How long does it take to load when you start a new game?

[Tommyo3000]

I was just wondering about how long it takes for you to load a new game because mine takes FOREVER to load.

[Pam]

Do you mean a brand new game where you need to either make your Sim or pick a household to play?  Mine only takes a couple of minutes to get to the town's map view screen.

[Seabody]

Mine varies sometimes. I might load a game, come to this forum, ask a question/answer a question/chat in the Babble Thread/post in a story, then go back to the game 5 minutes later and the usual pan view of the town is occuring, but other times it feels like just 2 minutes. That could just be my perception of time, however.

[Tommyo3000]

Yeah that's what I'm talking about. Mine usually takes 15-20 minutes to load and my computer isn't very old so I'm not sure why.

[Pam]

Yeah that's what I'm talking about. Mine usually takes 15-20 minutes to load and my computer isn't very old so I'm not sure why.

Do you clean out the cache files in the game regularly?  And empty the screenshots and video folders?  Also, what about disk clean up and defrag on your computer?  All of these things can slow your game down at various points.  Here's some specific information that may help.

[Alexandria_]

My old computer used to take up to 25 minutes at times, but my new computer takes about 1 minute now.
I think it was the graphics card and general computer memory - maybe you need to upgrade it?

[Saltypaws]

I forgot all about the dcbackup.  I just looked on this computer that I just installed all of my old saves and found over 1000 files.  My mom didn't know how to do it and this thread just reminded me.

[TheChronicR]

I frequently clean up DCBackup and delete cache files, but every new game I start still takes about 5-8 minutes to load. Actually, saves load faster.

[KrispyNickyB]

New games are pretty quick for me. It's already established games that give me the time to go and grab a cup of coffee.

[Tommyo3000]

I just went to the DCbackup in my sims 3 folder. There are a bunch of different things that say random numbers such as "0x0z2beccf6package". I do download a lot of things from the Exchange on the Sims 3 website so that might be what it is. Do you think it's safe to get rid of it?

[Seabody]

I think DCBackup is safe to delete. It should be mentioned in the first post of the topic Pam linked to.
DCBackup stores all the cache files of your downloaded content. Or something like that. Anyway, once something's downloaded, it's there for good. So you can delete it (I'm going to check Pam's link to see if I'm right.)

EDIT: They're safe to delete:

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.

[Tommyo3000]

Oh good! Thanks for the help my game should run faster now.