Tool to browse / edit the MOD Folder?

[Kellron]

Hey there,

 

my MOD Folder is exploding and i have many CAS items just not working ingame or producing weird graphic glitches. There was a tool to browse the MOD Folder for the Sims3...dont remember the name. 

 

Is there something out there for Sims4? Or do you know some other ways to sort / clean CAS items? It would be cool, if i could delete clothes / makeup etc. ingame...

[DuoMaxwell003]

This

[LittleRedSonja]

On 6/28/2023 at 8:13 AM, Kellron said:

Hey there,

 

my MOD Folder is exploding and i have many CAS items just not working ingame or producing weird graphic glitches. There was a tool to browse the MOD Folder for the Sims3...dont remember the name. 

 

Is there something out there for Sims4? Or do you know some other ways to sort / clean CAS items? It would be cool, if i could delete clothes / makeup etc. ingame...

You can also use sims 4 studio. It has an option to batch patch cas and build mode custom content, very easy to use, and that usually solves 99% of any graphic glitches you might get from outdated custom content. Download Sims 4 Studio - Community Tested Version | Sims 4 Studio

[Kellron]

Thanks for both suggestions. Time to clean my MOD Folder

[thellama99]

My favorite is definitely the "Sims 4 Tray Importer" 

It will look at anything saved in your gallery (Households, Lots, Rooms) 

It'll tell you everything they have equipped (and the little icon beside it will be orange if two things are conflicting) 

It's great for finding duplicates on specific households and sims (OR to find broken or messed up CC if your sim suddenly looks weird) 

 

I find that using one of the larger Mod organizers like Sims 4 Mod Manager, or the Sims 4 Mod Assistant [both great problems also, btw] -- using them to bulk remove duplicate CC can sometimes remove stuff your sims are wearing or lot items and then suddenly a bunch of your sims are missing pants.

 

https://luniversims.fr/files/file/73-sims-4-tray-importer/ is the tray importer. 

 

The version of Sims 4 Mod Manager listed by DuoMaxwell will rename files with the same name with [D1] which means theyre a duplicate - but it can't tell which file is older or newer. It also could be two totally different files that just happen to be named the same thing.

There's a newer version that doesn't do that, but it's a little bit slower than the old one because its in beta and can be found here: https://gametimedev.de/S4MM/

 

I'd also reccommend the Sims 4 Mod Assistant. If you use the "Find Exact Matches," option itll let you remove CC that is completely the same (and thus safe to move) -- Some stuff conflicts because it's mostly the same but one version is older or newer and removing it can be messy if you have a lot of CC. https://modthesims.info/d/647653/sims-mod-assistant.html

 

 

Edit: OH! And make sure to create a backup folder of your mods before you mess around. If you end up losing anything you can use the Tray Importer, go into settings, add a custom folder to look at (the backup folder) and itll show you what CC you accidently removed. 

Edited July 4, 2023 by thellama99

[SouthernGorilla]

On 7/4/2023 at 1:52 AM, thellama99 said:

My favorite is definitely the "Sims 4 Tray Importer" 

It will look at anything saved in your gallery (Households, Lots, Rooms) 

It'll tell you everything they have equipped (and the little icon beside it will be orange if two things are conflicting) 

It's great for finding duplicates on specific households and sims (OR to find broken or messed up CC if your sim suddenly looks weird) 

 

I find that using one of the larger Mod organizers like Sims 4 Mod Manager, or the Sims 4 Mod Assistant [both great problems also, btw] -- using them to bulk remove duplicate CC can sometimes remove stuff your sims are wearing or lot items and then suddenly a bunch of your sims are missing pants.

 

https://luniversims.fr/files/file/73-sims-4-tray-importer/ is the tray importer. 

+1

 

S4TI and Sims4Studio are the only programs you need to manage CC properly. S4TI has a tool to find duplicates that works well. It does give a lot of false positives on conflicts, but that's better than missing conflicts. Sims4Studio has batch fixes which fix older CC to be compatible with the latest DLC. This seems most useful for BB, fixing windows that don't make holes in walls, for example.

 

Unfortunately, there's no shortcut for getting rid of broken stuff. You have to go through CAS to find it. My process is simple, but time-consuming at first.

1) Create a household in a junk save.

2) Strip them of all outfits. Save the naked household to your library to save time later.

3) Click through your CC adding all the broken stuff to the household members.

4) Save the household to the library and exit the game without saving.

5) Open S4TI. There should be two copies of the household showing in your library. One will be the naked one you saved as a base. Open the one with the broken CC.

6) You'll have a list of every piece of CC worn by the household. You can go one-by-one or select all of it, right-click, "show in folder", delete to your heart's content.

7) Rinse and repeat.

 

When you go back for round two, you'll already have the naked household in your library. That saves a ton of time stripping them all down again.

 

 

This same selection process helps find stuff that's mis-tagged. Tired of seeing cowboy boots in "swimwear"? Load up your household with all that stuff, with S4TI you can find it and move it to a dedicated folder. Then open that folder with Sims4Studio and edit the tags appropriately. This is *extremely* time-consuming. But it means you can tag swatches with the right colors so you'll quit seeing kaleidoscope sims walking around.

 

I also highly recommend pruning the irreevant stuff from your collection first. If you aren't doing tons of close-up screenshots you don't really need stud earrings, fingernails, or eyelashes. In my experience, these little accessories tend to cause a disproportionate amount of glitches. I also get rid of goofball accessories like jackets that are categorized under "earrings". But that's my play style. I'm not trying to mimic reality here, I don't need sims carrying purses or cell phones. Your play style may vary. I tend to cast a wide net when gathering CC and end up with tons of stuff I didn't seek out. So a lot of my time gets put into getting rid of the cruft.

 

Regarding the various mod manager programs... I can't recommend them. The "[D1]" bit mentioned above causes more problems than it solves. In fact, I haven't found any of those programs helpful in actually solving the problems I've encountered.

 

A few controversial tips for handling the mods folder:

1) Don't merge anything. Merging doesn't save any space and it buries duplicate/broken CC inside a black box.

2) Minimize the number of subfolders. Every subfolder is a dead-end street your computer has to navigate to find the CC it needs to load.

3) Don't have anything in your mods folder that isn't a package, a script, or the cfg file. Similar to #2, any file in the mods folder is a file your computer has to touch to see if it needs to be loaded. All those jpgs, pngs, and OMGREADME!!!!!!!s just slow down load times. If you have some sort of instructions or whatever that go with a mod or CC, name the file something you can recognize and move it up to "The Sims 4" folder where your system won't see it.

4) Advanced- use Batch Rename Utility to remove special characters from all the file names. It's a little-known fact that anything other than a letter or number in the file name slows down a computer. Don't know why, but the research is there to prove it.

 

Just some tips from a computer afficionado with 11 IT certs and some 20,000 pieces of CC. I keep meaning to do a video on it, but keep procrastinating.