Patch 1.8/2.3 plus Create a World Released

[simfan]

Has anyone else converted all their simpacks to package files? I have, and now my game takes foooooooooooooooorever to load.

[tylersada]

Has anyone noticed a new file in the downloads folder "nav.bin".  I'm technically illiterate and don't know what it is.  I have tried to delete it but it regenerates with the game.  What does this little file track?  Does anyone know?

[Lorea]

Yup. Looks like WA will remain uninstalled untill I can figure something out.

Thanks for your help though

EDIT - Panic over... it now fucking works!! I uninstalled WA, ran the base game, fine, re-installed WA, put the framework files into both folders, except the cfg file,  ran it again and wallah... we have an updated, working game with the expansion pack installed...

Now after all that hassle, I dont even want to play the pissing game. Im sick of the sight of it... ARGH

I have exactly same problem what you had. But I don't really understand this part: "put the framework files into both folders, except the cfg file".
What two folders? And you didn't put back the Resource.cfg file? Without the Resource.cfg file I don't have CCs in my game..

[J. M. Pescado]

So much performance is lost through having too many .package objects installed. Performance wise, it seems sims3packs are far better than using the framework and .package to install object mods, yet there isnt a reliable way to make sims3packs from package files, nor is there a nice clean (working) way to install sims3packs. What we really need, for the sake of game performance, is a way to add package and sims3pack to a custom dbc without having to load the game to do it like the current horrible launchers.

That's easy. A DBC is just a package file where all the contents have been catted together.

[coconnor]

Yup. Looks like WA will remain uninstalled untill I can figure something out.
Thanks for your help though
EDIT - Panic over... it now fucking works!! I uninstalled WA, ran the base game, fine, re-installed WA, put the framework files into both folders, except the cfg file,  ran it again and wallah... we have an updated, working game with the expansion pack installed...

Now after all that hassle, I dont even want to play the pissing game. Im sick of the sight of it... ARGH

I have exactly same problem what you had. But I don't really understand this part: "put the framework files into both folders, except the cfg file".
What two folders? And you didn't put back the Resource.cfg file? Without the Resource.cfg file I don't have CCs in my game..

The two folders you are referring to would be the base game installation directory, i.e. C:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3 (or something similar dependent on your operating system and whether or not you chose a default installation) and the installation directory for the expansion pack if you have it, i.e. C:\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\World Adventures.  The resource.cfg file would be moved with the actual mod file(s), but would be placed directly in the installation directory as opposed to within Mods>Packages.

I don't get what is so hard to understand.  Read the thread "How To Install The Framework & AwesomeMod". http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,17454.0.html

[Lorea]

The two folders you are referring to would be the base game installation directory, i.e. C:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3 (or something similar dependent on your operating system and whether or not you chose a default installation) and the installation directory for the expansion pack if you have it, i.e. C:\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\World Adventures.  The resource.cfg file would be moved with the actual mod file(s), but would be placed directly in the installation directory as opposed to within Mods>Packages.

I don't get what is so hard to understand.  Read the thread "How To Install The Framework & AwesomeMod". http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,17454.0.html

Ok, so I have to copy the framework files into C:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3 too. Yes, it was hard..

[coconnor]

Actually, it could not have been written in any simpler form.  It was written specifically to help those who are not very computer literate.  People need to read more carefully and follow instructions explicitly when that is the case.

[jezzer]

I did a 50/50 to restore my CC.  I reinstalled, installed all the S3Packs that didn't require patching to install, and used the DCB workaround.  Then I patched, and then extracted the Package files from the remaining S3Packs (about 10, mostly newest stuff), and added those to my package directory.  Everything is back in my game, and the load time isn't bad at all, since I only added a few Packages (as opposed to converting the entire store).

[KawaiiMiyo]

Has anyone else converted all their simpacks to package files? I have, and now my game takes foooooooooooooooorever to load.

     I have, with the exception of Riverview, which is installed via launcher. (Throwing the riverview package in my downloads folder resulted in a very distorted map.) 

     Sure my game runs slower than molasses, and trying to flip through clothing in CAS is painful to a suicidal extent. But I have my CC, and hey! With the new CAW tool, I can now attempt to balance things out, by moving my sims from the large expansive Sunset Valley, they've grown to know and love,  to a tiny empty island, with a few scattered 1x1 lots!  It kind of helps?

[Audrey]

Okay, I am glad there is a toilet nearby because I am sh***ng myself.  I am about to embark on clean install with legal copies of both base and WA.  I am going to patch via the launcher, so hold thumbs for me.  I am really scared as I have a great working but totally unpatched game at the mo, but I need things that are in the patches. 

After reading through this thread, I want to thank all those who contributed to helping screw my courage to the sticking post and go for it.  I will report back. *prays*.   

I have backed up everything. 

[jeno]

I've got a real base game and a downloaded WA.
Spent most of today shitting myself cause the game kept on throwing error messages out after I decided to patch 1.8/2.3

Reinstalled everything all over again
Backed up all my illicit Store downloads
Base game, then patched 1.8
WA, then patched 2.3, then copy+paste crack
Shortcut crack to Desktop for playing

That then loaded to the game menu and I didn't really check if my .S3Packs really worked.  
Problem then came up when I decided to use CAW's Edit in Game - it crashed after doing the normal WA load screen and was about to load my world.  Any possible bypass to make CAW run it with the crack instead?

Will check how the CCs work on this cracked thing

[EDIT]: Scratch that.  Trying to get to my old backed-up games seems to have caused the whole thing to crash.

[Noclue]

After installing the patches of doom, couldn't even start the game.  So, I did a complete uninstall using Revo Uninstaller and CCleaner, plus searching through regedit.exe for anything remaining.
Installed S3 then patched it including 1.8, then WA including 2.3.
Installed Riverview, checked to see if it was working and it was doing fine.  
Disabled Store mode in options, moved the two files EA created in downloads in case they were needed but after disabling store they weren't.  
Put the rest of the Sims3packs that I had in the Download folder, including the ones from here, and installed them from the launcher all at once.  
Everything is showing up fine including the free content from TSR (hope it's not infected with termites) and, so far, the game is not crashing.

I could be wrong but, I think the two odd files are created by the store that is now included in the launcher and after turning it off they were no longer needed.  I have not installed the World Tool as some are saying it may also cause problems.  Waiting until it gets out of Beta. As for new content that is just now being created, I have no idea if it will work.  

Update:  Asian Fusion, Regal Living, and a couple of others stopped showing up.  Tried deleting cache files, reinstalling, etc.  but to no good end.  Some of the clothes stopped showing up and now list as not installed.  I don't know why it did this unless it just now detected that they were, ahem, not legit.  I'm uninstalling and reinstalling without the patch of the damned.  Maybe "the Hero who runs this forum"  will find a way.  The mojo is with him.  

[Audrey]

I installed the game from scratch and ended up with a 1.8.25 version.  I ran the game without cc and saved sims, then put saved sims back and cc but no package files.  The bloody game is still loading, half an hour later.  I took out the cc and it loaded fast.  So I took out all the hacks and reloaded, still as slow as a snail.  My old arred game was much faster with all the cc and saved sims.  I really don't know why this is happening.  Can anyone shed any light on why it should be so slow? I also tried it with and without the right version of AM, but no improvement. 

All wanted from the patching were the 4 new CAS sliders and the ability to expand the amount of sliders you have in CAS.  I could care less about the rest of the shit that the patches fixed.

[coconnor]

After installing the patches of doom, couldn't even start the game.  So, I did a complete uninstall using Revo Uninstaller and CCleaner, plus searching through regedit.exe for anything remaining.
Installed S3 then patched it including 1.8, then WA including 2.3.
Installed Riverview, checked to see if it was working and it was doing fine.  
Disabled Store mode in options, moved the two files EA created in downloads in case they were needed but after disabling store they weren't.  
Put the rest of the Sims3packs that I had in the Download folder, including the ones from here, and installed them from the launcher all at once.  
Everything is showing up fine including the free content from TSR (hope it's not infected with termites) and, so far, the game is not crashing.

I could be wrong but, I think the two odd files are created by the store that is now included in the launcher and after turning it off they were no longer needed.  I have not installed the World Tool as some are saying it may also cause problems.  Waiting until it gets out of Beta. As for new content that is just now being created, I have no idea if it will work.  

I also cut those files to the desktop and disabled the in game store.  So, that works.

I installed the game from scratch and ended up with a 1.8.25 version.  I ran the game without cc and saved sims, then put saved sims back and cc but no package files.  The bloody game is still loading, half an hour later.  I took out the cc and it loaded fast.  So I took out all the hacks and reloaded, still as slow as a snail.  My old arred game was much faster with all the cc and saved sims.  I really don't know why this is happening.  Can anyone shed any light on why it should be so slow? I also tried it with and without the right version of AM, but no improvement.  

All wanted from the patching were the 4 new CAS sliders and the ability to expand the amount of sliders you have in CAS.  I could care less about the rest of the shit that the patches fixed.

Package files slowing down the game were a product of the last patch.  Over at MTS2 they have a thread with a program called Process Monitor.  Get that and run it.  It's a bit of an effort and you have to really read the thread to figure out the filters, etc., but you might find problematic packages that way.

[Druscylla]

The best part about this whole thing is that TSR is now sending people here to fix Fail Patch. Again I must say, How the mighty have crumbled.

[Audrey]

Thank you Coconner!!  This works.  I have deleted the offending files and the load time is down from 45 mins to 3-4.  Thanks for the tip.  Now all I need is to get me sims3pack files back.  

How many files are there in DCCache which need to be copied over to the packages file?  I see only 2.  dccbt.ebc and missingdeps.idx.  Should there be more files?

Editing to say that I also ran the launcher and the sims3pack stuff which I had downloaded from other sites is now showing up, but not the Sims3 site stuff which I had before.  Some of it is no loss but there is a nice suit that I want back.  

Now the next step is to install World Adventures without causing too much damage to my computer.

What is likely to happen?  I am assuming that patch 2.3 is the one that comes down the launcher when WA is installed and again I am assuming that Awesomemod is up to speed with that patch as it does say 1.8/2.3 which is the one I have currently installed.  Is Create a World also going to come down the launcher as well, because I am not interested in this and how do I stop it if this is the case?

[simfan]

Thank you Coconner!!  This works.  I have deleted the offending files and the load time is down from 45 mins to 3-4.  Thanks for the tip.  Now all I need is to get me sims3pack files back.  

do you have a list of these bad files?

[Druscylla]

I don't think there is a list out yet. However some people reported that certain files they had downloaded for Sims 3 in actuality were sims 2 files. Obviously the game can't run them so they attempted to load in a loop causing longer load times. Its really best if you get it and run it yourself, though it is a somewhat long process. Its very much worth it if you are suffering grossly large load times.

[coconnor]

The best part about this whole thing is that TSR is now sending people here to fix Fail Patch. Again I must say, How the mighty have crumbled.

Really?  Where did you read that?  I'd like to see it!

[Druscylla]

The best part about this whole thing is that TSR is now sending people here to fix Fail Patch. Again I must say, How the mighty have crumbled.

Really?  Where did you read that?  I'd like to see it!

TSR has a thread about the patch here http://forums.thesimsresource.com/showthread.php?t=378097

On page 7 moza - one of their moderators - points people directly at YOU, my friend. Note the secrecy.

Search on google for "coconnor at MATY", the first link is a thread he posted in, you can click to look at his profile, and find all his posts, and it was on the first page on them.

We don't allow links to MATY, and I cannot really be any more specific to find it than that.

[coconnor]

The best part about this whole thing is that TSR is now sending people here to fix Fail Patch. Again I must say, How the mighty have crumbled.

Really?  Where did you read that?  I'd like to see it!

TSR has a thread about the patch here http://forums.thesimsresource.com/showthread.php?t=378097

On page 7 moza - one of their moderators - points people directly at YOU, my friend. Note the secrecy.

Search on google for "coconnor at MATY", the first link is a thread he posted in, you can click to look at his profile, and find all his posts, and it was on the first page on them.

We don't allow links to MATY, and I cannot really be any more specific to find it than that.

Oh my, seems I'm gaining some unwanted notoriety!  I will have to go there and complain!

[Audrey]

It's like Druscylla said - they were Sims 2 files which had I had thought were Sims 3 files.  It really isn't that long a process.  You just have to let it the Program Manager run whilst you load Sims3 and then you will start to notice that certain files are replicating.  Stop the Manager and scroll down.  Have your Packages folder open and delete the files that are replicated a lot.  Then run your Sims 3 again.  You will notice a huge difference in loading times.

What is likely to happen on loading WA?  I am assuming that patch 2.3 is the one that comes down the launcher when WA is installed and again I am assuming that Awesomemod is up to speed with that patch as it does say 1.8/2.3 which is the one I have currently installed.  Is Create a World also going to come down the launcher as well, because I am not interested in this and how do I stop it if this is the case?

[brownlustgirl]

No, Create a World is a separate download.

[coconnor]

Thank you Coconner!!  This works.  I have deleted the offending files and the load time is down from 45 mins to 3-4.  Thanks for the tip.  Now all I need is to get me sims3pack files back.  
How many files are there in DCCache which need to be copied over to the packages file?  I see only 2.  dccbt.ebc and missingdeps.idx.  Should there be more files?

Editing to say that I also ran the launcher and the sims3pack stuff which I had downloaded from other sites is now showing up, but not the Sims3 site stuff which I had before.  Some of it is no loss but there is a nice suit that I want back.  

Now the next step is to install World Adventures without causing too much damage to my computer.

What is likely to happen?  I am assuming that patch 2.3 is the one that comes down the launcher when WA is installed and again I am assuming that Awesomemod is up to speed with that patch as it does say 1.8/2.3 which is the one I have currently installed.  Is Create a World also going to come down the launcher as well, because I am not interested in this and how do I stop it if this is the case?

Audrey:  You should have at least 1 file with the ending .dbc in the DCCache.

[A Gorilla To Be Remembered]

I finally have my game running smoothly (so far) with shared sims3pack cc from the store. I'm a mac user, and the dbc trick did not work post hoc for getting newly installed cc into my game (like an idiot, I clean installed and couldn't get my shit back into the game). Additionally, I can't go back to the previous patch because manually installed patches appear to be PC .exe's only. So I started from scratch (yet again) and got everything hunky dory. So as a courtesy I'm going to post what I did, step-by-step, to get my game running again so that others don't have to filter through a zillion forum posts as I did. I'm sorry if much of this is superfluous, but mac users have few resources and no one (that I've yet seen) seemed to have a concrete answer for exactly how to work around this specific issue of what to do when the .dbc trick isn't working after a clean install. So without further ado:

Making the 2.3 patch work for dummy mac users who can't get their store shit into their game after clean installing
*If you have arr'd versions of the game, caveat emptor, as I don't know if this will work for you
**This is a fix for the existing store items you have. If the store puts out anything new, either buy legit it, convert it to .package, covet it indefinitely, or cross your fingers that the issue is resolved by then.

Step 1: Just start the hell over if you are completely lost right now. Backup your saved games, uninstall the game, and go into your user library to delete your sims3 preferences.

Step 2: Install the base game. Do not launch the game after the install, besides, since you have a mac you won't be able to properly use the base game's gimpy pseudo-launcher-for-macs anyway.

Step 3: Install WA. Launch the game but DO NOT PATCH. Hit cancel when it asks to patch, then go into updates and uncheck the automatic updates box. You should have a fully working launcher now. Yay for you.

Step 4: Create your "Downloads" folder in documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3.

Step 5: Plop your shared store sims3packs (EXCEPT FOR RIVERVIEW) into the newly created downloads folder and install (installing Riverview directly from the sim3pack is causing issues for some people, so you're going to install it directly from the store in a bit unless you want to attempt the insane workaround here: http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,17610.0.html). However, my way is easier as long as you have a legit copy of the game.

Step 6: If you have non-store sim3packs you want to install, now is the time to do it (or wait until the end if you're comfortable converting sims3packs to .package files)

Step 7: Launch your game and make sure everything you want is showing up. Everything there? You sure? You super-duper sure-as-shit positive? Good. Exit the game.

Step 8: Relaunch and patch (*gasp*).

Step 9: This is the hard part for mac dummies. We're going to do the .dcb trick. First, install your modding framework, or get Pescados nifty one here: http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,15184.0.html.

Step 10: Edit your resource.cfg. If you find you can't open the resource.cfg, just right click (or control click) and open with TextEdit. Delete the text and paste Coconnor's text in its place:

Priority 500
DirectoryFiles Mods/Packages/... autoupdate
PackedFile Mods/Packages/*.package
PackedFile Mods/Packages/*/*.package
PackedFile Mods/Packages/*/*/*.package
PackedFile Mods/Packages/*/*/*/*.package
PackedFile Mods/Packages/*/*/*/*/*.package
PackedFile Mods/Packages/*.dbc
PackedFile Mods/Packages/*/*.dbc

Hit save. If you have a resource.cfg in your mods/files folder, edit that one too.

Step 11: Make sure you have a d3dx9_31.dll in the WA root folder's game/bin folder AND into the base game's root game/bin folder. Breathe, you're almost there.

Step 12: Go into the game's DCCache (Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3/DCCache), and copy any files ending in .dbc. Paste these into your mods/packages folder. Viola! All your shared store cc will now show up in the game. Go ahead and check, it should be there (but without the little custom content icon).

Want Riverview? Then you're not done. Just go to the EA store and redownload it. It'll show up good as new.

REMEMBER, every time you install anything via the launcher, copy the .dcb files from the DCCache and paste them into your packages folder (replacing the old ones). And like I said at the beginning, Sims Store stuff you try to install at this point won't show up unless it's directly from the store. Yeah yeah, lament lament.

Also, if you want to download non-store sims3packs (such as from TSR, Parsimonious, or Around The Sims) at this point, go ahead. BUT, the installation is dodgy. Some will install and some won't. In the event of an uninstallable .sims3pack, just convert it to a .package with JFade's 3viewer (http://forum.jfade.com/viewtopic.php?f=51&t=466) and drop it into the mods/packages folder. It should show up just fine.

Lastly, this is what worked for me, but this may not work the same way for you. Sorry, can't help you in that case since I'm an asinine airhead. This is the best I can do for myself and anyone else. Good luck.