What to do if Your Game Slows Down (Clean Up Your Game)

[RockinRobin]

Over the last week or so, my game has gotten so sluggish that it was almost painful to play it. I had tried numerous things to try and speed it up and I finally found the correct answer so I thought I'd share it.

The first thing I did was go through my hard drive and delete any unnecessary files to free up some disk space, but that didn't seem to help. Then I tried Pam's suggestion and move all my screenshots to a different folder to try and free up some space in the game. That didn't seem to help either. I felt like there HAD to be something, somewhere that was slowing down my game, so I started looking in all the game files. I knew I had not installed any new CC or any mods so it couldn't be that.

I came across the folder called DCbackup located in My Documents--> Electronic Arts--> The Sims 3--> DCbackup. I looked at those files and realized that they were just a bunch of backup files of all the package files ever used in the game. I did some checking to make sure it was ok to delete those and found out that it was fine. Once any CC is installed, it's there in your game, so you really don't need backups of it. But if it will make you feel better, you can always move all of those files to another folder somewhere other than your Sims 3 folder. But the best thing to do is just to delete all of those files in the DCbackup folder. In fact, it's probably a good idea to clean it out weekly or monthly....depending on how often you play.  If you have any premium content installed from the Sims 3 store, do not delete the ccmerged.package file within the DCBackup folder.  You will need to reinstall the items for them to once again be able to work properly if you delete this file

Once I deleted all of those files, I was amazed at how much better my game played! It's like brand new again! I think that folder basically acts as a cache to hold all the items that are used in the game for easier access. The problem is, just like with web browsing, once you get too much junk in there, it just slows everything down.

Edited to add the following from mtglady:

You can also delete the following game cache files:

CASPartCache.package; compositorCache.package; scriptCache.package; simCompositorCache.package; Sims3LauncherLogFile.log; Sims3Logs.xml; and socialCache.package

These files can be found in the main Sims 3 folder. \Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3

They will all regenerate when you start a new game.

They are standalone files so if you sort the Sims 3 folder by name, they will appear toward the bottom. If you delete the socialCache file, there is a good possibility you may lose all progress towards achievements and showtime Simport stamps so be careful about getting rid of this file.

And please do as Pam stated, restart your computer, close all unnecessary background files and try loading your game again.  Hopefully this will cure your problem for awhile.

I delete these two files every evening when I am done playing and my DCBackup files monthly.

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Reference Links:

Delete Cache files
http://sims3.crinrict.com/en/2011/01/faq-delete-your-cache-files.html

Sims 3 Delete Cache Files
http://simswiki.info/wiki.php?title=Game_Help:Sims_3_Delete_Cache_Files

Edited by Pam on March 30, 2012 (added more cache files that can be deleted.)
Edited by Ricalynn on November 2, 2012 to include information about the ccmerged file

[PJSim]

That's a good tip.

And I've heard the same thing about that DCbackup folder; it's just useless junk really.

[jmz95]

Thanks so much for this tip! I find that sometimes my game is going at speed 1 even if it's supposed to be at speed 3. This should really help, especially with my legacy, when I get the house to be huge with a whole lot of stuff in there.

[RockinRobin]

You're welcome....yeah I thought it was too good a tip not to share. My game has been running slow for several days and it was making me crazy! LOL Once I read up on what the DCbackup does, it made me realize that's WHY my game was running so sluggish. I've been playing Sims 3 for about 4 mths and WA for about 2 mths, and I've never cleaned that area out, so it's no wonder it was slow. I had over 2 GB of useless junk in there! It does basically work just like web browsing. You know how your browser saves all the files you've looked at recently so that you can get back to them quicker? It's the same premise....so you just need to clean it out once in awhile.

I'm not sure about the other folder called DCcache...but I'm going to look into what that one does too. But it seemed that the main culprit was the DCbackup folder.

[Pam]

I'm moving this to the Technical Help board.

[Beddy_Boop]

Just tried it, let's see if it works! Will come back to edit this post!

Edit: I deleted all of them except the most recent ones and it helped for several minutes of loading/saving time! Thank you so much!

[Sophie4563]

Thanks for the tip! Is there a certain amount of files you should leave in? Or can you delete them all?

[wildredchild]

Sophie4563, you can delete them all.

[ddelancey]

So glad to see this post.  The last few days my game has been crashing about every 12-15 minutes (literally, I kept a log). I was at my wits end.  I cleared this folder and no crashes since.  Keeping my fingers crossed.

[gr8hairday]

Original Poster,
I thank you, my sims thank you. Ahhhhhh so much more smooth!

[Asleep]

Finally, a solution to the problems I've been having since WA! I'm going to test it out now!

EDIT: There were 165 of those files in there! No wonder my game was such a nightmare to play!

EDIT: It didn't work. My game is performing as terribly as before. 

[Pam]

Did you restart your game and computer after deleting those files, Simstar?

[mtglady]

Simstar, you can also delete your compositorCache file and your simCompositorCache file.  Just delete them both as they will regenerate when you start a new game.   They can be found in your 'Your Name' > Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 3 folder.  They are standalone files so if you sort the Sims 3 folder by name, they will appear toward the bottom.
And please do as Pam stated, restart your computer, close all unnecessary background files and try loading your game again.  Hopefully this will cure your problem for awhile.
I delete these two files every evening when I am done playing and my DCBackup files monthly.   Good Luck!

[TGBlank]

Stuff in DCBackup <-- can be deleted safely. Do not delete folder tho.
Stuff in DCCache <-- Do Not Delete
Screenshots, exported items and the like <-- safe to move/delete

CASPartCache.package, compositorCache.package, scriptCache.package, simCompositorCache.package.
These are safe to delete, this will slow your game for a bit because it haves to create them anew, but for long-running games, or for people that go through custom content fast, this will remove an awful lot of clutter from them.

Legacy families are prone to neighborhood decay however, so if that's your problem, there's nothing much that can be done (other than playing with story progression turned off that is).

[Asleep]

Ugh. I restarted my computer, but my game is acting exactly the same. In fact, I think it's even worse. I'm really thinking of giving up on the sims now. Please, someone help!