I'm very impressed. One of my 'hoods was 282 MB and after using the Lot Compressor, it's down to 214 MB. I think it could be helpful with my community lots too, I don't tend to use them that much but I like having them there for the look of the neighborhood.

Hi,
First, I'd like to thank you for this usefull tool.
I was wondering if you made further testing about the files that could be deleted.
Some of my lots caused huge lag when moving from/to the catalog, and I found in those packages crazy things like 23000 unknown relationships (I played those lots in several neighborhoods...) so I tried to remove all that junk in my test-neighborhood and the lots seem to work fine when I play with a family.
I removed all the sim DNAs (SDNA), relations (SREL) and scores (SCOR) in the lot.
I would appreciate to know your opinion about this.

It's on my to-do list, but needs research before I feel comfortable deleting those records.

After some tests, I came to the conclusion that :

- SCOR are very small files, so deleting them doesn't make much difference on the package size. You save only 1 or 2 Ko. After playing on the lot, they're back.
For example I deleted 61 SCOR files in a package, played the lot, then checked, and there was 61 files again. So I think it's better to keep them anyway. They seem to have a purpose.

- SREL files are very annoying, they tend to accumulate. The more you play, the more sims you have on your lot, and the more SREL files you get. If you moved a lot from a neighborhood to an other, then you get the SREL junk from the old neighborhood. Especially if the lot was inhabited when moved (I know we shouldn't do that, I don't do it anymore. But I'd like to keep my old lots and I want to find a way to clean them...). That's why I had some old legacy lots with more than 20 000 SREL files inside...
Deleting those files, even on inhabited lot that is part of a neighborhood, doesn't seem to cause harm as far as I know (but it still requires more testing). It doesn't change the sims relationships, they still have the same friends etc. I haven't noticed any bug.
Maybe those files are about relationships between sims and objects on the lot ? I know that the more a sim uses an object, the more he tends to use it again, so the sims might create relationships with objects to remember which objects they like to use... maybe. But to be honest I really don't care if a visitor who is dead for ages had a good relationship with my old hot tub... And my sims already have trouble to remember where is their own bed, so it doesn't seem to be a very efficient system. ^^

Anyway, deleting those SREL files saves a lot of space. For exemple I had a lot with 26 454 SREL files, after deleting those files the package size went from 3004 Ko to 1194 Ko ! It's nearly a third of what it was before...
After deleting SREL files in my test-neighborhood my next plan is to delete it in my main neighborhood. I've got 365 lots so it's going to take some time, but I really want to try. If things go wrong I have backups. I'll give you feedback if you wish.
And if you need beta-testers to try new options for your tool, I'm in

The SREL records in the neighborhood are relationship from one sim to another. The first half of the SREL instance is the SDSC instance of the first sim, the second half of the SREL instance is the SDSC instance of the second sim. SREL records come in pairs, where the instances of the two sims are swapped.

If you delete the SREL records in your primary neighborhood, all of your sims will lose all of their relationships. Perhaps that's what you want, but it's completely inappropriate if you are just trying to remove stuff that isn't used.

In order to ensure that deleting records is safe, we need to know what they are used for. If the SREL records in the lot are not actually used in the game, then they are safe to delete. If they are being used for something, then we need to understand their purpose.

The SCOR records keep track of two things, that I know of: best friend status and business status. The fact that the SCOR records in your lot regenerate is not an indication that they are used; it may just be an indication that the game has a bug.

I deleted the SREL files in every lot in my neighborhood and saved around 40 Mo.
I agree with you that it would be better to understand what they are doing but the SREL files you find in lot packages are always labeled "unknown with unknown" so it's hard to figure out what they're for. In 365 lots I never found a SREL linked clearly to any of my sims.
So, sometimes the "trial and error" way seems to be the only way. :S
I've played my cleaned up neighborhood for a few days now and noticed no change or bug in sims relationships. Everything look the same as before.

While cleaning my lots I was able to notice a few other issues, for exemple I had duplicates of lots that should have been removed in the past. They weren't appearing in the neighborhood after removal but they were still in the lot folder. I deleted those lots in the folder.

I also noticed that the Lot Compressor was not compressing appartments. All the appartment bases and sub-lots still got all of the pictures. Is it on purpose ?
Anyway I deleted the pictures myself, keeping only the lot bin display picture in instance 2.
But now I'm wondering if this last remaining picture is of any use in apt sub-lots ?...

Thank you very much for this program! It saved a lot of space to many of mycustom subhood templates which I created following your tutorial.

One question: would it be possible to add the option, that the Lot compressor can compress several or all lots in the Lot catalog at once? Because I have hundreds of houses there, and going through all of them one at a time is a bit tedious.

Yes, that's a good idea. I'll add it to my to-do list.

Thank you!

- one more thing, though it isn't really necessary:

Would it be possible, that the Lot Compressor could also compress Packaged Lots inside a .Sims2Pack-file? Because so far, I have to first exit the game, compress the (modified) lot I want to package and then reenter the game (takes a long time because of too much CC....) so I can package it - or am I doing something wrong?

Yes, it's possible. I'll add it to the list.

You know how awesome this program of yours is? I upload Lots and using THIS thing is required. Need I say more?...

Thanks

Thank you ! :)

thank you for your helpful program ,even after your sad passing you are still helping people out ........