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Lab Assistant
#326 Old 2nd Dec 2009 at 9:06 PM Last edited by jurocha : 2nd Dec 2009 at 9:46 PM.
Quote: Originally posted by dolldrms1
Jurocha, if you are referring to this BobL Number Wall Clock download: http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=80859 , that is a Sims2 download and would be part of your problem. TS3 can't read it and it would cause the game to try to load it over and over again, without success. The wall clock set should be pulled from your mods folder.

If he's done a set for TS3 published elsewhere and I just don't know about it, I apologize if my post is worthless to you. That file jumped out at me when I read your edit because I had so much of his work in my TS2 game.


That's true! In fact, I remember downloading these and the Coltraz' one on the same day. I notice one of them were a TS2 creation right away, but - dumb! - I deleted the wrong files.

Taking them away and posting results right away...

EDIT: Thanks dolldrms1 for noticing (and being so careful and polite when pointing it out) my TS2 files' mistake. Oh, damn, I feel soooo dumb now. After removing only the BobL files: 3 minutes to main menu; 3 minutes to lot view. Amazing!

- Strange: files load only once as far as I can see... but not all of them. I've filled the lots with almost every CC, but only a few of them are listed on the Activity Monitor App. Help here?



I'm still running with the AAS files. Taking them out and checking back.
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Warrior Gryphon
site owner
#327 Old 2nd Dec 2009 at 10:38 PM
fluttereyes: Considering the amount of people who DO have TS2 packages, I see no reason to make a Sims3Pack creator, since, well, that wouldn't prove anything - my guess is that the launcher would simply ignore or not process TS2 content.

Story books are full of fairy tales, of Kings and Queens, and the bluest skies.
Field Researcher
#328 Old 2nd Dec 2009 at 10:39 PM
@jurocha

Sounds like you are making progress and I'm glad I was of help after all.

Since it appears you use a Mac, I can't help with the Activity Monitor app because I have a PC. You might want to reread Plasticbox's post, #300. I think he mentions it doesn't list package files and you can also compare your report with his, too. It is too bad there isn't a Process Monitor equivalent program for Macs.
Lab Assistant
#329 Old 2nd Dec 2009 at 10:48 PM
Quote: Originally posted by dolldrms1
@jurocha

Sounds like you are making progress and I'm glad I was of help after all.

Since it appears you use a Mac, I can't help with the Activity Monitor app because I have a PC. You might want to reread Plasticbox's post, #300. I think he mentions it doesn't list package files and you can also compare your report with his, too. It is too bad there isn't a Process Monitor equivalent program for Macs.


Yes, I did that. So... as far as I can go at midnight and so... it shouldn't list any .packages. I suppose the showing up ones (I got the TS2, Jill Wong decorative) are the problematic ones.
Lab Assistant
#330 Old 2nd Dec 2009 at 11:01 PM
Thanks to the Process Monitor I was able to track down a single file that was causing the lag in my game:

PATTERN-retro03-byMelCalero.package, part of this set on GoS.

Before running the Process Monitor, I deleted the compositorCache.package as well as the Sunset Valley_objects.package from World Caches. The game took at least ten minutes to load (sorry, didn't get an exact time), then limped miserably along. The above package showed up repeatedly in the PM scan, so I removed it. I once again deleted both cache files and restarted my game. It loaded considerably faster (closer to two minutes from icon-clickage to lot), and ran perfectly smooth. There was no lag to speak of, including in CAS which was just about unuseable priviously. PM showed no other files being repeatedly loaded. (Gelydh also had similar results after removing the same file.)

I currently have 788 files@456MB in my packages folder.

you stare at my shoulders
are you surprised to see one more devil 
where angel wings should be..?
Scholar
#331 Old 2nd Dec 2009 at 11:42 PM Last edited by fluttereyes : 3rd Dec 2009 at 12:06 AM.
I think we need a thread for dodgy .packages, it might help other people to identify them really quick, but then again it could be a compatibility thing with some of them. What works for some doesn't work for others. I lost a lot tonight after a whole day working on it as it just went into eternal save mode, something else must be messing up, even though it isn't visible in gamleplay. I'll have to run process monitor again

EDIT* I found a list on custom sims, but then I have almost everything on their list in my game and no blue lots and no slowdown, just that one thing with a bad save.

Im deleting the lot and starting over, I can't be bothered with this anymore. It's probably the best way and only downloading stuff that has been fixed my the creator.
Scholar
#332 Old 2nd Dec 2009 at 11:46 PM Last edited by fluttereyes : 3rd Dec 2009 at 1:25 AM.
Quote: Originally posted by Delphy
fluttereyes: Considering the amount of people who DO have TS2 packages, I see no reason to make a Sims3Pack creator, since, well, that wouldn't prove anything - my guess is that the launcher would simply ignore or not process TS2 content.


The launcher rejects dodgy packs, it just won't install them at all. I know a lot of people have .packages but polls have been held on other sites and the downloaders are looking for sims3.packs. It would be nice to be able to please everyone by giving them both pack and .package to choose from.

If you don't want to do it, it's fine by me. One day someone will though, I just thought it would be good if it was you.

Workshop doesn't convert packages well to sims3.packs so right now the only way to offer both is to make the object twice. If we had a save as option we could just output both at the same time, or a convertor that does work so we can convert the .packages to sims3.packs. We just want to suit all downloaders and not just some
Test Subject
#333 Old 2nd Dec 2009 at 11:59 PM
Delphy: Can't you integrate it into your helper monkey spinoff almost? Have it do a check for bad files prior to conversion? That would weed out TS2 files and corrupt .package files prior to becoming a Sims3Pack... but also potentially eliminate our million-time-loading package issue.
Test Subject
#334 Old 3rd Dec 2009 at 12:30 AM Last edited by p9pins : 3rd Dec 2009 at 12:39 AM. Reason: spelling
Custom Mods that I know do not work with the patch 1.79 siomi sims hair (too bad because it was nice work), 2xgainskills, peggysims hair, inteen, pregnancy mods, and meet coworkersfaster. Sorry, it seems that despite the time and relevance to these hacks to improve the game have been thwarted by EA game designers to rely on their content only and they don't seem to want to let you mess with their core game.
Scholar
#335 Old 3rd Dec 2009 at 1:21 AM
Quote: Originally posted by mcardles
Delphy: Can't you integrate it into your helper monkey spinoff almost? Have it do a check for bad files prior to conversion? That would weed out TS2 files and corrupt .package files prior to becoming a Sims3Pack... but also potentially eliminate our million-time-loading package issue.


Mcardles firstly give me some of your ice cream and secondly, Delphy already said that

He's going to try and make it so that the monkey opens packs to see if they are safe to install.
Lab Assistant
#336 Old 3rd Dec 2009 at 1:31 AM
I don't think this has anything to do with any conspiracy by EA- they simply just don't code things while keeping in mind that a thousand hacks and CC may depend on how they change one bit of code. They have a hard enough time releasing a product that's bug-free, much less consider every bit of custom content that may radically change the way the game works.

Now, for something relating to the thread: I don't have WA, but my game has been patched to the most recent patch for the base game. I've been able to isolate a few files using the Activity Monitor, and my game's slowness has improved drastically. This method seems to work not only for WA, but for the 1.7ish base patch as well.
Lab Assistant
#337 Old 3rd Dec 2009 at 1:47 AM Last edited by SHOWER_SCREAM : 3rd Dec 2009 at 1:52 AM. Reason: I wasn't finished complaining before I hit SUBMIT ;_;
I wonder if a programmer will just make a converter/wrapper for package files > Sims3packs, and then we can all be done with this testing. Then it really won't matter what files are slowing things down or being accessed too many times...things will work according to what (UNFORTUNATELY) EA intended.

That way future EA development (patches, expansions, "tools") won't keep screwing up most of our current setups.
Pettifogging Legalist!
retired moderator
#338 Old 3rd Dec 2009 at 1:57 AM
Quote: Originally posted by matildarose
I've been able to isolate a few files using the Activity Monitor, and my game's slowness has improved drastically.


Oh, that's interesting! Did you do anything different from what I posted (about a page ago), or how did you see those files? I wasn't able to see *any* packages being loaded, that's why I'm curious.

Stuff for TS2 · TS3 · TS4 | Please do not PM me with technical questions – we have Create forums for that.

In the kingdom of the blind, do as the Romans do.
Test Subject
#339 Old 3rd Dec 2009 at 2:02 AM Last edited by sarinp : 3rd Dec 2009 at 2:45 AM.
Does anyone know what's the "acceptable" number of events a package should show? I took out everything over 100, and that helped my borked game immensly, though my decor still randomly dissappears ingame.

On another note, one of my downloaded patterns tried loading over 600k times. No wonder my lot wouldn't load anymore.
Test Subject
#340 Old 3rd Dec 2009 at 2:03 AM Last edited by mcardles : 3rd Dec 2009 at 2:20 AM. Reason: Weird, grabbed the wrong quote...
Quote: Originally posted by fluttereyes
Mcardles firstly give me some of your ice cream and secondly, Delphy already said that

He's going to try and make it so that the monkey opens packs to see if they are safe to install.


Well, no, I was getting at taking that a step further and adding sims3pack conversion functionality to it. It takes away his counterpoint a few posts up.
Retired Duck
retired moderator
#341 Old 3rd Dec 2009 at 2:16 AM
Quote: Originally posted by SHOWER_SCREAM
I wonder if a programmer will just make a converter/wrapper for package files > Sims3packs, and then we can all be done with this testing. Then it really won't matter what files are slowing things down or being accessed too many times...things will work according to what (UNFORTUNATELY) EA intended.


Shower, it's not quite that simple. I understand the sentiment that "Sims3Packs are fine, so we just need to translate everything into that format and everything will be hunky dory". That's an observation of one aspect in isolation though, and the S3P files working looks like a correlation, not causation.

The stuff which has been exported as S3P is pretty much safe content to begin with - it was either exported by the game itself (and therefore backwards compatible regardless) or is a very particular kinds of content, produced by very specific tools. Plain .package files can hold *anything*, including stuff which isn't so safe, because we're trying to create stuff which wasn't intended for distribution to begin with.

We can wrap that unsafe stuff in an s3p container, but I honestly don't think that will make it any more "safe". The problems identified in this thread have been with specific pieces of content, and installing them into the DCCache will not magically fix them. Many types of content are just not designed to work from DCCache, and you end up with all sorts of apparently unrelated issues. Best case, those pieces of content will be installed but inaccessible/hidden. Worst case, broken packages still break the game, but are almost impossible to find or remove.
Test Subject
#342 Old 3rd Dec 2009 at 2:24 AM Last edited by Hirolin : 3rd Dec 2009 at 2:44 AM.
Wow, thanks for the link to Process Monitor. One of my files (heiret_lip1.package) had over 200,000 events within a three minute playing period.

I reloaded the game and the loading times improved SIGNIFICANTLY. I've never had the game run this fast in a long time. The lack of lag is great.

My sims stories: Those Among Us & REVERSE
Lab Assistant
#343 Old 3rd Dec 2009 at 3:17 AM
Quote: Originally posted by plasticbox
Oh, that's interesting! Did you do anything different from what I posted (about a page ago), or how did you see those files? I wasn't able to see *any* packages being loaded, that's why I'm curious.


My mistake- I got the programs mixed up. What I meant was the process monitor.
Field Researcher
#344 Old 3rd Dec 2009 at 3:27 AM
Quote: Originally posted by Echo
Plain .package files can hold *anything*, including stuff which isn't so safe, because we're trying to create stuff which wasn't intended for distribution to begin with.

We can wrap that unsafe stuff in an s3p container, but I honestly don't think that will make it any more "safe". The problems identified in this thread have been with specific pieces of content, and installing them into the DCCache will not magically fix them. Many types of content are just not designed to work from DCCache, and you end up with all sorts of apparently unrelated issues. Best case, those pieces of content will be installed but inaccessible/hidden. Worst case, broken packages still break the game, but are almost impossible to find or remove.


I think there are already instances of s3p's breaking games. I regularly skim through the BBS. There seems to be more and more reports of people downloading something from the Exchange where they inadvertently get cc. They've ended up with naked tops, hair and clothing mostly. They can't find the items to delete because they don't show up in CAS, or, show up in CAS and they then can't find a file to delete. I've even seen reports where these accidentally downloaded items have completely corrupted CAS, necessitating an uninstall/reinstall. I presume it's because they actually get a player created recolor and not an actual cc mesh.

I'm an average player who likes to use cc and I detest s3p's. The thought of something installing into a huge blob of DCCache gives me pause. If I don't like it after all and delete the content from the launcher, there is no guarantee that I'll even get that space back for use on my computer. I also don't like the idea that s3p content can upload with a sim, or whatever. If I've understood correctly, this can't happen with .package files.

Even TS2 expansions resulted in .package files needing to be updated, so I wasn't really surprised that WA has caused some problems. At least I have the ability to isolate a problem .package file, unlike anything in DCCache installed by the launcher. Oh, almost forgot to mention...what in the heck am I supposed to do with all those individual .package files in the DCBackup folder? I've tried to get some questions answered in the BBS Technical Forum. Here is a link to my thread: http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/po...60.page#1603234 , if you want to read through it. Since no SimGuru would come out and speak, Nichaedemus gave one response but won't come out and speak again. My inclusion of the link is not totally off topic for this thread because my last post asks if the size of the DCBackup folder could cause an increase in game loading time. No response. If any of the more technically savvy here would like to address this, that would be great. If thought this would take the thread too off course, please feel free to pm me. I'ld appreciate the input!
Lab Assistant
#345 Old 3rd Dec 2009 at 6:57 AM
Quote: Originally posted by Echo
Shower, it's not quite that simple. I understand the sentiment that "Sims3Packs are fine, so we just need to translate everything into that format and everything will be hunky dory". That's an observation of one aspect in isolation though, and the S3P files working looks like a correlation, not causation.

The stuff which has been exported as S3P is pretty much safe content to begin with - it was either exported by the game itself (and therefore backwards compatible regardless) or is a very particular kinds of content, produced by very specific tools. Plain .package files can hold *anything*, including stuff which isn't so safe, because we're trying to create stuff which wasn't intended for distribution to begin with.

We can wrap that unsafe stuff in an s3p container, but I honestly don't think that will make it any more "safe". The problems identified in this thread have been with specific pieces of content, and installing them into the DCCache will not magically fix them. Many types of content are just not designed to work from DCCache, and you end up with all sorts of apparently unrelated issues. Best case, those pieces of content will be installed but inaccessible/hidden. Worst case, broken packages still break the game, but are almost impossible to find or remove.


I know a potential S3P wrapper wouldn't be an end-all solution but for those of us who have 2 GB's of package files and through file maintenance and organization, could potentially shrink that 2 GB's of dubious packages to 1 GB of converted S3P's, we would be making strides in these issues we're all having. Yes, some items probably wouldn't be converted, and for those, it would be obvious why: made with incompatible tools, game updates making them obsolete...etc.

I'm also not inferring that package files are evil and break games. I'm thinking that mods that change game behavior continue in the package file format, and other decorative, hair, skin and misc items be more suited to S3P format so they can be managed the way they currently are: either through the Launcher or with the 3viewer.

Honestly, I'm just thinking aloud (textually) and hoping this may be some project that some of us could attempt. I know with every expansion and patch, this package thing is just going to get worse.
Test Subject
#346 Old 3rd Dec 2009 at 7:20 AM
OK, after reading the last few pages, I went back to my packages folder and sorted it by date modified. I found 2 files from before Sims3 was released and deleted them. Started up the game and it still lagged. I then ran the Process Monitor as described in the post.

ONE file. ONE .package file showed up as being read and reread ad infinitum. I removed that file and restarted the game. Lo and behold, the lag was gone! ONE little file caused all that trouble. Unbelieveable.

I STRONGLY suggest that folks having lag issues read through the posts above and run Process Monitor. It takes about 5 minutes to perform the operation and is well worth the effort. Thank you SO much for that little program!
Lab Assistant
#347 Old 3rd Dec 2009 at 7:19 AM
The advice to use Process Monitor to determine whether there were any bad package files was a real help to me.

I had just one bad file: TipicalSpanish_Tile002_Revenessa.package which appeared more than 30 times in Process Monitor. I could not open it in S3PE either so I deleted it from my computer, purged my cache files and tried my game again. My non-WA patched to 1.7.9 game was a slow, painful 2 frames per second (if I was lucky) before I removed that bad pattern and is now back to normal.
Mad Poster
#348 Old 3rd Dec 2009 at 8:28 AM
Delphy, I have downloaded the process monitor and the reg file you provided. When I run process monitor and load the filter I get the blank window as you described. I start sims, load a saved game and let it run for 5 minutes or so and then close sims. The process monitor window is still blank. Am I missing something? Image of the filter results below:


PC Info: Vista SP2 32 bit
ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT 256MB
AMD Phenom 9500 Quad Core 2.20GHz
3GB DDR2 Dual Channel Ram
running World Adventures with the latest patch.

Problems: a slight slow down in loading and game play. Some simple xml tuning files being ignored or not functioning properly. most of these are of the type "stop auto dance, stop gussy up, etc". I created them while using 1.2.7 or 1.4.6 and had no problems until now.

- removed mods folder, config, and dll before upgrading
- moved them back to program files>electronic arts>sims3, some content showed up (hair, clothes, chaos mod, etc) while others didn't
- deleted cache files
- moved mods folder, config, and dll under World Adventures - some game mods I thought weren't working, worked here.
- deleted cache files
- removed all content and put one xml/tuning mod that wasn't showing up, but it still didn't work.
- deleted the mod, went into world adventures gameplaydata.package remade the mod, edited, and saved. Worked fine, just like it did in 1.4.6.

Wanted to double check with process monitor to make sure I covered all my bases, and for the record S3PE did not have a problem opening any of the xml tuning files that weren't working. Started to wonder if they were somehow version specific now.
Warrior Gryphon
site owner
#349 Old 3rd Dec 2009 at 9:19 AM
weris: Try removing the specific TS3 and TS3EP01 filters, as well as the .package one, and see what happens.

shower_scream: Honestly, organising things via the launcher sucks. It's way better to organise things how you want them - either via site, by creator, by type, or whatever you like.

I have no inclination to make a .package -> Sims3Pack convertor any more, since I don't believe this will actually solve anything.

I will, however, as said, add in basic checking of the files to the Helper Monkey.

I have also pondered doing a TS3 DDO that can scan your entire downloads folder and tell you if you have any TS2 or broken packages - similar to the original DDO.

Story books are full of fairy tales, of Kings and Queens, and the bluest skies.
Test Subject
#350 Old 3rd Dec 2009 at 9:20 AM
I ran the process monitor and found 5 packages (all female clothing):

Adidas Sports Bra. package
athletic shorts aberhollghplain.package
Daddy's Girl Toddler Tee Shirt.package
Daddy's Girl Tee Shirt.package
Tiari Alice Corset.package

and removed all of them. Game loaded significantly faster after removal of these.

I also noticed that when I first patched the game and installed World Adventures, that there was no lag when using only Sims3 pack content. Well, at least we can still have cc in package files without the game totally crawling until someone figures out what to do here.

Thanks to Tickleonthetum and Delphy!
Locked thread | Locked by: HystericalParoxysm Reason: Fixes found and made into FAQ - please make a new thread if you have further questions/issues.
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