But it seemed like such a good idea at the time!

[MissDoh]

My god... I still wonder how can someone wait 7 minutes before a lot loads!

It is taking me less than a minute even for big houses like the Goth.

I did had tons of stuck awhile ago and delete it all when it started to take 2 min. to load big lots.

You are very patient...

I agree with JM, there is so many combination we can do in game I see no use in adding tons of custom stuff in the game.  After all, a toilet is a a toilet and hair is hair and make-up is make-up.  For me performance is way more important than having 100 choices of color bed sheets.

Yes, I cured myself.... do you want the address of my Sim shrink, she does wonders as you can see 

[IgnorantBliss]

I regularly clean out my downloads of stuff I never use. Even though I'm a creator myself, I often end up using Maxis items, anyway. I'm so picky about custom objects that I rarely end up playing with them for long (you know, the shadow doesn't match the object -> gone). Most of my own objects I never use, either  . Only some good ones end up having a long life in my game. Being extra critical helps you keep the downloads folder slim.

[MutantBunny]

Hi. My name is MutantBunny and I have EDD.

I only worry about it all before each new Ep. With each Ep I start thinking about load times and then I'm driven to go thru and get rid of those things I don't use much or don''t really like anymore.

It would certainly be MUCH easier if the delete function in game worked more efficeintly. That constant back to the beginining gets old fast and then there is just the length of time for each delete. I wish someone would hack that and make it better! Or if we had an item and object browser stand alone program -- that would be great.

Since NL, now that we can at least use sub folders, it's easier for me. Since most creators put their initials at the beginning of a file name that makes it easy to sort items. For instance, I have a folder named Objects and within that folder I have Sunair, Windkeeper, DH, etc. I tried doing it on type of item (doors, couches) but that didn't work good enough. Also, now I know the items well enough I can pretty much ID who made them. Still, that doesn't help me decide what to keep and what to throw. If we had a stand alone item viewer that allowed for 3d viewing.....

[JadeEliott]

Jade, it seems we think alike.

Um...err...well I would love to agree with that, but I can't since I stole most of my ideas from you, to be frank. :-)

I read a post you wrote in another downloading thread some months back where you gave detail on how you set up your DLs folder and I used that for inspiration.

Great minds think alike, others steal like crazy. *snort*

[SaraMK]

Um...err...well I would love to agree with that, but I can't since I stole most of my ideas from you, to be frank. :-)

LOL

Well then, I'm glad that post was useful!

[Jorenne]

I think I have been remarkably restrained in my downloading recently.

I had a great purge of stuff I don't use, and so I wasn't tempted to put it back in, I deleted it.  Yeah, really actually gone.  I pruned down from 6.4GB to 1.7GB, and boy I was proud of myself.  My game went from 45 minute load time to 31/2 minute load time.

Of course I am a severe EDD sufferer and have to confess that just a week after my great purge my Downloads folder has somehow crept back up to 2.3GB, it's not me I swear, pixies do it while I sleep!

[Brynne]

And it had nothing to do with my tempting you with male clothes the other day, either. 

[Jorenne]

Nope, I'm sure the 40-odd new shirts and jeans and and hot undies I downloaded have nothing to do with it at all. 

[Brynne]

I managed to clear out a good chunk of downloads, but I added in a whole bunch new of stuff thanks to the "male hair" thread on this forum. I'm hopeless.  But my sims look great ! 

[nectere]

And IgnorantBliss fattened my dl folder a little more. Its seems you like the same creators and objects I do. Of course you even had a few I have never seen before and the dl folder got even bigger.

It is a compulsion for me, I hate to shop and I hate to spend money, but when it comes to the sims I really enjoy building and decorating houses so I need scads of stuff to do that, otherwise after thirty houses, too much starts to look alike. I do need to do a cull this weekend though, I am almost up to 2.7gb. The thing that stops me from doing it is it really doesnt take all that long to load, at least not compared to my frustration when I want to decorate a house in something different from the last 5 or 6...

[eaglezero]

You know, I always thought my game took a heck of a long time to load, but it only ever took ten minutes from when I started it to when I was actually in a neighborhood. I can't imagine how crazy I'd be if it took 45 minutes!

[angelyne]

I wouldn't mind keeping only the stuff I actually have in play and getting rid of the rest. I wish there was a way to see what's being used or not, though, while out of the game. I'm tired of blindly deleting badly named files and going into the game to find every female walkby is now bald and wearing the same burgundy shirt/capris outfit. 

There was something I've been meaning to try, but haven't gotten around to yet. 

Step 1: package every house I am using, therefore hopefully including all the items used in the house.
Step 2: Remove the download folder.
Step 2: extract the content of the package house file and place the files back in the download folder.

I know this won't work for meshes, but you can always track them down one by one.

If we had a stand alone item viewer that allowed for 3d viewing.....

It's called including a jpg with every item.  It's time consuming but so worth it

[Brynne]

I've thought about doing that same exact thing!

[flowerchile]

Hmmmm,,  I've thought about this and came to the conclusion I need MORE downloads.  I obviously don't have enough as my game still loads in half a cigarette. 

*Off to find more downloads*

[angelyne]

I've thought about doing that same exact thing!

Let me know if it works

[Brynne]

I was hoping you'd let me know!

[Paperbladder]

Here's an idea, remove all the custom content which is not made by you or anyone at MATY when you install a new expansion.  Then, download your crap.  You'll find your download folder being quite a bit lighter, since you probably won't download stuff that you got in a TSR shopping spree that you never saw since the day you installed it.

Simply, you don't need 50 outfits for every sim.  Plus, there's a bunch included in the expansions.  Keep a few that you like, but you might want to go through the game periodically to get rid of the ones you don't use.  Also, don't use download managers such as QExpress or Sims2Pack to install anything other than houses.  These add stuff with garbled names which make it even harder to remove sims or clothing without entering the program.  Also, they might add unwanted content and a sim file which you will probably never use unless you downloaded a MATY animal or something.

Skins take up quite a bit of space, but meshes take up more.  If you're not using any of the meshes in your folder, toss them.  As a look at my DL folder right now, I've got 2 that are about 700K in size.  That's about 2% of my downloads folder currently, and I know how many people download tons of those.

My downloads folder?  It's 97MB and my game loads in about 5 seconds.  However, it may be because my computer is fairly recent and has 1GB of ram.

[Jorenne]

MisterPaper (oh I don't know why but I am loving your name lol)

It's definately the size of your downloads folder   My system has been totally overhauled in the last three months (New mobo, new CPU (twice), new PSU, More RAM, new graphics, in fact everything except the case and drives) and I have 1GB of RAM, and a 3.3GHz CPU, and my downloads folder is currently at 2.42GB (I know it's increased again, I SWEAR I didn't do it *looks shifty*) My game's not so bad now, takes maybe 5 or 6 minutes to load, perfectly acceptable from my point of view.

[J. M. Pescado]

GAAAH. 5 or 6 MINUTES to load? You have any idea how often I have to exit and restart my game while making something?

All Jorennes Suck!

[Regina]

JM, I would figure that if I had to exit and re-load my game for making something I'd take all my DLs out while doing that.

I don't know for sure how long it takes my game to load because I don't sit here and wait on it but it's not more than five or six minutes.

At any rate, I've spent a good part of the last three days going through so far all of my BodyShop content and grabbing screenshots from a dozen or so websites to add to the archives.  This was a great help because as I went through I also deleted scads of files that I'd decided sometime back I was tired of seeing in my game.  Everything was going really, really great until I went to Mermaid Cove to get some screenshots from there.  That's when I saw all of the absolutely awesome clothes my simmies have been begging for something like forever!  The great thing about Hairfish is that most of her clothes use in-game meshes, which goes along with one of my rules.  Basically, these are my rules for downloading for TS2:

#1.  Don't download excesses of clothes that use custom meshes.  If it's one mesh that five or six outfits can use, then fine.  If it's a couple of wedding dresses then fine.  Otherwise, forget it.  Also, don't download from any one site more than one outfit over a half-meg in file size.

#2.  Don't download custom eye colors or skin colors because the game sets customs as dominant, so you can have a Nordic blonde blue-eyed sim and a dark-haired brown-eyed sim end up with a Nordic blonde blue-eyed sim which is completely ridiculous.

#3.  Be careful with hair and meshes.  Some files aren't too huge but many are.  Also, keep toddler hairstyles to a minimum because the toddler stage is only 3-4 sim days and they clog the game with unnecessary hairstyles for later ages.  (I have to admit, I couldn't resist a set of most awesome dreadlocks.)

#4.  Kid clothes often work for both genders.  It's good to have a nice variety and you're always going to run into a few things that will be in your game from day one until the next-gen game comes out, which is fine, but it's just too easy to clog the game with kids' clothes.  Don't download kids' underwear.  They wear clothes in the daytime and sleep in their jammies.  Shoot, I don't even know IF my sim kids wear undies!

#5.  Never subscribe to any pay sites!  There's already too much custom content available for free, and the talented people willing to give it for free more than deserve a donation or two from me!

#6.  Be extremely picky about quality.  If it looks bad in the screenshot it probably looks worse in the game.  Even if it looks halfway decent in the screenshot it still may be hopeless.  However, if it's on Dincer Hepguler's site, go on a downloading rampage because it'll both look and function absolutely beautifully!

#7.  Don't put sims into your game unless it's into empty Downloads and SavedSims folders.  Then check in BodyShop and see exactly what's there because no one needs 347 shades of blue lipstick or pink eyeshadow.

As I said, these are just some of my rules.  A few I started out with, then have been adding more as I go along.

I still haven't decided exactly how I'm going to set up my new folder structure yet.  I still have a few more hairstyles to track down yet and a few articles of clothing.  I figure it's not as important with the objects because I've found it's pretty easy to delete them in-game.  (The design tool is a huge help for deleting textures, then the mesh can be deleted in the main buy screen.)  Hmmm.  Upon thinking about it for a half-minute or so, I think I'd best go snag screenshots for that stuff, too.  Otherwise I won't have any clue what I'm putting back into my game and I'll end up with everything I'd already removed.

[BlueSoup]

However, if it's on Dincer Hepguler's site, go on a downloading rampage because it'll both look and function absolutely beautifully!

Who is that, and what is their site?  (Man, I'm hopeless, but I don't care  )

[Jorenne]

Ahh yes, see as Misty pointed out, when making something I move my downloads folder out of the game, zip zip, speedy loading.

The problem with so many of these downloading "rules" is they don't fit my playing style at all.

I can't swap in and out folders according to themed hoods, because I only play one hood.

I play with aging off, so keeping toddlers clothes down while possible, is less accurate.  My toddlers are toddlers for four real-time months, my children are children for eight real-time months.

I have 92 residential lots, incuding multi-family lots such as apartments and duplexes, and as someone said before, it gets so tedious decorating essentially the same five times or more.

I have somewhere close to 365 playable sims, so to get a varied look across the 'hood, that's a lot of clothes/hair (even taking one outfit for each sim for each clothing type)

[eaglezero]

However, if it's on Dincer Hepguler's site, go on a downloading rampage because it'll both look and function absolutely beautifully!

Who is that, and what is their site?  (Man, I'm hopeless, but I don't care  )

Dude, you don't kno who Dincer Hepguler is? He's been around like foreeeeeeeeeever. He made a bunch of objects for sims1, and most of his sims2 objects are remakes of those (which is totally fine, as they were pretty nifty). His site is here. I think he also has some stuff on TSR that's not the same as what's at his site, but I'm not entirely sure.

ETA: found it: http://www.thesimsresource.com/profiles/view.php?mid=380800

[flowerchile]

3 minutes to load, I timed it today.  *Off to find yet more downloads*

Oh and Eaglezero; I think I love you...(Refer to post Sims1 for Sims2)

[eaglezero]

Oh and Eaglezero; I think I love you...(Refer to post Sims1 for Sims2)

What's funny is that in the Sims1 for Sims2 thread I didn't even THINK of Dincer, even though I have almost all his objects in my game. *headdesk* I'm so slow sometimes. Still, glad to have been of help.