Doubts about compiled CCs

[Patriguz]

Greetings, I humbly request the wisdom of the ancients ,,,

To build the car museum I have spent a lot of time compiling the CC into "megapackages" of various categories.

My question is, if I want to include new items in a Megapackage, should I redo it entirely or is there any way to include that article in a compilation already made? (as is done in Winrar for example).

I hope the automatic translator is able to make sense of this. 

Thanks in advance

[Clydie]

1 hour ago, Patriguz said:

To build the car museum I have spent a lot of time compiling the CC into "megapackages" of various categories.

My question is, if I want to include new items in a Megapackage,

If understand you right, you want to add additional items in a merged package....

Let's say you have a merged package with cars. Open this with S3PE and say add (import) package and select your new additional car packages.

 

Hint : If S3PE ask to save always after each package import, say "NO" ! Saves a lot of time and your original file will not be overwritten.

 

After such, save this file with a different name i.e. CAR_merge_02.package to be sure your "old" file will not be lost.

This worked for me without trouble up to now. S3PE is a very, very good editor and works always prefect for me.

Hope I got your point right !

[Patriguz]

That was what I wanted to know ,,, Thank you !! 

[landess]

This is also a 'way' to remove packages from a merge, but you handle the procedure a bit differently.

 

http://www.simlogical.com/ContentUploadsRemote/uploads/1029/

 

Why 'remove' instead of create new? Very good question . . . .

 

A merged package has to keep track of all the individual files, of the same 'type' from different CC being merged. These are all given unique identifying numbers within that new package. When that package is used and game saves are made using it, there are going to be references in the save looking for specific identifying numbers when it loads. If it can't find a few, usually it's no problem. But if too many changes are made (like an entirely NEW merge being made) then that save could become unstable and after loading, the game could be 'unplayable' with missing lot's, etc.

 

By using the above procedure to remove a 'single' CC from a previous merge, then the saves using it shouldn't be a problem. If you have many, do a few/merge/load/test/save/repeat.

 

I've mentioned before my 1st merge was a huge fuckin mess as I made it with everything I had in my package folder and used it for a long time before realizing I wanted much of the CC gone. When I made a NEW merged package - the saves were all fucked, so I suffer my stupidity and try to educate others.

 

 

>>>> Since KW is also in this huge merge of mine, I have to do the same as Clydie mentioned above, except instead of adding a new package into it, I'm replacing them and then saving the bloated thing again. With build 409 now being in there, I doubt I'll have to mess with it for a long time if ever.

[jdw6]

One other thing, check for conflicts before adding the new things to your mega package (delphy's dashboard).  It'll help if you only merge things that don't conflict.

 

[Guest]

On 5/7/2021 at 12:36 AM, jdw6 said:

check for conflicts

Another problem I'm finding with Dashboard and large merged packages is that it lists some insignificant things as "conflicts". Been trying to sort out those internal "conflicts" in the Bastport 2 download packages. For those who don't know, Bastport 2, a very detailed world by a Russian creator... http://bast-sims.blogspot.com/2019/02/bastport.html is a VERY large set of merged package files that include store items with all animations, etc, multiple sets of skins, hair, clothes CC, objects... FYI, 7zip is 1.4GB, so plan way ahead if you are considering downloading this city.

 

Anyway, it appears that there may be a few very minor "duplicated files" inside of the 8, 9 or 10 250MB merged packages that are Bastport 2. In digging, I have found that generally, the files are things like single images that are probably duplicated from the cloned EA objects, and carried over to the CC. 

[jdw6]

On 5/13/2021 at 10:12 AM, LadySmoks said:

internal

Yep. Those can be hard to track down. It's taken me about 1-2 weeks each time I start up a new custom world, just to get rid of the conflicts, duplicates, and other issues related to the CC world Y wants to use that world X used. After a while of doing that, I just got fed up & bored and wanted to play the frigging game again, instead of try to track down all the issues which having multiple copies of a package can (sometimes) cause. I know I had issues in the past, I just don't recall what those issues were.

Sometimes world creators can't even keep what they added where straight and so you could wind up with duplicate copies of packages. Had that issue with that Greymont Bay world, where terrain textures and several world CC items were in 2 different zips. But those were easier to find, since they weren't merged mega packages.

 

Biggest thing to worry about is if there's 2 versions, one that will work and one that won't in the game. Sadly, some of these merged packages were created in such a way that the resource name was cleared out, so going off of just instance ID is harder.

What I tend to do is this: open package in s3pe, select all, right-click, export, to file and put them in one directory, then do the same for the other conflicting package, putting those files into a different directory. Then I run a file comparison tool against both directories. Works really nice if the created S3 filenames are the same, but if one package has resource names & the other doesn't, well, then sorting by filename does wind up putting the ones with the same instance IDs (it's in the filename as well) close. Usually doesn't take too long to find the specific resources. Issue then becomes figuring out which to keep, if they're not identical.

 

Product plug...

Spoiler

 

I swear by, and couldn't do half the stuff I do (maybe even 75%) without it, Beyond Compare by Scooter Software.  A license is only $30 for the standard version, and even though I have the Pro version I didn't see anything in the list of feature comparisons that would make what I do for TS3 comparisons impossible with the standard version.

I don't work for them, but they seem like a group of devs who care. I think they've even put in a feature I suggested once. Hands down, their tool is the best I've found in 25 years for this type of thing, And, shoot! I paid for this thing back in 2014 and they're still on the same major version so updates are still included. Not many are still doing that sort of thing.  I just hope some ahole megacorp doesn't buy them out and either change licensing or kill off the product.

 

 

What I've come across most, is someone used an older version of a piece of CC and I had the current (or latest) version in my game already. But a few times I couldn't tell which was which, so I "assumed" the larger file was the newer one and went that route.  Might almost be better (safer, quicker... but more boring) to start a new game directory and only put in that world's merged packages and then add in the "necessary" packages, but keeping it fairly minimal.

[Guest]

@jdw6, in fairness, I found several similar duplicate images in other packages, aside from Bastport 2. It seems to be an issue of using s3oc, which copies and adds to the package game files and reskeys, depending on how you set things up. Just pulled 2 packages from Bastport VS that had no image textures, because the creator made them in TSRW, used all base materials, so TSRW does not generate textures and will reference your game files. Well, I am experimenting with default replacement open bottom skirts... I have different "default" textures, which are not in the same map position as EA, so no texture on the CC by others.

10 hours ago, jdw6 said:

filenames are the same,

Considering that too many don't even bother to name their files...

[jdw6]

On 5/15/2021 at 8:31 AM, LadySmoks said:

s3oc

That's one of their utils I haven't used much, if at all.

As for the dashboard, I wouldn't be too surprised if it didn't check every resource ID. It kinda feels as if it purposefully skips certain types, but I haven't nailed down which those would be yet.  An example seems to be that it doesn't detect duplicates in some of the cmar package collections (like the penis mesh, where some put v1 in their merged package when 2v2 seems to be the one that works) or most skins (so whatever skin images are, it seems to ignore).

 

And, as for filenames... gahhhhhhhhh.... I've had to resort to using this in my crusade to eradicate all duplicate packages in my own game: http://doubles.sourceforge.net/  What it does, is search the directory you "add" for files with the same size, so it's not quite a simple "scan and delete blindly" but it can help find things other tools miss.  (I had like 5 copies of some skins when I started, and since there's that annoying 3.1-ish GB memory limit, I've figured removing anything unnecessary would help.)

 

Textures, as in terrain, are one of those "doesn't quite work as I'd like" areas of TS3.  Not sure if it's an undetected conflict or just an EA bug, but quite often I will no longer be able to paint the selected texture.  The brush will change from the square I had it on to the circle and it'll paint something else, like a sidewalk.  Or it'll just stop painting what I had selected and paint some other texture altogether.  Doesn't happen every time, so maybe it's a memory issue too.  Saving & restarting does seem to resolve it.

 

On 5/15/2021 at 8:31 AM, LadySmoks said:

don't even bother to name

Spoiler

 

 

[Guest]

23 minutes ago, jdw6 said:

cmar package collections (like the penis mesh

Several different things as I understand. Female tops are default replacements, so carry the EA name designation, and are seen by Dashboard as basegame parts. The same goes for skins that are set up as default replacements. The penis was genius, as it is a mesh group add-on. I have actually been doing this with FemmeBots to create 3 group meshes. Male bottom nude is Lod 1, Lod 2 and Lod 3. Cmar figured out a way to make the game default ADD a part to the basegame mesh!!! Lod 1-1, Lod 2-1 and Lod 3-1. That people still download v1 is their problem, because they are in such a hurry to stick a wiener on their male sims that they click the first thing that lights up under their mouse pointer, never read anything on the page, then whine on the KW thread about it doesn't work. ?

 

s3oc has it's uses, but general CC creation isn't one of them, in my opinion. I find it best for pulling resources (often images or meshes) or making default CC... for me. And it seems to be when fully cloned resources with reskeys and name get mixed into CC with new CASP numbers that the "fun" begins. I had a few downloads from LorandiaSims3 that had such resources inside. (((

40 minutes ago, jdw6 said:

3.1-ish GB memory limit

Where is that limit? I was running with 11 GB of CC in my mods folder until today. Another issue with the newest Bastport that must have something interfering with pregnancies, as it just has not been working at all. Pulled everything and started a new game to test an animation I worked on and needed zero slider sims, and set KW so the fertile flag would pop up almost immediately and it did. Now back to figuring out which of the new Bastport packages is causing THAT issue, then finding whatever it is inside the merged package. (((

46 minutes ago, jdw6 said:

Not sure if it's an undetected conflict or just an EA bug

Don't think I've had that, so must be something in your game?

[landess]

2 hours ago, LadySmoks said:

Where is that limit?

 

This is the infamous RAM situation which changing the game engine to a 64bit OS would help solve.

 

I took this shot from the game running on a small island with a single household - extremely minimal.

 

 

When I mentioned in another post referencing the Taxi replacements about using Los Aneigos, and the Save game size - this one is 25mb, while the one for Los Aneigos is over 200mb. When in game with the larger save utilizing more CC - the task manager will show Sims 3 usage at over 250GB, and simply using CAS or Build-Buy will make it jump another +20GB. Add normal gameplay and it doesn't take much to get it past the RAM limit and then I get an Error12 trying to save - or a CTD. (Sometimes the limit can be passed while in Build/Buy/CAS and then it freezes while loading back into the world)

[Guest]

55 minutes ago, landess said:

the infamous RAM situation

I have never run to 3.1 GB (3100 MB). I usually will freeze and or crash, or hit the error 12 during save before 2600 MB.

58 minutes ago, landess said:

the task manager will show Sims 3 usage at over 250GB

Typo??? That's the size of some SSD drives. 2.5 GB maybe??? Yes? Americans should stick to fractions! ))))))) But, I now know what @jdw6 meant. I just never get to 3.1 GB on task manager.

 

Saves are tricky. Mine bloat from travel and sims. I have learned that you can also completely delete the "ExportDB" packages from the save, as well as cleaning the img and snap files from the NHD files. Deleting the TravelDB package doesn't work out well. It seems the "ExportDB" packages are just files of stuff the game will regenerate when you return to that world... except for possibly selfies. Can't remember if they are in those also or no.

 

My current game is 180 MB, but I have not cleaned it in a while.

[landess]

52 minutes ago, LadySmoks said:

Typo???

 

Yep, but I'll leave it unchanged so your reply makes sense