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Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#1 Old 11th Feb 2009 at 9:45 PM
Default SimPE to delete extra hair textures
I just downloaded SimPE (0.72) and just edited my very first hair to remove extra textures from ages not included with the mesh. I had hoped to reduce the size of the file, since they were rather large toddler = approx 6 mb, child and teen each = approx 4 mb. After following the tutorial, I checked the files in my download folder, and they are still the same size. Seems like if I delete a bunch of unneccessary textures, it would decrease the file size. What did I do wrong? Or does SimPE not reduce the file sizes?
Sorry if this is the wrong place to post this. I searched but couldn't find a more appropriate place, and didn't find another post like this.
Marie
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Doing all the things, and *mostly* not failing.
retired moderator
#2 Old 12th Feb 2009 at 3:19 AM
If this is the first time you used Simpe, did you remember to commit AND save your changes. Open the package back up and check to see if what you did is still there. Removing the extra textures will reduce the size. Also, which tutorial were you using?
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#3 Old 12th Feb 2009 at 3:21 PM
Thanks for the reply! I used the the bodyshop mod tutorial named: How to remove unwanted ages tutorial http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=89652

I selected the save button with each change, but I didn't see a "Commit" function, nor was it mentioned in this tutorial. Thanks for your help. I really want to be able to use SimPE to fix those things I think I would be able to fix, instead of waiting for someone else to come up with the idea. I started with some CC so if I mess it up, it's replaceable. As is, if I can't fix this hair, I'm going to have to delete it. It's 14 MB which is really too much for what it's worth.
Doing all the things, and *mostly* not failing.
retired moderator
#4 Old 12th Feb 2009 at 5:36 PM
My mistake, there wouldn't be a need to commit when you are deleting. Did you make sure to get all the files deleted? Perhaps it is regenerating them somehow if you didn't nuke them all.
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#5 Old 12th Feb 2009 at 5:43 PM
I looked at a different tutorial (Faylen's changing clothing genders for toddlers and children) which included directions for how to "commit" the changes. However, this tutorial is for changing the gender value, so I understand the "commit" is to confirm changes. However, I simply deleted extraneous gender files for hairs, and there is no way to commit after deleting the items.
I opened this hair file again, and all my changes were still saved. The deleted ones were still deleted. I pressed commit for each of the ones I kept: the four property sets, the four 3D referencing file, four GZPX and four BINX, but not the others (TXMT TXTR) that have 24 and 28 items. I didn't make changes to any of these, so I don't know that committing has any effect. I just did the teen hair for this hair, and I can't commit after I hit delete.

Thanks for your help!
Marie
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#6 Old 12th Feb 2009 at 5:54 PM
When I reopen those files in SimPE everything is as I saved it. The deleted ones are still gone. Am I allowed to mention the hair that I'm working on, and would it help you to know that? It's a conversion mesh for a SP I don't have, which only had adult and elder provided. The mesh converts this hair for toddler, child and teen, and it works in my game. Of course, I would have to have the SP for the A,E to show up, but that's fine. I have started going through my DL's to reduce the glut, deleting the ones I don't really use, and with Delphy's DO, I started paying attention to file size, and have deleted some that were just too big. I decided yesterday to try SimPE to reduce the size of this hair mesh. Someone in the comments had mentioned that there were a lot of unneccessary ages in the file, so I thought I could go in and delete them myself, since it doesn't look likely to happen otherwise.

The hair file includes a mesh (I'm not touching that) and recolors for toddler, child and teen. I reopened SimPE and my changes are still there, but the file size is still around 14 MB.
#7 Old 12th Feb 2009 at 6:56 PM
Hmm, it is possible that SimPE is saving the file with "holes" where the deleted items were. There is another way to do this, but it requires more work and a boatload of temporary[!] disk space.

Use SimPE to open the package file that has had the items deleted from it, but is still bigger than it should be. Select ALL resources in the Resource List panel by left-clicking on one and pressing CONTROL-A on the keyboard. Right-click on one of the resources in that same panel and pick Extract from the pop-up menu. Pick a suitable location in temporary storage to save the stuff that SimPE will want to export. Close your package. Click on Create New Package. Right-click in the Resource List panel and chose Add. In the resulting file requester, chose the stuff that you saved in the temporary storage location. Depending on how SimPE works, and how you choose the extracted stuff while Adding, you may have to Add for every item that SimPE saved, or you may get away with Adding once. As I have not used this function for mass-exported items, I don`t know. At any rate, when you have added everything to your new package that was in your old package, chose Save As from the File Menu, and save in a suitable place with a suitable name. Do NOT save over your original edited file unless you`re willing to re-create it from the original UNedited file if things go wrong. Test. When you`re happy with the results, delete the files that SimPE created in your temporary storage area, and any package files you may have created along the way that you are SURE you no longer need.


...or you could use the Compressorizer; I`m sure that it will automaticaly remove "holes". It will also shrink many files that don`t have "holes", and leave them in a form that the game CAN still use them.

This Space Intentionally Left Blank
Not actually evil.
#8 Old 12th Feb 2009 at 7:04 PM
Yes, as G.O.D suggested, use the Compressorizer to remove "holes". It's at the link below, scroll down.

http://www.djssims.com/index.php?category=1&subcat=5

Please spay or neuter your pets. --- Cat Music Video! --- my meshes
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#9 Old 12th Feb 2009 at 7:29 PM
I decided to try the "compressorizer" method, and followed the directions described on another thread, which I found doing a search for compressorizer. http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=313827

"With the texture file open in SimPE, go to window-> resource information. The plug-in view is replaced by a window that shows the GUID and a line that says compressed yes/no. Usually after altering a texture it is uncompressed. Switch it to yes and "force commit" then save. Sometimes it takes more than one try..."

With the file open, going to window -> resource info gives me a grey field in which the compressed yes/no/both is unselectable. I have that option available only when I select one of the four property sets, the four 3D referencing file, four GZPX and four BINX, or the TXMT or TXTR files that have 24 and 28 items. But that's a lot of items to do over and over, so I want to make sure I"m doing it right before I do them all. I compressed the ones that have four each, but nothing changed.
Doing all the things, and *mostly* not failing.
retired moderator
#10 Old 13th Feb 2009 at 2:10 AM
I'm not sure if I'm reading this correctly, are you deleting the TXTR files in these packages? Those are the single largest thing in a package, there's your bloatware.
Field Researcher
#11 Old 13th Feb 2009 at 3:57 AM
The directions you quoted above aren't for the compressorizer. They're for SimPE's built-in compression tool. It's pretty useful for compressing the textures, which, as Phaenoh points out, are the bulk of the file.
Be sure you have a TXTR file selected and the options shouldn't be greyed out. Using this tool on the other files in the package is kind of pointless, since they're generally less that a kb apiece.

The compressorizer that CatOfEvilGenius linked is a stand-alone utility- an awesome program for compressing all types of files.
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#12 Old 13th Feb 2009 at 6:20 AM
Thanks for so much help from all of you! I downloaded the compressorizor and ran that on the 14 mb hair file and it reduced to around 5mb. Then I did my downloads folder. Yeah!

I had previously tried the compressor in SimPE. I'd like to know how to identify which TXTR files match which ages. I didn't delete anything from TXTR or TXMT because they didn't clearly identify the age group like the others. However, I seem to remember that after I deleted unnecessary ages, those automatically decreased to 24 and 28 from 64 . So they might already be reduced to the appropriate age, like child, toddler. If there's too many still, maybe some are duplicates. I don't know.
Doing all the things, and *mostly* not failing.
retired moderator
#13 Old 13th Feb 2009 at 6:50 AM
The only way to figure out which ones you need to delete are by pure recognition. You can make a bodyshop project out of it and that will put an age label on the texture files so you can figure out what is what. Its a little time consuming, but if you are serious about saving space it is SO worth it. I've seen files that start at 250kb go down to 3kb just from deleting ONE texture.
Not actually evil.
#14 Old 13th Feb 2009 at 7:10 AM
5mb is still quite large for a hair recolor. I bet it has duplicate textures. Look at the image for your TXTR resources. Are they all the same? Then you only need one.

1) Remove the extra TXTRs by hand in SimPE.
For black hair, keep ONE black TXTR, and ONE grey TXTR.
2) Then tell all the TXMT resources to just use the same TXTR. Instructions here, written for a shirt, but will work just fine for hair.
For black hair, the elders should use the grey TXTR, other ages should use black.
3) Then after you've done that, run jfade's Compressorizer on the file. I bet you'll get something closer to 500kb, not 5mb.

I'm working on a program that will do all this for hair files in one step, automatically, without SimPE, because I'm so sick of doing it by hand, but its not done yet...

Please spay or neuter your pets. --- Cat Music Video! --- my meshes
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