Downloads Cleanup = Oi!

[myskaal]

At 6k+ downloads my game has decided it's had enough.  So the last few days I've been cleaning up, getting rid of things that I just never use and trying to ignore how good they are in the process. However, today I've run into a problem.

Not all things are so easily determined what they are outside of game so I decided to clean up inside the catalog in game. Yea woops. Ok so, while deleteing recolors I've caused some oddities. I'm getting the blue "this re-color doesn't work" on custom objects that are no longer delete-able from the catalog, even though they were delete-able before I deleted another recolor for it.

..I hope that made sense.

I wrote down the names and have attempted to locate them outside the game. Now I'm finding that some of these things are not showing up at all in clean installer - as if they were actually completely deleted, even though I wasn't able to delete them. 

So have they actually been deleted and they're stuck in some catalog cache somewhere and that's why they are still showing up in the catalog?
Anyone have any idea what's going on here?

Tired, confused and actually just want to get back to playing my game before 2007.

[BlueSoup]

Man.  That sounds like a big ole mess.  What about just deleting all the objects, etc. (not terrains or clothes, since those can crash games and lots if they're in use) and then just starting over really selectively?

[myskaal]

If I can't figure out how to get these goof ups out of the catalog I'll be doing that. After all the clean up time I've put in doing it the long way I'm hoping not to.

Fortunately the good stuff is easily found again because the smart folks put their name on it! 

editing to add: I'm trying to avoid it because it's down to 9 objects that are goofed out of the whole lot.

[BlueSoup]

Try deleting your groups.cache and try it again.  I think that may have something to do with CC.

[myskaal]

Will give it a try and let you know if it doesn anything. Thanks 

[myskaal]

Bluesoup, that seems to have fixed the problem. Thanks very much for the tip!

[BlueSoup]

Oh, I'm so glad.  A total shot in the dark. 

[ZephyrZodiac]

I've got a few of those blue icons around in my game, deleting groups.cache, which I do regularly, has had no effect, but I think there may still be a house or two in this hood that I need to get into where the original may still be in use.  In the case of some bedding, I even know exactly what bedding caused the problem, and thought I'd deleted it from my game when it showed up as not being updatable for some reason.

myskaal, instead of deleting stuff you like, why not make a new Downloads folder with a theme, and use it for one particular hood, and just move the stuff you like into that folder? 

[myskaal]

Whether it was the groups.cache or simply restarting the game that did it is hard to really say but after coming here, deleting the cache and then going back into the game the objects and recolors I couldn't delete were either already gone or I could delete them.

My game is still chugging, though. Looks like I'm going to have to dump it all and redownload a lot more selectively anyway. 

[ZephyrZodiac]

Well, why not start by moving out any really enormous files.  Also, you can check in SimPE for files with very high poly counts.  If you take these kind of files out you might be surprised at how much the game improves.  But 6GB is a very large amount, my game is beginning to slow and I only have around 2GB.

But as I said before, you could split your downloads into themes which you use with different neighbourhoods.

Also, it's worth checking with the Clean Installer for duplicated files.

[JeanMaas]

Ooh, i do have the same problem. my game does still work (only a very slow start-up), but i know there are many errors due to bad objects. and there are many clothing and hair that are not functioning (btw. i have not downloaded lots yet). as i still have the original downloads i was thinking to use another accound on my pc and build-up there a new download-file. these are my problems:

1. how do i prevent myself from putting in the same wrong stuff.
2. is there a quick way because i do have about 3800 original downloads.
3. i don't even know if i can find the mesh if it is not included.
4. looking at something with cleaninstaller i don't always regognise what it is, especially the objects.
5. sometimes even cleaninstaller don't know what it is.
6. soon i wil get nl, some downloads, may need that to function. do i better wait for it?

i do have some more questions. i have a nice costom tv in game. it looks like it fuctions oke, but when i opend the cheat-barr i saw there was an errror something to do with sound. also found errors relating to the sims function determing if they like the surrounding airia, the whole room is made with costum stuff. i am now wondering if i have to test every object one by one in game to be really sure that it is not causing any errors.

well, the bottom line i think is, that i can't find head nor tails.

jean

[ZephyrZodiac]

Well, if you have your downloads sorted by the site they came from you could start by removing folders or sites which you know you've had problems with before, and leaving in the ones you trust.  Some sites have upgraded stuff which originally had very high poly counts (4ESF springs to mind, a lot of things there were improved) and it's worth checking to see if you have the latest version.

I get a whole string of audio errors in my logs files, even in a vanilla game which I use for building, but I only got them post NL, and I think they are to do with the new speech patterns introduced at the dinging table - sometimes a sim is speaking, but inaudible.  I tend to think that a lot of these errors are purely the game being a bit busy saving stuff, or dealing with who is going to walk by next, and the speech sound doesn't initialise straight away.  (I also get error logs pertaining to trees - Maxis trees!! Not even recolours!)

Try running each folder in your downloads throughSimPE, which WILL know which is a mesh and which is a recolour of that mesh.  Virtually all Mesh files that I have do have MESH somewhere in the filename, so if your downloads folder is a jumble, just run a search for MESH and put everything you find into a folder called Meshes. Meshes for objects are usually quite small, and there's no point in removing them unless you know you really don't want them but putting them all togethr in one folder will sort out any that are duplicated. 

Apart from that, sorting your downloads folder is, in my experience, a long and painstaking process, although I quite like doing it, I know a lot of people don't.  However, it gives you the chance to get everything proprely organised.  Once you have Nightlife it will be easier to organise everything as you can have separate files for all your clothing, hair, genetics etc. as well, so I would leave all those items until you've installled NL and concentrate on your objects and Walls/Floors first.  Walls and floors don't need to be in the Downloads, just in TheSims2, and you can put in subfolders to make them easy to find - although it's no guarantee they will be easy to find in game!

Best of Luck!

[JeanMaas]

thank you zz, you calmed me down quite a bit. i just need to take it step by step. i don't really dislike it, it's just a very big mountain. you gave me some very good tips that i can work with. thanks a lot.

jean

[ZephyrZodiac]

Well, the more you do, the easier it gets.  You get into your own way of doing things, and if you get a routine for when you download stuff, it helps.

For example, I use the MultiSims2Pack Installer for any walls and floors that don't come as package files.  First I put the Sims2Pack(s) in a folder with the name of the wall, floor, wall and floor set etc., then I drag the MultiSims2Pack Installer Icon from the desktop into the folder and flick on it to install.  You get the browser to find the folder and just click on the first s2p in the folder and they'll all be installed there.  delete the sims2pack(s) and the temp file(s) and put the folder into you walls and floors folder.  Or, if like me you keep a copy of all your downloads, copy the folder to one place, then move it to the other if necessary.  (I usually download my stuff to a New Downloads folder, so once it's in the game I move it to a back up folder on my 2nd hard drive to save space.)

Other people will no doubt do it differently, but this way works for me.

[myskaal]

6k+ custom files not 6GB. My computer would have blown me up for that much. *L* It's not the greatest system in the world but it does ok. The folder was at about 1.8GB size.

I'm still going to go through the redownloading because I'm thinking I've left meshes with no textures and who knows what else I may have messed up in my attempt to clean up. There's too many things I can't figure out what they are - even though I do have them all subfoldered according to either the creators name/site name they came from there are still things that came from before I decided to get organized that I have no idea what they are (that'd be the MISC folder heh). I know I could just dump that folder but then I have no idea what I'll be orphaning etc.

I have used SimPE's file scanner to try to find orphaned meshes but it sometimes pops  up orphans for things I know for a fact work fine in my game (like recolors for Numenor's glass walls/windows) so I don't completely trust it.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Well, the same applies to the Clean Installer, it occasionally won't accept an object that I  know works fine in game, and SimPE also accepts it.  Wierd! 

There must be a way of checking which meshes and which recolours go together, though.  It doesn't matter so much if the recolours are from the same site and all together in the same folder, but it's a problem when you've got a downloaded mesh and a couple of recolours by the creator in one folder, and recloours from someone else in another!  wish I could think of a way!

[myskaal]

it's a problem when you've got a downloaded mesh and a couple of recolours by the creator in one folder, and recloours from someone else in another

Exactly what makes it such a pain!
I know DatGen had the scan for missing textures/orphaned meshes option as well and it seemed to be a bit more in depth than the SimPE file scanner. Alas they've gone belly up.

[JeanMaas]

yes, myskaal and zz, that's exactly what i'm worrying about. just did a check on my download-folder it's 2.85 GB. i know i'm nuts, sometimes adhd is not a nice thing to have.

yeh, i probbably find a way to handle new downloads in a organised way. for now i have forbidden myself to download, because i act like a kid in a candystore. all these downloads i have gathered in a month time or so. and as they came in big loads i just all unzipped them and put hem in. later i discoverd clean installer, but that was too late from preventing making the mess i have now.

but i did find my head, i'm going to start to sort my floors and walls, those must be fairly easy to do. after that the objects, because some are messing up the CEP-effect.

anyway, i was thinking about the mysterius left-overs. is it possible to identify them in a clean game, some kind of batch testing or something? i mean start the game (one you don't play with) without the leftovers, but with the other downloads and see that you are missing? or the other way around and see if there is anything there?

jean

[ZephyrZodiac]

If you mean all the stuff with long filenames that could be walls and floors, make up etc. that you opened with the SimsInstaller, or could also be unlinked sims that hitched a ride in downloaded houses, then the CleanInstaller should be able to identify most of them.  Put all such files into one folder, call it something like Suspect Downloads, and open Clean Installer, then browse for that folder wherever you have put it.  When the Clean Installer searches through that folder you will get a list of objects, clothes etc plus possibly a lot of files called "person".  Find the filename of that "person" which, as someone pointed out earlier, can be found if you mouse over the item, then find that file in the folder and delete it.  Deal with those first, then go on to look at, say, any walls and floors.  If the filenumber ends with 001, 002 etc., the chances are that they are a copy of a file you already have, if that file is also in the folder, then the Insaller will highlight them as duplicates.  If the file is not highlighted, then it becomes more difficult, as you need to find the original file to make sure that you aren't deleting something you don't have elsewhere.  One reason for this is that if you downloaded houses from a pay site, then the site may have included some of their own walls and floors in the house, and you paid for them!

You can safely delete any second, third or fourth copies, which should mean you have less to search for.  Then do the same with all the object and recolour files, then the skins and genetics etc.  Next, if you put all the walls and floors you have kept with the ones you know are walls and floors, you can use SimPE to check them all.  I have all my walls and floors in subfolders according to site or creator, then in further subfolders with the name of the wall or floor.  With some files that actually have the name of the wall/floor in the filename I don't bother, unless it's a set and then I put the whole set in one folder.

I used up a lot of sheets of paper and pencils to do this, then I realised that if you copy the whole walls and floors folder to your desktop, that folder isn't grabbed by Simpe and you can do all the work you want in that folder.  When you have finished it, the other folder is redundant and can be deleted.

Once the walls and floors are done, you need to do the same thing for objects etc. 

[myskaal]

Alright alright.

Nice outline of the process, Zephyr.
Do note he's left out that you'll need toothpicks for your eyelids, a lot of Dew, and perhaps one of those squishy stress balls nearby.

For myself, I'm done for now.
Downloads knocked down to 4,174 files, 1.43GB; 918 files and 305MB of which are objects. Walls and floors not included. I.. er.. guess I'm more of a fashion freak than I ever intended to be. 
Game running smoothly. Now I'm wondering if maybe it wasn't so much the number of downloads but perhaps some conflicting objects.. or maybe some huge file sized ones. *shrug* Either way I'm happeh with things again and only had to force myself to forget about a few doors, windows, stairs, fences..... *weep*


Good luck with your cleanup as well, Jean!

[ZephyrZodiac]

If you check, Myskaal, you'll see that if you're referring to me, that you made a miscall!

But thanks, I tried to make it as explicit as possible, and it's not easy to explain everything!  Just wish someone would make a Sims2 equivalent of SimWallCat!  Now that was a useful program!

[myskaal]

Woops! Apologies.

The S is invisible really!

[ZephyrZodiac]

Brynne has a similar problem so it's something one gets used to!  The avatar is a bit misleading I suppose, but it was suggested to me and I thought, why not?

[JeanMaas]

lol, i was mislead too for a while, but lurking around things begame clear.

yeh, i do need something for this, ritalin i think. if i enter my download-folder i have to stare for ages to that dancing flashlhite. that's why i started with clean installer. one long wait, but after that it's easy sorting by type and moving. then i have some nice 'little' batches to look at.

zz, thank you for explaining, you really helped me find a way how to handle this.

myskaal, lol, i think i begame a fashion freak too, even though i'm not irl.

thank you both,
jean

[flowerchile]

As a dumbass newbie, How do you delete groups.cache.  My downloads folder is 63.3 MB, that seems qite small compared to some, but th startup and neighborhoods are slow and choppy, my computer is running all the latest memory and video card etc.  Any ideas?