More Awesome Than You!

At first I thought I had overdownloaded, but now I'm thinking of a bugged something. My game takes 2 hours to load.I have a lot of custom content, but it went from 3/4 of an hour to 2.
Does anyone knows of an object that would have this effect?
Or a clothing item. I loaded bodyshop nearly 2 hours ago and it hasn't appeared on the desktop yet.
I have a download folder, and an object folder, and a hacks one. Does bodyshop load all the folders, or just the downloads one, which would narrow it down a bit?

Well, theorectically the objects and the hacks folder should be in your downloads folder too. So, yes, they load up as well.

You can pull the hacks folder, but it won't do much good, as hacks are miniscule part of the loading process.

Time for generic advice:

Delete the groups.cache file.

Delete some of that junk. Use SimPE's Abadoned Mesh Tool to help search for meshes you have no textures for. Deleting hairs, clothes, and objects in game or in bodyshop do NOT delete the mesh as well. So you probably have a butt load of those just hanging around.

It may not have anything to do with the game.
Do a virus check and defragment the hard drive, these procedures work wonders from time to time.

Are you sure BodyShop is still loading and didn't crash without you noticing?

Ack!  I did not know that SimPE could do that.  Could you tell me where I might find that option?  I can wander around in SimPE for hours, getting nothing much accomplished...  Not an intuitive tool.

Uuuuuhhhh, check Theo's thread. I have never used that tool, but I know it exists. Do a MATY search for "orphaned mesh scanner."

I thought that only did clothing and hair meshes. And it didn't do much for me, some of the orphaned meshes it found weren't orphaned at all (objects).

It's not perfect, but it still does work.... a little... at least I've heard...

Out of curiosity, how much RAM are you running with?  And how many EPs?

It loaded after 2 hours and 15 mns. I deleted a few things more.
I'm running all expansion packs, no specials, with 1500 gb of ram.
No viruses, defragmented. So, bodyshop loads everything in the Sims2 folder?

Yeah, it loads all the skins in the Downloads and SavedSims folders.

Load times have very little to do with the RAM, they have more to do with the Processor.  Speaking of which, how big is your downloads folder?  If it's 17GB like someone else had on here there's no doubt that your excessive load times are caused by it.

Bodyshop also does that to me, with my 8GB download folder. So I just have a testing-bodyshop game with only the clothing, props and hair for bodyshop-creation. It takes a lot less to load. I just switch names of Sims2 folders. Better than deleting stuff IMO.

Have you installed anything suspicious or any major programs lately? I know the latest Norton Antivirus software is horrid for a machine's speed. I would recommend running msconfig.exe to decrease the amount of applications that start at start up, and to kill applications that aren't needed to run the game with Task Manager.

You may wish to try removing your downloads folder and loading before doing this, however, to determine whether the problem is your computer, or your downloads.

Did you mean 1.5 GB of RAM? Just wondering...

My suggestion is using the clean installer to go through all of your downloads and start deleting what you don't want or use anymore. That will greatly decrease your load time for the game. Then go into the game and start deleting clothes and hair that you don't want anymore. I also suggest putting everything in sub folders by site or type of item. I had a 20 GB downloads folder and I successfully got it down to 1.5 GB and am, thus far, maintaining it in that area. My load time used to be something like 20 minutes, then about 3, now it's 2. Playing is so much better now that it's not running slow, either.

As for body shop, that always takes forever to load no matter what. Cleaning out your clothes, hair, skin, and all that other junk will help out, but it probably still won't load under 10 minutes. 

Sometimes deleting the groups.cache file and also defragging the hard drive can help with loading times.

Grossly exceeding critical mass will force the game to thrash to disk instead of loading into RAM. As a general rule, you should try not to have more CC than half the amount of RAM in your system. Otherwise your game will quickly begin its descent into loading like shit.

I know I deserve 3/4 of an hour with my 4.8 downloads and 7.5 objects folder. When I play I switch everything off, specially antivirus.
And I have to delete group cache every other time.
But why would it suddenly more than double time?
And I have been deleting lots, hairs, beds, sofas... Plenty left, I know.
When you had 20GB, how long did it take? I have a 3gz pentium IV
So blubug, if you switched names, it means that bodyshop only loads folders named Downloads? Then my Objects folder would have nothing to do with the increase.. Well not predominantly.

What's the load time when you move your downloads folder out of your game folder to your desktop?

Actually, it doesn't work like that. I rename the 'My Documents/ The Sims 2' folder to something else (I name it "The Sims 2real"), run the game and it genarates a new Sims 2 game folder. (You probably knew this part). Then I create a Downloads folder in this new game folder and put only bodyshop items inside it (I only copy and paste them, so I have 2 copies, one in the original game one in my test game). Then I use that folder to create sims or clothes or whatever, when I'm done, I open the Saved Sims folder, copy the things I've recently made and paste them into my real game folder's (remember the one I renamed first?) Downloads. Then I rename my testing game folder "The Sims 2_test", and rename the original folder back to "The Sims 2" and play with my new stuff.

After that, anytime I want to use bodyshop, I change names of only the Sims 2 folder.

I hope that's clear.

Sounds like you need a Download folder purge.

Delete EVERYTHING and reinstall a clean game! MWAHAHAHAHAHA!

*coughs*

But seriously, take out your entire downloads folder and see how long it takes to load a "clean" game.

Also, you keep talking about your objects and downloads folder loading seperately. For the objects to work, they have to be IN your downloads folder, so they always load. Period.

Jelendra, have you applied to EA when we weren't looking?

Jelenedra, I used to have my objects in a separate folder a long time ago, and it worked. I used to have it like that because bodyshop items didn't work in subfolders, and I hated the mess. But some stuff really does need to be in the Downloads folder, global mods, other hacks and such, so after I installed NL I dragged all my subfolders into the main Downloads folder, it works much better and it's easier to use Simpe and Cleaninstaller. I just want to say, I don't recommend having the objects folder outside the downloads folder, but it does work for some people.

*raises eyebrow*

Miros- No, but I routinely wipe my downloads and neighborhoods folder and start from scratch. I assume that is why you asked?

Blubug-

Well, they mentioned that they have all EPs, so having an objects folder in the downloads folder to cut on loading time is kinda moot.

Your previous comment struck me as the usual advice you get from EA/Maxis support people -- either "delete all your custom downloads," whether you have them or not, or "uninstall and reinstall and everything will be wonderful."

It takes a long time to clean out the things that you don't want. I think it took me a couple of hours to do the objects and a whole weekend to do the hair, clothes, and makeup. If you plan on doing the objects in game, it will take you even longer.

If you want to do the quick fix, go into the game and look at all the items you can't live without and and download them again. That way you can delete your downloads folder and not worry about it. Another thing, starting over with your clothes is not a bad idea. I found that there are a lot better things out there now than when I originally downloaded the clothes I had. Hair, too. I made it a rule not to download any hair unless it is animated.

Yeah, purging downloads is a good way to help with loading times, as you only replace the things you CANNOT live without.

That and it helps organization. I have everything subfoldered in my game now, with screenshots.

Yeah, I have everything subfoldered and subfoldered down as far as I need them to go. It's really simple to keep it organized if you have a subfolder for every website you download from and then each individual set, then recolors and so on. I also have a Just for Pictures folder and a Not Important folder. If I ever have to clean out my downloads, those will be the first folders to just get tossed.

Heh. I'm going thru the fun of spring cleaning now, when one day I discovered I had 17gigs of CC and my game wasn't loaded after an hour. Normally it takes 20 minutes, and I don't care about waiting, cause I usually tell it to load and go start dinner or something equally mundane.

I took all the folders out of my downloads folder, and am going through each section seperately. I've been working on HAIR since sunday.

I tried using the orphaned mesh thing in Simpe, but it took so damn long to run and didn't really help much, so I abandoned it. I still wish there was a smallish program that would load or at least show a picture of what things look like in game, for fast deleting. But I don't mind going through and deleting everything in chunks. It just takes awhile. I had over 3500 files in the hair folder alone. about 6000 in clothes, which is my next step. I don't even want to THINK about the objects and recolors folders, because i KNOW they're off the hook.

I really need to stop being a CC whore. :D

I'm going to interrupt here and self-indulge in a little "attagirl".

My DL folder with Sims 1 was more than huge, and completely unorganized. Although I have a lot of CC for Sims 2, it's organized and not insurmountable.

Attagirl, ElfPuddle!!

Thank you.

Sims2 Categorizer at Simwardrobe show the objects and you can delete them with their recolors. I sorted through my objects a while ago with it. It also allows you to move meshes and recolors to folders. As the recolor searching takes a while, I'd suggest doing the sorting in a game with only meshes and recolors, so it doesn't go through all the clothing and stuff trying to find the recolors.

I also adapted a method for sorting objects in-game. As some objects work with a repository technique (borrowing textures from other objects) I had had major problems when I deleted objects that I didn't want.

So I solved it by making 2 backups of my downloads on the desktop, one for sorting, one just to be on the safe side. I then loaded the game with the 3rd copy of the downloads folder, and in game, only deleted stuff -recolors and meshes- that I wanted to keep. Then when I was done, all I was left was stuff I was ready to say goodbye to. So, I shut down the game, opened the downloads folder, copied everything, pasted into one of the backups, allowed it to overwrite everything. Then, very carefully, without pressing anything else, I chose edit/invert selection, then I cut/copied the now selected items (the ones I had previously deleted) and put them in a fresh new folder. Then I deleted the non-backup 3rd copy of my downloads folder (or you can move it somewhere and mark it bye-bye downloads, I did that too) and put my fresh new folder with the stuff I wanted in, and renamed it to Downloads.

Then I categorised them properly and sorted them into sub-folders with the Categoriser. Now, every time I download stuff, I put them in a temporary folder in downloads until I can sort them out. You can say I'm pretty anal about this. And as a side-note, I kept going crazy that the categoriser wouldn't show thumbnails properly, then I found out that it has to be loaded and clicked on in the catalog-in the game once before it showed up in the catalog. I'm just pointing this out because it was frustrating enough for me until I found out, just to save you the hassle.

I also use DJS sims' collection creator. When I download lots of new meshes, I create a collection from those items, and when I fire up the game, I don't have to search for the new items to click for the categoriser.

Well, those are my techniques. It makes it a lot easier to have sorted downloads. For example, if I suddenly realise that a maxis-table is missing because of a corrupt package file (and I can't remember when it happened), it's pretty easy to track it down. I just test my newmesh/surfaces/diningtables folder, and it's soo much easier than going through a lot of obselete hairs, sims, fireplaces, etc.

Well, I took the objects folder out to see if it was quicker with just the downloads one, but I forgot to time it  ::)
I have always had a separate Objects folder, with every site in a subfolder. and I have a separate Hacks folder, which works perfectly.
I put the objects in downloads when i check for duplicates, but it takes an even insaner time with Simpe.
I could not delete everything. I'm hoping for a spontaneous combustion.
I've been deleting lips, so much work for so little space. And a good number of the sims in bodyshop.
And if EA listened and made it so that Bodyshop did not go back to the beginning each time I delete something, things would be so much efficient.

Most of the bulk of the files will be hairs and objects. Make up and hacks are nearly negilible. Anything with new meshes with a high poly count will drive your loading time up.

And my downloads folder is as follows: (Which is further seperated into a kajillion folders)

Automotive
Build Mode
Clothing
Clothing Meshes
Default Replacements
Genetics
Hacks
Makeup
Objects
Sims

The download problem can be helped a lot by separating your neighborhoods. Not every neighborhood needs 1,000 sci-fi objects, not  every neighborhood needs 500 Victorian gowns, etc.

I keep all my neighborhoods separate, and each has about 5,000-10,000 downloads. I can download anything I want, as much as I want, and not worry about my game loading forever. Waiting more than 5 minutes is crazy to me. I do have one neighborhood that has a bit more stuff, and it takes about 10 minutes to load, but it's the only neighborhood I'd accept that from.

Even if you don't do "themed" neighborhoods, think about it this way: Can you really use all 400 walls and floor sets you've downloaded, all in one neighborhood? Or, do you find yourself reusing the same objects in every house? If each neighborhood has its own downloads, you are able to HAVE a lot more custom content, and you USE a lot more custom content!

Oh, and I also love using different default replacements (eyes, skins, etc) in different neighborhoods.

Thanks for that tip, Blubug - I dumped the categoriser precisely because it wouldn't show the thumbnails but wasn't smart enough to try loading the game.

Have downloaed downloaded the latest version and will try it tonight.

[edited to clean up brain fart]

There's an amusing idea. Go and report all of the bugs we have fixes for, and record the EA response, see how many of them involve "removing all your custom downloads" or "reinstalling", both of which are the wrong answer. :P

No problem at all, I was pulling my hair out trying to figure why, and then I read the manual again for the 15th time, and it hit me:

Q: Why does my object show a black question mark on a purple background instead of a thumbnail image?

A: The game does not generate a thumbnail for an object unless you view the object's catalog page (the page with the name and description on it). Sometimes just paging through a function category will generate thumbnails for objects that are missing them and sometimes it will not.

I didn't understand that you were supposed to do it in the game! I kept clicking and editing in the Categoriser Catalog :D It's a brilliat categoriser, saves me loads of time doing the editing in Simpe.

Well holy crap. I stopped using that tool for the same reason. Should have RTFM! :D Now I know. And knowing is half the battle!