How to identify custom content used?

[hedgekat]

In Sims 1 you could open a character or house file with notepad and find the file names of walls, floors, and custom objects or character hair and clothing files.   

Is there any way to do that in TS2?  It would be sooo helpful to be able to know what custom content has actually been used when I want to weed out my downloads folder.   I try to write it down when I use it (if it has a tag or I know what its name is.)  but I often forget.  I've had people show up bald or in awful Maxis clothes or have bare walls or floors or furniture items that I KNOW I never put in their house  because I deleted something that I forgot that I had used.

Anyone know of a program that will list it for you or have tips on how to keep track of stuff?

[J. M. Pescado]

No.

[DrNerd]

The closest you can do is use the Clean Installer.  With Sims, clone them with SimPE, pop open BodyShop, save the Sim and package it to a file on your desktop (or wherever), then double-click and the Clean Installer will list all of the CC in it.  With lots, you'll have to bin them and package them the same way, so make sure the lot is unoccupied when you bin it.  Save the file to your desktop, double-click to bring up the Clean Installer, and it'll give a list of the CC.

[hedgekat]

Thank you, DrNerd.  Now why didn't I think of that?  I use Clean Installer regularly when downloading a new lot to check to see what CC I already have. 

Do you have to put the house in the bin?   I thought there was an option to package the lot when you click on it in the neighborhood.   I have about 75 houses with families to check. Once I get them inventoried this time I am going to update it every time I play the family from now on. Then I'm going to get rid of all the stuff I haven't used so I have room to add more new stuff.

But how accurate is Clean Installer with custom objects?   I just reinstalled an apartment that I designed a few eps back and noticed that it included a whole bunch of countertops plus extra stoves and fridges.  When I went inside the building in game I saw only one of the countertops and all stoves and fridges were Maxis. I remember when it started inlcuding all recolors but don't know if any later expansion has stopped that.

[snapzit]

You can also try Delphy's Download Organizer http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=227925 to sort out orphans and duplicate files.

[DrNerd]

Do you have to put the house in the bin?   I thought there was an option to package the lot when you click on it in the neighborhood.   I have about 75 houses with families to check.

But how accurate is Clean Installer with custom objects?   I just reinstalled an apartment that I designed a few eps back and noticed that it included a whole bunch of countertops plus extra stoves and fridges.  When I went inside the building in game I saw only one of the countertops and all stoves and fridges were Maxis. I remember when it started inlcuding all recolors but don't know if any later expansion has stopped that.

If there's an option to package the lot without binning it, then that would work, as long as it copies the family, rather than just removing them from the neighborhood or binning them.  You just never want to bin an occupied lot.

Maybe with the kitchen CC, you deleted the meshes but the textures were still there?  That would have resulted in them being replaced with Maxis objects, but the texture files would have still showed up in the Clean Installer, I think.  Or the meshes needed to be updated with the new EPs, maybe.  You might want to make a lot with CC that you keep track of, and then bin the lot and run it through the Clean Installer to see if it's identified the same CC you know went into it, to see how accurate it is.

[hedgekat]

With the kitchen CC,  the only things I used were a recolor of a Maxis countertop and a recolor of a Maxis stove.  I had several recolors of the countertop, plus two more of the stove and some for the cheap refrigerator in my downloads folder. All of those were included in the package file. 

If I remember correctly when TS2 first came out packaging a lot included only the custom content that was used in the lot.  With one of the later eps they started packaging ALL of the recolors of anything that was used in the lot.   That is what happened with my apartment.  But as I said I packaged that some time ago.  I am hoping that by AL it has reverted to the original method. If not, then packaging the lots may not work for identifying the custom content objects used. It would list the walls and floors but I can do that easily by entering the lot and using the eyedropper.  With object recolors that won't work.   

Sorry it's been taking me so long to respond to your posts.  I lost my internet access number and have been having difficulty finding another one that is not long distance. Disadvantage of living in a very rural area.

[DrNerd]

With the kitchen CC,  the only things I used were a recolor of a Maxis countertop and a recolor of a Maxis stove.  I had several recolors of the countertop, plus two more of the stove and some for the cheap refrigerator in my downloads folder. All of those were included in the package file. 

If I remember correctly when TS2 first came out packaging a lot included only the custom content that was used in the lot.  With one of the later eps they started packaging ALL of the recolors of anything that was used in the lot.   That is what happened with my apartment.  But as I said I packaged that some time ago.  I am hoping that by AL it has reverted to the original method. If not, then packaging the lots may not work for identifying the custom content objects used. It would list the walls and floors but I can do that easily by entering the lot and using the eyedropper.  With object recolors that won't work.   

Sorry it's been taking me so long to respond to your posts.  I lost my internet access number and have been having difficulty finding another one that is not long distance. Disadvantage of living in a very rural area.

Heh.  And here I just figured that you had a life!

I don't know about  binning before and after AL.  I only have through Seasons, and only recently binned a lot to share, and was careful to not use CC beyond the Lot Debugger and the invisible driveway recolor.

[hedgekat]

[Heh.  And here I just figured that you had a life!

LOL  Nope, no life.   I retired six years ago and since then the only life I have is lived through my sims. I leave them only grudgingly to do anything else.

[cwykes]

lotpackager always includes recolours of any maxis item in the house even though you didn't use the recolours!  It has done since base game and I've been moaning about it that long.  It's how CC ends up on the exchange even though people didn't intend to put it there.  've been hoping since base game that someone would rewrite lotpackager to do something more sensible or give you an interactive menu so you could say what to put in the package.  You'll probably find my moans and rants about it if you search for lotpackager.

[seelindarun]

Try moaning to Mootilda, if she hasn't given up modding TS2.  She knows everything worth knowing about lot packages.  She may even be able to speculate on how to identify CC used in a lot properly.

[Mootilda]

No, I haven't given up modding TS2.  The lot package has an array with every object used on the lot.  The LotAdjuster uses that list to find the portals, phone booth, garbage can, and mailbox, so that it can move things to the correct location.

However, I'm not sure how I would go about determining whether an object was CC or not.  It would definitely take some research; might require a complete list of every object in every EP and SP.

There's a thread at MTS where we've discussed objects in lot packages.  Here's a reasonable place to start:
http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?p=1817566#post1817566

I'm afraid that the wiki hasn't been updated with everything we know, but it's also a good resource.

[hedgekat]

What I have wound up doing is going into a lot, taking pics of all custom content, using the change tool to see where in the array of recolors a particular item is located.  I have found that to be closely related to where the item is in the download folder. I have various subfolders of downloads copied to desktop.  That was I can use CleanInstaller to view them even when I am in game.

This process is forcing me to organize my downloads even further. I am now putting all recolors of an object in a folder of its own.  Like all quaint endtables,  all club sofas. Easy then to locate any recolor.  All items that I have used are then moved to an identical folder for that neighborhood. The process is also helping me to identify things that I will never use and delete them, or at least move them out of game for theme stuff that is totally out of place for my current hood.