Tips for improved load time when you have a lot of cc

[saltpastillen]

Hi everyone!

So, like a lot of people out there I am addicted to cc in a bad way. I cull it as often as I feel like I have time, but it still takes up a lot of space on my computer and all those packages slows my game down. This is not really an issue when I am loading the game up, since it's still way faster than ts3, but very annoying when you are trying to have your sims travel in game.

After doing some research and trying things out, these are my top tips that have helped me. Both are easy and I have added some useful tutorials.

1. Rename all your packages to make them easier to read by the game

I learned that when a package name has a character/symbol in it, or even a space, it makes the game run and load slower because your computer has to take extra time to process those names. So I used “Bulk Rename Utility” to change the names of all of my CC packages at the same time, by replaces those symbols 

The tutorial found here gives clear instructions and links to the Bulk Rename Utility program which is very easy to use.

I would recommend this as a first step to help alleviate lag, as it's less complicated and might be all you need if you have around 500 or less package files. So for example, if you mostly have mods installed, and not CAS or Build items, this might be all that it takes to have your game running as if it was vanilla.

2. Combine packages so there are less of them for the game to read

The tutorial found here gives clear instructions on how to use the Sims4Studio to combine packages. It's on the Sims4Studio forum, and if you run into problems you are able to ask questions in the thread. The people there are very friendly and willing to help, so you should be in good hands.

Combining packages is a bit more tricky than just renaming your files. There are some tips I found when researching this that I have found useful.

A. Always keep a backup of your CC that is un-combined, because you never know when a particular piece of CC will be broken by a new patch - and it's a pain to have to re-download each piece of cc and test it to find the culprit.

B. Also, once a package is combined, you can not un-combine them, so having a backup also helps when you want to weed out old, unused cc.

C. Keep the file sizes down, don't let the combined files reach over 500.000 KB, that will make it easier for the game to read them and lower load times. Combining files is not like zipping them, they will still be the same size, just together for easier access by the game.



Hope these tips help someone else out as well as me.

Happy simmig!