine in package format, do you think that's the issue here? I mean, supposedly there is no difference between packages and DBCs.

Also one question. When in s3pe, I was using the tags at the top to order the files so that I could easily locate the _xmls. Does this affect the *actual* order of the files inside the final package? If so, I think I just found the reason my game is lagging. If it does affect the final package then my game is too busy sorting the files out into their original order and thus slowing and screwing up my performance. Any ideas if this is true or not?

Okay, thanks Anach.
All my stuff was in .package anyway, the only thing in my .dbc is a Riverview with text string errors everywhere, so I didn't bother with that.
But as you said, loading, framerate, menus, they are probably about 25% better now. I thought the game was incapable of this, but its breezing it.
The merged package sizes are larger than I thought they would be, but the trade off is undoubtably worth it.

No, the Chunk Offset shows you what order they are in physically.  Clicking the column headers only affects your view.

I thought I had stumbled upon the solution to my problem. Thanks anyway. Has anyone else had a decrease in performance?

Thanks for the tutorial.
My game has since sped up since using this method.

Thank you.

Something you could try is importing your packages using the standard import from .package function rather than the create dbc, try either replace or reject duplicates, group only similar mods together, and experiment a little to see if you get better results. You can't really hurt anything unless you save your game with half your content misisng or if you delete your original packages.

That's actually what I did. There didn't seem to be a resource > .dbc option, despite the fact that I got the version you provided (This confused me a lot). So I formed a package, edited the _xml files, that aren't needed, out (0x0000...) and they worked.

I must point out, this is with *replacing* duplicates. When I clicked *reject* duplicates, all it gave me was a single file (in s3pe) with zeroes in it.

I'm not sure if that was supposed to happen, but I followed the tutorial and all the posts here step by step. I would try making a .dbc but can't seem to find the option for it. I also used the link to s3pe you gave AND the one I found at MTS. They seemed to  be the same version. ???

I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong, I'm following this step by step but all I'm getting is a *decrease* in performance.

A further note to everyone else experimenting with this. I haven't had much success in extracting .sims3packs into .package then importing them to the merged archive. While the process itself works ok, I experience quite nasty slowdowns, which put me back to where I was at before I merged everything, at about 50% loss of FPS. I don't know whether it's the conversion from sims3pack to package, or if the objects themselves are buggy (and somehow in sims3pack format aren't buggy), but no matter the item (tried about 50 different items), the outcome is always the same. If I remove those converted .package files and reinstall them as sims3pack with the launcher, I regain my FPS. I've tried multiple extraction methods and used two different computers with two different programs (s3pack and delphy's extractor), and I've tried every variation of merging these items.

I'd be interested to hear of any experiences of other people who have converted sims3pack to package and merged them into a single .package (dbc) archive. I know it must be possible, as a lot of these .packages originate from sims3pack, so it might simply be down to the sets i'm using, however I'm curious as to why when those same packs are installed with the launcher the FPS increases.

I have had no problems with merging extracted sims3packs (via Delphy's installer and then importing as DBC in s3pe). I've meticulously tracked my loading times and in-game fps while testing out launcher vs. merged packages and there has been no discernible difference. Some of my sims3packs are store content and some are custom and they've both worked fine merged. It actually works out great as a lot of sims3packs when extracted to packages couldn't be modified without breaking them but now they can be fiddled with in a merged package.

If you have followed the instructions to the letter then it is safe to say that one or more of the mods you are hoping to merge is dodgy. Eliminate the dodgy mods and you will find a marked increase in both the time it takes to load your game and with game performance.

The best version of s3pe to use is the one linked from here because that is the one that offers you the option to import 'as *.dbc' from the Resource drop-down menu.

In that case I'll keep plodding away to see if I can track my issue precisely, which is difficult when nothing in this game is exactly precise.

Have you tried using only store content as a test? They're probably the sims3packs with the fewest problems overall and might help narrow it down.

If you haven't already I'd also try compressorizing the sims3packs first before extracting. I used to have my store stuff extracted to packages before the patch that made having hundreds of package files unwieldy and I noticed that if I didn't compress the sims3packs first then the resulting package would cause horrific lag and thousands of entries in Process Monitor.

I'm not sure what you're referring to as "mods". I'm not actually merging game mods (like AM or longer pregnancy mods for example); Just build and buys mode objects, hair (2 files actually) and clothes. I did try to merge them with both versions. The one I got from here did *not* have import as .dbc! I'm not sure why, but it just didn't. :-\ I know where it's located (resource > import as .dbc, but all I have is "import from package" or "from file".

Actually Anach what you're experiencing is what I've been going through. I merged them into package files. You're doing the same but originally with .sim3packs. Maybe you were right from the beginning. Maybe .dbc is better than .package?

EDIT 1: Clara, I'll have to try that out. I didn't compress them and my game is lagging. I'll try it later though, I can't right now.

EDIT 2: It turns out I did have the wrong version. At sourceforge.net I clicked on "view all files" which brought up a link to the newest version ("13") of s3pe not the "03" version. I should have clicked on the "03" version in the box below. I'll try making a .dbc later and see if it improves my performance.

I still think making them into packages will lag the game.

EDIT 3: I just made my DBCs and will try them later (Despite the fact that I got a million errors when merging my "sims" CC).

I must admit that I haven't tried compressorizing them before extracting. I shall give that a try next time I extract some sims3packs.

I've finally narrowed down my issue to my original set of objects I used for the first merge. It was solely down to the cellar set from ATS3, which is what I used for the first experimental merge. I had thought I'd sorted out the issues I had with that and marked it safe, but obviously I hadn't. I removed all my CC from the launcher and merged it back into my custom dbc package one by one until I was left with that set. As soon as I did anything with that set it dropped from 50fps (big house with lots of sims) to 25fps. However, when installed via the launcher, the fps were back at 50. So what I did next was to create a fresh .dbc using the launcher to only install the cellar set, so I was left with a merged cellar set dbc that I could rename to package. I installed this to the mods directory and all was fine. Now I also tried merging the freshly created dcbackup folder package files to a fresh dbc with s3pe, as I thought something might be happening to the set during my manual extraction. However, i was left with the same broken set when trying to merge those.

I now have finally merged the cellar set back into my main custom package file (dbc) with s3pe and all is working fine. This leads me to believe that something is wrong with the cellar set, but the launcher seems to fix it when merging where as s3pe doesnt. Which makes me wonder if I could possibly gain anything from doing this with my other sims3pack to package conversions, but for now I'm just going to go play the game for a while, i've spent days playing with merging, in and out of the game. :P

First I would like to say thanks so much for this idea and for explaining it so clearly that even I could do it.

I have 2 questions that can just be ignored if they are too stupid, but here they are:

1.  Anything available in sims3pack files I have been installing with the launcher, so I only merged my package files.  That should be fine, correct?
2.  When I have s3pe replace in the merge is that getting rid of conflicts automatically or was I supposed to somehow check for conflicts in another way?

Yes because the merged packaged files are now doing what the launcher was doing all along: large single files with multiple stuff inside them.
Your sims3packs were already done the "right way".

2. Yes it gets rid of conflicts automatically. The only ones it doesnt (so far) are the manifest _xml files as explained in the howto.

1. This was answered in the above post. However, the reason you see mention of sims3pack files in the later posts of this thread is because I have also been extracting and merging my sims3pack manually, as doing so keeps me from having to use the horrible launcher and allows me to edit them in was I was previously unable to do when installed via the launcher.

Thanks for the answers, my game is running so much better now.  The one thing is that some of my CAS makeup has gone odd.  Some of the lipsticks have lost their color options, but perhaps they were bad files already...

What kinds of edits do you make to the files Anach?

This is probably more of a question of s3pe, but I got an error saying: "Expected magic tag 'DBPF'.  Found 'DBPP'." while importing files as .dbc.

The program just stops there then, and the error message doesn't tell you which package causes the error either, is there any simple way to fix that?

"Mods" is the catch-all term that covers anything that does not come with the game such as hair, objects, patterns and clothing. If one or more of these is malformed or has become corrupted then you will experience a noticeable decrease in both performance and loading times. If you don't see the option to import as dbc then you must have the wrong version or you have missed the important step of starting the process by clicking on File and New before beginning the process of importing. Did you follow Inge's link?

That would probably be the new Dr Pepper car. I got the same issue when I tried extracting and opening that file in either s3pe or postal. However, even the launcher wouldnt open it, which is a little odd.  I'd say that is a question for the s3pe forum.


When it comes to sims3pack items, they are usually just ugly thumbnails that I like to remove to allow the game to generate replacements, or maybe a buy mode category change, as many people seem to put everything under plants or misc decor. Currently my launcher only has official paid content in it, which keeps it nice an clean and easy to navigate.

I believe that that is some kind of conflict. I have not even tried to merge any files yet and have this problem. I have installed quite a few items since I was last in CAS or tried to change anyone's makeup so I am currently going through my mods folder by folder. All I know is that the issue is not found in my Makeup folder.

Edit: In case anyone else runs into this issue it was a file named:
JS_blondmermaid_UltraModernLiving_Chair.package

That's a common form of file corruption that occurs in the store download process. s3rc will fix this for you.

We learn something new every day. Worked for me!

Just drag the sims3pack onto the s3rc.exe, then extract the sims3pack as usual.

I am so glad to have found this. I merged 455 files down to 45 files and my performance increased like crazy. I wasn't even aware it had gone down the extent it did. Rendering is significantly faster, and so is loading- two things I blamed on WA.

But one thing: Is it safe to merge anything, as long as it is merge-able? Hacks, slider mods? I ignored those because I didn't know if it would cause issues.

And what happens if you merge every single package into one? Does the game EXPLODE?

Yes it's safe to merge anything. However I found that some of my video, audio, camera type mods (nointro, no sounds, ini mods) wouldnt work when merged with other types. So I've tried to group similar type mods together.

Awesome. Merging my sliders and hacks brings it to 18. If I could merge HP's stupid hair, it'd only be 11. ;-;

Anach, please could you make a (small as possible) package that demonstrates the resources that are not getting compressed by the dbc import?  Peter looked at his code and as far as he is concerned it *should* be compressing all resources.  So he'd like to see a demo of a package where it didn't happen.   You can send it to me inge@simlogical.com, thanks :)

Merging AwesomeMod into anything is not recommended due to frequency of updates and the fact that AwesomeMod already includes a sizeable number of merged resources.

NP.

Ok this turns out to be WAD, the non-compressed resources are like that either because they could not be made smaller by compresssion, or because they were pre-compressed format already such as images.

Compressed image formats frequently will not ensmallen further under the compression algorithms used, and may end up bigger due to compression header data. When this happens, compressorizers, including the IngePE one, simply give up and don't try to compress it.

Is there any support for Mac users? I know that s3pe doesn't run on OSX due to the lack of .exe.

I have successfully merged the cc I have now into a small number of package files.  I am trying to plan for future downloads.  Would it be safe to remerge files?  For example:  I have merged all my furniture cc files into one package.  When I download more furniture (and test it with the blue lot tool and process monitor), is it then safe to grab the original big merged package and add all the new stuff to it?

Common sense tells me the answer is yes.  However, I am a noob working hard to understand this process and would like to check my assumption with people who are more familiar with these procedures.

1. You can run blue lot fixer on the merged package, instead of the individual mods. Much easier that way.

2. You can keep on merging new files using the import as .dbc command.

3. Updated files can be merged, but I would call this risky. It's safer to recreate the archive than risk it. However, if you are updating a file that is already installed and are sure you wish to try it anyway, it's probably better to use the Import from package command, with replace duplicates. As I found in these cases the import as .dbc will create duplicates and not mark them so (I update my own xml tweaks this way)


For ease of recreating archives when there is a need to update in the future, I have created a folder for all unarchived versions of the original mods, under a folder for each category that I intend to merge them to. For example. The individual .package files I used to create my CAS.package are all in a folder named CAS, then to merge into a new CAS.package, all I need to do is import whatever is in that folder once again. This saves hunting around my hard disk for all the loose files.

BTW, Delphy has added batch processing to his bluelot fixer today.

Got tired of people nagging :P

Well I just DLed the latest content (Gothique, etc.) from the store content thread, had to run some through the Recompressor as J.M. Pescado indicates is sometimes necessary (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,17746.msg513682.html#msg513682), and merged them from .package into my existing large official content .package files. I just loaded the game to check and it all appears to be working fine for me so far. YMMV.

I have 7 large official content .package files so far. I had to split the Build/Buy Mode stuff into two merged files, clothes into three, and hair into two because when I tried to import them all into one and save I got an out-of-memory error. I kept sets together, and am maintaining separate merged files for user-created objects, clothes and hair. I haven't attempted to merge any hacks.


Aside from how I sort them, this is exactly how I keep my original files sorted as well.

That was my main concern - whether I'd eventually try to merge too much stuff into one package.  Do you (or anyone) happen to know what the limit is on that?

The game uses some .package files close to 2gig in size. My store cache is around 600MB, and my largest custom merge is around 250MB. I don't know what the actual limit is.

So, probably, there is a limit on package size that can be created by the merge process in S3PE, and that limit is much lower than what the game can actually handle.

Good to know.  I think you guys have answered all my questions.  Many thanks.

Thank you for this solution. I've decided to try, but after n°3, I can't find import as dbc. All I have is import from file or import from package, and if I choose that, I have save as DBPF.
What am I doing wrong?

Are you sure you're getting the latest version directly from the link in point 1 of the tutorial in the OP?

I'm getting the 'outofmemory' and 'Manual merge of XML files required'. Is the latter error normal? I get them even on store stuff, so that discounts badly made packages- maybe it's detecting the 0x73E93EEB _xml files?

It seems to pay to have smaller compressed files at this stage- I went hogwild compressing all of my store files into one huge file, and... that gave me the out of memory errors, of course, which doesn't surprise me. I've packaged a bunch of my hacks that were replacements or tweaks to the game, and they work (I used the 'nointro' hack to give me a signal that it was being read).

P.S: Next time, please read through the thread, because this was answered before.

I had the same problem. When you open the link given here you have two options: "View all files" and a box under it listing the contents of the download. You need to click the link of the s3pe download from the *box* not from the "view all files" > "download". By clicking the latter you get the new "public" version.  But when you click on the link in the box you get the the version you need. Also, you should uninstall your current version before installing the test version.

You may need to try merging smaller number of files, as it might simply be you are running out of RAM during the import. Once a successful import is complete, you will usually get that manual merge message for all those 0x73E93EEB files. For now I simply delete them, until someone comes up with a good reason I shouldnt. However, if you are getting other types of XML conflicts, then you most likely have a conflicting mod, which tries to edit the same file as another.

Thank you for the answer, they had the same name. And I read the thread, twice. When the window with all the files marked for deletion appears, does saving automatically deletes them, or do I have to do it manually?I suppose so, since nothing is crossed out when it has saved. And what is having to merge xlm manually?

Yes they get deleted when it is saved. Generally merging manually would be bad. If its any other type of xml than those I described, then you should not be merging those particular mods which share xml, and not be using them together in game, unless you know how to merge the xml externally using an editor.

They were patterns, and had many crossed out, and the next line was always a 00000 instance, that I marked for deletion too.
And the other folder I did, paintings all by the same creator, had quite a few too.

As far as figuring out which package caused it, you have to watch the archive being built as it displays the names of the files being added.  The last file name displayed before the error halts the program?  Whatever file comes AFTER that one in your folder caused the error, and as Pescado said, it's probably going to be an uncompressorized store file that got converted to a package.

Of course, having said that, someone will come along after me and point out the giant flashing "this file caused it" button that I've missed all along.  :D

Can some one make new dcb files for the new store updates for those of us with mac? It would be much appreciated.

My thanks to you Anach.  My game had slowed to such a crawl playing was nearly impossible.  After following your instructions game performance has improved 90 percent.  The load time went from 10 to 15 minutes to 3 minutes, all of my CC is showing up and running fine and game play is on par with a fresh install without any CC at all.  To be honest, I wasn't expecting much from this experiment, only to be astounded at the difference it has made.  If you would be so good as to indulge my curiousity, I do have one question.  When merging files is there any reason one could not group them according to website or creator?  e.g., GOS.package or aikea_guinea.package.  It seems to me further precision might come in handy should one run into a problem after a merge.

 
             

I downloaded the Fancy Fashions set that is posted here and ran it through s3rc. I then converted to .package using Delphy's tool, and loaded the newly created .packages into s3pe as per the instructions in this thread.  That all went fine up until I got the "Manual Manage of XML Files Required Message."  However, instead of it detecting the 0x73E93EEB files, it's detecting a bunch of files marked 0x0166038C.  Currently, s3pe has those files marked for deletion.  Can someone please tell me if this is ok or normal?  I'm still pretty new to learning what all these different file types mean.  :-\

EDIT:  I went ahead and let s3pe create the file.  It saved in .package format and I plopped it in my "Packages" folder.  The game loaded up just fine, but the items were not there.  I am stumped.  I am also probably missing something really basic that I'm going to slap myself for once someone points it out to me...

Thank you for posting this information!

 I am using it to organize my files (much like the poster above by creator) but one thing I noticed is that in some cases, the files output are larger than the files input.  For example, I had a folder of Fresh Prince cars at 38mb, the output file of the .dbc file created is 48mb.  Another folder I had was 284mb, the output file is 387mb.  Any idea why this may be happening?

Different compression rates probably.

Make sure you are using the experimental import as .dbc option, not the import from package option. It sounds like you are using import from package without compression.

The 0x0166038C are _key files, not _XML files. They are simply manifest files which are merged when using import as .dbc. So it deletes all the excess _key files that it merges into one. So nothing to worry about. The only merging of _xml's you can get away with is the deleting of those 0x73e93eeb files. Any other _xml conflicts would normally mean a mod conflict. So sounds like you did everything ok :)


No problem. I'm honestly surprised no one else suggested it sooner.

You can create whatever packages you want and name them anything you like. I like to keep sets together as well. I've been experimenting and changing my .package categories as I go. I would recommend everyone to test mods thoroughly in procmon by keeping them in a probation folder before merging them into their main .package files though.

Thanks for your response.

I am using "Import ... (EXPERIMENTAL) as .dbc" - it seems to be doing it to some degree with each folder.  I do notice I have one folder where it did exactly the opposite.  It took 72mb and turned it into 18mb.  I haven't loaded my game up yet.  I actually had no problems with slowdown whatsoever (after using Process Monitor in the past to remove problem files) but was playing around with this more out of curiosity so either way it should be fine.   Probably the compression levels being adjusted as suggested.

Just to let everyone know the import as dbc is now in the latest official s3pe release, in the MTS forum as usual.

Did you follow Anach's directions in Step 6 of his tutorial?  (See below)

"6. After the import was complete, I deleted all the type "0x73E93EEB" _xml files with a instance of "0x0000000000000000" , as these manifest files don't seem to be required by the game, but will be a main source of conflicts (possible left overs from extracting .package from .sims3pack)"

I think that's important.  I did the Fancy Fashions set and it is showing up in game.  However, previously I did some others that are not showing up and I believe this is why.  I will have to go back into those packages and check.  But, try re-importing the package to s3pe to check.

Is there a way for a Mac user to do this? I have seen two others ask this question but no one has answered them. If anyone knows how to get an .exe file running on a Mac, that'd be terrific, but as of yet, downloading it via MTS doesn't allow for any other platform than Windows.

When i try to import the file from resource/import/ experimental, gives me a "JIT (just-in-time) error" (exception text "System.IO.InvalidDataException: Expected magic tag 'DBPF'.  Found "), and i cant load any package file, what can i do, i need to convert all the new "simstore files ;)" who doesnt work, to work on my game.... ???

Already answered in this thread.

I don't think anyone here can turn your oversized PDA into a proper computer. Other than that, the reason there is no answer, is simply because there is no answer. :)


Read back a few posts.

The only way to get windows stuff running on a Mac OS is to do a boot camp arrangement and to have two OSs.

I want to convert the animals abound set and other objects of sims store who has the install error, i do all in the tutorial, i delete the 0x73E93EEB files, and i save into a package file, i save in the mods folder, and in the DCCACHE, i add the line in the resource cfg but when i playing, the object doesnt appear, what can i do?

EDIT:
I do it again and it works, thanks so much for your tutorial!!! :D

I have been trying to make this work. I have manged to kinda make it work. I have no clue what i should deleat. I have read this post sevreal times and sitll dont get. Oh well it seemed to work ok with out me deleating anything. I have found this helpful. It was driveing me nuts not being able to get the store stuff to work.
Thanks so much

You want to edit(whit notepad) the "resource.cfg" (in the main folder of the sims 3), an add this command line  PackedFile Mods/Packages/*.dbc   it works to me...

     Okay, tried this myself, got a few errors. I'll claim ignorance and admit I'm just diving in, following steps, but not really understanding the technical stuff.  I got the latest version, went to New-> Import as .dbc -> Selected all my converted .package files. First problem, the moment I hit "Open" I got a popup message "C:\Documentsandsettings\...\...\0xe is not found"
    After that, Looking at the first 3 letters of the filenames, I just selected all up until the end of the ones that began with 0xd. I was able to move on. At some point in the middle, one file said a manual merge was needed? Then it continued on, and after another short while, another error came up. Something about an unexpected instance or something, where "DBPF" was expected, but "DPPF" showed up instead. Then gave me the option to terminate the program, which I did.
     Searched for anyone else having these problems, found nothing, and here I am. I'll imagine somewhere I screwed up while creating packages. Can anyone else make sense of what that "0xe is not found" thing is? or that "DPPF" issue? ^_^ Thanks.

    

The DBPP error means you didn't compressorize that sims3pack before extracting it to package--make sure to do that for every one. As for the other, I've never run into it but have you tried renaming those problem files and seeing if they import?

Aw, but it's such a pretty PDA! Thanks for your brute honesty, my poor pitiful hopes were waiting to be dashed. Now I can move on to other stuff! XD


I've thought about doing that, and then I realized I didn't care THAT much about the Sims, so I'll pass. Thanks though!

You could try to run it with Crossover. http://www.codeweavers.com/products/cxmac/ There's a free trial or a torrent somewhere on the web.
It's an emulator, so no need to actually install Windows on your beloved mac. I find Crossover to be kind of wonky though, not every program you run with it works properly. I'll try to run s3pe with it myself when I find the time.

How about some kind of VM. Mac must have something like that? http://i.imgur.com/7fzi2.jpg

I am having problems getting my clothing, hair, and objects to work.

I figured the first option to look at is user error so here is what I am doing and what is happening.

1) Open s3pe. (The version I downloaded from the first post)
2) Select File>New
3) Select Resource>Import>(EXPERIMENTAL) As dbc...
4) Select the "sims 3 package" files I want to import.
5) The program then begins importing and I wait for it to finish.
*6)A popup shows up that says:
"Microsoft.NET Framework

Unhandled exception has occurred in your application. If you click continue, the application will ignore this error and attempt to continue. If you click quit, the application will close immediately.

Exception of type 'System.OutOfMemoryException' was thrown"

At the time of the message only 70% of my ram is being used so I am not sure if my ram is the problem. I believe I have the required net framework but I will double check.
7)If I click continue I get the list of package files with all the numbers and letters as names.
8 ) I input "0x73E93EEB" into resource type and filter my files.
9) I delete the files with the instance "0x0000000000000000"
10) I then turn off the filter and save the file in my mods folder as a package file.
*11) After saving simpe then changes to Not Responding and I have to force quit.
12) I start up the game and my downloads are missing.

I have 203mb of objects, 1.22gb of hair, and 944mb of clothing.
I did not put any hacks or mods into files and I have .dbc files enabled in my framework.

And what about deleting?

Specifically - My .dbc files which I`ve moved to my Mods/DCCache folder contain not only store, but "regular" items as well (as in, third-party stuff). Is there a way for me to see which files are store items and which are not inside the .dbc file, so that I can pick them out (I want to keep only store items in those, and plop in new store items as I install them, to keep everything in one place)? It didn`t occur to me to do this BEFORE I patched, ungfff...I like things nice and clean.

Ok, the new release of s3pe was borked and we backed it out.  You have to use the one Peter made as the dbc experiment again

Hi, at the risk of sounding really stupid: Is there a link for the experimental s3pe.  I used the link at the beginning of this post which is for the new release version which I downloaded on 12th Jan).  I have read all the posts in this thread and don't seem to see another link.  I hope I have not missed it.  

Thank you for letting us know :)


I've only just changed the link back to the experimental version, after reading Inge's post above.  http://sourceforge.net/projects/sims3tools/files/s3pe/1001-03-1524/



As Inge posted above, make sure you get the experimental version that I have updated the link to just now, that should stop the error, if it doesn't, then it's most likely a lack of RAM. Also it's normal for s3pe to go into a state of "not responding" while saving such a large file, just let it run until it saves. The largest file I save is around 250MB. If all else fails you can try dividing your items up into small files (Female hair, male hair, etc).

Also, you don't need to save the files as .dbc, you can save as the default name which is .package, there is no difference in format. This will save you altering your resource.cfg


Once you move a .dbc to your mods folder you will no longer be able to remove items from it, instead you will need to recreate it if you wish to alter it's contents. For keeping mods organised you can create your own .dbc following the instructions of this thread on page 1. You can do what I do and keep your official paid store stuff in the official launcher, keep everything else in separate custom .dbc files in your mods directory.

I have the version that was posted on the main page on 13/01/10. The problem still happens with the larger number of files. However when doing my 200MB files it only tells me that xml files need to be merged separately or what ever the message is.

I believe that now with this added on to my problem it begins to resemble a problem earlier on in this post so I will look there for answers. I may just split all my files up like you said. Thank you for the reply.


I am now getting a different error message even with the smaller file sizes:

"s3pe

Unhandled blah balh same as behore if yo uchoose quit blah immediately.

Exception has been throws by the target of an invocation."

So roughly the same as before except the last line and the title of the popup. My object files only gave my the xml popup and this is only an error with hairs and clothing so I may check for more conflicts in case I missed any.

Another popup reading :

System.InvalidOperationException: Collection was modified; enumeration operation may not execute.

   at System.Collections.ArrayList.ArrayListEnumeratorSimple.MoveNext()

   at System.Windows.Forms.Application.ExitInternal()

   at System.Windows.Forms.Application.ThreadContext.OnThreadException(Exception t)

   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProcException(Exception e)

   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.OnThreadException(Exception e)

   at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)

   at System.Windows.Forms.UnsafeNativeMethods.DispatchMessageW(MSG& msg)

   at System.Windows.Forms.Application.ComponentManager.System.Windows.Forms.UnsafeNativeMethods.IMsoComponentManager.FPushMessageLoop(Int32 dwComponentID, Int32 reason, Int32 pvLoopData)

   at System.Windows.Forms.Application.ThreadContext.RunMessageLoopInner(Int32 reason, ApplicationContext context)

   at System.Windows.Forms.Application.ThreadContext.RunMessageLoop(Int32 reason, ApplicationContext context)

   at System.Windows.Forms.Application.Run(Form mainForm)

   at S3PIDemoFE.Program.Main(String[] args)

appears after as well I have no idea if this is important or not.

(Sorry for the long post!) I don't know if this has anything to do with my errors but I am running Windows 7. I do have framework 3.5 installed but the s3pe says it is using 2.0 so that may be where the problem lays. I have no idea why this is happening for my 3.5 is enabled. I will look on other windows 7 help sites to find an answer to that part.


************** Loaded Assemblies **************
mscorlib
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.4927 (NetFXspW7.050727-4900)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.NET/Framework/v2.0.50727/mscorlib.dll
----------------------------------------

1. Make sure you are using revision 1001-03-1524. There were issues with the latest version.

2. The only conflicts you should be getting are those xml manifests with a specific type stated in post 1, which appear to be remnants of the sims3pack conversion process. Those are safe to delete. Any other XML conflicts you get are most likely conflicting mods.

3. If larger files are causing issues, and smaller files are not, then try merging your larger mods into smaller separate files, as stated above. See if you still have the issue. Keep in mind that you may have to re-merge files later if you wish to update something, so keeping them in categories and smaller files makes it quicker and easier to merge again.

4. I have come across some mods which will cause errors when merged, which in all my cases so far have been related to errors with those mods.

What are your system specs?

------------------
System Information
------------------
Time of this report: 1/14/2010, 13:59:02
Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit (6.1, Build 7600) (7600.win7_rtm.090713-1255)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: System manufacturer
System Model: P5Q DELUXE
BIOS: BIOS Date: 03/25/09 09:46:13 Ver: 08.00.14
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU    Q8400  @ 2.66GHz (4 CPUs), ~2.7GHz
Memory: 4096MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 3328MB RAM
Page File: 1922MB used, 4729MB available
Windows Dir: C:\Windows
DirectX Version: DirectX 11
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
User DPI Setting: Using System DPI
System DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
DWM DPI Scaling: Disabled

This is just the basic dxdiag file. If there are specifies you need then just say so. I checked the version I have installed and it says 1001-03-1524.

I have tried splitting my files into smaller ones around 200mb and I still have the problem so I am guessing it is my actual content then so I will begin checking for errors in those. Objects work clothes and hair do not.

I'm off to make sure that the object files are working because they did not get the error message (Except for the xml but I'll try to fix that on my own so I don't bother you with that)


I have not packed any form of hack or file that modifies game behavior. I just clicked okay and let the program work things out. I delete the specified xml files.

I'm headed for a tl;dr soon :\

I don't know if this will help, but here's how I got mine to work...

I had to create multiple smalller merges with no more than 199 items each, AND I made sure to categorize and merge by type ex:  objects, CAS items, and patterns (although i think patterns are okay with objects if a few slip through). 

I made sure to run all sims3packs through the compressorizer before using Delphy's multipack extractor to get the package files.

Once extracted I ran all package files through the blue lot fixer, and made sure to run the game at least once with the package files and the process monitor to make sure they weren't slowing down my game.

I imported custom items NOT made by EA using "from file" not "as dbc (experimental)".  I only imported EA store stuff "as dbc".  I saved both as .package files.  [grammer note:  I know that technically the end quote should come after the period, but I'm sacrificing for clarity.]  The benefit of importing "from file" is that the xml will merge automatically except for a single instance of the 0x00000000 files.  I don't know if the package files are bigger that way, but my game runs great.

Good luck, I hope you get it to work!

I'm running the process monitor right now to look for any bad files.

I currently have less than 200 files in a folder and less than 250MB in folders labled: Hair1, Hair 2, etc

I do not have any sims3packs for I just install them with the launcher unless its new store stuff which I have already got working fine.

I have already used the blue lot fixer on the files I will just run the merged packages through afterwards to see how that goes.

I will try to use the "from file" option to see if it helps at all.

I would have understood if your grammar was correct, thank you for trying to clarify for everyone. :)

Thank you for the reply. I will try out everything as soon as possible and post results. I also need to look at the whole "Only reading 2.2 framework" issue.

EDIT: I am successfully importing my files without any type of error messages. I ran the process monitor and found a few errors and fixed those. I have found that the "from file" options works for my but not the experimental one.

My hair and clothes still do not show up in game. I am however now able to create packages at least.

When run through the blue lot checker it comes up with an error so I'll go to the support for that to see what to fix.

Edit 2: I run the files through the blue lot and they are coming through clean. I am genuinely stumped.

It seems to me that if it's only hair and clothing not working, then something in those huge amounts of hair and clothes is broken in some shape or form. Bluelotfixer or procmon wont detect everything. Your only option is to go through packages in small groups until you find the packages that are causing errors during merge. You will probably find a lot of them, as there are a lot of bad hair packs and clothes out there, in fact there are a lot of mods out there that are broken in one way or another. I have cut my hair collection down to about 150Mb of the best hairs. It pays to be extremely fussy, as later these issues will often cause game issues, slowdowns, crashes etc.

Fixing mods is always an option, if you know what you are doing. I have fixed quite a few now, and so has my Wife. I do not have one single file now that will not import as .dbc. There were some broken mods which would only import as package, and even though they showed in game, they still cause issues. Once fixed, they import fine. With the sheer amount of hair and clothing you have ( 10x more than me) you are likely to have some crap in there.

As for Procmon, it's hard to tell someone what to look for in terms of bad files. Not every file is going to give you a massive count in the thousands, but 99% of the time the count (Tools>Count Occurrences>Path) will be proportional to the amount of files in the package, and I usually use the official .dbc as a guide as to highs and lows. Essentially if my official .dbc is 600Mb, then a 300Mb file should be lower in the count. I usually clear the procmon window once the game is loaded, run the game for 5 mins, have a quick look around my lot, or use the new items I have just loaded by entering CAS/Build/Buy. An example would be that if a single hair package, I know as good, has a count of 50 when worn in CAS, and another has a count of 500 when worn in CAS, then I'd tend to think the seocnd has something wrong with it. I set myself a limit on hits for certain file types and use a specific test routine each time I enter the game, to try keep the procmon test consistent across mods.

The blue lot fixer isn't relevant to CAS parts in any case.  It's only for objects.

In those cases I merely use it as a check to see whether the freshly merged packages will open or not. Sometimes a file will open ok in s3pe (such as modifed extracted sims3pack packages), but will not open in the game or bluelotfixer. Much easier to check this way than launching the game.

Hi :-)  I'm having horrible issues with this.  I've followed the instructions on page one, and for the most part everything went fine.  Firstly, I'm working with arr'd store files only - no third party mods or custom content.  There have been some issues of the "magic DBF" error - I'm in the process of nuking the files that generated that error.  The problem, in a nutshell, is that merged files aren't showing up in game.  As a test I extracted all the store files into packages, put them in my mods folder as per normal and loaded the game - they did all load show up (eventually - it's not even an option to play this way - the game took 45 minutes to load and even after loading was so bogged down as to be virtually unplayable) which was my main purpose - I just wanted to make sure that they did work and that my directory structure was set up correctly.  However, when I went back and re-merged all the files - nada.  The game's loading fine and quickly, but none of the CC is showing up. 

The only other thing I can think of is that I am *not* importing as DBC - it glitches if I try.  I am importing .package files, leaving the default setting of "replace duplicates" (I think that's it - it IS the default, though) and then after everything is imported clicking "Save as..." and having the file be body.package or clothing.package, etc.  Apologies for any vagueness - I'm posting from a different computer so am trying to describe everything from memory.  Anyway, if anyone has any input, I'd appreciate it.

PS:  I'd also like to add that the Magic DBF thing is NOT necessarily due to trying to extract non-compressorized files.  I went back last night and deleted everything (the extracted .package files, merged .package files, etc.), ran the sims 3 packages through compressorizor, unpacked them, merged them, nada.

Read back a over the past few pages, all the answers are there. It sounds like the files you have are corrupted and the game is taking forever to read them. You need to check with resource monitor and also fix the errors. All the answers are here.

I have been trying to cut down on my hair and clothing for I don't know how long. The problem is that I stupidly did not rename the files to give me any indication of which one is which, and when using different package manager programs the icons do not show up. I truly only use about 20-30 hairs at most and the clothing has only around 40 pieces I use. I need to find a way to filter and delete the whole extra GB I have laying around. I do not know how to fix mods so I won't even try in the risk that I will break things even more.

Would attempting to import every file to see which ones cause an error work? (I am willing to allocate my time to this.)

EDIT: I just realized that my objects are not working either. The only cc working are store items and things that were installed through the launcher.

Delphy has just released this program:

http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=387006
I'm going to try this to see if it helps my problem at all. It probably won't find all my corrupt packages but it is worth a try.


I've got everything working. I had to do everything on a vista emulation on my mac :(
Thanks for the method though. Shaved off around 20 minutes of lead time.

Success!

I love you folks. I thought after EA dropped 1.8 on us I'd never see the store content again. But you people are geniuses of all this technobabble.

Thanks, Anach.  Actually, I think it was more a patience thing.  What I finally ended up doing was batching small groups together (40-50 files per), although that was mainly to keep straight what was "clean" and what was borked.  Also of note, most of the problem files I ran BACK through the compressorizor and it fixed them.  I'm not sure if they were somehow skipped the first time around or what, but aside from two (one hair and one file from the tiki set) everything else was okay.  Anyway, I guess my advice to anyone else is to do it methodically and work with a system.  While it's tempting to do ALL of the store files in one go 'round, there's almost a 1,000 files there and if there is a problem (and let's face it, there's going to be - Murphy's Law, if nothing else) it's a lot harder to root it out that way.

Thanks for the info.  Too bad there's nothing similar for TS2. ;D

This is really useful, and has worked for me really well. Except for one problem I'm having. I looked through this thread and didn't find anything that looked like the same problem, so here goes:

I've only been using this on the Store items, and I was able to successfully merge my files. However when I went to run them through the BlueLotObject Fixer, three of them gave me this error message:
"Unhandled exception has occurred in your application..." It gives me the option to continue or quit, and it says that "An item with the same key has already been added." Since I know nothing about modding I have no idea what this means. Logically it should be something I need to find and do in s3pe before I save the merged package file, right?

I went through and repacked again into smaller groups and narrowed the troublemakers down to the Tiki set, the Ultra Lounge set, and the Ultra Lounge Youth set. However I have no idea what to look for in these sets to fix them in order to not get that error.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Delphy's Dashboard will show you exactly which files are at fault. The tool may be overreacting, but I figure it's best to play it safe. A few strategic deletions should be enough to earn the Dashboard seal of approval.

One caveat here: It's been my experience that you do not want to convert world files to package format. I tried it first with Riverview and later with a CAW-generated file. In each case, my neighborhood display was completely borked. I didn't get the "blue lot" syndrome. It was more like looking through the matting for a photo collage. Some of the lots were simply missing--and I could see what looked like another world inside/below the first.

The good news is that the glitch seems completely reversible. After removing the package file, my neighborhoods were fine.

I've also seen that Sims cannot be packaged. They don't create any problems--they simply don't show up in the Sim bin.

All other mega-packages seem to work fine.

First off, for the Riverview problem, see the "Has any one else broken their game this bad" thread. You CAN, in fact, package Sims - however, placing the package in the Mods folder obviously won't work, since there's this handy "Saved Sims" folder in your My Documents EA folder. Try that - worked fine for me. Lots, too, don't go into Mods, they go into Library.

I read you reply and tested your suggestions:

Lots worked perfectly. (I'll have to add the Library folder to my weekly mega-packaging schedule.)

My test sim didn't show. Would I need to add the path to resource.cfg?

As for Riverview, I was able to uninstall the Riverview.sims3Pack file and "reinstall" it by copying an old Riverview.world file, as you suggested. Riverview was available from the Create a Town menu, and the description was a string of numbers, as you said it would be.

But I can't see what we gain by this. If the goal is to create mega-packages that speed gameplay, how does using a .world file help us? The only advantage I see is that it allows us to delete those horrible overall outfits that were inexplicably packaged with the world, but surely Anach didn't devise this whole strategy just to do that.  ;)

Okay, I used this process for a few of my files earlier (ones that will always be kept in).  I have since updated patches and installed WA.  Ever since then, my merged packages (in .package format, not dbc)do not show up again.  I do have the dbc addon in my resource.cfg as I was planning on downloading the latest store sets in that format, so that shouldn't be an issue.  All the framework is correct and installed (I triple) checked, and yet the packages are still not showing post patch and WA install.  Anyone have any idea why?

Seeing as we have no clue, exactly, what you have packaged together, my first suggestion would be to make quadruple sure that you have the framework present in the base game and also in the WA folder.  I believe that (that?) has been the issue for most as to why their cc was not showing up in game, post WA.  Also, make sure that you installed the complete framework, both Game and Mods folders, because in the game\bin folder resides the little file that makes the magic happen, d3dx9_31.dll.  And finally, if you replace the framework, make sure to edit the resource.cfg file to reflect any changes.  How I do it is, I extract the framework.zip file into my game folder, which overwrites the resource.cfg with the framework's default cfg file.

It may also be possible that a package file that was previously working in Base, in which you have "packaged" together with others, may be causing havoc in WA.  What exactly did you package together?

:Edited for uncertainty.  Lol  The second that not being there bugs me for some reason.  Damn MATY, and it's unforgiving ways.

I think I'm stupid.....I'm trying to do what anach said, with my latest downloads (latest store updates) and I'm ending up with a 1.20 MB .package file, out of 114 files (66MB in total) and nothing shows up in game...I have no idea what i'm doing wrong and i'm getting really frustarted, cause I really need to find a way to install new store stuff, after the 2.3 fail patch that killed our launcher.

Edit: typos pfft...

I have three different merged packages, one of hair, one of objects, and one of store content.  I have checked the framework many times, it's most definetly in both folders (and my other package files do work and show up).  Checked the resource.cfg file again, using coconnor's example.

So yeah, the only thing I can think is wrong right now is that I might have to redo the files.  Maybe patching or installing wa breaks it for some reason.

Sarafina, the only thing I can suggest to you, if your "up to the challenge", is to put the original .package files back into your mods folder and then delete the "packaged" files.  Now, use sims3dashboard to locate any possible mods conflicts or errors and run the Process Manager to locate any troubling .packages during a game "test run".  Do a search in MATY to find the specific whereabouts for the programs and the how to's, to set them up.  They have both been detailed extensively in other threads.

Well a big thanks to Anach for the awesome explanation - I followed all the steps (and after giving my head a shake to get rid of the stupidity) I managed to sort it all out.  I made sure to put both the Resource.cfg and the dll in the new HELS location.  I packaged just over 6,300 packages (3.63GB) into 139 packages (2.87) including all the 3rd party CC and all store objects and everything is showing up and my game is running like a cat with its ass on fire.  Anach you've brought the joy back into my game and are officially my new precious.  I am at your bidding  ;D

Sarafina & Geminia: Stupid question but have you made sure to delete the cache files from the My Documents folder?

Hmmmm....it seems that i've missed something here..
1. I did not delete the cashe files (slaps self)
2.There is an error that pops up when I import my .package files into s3pe "Unhandled exception has occurred in your application.If you click continue,the application will ignore this error and attempt to continue.If you click quit,the application will close immediately. Expected magic tag 'DBPP'. Found 'DBPP'. " I have no idea what this means -blonde was my natural as a kid- and i always click on continue and the application continues normally with no issues. I don't know if this error has anything to do with my issue.
3.I've completely missed the .dll part (framework) and I need to do a search on that as well , since I red only the first pages of this thread


Edit: I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. I cleared all cashe files, even moved my mods folder to the WA folder (it was working fine in the base game one, so I had never moved it anyway)but still I can't find my newly "packaged" files in game. Any help with the .dll file? I can't seem to find any info on it. Witch file is it and what do I do with it?Thanks in advance

Yes, that error might have something to do with it, not to mention your framework fail - WTF is up with reading only some of a thread explaining something you're failing to make work?

You need the framework for mods and .package format custom content to work. Just take a look on the board or do a search, there's a "framework" rar download which you just unrar into your game directories.

Also, I'd suggest that you don't want an archive that includes an error - at the very least, the program only loads packages UP TO that error, any packages after that doesn't get imported. You'll need to identify the individual package causing the problem (I suggest the binary method, worked like a charm for me and my over 3000 packages) and avoid importing that specific package (or packages, if it's more than one) as part of your archive.

What I did to isolate problem packages (because sometimes there's more than one): First, divide all the packages you want to load into half. So if you have 100 packages you want to archive, you only load the first 50 with S3pe. If it throws out an error, you know there's a problem within that group. Now you go and make a "new" archive and import the second half (the other 50). If it loads fine, proceed to weed out the bad package in the first group, if it also throws an error, you know that you must do the same process for both these groups.

Keep repeating the process (load the first 25, then the second 25 of the first 50; then the first 12 and the second 13 of the first 25 etc) until you isolate all packages causing problems. As the amount of packages you load become less, keep an eye on the bottom of the S3pe screen, it'll tell you which file it's currently loading and obviously, the file it loads just before crashing is your culprit.

It's a long and arduous process, but well worth it.

Just lame lazyness and nothng more...
Anyway I managed to isolate the files that gave me errors, and packaged the rest. I haven't figured out yet what parts of the cc were they but everything looks to be working like a charm so far. I did get an error to manually merge XML files, I hit ok , but i did nothing more than that for them to work.
I searched for the framework and it seems i already had most of the files including the .dll one.
Thanks for your help guys...I hope i won't get back to this thread with more issues
*Blames EA for braking once more the already broken launcher and game--I'm even afraid to patch again and install the latest SP 

I just have a quick question.  I've read through this entire (extremely useful) thread and followed all the steps suggested in it to merge my package files together.  I didn't skip any steps, and before merging I also ran all the files through the Dashboard and then the Blue Lot Fixer and finally the Compressorizer.  Then I merged the files using the most recent (Feb 14) s3PE tool. The process was as smooth as butter and at the end I had two nice files (rather large at 81 MB and 100 MB), which I put into my "Misc" folder in Packages.  

However one recommended step I was not able to do was to run the files through any of Delphy's tools to check them.  The Dashboard tool threw up an error and after it was done, the 2 big files were missing from the final file list.  The Blue Lot Fixer also threw up an error and closed. This didn't seem normal, so I'm wondering what caused it.  Should I be concerned that I had to skip this step?

Once  I  installed the merged files, the game loaded fine and all the objects seemed to be there in both the house of the test family and in Buy Mode, so maybe this doesn't matter, but I wondered if anyone else had a similar experience or any thoughts.  

   I want to thank you a lot, Anach! You made my simmy life worth again. I followed your tutorial step by step, and now my game is loading super smooth :D. I am a real noob about programming, modding, etc., and your tutorial made the process easy. But (like a real noob), I have two little questions: when I was running s3pe - while saving the packages, the program screen showed me some files with the types '0x7672f0c5', '0x73e93eeb' and '0x044ae110", all with the instance '0x0000...", should I let them quiet or should I delete them?   And what about the "manually XML merge" thing? Should I import like package first, and then re-import like .dbc?   ???

   To the others noobs like me: I first ran the contents in s3rc (the sims3pack and .packages), I opened the sims3packs in the Delphy's Multipack extractor, and then I run the s3pe - I used the 's3pe-1002-07-1313' version.  ;)


   To the grammar police: I am sorry, but English is not my native language and I am not used to write in it, so, I want to apollogize any mispelling or grammar mismatch.  8)

Question. I don't know if anyone has asked but, can you merge the files in DcBackup or would that create conflicts within the game?

Question & Suggestion:

Q: Has anyone determined what advantage there is using "import as dbc" over "import as package"? I tend to have fewer issues using Import as Package it seems.

S: Have found managing all these files, juggling backup folders, already merged folders, testing, new downloads, etc... MUCH easier using a quad-pane file manager :)... http://www.softwareok.com/?seite=Freeware/Q-Dir is awesome for managing all these files in random locations on hard drives, and is free... no I'm not associated with them, but if you're tired of juggling multiple explorer windows, there ya go :)

I know this has been asked, so please do not be upset with me on this.  I have followed the steps provided by going through and using the SP3. 

I have reinstated my game.  The content that I have downloaded from here shows that it is being installed but never greys out.  I have tried to use the SP3 following the steps provided.  I think I am doing something wrong.  The store content, does not show in package when I use the SP3.  Is there something that I am supposed to use to open the content first then use the SP3?   ???

Using S3PE requires extracting the .sims3pack files to .package format.  There are a number of them available.  You can try ModTheSims.  Delphy made one called the  Sims3pack Multi-installer.  Extractor/installer - I can understand why you'd miss that in your Google search.

Thank you I had that downloaded but did not know what to do with it.  Now that I am using the extractor/installer.  Some of my files go into the format others give me an error about a "3" error and maxium and minimum, any ideas? Value of "3" is not valid for value.

Value should be between minimum and maximum. 

Parameter name:  Value at system.  Windows.Forms.ProgressBar.set_value(Ing32 value) at Sims3Pack_Multi_Installer.Form1.Process Files()

Also are there files that have already been completed? 

Aelfwyne, as far as I can tell "import as package" will give you larger files and "import as dcb" will give nice compact files.  But both are the same kind of file.  I use the package option (except for store fiiles) so I don't have to go through and delete all the xml files.  My game runs great, but I am wondering if if would run even faster with dcb.

JMeyers, if you are asking whether completed merged store files are available to download, I don't know, but you can dl all store content up to Dec 09 in dcb packages which work just the same as long as you have your resource.cfg written correctly.  Search here for the dcb's.

Did you mean search this section for the dcb files?

No, SlimyNester meant search some other part of the net altogether. FFS.

@SlimyNester - willya stop enabling the fucking idiot n00bs?

I'm going to guess that the s3pe is not x64 friendly is it?  I downloaded and installed s3pe_1002-19-1756.exe and when I tried to import as .dbc, the program gives me an error.

You should probably ask that question in the S3PE forum @MTS.  There's a specific thread there for questions/problems with S3PE.

Personally, I've got no issues running on Win7 x64...

turns out it the version of S3pe I was uisng, the latest one.  I'm now using version 0912-13-1729, but it doesn't have the option to import into a .dbc file.  Which is what I want to do.

Yea, it seems that they reverted to the December version on MTS, which doesn't have the Import as dbc option.

s3pe is 64bit friendly.  I don't know what your problem is, but it's not that :p

Inge, while we're at it, can you please add a drag-and-drop support for s3pe? I find myself trying open package files by dragging and dropping them in s3pe window. Old habit from SimPE, I guess. :P

I thought it did have it?

Really? I can't seem to do that. Win7 x64 here. Didn't work when I was on Vista either. Crap, what am I doing wrong?

Well it does support it in theory, and it is trying to open them, but it suffers from permission problems in anything later than XP

Permission, eh? I get a forbidden symbol when I drag packages to s3pe window.

Ok, no you don't drag the package to the open s3pe window.  You drag the package to the s3pe.exe like you would with Pescado's tools.   An open s3pe with a file open accepts exported resources, not whole packages.

It could be made to accept a dragged package into its window, but there would be some confusion for the user about what it would expect to do with it, especially if there was already a package open in that window.

Ah so that's what I was doing wrong. SimPE allows dragging to its window, so it became some kind of a habit.

There are certainly some little UI tweaks that could make life easier, but there is still so much to do to just cover all the basic functions.  I dare say the rough edges will get smoothed in time.

With a decent amount of packaged files (around 150-200) my game was running fine,. I  added a few, 'bout  20 I'd say, it got uber laggy. Merged most of them and still game is laggy...Even though none of them had any issues. I do have a slightly better loading time on main screen but build/buy and CAS are getting pretty annoying....Just for the record , with the merging I managed to end up with 50 files or so, in total.  I did not merge hair, mods and replacements. Besides those I have one file for all my furniture, one for decorations, 1 for cars, 1 for build items and one for clothing. I still have extra CC installed the launcher way, because since the latest patch it seems to behave. 

Actually, merging hair files has worked fine for me, and has in fact caused the most noticeable decrease in load time and lag. You just want to test the hair file out to make sure it doesn't cause any problems before merging (Newsea, for example, loves to produce really laggy package files).

Speaking of hair, I accidentally deleted my hair backup with individual files, and just have the big package. Can I extract from it the individual hairs, to make another big one with the new hairs added, or just delete a few? I am spring cleaning.

Unfortunately Indiasong, I don't believe extracting a particular object from a dbc or large package is possible.  Your individual package files are more important than the one large package because without them you can't create another large package with updated items or items removed.

Currently the only way to remove stuff from a merged file is to re-merge the whole lot minus the files you don't want. So keeping your individual files is important.

On another note, I updated the main thread to point to the main S3PE download area rather than the old version it was currently linking to. New version works well.

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.

so i guess my question is, if this is supposed to create a kind of database per se with everything it needs to know in it already, do i have to leave my packages in the package folder still? where does my new, supposed to be improved everything mod package go? i keep seeing ".dbc...dbc" but i'm not a programmer like most here, so i'm just trying to follow along as best i can. i'm sure i'm mucking it all up but any help would be appreciated lol.

Edit: Yes, i have deleted all my cache files, yes, i ran Delphy's Dashboard over everything, yes, i added the new line in my cfg file, yes i deleted the xml files that were mentioned in the thread, yes i'm a noob. sue me lol. oh and to top it all my typing speed is only 60 words a minute.

When you say everything, what do you mean? Because if you only merged slider hacks together into a single package (which, by the way, is probably not a good idea), but then removed ALL packages from your mods folder, well, obviously the only thing present in your folder is going to be the merged slider hacks .package.

The idea is to merge similar things together-- hair, clothing, objects, etc. Merging hacks together is not a good idea because the likelihood of a patch or EP making it outdated is high, meaning that you would then have to delete everything that was merged along with it.

when i say "everything" i only meant the slider hacks, at least initially. i reread back through the thread though and added a few more files just in case. i kinda figured that it wasn't and suppose there are probably some better files to do that with. no, when i ran the game, it was if i had no packages in there whatsoever. no extra sliders at all. if that's the case, i can just do it with the clothing and etc, but i think on the last attempt i did yesterday, i just took everything i had in the folder and plugged it all in, skins, one hair, a few clothes, and still nothing came out. so i figured i did it all wrong and started searching again. thanks for the reply by the way.

its not so much "lag" that i'm having a problem with. considering the machine i'm running on a little bit of lag isn't unacceptable. but more often than not for the last two weeks, i'll give my sim a new command, or doing something as simple as jumping from one floor to the other, the whole game freezes for usually longer than 5-10 seconds, while all the sounds and animation keep going on. i only have 58 total package files, and while i understand its the number of files more than the size of the files is part of it, i'm pretty much down to the bare essentials- delphy's and jonha's sliders, some robokitty tats and a tramp stamp, one skin with face for male and female, a little bit of clothing (simiversity's "Badman" Vegeta shirt among them lol), and one car, the 2010 mustang shelby from fresh prince creations. i took out the awesome mod, and the only other mods i have are the no into and more happiness mods.

1) Shift key is your friend. Use it.
2) You are over sharing. No one here cares about your tramp stamps.
3) Try merging the clothing as a starter.
4) You'll want to add "PackedFile Mods/Packages/*.dbc" to your Resource file in your games root folder for it to pick the dbc's up and place them in Mods/Packages.

Tried that. Didn't work for me. The only thing I've found to help was just to limit what package files I had in my folder and just go with sim3packs, and I limited those just in case as well. Thanks for the help anyway. I'll have to find another way.

1. for starters, .dbc is pointless. Name everything .package. That makes it easier to manage and there is no difference in format and you dont need to change your resource.cfg.

2. You need the correct version of S3PE with "(Experimental) as .dbc" in the import menu. That will merge everything and also merge the index (manifest) files.

3. Save it as package, and put it in your mods/packages folder and remove/move the old files you just merged.

5. Clear your cache and start the game.

Nothing more to it. I merged all my sliders into a CAS.package with all my cosmetic, skins and other CAS mods and they all work fine. Clothes and Hair i merged into their own respective .package files as those tend to get quite large.

Don't forget the compression, it saves a ton of space and doesn't bork anything.

I didn't merge the CAS sliders as I was being cautious, thanks for the info. I'll go merge them as I'm starting to have a truckload of them.

If you are using the experimental as .dbc option as stated in the instructions, it automatically applies compression and doesnt give you the option. That option was added there for the purpose of merging mods. If that option isnt there for you, then its the wrong version of s3pe.

You do have the choice when you use 'Import from packages', even in the latest version. Anyway Some people post uncompressed merged packages and it's total waste of space, I mentioned the compression part for them.

Every link I find for S3pe is the latest version and it does not have the import as .dbc option. It seems to work okay for me although I have no idea if it is compressing properly.

Follow the link from the first post and download the latest version 1003-06-1044, it does have the "(EXPERIMENTAL) As dbc..." option in Import menu.

Look - WAKE UP EVERYONE!   The latest s3pe has the experimental dbc import in it.   Don't bother with the out of date version in the top post here.  Anyone who thinks the latest s3pe does not have it in is DOING IT WRONG :P

Anyone know if I can use this method to repackage Riverview to make it work again? Because I tried extracting the files from riverview and using them in the mods folder like all the other package files and it didn't show up. I don't really use the hood, since WA when it died the first time, but my BF has a lot of saves in this world, so I wanted to see if I could get it working for him.

I know this topic is a bit old, but I just want to thank Anach for the instructions on how to merge/clean-up packages in S3PE. Everything works great! Before cleaning house with this method, my load times were around 10 minutes (5.88GB, roughly 6,414 files). I have cut the load time down to 3 minutes (3.96GB, 381 files). Object catalogs load super fast also. Thanks again Anach, you've made this bitch of a game playable again!

Actually I changed the link last month. It now points to the root s3pe download folder, even if they followed the old link, they still would have got a version with the import as .dbc feature. So all they need to do is press the BIG GREEN BUTTON to download the latest version. It seems it must be down to sheer stupidity if people are getting old versions, as they would need to go out of their way to do so

Latest as of this post is 6th of March 2010, with the file-name to match. This has the import as .dbc option.

Also anyone using s3pe would do well to at least skim for new posts in the section at MTS.  If we suddenly find out a particular release is buggering packages, that's where we'd post :)

*edit* Random slowness.

Is there a "known issues" for current release posted anywhere? If there is I must be skipping past it.

No cos we don't release if we know there are issues lol.   You can just find out about them from people posting to complain.  But if we did find out there was a serious issue that could cause game corruption then we would withdraw the release, roll back, and post a warning sticky.

Good news, that's what I was hoping. I was worried for a moment you were saying there was something wrong with the current version, so i was madly looking around the forum :P

Is there a file limit of how many files you SHOULD compress into a single one? I have a couple of folders that are HUNDREDS of packages and s3pe seems to choke on them somewhat.

I've combined from 1,000 to 500 to 20 package files at a time. The only difference I've encountered is how long it takes to combine them. I've limited myself to no more than 300 files, or 200MB per file. The only time this method choked is the very first time I tried it when I just carelessly tried to combine 4,500+ files which took 9 hours and then wouldn't save.

No limit that I've found, but there is certainly a time factor and an issue of running out of memory depending on the hardware. I too try to stick to around 200Mb, as it seems to work well. Also keep in ,mind that in all probability we will want to redo the files when something is either updated or we want to uninstall something. Making them too large will increase the time involved.

This has probably been covered, but...

Can files be added to a big package simply by opening it and adding them? Does that work properly? As it is, I've been making big packages, downloading stuff, and eventually doing it again- keeping a backup of everything, and redoing the entire package each time. Do I have to do that? Or can I just add stuff one at a time as I get it?

By using s3pe, open the big package file and import the package you want to add to and select the option reject duplicates. As posted by Anach, it is recommended you keep a package about 200Mb

Ok, it's good to know I can add things that way instead of starting over every time.

But 200? Is there a reason or is that just a "just to be safe" kind of thing? At the moment I've got every single store item yet in one single package, about 850mb, and they all load just fine.

200Mb is the default maximum size of dbc and ebc files created by the game.

Hm. It doesn't seem to be causing an issue...I guess I just won't add anything more to it to be safe? Clearly the game can load it just fine, though.

My stuff01.package was about 1.5Gb, after compressed through s3rc, it became 300Mb, YEAH!

Is there a way to mark the 00000 lines as to be deleted automatically? It takes a long time to find them, hurts the eyes, and as I usually miss some, I have to do it twice. Or is there a reason for not deleting them?
Thanks.

If you click on the Tag heading, it will sort them all by file types.  Once all the XML files are together, they are a cinch to delete.  Use Shift key to select more than one at a time.

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.

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

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.

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 ::)

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

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

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  :-*

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

^^^
I'm sorry but I found this to be extremely hilarious!!! :D 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. ;)

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!! :o

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.

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

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

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 (http://www.thesims3.com/community) is probably the site you're looking for.

No no, not that! This (http://disney.go.com/index) should be the site (s)he's looking for.

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 (http://www.mono-project.com/Main_Page) (Get the Mac OS X version)
Get Xquartz http://xquartz.macosforge.org/trac/wiki (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

to get to the directory[/i]

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

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 (http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/HowTo:Fuck_Off) Read It...Preach it...Understand it...Live it...Enjoy it... ;)

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.

(http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e161/yippie3278/1205324129551-1.jpg)

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 :)

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.

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.

I've tried doing this, but everytime I try, no matter how few .package files I try to merge, it always gives me an error about being out of memory. I've made sure nothing else is running in the background when I try to do this, but s3pe keeps giving that error. I have 3 GB of RAM, so I doubt that's really what's wrong.

I get this issue too and I'm running Windows 7 64-bit with 4 gigs installed. I'm convinced that this is a limitation of the .net framework being 32-bit and only being able to address a maximum of 2GB as working RAM. If you're importing a load of packages, especially those that had been compressed in the first place, it's very easy to go over this limit and have s3pe crash as a result. Don't forget, s3pe has to have all those separate packages preloaded into RAM and still have space to spare for the merged file before dumping it to your hard drive.

So was it bad to compress the packages before trying to merge them, then? I compressed all my files a few weeks ago when my hard drive was getting too full. Well, I guess I'll just go back to deleting most of my cc, keeping it only to a few things I use all the time. But I've gotten my cc down to less than 1GB and it still makes the game run horribly slow and freezes for several seconds at a time. I've already tried running the Dashboard tool and I also ran Process Monitor, so it has to just be the amount of .package files I have because it ran well until a little bit after I installed HELS.

Easy to fix and should be common sense. Don't try merging so many packages at once. You can merge a few, then import more once you save the merged package. Compressing them beforehand will not matter.

If your packages are taking too long to save and you are running out of memory during save, then limit the packages in size. For instance, if you are making 200Mb packages and running out of memory while saving, then try 100Mb packages.

This works great. I had some trouble getting the hairs package to save and ended up having to make about six files for them (in smaller sizes). It took longer then usual and I kept getting errors and lacking memory. However, all the other files worked like a giffy, it just took some time. I do believe that it has sped up the game significantly.

Also, if the program freezes while your saving you can tell if its working or not by looking at your custom package and watching it's filesize increase. That restores confidence.

Anyways, this is a great fix and wasn't as difficult as I'd through. I wish I'd done it sooner!

I apologize but I have searched the internet for several days and have read off an on today through any posts here that looked like they applied.  After spending countless hours searching I am confused as to how to do this.  Here is what I would like to do:

1.  My end goal is to be able to use S3PE to merge my package files to make things run faster (hopefully)

2.  I have 150 downloads in sims 3 packs and 120 in package files
     a. I have downloaded all of the sims 3 pack files from the ea store thread and on page one of that same thread)
3.  I want to know if I am correct in how I am about to proceed.

     a. I have recompressorized and decrapified the store content I downloaded from here (can I do the same with the stuff I have downloaded legit stuff and have already installed?)
     b. I intend to now run it through a program to extract it and make it into package files
            (i noticed when testing this program it has a bunch of crap that is not named just has numbers and then I could see all of the actual names of the items for example abtract circles pattern)Do I need the crap with no name or can I just keep the stuff that has the name of the item?

     c. Next would be to open S3pe and follow the instructions to combine all cc in certain categories to hopefully end up with no more than 10 files which will which would also include the package files I have in my Mods/packages files.  Please let me know if I am missing a step or i am going to be doing this all wrong. 

Also, if all above is correct then would I be able to delete the stuff in my ea/sims3/downloads and also in the dcbf or whatever that file is so I can free up space on my computer.  Thanks to anyone that will help me.

 ::)

Surely you can't be genuine.  The thread you want is about 6th in the list of threads with new posts - permanently!  http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,17746.0.html

Thank you for the reply.  I did read the thread you talk about.  I read every bit of it a couple of times.  I just wanted to be sure that i was understanding the process.  I did not see anywhere in the process that I could end up getting rid of the sims3pack downloads which are the ones I downloaded from the exchange.  I hate the launcher.  I would like to use the method on this site going forward and even for stuff I download with my points.

I extracted the sims3pack files into a file on my desk top and have a boatload of files with names like this 0x0aa50ebe66e9458ab86737b7d60c6f4d (can I delete these) and then I have a bunch that have normal cc names like this afBodyClassDressCocktail.  Am I to assume that I will just want to divide up the latter items with actual file names as I see fit and then have s3pe merge those and ignoring the ones with 0x**blah, blah, blah?

No, assbutt, you do not want to do that. Some sims3packs contain More Than One package/item (store sets, for example). That's when you get strrings like that: it's the original package names of the stuff that make up the set. If ther's only one package in the sims3pack, said packaged gets auto-renamed to the original sims3pack name. If more than one package is found within a single sims3pack,  obviously they can't all be renamed "Jet Set Teens". They are still valid CC-containing packages.

The only files you need from the sims3pack are the .package files. Take those, then follow the instructions in the above thread.

Also, I have fallen in love with the term "assbutt" and cannot wait to drop it into a conversation.

I, too, keep getting an error message about being out of memory. I will cut down the number of files I attempt to import and merge and see if that makes a difference.

Word borrowed from Supernatural. Motto: When angels swear, lulz ensue.

My game is still a little slow to load, but I think that's due to the slider mods I have in place, but otherwise this system works great. I have tons of CC it took a while to compress it all, and S3PE hung during load-in and save, but it worked. Thanks for the tip I was about to give up on the game because 10 mins for loading was killing me.

This is probably in here someplace, I have had to reinstall all my games due to the last windows update.  Now I am back at the beginning trying to remember how to reinstall all my custom content, I have the frame network installed even for the latest expansion.  I have saved all my content into packages.  Can someone explain the process to me once again on how to put my content into the game.  I have gotten most of the packages from here and they are in package format, with the exception of what I had previous on my hard drive from the EA Store.  I just can not remember as how to install the packages into the mod files that had been created using the frame netword.

EA has changed their method. Try looking at some of the topics on the first page and see if you can guess which one will answer your question. Protip: it's remarkably obvious.

Anach, you genius. I love you to bits.

At first I had alot of memory errors, but it was just a simple solution of merging no more than 200mb worth of packages at a time (approx 130-150 packages).  
I now have turned 1k+ extracted store items and about 200 of my own custom things into a simple 14 files (decrapified and recompressed before extracting with Delphy's tool).
I've gone from 7-10 minute loading screens and choppy ingame performance, to less than 1 minute loading and instant ingame scrolling.

This really does work wonders! <3 <3

ps. for those wondering, I only merged CAS and Build/Buy items.. not scripts or default replacements. I have about a total of 30 package files now, and the game runs flawlessly.

ETA: Also amazing how 200mb worth of small packages can turn into an average of 120-130mb in the merged files. Talk about EA bloating..

Thank you. However, my Wife wanted me to let you know that I'm a married man, and cannot be having any internet lovers. :P

I finally got it to load without crashing, but I can't figure out how to sort the files to find those 0x73E93EEB files. I could go through and find them manually, but besides taking a lot of time, it I'm afraid I'll miss a few.

In s3pe, make sure Display: Tags is checked at the bottom of the screen. Click on the Type header at the top, then the Tag header. This will sort the files alphabetically by Tag (such as _XML) and subsort by Type (such as 0x73E93EEB). Now they're all in the same place and easy to find and delete.

Thanks, I got it.

I merged most of my files (everything except game mods, sliders and default replacement skintones) and I got my objects down to just a few .package files and it definitely helped my load times. My game took over an hour to load before doing this, and this time it took a total of 10 minutes to get to the neighborhood. Unfortunately, my game is still running super slow. It hangs frequently and it takes a long time to load any textures. I guess I'll have to keep trying things.

Have you taken your packages through Delphy's Dashboard?  A problem related to bluelotting can cause this slowness.  Bluelotting is just one symptom of it.

Yeah, I ran everything through the Dashboard before and after merging and everything showed as being fine. I do have about 30 or so hair .package files that I can't get to merge, though. I tried splitting them into 2 groups and trying to merge them and each group gave me an error. After it says "manual merge of XML files required", I'd get a second pop-up that says there was an unhandled exception. It says "Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation" at the bottom. Then this box pops up after I close:

(http://img814.imageshack.us/img814/8249/yafss001e.jpg) (http://img814.imageshack.us/i/yafss001e.jpg/)

hey can someone help me with the SP3 installation? -_- well I don't need help installing it, its just that I don't know what version to install because I have Windows Vista. Not XP and I only see search results FOR Windows XP
x.x

Is there a method, if any, for splitting a merged package into 2 smaller ones?

I used the SP3 from the first page and it works just fine for me I have Vista 64. It might say the program is not responding when merging and loading the files but it will work just fine.

I am using Vista on this machine:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/sims3tools/files/
I'm using the s3pe_1006-05-1643.7z file. No installing. Just extract to it's own folder and run from the .exe within. There looks to be an update out though. Just grab the one that is the version number, not the one that says "source" in the name, and the .exe download is only a necessity if you really like installers. I have no problem, although, I have UAC off.

That would be extremely messy. You are best to simply re-merge and make smaller packages.

I attempted this, at first with a large number of files, but soon realized that I was trying to merge too many files as I kept receiving error messages.

Once I started merging a smaller amount of files, I stopped receiving these messages, but after saving a newly merged file, S3PE stops responding. I'm not sure why this is or if this is at all normal.

If you want a tutorial with a few pics:
http://club-crimsyn.dreamwidth.org/28336.html?#cutid1

As for S3PEs response going to "not responding", as far as  can tell, that is normal. Just wait for it to finish. I have about 10 -15 that I've done and a majority of these have stopped responding while they were saving. If you keep an eye on the file that you are saving while it's doing this, you will see that in comparison to finished ones, it looks to be much smaller then it ought to be, and much larger after S3PE returns to normal. So just kill a minute or so on MATY while you are waiting on S3pe.

Can we merge the merged files? Or would this be completely redundant and just create a huge package file that our games can not handle?

You can, but it's not that important to trim one or even a dozen or so files out of the mix. What's important is to prune the hundreds-thousands of files down to a more manageable number. I have merged my "official" content into a dozen+ .package files and have another couple dozen player-content .packages and have seen no significant reduction in performance or load times compared to when I had merged everything into six. Also there's a recommended upper limit to the file size. I believe the exact number is somewhere else in this thread.

Okay, thank you.
I as just unsure of whether the game slows down because of sheer number of files or the size of them. I believe the number is something along the lines of 250MB so I'll keep my files around there.

If I have all my CC down to roughly 30 packages, (all under 150mb), and my game is still slow should I look elsewhere for the solution? Like converting my launcher files?

I've merged most of my files down now. Actually, this is the second time I've had to do it. My hard drive died right after I did it last time, but luckily I had saved the pre-merged .package files on an external hard drive. Anyway, I was just wondering if there's anything that shouldn't be merged into a single package? I'm especially wondering about default replacement skintones. I have HP's replacement skintones and with all the ages and separate body and face files, there's a total of 20 package files. If I combined those into 1 file, would they still work? Or would it cause problems?

Somewhere in this long thread, I seem to remember someone saying that they merged their skins and they worked fine. I choose not to merge mine yet since I'm not sure I will keep them. It wouldn't hurt to keep backup files just in case it doesn't work, though.

Ok, thanks. So this leaves my mods as the only things I didn't merge now, but I won't bother since every time a patch or EP comes out, they'll need to be updated.

I just wanted to say thanks for the guide that you posted. My game was incredibly slow and it runs as if I don't have any CC in the game. It's awesome! However, the only way I could get my CC to show up in the game after I merged it was to save it as a .dbc file instead of a .package file and then placing it in the DOCUMENTS/ELECTRONIC ARTS/THE SIMS 3/MODS/DCCACHE folder.

I have merged the default skins that I use and all's well. I have also merged the slider mods that I use.

i would like to ask if there a size limit for every package made? i made 4 packages of  peggys hair and are 210+ in size and im not sure but i think some of the CC hair doesn't show, is the size the reason?

I set myself a limit of about 230mb, then I'll break it down if it gets any bigger.

Configure your Resource.cfg to read .dbc files, then you can place the .dbc files in with your other custom. You also probably have some kind of framework fail if your game wouldn't read the merged .package files.

Hello everyone. Really interesting and helpful post and its following comments.

I have a question. Anach mentions in the first post the possibility of converting .sims3pack to .package and then merging as in the tutorial.
Is it worth?

Thank you!  :D

The .dbc files that the launcher makes from your Sims3pack files and the merged file you are creating using simpe are pretty much the same thing(someone will correct me if I am wrong, I'm sure). I haven't noticed any speed difference over using one or the other, I have several of both. There are however, a few items in sims3pack that just will not install via the launcher. Usually ones from TSR, or made with their tool. It throws up a error when you try to install them, something about versions and you needing to patch, which is bullshit. If you want to avoid a headache of trying to install and them not installing, I'd extract the .packages and use simpe. Otherwise it's just trial and error, and then you end up extracting them and merging them anyway.

Can something be added to the top post to stop people opening a thread at my site every time they try to import HP's hair to a dbc?   Can they be told to get support in this thread rather than at simlogical, and then if Anach and associates spot there *is* an actual error in s3pe, or an improvement can be made, we'll take a report from yourselves.  Only it's getting kinda boring getting the same report over and over again, and we're getting tempted to remove the feature.

I've simplified the original post to hopefully take care of it. :)

Just wanted to let people know, in case there are any idiots (like me) reading who want to remove files from their merged package and don't have a backup. (I know, I know, but it's also useful for people who don't feel like re-merging just to remove a couple files they don't want anymore, as it's significantly faster.) I just successfully used Sims 3 Package Explorer (http://www.customsims3.com/smf/index.php?topic=1324.0) to re-save my patterns package without 14 files I didn't want. It was incredibly easy, and rather self-explanatory. The entire process took me about five minutes (or less, once I figured it out).

Unfortunately, this only works this easily with patterns. My other merged packages were way too hard (for me) to sort through, though someone more awesome than me (ha!) may figure it out. Nevertheless, it's a good starting point.

Tutorial for the Non-Awesome (Like Me)
1. Obviously, backup the file you're messing around in.
2. Start the Package Explorer and open the package you want to edit.
3. You will see a list of files and a preview window. You can identify individual objects/patterns, etc. in several ways, but the easiest for me was by image (because, y'know, then I knew what I was looking at). It is easiest to pick out individual items if you do NOT sort the list - leave it the way it is.
4. Under the drop-down menu in the preview window, choose "image".
5. Click an Icon, any Icon (you'll see them identified under "type").
6. You will notice that immediately before or after the icon in the list, there will be three other files which share either the same full Id, or the same first 10 characters of the Id as the Icon. This is the rest of the file that makes up the item (obviously).
7. Select (highlight) all items you want to keep (which, depending on how many packages you have, may take a while). This means all four files of each item.
8. With your items selected, go to "Edit->Copy".
9. Click the "create new package" button (it's the little sheet of paper in the left-hand corner, just like MS Word).
10. Go to "Edit->Paste".
11. Save your new package and test it out in-game to make sure you've removed/saved all you intended.

That's it. It's that simple. Again though, this only worked because my patterns were in a merged package by themselves and were kind enough to be sorted for me. If anyone has improvements on this technique for other types of content, have at it!

Edit: Fixed some minor spelling and grammar errors (including a very irritating "to" that should have been a "too"), because I wrote this at 3am.

Thanks for the directions. I actually just downloaded some messed up patterns, and stupidly merged them without testing, so that'll be helpful.

What about decrapifying? When should I need to decrapify the stuffs? Do I need to do it after repackaging them?

EDIT: What is the number of about 200 Mb packages I can have before my game started to lag?

Right now I have over 100 .packages in my game. While most are merged, there are several that aren't (like my mods) and the ones that are merged, I do by category, so that's the reason for the large number of merged packages. But my game doesn't lag with them all in there. It loads up to the save game select screen in less than a minute and the game all runs really smooth with no lag and everything loads fast. I don't know about decrapifying stuff since I never bother with any of that. I don't touch Sims3Pack files, unless I'm extracting them to .package, so there's never been any need for it.

Decrapify is a personal preference, much like your brand of toothpaste. Read up one what it does and decide whether you want to do it.

I try to keep the packages under 100, but lag is a gradual thing, not something that jumps on you if you hit 101 packages. I've not noticed any difference between 10 packages or 80 packages. Originally I had about 700, which halved my FPS.

Keep in mind, that 200MB is only a sensible limit on file size for reducing merging times and RAM use for creating those large packages. The largest .package used by the game is around 1.9Gb, but creating that in S3PE would take a lot of time and memory.

Essentially, there are no hard rules, just what works for you.

Your best bet in any case is to organize by type. I have combined files, but unlike those with maybe 3 or 4, I've got 27. One for each month/couple months of store stuff, one for buy mode, one for accessories, one for hair, one for skins, one for sliders...

It's easier to reset that way. If you start to build up a bunch of packages you end up not liking, it's easy to remake whichever package they belong to.

Unfortunately I managed to delete my backups so I am stuck with whatever files are already in these...but that's a benefit to smaller packages: If I want to get rid of some accessories, that's all I have to worry about. Even though I lost my backups, I won't have to build my entire downloads library again, because I can delete based on little groups.

blah blah blah

Decrapify is not so much a personal preference as it is a choice between whether you want a toothbrush or not.

I use my finger...

As for personal preference. I haven't read of any benefit from decrapifying store content I've paid for, as paid content installs and works fine (so far). I also don't install any CC as sims3pack, i don't use any CC kitchen counters, and I avoid most the trash that comes out of TSR. As the documentation of s3rc is very limited, i've not seen any reason for running decrapify other than fixing non-paid-for kitchen counters or being able to install non-paid-for content via the launcher of which I also avoid (prefer .package). If there was a convincing reason for me to convert my saves and content to decrapified versions, then I'd probably do it, but so far I've got no reason to do so.

I am looking for the answer to this too, should all occurrences of instance "0x0000000000000000" be deleted or just the '"0x73E93EEB" occurrences as mentioned in the OP?

Suck it and see - so far I've been deleting anything with instance 0 and it's not killed my game.

I have been experimenting with merged packages for a while now.
The best organisation method I have found is by type, then when the package is to big to be in one single file, they are alphabetized by their original filenames.
I also keep a .zip library with the unedited original single packages so i know what single packages are in the merged ones, I can then update or delete the exact file I need to.

Decided I would post my 2 cents since I have lurked long enough, and just want to add thanks for the tips.

Only the 0x73E93EEB files. As stated. If it was anything with 0x0000000000000000, then I would have said so in the steps on the original post and not been specific. The other 0x0000000000000000 files are most likely your _key files, which are manifests and part of the whole package merging process. Do no delete those. Go back and read the OP again. You will see a few suggestions on what you can delete.

Suck it and see is not generally a reliable method, it may not have killed your game, but it might kill mine.


Ok, thanks for the confirmation.

EDIT: By the way, the process made a massive difference to my game, frame rates were jumping between 200fps to 1fps in-game causing unbearable lag, I tried loads of different graphics drivers and almost gave up on the game, the solution you posted solved all lag problems for me completely, I am so chuffed. Thank-you.

Sometimes suck it and see is the only way - and that's what backups are for.

Mea Culpa - I was wrong, but at least I had the balls to try a little empirical testing.

I almost deleted them, but my balls shrivelled at the thought.

I've tried to merge a some dbc files with an already merged package file, then saved it as a new package file. The dbc file has much of the same content as the package file, but also some stuff that's not in the package file. By merging the two files I hoped that s3pe would find and delete the duplicates for me, but in my game the duplicates show up with duplicate thumbs. Is there an easy way to fix the duplicate thumbs?

Yes - make sure there are no duplicates to begin with. It's a major part of every instruction I've seen - step one make sure what you're adding is actually new.

Doesn't work that way. Merging duplicate files will just result in duplicate files being installed in the game. This is why you keep backups of the individual files.

Well, then I see... I'll have to re-merge then.

   I believe I discovered something quite useful while murging all my packages in my Mods/package folder. I got this wild hair and after backing up all my files in the Sims 3 DCCatch folder. I decided to try and murge those packages. After testing the murged package everything still showed up in my game. And thought, "well that's all fine and good," but not remarkable. Here's the kicker.  Today after downloading some new houses I used my Sims 3 Launcher from E-axis. First time since murging my DCCatch packages. Usually when I run the Launcher the process takes a really, really long time. It's a pain in the ass, right? I've lurked on this site long enough to know that several people have complained about this problem.
    However, After I'd decrapified my sims3packages, like usual. The Launcher started almost immediatly! Wow! The crazy thing ran like a dog with it's tail on fire!
    I have only done this once  and beware when I imported the packages into the s3pe it took me an entire day and night. My DCCatch folder was pretty darned big, so over all this still requires some more testing. All I know is that I am really impressed with this entire method. No more lag, no more problems, everything works beautifully. I could just kiss you Anach. Thank you.

What's the difference between using the DBC import or the package import? Do you know?

According to the dashboard tool, my Buy Mode combined package is "corrupt" because it has "corrupt TXTC".

Is this an issue? This file just so happens to contain almost every buy mode object (non-store) I've ever downloaded, so it's KINDA a big deal if it is an issue, because I managed to delete the originals at some point in the past.

The package works as it should.

Have you tried using Dashboard to repair the file?  Make a backup copy and see if Dashboard can fix the problem.  Usually if it can't fix it, it just "disables" the file by changing its suffix, which you can easily undo.

Yeah, I have. It doesn't do anything to it.

I guess if I don't know what exactly is in there I may as well redownload everything anyway (I swear this already happened, but I can't tell if it's deja vu). But for now, I am just curious if a TXTC issue could cause a problem.

Isn't corrupt TXTC what causes the bluelot glitch?

Yes, don't use any package containing a corrupt txtc in your game or you will lose your game.

Sorry you have to download everything again, but it's a better idea to check your packages with dashboard before combining them and deleting the originals :D

fffffffffffffuck.

Anach, Peter asked you a question relating to your latest s3pe report, at http://dino.drealm.info/den/denforum/index.php?topic=253.msg1248#msg1248

Anach, should we assume that we need to re-merge any group of packages that included roofs? 

Did Anach die?

Anach has been playing the other games he has accumulated and been putting aside due to a Sims addiction. I shall check out the thread. :)


On a side note to those above. DO NOT delete your original files. You will have to re-merge from time to time, such as when you wish to remove stuff. It is also a good idea to check your packages for conflicting and broken mods with the dashboard before you merge.

Is anyone else having problems merging the Soccer Jersey Set from the 13th Store Update?

I know how the program throws up out of memory errors when you put in too many files. It does the same thing to this set (and just this set, by itself.)
For the process I have been using Delphys MultiSims3Pack Extractor to get the sims3packs to packages (the Jersey sims3pack makes 19 package files, 26.6 MB), then the s3rc.exe (run through the whole directory with that lovely batch file someone posted in a different thread) by Pescado, then s3pe to make the experimental dbc and saving as package. But of course the out of memory error is thrown before I get to the saving step so I cancel the save. I have merged more files and bigger files in one set before, but I just can't seem to cram these down to a singular package format.

I was perhaps wondering if it is a problem with the source files from the download thread.  Have not seen the jerseys in question, but are they billowing wizard robe sized? Made of the same bits crammyboy used for the sims2 penis mod?

I don't know, but I can't fit them through s3pe.

I'm finding s3pe running out of memory when trying to combine my clothing packages.

Right now I have three combined packages that I'd ideally like to turn into one big package. They are:

Adult.package - 98.3 MB
Teen.package - 42.7 MB
Clothes.package - 55.8 MB (and this file is the one that I want to fold the other two into.)

I they should come together to be under the EA's target size of 200 MB, so I thought things would be cool. But after a certain amount has been imported, the memory space of the application escalates ridiculously to the point where it eats it all up.

Is there any way to leverage EA's own tool to combine these packages? Their installer seems to be pretty efficient.

Oh, it might be just my system, I guess. I used to do this on Windows XP, under 2 GB of memory. I upgraded to Win 7 64, and 4 GB. After I've posted this, I might boot up XP again and try. Maybe it's OS dependent.

Edit: There wasn't much difference between them. So, I tried again on W7. I restarted and managed to combine Teen and Clothes, using the save-after-import option. That was without having firefox running in the background, so there was a little more memory available to it.

I now had two 98 MB packages that eat too much memory to combine further. But, it got me thinking: maybe it's better to incrementally merge the little packages together. I don't usually work that way, preferring to group and combine. But, I wanted to try it. So, I copied all the clothes out of their folders into just one "Clothes" folder and I'm in the process of combining them, saving-after-each-import. It seems to be going very well. s3pe is using a minimum of memory, and is slowly building up the Clothes.package.

I think this is the way to go. It's only slightly inconvenient, in that you have to collect them up into a single folder, and ensure no naming conflicts exist. But then it's cool.

I'll have to see how it goes when I try to add more (little packages) to this big one. When I tried that before, s3pe was running into memory troubles when trying to load the first package. It seems to me, that will happen again. But, that's about the size of it. Good enough to be getting on with.

Final size of clothes package: 199 MB.

I enjoy merging mods, it does increase my performance somewhat, but its also having a negative effect, causing the game to crash sometimes. I used several programs to find the problem, including Dashboard, which found nothing, then I used Indies Mod Compatability Checker, it found 4207 incompatabilities.

Throw away the indie checker, it hasn't been useful for a long time.

Crashing "sometimes" can be caused by dodgy mods, imcompatible mods, lack of RAM, corrupt sims/neighbourhood. Merging mods is simply a performance increase, not a fix for broken mods/game/pc. For checking mods, other than the dashboard, you need to check for author updates, and  trial and error. Try narrowing down the packages until your crashing stops. 

So, I had at least 186 Library Packages and decided to merge them. I'm noticing 10-20 FPS boost, a little quicker loading times, and faster selection in CAS.

I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong, or just attempting to do something that shouldn't be done in the first place.

When I try to merge all of my plasticbox lots into one big .package file, only one random unnamed lot will show up in the game.
I'm 95% sure I've done everything I'm supposed to, it's not that difficult of a procedure.
I extracted the sims3pack files into individual .package files, which I then tested before merging to make sure they work by themselves, THEN I merged using the newest test version of s3pe, and placed in the Library folder.  I know something at least is working, because of that one random lot - but obviously that isn't the result I want.

Am I not supposed to try to merge lots, or is there just some extra step I'm not doing.

From what I gleaned searching the topic and reading through this thread a few times, it was implied at least that what I'm trying to do is quite possible.

I wouldn't recommend merging lots. Merging CAS or Build/Buy stuff is fine though.

Well, that was the impression I was slowly forming.  It doesn't seem to work well no matter what I do to it.  Eh, now I know.  Back to reorganizing.

I merged all of my files a long time ago (when Anach first posted this thread) and I have been continuing to do so.
I've only just started to merge my dbc files because there's 8 of them
The things is, if I try to import the ebc files it shows as an unknown file in S3pe.
I know this is because they're store bought content.
Is there any way to convert it to a .package file?
I did do it but the game wouldn't read it.
I was actually just doing this so I could pass a set on to a friend, as sending the the s3pack file didn't work.

Run it through s3rc.exe. That will decrypt it. Rename it to .package, then edit as you wish.

Thanks Anach.
Where do I get it?

http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,15129.0.html

Wow thanks again!

Dawn, learn to search.  Better yet, please just go away.

Some resource names may not be displayed.

Error reading _KEY 0166038C:00000001:00000000000E82EA
Front-end Distribution: 10-1104-1243
Library Distribution: 10-1104-1243
Source: mscorlib
Assembly: mscorlib, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089
Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation.
   at System.RuntimeMethodHandle._InvokeConstructor(Object[] args, SignatureStruct& signature, IntPtr declaringType)

   at System.RuntimeMethodHandle.InvokeConstructor(Object[] args, SignatureStruct signature, RuntimeTypeHandle 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 s3pi.WrapperDealer.WrapperDealer.GetResource(Int32 APIversion, IPackage pkg, IResourceIndexEntry rie, Boolean AlwaysDefault)

   at s3pi.WrapperDealer.WrapperDealer.GetResource(Int32 APIversion, IPackage pkg, IResourceIndexEntry rie)

   at S3PIDemoFE.BrowserWidget.CreateNameMap()
-----
Source: mscorlib
Assembly: mscorlib, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089
An item with the same key has already been added.
   at System.ThrowHelper.ThrowArgumentException(ExceptionResource resource)

   at System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary`2.Insert(TKey key, TValue value, Boolean add)

   at NameMapResource.NameMapResource.Parse(Stream s)

   at NameMapResource.NameMapResource..ctor(Int32 APIversion, Stream s)

-----


This is the error I keep getting when I try to remerge some hair files. It strikes out the _KEY files, but I'm not sure if it mungs up the functionality of the item. I haven't tested it that far as I've been trying to isolate which hairs are causing this. Looks like some newsea hairs, but not all of them cause this issue. Can someone explain what this error means? If you need further information or screen shots, I'll gladly include them in my next reply. Thank you for your time. :)

I don't pretend to understand the error logs, but I do know that I see complaints about buggy newsea hairs all the time.  I'd think twice about having them in my game.

Yeah, I do see this complaint here and there about them. I've only tried to use as few of them as possible to avoid issues, but this is the first time I've had a problem. And sadly, it with a few I really liked and wanted to use. Thank you for reaffirming my suspicions.

I think I'll go about quarantining the borked hairs for now. If it helps, it's the Maple, Sister, and I think Piggy hairs. If anyone would like my copy of them to test with (maybe I have a bad download, but I've redownloaded them a few times to try and remove this possibility), I don't mind sharing if it's needed at all. Thank you again, for your time. :)

Can't tell you what the error is, but I made the decision to remove those 3 particular hairs long ago due to performance lag and other issues. I also found there were so many versions of those hairs (I tried a few), some more broken than others. However, you could always try getting them from another source as I did and try your luck. Up to you really.

Personally, I prefer to be excessively fussy over what content I put into my game now and only from reliable creators. I have gone from several gig of CC when I started this thread to 280Mb of CC I actually use. First sign of anything not quite right and I remove it, unless it's something simple to fix myself. Reliability has certainly increased. I can leave Sims 3 running all day without a single crash, as it should be.

After some moving of files and repeated new merge attempts, I've narrowed the error-throwing files down to the ones in the picture I'm providing.

(http://i849.photobucket.com/albums/ab54/dramamine213/borkedhairs.jpg)

I've taken a closer look at what was being struck out and it seems that on nearly all of these hairs, the elder male and/or female _KEY file part is the resource that's unable to be read. When I removed the three hairs mentioned before, it seems more hairs seemed to 'break'. After removing each hair after that would further 'break' another hair. After clicking OK through 4-7 similar error messages, I get this error message and S3PE won't continue.


************** Exception Text **************
System.Reflection.TargetInvocationException: Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation. ---> System.ArgumentException: An item with the same key has already been added.
   at System.ThrowHelper.ThrowArgumentException(ExceptionResource resource)
   at System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary`2.Insert(TKey key, TValue value, Boolean add)
   at NameMapResource.NameMapResource.Parse(Stream s)
   at NameMapResource.NameMapResource..ctor(Int32 APIversion, Stream s)
   --- End of inner exception stack trace ---
   at System.RuntimeMethodHandle._InvokeConstructor(Object[] args, SignatureStruct& signature, IntPtr declaringType)
   at System.RuntimeMethodHandle.InvokeConstructor(Object[] args, SignatureStruct signature, RuntimeTypeHandle 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 s3pi.WrapperDealer.WrapperDealer.GetResource(Int32 APIversion, IPackage pkg, IResourceIndexEntry rie, Boolean AlwaysDefault)
   at s3pi.WrapperDealer.WrapperDealer.GetResource(Int32 APIversion, IPackage pkg, IResourceIndexEntry rie)
   at S3PIDemoFE.MainForm.resourceImportAsDBC()
   at S3PIDemoFE.MainForm.menuBarWidget1_MBResource_Click(Object sender, MBClickEventArgs mn)
   at S3PIDemoFE.MenuBarWidget.OnMBResource_Click(Object sender, MB mn)
   at S3PIDemoFE.MenuBarWidget.tsMBR_Click(Object sender, EventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripItem.RaiseEvent(Object key, EventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripMenuItem.OnClick(EventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripItem.HandleClick(EventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripItem.HandleMouseUp(MouseEventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripItem.FireEventInteractive(EventArgs e, ToolStripItemEventType met)
   at System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripItem.FireEvent(EventArgs e, ToolStripItemEventType met)
   at System.Windows.Forms.ToolStrip.OnMouseUp(MouseEventArgs mea)
   at System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripDropDown.OnMouseUp(MouseEventArgs mea)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmMouseUp(Message& m, MouseButtons button, Int32 clicks)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.ScrollableControl.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.ToolStrip.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripDropDown.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.OnMessage(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)


************** Loaded Assemblies **************
mscorlib
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.3053 (netfxsp.050727-3000)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/Microsoft.NET/Framework/v2.0.50727/mscorlib.dll
----------------------------------------
s3pe
    Assembly Version: 1011.4.12.22897
    Win32 Version: 1011.4.12.22897
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/s3pe/s3pe.exe
----------------------------------------
System.Windows.Forms
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.3053 (netfxsp.050727-3000)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Windows.Forms/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Windows.Forms.dll
----------------------------------------
System
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.3053 (netfxsp.050727-3000)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Drawing
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.3053 (netfxsp.050727-3000)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Drawing/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Drawing.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Configuration
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.3053 (netfxsp.050727-3000)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Configuration/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Configuration.dll
----------------------------------------
PresentationCore
    Assembly Version: 3.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 3.0.6920.1427 built by: SP
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_32/PresentationCore/3.0.0.0__31bf3856ad364e35/PresentationCore.dll
----------------------------------------
WindowsBase
    Assembly Version: 3.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 3.0.6920.1427 built by: SP
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/WindowsBase/3.0.0.0__31bf3856ad364e35/WindowsBase.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Xml
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.3053 (netfxsp.050727-3000)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Xml/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Xml.dll
----------------------------------------
s3pi.CustomForms
    Assembly Version: 0.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 0.0.0.0
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/s3pe/s3pi.CustomForms.DLL
----------------------------------------
s3pi.Interfaces
    Assembly Version: 1011.4.12.22848
    Win32 Version: 1011.4.12.22848
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/s3pe/s3pi.Interfaces.DLL
----------------------------------------
s3pi.WrapperDealer
    Assembly Version: 1011.4.12.22849
    Win32 Version: 1011.4.12.22849
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/s3pe/s3pi.WrapperDealer.DLL
----------------------------------------
s3pi.CASPartResource
    Assembly Version: 1011.4.12.22851
    Win32 Version: 1011.4.12.22851
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/s3pe/s3pi.CASPartResource.DLL
----------------------------------------
System.Custom
    Assembly Version: 1011.4.12.22848
    Win32 Version: 1011.4.12.22848
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/s3pe/System.Custom.DLL
----------------------------------------
s3pi.CatalogResource
    Assembly Version: 1011.4.12.22850
    Win32 Version: 1011.4.12.22850
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/s3pe/s3pi.CatalogResource.DLL
----------------------------------------
s3pi.ComplateResource
    Assembly Version: 1011.4.12.22850
    Win32 Version: 1011.4.12.22850
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/s3pe/s3pi.ComplateResource.DLL
----------------------------------------
s3pi.DefaultResource
    Assembly Version: 1011.4.12.22850
    Win32 Version: 1011.4.12.22850
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/s3pe/s3pi.DefaultResource.DLL
----------------------------------------
s3pi.DemoPlugins
    Assembly Version: 1011.4.12.22853
    Win32 Version: 1011.4.12.22853
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/s3pe/s3pi.DemoPlugins.DLL
----------------------------------------
s3pi.Extensions
    Assembly Version: 1011.4.12.22848
    Win32 Version: 1011.4.12.22848
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/s3pe/s3pi.Extensions.DLL
----------------------------------------
s3pi.GenericRCOLResource
    Assembly Version: 1011.4.12.22850
    Win32 Version: 1011.4.12.22850
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/s3pe/s3pi.GenericRCOLResource.DLL
----------------------------------------
s3pi.Settings
    Assembly Version: 1011.4.12.22847
    Win32 Version: 1011.4.12.22847
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/s3pe/s3pi.Settings.DLL
----------------------------------------
s3pi.ImageResource
    Assembly Version: 1011.4.12.22851
    Win32 Version: 1011.4.12.22851
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/s3pe/s3pi.ImageResource.DLL
----------------------------------------
s3pi.ModularResource
    Assembly Version: 1011.4.12.22851
    Win32 Version: 1011.4.12.22851
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/s3pe/s3pi.ModularResource.DLL
----------------------------------------
s3pi.NameMapResource
    Assembly Version: 1011.4.12.22849
    Win32 Version: 1011.4.12.22849
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/s3pe/s3pi.NameMapResource.DLL
----------------------------------------
s3pi.ObjKeyResource
    Assembly Version: 1011.4.12.22849
    Win32 Version: 1011.4.12.22849
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/s3pe/s3pi.ObjKeyResource.DLL
----------------------------------------
s3pi.Package
    Assembly Version: 1011.4.12.22851
    Win32 Version: 1011.4.12.22851
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/s3pe/s3pi.Package.DLL
----------------------------------------
s3pi.ScriptResource
    Assembly Version: 1011.4.12.22849
    Win32 Version: 1011.4.12.22849
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/s3pe/s3pi.ScriptResource.DLL
----------------------------------------
s3pi.StblResource
    Assembly Version: 1011.4.12.22850
    Win32 Version: 1011.4.12.22850
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/s3pe/s3pi.StblResource.DLL
----------------------------------------
s3pi.TextResource
    Assembly Version: 1011.4.12.22849
    Win32 Version: 1011.4.12.22849
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/s3pe/s3pi.TextResource.DLL
----------------------------------------
s3pi.TxtcResource
    Assembly Version: 1011.4.12.22851
    Win32 Version: 1011.4.12.22851
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/s3pe/s3pi.TxtcResource.DLL
----------------------------------------
SlimDX
    Assembly Version: 2.0.10.43
    Win32 Version:
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/s3pe/SlimDX.DLL
----------------------------------------
SlimDX.Wpf
    Assembly Version: 1.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 1.0.0.0
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/s3pe/SlimDX.Wpf.DLL
----------------------------------------
PresentationFramework
    Assembly Version: 3.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 3.0.6920.1427 built by: SP
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/PresentationFramework/3.0.0.0__31bf3856ad364e35/PresentationFramework.dll
----------------------------------------
-0emrbp-
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.3053 (netfxsp.050727-3000)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.dll
----------------------------------------
Accessibility
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.3053 (netfxsp.050727-3000)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/Accessibility/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/Accessibility.dll
----------------------------------------


Not sure if this helps to figure what's wrong, but I'm going to redownload some of these ans see what happens. Again, thank you. :)

Once you re-download the hair, go and grab the latest s3pe, and check the mods with delphy's dashboard to see if they are conflicting or broken packages. Once you eliminate broken or conflicting packages and if you still have the error, I'll go bother Peter about it.

I was running version S3PE version 10-1104-1243 when I got the errors before, but now I'm using the latest one 10-1202-1426. Still getting the same errors on all the same hairs. :(

And I have noticed that it's only hairs doing this.

I've just tried merging a majority of the hair you listed as well as some additional, and had got the same error with Nouk and short mop, even when done separately. I looked at those packages on their own and s3pe was unable to read the key files. I'm wondering if this actually matters. These maybe just junk files created by the TSR workshop. As long as the other files import ok, it might be safe to either ignore or delete those erroring keys. I'll see what Peter has to say.

Thank you for taking time to try it yourself. I wasn't sure if something was borked, concerning my PC or my S3PE version.

What gets me is that the HP hairs worked fine when merging in early Nov. when I last merged all of my CC. When I added the new hairs (most of what was in the picture was old and worked before), everything suddenly blew up.

If you need any more information, please let me know. I'm glad to help.

I know this is an old post, but I'm currently running into a similar problem, and following the suggested procedure (merging individual packages, then merged those into a single, larger merged package) isn't solving it.

I'm trying this on boot camp with Windows XP. I've got 4 GB of RAM (though XP only recognizes 3), but for the life of me can't get the merged files to go above 50 MB. I know I used to be able to do this, because some of my older packages are up to 100 MB, but since uninstalling and reinstalling my Windows partition, it now errors out if I try to create a package bigger than 50 MB.

Is there some obvious solution that I'm overlooking here?

Instead of merging two large packages, try merging the individual smaller files and choosing the auto-save after each package option when asked.

I decided to auto-save after importing the freshly downloaded hairs to delete the offending _KEY files, the attempt a remerging of just those files. When I tried, I got this error:

************** Exception Text **************
System.ArgumentNullException: Value cannot be null.
Parameter name: input
   at System.IO.BinaryReader..ctor(Stream input, Encoding encoding)
   at s3pi.Package.Package.packedChunk(ResourceIndexEntry ie)
   at s3pi.Package.Package.SaveAs(Stream s)
   at s3pi.Package.Package.SaveAs(String path)
   at s3pi.Package.Package.SavePackage()
   at S3PIDemoFE.MainForm.fileSave()
   at S3PIDemoFE.MainForm.fileSaveAs()
   at S3PIDemoFE.MainForm.menuBarWidget1_MBFile_Click(Object sender, MBClickEventArgs mn)
   at S3PIDemoFE.MenuBarWidget.OnMBFile_Click(Object sender, MB mn)
   at S3PIDemoFE.MenuBarWidget.tsMBF_Click(Object sender, EventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripItem.RaiseEvent(Object key, EventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripMenuItem.OnClick(EventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripItem.HandleClick(EventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripItem.HandleMouseUp(MouseEventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripItem.FireEventInteractive(EventArgs e, ToolStripItemEventType met)
   at System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripItem.FireEvent(EventArgs e, ToolStripItemEventType met)
   at System.Windows.Forms.ToolStrip.OnMouseUp(MouseEventArgs mea)
   at System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripDropDown.OnMouseUp(MouseEventArgs mea)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmMouseUp(Message& m, MouseButtons button, Int32 clicks)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.ScrollableControl.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.ToolStrip.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripDropDown.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.OnMessage(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)


************** Loaded Assemblies **************
mscorlib
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.3053 (netfxsp.050727-3000)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/Microsoft.NET/Framework/v2.0.50727/mscorlib.dll
----------------------------------------
s3pe
    Assembly Version: 1012.2.14.25985
    Win32 Version: 1012.2.14.25985
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/s3pe/s3pe.exe
----------------------------------------
System.Windows.Forms
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.3053 (netfxsp.050727-3000)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Windows.Forms/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Windows.Forms.dll
----------------------------------------
System
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.3053 (netfxsp.050727-3000)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Drawing
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.3053 (netfxsp.050727-3000)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Drawing/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Drawing.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Configuration
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.3053 (netfxsp.050727-3000)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Configuration/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Configuration.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Xml
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.3053 (netfxsp.050727-3000)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Xml/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Xml.dll
----------------------------------------
s3pi.CustomForms
    Assembly Version: 0.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 0.0.0.0
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/s3pe/s3pi.CustomForms.DLL
----------------------------------------
s3pi.Interfaces
    Assembly Version: 1012.2.14.25971
    Win32 Version: 1012.2.14.25971
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/s3pe/s3pi.Interfaces.DLL
----------------------------------------
s3pi.WrapperDealer
    Assembly Version: 1012.2.14.25971
    Win32 Version: 1012.2.14.25971
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/s3pe/s3pi.WrapperDealer.DLL
----------------------------------------
s3pe.DDSPreviewWidget
    Assembly Version: 1012.2.14.25984
    Win32 Version: 1012.2.14.25984
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/s3pe/s3pe.DDSPreviewWidget.DLL
----------------------------------------
PresentationFramework
    Assembly Version: 3.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 3.0.6920.1427 built by: SP
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/PresentationFramework/3.0.0.0__31bf3856ad364e35/PresentationFramework.dll
----------------------------------------
WindowsBase
    Assembly Version: 3.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 3.0.6920.1427 built by: SP
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/WindowsBase/3.0.0.0__31bf3856ad364e35/WindowsBase.dll
----------------------------------------
PresentationCore
    Assembly Version: 3.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 3.0.6920.1427 built by: SP
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_32/PresentationCore/3.0.0.0__31bf3856ad364e35/PresentationCore.dll
----------------------------------------
SlimDX.Wpf
    Assembly Version: 1.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 1.0.0.0
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/s3pe/SlimDX.Wpf.DLL
----------------------------------------
s3pi.CASPartResource
    Assembly Version: 1012.2.14.25974
    Win32 Version: 1012.2.14.25974
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/s3pe/s3pi.CASPartResource.DLL
----------------------------------------
System.Custom
    Assembly Version: 1012.2.14.25970
    Win32 Version: 1012.2.14.25970
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/s3pe/System.Custom.DLL
----------------------------------------
s3pi.CatalogResource
    Assembly Version: 1012.2.14.25973
    Win32 Version: 1012.2.14.25973
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/s3pe/s3pi.CatalogResource.DLL
----------------------------------------
s3pi.ComplateResource
    Assembly Version: 1012.2.14.25973
    Win32 Version: 1012.2.14.25973
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/s3pe/s3pi.ComplateResource.DLL
----------------------------------------
s3pi.DefaultResource
    Assembly Version: 1012.2.14.25973
    Win32 Version: 1012.2.14.25973
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/s3pe/s3pi.DefaultResource.DLL
----------------------------------------
s3pi.Extensions
    Assembly Version: 1012.2.14.25971
    Win32 Version: 1012.2.14.25971
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/s3pe/s3pi.Extensions.DLL
----------------------------------------
s3pi.GenericRCOLResource
    Assembly Version: 1012.2.14.25972
    Win32 Version: 1012.2.14.25972
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/s3pe/s3pi.GenericRCOLResource.DLL
----------------------------------------
s3pi.Settings
    Assembly Version: 1012.2.14.25970
    Win32 Version: 1012.2.14.25970
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/s3pe/s3pi.Settings.DLL
----------------------------------------
s3pi.Helpers
    Assembly Version: 1012.2.14.25975
    Win32 Version: 1012.2.14.25975
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/s3pe/s3pi.Helpers.DLL
----------------------------------------
s3pi.ImageResource
    Assembly Version: 1012.2.14.25973
    Win32 Version: 1012.2.14.25973
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/s3pe/s3pi.ImageResource.DLL
----------------------------------------
s3pi.ModularResource
    Assembly Version: 1012.2.14.25974
    Win32 Version: 1012.2.14.25974
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/s3pe/s3pi.ModularResource.DLL
----------------------------------------
s3pi.NameMapResource
    Assembly Version: 1012.2.14.25974
    Win32 Version: 1012.2.14.25974
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/s3pe/s3pi.NameMapResource.DLL
----------------------------------------
s3pi.ObjKeyResource
    Assembly Version: 1012.2.14.25972
    Win32 Version: 1012.2.14.25972
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/s3pe/s3pi.ObjKeyResource.DLL
----------------------------------------
s3pi.Package
    Assembly Version: 1012.2.14.25974
    Win32 Version: 1012.2.14.25974
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/s3pe/s3pi.Package.DLL
----------------------------------------
s3pi.ScriptResource
    Assembly Version: 1012.2.14.25972
    Win32 Version: 1012.2.14.25972
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/s3pe/s3pi.ScriptResource.DLL
----------------------------------------
s3pi.StblResource
    Assembly Version: 1012.2.14.25973
    Win32 Version: 1012.2.14.25973
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/s3pe/s3pi.StblResource.DLL
----------------------------------------
s3pi.TextResource
    Assembly Version: 1012.2.14.25972
    Win32 Version: 1012.2.14.25972
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/s3pe/s3pi.TextResource.DLL
----------------------------------------
s3pi.TxtcResource
    Assembly Version: 1012.2.14.25974
    Win32 Version: 1012.2.14.25974
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/s3pe/s3pi.TxtcResource.DLL
----------------------------------------
SlimDX
    Assembly Version: 2.0.10.43
    Win32 Version:
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/s3pe/SlimDX.DLL
----------------------------------------
rsx-xqum
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.3053 (netfxsp.050727-3000)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.dll
----------------------------------------
Accessibility
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.3053 (netfxsp.050727-3000)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/Accessibility/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/Accessibility.dll
----------------------------------------

Againg, I'm not sure if this is useful, but I can consistently recreate this error.

Well seems those keys might be necessary, and just not being read correctly. When peter wakes up I'm sure I'll get a reply. We will know more then.

Peter had this to say.


Which brings us back to why I would have originally removed all those hairs from my game. Bad packages, or bad hair which may have been made with old versions of creation tools. Whatever reason, It can't be good for the game.

Thanks for the quick reply.

Well, that's a shame, but short of asking the offending creators to fix their hairs, I think I'll cope without.

Enjoy your holidays!

Using the autosave, rather than merging the smaller packages and re-merging the larger packages, fixed the 50 MB limit for me. I thought I'd tried that already, but apparently not since all is functioning normally again.

Dramamine, I've never been able to merge HP's packages. IIRC, she stated somewhere over at MTS that she's aware of the issue. Those hairs were made in the early days of TS3.

I've never been able to merge HP hairs. The ones I chose to use don't seem to cause any other problems so I keep them in an unmerged folder.

I was able to merge them back in Nov. with no problems, but I now have them in a similar setup. Thank you for the help, guys and gals.

Mim: Madam Mim was my FAVORITE character from the movie. I get a touch giddy when I see the name as her voice was so awesome and comical. Thank you for accidentally making my afternoon not suck. :)

So I keep adding to my file little by little (this slow process of merging my mods) and I'm left wondering as I watch all of my HD space disappear on my C:/ drive... Where is all my space going? And how do I get it back?

I tried shutting down the program and reopening it after saving the file... and yet my space doesn't come back.
I tried restarting my computer... and yet my space doesn't come back.
I ran disc cleanup... and yet my space doesn't come back.
I uninstalled and reinstalled it on another drive with lots of space... but it CONTINUES to eat up my C:/ drive space and yet my space doesn't come back.  ???

I have been manually looking through my C:/ drive for this lost space and I can't find where it is! I'd estimate it's eaten up over 30 gigs so far and I have no idea how to get it back. Can anybody help me out here?

Thanks,

Spit

Perhaps you should try addressing this question to MR. COSMO SPACELEY, President of WINDOWS, instead of us, the undersigned, who collectively do not give a shit.

Thanks spockblock! But if there's going to be any crap giving around here your going to have to take it up with my but, because it's the only thing around here that gives a crap.  ;D

You misspelled "butt."

And also "you're".

See? This is why I got kicked out of Grammar Police Academy.

Really?  I thought it was because -- and I quote -- "Steve Guttenberg is a LITTLE BITCH".

Surry i'm so darn unejamicated for ya toow speelin-B wizzamigers. Next time I be needen some heelp wit my game I'llz be sure'n not axe yall here on deez dare speel checkin boards disguised as help forums.

Could be a virus, could be a Windows issue, could be stupidity. Have never had the issue myself. I suggest doing a search of C: for *.package or using a program like tree-size and see where your space has gone.

Try deleting your temp files. Also untick the 'autosave' box when you do this- it seems to be due to temp files created during the autosave.

The memory eating and how to solve it is discussed in this thread at S3PE-forum at Simlogical:
http://dino.drealm.info/den/denforum/index.php?topic=200.0 (http://dino.drealm.info/den/denforum/index.php?topic=200.0)

I'm sorry I have a headache from this already I'm getting this error but it still continues through what it's doing should I be worried?

Some resource names may not be displayed.

Error reading _KEY 0166038C:00000001:0000000000E5F018
Front-end Distribution: 10-1104-1243
Library Distribution: 10-1104-1243
Source: mscorlib
Assembly: mscorlib, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089
Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation.
   at System.RuntimeMethodHandle._InvokeConstructor(Object[] args, SignatureStruct& signature, IntPtr declaringType)

   at System.RuntimeMethodHandle.InvokeConstructor(Object[] args, SignatureStruct signature, RuntimeTypeHandle 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 s3pi.WrapperDealer.WrapperDealer.GetResource(Int32 APIversion, IPackage pkg, IResourceIndexEntry rie, Boolean AlwaysDefault)

   at s3pi.WrapperDealer.WrapperDealer.GetResource(Int32 APIversion, IPackage pkg, IResourceIndexEntry rie)

   at S3PIDemoFE.BrowserWidget.CreateNameMap()
-----
Source: mscorlib
Assembly: mscorlib, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089
An item with the same key has already been added.
   at System.ThrowHelper.ThrowArgumentException(ExceptionResource resource)

   at System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary`2.Insert(TKey key, TValue value, Boolean add)

   at NameMapResource.NameMapResource.Parse(Stream s)

   at NameMapResource.NameMapResource..ctor(Int32 APIversion, Stream s)

K I'm reading about the problem, which initially sucks, but thanks.

OK, I was going to discuss this implementation issue over at http://dino.drealm.info/den/denforum/index.php?topic=220.0, but since I have to wait for log-in approval, I say I won't bother.

So, Anach, if you talk to those people in the near future, could you ask them to look into how they're generating the merged packages with the save-as-you-go approach?

What happens on my system is I've got a clothing directory that I merge together. I don't have to merge them together that often; only when I get something new. But right now, it merges to about 240 MB.

The "problem" I have is that to merge these together, I have to choose the save-as-you-go method (or else the program crashes when it runs out of memory), and that's OK because it does successfully make a merged package. But as a result, I get a horrendous amount of temp files created in my AppData/Local/Temp folder. With each file that's added, it puts a copy of the most recently merged file in there and adds to it. And then it moves on, copies that, adds. Copies that, adds. This goes on and on and on until you either run out of packages to merge, or you run out of diskspace.

I tried doing this with my other system, when I only had a 50 GB partition, which most of it spoken for and I was running into errors. That's when I noticed what this program was doing.

Now, since I know its behavior, I carefully watch those files and delete them as they build up. It's not a big issue at the beginning, but at the end, when you're adding packages in the order of kilobytes, and creating copies of 200+ MB on each addition, it soon consumes stupid amounts of diskspace for no reason.

And when the merge has completed, it doesn't even clean up after itself.

So... if you happen to talk to them, could you ask that they manage those files better? I mean, all they need is a copy of the most recent and a working file. But if they want a couple more than that, then fine. But they seriously don't need all of them, since they don't reference them at all, for anything.

OK, that's all I wanted to say. I really like merging all my packages together, and it's pretty easy to do. I'm just about to remerge the clothing package, and I'm going to be spending the next 30-60 minutes monitoring the process. That's why I thought I'd share my thoughts on that. :)

According to Peter, those files are not managed directly by s3pe at all.  It's something to do presumably with .Net and the OS as a result of some of the functions used.   Peter has looked through his code on many occasions trying to deal with this problem, and he says there is nowhere in his code itself that creates these files nor can find out what they are called in order to delete them.

I don't even recommend using the dbc squeezer at all - we added it as a favor to someone who thought it would be a good idea, as it seemed a harmless enough request.  To my mind the whole process is just a huge unnecessary hassle.  Why don't you use Granthes' launcher?  That deals with all the dbc stuff itself - apparently without the unwanted system overhead.

Wow, such a quick response!

I feel a little sheepish. Umm, that's the first time I've heard of Granthe's Launcher. The reason I switched over to merging my packages in the first place was the massive performance increase at load-up. I'm sure this has been discussed elsewhere, but merging them brings load times down to "acceptable."

Anyway, I'll go look into that launcer. If it does the same job, I'll switch over. If I see longer loading times, I'll just persevere with the file-monitoring. Like I said, I don't merge that large file very often at all, mostly I'm just merging Hacks packages that get updated on a daily basis.

If you could thank Peter fo the implementation for me, Inge, that would be super. Thanks.

I started using the Custom Launcher some months ago, after using this method for a long time. The launcher creates .package files up to 1 GB in size, and then makes new ones as needed. I'm currently at 4 files (yeah, I go a bit CC crazy) but there's barely any performance hit.

One thing to watch out for is that it actually keeps a backup of every file added, so twice the disk space is used. If you have disk space troubles, it might not be the best option. Otherwise, it works great.

It's not just s3pe that creates temp files in that folder. Many things do, and also remain uncleared. Its probably only noticed due to the size of the mods being merged. I use ccleaner to get rid of all that junk on a regular basis.

Thanks for the info, Rushad.

I tried out the program, went to the bother to file everything under categories within the program (which took time), and tried to run it. It didn't work for some reason. I could tell because I have a no-intro mod and the intro kept coming up. I checked things, but it wouldn't merge/load my mods. I uninstalled it.

But I have good news! I'm currently using the 64-bit version of s3pe and I was able to use it to merge together 856 MB into one package of 228 MB, without having to save-as-you-go. I just tried it and it worked. I've tried to do this the past (with the same packages), but with eariler versions of the program and only with the 32-bit version, and it always ended up crashing. But, it didn't this time.

I find my own file organizational skills + s3pe-x64 to be exactly what I need. So, Inge, please don't take the functionality out just because I made a fuss.

Oh, and another reason I'm not going to use that launcer (above it not working for me) is because I couldn't figure out how to make 3booter work with it.

I probably won't be around for a while, so cya guys.

Support for the mod merge feature of s3pe is now located here http://dino.drealm.info/den/denforum/index.php?topic=478.msg3049#msg3049